Chapter 247 – The Valley’s Enemy

The expedition force immediately got to work on building an encampment. Walls were built, and traps near the entrance to the valley were laid. The reports from the scouting were more damning than expected; the number of mutated creatures far surpassed previous estimates. 

There were already concerns and murmurs about heading back and moving forward another day. Perhaps even agreeing to the church’s offer, but the people who worked directly for the city’s council put an end to those talks of failure. 

If there were more mutated creatures than expected, then they just needed to fight smarter. 

Utilising the narrow paths into the valley itself, they were going to use nature as a funnel to deal with the creatures at a more controlled pace. There was still a high risk, once alerted to their expedition force’s presence, that they would begin to barrel towards them, which they needed to account for. 

Spikes and additional structures were built and pushed into place in the tunnel to reinforce the plan, and everyone was giving steps and instructions on what to do at each moment, and what to do if something went wrong and what the backup plans would be.

Syrus was impressed. It also proved that the Arisea Station council had been thinking about this for a while.

While the numbers were higher than what expected, they did plan in case numbers were greater than the reports suggested. 

[Everything has been built quickly.] Luna was happy with the progress being made, it meant they could get home faster.

[But the results can still be dangerous.] (Syrus)

[...Haa… that is all our recent endeavours, is it not?] (Eva)

[Makes them good learning experiences for you at least.] (Syrus)

[Thanks…] (Eva)

The camp was a weird mixture of liveliness and worry. The pay was very nice, so people were desperately working as well as they could to ensure everything went to plan, but the fear that something could go horribly wrong couldn’t be ignored.

Anlesa joined in on the effort, helping build and moving the wooden structures into place. Syrus’s endless energy was, as always, very useful. However, helping play a support role while waiting for the chaos to begin wasn’t their goal for this trip, so when the opportunity came, they made a request for a change in position.

“Are you sure you want to be on recon duty?” The question had been asked before. The commander looked at Syrus if she was sure. People expected Syrus to stay on the backline, because she was a good potion maker, which would be useful in case things went very wrong, but Anlesa had other priorities.

“Yes, I am.” They had to get signed off before they left. Despite the expedition not being a fully organised group, the people in charge did have to keep track of who was around. In case people ran off or, in the case of the scouts, went permanently missing.  

With the permission granted, 

[Time to explore the valley.] Syrus looked at the rough maps the other recon scouts had recorded.

They were given a warning. If they did disturb the mutated creatures, they were not to return, and they had to do everything in their power to go in the opposite direction. Depending on the location, that order could be a death sentence, but it was something all the scouts had to agree to. 

The domino effect wasn’t something they could risk hitting their defences before they were complete. 

Leaving through the back exit, Anlesa walked up the mountain using the supports prior scouts had put in the mountain to assist in the climb. It took over twenty minutes to reach the point where they could look into the valley from climbing up the other side of the mountain. 

“That is a lot.” Looking into the valley, the number of mutated creatures vastly outnumbered the number that attacked the city a while ago, which made everything more impressive as they weren’t actively murdering each other.

[There has to be something calming their behaviour.] (Luna)

[But is it in the ground, mountain, or somewhere hidden out in the open?] (Eva)

[Too many options, but exploring the mountains is our best bet. Doing a full lap will give us a full view of what exists within the mountain.] (Syrus)

[And whatever exists on them.] (Luna) 

Anlesa began their long investigation. They had a feeling they wouldn’t be back at the base camp for a while. 

“This has been the first time I’ve climbed a mountain in a long while.” 

[I’m assuming it didn’t happen often.] (Luna)

[No. There were unfortunately very few mountains on the Vita continent.] (Syrus)

[Unfortunately? Why is that?] (Eva)

[Mountains make a great natural land formation. Perfect for keeping areas contained for all the positive and negative reasons. Here the mountain range makes crossing over to certain areas nearly impossible, which is very useful in keeping both sides safe. Or one side, in case the other is the domain of monsters.] Syrus wondered how the battle would go at keeping the monsters back if the Vita continent had more natural land formations to help keep them back. 

Her words got Luna and Eva thinking. The game of trying to figure out the entirety of Syrus’s backstory had given them many clues about the situation of her home continent. Which was to say, in a very bad spot at the moment. Eva worried deeply for Syrus’s old home, especially after the incident not too long ago when they came across the monster.

It was so strange… 

The monster was a half mangled mess of what it was supposed to be, but it was still so frightening, and it could’ve left such violent damage to everything around it. Seeing an ‘alive’ one for the first time also made her skin crawl and reminded her of the dead one they found in the river leading towards their home. She knew monsters were horrible… but learning how truly heinous they were by seeing it for the first time had shaken something in her beliefs. 

She didn’t want to admit it, but in the back of her mind for a long time, monsters just felt like some sort of bogeyman. Something that sounded a little too unreal to be actually real. However, unlike the stories of creatures hiding in the dark, monsters were real. So she came to reason they were more similar to mutated creatures, some extremely dangerous things that attacked stuff on sight. By that description, mutated animals had many of the same boxes checked.

But she was so wrong, monsters were a living disease on the world, and she regretted ever thinking otherwise. 

So for Syrus’s home to be harassed by them… constantly… she grieved for the people who were left behind. Syrus had said once there was no one left she cared about, as they all died with her. But Eva refused to believe that was the case. Some friends could be out there, but she understood the two of them thought differently about what people meant to them.

[You okay, Eva?] Syrus asked. [Your mind is drifting elsewhere.] 

[Sorry… just a lot to think about…] Eva apologised and kept her guard up. Her wires were already off the latches, ready to go into action at any moment for combat or to grab onto the mountain for support. She let her mana flow through them and wondered what she could do to make them stronger. Syrus's display when killing the monster taught her that a lot of power was required to kill them, and she wanted to support the group next time.  

After an hour of very slow investigative travel, they made it to the opposite side of the valley. Taking the long way through each mountain by climbing them. It would’ve been shorter if they just ran around the outside, but they wanted to mark out anything they were sure was strange. 

[There is a flower I haven’t seen before…] Eva examined the golden yellow almost daisy, but the petals were a lot wider and sharper than what she expected. [They grow on all the mountains.] 

[Anything special about them?] Syrus asked, not sure why Eva was suddenly so curious, but trusted her to allow her to follow whatever inkling she had.

[Sorry…] Eva took control and knelt down next to the flower. “This… flower has been bugging me for a while. It doesn’t match the other flower flora I’ve seen in this region.”

[That is not deeply unusual, plenty of flora only grow in one region due to certain conditions. Even a thirty-minute walk away can destroy those required variables.] (Luna)

[Exactly.] Eva agreed completely with Luna’s statement and started digging at the roots. [There hasn’t really been anything particularly strange about the mountains around the valley. So when something did seem unique, I latched onto it. If it is nothing, that is fine.] 

The roots had been slowly unearthed by Eva and took care to not damage the plant. However, what was shocking was the root system. The surface level was standard, roots spread in a radius around the plant, but there was also a larger root that drilled deeper into the ground. Eva gave up digging once the hole she made was large enough for her whole hand down. The root was thick, and by the inability to even budge when trying to pull it out, she believed she was to assume that it went deep.

[So a flower that has big roots underground? I’m going to trust you two on this, if you think this important, then press forward.] Syrus knew she was out of her league here. 

“Thanks.” Eva stood up and started calculating where the roots could possibly lead. This wasn’t the first time she saw a plant that ‘nodes’ or linked together with other plants. For a second, she wondered if it was a fungi that mimicked the shape of a flower, but it clearly had roots of a plant so she shelved that theory. The large root went down into the ground, and the fact that there were flowers across all the mountains… then it must connect together at some point. The reason for her thinking was the large roots.

She examined three more plants, with a little bit of Luna’s help, who sneakily made a small prism of moonlight to help her dig up the roots. The large roots didn’t appear to connect together, and, almost inefficiently were distinctly separate paths that led to whatever the base was. Eva had multiple theories, but the one she felt more confident was that there was a centre source of this plant.

Whether this plant had anything to do with the area remained a mystery but when there was nothing to go off, she felt it was a lead worth investigating. Otherwise, it really seemed like the plan was going to be jumping into the pit and running and dodging the mutated creatures to see if they could find anything once the assault began.

Searching around the mountains as she tried to pinpoint where the roots could lead. Eva used her mana to send pulses into the rock. An extension of what she normally did when she sent mana into objects, but now she was using it to see if there were any open caves in the mountain. It was an idea she recently came up with after going through all the tunnels in Eletscoep. 

After she scanned a few different areas, Anlesa did locate a spot with an open area behind it. An option was to see if she could find an entrance somewhere, or take the easier approach.

“I’ll handle this.” Syrus smashed the wall in an empowered kick.

The trio's journey down the cave went immediately well, as Eva located a stretch of vine attached to the roof of the cave heading deeper underground.

[...I will admit, that is one weird plant…] (Syrus)

[The theory of something magically existing with the valley gains weight.] Luna didn’t necessarily believe this plant was the source of any weirdness, it could easily just be another symptom. 

The cave system finally had them arrive in an open area, with a golden flower in the centre of the room, with its own roots surrounding it like a cage. Light was being emitted from the flower, which somehow spread into deeper parts of the cave. 

The flower’s roots stretched far along the cave's floors and walls, penetrating into the stone, and spreading across the valley. 

[So… a flower has roots which go outside to bloom into other flowers?] Syrus decided the weirdnesses of the world were too strange to properly understand. She left that job to Eva. 

[It… certainly is a unique construct.] Eva looked at the flower, amazed. She used her mana to feel around the area, and the energy being emitted from the plant, while quiet, was deeply strong. Unlike the Redux crystal, the energy this plant emitted was compatible with their body, but Eva was so curious about what this flora could possibly do. 

Anlesa didn’t know what to immediately do, besides the fact that rushing anything would be a mistake. Eva and Luna theorised together, while Syrus kept an eye out for anything. There was the chance that some kind of mutated creature could make its way down here. 

During their peaceful debate, just as the duo planned some quick experiments they could perform on the plant.  

“Hello, stranger.” The voice came from behind but Syrus didn’t turn to look back, instead, her eyes focused on the opposite side of the room where she heard the slow shifting of movement.

“Hello, other stranger, what a weird place to find someone, I would say.” Syrus replied to this stranger. His voice sounded middle aged, perhaps on the soft tones, and there was nothing else Syrus was able to grab besides the fact that he was able to throw his voice across the room. The question was if that was by magic or physical skill.

“Some may say that, but calling someone’s home weird isn’t exactly the nicest thing to say.” His voice sounded like it was coming closer from the same direction Syrus heard before, but he didn’t appear to be moving. She heard no quiet footsteps from either direction.

Syrus raised her weapon, but as she did, she felt a large shake. 

[Not an earthquake…] Syrus judged the type of shake, which meant the worst outcome. Something had disturbed the mutated creatures above.