Chapter 1359 (2/2)

Mrs. Hamilton chuckled. “Be honest: you are offering that dubious honor just because none of us know what this strange blue house does.” Then she turned to Randidly. “Any input?”

“There’s an array in the center of the building. You should just be able to walk into it.” Randidly replied with a frown. He flexed his right hand, releasing a chill breeze through the gathered figures. With the added clarity from the Frostscale Glove, he gave the Aether array one last piercing examination. He found nothing he hadn’t seen before. “If nothing happens after you walk into it, I’ll try and examine it in more detail.”

Mrs. Hamilton nodded and walked forward toward the threshold of the blue house. Randidly followed a few meters behind, with Paolo, Kayle, and Warlord following just behind him. But it turned out that all their worries and suspicion were for naught because as soon as Mrs. Hamilton went into the building, the Aether snapped into place. A pulse of energy shot upward, screaming across the sky back toward the portal to Earth. A nova of Aether blasted outward around the building, spreading through all the surrounding people as the message departed.

Even with the help of the Frostscale Glove, the Aether moved too quickly for his Grim Intuition to follow. Luckily Neveah’s more nuanced Aether Perception locked onto it once it crossed back over to Earth. After a few more seconds, Randidly received a message from Neveah.

I can only pinpoint the general area, but the Aether dispersed around Lake Apollo in Zone 1. I would suspect that is where the Epic Raid Dungeon is located.

Useful knowledge, but it likely wouldn’t change much of the preparations they were making. Humming to himself, Randidly was just about to turn away and return to his training when he sensed a strange tingling in his Soulspace. His eyes narrowed.

It was also at that exact moment that there was a ripping sound in the air behind him and Randidly spun around. A familiar energy leaked outward to fill the gloomy underground cavern.

Kaan Swacc grinned at Randidly with his toothless mouth and clapped his hands to produce a queer clanging sound. “Congratulations on clearing the first infestation of Corrupted Invaders. I must say, my superiors were right to have a Special Investigator present for this test of Earth. At this rate, you will finish clearing the Danger Zones before the final Zone clears its Raid Dungeon. A most… unusual achievement.”

Instantly, Randidly tensed. His hands curled into fists. If at all possible, he wanted to avoid a fight with the Special Investigator for a little while longer. Especially because a fight here would likely involve all of Donnyton and Zone 11’s elite. Perhaps they would hamper Kaan enough to make it a fair fight, but Randidly knew they would pay a large cost for that assistance. “Thank you for stopping by. But if that’s all… perhaps you should go. We have other matters to attend to.”

The tingling in Randidly’s Soulspace was growing more intense. Kaan’s warped expression stretched itself even wider. “No, but, all I’m saying is that it is certainly very suspicious that the Earth is doing so well. Not just with this Danger Zone, but all of them. It’s almost as if someone has been giving this planet a small push forward… so I did some investigating.

“And you wouldn’t believe what I discovered! There is foreign Aether present on Earth! Aether not purified and pacified by the Nexus! In significant amounts. Now, this might just be a natural phenomenon, but just in case, I used my authority to bring out a very old weapon of the Nexus back into circulation.”

Randidly didn’t even have time to examine his own circumstances when he heard a low groan from behind him. As he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that Mrs. Hamilton had collapsed against the blue plastic wall of the building and was slowly sliding to the ground. Her face was contorted into a horrible grimace.

That Aether Nova when the signal was released...

Now that he knew what was looking for, he could feel slight tremors coming through the Aether connection to Mrs. Hamilton that was entirely independent of the tingling that was spreading through Randidly’s Soulspace. Seeing that Mrs. Hamilton’s situation was so much worse than his, Randidly sent his focus through their connection to Mrs. Hamilton’s body and found that running through her Soulspace were several strange nodes of Aether. For lack of a better term, they released a ‘shock’ every time they encountered non-System Aether. Considering the density of those nodes inside of Mrs. Hamilton’s body, it was no wonder that the experience was agonizing enough to subdue her.

Now that Randidly knew what to look for, his Grim Intuition spread outward. What he found caused a chill to run down Randidly’s back. Even more disturbing than these nodes' abilities to shock was the way they seemed magnetized toward foreign Aether. At the moment, he would see hundreds making a beeline toward either Randidly or Mrs. Hamilton.

“You see,” Kaan Swacc’s eyes curved up at the corners as he continued to speak. “During the Second and Third Cohorts, various factions were struggling to control the Nexus. Oftentimes they would provide direct support to various planets so that when those planets passed the Calamities, they would support its sponsor’s political ideas as citizens of the Nexus. But this completely undermined the point of the System: to create powerful images to war against Nether. So the greatest minds the Nexus government possessed designed these Aether Mines and released them secretly.

“The greatest secret of these mines was their ability to follow an Aether connection to the source. Within a month of the Aether Mines being released, all those who poor cretins who received the support of the traitorous organizations died a slow and painful death. It took a little longer for the sources to receive their just desserts, but the presence of the Aether Mines in their bodies left them permanently crippled. After that, the organizations learned their lesson and allowed the System to do its job.”

There was one bit of silver lining that Randidly could find as he listened to Kaan Swacc talk. It gave him a clue to addressing the more immediate problem of Mrs. Hamilton’s pain. It was clear that the Aether mines were much more attracted to his body than Mrs. Hamilton’s, likely due to the increased density of foreign Aether in him. So he could use his Aether to gradually pull the mines that were present in Mrs. Hamilton’s body out of her and into himself.

So he did so. The sensation wasn’t quite painful yet; it simply felt like his skin was constantly buzzing. With a little bit of luring, the Aether Mines flowed out of Mrs. Hamilton’s body and into Randidly’s Soulspace. Despite the danger, Randidly couldn’t help but feel a bit of relief as the expression on Mrs. Hamilton’s face eased.

“Ah, I forgot to mention one thing; you might be able to handle this amount of mines, but each Danger Zone is rigged to release more when it is clear.” Kaan chuckled. “As for a way to deal with them… there’s actually a quite simple method. Nether unravels them almost instantly. But of course, I’ve tied added a sensor to the mine that would detect that… I wonder what decision you will make, Mr. Ghosthound…?”