We headed north as Wilhelm told us, seeking none but the legendary Zeke Yuchi. No words could’ve described my surprise when I heard that name. The man who was mentioned only in legends became a reality within my reach. What did he know about this world? What could he tell us about the demons? Did he know how to alter our dismal future? I couldn’t wait to bombard him with questions.

The path we followed was barren and desolate. To pass the time, I talked with Erica or Alex but never with Erica and Alex. We expressed our worries, marveled at the strange landmarks that appeared around us (my favorite being a rock that resembled Rick’s face), and tried to calculate our position relative to the camp.

After a few hours, Alex’s initial enthusiasm began to spiral down, and a pessimistic aura radiated from him: “We might not make it; this wasteland will be our end. And the demons can be lurking anywhere. And there are no mountains around us. And we lost sight of the camp.”

“Quit whining!” Erica said when she could no longer tolerate him. “You can go back if you’re scared. Or do you want mommy to walk you?”

“How about you go back?” he scoffed. “You’re a dead weight.”

“No one’s going back,” I said before another fight started. “I don’t know what’s worse, the afterlife or you two. Why don’t you kiss and make up?”

They looked away.

“Ugh, kill me,” I sighed.

After another hour of walking and bickering, we spotted tall silhouettes in the distance. They didn’t look like anything we had seen before, so we stayed alert for a while. And we didn’t drop our guard until we realized that they were bare trunks. A forest covered the horizon. The trees towered over the landscape—some rivaling a seven-story building in height and a cottage in girth—and the boughs and branches formed an intricate web that no spider could weave.

We stopped at the fringe of this wooden maze.

“There seems to be no way around it,” Alex said.

“We’ll have to go through,” I said. “Stay close. It’s the perfect place for an ambush.”

“It’s the perfect place to get lost.” Erica corrected me, and she had a point.

“We can leave marks on the trees as we go,” Alex suggested. “This way, we’ll know if we’re going in circles.”

“Good thinking,” I said. “I can also use my compass if we need it. I hope it still works.”

With his spear, Alex carved a mark on the first tree, and we entered the forest. Our footsteps remained loud no matter what we did, and I felt that it was a matter of time before crimson eyes appeared in the shadows around us. My obsessive fears, however, turned out to be exaggerated and unfounded. No demons inhabited the treetops or dangled from the branches. None popped out of the ground like moles. None broke out of the trunks like mummies from sarcophagi. The forest was an inanimate realm.

“I don’t like this place,” Alex said. “There’s a lot of decaying wood, but something keeps it standing.”

“You’re afraid of trees now?” Erica laughed. “Do you think they’ll stab you in the back? Are they working for Lord Faust?”

“I think it’s time for a truce.” I interrupted their fruitful conversation. “Why don’t you apologize, Alex?”

“I acted in everyone’s interests,” he said. “There’s nothing to apologize for.”

“You attacked me!” Erica retorted.

“Well… yes, that was my only mistake… I’m sorry. I wasn’t in my right mind.”

“You’ll find a dagger at your throat next time.”

“May I remind you that I knocked you down? You don’t stand a chance against me.”

There’s no hope. My head began to spin. They made up, but they’re still at it.

Without doubt, the bickering could have continued for hours, but luckily for my poor ears, Alex had to stop to mark a tree, and while he was carving the wood, we suddenly heard a strange sound—as if the bark was peeling off or the trunk itself was shattering. Alex’s spear couldn’t have caused this loud noise, so we backed away from the tree and prepared ourselves for combat.

“Master, are you here?” a voice said.

We searched around us. The forest was dead. No one moved; no one breathed.

“Who’s there?” I shouted.

“You seem similar,” the voice said. “But you’re a different soul. And you have companions… Why are you passing through my land? What do you seek?”

None of us answered. We felt movements around us, and the air temperature plummeted. There was something unsettling about the forest. Suddenly, Erica said, “The roots!” They were moving—slithering like snakes and creeping like vines. We had been searching for a demon when we should’ve looked beneath our feet.

“Answer me before it’s too late,” the voice said. “What do you seek?”

“Zeke Yuchi,” I said. “We’re searching for Zeke Yuchi.”

The roots retreated to their trees. Then the wood that Alex had been carving started to move. A small, round head emerged. A short neck and a barrel-like torso followed. Then a full body made out of old, decaying wood landed on the ground. The wooden man had no eyes, but he seemed to have non-human senses, because he faced us as he said, “Master wishes to be alone, and he won’t grant anyone an audience. You must return to the camp.”

“We can’t turn back,” I said.

“Turn back now, or I will force you to.”

“We don’t want a fight,” Alex said. “We’re searching for a way out of this world, and your master may have the answers we need.”

“Master has already met an old dwarf. Has this dwarf not told you to wait?”

“Wait? Until when?” Alex said. “Until we all disappear from existence?”

“You’re making me angry.” Thorns appeared on the wooden man’s body. “Turn back!”

“Lead us to your master!” Alex shouted.

The thorns grew to the size of branches and covered the wooden man’s entire body, distorting his humanoid shape. Realizing that a battle was about to start, Alex removed a short sword from his belt and tossed it to Erica.

“What’s this?” she said.

“Your daggers won’t be useful in this fight. Use this sword instead.”

“You won’t hear a thank you from me.”

“I just did,” Alex smirked.

The tree roots began to sway right and left—like the pendulum of a stage hypnotist. A tilt to one side. A brief return to the other. A tilt to one side. A brief return to the other. Then, suddenly, they lunged forward—the snap of the fingers. As they charged at us like wild boars, the wooden man spun his arms and launched the thorns attached to his body. These thorns flew like arrows or crossbow bolts, matching the latter in speed but not in deadliness.

Erica jumped to the left, while Alex escaped to the right. They intercepted the roots and cut them with their weapons. Although they were both successful, their styles of combat were markedly different. Erica depended on quick consecutive slashes, while Alex waited until the roots surrounded him before he cut them with one brute sweep.

Meanwhile, I neither jumped left nor escaped right; I ran straight toward the thorns that the wooden man had launched. At the last moment, I lowered my body and slid on the ground. The thorns passed above my head, and when I was upright again, I found the wooden man in front of me.

“Why won’t you let us through?” I said, slashing the roots that he raised from the ground. “You must understand the situation we’re in. You must know how much we need to see Zeke Yuchi.” He swung his thorny arm at me, but I avoided it without difficulty and continued, “Your master won’t approve of what you’re doing.”

He replied with another swing. It became apparent that he wasn’t listening, so I raised my sword and counter-attacked. The blade cut his right arm. It fell off and became a lump of wood. I was about to trim more of his branches, but he turned around and disappeared into a tree trunk just as he had appeared.

I looked around me and noticed that the roots had stopped moving. The forest returned to its original tranquility—its deceptive calm. I regrouped with Erica and Alex. We took defensive stances and waited for the wooden man to pop out again.

“Things always go downhill when you’re around, Lance,” Erica said.

“I live an exciting life, or afterlife in this case.”

I scanned the trees for our enemy, but he remained elusive. The monotone colors of the trunks never hinted at his location. It seemed as if he would never appear—as if he would prevent us from seeing his master by forcing us to wait indefinitely. But then a shadow moved on the ground.

“Above us!” Alex said.

The wooden man jumped out of the highest tree in the area. New thorns protruded from his body, and he launched them with rapid swings of his arms. There wasn’t enough time for Erica and me to react, but Alex pushed us out of harm’s way. He had detected the danger early, and this had allowed him to move fast. Instead of saving himself, however, he chose to protect us.

“Alex!” Erica and I cried.

He smiled and raised his gauntlets to cover his face. The armor of the town guards was thin and third-rate, but he didn’t care. The thorns showered down on him and dug into his skin—it was the most painful downpour imaginable—but he didn’t falter and waited for a chance to counter-attack. When the wooden man landed, Alex grabbed his head and smashed it against the ground. Alex had always been rough in combat, but this time, he was savage. The sound of shattering wood gave me goosebumps.

“Will you let us meet your master now?” he shouted, coping with the pain from his new injuries. “Come on, stick a hundred splinters into my body! See if that stops me!”

Long thorns jutted out and forced Alex to back away. The wooden man’s head re-formed, and he said, “I can stick a thousand.”

Before the battle resumed, however, a new shadow loomed among the trees. I saw a gray robe with a hood and long sleeves. Was it a new enemy? Was it another one of Zeke Yuchi’s servants? The robes made nothing clear. I had to wait for the tall, hunched figure to speak and reveal its identity.

“Ascotosh, this is enough,” a gentle voice said.

The wooden man stopped his vengeful attack, went inside the closest tree, and emerged from another in front of the gray figure. He bowed and said, “Master, I failed to drive them away.”

“You couldn’t have prevented the inevitable, Ascotosh. Rest for now.”

After another respectful bow, the wooden man disappeared into one of the boles.

“Your arrival has been foretold,” Zeke Yuchi said as he approached. “When I knew you were so close, I left the mountain. But it seems I was late. Ascotosh has caused more than simple injury.”

“I’ve had worse days.” Alex removed a couple of thorns from his arm.

“I know one healing incantation, but I’m afraid it’s almost useless,” Zeke said, still hiding his face. “You know my name. I want to know yours.” Alex and Erica introduced themselves before Zeke turned his attention to me. Looking at me from behind his cloak, he said, “And you?”

“L-Lance Ainsworth.”

The legendary Zeke Yuchi himself… After introducing myself, it suddenly hit me that I was standing in front of my role model—the explorer who had found the Seventh Labyrinth, the greatest adventurer who had ever lived. Wait, did I just stutter? I did, didn’t I? And I shouldn’t have sounded so casual!

“It’s an honor to meet you!” I blurted out in confusion.

“The honor is all mine!” Zeke said, just as confused.

“No, no, no, it’s mine.”

“No, it’s mine.”

“It’s good that you two nutjobs are getting along,” Erica interrupted. “But we’re here for a reason, remember?”

“Lady Erica is right,” Zeke said.

Lady Erica? I stifled a laugh while her lips read, “I’ll kill you.”

“I understand that you need my help,” Zeke added.

“Yes,” Alex said. “We need a way back to our world, a way for everyone to return safely.”

“Wilhelm asked for the same thing, and my answer hasn’t changed. You need an earthly vessel to be saved.”

“But there must be a way to bypass this rule,” Alex insisted.

“No matter how hard we try, we can’t bend the laws of nature,” Zeke said. “If your body is intact, the time you spend here is a dream. But if you lose it, what awaits is eternal slumber.”

Wilhelm had told us the truth, and hearing it again was a depressing ordeal. We had left the relative safety of the camp and traveled a great distance, only to hear a few words that would demolish our hope.

“I understand,” Alex said, hiding his pain and frustration. “My men and I can’t be saved. But the little girls should leave this wasteland. Isn’t it time to send them back to our world?”

“Wilhelm told us that you’re waiting for something,” Erica added.

“I was waiting for someone,” Zeke said, “and he has arrived.”

“What do you mean?” Alex said.

“I was waiting for you, Lance.”

Alex and Erica stared at me, but I was even more surprised than they were.