Chapter 1246: Mirror Wall

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The earth shook with every step of the great tree, alongside which walked an ordinary man, the size of the Dark Ent’s palm.

“Garrah, are we still far away?” Adam asked.

To his surprise, the Dark Ent, Garrah, turned out to be surprisingly talkative, even though it sometimes took him almost a minute to respond. In this regard, Garrah was quite slow.

However, if it weren’t for his great size, he would be no faster than a turtle, at least until it came to a fight. Adam felt that Garrah could easily match someone like Lyrod in strength.

“No…” Garrah shook his head. “Didn’t you see the bridge from above… when you flew here…?”

Adam raised an eyebrow. Because of Garrah’s appearance, which was that of a large tree, Adam forgot that he was facing a long-lived monster who probably knew more about the world than he did. Naturally, Garrah was not surprised by the fighters.

“Well, that’s why I’m asking. It feels like we should have reached the bridge a long time ago, but we’ve been walking for too long. Are we definitely going in the right direction?”

Garrah nodded deeply as his gaze momentarily became heavier.

“It’s all because of the Red Bloom barrier.”

“Agh…?” Adam tilted his head in confusion.

Silvana hadn’t mentioned anything like that, and none of them had found any information about a barrier before preparing for the mission.

“You came here at just the right time… young man… At least for us… It’s been weeks since a K4-Phantom made its way into the center of the forest…”

Adam nodded. He knew it had been quite a while. There were too few K4-Phantoms for each of them to visit every territory regularly.

“Recently… We… the inhabitants of this forest have encountered a problem… The Red Bloom… The monster, the plant, has taken over the resources of our forest… greedily consuming it…”

“And? What’s the problem? Kill that Red Bloom.” Adam waved his hand dismissively.

Garrah shook his head. “It… It’s dangerous… We don’t have a single High Elder who can handle it… We just can’t get close to it because of its barrier… It uses the energy of our lands to protect itself…”

In an instant, Adam frowned. He didn’t like where Garrah was going with this.

“Pffft, if you think I’m going to help you with a monster that even you fear, forget it! That’s not why I came here!”

Strangely enough, Garrah nodded calmly.

“I understand your dissatisfaction… However, you simply cannot get out of the forest while the Red Bloom continues to absorb energy… You can try… I won’t stop you, but… you’ll quickly realize how futile an idea it is…”

However, there was no panic or fear on Adam’s face. This alarmed Garrah, because he wasn’t lying — Adam was actually their only way to get rid of the Red Bloom.

“Well, I don’t know what you’re thinking, big tree, but breaking barriers is what I do best!” Adam patted his chest.

A minute later, they emerged from the forest grove and found themselves in front of an empty field.

In the distance, the outline of the Glass Bridge was visible. The distance was greatly distorted by the nearly transparent barrier, but the crimson hue ran across the flat surface, showing where it was.

This was also evident from the red flowers that grew in a straight line, enclosing the exit from the forest that was supposed to lead Adam to the Glass Bridge.

“So, is this the Red Bloom barrier?” Adam asked, looking up.

He could see that the barrier rose high, not high enough to stop birds or fighter jets, but impossible to jump over. Also, it was not a dome, which was why Adam had been able to fall here.

Garrah nodded.

“Yes… All the monsters of the forest, including me, tried to break through it… But we realized that we had to get rid of the Red Bloom if we wanted to get rid of its influence.”

“But you can’t get close to it because it has surrounded itself with an even more powerful barrier, right?”

Garrah nodded again.

“Unfortunately, that’s right… Our forest has never been a place where great warriors gathered… It’s a quiet, unremarkable area… Still… The Red Bloom, she… she decided to use our forest as a source of energy…”

Then, Adam glanced at Garrah, who was looking ahead. His gaze was calm.

“You know, you don’t seem angry. I wouldn’t be able to stay calm if I were in your situation.”

In response, Garrah shook his head.

“I am angry… Deep down, I want nothing more than to tear the Red Bloom to pieces… I want to crush her head… turn her flesh into a mess…”

A shiver ran across Adam’s face, not from fear, but from how sharply those words came out of Garrah, while his expression didn’t change at all.

“I see. Well, if I destroy this barrier, it will be easier for you to deal with her, won’t it?” Adam asked.

“Hmm…” Garrah hummed thoughtfully. “Most likely, yes… She will lose many sources of energy and weaken… I think in that case we will be able to break through the main barrier… But… young man… You are overestimating yourself… You will not be able to break this barrier…”

“Pffft! Just watch!”

With a confident stride, Adam moved forward as white energy condensed around him in active whirlpools.

He did not hold back his power.

Two needles appeared in his hands, which he immediately joined together to form one grand needle.

Garrah’s eyes slowly opened, sensing in Adam both a young and passionate aura and an ancient, calm one.

‘This kid… He’s quite arrogant… But… Maybe he can actually achieve something…’ Garrah thought.

“I don’t know why you had trouble with this barrier. I’ll break it like fragile glass!” Adam exclaimed before stepping forward.

Energy created the great path as his frame trembled. He crossed dozens of meters in an instant, ending up right in front of the barrier.

At the same time, in the very center of the forest, a female figure sleeping inside a red flower opened her bright eyes.