"I do not carry that knowledge, but the ancient sounds hold answers unknown to men. Unfortunately, however, our sacred tree has been usurped by the vile humans used for their experiments," answered the Elder.


    "And what experiments are those?" asked Oren, and the shadow warrior stepped forward in protest.


    "Oren…"


    "We know not its purpose, only its effects. These humans are stealing mana, and life, from ournds. We have lost our sacred tree, rendering us unable to protect this forest against death. If you seek knowledge, then our sacred tree has survived since the beginning of dawn. It is the heart of this forest."


    "And does your sacred tree have answers?"


    "It speaks to us when it wishes, and thest time it did, it passed the words of Spirit Tree Regaline to us. It answers when it wishes, so I cannot give any promises."


    "I will help you reim the tree on the condition that I can use its knowledge," Oren said. Marvi stepped forward to hold him back, grabbing his shoulder. "This is a better n to pursue than going to the Yalveran Union and threatening its royalty."


    "We will just be wasting time, if not our lives," said Marvi with suspicion. "It is naive to fight others'' battles for them, especially when we know nothing about them."


    "You have seen their actions. They allowed us entry through the forest," said Oren in a low voice. "Instead of attacking us, they chose to let us through, even when they were at war."


    "And where did their path lead us? Right where the attacknded," said Marvi with eyes full of darkness. "I have seen the worst of humans, and the other races are not different. Forest guardians are not known to be kind or affectionate to anyone but their own."


    "We learned the hard way when humans enved our brothers to grow their farnds, killing them in the process," said Reynor. "If you wish not to fight alongside us, then be it. We will let you leave with no ill will between us. However, do not use us of deceit."


    Marvi stared at the short child, whose expression was as cold as ice. Finally, he let go of Oren and withdrew his de instead. Then, he ced it on Reynor''s neck.


    "I heard they call you Reynor the Brave. If you are so brave, howe you ran away when we were ambushed? Howe you were waiting for us with your underground tunnel at that perfect moment?"


    "Lower your weapon, Marvi," said Oren with a frown, but the shadow warrior did not obey. The tree branches started rising from the ground slowly, aiming their sharp ends at Marvi, ready to attack him. However, Reynor raised his hand to stop them.


    "I suspected you were allies of the vile humans, so I followed, hoping to glean whatever information I could use to save my home. We can stand here and shoot usations at each other, or you can decide to either stay or leave. We will not beg for help."


    "And there will be no need to," said Oren as he grabbed the de with his metallic arm while ring at Marvi. "You can head toward the Yalveran Union, and I will follow you once I''m done. Gather the information you can on the royal family, which should be helpful once I''m there."


    In the end, Marvi could do nothing but sigh and retract his de. The weapon dissipated back into the shadows as the warrior turned ethereal, untangling himself from Oren''s grip. Then, he nodded.


    "This might be our best course of action. I have no obligation to protect you, nor do you need my protection. So let''s meet in the harbors of the Yalen Capital."


    Oren smiled and nodded before offering a handshake for the shadow. Marvi stared at his outstretched arm for a few seconds before shaking it and disappearing.


    ***


    Lyle materialized out of thin air atop a giant tree inside one of the infamous forests of Ilios, Living Forest. It was two cities away from Wailing, so he took some time to get there, but this was the closest spot. The map Ivory drew for him was circr, making the areas closer to the borders than the capital.


    "There is an encampment here, and no reports came from this ce. Ivory was right," said Lyle while staring at the map before pocketing it. "I can just go in and demand an inspecting as Knights Commander, but I doubt they would show me anything worth seeing."


    As he reached this conclusion, Lyle started turning into the wind again. However, as he was about to fly again, his body rematerialized without hismand. As a result, he was forced tond on the branch again, barely avoiding a fall.


    "What is going on?" questioned Lyle as he stared at his hand, which could not maintain its wind form for long. "This hasn''t happened before. Does it have to do with this ce?"


    As he remembers, Gray said that his father refused to let the emperor exploit his citizens. This might be one of those exploiting points, making it a dangerous ce to use mana. Lyle stopped using his mana and decided to infiltrate using his stats only.


    Although he relied on his wind ability to move stealthily, Lyle had his fair share of missions in the past. He had to climb through the ranks using his merits, including infiltrations. One of the few techniques he learned was the Soundless Steps.


    Lyle leaned forward on top of the branch and bolted from the tree. Although his jump was powerful, he didn''t stomp on the tree to cause any sound. Thus, he flew through the air above the small fortress below, using the giant trees as footholds.


    There seemed to be knights down below, guarding the fortress. But, since Lyle worked to hide his presence, they could only notice his shadow, which could be a bird as far as they cared.


    "I need to interrogate one of the researchers in this base," thought Lyle as he dived straight toward the fortress.


    His freefalling was straight toward a building, which have been erected using cobblestones. Before he mmed into it, Lyle waved his hands to cause enough wind to cushion his fall. He didn''t use his wind but his stats instead. A small hand that could lift a car was more than enough to cause a gale of wind.


    After hended, Lyle looked around. For some reason, there were no protection arrays. A good reason he could hypothesize is that the instability of mana made it impossible to erect a protection array here.


    "Their secrecy is their greatest protection," muttered Lyle as he walked toward the roof''s door and twisted the knob hard enough to break it. Then, he allowed himself down the stairs into a floor that looked like a hospital ward. "Are these… istion chambers?"


    Lyle found most of them empty, and there were no researchers there. Thus, he went down to another floor but had to hide by the stairs because this one had many people inside. Most of them were inside the istion chambers, while the free woreb coats.


    His silent surveincested until he understood what these researchers were doing. As he feared and Ivory warned, these men were doing human trials about how to drain life and extract it. Several experiments were underway simultaneously to know what would kill a human and what would not.


    In the end, Lyle followed after one of the researchers, who entered a room. The veteran soldiers slipped in without a sound before the door closed and hid in the room''s darkness while the researcher went toward his desk and started writing his report.


    "The previous batch is gone, so we must send word for the emperor for another one…" muttered the researcher as he jotted down the information. "Most patients died after we extracted half their life force, while the rest died after varying degrees. However, the pattern seems random."


    Lyle listened as he looked around the room, which was dark except for a few desks, all filled with stacks of papers. He walked toward the nearest one, out of sight, and read the top files. All of them were simr reports to the one this researcher was typing.


    "The emperor will be pleased, hoho, for we managed to extract most of their mana," the researcher gleefully said. "If we can get our hands on more funding, then we can make a breakthrough in the reinforcement of humans. We can even create humans with unlimited potential, as long we have enough patients to sacrifice."


    Lyle heard enough of his apathetic monologue and walked toward the researcher silently. Then, without a sound, he ced a dagger to the man''s neck, making the researcher yelp.


    "W… who is…?"


    "Another sound, and I will make it yourst," said Lyle calmly because calm scared humans more than rage. "There is no need for you to lose your head. Answer a few questions, and I will let you live."