"Alright. What do you want to say?"

Myria says "You can't keep running off alone! You need to let us protect you!"

"Protect me? You can't even protect yourself! In fact, I am more likely to get hurt if I bring you along because I will have to protect you!"

Myria says "I am not weak! You wouldn't have to protect me!"

"Fine, then hit me. If you can hit me once I will take you with me."

Myria thinks for a second and then takes a swing at me, but I easily dodge. She swings again and again but to me it is like she is moving in slow motion. She keeps swinging until she collapses to the ground, completely exhausted.

Not once in over a hundred attacks did she even come close to hitting me. What's worse, during her attacks she was full of openings, I could have taken her out anytime. I feel a little bad for bullying her this way, but I couldn't think of any other way to get through to her.

Myria says "I give up! Go, do whatever you want!"

"You are stronger than you used to be, but that is all. You have a lot of potential, especially in speed, but you have to develop it. It is going to take hard work and dedication. Not running around trying to follow me on adventures!"

Myria says "And you expect me to just sit and exercise while you rush towards danger?"

"If you don't want to be sitting on the side watching the war, yes."

That shuts Myria up completely and I leave her to think things through as I head to bed. In the morning to thank the lizards for the feast I provide breakfast out of my pouch. When Myria shows up to get some there are dark circles under her eyes and it looks like she hasn't slept.

She doesn't say anything to me, she just gets some breakfast and walks away. It looks like she spent the entire night thinking about things, hopefully that is a good sign. Whatever comes of it, at least I can go investigate the gate on my own.

After breakfast the lizard tribe starts packing their things, getting ready to leave. At the same time we pack up the carriage and get everything ready to go. Once everything is ready I call Seleene over and pull out the map of the beast lands.

"Where is the monkey tribe located?"

Seleene says "It is in this area."

"That is south of the mountain. Alright, the plan is going to be for us to meet up at the base of the mountain. Here looks good, head there and set up camp. Once there, Kechara can fly up to check with Core. I will join you as soon as I can."

Seleene says "Understood."

"Lizzy, you are in charge until I catch up."

Lizzy says "Me? Not Myria?"

"Yes, you. Myria has a lot to think about right now."

Lizzy says "What did you do to her now?"

"If Myria wants to talk about it, that is her decision to make."

After that no one asks me any more questions, we just say our goodbyes and part ways. Maybe some time away from me will help Myria sort things out and make a decision. I will have to wait and see, for now I have to travel through the desert again.

It is still early so I take off and start flying towards the tower before the heat gets too bad. I am expecting the sand to have covered the temple by now, but I plan to go in through the tower. Since the top of the tower is never covered I am not too worried about it.

Reaching the tower takes me until a few hours after lunch, as expected it is mostly covered. Once I land I use my claws to carve a circle into the tower then I trace over it again. After a couple of times a large circle of the marble the tower is made of falls out onto the sand.

The hole is just big enough for me to squeeze through and once inside I easily climb down the tower. Then it is just a short drop, for me, down to the floor next to the altar. I sit down next to the gate with my hand on it and enter into meditation.

Then I pour my mana into the gate and continue putting mana in as fast as I can gather it. I have no idea how long this is going to take but I am willing to keep at it as long as necessary. I imagine a gate like this will probably take several thousand mana to activate.

Luckily, once I get used to gathering and channeling the mana I can think about other things while doing it. However, I keep thinking about Myria and whether or not I made a mistake. Pushing her is necessary but if I push her too hard it will have the opposite effect.

However, I have no way to know until I meet up with the group again. Yet even knowing that I can't stop my mind from playing all the worst case scenarios on repeat. So to stop myself from thinking about Myria I start playing around with the soulscape.

It has been a while since I have had a chance to play around with it, mainly because I got distracted. I kind of forgot that I was supposed to be trying to level up the skill like the dragon told me to. Even creating the list in my meditation room hasn't kept me from forgetting things.

It is because I get too focused on what is happening at any given point in time. What I need to do is learn to relax and think about things once in a while. The problem with that is I always feel that I have so little time and can't afford to waste it.

That is my own fault, I have put myself under pressure to be ready by the time the demons invade. Because of that, things are only going to get worse as time passes. Becoming the beast king seems like the only way, but I do not feel qualified to be the king.

The only possible way for me to succeed as a king is to depend on other people to run the kingdom. The problem with that is that the more people I give power to the more chance of someone betraying me. Even if I don't get betrayed, the chances of people misusing their power will be high.

Especially if I use the clan chiefs, while they might not betray me, they might use the power I give them against each other. The last thing I want for my kingdom is a court full of politics and backstabbing. The problem is, I can't think of a way to avoid using the clan chiefs in the government.

There is no way that just Sarah and Pol can run an entire kingdom for me. Again my mind gets stuck in a downward spiral despite me being in the soulscape. I try my best to only think about the gate and where it may lead, or a way to get more information.

While trying to think of anything I can do, a lot of strange thoughts pass through my mind. If I could talk to Core then maybe she would be able to provide some information. Then again, there is another elf I could try talking to, if inviting her works.

(In elven) "Lynara, I invite you to my soulscape!"