The ancient city ruins stood silently in the wind. Dust from the wasteland was swept up by the gale, battering and howling through the twisted, weathered buildings and rusted pipework and steel beams. At the center of the former Magic Power Nexus station ruins, the earth seemed to have had a great chunk of flesh gouged from it, leaving only a black abyss embedded in the cracked ground. A mass of light slowly churned at the bottom, and deep within that radiance lay a space outlined by the Azure Network.
It was a vast power system existing in parallel with the entire planet, an "internal circulation network" formed by the planet within the universe's Magic Environment. Mortals of this era still knew very little about it, yet to Feilna and Raina, the immense and mysterious Azure Network held few secrets.
Low, indistinct muttering drifted along with the wind. Feilna looked up and saw two Aberrants like giants of flesh and blood appearing at the rim of the vast pit. They staggered forward, the dark red "mud" covering their bodies swelling, contracting, and writhing in an unsettling manner. Their bodies gave a slight tremor every few seconds—these mindless chaotic monsters still seemed to be resisting the control of an external will, but their resistance was clearly futile.
A treant with twisted dark-brown branches stood beside the two monsters. Its crown was curled and tangled, its withered boughs woven into a structure resembling a brain. Flickering points of light constantly moved through that furrowed "brain," which released powerful psychic pulses that suppressed the Aberrants' instinctive urge to resist.
"...What hideous things." Feilna turned back and remarked casually. Though her words carried disgust, her expression remained exceptionally calm.
"Prepare the Rune Stones!" Another treant shouted nearby. Then the tangled roots spread around the