A new concern has arrived yet again. It wasn't the worst case scenario, but still, this might be a big step towards it. Not that Ravendell didn't expect this, but it would've been nice to hear something positive every now and then. The Observers rarely do that... Benston was addressing the problem at hand. "Ever since the last incident at the Insanity Forest, the condition there seemed to have rapidly deteriorated. Something must have brought it out of balance. Our last research team was surprised by the sudden change. It was predicted that the conditions would falter, but not to this extent." "Is it not because of the Earth shift? Uncommon behavior is expected around these times." Benston shook his head. "Negative, Ulthor. We know what's common and what's uncommon. The oxygen and Fes levels dropped, eindalms stopped sprouting, and certain plants already died out. For this to happen in a few days cannot be caused by an Earth shift." "Really?" Ravendell asked. "Then what are the possibilities so far?" "The soil lost its fertility," Seltyr responded. "That's the only thing I can think of. As for the reason why I can only speculate that the Dark nature is behind it." Seltyr may not have the best personality, but he's usually correct whenever he speaks. The Observers are aware of that and highly regard his opinions. "But that's..." Ulthor said in disbelief. His hair and beard looked even grayer now. "The Insanity Forest has been a great support so far. Losing it this soon will surely be a predicament." Predicament? It'll be a disaster! Ravendell thought to himself. The Insanity Forest is the first and only outside forest discovered so far that contains edible fruit and unique plant species that are almost untainted. Not only did its existence provided hope for a recovery of the outside world, it provided a lot of external resources that helped the city sustain and prosper. Flynner tapped the desk with his fingers. "We cannot afford the loss of the eindalm seeds. I believe it's best to prioritize this issue above all other affairs then." Old Flynner is right about that. The eindalm seeds have been crucial for the away missions. Without it, only a few other options are possible—researching the cause of the Insanity Forest's deterioration, exploring the best alternative solution to prevent a decline in food production, or at least find a way to produce the eindalm seeds within the city. All these options didn't sound that promising to Ravendell since people already tried them out without much success. What other choice was there left? Waiting, like always, wouldn't help a damn thing... It was an awful night. With Dwayne's team and Yuu's team together, they were with nine people. The best strategy to spend the night was for at least two people to stay awake while the rest could sleep. Yuu and Dwayne volunteered to take that burden. They must have felt obliged to do so due to both being leaders of a team. Despite having the luxury to sleep, making it happen was not an easy task for Ayuki. The tension and anxiety around her couldn't go away. Not only was there an unknown attacker to worry about, there were a lot of disturbing noises around the whole forest during the night. It looked as if all the animals were, for some reason, actively moving around. The ground even trembled from time to time. The fear of being ambushed haunted her mind the whole night. Fortunately, that didn't happen. As the area lightened up, Ayuki woke up to Yuu's reaction. "Woah. What the hell happened here?" he said in an astonished voice. All flustered, Ayuki looked around as she saw changes in the environment. It was filled with plants that weren't there before, trees all covered with climbing plants, never before seen mushrooms, and roots sticking out all over the place. This is supposed to be a forest but it looked more like a jungle now. We haven't even been here for a whole day, how could it have changed so much? Ayuki wondered. Selyn crouched to the ground and stroked its surface with her hand. "I hardly recognize the place anymore. Was there an Earth layer shift? I did notice some trembling last night." Dwayne snapped his finger. "Now that you mention it, it does make sense. Already a new season?" Upon hearing some unusual words again, Ayuki cocked her head. "Earth layer shift?" It sounds like they're talking about earthquakes, but that shouldn't be connected to a season, now would it? Dwayne twisted his heads to Ayuki and almost gasped. "What? You haven't heard of it before?" Selyn gave Dwayne a good smack before Ayuki could even reply. "Come on, don't you remember from last night? She got missing memories. Of course, she doesn't know a couple of general things that we do." "Ah, right. Sorry." Dwayne slightly bowed his head. "It's just, you always seemed knowledgeable, so it feels weird that you don't know these kinds of things." Although Ayuki agreed to have a good memory, she never felt to be someone with a lot of knowledge. It's more like recalling something you've seen, heard, or read, but that's not all that knowledge is, right? Nonetheless, being called knowledgeable felt good. "I only read some books, not all of them... But back to the topic, what do I not know? Tell me." Elizabeth walked forwards while she stretched her arms upwards. "Well, for starters, did you notice the large cracks when we went outside the city? You can see them far out on the horizon." Ayuki visualized the memory of seeing those cracks. The first time she witnessed it was during the judgement test when the gates opened in front of her. "Yes, it looks like the land broke down into different pieces as if it all got separated." "Bingo," Elizabeth said. "Every land piece you saw is an Earth layer, and that includes Farenhall. In short, it's an extensive piece of land with its own unique structure." Maiden adjusted her glasses and said, "People say that each Earth layer always move on their own, never staying still. We usually don't notice this movement unless an Earth layers crash against another one. That's basically the Earth layer shift that Selyn mentioned. "Yup," Selyn played a bit with that long black hair of hers while she talked. It's a habit of hers when she gets nervous. "During an Earth layer shift, multiple changes can occur. A new plant or animal species can emerge, we can deal with irregular weather conditions, and even gravity issues can arise." That sounds problematic. Imagine that you're transporting a heavy object with your hands and then, poof, more gravity strikes in with a lot of rain, making you drop the object on your feet and maybe even slip. Not that there's high chance that this would happen, but surely, other problematic scenarios were possible because of these Earth shifts. "Ok, wait...so what is the sea—" Yuu interrupted Ayuki. "Guys, can we stop talking about Earth layers and just focus on our situation?" He sounded a bit agitated, but Ayuki could understand that. Everyone would be slightly worried at this moment. The current situation should indeed be the priority. "Then what do you—" Selyn sounded like she wanted to ask something, but she suddenly changed the topic. "Hey, Ayuki. Your cynthius is doing something weird." Selyn pointed at the Ayuki's backpack where the glass jar was hanging. "What?" Ayuki hastily checked Chew's condition. Chew held its head up high, wiggled his front legs in the air, and flapped his wings rapidly. "Chew, what's wrong? What are you doing?" Judging from its movement, it looks like it's panicking. Upon activating her Fes, Ayuki finally understood what Chew was doing. Ayuki quickly turned her head towards the rest. "Guys, can you all check the condition of your cynthius?" "Okay." They did as told, and checked inside their backpacks. Elizabeth was the first to answer. "Hey, mine is also moving weird." "Mine too," Ryuzo confirmed it. Based on everyone's response, it was clear, something was up and all the cynthius were feeling it. Then it must be true... "What does this mean?" Maiden asked softly, looking Ayuki in the eyes. "Danger. There's something wrong with the environment. Cynthius have strong senses and they're all sensing something alarming." Ayuki let out a small cough. "We should check th—" Another cough interrupted her, this one stung a little. "the ai—" Coughing a lot now, the pain intensified every time. Gasping for air she tried to talk but the coughing combined with the excruciating pain made that impossible now. "Ayuki!" Ryuzo headed towards her. Even before he got to her, he started coughing as well. "Fire pollen!" Elizabeth yelled. "Hurry, grab your masks! Goggles too!" The wind blew hard as yellow particles traveled through it. Almost instinctively, Ayuki activated her Barrier Tag. This luckily blocked the pollen from passing through as she rummaged through her backpack. She found the mask and successfully attached it to her mouth and nose. The coughing didn't stop but the pain lessened a lot. Once the goggles were up as well, she felt safe enough to release the barrier. How were the rest doing? To stay unharmed, everyone seemed to have done the same thing except for one person, eye-patch Miles. He was on his knees, covering his one eye with his hands while screaming and screaming. "My ey—" Interrupted with coughs and screams, unable to talk and look, it felt like he was dying. Elizabeth and Bayne quickly assisted Miles with the equipment and pulled him up from the ground. "Insects approaching!" Ryuzo abruptly shouted. Insects? Now? Are they aggressive? Ayuki couldn't see them but she already entered panic mode. From the direction of the pollen, flying insects appeared in a swarm. Were they bees? No, they looked bigger than that. Everything happened so fast, Ayuki couldn't stay calm. To make matters worse, Miles was still writhing in agony from the pain in his eye. "Move him to the river! He needs to wash the pollen from his eye." Judging by the voice, that was Selyn who said that. She must've directed that to someone to help Miles out. With a brief look behind, Ayuki saw Elizabeth and Bayne following Selyn's advice and dragging Miles towards the river. Luckily, it wasn't that far away. "Everyone!" Dwayne roared. "Keep your shields up and stay together!" Not understanding why Dwayne said those words, Ayuki, nonetheless, followed his instructions and run towards the riverbed like the rest did. The river wasn't that strong nor deep, so it was fine to walk in it. However, the swarm of insects arrived before the rest could reach the river. Upon striking range, it was clear—they weren't the friendly type of insects. The speed in which they maneuvered in the air was incredible. Ayuki couldn't get a good look at their attackers. It moved in a zigzag pattern and seemed to attack with its tail. If Ayuki had to guess, they were most likely dragonflies. Left, right, up, they attacked and attacked from all directions. If it weren't for the Barrier Tags, these vicious dragonflies would've stung everyone multiple times by now. Some fireflies are known to be venomous. Okay Ayuki, stop... Thinking about their lethality wouldn't help out in the slightest. In a blink of an eye, the surrounding became engulfed with a bright variation of yellow and red colors. Ayuki could feel an intense heat touching her skin. Fire, she was surrounded by fire. The heat made it feel like she was burning. Fortunately, the barrier was probably blocking the fire since she didn't feel any pain. As the fire disappeared, the air felt more cold and refreshing. The fireflies? What happened to them? Seeing everyone unharmed, Ayuki sighed in relief. Not a single firefly was visible. That fire must've been Dwayne's doing. She looked at Dwayne who was exhaling deeply. It was a good thing to have him around. Fire certainly is effective against insects although it might have been a bit reckless to use it with everyone else still near. "Damn that was nuts," Dwayne said. "I've never witnessed fire pollen before." "Who has?" Selyn asked. "It only appears in wild forests like this one, not in the cities. Thanks for the fire by the way." Dwayne smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Don't mention it." Meanwhile, after washing his eyes thoroughly, Miles panted. "Okay... I'm okay now." His breathing stabilized despite the few coughs. "Thanks, guys, you saved my but." He instantly sat down on the riverbed in an awkward position, but whatever the case, he was safe. "Attention all recruits, due to an unexpected Earth shift, we've decided to cancel the survival test. Please return to the starting point. If anyone's wounded or in critical condition, please inform the nearby coordinators for emergency deployments." While the sudden announcement repeated itself, Ayuki couldn't believe what was happening. So all this commotion wasn' intentional? With the meeting being over, Ravendell retreated to his office together with Faye, this time walking. Faye's been using her Fes a lot lately. A bit too much, so Ravendell wanted her to have some rest. Helping out with the research of the Insanity Forest and a couple of times with the recruit training must have been exhausting. She needs to spare some energy in case of emergencies. Faye threw herself at the nearest couch and dug her face into a pair of pillows. "Rave...this is too much. Everyone wants my help! You're needed Faye, you're needed here Faye. I'm tired of it! "I'm so sorry Faye. Hang in there, you're not the only one working hard. Ellyia is too." "Is that supposed to be a compliment? You're not really helping me now..." "Okay, okay. What do you want then?" Faye sighed. "I just what some rest. Why does have it be this way? Why is so hectic all of a sudden?" "Dark nature alert! Dark nature alert! Threat level D. Threat level D." The timing of that alert couldn't be any worse. It's as if someone was listening to Faye and deliberately planned this out. Wait... threat level D? That's an unusual one. "Great... another attack." Faye let out a sobbing sigh. "Oh-hoh... what is it now?" The whole time she kept talking with her face in the pillows. How does she keep breathing? "Not sure, but I have an idea, Faye!" Ravendell tried to say it as enthusiastic as possible to cheer Faye up a bit. "Huh, what's with this lame excitement? Have I missed something?" "Since this is somewhat a special occasion, we can excuse ourselves from the administration work and inspect the situation." False alarm, real alarm, it didn't matter. Some fresh air is what Ravendell desired. Faye finally popped her head from the couch. "Outside? You're going outside?" Ravendell grabbed his favorite hat and smirked. "We're going outside."