Advanced Cultivation Civilization

ACC Chapter 49 Interlude;THEM!

We all crave power. Even those who really feel that they don't, eventually capitulate to possess such greed. Maybe due to circumstances, or the whims of the world itself.

And when you finally manage to grasp such power within your hands, letting it go is the hardest thing to do.

The world, the Earth, the very planet itself had given us a chance to make a choice. And we had taken it.

Grudgingly, I'd say that the Federation as a whole was a great place, a place where the great qualities of humanity could be displayed...but if I and the rest of my companions had agreed to be under that woman's thumb, then what would have been the point of my years of existence climbing the sect's power ladder to finally earn the seat of a sect master?

I, for one had almost given into despair at the fact that I would have had to let all the power I had wielded be transferred into someone else's hands, but the planet's evolution changed all that and gave me a chance to hold onto such power. It was a chance I couldn't afford to squander.

Though, my entire being knew of one thing as surely as the rise and setting of the Sun, that the Federation wouldn't sit around and let us keep what we had taken. No! Those people would be coming! And it will be in the name of the sectless trash within this city.

A divine sense tendril, mine to be precise, made contact with a shiny knob in the left corner of my desk, after which I stood up and arrived at the window that had been at my back. Through it, I could see the other towers of the sects scattered around the city.

Though with the power of my sect we could have chosen the centre of the city like the others, but I was different. These others were locking themselves with a small territory, but with the expansions that we, those at the edges of the city were undertaking, we would have far more land than them in the future...though, would we even have a future?

We might have taken a bit of its strength, but I was under no illusion that we could even match the Federation. The attempts to persuade the martians hadn't gone well. The Golden Merchant had too much of a presence there for us to muster any support. And that meant that we were currently on our own.

The sound of the door sliding to the side entered my ears, with every enchantment that was supposed to do its work, lighting up in sequence through my divine sense. I loved the way runes were mixed about into runic keys, which in turn made up arrays, but I had never had the motivation to learn more than some surface knowledge. I had left such knowledge to those that were interested.

"Mr. Wallen! You called?" My assistant entered the room. She was pale skinned woman with an oval face, long legs blatantly put on display by her short skirt that matched the color of her skin to a tee.

There was a short moment where I contemplated stealing her small lips and bringing an end to that serious expression. I have always loved the way she broke down because of my touch, kiss, or caress.

But ultimately I banished the thought. There were still too many tasks to fulfill.

"Has anything been gleaned about the forest?" I asked after making it back to my chair right behind the desk. No matter how much of a comfort the damn furniture provided, I still didn't like being chained to it like a dog, but many things required me to be chained here. So with a sigh, I plopped myself down onto it, crossed my fingers and gazed into her pupils, which had a white, almost transparent sheen on their rims.

"The cannon fodder thrown into the forest hasn't managed to return. Its as if they simply vanished. Even the various means we have employed to track them haven't worked out." She formally reported.

I pressed a hand through my short hair, fighting back at the frustration. Days had gone by, yet we hadn't made any headway into the forest!

"What about the others?"

"They aren't exactly forthcoming with their intelligence, but from what our spies have gleaned, they are having the same problems."

A tiny sliver of the frustration vanished upon that. But it still didn't assuage me. Competition with my peers was all good and well, but this damned situation wasn't one where I could afford to smugly gloat.

"What about scouting from above?"

"Sir..."

"We have known each other for a number of years. You can speak freely." My heart had skipped a beat at the trace of horror that had crossed her features.

"With all due respect, it would be better if we abandoned this city and settled for another."

"What brings this on?"

"Its just a feeling, but I think that the Amazon has become something even more terrifying than the spirits I have heard much about."

My gaze lowered to the grey surface of my table. Intuition wasn't something that would need to be dismissed casually. It was a sense that allowed all of us to survive dangerous situations.

But evacuation wasn't something that could be taken lightly. We were in the middle of settling down within this city. Packing and leaving at this time was something that would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Then there was also the question of where to go. The Amazon had been chosen because of its relative remoteness from the rest of the Federation. Finding another city that hadn't yet been evacuated of its citizens was going to be a daunting task. Cannon fodder was needed in order to gain a preliminary understanding of our new world.

I doubted that I could manage to convince even a Spirit Gathering disciple to scout out the surroundings without coercing them with force. Robots supplemented with AI were now useless.

As I raised my gaze back up, having found no solution to my predicament, I found that Lenny had plopped down onto the couch, kicked off her heels and was leaning back.

"I really want to sink into bed."

"Were we impulsive?" I asked her softly.

"Separating from the Federation was great idea. What's not great about it is choosing this isolated place. If I am not mistaken, many of the orbital farms around the sun might have been repossessed by those people. Even if we manage to deal with the forest, we would still be far behind the Federation in both resources and technology. We have over 100 million mouths to support!"

"Yet, because we all want to keep this power, we chose this route." I added.

"Yap! So, we should kick the regrets and uncertainties to the curb for the moment. We have to deal with that damned forest!" Lenny exclaimed as if to encourage herself.

"Take me to the wall."

-----

Minutes later, having walked the entire distance so that I could at least lengthen the time I needed to return to my desk/jail, I was up on the wall.

It was grey, just like everything else made of stone, unless otherwise. It was tall and wide, rivalling the great wall of some country I didn't have the eagerness of remembering.

Turrets with double barrels, huge things that had four powerful legs to move them towards any designated position on the wall, were situated next to me, with one even close enough for me to lean upon.

With my divine sense, I inspected the walls, making sure that the fortifications we had added into them were running smoothly. This was so that should anything or anyone choose to attack, it could hold them off for a time.

"Do you get the same feeling as me, Sir?"

The question from Lenny prompted my gaze towards the tall greenery in the distance. The trees had created a circular ring around the city, a kilometer out, leaving behind a large clearing. That was what we had gleaned from scouring the information about the city anyway. But apparently, the forest had pulled back just at the start of the apocalypse.

The trees were tall enough to surpass this wall in height, with dense canopies of evergreen leaves.

They were healthy as far as I could tell, and the gaps within their stems didn't give any insight as to what was contained within the depths of the forest, only darkness.

"Get those people inside?"

I ordered Lenny, feeling a wave of vibrations within the ground, originating from the forest. The cannon fodder plus the supervisers promptly entered within the gates, sealing them promptly.

At first, the vibrations had been minute, only to increase in intensity with every passing second, to the point that the city itself as a whole was shaking, attracting numerous people onto the walls.

But my attention didn't even turn towards them at any one point. The canopies were shaking, startling countless small birds I hadn't seen before into flying away.

My gut was telling me that something terrible was coming. I could feel it within my bones! And it brought up my previous conversation with Lenny, especially the expression that had been on her face, and the shudder that had passed through her body upon mentioning her feelings.

Since she was standing by my side, we exchanged a look that mirrored that of the other, terror!

Multiple auras of Nascent Soul strength were being projected from the forest... With numbers far surpassing the mere 34 within this city.

Dust rose to the sky as the shaking continued, obscuring our eyes. The Amazon was supposed to be a rain forest, and yet, the ground all the way to the edge of the tree line had been devoid of water, even developing a series of cracks.

And then, with my enhanced vision, I saw THEM!