Chapter 236: The Expedition Team Pt. 2

Sora Brontarion

Our hour was up, and it was time for the expedition team to travel to the first nest, located in the southern region where the swamp was the deepest.

My cluster stood by, waiting for the expedition group's concordants to reset everyone's tether.

If Jace were here, he’d definitely say something about my hair frizzing, but I knew that only meant he was looking out for me. Having him here would have been helpful in many ways, but most importantly, he could have helped me avoid sharing a tether connection with Stravos.

Having three Arbiters connected to each other felt like a recipe for disaster. I’d have to be careful about how the other two used their Command Arts on the group. And with Stravos being a stage higher than us, his more potent cosmic energy meant he could potentially override one of our Command Arts.

It was not something I wanted to worry about in the midst of trying to keep myself and my cluster alive in this abominable rift.

Sigmond walked up to us, without saying a word, his face showing slight signs of strain.

One by one, he pulled pieces from a large, hovering orb of cosmic energy, stretching and molding them into rope-like structures before attaching them to each of our tethers.

I was the last to be connected.

My body shuddered.

The intensity of everyone’s emotions flowing into me was heightened. This tether art made it feel like everyone clung to me like a wet shirt.

I had never gotten the chance to work through that drawback.

“Sora, are you ok?” Voen asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

Taking a breath, I shook off the sensation the best I could.

“Yeah, nothing I can’t handle. Is everyone ready to head out?”

There were some not-so-enthusiastic murmurs, but everyone started to file in line after Stravos.

Professor Thorne walked up to us, still struggling to move.

“May your Pantheon bless you with protection and wisdom on your journey,” she said, her voice cracking subtly.

I could feel her embarrassment. She was our teacher, after all, an experienced Arbiter, yet she hadn’t been able to help when we needed her most. I knew she had put her life on the line before, saving all those other children by herself, which caused her to have a massive gash on her leg where we could see parts of the bone.

If anyone should have been going on this trip, it should have been her.

“Everyone, don’t listen to the sympathetic words of that weakling of a teacher. I will lead us to victory, and make sure we all escape the rift.”

Stravos said through the mental link, dropping to the jungle's surface.

His cluster followed, then Jossie’s and lastly mine.

“Based on the map the truth seekers made, we are a couple of miles away. We are going to travel in wedge formation; my titan will lead the way, while the rest of my cluster will fill out the front line. We will move fast and attack behemoths in a segmented fashion. No one will be taking on a behemoth alone. If one appears too strong, call for me, and I'll finish it. We will move like a machine. Is that clear?”

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Many of the students nodded.

“Alright, good, now off we go.”

Stravos dashed south, cutting through the jungle’s growth, and we all followed.

“If you guys even think about undermining him. I won’t think twice about cutting you down.” Ida said, channeling a message to Josse and me.

“She’s kidding, right?” Jossie asked me.

“I don’t think she is. The Vortaris Branch families take their supporting roles seriously.”

“Let’s just hope Stravos is as good an Arbiter as he thinks he is.’’

“Let's hope.”

As we traveled through the jungle, we came across the numerous behemoths that lunged out at us. Our group handled the ambushes well, implementing the exact strategy that Stravos wanted.

But during these bouts, I kept feeling an emotion that didn’t fit. As if something was experiencing euphoria watching us fight for our lives, and every so often I thought I saw a faint glow of an echo lurking in the jungle.

I was struggling to keep it together and be strong for my cluster.

Stravos’s cluster seemed to relish this moment, finding joy in cutting down behemoths one after another. I even heard one talking about how they couldn’t wait for their banquet back home once everyone finds out they conquered a rift.

They didn’t seem to be taking it seriously. Maybe they were well suited for situations like this, or perhaps it was because they were led by someone who could bear much of the burden.

Stravos was definitely doing that, as he and his titan created a path of blood in their wake, displaying just how big the gap was between the rest of us.

But through the tether, I felt a level of uncertainty coming from Kuru—a student who had recently recovered from being knocked out. Kuru was an heir of one of the great twelve families, so he didn’t hold Stravos in the same regard as the rest of his cluster did, based on the brief interactions I had seen from them.

Stravos didn’t treat him like he was beneath him either. Part of me wondered if it was because he knew how important an astronomer was in a place like this.

Speaking of astronomers, where did Cyrus get washed away to? How did no one come across him?

“Everyone, slow down,” Kuru said through the mental connection.

“What for?” Stravos asked, walking up to Kuru.

“Because it appears that a radiation zone is coming up soon. Everyone, make sure you put on the ointment right now. We can’t afford to be burnt alive.”

“Fine, everyone, take a quick five, and apply the ointment," Stravos said as he walked away from Kuru.

Kuru kept looking at the sky through his telescope and plotted data into his astroglobe tablet.

I wondered what he was looking at. I’d heard that the Perception Astral Affinity allowed astronomers to see things the rest of us couldn’t. I started toward him to ask, but he looked so focused that I didn’t want to interrupt him.

After we all applied the ointment, we continued heading south.

Running down the path, my gaze fell on the bright orange sky.

With each step we took, the sky got dimmer, and the rift got darker.

It wasn’t long before we were traveling through pure darkness again.

I was expecting to feel a dull version of the burn we experienced last time we were in a radiation zone.

It never came.

“Guys, I can’t hear anything,” Voen said to our cluster in a direct mental link.

Wait. Now that I think about it, neither can I.

I paused.

I tried to snap my fingers near my ear.

Not a single sound registered.

I quickly sparked my hand, illuminating the darkness around me.

I flinched at what I saw.

Several pincers were poised to clamp down on a member of Jossie’s cluster.