“I told you not to leave the group!”

The soldier spoke in his grating voice. He was in a terrible mood with how this simple crossing of the dungeon turned out. An assassin got away under his watch, and he was caught in illusions. Now he could vent at least a little bit.

No answer came from Tepo. The warrior wished to do a lot of things to the soldier, but he was helpless.

A strange energy spread from the handcuffs, somehow suppressing Tepo’s strength. It eventually reached for his chest. Like a vicious invader it blocked his spells, working its way towards the Core of Time.

The core noticed the foreign invader. It pulsed in indignation as the energy invaded its space. A mysterious pressure spread, effortlessly pushing the energy back. The Core of Time kept its sovereignty!

But Tepo didn’t have time to care for his core. Angry thoughts raced through his mind.

I’m too weak… too weak!

Even more frustration welled up in Tepo. Especially as the soldier began shoving him back towards the group. With every push Tepo threatened to stumble over the foliage. It took a lot of concentration not to fall.

After a short while Tepo saw the group again. Fright and shock lingered on the warriors’ faces. Even Seven Strikes put on a convincing act of being unsettled by the illusions.

Suddenly a voice interrupted the silence:

“Tepo? Hey, what are you guys do…?!”

Yerive’s eyes were wide open as he locked at the state his friend was in. But Tepo calmly shook his head. As he passed by Yerive, he mumbled quietly.

“When we reach the city stay close to the soldiers. Don’t worry about…!”

“Hey! Shut up!”

Another palm hit Tepo’s back. The young man groaned as he rolled on the floor.

“Aren’t you too rough, Sill? We were all affected by the illusions, so calm down.”

The male solder only scoffed as his female colleague berated him. The soft-spoken woman reached out her hand and helped Tepo up.

“Thank you.”

The other warriors watched the scene in silence. No one dared to meddle in the alliance’s business. Only among the team Seven Strikes did some show an oddly concerned expression. A vicious glint even shot through Lendias’ eyes.

Finally, the group could continue towards the Nurturing Stones World. The male soldier led the way as Tepo kept close to the female soldier, his head lowered.

The group still had to walk for about an hour. Everyone was unsettled, reacting to the smallest of sounds. The warriors were eager to get out of the cursed dungeon as soon as possible.

After leaving the red forest and taking a winding path along an expansive plain with floating islands ominously hanging above their heads, a portal finally appeared in the warriors’ view.

Relieved sighs spread among the crowd. One by one they left this cursed dungeon. The soldiers waited until everyone had stepped into the portal before shoving Tepo forward and leaving themselves. Until the end the assassin wasn’t seen again.

The world immediately changed for Tepo. He found himself on a large platform. Next to him was a massive golden bridge. But apart from the color, this one didn’t have much in common with the bridge in Sky Demon City.

Here, the bridge was lying horizontal, allowing anyone to move above it without the help of elevators. It was made from a smooth golden stone, illuminated by warm, orange lanterns made from a thin paper-like material.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Unfortunately, Tepo wasn’t granted much time to observe the new world. He was immediately pushed forward as the moody soldier stepped out of the portal.

Tepo drew a sharp breath as he stepped on the golden bridge. He gritted his teeth as he would’ve almost stumbled off the platform, sending him on a long way to the ground.

“Ok everyone, just get out of my sight! I won’t see you off!”

As the soldier’s sharp voice sounded out, the group reacted as if pardoned. Everyone scurried off hastily. Only team Seven Strikes left in leisure.

“What are you still doing here?”, asked the annoyed soldier Yerive, who stayed behind with an uncertain face.

Only as Tepo calmly nodded his best friend leave reluctantly.

The female soldier looked at Yerive’s back for a moment before turning towards Tepo.

“Don’t worry too much. This will be a simple formality. Let’s go.”

Subsequently the soldiers crossed the bridge with Tepo. The latter looked in awe at the enormous spire before his eyes. It connected the ground, or underworld, with the thick layer of rocks shrouding the sky, the overworld.

The entire Hub City was built in this spire with paths surrounding it in rings and the buildings dug into the solid stone. All kinds of colorful plants grew from the special stone in this world, some of them growing for hundreds of meters along the spire, various frames preventing them from filling up the paths.

The light in this world was dim as the only illumination came from massive holes in the overworld. Therefore, the entire city was illuminated by a plethora of lanterns, shrouding the city in a warm light.

But despite the beautiful atmosphere, Tepo’s mood was bad as a huge crowd observed him being shoved into the local soldier’s office.

He was brought towards the back and locked into a room without windows. An obvious energy barrier shrouded the solid wooden walls. With no furniture Tepo was forced to sit on the cold stone floor.

“Someone will come to question you soon.”

With those words the female soldier closed the heavy metallic door, leaving Tepo alone in the room. Only a weak illuminating stone inlaid in the ceiling kept him company.

The young man took a deep breath, wondering how he ended up in this situation. But he kept a calm mind. He was confident that he wasn’t in danger.

Minutes passed while Tepo sunk into meditation.

Finally, the room’s door opened again. A strange man came in. His back was unhealthily bent, his face radiating disinterest. He didn’t wear the armor of soldiers, but Tepo could still tell that he had to be a warrior.

The man took a few steps, stopping before Tepo. He pulled his unkempt, shoulder long, black hair out of his face as he looked down on the prisoner.

His expression calm, Tepo tilted his head slightly.

“Ok, let’s make it quick.”, spoke the alliance member with a sigh.

“Name?”

“Tepo.”

“Why did you leave the group?”

“I don’t know, I was caught in illusions.”

“Good. You can go.”

Suddenly Tepo’s mouth opened as he stared at the man.

“That’s it?”

“Of course, or do you want to live here?”

The man shook his head. The entire situation already brought him a lot of troubles. An assassin had appeared in the dungeon and the alliance was investigating frantically.

He wasn’t in the mood to deal with a weak warrior which only ended up here because a soldier needed to vent.

“But what if I did see something while separating from the group?”

“Do you think I’m here to entertain you? If you have something to say, say it!”

Tepo was almost surprised by the man’s direct attitude. His eye twitched faintly as he spoke in an annoyed voice:

“Can you undo those handcuffs? I need to access my storage bag.”

“Whatever.”

The man reached out with a nonchalant face and opened Tepo’s bindings.

This easy? Either that man is immensely stupid or immensely confident…

Some suspicion in his mind Tepo connected to his storage bag and took out a few bottles.

“Here, this is water from the lake around the mother tree. I saw the team Seven Strikes mix something into it. It was a potion created by a ruw on the spot.

The potion is still there, you can send someone to investigate.”

Finally, the man showed some interest. He took the bottles off Tepo, opened one and took a sniff.

“We will investigate it. Now leave.”

“Aren’t you giving me some reward or something?”

“Leave. Or I will ask why you lied in your first answer!”

Tepo furrowed his brow. He realized that there was nothing to get from this conversation. He stood up and walked away while rubbing his wrists. Quickly he arrived outside the soldiers’ office.

“Tepo!”

The young man didn’t even have the time to take a breath before Yerive’s concerned voice already reached his ears. He smiled as his best friend separated from the crowd and arrived before him.

“Are you alright? Did they do anything? Are you in trouble?”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Thanks.”

“I’m relieved! I was so worried when I saw them put you in handcuffs!”

Tepo felt touched by Yerive’s genuine feelings. He eyed the soldiers lingering outside their office before pulling Yerive into the crowd.

“Let’s talk somewhere more isolated.”

A few minutes later the young men had booked a room in an inn again. The nice view out the large window could only uplift Tepo a little after he wasn’t able to pay in materials and had to use some of the few force crystals he had remaining.

Yerive however watched the busy city in awe as his bare feet felt the comfortable beast fur covering the floor.

“We finally made it to another world, Tepo! Look at this scenery! Such a strange sight. It’s a pity that we aren’t staying longer.”