Their journey through the manifold had them passing through all manner of terrains and lifeforms. The smaller the cells grew, the more the creatures came to resemble something that Ria was more familiar with. Even though their biology was often still quite different from that of Gaia, they were at least more and more fundamentally similar to the kinds of life that she was familiar with.
The forting part was that the profile that they had developed for what manifolds were like held up. Indeed, the closer they got to the center of the manifold, the more powerful the creatures were.
They had also observed that the creatures of the manifold were also moving towards the center, though less aggressively and hurriedly than the five of them. In preparation for the infected world expeditions, Ria had studied up on what the Panama Manifold used to be like before the Beast Domain had been pletely tamed by her father.
The Beast Convergence described a process that they had observed in the manifold of Planet Pinky. It described a process of mass migration towards the center that often led to intense petition and conflict. Fortunately for them, many of the creatures that they would have otherwise had to fight were indulged in conflicts with each other, allowing them to smoothly pass through their territories without any problem.
All of them had noticed, however, that the cells only continued shrinking, growing as small as marbles.
"Why are they getting smaller?" Runark muttered as they traveled.
"Probably because of the esoteric matter," Misha speculated as they sprinted through a dense megaforest. "I don’t know why, but I think the esoteric matter is making the mechanism that allowed for massive marcobes impossible. The creatures that we saw at the forest upon entry into the manifold didn’t have any esoteric matter within them. And yet, each cells is more powerful despite growing smaller thanks to the esoteric matter."
"At some point, we will probably run into a creature with cells as small as our own, each of which is going to be extremely powerful," Sternon remarked with a serious expression. "Whatever that creature is going to be, it’s going to undoubtedly be extremely powerful and dangerous. I don’t think we will be able to deal with it as simply as we have the other creatures we have run into up to this point."
"We will manage; we have prepared for this eventuality," Ria reassured them. "It’s only a shame that we can’t be certain what the final guardian of the manifold tree will be."
One might have been tempted to think it was the chimera, but the chimera was a distinctly Gaian species within the Gaian Tree of Life. The species had been adopted by the virus as an effective guardian after the virus entered Earth.
And had Gaia exploded, then no doubt future infected worlds born from the seeds of Gaia’s death would contain the chimera as a standard module. But thankfully, they could expect not to run into it in this particular manifold.
But the uncertainty didn’t help either. They had, of course, prepared for the eventuality of an opponent that would be extremely tough, but at the end of the day, they would have to do the work and either get past the creature and enter the manifold tree or kill it and enter it, if it wasn’t as difficult.
They soon got deeper and deeper into the manifold, entering the heart of the manifold. The environment around them rapidly changed, growing more dense with life and more dense with petition.
The danger rose, so much so that Runark felt the need to activate his Martial Mind just to survive some of the creatures they faced, much to his chagrin. Mental stamina was much harder to recuperate than physical stamina.
But the monsters they ran into left them no choice.
From giant serpent-like creatures that could erase mountains with a single whip of their tail or birds of prey that could whip hurricanes with their wings or even primates that could cleave heaven and earth with the force of a natural calamity, they faced a myriad of creatures with extreme danger to them all.
Yet, they prevailed.
For one, Siliscia grew more powerful the more powerful that nature grew, and it certainly grew tremendously powerful, and she grew increasingly adept at understanding how the plant kingdom in the Pinky Tree of Life worked.
"I feel like I’m back in an elven nature enclave!" she exclaimed, manipulating a forest to wipe out an army of beasts.
Their tech, their individual power, and their teamwork were what ultimately ensured that not even the most powerful Master-level beasts could harm them.
Their senses were more impeded, the deeper they got. Esoteric matter and its well-documented impediments to the normal flow of information made it harder for them to detect their environments and threats. It was what made the Beast Domain an extremely dangerous place before the Emperor of Water conquered it.
However, they had Ria.
Her senses were so powerful that even esoteric matter couldn’t impede them much. She saw light where others saw pitch darkness, able to detect threats long before they actually arrived, able to spot and avoid traps.
While the other four grew more and more fortable with how much smaller and smaller their range of senses was getting, Ria’s sharp amber eyes continued facing forward. They pierced through the mist that hung in the air, making the forests at the heart of the manifold feel more and more mysterious.
The forest was eerily silent, devoid of the sound of the macrobe equivalent of birds and critters. They could almost hear their own footsteps despite the stealth mechanisms of their exosuits.
Ria’s expression tightened. "Let’s stop here."
Runark frowned, stopping several steps ahead of her. "I thought you wanted to go all the way?"
"We’re very close," she replied with severity. "Which means we’re very close to something that’s very dangerous. It’s best we pause for a moment, refill our oxygen, drink some potions and then resume."
"Is the creature that dangerous?" Misha asked with a cautious tone. "This place has been less dangerous than advertised. I would like to add."
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