Vhalaris was still visible behind them when Tavern opened an old map on the saddle of his mount. The lines on the map were old, but the military routes of the Cindari were marked much more carefully than the normal roads.
"I thought we should go through the same border that Lian and the others used before, if I’m not mistaken, its name was Cindervein." Rindo, who was moving beside him, looked at the map and said.
He did not know exactly which passage they had used before and only knew its name.
"If we take that route, we’ll lose more time." Tavern moved his finger along a thin line without looking up and then tapped another route.
"If we go from here, we’ll arrive in less than two days."
"Two days?" Rindo raised an eyebrow.
Tavern nodded.
"The Forgotten Tree is almost at the center of this world, and from there there are paths to all three forests. There is even a direct path from there to the Giant Forest and then the Giant Graveyard."
"But from where we are now to the tree itself is almost four days away. Going there would only waste time."
"Then what’s the faster route?" Seris, who was sitting on One’s back, gave the map a short look.
"We leave through the eastern military route, enter Glassthorn, pass by Crystaline, and go directly into the Giant Forest."Tavern added and then looked at the others.
"From there, the Giant Graveyard isn’t very far."
"Crystaline..." Rindo thought for a few seconds, this was the first time he had heard the name of such a place.
"It’s a city belonging to the natives of Glassthorn." Tavern looked at him.
"Not all the Awakened appeared in Emberroot, many of them must have fallen in Glassthorn from the beginning." The Student Council President thought for a moment.
This possibility clearly caught his attention.
The number of Awakened who had entered the Special Area had reached several hundred, but only around a few dozen were present in Emberroot.
So the rest were clearly scattered across the other forests and if they were still alive, they might be able to find valuable forces there, and that was why he asked if a short stop in Glassthorn was possible.
"Don’t count on it too much." Tavern quickly lowered his hopes.
"Why?"
"The people of Glassthorn have always been isolated, they don’t have a good relationship with outsiders, even before the world became like this, they barely let anyone enter their city, and now? If the corruption has also spread there, I doubt they’ll even let you get close to the gate."
Rindo stayed silent for a few seconds, if that was true, the chance that other Awakened had managed to enter the city would also become lower.
Even so, they were not going to change their route just to check this.
Simply passing around Crystaline would be enough to find out what had happened there.
The group continued moving without stopping.
The effect of Black Silence could be seen almost along the entire route.
Several hours later, they passed a group of beasts lying on the dry road. No hunter had killed them.
Each one had marks from the teeth and claws of its own kind on its body.
Two larger monsters had fallen on top of each other a little farther away.
One of them had pushed its jaws into the other’s throat until the last moment, and the other had pushed its claws through its opponent’s stomach.
Both were dead, but even in death they had not separated.
Selina did not take her eyes off them for a few moments.
"They’re getting worse."
"Maybe we’re just seeing the next stages." Aren, who was sitting on another mount, said quietly.
A little later, their path passed by a small village, while it was expected that apart from the five cities, the Cindari did not live anywhere else, but this way of thinking was wrong.
There were also small villages, but their population barely reached a few dozen people and most of them were built near fertile areas and mines so they could watch over those places.
Several stone houses, a small square and corpses lying in the streets.
There were no signs of an army or monster attack, everyone had been killed with their own weapons.
Seris kept her eyes on a man for a few moments, a short sword was stuck in his chest.
A few steps away from him, a woman had fallen, her hands were still wrapped around the handle of the same sword.
"Mom!" Then a voice came from a half-ruined house.
The group slowed down.
"Mom, open the door! I’m fine now!"
"I swear I’m fine!" The boy was hitting the door hard, but there were bloody chains in his hands that had clearly been used as weapons.
No one inside the house answered.
When the group passed the window, they saw a Cindari woman sitting behind the door.
Both of her hands were over her mouth, tears were running down her face, on the other side of the door, her son knocked again.
"Open the door!"
The woman only shook her head, as if she did not dare to open the door, as if she knew that her son was no longer what he had been.
No one in the group said anything.
"If this reaches Earth..." Liana said very quietly afterward, she did not even want to finish the sentence.
"We won’t let it." Rindo did not even look at her and gave a short answer.
But everyone knew that talking about something like this was easier than doing it.
Black Silence did not need to kill billions of people itself.
It did not need to destroy cities with its own hands.
It was enough to make one person’s fear a little bigger, make the second person’s hatred deeper, make the third person’s jealousy sick, and then just watch.
The world would kill itself.
This thought made even those who were still unsure about saving or killing Lian feel the weight of their goal more strongly.
If the Calamity reached Earth, it was not only about one person’s fate.
Time passed slowly, almost one day after leaving Vhalaris, the environment began to change.
The trees of Emberroot became fewer, the dark and soft ground under their feet was replaced by brighter and harder ground.
Then the first glass tree appeared.
Selina unconsciously slowed down, as if she was surprised by what she was seeing, the trunk of the tree was half-transparent.
Lines of light moved through its depths and the branches rose into the sky like long crystals.
The leaves also looked like thin, colored glass, when the wind moved through them, instead of the sound of leaves, the sound of very soft bells spread through the air.
The farther they went, the more Emberroot completely disappeared behind them, Glassthorn surrounded them from every side.
The glass trees broke the sunlight and hundreds of colors fell onto the ground.
Some trunks were light blue, some were pink, and some were almost colorless.
"This one is prettier than the previous forest." Selina looked around for a few seconds.
"Until something jumps out from inside a tree." Liana added sarcastically.
"Can you at least make one beautiful place not look scary?" Selina looked at her.
She did not answer, because she was actually telling the truth, this place might be more beautiful but it was also more dangerous.
And then they saw Crystaline.
The city could be clearly seen even from very far away.
Several layers of transparent walls rose among the trees and tall crystal towers spread the sunlight across the entire forest.
Transparent bridges stretched between the towers.
Buildings that looked more like pieces of crystal that had grown from the ground than structures built by living creatures.
"This is even bigger than Vhalaris." Seraphina said in surprise.
"It should be." Tavern answered naturally and then added.
"Almost all the intelligent creatures of Glassthorn live in this city, we Cindari have five large cities, they only have this one, so naturally they spend everything they have on this place."
Rindo stared at the city, the gates of Crystaline could be seen even from that distance, but there was no sign of a large disturbance around them.
At least nothing that could be seen from outside.
"We’ll pass by it."
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