Chapter 2070: Entering The Abyssal Mushroom Forest

"What’s this forest?" Elayne wondered aloud as she stepped carefully between the towering stalks. The air felt heavy and damp, thick with the scent of wet earth and something faintly metallic. "Hm? I can feel a lot of beings here..."

"Abyssal Myconids make their lives here," Marble explained, her voice low and steady as she guided them deeper into the gloom. "One of the main reasons Queen Spectria built that massive wall in the first place. Ever wondered why it’s standing there so tall and solid? It’s because of the monsters that live below. The Abyssal Myconids, the Blood Treants, and the Vampiric Dryads are all incredibly strong and intelligent creatures that thrive in these depths. They come up regularly to steal her warmth, her energy, and her precious flames for themselves. So she not only erected those high walls but also maintains her own dedicated guard of soldiers and knights to defend her domain."

"None of them could come to the city above’s aid, huh?" Blank sighed, a note of quiet frustration in his voice as he adjusted his grip on his weapon.

"Well, I was frustrated about it too at first," Marble admitted with a tired sigh of her own. "But the truth is, we’re living in two completely different worlds down here. They have no real obligation to help the surface city, no matter how bad things get. It is what it is, as they say."

"So what do we do here? Shall we just exterminate the Abyssal Myconids?" Blank asked, already holding his spear ready as his aura began to surge with quiet power.

"Don’t," Marble said firmly, raising one hand to stop him. "That would only enrage their Queens. There are many of them, and they live even deeper underground in gigantic, sprawling colonies. There’s some sort of... strange peace that exists between the city and the wildlife below. Conflicts still happen, of course, but there hasn’t been a full-on war in quite a long while now. Skirmishes break out from time to time, and sometimes the strongest among them end up in the colosseum as warriors. You might even meet some of their best fighters there, battling for the honor of their tribes."

"That’s kind of sad. Wouldn’t that make them...?" Elayne muttered, her expression darkening as the implications settled over her.

"Slaves?" Marble finished for her, eyes gleaming with a complicated mix of resignation and bitterness. "Yes. There are slaves in the city... many of them. The whole place runs on a combination of paid workers and enslaved labor."

"T-That’s awful. Why?!" Elayne asked, genuine distress rising in her voice. "Slavery shouldn’t exist... it’s wrong on every level."

"Yeah, of course it is. Tell that to Queen Spectria," Marble laughed without much humor. "Or her personal Guard, or her Champions. If you ever want to have an audience with her, you’ll need to win the tournament that’s about to begin soon. It’s called the Blue Flame Soul Tournament. The winner gets a personal audience with the Queen herself and one wish granted — anything within her power can be yours. Some warriors fight to free their people. Others want renown and glory. A few simply wish to obtain a portion of her flames and bring them back to strengthen their tribes..."

"..." Elayne fell into deep thought about everything she had just heard. Could this woman really be the same big sister Ignis had spoken of with such warmth?

Ignis himself stood in stunned silence. This was nothing like the sister he remembered. "This wasn’t how big sis used to be... she’s always been kind and overprotective of everyone around her... W-Why suddenly change like this? Why would she act this way now?"

Marble read through Ignis’s soul in an instant and knew he was telling the truth about his identity. Still, she chose to treat him as a possible liar and demand proof. The reason was simple — her words held very little weight in this city, and false claims of kinship with the Queen could get people killed.

"Ah, it’s so dark and misty here..." Dorothy murmured, wrapping her arms around herself. "It feels a little sad~"

"Hmm... I like the darkness, actually," Shade said quietly, drifting closer behind her while scanning the surroundings with sharp senses. "Hm? Enemies."

"Enemies?" Elayne asked, just as an arrow whistled past her face so close it nearly took her right eye. "Ah! Barriers up!" she cried out in alarm.

She slammed her hand against the ground and called on her spirit magic, forging protective barriers around the group. Yet the strange forest refused to answer her authority. The massive colony of giant mushrooms and their tangled roots interrupted her magic, clashing against it and weakening every spell she tried to form. "W-What is this...?!"

As she struggled to protect everyone, a rain of arrows began falling from all directions at once.

"These guys use arrows?! Why?!" Mark asked in clear annoyance, already stepping forward. "Well, they can’t affect me much. Let me go take care of them."

"Stop," Marble ordered, blocking him with an outstretched hand. "Do you think their arrows aren’t poisonous even to undead? The blades are coated with a deadly Nether Soul Poison extracted from Nether Soul Mushrooms they cultivate themselves." She held up one of the arrows she had caught. "If it pierces your soul, it will slowly corrode it from the inside. If it pierces your body, mushrooms will eventually grow all over you and turn you into a living colony of their offspring."

"We’re strong. We defeated someone like Jester and your monsters when they were juiced up to the max. You think we’re afraid of a few arrows?" Sailor asked, confidence clear in his voice.

"..." Marble narrowed her eyes, studying the shadows between the giant mushrooms. "They’re still reasonable for now. They’re watching us carefully. They realize we aren’t easy prey."

The tension in the air thickened as more unseen eyes observed them from the depths of the fungal forest, waiting to see what the intruders would do next.

-----