Published at 25th of April 2023 07:34:00 AM

TNG Vol. 18 Chapter 3 Part 1

Found a presencewaitwhat the?

One hour after the party embarked on their sand sea journey, thanks to the magic-powered ships speed they finally reached what seemed to be the location of the Sacred Place. The sheer size of it, however, left Shin almost speechless.

To say its hugewould be a severe understatement.

Schnee apparently picked it up too: her expression tensed slightly. The more they approached the presence, the clearer its size became: it was already enough to dwarf a Giant Caput.

The Sacred Place is fused with a monster?

I cant think of any other explanation

Milt whispered while looking at the scenery and Shibaid nodded in agreement.

The partys eyes were focused on a gigantic root, piercing through castle walls. Black and red vein-like objects bulged and pulsated on the root: a characteristic unique to certain Plant-type monsters.

If their information was correct, that probably belonged to the Vanwood Guardian.

Can monsters fuse with cities now?

Based on what Eleven said, I guess?

Sety was in utter disbelief, while Filma struggled with the concept as well.

So, what should we do?

First, lets check what that actually is. If it has eyes or similar organs, it will already know were here, but at least its not acting like that now. I can see a place we can use to land. Well go there, and, if nothing happens, me and Schnee will go down first to scout the area.

Shin replied to Tieras question; they would investigate the area first.

If their only goal was to defeat the enemy, Schnee and Sety would be firing wide-range spells to burn down most of the monsters body. In that case, however, they didnt know what would happen to the Sacred Places core. They didnt know how sturdy it was, or even its location.

If they attacked where the core *probably* wasnt, but ended up destroying it in the process, it would all mean nothing. Large scale magic was the groups last resort; they already knew that cores could be destroyed.

If they could fire such spells in rapid succession, they could control their firepower and systematically attack the monster from the roots up, but it wasnt possible to use the spells so quickly at present. In the end Shin decided not to use them, also as a form of insurance.

Were already pretty close, but I cant see or detect any other monsters.

Rightcould it be that it turned them all into nutrients?

Shin followed Schnees comment with a possible explanation.

The monsters around Sacred Places were born from the magic power overflowing from it, but they were not immune to the Sacred Place masters attacks.

It would not be strange for the master to absorb the monsters in order to recover excess magic power.

That monsters presence is so strong that its hard to scan inside the Sacred Place. Its definitely inside though.

There might be monsters under the masters control. If it can plant seeds in them to control them, its definitely more effective than just unleashing a horde of monsters in the city.

The presence likely belonging to the Guardian enveloped the whole city, probably as a consequence of having fused with it.

On the map, the area slightly ahead of the partys landing point was completely red. The icon was so large that there might be all sorts of things hiding under it though.

The icon was a shade paler than usual monster icons, which made it possible to have a general idea of the citys structure.

However, as Filma said, it made it impossible to detect if there were any other monsters inside.

In the Gryphon Guardians Sacred Place, where Shin had been sent to in the past, monsters moved and acted freely.

Things were clearly very different here. As Shibaid pointed out, monsters of various types could be manipulated to cooperate, making them more dangerous than their level suggested.

Yuzuha, can you feel anything?

The presence is too fuzzybut I have a bad feeling about it.

Being a monster, Yuzuha detected presences in a different way from Shin and the others. Shin thus asked her if she felt anything they didnt: Yuzuha replied while staring in the direction of the Sacred Place.

She couldnt tell exactly what was inside either, but her mention of a bad feeling piqued Shins interest.

A bad feeling, hmmif you can tell me moreI guess youd have done so already. Does anyone feel anything else?

So Shin asked the other members.

Like Yuzuhas bad feeling, sensations difficult to put into words were not to be underestimated. They might have subconsciously found something very important.

Its a bit different from what Yuzuha said, but I have the feeling its in pain. Maybe the Guardian didnt plan to reach this state.

Tiera was the first to reply. Since the Guardian was based on a Plant-type monster, she could probably sense things Shin and the others could not feel.

In pain?

Hey, Shin, could it be that the core is going berserk?

Hmm, I wonderyeah, you might be right.

For Shin, avid consumer of manga and games, the enemy losing control and going wild, even if the heroes party did not do anything, was not an uncommon development.

Milts idea was probably based on the fact that she too was aware of such stories.

The core is going berserk? What do you mean?

We cant be sure yet, but Ive read about this kind of thing before. Eleven didnt really explain much about the core eitheranyway, it might be that something unexpected happened something that not even the cores master predicted. Well, its just a possibility.

As they talked, the ship finally crossed over the edge of the sand sea.

The Sacred Place was surrounded by 50 mel wide land, beyond which were the castle walls, ravaged by the roots.

Shin stopped the ship and put it back into the item box. There was no sign that monsters were going to attack yet.

Like I said before, me and Schnee are going scouting first. If anything happens, let us know with Mind Chat.

Shibaid and the rest of the party nodded, then Shin and Schnee headed for the castle walls. The fact that they did not crumble anywhere, despite the giant roots penetrating them, was testament to their resilience.

I dont know if it means anything, but lets conceal our presence, just in case.

Shin and Schnee used Hiding, as well as skills to erase their scent. They used their stealth capabilities to the max, also as a way to test the Guardians detection ability.

They climbed on the walls, carefully avoiding the roots, then observed the interior of the city.

I knew we werent going to find anything prettybut this exceeds my expectations.

Yesthe direction we came from is the only one that retained any city-like features, apparently.

Beyond the castle walls extended a sea of trees.

There were building-like structures here and there, but they were covered in vegetation, roots and branches growing through their walls and roof, barely retaining their original shape.

It has to be larger than the original cityat least, I dont remember any city of this size in the game era.

The sea of trees spread beyond what Shin and Schnee could see. Some cities in the game era were very large, but not to this extent. The sea trees had taken over the city, then continued expanding.

This makes it quite difficult to locate the core, though.

Right. Eleven said its probably in the center of the city, now that the original city is barely recognizable, we dont even have a clue about where to find it.

Thanks to the presence of the castle walls, they knew that the city center shouldnt be too far, but that was all they knew.

Will the core really be in the center of the city, I wonder.

Do you think it moved?

Eleven had told Shin and the party that they just needed to head for the city center, but he didnt say that the core couldnt be moved.

I cannot say with certainty, but theres something off about the current situation. Because of these walls, we know there was supposed to be a city here. Assuming that the core was in its center, it started from there, turned the area closer to Elevens Sacred Place into a sand sea, then formed a sea of trees on the other side. I think that was done only to make it more difficult for Eleven to attack.

Hmm, if it can do all this, it would have been easier to stretch its roots all the way to Elevens base and attack, right

There were monsters in the sand sea, but their usefulness was severely limited on land.

Schnees idea that the sand sea was purely a defensive measure was well-grounded. While not perfect, it could work nicely as a buffer zone between Sacred Places.

The cores exact capacity was unknown, but Shin thought that expanding ones territory would definitely be an advantage,

If the Vanwood Guardian could stretch its roots, planting seeds in any monsters they found and feed on them, it could be greatly advantageous in battle.

The roots here could stretch all the way to the Sacred Place allied with this Guardian. Maybe it can do that since theyre allies? But to be honest

It feels more like an invasion.

Right. Eleven said that the two Guardians joined forces to fight him, but the truth could be different

At the very least, Shins party did not experience any enemy attacks as they traveled across the sand sea, nor did they see any monsters coming from the Sacred Place.

The monsters that attacked Elevens Sacred Place were Plant-type monsters and monsters controlled by parasite seeds.

The monsters formed by the Sacred Places magic power did not necessarily follow the type of monster the Guardian was based on: there could have been monsters from this Sacred Place among the ones attacking Elevens Sacred Place, but there was no way to be sure.

This feels very different from what weve been told

He fed us false information and offered a false reward in order to use us. Is that what you think, Shin?

A little, yeah. Eleven definitely knows things we dont. He might be trying to use us, and also have something up his sleeve to use in case we find outbut if we start questioning things well be here all day.

There were so many things suspicious about the whole situation.

Even in the worst-case scenario, we should at least be able to stop them from sending monsters towards the continent. Thats the reason why the empire agreed to cooperate: Elevens request is just a bonus.

Once Yuzuha regained her original powers and memories, she would likely become a source for all the information Shin wanted to know.

Shin, embarrassingly enough, only realized it the night before, when he fitted her equipment for the sand sea.

In any caseI didnt expect to have to send an emergency message so quickly.

If things are so different from what we expectedI think we must.

Shin looked up at the sky.

The way to contact Gelganger after securing the core had already been decided.

Shin and Schnee climbed down the castle walls, regrouped with the rest of the party and explained what they found. Next, Shin shot a Fireball towards the sky.

A little while later, a bird-sized dragon came flying. Strictly speaking, it was a dragon-shaped slime, as the creature was formed from part of Gelgangers body. It could be used to communicate over short distances, apparently.

Gelgangers main body was standing not too far away, at an altitude where it didnt risk encountering other flying monsters.

I have not been summoned because the core has been retrieved, I suppose.

The Sacred Place is in a state like this, after all. To be honest, we have no idea where it could be. Can you find any hints from above?

The city is covered by clouds, so my main body cannot see anything either. Based on what my other copies can see, the forest extends for roughly 10 kemel.

No particular buildings, or any areas that stand out?

Gelgangers copy shook its head.

Okay thenwe need a plan.

All clues were gone. Even Shins party would need a long time to search such a large forest without any hints.

I suppose there is no other way. I will take my main body to your group and search from there.

Do you have a way to find the core?

According to Gelganger, being created as Elevens retainer gave it the ability to detect the cores wavelength.

While it could not pinpoint its exact location, knowing the general direction was a big step forward.

At present, Gelganger was Elevens sole retainer, so taking control of the core was also its task.

If anything happened to Gelganger it wouldnt be possible to take over the core, so it was waiting away from the Sacred Place, but the situation demanded otherwise.