Shortly afterwards, Ava proclaimed herself done and tapped Zaxier on the head. There was a little spark of energy and the cat jerked awake.

He drunkenly lifted his head, glancing around.

“Oh, Bob, you are uninjured. Wonderful.” Then he winced. “Are you sure you did it right, Ava? It is still quite painful.”

Ava snorted. “That’s because I fixed your bones and closed your internal injuries, but there’s nothing I can do about the bruising. Here, take this.” She cracked open the healing shot and poured it down his throat.

“Mister Zaxier, Sir!” Bob exclaimed, crawling over to his master. “I’m so glad you’re alright! When I saw you lying there…”

“Yes, yes, I am fine. No need to become emotional. Now, do you think you can pick me up? Gently, mind you. I feel a little worse for wear.”

“Are we done?” Gora asked. “Good. Then we should get going before the next nasty shows up.”

Rita looked up at the green and disturbingly organic looking spire jutting out of the ground. It looked nothing like any tree she had ever seen before. It was circular, about five or six metres across, and higher than any of the nearby twenty to thirty storey buildings. The walls reminded her of candle wax that had melted and resolidified, with irregular bulbous formations all way down the sides. At the top it simply came to a point. No branches and no leaves.

The Nightmare Tree appeared to have thrust upwards out of the ground, breaking through solid concrete and leaving jagged cracks spreading out from it and spars of concrete thrusting up into the sky. It had completely demolished a small building that had had the misfortune of occupying part of the area where it now stood. Only two forlorn walls remained, the rest just so much rubble strewn around the base.

“This is it?” Rita asked as they moved around the base. “It looks nothing like a tree.”

Gora shrugged. “It’s what it is called. Don’t ask me why.”

The remainder of their journey had been eventful, but far less dangerous. The Droopy that she had tangled up in her webs had finally managed to drag itself out the front door just as they had walked past. Samual had casually kicked it in the head, breaking its neck.

Next, a tiger-like creature with one eye and a mane of wriggling worm-like like tendrils had pounced on them from a first storey building, but Gora had caught it in mid-air and slammed it into the ground before decapitating it with a single blow.

Just as they had neared the tree, two Droopies had guided a strange, tall, three-legged creature with a single large eyeball on a stalk within sight of them before disappearing among the buildings.

Its gait was slow and ungainly, however, and Gora had halted their progress while Ava and Zaxier peppered the thing with fire and death bolts from a distance until it fell over, a rotten, burnt mess.

They had spotted two more of the things in the distance, out of range as yet, but slowly being lead closer. No doubt there were other nasties that were not as visible also being lured in.

“So how do we get inside?” Samual asked, running his gauntleted hand over the bulbous and slightly slimy looking outside of the tree.

“We’re going inside this thing?” Rita asked from behind, gasping for breath. She had almost used up the entire vial of blue magic that Ava had given her, but she did not care. She had made sure to walk them through the entire conversation that she had had with the Droopy.

Ava had been quite disappointed at how little she had gotten out of it. Gora had shrugged and moved on. Apparently, she had been involved with catching one of these things alive before and dragging it outside.

“Look for a seam” Gora instructed. “Can be a bit hard to spot sometimes, so look carefully.” Then she turned to Rita. “Yes, we are going inside. Unless you’d like to stay out here” she said, pointing at the large eyeballs slowly making their way closer in the distance.

Something about the tree bothered her at a fundamental level. It was more than just that it looked creepy as hell. Something about it actively pushed her away, as if there was some instinct that was telling her to flee. Even Alice’s ranting in the back of her head had an edge of fear to it.

“But why do people come all this way?” she asked again, genuinely curious now. “Is there something valuable inside?”

“Not really, there is something but it’s generally worthless. The only reason we’re here is because someone insisted that we finish our trip despite the danger it would put you in” Ava replied, glaring at Samual.

“It reveals how to achieve your deepest desire” Samual said softly.

Rita’s eyebrows rose. That did not sound worthless. In fact, that could be her ticket home!

“Unfortunately, while never lying and being quite knowledgable, the entity that inhabits this tower seems to derive some kind of perverse pleasure in providing advice that is so self-evident as to be worthless,” Zaxier said.

“What?” Rita asked, confused. “What do you mean? Does it like, speak in riddles?”

“No, nothing like that. Inside the tree, if you defeat its guardian, it reveals to you the path to fulfill your deepest desire” Ava explained. “The problem is, it is not guaranteed to be the quickest nor the easiest path, merely a path. So, if you desire riches, it could tell you to work hard and save your money. Technically true, but not exactly useful information, right?”

Samual just shrugged, glancing back at the approaching monsters. “Nevertheless.”

“Not that it matters much now, does it?” Zaxier replied. “We are very much stuck between a rock and the proverbial hard place. Our choices are to either fight a seemingly never-ending stream of monsters lured from the far corners of this desolate place by the wrinkled creatures or find a way inside.”

Gora waved the group to a halt, looking closely at a part of the tree.

“Speaking of,” she said, pointing at the wall. “I think this is it.”

There was indeed what appeared to be a darker shadow running down the side of the tower, in a crooked path, snaking from side to side as it followed the contour of certain bulbous elements in the wall. Gora pressed her blade against the gap, slowly forcing it inside before using it as a lever to wedge the gap open.

Slowly the sides parted a few centimetres, then suddenly snapping fully open, a waxy looking film over a round doorway nearly two metres across.

“Woah” Ava said, staring at it in awe. “It’s some kind of portal…”

She made as if to touch it, but Gora blocked her hand. She snatched her arm back before Gora could catch her wrist.

“Hold on, not so fast,” Gora said, taking a deep breath. “It’s time for… the Talk.”

Rita glanced over her shoulder. The first of the Eyeball Tripods had reached the edge of the clearing in which the Tree stood, about a hundred metres distant, and was slowly wobbling its way closer. There was no doubt that it had seen them.

“Er, Gora? Are you sure now is the right time?” she asked.

“Trust me, you’ll thank me. This is the same talk I got the first time I came this far, though I’ll try to give the abridged version.” Gora cleared her throat. ”Alright. Ahem. Once we step beyond this portal, nothing is going to make sense anymore. We’ll be entering a place where things are downright weird. Where space doesn’t make sense and logic has taken a vacation.”

“Up until now, it’s been impersonal. The monsters just do what they do, and you live or die by your own abilities. But through there, things get very, very personal. Whatever intelligence runs this place is going to be having its eye on you personally. We’re going to get split up, and each of us will be challenged according to our own abilities. That means whatever you face won’t instantly kill you, but it will, in one way or another, be stronger than you.”

“If you don’t grow beyond who you are right now, you will not make it out alive” she finished, to shocked looks from Rita, Ava and Zaxier.

“Wait, are you being serious?” Ava asked. “Why is this the first I hear of this?”

“Yep! Shoulda done your research!” Gora said, a grin on her face. “But now we’re out of time! So, good luck!”

Before Ava could even properly protest, Gora shoved her into the portal. She vanished with only a faint ripple on the surface and a lingering scream.

Samual just snorted before he, too, stepped through the portal.

“You said that we will be split up, Gora, does that mean that Bob and I shall be separated and each face our own challenge?” Zaxier asked as Bob stepped up to the portal.

Gora shrugged. “Only one way to find out. But if you get split up, you’ll each face much smaller challenges. Best of luck!”

At the cat’s urging, Bob stepped inside and only Rita and Gora were left. The Eyeball Tripod was starting to get close and Rita could feel its gaze like warm sunlight on her back. It was not difficult to figure out that if it got much closer the effects could start becoming significantly worse than a suntan.

“Are you going in too?” Rita asked.

“Yep. We should be inside a day or so. By that time, these things will have wandered off” Gora said. “Now git. I’m starting to bake here.”

Rita stood in front of the portal, the feeling of a searing gaze on her back. She swallowed nervously, gave one final glance to Gora, then grit her teeth and pushed forward into the flat white sheet. She was swallowed up instantly.

Gora gave one last look at the approaching Eyeball Tripod, wondering if she should have told them what happens if you die inside.

Oh well.

She gave the creature a mock salute before stepping through the portal and into a different world.