Ferry was unbelievable.
She was a whirlwind of motion, practically fighting nonstop now that their progress had all but stopped.
The endless swarm of creatures was even more relentless, and not even five minutes would pass between fights.
Ciel had assumed that she would eventually tire out, but he was yet to see it.
No matter how big the group, she barely seemed to struggle.
Meanwhile, Ciel’s body had finally given out.
His arms were so sore they could barely move, his legs couldn’t withstand his own weight, even his head began to throb greatly.
This was all on top of his various bruises and scratches, some that were still bleeding, seeping into his shirt and pants.
It had gotten to the point Ferry had begun to quite literally carry him up the tree.
She would set him down each time more creatures appeared, eliminate all of them, then pick him back up and resume her climb.
Meanwhile, Ciel was practically seething at his own uselessness.
He absolutely despised it.
All the pain on his body couldn’t overwhelm this feeling.
Of course, he was in no shape to express these feelings, so they remained silently boiling up within.
Ferry kept this up for what seemed like several more hours.
In this time, Ciel had eventually gained enough strength to at least support himself again.
He was still not able to fight, but he no longer had to be shamefully carried by Ferry.
He hadn’t wasted these hours either, constantly watching and studying Ferry’s fighting style.
From this perspective, he could finally notice some inconsistencies with her motions.
While Ciel had originally thought Ferry wasn’t using any Insight, he did spot some moves she performed that he couldn’t understand.
For one, enemies seemed to lose their balance on their own in precarious situations.
It didn’t happen too often, but it was enough to be noticeable after a series of battles.
Her attacks were fast, almost too fast for his vision to catch them.
It could be a testament to her enhanced physicality that was a trademark of all Insighted, but Ciel couldn’t be sure.
He had been around Insighted of all different ranks, besides Transcendent, and he had become good at identifying ranks to a certain degree.
After several hours, he had concluded that Ferry was far above the power of a mere ascendent, more likely somewhere on the stronger side of Masters or weaker Elites.
Ferry gave off a certain pressure, almost like she was always going to end up triumphant, no matter how long or how short the battle ended up being.
Finally, anytime the creatures had attempted to block or redirect her attacks, Ferry simply powered through it.
It shouldn’t have worked considering the monsters’ strength, but it did.
Seeing these oddities, Ciel could only assume they were tied to her Insight.
However, there was no sign of any elemental manipulation.
He inferred she was just hiding it, but also felt that that was simply inefficient.
She only stood to lose by hiding her power.
Regardless, Ciel watched for any potential signs of Insight he could gather, at least to distract himself from his current plight.
Besides that, the rest of Ferry’s combat was also a sight to behold.
Each dodge was calculated, each attack meticulous.
Ciel himself was no stranger to hand to hand combat, even if he felt more comfortable at a distance, but the skill gap was like night and day.
He could only imagine how much more dangerous she would be with a weapon.
Despite their progress starting to pick up again, there was still no sign of what Ferry was searching for.
Ciel could only hope to be saved by waking up.
Eventually they reached a dry spell, without being attacked for what seemed like a whole hour.
This didn’t mean it was an enjoyable hour, as Ciel was still constantly on watch for anything with no hope of relaxing.
The only consolation Ciel had was that it was the most progress they had made in a long time.
In the end the respite didn’t last much longer.
All too soon, they felt another shudder.
But this one was different, stronger.
It directly shook the branch they stood on, not just the leaves above them.
Ciel shuddered much like a leaf himself, looking at Ferry.
Her face grew pale–even more pale than it already was-as her gaze moving downwards.
Below them, the leaves quaked, as if they too were afraid.
Ciel began to hear his heart beating as he realized what that meant.
It seems their luck had run out.
Before they could react, a large blur leapt out from underneath them, directly attempting to grab Ferry.
At the last second, she managed to wrap around his reach.
She pulled her arm back, looking to counter immediately.
Her muscles flared, but her arm stood in place.
It seemed like it was pinned back by an invisible force.
Ciel suddenly felt a surge of wind, as he dropped to the ground, clinging desperately to the branch.
Meanwhile the creature hovered above them without moving, and Ciel could finally see its massive frame.
It had a flat body, with a large number of arms poking out from its underbelly, which was a sickly green color.
Its beady black eyes that took up most of its upper half were locked onto Ferry as she resisted against the wind.
Ciel’s mind suddenly scattered, as if it was being rearranged from the inside.
Meanwhile, the figure launched towards Ferry, who seemed to finally escape the pin, as she leapt extremely high into the air, landing on a branch above them.
The creature snarled as it leapt up as well, completely ignoring Ciel.
Ferry gritted her teeth as she immediately spread her hands, and did a pulling motion towards herself.
The creature suddenly flew backwards, changing its momentum in the air as it struggled to readjust.
Its long scaly tail lurched around, almost grazing Ciel below.
Seeing her opportunity, Ferry also jumped onto the creature, successfully grabbing hold onto the creature’s back.
Its whole body twisted violently as it tried to get her off, but Ferry didn’t budge.
After that, it seemed to sink slowly, as if its flight could no longer support itself with Ferry’s extra weight.
This seemed to rile the creature up, as it lurched around constantly, which made it begin to fall faster.
Soon the creature fell past where Ciel was standing, continuing its descent downward, threatening to undo all their progress.
Finally, Ferry managed to strike true, and the creature reeled backwards, the wind it created pushing it away from the tree.
Then it stopped, no longer moving.
Ferry had killed it, but was now too far away from the tree to land anytime soon.
Ciel hesitated for a second before running forward and leaping off his branch, hurtling downwards towards the falling corpse that carried Ferry down.
As much as he hated it, she was his only reason he would be able to last long enough to get out of this hell.
He streamlined his body, falling faster and faster, gaining on Ferry.
Soon he got close enough to see her face clearly, looking at him with a puzzling expression.
She was panicking, which was the first time Ciel had seen her do so.
He got close enough to hear her speak in a distraught voice.
“This has to be some cruel joke”
What?
What is she talking about?
Ciel quickly found out.
The edges of her body seemed to merge with the space around her.
Her face seemed to sink back into its original shifting nature from before, now no longer resembling any single person.
She was disappearing.
Slowly but surely being consumed by the air around her.
Her shifting faces revealed the same fear in her eyes, as she struggled to raise a hand up at Ciel.
Seeing this Ciel also tried to extend his hand downward, but struggled to fight the air pressure.
He wanted to scream, to shout anything, but his voice refused to cooperate.
He could only stare in horror at what followed.
With the last of her strength Ferry exerted force and Ciel was lifted up, no longer falling down at dangerous speeds.
Instead he was propelled back towards the tree.
Ferry had protected him to the bitter end.
His extended arm gradually gained distance from hers.
Suddenly, Ferry’s figure shifted and it began to separate into particulate matter.
The matter shimmered slightly as if resisting before being pushed upward, as if it was being carried by an invisible wind.
Ciel watched the dust rise, unbridled panic in his eyes.
Ciel was violently thrown back towards a lower branch.
The impact rattled his entire body, but his eyes stayed locked onto the same point.
He stared blankly at the red abyss below him as the unknown monster disappeared from view.
He witnessed something he wished he hadn’t.
Ferry had vanished.