The Royal Estate. Farryn.

Rihal

Finally… finally he’d get to meet this elusive, pain in the ass Kilian calls his master. The First Matron of Royal Academia was levels above him in station in the Royal Family; he could have barged into her palace the moment he heard about her acquiring ancient texts linked to Zamara. Kilian had spent more than a tenday and quite some resources to try and get an audience with her. Now he paced her foyer like a madman waiting for her attendant to show up to lead him to her.

He had prepared his questions as best as he could as he had no idea if she was in on Jerome’s secret. She wasn’t a member of the Curia Regis — or at least to the extent of his knowledge.

The golden orbs floating in clusters a few feet above him clinked together, making a chiming sound like glasses. He looked up to study the room, trying to take his mind off his anxiety. The First Matron lived like true royalty. The whole interior of the foyer was awash in gold to display the wealth and status of the inhabitant of the palace.

What would Jerome think if he saw this place? He’d outright swear and complain that too much money was being spent on vain things. Rihal smiled at the memory of his beloved disciple.

Someone coughed beside him and he whipped around to face the butler standing a few feet behind him to his left. How had the old man gotten so close without him knowing? The butler was dressed in a tailored black attire he had never seen before. A white undershirt was exposed at his neck region, making him look very much like an attendant. His short salt and pepper hair slicked back and his beard trimmed to perfection.

“The Lady would see you now, Lord Rihal,” he said with a bow.

Rihal eyed the older man with a piercing gaze, but the butler never looked his way. Instead he turned around to start leading him to the Matron.

~~~

Terra Praeta.

“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 had been following a trail that should lead to the damn tower for light knows how long now. They even found Darryn — or what was 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. They were able to identify him with the scar formed from losing that bit of muscle. If they don’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 in the darkness of The Night, the tower managed to be a beacon, looming above them all with its silhouette painted against the dark sky. “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. Was it even top-grade? Maybe it’s a counterfeit. Did Vorthe have a way of telling fakes from originals? Or maybe this was not so top-grade and possibly low-grade? The reality of things though was that 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, he could tell. Her plan was to keep moving forward and hope to somehow reach the tower, just as her books said. 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 stood. “I’ll walk up front and face any danger the team encounters from the front.”

His 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’s eyes lit up as she saw the wisdom in his words. She 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!”

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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. This place must have messed with his mind more than he knew.

“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 onto 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’d 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 whipping 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.

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 storage rings. The Sprouts began cycling and absorbing essence from these crystals to replenish themselves. All this happened within Jerome’s area of perception but he said nothing, only concentrating on the vines in front of him.

But he remembered he had some fire-crystals with him as well and brought out one and started absorbing from it. The moment the fire essence hit his channels, he felt…disappointed. It was rich. And pure. But it seemed the Sunfire stone he’d been depending on for fire essence was in a league of its own.

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 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 of vines 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

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 escape from this place. She hoped and prayed in her heart that Jerome had more essence than he was letting on. She had felt him absorb from a fire crystal… and his disappointment thereafter. She hoped he had more of it. Perhaps he was disappointed because he didn’t have enough.

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.

She 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…

~~~

Hedon

“Impossible! No Sprout should be able to move like that!”

He and his team had been following behind the Itakars for a while now. 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 gods-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 we take him down if we worked together…the whole team?” he asked, but an answer didn’t come as easily as he hoped.