After resting up, we got on with the rest of the journey. Before long, I hear Mia's voice.

 

"It's here! Covered by that thick cover of trees." - Mia

 

Looking down, I spot the crown of what looks to be a large grove of trees. The foliage was so thick that I couldn't see anything beneath it. We quickly landed by the edge of the large grove. Tentatively I glanced around at the surroundings, ready for any ambushes from opportunistic monsters or creatures that might be looking for a snack. To my surprise though, there didn't really seem any creatures at all. Even the surroundings were uncannily silent.

 

Directing my gaze at Mia who was doing the same, we both nodded. Following her lead, we moved into the grove of trees. I kept my senses peeled as we moved aside bushes and branches, and occasionally moved over and under some giant tree roots.

 

Before long I see a small opening in the vegetation. Stepping into it, I become awed at what I was seeing. Encapsulated in tree growth and vegetation was an expansive space, almost like a cave just made by plants instead. The inside was plant life was a lot more vibrant and lush, assaulting my eyes with a vast amount of colors compared to the usually bleak rocky hills of the wastelands.

 

While the stark contrast between the sparce forests and vegetation of the rocky hills and the thriving plant life of this cave of plants was interesting, most of my attention was quickly drawn towards the center of it all. Smack in the middle of the open space of the tree grove, was a large and oddly circular hole going straight down.

 

I moved to the edge, while making sure I don't step on any loose earth. Peering down inside the hole, I see it was just like Mia had described it. It was about five meters deep in total. Inside, surrounded by crimson water, was a patch of earth. I could see where the crimson core had once been, as there was now just an hollow cavity in the ground, rouglyt fitting its size and form.

 

Another thing that struck me as I peered down, was a certain sweet aroma wafting up from this hole. This aroma seemed to almost resonate with my body and core as it invaded my nostrils. I wasn't sure how, but I could faintly feel and sense the surroundings of the hole, -or is it a cave?

 

Urgh, I'll just call it a cave...

 

The more I let my body and mind fuse into the surroundings, the more I could sense everything. After double-checking if there were any creatures or possible danger in the cave or outside it, I jumped down. I landed on the patch of earth in the middle of the hole and while keeping my senses peeled for anything unexpected.

 

A minute went by but nothing happened. Looking up towards the Mia who peering over the edge, I called for her.

 

"Come down, I'll catch you." - Me

 

Without hesitation, Mia jumped directly into the hole. I caught her easily whilst softening her momentum by crouching my legs. Standing with her now in a princess carry, I chuckled.

 

"Hehe, we should do this more often." - Me

 

Blushing, she thumbed the carapace of my chest with a knuckle from her dainty hands.

 

"Enough fooling around, l-let me down..." - Mia

 

Doing as the lady said, I settled her down on her feet gently. It was first now I truly began feeling how much my senses resonated with the surroundings of the cave. I couldn't explain it, the feeling I was getting was almost like a pleasant song of noise, or maybe like an intent of sorts. 

 

Apparently I wasn't the only one feeling it. Looking at Mia, she was also staring with wonder at our surroundings.

 

"You feel that?" - Me

 

"Y-yeah. I can't explain it. I didn't feel like this the first time I was here. B-but it feels nice..." - Mia

 

Crouching down, I begin inspecting the vegetation and plants of the green patch of land we were standing on. Inspecting and fiddling around with the vegetation, I can easily see that numerous places had been harvested and only now had started to sprout new plants and herbs.

 

Obviously it was from when Mia had first found this place. Moving over to the place where the crimson core previously had been, I inspected it. Using a finger to prod a root inside the hole, I'm suddenly shocked as a strain of mana flowed out my finger and into the root. Making me take quick steps backward in alarm.

 

From the place I had just touched, glowing red roots lit up and looked to be distributing the mana that had just been taken from me out into the vegetation and into the dirt of the surroundings.

 

But the phenomenon quickly ended as the glow faded. It had seemingly spread out the mana to the surroundings of the cave and its vegetation. I had no idea what this place even was. The only thing I could guess about this space was that it was the birthplace of the crimson core.

 

Mia had been standing over by the edge of the patch of earth and was peering into the water when I had seemingly given some of my mana to the surroundings. But she was now staring at me was a curious but worried face, from my surprise and alarm.

 

"Don't worry, I was just a bit startled." - Me

 

She just gave a somewhat unsure look before peering into the water once again.

 

Looking back at the hole, I ponder.

 

One thing that hadn't escaped my notice, was that the mana that had been distributed into those weird roots in the ground went to various different places. Some went to the plants, some went to the water. But what really caught my attention was that some roots that went downwards, into the earth below.

 

So I wondered. Could there possibly be something in the dirt?

 

Slowly, I began digging out a patch of dirt, avoiding the crimson roots that riddled the earth. The longer I dug down, the more roots appeared. If I ever accidentally touched them a minuscule amount of mana would flow from my body into them.

 

I dug a whole meter downwards but nothing really appeared. Only more and bigger roots began to appear the deeper I dug. To speed up the process, I began digging more vigorously.

 

I was a bit more careless of the roots to increase the speed, so I did lose a small portion of my mana by the continues nicks and scratches I accidently made, but it wasn't enough to worry me. By now Mia had gone over to where I was digging and was looking curiously at what I was doing.

 

Suddenly, I hit something hard underneath a patch of dirt I was about to remove. The next thing I could feel was a rush of mana quickly being sucked out of my body. This time, the amount and the speed at which it was drained was a lot more violent.

 

I quickly pull back my hand. Apparently I had hit a giant crimson root that laid beneath the earth. This one was many times bigger than the others. Looking at my status, I see a whole two points of mana had been drained in just that split second.

 

The other roots had only taken a minuscule amount of mana if I touched them, but this one took just that much more. This time the whole cave-like hole we were in, lit up with a red glow and hue.

 

But that wasn't the only thing that happened. Suddenly a slow and low rumble began shaking the hole cave we were in. I was at first low and almost indistinguishable but it quickly turned violent as the whole cave began shaking, causing loose dirt and rocks to fall free from the walls.

 

As I was just about to jump out of the hole I had dug to stand beside Mia, everything suddenly gave way under us. I only hear a scream from Mia as we plummeted down. While in those few seconds I could've easily gotten free from the rubble falling all around me and taken to the air, Mia couldn't.

 

Desperately trying to find her amongst the rubble, I reach towards where my senses tell me she is. Feeling the warm and soft flesh of a forearm as I reach out, I gripped tight.

 

Quickly pulling her to me, I cover her the best I can with my body while simultaneously begin flapping my wings to slow our descent. But it was too late.

 

 

A dizzying shock radiated through my body as I crashed heavily onto whatever laid beneath. The sheer velocity at which we had struck the ground with had left me stunned for a solid handful of seconds. 

 

Once my mind had regained some clearness I quickly began inspecting the girl in my hold. She was alive and relatively unscathed, only a little shaken by the collision of me hitting the ground. 

 

But I quickly appraised her to double-check if anything was wrong.

 

-Appraisal!-

 

Phew... she's okay.

 

Luckily, due to my sturdy carapace and reinforced organs, I myself am also pretty much okay. Or at least not in any serious or critical situation...

 

I quickly activate healing surge to top off my health and mend some badly bruised areas. Letting go of the shaken Mia, I laid her calmly to the side. We were both currently covered in debris and dirt. Getting to my feet, I dusted it all off.

 

Where we currently were was cast in darkness as almost no light entered this far down. But that didn't discourage me as I practically had perfect dark vision. Looking up, I could see the drop we had fallen was about 10-15 meters.

 

Damn... no wonder I hurt so much...

 

Taking a glance behind me, I look at my back and wince at the sight. I had landed on my back while trying to slow the fall with my wings. Now there were just two very badly broken wings. Not something that couldn't be fixed but would definitely take a while.

 

I'm surprised that Mia wasn't hurt more. Even though she landed within my embrace on top of me, and that I absorbed most of the shock, it was still a ten or fifteen-meter drop.

 

But thinking about it a bit, I realize that I shouldn't be too surprised. After all, Mia was not some frail human girl. She's a lot tougher than she looks.

 

I looked around, scouting the surroundings that we now had found us in. We were currently in a slightly bigger cave than the one we had just fallen from. But this one was similar to the previous one. They were both in the same round cylindrical shape. 

 

But something that was different from the previous cave was the three, mostly evenly spaced, tunnels in the cave wall that seemingly led even deeper underground. As I've taken stock of our current situation, I crouched down to the Mia who was slowly coming to.

 

"M-master? What happned?" - Mia

 

She sounded groggy but her mind was quickly clearing up.

 

"The ground beneath us seemed to give way, and we've fallen quite far down. But we're okay." - Me

 

Before I can say anything more, I trail off as I see in the middle of the room a ray of light suddenly striking the ground. Slowly it began expanding bigger and bigger. Following the ray of light upwards, I spotted..... uh- the moon?

 

The grove of trees that had covered the hole with its thick foliage had somehow parted and was slowly opening up even more.

 

"What... the hell?" - Me

 

I could only watch on as the moonlight from above began covering us and expanding further to light up the whole cave. While I could see in the dark, now that the moonlight lit up the cave I finally noticed the thick and many crimson roots running up and down the cave walls.

 

They all began pulsating with an extremely faint red glow as the moonlight cast its light upon them. Following the pulses of red glow, my eyes trained on the center of the cave's ground that was now covered in dirt and rubble.

 

Moving over to that spot, I began moving aside rocks and dirt. Before long I suddenly spot where the crimson roots culminate. Before my eyes were five beautifully glowing red crystals.

 

Crimson cores!

 

I could easily recognize the feeling that they radiated as being similar to the crimson core within me. Seemingly the aroma and feeling that had been apparent in the cave above were coming from here.

 

But these cores were a lot smaller and seemingly less polished than the one I had assimilated with. Frowning I was about to get close and inspect them, to see if I can get that prompt again since I wanted to be sure if these were actually crimson cores.

 

But just before I managed to reach out for them, I suddenly heard a wretched shriek that made a cold shiver run down my back. It came from deep inside one of the cave tunnels. Without any hesitation, I bolted over to Mia.

 

"What was that?" - Mia

 

She had already gotten up and was not dazed anymore. Adopting a fighting stance, I direct all of my senses towards were the sound had come from.

 

"I have no idea. But it can't be good." - Me

 

Really shitty timing to not have the ability to simply fly out.

 

As I was cursing my bad luck another eery shriek feel upon my ears. But this one was not from the same tunnel the last one had come from. Turning on my heels, I direct my senses towards the other tunnel.

 

But at this time something more like a wail bellowed from the same tunnel as before. Giving up on trying to find out whatever was making that noise before it found us, I just paid attention to both tunnels at the same time.

 

To my dread, the next shriek came from the third and last tunnel. But this time it wasn't just one shriek, but multiple. Suddenly a cacophony of many different wretched wails, screams, and shrieks assaulted our ears from all directions.

 

The worst thing though was that they were becoming louder. They were coming.

 

Fast.