Chapter 66: Old World
****In the Omnisphere****
Marcus and his group were moving at a brisk pace, shuffling through the forest with perfect precision and experience, trailing not far behind them was Lisa, trying her best to move as fast as the group of two—ring and above Bearers, which was actually more difficult than she expected.
They were moving at what appeared to be a casual pace, but their casual pace was already almost two or three times the speed at which Lisa could run.
Eventually she was left behind, her pace too slow to keep up.
’Shit, those guys are fast, extremely fast.’
’How didn’t they catch up to us before the fog arrived, something is strange in that aspect.’
Since she had tried everything in her power to find her two teammates, she had decided to follow their pursuers back to confirm that they actually didn’t know what was happening.
But that plan was mostly foiled.
"From the direction they were heading, though, they must be going back to Evergreen City."
"Should I also head back and report to Lady Mona, or should I wait here and continue searching?"
She looked at the two options, weighed which one was more pressing, and immediately decided on one.
’Staying here would be a waste of time; I should just return and report.’
Having made that decision, Lisa turned to look at the direction the group had followed, and she continued on that path.
On her way back, she didn’t meet a single Genetic Beast on the way, it was just a peaceful walk.
Soon she got to where they had sat before, the same place they had met that man; she just took a cursory look at the surroundings before ignoring it all and continuing her walk there.
About thirty minutes later, she finally arrived at where they had entered into the Forest earlier, the current exit, but she still didn’t rush outside.
Instead, she found a tree to hide behind and tried to scope if the coast was clear. Though she didn’t come across any beast on her journey, she had still Continuously used her ability to try and detect if anyone was following her.
That little moment of carefulness ended up saving her as she saw the group of Bearers earlier, not going into the city but staying directly outside.
They were even already setting up camp, which is to show that they would be staying there for quite a while.
"They are going to wait for us here,"
"Now that’s trouble; how the hell am I to go into the city then?"
****Unknown Location****
’Urghhhhhh,’ the sound of someone forcefully waking up resounded through the surrounding area.
Morden gripped his head. While trying his best to sit up, in his current state, he couldn’t even afford to open his eyes. The amount of pain coursing through him.
Every single part of his body, down to the cellular level, was aching badly. His pathetic attempt to sit up was stopped when he felt his arm almost snap off.
He was currently feeling like a piece of broken pottery that was just glued together again.
’What the hell happened to me?’
The last thing he could remember was slowly falling asleep, and now he couldn’t move and couldn’t even see where he was.
’Has the fog done some kind of irreparable damage to me?’
He tried forcing his eyes open, but the movement felt difficult. The little bit he managed to open only displayed the string of text that had appeared in front of him a while ago.
[Welcome Modern Tales.... to the Old World]
’Old World? where the hell is that?’
’How did I get here? things are freaking getting out of hand.’
Complications after complications have been happening since he had arrived in the Omnisphere, but earlier he had his friends to deal with it together, but now there was no one, at least from what he could infer.
He couldn’t hear anybody and he couldn’t feel anyone.
Having no way to get answers at that moment, Morden decided to just back down and not try to force anymore movement. He would move when he felt better.
Time went by with Morden slowly feeling his body getting better; smaller movements were easier and almost painless, but larger ones still caused him pain.
’Now I know how Layla felt,’ he thought.
Lying there had given him some time to think about some things, and he remembered Layla he had left in that cave during his first trial.
’I wonder if I would actually see her again,’
From that moment, his mind grew quiet until he felt like he could move again.
"Damnm, that felt like a long time has passed," he muttered while sitting up and opening his eyes.
The first thing he set his eyes on was the jagged wall of what appeared to be a cave wall. In shock, he rushed to his feet and checked his surroundings.
All around him was a dimly lit rocky cave. Rocks were protruding out of multiple places with no sense of uniformity, a sign of it being a natural cave.
"This is an excavated cave or anything; I don’t even think anyone has gotten here before," he said while touching the walls.
The whole environment was giving this aura that showed how old it actually was. Everything just felt primordial.
Even the air he was breathing felt more enriched with Vital Energy.
"This actually feels like an old world."
Questions popped up in his head, but with no one to ask, he could only try and find answers to them himself.
"First I need to find a way out of here."
He looked towards his Left and towards his right, trying to guess the right way, but from both ends, he could still see faint lights.
"I am just going to go left," Morden decided.
He chose the left side and walked with a face full of determination; he had subconsciously summoned the Ghost slayer sword and was currently holding it with everything he had.
He didn’t have to walk too long because he finally arrived at the exit, and what he saw left him completely amazed.
"What the hell?"