There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 489 - 482. Emptiness

"Two shards, huh?" Bassena muttered as they traversed through another jungle. "Not in two locations, but two together?" frёeωebɳovel.com

"Like twins..."

Bassena glanced at Zein, who for once walked with him instead of with the two other two guides--now that Dheera and Leehan got used to the Deathzone, Zein no longer needed to babysit them. He couldn’t see the guide’s lower face, but from how soft that reply was, Bassena could picture the smile beneath the mask.

"I see," it also brought a smile to his face. "At least they are not alone, aren’t they?"

"Mm," Zein chuckled softly, before looking in the direction they had to go to. "But that also means they are easy to be noticed."

"Ah..."

Before starting this whole operation, they had made quite a few theories about the shards and the Fallen Star. One of them was the shard’s location, or rather...how they were hiding. Be it the one hidden inside the tree fortress, or the one in an underground city ruin. Even the one tracked by the other team was located beneath a mountain.

It made them think that over time, the shards manipulate the environment around them to create some kind of a hiding place. But regular miasmic beasts wouldn’t be able to breach the shard’s territory. All they could do was sieging the area while trying to break the invisible barrier.

In that case, who did the shards hide from?

At first, they thought it was from the Specters. But Specters were naturally created from the clash between the shards’ leaking natural mana and the Deathzone’s thick miasma, so it didn’t make sense.

Only after finding out the existence of the Fallen Star did Zein think of something--the shards were hiding from the Fallen Star who shattered them into pieces.

Of course, it was nothing more than a conjecture. But if their theory about how the Fallen Star needed to absorb celestial energy or natural mana instead of miasma, then it would make sense for the shards to hide from this former Celestial Being to prevent themselves from getting absorbed.

The problem was, just like how Zein could sense the shards to some extent, the Celestial Being might be able to. Bassena did say the fallen star’s fragment from last time kept looking at Zein’s direction. Whether it sensed Zein as a fragment or the shard inside the dimensional storage, the fact stayed; that it could sense the energy of another Celestial Being.

And two shards together letting out a stronger energy than one lone shard.

"Do you think It created fragments to hunt for the shards?" Zein asked the esper grimly.

"It’s the only possible conclusion, isn’t it?" Bassena exhaled slowly. "Radia agreed."

Zein didn’t like it, but he couldn’t help agreeing too. "Maybe...do you think the fragment was actually on its way to the tree fortress?"

"Could be..." Bassena nodded. "But then it sensed the ’energy’ moving and decided to wait."

Zein exhaled harshly and looked up at the dark canopy. "It would be ideal if we could deploy more squads to look for the shards..."

Bassena tilted his head in contemplation. "Or...we can also hunt the fragment--I mean, they’re not in hiding, unlike the shards."

Zein blinked and looked at Bassena, who gave him a shrug and a smirk. "It’ll be difficult," the guide said with a frown--not because he didn’t like the idea, but because he felt frustrated for feeling that it couldn’t be done.

"It’s difficult for the ’big’ ones, but...the last fragments felt like an upper red Boss, so technically, we can create a raid team around that," Bassena said. "The problem is their unique poisonous ability, but if Reina can make equipment to counter that, it might be doable. We already sent some to Mortix so we can make a detection device for the fragment, anyway, so might as well."

Initially, the detection device was made to be mounted on the alarm system so they would be alerted if a fallen star’s fragment approached the base. But who said they couldn’t do it to find the fragment too?

"So...like that compass?" Zein pointed at the little sphere on Kei’s and that had been pointing forward. "But isn’t that expensive?"

Bassena parted his lips without any words coming out for a while. In the end, he just cleared his throat and used his go-to solutions;

"Radia will think of something."

Zein chuckled and Zhan timely inserted himself into the conversation. "In case you’ll really go with that plan, please put me in a team, ’kay?"

"Seems like we get a volunteer," Bassena smirked. "You don’t like working with me anymore, huh?"

"Because it’s boring," Zhan clicked his tongue. "You always take on the main dish, Commander. I want to feel challenged!"

"Says the person with a severed arm a few months ago," Bassena rolled his eyes.

"Ey--need to give Shin something to work on, don’t you think?"

Han Shin narrowed his eyes. "You’re a masochist, aren’t you?"

"What a lovely conversation--but it’s time you all get to work," Kai snapped her fingers and the squad stopped.

On a tree upfront, there was a mark left by the espers who had patrolled this place before to clean up the base’s surroundings for the past two months. It was as far as they go because the beacon’s signal ended there. From thereafter, it was another uncharted territory.

Once again, they used the formation they had when they first entered the Deathzone; both Kei and Zein moved to the rear while the warriors took the front line. The forest in front of them was noticeably thicker, which was why the cleaning team did not venture further.

"We’ll go for about two kilometers and install a beacon somewhere high," Kei told the warrior. "For now, just go straight."

The benefit of having no road for a path was that they could make their own path. They didn’t need to go around and about, just straight to their destination. This time, however, the warriors did not waste energy to hack the trees around them. There was yet a need for any supply to go through here, and the guides were now proficient enough to follow them through most terrains.

"Naoya," Bassena called out for the archer who, despite grumbling about it before they departed, dutifully kept his arrows on the ready.

That being said, no beasts came closer to them.

"Hoo..." Bassena glanced around the forest. His children of darkness found the beasts in the vicinity, but instead of getting closer, they steered away from them. "Are they running away?"

"Running away or reporting back?" Kei looked at Bassena, who suddenly clenched his fists.

"Doesn’t matter," Bassena said, shaking his hands to scatter the children of darkness again after their kill. He would have let one of them go to see their intention, but he couldn’t risk them going further than his control over the little spies of darkness. "Let’s just go a bit faster--would you be alright?"

Zein asked the guides and they nodded readily. They moved faster then, Kei guided them through the least obstructed path. The most Gus and Zhan needed to hack was a group of vines or ivies covering a hidden tunnel between two cliffs.

"It’s no longer the jungle," Gus reported. "A canyon; looks dry."

"And empty..." Zhan added disappointedly.

"I swear--"

Zhan grinned as Naoya hissed in annoyance. There was something scary about a quiet guy getting angry, so he just kept his mouth shut after that. But what could he do with the boredom? It was just in his nature to seek excitement--and what could be more exciting than putting yourself in a challenging, life-and-death situation? It pumped his blood; it made him feel alive.

And what was wrong with questioning it? They had walked for almost half a day and they hadn’t encountered any beast. It felt weird when all they had been doing at the start was fighting hordes of beasts. Bassena and Kei also did not seem to detect any spying beasts--not even flying ones.

He glanced at Gus, and when they looked at each other, they knew they had the same thought; it was too calm. The strange thing was...it also didn’t feel like a trap. Bassena had been using his children of darkness to prod the way in case another illusion barrier was being set up like before, but they found nothing.

All in all, it just felt like the place had been emptied.

"Is it because we’ve been culling all the beasts around the base?" Zhan whispered to his swordsman partner--in case Naoya got annoyed again. "Are they like...migrating or something?"

"Maybe? The one in the forest did run--maybe they are leftovers?"

"Hmm..."

It wasn’t just the warriors who felt weird, however. At first, the smooth journey was good. But as they kept going without even any beasts in sight, it only became eerie--as if something bad would happen out of nowhere. It made them tenser than finding enemies every ten meters, and even the guides got pretty reckless.

When Zhan started to feel his hand going itchy from the unreleased tension, Banner who walked in front of them suddenly stopped. "What? What happened?" he asked excitedly, thinking there was an enemy or something.

"It’s the end of the path," Banner disappointingly replied.

"Oh..."

They continued to walk through the exit of the canyon and got rid of the boulders obstructing the path so the guides and the support magicians could pass more easily. Bassena and Kei, meanwhile, stood beyond the exit, staring at the sight in front of them.

"This is...something."

In front of them, stretched into the dark horizon, was a black desert that filled their vision with nothing but emptiness.