Dimensional Descent

Leonel took a breath, his grip on his spear tightening slightly.

They were everywhere. Or, at the very least, it truly felt like it.

The center of the Nest was an enormous, perforated, ball of rock. Pathways of all shapes and sizes, winding in all sorts of different directions, jetted out from the perforations.

This perforated ball of rock hovered above what looked like a green sea. This oddly discolored sea gave off a strong, pungent smell that seared one's nose hairs and tingled the skin. It looked like a vat of acid and Leonel wasn't convinced that if he took a dip, that it would react any differently from one either.

The number of Rapax that moved through this construction weren't small. But, there was something odd about their movements. Despite the fact Aina had just killed one of their own and they were in fairly clear view of them, none seemed to react.

That was when something that should have been obvious all this time clicked for Leonel.

'The Rapax are blind.'

Leonel had never noticed any eyes on the Rapax. In fact, their pill shaped heads were covered by their metallic carapaces so he had just assumed that their eyes were underneath and they had a method of seeing through the metal casing. However, now Leonel realized that that assumption had been stupid to make. He was still trying to see everything the Rapax did through a human lens when they were decidedly not human at all.

The Rapax must have used a different method to track their prey, and since they had no reason to lock onto this particular location, they wouldn't react immediately.

However, Leonel was no fool. He didn't believe that the Rapax would be so inept. There was a large distance between the location he stood upon now and the perforated spherical rock that hung ahead. There was no pathway that connected it to where Leonel and Aina stood. If Leonel had to describe it, it was like they were standing in a window, looking through it. If they wanted in, they would have to find a doorway instead.

Leonel had a feeling, though, that if they truly did find a doorway, the reception wouldn't be nearly this benign. In fact, they would likely find themselves swarmed.

Leonel fell into silence alongside Aina. The pair slowly backed away and retreated to the corner they had just wrapped around. Only then did they sigh a breath of relief and calmly access the situation again.

They currently stood within a hallway, but there was a dead end on one side. It made Leonel a bit skeptical about how the Rapax had engineered this place. It seemed that this 'window' was actually a designed lookout. But, it was obviously not a lookout for enemies, but rather a lookout for observing the work of the other Rapax.

If Leonel was correct, this confirmed one matter: the Rapax did have methods of seeing things at long distances. And, secondly, it likely wouldn't be long before the Rapax they had killed was noticed to be gone.

Leonel wasn't very worried about the second possibility mostly because at most it would just expose that there were enemies here, something the Rapax were already aware of. It was also possible that it could reveal their location, but Leonel was confident that they would have made a move by then.

"So it's an observation station?" Aina concluded the same thing Leonel had.

"I think so."

"Then we'll need to find another entrance. But, even if we do, it'll be very difficult to handle."

"I can reverse engineer a path to a suitable entrance. I've already memorized the layout of that spherical hive hovering in the center of that acid lake. The issue isn't that, it's just… What would we find on the inside?

"If the inside is another maze, we can work with it. If it isn't, then we'll end up surrounded from all sides without a simple way to retreat."

"Did you notice, by the way?" Aina suddenly asked.

"Hm?"

"The Anarchic Force. It's still strong, but there's something oddly mutated about it, as though it feel more malleable and less aggressive. It's like a beast that's been tranquilized."

Leonel's brows shot up. When Aina spoke those words, he too realized it. After a moment of thought, he felt like he had come to a conclusion, but he still reached out to Wise Star Order.

'… Anarchic Force is the antithesis of life. It's one thing for the Rapax to force their young to be born in such an environment, but it would be another thing entirely if they just allowed the Anarchic Force to kill them. The girl is sharper than you.

'The heavy Life Force in the air, caused by the fertilizer, has a sort of muting effect on Anarchic Force. This isn't because Anarchic Force is being suppressed, but it's rather because the Anarchic Force would rather target this pure and high level Life Force than target weak and unsavory babies.

'That vat of green is where it all is. The toxicity is concentrated in the top layer because that's where all the Life Force and Anarchic Force are fusing. The result of their combat is something high poisonous to life.'

Leonel nodded. He wasn't shocked Aina noticed before he did, her Life Force affinity was off the charts, it was only right.

But, this changed a few things about how Leonel could approach this.

Firstly, muted Anarchic Force meant that he could use more Mage tactics and that his Bow Force's range would be much longer.

But, most importantly… He just might be able to draw a teleportation Force Art that could get them out of here so long as the Anarchic Force continued to be so docile. The formation wouldn't be enough to take them far. But, at the very least, it would be able to get them out of the center of this Nest and toward an exit.

There was no doubt that once they stole the egg, the Rapax would be livid. By then, their main focus should be on running for their lives.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Leonel's gaze narrowed, the sudden series of sounds making him peek his head around the corner once more.

There, on one of the winding paths, a group of youths charged, battling the Rapax that stood in their way.