Out of nowhere, Orion remembered that the arachnea were supposed to have been located near Ryghs.


    Leaving Stella behind back in Horizon, he went to explore the area with the girls the next day.


    "This is not going to be simple."


    Amelia said, gazing at the trees in the distance. They were currently in the middle of nowhere, where only snow and trees were in sight.


    "Finding the elemental realm wasn''t easy either, yet I managed with May''s help."


    With a quick analyzing, Orion noticed nothing strange in the surrounding.


    ''Like she said, it won''t be easy. If they were easy to find, they would have been hunted a long time ago.''


    "We''re not even sure they are alive, right?"


    Adjusting her blue coat so that the cold wouldn''t bother her, Karteira breathed a long cloud of white smoke from her mouth.


    "That''s right. But we still have a lead."


    Orion grabbed something inside of his own coat and showed it to them.


    "We can use this artifact to find their hiding place."


    "Oh."


    They recognized the jewel incrusted wand and the trapped beetle artifact.


    "So what do we do with it? I know we''ve used it to find the fairy once, and that it helped you find the elementals, but is it going to work for the arachnea too?"


    "I sure hope so."


    After shrugging, Orion brought the trapped beetle close to his face.


    "I''m counting on you, little friend."


    Almost instantly, the beetle began to react.


    It turned around in the ball he was trapped in, before sliding on the side indicating the way.


    "Hmm. That''s... west."


    Using the sun to find his location, a small feeling of hope grew in his heart.


    ''If it''s reacting, it means they are still around. Or so I hope.''


    ...


    They immediately followed the path indicated by the beetle. On the way, a rather unpleasant question came out of Amelia''s mouth.


    "Orion, why did you kept quiet about the Elemental Shrine blocking your ability to control Horizon''s flow of time?"


    "..."


    He kept his gaze in front of him, an expression of unease on his face.


    "You can''t walk your way out of it, and you know it."


    Karteira walked up next to him and stared at his face, her hands in the pockets of her coat.


    *sigh*


    "If this was only that."


    "What do you mean?"


    Catching up to him too, Amelia asked. The cold wasn''t affecting her that much compared to Karteira.


    With a very displeased expression, Orion revealed the biggest problem he ever faced yet. Something he had no control over.


    "The moment my three elements placed a part of themselves inside those shaped prisms, I''ve lost an ability concerning them."


    "I''ve lost the ability to enhance with the light element, the ability to imbue some ailments in my arrows, and the control over the flow of time in Horizon."


    They both opened their mouth in shock, stopping in their tracks at the same time. Orion stopped and turned around with a frustrated smile on his face.


    "I don''t know why it happened, but it definitely had something to do with the elementals."


    He turned around and continued trudging in the snow. Amelia and Karteira came back to their senses and run back next to him.


    "..."


    Amelia stared at his face with worry.


    "I''m fine other than that. I have found no other problems, and I can still use some ailments with Taygeta. Mostly ''Mute'' and ''Bleed''..."


    "That''s pretty much all of them that disappeared!"


    Karteira wasn''t very happy to hear that. While her and Amelia were progressing, he was watching his own power regress.


    "I''m not weaker just because I''ve lost those abilities, so it''s alright. I simply makes things a little awkward."


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    He looked at the beetle slowly turned in the spider webbed ball.


    "If I was still able to control Horizon''s time, I wouldn''t have panicked that much when noticing the hourglass'' countdown being lowered to almost nothing."


    "Like you''ve said, I was ready to seal myself for a year already if I were to notice no improvements before Elliott''s return, but as you now know, even that became impossible."


    "To make it worse, I don''t even have time to process anything, and before I''ll blink, the next two weeks will go by quickly."


    The beetle began to rapidly move forward.


    ''We''re closing on the spot.''


    The rest of the way, both Amelia and Karteira remained quiet. They both learned that Orion was still able to hide his problems without them noticing, which made their heart sank.


    They thought they were close to understand him, yet he was still putting some distance between them.


    ''Why is he never speaking about the things bothering him?''


    ''Can''t he share his burden with us? Are we that untrustworthy?''


    What they failed to realize is that he actually told them. It was because they asked that he told them.


    Sure, he wouldn''t go out of his way to tell them all of his worries, but he would answer if they were to ask, even if reluctantly.


    As the silence weighted heavily, the scratching sound of the beetle running on the hardened web sphere began to grow erratic.


    "Here."


    The beetle stopped, and fell on its back, wriggling around.


    In front of Orion, a normal forest of pine tree stood unbothered. Nothing was amiss.


    Snow was hiding the top and the sides of the branches, but the inside of the forest was almost cleaned of snow. Only a very few spots were white.


    "There''s nothing strange with this forest, but if our little friend stopped, then we should be in the right place."


    Karteira walked in front of Orion and entered the forest.


    A few steps in, she stopped, and brought her hand in front of her.


    "I know that feeling, there''s a seal of sort, just like our gate. This feels similar to mother''s magic."


    "A Remnant''s power."


    Orion walked next to her and touched the barrier, creating a ripple on its surface.


    "Can we enter?"


    Approaching with he arms crossed, Amelia asked.


    "That would be difficult. Remember how difficult it is to enter the fairy realm?"


    Bringing a finger to her chin, Karteira observed the barrier.


    "We don''t know how to enter, and I believe only a member of the arachnea can open it."


    *BAM*


    Both Amelia and Karteira jumped at the sudden noise, and looked at Orion.


    *BAM*


    Again. Orion was trying to force his way through with just his fists.


    "We don''t have the..."


    *BAM*


    "leisure to wait..."


    *BAM*


    "for the arachnea to open their door to us!"


    *BAM*


    Even though he was using a lot of strength, the barrier remained in a pristine state.


    ''There''s no way they have died with a barrier this strong. I don''t know who you are, Remnant of the arachnea, but you''ve done a great job.''


    He stopped and looked at his fist.


    ''That won''t do.''


    Taking some distance, he decided to try something else.


    "WAIT WAIT WAIT!"


    Both girls jumped in front of him, and stopped his crazy idea.


    "If you break the barrier, not only will you possibly tell them you are an enemy, but you will also put them in danger!"


    "Don''t try to break your way through it with strength!"


    Coming from Karteira, that meant something.


    "You have a better plan then? Like I said, we don''t have time. They won''t act like the fairies, so they will probably never open the barrier."


    "How many times a fairy went to the main continent like Motirion did back then?"


    He stared at Karteira.


    "N-None."


    "There you go. You know better than me that they wouldn''t trust someone that looks like a human. In fact, Amelia is a human. This won''t be easy to persuade them like we did for Tiohr-nam."


    Orion''s left foot scrapped the snow and the mud under it. He was ready to unleash the Second Gear on the barrier to break through it.


    "And if things come to that, we''ll just have to bring them to Horizon."


    "You''re going with the premise of taking them with us?!"


    Amelia shouted that just before Orion jumped. He went over both of them, and went to kick the barrier with all of his might.


    "Huh?!"


    Right before the kick connected, he stopped the Second Gear. A simple kick hit the barrier, which made no difference than his previous punches.


    "Why did you stop?"


    Karteira asked with worry.


    "Something''s wrong inside. I just felt something very troublesome."


    Grabbing his chest in pain, Orion glared at the barrier as if he was seeing something through it.


    "I don''t feel anything. What are you talking about?"


    Concerned, Amelia rubbed his back.


    "There''s a very high chance that corruption as taken over the arachnea."


    "!"


    Their expression turned serious immediately.


    "How bad?"


    "In numbers... I''d say eighty- no, ninety percent of the beings in the barrier are either dead, or corrupted."


    A bead of sweat dripped from his forehead. This was the first time such intense feelings influenced his thoughts.


    But his visions wasn''t lying to him. He knew it. The curse of corruption in his soul was the reason for the sudden realization.


    "We really don''t have time..."


    Orion opened his other hand, which wasn''t grabbing his chest, creating a sphere of void.


    "It''s all or nothing."


    He slammed the sphere on the barrier.


    Both Amelia and Karteira had to take a step back, as a violent outburst of wind and sparks erupted from the impact point.


    "Ghhh-"


    Holding his chest strongly, the feeling of pain was only growing stronger.


    *Crack*


    The sphere began to crack the barrier as a dark miasma began to make its way through those same cracks.


    Pushing further, the sphere began to warp the impact point, pulling on every side, while pushing at the same time.


    ''A singularity... I know I''ve been told not to play with it, but right now, I need it!''


    He had to break that barrier by any means possible.


    While gritting his teeth, he pushed one last the sphere into the barrier.


    "BREAK... THROUGH!"


    *CRASH*


    A big opened appeared in the barrier as Orion destroyed it with his void element. The moment the pieces of the barrier, similar to glass, touched the ground, a big wave of corrupted energy exploded out.


    "You two! Grab my hands!"


    Orion turned around using his Second Gear, warped in front of them, and vanished with both Amelia and Karteira in his arms.


    "T-Thanks."


    They watched from afar a vast amount of corruption fly in the air, disappearing as if it was being cleansed.


    "This situation is one of the worst possible. We have to check on the arachnea!"


    Releasing them, Orion waited until all the corruption flew out of the barrier.


    "Let''s go!"


    "Yes!"


    They ran with all their might into the barrier. Inside was a denser and darker forest, showing the worst corruption ever seen until now. Even the land itself was corrupted. The trees, the air, the ground, and most likely, even the people living inside.


    *CLANG*


    An echo entered Orion''s hear.


    ''The sound of weapon clashing!''


    "This way!"


    Orion followed the noise.


    *CLING*


    A being with eight legs, the body of a spider, and the torso of a man was fighting a similar being with a spear.


    The clash between the spear and the other being''s claws made sparks as they fought.


    While he was approaching, Orion saw the spear pierce the other spider being in the chest, ripping off a black core that vanished the moment it made contact with the air.


    Just as the other being turned around to look at something, another spider thing jumped at him from behind.


    ''Tch! Alcyone!''


    A light arrow flew past the man at high speed, and pierced the spider being right were the dark cores were supposed to be.


    With an explosion of green blood, the enemy fell to the ground, lifeless.


    This was only the beginning, as an innumerable amount of red eyes stared at him from every part of the forest.


    ''Bring it on!''


    Orion, Amelia, and Karteira began their fight to save the remaining survivors of the arachnea.