There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 565 - 559. Search Party

Chapter 565: Chapter 559. Search Party

"Oh, if it isn’t Captain Abe!"

Han Shin opened his arms wide when Naoya crossed the field and arrived at their camp the next morning. He even had a welcoming chocolate for the archer, while Ashur held up a glass of iced coffee. How they had better delicacy than the main base was beyond Naoya.

"Shut it," Naoya quipped--but still received the high-quality chocolate anyway. "You ended up pulling us to the other side anyway."

It was clear that Naoya was disappointed and considered his first mission as a leader a failed one. But Han Shin and Ashur glanced at each other and grinned. "Eh, that’s true," they said while shrugging and rolling their eyes.

"Ruthless bastards," Naoya grumbled, before letting out a self-deprecating chuckle that invited the two espers to laugh too. "Damn, I miss you guys."

They cackled and brought Naoya to the dining table they set. Right after the war, Naoya climbed the Tower, and once he returned to the Deathzone, [Anzus] was being split everywhere. It was his first time alone in an operation, and it was rather lonely.

Bassena patted the archer’s back, who looked rather down. "Well, no one gets hurt, so...good job, Naoya."

The archer only smiled subtly despite the praise; perhaps because it sounded more like a consolation.

"He’s as competitive as his big sis," Bassena smirked, prompting the others to laugh. But he followed it with a pat on the archer’s shoulder. "Don’t worry, you still have a lot to do."

Naoya glanced at the field of fog he just crossed for the first time. "I guess..."

Finding a path to cross the field was just the first step. High-level espers like five-stars might be able to cross without much difficulty, but it might be a different story for the others. Not to mention the guides.

For that, the field needed to be cleared of miasma. Even if they couldn’t put a purification device there, they needed to at least get rid of the thick fog that obscured the way.

"How will we do it?" Naoya asked while nibbling on the chocolate Han Shin gave him.

"It’ll be me and you this time," Bassena pointed at the archer. "Zein said we can’t compromise the barrier more than that."

"No splitting up, then?"

"No, there’s only one shard," Bassena glanced at the glowing crystal in Zein’s embrace. Besides, aside from him and Naoya, the shard accepted only Han Joon. He turned to the other espers again. "So we might stay here for a few days. We can’t use too much time, however, so if we don’t find anything after three days, we will proceed with the dungeon again."

Han Shin chuckled, looking in the direction of the canyon where the dungeon was. "The Queen will sulk again."

"Hmm...seems like we’ll have nothing to do during those days, so I’ll go clean the area," Jock said.

"Yeah," Ashur nodded in agreement. "Let’s map some more. I feel like we can find something in that canyon."

"You do that," Bassena agreed.

"Some more espers will try to cross in a few hours, but I’m not sure if they can go all the way through," Naoya told them.

Zein replied nonchalantly. "I’ll guide them right away if they manage to cross."

"Ooh...premium service~" Han Shin whistled, garnering one portion of smacking in the back of his head from Bassena. "Hehe..."

They had breakfast while catching up with Naoya about what happened on the other side and outside of Deathzone, before Ashur and Jock departed on their pathfinding mission. Han Joon, who would be substituted with either Naoya or Bassena for the search later, would be waiting on standby at the camp.

"Are you ready?" Zein patted the shard, and it flew listlessly toward Bassena.

"Pfft," Bassena held the shard, which still obediently perched over his shoulder. There was no need for an interpretation device; the sluggish movement was very much readable. "Don’t look so disappointed."

Bassena pulled up an empty map of the fog field Han Shin made last night. A line had been made to indicate the rope connecting the two side and their camp. He made grids along the empty map--twenty long vertical lines--and pointed at the first row.

"Let’s walk along the line. I’m not sure how far the shard--or us--could detect something in this thick field, but I think this much radius is fine."

"Let’s."

* * *

An area of more or less one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide; shouldn’t take a long time even if they walked slowly back and forth twenty times in limited visibility and air.

That was, if they didn’t need to mind the corrosion.

Even with the shard’s barrier, which provided them protection to some point, corrosion still stuck up quickly even without using skills. Of course, as high-ranking espers, they could hold on for an hour or two inside; but that would mean high-level corrosion, and too much burden for Zein. Thus, they had no choice but to come out between thirty to fifty minutes to receive guiding.

More than that, the field wasn’t as flat as they thought. It wasn’t just forest and meadow; there were hills and cliffs that hindered the search and took them twice as long to pass through. That did not include the harsh hallucination effect when they got closer to the middle lane. The shard’s energy offset that hallucination effect, but the burden in their mind was still exhausting.

Ah, and the shard would refuse to come after doing it a few times a day, going inside Zein’s sealed ring to sulk, grumbling about how cruel Zein was to send it to the scary place over and over again.

It was fine and all after some praises and gentle words from Zein, though. Such a cute fella.

Meanwhile, the original fog team tried to cross the field using the rope Arlo brought as a guideline. It was only in the late afternoon--by borderland standard--when someone managed to endure the middle lane and cross safely, but success was still a success.

The camp acted like a convalescence house, welcoming the crossing espers and giving them refreshments while Zein guided them; truly premium service.

First step is the most important. Perhaps because of that, after the first non-five-star success, more and more espers managed to cross. On the evening of the second day, Arlo also managed to dash along the rope without getting bewildered. The young esper wore a smug expression in front of Cohen, who shook his head exasperatedly because Arlo also came panting and in red.

"This is the last day?" Han Joon fixed his gloves in a ritual while walking toward the fog. This time, it would be his and Bassena’s turn.

"We’re reaching the middle lane, so maybe we’ll get something today," Bassena exhaled slowly, stretching his stiff neck.

While Naoya and Han Joon took a turn, Bassena was there in every shift. Even his sturdy body and mind would feel exhausted, no matter how well Zein cleansed him at night. He initially thought it was a shame that they could only spare three days, but now he felt good about it being the last day.

"Phew...even black dungeons feel cute compared to this fog," Bassena muttered when they entered the field.

"What do you think it could be?" Han Joon asked. "A Fragment? Some artifacts that the Fallen Star made?"

"I’m inclined to think it’s the latter."

"Reason?

"Because it’s miasma," Bassena replied while hacking the thick plantation in front of them with a dagger. He wanted to use as little skill as possible since Zein also seemed tired from guiding these days--with more espers coming to cross--so he resorted to using a cold weapon.

Han Joon also took out a knife instead of using his wires, and started to make marks on the surrounding trees while Bassena continued the explanation.

"The fragments developed body out of miasma, but their energy is still that of a corrupted Celestial Being," Bassena narrowed his eyes as he recalled all the attacks the fragments made. They might look like they belonged in the Deathzone, but they used a completely different energy with the beasts. Also...he remembered their conjecture that the Fallen Star hid in the dungeon because the miasma was hindering Its recuperation. "I don’t think a fragment would be able to produce miasma."

"I see," Han Joon nodded.

The ex-soldier had only seen those fragments from afar before, when he entered the Fallen Star’s dungeon, so he didn’t really know how those creatures worked. But he did think they had a different feel from the other beasts, or even Specters.

Oh?

"Could it be...a Specter?"

Bassena stopped hacking and tilted his head to mull over it. "I thought about that too, but...a Specter usually stayed not far from a shard--unless they are mobilized for the war like last time," he frowned slightly before shrugging. "But it’s also good if it’s a Specter; simpler that way, no?"

Han Joon nodded in agreement. "Then...what kind of relic do you think it is?"

"Hmm..." Bassena tried to think while moving his hand again to clear the path. "Maybe something that collects miasma from the environment and locks it in a certain area?"

"Ah, make sense--oh?"

Bassena’s dagger sliced a curtain of vines, and finally, the thick forest that had been blocking their path for the past ten minutes cleared up. Stepping between two grotesque-looking trees, they stumbled upon what looked like a tall wall.

And then the shard who had been sluggishly hovered between them vibrated in warning and confusion.

Staring at the wall--or rather, a part of a ruin--Bassena smirked. "Smells sus."