Engagement

After passing a few hilltops, at the crest of a slope, Ivette lowered her head and looked down at a patch of withered forest.

This was a basin within the Mount Ish range, also known as the Corrupted Forest. Perhaps influenced by the dense Aberration factors, some of the dead trees had sprouted new shoots, their color a peculiar deep purple. It made one wonder if the first plant-based Aberration would be born from them.

"Teacher, look!" Rosaline suddenly exclaimed. Following the direction of her finger, deep within the Corrupted Forest, a patch of gray-white mist was spreading outwards.

This was clearly not Dream Mist; its color was odd, tinged with a dull, dirty hue, lacking the pure white, clean translucence of Dream Mist. The two immediately turned to the Twin-Blade Demon, awaiting its explanation of the situation.

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

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

This was a homemade gas mask, constructed from a filter, a low-level spellcasting unit, and elemental capacitors. The spellcasting unit contained a small-scale air filtration spell, with a duration of about an hour, specifically prepared for situations like toxic fog.

In addition, there were several explosive devices in her bag; their damage was average, primarily intended to provide location information, essentially acting as makeshift signal flares.

Furthermore, the remaining carried items were the Alloy Combat Blades at the waists of both the teacher and student. However, Ivette had barely practiced any melee combat, so she carried them only as a precaution.

After Rosaline also put on her gas mask, the three entered the Corrupted Forest shrouded in mist. After a moment of hesitation, they put away their magic-guided skateboards. With a closer formation, they proceeded cautiously on foot.

Then, after only a few steps, Rosaline realized the Twin-Blade Demon had vanished.

"Hey… Mr. Demon? Mr. Twin-Blade Demon? Where are you?" Rosaline called out, her hand tightly gripping her teacher's clothes, lest she too suddenly get lost.

But receiving no response for a long time, her voice trembled slightly, and she nervously asked, "Teacher, did it sneak away? Did we fall into a trap?"

"No, this mist is unusual; it contains some kind of… spell," Ivette said, her brow furrowed. The rune circle in her right hand flickered on and off intermittently.

After several minutes, she removed her gas mask and stated with certainty, "This isn't poisonous fog, but it's not ordinary either. Inside it is a complex spell array, like a… super-large magic circle. Its effect should be to disorient people and to some extent, isolate sound communication."

"Can you crack it, Teacher?" Rosaline also removed her mask and took a shallow breath. Indeed, it felt no different from the ordinary mountain air, just a bit more humid.

"No… its rune sets are dynamic, and there are many unknown runes I haven't seen before." Ivette shook her head, and a terrible guess immediately surfaced in her mind.

For the Origin Civilization, there were no unfamiliar runes on the Origin Star. Although the number of known basic runes already exceeded 10,000, the Origin Civilization had at least identified and named all of them, at most, it was a matter of insufficient understanding or unclear properties.

Now, this spell covering the Corrupted Forest contained many new runes that even she didn't recognize…

Could it really be from beyond the universe? Was the origin of the apocalypse, the truth behind Aberrations, a terrifying invasion of cosmic pathogens?

No, it could also be the result of encrypted packaging; this experience could be similar to what she felt when using Black Tower Pharmaceuticals' encryption packaging service in her dreams…

For a moment, with many conjectures arising, Ivette's expression remained unchanged, as calm as ever. After all, it was a critical juncture. As a teacher, she had to maintain a composure that wouldn't change even if Mount Tai collapsed before her, so she could help Rosaline stabilize her mindset.

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

"We move forward. Besides disorienting people, this mist doesn't cause any harm. Although I can't modify or hijack this magic circle, I've found some clues. As long as we follow the correct path, we won't be led astray and can directly reach the core area of the spell," Ivette said.

The two continued to advance, and the mist around them grew thicker. Visibility dropped from over ten meters to just a few meters. Looking up, there was only a gray-white expanse, with no sunlight.

In fact, flying above could also lead them out, but then they would see a forest enveloped in heavy fog, and wouldn't be able to pinpoint the location of the Mother Nest—the Mother Nest could also move, albeit slowly.

Instead, by advancing through the mist along the clues deconstructed from the spell, if nothing else, they could follow the trail to find the source of the mist, which was quite feasible.

After advancing for a while longer, heavy footsteps gradually began to approach from ahead. Sensing the threat in the mist ahead, Ivette stopped. Just as she was about to cast a pillar of flame to pierce the dense fog and scout ahead, she saw Rosaline beside her suddenly draw her blade and slash at a fleeting shadow in the mist.

A round object, covered in viscous bloodstains, rolled to the ground. A short, still slightly twitching fleshy tentacle trailed from the severed end.

"Head-shepherd… Aberration?" Seeing this, Ivette immediately guessed the identity of the Aberration that had attacked in the mist. Among the four Mother Nest guards, only this creature used heads to attack.

The heavy footsteps sounded again, but they weren't approaching directly, rather circling around. After a short while, another terrifying human face darted out of the mist, only to be bisected by Rosaline's blade.

Viscous brain matter and black blood splashed out, staining the cold Alloy Combat Blade. She flicked the blood off the blade and said, "Teacher, you continue forward. I'll handle this one."

Although her originally assigned target in the plan was the Night Walker Demon, it didn't prevent her from adapting. Moreover, she could stay here, but her teacher had to advance; otherwise, who would deal with this obstructive fog?

"If you can't win, run. There's no need to fight to the death," Ivette cautioned.

In this operation, assigning some enemies to Rosaline was part of the strategy, not only because Rosaline already had the willingness and ability to share her teacher's burden but also because Ivette herself needed to manage her mana distribution—her current total mana was 644 points. Before eliminating the Nest Master, she had to preserve her strength as much as possible.

As for the Twin-Blade Demon… she didn't know where it had gone; it might have even slipped away. However, Ivette hadn't expected it to contribute much, so it was within her expectations.

"Okay, I won't push myself," Rosaline nodded gently, her voice obedient and her eyes serious.

Thus, no longer bothered by the Head-shepherd Aberration's harassment, and no longer needing to slow her pace to look after her student, Ivette immediately stepped onto her magic-guided skateboard and, like a gust of wind, headed straight along the deciphered route.

At the same time, in the withered forest shrouded in gray-white mist, the Twin-Blade Demon was darting about at an almost imperceptible speed, stirring up gusts of wind.

A moment later, a massive shadow appeared in the mist ahead, forcing it to brake sharply and make several sharp turns in mid-air before it could barely stabilize its trajectory.

Then, watching the terrifying black silhouette gradually approach, exuding immense pressure, and its huge bat wings slowly revealing themselves from the mist, the corners of the Twin-Blade Demon's mouth began to curl upwards, forming a slight, contemptuous, and mocking arc.

Five minutes later, having left the area guarded by the Head-shepherd Aberration, Ivette felt that the surrounding mist had become too thick to dissipate. However, wind magic was still effective, capable of blowing away the mist and temporarily providing a clear line of sight.

Just then, within the dense fog, a red pinpoint of light suddenly flared, alerting her.

The Scarlet Armor was instantly activated, covering her body and clothing. A moment later, elemental energy mixed with fire and lightning shot out from the mist, heading straight for her face, which Ivette blocked with a raised hand.

The next second, agitated magical elements exploded in her jade-like palm, smoke rising, but leaving no trace.

Ivette shook her slightly sore palm, her expressionless gaze fixed on the direction of the attacker. She saw a half-mechanical Aberration, covered in purplish-red flesh and standing three stories tall, emerge from the mist.

Undoubtedly, it had to be the "Mechanical Tyrant." However, she couldn't discern its model or determine which manufacturer's magic mecha it was. Judging from its structure, it seemed to be a turret type, meaning it advanced on two legs, with mechanical arms on either side holding two mag-energy cannons capable of firing elemental projectiles.

Subconsciously, Ivette tried to hack into it, but her efforts were in vain. This indicated that the other party hadn't opened its data receiving port.

I hope I can take care of it within 150 Mana Points... Ivette thought silently. Just as she was preparing to throw a thunder spell, she suddenly saw another black shadow fly out from the mist beside her.

She immediately focused her gaze and saw the Twin-Blade Demon flying out from the mist, shrieking as it fell face-first onto the ground.

"Hey... I, I've got two of them here! Quickly... quickly help me..." the Twin-Blade Demon said as it got up.

Behind it, in the mist, two huge figures soon appeared. One was a giant, three-headed vulture, and the other was a grotesque monster with bat-like wings, fat and dark gray, with only a single mouth on its face.

"Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture, Night Walker Demon..." Ivette uttered the names her apprentice had given these two monsters. Then, she glanced at the disheveled Twin-Blade Demon on the ground.

Although she said nothing, the crimson, ruby-like eyes clearly conveyed confusion, as if asking, Why are you so weak? Are you really an Aberration of the same level as them?

This look deeply wounded the Twin-Blade Demon. It said, "You... what are you looking at? It's not normal to lose when fighting two opponents... Besides, they're incredibly strong. I suggest we retreat together for now, look for an opportunity to pick them off one by one, and solve this with our wits..."

It mumbled as it stood up and flew into the air. If its face hadn't been covered by an exoskeleton, it probably would have blushed.

However, perhaps because the enemy's strength exceeded expectations, it was also clear that its words carried a hint of timidity, and it wasn't as confident in Ivette's abilities.

Ivette remained silent and floated upwards. Several red and blue-white rune circles lit up, emitting a power that made the Twin-Blade Demon's heart palpitate.

Then, amidst the clash of flames and lightning, the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture, which had rushed closest, let out a scream and was blasted away. One of its heads was scorched, and it lay on the ground, moaning incessantly.

"Damn... it's that strong..." the Twin-Blade Demon stared in disbelief, but then it reacted and said, "Wait, wasn't that the target I chose..."