Chapter 961: The Migration
The small column passed through Asgard’s eastern gates shortly after dawn, following the main road in a formation far more discreet than any expedition led by Strax usually appeared. There were no banners, ornate carriages, or an escort large enough to announce the passage of someone important. The twenty soldiers wore gray cloaks over their armor, carried enough supplies for three days, and advanced in four groups of five, separated by a short distance so that a single attack could not strike all of them at once. Cassandra led the formation with four scouts, while Monica and Frieren traveled in the center, protected by Mercedes and most of the combatants. Strax rode several meters behind them, apparently relaxed, although his eyes constantly moved across the forests, the terrain, and the sky.
Traveling by land had been Monica’s choice. Strax could have taken them to the observatory within a few hours in his dragon form, but that would have prevented them from examining the road and alerted any intelligent creature across a much larger area than she considered acceptable. Besides, much of the information gathered during the night had come precisely from the routes between Asgard and the edge of the desert. Traveling through them would allow the group to confirm some of those reports personally before reaching the imperial outpost.
The snowfall remained heavy during the first hour. It covered the trees, softened the stones, and concealed most of the tracks left by animals. Even so, Cassandra found several unusual trails before they had even left the territory closest to Asgard. She raised one hand to stop the formation and dismounted beside a depression partially covered by fresh snow. The soldiers spread out around her without needing an order, keeping their eyes on the forest while she pushed aside the white layer with the tip of a short blade.
"Three different species," Cassandra said after several seconds. "A heavy quadruped, probably a predator. A smaller group, perhaps six or seven animals. And this belongs to something that crawls."
Monica dismounted and approached, taking care not to step on the tracks.
"Are they moving in the same direction?"
"Yes. All toward the west." Cassandra indicated the depth of the larger footprints and then examined the broken branches several meters ahead. "They passed less than two days ago. The heavy animal was running. It was not hunting the smaller ones because the tracks cross several times without any sign of a struggle."
Frieren climbed down from her mount with far less care than the others and crouched beside one of the footprints. She removed a small crystal rod from her bag, brought it close to the compacted snow, and watched a faint light appear inside the instrument.
"There is mana residue, but it does not seem to have come from these creatures. It is spread across the ground."
Mercedes examined the surrounding forest.
"Any natural disturbance?"
"It is too early to say, but the density is higher near the roots and lower in the air. That usually happens when the source is beneath the surface." Frieren collected some snow in a vial and stored it before looking back toward the road. "It is not strong enough to cause a migration of this size, but it may only be residue from a very distant source."
Strax remained mounted, silently observing the location. He could sense the mana Frieren had identified, although it was so diluted that he probably would have ignored it under different circumstances. It did not resemble a conscious presence and carried no hostility. It was only a low, continuous pressure within the ground, almost like the warmth that remained inside a stone many hours after a fire had gone out.
"Mark the position," Monica said. "On the way back, I want a second measurement. If the level changes within a few hours, we will have something concrete to compare."
Cassandra recorded the approximate coordinates on the field map, and the group resumed its journey. The stop had lasted less than ten minutes, but it changed the expedition’s behavior. The soldiers began examining the ground more carefully, while Frieren kept one of the measuring crystals attached to the side of her saddle. The instrument remained almost dark, but small pulses appeared at irregular intervals whenever the road descended between rock formations.
Around midday, the snowfall began to weaken. The vegetation became lower, the trees grew farther apart, and the wind started carrying drier air from the southeast. The change did not happen all at once. First, small patches of exposed earth appeared between the snow. Then came pale stones, hardy shrubs, and entire areas where the ground seemed to have rejected winter. Monica compared every change with the map and the old notes, confirming that the transition was natural to a certain extent. The problem was that the dry belt was beginning much earlier than it should.
"According to the imperial maps, there should still be nearly forty kilometers of humid terrain before this kind of vegetation," she explained while examining a cluster of nearly dead shrubs. "These records were updated twelve years ago. They are not old enough to justify such a large difference."
Mercedes extended one hand and formed a thin blade of ice over her fingers. The ice did not melt, but it lost part of its shine almost immediately.
"The air is absorbing moisture faster."
Frieren opened one of the books she had insisted on bringing, keeping the reins trapped between her arm and body while searching for a note.
"There is a similar process in regions near large fire-element formations, but the temperature is not high enough. I also do not sense enough elemental energy."
"Perhaps it is not fire," Strax said. "The creature consumed matter to grow. If there are others, perhaps they consume water as well."
Monica looked at him.
"Would that be possible?"
"A body needs more than flesh. If it changes as quickly as the one we saw, it must reorganize everything it consumes. Minerals, liquids, energy, perhaps even mana."
Frieren slowly closed the book.
"Then the expansion of the dry region may not be an environmental consequence. It may be feeding."
The possibility was not treated as a conclusion, but no one dismissed it. Monica marked the new boundary of the vegetation on her map while Cassandra sent two scouts to examine a nearby elevation. They returned several minutes later with news of movement to the west, large enough to raise dust over a secondary road.
The column left the main route and occupied an elevated position between dark rocks. The horses were kept below the terrain line, with temporary muzzles to prevent them from neighing, while the soldiers spread out without producing noise. Strax, Mercedes, Monica, Frieren, and Cassandra climbed to an observation point and found the source of the dust a little more than two kilometers away.
It was a herd, although none of them knew how to classify it correctly.
Dozens of animals crossed the plain at a steady speed. There were six-legged creatures covered in pale fur, large reptiles with red plates, black deer with curved antlers, and at least two long, almost feline predators running in the middle of the group. None attacked the others. The largest cleared the path, the smaller ones used the space left behind, and all of them kept their attention turned backward, toward the desert.
"There are more than eighty," Cassandra counted. "Perhaps a hundred."
Monica removed a small spyglass and followed their movement for almost a minute.
"They are not injured."
"Some are exhausted," Mercedes corrected. "That animal near the rear can barely maintain the pace."
As though responding to the observation, one of the smaller creatures stumbled and fell. The nearest predator passed beside it without even slowing down. The fallen animal tried to rise twice, failed, and remained on the ground, breathing with difficulty while the rest of the herd continued west.
Strax looked toward the distant desert. The line of dunes was still not visible, but the direction left no doubt. Those animals were not simply searching for new territory. They did not slow down to rest, did not compete for food, and showed no interest in the environment around them.
They only moved away.
"We will not interfere," Monica said before any soldier could suggest otherwise. "Record the species, direction, speed, and approximate number. Cassandra, send two scouts along the side, but keep them at a distance. I want to know whether they follow the road or continue in a straight line."
The scouts departed while the group remained hidden. Frieren used a more sensitive instrument and confirmed that the mana residue in the ground increased as the herd passed, but did not follow the animals. That reinforced the possibility that they were crossing an area already altered rather than carrying the disturbance with them.
Strax continued watching the fallen animal until the dust moved farther away. The creature tried to rise once more, managed to support itself on two legs, and collapsed again. He descended from the rock formation before Monica could ask what he intended to do, approached without haste, and stopped several meters away. The animal had a body similar to a deer, but its skin was thick and hairless, with small mineral plates covering its spine. Even exhausted, it tried to retreat when it sensed Strax.
"Easy," Strax said, although he knew it probably could not understand him.
Frieren approached soon afterward and knelt on the other side. She examined the creature’s eyes, legs, and breathing, then touched a darkened area near its abdomen with two fingers. The animal reacted immediately, trying to bite, but Strax held its neck before it could reach the elf.
"There is something beneath the skin," Frieren said.
Mercedes formed a thin layer of ice around the area, reducing its movement without injuring the animal. Frieren made a small incision and removed something long and nearly transparent that writhed between her fingers like a living filament. One of the soldiers approached with a container, and the elf placed the structure inside before sealing it with three runes.
Monica became serious when she saw the object.
"A parasite?"
"Perhaps. But I do not recognize it." Frieren raised the vial toward the light. The filament continued moving, trying to point one end toward the southeast. "This may be more important than the tracks."
Strax slowly released the animal. After several minutes under the effect of Mercedes’s ice, the creature managed to stand, still weak, and continued staggering west. No one tried to stop it. What they had found was already enough to make the stop far more relevant than a simple observation of migration.
The journey resumed soon afterward, now with a new sense of urgency. Frieren kept the vial secured inside a reinforced box and checked the filament at regular intervals. Whenever the column changed direction slightly, the parasite corrected its own position inside the glass, continuing to point toward the same location beyond the horizon.
"It is reacting to something," Cassandra said when Frieren demonstrated the phenomenon for the third time.
"Yes. It may be a source of mana, a larger organism, or some kind of biological signal. I still do not know." The elf closed the box and tightened the straps. "But it is pointing almost directly toward the region of the observatory."
Monica unrolled the map without dismounting. The old imperial outpost was marked on a rocky elevation approximately twenty kilometers north of the official desert border. The line indicated by the filament passed far too close to be ignored.
"Perhaps the patrol did not find the observatory by accident," Mercedes commented.
Cassandra looked toward the road ahead.
"Or perhaps the observatory was built there precisely because someone noticed something long before we did."
That possibility kept the group silent for the remainder of the afternoon. The terrain became progressively more arid, and signs of animals decreased rather than increased. There were no birds, insects, or small rodents among the rocks. In several places, they found old bones scattered across the ground, all unusually clean and without clear bite marks. Frieren collected samples, Monica recorded the positions, and Cassandra increased the scouts’ distance because the complete absence of life made any movement easier to notice.