Alnea stepped into the clearing, trying not to mind the smell, or the sight. After all, for as far as could see, all he saw was rotting flesh and bones, all dumped together, creating small hills of rot and decay. Thankfully, there were places for him to navigate through the hills, so he did not have to dig through the rotting mountains of flesh, as he had described to Cecilia, or else, he did not think he could have held back the remains of his last meal from jumping out of his stomach.

  Still, even the places where he walked upon felt much more wet than usual, clinging on to the soles of his slippers, forcing him to make some extra efforts with each of his steps. Curious, he glanced down, only to see a reddish brown gooey remains trying to hold him to the ground. Was that…

  Alnea quickly tore his eyes away from the ground, and concentrated on the rotting hills instead. Although they were much more disgusting than the mix of blood and rotten remains spread on the ground, at least he was not walking through them. Still, just looking at the mounds of rotten flesh alone was enough to make his stomach churn. Especially when he closed in on them, trying to look for some clues. In vain.

  There was not much to see in the hills of rotten flesh, except for the rot and decay. There were no patterns to the hills, no patterns carved on the bodies, be it on their flesh or their bones, and no strange symbols carved on the ground either. No matter how he searched, he could not find any plausible source for the strange fluctuations around him. It was as if the fluctuations were not coming from some symbols or Mysteries, but…

  Alnea closed his eyes, quickly going through his options. He could not just turn around and leave. That would be irresponsible. Especially after he had volunteered to search through the mound, and spent so much effort to convince Cecilia to stay outside. But he could not just walk around, wasting his time either. That would be irresponsible in many more ways. No, he had to explore the mound in some other way. Like…

  Alnea let out a sigh, and opened his eyes, before walking towards the mountain of rot and decay. And the closer he got, the more nauseating it became. Especially when he put his hands through the gap between two bodies, searching for—

  Alnea hastily turned his face away from the bodies to stop himself from throwing up, but the sight that welcomed him was not pretty either. Rot and decay… That was the theme of the world he had stepped into. Or at least of he clearing he was in. And if he could not handle it…

  Slashing through the hesitations in his Heart, Alnea Oathkeeper took a deep breath, taking in all the rot and decay permeating in the air, before turning around and continuing his search. There was nothing to be found in between the bodies, so he looked inside them. Once again, he found nothing. But he did not give up, and kept looking, from one body to the next. Again, his search came up empty. So, he searched in a different mound instead, only to change to a different pile of bodies just a few moments later.

  A couple of minutes later, there was still not much progress to his search. Mostly because he did not even know what to search for. And he did not dare to use his Spirit to search. Not until he could still feel the strange fluctuations permeating in the air. So, he could only change his strategy a little, and tried to think from the perspective of his enemies. What would he do if he was a Wanderer of the Lotus clan? Where would he hide the secret of the mound?

  Clearly, some place that his enemies would never find. It would be even better if he could hide it in a different dimension altogether. Like in the barrier of the worlds. But that was not possible. At least not at the False Rank. So, he could only go with the next best option, and hide the clues in a place where his enemies would not even think of looking. In plain sight…

  Plain sight? Alnea shook his head at the thought. The Lotus clan would never think of such a simple trick. They liked to complicate things. And they always planned two or three steps ahead. The only reason he had evaded them so far was because of absolute strength. In terms of making plans, he was indeed not their match. So, if he could think of a place, then it surely was not the place they went with.

  Besides, if the secret was really hidden in plain sight, he would have seen it already. After all, there were not many places that the Lotus clan could hide the secret at. It would either be on the path of blood and grime, or in the hills of rot and decay. Neither of the two places had anything special about them. He even dived elbow deep into the rotten flesh and blood, but still could not find anything.

  No, the Lotus clan would never rely on such a crude trick to hide the secrets of a plan they spent an entire month preparing. Maybe even more, if he considered the time they took to refine their plan. Not to mention the time and effort they put in dragging him to the Final Trial. There was just too much resting on their plan for them to risk it all by hiding the secret of the mound in plain sight, hoping that it would go unnoticed.

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  Even if they did hide the secret in plain sight, they would surely make it so that neither he, nor anyone else would be able to see it. At least not until their plan had already taken effect. But that would mean…

  Alnea glanced around the clearing, observing it once again, this time, focussing less on the details, and more on the clearing as a whole. Though it did not make much of a difference. Just as before, for as far as he could see, all he saw were hills of rotten flesh and bones, scattered all around him, with paths of blood and grime making their way around those hills, meandering through the clearing. Be it the paths, or the hills, there was no pattern as to how they were spread. But that was only to his naked eyes. To his Spirit, however…

  “…Hidden in plain sight, indeed,” Alnea mumbled to himself, returning his gaze to the mountain of rot and decay beside him. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  He could imagine the Lotus clan asking him that question. What was he going to do? Ignore the clues he had found and return to his teammates, allowing their plan to succeed, or unfurl his Spirit and unveil their plan, but suffer the wrath of the unknown?

  “…Those bastards…”

  Regardless of the choice he made, he would still have to suffer. The only difference he could make was to let his team avoid the suffering.

  “Do I even have a choice?” Alnea mumbled, before glancing at Cecilia in the distance. He could barely make out her figure in the fog. Or maybe he was just imagining her to be there, just within his reach. “…Is this also a part of their plan?”

  It sure did feel so. The strange way of presenting him with options, asking him to choose his fate, all while manipulating him to pick the option that was favourable for them… It was the Lotus clan, alright.

  “…Forget it. At most I will just fall into their trap. It is not like they can kill me.”

  Although he promised to not do anything stupid…

  “This is not a stupid choice. On the contrary, this is the most logical choice. I am sure they will understand me… Probably.”

  He was going to have to do a lot of explanation once they were done dealing with the Lotus clan.

  “…But it should be worth it,” Alnea said, as he closed his eyes and unfurled his Spirit. In the next moment, the world bared its secrets for him to see. Not all of it, of course. Just the ones that the Lotus clan hid. But that alone was enough for him. Be it the bodies scattered in the clearing, or the path made from their blood flowing like a river, nothing could hide from him. Not even the strange fluctuations coming from under his feet.

  No, those fluctuations did not come from just under his feet. They also came from the rotten remains of the beasts around him. And they came not through any Glyphs or Arcanas, but from the thousands upon thousands of bodies being arranged in huge, overarching patterns, that spread over a couple hundred metres in all directions. More importantly, those fluctuations seemed to be unusually attracted to his Spirit.

  After quick glance at the clearing as a whole, Alnea had a hunch that things were about to get out of control, so he hastily withdrew his senses, and tried to leave his Spirit State, but once the strange fluctuations latched on to his Spirit, they refused to let him go. Instead, they kept pulling on to his Spirit, kind of like how a Spirit Measuring Stele would pull on his Spirit, forcing him to remain in his Spirit State.

  Except, those fluctuation were not measuring his Spirit Power. Neither were they helping him train his Spirit. They—

  Before Alnea could think about how to deal with the pull of the strange fluctuations, he saw the remains of beasts around him begin to glow in an eerie red and black light, releasing yet another wave of fluctuations. That too, different from the ones holding him in his Spirit State. Though they seemed to be just as clingy. Still, their purpose was something else entirely.

  The fluctuations that came with the forest being dyed in a shade of red and black, rather than pulling on just his Spirit, went for his body too. And they did not seem to be content with giving it a light pull. Instead, as time passed, and the glow on the rotten remains of the beasts around him became more intense, the pull of the fluctuations that came with the glow also increased in strength, fighting against not just him, but the world itself.

  After all, it was not just the strange fluctuations that kept pulling on him. The world did it too. But that was how things were supposed to be. The world was supposed to pull on him. It pulled on everything, the trees, the fog, and even the ground. That was how the world kept itself together. And when external forces tried to fight against its pull, it—

  Alnea gritted his teeth and rushed—Or at least tried to. He did raise his feet to rush out of the clearing. He just could not bring it down. And not because of lack of try on his part. It was just that no matter how hard he pushed, he could not fight against the pull of the strange fluctuations. And neither could the world.

  In the end, Alnea could only let himself be dragged away from the ground, and float in the air, as the pull of the strange fluctuations overwhelmed the pull of the ground, and a few moments later, overwhelmed the pull of the Final World, bringing him to an altogether different world. One that lay just past the barriers of the Final World. Or maybe in its fold. He did not know. After all, all that he saw, was a world of red and black.