Another world, Celeste

Chapter Seventeen

"Please wait here. I will observe the surrounding."

Lorelai strides towards a nearby wooden observation tower that the keepers use to feed winged and tall monsters and magical beasts.

Meanwhile, Lord Sol inspect the magi control board placed beside the sanctuary's gate and notes, "There's no sign of intrusion from this gate or at any other of the relay gates."

"Maybe the monsters sensed something that we couldn't detect," I comment.

"Do you detect anything suspicious, Iris?"

I use 'Presence Detection' and expand the search radius throughout the sanctuary. The screen is displaying the presence of the monsters around us but they are visibly unseen. Must be hiding.

Right then, Lorelai returns and reports, "There's no sign of movements in this area."

"They're here, just hiding."

I tell them so while screening through the screen. The entire sanctuary is enormously vast that it's taking some time for me to discern anything out of the ordinary.

"Found it!" I say loudly.

Transfer the information into my phone through the map app and show it to Lord Sol and Lorelai. I relay the information I got from 'Presence Detection' since the map app doesn't have the function to show the number of people.

"They're all crowding in these areas."

Lord Sol says, "That's between the tropical jungle and the desert zone."

"I can't tell anything else unless we get closer to it."

"Let us hurry then."

By Lord Sol's order, we immediately run towards where the presences are clustering while I continuously check the screen using 'Presence Detection' for any changes. When we reach the tropical jungle zone, halfway into the pinpointed location, the grounds start trembling and I notice the gathered presences on the screen are suddenly moving towards our direction in an alarming rate.

"They're coming!"

I inform the rest.

"Remember not to attack them. They are still under the sanctuary's protection." Lord Sol reminds us.

"Then, it'd be best for us to avoid them altogether," Lorelai suggests.

Lord Sol, Lorelai and I jump on the tree branches while Bane moves away to hide between the trees. We stay where we are to observe the incoming monsters' erratic behaviours. Surprisingly, several monsters abruptly change their speed to a halt at the place where we were just standing as if it's losing track on its prey while most of them carry on the stampede as though they are running away, frightened.