There was sothing in Ren’s tone that didn’t admit argunts. Julius imdiately activated his concealnt artifact, feeling his mana presence suppressed to barely detectable levels.
Ren did the sa, and suddenly both beca practically invisible to most forms of magical detection.
The effect was rapid.
Within minutes, more small beasts began passing near them, no longer avoiding their enormous power signature. Hunter beetles, lesser worms and small mimic insects moving through the ground. All low-level creatures...
But they weren’t alone.
Sothing was following them.
It was subtle at first, barely perceptible even with both their enhanced senses. A disturbance in mana patterns, a pressure moving through the area like an invisible underwater current.
Could there be beasts capable of hiding their mana presence?
The small creatures moved in patterns that weren’t entirely random. There was direction in their movent, a purpose suggesting they were being directed or influenced by sothing larger.
"Do you feel it?" Ren whispered, his voice barely audible.
Julius nodded tensely. What he was sensing wasn’t exactly hostile toward them, but it didn’t feel benevolent either.
Another hunter bug erged directly a few ters from their feet, so close that Julius had to make a conscious effort not to react. The creature moved with clear panic, its movents becoming more erratic as sothing invisible approached.
They waited.
The predator erged from behind one of the largest statues, and Julius felt his blood turn cold.
It was a creature Ren had described before, but seeing it in person was completely different. Approximately the size of any Silver Rank beast, but with anatomy that defied easy categorization. Long with parts from various types of beasts, all amalgamated into a combination that should have been impossible but sohow worked.
A chira.
The creature was a living violation of natural law. Multiple heads that shouldn’t function together, limbs that belonged to different species, organs visible through translucent skin that pulsed with fast rhythms.
Julius reacted instinctively, using his earth control to create a cage of dense minerals around the creature before it could escape. The chira writhed and struggled against its confines, but the prison walls seed too dense for the abomination’s power level to escape.
"It’s almost the sa form," Ren murmured, approaching cautiously toward the trapped creature. "The sa species I faced that day when I fell into the hole with Han."
The chira looked at him with eyes that showed an intelligence that was unsettling. It wasn’t the blank stare of an animal driven by instinct; there was recognition there.
But then it began doing sothing with its long antennae that made both of them tense.
A sound that wasn’t exactly vocalization, not exactly telepathy, but sothing between both. It was as if it were sending a signal, a call that resonated not through the air but through the underground mana network.
"It’s calling others," Julius realized with growing alarm.
Ren nodded grimly. "And from the way the energies are changing... I think many are responding to it."
The mana signatures they had been detecting, subtle and dispersed, suddenly beca more focused. More nurous. As if hundreds, perhaps thousands of creatures were converging on their location.
"Julius," Ren said quietly, "I think we’ve found why low-level creatures aren’t migrating upward."
Julius looked at the trapped chira, then at the growing mana signatures approaching from all directions.
"They’re not migrating," he realized, "because sothing else is already claiming territory down here."
The chira’s call intensified, and in response, the world around them began to change.
In the darkness between them, shapes began to move.
Julius wasted no ti. With a gesture, he crushed the trapped chira using earth pressure. The sound of the exoskeleton breaking resonated among the crystallized statues.
"Destroy the cores," Ren warned urgently. "The separated segnts can co to life autonomously."
The creature’s construction was more horrifying up close. Each segnt maintained its own nervous system, allowing independent function even when severed from the main body.
Julius nodded and unleashed a wave of rock and mineral that pulverized every fragnt of the creature that was already moving separately, turning them into pulp.
But the mana signals didn’t stop.
If anything, they intensified. As if the death of one of their own had enraged the entire colony.
Despite deactivating their artifacts...
"Seems like they want revenge," Julius murmured, feeling the mana signatures still approaching from all directions, now without fear of his mana signature.
The first chiras began erging from among the crystallized statues. Julius kept them at bay with earth barriers and rock projectiles, but he could sense dozens more awaiting their turn.
"From the quantity I can sense," Ren said after expanding his perception to maximum, "your reserves won’t be enough... you should surrender and retreat without overestimating your limits."
Julius sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Do you seriously feel you have the moral high ground to say that?"
The question struck directly at the point. Ren blushed slightly.
"Yes, I already accepted my mistake. But that doesn’t an you have to make it too!"
Julius laughed, a genuinely amused sound that contrasted strangely with the danger surrounding them.
"I’m glad you’ve relaxed. I don’t see you as stressed and annoyed anymore, so it seems what I told you about Larissa helped you at least a little."
It was true. Although the situation was objectively still dangerous... he felt less tense, less like he carried the world’s weight on his shoulders.
The relief was profound. Learning that Larissa’s silence wasn’t rejection but self-protection had shifted sothing fundantal in how he processed their relationship.
"Though there’s a problem," Julius added, creating another wave to crush three chiras trying to flank them.
"Which one?"
"The creatures could follow us to the surface. It might be a bad idea to lead them up there without fighting here."
Ren swallowed, feeling the weight of realization. Leading a horde of vengeful chiras toward the city would be a disaster. Thousands of civilians could die.
Julius sent a bird flying, dispatching an ergency ssage toward the surface. But both knew the chances of a flying beast reaching the surface from these depths were low.
"Let’s stay," Ren decided after considering the options. "I’ll think of sothing."
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