Two days had passed since Limbo left Naval.
The forest behind him had grown quiter.
The soil ahead grew heavier.
He did not March forward in rush cluelessly.
Instead, he followed the faint distortion in the land, thin veins where vitality was weakened but had not yet collapsed. The corruption here was subtle. Not aggressive. Not chaotic.
Measured and international.
The guardian's word's echoed in his mind.
"You will understand when the coil rises."
Aahhhh.... Limbo was frustrated.
Why can't everyone speak clearly, has it tobe always in mystery and puzzle. .
He stepped over a fallen trunk and paused.
The air here felt thinner.
He crouched near a patch of darkened moss. It was not fully corrupted, only strained, as if something had siphoned strength from it and moved on.
He pressed his palm against the earth.
A soft current moved through him.
It was calculated force, something steadier, own efforts of Light purification skill with the secret guardian's gift.
The moss brightened faintly under his touch.
Though, not restored completely.
But stabilized.
Limbo exhaled.
Mana flow steady, Drain was minimal.
Control was improving.
He stood.
"If this is how it spreads..." He murmured, "it's mapping the forest."
.... Will forest survive?
A brach cracked somewhere to his left, he did not turn, he had felt it already.
A presence.
Something strange, different not a serpent or a guardian.
Watching...
Midday...
A half corrupted dear stumbled near a dried steam bed.
It's eyes were clouded but not fully lost.
Limbo approached Slowly and carefully.
The animal tried to move, but it's legs failed.
He was exhausted, feared, lose the hope, like he accepted the cursed fate.
Limbo knelt slowly after closing distance.
Placed his hands against its side.
Corruption threads clung to its veins like black Frost.
He didn't flared.
Didn't surge...he narrowed the flow.
Directed it..
Thread by thread, he stripped away the foreign residue, Mana detection skill + Purify acted together
The deer confused, resisted but then stilled.
Breathing normalised, weak but alive.
Limbo windraw his hand.
System notification,
Mana cost moderate.
Recovery steady.
He stood again with smile, the thought of helping and recover.
"You're close," he said quietly to the unseen presence.
The wind shifted.
No answer.
At Night, he camp.
He built a small fire only for warmth.
No large light.
No signal..
He sat crossed legged and closed his eyes.
Alone...
Mana circulated smoother now.
Lightning no longer pushed outward impulsively.
Forest...responded faster.
He opened the system interface briefly, to check,
Alpha Fragments: 5 / 7
Beta Fragments: 1
Fragment Resonance: Increasing
External Disturbance: Detected
Sixth Fragment — Signal Detected
Direction: Unstable
Distance: Undefined
The message faded.
He stared at the empty space for a moment.
"No direction?"
That meant one of two things.
Either it was moving.
Or it was near something powerful enough to distort tracking.
He closed the window.
"This journey was always bound to fragments."
A faint pulse moved through the soil beneath his camp.
Once...and then stilled.
Suddenly the thought resurfaced, in which the guardian's voice surfaced again in memory.
"You walked unbound."
"If you wish to protect what you love, you will move."
Limbo opened his eyes.
The forest around him felt normal.
Too normal.
The presence returned.
Closer.
He spoke into the darkness.
"You've been following since yesterday."
Silence...
Then faint rustle, not of...
Measured movement.
Testing distance, observing.
Not choose to attack.
Intresting.
Another two days passed.
The corruption patterns grew denser.
Veins in the soil now interconnected, not random.
But structured.
He found a small cluster of twisted shrubs.
Not fully blackened, but draining slowly.
He extended his awareness deeper this time.
Not just surface purification.
He traced the flow downward, forward.
There, a faint current leading further north-east.
Different from the serpents path towards the guardian.
This was something else.
The system flickered again.
Sixth fragment - resonance intensifying
Signal Stability: 12%
He frowned, out of nowhere -
Still no direction.
But closer, He stood slowly.
At evening the ground beneath his resting place felt denser.
More pressured.
The guardian's warmth stirred faintly within him while he was meditating.
Not a warning, but a recognition,
Then,
A deeper pulse traveled through the earth.
Stronger than before.
Not at his location.
Not at the guardian.
Between mapping the system flickered one last time before dimming.
Sixth fragment - resonance spoke detected
Signal source: interference
The window vanished before he could expand it.
Limbo stared into the darkness.
Somewhere beyond the treeline, a pair of faint distant light blinked once.
Not eyes, of animal reflection.
Intelligent observation.
And then they disappeared.
Limbo did not move.
He simply exhaled.
"Good."
"If you're watching..."
...keep watching.
The wind shifted, and somewhere deeper in the forest, something adjusted it's plan.
Will Limbo encountered new crisis or opportunity????