Chapter 2042: Mysterious Piece of Land
A few days later, after thousands more undead had been taken care of, they finally reached the notable area.
They created another platform in front of it. They set it higher than usual to stably remain in the Undead’s blind spots. Garan also created an ice wall around them to avoid interference later.
To Medusa and Sinnan it was just a normal looking patch of land, except it grew on inhospitable lands.
To Althea and Garan, especially Althea, it emitted a different sort of aura that made their ears ring, like having tinnitus.
Curiously, the couple jumped down and walked over the patch of grass. It was not too vibrant, but the fact that there was vegetation in a place where there shouldn’t be was mystifying.
The couple felt a light surge of aether, like a gentle breeze, and their eyes met. Althea kneeled down to touch the grass, intending to start scanning, but who’d have thought that the earth underneath her would soften up all of a sudden, and everyone fell down as if she had fallen on water!
"Ah!"
"Althea!!"
However, the other three did not escape the same fate, and the ground underneath them also ate them up.
It happened too quickly, and even Garan—who was just a few meters away—was unable to react fast enough. The earth had liquified, and he couldn’t even grasp his wife until everyone was submerged.
Worse, their mana went haywire, and Garan was unable to use his abilities lest it go out of control.
They were twirled around under the soil, like they had gotten caught in some sort of weird vortex. Sinnan was next to Medusa, so he managed to get a hold of her, though she fainted as soon as they fell.
Garan, on the other hand, tried desperately to go to Althea.
However, it was not easy. They couldn’t even breathe.
Earth elementalists shouldn’t be an exception. They could control the earth, but they were still limited by their own physicalities, after all.
But...Althea was indeed an exception. She did not know why, because when she used the digging techniques using her earth abilities, she had to retain an air pocket around her to make sure she didn’t suffocate.
Althea stared at the seemingly endless soil that surrounded her, mixed with rocks, some fossils, and other things. There were no air pockets around her this time.
She didn’t have the mind to study this, however. First of all, she needed to find out where the others were. She raised her hand and touched the soil, and she could feel the texture directly on her palm.
But the Earth element’s Scan ability depended on creating vibration on the soil. Its current state of constantly liquifying meant that it was already vibrating at a certain frequency, rendering this ability useless.
Althea suddenly felt nervous and a little desperate.
Unexpectedly, her mind’s eye felt enlightened, and she ’saw’ specks of energy, and she instinctively knew they were her companions.
Not thinking any deeper, she immediately summoned her earth elements. It was just that she realized that it was a challenge to use her abilities.
One, because the soil was unstable. It was very much like trying to grab a rock during an earthquake.
Another, ironically, was because of the abundance of aether around her.
It was like the environmental aether was suppressing everything else, making them difficult to control.
She ended up having to use her wood element. The latter challenge was still a problem, but it was more manageable, especially since the first problem (vibration) didn’t affect the roots much.
Garan and Sinnan gasped as they felt the upward forces pushing them up. Medusa was still unconscious, but Sinnan immediately performed CPR with her—something he actually learned from her.
Garan did not have the mind to look at them. He frantically whipped his head around. When he saw that there was no sign of his wife, his panic worsened. "Althea? ALTHEA!!!"
The image of Althea buried in rubble all those years ago passed by his head, making him lose reason.
Garan’s eyes turned red, and his arm stretched as far as it could, ready to smash the ground.
However, he was stopped by the other two, with Sinnan physically holding him back.
"Don’t!" Medusa—who had barely awakened—yelled. "It could hurt her!"
"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!?"
The surrounding area turned cold, and the two felt like they would freeze if they let him do what he wanted. This was worse for Sinnan, who had been trying to physically stop him.
"Calm down!" Sinnan screamed, throwing random rocks at him. "You might ruin her plans!"
Garan calmed down a bit, and Sinnan finally heaved a breath of relief.
"Trust in your wife," he said, pointing at the piece of plant sticking out of the soil. It stood out amidst the plain grass.
While underground, they naturally knew what had wrapped around them. They thought it was an enemy at first, but Althea’s generated plants had a very distinct energy about them, and even those without wood affinity could tell.
The plant was vibrant and full of energy, indicating that its owner, Althea, was still quite alright.
...
Garan took a long time to recover, and Medusa’s knees buckled as soon as he calmed down. She was still recovering herself, after all.
"Althea is an earth elementalist—one of the best ones," she said. "If we rashly damage the ground now, it could pull her in danger, instead. What if...what if she’s in a state of integration?"
The state of integration was a theoretical concept among elementalists.
All Terran scientists were elementalists themselves, so they naturally had some degree of study towards the elements, possibly unrelated to fighting.
Who wouldn’t be so curious about the fantastical ability they gained?
This referred to the state where an elementalist would become their elements. It was just theory, of course, and no humans had done this before, but it was a fun ’food for thought’ shared amongst Terran elementalists.
Medusa thought of this because she thought that Althea had to be in a different condition from them, since she had the ability to push so many of them upwards.
One had to know that they weren’t just buried a meter or two. According to Sinnan, they should’ve dropped at least ten meters.
It was also her way of giving herself hope, and also to keep Garan in check, so Medusa hoped for something a little fantastical, like the state of integration.
Althea’s current state wasn’t quite this, but it was also not quite normal.
The earth was too soft. It was like she was swimming in the soil. It was similar to the burying technique talented earth elementalists used, but it certainly was never this smooth or effortless.
At this time, Althea was "swimming" underground. Normally, this would be difficult for her to do as this required control over earth in line with every inch of her silhouette.
She was swimming to the greatest anomaly she had detected during her latest scan.
However, as she got closer to the target, she felt the control become a bit smoother, as if the soil around her was made to be controlled by elementalists.
And it was.
