Aries dashed through the foggy roads of the outer streets of Lios, studying the town as he went. The buildings were cracked and broken under the crushing constraint of the crimson roots. The roads were like the buildings, dug up and broken.
As he traversed the broken road, he occasionally ran into groups of rats. Some were feasting on the corpse of a dead animal while others were simply scurrying along the roads. He dealt with them as he ran into them. This was easy for him as he was not only quite strong for a Null, but the rats were weak as they were newly born.
A few minutes after he had returned to Lios, he made a stop at his house, where he found a large group of what he assumed to be older rats due to them being stronger than the ones he fought on his way here.
Even so, he still made quick work of them, clearing his entire home in a matter of minutes.
Once he made sure that all the rats had been dealt with, he dashed along the broken road once more and dealt with any rats he happened to run into. After a while, he made his way to the home of the laurels, which was much more taken by the crimson roots than any other place in this section of Lios.
This put Aries on guard as he pushed the door. The door cracked open, revealing a surprisingly untouched room.
Other than the light mist rolling in from outside and the eerie silence, the house seemed relatively normal. Aries studied each room in the house, finding nothing strange. However, that in itself was strange; it was as though everyone simply disappeared.
'Wait a minute… It's not only here, but everywhere. I just didn't notice due to the destruction drawing my attention.' As his mind churned, he realized that he had looked over something major.
At the same time, something caught his attention. He quickly rushed over to the only room he had yet to check, Alice's room.
In place of the room that was supposed to be there was a long fleshy hallway that led into an unlit expanse. This was no problem for Aries with his [Bright Eyes] ability.
Taking a step forward, his gaze pierced the darkness, peering into the fleshy hallway. His sight reached a young girl around his age. Her raven hair was veiling her face, and she had an overall disheveled and creepy appearance.
Mere moments after his gaze caught sight of the girl, her head tilted strangely and a single aquamarine eye locked onto him, peering from beneath her raven hair. Sparks flew off of the girl as her body shifted, then…
With the sound of wet flesh, the girl appeared before Aries within seconds, her hand pushed forward, threatening to claw into his face.
After noticing the sparks fly off from the girl, Aries had already reacted. He activated [Golden Smoke] and [Invisibility] simultaneously and sidestepped the attack, making the girl miss him and land in the cloud of smoke. His [Invisibility] was simply a precaution to make sure the girl wouldn't be able to locate him before the smoke took effect.
Sensing something, Aries jumped back, narrowly avoiding a burst of electricity.
'Instead of trying to locate my precise location, she's simply attacking everywhere in hopes of hitting me.'
In most situations, such a plan could work, but against Aries, who was now more aware than ever, she was simply wasting her energy and tiring herself faster.
As he landed, a small charge of electricity struck him. He had already sensed the charge, but as he was already moments away from landing, he couldn't dodge. Being caught off guard, he stumbled as he touched ground.
At the same time, A hand was already reaching for him.
'What? How did she find me? Has [Invisibility] been removed? No, I still feel the drain… Then how?'
Before he had time to formulate a theory on how the girl found him, he was being dragged down the length of the flesh-made hallway while constantly being electrocuted by the girl.
'I need to escape from her.'
He moved to pull himself from the girl's grip, but the constant electrocution left his body numb and unresponsive.
'Useless human body…'
He internally cursed the nature of his body.
Soon, Aries found himself being thrown into the base of a statue, but not just any statue; it was the statue of the founder of Lios. The statue had been taken over by the crimson roots as well.
This was what Aries thought as he felt and saw the crimson roots around him. But as he paid more attention, he realized that it wasn't just the crimson roots but their origin. The massive crimson tree was growing around the statue, looking as though they were merging.
Aries groaned as he landed on the fleshy wood and stone. The girl stood near the exit of the tunnel that took them here instead of continuing to attack. This confused Him.
'What is she doing?' This is what Aries thought as he watched the actions of the girl.
An unnerving silence stood between Aries and the girl, and neither moved or even made a sound. This silence was shattered by the sound of beating wings as a mosquito larger than the girl landed beside the girl. Seeing the creature, the girl quickly fell to her knees and hugged its leg with a fanatical passion in her eyes.
Not long after the arrival of the mosquito, another creature appeared. This time, it was from above Aries, crawling down from the fleshy crimson tree.
The sound of cracking and soft chittering slowly approached from above. Then, he felt the cold sensation of something wet hitting his skin. Raising his gaze above him, Aries caught sight of a rat much larger than any other he had seen before.
Its teeth and claws were as sharp as knives, its eyes were crimson, like sacks filled with blood, its face was marred with a perpetually feral expression, and its fur was like needles sharp enough to easily pierce flesh. On the back of the rat was a strange symbol carved into the rat in silver.
Aries's eyes narrowed as a single word surfaced in his mind.
'Shit…'