Chapter 261: The Four Paths

The light vanished, and Silas landed on solid ground, his shoes scraping across stone. He immediately looked around.

"Well..." He turned. "...that's not the central sanctum."

The rest of Valecrest Academy began appearing around him one after another. Chloe landed beside him, while Damien appeared several meters away. Alpha nearly fell on his face, while Neil landed directly on his backside. Alicia, Emma, Godfrey, Peter, Salmoa, Victor, Natalia, Darren, and Christian appeared afterward.

Everyone immediately checked their surroundings.

They were standing inside an enormous forest, as always, but this was nothing like the illusion forest from Stage Three. These trees were real.

Silas could smell the wet soil and hear the insects. Leaves moved naturally in the wind, while sunlight filtered through the branches. Even his Fate Thread Vision showed no obvious distortion.

Chloe touched one of the trees. "It's real."

Silas looked around. "That's disappointing."

"How is that disappointing?" Neil asked, his expression frightened. At this point, he had accepted the fact that Silas was a madman.

"I was hoping the tower would give us another fake world."

"You wanted another illusion?"

"At least those are predictable."

Alpha looked into the distance, his expression turning serious. "Something is wrong."

"What?" Silas's smile disappeared.

Alpha closed his eyes and let his ability spread subtly across his body. The surrounding forest seemed to become clearer.

"I can sense something."

"Monster?"

"No."

"People?"

"No."

Alpha opened his eyes, his pupils glowing faintly pink. "Movement."

Everyone became alert at the sound of that. A branch snapped somewhere in the distance. Then another. Something was approaching.

Silas immediately summoned a thin pink thread between two fingers.

"Finally."

"You sound happy."

"I was getting bored."

"That is exactly what I was afraid of."

The bushes ahead suddenly exploded outward, and a creature emerged. Everyone prepared to attack, but stopped.

It was enormous, nearly three meters tall.

Its body resembled a stag, but its antlers were made of black stone. Its four legs ended in claws, and glowing symbols covered its chest.

Silas immediately activated Fate Thread Vision, and his eyes widened.

"That's weird."

"What?"

"I can't see its rank."

The creature roared.

[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED]

[STANDARD RANK ANALYSIS FAILED]

[THREAT LEVEL: UNAVAILABLE]

Damien tightened his grip.

"The tower warned us."

"Apparently," Silas said.

The creature charged, and Alpha disappeared. The next instant, he appeared above the beast and slammed his greatsword into its head.

BOOM!

The creature crashed into the ground, causing the forest to shake.

Alpha landed. "It is physically strong."

The creature stood again, and there wasn't even a scratch.

Silas whistled. "That's pretty durable."

The beast turned toward Alpha, and its stone antlers suddenly glowed, causing a wave of energy to erupt. Alpha vanished before it struck- the attack tore through the forest, causing trees to explode and everyone to scatter.

Silas jumped onto a tree branch.

"Okay." He smiled. "Now we're having fun."

[STAGE FOUR SPECIAL CONDITION DETECTED]

Silas's smile froze. The system window appeared directly in front of him.

[SPECIAL CONDITION]

[ALL HOSTILE ENTITIES POSSESS ADAPTIVE PROPERTIES]

[REPEATED ATTACKS WILL BECOME LESS EFFECTIVE]

Silas stared at the notification.

"Oh."

He looked at the creature. The beast had already begun changing. The damage from Alpha's punch had vanished; its stone body had become darker, its antlers had grown, and its eyes had turned crimson.

Neil noticed it too.

"Why is it getting stronger?!"

Silas scratched his cheek.

"Because apparently the tower hates us."

Damien shouted from behind a tree.

"That's your explanation for everything!"

"It's usually correct, kiddo!"

The creature charged again, and this time, Alpha intercepted it. He struck the beast in the chest, and the impact pushed it backward, but instead of falling, the creature twisted around Alpha's arm.

Its antlers swung toward his head, but Alpha ducked, while Chloe appeared beside him and unleashed a devastating kick, causing the creature to fly sideways and crash through five trees.

Before it could stand, Chloe raised her hand, causing a massive blast of icy energy to strike it. The forest shook.

Silas watched the smoke.

"That should do it."

The smoke cleared, and the creature stood, uninjured. Silas's eyes widened.

"Okay." He cracked his fingers. "That's annoying."

The creature suddenly disappeared, and Silas's Fate Thread Vision flared.

"Behind you!"

Alpha turned, but it was too late. The creature appeared directly behind him and swung its claw down, causing the feminine boy to block with both arms.

The ground beneath him shattered, and he was driven several meters into the soil.

"ALPHA!" Chloe shouted, rushing forward.

Silas's expression changed, and a thread shot from his hand. It wrapped around Alpha's waist and pulled, yanking him out of the crater just before another strike landed.

The claw slammed into the ground.

Silas looked at Alpha and asked. "You good?"

Alpha dusted himself off. "Yes."

"You looked like you weren't."

"I'm fine."

"Your arms are bleeding."

"I'm fine."

"You people have terrible definitions of fine."

The creature turned toward them, and its body began changing again. Its black stone hide cracked, and something beneath it began glowing.

Silas's eyes narrowed.

'It's adapting to everything.'

That meant brute force would become useless. He looked at the monster, then at his teammates, and then at the forest, and a thought occurred to him. The tower had specifically warned them that repeated attacks would become less effective.

That meant there was another way.

Silas closed his eyes, and Fate Thread Vision expanded, and thousands of threads appeared. They stretched throughout the forest- some belonged to his teammates, some belonged to the creature, and others connected to the environment, but there was something else.

A massive thread ran beneath the ground and extended far beyond the forest. Silas followed it with his vision, and his eyes widened.

"Guys." Everyone looked at him. "I think I found our path."

Chloe approached.

"What do you mean?"

Silas pointed toward the creature.

"We don't need to kill that thing."

Everyone stared at him, and Neil especially looked horrified.

"We don't?"

"No." Silas pointed downward. "The tower is connecting everything here to something beneath us."

Alpha's eyes narrowed.

"The central sanctum?"

Silas smiled.

"Maybe." He looked at the monster. "That thing isn't protecting this forest."

His eyes followed the enormous thread beneath the earth.

"It's protecting the path."

A notification appeared.

[THREAD ANALYSIS COMPLETE]

[HIDDEN STRUCTURE DETECTED]

[OBJECTIVE UPDATED]

[REACH THE CENTRAL SANCTUM]

[SUB-OBJECTIVE: LOCATE THE PATHWAY]

Silas grinned.

"There." He pointed through the trees. "That's our way out."

Chloe looked at the enormous monster.

"And it won't let us pass."

Silas's grin widened.

"Then we don't pass."

He raised his hand, and pink threads began spreading through the forest, causing the creature to roar. Silas looked directly at it.

"Let's make it move."

Alpha understood immediately.

"You want to manipulate its movement."

"Exactly."

Chloe smiled.

"Then I'll create an opening."

Damien stepped forward.

"What are we doing?"

Silas looked at everyone.

"For the first time, we're not fighting the monster."

He pulled his fingers apart, and the entire forest lit up with pink threads.

"We're fighting the stage."

The creature charged, and Valecrest Academy moved as one.