To those with open eyes and minds, the world will always remain mysterious and vast.

~Taliesin, God of Rhapsody

“This place is really desolate,” Mara said wearily. The forest they currently camped in was filled with tall fir trees, and there was little ground cover because of the carpet of pine needles. They had seen no one since leaving that strange temple, which was over five days ago.

They’d been walking in a southerly direction, following the edge of the Skyfall forbidden zone, aptly named that because it was the area people fell to when they jumped into the Plunge. There was an invisible barrier between the two that even mortals could feel. It didn’t prohibit people from entering, but cultivators could feel the area suckling at their Source once inside. A cultivator with a Shield didn’t feel the draining effect as much, but they still considered it a forbidden zone because of the mana siphon.

Everyone knew the mana absorption was related to the Trial of Ascension. They only held the event every two years because it needed time to power up. Because of this issue, they built sects outside of Skyfall. After all, most of them were attempting to groom Ascenders. That aside, there were mortal towns and cities built inside Skyfall. It was almost a haven for them. There were also some cities built half in and half out, so the barrier split the town.

Traveling through the Basement had its own set of pitfalls for cultivators. And it was faster for most of them to avoid Skyfall and circumnavigate the barrier, which led to many trails and roads being established along this route. Mara and Crow once spent a day traveling inside Skyfall, but Mara found it hard to adjust. Crow had learned how to seal his Source, so he could actually manage the siphoning effect to a degree. But no one would be comfortable having a leech suckling their blood, and this was no different.

Initially, Crow was reluctant to take this journey but found traveling enjoyable. Hunting, camping, and surviving off the land were things he already enjoyed, but traveling allowed him to see places, beasts, points of interest, and out-of-the-way libraries. It allowed him to experience and learn about the world in a way books never could.

All good things had to end, and now they were rushing toward a town called Pineknot. Torcail had given Mara a treasure called Twin Vestige. A few academies developed them, and Crow was sure that he could probably make them once he had a Shield. Regardless, information recorded on one would eventually show up on the other. The delay depended on distance. Three days ago, Torcail sent a message and a map and informed them to rush toward Pineknot. It warned them that villages were burning bodies in mass graves because the Hex Vodun needed to curse a corpse to raise it up—no corpse, no undead. So while their evil army was replenishing itself, there was still a limit.

The map showed the areas where the Hex Vodun had overtaken, and they now controlled most of the lands northeast of Skyfall. They were working their way south, along the eastern part of the barrier, which was a relief since they were on the east side. Pineknot was almost directly south of Skyfall, which meant even at full speed, reaching it would take at least another week.

Crow took a sack out of his Vortex Pin and dumped the scraps of their meal into it before storing it away again. He’d long been in the habit of not leaving signs of their passing, so he’d store up their refuse, and if he found a good place to dump it, he would—worse case, he’d stop to dig a pit.

Mara was practically dead on her feet. They hadn’t traveled this hard before, so her physical body was struggling.

“Sleep,” Crow commanded. “I’ll take watch.”

“But—”

“No, don’t do that. I need you strong and alert. I’ve tempered my body, so I can endure this. Sleep, I’ll be fine.”

Mara stared at him in a daze and then nodded before pulling a cot from her inventory. He could hear her breathing calmly and knew she was asleep.

“Alright, you two. Go out and hunt. Come back immediately if you run into any trouble.” Crow said in a low voice while summoning Lily and Nin from his Soulscape. Nin needed to eat a lot, so she took it on herself to hunt for her own food. Lily didn’t eat but liked to explore and find things. It wasn’t uncommon for her to come back with rare materials. He could always tell when she found a source of lightning because she grew a smidge taller.

Crow developed a method for cultivating in which he was in a trance and yet fully aware of things around him. It allowed him to go with little sleep for up to a week. After that, he’d need a solid night’s sleep.

Placing a stool down, he sat down and pulled out a woodblock and a carving knife. Using Soul Carving as the impetus to cultivate, he unfocused on the wood and let it speak to him. All the while absorbing mana from the surrounding environment using his Mind, or Druid, method, while simultaneously using the Body, or Martial, breathing method.

It came down to a problem of efficiency because Crow didn’t want to waste any time. So he stumbled upon this method and found it helpful. Still, he hadn’t figured out which part of it all kept his mind and body rejuvenated, and perhaps it was the entire process. In a way, Soul Carving was improving his Spirit, so he wondered if it counted as a cultivation method. If that was true, then he was cultivating the three major realms: Mind, Body, and Spirit—all of which formed the essence of a cultivator’s soul.

As a bonus, he now had dozens of little wooden carvings, which could all sell for quite a few Mana Crystals. He hadn’t sold them yet, because he was waiting to enter the tower proper first.

Snap!

The knife and the carving disappeared, replaced by Crow’s bow with an arrow nocked and drawn. He lightly stepped toward Mara’s cot since the sound came from the other side. With her within reaching distance, he held still like a marble statue, his arms like iron, refused to shake as they held the bow steady.

His mana sense couldn’t detect anything, which was disconcerting. So he pulled the mana net tighter, which was done by shortening his range to condense his sensing power. The more he pulled back, the more his environment came up in sharper detail. After a few minutes, Crow was convinced that something out there had some kind of stealth ability.

There were other ways to discover someone using stealth abilities because, as far as Crow knew, every ability was subject to Apportionment. The idea originated with Spell Theory and the concept of what Truths are. If Crow wanted to create a balanced invisibility spell, it’d end up as garbage. Anyone with a slightly above average ability could overcome it without an issue—like Crow’s mana sense. Now, if a spell focused more heavily on blocking a specific aspect, it’d weaken itself to other detection methods. Like whatever was out in the forest, it chose to hide its mana signature, making it impossible for Crow to locate it with mana sense. Following the concept of Apportionment, that meant that the ability to block his mana sense was most likely weak to physical senses—like hearing.

Apportionment, in short, just meant that powerful abilities had to sacrifice something to gain something. But, to be clear, it wasn’t about balance. What was given up wasn’t always in equal measure to what was gained. Instead, it was more about the distribution of power. This brings it back to understanding the great Truths of the world. The more a cultivator understood those, the stronger their ability to create. But it was still subject to Apportionment. No ability could be all-powerful because they all had a weakness.

Rustle.

Crow turned slightly to the right and inhaled through his mouth and nose, hoping to find a way to pinpoint its location. Smelling and tasting the air wasn’t something he was great at, but whatever was out there was still managing to avoid detection. The sounds might even be a strategy to distract him.

The thing was, he hadn’t expected that method to work, but he definitely tasted death in the air. The smell could be mistaken as a musty or wet forest, but the taste of death was unmistakable. He’d been in enough tombs of late to have tasted the stale and stagnant air, which was old death. This wasn’t much different, only it was a bit more earthy and fresh. As the thing approached closer, he finally caught a whiff of blood.

Creak! Crow’s drew the string back on his bow even further. The tip of the arrow drifted right and left as if searching for a target. Patiently he waited for the enemy to appear. Meanwhile, he sent a warning to Nin and Lily and asked them to return.

“Gotcha!” Crow said and let go of the string.

Thunk!

The arrow struck something solid, and it sounded like a tree. However, an undead puppet fell forward with the arrow buried up to the fletchings in its eye socket. With a flip of his wrist, he resummoned the arrow, so it disappeared from the undead’s eye and appeared once more in his hand.

Mara rose quickly and recovered her cot while drawing her blade and shield. The shield was pretty new, but she’d find experts to talk to who helped coach her on its use when they stopped over in towns. She also still wore her bangle with the hidden needles, but they were useless against the undead.

“Is there more?” She asked, positioning herself in front of Crow.

“Probably. Heard another sound about thirty degrees west of it.”

“What are they doing out here?”

“Who am I going to ask?” Crow laughed. “It is strange, though, because those things can’t cross Skyfall. The mana supporting their undeadness would get stripped away.”

“Undeadness? You used your big brain to make up with that word?” Mara shook her head. “If, and this is just a big if, a strong cultivator was supporting this undead army, could they cross?”

Crow gave it some serious thought but didn’t stop scanning the surrounding forest. He was getting a little worried about the other two out hunting. “Found you!” An arrow flew through the air and once more embedded itself into the eye socket of an undead. This was one severely bloated, and when it hit the ground, its stomach burst open, releasing some kind of black beetles.

“What the hell are those?” Mara asked, preparing to use a spell if necessary.

“Leave them. They are common carrion beetles.”

“Where is the Witch Doctor?”

“I don’t think he’s nearby. Those two were more like auxiliary units. To answer your other question, yes, it’s possible. If the Witch Doctor had at least a Sapphire Shield and could travel quickly enough, they could support… maybe a five or six and cross Skyfall. However, it’d be dangerous. By the time they made it through, they’d have no mana left, and the undead heavily weakened.”

“Then we leave. Now.” Mara commanded. Nin arrived at that moment and paused as she found Crow pointing an arrow right at her face.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. There is a small army of corpses out there. I must have killed at least twelve.”

“Where’s Lily?”

“Don’t know, she’ll be fine. That little fae is probably more dangerous than me.”

“While that is interesting, how many undead are left?” Mara asked.

“Thirty-three,” Nin replied with a smile.

“That’s pretty specific.”

Nin laughed. “It should be. They surrounded me when I blasted them with Dragon Fire.”

“What about the Witch Doctor?”

“Now that I think about it, I did see a living human, but he left in a hurry. Think he went toward where I last saw Lily.”

Lily dropped from the sky at that moment and flew in front of Crow’s face with a big smile and sparkling eyes. She put two fingers in front of her mouth like fangs and then shot those fingers forward.

“Snake?” Crow asked, and she nodded. Her body went rigid, and she shambled across the air like one of the undead, followed by the snake devouring it.

“A snake is eating the undead?” Crow asked, completely confused about just what the hell was happening. Lily gave a thumb’s up and nodded. He could only think of one snake that would eat the undead because it thrived on the corrupted mana they produced. Most called it corpse mana, but it didn’t just come from corpses. “Was it a white beast snake with blue eyes?”

Lily nodded vigorously.

“What the hell is an Ice-Eyed Phantom Snake doing out here?”

“Crow, you need to tell us what to do here. This place isn’t secure enough for a stand-off.” Mara said, still highly alert.

“We can get moving. That snake won’t be interested in us if we don’t provoke it, and it’ll take care of the undead. Nin and Lily, you can walk with us for a while if you want to remain out here for a little longer. But be ready to go back in my Soulscape if we run across people.”

Lily flew up and sat on Crow’s shoulder. Her little arm slid around his neck, and she stared at Nin with a big smile on her face. Nin stuck her tongue out in response and then caught Mara staring at her and slowly retracted it. The two chatted while they followed the barrier, and the thrashing sounds of battle slowly faded behind them.

“What is an Ice-Eyed Phantom Snake?” Mara asked.

“There are some beasts that are good to keep alive,” Nin spoke before Crow could. “That’s one of them. They live by devouring corpse mana, and they excrete pure origin energy. They are a mixed blessing, though. If they consume enough corruption, they turn into the Red-Eyed Necrotic Snake. Just breathing the air around one is enough to kill you.”

“Then… should we kill it?” Mara wasn’t sure she wanted to leave something like that alive.

“Nope. That one is still a baby, and with those Hex bastards killing people to create armies, that snake will help a lot. It is a shame neither of you is a Beastlord. If you could tame it, you’d end up one of the largest threats in the tower—if it had enough time to grow.”

They walked until the sun crested the trees, and then both Lily and Nin went inside. Mara had gotten used to Nin and Lily both vying for Crow’s attention and spent time with both of them, especially in the last three months. Nin had even saved Mara once from a mutated wolf that stalked her while she bathed in a river. Mara found it fascinating that both appeared to have an unlimited amount of knowledge and were as innocent as little children.

“Village ahead,” Crow said softly so as not to startle her.

“Finally. We are staying for three days, no exceptions. I want a hot bath, warm food, and a soft bed. And…”

“What?” Crow asked, looking over to see Mara’s red face.

“And we are sharing that bed.”