The next day Lia stayed inside the cave, trying to figure out how to get in. It wasn’t easy, but the moment she walked inside, she felt that her brother was right. While trying to get a clue, she often entered No-Space, but the carved-out realm was hidden away. She just couldn’t find it.

“There is a little bit of resonance in here…” Lia whispered, standing not far away from the entrance, staring at the stone wall, sitting on a stump, watching it without blinking.

“Maybe it needs a key?” Keily asked, walking in and bringing some snacks and water to Lia. “Like the tower back in the Academy?”

“Hmmm… the problem is, we don’t know what kind of key. Maybe we should ask Opparu to come here?”

“We can do that,” Solren added, joining them, watching the empty wall. He could feel nothing out of the ordinary, unlike his brother or Lia. To him, it was nothing but a rugged wall of rock.

“But…” Lia turned towards him, “People had been disappearing without any key, no? And many of them were not even mages. How did that happen?”

“Nobody knows.” Came Razael’s voice, standing at the cave’s entrance, “We checked the supposed date of the disappearances, too; it was random. We couldn’t tie it to defined seasons or any specific hour of a day.”

“Can it be cyclical?” Lia asked, looking at her eldest brother, “When we were stuck in the Realm of Azurat, there was a cycle in which the Undead came down.”

“It can be,” Razael answered after thinking briefly. “Only problem, this is at a pretty desolate place. The closest village is almost a day away on foot. Anyone who was gone was trekking through the mountain, either exploring, adventuring, or wanting to cut the travel time to the nearest city. It happened irregularly.”

“Hah… this is hard! Should we start trying to have people meditate here? With different elements, rotating-”

Lia sighed, having no other idea, summoning her blue flames. Just as she did that, they felt an air blow through the cave, washing over the four of them, and the next moment, everything went dark… and they were gone.

…

….

……

When Lia regained her bearings, she had a very, very strange feeling about herself. Looking around, she was sitting on a wide field filled with lush, knee-high green grass. The sky was blue and peaceful, with many cute, white clouds drifting about, like in a beautiful painting. A gentle breeze was caressing her cheek, playing with her long hair as she sat up, looking around as if she had just awakened from a sweet dream. Her memories were hazy, it took her almost a minute to finally recall her own name, and when she did, she jumped back to her feet, looking around nervously.

“Keily! Solren! Razael!” She shouted, but nobody answered, no matter how far she let the wind carry her voice. “Not good…”

Holding her head, she had to take a deep breath and start circulating her mana to keep her mind clear and organized. It was hard to keep focused, and she already knew why. Taking a breath, the sub-realm was filled with dense, otherworldly energy, similar to how it was in No-Space… only it was more refined. Consumable… Yet its effect on the soul was still present. It made people groggy, their thoughts slow and confused, making them forget what they wanted to do or who they were. No wonder people were lost here for who knows how long, even if time flew differently here.

“I need to find the others!” She hurried forth and soon found that she was on one of the mentioned pillar-like rock formations, looking down on a huge river flowing down below, around 100 meters from the top where she stood. She could see multiple, similar formations rising from the water and the many hanging wooden bridges connecting them wherever she looked. “Find the others… find the others…”

Lia had to repeat it constantly, reinforcing her thoughts with mana as she felt if she wasn’t careful enough, they would simply fly out of her mind, forgetting about it. In here, unlike in No-Space, her soul was not pulled out of her body, but it was disturbed enough to send her into a groggy state. Looking down at the dark blue water, she searched for a bridge connecting hers to another. Walking around the edge, she finally found it, leading to a shorter pillar that was around 70 meters away.

“Not the most stable….” Lia murmured, seeing the many missing wooden planks and gaps that opened up in the uncountable years since they were put up. Testing the ropes, they looked like they were holding, magically reinforced, and attached to the stone anchors at her side. “Not that the fall would kill me!” She shrugged and put a foot onto the first plank that immediately gave away, cracking and falling into the water. “Er… Cool...” Escaped a long sigh from between her lips as she started to cross, walking slowly, grabbing onto the ropes at her sides, and crawling towards the other pillar.

…

….

……

“Haaahh… finally…” Lia gasped, stepping onto the 17th pillar, feeling exhausted after traveling for hours without stopping. Yet the moment she halted, took a few breaths and circulated her mana, the tiredness evaporated, and she was rejuvenated completely. “Weird…” She looked around, still suspicious about the effects of the realm, but she remained composed this time.

Traveling for so long and using her powers made her soul acclimate to the weird air, and it became easier to withstand its effects. Still, she would not dare to meditate or let herself go, afraid she would forget who she was. The sun that was above her all this time, in the past few hours, started to dim. Instead of moving or disappearing under the horizon, it was turning itself off as night was slowly setting in. The sky was turning into an indigo color as millions of little dots of light appeared on it while thick fog was rolling in above the water’s surface.

“Hmm…” Lia looked down, feeling a chilly wind come through, turning the pleasant, warm air much colder. It pulled the fog over the land below like a blanket over a sleeping figure. “Need to find a place and stay for the night.” She turned towards why she came to this pillar in the first place. It was the first that she saw buildings.

Standing at the edge, looking at the eight pagodas before her, she had a strange feeling building up. They formed a circle, and each of them was five levels high, standing straight and untouched by time. The outside walls were still a healthy red, as if it was newly built, while the dark-green tiles on the roofs were like little gemstones with a golden trim at their edges. All their windows and doors were closed shut, blocking the inside view.

Slowly walking closer, Lia was mesmerized by the golden, coiling dragon figures decorating them and the many ruby-like pillars at the bottom floor, going around their base level. All eight stood on a smooth, polished granite foundation in the shape of a hexagon, and the few steps leading up to it had ancient words carved into them. Stopping for a moment, trying to comprehend or read them, she couldn’t help but shrug.

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“No good… I wish Cici were here!” Lia shrugged, a bit frustrated but then took out a pen and copied down the symbols for research later. “Brr!” She shivered as the sun finally went out entirely, enveloping the land in darkness, barely lit by the millions of little specks in the sky. “Why is it this cold?” She murmured, seeing her own breath, and it took her a moment to remember what she should do. “I need to get out of here!”

Her groan echoed loudly between the buildings, amplifying her frustration because it was worrisome that she forgot to circulate her mana, warming herself up. It was the first thing she learned as a mage, allowing her to go into the mountains without fear of getting cold. Yet… right here and right now, it wholly slipped her mind. While she was grumbling, arriving at the pagoda’s main door before her, she was watching for clues as to what this building was used for originally.

“Let’s see…” Biting her lips, she copied another set of words hanging from a golden plaque above the main entrance. Its thick, wooden doors were closed shut, and their dragon-head handles glared at Lia, almost like goading her to try and open it. “Patience!” She said to herself, putting away her notebook and looking around first.

She was at a weird place, and even though there were no Undead around or none she could pick up on, it was silly to just try and open an ancient door. As she was thinking about that, she was horrified to see that her hand was already on the dragonhead handle, turning and pushing it open.

“Ah?!” She let it go, jumping back, ready for any kind of trap being activated or ancient ghosts, zombies, or spells appearing and bombarding her with their full might. “N-nothing?” She looked around, surprised because nothing happened. “This place is dangerous! I totally spaced out…”

Lia wasn’t trying to find excuses for herself this time. The moment her concentration loosened a little, her subconscious thought of opening the door took over, and her body moved as ordered. Luckily, it seemed there were no traps set up for intruders, and the door stopped with a loud clang when it reached its end, remaining still.

“Okay…” Lia whispered, taking a deep breath and shouting, “Hey! Anyone home?!”

Of course, nobody answered; only her own echo was traveling back and forth inside the pagoda. Tip-toeing forward, summoning a small fireball above her palm, she peeked inside, and the fire shone in a blue hue as she entered.

“Brrr…” She shivered, raising the intensity of her fire, but everything just got colder. Taking a few more steps, breaking the ice under her feet, she finally realized the problem. “Wait…” Shaking her head, she dispelled her fire, recalling it once more… but it was again the blue flames. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t separate her two elements as they merged together at once. “Hey! Listen to me! I am your master!”

Yet the only answer she received was that her blue flames burned even more intensively, freezing the ground floor of the pagoda. Lia couldn’t help but wonder if this was the effects of the realm or something else… but her fire refused to turn back, remaining as is. Holding it above her head, breathing out big puffs of white mist, Lia finally had a chance to survey her surroundings, relying on its blue light.

The ground was made of wood, and a humongous, golden, coiling dragon was painted onto it, right below her thin layer of ice constantly spreading around wherever she stepped. The first floor was relatively empty, except for the many marble statues, all depicting people in strange robes, standing, meditating, or in the middle of a lecture, holding a rolled-out parchment.

“So… people lived in here?” Lia asked herself, watching the ancient decoration and seeing the plaques below their feet. “Numbers!” She cried out happily as she could finally read those, although… it meant nothing as they were in a long-forgotten format. “No matter, no matter!” She hummed, copying them down, getting used to the coldness emanating from her fire.

Going up, she slowly explored the pagoda, taking measured steps, watching out for any trap that may lie in wait, trying to lull her into a false sense of security. On the second floor, she found a dozen bedrooms. All of them were small, only having a bed, a reading table, and nothing else. It was clear that whoever lived here rarely spent any time in these rooms. No wonder, as taking a deep breath alone made anyone feel like they slept for days.

The third floor turned out to be much more interesting as Lia found a workshop. She knew immediately it was for artifact creation as many tools hanging from the walls resembled the same ones in Opparu’s home. It was only missing the lewd, naughty posters… and it was much cleaner than the old master’s shop. The fourth floor was another workshop, which was evidently for potion-making. No… it had to be even more advanced. The cauldron in the middle was too small to brew potions, and there were no vials or bottles ready for the end product.

“They were not making potions here…” She walked around the multiple formations etched into the floor, the different mortars and tools to prepare the ingredients. When she saw an untouched, ancient book lying on one of the tables and as she opened it, she recognized the images even if she did not know the words. “They were making pills here… this was for purely pill-making!” She gasped.

Without hesitation, she picked up the book, trying to put it into her holding bag but couldn’t. At first, she thought it was a mistake, but no, she could pick out things and put them back in, yet the book refused to follow her will. When she tried to bring it along in hand, the moment she stepped out of the room, the book flew out of her hand back to its original position.

“What the?!”

Going back did not help either. This time, the book refused to be picked up, and no matter how hard she tried to open it, it did not budge.

“Great… Then stay there!” Lia pouted, leaving, knowing that it had to be some kind of theft-prevention spell and she was simply too weak to overcome it. “Oh… no…”

Her depressed cry came the moment she reached the last floor. In the light of her blue flame that she dispelled at once, she saw hundreds of ancient tomes sitting on golden bookshelves along the side of the walls. Lia felt like she had hit the jackpot… now she only had to devise a method to bring them away. She was sure Cici could decipher them… and unlock the ancient knowledge hidden inside. She just... had to figure it out.

“Maybe… maybe this place is connected to their origin?” She inhaled sharply at the thought, watching the spine of the books. As her eyes wandered around them, she noticed the reading table at the far end of the chamber and something on it that was totally out of place.

Approaching it, she slowly started to recognize why. It was ancient, but it was something that Lia had already seen multiple times. It was a black notebook covered in a dragon’s scale. There was no mistake about it; even in her groggy state, she couldn’t have mistaken it. It looked like the personal journals of Erias Amarin.

“That can’t be….” She whispered. All his journals were kept in their castle’s library. It was under the highest magical protection possible, only accessible to her mother. She saw them multiple times and even read them. She was let to study them while sitting in her mother’s lap. “Is this…? A mind trick?”

Nothing worked, no matter how she tried dispelling her thoughts or getting it right. That was a journal of Erias. Same size, same form, and a cover made from black dragon scale, protecting it eternally from the elements. Erias often mentioned that his best friend always gifted him some from his body. With trembling hands, Lia touched it, opening it very slowly and gasping loudly as the first paragraphs welcomed her in the familiar handwriting.

“I have been lost in here with Arcus for a week by now. I think… it had to be a week or close to it. It is hard to keep focus. The moment I lose concentration, I fall into a dream-like state and need time to regain my senses. I don’t know where Arcus is; that is the more worrying part. Both of us entered here together but ended up teleported to a different location. This has to be the home of the Golden Claw Sect… Our scouring of old texts and ancient lore led us here for the ultimate proof! I am not going mad, and the Undead are up to something! I just know it! I will find the proof and bring it back so they will listen to me! We are running out of time! Calmness. Erias… be calm. Always calm your mind. Anger and desperation resonate with this place, forcing you into meditation and intervening on your behalf. It will try to calm your mind, and if you resist, it gets more and more controlling. It has to be some kind of ancient, automatic effect… I am writing this… to myself. Sometimes I feel I forget why I came here and find myself meditating like a weird monk. It is… creepy. I am going to start keeping track of time and my state of mind with this journal.”

“No… way…” Lia gulped, licking her lips, her trembling hands reaching to flip the page. “He was here… He really was….” She picked up the journal, knowing it was not a trap, the moment she could put it into her holding bag. The moment the realization hit her, she was already sitting at the table, picking the journal right back out, and starting to read as if nothing else existed.