Chapter 415: _Nature Would Fight Back

Amazon Rainforest

’I remember thinking people who willingly come here were either nuts or suicidal in my past life.’ Ambrose sighed to himself as he, Gabriel and Valentine crossed a portal opened by the space god.

The first thing that hit him was how... dense the air felt. Not just because of the humidity or the moisture.

Aether.

It filled the forest like a miasma, so thick that he was certain most normal humans would drop dead the second they stepped in.

He couldn’t sense any animals for miles. Even insects were scarce; the ones left were digging holes into the moist earth to hide from the huge change happening around them.

"Good grief." Valentina huffed, eyes fixed on the massive SS-Rank Rift ahead. "No wonder they summoned every SS-Rank available. That thing reminds me of the Echo Rift."

He inclined his head to Gabriel.

The latter’s expression was blank, eyes lazily following the Hunters and barricades around the Rift.

"Gabe?" Valentine called. "Are you sure you’re up for this?"

Gabriel blinked.

He turned to Valentine. "Why wouldn’t I be?"

"Well... you know."

Ambrose looked between both men.

Something about Gabriel’s current attitude reminded him of the times before he managed to strike that first-ever conversation with him.

At least back then the space god freely spoke with Valentine.

"I’m fine, Val." Gabriel already began moving, grey trench coat flowing behind him. "I just want to get this over with."

Valentine kept his eyes on him for a moment. Then he looked over at Ambrose.

The Guide did the same.

Neither had to say or think anything to know why that exchange was necessary. They’d just have to be there for Gabriel no matter what.

The SS-Rank Rift had expanded, now standing around the height of the centuries-old trees surrounding it. Occasional bursts of white aether left it, crushing smaller plants.

Ambrose’s attention shifted.

Among the Hunters who were now making way for them with respectful nods was one of the tallest men he’d ever seen.

Javier sat at the back of one of the armoured vehicles. If he noticed their presence, he didn’t show it, focusing instead on two figures standing before him.

[ALERT.]

[Foreign entities detected.]

[EstimatedRanks: S.]

The entities in question were towering humanoid beings with bark-like skin threaded by glowing emerald veins. They wore clothes adorned with leaves and flowers and spoke in an alien tongue.

[Analysing foreign language...]

[Producing real-time translations of each syllable...]

A few system loading screens later, Ambrose finally got all the knowledge he needed on the Yaxari tongue stored in his brain.

"Hunter Javier." Gabriel was the first to speak. "What’s the status of the Rift?"

Javier swivelled his head to them.

He regarded Gabriel and then Valentine for a few seconds before turning to Ambrose.

"Ah."

The two Yaxari followed his eyes.

"Humanity’s latest SS-Rank." He stretched a hand, shaking Ambrose. "Welcome. I’m currently trying to gather information on the entity that escaped the Rift."

Valentine arched his brow. "I assumed the IHC had already found the threat."

"All we know now is that it’s somewhere out there," Javier said, shaking his head solemnly. "Our friends, the Yaxari, here seem to be more knowledgeable about what it is."

Tapping the translating head chip the IHC built, he gestured at the Yaxari to continue what they’d been saying. Except this time Ambrose was the only other one who could understand them.

"... The Yaxari aren’t the only sentient civilization in Xalora." One of them began. "There were also the Yoxas. While we are connected to the plants and flora in Xalora, they have... animalistic roots."

[I guess he means Yoxa branched off from fauna life instead of flora. Fascinating. It would be like—]

’Take off your science hat for a second, Aura.’

"The Yoxa had far more advanced technology, utilising Xalora’s resources to expand their understanding of the universe." The Yaxari male’s expression turned grim. "But they bled too much from the planet. We Yaxari could feel it with every passing generation. The planet was crying. Dying."

His voice cracked toward the end, forcing the other one to hold his shoulder.

Ambrose suddenly got hit with an odd feeling of déjà vu.

Why did this narration sound oddly like what was happening here on Earth?

The Yaxari male finally got the strength to continue. He explained how the Yaxari leaders warned the Yoxa. They warned them that the planet’s spirit won’t be patient with their pollution for much longer.

Nature would fight back to purge them.

Long story short... it did.

Major Yoxa cities were wiped out by poisonous spores overnight, weeds, trees and vines covering and reclaiming them.

It happened so fast that even the Yaxari were caught unaware.

Billions were wiped out from both sides.

The Yaxari gathered what remained of them and hid in sacred ancestral woods. That was... until the Rift opened.

They’d mistaken it for mercy from the planet and crossed it without thinking, hoping to start afresh in this new world while Xalora’s ’spirit’ healed itself.

By the time the Yaxari male had finished the tragic story, Ambrose and even Javier were speechless.

"A spirit tied to a planet," Valentine murmured in English. "That doesn’t sound plausible at all."

"Because it’s not." Javier’s eyes became thoughtful. "If that same ’spirit’ was what jumped through the Rift and is now within this forest, then it’s not acting like a planet’s consciousness."

Ambrose’s jaw tightened.

This reminded him of the ’Devourer’ from the elven world beyond the Canadian Purple Rift.

That thing drained the life force from an entire planet and almost did the same thing to Earth. Jumping from one host to the other.

Just like—

"A parasite." He blurted, spatial awareness and every other sense stretching out.

All eyes moved to him.

"I think that ’spirit’ is a parasite that just happened to be in hibernation underneath the Yaxari’s planet all this while."

Javier frowned. "Were you... able to understand what they were saying all this while?"

"We’ll talk about that later." Ambrose’s forehead wrinkled. "I can feel it. There’s a powerful presence coming from every direction. From the trees, to the ground beneath us."

The Brazilian SS-Rank didn’t say anything.

Because he could sense it too.

That’s why the IHC couldn’t detect it no matter how hard they tried.

The air above them buzzed just then.

Helicopters.

Trees parted their leaves and branches under Javier’s silent command, giving space to the descending helicopters.

"Looks like the rest of us are here." Javier hopped off the vehicle he’d been sitting on all this while, giving Ambrose one last look.

Soon the helicopters’ doors opened.

Five more SS-Ranks jumped out of them, including Hunter Zola of South Africa and Hunter Han Ji-Hoon of South Korea.

Ji-Hoon had barely taken a few steps forward when she spotted Ambrose.

Her pulse stuttered.

Other than the young man looking and feeling completely different from the first time she saw him during the Echo Rift raid, his fate thread... was also vastly different.

Sporadic.

The single red string branched off into multiple parts she couldn’t begin to decipher or predict.

’What exactly have you beco—’

She wasn’t able to finish the thought.

Ambrose, who’d sensed someone staring at him for an uncomfortably extended time, finally angled his head toward her, brows furrowing.

Ji-Hoon jolted, immediately looking away.

Ancestors above.

What sort of power did this man command now to make her so startled?

Meanwhile, Ambrose thought of something different.

’Is it just me or does she... look like someone?’

[I don’t know, that sounds racist.]

’... That’s not what I meant at all, and you know it.’

[Do I, sweetheart?]

Javier drew a slow breath, sweeping his gaze across every SS-Rank that had gathered.

"We’ll split into groups. Whatever this entity is, it clearly possesses some method of concealing itself within the ecosystem. Cover as much ground as possible but remain within communication range. The moment anyone establishes visual conta—"

He never finished.

A deep vibration rolled through the earth, making centuries-old trees groan as though they had suddenly come alive. Leaves burst into the air by the millions while thick vines erupted from the undergrowth, twisting around trunks and branches with alarming speed.

The canopy above darkened.

"What the—"

Hunters instinctively reached for their weapons as the forest itself shifted around them.

Javier’s expression changed.

"No..." His voice came out quieter than expected. "Something’s... something’s contesting my authority over the forest."

The words had barely left his mouth before every tree connected to his domain simply stopped listening.

The realization hit him like a punch to the chest.

His connection to the rainforest was still there.

He could still feel every root. Every flower. Every patch of moss.

But another consciousness had wrapped itself around all of it, vast beyond comprehension, as though the entire ecosystem had become the nervous system of a sleeping giant that had finally opened its eyes.

Ambrose’s spatial awareness screamed.

"Move!"

He lunged toward Gabriel and Valentine’s direction on pure instinct—only for the forest floor beside him to explode.

A colossal blur of emerald and black burst from beneath the roots with terrifying speed, its momentum aimed directly at him as several Hunters cried out in alarm.