Chapter 7

“We’re here,” Melsil’s words rang throughout those on the lotus vessel.

They hadn’t been awake for very long when he said that. Rillia had been manning the steer while Jason was paddling and Vesha was checking the map. When the mushroom swordsman told them the Duchil family’s headquarters were at the bend in the river, he wasn’t lying. Rillia had been steering her lilypad vessel around the curve in the Blue River from dawn until noon before Melsil mentioned they had arrived at their destination.

Before approaching the curve of the river there was a subtle but marked change in the landscape. Tall grass gave way to more mushrooms and weird fungi but you wouldn’t notice it very well from the boat. The grass around them seemed to hide the fungus, as if the plants hid the mushrooms and other such organisms. Also, you saw almost no other sentient life forms just by glancing at the shore aside from mushroom people, unlike where other parts of the river.

“Are you sure?” Vesha asked.

“Positive,” he said. “I’ve taken this route more times than I can count.”

“And after we deal with the Duchil family…” Rillia said. “Who will accompany me to the Primeval World?”

“I will,” Vesha said. “The species of Wassergras have been foolish giving up in the endeavor of traveling and colonizing the Primeval World as it could help promote peace. With more land discovered and prepared for the various races, less people in Wassergras the less fighting over competition. And Jason seems to want to go wherever you do.”

“Sure will!” Jason shouted. “Rillia’s awesome! I’d go to the depths of the earth with a person as brave and excited as her!”

“Will the brigade allow you to do that?” the ant asked.

“Of course,” Vesha said. “Do you know how up I am in the Exploratory Pincer brigade? I’m a Supreme Captain. Only five of us in the entire brigade and that’s the third highest rank you can attain. I’ve been thinking of conducting an expedition there for years now but I’ve had very few willing to go with me. To go to somewhere as dangerous and uncharted as the Primeval World I’d only want the most dedicated and strongest of soldiers. Not only do I have that in you guys but with the coming conflict between species as a result of the struggle against the Red Fungus, I wish the large swaths of the populace in Wassergras could be transported to another place to prevent further wars.”

“I see,” the ant said. “But I hope you know I won’t be venturing out for such a noble intention, I just want to see the most I can of this world. Besides, the Primeval World is too dangerous to safely transport such people, so I don’t think it’d benefit anyone.”

“We’ll just have to prepare it,” the crawfish replied. “Wassergras was that way before the species here drove out most of the wild animals and changed terrain to suit them. We do that with a section of the Primeval World that we find habitable and transport whoever’s willing to make a life there. Do you think that’s moral, Melsil?”

The mushroom swordsman looked somewhat angry before relaxing his stare.

“I’d have to be absolutely sure such a wilderness could be made suitable,” he answered. “But I’d be most worried about people being thrown there against their will. So I’m skeptical of such a proposal.”

The crawfish nodded in response.

“I respect your criticisms,” she said.

“What of you, Melsil?” Rillia asked. “Will you accompany us to the Primeval World?”

The fungus person looked hesitant to answer as he met her gaze before turning away. At first, Rillia felt this detour would only hurt her chances of going to the Primvel World. But with more companions, the odds of surviving to venture further into the unknown reaches of the world was almost assured. Melsil going with them would only be a benefit at this point.

“I believe not,” he said. “Wassergras has precedent for someone to fight for justice, even with the Red Fungus defeated. The fungus people will need someone to lead them to a better, more peaceful tomorrow and I believe the White Spore sword wants me to do that.”

The ant smiled at the knowledge she had two companions who would help her with her dangerous ambition.

“Alright!” Jason said. “Time to get ready for a journey to unexplored lands. But first, let’s rough up some bad guys.”

“If he’s even telling the truth,” Vesha stated. “Remember...I still don’t entirely trust you. I will once I see you kill one of your own kind.”

“Hey!” Jason said. “He will! We all will! I know I’m-!”

“Jason,” Melsil said.

He gave him a stoic expression, the youth going silent.

“I appreciate your...enthusiasm,” the fungus person said. “But I don’t want you to think this is fun...we’re going to be facing my family. And as much I may hate them for what I’ve done...I deeply regret doing this and that they hadn’t used their influence or power for good.”

Jason hung his head in shame, almost afraid to say anything else.

“One should always be aware of the inner weaknesses of your enemies,” Melsil stated. “They, like all people, have gifts and talents they’ve used to oppose you. If you don’t consider them people, you start believing in a false dichotomy where they are inherently evil and you are inherently good. Believe that, and you will fall prey to evil just as readily as they do.”

He nodded before jumping out of the boat in preparation to bring it to shore. As Rillia steered the boat against the current of the Blue River with Vesha paddling to get near the edge of the river, she saw a group of fungus people gather around the edge of the shore. After Rillia docked their lotus boat and tied it to a mushroom stem with a rope of dried venom, the fungus people stood scared at the sight of Melsil. Jason took a red mushroom head with him, placing it on his head as he left, something which Rillia hoped wouldn’t offend the fungus people too much. The ground they walked on was still covered in rain water, but more of a puddle now than a creek’s worth of liquid.

Rillia was fascinated by all the fungus people around them were of more colors and shapes then red or green with hat-like mushroom heads atop them. Some were blue with red squiggly lines that ran across their entire body before decorating the top of their mushroom “hat” with a red spiral. The blue ones’ limbs were not a mesh of wiry, vine looking material but were made of light blue feather-like objects. The blue fungus people had no mouth coverings, instead have multiple gaps in their head to act as different mouths. They also did not have traditional eyes but red strips of material to cover their face.

Other fungus people didn’t even have mushroom bodies. Some were giant red, star shaped creatures with five red, tentacle-like appendages that they used as legs to walk. The white center of their body where the tentacle appendages intersected was raised in the air so long as they walked with their long “legs”. In the center of their body was an opening from which they would expose their small, perfectly spherical head with multiple small eyes and were equipped with a large mouth at the very top.

But the most exotic of the fungus people were bipedal creatures with two arms but were covered in yellow drapes. From their shoulders to their legs, below and above their torso their body was obscured by the drapes. They were like capes that, on any other creature, would probably weigh it down.

Rillia recognized the different fungus people by their colors and varying body shapes. Red and green mushroom people were the strongest of the fungus and could control black venom swords to an impressive degree and were the only kind who could be true fungus swordsmen. The others, while not nearly as strong, were far more important to the ecosystem.

The blue mushroom people were able to absorb large quantities of water, mix it with nutrients they collected from the ground and push out a liquid that was nutritious not only to other fungi but for plants and animals alike. The star fungus prevented soil erosion when they dug their appendages into the ground and filtered toxins out of the earth. They were also able to detach parts of their body to give nutritious meals to hungry and tired creatures.

The yellow drape fungi were able to decompose dead or dying matter faster than any non-sentient fungi by wrapping it in their drapes. Their heads were also fairly odd as they possessed fin-like appendages on their face that were able to detect body heat and moisture in the air that gave them acute knowledge of weather.

Rillia was trying to keep her composure as she looked on at the downright fascinating display of organisms in front of her. She had only read about them and, even though her knowledge was extensive, it was far different from seeing the real thing. She was overcome by a sudden desire to touch them, running her hands along the surface of the fungus people. Rillia walked up to the red star fungus to run her hands along the rough yet pleasant surface, her fingers never having quite the sensation. It was rude not to ask but this was what she traveled for.

I want to see everything in this world. Rillia thought. Knowing it is useless. If all I ever did was read about other peoples’ experiences...I’d never live my own life. The Primeval World should have more than even this…

“You’re beautiful,” the ant said to the star fungus.

The sentient organism barely noticed her, his eyes transfixed on Melsil. Everyone of the dozens of fungus people cowered at the sight of him, afraid of what he would do. The air was tense as Melsil was obviously trying to decide what to say.

“Woah!” Jason said as he used his powerful legs to jump atop one of the red star fungus tentacles. He began feeling the creature’s strange-feeling skin, smiling with laughter. “Look at all the plant people! They’re so cool!”

Rillia felt a ping of pain as she heard him say that. She looked up at the starfish fungus’s head, shaking her head. She tapped at the creature to get their attention.

“I’m so, so sorry he said that,” she apologized. “He’s new here and doesn’t know what-”

“We fungi are not offended by such things,” the surprisingly feminine voice of the star fungus said.

The ant’s eyes went wide as he said that.

“Wha-what?” Rillia asked. “But-but I thought that was offensive-”

“It’s not,” a blue mushroom person beside her said. “We’re not plants, but it’s a common misconception that we’re offended by such.”

“Only the Red Fungus,” the star fungi said. “Care about such petty non-insults.”

The ant felt slightly embarrassed at their words. She supposed not everything she read could be true. Rillia shrugged before turning back to Melsil, the mushroom swordsman doing everything in his power to look non-threatening. He had his arms at rest so if he was attacked he couldn’t react quickly enough and was doing his best not to touch his sword. If Rillia didn’t know any better, she almost would think Melsil was trying to make himself a sitting target. He also wasn’t keeping himself silent, possibly waiting for the right time to speak.

“So,” one of the yellow drape fungi said. “Is it true you have defected from the Red Fungus?”

“Yep!” Jason said as he stood atop the red star fungus. “We’re here to save everybody!”

“Impossible,” the blue fungus person that corrected Rillia said. “Why would a Duchil family member leave their privileged and honorable lifestyle? I don’t care how many stories I hear, I can’t believe any of his murderous kind would leave their cushy home?”

“Why would he need to?” a red mushroom man said. “You act like it's a bad thing to stay with the Duchils. Do you think that our race can survive without them? Why are we not allowed to have the prosperity that stronger species are allotted?”

“I agree with Gestin,” a yellow drape fungi said. “Without the Red Fungus our species would be lost. Now, thanks to an increase in support for them, they help our kind grow strong when no one else can.”

“You think the Red Fungus are our allies?” the star fungus Rillia spoke to yelled. “They’ve brought nothing but destruction to our kind! Their constant warmongering has robbed us of countless lives not only of the fungi but other races as well!”

“That’s right,” Vesha said. “I have recently...changed my mind about how my kind have treated the fungus but the Red Fungus are good for no one. They are murderers!”

“So?” the yellow drape fungus man said. “Soldiers die in battle all the time. Our soldiers died and there’s did as well. And since the Red Mountain ants actively prevent any of us from having an army there’s no way to defend ourselves!”

“They kill soldiers as well as innocents all the same,” Vesha stated.

“Yeah!” Jason said. “So let us go and beat them up!”

Rillia remembered the agreement the fungus man was referring to. The ants were the most powerful ruling species in the land and used their might to broker peace deals that would allow for better relations between species. The ants, as Melsil pointed out during the first night they meant, were not completely altruistic in this manner but knew peace between species would maintain their own kind’s safety and control over Wassergras.

One of their deals was that the fungus were not able to hold an army if they wanted to host trade and other interspecies necessities. They had been disbanded after the war where the Red Fungus allied with the acorn people to fight the crawfish, ant and pinecone alliance. Since the Red Fungus crime was supported even by some of the different clans of the fungus people, they saw it as necessary to send their own armies out to fight with their allies.

The Red Fungus were a guerilla and crime group so there was no law the ants could raise to prevent them from gathering up but in order to break the power of the fungus, the agreement was made that they could no longer host an army. While many saw it as fair, even Rillia knew it was a thinly veiled ploy to take a potential rival for the ants’ territory out. The fungus people used to be the species with the second most territory in Wassergras before much was reclaimed by the ants after the war. With no official army, there was little the fungus could do to defend against the Red Mountain colony from taking their turf. This meant the fungus were the only species in Wassergras without some official military.

This was why the opinions of the fungus people over the Red Fungus were deeply split. While everyone not a fungus person feared and hated them, the fungus people’s feelings were deeply mixed. While some hated the violence they instigated, others saw them as the best hope for their species becoming competitive enough to rival the ants and crawfish. And with the red mushrooms that sucked up nutrients in the soil and poisoned the land unless they properly bribed, that looked to be a reasonable estimation.

“Look!” the red mushroom man said. “He even brought an ant along with him! This proves he’s a traitor to our kind!”

“Exactly!” the yellow draped fungus said. “Melsil is a traitor to our species!”

“I may not like the Red Fungus much more than I do an open wound,” the blue mushroom man said. “But I don’t trust ants. Along with the crawfish, they crippeled our species entire way of life.”

“Rillia’s not like that!” Jason said.

He jumped from the fungus he stood on to land beside the blue fungus.

“She’s not a bad person,” he said. “None of us are. We just want to help in

whatever way possible. And right now, that means stopping a war between the Red Fungus and everyone else before it even happens.”

“You mean the Red Fungus trying to reclaim our lost territory?” the yellow draped fungus asked. “We were cheated out of land until we were the weakest of everyone in Wassergras. If anything, it’s justice what they’re doing by trying to give us back what we lost.”

“Is poisoning everything a part of that justice?!” Jason screamed at him. “What they’re doing is good for no one, not even other fungus!”

“Jason is right,” Vesha said. “You don’t think even those not affiliated with the Red Fungus won’t be drawn into the coming war. And with no proper army, who knows what chance you have of winning?”

“Let’s hear what the traitor to Red Fungus has to say,” the red mushroom said.

Melsil drew the blade at his side. The brilliant white flash that accompanied the drawing of the sword along with the elegant, white particles that floated around it caused everyone to give it their undivided attention. Most every fungus person that saw it gasped.

“This,” he said. “Is the White Spore sword. A secret weapon that the most elite of the fungus people were not allowed to be made aware of. It was said to be a legend. I found it upon traversing through the land of oak and pine that we share with the acorn and pine people.”

His statement caused a murmuring among the crowd.

“Yes!” Melsil shouted. “We share the land of Ushujin with the pine and oak! I know that’s controversial but it’s the truth nonetheless. While travelling through the area I heard of the intense bickering between the oak and pine peoples and how brainwashed they both seemed by the hatred forced down their throat from an early age. And I realized...that the irrational hatred we fungus share for other species is no different.”

He then swept the sword forward, the blade extending past him to cut the grass just beyond him. The towering plants were sliced in half before more dainty spores filled the air. There was something mystical about witnessing the white blade do the most ordinary things.

“It is the closest descendant of the legendary White Magnolia,” Melsil stated. “The tree that bestowed upon all sentient species the ability to know good and evil, putting us above the animals we hunt for food and break down into decay. I believe this sword is that very tree incarnated into a fungus. This sword has shown me things that haunt me even now and drive me to sacrifice myself even without reward. And I pledge with this weapon not only to destroy the Red Fungus but all who terrorize the fungus people. Don’t rely upon the mob of criminals that have forced you all into a hopeless corner but believe in the strength of my blade descended from the origin of all life!”

Jason was absolutely star struck by the heroic speech and clapping while Vesha sighed, obviously annoyed. Rillia couldn’t decide what to think of it. While she knew Melsil meant well, he was asking them to all turn their entire lives over for the sake of an ill-defined cause and backed by a story no one over the age ten believed in. He was asking them to trust him on something so flimsy.

Just as the ant guessed would happen, the fungus people murmured at his words. Some took it better, not really having a huge objection to it while others shook their heads and sneered at him. The more particularly angry fungus members looked ready to fight him.

“I still don’t understand why the heir to the Duchil family would just go around doing good deeds for everyone,” the blue mushroom said. “Seems rather naive to me to think he’s any less than a charlatan villain.”

“He may be a good person,” the star fungus that Jason jumped on said. “You...you don’t know if he’s bad or not.”

“I say he’s bad if he claims he is who he says,” the yellow drape fungus said. “The Red Fungus is the only chance of prosperity left for us.”

“Fine,” Melsil said as he sheathed his sword. “Don’t believe me. I’ll fight regardless of whatever happens. Now...move.”

Everyone looked afraid at his words.

“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “Move. I came to destroy the Duchils. Now get out of my way or fall in behind me.”

The fungus people around him did as Melsil said. They all parted ways for him, the crowd forming a path for him to walk through. As Rillia and Vesha awkwardly between the fungus people, Jason spiritedly moved forward while Melsil walked rather somberly. Jason was in high spirits, his fists raised in the air as they walked past the row of grass to enter the forest of mushrooms around them.

“Stay close to me as I lead you to the Tower Fungus,” Melsil said. “I don’t know what security’s been like since I’ve been gone and you could be attacked at a moment’s notice.”

“Don’t worry!” Jason said. “The pink fungus beasts that guard the Duchil family house and its territory shouldn’t be around here.”

The odd comment elicited odd looks from Vesha and Rillia. When Rillia turned to see why Melsil was not giving him a suspicious glance she found it was because he was staring at him with murderous rage. He immediately drew his sword and pointed it at Jason. Rillia was afraid the mushroom swordsman would kill her friend, preparing to fight Melsil if need be.

“What did you say?” he asked.

Despite how Melsil was threatening to attack Jason, the boy merely smiled at him from ear to ear. His chipper expression continued as Melsil extended the white blade to Jason’s throat. Vesha scurried forward in preparation to defend the young man.

“I said the pink fungus beasts that live here shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “They’re not very active after a fresh rain and would normally wait a day later after it’s less wet. They’re very good at lying dormant for long periods of time but the trade off is they don’t like water much. Kind of odd for a fungus.”

“Wha-what?” Rillia asked. “I didn’t know there even existed pink fungus...whatever.”

“That’s because my family has kept the existence of such creatures a secret,” he said. “Only the Duchil family and select members of the Red Fungus mob allowed near here can attest to them being real. So...how did a creature who claims to know nothing of Wassergras, a species of which I’ve never seen, know of them?!”

Jason shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Like me seeing you mushroom guys with those things on your head reminded me of sombreros, you mentioning the Tower Fungus caused me to remember someone warning me of pink fungus beasts. Also...is your brother’s name Kuseen?”

Melsil’s already enraged glare intensified.

“Are you allied with Kuseen?!” he said. “Are you a spy?!”

“Honestly,” Jason said. “I actually don’t know. I might be. But when you mentioned the Tower Fungus...it triggered a memory that I think I’d long forgotten about. Somebody told me to beware of the pink fungus when I got near the Duchil family’s headquarters...and...and…”

“And?!” the mushroom swordsman shouted.

“And I can’t remember anything else,” he said. “Hey, can we get some more of that huge insect I took down? That was delicious.”

“Melsil!” Rillia shouted.

He refused to look away from him.

“He doesn’t know anything!” she said. “Jason doesn’t even know his own name without it being written on his clothes! He saved me and even fought the Red Fungus for the fun of it! He can’t harm anybody! He...he doesn’t know anything about the conflict between them and us!”

“I might,” he said. “I just forgot it and maybe it’s all coming back to me.”

“Is that an admission of your guilt?!” Melsil asked.

“I don’t know,” Jason replied. “Maybe.”

“This isn’t funny!” Melsil said, inching the blade all the more closer to his neck. “I will not tolerate anyone who allies and fights with the Red Fungus! My family may have convinced half my species of their importance to restoring our race but not me! I stand against evil of any form!”

“Melsil!” Vesha cried. “Why would Jason tell you he’s a spy right before we were to get into the Duchil headquarters?! Do you really think he’d be so stupid as to do that?!”

“He’s an odd creature nonetheless!” the mushroom swordsman said. “I’ve never seen anything act like him before! He’s like a child with the strength of one of the Giants! In fact...there’s an odd resemblance...who are you?!”

“I’m me,” he said.

“What?” Melsil asked. “No...I mean...what is your allegiance?! To the Red Fungus?! The ants? Someone else…? Who do you work for? What do you even fight for?”

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t know.”

He looked down at the ground below him.

“I honestly don’t know why I do the things I do,” Jason said. “At first I was doing things for the fun of it. I fought for fun, I travelled for fun...I did everything for fun. I wanted nothing more than to take advantage of the blank canvas that was my life and jump into a life changing adventure.”

He then began laughing.

“But then I met you and you reminded me,” he said. “Of a burning passion to fight for good. I hate evil and wherever I see it...I want to stomp it out. I then began realizing that I didn’t know whether I wanted to fight the Red Fungus because it was the right thing to do or because it would give me enjoyment.”

Jason fell down to the ground on his back, staring up at the mushrooms above.

“To be blessed with not knowing anything about who my parents are or where I come from,” he said. “It’s paradise. I’m not bound by anything like you guys are. Vesha’s concerned only with helping the crawfish out and Melsil...you care so much about doing the right thing you believe that fulfilling your own desires is evil. You think if you take yourself off the path of altruism or whatever will mean you’re doing wrong. Me...I don’t have that distinction in my thinking. I don’t think of doing the right thing or going my own way. I just do, jumping head long into life to have the ultimate adventure. It’s something you guys don’t really seem to understand but if you would...it’d be a relief for you.”

The moment was tense between all four of them. Melsil held his sword above Jason’s face, the mushroom swordsman far more scared than the carefree boy was. Finally, he sheathed his sword after reducing its length. Melsil attempted to calm himself, trying to relax his body.

“So be it,” he said. “You’re right in that we don’t need to worry about the pink fungus beasts at the moment but...but I want you to walk in front of me.”

“What for?” Jason asked.

“So that I can shred you to pieces if you do anything out of the ordinary,” he said. “Make a movement to the right or a left, off the path to the Tower Fungus, ball your fist at me or even breathe wrong and I’ll-”

“No!” Vesha said. “No! That’s too far!”

“Melsil you’re getting paranoid!” Rillia said. “He...he didn’t know what he was saying! If he even twitches you’ll kill him and Jason wouldn’t want-”

“Fine,” he said.

He jumped up with a blank face and marched forward in front of Melsil. He walked straight forward where they had been heading, the three of them looking at him with a quaint expression. Rillia shook her head while Melsil appeared like he didn’t want to tense up anymore.

“Shall we continue?” he asked.

It took a day’s worth of walking before they neared the Tower Fungus, trudging through the rain soaked ground as they did. At first, they saw nothing as there was an open space in the mushroom forest they had been trekking through. Melsil stopped near the open space, glaring in the morning sunlight.

“This is it,” he said.

“What are you talking about?!” Rillia said. “There’s nothing here! It looks about the same as everywhere else!”

The mushroom swordsman gestured for a small pouch that was near the scabbard of his sword. He reached into it to produce a pile of black powder. Rillia tried to recognize it but was unable to, only finding it to be a collection of spores. When Melsil threw it into the air, the bundle of dark spores flew forward to sort of shine upon entering the clearing. Then something turned visible which they had been previously unable to see.

As far as the eye could see was cylindrical, white structure with white mushroom heads sprouting from the side. The pale object was riddled with doors and windows of all kinds and had various people walking along the huge mushroom heads. In front of them were two huge doors of yellow.

“Whaaaaa-?” was all Rillia could utter.

“Tower Fungi,” he said. “Specially grown for the purpose of the Red Fungi’s most important headquarters. This particular one is where the Duchil family live in absolute luxury and are served by numerous personal attendants. The Tower Fungi is invisible to anyone not already inside unless you throw some of the revealing spores at it.”

“But I’ve never heard of any of this!” Rillia said. “And I’m well aware of the majority of fungi that grow in Wassergras!”

“As am I,” Vesha said. “How-how did you keep this a secret?”

“I wanna climb it so bad,” Jason said.

“By seating it deep into the fungus people’s territory,” he said. “And by keeping the secret of the Tower Fungus species a secret as well as revealing spores. No one except those given explicit permission to enter them know of its existence. Now...shall we proceed?”

Melsil stepped forward and grabbed hold of the handles. With a mighty swing he opened each door wide. The four stepped into gaze at the interior.

Unlike the white exterior of the tower the interior was pitch black, the walls dark from end to end. However, it was a glossy, shimmery kind of black rather than an ugly, tar-like shade. The interior of the tower was also decorated with all sorts of extravagant furniture and features.

There were stairs whose steps were flat mushroom heads growing from the exterior of the wall, the mushroom heads black with white spots. The stairs led to yellow doors from which one could enter to enter large chambers, if the size of the doorframes was anything to go off of. Rillia could see plenty of fungus people climbing the stairs, the flat mushrooms a little springy as they entered and left the chambers.

The furniture inside was fungal in nature, not merely mushroom heads but hexagonal containers made from the same material that the tower consisted of. Inside the six-sided containers were small white spores that, once conglomerated in one place, formed a liquid-like semi-solid substance that could be bathed in. Many fungus people sat inside these baths of white spores, apparently relaxing before the four of them stormed in.

There was a stark difference between the servants and the Duchil family members was immediately perceived by the clothing worn by the fungus people inside. The servants wore brown, drab dresses covering them from the waist that looked soft and spongy, like a mushroom’s texture would be that Rillia vaguely remembered being associated with subservient workers in fungi culture. Those in the Duchil family wore a menagerie of different wearings that were very exotic and extravagant, another part of fungus culture to reflect a natural hierarchy.

Some wore black robes that weren’t so much worn as much as they were wrapped around their bodies very tightly and looked as if they were growing from them. These black robes were decorated with small, purple globes that looked like they had the consistency of jelly. Other clothes the Duchil family wore ranged from blue strips of stiff material that ran from their necks before tying around the rest of their bodies to scarlet mushroom heads that ran from their legs to the base of their chins.

And Rillia recognized something else. While the servants ranged from fungi of all kinds, from the yellow drape to a fungus people who had no mushroom head at all, none of the Duchil family members were anything but red, green or blue mushroom people. She was confused at first as to why before remembering that, like all sentient creatures in Wassergras, fungus people had gender and reproduced only with mates that would produce desired children.

The Duchil family would only want to breed the most powerful warriors possible to act as assassins. Rillia remembered. It’s why they’re by far the strongest family in the fungus clan in Wassergras. Selective breeding. And they would only breed with red, green and occasionally blue mushroom people...because they’re the physically strongest. Also...whoever is more closely related to the main head of the family, in this case Jushil, is strongest. It means whoever will be the hardest to take down will be Jushil’s children. Luckily, one of them is Melsil.

“What floor is Jushil on?” Vesha asked.

“The fifteenth,” Melsil stated as he gripped his sword.

“Fifteenth?!” Rillia said as she turned to him. “Just how many floors are there?!”

“Thirty seven,” he said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“I don’t mind!” Jason said. “I’ll take down Kuseen and Juchil if they show up…”

While the sword-bearing mushroom people drew their blades upon the four new enemies, they weren’t slow either. Some wore the drab brown cloaks to make her recognize them as servants, others had the more decorative clothes to signify they were Duchil family members. Just as mushroom swordsmen flung their black venom swords at them by extending their blades forward, Rillia had already constructed a barrier of dried venom in front of them. She secreted six channels of green liquid forward before willing them to solidify. The domed wall of blackish red protected them from the blades but only barely.

The force exerted by the fungus people and the keenness of the weapons was almost enough to pierce through, the very tips of blades protruding through the construction of venom. As a result of being slashed through it quickly fell apart to reveal to Rillia everyone in the room had either fled or was facing them down. Rillia looked around to find more than two dozen fungus swordsmen staring her down.

They’re strong enough to almost break through my best possible defense. Rillia thought. The Six Armament Wall is known to resist boulders thrown its way. Masters of the black venom sword were always said to rival the versatility of the Venom Drench martial art but I never thought our best maneuvers could be like a parchment wall to them.

Luckily, the wall provided enough cover for her comrades to get the jump on their enemy. Just as Rillia turned the black, dried venom extending from her limbs back into liquid to reform them again, Vesha jumped out from the right side of the remains of her wall while Melsil and Jason to the left of solidified venom. Vesha lunged at two mushroom swordsmen that were nearest to Rillia’s barrier, slicing them in half with one pincer each. Their thin bodies slammed against the floor, leaking green fluid after that slathered the crawfish’s claws.

After defeating them, Vesha pushed against the white floor of the tower, her backside firmly pressed to the fins at the end of her body. Just as another mushroom swordsman rushed at her, she launched herself forward from the spring-like tension created by her tail. Her high speed tackle hit the red fungus head on, smashing his body to pieces as the crawfish’s naturally hard shelled body collided with the far weaker mushroom’s.

Rillia saw a mushroom swordsman sneak up behind the crawfish to slash at her from behind before the ant dried the green venom flowing from her right arm into a solid black claw. The claw extended at the mushroom swordsman to shred his face apart. She felt disgust as the remains of his head oozed to the floor, trying not to vomit. While Rillia hated gore there was little she could do as there was no avoiding killing in such a dire situation. The ant raced towards Vesha to cover her as many swordsmen were attacking her from her blindspot.

The ant extended more green liquid from each of her limbs to solidify them into claws. With two of her newly made claws, she slashed to pieces a duo of fungus warriors that had gotten dangerous close to Vesha. Rillia attempted to use two of her other claws to slash another couple of fungus people apart only for those same swordsmen to extend their blades at her venom constructs and slice the dried secretion apart.

When the venom constructs no longer connected to Rillia fell to the floor, the ant withdrawing the remainder of her venom channels back into her body in liquid form. At the most basic levels of the Venom Drench martial art, an ant was taught to conserve as much venom as possible. Liquid venom was more dangerous as it was a very powerful acid but less practical as one would run out in prolonged battles and the Venom Drench’s style of turning that liquid solid was meant to allow one to fight without exhausting that supply. The mushroom swordsman's proficiency with their swords was a direct counter to that as the fungus people could slice any solid venom to prevent Rillia from controlling it.

Luckily, she didn’t have to worry about her own fighting abilities to get herself and her comrades through it. If it had been just Rillia and Vesha fighting more than two dozen veteran fungus warriors, they would have been easily defeated but that wasn’t the case. By the time the ant and the crawfish had killed a few enemies, Melsil and Jason had utterly decimated their enemies. It was almost heinous the level of carnage they racked up.

The mushroom swordsman was so fleet-footed he didn’t even need to use his own sword to parry the others’. He stepped to the side of a red fungi’s black sword for the blade to crash into the floor beside him. In a matter of seconds, Melsil had raced down the sword’s extended length and was close enough to the other fungus people to whisper into his ear, a dozen others with him. With a single draw of his white blade, Melsil cut through not only the red mushroom person but six other fungus men. The midsection of the seven bodies dropped to the floor before green fluid pooled around his feet.

The other red and green mushroom swordsman he hadn’t slashed in half with a single swipe of his blade extended their swords at him. Five black venom swords in total attacked him from different directions just as he was turning around. Rillia looked on, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to respond in time. Her fears were not only put to rest but horribly confirmed wrong as Melsil deflected each slash of the sword with his own white blade, the near half dozen swords brushed off without so much as an appearance of effort on his part.

Rillia couldn’t believe her eyes, the black venom swords cutting through the air it was almost like the blades were soaring. It wasn’t just hard to keep track of that kind of movement but to so easily outmatch that speed was beyond impressive. It seemed impossible. After the enemy mushroom swordsmens’ offensive strikes were prevented from hitting Melsil they didn’t have any time to attack to protect themselves with defensive parries as Melsil slashed them all in half after extending the white blade at them. In under a minute everyone of his targets was dead.

The sons of the Duchil main family branch are taught from their first age of birth how to fight and instructed throughout most of the day how to use a sword. The ant remembered from her studies. Through both selective breeding and impressive training they become almost supernaturally gifted to fight. They can take on dozens of other warriors without breaking a sweat.

Jason was just as frighteningly powerful. While he didn’t have any of the grace or finesse of Melsil’s honed sword play, his raw power crushed every mushroom swordsman in his way. When they extended their swords at him he merely knocked them out of the enemy soldier’s hands or broke them in half. Not only was the youth strong, but he was faster than they were.

With their only weapon taken from them, Jason lunged at the helpless mushroom people to smash the midsection of their bodies to pieces with a single strike of his fist. The fluid leaking from the mushroom head he used as a hat had long since dried, now sticking to the top of his hair so that it didn’t fall off. After most of the swordsmen were killed, the remaining two fled before Jason quickly grabbed them up and squashed their heads by squeezing with his hands.

After killing the warriors of the Red Fungus, the remaining fungus people fled in chaos. The either ran out the door the four of them had entered through or fled up the stairs, screaming the whole way. Rillia couldn’t blame them as if the Red Mountain had been invaded in the same way she would flee for her life as well.

“Where to now?” Jason asked.

“Up the stairs,” Melsil said. “Follow me.”

He pointed to a set of mushroom stairs to their left before racing toward it. The other three followed him as he climbed the stairs with downright unnatural speed. After the non-combatant fungus people had safely fled the four of them raced further and further up the stairs.

They occasionally met a fungus swordsman trying to stop them by appearing out the door to the side of a mushroom step but any they met were quickly dispatched by Melsil. Their bodies were stabbed through by his white sword before falling all the way down. Once they arrived a specific yellow door Melsil stopped and threw it open. The four of them gathered around to look inside to find it so pitch black that there was nothing they could see.

“What on-?!” Rillia said.

“Jump,” he said.

“Wha-?!” the ant said.

She and Jason were immediately grabbed by the mushroom swordsman and thrown in. Vesha hopped in after them and that all went dark for Rillia before she felt herself jettison upward. The speed she was travelling at was so intense that the ant didn’t even she was surrounded by thick liquid that covered her body. She felt like she was standing in jelly while her eyes were shut tight.

Just as Rillia felt she was getting motion sickness she felt she saw the light of an open doorway appear in front of her. She was then spat out by thick darkness as if the contraption she had appeared inside was a Giant’s mouth and it found them tasteless. They slid onto the floor the doorway led into, all four of them besides Melsil landing on his feet. The crawfish, the ant, and Jason stood upon, surprisingly not covered in any of the thick, black liquid to find themselves in a spacious room.

It was nothing like the rooms below as there were no spore baths and no mushroom stairs. All the fungus were hanging tentacles that spiralled across the surface of the walls to form intricate shapes and designs. The tentacles were white with black spots to form stars, spirals and other appendages decorating the interior. Falling from the ceiling were white spores that, upon touching Rillia’s skin, felt somewhat pleasurable. It was as though she was tasting honey each time it hit her. In front of them was a large black door.

“Sorry,” Melsil said. “That was-”

“A tower jet,” Jason said. “It’s how you get to each floor in this building as each door leads to a particular jet that sends you to only a specific floor in this place.”

“Um…” Melsil said. “Yes...how-”

“I’ve been here before,” Jason said. “Not just this tower but this very room. With...with someone...”

The mushroom swordsman shook his head.

“Sorry for the rude intrusion,” the fungus person said. “But I didn’t want to waste time explaining it to you.”

“Is this the fifteenth floor?” Vesha asked. “Where Kuseen and Juchil are?”

“Yep,” he said. “And my father, Juchil, should be in there as he conducts his day meetings with my brother and his top advisors most of the time. Kuseen...is both a soldier in the Red Fungus and a top ranking member. I don’t know how you know but...since the White Spore trusts you, I do as well.”

Rillia breathed in heavily, preparing herself. There was little she could do to survive against a member of the main family branch of Duchil. She’d have to rely on Melsil and Jason for that as she doubted even Vesha could take them on. As much as she didn’t want to get hurt, Rillia worried for her companions’ safety. The mushroom swordsman stepped forward and opened the doors to reveal another large room exactly like the outer chamber except with men sitting on mushroom heads that grew from the floor.

The fungus people inside were very surprised at the appearance. There were eight fungi people inside. Some were mushroom people and some yellow drapes, all wearing the black robes with purple globules save for one. Rillia recognized who the father and brother of Melsil were, his father wearing a simple red robe that partially covered his body.

Juchil was a green mushroom man whose skin wasn’t lime green like most of the rest of his kind but instead a sickly olive color. His exterior was wrinkled and the spots that would have been black on anyone else were gray for him. These were all the signs of a fungus person who was very old. However, his yellow eyes were just as intimidating as Melsil’s. They radiated power and authority that Rillia couldn’t fully express. It was as though she were a soldier and he was unquestionably her commander, no doubt following his orders. But his son was even scarier.

Kuseen had red skin and mushroom head were scarlet. His blue spots were bright blue, like the color of the sky on a clear day. His yellow eyes radiated not only power but evil. Rillia felt the need to step away as he looked on at her, desperate to no longer be the center of his attention. She breathed a sigh of relief when he averted his gaze to Melsil. There was a black venom sword at his side that he grabbed the hilt of upon seeing Melsil.

But what was strangest of all was the one creature who was not a fungus person. He sat outside the circle of Red Fungus members, wearing blue pants and a matching shirt. He was not like anyone from Wassergras. His flesh was soft and pale and his hair black, his teal eyes and red lips in stark contrast to anything Rillia had seen save for Jason. He looked so close in age and appearance that it was almost as one was an older clone that was taller and had longer hair. He was the only to stand up at the sight of them and stared squarely at the person he looked the most like.

“Bro-?!” he gasped. “Brother?!”

And that was what set off a disturbing silence that fell over them all. The fungus people, Rillia and her friends...all were looking at them alone. Rillia thought that Jason would have an instant reaction to this, his goofy grin and expression being the only thing the similar looking creature would see.

But when the ant turned to him, she saw a rather disturbed appearance befall him. His face darkened with mild recognition of the other creature. His body began to shake anticipation and fear, something Rillia had never seen him overcome with. His fighting stance of raised arms and knees positioned as if ready to launch himself at his opponent was gone. Jason’s entire stature went limp as he stood normally and perfectly still. He merely stared on at the person who called himself his brother, his face quizzical as though trying to decipher a puzzle. As Jason examined himself, the other person stood up and stepped forward.

“It-” he said. “I’ve been searching everywhere for you. No one in this world could locate you...and now here you are. Where have you been?!”

Rillia, Melsil and Vesha turned to Jason to look on at him as he the boy’s look became blank before a look of true recognition overcame him. That’s when panic struck him. He stumbled backward then forward, trying to muffle a scream as he lost his footing. Rillia gestured to catch him but Jason did so as he grabbed at his dark hair and began pulling at it. He squinted hard as a short yell could be heard from his mouth, as he started breathing in harder and harder to compensate.

“Jason!” Rillia shouted.

“He’s hyperventilating!” Vesha said. “Jason...try to calm-!”

“Garret!” he cried.

He then looked back at his brother with a more stable expression, his brother smiling and nodding.

“Yes…” the other man said. “Yes…! You got it...Garret Treborn…”

He stepped forward, holding his hand out.

“Come back to me…” Garret said. “You...you seem to have suffered some grave injury...forgetting who you were...I’m here now-”

Jason immediately slapped his hands together at the approaching man. The force he exerted created a shockwave in the air directed at Garret that struck him hard in the chest, the entire room shaking as a result. As he fell to the floor, the brother of Melsil stood up and drew his sword.

While Garret stood back up, just as Kuseen’s blade extended forward to strike at Jason, Melsil had already drawn the White Spore sword and extended it forward. When the black venom of Kuseen’s sword was stopped in motion by his brother’s weapon, the two blades intersected in the air. The two siblings of the mushroom swordsmen remained just as locked as their blades.

As their swords intersected a certain reaction rippled around the objects. The black poison of Kuseen’s blade seemed as though it were trying to infect the White Spore, blackening it slightly before the rival sword tried to purify it. What the White Spore did to poison, turning it into nutrient-creating fungi, then happened with the poison touching the white blade. The white sword would then try to purify the black venom sword, whiteness spreading over the edge of the blood before that white turned black again. It was as though the two swords were living beings trying to invade, conquer and convert the other but cancelling the other weapon out in the process.

“It’s been too long,” Melsil said. “Brother.”

“I’ve been waiting for the day I could kill you,” Kuseen replied. “What made you turn traitor to our way of life I’ve never been able to understand. To abandon your family is beyond stupid...it’s the highest evil one can commit.”

“Shows just how narrow minded you’ve remained,” Melsil commented.

“Every time my men caught sight of you I rushed to find you so I could destroy the highest dishonor of our family’s legacy,” his brother said. “But I never could arrive in time to slay you. Tell me, what brought you out of your cowardice this time?”

“Oh I was never afraid of you, Kuseen,” his sibling replied. “I was merely too busy trying to keep the red mushrooms your soldiers planted from ruining all of Wassergras. That and other things...but I always intended to kill you. It just so happens now that this is the appropriate time the White Spore has told me to do so.”

“Silly Melsil,” Kuseen chided. “Only a raving lunatic believes that a sword of all things can talk to him. You see, I use my sword for my own purposes while you are used by your weapon. Topsy turvy, one might say.”

The other members of the Red Fungus besides Juchil began standing up, wishing to flee.

“Juchil!” the yellow drape fungus man said. “We need to escape!”

“You may go,” the head of the Red Fungus stated. “But I will stay here. If my treacherous son defeats Kuseen, the Red Fungus will die. But if Kuseen dies then the Red Fungus will live. That’s as simple as it gets. Leave if you wish.”

The other fungus people then fled to the side where another yellow door was. They opened it as they attempted to flee inside. Jason was the first to attempt to stop them. Rillia secret venom from two of her arms to form two channels moving fluid before hardening it into black claws. However, Garret shattered these venom constructs with a clap of his hands at them, the air reverberation able to break them as well as leave cracks in the ceiling and floor.

Just as Jason ran toward the fleeing criminals, only for his entire face to be caught by Garret’s palm. Garret, who was the closest to his brother, squeezed as his brother struggled in his grasp. As Jason was lifted into the air the criminals of the Red Fungus escaped into the tower jet to be swept below.

“What happened to you, Jason?” his brother asked. “You-you’re working with these animals right now instead of us?!”

“I don’t…!” the youth shouted as he was held in his brother’s grasp. “I don’t care who you are! I...I’m a good guy! And we don’t…!”

“Good guy?!” he said.

Garret then leered at Rillia, his expression becoming downright murderous with rage. The ant recognized this kind of rage. As someone who had studied behavior of intelligent creatures, this kind of anger was one that went beyond survival. It was born out of pure sorrow and fear of losing something more than just one’s life. Garret was about to lose complete control of his emotions.

“Did you monsters brainwash my brother?!” he shouted. “Is that true?! Is he gone for good?! Then this endeavor...I can never forgive myself!”

With strength that could only be described as titanic in nature, Garret slammed his brother’s head into the floor with all his strength. The force didn’t just leave a shockwave that everyone in the room could feel. It completely shattered not only the floor but surrounding walls and ceiling. Rillia didn’t even have time to let out a scream as the white ground beneath her disappeared before she fell below, along with everyone around her, the white ceiling above becoming further and further away as she plummeted below.