“Well well well. Look who came limping back.” The haughty voice of his master pinged off his ears like a falling pot.

“I don’t know about that. Just came to say the exercises are working.”

“And another thing, I…What? Really? Well, I told you they would. I am glad that you have seen the light of my teachings. Now-” Before the old man could keep ranting away, Egosum plopped down right above the glowing dirt.

“Still gonna sit on you for that prank you played last time. Your actions have consequences.”

“You bastard! That won’t muffle my voice. I am a spirit, and it wouldn’t matter if you traveled thousands of Li in your soul domain, you won’t be able to rid yourself of my nagging voice er- my illustrious voice!”

Egosum let out his first true ribbit in a long time.

‘Pangu is just too funny sometimes.’

“You know, I’m not sure if you left this trick out on purpose or not, but I found out a cool little thing I can do now that I understand the auditory realm. I like to call it the mute.”

His soul domain quieted down as he waited for the old monster under his ass to speak.

A few long moments crept by before it made its move.

“Let’s be reasonable. Why go to such high extremes? I'll be quiet and only speak when spoken to. How about that? I'll be out of your way unless I am useful. I swear it. I would be further incentivized to follow through with it if you would be so kind as to get off of the patch of dirt I am inhabiting.

The freak out the toad was expecting never came. Instead, an articulate and reasonable demand was the only thing to answer him.

“Hmmm. I guess that is reasonable. It’s a real shame though. I was really looking forward to staying here the whole time I slept.” The ground glowed a vibrant crimson as the old demon undoubtedly seethed below him.

“Oh, that’s cool. I can see my veins through my skin if I use you as a backlight.”

“You stinking, slimy, little-” The venom-filled beginning of an insult leaked from the area around him.

“I’m sorry, were you going to say something out of turn?” The pompous tone egged Pangu on as the smug toad smirked, pushing his but deeper into the dirt.

“Of. Course. Not.” He thought he could hear the blood vessels popping in the soil below him as the words ground out.

“Fantastic.” He waddled his soul domain form forward and into the swamp that had formed around him.

It was close to his dream home as he could imagine, save for his fellow amphibians and infrastructure.

It would have been impossible to claim it was anything but the perfect base and if the place the parasite had pointed out for them was anything like it, he would be overjoyed to say the least.

Time flew by as he basked in the energy that flowed through his soul domain in tune with his heartbeat.

The swamp was alive like any living creature was. It was just on a much larger scale than any beast he had ever seen.

The more he thought about the lessons he received from Quetinctol, the more he came to understand them. The information was easy enough to memorize, but internalizing what they mean in the greater context of a swamp changed everything.

As the water percolates down through the earth and hit the aquifer that sat deep below the swamp, it felt for the weakest points in the stone that held it in place.

As the pressure built up, water would force its way out of the soil and stone. Small springs would trickle through the cracks and feed back into the swamp once again.

Water would evaporate from the ponds, streams, lakes, and even the plants only for the clouds up above them to grab ahold of it and refuse to let go of it until it was too much.

The tipping point in saturation would cause rain to fall from the sky and back to the earth, it came from.

Despite being so far removed from what Egosum once thought of as the swamp, they were so obviously part of it, in the same way, the muck and rot were.

His eyes shot open as he felt water hit his head. The sky above him was dark with full clouds, ready to dump their hard-earned water on the ground.

‘That’s new.’

The rain began to pelt the earth just like it did back in the eternal vernal pools. The fresh smells of a storm and decomposition were so prominent that he swore he could almost taste it in the air.

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His appreciation for the soul domain he crafted through the weeks came to an end as the sky began to shake and wobble.

Cracks spread through the surface before finally shattering to pieces.

The same blackness remained as he forced open his large eyes.

The memories of the last night came to him all at once.

The massive mantis-like titans and the herds of beasts trampling through the fields caused him to perk up.

He forced his qi to flow into his eyes to lighten his surroundings. The mana signature of the ground around him was far beyond what he was accustomed to but it offered great contrast to his companions nearby.

Cinera was on her back with her arms spread to either side of her. If it wasn’t for the rise and fall of her chest it would be hard to believe she was still alive. He turned to look at his other amphibian friend and jumped slightly as he came face to face with Coyotl’s beady eyes.

“What was that? Is the herd back?” Cinera flailed as she tried to turn herself over with extreme difficulty.

“No, it wasn’t anything. Though I am glad we are all awake. We should get a move on.” He willed his Qi to the soil around him ad forced it to part ways for the trio to leave. The bright light hit his eyes as he broke through the top and gave them a path to the surface.

They made their way up and looked around the fields for any sign of the horrors from the night before.

“What is all of this stuff?” Cinera twirled around as she took in the sights.

Burgundy splashes and smears covered the ground for as far as the eyes could see.

Egosum took a deep breath, and the metallic twang of a sanguine liquid filled his nose.

“Smells like a lot of blood. Like more blood than I thought I would ever see.”

The bright green grass tips grew from the shoots around them, unperturbed by the sheer volume of iron-rich liquid at their bases.

“Oooh look! I found a hoof.” He turned to Cinera’s direction and looked at the monumental keratinous mass beside her. It eclipsed them both in size and gave a better idea of what the herd was made up of.

“Let’s not waste the daytime away. We don’t know how far we have to go and the shorter amount of time in these fields, the better I will feel.” He turned in the direction his sixth sense told him and took a great leap to check the distance for any threats.

“Can’t argue with that. Did you see anything?” He shook his head as he plopped back down.

“Just a whole lot of red and green. It was a real massacre.”

Cinera lifted her hand up and watched a sticky thread connect from the ground to her fingertips.

“Let's get out of this gore as fast as possible.”

The trio marched forward, trudging their way through the blood and guts for most of the day when they finally reached the edge of the massacre’s site. The grass was taller in patches ad trampled in others where the beasts had fled in an obvious panic.

The two verbal amphibians cleaned their hands s best they could before turning to their quiet friend who merely sat with the same dull look plastered on his face, uncaring for the caked-on filth that covered him.

“Do you think we should….” Cinera’s voice trailed off as she looked at the gruesome sight.

“No, it will probably fall off if we give it some time. Let’s keep going.” The trio turned back to their path and traveled along as the sun began to set in the distance.

They were about to make camp when the first sight of their goal came into view.

The very top of a massive tree was just barely visible about the roaming hills.

“Is that it?”Cinera unfurled the map and looked at the details.

“Maybe? It shows the tree is taller than the mountain so all we can do is hope.”

They traveled for a little bit more when the familiar rumble of the herd filled the air.

“You should jump to see if you can get a glimpse of the bests.” He glanced towards her before empowering his legs. They tensed with energy as he rocketed into the sky with all the strength he could manage.

Far off in the distance, a cloud of dust filled the air with the very front showcasing the creatures causing the disturbance.

Hulking beasts with shaggy coats and tall backs galloped with their mouths low to the ground. Massive horns sat atop their heads like decorations.

The aloud stretch from one hill to the next. Never stopping for as far as he could see.

He quickly fell back to the ground with a plop and spoke to the salamander.

“It was some kind of bull thing. Too far away to tell how tall but they are moving fast. We should bunker down and wait for tomorrow morning. Then we can probably get out of the fields.”

He flexed his Qi and opened up a tunnel to their camp for the night.

The trio quickly drifted off to sleep once again.

Egosum returned to his soul domain and spoke to Pangu for most of the night, trying to comprehend proprioception.

The interconnection between the joints and muscles coordinated within his mind was not a simple thing for him to grasp, but, with each passing moment, he could feel his understanding of the concept deepening.

He woke up far too early to move out and practiced the exercises that the soul soil taught him and noticed the difference immediately.

His control of his strength, awareness of distance, and slight movements of his muscles.

As time ticked by, his fellow party members came to and he opened the hole to the surface once more.

The grass had already grown with the beasts passing, but the knowledge that their next step in the journey was just over the hill was enough to force them forward with a healthy speed.

Mound after mound and dip after dip passed them when they crested the largest of them all.

They began to make their way down when Cinera stole his attention.

“Look at it.” He turned his head up and stared in wonder at the view before him.

What was once a blur in the distance was now showing off itself in full detail.

A monumental tree, with deep green leaves, glinted in the light with an iridescent sheen over every surface between two snow-capped spires. Even from a distance, it was plain for him to see the majesty of the nature before them.

“Beautiful.” He couldn't hold his voice back any longer as he watched the wind whip through the treetop.

“Softy.”