There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 493

Chapter 493: Chapter 486. A Split

"What do you think?" Bassena asked.

They were at an intersection where two paths of different eras crossed. The path that the squad took was considerably older, since the walls were harder. The one crossing their path still hadn’t hardened completely, which meant it was easier to spot any trace.

After two days of nothing, they finally saw footsteps and what looked like scattered sands and dirt which probably came from the beasts passing through. All of them seemed to pointing at the path in front of them.

"It’s about a week old at least," Kei said. "I can’t be so sure, since I’m not a pathfinder like Ron."

"They all went in the same direction?"

"Yeah," Kei glanced at the compass. Thankfully, the arrow was pointing in another direction, around ten o’clock of their current position. "What are you going to do? Should we continue with the shards, or...?"

Bassena narrowed his eyes in contemplation. He had sent his kids again, and they found more traces from other crossings. They could go back and use the hole that led straight to the shards, but this movement was too suspicious to be left behind.

"Bas, let’s use this path," Zein gave his piece of mind with a frown on his face. "This place is a system, so any path could lead to the shards. What if these beasts’s direction is..."

Ah--Bassena and Kei looked at each other. Zein was right; while the compass was pointing in another direction, there was no guarantee the path these beats took would not end up in the shards’ chamber.

"We should hurry then," Bassena nodded. "I hope you guys have enough rest."

Bassena glanced back, but no one was whining. They could feel something might happen sooner or later anyway. It was still better than wondering why everything was so empty.

"We’ll go with pursuing formations--Banner, Julian; please make sure everyone keeps up."

"Yessir!"

And then they ran. They ran as much as the anxiety shown in Zein’s furrowed brows. At one point, Julian and Banner had to carry the exhausted guides, but they didn’t stop following the traces they found until they arrived in a huge chamber.

Bigger than the one they arrived at the first time, the chambers had about two dozen holes and thousands of traces. Bassena halted at the entrance of their path and told the other to stop. Not because there were beasts there, but because of the thick miasma swirling in the chamber. Thankfully, their path happened to be situated on higher ground, so the fume did not enter their path.

"We’re going to check on the other holes, so take a break here."

Bassena took Kei around the chamber, while Zein stayed on the edge of the path, peering down to the ground. Even with his inadequate vision, he could see the dirt and footprints, dragging traces and signs of damaged walls. Clearly, the thick miasma came from the beasts that were gathering here, probably just two or three days ago, seeing as it hadn’t dissipated yet. When Bassena and Kei came about thirty minutes later, they affirmed Zein’s conjecture.

"Of all the paths here, almost all the traces are pointing into this chamber, so we can conclude that this is a...meeting place of some sort," Bassena explained. "All except for two paths."

"Two..."

Kei pointed at two holes opposite of each other. "The traces on those two are pointing inside the path."

"You mean...they gathered here and then split into two forces?"

"More or less," the scout rubbed her lips in contemplation. "The split is not even, though. Most of them went through that one," she pointed at the hole in their right side. She would like to know how much was the split, but with hundreds and thousands of traces overlapping in two paths, it was hard to determine it without a pathfinder ability.

"And the rest was heading in that direction?" Zein looked at the hole in their left side, and then at the compass in his hand. "In the shards’ direction?"

"Yeah," Bassena held Zein’s shoulder, squeezing it a bit to calm the guide down. "Now, listen to me calmly."

The tone was calm, but they could see the firm amber eyes that only meant it was serious business. The rest of the squad members made a school circle around Bassena, who broke a piece of startling news.

"We know one of the holes leads to the shard, but we don’t know where the other hole leads to," the Saint class began. "However, we know something on the far end of that direction."

The one who caught up the quickest was Naoya. "No way--are you saying..."

"The base," Kei nodded. "If we go straight in that direction, we’ll reach our base."

The group was silent for a while, as all kinds of possibilities entered their mind. Han Shin, who had been tensed ever since they entered the Stone Eater’s system, laughed awkwardly.

"Haha...it couldn’t be, right? It’s so far, and..." he swallowed his saliva and felt his throat dry. "I mean...what are the chances? Do you think they would really dig all the way to the base...?"

"There’s a Specter..." Zein took a deep breath, staring at the chamber below. "And there’s a Fragment."

There was more silence for a few seconds. "What?!"

Zein couldn’t be sure about everything, but he was sure about those two facts. After all, he was the most sensitive to those creatures’ traces. "The Fragment went to the shards’ direction, and the Specter..."

"Is leading a horde?" Bassena exhaled heavily at his own conclusion.