Ascenders Rift

Chapter 143: Narrowing the Destination, The Black Cloud?

The night was gradually underway, and dawn seemed to only be around the corner, the scene here in the wilds of Qeodreona carrying a spooky vibe. At this very moment, Evan and the others had already left their previous location, venturing through what was left of the final moments of the dark hours as they moved towards the northern direction.

Joe's face was flustered as he was looking around the environment as if something might pop out at any time, he spoke in a soft tone while cursing, "Evan, why didn't you let us leave last night? If you knew that we were in such a dangerous being's domain, why did you act so casually?"

Rick and Emilia also had similar looks as they looked at Evan who had only a few moments ago warned them of the Mosquito Witch. Breya, on the other hand, seemed to be focused as she used a device to scan the area, as for Layla, her expression right now was one of sadness. It appeared that she still hadn't gotten over the news Evan had told her in private.

Evan glanced at Layla and sighed; he knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't reject her. Last night, he ended up telling her of the things he could remember, most key things other than the moment of her death.

However, despite him not saying anything about that, it seemed that Layla somehow felt her circumstances ended pretty badly.

Not bothering to think about it, Evan decided to let her deal with it herself, he won't tell her how she died, even if she asked him again. For now, she should learn to deal with what she already knows.

Evan now looked at Joe and replied, "It's simple, we needed time to rest, we are humans, not machines, and another thing, venturing at the later hours in the darkest of the night is the worse thing you can do in the wilderness. Insects are highly adaptable in the wilds, especially more so than us humans at night."

Breya, who heard these words, spoke as she fiddled with her scanner, "Ah, that's true; I had scanned more than a hundred different lifeforms in our vicinity last night. While I couldn't quite tell how strong they are, they should have been quite formidable creatures based on their energy signature."

"What?" Emilia and the others exclaimed, but only Evan remained calm, he knew things were as such.

"Breya, and why didn't you share this detail?" Joe asked as he looked her in wonderment.

Breya shook her head and replied, "Why should I? They didn't detect us, so we didn't need to create any unnecessary scenes that might have provoked them."

Joe and the others shook their heads at these words; they no longer pressed the matter.

"Sister Breya, do you think they were from the Insect Hive?" Emilia asked while moving; she was even using her Spirit Power to learn more from her surroundings.

Breya nodded and replied, "Highly likely, maybe a stronger squad sent to inspect the activities of the Mother Nest. As Evan said, we don't need to get involved; we should only focus on finding that last Human Enclave..."

"Um," Emilia replied as she continued to call upon the spirits of nature.

At this moment, Rick, who was a little further from them, stood on a building as he stared off in the distance. He scouted a few areas ahead, but what he saw was most scenes of dead Flesh Eaters and insect corpses.

Rick frowned as he blurred and appeared beside Evan and spoke, "Evan, we are arriving at the point where you wanted to go, but I don't see anything that resembles a hidden portal's hideaway. How do we find it?"

Hearing his words, Evan looked at everyone and spoke, "Okay let's stop here for a while, let me check again."

As he said this, he appeared on the tall building Rick just came from and looked around carefully. Soon, he frowned as he thought, 'No traces, maybe as we are early, the portal has yet to shift here... hmm, I'll try this, then if possible I can rely on Emilia's abilities as well.'

When Evan thought to here, he commanded with his mind, 'Core: what's your status on Spiritual Power?'

The Void Blood Pendant on his chest flashed in red lights before it replied as texts came before his eyes.

[Replying to Inheritor, Core Power: 3520]

Evan nodded as he saw this, he questioned inwardly, 'Can you track the current spatial rift leading to the Human Enclave?'

[Replying to Inheritor tracking is possible please choose from methods below:]

[1 - Detail positional tracking - 1500 CP]

[2 - General positional tracking - 500 CP]

Evan paused for a bit before asking inwardly, 'What is the cost for finding Qeodreona's True World Source?'

[Replying to Inheritor tracking True World Source is possible, choose from the options below:]

[1 - Detail positional tracking - 3000 CP]

[2 - General positional tracking - 1000 CP]

Evan seeing this hesitated for a bit as he thought, 'While getting to the Human Enclave is necessary, it's nowhere as important as the True World Source. I still have Emilia, so long as we have a general idea of its location, she can find it given her abilities.'

Having made his choice, Evan spoke to the Core, 'I have decided, Option 2 for the Special Rift, and Option 1 for the True World Source.'

[Options confirmed, a total of 3500 CP has been deducted from Core. Projecting details to Inheritor's memory base...]

The moment the Void Blood Pendant said this, it glowed in a reddish light once more and sent a series of information to Evan's mind. 

Evan soon saw an image of a forest 50 miles away from this region, one that had a large waterfall and a lake. The display then changed to that of the Mother Nest, a place Evan knew full well, here the image dove further into the ground of a construct that seemed like a nest, moving through a myriad of passages that looked like organs.

Here was a spacious room that looked to be a throne room. Evan saw that a hidden section was beyond this room, one that had a dark-looking rift at its corner. Once this rift appeared, the scene then faded as the transmission ended.

Not long after, Evan opened his eyes that flashed for a moment before he smiled and murmured, "Perfect, now I know what steps to take ahead..."

Swish! As if he was growing impatient, Rick had appeared by Evan's side and spoke, "Evan, what's the plan?"

Evan looked at him and replied, "I've found where we should go, tell Emilia and the others to follow along, the place should be around 50 miles away from here."

"50 miles? Che! Evan, you better not be leading us around in circles," Rick said as he blurred appearing at everyone's sides; as he spoke Evan's words, Joe started to complain, but Evan paid it no mind.

At this time, Layla appeared by Evan's side, Evan looked at her, slowly beginning to see her features clearer as the morning sun had now begun to rise. He saw that her eyes showed even more firmness as if she knew her purpose.

"Let's go, Evan," Layla said with a deeper look in her hazel and ruby-colored eyes.

Evan smiled and nodded as he spoke, "Right, we still have a long road ahead of us."

Everyone was only moments away from leaving the area, as they felt even better seeing the sun had risen. Yet, it was at this moment; the area around them had changed. Yes, the day had only just arrived, but the sky had grown dark once again.

Emilia's face turned pale as her spirits ushered into her mind a warning, while Breya's scanner began to beep as if it had discovered a great source of danger.

"Oh no we have to get out of here!" Emilia and Breya shouted in alarm.

Evan and the others frowned as they had no idea what was going on, but upon lifting their heads and staring at the source of darkness, their eyes reeled with shock and horror.

There, following their line of sight, one would notice a reddish-black cloud. If someone had excellent eyesight, that person would see that this black cloud wasn't a collection of vapor, but a myriad of mosquitoes with glaring red eyes.

Each was the size of a fist, with the large amongst them reaching a meter or a few meters size. They bolted through the sky like a storm, as they swept up in all directions, leaving no stone, grass, or even the wind unturned.

Joe wanted to slap Evan on the back of his head and shouted, I told you so! Yet, before he could do so, Evan made a shout as he bolted off with Layla in hand, "RUN!"

"Evannn!" Joe and Rick shouted as they saw him run off without warning again, leaving them behind.

Not wasting any time, Rick grabbed Emilia, who blushed, ignoring Joe's fierce look as he vanished. No matter how hard Joe tried to catch up to clobber him, he couldn't do anything, even when he activated his Overburn talent, burning to boost himself.

Right when Joe seemed as if he would fall into the horde, a slender but even stronger hand grabbed him and carried him quickly.

Joe felt ashamed as he was being towed like a child by Breya, but at this life and death moment, he knew he didn't have the right to complain.

Swoosh! With a flash, everyone had vanished into the distance as the chaos here was only beginning to unfold.