Chapter 33: But...What Is It?

The two followed Bracha for the last five minutes or so, walking through a densely forested area which Agni barely recognized as the Lull Forest -- or at least an area that resembled it. Agni couldn't help but feel cagey as her eyes darted to and fro, searching between the trees for some perceived threat.

She'd begun to sweat profusely and now her hands were shaking, adding a sense of confusion to the already disturbing situation. Couple this with the fact that her breathing was labored and Agni found herself struggling to stave off a growing sense of panic. In fact she'd only managed to keep it together thus far because of Katrin, who seemed determined to soldier along, regardless of the difficulty.

"Ugrk." Katrin gagged as her nausea finally got the better of her, bringing her to her knees as she puked.

"I was wondering how long it would take for one of you to let on that something was amiss." Bracha said, stopping to wait for Katrin to finish expelling her frayed nerves. She then added, "Always trust your instincts as well as your perception. It could save your life."

"This place is not a normal realm. Your body is reacting to the atmosphere in this world of grey. There's a trick to fending off the oppressive feeling - spread a thin amount of mana out across your body. From head to toe, imagine it as a coating to protect you from the oppressive energy that flows in this place." Bracha instructed.

Desperate for some return to normalcy, Agni closed her eyes and did as requested. The sensation was strange, almost immediately the pressure let up and Agni noted that the feeling of oppression lessened based on how much of her own mana she used to build this 'coating'. In all she used about 5% of her mana to create a mana layer comfortable enough to remove the mental and physical effects of the atmosphere. This did little for the persistent scent lingering in the air, Agni simply had to build her resolve not to focus on it.

"Bracha…" Katrin groaned as she fanned air towards her face.

"What's that smell. It's making me nauseous."

"Miasma. All shards have it, some in varying degrees of density. Eventually, you can build up a tolerance to it but miasma in large amounts is deadly. This is why we won't be staying around too long. There are just a few more things I want you to see." Bracha said as she waited patiently.

After Katrin spent a few moments gathering herself and creating her own such mana coating Bracha continued walking with them as she further explained.

"The main reason adventurers are called to this world is to wage war against the threat of the Grimlock. Grimlock are not creatures that normally reside in our world. Instead, they seem to originate from this dark place. This brings me to the first thing I wanted to show you regarding shards."

Bracha held her hand out and began to push at the air in front of her. Amazingly enough her fingers met resistance as the air particles bent and stretched like a piece of cloth.

"We call this the veil. It's a phenomenon that exists inside shards. It's also responsible for expanding the shard's dominion. You see, each shard is like a miniature realm that is superimposed on top of our own world. If left unchecked, the boundaries of this shard will continue to expand."

"So what happens when a shard's boundaries expand?" Katrin asked.

"When that happens, Grimlock can more easily make their way from this realm into the next-- in other words our realm. If left unchecked, Grimlock will begin to flow from this world into ours."

*So why haven't we seen any Grimlock yet?* Agni thought to herself as she gazed around. This definitely had not turned out to be the type of adventure she expected to take. A bleak world that threatened to eat away at the mental and physical attributes of any who ventured inside of it. Normals and other inhabitants of Adventia would no doubt have a chance of survival here.

*What if someone got lost here?* Agni shuddered at the thought.

*Or worse...trapped.*

Ever since Bracha called their attention to 'miasma' Agni had begun to feel as if her lungs were swirling with invisible particles that were now assaulting her body. She felt that perhaps this was in her mind, but the feeling remained even as Bracha led them to what she called 'the edge'.

"This is the edge of the shard. This is the perimeter line, a barrier of sorts that shows the limit of this shard's expansion." This time as Bracha reached out she knocked with the back of her hand, as if rapping on a door. A low pitched, clunking sound reverberated through the area, much louder than it should have. The sensation was like powerful waves of bass echoing through their body.

*Everything in this world hates us...* Agni thought as she recoiled from the sound.

The strange thing about the edge was that it seemed to go on forever behind the barrier. In fact, unless you looked really closely, you'd never be able to tell a barrier was there in the first place. Katrin, who was normally full of questions, hadn't spoken for quite some time. She was lost in thought as she took in the full experience of the shard world.

"How many shards are there?" She then asked.

"No one knows. Thousands, at the least-- perhaps more. They dot Adventia's landscape from coast to coast." Bracha replied.

"So Grimlock came from this place and somehow pushed into our realm?" Katrin said as she reached out to run her fingers along the near invisible edge wall.

"Correct."

"So where are the Grimlock now?" Katrin then asked as the soft, chafing sound of her fingers against the barrier echoed outwards, filtering through their bodies.