Chapter 240: Second Layer

The raid party moved deeper into the silver forest.

There was no corridor. No passage. No clear transition. Just the forest, stretching endlessly in every direction. The trees grew taller as they advanced. The trunks wider. The leaves glowed brighter. The purple sky remained unchanged—an endless violet expanse pressing down from above.

The air grew colder. Their breath misted in front of their faces.

Nathan walked near the front, Moonlight in his grip. His party was spread out around him—Garrett and Red on the left, Dillon and Cloudy on the right, Elise in the center with the Frost Golem trailing behind, Smithy at the rear with his Void Eel. His summons were in their bunny forms, resting on his shoulders and in his jacket. Amara walked beside him, her spirits swirling lazily around her head.

No one spoke. The only sounds were their footsteps on the silver grass and the faint hum of the glowing leaves.

An hour passed. Then two.

---

The debris appeared gradually.

A chunk of broken concrete. A twisted metal beam. A shard of glass half-buried in the grass. Nathan stepped over them without slowing.

Then more. A section of seating, still bolted to its frame. A piece of a scoreboard, its screen cracked and dark. A banner, torn and burned, the symbol of one of the competing nations barely visible.

Arthur stopped. He picked up a piece of metal and turned it over in his hands. It was a fragment of the stadium’s outer wall, its edge jagged and scorched.

"The Tower pulled it in," Smithy said. "Everything that was inside the stadium when it formed. The field. The stands. The people."

Nathan looked at the debris scattered across the forest floor. A child’s shoe. A half-eaten snack. A program from the tournament, its pages wrinkled and stained.

They kept walking.

---

The forest thickened.

The silver trees grew closer together. The branches interlocked overhead, blocking out most of the purple light. The debris became more frequent—larger sections of the stadium, whole rows of seats, pieces of the central stage. A scoreboard hung from a tree branch, its screen flickering with static.

Nathan kept his eyes moving. Hunter’s Insight was active, scanning for threats. The mana signatures were faint. Too faint. Something was wrong.

He saw movement between the trees. A shadow. Gone before he could focus on it.

He saw another. To his left. Then his right.

Amara walked closer to him. Her spirits had stopped swirling. They hovered close to her body, tight and still.

"You see them," she said.

"Yes."

Her jaw tightened. She didn’t say anything else.

---

The attack came without warning.

A vine shot down from the canopy. Silver. Thick as a man’s arm. Covered in thorns. It wrapped around Kwame Asante’s waist and yanked him off his feet. He didn’t scream. He didn’t have time.

A second vine grabbed Zara Diallo. She opened her mouth to gasp. The vine pulled her into the trees before the sound came out.

A third vine wrapped around Yuki Tanaka’s arm. She slashed at it with her dagger. The blade scraped against the thorns and slid off. The vine dragged her upward. Her dagger clattered to the ground.

Three Climbers. Gone in three seconds.

Arthur spun. "AMBUSH!"

The raid party formed a defensive circle. Weapons raised. Eyes on the canopy. The silver trees swayed. The vines hung from every branch, coiled around every trunk.

A vine shot toward Nathan. He dodged, firing a Mana Arrow. The arrow struck the vine and bounced off. The thorns were too thick.

Dillon and Cloudy sent lightning into the canopy. The flash illuminated the trees for a moment. Nathan saw shapes—humanoid, twisted, their bodies covered in vines, their arms stretched into tendrils that reached across the forest.

Then the light faded. The shapes disappeared.

Kaito charged into the trees. His sword flashed, cutting through a vine. It fell, twitching. He cut another. Arthur followed, his blade blazing. Elise froze a cluster of vines solid. Garrett and Red guarded the rear, Volcan raised.

Nathan fired Starfall Barrage into the canopy. The arrows rained down, piercing through leaves and branches. A vine was severed. Another fell. But more kept coming.

"Where are they taking them?" Dillon shouted.

Smithy pointed up. "Into the canopy."

Nathan looked. The silver leaves glowed, hiding whatever was above. Kwame. Zara. Yuki. Somewhere up there, trapped in the branches.

He nocked another arrow.

"Let’s Climb it."

---

The party moved to the nearest tree. Its trunk was wider than a house, its bark smooth and cold. There were no branches low enough to reach. No handholds. No footholds.

Elise raised Aurora’s Heart. The Frost Golem stepped forward and slammed its fists into the trunk. Ice spread upward, forming a ladder of frozen spikes. Nathan grabbed the first spike and pulled himself up.

The others followed. Garrett and Red. Dillon and Cloudy. Elise and the Frost Golem. Smithy. Amara and her remaining teammates. Kaito and his team. Arthur. Long Wei. Han Seo-jun.

The vines followed.

They shot from the branches, from the trunks, from the canopy above. The Climbers cut them down as they climbed. Kaito’s sword. Arthur’s blade. Long Wei’s fists. Han Seo-jun’s daggers. Elise’s ice. Dillon’s lightning. Nathan’s arrows.

But the vines kept coming.

A vine wrapped around a Southern Republic mage’s ankle. He was pulled off the ice ladder and into the trees. Another vine grabbed a Northern Coalition tank. Gone. A third took an Eastern Dominion swordswoman. Gone.

"Faster!" Arthur shouted.

They climbed.

---

The canopy was a battlefield.

Silver leaves. Silver branches. Silver vines everywhere. The three captured Climbers hung suspended in the branches, wrapped in thorny cocoons. They were alive—Nathan could see them breathing—but they couldn’t move.

And around them, the vine creatures waited.

Treants.

There were six of them.

Nathan landed on a branch and drew Moonlight. His party formed up behind him. The other teams spread out across the canopy.

The Treants didn’t move. They just stood there, their tendrils swaying, their blank faces pointed at the Climbers.