Chapter – 144 - Core and Pseudo-Core of an Array

The group which had discovered the brown bud hidden inside the bush seemed uncertain about their discovery and went around hunting amongst all the bushes inside the barrier. At last, having confirmed that this was truly the only bud in all the bushes, they decided to take the next action - destroying the core. Two of them attacked the core, and a loud explosion blasted away half the bush....along with the bud.

"That.....didn't seem right."

Rihanna glanced at Artreya indifferently, 'I-am-right-and-you-need-to-study-more' written all over her face, making his lips twitch.

"Tsk! Those people are as stupid as you are. They destroyed the pseudo core....and now the killer array is going mad."

As she was speaking, the glowing barrier of the array had indeed started changing color, turning from deep red to a bright orange, and the attacks which had been random till now, suddenly grew in quantity. Initially the attacks had been mostly wind attacks, but now fire and lightning elements emerged from the array. The consistent and powerful attacks broke the groups further, and more and more people started falling under the combine-elemental attacks.

Ye Luo raised his brows and turned to look at Rihanna curiously. She blinked back at him, then chuckled.

"An array core is created with a large amount of energy. Especially for an array of this power, the core will be very powerful. Such small attacks cannot possibly break the core. But a pseudo core is specially set up to fool the people inside. And it is often times the exact catalyst needed to take the array to the next level."

Artreya tugged at her sleeves from the other side. Rihanna suddenly felt like the meat patty in between two sandwich-buns! She turned towards this annoying servant of hers with a scowl on her face.....which Artreya blissfully ignored.

"How did you really know that, that was not the core of the array?.....And don't you dare say intuition!"

Seeing her angry face having no effect on this shameless boy, Rihanna sighed in depression. Tsk! Beibei's scare-index was going down.

"The core can never be so easily distinguishable. Not unless the Arrayist is an incompetent fool. In fact, the moment you said it is the only bud, I had my suspicions. That stands out too much. In fact I am surprised those people did not suspect that bud, since it was the only one."

"Then which one according to you is the core?"

Instead of answering, Rihanna turned back her attention to the screen. Indeed, something had caught her attention just before Artreya disrupted her thoughts. Now she returned back to inspect the 15 boulders which seemed to be lying half-buried in the frozen ice randomly.

"Check out the medium sized boulder on the right side of the group of three-trees."

"Hmmm...what? I don't see anything special about this boulder. It seems to be exactly like all the other boulders around!"

"Oh! I think I can see what you mean...no, Artreya...check the shadow of the boulder."

Artreya glanced at both Rihanna and Ye Luo, frowning in confusion, then turned to inspect the boulder once more.

"What is wrong with the shadow? I can't see anything....wait, why does this shadow seem lighter and more distorted than the other shadows? No....wait....the part of the shadow near the stone is different in color from the part of the shadow away from the stone! Is this.....?"

"The core is not a real object, but rather an imitation of a real object surrounding it. This Arrayist is really good. They have used some material similar to the ones used by the shadow assassins, and created the core as a shadow."

Artreya suddenly started laughing. The other two looked towards him in surprised wonder. Noticing their speechless looks, he started coughing in embarrassment.

"I was suddenly thinking that these people will be roasted meat by the time they can decipher the real core, and all because one stupid fellow messed with the false core."

Rihanna could feel her brows twitching. She really wanted to point out that he too was equally stupid, but somehow managed to curb her desires.

There was a subtle change in the emotions of the spectators which caught onto Rihanna's radar.

'The first groups to enter the inner regions. Hope they can find the targets before the others.'

'Hmmm....the real fun is about to begin. The other groups are being the shadow. Once the first target is traced, then the snatching will begin.'

'This time both Whamei and Ye seem to be going head to head. Kshugenu is still a bit behind these two. And Zenoba.....tsk! They have not grown at all!'

Paying heed to the surrounding inner monologues, Rihanna pondered whether to keep following the current groups, or to change scenario. anyway.....they had already figured out the actual core of the array.....though she did want to see her observations being confirmed. But...she didn't want to miss out on something more interesting either. She turned to Ye Luo and Artreya and threw the ball of making a decision to their court. Making decisions was troublesome!

How could the two boys not know how much this lackadaisical gal hated taking decision unless there was an emergency or they were being attacked. Or when they were eating. Food sure had more points in her index chart compared to such championships! Ye Luo sometimes wondered what would happen to her if somehow, someday she became the Gavarnum of a country.......and what would happen to the country after that!

"It looks like they won't be breaking this array anytime soon. Most of the groups have scattered into smaller groups and hidden themselves. So why not focus on the ones who have entered the inner regions. I'll keep a check on this area, and tell you if I spot anything interesting."

Someone having made the decision on her behalf, Rihanna nodded and promptly zoomed-in to the three groups who had entered the inner regions of the Mystic Lands.

The group in front was from Whamei, being shadowed closely by a group from Kshugenu. The third group from Ye was moving at a much slower pace, just keeping the groups in front in their perceptions.

The difference between the outer and inner regions of the Mystic Lands was not too prominent in the beginning. Only after walking for a while did the spectators notice how the vegetation had receded, with only hard frozen mountains surrounding their vision.

Frozen stalagmites rose upwards from the iced earth. And the further they travelled, the more dense they became. At places, the groups had to resort to breaking the sharp icicles hindering their path in order to continue.

"Is there some kind of suppression within this realm? How come no one is using flying techniques?"

"Must be. I have heard such spatial dimensions are created with certain sets of laws and elemental abilities. This is both to protect the dimension and also to help support its continuation for a long time."

"Something tells me that the ice in this land has the ability to regenerate itself, and at a very fast pace."

Artreya turned to her in confusion.

"The rescue targets must have been carried inside this region by other people. Which means they too had to break through all these icicles. But now.....do you see any area which looks disturbed?"

Artreya turned back to look, then nodded in contemplation. The icicles must have grown back over the paths which the people before had taken. Which also meant.....these groups going in, would have to break through and create another path during return....since there was a high possibility that these icicles would grow back by the time they rescued their targets!

Actually, Rihanna was dying to enter this vast paradise of ice. Or rather, the ice elements inside her was squirming in delight, wanting to break free from her body and rush in to soak in the ice energy from that space. Tsk! So much of pure ice energy, and all she could do was sit and watch! Those ice-element users who got the chance to enter this Mystic Land must be feeling elated.

Being in the Space Time Duplicating Dimension, she had come to realise that these long time dimension spaces kept absorbing energy from the outside world. And due to their limited area and comparatively lesser number of creatures and humans within the dimension, the energy stored within the dimension was many more times richer and purer. No wonder all three of them, as well as her contracted beasts had grown much stronger during their stay in that dimension.

"Oh!.....So fast!..."

The Whamei group ad just erased a whole area of icicles on the ground ahead of them, but before they reached the end of the cleared area, the icicles behind them had already started regenerating. This also meant that the Kshugenu group following them were now gradually getting separated from them.

By the time the Kshugenu group had melted down these fast growing obstacles and followed down the same path, the Whamei group had already cleared another path and moved ahead. Slowly, the separation between the two groups kept getting larger and larger, till the Whamei group moved out of their perception.

The Kshugenu group was becoming anxious, and their methods became more and more reckless as they kept trying to lessen the distance between them. On the other hand, the group from Ye seemed just as nonchalant as before, not seeming to mind the growing separation as they continued on at the same slow speed.

"Look....the Whamei Group is slowly going off the previous path....they have been working so hard to get the groups following them trapped inside these icicles! Does that mean they already know where the target is?"

"Not just them....look a little ahead of the path they have just taken."

Quite a bit ahead, another group had also entered the inner regions from another trajectory.

"That is also.....!.....Ah!....so that is why the Ye group is so indifferent...they know that they are going as the rearguards. They are waiting for the Whamei group to rescue the target, and then attack from both ends."

"The bigger question is who will come out of this skirmish....and will the target survive?"

Ye Luo and Artreya both jumped in their seat, startled by the last part of her sentence. What did she mean.....will the target survive?! All rescue targets were semi-important people from the different clans....was this probability of not-surviving even applicable for them?!