Damn, so this is it. I thought, my body feeling like it was floating. So, Kor’zha and August are dead, huh? And me too… My mind flashed on how helpless I was in that situation. All those years of learning from Donna and I still… I wondered about Donna, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach, damn, I forgot about her. The Light Resurrection tether would be broken if I died, which meant she was dead now too. I knew this would haunt me for eternity in the afterlife, but for now, I just let it go. Soon, a light appeared to me.

Is that the light at the end of the tunnel? I chuckled a bit, it’s literally a light, I figured someone must’ve died and come back to know that there was a light there. Then, my eyes opened. The very strong light burned my eyes, and I had to squint for a long while. There was a hand gently stroking my hair. The more my eyes grew resistant to the overly bright light, I came to realise I was resting on someone’s lap, their head blocking out a part of the light and casting a silhouette on their face. I could hear some sounds, muttering here and there. My senses were gradually returning, and when enough of my sight came back…

I rolled and jumped away, casting a Frost Trap and Ice Javelin simultaneously, then hitting that person with Arc Lightning before the Ice Javelin even reached. The ice spell was just a metre away from target, but an Arm of God still reached before it. Wrath of God’s level three Dispersion would only throw the Ice Javelin off course. The two spells hit at the same time, but nothing happened.

“Stop, dumbass!” I heard Donna’s voice from over yonder. If she’s alive, then… I looked at my palms and clenched them, then began touching my face, checking to ensure I was actually alive.

Dawn, May, Volt, Kira, Pyro, Donna and last but not least, Emily.

“What the fuck’s going on?! Where’s August?!”

“Behind ya, dude,” the voice calmed my riled nerves.

“You’re, alive…” I said in relief, my breathing suddenly getting erratic, until I passed out again.

When I next woke, my stomach was turning inside out. It was early morning, around sunrise. I sat up, somewhat weakly and scanned my surroundings. The hospital, and Donna’s not in me. Well, doesn’t make sense for her to stay while I’m out. How long was I out anyway? And what the hell happened to August? I asked myself, simply remembering that fight between Emily and I, anxiety began building up quickly. My breath was going out of control, thin threadlike magic lines began reacting to me to signal to the nurses that something was wrong. One of them barged in and began casting a standard calming spell, one I shrugged to the side and could never remember the name of because it seemed so useless; I didn’t think that way anymore.

“Take deep breaths, relax, I’m right here. You’re safe,” she comforted. Those words would usually be nought but futile to one who embraced realism so much, but they still somehow made me feel better.

“Thank, you,” my hands still trembled a little. “Nurse, how long was I asleep?”

She looked like she wanted to refrain from answering, “A little more than a month now. Now listen, you need to relax. Panicking again like that won’t do you any good, and you’ll risk going unconscious again. Do, not, push yourself!” she made that abundantly clear. Must’ve been that middle-aged wisdom that made me believe her.

“Alright,” I conjured some simple bread and milk, and made do with that. She watched me with hawk eyes but determined that the conjuring spell was simple enough not to warrant any worry from her. She eventually left after a couple minutes, ensuring I was fine.

Wait, did she say a month? Oh shit, Moken! I thought of using Clone and sending him there to meet with Moken, but that would definitely be too strenuous. But then again, she probably thought my mana usage still needed stamina. Damn, sorry, miss nurse. I’ve got a commitment to see through. I discharged myself after leaving a note and flew home. After changing out of the not very modest hospital clothing, I tried summoning Kor’zha and succeeded. He had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the witch fight, as if it didn’t even happen. A lot of questions raised in my head and I wondered if leaving home now without answers was a good idea.

I sighed, or, I could just ask the person in question. I shivered a little, because I didn’t feel like ever seeing her again, but I was still alive, right? If she really wanted to kill me, Kor’zha or Aug, she could’ve. Heck, if she wanted to end the world, she probably could. “Emily?” I asked, soft-voiced. Who the hell am I? Am I Eric? “Yo, Emily!” I shouted.

“What?” she appeared laying on my bed, as if she was sleeping and simply teleported in the exact position she was in before, “it’s so early,” she yawned.

“Don’t ‘what’ me. What the hell did you do? I need answers.”

“Shh, too loud. Check mana power level. I’ll explain later,” she didn’t even open her eyes. “Night,” she said, claiming my bed as her own after she teleported under the sheets.

I raised a brow, flew out of Aquan and casted Levitate. It’s slow-falling aspect remained much the same, the floating aspect remained the same, but the speed was about twice as fast. Well, that explains why my flying was so fast too. I let out a Phoenix Wave, and even that was bigger, hotter, and faster. All of my spells received an oomph of power in some aspect. This will take some getting used to, but maybe I can attempt transmuting now. Though, I won’t have time for that, my mind passed on Moken once more.

Donna appeared to be at Dawn’s residence, probably still sleeping. I paid a quick visit to the Order of Mages instead but at that time of the morning, not many people were there, no one I knew at least. Ugh, well, might as well. I do kinda want to see her… My last target was Dawn and Donna. With Voidwalk, I took breaking and entering to another level and went into my girlfriend’s room. They were both asleep on the same bed, clinging to each other. Nice to see they didn’t miss me. I poked the girl’s cheek until she halfway woke up, “Hmm, five minutes.”

“Five? Alright then.” My voice made her sit up robotically, waking Donna with her movement. She jumped off the bed and onto me.

“Hey! I’m a sick patient!” I complained, but she squeezed even tighter then kissed me and went back to hugging. Guess I was missed then.

Donna, yawning and rubbing her eyes, finally looked to us, “Eric, you’re finally ba… you’re leaving again, aren’t you?”

I looked at her apathetically, then smiled, “You got me,” giving a shrug. Of course, Dawn gave me an earful especially when she heard I wouldn’t let her come with. After seeing Ashfur, a mere minion of the druid delimb Keagan like that, I couldn’t let her do as she wished. I wiped a tear leaking from her eye, “Dawn, I need you to listen to me,” I sat her down, “I may be able to stop the war. I’m leaving now, if I don’t return by noon, tell the Order–”

“Why?! Why would you have to sacrifice yourself for us?! That’s not fair!” She screamed out, her tears now in full glory.

Huh? “Who said I was gonna die?” I raised a brow, “Wassup with that?”

“Oh…”

“You idiot, I can’t die and leave you. Do you know what Donna would do to me? Anyway,” I cleared my throat to dismiss the light atmosphere, my next few words were something I wanted to deliver with direness, “If by noon, I’m not back, tell the Order to cease attacks on the Virai. Tell them I said so. Donna, you’re staying here too, in case anything goes south while I’m gone. Support Dawn.”

Some minutes after, I was westbound to Moken’s mountainside house, crossing my fingers that he had not yet departed. This speed, is amazing! Avatar of Wind was now a viable mode of transport for me. I was definitely faster than Pyro and Dawn now. No one could hope to beat Volt’s speed, but at least we could see where we were going.

The hilly mountains were finally in view, and I landed at the house only to see it locked up. Moken was gone, but not far. His footprints were still fresh. Tracker wasn’t my middle name, but even a kid could follow along those imprints in the soil. After some minutes of flying along a road, I found Moken the Wanderer with his backpack.

“Mage,” he greeted, not even stopping his trek at my arrival, or looking in my general direction even.

“Wanderer,” I sighed, “do you know where the Grove of the Ancient is?”

“Yes,” he handed me a rolled map, “the centre of the continent, in the Withering Forest, there is a hidden path that leads to the grove, but it’s blocked by thick magic roots. I’m sure I could cut through it though,” he tapped the fuller of his sword once.

Of course, it’s not a normal sword. If I ask him about it, would he tell me? I wondered, deciding to keep that question to myself for now.

“Well, it’s not too far from here on the grander scale of things. Let’s fly there,” Gale joined us, and unbeknownst to me, the fearless orc had a fear. Flying.

He sweated buckets on the way there. We stopped twice a day, once to eat and the other to sleep. Doing that seven times felt mentally exhausting, but we made good time with Gale and Avatar of Wind.

“No one knows why it’s called Withering Forest, be careful,” he said after we jumped off of Gale and floated downward into the tree-infested forest. Birds flew off and monkeys jumped from branch to branch after being startled at our unexpected entry into their dwelling.

The tree trunks were a darkened grey and the leaves that of a lifeless brown, yet, there was no signs of actual decay; the leaves looked full of life apart from their odd hue. They painted an eerie and unsettling piece, stripping the mind of peace. At least the animals are normal, I took note of anything remotely out of whack whilst we walked deeper into the forest.

Moken was calm, and that bothered me a little, but maybe it was because of how much attention he seemed to give to his map and compass. He glanced up and around every now and then to ensure he didn’t trip over a root or that a pack of wild animals weren’t ready to devour us. Gliding behind him, I wondered just how much he trusted his own power and instincts to leave his back open like that. What makes him think I won’t just kill him?

I thought of using Hawk Eye to get an idea of where the entrance was, but the vines and foliage made that thought nil by breaking line of sight so easily. “Moken.”

“What?” he answered after a couple seconds, his focus almost exclusively on navigating.

“I want to apologise, for killing your people,” we walked on, the coming seconds so quiet that the loudest thing in those woods were the loose twigs breaking under out feet as we passed by. “Truth is, I viewed the Virai as nothing more than uncontrollable cattle, my perspective was askew, so please accept my apologies.”

He continued walking, not even slowing his pace to show his involvement in the conversation, but he eventually answered. “You are right, they’re quite mindless. By human standards, I can understand why killing them didn’t feel like murder. I also accept your apologies, mage.”

“Well, that’s a relief, I thou–”

“I’m still going to kill you though,” he made his decision clear and concrete.

“Well ain’t that great, my guy? I hope you give me chance to write my will and say goodbye and stuff because that’ll be cold, dude, get me?”

“The manner of speaking is, unneeded.”

“You welcome, bro, anytime.”

After some hours of searching, we found the entrance. Hell, if a hare didn’t scamper into its burrow, we’d have never noticed the loose dirt a couple metres to the side. A sand golem suddenly rose from the ground when we got close. Its height matched Moken easily. By the looks of it, I doubted heavily that it was a spirit. Moken’s sword went right through it when he swung. The creature’s arm turned into a lance-like shape and stuck Moken in the shoulder.

I used Wind Cutter to slice the arm off and separate the creature from Moken, then blasted it away with Divergence. The sand arm simply fell to the ground and turned into normal dirt afterwards. Renew patched up Moken’s wound quickly, and he took a seat back on the opponent.

A blast of sand flew at us and I instinctively placed up and Ice Wall. It was loose, not at all dense, almost like a slightly strong wind blew up some sand at the beach. What was that supposed to do? I wonder, then looked at my dented Ice Wall; I could guess what that would’ve done to a soft-skin like me.

I summoned a water wyrm and let it soak the golem to the core, making its movement near zero. It wasn’t dead, but it was restrained. We left the wyrm there and continued down into the underground entrance that the sand golem had concealed.

It became dark in a matter of seconds, so I placed a Candlelight above both Moken’s and my head. It was a simple passageway, dirt walls, dirt ceiling, dirt floor. We walked for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just an hour.

We knew we arrived at the place when we saw thick branches and roots blocking off the way ahead. It was here so long that flowers began growing out of it. A place with no sunlight birthing this variety of flowers? It was obvious that magic was involved. Moken gently pushed me back, unsheathed his sword and cleared a way for us. There was a hollow, subtle and soft wail when he cut through the roots.

Entering farther, his feet touched shallow water and we entered a huge underground cave. I sent out hundreds of Candlelights throughout the underground greenhouse. There were bamboo patches and thin long trees spaciously scattered about. It looked like the beginnings of a mangrove, but with water no more than an inch or two high. In the centre was a huge tree, it’s trunk the thickest I’d ever seen in my life. The top of it spread out and covered most of the dome-like underground grove. Everything here was a beautiful mash of green and yellow, giving it much more of a lifelike tone than the Withering Forest above.

We stepped forth, inspecting the tree. There was a huge space in the trunk, I didn’t quite understand what could’ve made something like that. A sound came from around us, but I didn’t know what direction.

“She’s here,” Moken grabbed his sword, “stay alert.”

I nodded, my eyes alert and ears cocked. Just to be sure, I activated Avatar of Wind and Lightning.

Footsteps entered our ears, the sound coming from behind the tree. It was, a stag? And a big one to boot. Its coat was of a silver-green sheen and its antlers were nearly as majestic as Hydra’s ass. They looked to be made of wood, and seemed alive, spanning along the entire length of its back. It stood a few metres away from us, completely still. I wondered if it died on its legs. Its black beady eyes stared down at me for a few seconds, then a shrill cry was heard and the earth rumbled in terror.

Vines entangled Moken and then sought to trap me, but Avatar of Lightning proved that futile. They fell right through when I casted Magnet, then I used Fire Blast repeatedly to burn away the vines entrapping the irritated and fumbling orc. The minute he got away, he dashed towards the druid and swung downward, but ended up slicing through air? The majestic stag was long gone, in his presence some spores floated down in our immediate area.

Our inhalations felt burnt, and our heads woozy. I casted Dispel, Magnet, and several Convergence orbs to suck the floating spores away from us, but doing all of that distracted me from the charging creature behind me. Not the stag druid, Liana, but a half deer, half elf? Her spear of stone and wood pierced my chest, through Magnet thankfully. Divergence and Arc Lightning created distance and kept her still. I trapped her in the confines of a makeshift Earth Wall prison then created a clone. What the hell is that? She looks like the elves in the storybooks, but what’s with the animal body? And those damn breasts are distracting! The elven deer or what have you, simply rose from the ground outside the prison as if she swam through the earth like Kor’zha.

Moken was half asleep, fighting with all his might to hold his sword, but mostly unharmed. Liana the druid and this new creature took a break in attacking, as if actually giving me time to think. It was awkward, it didn’t feel like their attacks had a cooldown, or that they themselves were particularly cautious of me. The air around my hands sieved with magic as I prepared to electrocute the floating druid, but my clone held my arms back. I glanced at the hybrid he was looking at and she slowly shook her head, miniscule enough so that the druid wouldn’t notice, but we would. Moken was down, I was fighting two opponents I had no knowledge about and one of them was gesturing me not to fight. Maybe I overestimated them, maybe that fight with the witch made me warier of unknown opponents, maybe, I was being a coward. But this fight didn’t feel like it tipped in our favour, or perhaps our timing was wrong. Something’s definitely off here, I thought, digesting the silence and inactivity that ensued. We needed to leave here, regroup, rethink, restructure.

After a while, I casted a Wind Cutter at Liana and used Frost Trap, but the latter was unusual. Frost Trap was quite a basic spell, at least to my standards. The mana required was negligible to the point where someone without Division could cast it dozens of times and still be in good shape, yet when I casted it with the druid as my focus, the entire grove was overrun in ice. It sucked a massive amount of mana away from me, way more than this grove deserved. I wasn’t sure why the spell went awry like that, until the clone and I lugged Moken’s heavy body through the tunnel from whence we came using Avatar of Wind. The surface, all of the Withering Forest was also entrapped in ice, even the animals. The air was freezing and felt stuffy, and it wasn’t because of the ice around us, no. It felt like certain parts of the air itself became frozen as well–albeit random ice didn’t hang in the air. We flew directly up and Gale swooped down and took us away from the Withering Forest.

When the dust settled and we landed somewhere, my mind finally began racing like it usually would. Frost Trap, seizes the freedom of the most beneficial part of the target’s movement, right? For most people, that’s their legs and feet. Fish? Then fins and tail. Birds? Then wings. So why did Frost Trap do that? Why the entire grove and entire forest? I sighed. Are you really telling me the druid is the forest? Or can it simply use th–

My train of thought was derailed as an object sprouted forth from the ground. It was the half-elf deer person, with its dual mounds still visible as ever. I encased Moken in an Ice Wall and prepped Magnet the minute she began walking forward. The hell does she want?