Engagement

After crossing several mountain ridges, Ivette lowered her head from the top of a slope and looked down at a stretch of withered woodland.

It was a basin within the Ish Mountains, where the Corrupt Forest lay. Perhaps influenced by the dense Mutation Factors, some of the dead trees had sprouted fresh shoots again, their color an eerie dark purple. Who knew whether the first plant-type Mutant might be born there someday.

"Teacher, look!" Rosaline suddenly said. Following the direction of her finger, they saw a swath of grayish-white mist spreading outward from the deepest part of the Corrupt Forest.

This was clearly not Dream Mist. Its color was strange, somewhat dim and filthy, lacking the cloudlike purity and translucent cleanliness of Dream Mist. The two immediately turned to Twin-Blade Demon, waiting for it to explain the situation.

"Why are you looking at me? Do I know everything?" Twin-Blade Demon said.

So it didn't know... Ivette hesitated for a moment, then took a small mask from her waist pouch.

It was a homemade gas mask, made of a filter, a low-grade casting unit, and an Elemental Capacitor. The casting unit contained a small-scale air-filtration spell, with an operating time of around an hour. It had been prepared specifically for situations involving poisonous mist and the like.

Besides that, there were several explosives in her bag. Their damage was average; they were mainly meant to provide location information, essentially serving as crude signal flares.

As for the rest of what they carried, it was the Alloy Combat Blades at the waists of teacher and student. However, Ivette had barely practiced close combat, so she only carried hers as a precaution.

After Rosaline put on her gas mask as well, the three entered the mist-shrouded Corrupt Forest. After a brief hesitation, they put away their Magic Skateboards and advanced cautiously on foot, keeping closer together.

Then, after only a few steps, Rosaline discovered that Twin-Blade Demon was gone.

"Hey... Mr. Demon? Mr. Twin-Blade Demon? Where are you?" Rosaline called out, tightly clutching the hem of her teacher's clothes with one hand so she would not suddenly get lost as well.

But no response came for a long while. Her voice trembled slightly as she asked nervously, "Teacher, it didn't sneak off, did it? Did we fall into a trap?"

"No. There's something wrong with this mist. It contains a... spell." Ivette frowned, the Rune Ring on her right hand flickering on and off.

Several minutes later, she removed her gas mask and said with certainty, "This isn't poisonous mist, but it isn't ordinary either. Inside it is a complex spell array, like a... massive magic circle. Its effect should be to make people lose their sense of direction and, to a certain extent, block the transmission of sound."

"Can you break it, Teacher?" Rosaline removed her mask too and took a light breath. It truly was no different from ordinary mountain air, except that it contained more moisture.

"No... its Rune Array is dynamic, and there are many unknown runes I've never seen before." Ivette shook her head, and a terrifying possibility immediately surfaced in her mind.

For Origin Civilization, there should have been no unfamiliar runes on Origin Star. Although the number of known basic runes had already exceeded ten thousand, Origin Civilization had at least catalogued and named every one of them. At most, some were insufficiently understood, their properties unclear.

Yet this spell covering the Corrupt Forest contained quite a few new runes that even she did not recognize...

Could they really have come from beyond the universe? Was the source of the apocalypse, the truth behind the Mutants, the invasion of some terrifying cosmic germ?

No, it could also be the result of Encrypted Packaging. She had experienced something similar when using Black Tower Pharmaceuticals' Encrypted Packaging service in her dreams...

For a moment, countless guesses filled her mind, but Ivette's expression remained unchanged, as calm as ever. This was a critical moment. As the teacher, she had to remain composed even if a mountain collapsed before her, so Rosaline could stay steady too.

"Then what do we do next?" Rosaline instinctively moved closer to her teacher.

"Keep moving forward. Other than making people lose their bearings, this mist isn't harmful. I can't alter or hijack this magic circle, but I found a clue. As long as we follow the correct route, we won't be led astray and can reach the core area of the spell directly," Ivette said.

The two continued onward, and the surrounding mist grew increasingly dense. Visibility fell from more than ten meters to just a few. When they looked up, there was only a sheet of grayish white, with no sunlight in sight.

They could have flown out from above, but all they would have seen then was a forest engulfed in fog, making it impossible to determine the Mother Nest's location—the Mother Nest could move too, albeit slowly.

Instead, following the clues she had deciphered from the spell while within the mist gave them a very good chance of tracing the source and finding whoever had released it.

After they continued for a while, heavy footsteps gradually sounded ahead. Sensing the threat lurking in the mist, Ivette stopped. Just as she was about to cast a pillar of flame through the fog to scout the path ahead, Rosaline suddenly drew her blade and slashed at a fleeting shadow in the mist.

A round object covered in sticky blood rolled onto the ground. A short, fleshy tentacle still twitching faintly trailed from its severed end.

"A human head... Shepherd Sheep?" Seeing this, Ivette immediately guessed the identity of the Mutant attacking from the mist. Among the four Mother Nest guards, only that thing could attack with human heads.

The heavy footsteps came again, but they did not approach in a straight line. Instead, they circled nearby. Before long, another horrifying human face burst from the mist and was cut down by Rosaline's blade.

Sticky brains and black blood splattered across the cold edge of the Alloy Combat Blade. She flicked the blood from her blade and said, "Teacher, keep going. Leave this thing to me."

Although her assigned target in the original plan had been Night Walker Demon, that did not prevent her from adapting to the situation. Besides, she could stay here, but her teacher had to keep moving. Otherwise, who would deal with this obstructive fog?

"Run if you can't beat it. There's no need to fight it to the death," Ivette reminded her.

In this operation, letting Rosaline handle part of the enemy force was one part of the strategy. It was not only because Rosaline had the willingness and ability to share her teacher's burdens, but also because Ivette herself had to manage the allocation of her mana—she currently had a total of 644 Mana Points, and before eliminating the Nest Lord, she needed to preserve as much strength as possible.

And Twin-Blade Demon... who knew where it had gone. It might even have run off. But Ivette had not expected it to contribute much anyway, so this was hardly surprising.

"Mm, I won't force myself." Rosaline nodded lightly, her tone obedient and her gaze serious.

Thus, no longer paying attention to Shepherd Sheep's harassment and no longer needing to slow down for the student beside her, Ivette immediately stepped onto her Magic Skateboard and sped like the wind along the route she had deciphered.

At the same time, within the withered forest shrouded in grayish-white mist, Twin-Blade Demon darted through the trees at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, whipping up gusts of wind.

Moments later, a massive shadow appeared in the haze before it, forcing it to brake sharply. It made several rapid turns in midair before barely regaining control.

Then, as it watched the terrifying black shadow approach with overwhelming pressure, and watched its enormous bat wings gradually emerge from the fog, Twin-Blade Demon's lips slowly curled upward into a small arc full of contempt and mockery.

Five minutes later, after leaving the area guarded by Shepherd Sheep, Ivette felt that the fog around her had become so thick it could barely be dispersed. Wind magic was still useful, however, able to blow the mist away and temporarily clear a patch of vision.

Just then, a red point of light suddenly lit up in the thick fog, putting her on alert.

Scarlet Armor activated instantly, covering the surface of her body and clothes. A moment later, elemental energy mixed with fire and lightning shot out from the mist, flying straight at her face. Ivette raised a hand and blocked it.

The next second, the violent magical elements exploded in her jade-white palm. Smoke curled upward, yet not a single mark was left behind.

Ivette shook her slightly aching hand and expressionlessly looked toward the attacker. She saw a Semi-Mechanical Aberration, covered in purplish-red flesh and standing a full three stories tall, emerge from the fog.

There was no doubt that it was the "Mechanical Tyrant." However, she could not identify its model, so she could not determine which company had produced the Magitech Soldier. Judging from its structure, it should be a turret type: advancing on two legs, with two mana cannon barrels mounted on its mechanical arms that could fire elemental bullets.

Almost instinctively, Ivette tried to hack into it, but failed. That meant it had not opened its data reception port.

I hope I can deal with it using no more than 150 Mana Points... Ivette silently thought. Just as she was about to throw lightning at it, another black shadow suddenly flew out from the thick fog beside her.

She immediately focused her gaze and saw Twin-Blade Demon fly out of the mist, screaming as it crashed face-first into the ground.

"Hey... I, I've got two over here! Hurry... hurry and help me..." Twin-Blade Demon said as it climbed back to its feet.

And in the thick fog behind it, two enormous figures soon appeared. One was a giant three-headed vulture, while the other was a strange gray-black, obese monster with bat wings and nothing but a mouth on its face.

"Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture, Night Walker Demon..." Ivette recited the names her student had given the two monsters, then glanced at the disheveled Twin-Blade Demon on the ground.

Though she said nothing, the confusion in her ruby-like eyes was obvious, as if she were asking, Why are you so weak? Are you really Mutants of the same level as them?

That look deeply wounded Twin-Blade Demon. It said, "Y-you, what are you looking at? Isn't it normal to lose in a one-on-two... Besides, they're insanely strong. I suggest you circle around with me first, find a chance to isolate one, and solve this through intelligence..."

It muttered as it got up and flew into the air. If its face had not been covered by a carapace, it probably would have blushed in embarrassment.

Still, perhaps because the enemies were stronger than expected, it was obvious that some timidity had entered its voice. It no longer trusted Ivette's strength quite as much either.

Ivette remained silent and rose into the air. Several red and blue-white Rune Rings lit up around her, radiating a power that made Twin-Blade Demon's heart tremble.

Then, amidst interwoven flames and lightning, the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture that had charged forward first let out a scream and was blasted away. One of its heads had been charred black, and it lay on the ground, wailing without end.

"Holy shit... she's that strong..." Twin-Blade Demon stared in stunned disbelief, then only afterward realized what had happened. "Wait, wasn't that my target..."