Dante was nervous about doing this so soon after unlocking [Mana Reinforcement], but their strength would only nosedive from here on out. He would weaken with hunger, and Ren’s sickness would only get worse. They were not going to get a better time than this.

  “I’ll need a few minutes. I am still very new at this and want to get this right. Wanted to let you know that your tip helped Ren.”

  More than you know.

  Once he got the affirmative, he activated [Hyper Focus] and sank deep into the sensation of his aura.

  [Hyper Focus] has advanced to Level 3

  That’s timely. Okay, this is going to be my largest aura construct yet. It is going to need to be big enough to envelop all of us and should use as much aura as possible. The whole point of this is to reduce the size, after all. A sphere should do, though it will need to be hollow in the middle so we can breathe. No use in delaying, let's do this.

  Taking a deep breath, he moved as much aura as he could in front of him. It was well over three-quarters of his maximum, to his great surprise. Dante split the sphere into two perfect halves, moving each to either side. His focus slipped some and caused some of the captured aura to return.

  I can’t let that happen, it’s pointless if my aura is still too large after this.

  Dante hollowed out a small space in the middle of each and then expanded it to have enough space for two people, stretching the constructs into spheres. The last touch was to place an air tube at the front so they didn't suffocate. He chose the front so they could see if anything tried to climb inside of it. Despite his best efforts, all of the maneuvering had allowed more to escape. Perhaps a bit under three-quarters now. Dante ran a hand across the front of his and found it covered in sweat but pushed that to the back of his mind. He needed to focus.

  This is going to be the difficult part.

  It was harder to make adjustments to something this size. Any changes he could make were minor, but he persisted. First, he focused on adjusting the origin of the ripples. Previously he had tried to do this and control the ripple’s shape, but it had occurred to him to fix one and then let [Aura Reinforcement] work its magic. Dante would make the changes, wait for the skill to maintain it, then improve it further. Once he had done as good a job as he could, he switched to making the ripple size similar across the pair. As before, this proved to be much harder, and he was forced to throw in the towel early.

  Alright, I did a better job this time so it better work.

  Dante brought both hands to either side and mimed moving the constructs together. He had found that tethering the aura movements to gestures helped. He was dismayed to find that they immediately resisted each other.

  I don’t know where I am going wrong, they look nearly identical to my aura senses. Shit, they are already destabilizing. I am just going to have to push through it.

  Gritting his teeth, Dante continued to force them together. It started to get really bad once they touched, triggering a sharp pain that quickly swelled into a headache.

  I have to do it now. No chance I am going to have the mental energy to try this again.

  Gritting his teeth, he pushed past it and put his everything into it. As he did, something seemed to flare into life in front of him. Dante blinked then squinted. Unless he was mistaken, his constructs had appeared in front of him, clearly visible to his mundane sense. The edge of both constructs glowed a sickly green. What was more important was that it allowed him to see the problem. He had slightly placed the air pipe on one higher than the other. He made the slight adjustment and gasped as the two constructs gracefully slid into one.

  It was still difficult to maintain the condensed construct, but at least it didn’t make his headache any worse. Dismissing [Hyper Focus], Dante was shocked at just how soaked in sweat he was. His nose felt wet and, when he touched it, his fingers came away bloody.

  Ah. That can’t be good. Seems like I really overdid it.

  At some point, he had been set back down on the floor, which he didn’t blame Pauwna for given his current condition. A wet cloth was thrust in his face, and he looked up to see Pauwna standing there. Ren hovered over her shoulder, looking worried.

  “Remember when I told you about aura strain? That,” she pointed at his nose, “is one of the more serious symptoms. Don’t try anything else.”

  Dante accepted the cloth and began dabbing at his nose. It had been the worst nosebleed of his life and he was sure he ruined his shirt. “Well, at least it worked,” he mumbled, unwilling to let this victory end on a sour note.

  “We know, I saw it,” chimed in Ren. “Really complicated work, for a beginner.”

  So I wasn’t hallucinating.

  “Really, you saw it?” Despite his fatigue, his mind raced with the possibilities. Actually seeing his aura forms would make them so much easier to work with.

  “For a few seconds. It tends to be a sign of poor aura work. That or incredibly high mana concentrations. Given how visible they were, I am surprised it worked at all.”

  Finishing cleaning up, Dante offered the cloth back to Pauwna, who wrinkled her nose and threw it into the swarm. “Anyway, it should be ready. I don’t know how long I can hold it for, so let’s go.”

  They resumed their former positions and Dante slipped the construct over them. It still contained three-quarters of his aura, which had reduced the size of his field by almost half. It was still bigger than his condensed construct, having a few feet of normal aura until reaching the condensed area. Pauwna started to march up the inclined canyon. As they left the protection of the bottom and his barrier was exposed to more of the swarm, Dante began to get pressed on all sides. It climbed into the firmly painful region, and he was very relieved it stopped there.

  Yeah, there is no way I would have survived this had I not unlocked aura concentration. I would have been crushed to death. So glad that I grabbed all that extra fortitude.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Pauwna reached the canyon lip and stepped over into the world at large.

  Dante was immediately disappointed. He had been hoping for a wide panorama of the general area. The Chausus spawn had inhabited it for more than a week now so there had to be some change. However, the thick blanket of the swarm still blocked all sight. It wasn’t much different than the canyon.

  Though there was one difference.

  The only thing that was visible was the ground in about a six-foot diameter circle around them, and plenty had changed within that area. The stone had a web of flat hexagonal crystals growing over and through it. Every step brought with it a sharp crunch and Dante began to wonder what they were made out of. There was a pattern to them, but one that seemed to change every few steps. It reminded him of snowflakes. There was a word for patterns that looked like this.

  Fractals. These are different types of fractals. I guess it makes sense that these creatures would have them; I know some crystals grow like that naturally. Still, what is it? Some kind of hive structure or maybe even their eggs?

  Dante hoped they didn’t have to find out.

  “Do we know where we are going?” asked Ren. They had not been walking long, but she was already breathing hard.

  Pauwna sighed, then said patiently, “I paid attention when we fled in. I am simply retracing my steps. It’s a fair distance, but we should be approaching the Ahsmati wall soon.”

  Ren nodded, too exhausted for a response. They continued at their slow pace, which gave Dante plenty of time to continue studying the ground and the crystals covering it. Something was bothering him.

  While he was puzzling it out, the ground began to tilt upwards and soon they were climbing a slope. They had reached the earthen wall. Relief filled him. While he didn’t doubt Pauwna, the thought of wandering in this wasteland, lost without another living soul for miles around, was horrifying to contemplate.

  Other people … That’s it!

  “Where are all of the bodies?” Dante asked, speaking his realization.

  He watched as the women looked around and came to the same conclusion that he had reached. Ren was the first to speak up. “Perhaps those insects ate them? They must eat something and they certainly have the numbers to do it.”

  “Perhaps,” Dante said slowly, “but did they eat their bones too? How about their equipment? Besides, I didn’t see a mouth on any of those things.”

  “Who knows what they are capable of?” chimed Pauwna. “I am starting to doubt if the Ahsmati or any of the Empire's enemies are responsible for this. No nation would want to pollute the lands it plans to conquer.”

  “That’s a good point,” Ren conceded. “The complexity of these creatures might even be beyond our glorious Empire’s magical prowess. But if that’s not a possibility, then where did they come from?”

  None of them had an answer to that question.

  Dante had not been expecting to find something when they crested the Ahsmati’s artificial hill, so he was caught off guard when something protruded into his aura. A wall of crystal loomed into sight, forcing them to veer away. It was not seamless, a fractal honeycomb of holes littered its surface and from them, crawled tens of thousands of spawn.

  “I suppose we have found one of their nests,” commented Pauwna as she circled around it, keeping it at the edge of his aura.

  And around they kept going.

  This thing must be huge! Even though we can’t see how tall it is, I am betting it is equally large in that direction. How did this manage to pop up in only a week? I am willing to bet this is not the only one either.

  The more he saw, the less he was surprised about how many of the spawn existed. Their speed of propagation was simply astounding. Dante was getting a very bad feeling about the implications of all of this.

  Pauwna turned from the hive, breaking their view of it. Soon, the ground sloped downwards. Strangely, the omnipresent ozone-like smell grew stronger as they descended. It was enough for him to feel dizzy, even with his enhanced attributes. By the time they reached the bottom it was almost unbearable.

  Dante was glad that he was not the one walking. Though he was concerned about Ren. She was panting hard and stumbling. Pauwna stopped suddenly and Ren bumped into them from behind.

  “What in the Empress's name is this?”

  In front of them lay a pool of indeterminate size. From the looks of it, it used to be one of the many craters that pockmarked the area. It was filled with a sludgy purple liquid and positively roiled with bubbles. A large one popped and the ozone smell intensified for a moment.

  Are these pools releasing some kind of gas? For what purpose?

  “I think we have to continue, right? There is nothing else in any of the other directions?” asked Ren, who was taking full advantage of the pause to recover.

  “Yes,” Pauwna allowed, “but I do not want whatever that substance is to touch us. Its scent alone burns my nose.”

  “If it’s any comfort, I believe that my aura will push it away unless we fall in. And probably not even then unless we go deep,” Dante interjected, pointing at the interface between his aura and the liquid, where it was pressed up against but did not penetrate into his aura. “I don’t think stray droplets will be a problem.”

  “It’s settled then,” Pauwna said, and then walked along a narrow ridge between two pools.

  If Dante’s memory was serving him correctly, the battlefield was almost entirely craters. There was a ton of low-lying space for this fluid to fill. So far, their experience mirrored that. It was like traversing a freshly flooded salt flat. It slowed their forward progress even more, having to wind along the intersecting edges of craters. Sometimes, there was no way forward and they were forced to backtrack. Dante was surprised that Pauwna did not seem lost.

  Her sense of direction is incredible.

  Dante would have already been turned around a long time ago. But under Pauwna’s direction, they seemed to be making good time. It was only a matter of time until they reached the Empire’s side.

  There was a wet splat behind them and they turned to see that Ren had fallen over. Fortunately, she had landed within his aura which kept the sludge off her. She was laying on her back and took shallow, rapid breaths.

  “Oh by gods dead and buried,” Pauwna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She caught his gaze. “Dante, I think it's in our best interests to leave her.”

  He stared back at her, confused. Was this some kind of strange humor that wasn’t translating correctly? But no, there was no joviality in Pauwna’s gaze.

  She was asking him to let Ren die.

  “But why? Why put so much work into saving her, only to let her die at the first hurdle? I understand that she isn’t … the best person, but I thought you’ve known each other for years. Saved each other's lives many a time. That you were comrades!”

  Pauwna scoffed. “Oh please, a comrade? If Ren knew my true allegiances, she would turn on me in a heartbeat. The only reason I rescued her was because I thought she might be useful in escaping this situation. But she has only proven to be a liability since she has woken up. And now an active burden. Our chances of making it through this will be better without her.”

  Dante considered it.

  She is not wrong about any of that. Things are only going to get harder from here and we can’t drag along a burden. While I don’t know if Ren has personally participated in any of the things that Pauwna talked about, I am sure that she does not question the system that benefits her. Probably even supports it—she seems patriotic. Even so … I don’t think I could face Sophia if I went along with this.

  “I still think we should take her.” Dante met Pauwna’s gaze with an unyielding look. “I refuse to leave a helpless woman, who has saved both of our lives before, to be eaten alive. I don’t think it matters if she would do the same. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. Who knows, she might even change her mind after this and become an ally one day!”

  Dante held her gaze until Pauwna was the one to break eye contact. “Fine!” she said, then leaned down to pick Ren up. “Let me have both hands full when something happens. Really, you are too kind. Naive. It’s going to get you into trouble one day.”

  “Maybe so, but at least I will have a clear conscience.” Pauwna rolled her eyes and then grunted as she shouldered both of their burdens and then continued walking along the edge. She stumbled a moment later and Dante thought that it was from adjusting to their weights. Except that she didn’t get up, instead staying stock still.

  At first, he thought they were under attack and that she had been injured. Then, he noticed it. The ground shook slightly. Then again and again, getting more violent every time.

  Something was coming.