My Wives Are A Divine Hive Mind-Chapter 38: A Building? A Car? Must’ve Grown Naturally

The newly spawned entrance to a Xenorealm wasn't far.

That alone confirmed the value of the information Azulus had gathered—Solvish Keep wasn't even a full day's trek away from the place where reality bent inward.

For a Void Hunter still ranked F, Azulus' access to this level of intel was rare, if not suspicious.

"May the wind graze your pastures, Void Hunters," Voille said as Kivas and everyone departed.

"I'll treat you to a meal when I'm back!" Kivas enthusiastically shouted.

"Are you expecting to bring back a treasure trove of Curio items with that statement?" Samael teased. "You barely have ten of them to buy anything."

"Promising someone for a meal is not a big deal~" Kivas chuckled. "I can try begging Charishe to give us food if all else fails."

"And I can threaten her, if you want," Samael said with a confident sly smile.

"I don't think we want such infamy with that one."

They departed without fanfare. Seven Void Hunters stepped beyond the bastion's protective field, walking as one unit into the deeper maze of nature built by Fathomi.

And as they walked, Kivas noticed that the environment that she was about to tread would be very far different from the Vaingall she knew.

The terrain twisted subtly the further they advanced. Tree roots coiled like arteries across cracked stone, and the air shimmered with slow-moving specks of silver—residual traces of aether distortion.

In less than an hour, they encountered their first cluster of Voidlings.

"Formation!" Azulus took the helm of command. "These Voidlings are low stats and leveled, but still proceed with caution!"

They weren't difficult. Gangly beasts, shaped like half-skeletal wolves with glass jaws and tendrils that shimmered when they snarled. Their attacks came in flickering movements, but they lacked strategy or coordination.

They seemed to have the intelligence to possess Well of the Soul, but their vocabularies were very minimalistic and animal-like.

It makes one wonder how they survived until now.

"I got this one!"

Kivas jumped into the fray without hesitation, her Coralblade carving through one of the Voidlings' sides, the life essence trailing along her skin like a gentle static before it surged inward, temporarily boosting her speed and physical energy.

"Becareful, newbie!"

Toriq followed suit, slamming his horned head into a second beast with a kinetic crunch, before swinging a metalwork hammer at the beast's spine.

Joyhan phased forward, his misty form drifting and reforming as his attacks came from unexpected angles.

"Back out!" Hands in the air, and multiple knives of different shapes and material emerged from Joyhan's cloak, before slithering into the air and sought the vital point of the skeletal beast.

Contributing to the gang fight, Beilan landed a solid tail-swipe to the last Voidling, stunning it long enough for Azulus to plunge her katana through its back.

The creature convulsed once before dissipating into wisps of unformed memory.

Meanwhile, as everything unfolded, Samael stood to the side, arms crossed, having moved only a few steps throughout the entire skirmish. Her expression remained unreadable, and was mostly focused on Kivas and anything related to her.

By contribution metric in that fight, Kivas should get around four Nightmares of these wolves.

Kivas couldn't wait to beat these small fries once again in her dream just to gain those sweet sweet attributes.

Obviously, everyone also got their share of Nightmares that they would harvest at later time.

Everyone except Samael.

Kivas caught the narrowed glance Beilan shot at Samael. As they continued walking, the alligator-tailed woman finally broke her silence and addressed Kivas.

"Your friend doesn't do anything."

Kivas arched a brow, pretending to be casual, but she could feel the temperature of the atmosphere tightening.

Samael heard it. She was sure of it.

"That lady is stronger than you think," Kivas chewed her words carefully before speaking. "She is kinda not here to show off. If she took care of everything, no one would get stronger~" Kivas shrugged.

"That's an excuse."

By just looking at Beilan's expression, Kivas could tell what she was thinking after that information.

If someone doesn't contribute, they shouldn't expect a share—which was definitely off than what Kivas was trying to convey.

Beilan looked sideways at her, and then Samael, skeptical, but decided not to press the issue.

As the group moved deeper into the shifting terrain, more Voidlings emerged—fluid-bodied creatures that shrieked in dual-tone voices and left trails of hexed ash wherever they touched.

They were harder than the pack of half-skeletal wolves, but it wasn't anything that would endanger their lives.

Some got wounded but they were immediately treated with their own Hemo Psyche.

"Man, I want to do priestly things, but my resonance catalyst is not here yet," Kivas complained to the air.

Samael teasingly smiled. "You can do priestly things without it, you know."

The group adapted quickly in that fight, striking from angles, covering blind spots, and timing their attacks with quiet coordination.

Each of them got their share of weakened Nightmares of these monsters, thanks to their cooperation. Except for one person.

Samael never moved, once again.

"You don't want a share of the Nightmare too?" Kivas asked Samael as they were lagging at the end of their formation.

"You didn't know this," Samael said with a sly smirk. "I killed more than the centipede I dragged back to you yesterday after our first time meeting."

Kivas dramatically gasped. "No wonder you're chilling, you pre-farmed!"

"I don't know what that means but I understand the intent behind that word."

This process repeated for quite a while until a sign of progress was visible in their track. Their path of struggle eventually led them to a clearing, and then to something stranger.

A set of structures loomed ahead—gray husks of vertical buildings that rose like broken teeth.

They were rectangular, decayed, filled with shattered glass panes and rusted metal balconies. Graffiti-like symbols marred some of the lower floors, and exposed wiring dangled like vines.

Kivas tilted her head up toward the top of one of the structures. "These are apartments."

Samael glanced sideways. "And?"

Kivas blinked. "They look exactly like mid-century modern housing blocks. Pre-collapse design, staggered balconies, exterior-mounted AC units. This is ancient urbanization tech!" Her eyes were sparkling. "The lore behind these ruins... they must be exquisite!"

"Kivas." Samael faintly smiled. "These buildings, they just... grew."

Kivas paused mid-step. "I'm sorry?"

"They grew," Samael repeated. "Fathomi mimics patterns. Sometimes it dreams in shapes it barely understands. I'm sorry to shatter your expectations, but these aren't ruins. They're more like tumors, natural existence. The land formed them. Not people."

Kivas slowly turned in a circle. "... This place reeks of historical density. Are you telling me it's just a hallucination of civilization?"

Joyhan chuckled softly. "Fathomi probably sees these buildings the way plants see leaves. Maybe it thought they'd bear fruit."

Toriq nodded. "They don't, though. Nothing here bears fruit."

Kivas stopped beside what looked like a convenience store with shelves made from vertebrae and bone. "Is that a gas station...? What...? Should we loot it?"

Beilan pushed past her. "Doesn't matter. It's all useless. No food, no resources. Just empty shapes pretending to be useful."

Kivas felt slightly irked by that gesture, but it wasn't anything unforgivable, so Kivas just brushed it off.

After everyone's words at trying to tell Kivas that there wasn't anything special behind these ruins of the modern landscape, Kivas sighed and accepted the truth.

Maybe Fathomi, or in a rather vague case that Kivas remembered, the three eldritch gods that peeked upon her memory to forge some sort of world—that world is surely Fathomi, right?

Maybe they thought that the modern city that Kivas lived in was not man-made and nature made.

Well, to think that they were misinterpreting Kivas' memory, Kivas thought that it was hilarious.

And right after Kivas was about to accept the bizarre truth of these ruins—

A car floated.

Not above a track. Not on a ramp. Just... floating. Mid-air. Its undercarriage glowing with faint pulsing glyphs, its doors half-rotted and windows covered in a fine layer of crystallized grime.

A wheeled, self-propelled vehicle designed primarily for passenger transportation, a car. The kind that typically runs on roads, seats one to eight people, and has four wheels. That one car that is supposed to be powered by engines that convert chemical energy into kinetic energy to propel itself.

Kivas pointed. "Okay, what the actual—"

"Now that," Joyhan said with an audible grin, "is new."

"I've seen a lot of things today," Kivas said, "but a levitating car is where I draw the line! I can believe grown buildings, but not a naturally suspending car, especially if they grow naturally there!"

Toriq squinted at the object. "Looks like an armored wheeled wagon without any sea-lion dragging it."

"Sea-lion what—"

Beilan didn't even slow. "Not worth looking at."

"Some parts of Fathomi are more unstable than other places." Azulus, on the other hand, was willing to slow down and began explaining the phenomenon, "The sighting of that 'car' there means that the distortion field is thicker here.

"This is a hint that we're near the entrance of the Xenorealm we're seeking." Azulus smiled.

"So this car is a side effect?" Kivas asked.

"Yes. This zone's dissonance is climbing. We're entering a place where things no longer obey familiarity."

The group continued down a ramp made from stacked vehicles and rebar, the descent leading to what had once been an underground parking lot.

Rusted signs flickered above the entry, their lettering partially in script, partially in unknown runes.

And then there was.

A thin barrier shimmered at the far wall. A soft spiral of distortion—like a bubble trapped in concrete, rippling with slow intent.

"There it is," Azulus said.

Everyone stopped.

Kivas stared at the entrance. "That's the entrance to the Xenorealm, huh."

"And this is the calmest it'll ever be." Samael nodded. "This kind of entrance is usually more volatile. We're quite lucky to find one this passive."

Joyhan flickered slightly, the edges of his form reacting to the boundary. "It's definitely fresh. Still forming and reaching its peak activity!"

"Remember, everyone." Azulus turned to face them. "This is a new breach. We'll be the first in. Expect anything. Assume nothing."

Kivas reached instinctively toward her dagger.

Samael placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't brace too early. You'll tense too fast."

Kivas exhaled slowly.

They stood in silence for a moment longer, the air thick with expectation.

And then they walked forward.