Chapter 145: A Desperate Request

Chapter 145: Chapter 145: A Desperate Request

The conversation began immediately.

The representatives didn’t waste time with formalities.

One of them took a breath before speaking.

"When Tempest Hollow first became unstable, the mission was still treated as a compulsory assignment for the newly awakened."

Cornelius listened quietly.

"They were supposed to explore the outer areas, gain experience, and recover resources. We expected some danger, but nothing beyond what we could handle."

He gave a bitter smile.

"We were wrong."

The first few missions had already gone badly.

The mutation had continued spreading, and the number of beasts inside the zone kept increasing.

They managed to recover some of their talented young elemental users, but many others were still trapped deeper inside.

"So we sent more people."

Another representative continued.

"Then we stopped treating it as a training mission."

They had started using their full forces.

Experienced elemental users entered the zone.

Powerful teams were formed.

Resources were gathered and sent back as quickly as possible.

But the deeper they went, the worse things became.

"The beasts were stronger than they should have been."

His hands tightened around the armrest.

"And there were too many."

Cornelius understood that part immediately.

He had seen the same thing in Frostveil.

"You could kill one group and another would appear before you could even recover."

The man swallowed.

"Then another."

"And another."

The resources inside Tempest Hollow had helped keep them going.

The zone continued producing valuable materials, elemental cores, treasures, and other resources.

But eventually, even those weren’t enough.

Cornelius slowly leaned back.

He understood.

Winterbourne had experienced the same thing.

Resources could keep people fighting.

They couldn’t solve the problem.

"When it became too much for individual families, we formed an alliance."

A second representative spoke.

"Graymoon, Dawncrest, Azure, Calloway and several others."

His expression darkened.

"We pooled our forces."

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then the man’s fist tightened.

"We also pooled our resources."

The anger in his voice was obvious now.

"We spent more than we could afford just keeping the zone from swallowing our territories."

A vein stood out on his forehead.

Cornelius noticed.

He didn’t need to ask why.

He had felt that same frustration himself.

They had fought.

They had lost people.

They had spent resources.

And the problem kept growing.

One of the representatives suddenly muttered,

"And then there was the floating ruin."

Several people around the table went silent.

Their expressions changed immediately.

Cornelius noticed the reaction.

Whatever had happened there, it clearly wasn’t something they had forgotten.

Far beneath Frostveil, Damon suddenly sneezed.

"Ah... someone must be talking about me."

Caelia looked at him.

"Why would anyone be talking about you?"

Damon shrugged.

"Probably because I’m very memorable."

Caelia rolled her eyes.

"Right."

Damon smiled and returned his attention to the Zone Heart.

Back at Winterbourne, the representative continued.

"We kept exploring anyway."

His voice became quieter.

"Because stopping wasn’t an option."

The mutation continued.

Tempest Hollow expanded beyond its original boundaries.

Areas that had once belonged to their families became dangerous.

Then the danger moved closer to their cities.

"We realized that if we couldn’t stop it, eventually the zone would reach our lands."

He looked directly at Cornelius.

"And after that..."

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

Cornelius understood.

A Distorted Zone that kept expanding wouldn’t just destroy resources.

It could destroy entire settlements.

Another representative took over.

"That’s when we started investigating the cause."

They searched through old records.

They questioned researchers.

They explored deeper parts of the zone while fighting the beast tide.

They were doing two things at once.

Trying to reclaim their land.

And trying to understand what was causing the mutation.

Neither had gone well.

"We lost more people."

His voice cracked slightly.

"Some died fighting beasts. Others were injured badly enough that they couldn’t return."

His eyes lowered.

"Every time we thought we were making progress, something else happened."

Cornelius’s expression became heavier.

He could already imagine it.

Winterbourne had been lucky.

They had fought a similar battle.

They had nearly been overwhelmed.

If Damon hadn’t appeared when he did...

Cornelius didn’t even want to think about it.

Their situation could have ended very differently.

The representative’s voice pulled him back.

"Then we found the passage."

Cornelius’s eyes sharpened.

"The passage?"

The man nodded.

"It took us days to understand what we were looking at."

They had discovered a connection hidden deep within Tempest Hollow.

At first, they thought it was simply another strange structure inside the zone.

Then they sensed something coming through it.

Ice Elemental essence.

Unstable.

Violent.

The more they studied it, the clearer the answer became.

"The other side was affected too."

Cornelius remained silent.

The representative continued.

"Just like the theory you mentioned in your reports, the two Distorted Zones were affecting each other."

Cornelius’s fingers tapped lightly against the table.

"So you confirmed it."

"We did."

They had watched the Ice Elemental essence pass through the connection.

They had watched the instability spread.

And eventually, they noticed something else.

It had started slowing down.

"Recently, the passage became calmer."

Cornelius’s expression changed slightly.

He knew exactly why.

Damon.

"The amount of unstable Aether coming through had decreased."

The representative shook his head.

"We didn’t understand why."

"So we entered."

They followed the passage carefully.

What they found on the other side shocked them.

"Frostveil was different."

Cornelius’s eyes narrowed.

"Different how?"

"More stable."

The representative looked at him.

"Much more stable than it had been before."

Cornelius didn’t answer.

He already knew.

Damon had been working.

The representatives didn’t.

Not yet.

"We knew then that something had happened."

Another representative leaned forward.

"Something in Frostveil had changed."

They had searched for answers.

Old records mentioned something.

A structure.

A source.

Something called a Zone Heart.

But the information was incomplete.

"The records were locked away."

"We couldn’t access everything."

They had searched anyway.

For days.

Then weeks.

They explored deeper into their Zone

They searched areas that had already been cleared.

They searched places no ordinary elemental user would dare enter.

Nothing.

"We couldn’t find it."