"This ce..." Eve trailed off as she stared at the massive mountain looming in front of them.


    "You know about this ce?" Aina asked, looking at Eve, whose gaze was still fixed ahead.


    After battling monsters nonstop for hours and moving forward at a frightening pace, the two surprisingly found themselves in the luminary forest of all ces, in front of a mountain with a giant opening in the front.


    Just beside the opening, there was a marking. However, this wasn''t just any marking—it was a rune, one Eve was too familiar with.


    "Yes." Eve nodded, responding to Aina''s earlier question. "I do know about this ce... in fact," she paused, not knowing if she should include this part or not.


    "In fact, what?" Aina raised an eyebrow in confusion.


    "Nox has been in there before," Eve decided to say it anyway. She exined further, "He also awakened his ss inside that cavern... However, when Nathan and I tried to get inside, the runes embedded on the walls prevented us."


    Aina narrowed her eyes as she pondered what the necromancer had said. However, before they could converse any further, the sound of monsters hooves beating the ground echoed in the air.


    The two women simply nced at each other and instantly moved from their spot. Their speed was blinding, and they left only an afterimage where they had been. Even their steps were silent, like those of assassins.


    Just seconds after the two disappeared from the entrance of the cavern, hundreds of beasts poured out like a raging flood, spreading toward the northwest, south, and east of the western region, destroying everything in their path.


    "Such coordination. I have never seen anything like this," Aina stated, slightly amazed and shocked at what she was seeing. She was squatting on the branch of a towering oak tree, with none other than Eve beside her.


    Eve''s gaze turned fierce as she said, "So this is the ce the beasts areing from. It seems my previous intuition was right... these beasts are really being controlled by someone or a group of people."


    Eve narrowed her eyes. "I suspect the one who ced the runes there."


    At that moment, Aina spoke up, "Nox''s ss is somehow rted to beasts, right? Could this monster horde be connected to him?"


    "I strongly doubt it. Come, let''s go check this out." Eve shook her head as she jumped down from the tree, her body arched through the air, and shended gracefully just meters from the entrance of the mountain opening.


    A momentter, Aina appeared beside her. Eve wondered if she could enter this ce now that it seemed the restrictions had weakened. To this day, she still wondered how Nox had trespassed into this ce while high-level Awakened like she and Nathan had been prevented.


    Stretching her hand toward the cavern entrance, Eve felt an invisible wall that was stretchy and very sturdy at the same time. But...


    "It seems much weaker now," she muttered to herself. "Last time, it didn''t even budge for a second."


    Aina also did the same as Eve, cing her hand on the entrance, feeling the restrictions. She quietly walked toward the rune that was still gleaming slightly as if it had just been activated.


    Aina traced her fingers around the edges of the rune, a disappointed gleam in her eyes. Seeing that look, Eve asked:


    "Did you recognize it?"


    Eve knew Aina was from a very far-off ce and knew more than she was letting on; someone whose strength rivaled hers should certainly be very knowledgeable and influential.


    Aina shook her head, saying, "The rune''s symbols look familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. I know I''ve seen something simr back on the ind in one of the training chambers... but this seems to be a more advanced form."


    Eve stared at the rune for a while, noting key words from Aina like "ind" and "training chambers." Eve was rarely interested in others, but after hearing these tidbits about where Aina might be from, she became curious.


    It took a bit of self-discipline not to ask intrusive questions. An awkward silence soon fell between them.


    "Maybe if we brought an actual runesmith, they''d be able to decipher it and even find a way to cancel its effect," Eve suggested as she thought about a runesmith she had encountered, wondering if she should go back and get him.


    While Eve was lost in thought, they soon heard another wave of beastly sounds. The two quickly hid themselves again.


    "It''s as if these monsters are unending," Ainained. "Makes you wonder if they''re being produced in there."


    The twonded outside the entrance once again and stretched their hands, feeling the stretchy wall.


    "I have an idea!" Aina suddenly eximed, an excited, mischievous gleam in her eyes. The smile on her face resembled someone about to y a silly prank.


    Eve had never seen this side of Aina. In fact, she didn''t even know the woman could be this carefree... but somehow, she liked it; it reminded her a lot of Nox from a few years ago before she started to influence him.


    Perhaps he took after her.


    Disying a smirk of her own, she asked, "What is it?"


    "This is something my sisters and I used to do whenever our training duration in the chambers was up," Aina exined her n. "So we''d usually use a special item to hide our presence and sneak in just before the barrier would close."


    "Hmm... that makes a lot of sense." Eve nodded, thinking back to how stretchy the barrier was. "If we could be a few seconds faster, I think we''d be able to get inside."


    "Correct," Aina nodded with excitement in her eyes. "We just need to create a briefpse in the barrier''s defenses. If we can catch it during the transition, we might just slip through."


    The two made a final agreement and waited for the beasts to surge out once more. Just a couple of minutester, the runes began to shimmer.


    "Alright, let''s do this."