Chapter 1703: Where am I? Part-2
Chapter 1703: Where am I? Part-2
"NNNOOOO!!!"
"HELPPPPP!!!"
"FAATTTHHERRR!!"
The survivors’ screams continued echoing through the forest as their bodies vanished into the darkness between the trees as their body warped by those unknown things dragging them into the forest.
Young Aether’s eyes narrowed slightly just as he was about to move when the tree branch beneath Aether exploded apart as a massive appendage burst upward from below.
Crack!
THURRRRRR!!!!
The attack arrived fast enough to kill an ordinary person instantly.
Aether calmly pushed off the branch.
His body moved through the air at the exact moment the appendage pierced through the position where he had been sitting. Splinters and fragments of bark scattered in every direction as the creature’s attack tore through the tree trunk.
Before he could land, another appendage emerged from a neighbouring tree.
Thurr!
Then another.
Thurr!
Then another.
Within moments, dozens of them were converging upon his position from every direction.
Aether landed upon another branch before immediately jumping again.
A fraction of a second later, the branch shattered behind him.
Several appendages collided with one another after narrowly missing their target.
Step!
Step!
Step!!
Aether moved through the canopy with fluid precision.
Each leap carried him toward a new position before the attacks could fully adjust. Whenever an appendage attempted to intercept his path, he altered his trajectory mid-movement and used nearby trees to obstruct the creature’s line of attack.
The forest erupted into chaos... Branches rained from above.
Entire sections of vegetation were torn apart as the appendages relentlessly pursued him through the canopy.
Despite the overwhelming number of attacks, not a single appendage managed to touch him.
Years of experience surviving impossible situations had conditioned his instincts to react before conscious thought could interfere. Every movement flowed naturally into the next as though he were dancing through the attacks rather than escaping them.
Several minutes passed before the situation unexpectedly changed.
The appendages abruptly stopped pursuing him.
One after another, they withdrew into the forest.
The violent assault ended so suddenly that the surrounding forest became eerily silent.
Aether landed upon a thick branch and quietly observed the retreating appendages.
The appendage that had captured the girl and the remaining survivors was neither a vine nor a tentacle in the normal sense. Its surface appeared disturbingly organic, with muscles visibly contracting beneath layers of flesh as though the appendage itself were a living creature rather than a simple extension of another monster’s body.
His expression remained thoughtful as he quietly observed the retreating appendages disappearing deeper into the forest.
"Hmm... should I check it out?" he muttered while resting one hand against the rough bark beneath him.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the deeper regions of the forest where the captured survivors had been dragged.
The crawling creatures from the plains had already raised countless questions in his mind, and whatever existed deeper within these woods appeared powerful enough to frighten those same monsters into retreating without hesitation.
That fact alone made the creature worth investigating. More importantly, he still had absolutely no idea where he was, and there was a chance that whatever intelligence controlled this forest might possess information about this place...
Nah, he just got curious about it and wanted to see it... That’s all!
Without another moment of hesitation, Aether pushed off the branch and began moving through the canopy while following the path left behind by the captured survivors.
The deeper he travelled, the stranger the forest became.
At first, the changes were subtle enough to dismiss as imagination. However, after several minutes of movement, he gradually slowed before coming to a complete stop atop a massive branch.
His eyes narrowed.
Something was wrong.
Aether remained perfectly still while allowing his eyes to carefully scan the surrounding forest. To an ordinary person, the woods would have appeared completely normal. Yet his heightened senses allowed him to notice minute inconsistencies hidden throughout the environment.
A tree that had been positioned beside a large boulder moments earlier now stood several inches away.
A cluster of roots that should have remained fixed had somehow shifted direction.
Even the spacing between certain trees appeared subtly different every time he looked away and glanced back.
The changes were extremely small, yet they were undeniably occurring.
"What the hell is happening here?" Young Aether muttered while squinting suspiciously at the surrounding forest.
A gentle breeze flowed between the trees.
Ssshhh~
The leaves rustled softly overhead while countless branches swayed with an eerie rhythm.
It was almost as though the woods themselves were slowly rearranging their structure around him.
For the first time since arriving in this strange world, Aether felt a faint sense of caution.
This wasn’t merely a dangerous forest.
Something was actively manipulating it.
Just as he became lost in thought, a piercing sound suddenly echoed through the distance.
PUEEEEEEEEE!!!
A brilliant red beam shot upward through the canopy before piercing into the sky like a massive flare.
Aether’s eyes widened slightly.
The crimson light continued ascending until it reached several hundred meters above the forest before abruptly stopping. Rather than disappearing, the glowing beacon remained suspended in the air, shining brightly enough to be visible from virtually every direction.
"A signal flare?"
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
Without wasting another second, Aether immediately changed course and began moving toward the red light.
The shifting forest that had previously complicated his movements suddenly became far less problematic. Even when the trees subtly changed position and the terrain appeared to rearrange itself, the crimson beacon remained visible above the canopy, acting as a fixed point that prevented him from becoming lost.
Branch after branch blurred beneath his feet.
Wind rushed past his ears.
As he travelled deeper into the forest, however, he gradually began noticing signs that others had passed through this area before him.
Broken branches hung from trees.
Fresh footprints marked patches of exposed soil.
Fragments of clothing and equipment occasionally appeared among the undergrowth.
Most disturbing of all were the long grooves carved across the ground.
The marks looked as though something had dragged dozens of struggling victims through the forest toward a single destination.
The deeper he travelled, the more numerous those trails became.
Soon, they stopped resembling random drag marks.
The countless trails left behind by the appendages gradually stopped resembling random drag marks and instead began converging toward a single route that cut through the heart of the forest.
As Young Aether continued moving forward, something partially buried beneath the soil suddenly caught his attention.
His movement slowed.
"Is that... a mech suit?" he muttered while narrowing his eyes.
Several meters away, a damaged, faded green-striped black mech-suit lay half-submerged beneath roots and dirt.
Thick roots had pierced through the metallic body from multiple directions, tearing apart armour plating that should have been capable of withstanding a tremendous attack. Entire sections of reinforced material had been twisted open as though they were nothing more than paper, while shattered components and broken circuitry protruded from the ruined frame.
Young Aether crouched beside the wreckage and placed his hand against the cold metal surface.
"Looks like it’s been a long time..."
His gaze shifted toward the massive hole torn through the centre of the chest plate.
Whatever had attacked this machine had not merely destroyed it.
Something had forced its way inside.
Something had gone after the person inside.
Aether frowned.
’These machines are far from weak. If people equipped with equipment like this still ended up dying here, then what exactly were they fighting?’
The question only increased his curiosity.
As he continued following the crimson beacon deeper into the forest, additional wreckage gradually appeared throughout the landscape. The further he travelled, the more evidence of battle revealed itself among the trees.
Some different colour-striped back mech-suits had been crushed beneath massive roots. Others had been ripped apart so violently that entire limbs had been separated from the main body.
Eventually, Aether reached a point where he could no longer dismiss the sight as the remains of a small skirmish.
His pace gradually slowed.
Then it stopped completely.
Hundreds of destroyed mech suits covered the forest.
Machines bearing Red stripes, Green stripes, Pink stripes, Deep black ones... and dozens of other markings littered the landscape as far as his eyes could see.
Many machines remained wrapped within gigantic roots that had crushed their armoured frames beyond recognition, while others had been impaled and suspended several meters above the ground like trophies displayed by some unimaginably powerful predator.
For several moments, Aether simply stood there while silently observing the devastation.
A small voice in the back of his mind quietly suggested retreat.
After all, if an entire force equipped with machines of this calibre had failed to survive, then his current situation could hardly be described as favourable.
He possessed neither his former power nor the overwhelming advantages that had once allowed him to challenge impossible opponents.
Yet the more he looked at the battlefield, the more excited he became.
A slow grin gradually appeared across his face.
The existence of such a creature did not frighten him nearly as much as it interested him.
If something truly possessed enough power to massacre an entire mech-suits and reduce their machines to this condition, then that creature represented an opportunity unlike any other.
After all, there were still people waiting for him elsewhere.
People he hated.
People he intended to kill.
People who deserved suffering far beyond anything he had experienced!!
"Hehehe~"
A low, wicked chuckle escaped his lips.
"Either way, I’m going to wipe those bastards out eventually. If a monster like this can be convinced to cooperate, then that only makes my job easier~Hehe~"
Young Aether’s lips slowly curled upward into a deeply unsettling grin.
The image of unleashing such a creature upon Terra was admittedly... entertaining~
The current situation should have filled him with caution.
Instead, it filled him with possibilities.
Without hesitating any longer, Aether resumed moving deeper into the forest while following the increasingly bright red beacon.
The environment gradually changed around him.
The roots became thicker.
The air became warmer.
The stench of blood became harder.
By the time he finally reached the location where the red beacon was positioned, he, who was grinning with a wicked expression, suddenly his eyes widened in fucking shock, his legs halted themselves as he unconsciously mumbled,
"This... Motherfucker?!!!"
It was as if he had suddenly come face to face with someone he personally knew.
His widened eyes reflected the vast crimson world laid before him, while disbelief, shock, and recognition flashed across his face as he stared at a... familiar skull head.