[17 hours 10 minutes]
It had been almost an hour since the sea of Abyss creatures that had attacked the base retreated. However, instead of being happy and relieved, the expressions of everyone at the base were filled with anxiety and distress. In fact, Emery and the others were all getting more and more tense as the minutes ticked by.
“Do you sense anything?”
Emery asked the red-haired girl about the situation, as she had sent her familiar from the base and they were currently 600 miles away.
“No, nothing. It’s all empty. There’s not even a single Crawler in sight!”
By this time, all three hundred acolytes of Platoon 3 had heard about what happened. Naturally, none of them felt good about the possibility of having a stage 7 Abyss creature heading their way.
From on top of the wall, seeing the empty yellow plain with no Abyss creatures in sight, it only felt as if they were facing the calm sea before the incoming storm.
He then shifted his gaze and saw Julian, who was busy with a group of three dozen acolytes. Under his elaborate instructions, the acolytes swiftly moved around the place to create new traps, which were supposedly able to hold the incoming threat. Meanwhile, at the third line of the base, the other acolytes could be seen healing themselves and restoring their depleted Spirit Pool.
“I wonder if there’s anything else we can do.” Emery muttered to himself in a tone that allowed others around him to hear him clearly.
Immediately, a response came from the beautiful figure standing beside him.
“How about building a new base?”
Klea’s unexpected words made Emery turn his head with a confused yet questioning look. “What do you mean?”
Seeing his words were not immediately rejected, the Egyptian queen began to explain her idea in detail.
Simply put, she suggested they began to move the survivors towards the transport and create a new base to accommodate them while the coast was still clear. That way, by the time the transport was accessible to board, these survivors could just directly enter the transport.
Of course, her idea was not without flaws. Creating a similar fortress that could accommodate three million people was not an easy thing and would certainly take several hours of time and energy – two things that they might not necessarily have.
“We both know that those things could come back at any moment, and if they came back while we were in the middle of moving the survivors, it would immediately be a total disaster.” Roran expressed his opinion, which clearly disagreed with the idea.
On the other hand, Anas was unexpectedly very enthusiastic about supporting Klea’s idea. His reason was that it was better than doing nothing and waiting for uncertainty. He said that, though the plan wasn’t one without risks, at least in this way the initiative was in their hands.
At first, Emery disagreed with the idea. After all, his [Spatial Gate] could be used to create a gate that directly sent people to the front of the transport when the appointed time arrived. But then, he changed his mind.
If they went ahead with Klea’s suggestion, it would mean that Emery did not have to use up his Spirit Pool to cast and maintain Spatial Gate for three million people to pass through. If so, that meant there was another card to work with and he could definitely use any advantage when the threat came.
“Let’s go with Klea’s idea, but we’ll set up defenses there first and move the survivors only after the the defenses are ready.”
Klea was visibly happy Emery agreed with her idea. Naturally, as the one who proposed, she was ready to provide assistance in working on the project. It was quickly decided Anas would lead the project, assisted by Klea and a group of selected acolytes.ᴘ ᴀꪁⅆ a ɴꪫꪚeʟ
Thinking there was nothing else he could do here, Emery returned to the tower he had been at and once again faced the glowing orb that was still floating in the air. Looking at it and recalling the previous experiences, he believed the orb would be the answer to their current situation.
Without further ado, he cast [Nature Grasp] and once again tried to interact with it.
Other than the previous message of ‘Help’ and ‘You’, Emery could only sense mixed messages that seemed like many words jumbled up together with no coherent meaning. It was as if the 13 spirit creatures were not in an agreement.
Even though he couldn’t glean anything useful, Emery still sat in lotus position and maintained the connection his [Nature Grasp] made to try to understand the mysterious lifeform better. After all, his understanding about the Primordial Wisp and its mysteries could only be considered shallow at best.
He recalled he had had a similar experience with Gaia. At that time the High Priestess – the Lady of the Lake – told him the will of Gaia was not something that could be easily understood and, most importantly, not for anyone. Hence why the High Priestess was chosen to be the voice of the Gaia.
In fact, it took her dozens of years of seclusion in the shrine to understand a smidgen of Gaia’s will.
At this exact moment, as he was trying to understand the messages that contained the intents of the spirit creature, Emery finally could understand what the Lady of the Lake was facing when she communicated with Gaia’s will.
[15 hours 55 minutes]
An hour passed by and Emery felt like he had gained a deeper understanding of the spirit beings. He had come to the realization that it wasn’t about language, but that the spirit beings reacted just like any primal beings. It didn’t plan nor covet things; however, being part of primordial beings, it was supposed to have a vast knowledge beyond his understanding.
He suddenly thought of an idea. He decided to stop trying to understand the spirit creature and instead gave them his thoughts.
“I am here, trying to help… help me so I can help your people, please help me understand.”
A moment later, a different reaction came from the orb. The previous disagreements ceased to exist, replaced by one resolute intent;. Immediately after, the orb shook and slowly began to move.
To Emery’s complete surprise, the orb flew towards the small creature that had been sitting quietly on the floor.
Twik.
“Wait! What are you doing?”
Emery instantly worried when he realized the orb’s intention. Alas, it already entered the chubby plant creature and Twik’s body swiftly let out a bright glow that quickly enveloped its entirety.
Seconds quickly turned to minutes, through his [Nature Grasp] that was still active, Emery somehow knew whatever the spirit was trying to do with Twik, it would take quite a bit of time.
Not knowing what to do and afraid his reckless actions would be detrimental, he chose to wait and hope nothing bad happened to his little friend. At the same time, a message came into his device. It was Annara.
[The hordes are coming. You definitely won’t like what I see]