Jerome was already walking away when Fei Lin asked if he was mad.

“You are going to kill us all!” she stated. “We don’t go in until the Alignment!”

The Alignment must be the event that opens the portal that would take them back home. Jerome turned back and glared at her. He wanted to tell her to never use that language on him again but held back his tongue. It would be seen as him using his strength as a kind of status. He had just proven his strength to all present but that didn’t mean they respected him.

“This is how they waited the last time they were here, Xerae. And the time before that,” Achilles said.

“There are other ways to get in there. You’ll see,” he said with barely contained anger.

“And what other ways?” Fei Lin shot back. “This is your first time here and I’m pretty sure the Royal Family doesn’t know about this place—”

Lang quickly covered her mouth with his hands, preventing her from revealing more about what the Royal Family did ‘not’ know. Jerome chuckled and walked off. His anger was already rising and he was ready to snap at her but thanks to the quick thinking of her protector he was able to hold back. The mouth of that girl would put her in trouble someday.

He walked toward the forest a distance away and the Itakars followed him. The Feis were on the other side of them. He looked around and saw that both teams didn’t want to mix among themselves.

“Look everyone,” he said, stopping and facing them all. “You better start learning to work together. I know that in the past your family must have lost quite a number of Sprouts inside the dark forest, am I right Fe… young lady Fei?”

The person in question huffed, folded her arms defensively, and looked away from him but Jerome sensed the quick trickle of joy that went through her from hearing him esteem her by her status. And she mumbled something about the forest being the forest of shadows and not the dark forest.

Jerome held himself back from rolling his eyes at her.

“It is so, Jerome,” Lang answered. Jerome found the older Sprout to be…humbled. And he found he didn’t like it. The once proud Sprout was now acting with a defeated spirit.

“Well, we can go through this without any casualties—”

Murmurs rose around them.

“Surely you jest, Jerome,” Lang said. “You may be strong but you can’t protect everyone.”

“I won’t be protecting everyone. I’ll be giving you the things necessary to help you protect yourself. And besides, I do need you all to go back home safe and sound.”

He saw Selene and Ms. Tara tilt their heads in confusion at him. Now was a good time to tell them about Hedon. They needed the inspiration to stay alive so they could go back to their families.

“What do you mean, Jerome,” Trudhorn and Ajax asked simultaneously.

“After the Children’s blockade, I tracked down Hedon and took his arm.”

Gasps rose everywhere.

“Jerome, this…you’re not joking, are you?” Selene asked, studying him.

“That’s not even the worst part—”

“Slow down, Jerome. Maybe we should talk about this… privately,” Lang said, showing his years of experience once again.

Jerome nodded his assent. It would be better for the leaders of both teams to hear from him and then disseminate the news to their teammates. That way, they could avoid panic and plan for what was to come.

“Tonight then,” he said. “But we need to work together so we can get to the center of the forest.”

He led them all to the edge of the forest where the darkness didn’t have much of an effect. But the moment they got within twenty feet of it, many of them started groaning. Jerome could feel a foreign chill invade his body and begin to sap his strength — the forest was stealing their vigor.

“Back up!” Lang came forward and prevented his teammates from moving forward.

Jerome nodded to Selene, signaling to her to step back so he alone could go forward. Crossing the twenty feet that separated him from the giant trees in front of him was like hell. His muscles felt like they would freeze up but he continued nonetheless. The closer he got, he found that sound seemed to be absorbed into the forest and a deafening silence took over. Even the crunching of his boots seemed distant.

“Achilles, why the hell didn’t you tell me this would be so cold.” The cold he felt during his training before Achilles chose him was nothing compared to what he was feeling now.

“Tha- w-s …aining, Xer-. Of course, this would be more dangerous.”

“What the fuck? What happened to you, Achilles?” Jerome asked, stunned, as he heard the glitching in the AI’s voice. He got to the first tree in his line of sight. What could be disrupting the AI’s transmission?

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to converse with me inside the dark forest, Xerae.”

Jerome squatted and began chopping chunks out of the root of the tree with Suzie. “What do you mean by that?” He watched as the piece of living steel in his hands fought to retain its luster and sheen. The forest was sapping it of its…carbon? He didn’t know.

“The darkness is making it nigh impossible to transmit vocal intent,” Achilles said with a sigh. His voice began to grow distant. “Charybdis will be with you to alert you to danger. Think of it as a little me.”

Achilles’ voice grew distant until it disappeared completely. Jerome stopped what he was doing to think. There was no need to be perturbed. If he left this place, he’d be able to talk to the AI again. But he was now finding out how attached he had grown to the damned AI.

He sighed and left the edge of the dark forest. The two teams walked back the way they came. Jerome noticed that Ms. Tara and Sheela weren’t mingling with the Feis as they did the Itakars but he let it drop. He had too much to do.

They all made it back to their camp where the Itakars began to raise their tents among the Feis tents. There were a few that grumbled about it but Lang put them in their place.

Jerome called the leaders of both teams and they converged inside the biggest tent of the Feis.

“Why are they black?” Fei Lin asked.

Ajax gave her a look that said, ‘Really?’

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They all sat around the chunks of root on a rugged floor. The tent was cozy and warm, giving off a relaxing atmosphere.

Jerome looked down at the different chunks of tree root he had cut out of the tree at the edge of the dark forest. They were given off the same chill, the trees were giving off. But that wasn’t what was strange about them.

“The darkness has been seeping into them for far longer than we know. It’s a part of them at this point,” he answered.

He took hold of one, hoping what he did with the plaque in his storage ring could also be done with this strange wood. He had Shaped wood and made it into a plaque. That wood was normal wood, filled with vital aura and plant life. This one, however…

He sighed. “The darkness in them might make it troublesome to do what I need to do with it,” he said so as not to get their hopes up.

“But you said you can get us all in there. Are you chickening out now?” Fei Lin challenged him.

“Princess,” Lang cautioned.

“I did say that, didn’t I?” Jerome smiled wryly to himself. “Very well. Challenge accepted.”

He got down to business, trying to Shape the roots and failing. He had chopped a lot of it so there was no need to go back for more for a while. He tried for a long time until he was able to find a balance between his essence and the darkness in the wood, making sure that one wouldn’t overpower the other.

“You’ve got to be joking. You can Shape wood?” Fei Lin’s voice filled the tent they were occupying. “How many elements do you wield?!”

It was a good thing they were inside that soundproof tent of theirs. Jerome was able to work in peace with just a few people watching.

“Of course, he can, you dumbass!” Achilles blurted out menacingly in his head.

Jerome’s heart skipped and he almost destroyed the work he was doing. He looked around to see if anyone heard what the AI said but they all looked back at him in confusion, wondering why he stopped and was looking at them.

Jerome continued working. Is something wrong with you, Achilles?

“I’m very okay, Xerae. But that’s how all of you would be acting if you don’t make the charms right. Remember, Shaping is just the first part. Next, you have to make a binding of them and then script them. The scripts would help prevent you from losing your moral grounding and inhibitions. The darkness can make people do really bad things.”

Way to encourage me, Achilles, he thought. But the Guardian was right. They would all lose their moral compass if they entered the dark forest without good enough mental protection. The darkness was capable of invading the mind, bringing to the surface, all of one’s dark thoughts.

“I’m just saying, Xerae,” Achilles gave him the mental equivalent of a shrug.

But how did the Feis move through it the previous times they were here without being corrupted by the darkness? he asked.

“They have their artifacts, Xerae. That helm Lang used to duel against you is an artifact that gives him a menacing aura, making him seem a lot more powerful than he is.”

A bluff then, Jerome thought, smirking to himself. Can I ask him about it?

“I advise against that for now, Xerae. They don’t trust you. You wouldn’t want them to be suspicious of you now, would you?”

The room fell silent again as Jerome worked. His hands moved slowly over the wood, caressing it and forming bumps and valleys here and there. Sometimes the wood looked like black jelly in his hands, at other times it looked like black clay mold. Jerome made sure to get the shapes right until he was done making the last one.

There were fifteen Itakars and seven wolves. So twenty-two charms for them. The Feis had not lost a single member so twenty charms for them. And then four charms for Ms. Tara, Sheela, Csala, and himself. So he made forty-six charms in total.

“I need to rest for a while before completing them,” Jerome said as he finished the last one. “When I’m done, we’ll all be able to move around the forest freely without attracting too much attention. It’ll be like we are a part of the forest itself,” he said. “This doesn’t mean you can just waltz into the dark forest and do what you please, though. Trust me, you’d become something’s meal in less than a breath.”

“Waltz?” Selene asked with a raised eyebrow.

“He says a lot of strange things,” Csala said. “You’ll get used to it,” she thought briefly about her words and added, “or not.”

Lang turned to face her and she gave him a sweet smile before looking away. Jerome watched the show that began unfolding. The older Sprout couldn’t take his eyes off his woman. He couldn’t blame him. It’ll take a powerful Spirit Realm artist to break her hold. And this was her in a position of rest. Csala wasn’t putting effort into attracting him.

Someone jabbed him in the ribs and he turned around. Ajax gestured with his head, telling him to do something.

“Come on now. Let’s watch the show for a bit,” he whispered and the silver-haired Sprout almost burst out laughing. Ms. Tara shook his shoulders from beside him, gesturing for him to do something. But he could see pride in her eyes. He wondered why Sheela wasn’t with them. Ms. Tara had been very quiet since they met with the Feis, out of respect he hoped, or maybe not to draw too much attention to herself. He missed the vibe she had with Sheela. They were lively together.

“Come on, Jerome,” Selene said. She looked sideways at Fei Lin who was busy eyeing his charms like they were little devils. The innocent heir of the Fei Clan would be embarrassed and feel dishonored if she found out her protector was ogling a strange woman in a meeting. Talk more about how Lang himself would feel.

Jerome sighed. And then he coughed, using his psychic energy to pierce through the fog of ‘lovey-dovey’ aura gathering around the older Sprout. Lang woke up with a start.

“Just like that?” Fei Lin said in disbelief, her face twisted into a sneer. A cute sneer.

“Do you have any idea how much essence I’ve expended to Shape those charms?” Jerome snapped at her. Did she scrutinize his work for so long only to criticize him?

Lang quickly grabbed her and pulled her behind him. “We’ll let you rest, Jerome. Do call us when you’re well rested.” he dragged her outside, ignoring the protests of his charge.

Jerome turned to Csala with a mocking smile. “You know, she reminds me of you.”

Csala stuck her tongue out at him.

“Ooh. I’d like to hear the details,” Selene chimed in, leaning forward with a twinkle in her eyes. Trudhorn and Ajax stood up quicker than they came in and dragged their grinning silver-haired leader out of the room. Ms. Tara also left, smiling knowingly at him.

“Do you really need rest?” Csala asked when they were alone. “I’ve seen you do some remarkable things.” And by remarkable, she meant ‘go on all night in a blaze of raging sex’.

“This is different. The force inside these,” he gestured at the wooden charms shaped like rings that could be worn on an adult’s thumb, “are different. It’s like death as opposed to life. It doesn’t want to be Shaped. It only wants to consume. To drain the life out of whatever comes in contact with it.”

Jerome fell into thought as he muttered, “Light is to life, as darkness is to death.”

Csala moved to his side and embraced him. “I can imagine what an ore that absorbs this darkness would be like if turned into a weapon.”

Jerome chuckled. “Whoever would Shape that would be one badass Shaper.”

“Well, you Shaped these. I believe you can Shape that too… if we could find it.”

Jerome kissed her long and hard but Csala broke up the kiss. “You need your rest,” she said, tracing the bulge in his pants with the tip of her finger. The minx. She knew exactly what she was doing to him.

“Maybe the ‘rest’ can wait a little bit,” He said with a grin. It was still morning even after hours of racing across the Tundra. They could still have a little bit of fun. And he had to admit, he hadn’t been completely able to shake off his urges ever since he took her the night before.

It was like he had another beast in him, wanting to be set free to ravage every woman on sight. He had felt sated after their rump when they woke up but now… the beast was rising again. And he wanted to consume the beauty in front of him.

Csala pushed him aside teasingly but held onto his shoulders and stuck her bountiful chest in his face as she stood. Jerome basked in their softness for the mere seconds it took for her to get up — and those were some very long seconds. The sway of her hips as she walked toward the entrance of the tent was extra entrancing. Jerome forced himself not to move an inch but just watch her like a hawk. She stopped and looked back at him with a knowing smile, highlighting her curves all the more.

“I’m not going anywhere, Jerome. A little wait wouldn’t kill you.” She walked out of the tent, leaving him with a raging hard-on.

Jerome lay down on the makeshift bed, thinking of how to deal with the evidence of his desires but sleep quickly found him.

Guess I’m a lot more tired than I thought, he thought as he dozed off.