Monster Integration

ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm

Eight hours passed and something drastic happened. The soft, gentle crystalline light had turned harsh and unforgivable.

It is hot, so much so that normal Primary-III would burn to death. Some of the weak Primary-III's who had survived, the energy will have a hard time surviving this heat.

Still, despite such heat, the plants here are fine. There is no flash fire or anything, they are bearing it without any problem.

In these eight hours, I have been moving north, and I have now crossed enough distance than now; I had entered the city ruin. I have passed over a hundred buildings, but all of them are utterly wretched.

So much that all the formation is destroyed and I could simply scan them with my soul sense.

Nero is also checking many of them, but till now, he didn't find anything important in the buildings. Including what type of place this was, knowing it would help me tremendously.

Whether it is an organization, a simple city, or something else. All these things follow a certain pattern, and knowing them will make me find the things I need.

'Father, you should take a look at this,' said Nero suddenly and a vision in front of me changed.

It is what I had seen many times in the building. Fallen bricks, rusted metals, and things that will turn to dust once touched. He is not looking at those things, instead staring at the empty spot.

'What are you trying to sh,' I was asking a question, when I suddenly stopped, when I sensed the faint aura.

It had a feeling of familiarity; I felt like I have sensed it somewhere and was quite intimate with it, but it was so opaque that I couldn't tell it. 

I have been feeling a lot fainter feeling than this from the energy, since I have come to this ruin, but has never been able to tell it. 

It had thousands of years and the energies here have intermingled so much that I couldn't separate them with my current abilities, but I am sure there is something familiar to them.

I concentrated on the energy for a few seconds, before moving toward Nero.

I have to sense it with my own senses; I felt like knowing what it is will prove immensely helpful to me in this ruin.

It took me a couple of seconds, but I reached where Nero looked at the spot he was looking. Immediately, I felt what he was feeling, and I became even sure that I have seen it somewhere with it.

I racked my brain, trying to find out where I sensed it.

It is definitely in my world; I am sure of that, but I have come across thousands of things I am intimately familiar with.

Hun!

I was racking my brain when one of the bricks closer to my leg collapsed. Sending a tiny burst of dust around; seeing the dust, my eyes widened, and I finally understood why. It felt so familiar.

"Didn't it seem similar to Rose's mist, father?" asked Nero and I slowly turned to him.

'You should say these things sooner, Nero,' I said to him with a smile, before turning to the spot.

Empire of Mist.

The spot is given the same energy as the grand art that my mother, my sister, and my cousin has. 

The reason I had not sensed it before; it had faded a lot.

It also had a far more weight, that it felt almost different. It is likely why it took me time to make a connection. The one who used it had been an extremely powerful individual.

The Grand Art had been used here; they are rarer than bloodlines and immensely powerful.

The Empire of the Mist came from the Mist Realm. Grand Mist Region, before it had melded into the realm in the celestial tower; is one of the most powerful Grand Arts in the universe and its users are extremely hard to kill.

I know it too well. My mother is the most powerful user, and I have been training my sister to use it perfectly, the moment she comprehended it.

In my world, aside from the three of them, I am one who knows most well.

The appearance of Grand Art changes things; whoever fought here, was at least Sky Sovereign or definitely Prime. The people from the realms of the celestial tower are extremely powerful.

Usually, when their people come out of realms, they are at the upper end of Sovereigns.

The Grimms love to kill them. They will forgo a whole city to kill a single person from the realms.

This changes things, but also did not. The battle happened thousands of years ago and now I know at least one person from the mist realm was involved.

Now, if I come across anything misty, I will have to stay far as away from it as possible. I have read about the Empire of Mist and things it could do and staying away is the best option.

I looked around for a few minutes, and after not finding anything interesting, I walked out and once again started following Nero.

An hour passed; in the hour, I did the usual things I did since I appeared in the ruin, I had harvested the resources and hid from the monsters.

The only change is in temperature. It had become even hotter that it felt like an attack every moment. The heat is powerful enough to be an attack and a lot of people will die by it.

The heat couldn't help, but make me wonder whether it will keep increasing.

Currently, I am handling it just fine, but if it keeps increasing. Then I will be forced to see a shelter; thankfully, I didn't have to worry.

There are too many collapsed buildings here that could be used as a heat shelter.

'Father hide,' said Nero suddenly and without wasting any moment. I leaped into a nearly collapsed building, through the whole.

I chose it because there are two exits there, and I could escape from there. If a monster came at me.

Though surviving will be a different question altogether.

Hun!

I had just reached there when I saw a piece of torn cloth not far away from me. The shocking thing is it is new and we only ones who entered the ruin and I am damn sure, there is no person beside me.

Unless it is Sovereign, who had been here hours before me. That is the only explanation.

Still, to be sure, I sent to my core. One could never be careful in a place like this.

I could have looked at it myself, but there is a monster nearby and I don't want to do anything that could make it discover me. The moment it did, it was a game over for me, seeing it as a Sovereign.

'It is Grimms,'

A few seconds passed, and I watched the monster through Nero's gaze when suddenly my clone said something that shocked me to my core.

The cloth belongs to a Grimm, and from what my clone is able to find out; the signs on it are barely a month old.

It is clear the Grimms were here or are here, and it is not good news.

I was screaming about wanting to fight Grimms, but I did not want to fight Grimms in a ruin, where they appeared at least a month before us and might be in large numbers.