In face of the unexpected situation, Edward decided to take a step back. Since his teleportation was in cool down, he cut the door behind him with one slice of his aura blades. The path was cleared, however to his dismay he saw that the catwalk he had used on his way in was currently at the bottom of the Bloodmaw pool. As a security measure, the facility had dropped it, cutting his way of retreat. Clearly, the flames in the corridor and the disappearance of the catwalk were part of the same trap.

Edward swore. Relying on his aura armor to protect him, he sprinted into the burning corridor and cut the nearest door on the side, entering a room that wasn’t a burning inferno. He let out a breath of respite. While he rested to calm himself down, the flames in the corridor continued to burn.

Those flames must be produced by runes on the wall. As long as they are not destroyed or as long as the mana doesn’t run dry, they will continue to burn.

Now that he was temporally safe, Edward focused his attention on the room. At the center of the room was a well with the same liquid as in the pool containing the Bloodmaws. The well itself was surrounded by complex arrays of runes. Edward didn’t understand their role but he knew that it was important.

I’m in the heart of the facility. The only reason the Damkinans didn’t install fire runes in this room is that it would damage the rune formation as well.

Edward destroyed all the runes he was seeing, he even went to the length of cutting the well apart. After he was done, it seemed like a hurricane had crossed the room. Not a wall was unscathed, and deep cuts were covering the previous runes. The whole devastated room looked like an abstract painting representing the essence of violence and destruction.

The flames were still burning outside in the corridor.

Edward projected his aura, probing his surroundings. Other rooms alongside the corridor were in the range of his teleportation. He didn’t need to cross the corridor, he could appear directly in those rooms.

I can just let the fire runes burn the corridor. It’s a tremendous waste of energy but that is exactly what I want. It will decrease the local mana and won’t impede me.

Edward teleported through one room after the other. All the chambers hold complex runes formations, some rooms contained the same formation acting as redundancies. If something went wrong in one rune array, the other would take the relay. Edward destroyed all of them thoroughly.

The corridor ended in a dead end. This area where the heart of the facility was located had only one entrance doubling as an exit. There was no other way in or out. The corridor was still burning in bright flame, but Edward retraced his steps, taking his time between each room waiting for his teleportation to be available again.

In the first room of the corridor, before the pool of growing Bloodmaws, Edward’s teleportation came short. The other side of the pool was further away than his fifty-meter teleportation range. Edward teleported at the entry of the corridor, the flames licking his aura armor. Then he took a step forward forming aura steps and walking above the pool. Being above it, Edward realized that all the Bloodmaws inside of it, although not mature, had been awakened. They were attempting to swim but making a poor job of it. They were moving disgracefully inside the water, sometimes falling back under the liquid. However, it was somehow breathable, and they resurfaced not long after it.

Edward didn’t bother with them, the Bloodmaws had no way out, and the liquid was too low to let them climb up to the corridor or to the broken conveyor belt.

Finally, Edward teleported past the massive entrance door and appeared back in the massive space with rows of broken pods on the ground.

That’s one task completed. I didn’t expect the Bloodmaws to bother me after all this time. Let them be the remnant of an outdated era.

Edward stopped in his walk, hesitating, he was done with the Bloodmaws, the few survivors in the ruins would die from lack of food on their own. He could return to the library to bring back the advanced runes books Leyla required. But he was already deep in the ruin and quite close to the teleportation platform to Shele Nalore, where he had buried Adrien’s remains.

Since it was only a small detour, he decided to pay his respect to the tomb first. He teleported back onto the bridge separating the ruins in two parts and headed to the teleportation platform. He put his hand on the wall of the teleportation platform and appeared in Shele Nalore in a flash of light without the slightest sense of vertigo. His mana capacity was now enough that such teleportation wasn’t bothering him anymore.

He climbed out of the underground repair emerging in the mountain’s scree. He gazed around and froze when he saw what was left of the forest. The whole forest was covered in spider webs except for a few conspicuous areas. The webs were even extending past the forest and starting to encroach on the bottom of the mountain. As far as the eye could see it was only webs and more webs until the horizon.

What the heck happened!? I did notice an area covered in webs before, but for the whole forest to end like that…There were so many Teleportcrows, and that stupid acid-rove beetle too. Did they all get consumed by spiders? This is crazy! Pure madness!

Edward was in a mental state of shock confronted with the difference between his memories and the current situation. He had encountered multiplying monsters forming huge cohorts such as the Murlocs or Harpies. But those had been local monsters, until now he had never seen one species of monster spread on one territory and exterminate everything else. Besides, he was not fond of spiders, and even if the forest had been inhabited by monsters before, Edward preferred the past situation to the current one.

When he was there for the last time, he hadn’t been enthusiastic at the idea of dealing with spiders, and besides, he felt that the forest monsters were strong enough to protect themselves on their own. He had felt no obligation to investigate the matter. He had to revise his opinion given the current situation. The spiders didn’t seem to be content with encompassing the whole forest, they were already making attempts to spread further.

If I don’t do anything, how far will they spread? Will they take over this whole mountain too? Edward pictured Adrian’s tomb covered in spider webs and shuddered in horror. I can’t let that happen. This situation has turned into my problem.

As he was keeping watch over the forest, Edward could see dark shadows crawling through their webs. He cringed in disgust.

I have to act, but I can’t charge heedlessly. This issue is too big to be handled in a short amount of time. I first need to provide Leyla with the books she needs, lest she waits uselessly for me to return. I’m not backing off, I will come back.

Edward was awed and horrified at the same time. While seeing the forest covered in spider webs was disgusting and chilling, one couldn’t help but be eerily impressed by the sheer size of the damage.

Seriously, at this time it would be more effective to come back with a flamethrower and burn everything to the ground. I know employing fire as a weapon is dangerous since it can bring the ire of powerful and seclusive beasts. But at this point, the whole forest is already condemned. Even if I burn it all to cinders, there would be no collateral casualties. And as for the ire of powerful beasts, due to the current state of the forest, I don’t think there are any left other than spiders that I already have to deal with.

Edward retreated to the teleporting platform, wondering if the spiders would also discover it and be able to use it if they were left to their own device. At the same time, he couldn’t help but think he had a part of the responsibility for this problem. He had noticed that the webs were growing in the past, but had chosen to avoid the problem rather than addressing it. Those were the consequences, instead of resolving itself, it had only grown by orders of magnitude. He couldn’t do the same thing again, otherwise, he wasn’t sure if it would be even possible for anyone to stop those spiders.

Edward ran on his way back, not losing any time. The issue wasn’t exactly pressing, the forest was already done for, and there was nobody to save. But meanwhile, the more time he gave the spiders, the stronger they will get and the more they will spread. Time couldn’t be wasted.

Still troubled by the spider situation, Edward only took care of the Bloodmaws on his way as an afterthought. One swing of his blades reinforced by aura was all it took to kill one. Edward didn’t even slow down, crossing through the ruins without difficulties. Additionally, it had to be taken into account that the number of Bloodmaws had already noticeably decrease compare to when Edward entered the ruins. He had killed so many on his way in, that it was noticeable in the global density population.

As he entered the library, Edward paused, treading through the books’ titles and even glimpsing through their content. He couldn’t carry everything, he had to be careful in his choices. Without the spiders, he would still have been able to do round trips to provide Leyla with other books if needed. But now, it wouldn’t be possible, he would be too busy dealing with the spiders to spend much time with Leyla. It pained him, but it was the responsible choice, he couldn’t avoid the problem any longer lest it grew even more and threatened him directly even all the way here.

He focused on tomes related to runes. The Damkinan’s library was extensive and covered a lot of subjects. But although it was precious knowledge, it wouldn’t help Leyla to get books about other worlds’ exploration, ancient history, or even bestiaries about uncommon and elusive creatures. Others attracted Edward’s interest, notably all the ones treating about spells. Right now, the only spells available to Edward were the one for improving his reaction time and the one for telepathy.

And already enhancing his reaction time had proven invaluable and was in perfect synergy with his acceleration power. Since he only had one mana pool, adding other spells would only drain it faster, but it may open better opportunities.

Having made his choices, Edward packed the books carefully and headed once more for Gobéliard. His teleportation was nice, but sometimes he just wished he could have long-range teleportation available. Teleporting directly through Oshle Tirion and Gobéliard would save him so many round trips, especially through the Vipin Forest, which wasn’t exactly safe.