Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 79—More Problems

"What could it be? It can’t be a Life beast, can it?" He spoke to himself.

"This part of the Academy is too close to the truth for it to actually have Life Beast," he analyzed.

"If it wasn’t a Life beast what could it be?"

Cole thought for a while more before coming to a conclusion.

"I will go check it out, and if things grow haywire, I will try to escape."

His confidence in the speed boost produced by the combination of his new ability and kinetic acceleration influenced his decision.

"At the sight of any trouble, I will get out of there as soon as possible."

Since he had made a preliminary plan, he began enacting it.

While staying as quiet as he could and also trying to conserve as much energy as possible, he crept towards the location of the sound.

After about five minutes, he was in the vicinity of the spot.

Cole could catch sight of a dark-cloaked figure, performing a set of actions in the distance, while fumes were rising.

He was too far away from the spot to see the details, but he was sure something nefarious was going on.

He immediately hid, afraid of being noticed by the figure.

Now that he had confirmed the source of the explosion. Cole was stuck in a dilemma.

"Should I investigate further or just leave and report this point?"

"But no one will really believe. Will I just report seeing a dark figure and nothing else? The Academy won’t waste strength on things like this."

"I really need to get more information if I want to get anything out of this."

Summoning all the courage he had in himself, Cole decided to investigate further and check out the details on what was going on.

He crept out of his hiding spot and started approaching that spot, and this time he was much slower than before.

A step at a time, he got closer to the figure. Cole could see much more clearly now.

The man was dressed in a cloak that Cole won’t be forgetting for a long time.

"Isn’t that the same emblem on Simone’s coat?" Cole asked in shock.

"Quinox."

Cole now understood the true severity of the situation he was in.

Quinox was an organization he wasn’t ready to face at all at the moment, so he decided to leave immediately.

"I will just report the situation as it is," he said while turning around.

His decision to leave the environment inevitably made him a little bit careless, resulting in a misstep.

Crack!

Suddenly rang out as his leg fell heavily on a twig on the ground.

Cole didn’t worry about the twig; he only turned around to look at the mysterious man not far away.

The man didn’t seem to know the exact direction where the sound was coming from.

He looked all around him cautiously but failed to spot Cole.

"I better leave as soon as possible," Cole heard him muttering.

The man directly picked up all of the stuff and got ready to leave the spot.

"This should be enough," he said while leaving.

Cole watched him pack all of his stuff and leave the environment as fast as he could.

He could only stand stuck in his spot, not daring to move too much before he was sure the coast was clear.

After five more minutes, he couldn’t hear any more sounds from that location. Cole decided to check it out.

"He left in quite a hurry; he mustn’t be too strong then," Cole thought.

Despite knowing the man had already left that place, Cole didn’t lose his caution.

He carefully approached that location, and what he saw joining there was extremely shocking.

The environment was releasing dark, death-filled miasma that was identical to the one in the location the elder took him to.

All plant life in that radius was completely wiped out, leaving a bare black spot on the ground.

There was one major difference between this location and the others he visited previously, and that was the size.

The location Cole was in was much smaller than the one Cole previously saw, and the edges were much more defined.

It was a well-defined and even almost perfect circle. In the middle of the forest.

"It is almost sure this was intentional," Cole said.

While studying the spot, he observed something that looked like a pattern across the ground, but he couldn’t get the full grasp.

He moved to another side of the clearing to check from another perspective and see if he could spot anything.

To his surprise, Cole saw the same lines on the ground. Leading downwards to a point in the center.

He changed again and realized the same thing.

"This looks to be some sort of formation," Cole thought.

Formations weren’t something he really understood, but he could clearly remember coming across something like that while reading once.

"Things are really escalating Fast,"

"Two regions of land with the same sort of blemish—now that is something that needs further investigation."

Cole felt satisfied and like he had gathered enough points to report to the academy.

"But the Academy has a lot of powerful people; how can these people infiltrate so easily?" Cole questioned.

He made sure to not stay too close to that spot while he thinks to avoid any contamination.

He knew he was quite susceptible to such things since he had some amount of dark energy still suppressed in him.

"Any of us would find you easily." Cole suddenly remembered the words spoken by Simone previously.

"Why didn’t that guy notice me then?" he thought.

"Or.... Could he have?" realization dawned on him.

Before Cole could attempt to escape and leave the location as soon as possible.

"You can’t be leaving so soon," Cole suddenly heard from behind him.

With a stiff neck and sweaty face, Cole turned around to check who it was while praying it wasn’t that man from earlier.

But his prayers weren’t answered as he saw the dark-cloaked man standing not too far away begin him.