Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 139: Invasive Species (1)

To their surprise, the blizzard actually did die down a bit. Emily theorized that maybe it was because of the apex appearing.

But whatever the case, it was now prime time for them to get a move on. The group wasted no time, dissolving the rocky entrance before they were met with snow up to their waist once more.

It dragged at them with every step. Mostly because this time, it was compressed into something closer to wet sand than a powder, clinging to their legs and resisting every bit of movement.

Aren looked around for a way out. There was an incline to their right. But what had looked like a simple rise from below quickly revealed itself as a steep and uneven slope of ice.

Everyone seemed to notice the path too, but no one seemed eager to bring it up as an option.

"...Yeah," Daniel muttered. "We’re not walking that."

"No," Professor Sterling agreed. She dropped her pack to the side, unzipping it before pulling out a rope and a set of ice picks.

"Guess the only way out is up."

Aren buckled his harness tightly to Luna. Even now he could still feel her soft yet cold breaths down his neck.

We need to hurry.

Professor Sterling moved down the line, clipping them in one by one, testing each connection with a firm tug before moving on. The rope ran through the group, linking them together in a single line.

She nodded, satisfied before handing them all two ice picks. "Be extra careful. If you think it’s not gonna hold, hit it again and lodge it deeper."

"And remember, everyone. Absolutely no ether, not even a lick of it. The apex might still be around us."

The club members stayed silent before they all inclined their head, pulling in their ether.

The professor stepped up to the wall of mostly ice and stone, planting her boot carefully before swinging the pick.

CRACK.

She tested her weight on it once before pulling up. And just like that, they started to climb.

The steady rhythm of hook, pull, step became almost a natural thing, mostly because making a mistake would be devastating.

Snow got beneath their boots, sometimes holding, sometimes giving just enough to throw off their balance. Behind him, Daniel grunted as his pick struck and bounced off stone.

"—Shit," he muttered, immediately swinging again.

Aren didn’t afford to look back. With Luna’s weight dragging against him at every pull, every shift of his body had to account for her.

His arms were burning but eventually—

They pulled through. Sterling made it up first and began pulling on the rope from above. The ease in pressure was instantly noticeable, as each step Aren took became lighter.

Daniel rolled over the edge with a rough exhale, dragging himself onto the stone before collapsing onto his back. Iris followed close behind, immediately turning to help Marcus over, her grip tightening as she steadied him the moment his footing slipped. Emily was the last one through, and only then did everyone manage to catch their breath.

Yet relief wasn’t the first thing on their minds. No, it was how much everything had changed.

What used to be a landscape of white snow had suddenly turned into a rocky, mountainous terrain that looked more akin to stony shores or the alpines.

"Woah..." Emily remarked. "Was something like this hiding under all that snow?"

"Yeah," Daniel snorted. "If we ignore the freezing temperatures and the snow that almost swallowed us. This could be considered beautiful."

No one really shared the sentiment. Aren’s gaze lingered on the ground ahead, tracing the uneven stretches of exposed stone where the snow had simply...stopped.

Well, most of it had fallen down the slope, but Aren had expected there to be more. Yet, he couldn’t really place why it bothered him so much.

But then it clicked, he had seen this before.

Not like this, but in the future. The entire region looked exactly like this, bare and exposed, devoid of snow as far as the eye could see. He didn’t see it directly, but from mostly documentaries of the area.

At the time, he hadn’t questioned it. The Wildlands was always said to have been unpredictable, and a mountain range without snow didn’t seem that out of place.

But now, standing here as the transition happened in real time, the realization settled in differently.

It wasn’t that the mountain had changed. It was that something else had. And he already knew what it was.

In the future, with the snow gone and the lack of actual territorial monsters...an invasive species filled the void quickly.

Stone-Eating Worms.

That was when the logic of it finally hit him. Snow was probably the seal that kept them hidden. Since it suffocated their tunnels, most of the Worms couldn’t resurface.

But with it gone...

Shit we have to get out of here. How do I convince the others—?

Though he didn’t really have to think of a reason...before the ground trembled underneath them.

"Wha—what was that?" Iris asked, her voice shaky.

Aren didn’t hesitate. "Run!"

There was no explanation or time to question it. The others followed almost immediately as Aren made a mad dash forward.

Sterling appeared right beside him, already glancing over. "What the hell is going on? Why’d you tell us to run?"

But her question was immediately answered by the explosion behind them.

CRACK!

The rock split open, stone fragments bursting upward as something forced its way through. It looked around for a moment before diving back under, leaivng only a trail carved into the ground.

More followed, and not just one or two. The terrain itself began to distort, with thin lines racing beneath the surface in almost every direction.

Another rupture split the ground off to their side, closer this time. A long, plated body burst through the stone, its head snapping forward before missing by inches as Iris veered just in time. It didn’t stay above for more than a second before disappearing again, burrowing back into the rock as if it were water.

"Aren!" Iris yelled from the back. "What the hell are these things?!"

"Our doom if we don’t keep running!"