Strongest Incubus System

Ester finished examining Damon shortly after noon and, to his surprise, found nothing that justified keeping him in Mirath for another twenty-four hours. The three ribs broken during the fight against Caelum were already knitting together at an abnormal speed, partly because of Damon’s own nature and partly because Ester had spent the last few days preventing him from sabotaging his recovery. His shoulder was still sore, but the joint was stable, and the smaller injuries had already closed. That did not mean he was fully recovered, only that traveling no longer posed an immediate risk.

”You can go,” Ester said as she put away the needles. ”But there is a difference between being able to travel and being able to fight as if you weren’t beaten half to death less than a week ago.”

Damon put on his shirt.

”I wasn’t beaten.”

Ester looked at the marks still visible across his torso.

”Of course.”

”It was an even exchange.”

”You ended up on the floor with three broken ribs and your shoulder out of place.”

”He ended up dead.”

Ester stared at him for a few seconds before giving up.

”I’m not arguing mathematics with you.”

”Good. Aria already fills that role.”

By the time Damon reached the main room, the group had already decided they would not send a large expedition. Eir’s message was a request for help, but no one knew who the men in red were, how extensive the attack was, or even whether the tree would tolerate a prolonged human presence in her territory. Sending twenty fighters could be interpreted as an invasion and repeat exactly the kind of mistake Aurelia attributed to the old Architects.

Aurelia stood over the map, adding details she had managed to recover from memory. According to her, Eir’s exclusion zone began long before the forest modern maps called the Valley. During the first centuries of network research, scholars had recorded an area roughly one hundred twenty kilometers wide where spiritual orientation instruments produced inconsistent results. People could enter normally, but paths seemed to shift whenever no one watched them directly. Rivers emptied where they should not, trails used that morning disappeared by evening, and the more someone tried to map the forest, the less useful the map became.

”That does not mean the forest physically moves,” Aurelia explained. ”At least not most of the time. Eir interferes with the way structures are recognized. A road can remain in the same place and still stop functioning as a road for someone she does not want reaching a certain point.”

Damon rested one hand on the table.

”So she changes definition.”

”Not exactly. From what I understood, she restores an earlier definition. If a road was built over an old watercourse, Eir can make that area behave as though the road had never been built.”

Aria stopped writing.

”Physically?”

”Sometimes.”

”That is a terrible answer.”

”It is the only one I have.”

Xue Lian studied the map in silence. After a while, she pointed to three small villages along the western edge of the forest.

”Do these communities still exist?”

Elizabeth answered from the other end of the table.

”Two of them. The third was abandoned forty years ago. The others trade timber, medicine, and fruit, but no one goes very deep. The locals have their own rules about where to cut and how much to take.”

”So there is some kind of agreement with Eir,” Xue Lian said.

”Or learning through trial and error,” Aurelia replied. ”She does not need to speak to teach boundaries.”

The final team was smaller than Damon expected. He, Ester, Xue Lian, Xue Mei, Aurelia, and Aria would go. Chen Mo would remain in Mirath because his void could be especially dangerous to an entity whose nature none of them understood; accidentally erasing a connection in Eir Valley might be worse than any advantage he could offer. Jian Yue would stay with Jian Li, and Mu Qing would continue helping Ester monitor the young woman’s new spiritual circulation without directly interfering with it.

Before departure, Aria placed the black plate on the table and asked Transfer whether an accepted route existed to the edge of the region. The answer took almost a minute.

PARTIAL DESTINATION AVAILABLE.

Damon watched.

”Partial?”

Aria requested details.

DIRECT ACCESS TO LOCAL CORE NOT AUTHORIZED.

Aurelia looked relieved.

”That is good.”

Damon looked at her.

”We have been defining ’good’ very generously lately.”

”Eir does not want the network placing us directly in front of her. She is allowing us to approach from the edge.”

”Then we do that.”

Transfer opened a passage to the nearest trade road outside the Valley. Each person individually confirmed the route, and a few minutes later the group left Mirath behind.

The environmental difference was immediate. The air on the other side was more humid, heavy with the smell of vegetation and wet earth. The road was narrow, built between low hills covered with broad-leafed trees. There were no signs of the phenomenon seen in Mirath, but Damon noticed there were almost no birds. He also found no small animals along the roadside, nor enough insects for a region like that.

Ester noticed too.

”Evacuation.”

”Or fear,” Xue Lian answered.

They followed the road for approximately an hour. Aurelia walked more slowly, but refused help whenever Ester offered. Aria took visual notes, though she had stopped trying to draw a map after discovering that the position of one hill seemed to change when compared with Transfer’s arrival point.

The first village appeared in the early afternoon. It was called Beloren and was small, with a little over fifty buildings surrounded by farmland. People were in the streets, but no one was working normally. Carts were being loaded with food, tools, and clothing while families prepared to leave.

A gray-haired man immediately recognized Aurelia as an outsider, though he had no idea who she was. He approached cautiously, carrying a short axe more as a tool than a weapon.

”If you are heading into the Valley, turn back.”

Damon answered.

”That is exactly where we are going.”

The man looked at him for a few seconds.

”Then you are another group of idiots.”

”Probably, but a different kind.”

Ester elbowed Damon.

The man ignored it.

”The screaming started three days ago.”

Xue Lian became alert.

”From people?”

”From the forest.”

The answer erased every trace of humor.

He explained that the first sign had been the animals. Deer, boars, and even predators began leaving the woods and crossing farmland without attacking anyone. Then came light tremors and a sound the villagers initially mistook for falling trees. On the second night, roots appeared on the surface of nearby fields, all pointing toward the forest interior. The next morning, men dressed in red arrived by the northern road.

”How many?” Damon asked.

”We saw twenty-three go in. Then two covered wagons arrived.”

”Weapons?”

”Spears, axes, a few things I had never seen.”

”Mages?”

The man hesitated.

”I don’t know. I felt no energy from them.”

Aurelia looked at Damon.

That was important.

”And did they attack you?” Ester asked.

”No. They did not even speak to us. They went straight into the woods.”

”How long after that did things get worse?”

”Less than an hour.”

Damon looked toward the tree line visible beyond the farmland. The forest began less than two kilometers away.

”Did any of them come back out?”

”Two.”

”When?”

”Yesterday.”

”What condition were they in?”

The man tightened his grip on the axe handle.

”One could not remember his own name. The other remembered his, but could not recognize his own face in a mirror.”

Aria stopped writing.

Aurelia took a deep breath.

”They touched Eir.”

”Or Eir touched them,” Damon said.

Before they left, the man pointed them toward a trail used by local gatherers and gave them three simple rules: do not cut anything unless necessary, do not follow voices off the path, and if they found a tree marked by three natural circles in the bark, they were to wait before continuing.

”Wait how long?”

”Until the forest decides.”

Damon looked at Ester.

”I already like this less.”

”You have a problem with anything that requires patience.”

”Correct.”

They reached the edge of the forest shortly afterward. There was no wall of energy, visible barrier, or sudden temperature change. Damon simply noticed that after crossing between two old trees, the sound of the road disappeared. When he looked back, he could still see the direction they had come from, but the village was no longer visible through the trees despite them having walked no more than fifty meters.

Aria checked the plate.

”No connection.”

”With Mirath?” Xue Mei asked.

”With any part of the network.”

Aurelia nodded.

”We are inside.”

The path remained stable for roughly twenty minutes. They found the first signs of the men in red near a stream: deep wheel tracks, footprints, and a piece of cloth snagged on a bush. Damon examined the ground and judged that a large group had passed through carrying something heavy. It was not a retreat. The tracks led inward.

Farther ahead, they found the first chain.

It was black, thick, and wrapped around an ordinary tree.

The tree was dead.

Not dry like diseased vegetation. The leaves, bark, and wood had completely lost vitality around the metal.

Ester brought one hand near it without touching.

”I feel no energy.”

Aurelia examined it too.

”Because it probably does not work through spiritual energy.”

Damon crouched.

Small mechanical inscriptions were engraved into every link.

Aria stepped closer.

”This is not Architect writing.”

”You are sure?” Xue Lian asked.

”Yes.”

”Then we already have confirmation of another group.”

Damon stood.

”Not exactly. We have confirmation of another technique.”

They continued.

The chains became more common. Some were attached to trees; others entered the earth. In several places, roots had grown around the metal as though trying to rip it free, only to necrotize upon touching the links.

After about an hour, they reached the tree marked by three natural circles that the Beloren villager had described.

Damon stopped.

”We wait.”

Ester smiled.

”I’m proud.”

”Don’t ruin it.”

The group remained still.

Nothing happened for the first thirty seconds.

Then the path ahead changed.

The trees did not move. The trail simply ceased to exist between one blink and the next. In its place appeared a narrower passage leading left.

Xue Mei watched.

”She heard.”

Aurelia nodded.

”Or evaluated us.”

Damon entered first, but kept his sword sheathed. The new path led them nearly two kilometers before descending into a natural depression in the terrain. The smell of cut wood became obvious before they arrived.

Then they heard voices.

Damon raised one hand.

Everyone stopped.

He moved to a rise covered in roots and looked down.

They found the camp.

There were at least forty men and women dressed in red. Some carried ordinary weapons. Others worked around large metal structures driven into the ground. The two wagons mentioned by the villager stood open and contained dozens of black chains wound around supports.

At the center of the camp was a root.

Not an ordinary root.

It was wide enough to cross the ground like a low wall and pulsed slowly beneath the bark.

They had driven six metal stakes into it.

With each pulse, part of the root darkened.

Xue Lian became serious.

”They are killing the path to the tree.”

Aurelia shook her head.

”No.”

Damon looked over.

”Then what?”

”They are preventing her from retreating.”

Aria frowned.

Aurelia explained quietly.

”Eir can restore a previous structure. If they try to reach her by road, she removes the road. If they clear a path, she restores the forest. If they destroy terrain, she can probably recover the earlier form.”

Damon looked at the chains.

”So these things lock changes in place.”

”Yes. The chains are preventing the region from returning to its previous state.”

That explained why Caelum had been afraid.

Not because Eir was necessarily more powerful.

But because she could undo alterations.

And these people had found a way to stop exactly that.

A voice came from the camp.

”Fourth anchor ready!”

A short-haired man approached the root. Unlike the others, he wore dark red and carried a circular metal piece around his neck.

”Install it. We have less than two hours.”

Someone else asked:

”What if she closes the path again?”

The man smiled.

”She won’t.”

He placed a hand on the pulsing root.

”She is already trapped.”

Damon started to rise.

Ester grabbed his arm.

”No.”

”I was just going to talk.”

”To forty people.”

”I’m sociable.”

Aurelia pointed toward the back of the camp.

”Wait.”

Between two metal structures stood a cage.

Not for animals.

Inside was a girl.

Maybe fifteen years old.

Dark hair, torn clothes, and arms covered with patterns resembling wood grain.

She was conscious and watching the men work.

Xue Mei stiffened.

”Who is she?”

The answer came from the forest.

Not through the network.

Not as a voice inside their heads.

The leaves on every tree around them moved at once, producing a low sound that was perfectly understandable.

”Mine.”

Everyone in the group went still.

Damon looked at the cage again.

Then at Aurelia.

”You said Eir was a tree.”

Aurelia looked just as confused as he did.

”She was.”

The leaves moved again.

”My daughter.”

Damon lost any intention of waiting.

His hand went to the sword.

This time, Ester did not stop him.