Ascenders Rift

Chapter 149: Emilia's Illness, The Insect Hive's Movements

It didn't take long for them to finish searching the nearby rooms, taking whatever they could find and storing them within their storage spaces. In a few minutes of careful work, most of them had already gathered back at the meeting spot while sharing what they found.

"Did you guys find anything strange?" Evan asked.

"I didn't see anything useful, only some random papers that were translated as nothing more than names for some medicine, I believe," Rick said as he recalled his findings.

"I found a case of syringes, I don't know what they are yet, but I believe if we take it back to headquarters, they will be able to analyze their components," Breya said.

"I didn't find anything..." Layla said while shaking her head.

"Me either... has anyone seen Emmy?" Joe asked with a bit of concern.

"Huh? Didn't she travel in your direction? How did you lose sight of her?" Rick asked in concern.

Joe didn't like being questioned by Rick, but as he could feel the concern in his tone, he decided to let it pass this time as he replied, "I don't know, I thought she would be fine as there weren't any major threats in the area."

Everyone then showed worried looks on their faces, but Evan sighed and spoke, "Okay, don't worry I am sure she's fine, she is after all attuned to nature even more so than those who've grown in it. I'll go find her so we can leave, we still have a good distance away from the location of the Human Hideaway."

Joe and the others nodded at those, whereby Evan took a step forward and vanished into the trees and hedges. Soon, he had arrived in the direction Emilia went; he carefully moved through a series of plants that grew within the building and searched each room.

However, no matter how hard Evan searched, he couldn't catch her trail. He frowned while thinking, 'Where could she have gone? It's so unusual that she could vanish like this... maybe I'll try this side.'

Evan was about to turn towards a different direction, but he suddenly felt a slight wave of Spirit Power from nearby.

'There's something over there..." Evan thought as he looked to the right, noticing that at the end of a long hallway, a greenish light was shining.

Not wasting any time, Evan took a step forward and vanished quickly, rushing towards it, hoping it was nothing terrible. Soon, he had arrived at the section of glowing light, but the scene he saw was one that made him shocked as he would have never thought something like this could happen.

There within a sea of plants, flowers, and vines that had wound around to create a bed of sorts, the beautiful figure of Emilia was lying down in silence. Her face had a strange look as if she was intoxicated as each strand of her long golden hair scattered around her form.

If one looked closely, they would notice that her body was glowing in vague greenish light as even her clothing was fluttering due to this energies influence.

'What the hell is this? How did she end up like this?' Evan asked in shock.

Not daring to dally, Evan hurried in the room and scrutinized her, as he looked around he couldn't help but notice a tiny wound was on Emilia's neck.

Evan frowned as he saw this, he noticed that a syringe was on the ground with strange liquid forming a pool around it, even a few dead looking vines were below it.

'Did she do this?' Evan inwardly questioned as he narrowed his eyes, but he shook his head as he thought, 'No, Emilia isn't foolish, based on her personality even if her spirits guided her she wouldn't have done it. Since this is the case, I can only assume that there is a third party...' 

As Evan said this, his eyes flashed in a reddish color as his Battle Will exploded, causing his hair to rise about his head, but as he stared around the room other than a few strange intents, he didn't sense anything with any hatred.

 'It's no good; I can't sense anything, I'll have to take her away from here, we can inspect her when we aren't in such an unstable environment. Maybe the Void Blood Pendant will be able to let me understand it...' Evan thought as his eyes flashed in a firm ray, he picked her up in a princess hold and looked around the room once more time before leaving.

Yet, as Evan left the room, the broken syringe shook for a bit as the vine that was underneath it wriggled and moved towards the corners of the room.

If one looked even closer at the syringe, they would see a marking that said, 'EX-001.' Not long after, the other vines and plants faded into the darkness as the room was now spotless as if nothing was there from the beginning.

However, that was but only an illusion, looking towards the ceiling on the wall's surface, one would see an odd sight: a face that was purely human resting on the center of a plant.

This man wore glasses and had a messy bared, and haggard-looking eyes, his expression though was one of happiness, as if he'd seen the greatest thing in the world his tears ran down his cheek as he spoke, "Finally, it's done, I've achieved it, the perfect synchrony..."

As the man said this, he closed his eyes as his head became swallowed by the plant that grew through the wall before it dived back into the concrete and vanished from this region.

***

Evan soon arrived before Layla and the others, who upon seeing Emilia was shocked. He noticed that Joe and Rick were about to shout out loud, but he promptly acted to prevent that occurrence.

"Don't overreact, she's still fine, there's nothing wrong with her vitals, but right, we need to leave this place immediately," Evan said as he looked at Joe and Rick.

The two gripped their fists before they looked at Evan and nodded as they spoke separately.

"Fine, hand her to me, I'll carry her," Joe said while lifting his arms.

"Let's just hope that its nothing serious," Rick said as he watched Evan hand over Emilia to Joe before he turned around and walked forward.

Layla and Breya were a bit worried as well, but they knew right now wasn't the right time to ask about her condition.

Evan looked at everyone and spoke, "Let's go,"

Not even wasting a single moment, Evan, Joe, and the others quickly left this compound of the Origin Lab, moving through the trees and hedges at an alarming pace.

While moving Evan couldn't help but get the feeling that they were being watched, he turned and glared at the fading facility behind with shape eyes as he thought, 'Sooner or later, I'll return and figure out just what you really are...'

Eventually, Evan and the others had left this region, fading into the evening, which soon descended into the dark hours.

***

Far away from this location, within a region surrounded by many kinds of nests. There were giant cocoons that hung from the branches of tall trees, each of a peculiar shape as if they were carved like structures.

Looking around, one would notice a myriad of giant insects that looked similar to dragonflies, wasps, and other kindstheir bodies many meters large, with their wings even larger.

They soared around this sea of tall gigantic trees shaped like buildings as if patrolling the skies, as clusters of humanoid bug people rode on their backs and flew through the air.

At the central-most region of these grounds, was a wide-open area that spanned a few kilometers. Here, was a place with a massive platform, where a single dome with many openings rested.

A few powerful-looking insect men stood around it, each being five meters large with hard black shells around their bodies like armor. They looked around with sharp looks on their faces, as if they were the most well-trained soldiers who give no second chances to intruders.

Suddenly, they each looked up as they felt a powerful aura, not even waiting for a second they drew their weapons, pointing it at the sky as they shouted, "Who goes there?"

They had only just shouted, but in only a few seconds, a blur swept past them, landing directly before the dome's entrance.

As they looked down, they saw a small figure, a beauty of the size comparable to a human's, she was, of course, a humanoid being that had flowing orange hair with a crown on her head, and beautiful facial features. Her body was busty, wearing revealing clothing of a bee pattern with a large stinger behind her.

Suddenly, this woman looked up and glared at the guards who trembled for a bit before saying nothing. The woman snorted and walked through the dome, moving towards a particular route; eventually, she arrived at a region filled with cobwebs.

In this room, three other silhouettes were seen kneeling on the ground before a woman who sat at the center of a giant spiderweb. Her features were hidden in the dark, but from her graceful shape and glowing purple eyes, one could tell that her looks were even superior to even the bee lady's. 

Unlike everyone else, who knelt, this bee lady didn't show any submissive behavior; she stared directly at the woman who only now stared at her and spoke in a resonant tone, "Why have you come, Devora?"

Devora looked at her and replied, "It's that bitch, Marlin, she's making movements again with her mosquito horde, hindering our inspection squads sent to observe the Mother Hive."

The woman's eyes flashed when she heard this; she spoke, "Marlin? Hmm, what could have warranted such wide-scale action on her part? There's something not right here, dispatch a different team, I want you to lead it personally, find out what she's doing, as for the rest, keep spying on that Mother Hive, they are bound to slip up sooner or later."

"Fine," Devora replied as she flapped her wings and vanished from the room.

"As the Queen wishes," The others in the room replied more humbly, as they left.

The Insect Queen looked at this before closing her eyes as she rested on her web, her mouth curved into a smile as she spoke in a voice only she could hear, 'Sooner or later, I will claim all as mine...'

The scene here remained one of darkness, as these being hatched her plots for conquest in this gloomy world.