Beyond nature

Yesterday I didn't exactly get a good look at his face, but that tired elf is definitely the one who inspected the library, at night.

The one with him, the energetic one I did not know, but I've been around a little and so I do think he is another in-colony guard.

Vedd looked at me and said, his tone even-

"Those are Delve and Voll, those two are the best guards here... don't mind their childish personalities"

Voll immediately responded with fake annoyance-

"Hey! Only Delve is childish... he wanted to throw his damn shift on my broken back for a slithering fish!"

'Well... that's hella childish, I mean for the both of them.'

Delve looked at his friend with actual irritation and said with a tired but stinging tone-

"Look who's talking!! The guy who refused because of some ghost stories...

Because of your ugly ass, now I have to go on near-death mission half asleep... and an empty stomach worst of both!"

Vedd ignored their antics and spoke to me-

"Look... the mission isn't complicated, still it is dangerous.

That's why we are here, to keep you safe...

We will travel towards the nearest nest"

He grimaced.

- "And you will have to travel the last one hundred meters... set fire near the nest, and immediately run away.

We'll do everything we can to keep you safe until the mission is complete.

Is that clear?"

I thought for a second, well nothing seemed impossible about it but still, it was definitely not safe to get too close to the nest...

- "How will I start the fire?"

- "Explosives..."

Vedd thought for a second then completed his sentence-

"That would help you fly back before the start of the fire"

That might be good... right? As long as the explosives aren't too good, in which case I'll die.

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After that we continued to prepare for the attack, me on the other hand did nothing but wait.

As Vedd... "General:... Vedd? I'm not sure. Vedd kept going from one room to another and very quickly pushing everyone to complete the preparations hurriedly, and they were actually going pretty fast.

As I stood in the corridor I looked up, there the moss was as bright as usual... but after looking closely, eventually I could see dark veins run through the roof hidden behind the bright moss.

Suddenly Vedd spoke out loud to me-

"Let's go, we prepared everything... we'll explain the mechanism of the bombs later."

I looked at him and simply nodded, there were not much to say.

The four of us, me Vedd Delve and Voll, we were walking towards the grand gate with steady footing.

As we got close to the small crowd of scared people, I unconsciously looked around especially at a specific spot, but I didn't see that kid there...

-"Sir! I want to go with you"

Someone spoke to Vedd, I looked back at the front where a pale man was talking to Ved with fire burning in his eyes... no, that's hatred.

Vedd responded-

"You just came back from a terrible tragedy! And you didn't rest enough yet. More over, we don't need a fifth person."

The man didn't even blink, he moved forward with a challenging proximity, then he said-

"I want to see them suffer"

Vedd thought for a long while and then finally replied, his tone seemed lighter-

"Are you going mad, Vore?

... Fine, you can go, but stop acting so deranged."

That's a weird conversation...

I looked at Vore who was way better now after resting, among the injured ones that came back he was almost unscathed.

He was already wearing armor, probably to hide the little injuries that he had to hopefully better convince Vedd, but Vedd knew all too well.

After that we walked out of the grand gate towards the open, the trench was filled with fog today.

At the edge of the platform we lined up, Vedd Voll and Delve all have baggage strapped to them in different ways not to obstruct the air wings, and not to disturb the center of gravity.

One by one the all flew up easily and smoothly, the pale man Vore struggled for a second but then started ascending.

I took a very deep breath and then I exhaled through the metal roots of the wings, then an almost invisible pair of thin wings appeared.

I took a second to prepare and then I jumped up, it took me five seconds to stabilize myself and start ascending.

Up at the top of the trench they all were hovering, waiting for the bomb bearer to follow, I wanted to frown but I actually was a little interested in this suicide mission, maybe because I can't feel fear?

As we flew over the forest I was always behind, I struggled to stay stable especially through fast winds, I struggled to make smooth turns as well.

Eventually I started to see it.

The Nest, it was a massive structure that reached to the sky and it was circular so perfectly almost like a human structure.

It was green blending with the forest, but even from this far it's so massive that it can not be a camouflage.

It's probably built from wood.

As we got closer the true weight of the enormous nest finally started to show, the structure almost obstructed half of the world... at least in the eyes of someone looking at it from this distance.

We were still about a kilometer away, but the structure is at least five kilometers high.

From this distance, I could see swarms of locust coming and going, they looked more like smoke.

And with my special eyes I could see something terrible, inside the structure is a small but terribly bright light, which means that there is a huge or a strong creature inside...

.

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We eventually landed on top of a high hill which oversee the forest, as we settled each and every one of us started cracking our backs, especially the ones that carried baggage.

After some stretching, Vedd looked at me and said-

"Bomb lessons..."