Chapter 1079: Void Resonance
A girl squinted her eyes and leaned close towards a fissure. She reached out with her finger and sensed the situation on the other side before shaking her head.
"Nope~ no chance. Nothing but weird things there." She shook her head while her party members sighed.
"Urg... Another wasted trip. That’s like what? Five now?" Rika groaned while resting her chin on her palms.
She was currently sitting on a boulder while Tobi and Yama were doing some light sparring behind her.
"It’s to be expected. Not every site will have a crystal that Feris can use. Sometimes you strike gold, sometimes you hit nothing." Noah chuckled, marking off another location on the map.
After their... previous accident that left them stranded in the Void, Feris somehow formed a connection and brought them out of danger.
It didn’t matter the kind of danger they were facing. As long as it was in the Void, Feris was unstoppable.
And with the danger gone, finding an exit was just a matter of time.
Following that, Feris seemed to have been injected with endless adrenaline. She actively sought out fissures that would lead them towards ’something’. Sometimes it would be in the form of a crystal, sometimes an artifact. But regardless, the moment Feris touched them, they would melt into her body.
Almost as though she was absorbing them.
"Noah~" Feris threw herself onto his back while kicking her legs back and forth.
That was another change they felt from Feris. The more of these ’things’ she found, the more energetic she became.
Compared to her usual lifelessness, it was a welcome change.
"How many more sites are there? I think we might have to go back to the pit soon. What do you think?" Feris asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Feeling her face so close to his, her breath brushing against his ears, Noah coughed lightly and composed himself.
"There are about three more sites within travelling distance. Anything further and we’ll need to get more supplies."
"Ehhh..." Feris pursed her lips.
She didn’t mind visiting all of these sites, but the fact that they’re so far from one another made things annoying for her.
What if one of the sites they didn’t visit had a crystal she could take? She didn’t want to miss it at all.
The best-case scenario for her would be to visit everything in order to check whether or not the crystals were there.
However, no matter how much she wanted it, she also knew the burden of travel for her friends.
Travelling that far simply wasn’t realistic.
Unless...
Feris had an idea.
She quickly vaulted from Noah’s back and landed on her feet.
For Feris, she was at her most powerful when deep inside the Void. She could bend the realm and tap into power like no other.
Suffice to say, she could beat all of the others in combat so long as she was in the realm of the Void.
But out here? Her powers weakened significantly. However, even if her powers had decreased, that didn’t mean she was helpless. Far from it.
Power decreased, but not concept. If she wanted them to travel far, she simply had to shrink the gap between destinations.
There was something she was doing instinctively inside the Void, but it only applied to herself. If she wanted it to work for the others, she had to explore her own abilities.
Taking a deep breath, Feris held out her arms as Void energy condensed around her hands.
Noah noticed this but said nothing. Ever since Feris started to collect more of these items that she could melt into her own body, she started to become more independent. She would often listen to her own whims and do things that appeared in her mind.
While it was good, it also felt a little... lonely. She wasn’t clinging onto him as often as before. Some might say it could have been a bother, but he didn’t think so. In fact, her company helped calm him down.
Regardless, he shook his head and focused on planning their route. This was no time to be selfish with what Feris wanted to do.
*BANG!!!
Not long after he looked away, an explosion rang out as he quickly snapped his head towards Feris’ location and saw a cloud of smoke rising towards the sky.
"Feris!" He called out, and so did the others.
He quickly rushed over, only to see a silhouette waving her hands with a light cough.
"Ah sorry, sorry. I wasn’t controlling my strength properly. Don’t worry, it’s just some clashing between the realms." Feris laughed with a wide grin.
Seeing this, there was a helpless smile on Noah’s face as he reached out and cleaned up her face.
"Hehe~ Thank you." Feris smiled, resting her head against his hand.
"What are you even trying to do?" Noah asked curiously as there was a glimmer in her eyes.
"I’m glad you asked! Since travelling takes a long time, I was thinking if I could use the other realm and the fissures to help propel us around the place." Feris grinned while pulling herself up.
"I wanted to create one myself but..." She glanced at the explosion around her.
"It seems harder than I expected."
Noah’s smile twitched, and so did the others.
"You call this harder than expected???" Rika gestured to the destruction.
"If anything, I’m surprised you’re unaffected. Are you sure you didn’t take any damage? How did you even survive that???"
Feris scratched her cheek.
"I dunno. But when I made a hole to the other place, it kind of just... exploded. It felt like it didn’t want to be here?" She tilted her head, finding it hard to put her feelings into words.
But while she was concerned with properly expressing herself, the others were more focused on the fact that Feris could even make a portal elsewhere to begin with.
This level of power was already beyond what they were capable of achieving with Sigils. Even at a conceptual level.
Feris didn’t have Sigils, but she had this strange Void power. If converted... how many Sigils would she have?
Noah furrowed her brows.
Inside the Void, Feris had power that far surpassed them, so trying to gauge her power was difficult. But out here? She was roughly around the strength of a Hunter with three or four Sigils.
She could handle herself just fine but lacked the experience to fully utilize her strength.
Either way, they had to be careful with what kind of power the Void could provide. Especially with the ominous news they received before when they were investigating. Even if they weren’t hired, they would’ve tried to access one of the fissures sooner or later.
And when they did, Feris would have ’awakened’ regardless.
"What if you try to use an already existing fissure? Creating a new one might be hard since you don’t fully understand the power you have. But modifying one that exists should be easier." He suggested as Feris nodded her head repeatedly.
"Right! Let me try that instead!" Feris ran over to the fissure before Noah could even warn her.
Rika giggled.
"Captain, if you don’t grab onto her quickly, she might slip through your fingertips."
Noah coughed awkwardly.
"What are you even talking about."
"Aw, don’t hide it. Well... even if you were, you’re not doing a good job at it." Rika winked before a somewhat sad smile appeared on her face when looking at Feris.
To the group, she was akin to a little sister of sorts. One that they had to look after and care for.
But now that she was becoming independent, it left them with a mix of emotions.
Proud that she had grown yet sad at the fact that it felt like she was slowly going beyond their reach.
Like she was becoming someone they couldn’t even talk to.
Even if they knew that wasn’t the case, the rift in their powers would only grow.
They weren’t ignorant. They knew the limits of their power. Trying to chase after something higher was a hurdle they struggled to overcome.
Either way, they wanted to enjoy the feeling of having Feris as a sister for just a little longer.
But Noah? Rika knew Noah’s feelings for Feris.
He had been with her since the first day she appeared in the pit, after all. Trying to tell him to give up would be... difficult.
In which case, she should be urging him to take the chance instead.
Plus, it’s not like Feris was uninterested.
The more she grew, the more obvious her emotions became. That look of jealousy, the way she clung onto him while occasionally sneaking glances at her to make sure she didn’t steal Noah away...
Rika found it cute how obvious Feris was.
Just as she was about to say something else to Noah, a crackle of lightning rippled across the air as the fissure was stretched open.
In front of it stood Feris, who gave them a peace sign along with a happy grin.
"I did it! If you give me the direction, I can roughly ’swap’ the fissures around!"
The modification that Feris did was to treat every fissure as a ’node’ of sorts. So long as it existed and she knew the general direction, she would be able to temporarily override the ’exit location’ to be where the other fissure was.
And with this, she would be able to significantly decrease the travel time between locations!
Explaining the new fissures to the party, she saw disbelief written all over their faces before turning to Noah.
Her eyes shimmered as she waited for him to praise her.
If she had a tail, it would be wagging back and forth by now.
Seeing this, Noah held back his smile slightly and patted her head.
"Good job. Since you’ve managed to do this, shall we make adjustments and visit all of these places instead?"
Feris nodded her head as they made modifications to their travel plans.
Meanwhile...
A certain woman across the world licked her lips with a wide smile.
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