“What does it mean to conquer the Tower of Solon, Selene?” Jerome asked.

“I don’t know, Jerome,” Selene answered. Her voice was weak from overuse. She had taken off her leather armor because of the heat. The heat was so damn terrible.

Jerome had a feeling that conquering the tower was not as easy as getting to the tower. They’ve been following a trail that should lead to the damn tower for heavens know how long now. They even found Darryn—or what’s left of him. His corpse had been shredded to pieces by predators. They were only able to identify him because of a severed leg. Darryn had lost a chunk of muscle to a magical beast in the frozen earth, North of Vorthe. If they didn’t find a way out of this illusion, they’ll end up like Darryn too. The problem was…

“The tower is right ahead of us but for some reason, we can’t reach it,” Jerome said looking into the distance, “Even though there’s no sun I feel like I’m burning up, and everyone’s thirsty, which shouldn’t even be possible.”

“What’s your point, Jerome?” Trudhorn said as he sat up with great effort. He was sweating profusely and seemed to have lost a significant amount of his strength.

The team was resting by a pool of water that they had tried to drink from. When they put their hands in to bring up water, it felt like sand. Someone tried wading into the water, but it felt coarse and grainy like sand. He almost sunk had Jerome not gotten him out quickly.

“How does water feel like sand? Clearly, all this is an illusion,” Jerome said. “A very elaborate illusion. But that’s not even the worst of it. This place is siphoning essence out of our bodies.”

“We’ve checked, Jerome. There is no illusion. No matter how elaborate an illusion is, there’ll always be something to tell it apart from reality,” Selene said weakly. “We brought tools for that. Tools crafted by Elder Fesir Vorthe, a Grandmaster in Artifact Refining.”

And those tools weren’t working. As though everything around them was real. They all knew it wasn’t real but they had no way to disprove the reality of what they were seeing.

Jerome looked at the artifact lying on the ground as if neglected. It was small and cylindrical, glowing in tiny compartments like windows on its walls in a golden glow. The glow was supposed to change to red when there was an illusion that had dangerous levels of dream aura, and green when they found the core of the illusion. It was supposed to be able to guide them by lighting up certain compartments to indicate a direction, but all the compartments were lit.

So much for having a top-grade artifact for finding your way out of an illusion. They’d have to come up with their own way out.

“Perhaps Terra Praetans are a lot more advanced in illusion-making,” Jerome pointed out. His own compass was also not working as well. The damn pointer kept turning around and around uselessly.

“And even if all this isn’t an illusion, it doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re all growing weaker. Something here is consuming our strength,” Jerome said. “How do you intend to stop that?”

Selene had no answer to that. Her plan was to keep moving forward and hope to somehow reach the tower, just as her books say. Jerome understood that, but his argument was to go a different route. To not walk in the direction of the tower they ‘saw’. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find his way back to their point of entry into the illusion.

“‘Were’ is the right word, Jerome, ‘Terra Praetans were…’ the whole race is extinct now,” Trudhorn said, lying down again.

“Then this possibly was their handiwork, and it’s still just as powerful as it was eons ago I presume. We should try my suggestion,” Jerome said. “I’ll walk up front and face any danger the team encounters from the front.”

Jerome’s gaze stayed on Selene. This was her team and it was her decision whether to entrust the lives of her teammates into his hands or not. Selene was mature enough to do the right thing. He hoped she would see the wisdom in his suggestion.

“What if we end up going deeper into danger this way?” she asked.

“Oh, I suspect it’ll be dangerous. That’ll mean this…” he gestured at the forest, “...doesn’t want us to leave, which means we’re on the right track.”

He had a solid argument. One that was hard to refute. Selene closed her eyes in thought for a long time and Jerome felt like he could almost hear the gears turning in her head.

“Very well. We’ll do as you say, Jerome,” she said at last. “Gather around everyone!”

The Sprouts who were resting some distance away stood up lazily and walked up to their team leader. Many of them had taken off their leather armor because of the heat yet this didn’t bring them any measure of comfort.

Jerome kept his armor on. He felt at home in the heat and was still the one with the most energy among them. The problem was the essence in the air here was a trickle compared to where they came from. Jerome couldn’t help but ask himself how he didn’t notice when the essence in the air became so thin.

“We’ve come to a conclusion concerning what to do next,” Selene began. She didn’t even bother standing up to address them and many of them just hit the floor the moment they were close enough.

“Jerome suggests we travel in another direction, not in the direction of the tower.”

“I did suggest that before, didn’t I?” Nia muttered, but no one was listening.

Jerome turned to her though and smiled, “You suggested we skirt around the tower—which seems to be impossible as it stands.”

“Ahem,” Selene glared at them both for interrupting her. “This is just one option and we might end up encountering danger along the way—which is weird since there has been no activity from the Children since we walked unto this path.”

Selene exchanged a knowing look with Jerome as everything seemed to fall into place. This path was devouring their strength so the Children just needed to wait for them to become too weak to move, then they come in and enjoy dinner served on a platter.

“If anyone has another option, I’m all ears. If not we follow Jerome’s suggestion,” She concluded.

Everybody grumbled their affirmation and they started putting on their armor, getting ready to set out. At this point, any suggestion was the right suggestion, as long as it could get them out of this blistering hell hole.

~~~

The heat wave seemed to intensify as they changed direction. The team kept quiet as they walked in a straight line with Jerome leading the way. They could hear each other’s breathing as they struggled to get air into their lungs. Dehydration had long set in and most were just shuffling along.

The terrain soon changed, becoming thorny with vines that got in the way. This was not a problem though as Jerome easily extended Suzie and cleared a part for them. But the vines seem to have a life of their own.

“A path well traveled; that seems to make more sense now,” Jerome said.

“What do you mean?” Selene asked from behind him.

“You could call it a play with words if you like,” Jerome responded. “The path we’re taking now seems not to have been taken by anyone.”

“But the previous path must have been taken by a lot of people before us,” Trudhorn said, joining the conversation.

“So, it must be a kind of warning then…not to take the most obvious path,” Selene concluded.

With loud lashing sounds, Suzie cut through the vines in their path. Jerome was sparing no effort in making sure they left this illusion. But if he continued like this for too long it’ll tire him out and he knew it. This was a bet though. He had a lot of stamina. Whether he’ll tire out before the vines or they’ll walk out of the illusion before his strength runs out was not yet known.

“Is it just me, or are the vines moving?” Ajax said, drawing his sword.

“You’re not seeing things, Ajax,” Selene said. She already had two swords in her hands. “The vines are moving!”

Jerome increased his pace and everyone sped up behind him. The scene in front of him was like something straight out of a horror movie. The vines had changed color as they went deeper into the forest; from a vibrant green to a sickly green color. The vines were pushing their way out of the soil in a slow, eerie manner, surrounding them on all sides.

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Although every one of them was exhausted, their will to fight for survival hadn’t been dampened. Everyone behind Jerome took out dark-blue crystals the size of a baby’s fist from their spatial rings. The Sprouts began cycling and absorbing essence from these crystals to replenish themselves. All this happened without Jerome’s knowledge as he was concentrating on the vines in front of him.

They got ready to fight whatever it was this forest wanted to throw at them. The movement of the vines increased slowly, as though flowers were blooming slowly across a valley but these weren’t flowers. They were large vines with sharp thorns sticking out of them in multiple places.

The tension in the air increased as the twisting vines rose up like a wall on all sides forcing Jerome and the team to stop their advance. The wall gave off an unsettling pressure, reaching several feet in height as the tangled vines slithered in and out of each other like serpents.

Jerome clenched his jaw as he felt his heartbeat accelerate, fear threatened to take over but he tamped down on it. He scanned the Sprouts as they formed a circle, backing each other, and could sense their terror. He could make it out of here alive. With his metal armor protecting him, nothing could harm him. But what about these Sprouts he had come to regard as friends? If they died while he was here, he wouldn’t be able to face himself.

Jerome remembered his family from the orphanage once again. He remembered how he was unable to save them from Hedon’s wrath and the blood in his veins quickened. The beast stirred but Jerome willed it beneath the surface of his own anger. His rage fueled him as he clenched his fist and lit up a flame that covered his entire fist.

Jerome’s flame bathed the world around them in blue light. He opened his hand the flame shrunk to the palm of his hand and seemed to pulse with a life of its own, its edges white and dangerously beautiful.

The vines attacked…

~~~

Selene had never seen anything like the thorny wall of vines surrounding her and her team. Things were not looking good and fortune seemed not to be on their side. They still had an abundance of essence crystals to absorb essence from, but that wouldn’t guarantee their escaping out of this place. She hoped and prayed in her heart that Jerome had more essence than he was letting on.

Selene remembered the technique he used to destroy the colossal giant. Compared to the amount of essence Jerome used then, the fireball in his hand right now was a tiny spark of light.

Selene clenched her twin swords tighter in her hands until her palms hurt. She wasn’t going down here today. She would fight with all she had, even use the full power of the Winter’s Breath if she had to. She looked at the faces of each member of her team and saw the resolve in their eyes. That was all she needed.

The vines attacked…

~~~

“Impossible!” Hedon exclaimed in fear. “No Sprout should be able to move like that.”

He and his team had been following behind the Itakars. They left a huge distance between them so as not to alert the other team to their presence. When they saw the Tower of Solon in the distance, Hedon felt they had found the way out of the night. But it seemed this place had other plans for them.

His team stood far away from the vines as they watched Jerome and the Itakars battle the vines. The walls made by the vines had been destroyed so they got a glimpse of what was going on inside. Jerome was moving so fast, he couldn’t track him with his eyes.

“Are you sure he’s the same Jerome you were talking about, Hedon?” Arkesha asked. She was the second strongest Sprout in his team and even she was shocked by Jerome’s prowess.

“By my calculations, he should be seventeen now,” Hedon said, his breathing strained as he struggled to come to terms with what he was seeing.

They were not in better shape than the Itakars. The wind was still in this god-forsaken forest and the heat was drying them up faster than they could bear.

“That should not be possible,” another Sprout said beside Hedon “How can a seventeen-year-old Sprout be this powerful?!”

“Whatever you do, steer clear of him, Hedon,” Arkesha said. She was one of the strongest Sprouts to enter Terra Praeta, but she knew her limits. She also knew trouble when she saw one.

Hedon looked around to see if there was a way around the vines but all that entered his view were crooked vines and some of them were still pushing their way up through the soil, a horrible sight to see.

“Could all of us take him down if we worked together…the whole team?” he asked.

~~~

Bam!

Jerome was knocked aside by a huge root but he flipped through the air and landed on both feet. He created shallow gullies with his feet as the force from the hit still carried him backward while on the ground.

“That’s gonna hurt,” Bram said, blocking a vine with a small shield. He reached out with his sword and cut the edge of the vine before it slithered away.

Jerome spewed fire on the vines burning them in extreme heat but the vines seemed to heal themselves. The flames didn’t last long before dying out. He did it again and the vines caught fire. This time, he made the flames hotter. The flames spread all around them turning orange in color as it burned the vines in front of them.

“Did you notice that,” Jerome said.

“What should I be noticing?” Selene asked.

“This!” Jerome said, gesturing with his hands spread apart. His helmet melted away from his head and merged with the rest of his armor.

Selene looked at the burning vines around them. Her teammates lowered their weapons and looked around as well.

“The attack stopped!” Selene exclaimed.

“Just for the duration the flames are burning the vines,” Jerome said and lit up the forest again. He extended Suzie and cut out a path in front of them, burning everything on their path as they exited the enclosure.

“I guess the vines are not as omnipotent as they seem,” Trudhorn said. “But we might not be able to endure the heat from your flame for long, Jerome.”

“Bear with it,” Jerome said, “If I reduce the intensity, we’re in trouble. Except we fly outta here.” Which’ll burn through their essence like water in a basket.

They continued on for a while in the heat of Jerome’s flame. Jerome settled into a routine, lighting up the vines in their path and cutting them up with Suzie. This continued for a while longer than he expected. There was no end in sight. It was as if the vines had adopted a new strategy, putting as many obstacles in his path until he tired himself out.

Jerome was starting to get tired. He could feel his head pounding and dizziness was beginning to take him. He shook his head and concentrated on his goal. His core was running low and anytime now he would be unable to produce a single spark of flame.

“I’m almost out guys,” he called out.

Selene put her hand on his back and tapped twice, expressing her gratitude. Jerome had done so much for them, a simple thank you could not express how she felt in her heart. Everyone continued in silence and soon Jerome’s flames became noticeably weaker.

The vines seemed to sense this too and started to move in that slow, eerie manner around them. Jerome’s feet faltered and he fell. His flames sputtered out. Selene quickly caught him and took off running. The team of Sprouts ran alongside her and Trudhorn reached out to relieve Selene of Jerome’s weight.

“He must have been a lot more tired than he let on,” Selene said as she looked around.

The heat from the flames had died down and the smoke had dispersed a lot. Just before the vines attacked, a stranger shot forward ahead of them and sliced through the vines cutting a path for them. Another joined him, a female Sprout. And they both cut a path through the vines.

More Sprouts walked up to them and one very arrogant one stopped beside Selene.

“You owe me for this, Itakar,” Hedon said and walked away.

Selene observed Hedon Alvric for a while but said nothing. She was grateful for the timely help, but she knew how this particular Alvric was. More than that she feared for Jerome.

“Why is it they showed up after Jerome passed out?” Trudhorn asked, unable to keep the scorn from his voice.

“They’ve probably been trailing us for a while now,” Nia said.

Everyone looked at her as if expecting her to explain herself.

“I said probably,” she defended.

What Nia said may not be far from the truth, but everyone knew Hedon Alvric. His pride wouldn’t let him allow another to take center stage when it came to playing power games like this.

“Who knows,” Selene said. “Make sure to keep an eye on him and his people. They must not come near Jerome.”

“He has three Sprouts less than we do,” Ajax said. “We have the advantage of numbers.”

“Do not underestimate him, nor his folks,” someone said.

They walked on behind the Alvrics, keeping a distance of a few paces between them. The speed at which they progressed could not be compared to when Jerome was in the lead. The Alvric Sprouts were doing their best though and after a long, long time they became too exhausted to continue.

“We’ll take over. And I owe you nothing, Alvric,” Selene said as she and her team walked past the Alvrics.

Hedon Alvric couldn’t help but glare at her. He wanted to say something, but someone put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

“They’re not stupid,” The Sprout who held him back said, shaking his head.

“Watch them, Murray,” Hedon said, shifting his gaze to the Sprout carrying Jerome.

They continued behind the Itakars just as the Itakars did behind them, switching places when one team got tired. This way they were able to cover a very long distance without resting.

Selene had someone keep an eye on the vines they had walked past to see if there was evidence of movement. It wouldn’t be nice if they were attacked from behind. But she soon found out that her concerns were unnecessary.

They continued on and to their delight, the essence in the air started becoming denser. The Sprouts sped up their efforts with renewed vigor decimating the vines in front of them as they moved. The vines had also grown noticeably weaker as the ambient essence grew denser.

Both teams spared no effort as they went all out. Clearing the way until they burst out of the forest into a valley filled with world essence. The sky was brighter here, not exactly daylight, but there were spots through which sunlight could be seen and clouds almost as black as night fighting for control over the sky.

“Hell no!” Nia exclaimed in anger as she looked ahead.

The rest of her teammates followed her line of sight and they couldn’t help but glare at what they saw. They all felt like they had wasted their time and effort.

“No matter what direction we take, the Tower of Solon will always be in front of us,” someone reiterated Selene’s words from before.

“It’s different somehow though,” Trudhorn said.

“The haze we saw around it the last time is gone,” Tega said. He was the Sprout who lost his scouting partner, Darryn.

Everyone concluded that the Tower of Solon they saw before was just a mirage and maybe the one standing in front of them now is the real one. They trudged forward on tired feet toward the tower to find where they could rest.