Ciella and Arlene tried to come up with a plan for effectively navigating through the Mist.
"I can try dispelling the Mist around us with Wind" Ciella said.
"It's worth a shot" Arlene said.
Ciella took in a deep breath and stretched her hands forward. Wind flowed around her hands which she moved minutely to mimic a sort of fanning technique. The Wave Of Wind blew the Mist ahead of them away slightly improving visibility.
"It appears to be working but we're yet to deal with the issue of my Granny's trails. It's a little difficult to distinguish the real from the fakes" Arlene said.
"That's true" Ciella admitted.
"Visibility could help us if we knew which trail was the real one" Ciella said.
"There's one way of finding which trail is the Real One" Arlene said.
"Really? How?" Ciella asked.
"I doubt my Granny made clones. Even though it is possible with Wind Techniques, I haven't really heard anything about Clone Techniques being a part of the Atlas Clan's Bloodline Limits" Arlene admitted.
"If one of the applications of Wind Abilities is Concealment Techniques, then I'm certain Clone Techniques are a part of your family's Bloodline Limits" Ciella said.
"If that's the case, you should be able to make Clones too Ciella" Arlene pointed out.
"Anyway for now let's study the footprints" Ciella said.
"The first thing we need to find out is whether or not all the prints are of the same size. If they are, we'll know they are all made by the same person. If not, then my Granny's probably employing the help of another Dream Knight to cover her tracks. If they all match, we'll next need to check the freshness of the prints. We should find the trail with the freshest set of prints. It would be the trail where the earth is still loose and the prints appear to be deeper" Arlene said.
"Why is that?" Ciella asked.
"Concerning the looseness of the prints, humidity and sunshine, simply put, weather conditions would cause the prints to solidify over an extended period of time. When they're fresh, they are least affected by weather so the surrounding soil is usually loose. With regards to the depth of the prints, for one thing they indicate the weight of the person and the distance between each print indicates stride which in turn indicates both height and age. If the prints were old, erosion by Wind and Water would cause the soil to gradually cover them making them shallower in appearance" Arlene explained.
"I see…so if all the prints indicated the same level of freshness, depth, stride and size, we'd know that your Granny was utilizing a Clone Technique of sorts" Ciella said.
Arlene and Ciella investigated the prints and realized that the prints leading straight ahead were the freshest.
"This is the real trail" Arlene pointed out.
Aileen I smiled as she watched them.
"Good job seeing through that however…this is where your trial really begins" Aileen I said from deeper within the Maze.
When Ciella and Arlene arrived at the next crossroad, Aileen I's tracks suddenly disappeared.
"Arlene, her trail has disappeared completely" Ciella said seriously.
"Looks like she took to the Air. My Granny sure is scary" Arlene chuckled in amusement.
"From here on out, it would be impossible to track her via her footprints" Ciella said.
"So we're back to square one huh?" Arlene said.
"Apparently so. We should probably try the cloning technique. Even if we can't find your Granny's trail, we can still map out a large area of the Labyrinth if we assign a mini-representation of Christopher to each of our clones and send them into the Labyrinth" Ciella suggested.
"That's true. At every split in the road, we can make a new set of clones corresponding to the number of trails and send them even deeper. When they hit a dead end, we'll have a complete map of that trail. We can coordinate the clones via my Christopher" Arlene said.
Ciella and Arlene thus generated clones via the precise control of Wind and used that to generate form and coordination frameworks. They sent their clones into every split in the road. When their clones reached a new split in the road, Ciella and Arlene would generate a new set of clones corresponding to the number of splits and send them even deeper into the Labyrinth. By doing this, they gradually mapped out the Labyrinth and by locating dead ends, they could use elimination to find the real path. They eventually found Aileen I hovering at the centre of the Labyrinth.
"Congratulations on finding me. That was a fine display of your ability to apply Aerial Breath and Sound Techniques" Aileen I said.
"Ciella's use of Wind to dispel the Mist as well as our clones were Aerial Breath Techniques weren't they Granny?" Arlene asked.
"They were. Your Christopher's Cartography and Coordination Abilities on the other hand are examples of Aerial Sound Techniques" Aileen I explained.