Chapter 294 - Uprooting The Tree (Side Story 2) "You need to get over here," Gustav touched the small button on the side of his ear as he spoke. A blasting sound rang in Gustav’s ears before he got a response, "I’m on my way," As the line got cut off, Gustav decided to check out the area while waiting for the masked man to arrive. God Eyes was still activated, so he looked around the area, checking out the ground and the trees, but he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. The trees were just trees, and the ground had nothing like an energy source hidden under since that was what was being displayed to him by God Eyes. Fwwoooooomm! A loud wind slashing sound reverberated across the area, causing Gustav to stare upwards. From the northeastern side, a red line could be seen moving across the sky at net breaking speed. Wind blew across the place as the red line descended towards Gustav position. Bam! The masked man landed in front of Gustav, causing the wind to blow his hair backwards a bit. "Over here... this area is where the traces of those streaks of energy disappeared," Gustav said while walking around the six trees and making gestures towards them. The masked man also observed the area just like Gustav, and after a few seconds, he spoke, "I don’t sense anything eith... Oh wait, I think I sense something now," His eyes squinted as he moved around the six trees, ’It’s very faint... barely noticeable, and it reduces by the second,’ The masked man could tell that if he wasn’t this close to the trees, he wouldn’t even be able to sense anything. They had also investigated this area yesterday but couldn’t find anything. So, he guessed this must be because the energy just retracted, so it left extremely faint traces that would disintegrate completely in a few seconds. "Move away," The masked man said to Gustav as he stood between the third and fourth tree. Gustav did as he was told and distanced himself from the area a bit. The dark red energy covering the masked man suddenly surged intensely, dying the entire vicinity with a shade of dark red. Vrrooouummm! A massive surge of red waves suddenly burst forth from his figure, Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Four trees in the surroundings were instantly blasted apart, causing the space around him to get cleared. However, the waves were still bursting forth from his body towards the surroundings. Gustav had to further distance himself from the area. Just as the waves were about to slam into the fifth tree, a silver-colored barrier suddenly appeared around it, protecting it from the waves. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The waves kept causing the destruction of more trees in the surroundings before they disappeared. Around the masked man was an almost empty space within the forest of trees. A radius of over seven hundred feet was cleared of trees and vegetation except for a single tree standing in the midst of this newfound wilderness. The masked man and Gustav moved forward and stood in front and behind this tree that looked no different from the ones obliterated earlier. "Whatever is causing the border disturbance must be disguising as this tree," Gustav said as he stretched out his hand to touch the tree. His hand wasn’t repressed by any force like he expected, ’It seems that whatever caused this will prevent any harm from befalling this tree. If one approaches with no nefarious intentions, it won’t prevent contact,’ Gustav figured as he tried punching the tree but got blocked by a barrier that suddenly appeared between his fist and the tree. "How do I uproot this? There’s no way I can let it remain here since it’s the source of the border’s disturbance," Gustav muttered with a look of contemplation. ’Atomic disintegration?’ Gustav thought as he contemplated on the amount of energy that would be spent to disintegrate enough atoms that the barrier contains for him to phase through. ’Hmm no... I will spend too much energy and end up being weakened... let me try this instead,’ Gustav stretched out his hand to touch the tree. "What are you doing?" The masked man asked with a look of suspicion. He was also trying to reach for the tree, but he was being prevented. "I want to try something," Gustav said as he suddenly clenched the tree tightly, causing his fingers to dig into the surface of its barks. Gustav had disguised his intentions and causing the tree not to put up its defenses when he reached out for it. At the moment, he was pulling the tree with as much strength as he could muster with his fingers digging even more into the tree. The masked man was surprised because even he could not make contact with the tree even when he also tried disguising his intentions like Gustav. What he didn’t know was, Gustav ability to shapeshift had played a huge role in this. He moved over to help Gustav, but just as he arrived behind him, the tree blasted out silver-like energy, causing Gustav to be blown backwards. Bam! Gustav slammed into the masked man, who grabbed hold of him and slid back by a few inches. "Don’t worry. I’ll handle it," He said while letting Gustav down. "I thought you couldn’t break through it earlier?" Gustav said while turning to the side to stare at the masked man. "I was only probing it earlier... Now that we’ve pinpointed the exact one, it won’t be a problem to knock it down," The masked man replied while stretching out his right hand. Shhrrrriiinnnnn! Boooommm! A massive wave of red energy shot out of his arm towards the tree. Trooooiinnn! The barrier appeared again, protecting the tree from the blast. However, the massive energy blast was still being shot out in waves. Gustav watched with a look of astonishment as cracks began to appear around the barrier. KKrrrryycchh! ’I never really pondered on it, but this person happens to be more powerful than I thought,’ Gustav said internally as he watched the barrier get completely obliterated in a few seconds. Bang! The red waves slammed into the tree, causing it to be blasted aside. The masked man finally stopped shooting out these waves after destroying the tree. Shhhsshhh! Dust and wood debris swam across the air for a few seconds reducing the visuality of the environment. When all these settled, a large object could be seen in the former position of the tree. The masked man and Gustav’s eyes widened a bit as they stared at the object in front.