The Inevitable party had been on the Branches for several days now.

To be back out on the silvery landscape that cut through the void was an oddity to them. They had spent well over a year on Alarshus, a long time to forget the particularities of walking the Branches. No longer was there green and blue, earth and sky, instead there was the huge, silver-white Bark of the Omniverse and nothing all around – nothing except for other Branches that cut through the void as forking veins, too distant and enormous for them to know how far away they truly were.

On a Leaf, there was always the potential for interaction and change. People were truly frequent, even in places that those living on a Leaf would call desolate. There was always something in motion. Trees grew. Animals hunted and fled. Waves crashed on sandy shores. Suns drifted through the sky, a moon often to follow.

Despite all of those great and small things being influential, nothing was more clearly denoted than the lack of wind. The air was simply there, still, practically unmoving even when people motioned and walked. It was a constant reminder that the place they occupied was incomplete. The Branches were connective tissue between worlds, a means of carrying energy, and thus nutrients, to the Leaves.

All that was animated among them were small black dots. Tics, the lowliest form of Parasyte, so tiny and impossible to hunt that they managed to stream upwards from the Hellroots, no matter how much the demons hunted them. Too simple to execute a greater plan, these creatures spent almost their entire existence simply sitting still. Eight-legs and a half-opened bud of flat teeth assorted like a flower, that was all these manifestations of the nothing all around them were.

Even that was too much for them. Tiny as they were, the Parasytes still understood that they existed. They hated it. They wished to end it. Like all Parasytes, the Tics knew of the fundamental problem – differentiation. They were a thing, because something else existed in contrast. To break down the Omniverse to the void all around, that was the only goal.

So, they sat still, waiting for the moment that they sensed exposed magic. Then, their limited instincts would allow them to cluster. Then, they would draw from the Omniverse what it had drawn from the void.

Apexus flew. It was his privilege as one who possessed the magical cortex of a dragon to take flight even on the Branches. He stuck relatively close to the ground, unwilling to test the reach of the gravity surrounding the Branches.

The silvery-white arm of the Omniverse laid below him with all of its ridges. It was more cleft than any mountain range, the texture of the Bark akin to an old oak. Each valley was a road, each road led in one of two directions. Each ridge was a vantage point to spot Stems of Leaves ahead and behind.

Apexus beheld the multitude of dots that were moving in their general direction. They were large, way too large, to be the Tics. From this high up, they looked like they were ant trails.

The Monk descended, landing next to Reysha. "You were right," he told her, verdant wings folding. "There are many people ahead. Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands."

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"Told ya." Reysha's usual smirk was not as broad nor as smug as usual. Hands folded behind her head, she directed her blue eyes at Aclysia. "There's only two reasons why there'd be such a mass exodus, right?"

"Either they are fleeing from a cataclysmic war on their Leaf or their Leaf itself is being threatened," Aclysia grimly summarised.

"I, uh, guess we'll find out if we just ask them?" Korith suggested.

Apexus checked the Leaf compass again, then nodded. Their path would take them past this caravan one way or another.

They did not make the specific effort to meet the first person of the train of people. Following their current groove in the Bark inevitably established contact. The one seated at the head of the wagon, a middle-aged man, his family behind him, was even more eager to talk to them than the reverse. "Hail, adventurers!"

"Salutations!" Reysha responded with immense enthusiasm. "What horrid fate are ya fleeing from?"

"Reysha!" A single word by the angel was enough to scold the redhead. While the redhead ducked behind Apexus for cover, grinning the entire time, the white-haired Priest sighed and returned her attention to the now halted travellers. Other refugees were stopping one after another by their side. "I apologize for my companion's cadence, she is socially mischievous."

The older man had his lips pressed together. "I will accept your apology. She should be taught some respect though."

'I don't think you can teach me respect,' Reysha kept that thought to herself.

"We make our attempts," Korith sighed.

"Her tone aside, the question remains," Apexus spoke up. The older man was clearly wary of Apexus. For good reason, considering he was over two metres tall and had a visually evident appetite for women. Although his Monk training had taken some edge out of a predatory body language, the sharp eyes remained. "What necessitated your exodus?"

"…our Leaf has become the target of Leeching…," the man responded, the pain of loss in his voice.

Aclysia inhaled sharply, hate reflecting in her voice. "An Infestation is ahead?"

"Massive one, so I am told. Have never looked at it myself." The man gestured at the road ahead with his chin. "This is the way to Alarshus?"

"It is," Apexus answered.

"Is it as empty as the Drowse officials claim?"

"Its population is small. It also has many monsters."

"I'll take monsters…" The man's words were under his breath, his eyes drifting to some distant memories of something far more horrid than the entities the Dungeons created as deliberate challenges. "How far away?"

"We have been wandering on foot for 7 days," Apexus answered.

"I would estimate 5 days on your wagon," Aclysia informed him.

The man looked at his horse. "This is not that slow a wagon."

"We are very fast and enduring walkers," Korith said.

"Another question, if you allow?" Apexus raised his voice again, the man already beginning to raise the reins again. When he stopped and looked at the Monk, he continued, "Why did none of you flee before? I have not heard of any refugees reaching Alarshus before."

"'Cause the Church told us it would be fine," the middle-aged man answered, then spat over the edge of his wagon. "Until they told us it wouldn't be fine." He stopped for a moment, then gestured at the way he came. "If you want to chat to them about it, they put up a camp around the Stem. Just follow our trail."

"Thank you for the information." Apexus bowed his head, as he stepped aside to give the wagon and the other people that had stopped to follow the conversation plenty of room to advance. Reysha had the decency to do the same. "We wish you a stable life."

Both sides of the conversation were soon on their way.

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