"Phew." The inquisitor deeply expressed.
Rue's chest expanded as he took in a deep breath.
After a little while, he had finally completely dressed the fox of anything even remotely valuable.
As to rub salt onto the wound, he gave the fox's open carcass a final fruitless kick before shifting his focus towards the ground.
Examining his amassed harvest of animal organs and parts, Rue—only after confiding in total confidence that each of the creature's entrails was properly severed—nodded, accepting his handiwork.
For the time being, they were passable
The fox, in hindsight, was pathetically weak, only possessing a meager, subpar, second-rate battle strength.
How it had even become a Fourth Destination beast was a miracle in itself, only stemming from good fortune and enviable luck.
Of course, its luck dried up.
Rue's axe was not just the mere weapon of a madman, but it was the obituary that had slain the fox.
Regardless of the fox's weakness, it was still, on paper, a Fourth Destination being.
As such, it would cost a small fortune for any lower Destination practitioner.
The only reason why Rue was finessing the poor fox of any of its precious entrails was for future transaction and their potential capital.
Sooner or later Rue was going to be reintroduced back into society, and for that, he wanted to be financially set—at least until he could get back onto his feet.
It was only a matter of time until someone of a higher realm detected the wall of doom—destroying it to prevent any further ravaging of the landscape.
Meanwhile, until that coveted time came to pass, Rue was still going to continue moving in the opposite direction, AWAY from the wall.
Rest was an exaggerated notion.
Collecting the harvested fox organs, Rue began to delicately place them according to size into a makeshift rucksack he had fashioned out of the hide of a previously slaughtered beast.
Worrying about the meat's decomposition was not necessary since it would take a very long time for the fox's meat to naturally decay.
Finished with his preparations, Rue tossed his rucksack over his shoulder, where it splayed limply.
He gave a departing, lukewarm glance towards the many moderately sized mounds of bone.
Rue sighed.
Isolation was a bummer.
When was the last time he truly had human interaction?
What was the last conversation he had?
Who was it with?
When you really thought about it, this was all meaningless grandeur.
Yet, for Rue, who was alone, it mattered.
While he may have achieved freedom from his cell, what purpose did that freedom serve if he was alone?
Phrased in a less Hallmark manner, it was simply boring.
Sure, in the beginning it was fun since he had regained all of those privileges he had taken for granted in the past.
It was a great time—he even made an avian companion he traveled with.
Yeah, while they didn't speak or really do anything other than run or eat—hell, it tried to kill him—but it was still another presence that kept away the demons that came with a still mind.
Until that bird's death…
Sad stuff aside, he got his Initial back, and with-it Rue's battle strength soared back to its norm!
These were the fruits of his current adventure, but now here he was, in the harsh reality of the present.
The visceral thrill from the beginning had worn off, only leaving a dullness in its wake.
After some seconds he left the glade.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Laid on the ground was a carnation-pink haired woman.
She was as fair as snow, possessing exceptional beauty.
The woman was wearing a baggy white shirt that was half-haphazardly tucked into her black and gray military-patterned camo cargo pants.
Slipped onto her feet, with the laces strewn out—not caring to put forth the effort or the time to tie them—was a pair of crudely shined black, smeared boots.
Her expression was bored as she probed the expansive tapestry of the sky.
It was always the same old shit in this place.
Closing her eyes briefly, the woman readied herself for some much-deserved rest.
She worked hard—or so that's the bullshit she told her superior officer.
Fuck that guy, what the hell does he even do?!
Lounge around?
She didn't know, nor did she care to find out.
She hated them regardless—it made no sense.
The ironic fact was the man in mention was actually an otherwise nice and charismatic guy.
This hate towards her superior wasn't sparked from an urge to childishly rebel, or due to some weird problematic affection she had towards them—unlike those annoying tsundere anime girls who were incapable of expressing themselves, so rather than actually invest some time into initiating some idle chatter or being an upfront person. They try to assert themselves as superior by degrading that person, condemning them to a constant stream of ridicule.
It was very annoying.
No, the reason why she hated her superior was vastly simpler than some one-sided toxic relationship.
That lucky ass only got their position because his father pulled a few strings and underhandedly bribed those so and so stoic individuals to turn a blind eye.
Everyone had a price, you just had to offer that magic number.
These were just the fruits of having the right connection.
And the woman?
She was forced to catch the meager resources they gave her.
Progression was sooo slow here.
Luckily, the woman only had a short thirty-seven years left of mandatory service for the military.
After that she was scott free!
Her body lazily splayed further across the monotone bed of soft, gray-bladed grass.
Slowly, the woman, finally finding that sweet spot, began to drift out to sleep.
Over her body and passing through the area the woman had allocated as her outside resting corridors, a trivial burst of air came.
"What is this?" She muttered, addled under her breath.
Furrowing her brows, the woman dragged her head aside, scanning the visible vicinity.
She didn't notice that would be viable for that dark insidious undercut she felt.
The woman, out of consolidation of her position in the military, began to investigate the location of this anomaly.
Releasing her condensed perception outwards, the woman's perception began to flood into the distance.
…100km
…200km
…300km…
Finally, after several seconds, the woman's total perception had reached a complete radius of 1000km in all directions.
This in essence formed a circle.
The surface area of the woman's perception reached a terrifying approximate of 3,141,592.654 km².
Due to the strain this posed to her cognitive bandwidth, the woman was only able to effectively spread her perception to a radius of 300km indefinitely. Anything more, and the burden would become far too mentally taxing.
"Oh, fuck…"She remained silent for half a second. "OH FUCK!" The woman absentmindedly yelled.
Fumbling with a silver ring on her finger, the woman—after pressing a button—fumbled her finger across the manifested transparent orange panel.
"FUCKING EDGY BASTARDS!" The woman began gritting her teeth, as she pulled up the emergency hotline in her contacts.
Without sparing a thought, she sent a message out to her distant comrades with the help of the ring as a catalyst to stretch the transmission's reach.
[Threat Level: Peak 5th Destination anomaly (Current)]
[→ assumed source: Practitioners failure at suppressing the Initials ego during the realm break between the Expert and Adapted Destination]
[ → assumed Initial: Death related.]
[Approximate power required to neutralize threat: several third-class agents (at minimum).]
Finishing her transmission, the pink-haired woman inhaled an unsteady breath before launching herself into the air.
Finally, something interesting happened
~~~
~~~
~~~
…BEEP!
…BEEP!
…BEEP!
[Cloud - 4, report to 6345 - A!]
[Emergency class: Black!]
The professional tone of a younger male voiced through the intercom.
His voice echoed through a large outpost located near a region around ten clicks from the location.
"Oh?" exclaimed a green-haired man, surprised from the abrupt order.
"George, where is 6345 - A again?" loudly interrupted a voice coming from an amethyst-haired woman.
Hearing the question George answered. "It would be located in the fourth quadrant from us, it's Livian's territory," he replied, standing up.
"Leighton round up the others." he voiced evenly.
With a respectful nod of understanding, the second-in-command sent out a transmission to the inhabitants of the outpost.
Receiving the transmission, the entirety of Cloud - 4 began to report to the terrace of the outpost.
"Class Black, really?" mused a petite, white haired woman.
"Wow, genius, it's not like the superior officer just said that," came the stark remark of a similar-featured man.
Throwing an annoyed side-eye at her brother, warning him to 'shut the fuck up,' the white-haired woman returned her gaze frontward.
"Correct, Lily and Liam," George said before shifting his gaze. "Please refrain from speaking in such a way, it's unsat and completely unnecessary."
Feeling aloof, Liam discretely rolled his eyes.
'That's the point,' he sarcastically remarked in his head.
Giving a quick rundown as to what was going on, the three of them nodded in understanding.
Seeing that everyone was on the same page, George leapt into the air, vertically floating above the ground.
"Then we'll be off," he lastly commanded before doting into the horizon.
Following suit, the rest of Cloud - 4 leapt into the air before trailing behind.