Chapter 1326: Ambush
Chapter 1326: Ambush
After everything was said and done and we were more than ready to depart, we moved together as a team, walking towards the forest. We noticed that the atmosphere slowly darkened and became damp, making it particularly hard to breathe.
"This place is full of toxic miasmic energies..." said Felicia. "Are you children going to be okay?"
The interior of the forest, now infected by the miasma, seemed more like a swamp in terms of humidity. The air had become toxic and poisonous, and breathing here for too long would end up causing sickness related with miasma poisoning.
"Don't worry about them, they'll be fine," said my father.
"Yeah, we got this!" Celica nodded.
"Nothing hard to do," Celeste smiled.
"Yep, we've went through worse things," I said.
However, that would only happen to weak people, thanks to the combination of our Physique and Magic Circle, we were able to coat our bodies with powerful Magic Auras, both Celeste and Celica had no issues, being able to easily withstand the poisonous environment with their own Beast Auras. Meanwhile, dad and Felicia were a given.
"Oh my, you three are quite adept at Aura Control! Quite amazing for your age," Felicia said. "Usually people that devote their life to cultivation would awaken Aura at the age of thirty at the very least. Only those talented with blessings would be able to get it earlier, like us... But I suppose even without being chosen as heroes, Celica and Celeste are very special."
"We've trained them as well," said my father. "They already have pretty strong Beast Auras too, thanks to Sylphy's potions and elixirs helping them achieve it quickly."
The only concerning part was Ivy and Bark, despite having grown stronger, they still had no grasp about Aura, although they could use Magic now. So I used my special Yggdragon Aura of Protection to keep them healthy.
"Phew~ Much better!" Ivy seemed relieved as the aura protected her body. "Thank you, goddess!"
"So this is Aura! I do wonder if we could ever achieve this power?" wondered Bark.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Well, your structure semes much more different than us people," said Felicia. "But the fact you obtained a magic circle, but not a physique, means there's some sort of path towards that point. Plants are often well attuned with Spirits, you knew? Perhaps the way for you is to cultivate Spirit Energy, but without a Spiritual Heart it would be pretty hard."
"Hmm... Maybe if they had a Spirit, it could be different," I said, wondering about the possibilities of the future. "Anyways, let's keep going."
The trees and everything were purple and black, and as we walked around, we purified anything we came into contact, especially with the aid of Yggdra, Naturia, and Alice, it was very easy. To make things permanent and to not leave purified areas become infected again, we left small, fragmented domains of holy light and nature, constantly healing areas of the infested forest.
Eventually, things became eerier as we drew closer to the center of the nest. Everything turned much darker, and an invisible pressure made even our armor feel heavier for some
reason.
"Thins are getting darker," said Felicia.
"How is the sky becoming black though?" wondered Celeste.
"It's an illusion of the Miasmic Nest," said Felicia. "You could say we've entered the Miasmic Lord's Domain."
"Wait, their Domain is this big?!" Celeste wondered. "We didn't even realize we entered it!" "Yeah..." Celica said.
"It might be stronger than we imagined," my father said. "Sylphy, stay in high alert." "I know," I nodded.
We had not encountered a single monster yet, which made things even stranger. I was pretty sure there were still a few hundred of them around the nest, but none of them had showed up through our entire journey, even as we purified the forest out of their precious miasma.
This made things rather suspicious, it meant that the Miasmic Nest Lord was smart enough to pull back all troops and then gather them close to them.
"And here we are..." my dad said. "No surprise, they're there, just as I imagined."
"Yeah, the Miasmic Nest Lord is cunning, more than I thought," Felicia smiled. "I would love to dissect it."
"That's...!" Celeste muttered.
And yeah, just as we thought, right in front of the nest, a crystallization of miasma forming a cave, there was a last group of monsters ready to confront us, protecting their Miasmic Nest Lord. There were roughly over a hundred of them, made into a giant formation around the crystalline caves.
There were both airborne and infantry present, unlike their beast-like forms from before, these were more humanoid or monkey-like, with sharp metallic and crystalline armor made out of miasma covering their miasmic, slimy bodies.
The flying miasmic beasts resembled wyverns, covered no hard armor of miasmic, metallic scales. This metal they could create, it was not something I imagined miasmic beast could
make.
"They're just standing there, probably waiting for us to charge first," said my father.
We were currently hiding behind a few large trees, the miasmic monsters were strange and eerie, like automated beings, standing still around the nest without making a single noise. "It's weird how they act, it is as if the lord is controlling them, is that possible?" wondered Celeste.
"Only if... they're born from the lord, I think," Felicia muttered. "Huh?! What's this feeling- Ah!"
RUMBLE!
The ground trembled and from within the crystalline cave, something surged, a tremendous, miasmic power, which was slowly mutating, becoming larger, stronger... and slightly
demonic.
Yes, the same type of "demonic" as the essence that True Demons, beings from another world called "Hell" exuded!
"W-What is going on?! This energy is weird!" said Celica.
"It reminds me of the demonic power that...!" Celeste gasped. "Sylphy, we have to kill that thing before something worse happens!"
"Yeah..." I muttered. "It looks like things are escalating to something I never thought possible... But how is it possible though? How can the demonic energy of True Demons appear here, my dungeon is closed from the outside world completely and...!"
"There's no time to talk about that, Sylphy, we have to quickly stop it!" my father said. "Let's take care of the small fry and then kill that thing, hurry!"
"Y-Yeah, you're right!"
We all jumped into battle, the immobile miasmic monsters immediately started roaring and charging against us upon seeing us.