Contrary to the order he received from Aminta YuJu didn't go to his residence, instead he hastily made his way up to the sixth floor, the second he stepped on it a big bird came out to block him from ascending any further

"Please return to your floor, the Genus Insania does not welcome you within our territory"

The bird spoke, half politely half threateningly, you cant expect these small brained mad beasts to be an elegant bunch after all, much less a pee brain bird

"Sure, I don't have the time for that anyway, go fetch my twin swords and I will be off"

"Your equipment will be delivered whe-" "Go fetch it now or I will turn you into stew, I'm in a very bad mood right now"

His angry tone and smile free face caused the bird to take flap back, it didn't feel too much danger from him right now but when it thought back to the orders their leader gave and how scared Mimi was of his followers it decided playing it nice and smart would be the best option

"I will send someone to ask for them, wait here"

The bird flew back and conveyed his request to another watcher who then moved the message along before going back to his position, no one left their tasked areas at all since it could cause their tight-knit security to be breached

Ten minutes passed by before a new beast came to the group, the beast was holding two sheathed swords in its mouth, once it was near it threw the swords at them and ran back without another word

Ellis was the one who caught the swords, YuJu told her to hold on to them for now, he would check them out later, it was of para importance that they left while Aminta was sorting things out with Latvia who clearly stepped out of line, if he waited long enough he would be involved in an argument around his punishment

They were not stopped on the way down until they were trying to exit from the entrance, that's when the guards there stepped forward blocking his path

"The commander asks you to return to the fifth floor and meet her in the conference hall Sir"

'Shove them aside'

Receiving his mental orders the sand started to seep out the ground under Anput's command, then without any warning it engulfed the weak guards, pushing them back as a wide road opened for the three to go through

"...He left"

Latvia said, ending the feedback from her watchers set on the first floor

Slam! "We need to catch that little worm! How dare he attack Latvia like that, if he had the guts he should have fought any one of us instead"

Spoke one of the generals in rage, his rattan figure flailing about messily

"You seem to be forgetting that she was the one who schemed against him first, not to disrespect you Latvia but we can't be biased"

The one to speak up for YuJu was the usually quite Gen, no one was surprised though as he was a fair root

"She merely led a mutt to him, he put eight bloody knives in her back!"

"She disobeyed my orders of only keeping an eye on him resulting in conflict, the two share equal blame"

Aminta's words ceased the debate on whose fault it was, but that didn't end the need for them to punish him

"May I add something?"

Verbrand spoke before Aminta could give out her orders, his carved face now back to its static state as if those eyes weren't alive and raging just minutes earlier

"Speak your mind"

"That fellow told me he would be leaving for about two months after he gets his equipment, I believe he left on schedule and not because he was upset"

"That doesn't mean he is allowed to escape punishment"

"Clearly not my lady, but I believe we should use that time to regroup our thoughts since he won't be here adding any more trouble, while we are at it we could figure out a fitting punishment for the two of them, it wouldn't be too late to dish it out when he comes back"

His suggestion might imply that he sided with YuJu but anyone who knew him figured the old tree only wanted to be ready for whatever the sneaky guy was up to, as ready as they could be at least

"I see, so be it, we shall wait for him to return, in the meantime I want you to stop building his current residence Gen, instead, build one near this conference hall"

"Yes Commander"

"Let us now discuss ways to deal with his.. sporadic, actions"

The generals started to give their own ideas one by one not taking to notice how quiet the usually rowdy fleshly generals were being

…..

In the time the decision-makers of Hortus's lower floors were making countermeasures against him YuJu was guiding Ellis on ways to make use of her new weapon while they made their way through the colourful jungle

"Stop inserting your aura into it mindlessly, insert your energy to activate it before gradually covering that energy with your aura, this weapon isn't an aura responsive one, sure you could strengthen it with it alone but you can do that and much more if you use the right approach"

"I can't seem to cover my energy before it is being inserted, how do I fix that?"

"You figure that part out yourself, everyone has a different approach so you should find your own"

Staring at the glowing jade swords in her hand Ellis had a conflicted expression, she could finally use a weapon without it breaking but now she needed to renew her technique for it, something that would clearly take quite some time

'Perhaps it is hard but if Master says it would be stronger then I must do it, power won't come to me, I must chase it with my hard work'

Calling out her energy she tried to coat it with aura but found it breaking apart as each time she supplied more aura the previous bunch already assimilated with the sword, it wasn't obvious to her before but now she realized energy wasn't static, it was always moving, only it was too fast for her to notice this movement which made it feel still

'What is energy?'

She started to wonder what this intangible newly introduced concept was, like the many things that came with their assimilation into the Infidome energy was a hard concept to wrap one's head around, what was the source, was it really intangible if it could affect physical objects, did it have a shape or form, and so many more thoughts that came to her mind once or twice, all of which she ignored along the questions about the system and the world in general for if she thought about every change that occurred in askance of answers then she would never have the time to actually improve herself much less keep up with the dangerous world

"Don't allow your mind to wander, just focus on the energy and your aura, think too much and you wouldn't move from square one"

As if to confirm her thoughts YuJu's words came from the side, it made her once again attempt coating the energy, this time her brain fret of any big or small theories, it was only her, the energy, and her aura

Glancing at the hardworking redhead from the side YuJu let out a sigh

'Thinking is needed for growth, for change, but in this horror-filled world you can't afford to stop and think about life and morals, you can only go forward and hope you find your way fast enough'

Time, he went back and still lacked time, it was always chasing him down never giving him room for breath, stop and you die, this was the new world's decree

'All I did was think last time, sure I got all the information I might need and more but as I did I found everyone and everything around me eventually falling apart, soon I was all alone with no one to save, no one to help, so my end drew even closer, without others I can't do anything, no one can reach the peak alone, that's why this time around…'

His eyes looked over Ellis and Anput while his mind thought to Subrina, Mia, the root, and all the others who he planned to rope in

'...This time around I'm not alone, together, we will survive, we will make it to the apex of this world where no one can threaten us'

Confident of both himself and his followers he looked forward to far future where hope lay, hope for survival, hope for the day he stops running