After a good night's sleep and talks with the lord about starting a new trade route, Logan left the town with vigor. Sadly, he was too tired to speak with Lisa or Rubina the night before. It did not matter, though, the flight was long and they could converse using their link when flying.
"So, what did you think about the lord?" Logan asked, wanting to know Rubina's take on the man.
"Seems like a kind guy, his daughter sure didn't hide her… attraction though," Rubina said jokingly.
"Er, yeah I was far too tired to care. How did you two sleep? I hope they gave you just as good a room as mine," Logan asked, cracking his neck. He was used to his soft, silky bed, so sleeping on a normal cushion just did not feel the same.
"They were good… I guess for a small city's lord's house. We are just too used to the best," Lisa said as she directed Orus to fly next to Logan.
"Well, we are back to seeing endless forests until we reach the next city…" Logan sighed. He at least kept an eye out for local fauna to see if a particular animal caught his interest. With Zephyr's sight skill, he would be able to see even a small rabbit move about below them.
It wasn't until a few hours later that Logan spotted something strange. There was a section of the forest that seemed dead.
"Say, do you think we should check that out?" he heard Lisa ask after they crossed over the withering trees.
"Well… I guess a look around wouldn't hurt… we are close to our next break, so doing so will at least give us something to do," Logan said. He jumped down from Zephyr and manifested his wings. Lisa did the same, while Rubina and Kai stayed in the air to check things out from above.
"It's a pretty large area, I doubt this kingdom saw it since we spotted it from the air…" Logan said as he checked the surroundings out before reaching the withered trees.
"Let's just be careful, we don't know what caused it…" Lisa communicated following close from behind Logan.
Soon they reached the floor. The trees around them were drained of all mana and life. It looked like the mutation crystal incident, except that there were no animals around that showed signs of being berserk.
Logan walked slowly, trying to hear if any creature was around. Using his improved sight, he couldn't even spot a bug.
"This is strange. At least with the mutation we… could see a few bugs, but here, not even those survived," Logan said as he grabbed onto the bark of a tree and began pulling on it. It seemed to tear off with ease, disintegrating before him. The tree fell, but it weighed less than a fourth of its original weight as it hit the ground.
"Could this be caused by demons?" Logan asked Lisa, who tried using her magic to heal a withered tree that looked like it still had a small part of life.
"I can't completely heal it. It will continue to wither and die…" Lisa said with some sadness in her voice.
"Let's go back up. We can't do anything for this place, but maybe we can check who is causing it or stop it from spreading."
Logan manifested his wings again and flew back to Zephyr. He had the three keep going north while he, along with Zephyr, went higher to see just how much the dead zone stretched. It was at least three kilometers. It looked grotesque, like an infected tumor that was killing off the vegetation. He quickly went towards the edge where his group stopped and got down again.
"Look, it just keeps killing. How about we try doing something here to stop it?"
Kai used earth magic to create a pillar behind him to stop the invasion while Lisa used healing magic to try to keep the healthy parts from withering. Logan, on the other hand, thought about using darkness to combat it, and Rubina used fire to burn the already withered areas. Even with everything they employed, the disease kept spreading.
"Damn it, it just won't stop, it's as if it's not…" Logan stopped and looked at the ground. "It must be something underground. Kai, try to make a pillar of strong earth but underground. I will help you test this!"
Logan then ran a few meters away where the rot did not reach the vegetation and began casting earth magic. He made a ditch and then had Kai compact the earth to strengthen the part below the ditch as if it were stone.
"There, see, it's stopped at least in this part… we won't be able to save any more of this forest, so let's stop here. We should go back up and try to find the center again… maybe there is something there that is spreading the corruption… it must be underground though."
Logan rose up in the air. He did not know if he was correct, but that did not stop him from trying to stop the situation.
"Zephyr, over there, by that large tree. Let's see what we can find there." Logan guided the others as they rode towards the central part. He cast his wings again but stayed in the air. The earth around them seemed darker for some reason. It was not only surrounded by withered plants but also what seemed like ash, as if the withered trees could no longer sustain their form and began to turn to dust.
"Yes, it must be here… something…" Logan then went back up. "Lisa, help me. I can recall that using Holy Nova left a huge crater... maybe by using both of ours and dropping it in the center of that area, we can see if there is anything underground causing it."
Lisa nodded and began casting, Logan did the same as Kai and Rubina rose higher to keep an eye out for anything that might happen.