Drizzling dirt sprinkled his face. It irritated his nose quite a lot, subjugating them to a fit of sneezing and eyes pouring. Eventually, the frequent and violent expelling of sediment from his nostrils awoke Zolton from his enforced rest. This was not at all anything he’d ever seen before, this odd place. Although dim, the bizarre scene was lit enough by an unusual green flame. A horrendous smell polluted the room, similar to that of rotted eggs. The dirt ceiling had many roots hanging from it - from those belonging to simple blades of grass, to the mighty ones of trees. A couple were even resting on his shoulders.

Zolton’s vision was heavily blurred and his head throbbed unbearably as a large spilling of blood poured from a large gash at the upper left part of his head. He knew that he should be in a panic, but his body simply did not have the energy to do so. Not even the stench forced a reaction in him - neither did it help that he was strung up at the arms by two dark tentacle-like appendages. His eyes followed their limbs upwards until he saw where they stemmed from - two Shadow magic circles. His heavy and exhausted eyes slowly moved across the room, where he discovered multiple bones and skulls belonging to many different creatures - including those of humans. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that there were hundreds, if not thousands of bones both scattered at his feet and on the wall behind him. He noticed many jutted stones and blackened skulls as if they were seared. Crunching steps echoed throughout the catacomb as if they were coming from everywhere simultaneously. Zolton slowly attempted to find the source, but his vision was still too impaired to see distant things clearly.

“Awaken you have, yes? No death! You are necessary,” some abominable voice spieled. Its pitch varied wildly as it spoke, but was muffled. It moved closer to Zolton and pressed its face directly onto his, grabbing his skull and staring him dead in the eyes. It turned his head as if examining something. The smell of its breath was even more pungent than the aroma of the room, but still Zolton lacked much energy to bother. With this breach of personal space, he was given a clear view of the creature. It had a large deer skull on like a mask with an antler half broken. The rest of its body was quite skinny and had some amalgamation of black, gray, brown and white fur and hide barely covering it. In those spaces, he could see human skin.

“You bleed too much. Die you cannot yet, your importance for the Blackwater is yes. I have wasted much time already preparing. Darklings! Take him to the Orb Sector, hastily, hastily! Now, yes!” It shouted violently. A couple dozen humanoid things appeared from the shadows. They moved in to pick up Zolton as the shadow circles dissipated, dispelling the tentacles and dropping Zolton onto the bones below. As they stood over him, black liquid dripped from their beings. Their eyes were large, round and dark. They shuffled and dragged themselves as they moved or twitched when idle, appearing to experience great struggle with basic motor skills. Strangely, they had normal clothing on their backs. One had a cap with the letters “G.N” on it.

Collectively, they lifted Zolton fairly easily despite their crippling and unstable ways and his size. They moved him through a heavily damaged hallway with even more bones taking place as walls. The path was so calamitous, the hallway seemed to be more like a cave than a hall. Chunks and large slabs of brown stone were scattered around, if it sent in a frenzy. The walls and floors were scorched and it smelled of char. The Deer Head led them, moving faster than they could keep up, causing one of the creatures to trip and slowing the entire transportation as they dropped Zolton. This angered the Deer Head immensely, sending him into a rant of incoherent babbling and spits. He raised his hand and a very bizarre shadow casting circle came to be underneath the fallen thing. Similarly to the usual shadow symbol, a round-edged triangle sat in the middle of a circle, black. Except this one had multiple of the triangles, all disordered, overlapping and spun around each other. The felled creature screamed in agony as it slowly broke down into a puddle of black goo, leaving behind only a black-lined corduroy hat, a torn blue shirt that was stained by black liquid(even more so now), a pair of sandals and its skeleton. Deer Head scorned them, persuading the rest to recollect themselves immediately and move - and they did without even a look back.

Down a slope of dirt and stone they went, arriving at a chamber far larger than the beginning area. It was lit the same color by green flames, except much brighter and the horrendous stench was even more powerful. The opening from which they came had a large beast’s skull placed above it, shining like it was covered with some reflective material. The clumsy things dropped him onto a large, flat raised stone at the center of the chamber. The majority of the stone was blackened like it was hit by a powerful flame. Above that was a floating dark sphere, rotating slowly. They strapped him down with metal chains at his ankles, wrists, and neck as if a dangerous animal.

“Shoo, shoo! Now! Get more copper dust to toss into the flames, yes!?” Deer Head shouted, pointing at the dirt slope and sending them back. He stood over Zolton and appeared to grin, judging by his cheeks peeking from behind the skull. The dirt ceiling was much higher than before, more than two dozen feet. There were six paths blocked by rusty metal gates on each half of the chamber. Each had a magic symbol above their arches - Lightning, Fire, and Light were on the left, while Water, Earth and Wind were on the right respectively. Sitting between the two groups was a large gate with roots overrunning a Shadow symbol sitting above it.

“Brothers and sisters, Glorho Klazza moves Penumbra Undergrowth closer to the ultimate strength, yes?" It bellowed, looking up to an array of cloaked, presumably people. “Yes, Brother Klazza,” they responded with varying mixed tones.

There were twelve - six on the left and six on the right. Although their eyes could not be seen, the weight of their cold gazes was heavy. Glorho lowered to his knees and sprawled his arms wide. “The current origins in the grasp of Penumbra Undergrowth important to proceed, yes? Bring I shall, yes.”

He sprawled his arms wider and shouted greatly, “Origins of Energy and Heat! Glorho Klazza brings another to get ultimate strength, yes! Making Penumbra Undergrowth have five Origins, yes?! The unforgiving heat, come to us! The one who destroys all to open up for the birthing of new - Soulless Flame! Bless Penumbra Undergrowth with your cold hate!” He roared, opening the Fire gate.

Glorho brought his arms together and put his hands together tightly, as if focusing them at one point. “Bringer of life, but now death - Destitution. Shine on us coldly,” he said calmly, yet haunting simultaneously. The Light gate then opened.

He then turned to a kneel, with his arms stretched out and head facing the ground. “Origins of Nature’s Wrath! Glorho Klazza beseeches you! The Penumbra Undergrowth can finally complete you! Aid me in bringing you the Blackwater!”

His body tightened and he compacted himself tightly as he could, stabbing himself with the underside of the deer skull yet ignorant to the bleeding and pain. He was balled up, with his back unnaturally arched enough that his spine was ready to pop out. “The mightiest foundation upholding all things of this world and many others - Deadrock! Bring us your mighty judgement!” He shouted with a deep bassy tone, opening the Earth gate.

And at last, Klazza threw himself onto his back sprawled out and began to whisper, “The final Origin in the hands of the Penumbra Undergrowth, the one of true freedom and capricious chaos," He began shouting with great power, causing himself to gargle as blood dripped from his mouth, “Cataclysmic Gust! Show us your unending and impervious strive of freewill!”

With this final call, the gate of Wind opened. Deafening silence took up the decrepit space as the last gate opened. The first step taken came from the gate of Fire from a little boy. Patches of his hair were missing, seeming to have been burned away. One ear was oddly pointed like that of an elf’s, perhaps reshaped by the heat which harmed him. The other ear melted down. Some of his skin was clearly affected by some extreme heat, as was the left legging of his brown shorts and upper right side of his red shirt. While most of his skin had the complexion of white, his right arm was scorched black. Although he shared some of the black liquid as the odd servants from before, he seemed to have higher cognitive function. From the Light gate was one shrouded in a heavy black cloak. Their hands were clasped together, placed before them. They faced downwards.

The Earth gate released a very frail man. Despite his impressive height, his sleeveless gray shirt hung around him loosely, the white fabric wraps around his arms were drooping, and his dark pants stretched just above his ankles, exposing how twig-like they were. He was very drained - his eyes were sunken, the pigment of his skin nearly matched his shirt and he drug himself along. Even the dreads on his head seemed dead. A black and white chain encircled his neck tightly, nearly choking him. Just the sight of it made one’s skin scream in terror. Alas from the Wind gate came a very tall lady. She was bald and boney, but fitted in a kimono with some odd bands restricting her. Tattoos of wind blowing followed her limbs and scalp, ending at her forehead. Around the tattoos were red, so it was likely freshly done. The three’s eyes were pitch black and cold. Glorho fixed himself to his idea of proper form and stretched. “Origins! The Blackwater rests upon the stone, yes! Send your magic towards the Orb of Transmutation to bring the Blackwater among our society, yes?!”

The young boy put both of his hands together and aimed it at the floating black sphere. He summoned a Fire casting circle, but it immediately turned black with a gloss of ghastly teal. A ghastly flaming stream of black and sickly pale teal flowed to the orb. The cloaked figure standing before the Light Gate put out one arm, ejecting a tiny yet bright violet beam into the ball of darkness. One of the members in the stands above stood up and leaned in at this spectacle. The man of the Earth Gate summoned two black Earth Magic circles, reeling his arms behind him and throwing forward a pair of pitch black twin meteors at the Orb of Transmutation. The final user, the lady of the Wind, focused on the sphere for a brief second before blasting a gust of dark wind.

The Orb of Transmutation began to spin rapidly, whizzing and becoming luminous as it spun faster. It shone brightly for a few seconds before all the light was ripped back in as if an object of infinite mass. Suddenly, a dark ray shot from the underside into a barely conscious Zolton. As it touched his chest, his eyes widened in shock. His body convulsed powerfully and he entered a state of agonizing shrieks. Zolton’s body jerked wildly, nearly ripping the metal out of the stone, but the Sphere of Transmutation’s beam split to the chain, repairing it instantaneously.

Despite the feeling of one hundred red-hot blades being pushed into every inch of his body, Zolton’s gashed skull began to heal. The bleeding stopped and the wound healed, but he could feel that his mind was being stolen from him. He knew that if he didn’t break free now, he would be lost in himself and these...things would have him. His desperate attempts to break free were to no avail, for the chains were kept in place and reinforced at a constant rate. He began to slow down and his eyes began to flood with darkness. But as the last of his mind was almost corrupted, a shining beam of white light fired at the glassy skull of the many-horned beast, reflecting back at the orb and overwhelming it. The sphere spun faster, heating up and eventually dropping to the ground, ejecting wildly colored light all around. A stray flash from it ejected out towards the Fire gate, colliding with the little boy head on and throwing him backwards. Glorho Klazza grabbed his head and spun sporadically, screaming and rolling on the ground before leaping back onto his feet to shout and cry, “Who!? Where!? Which horrendous devil of the light dark… Gra! You! You! You! Yo-”

He was cut short by a grayish ray blasting into his face, taking his head off and dropping the rest of him to the ground. The Penumbra society above were all standing, watching down in cold silence at the bringer of the foiling. The heavily black-cloaked user brought down their arm, dissipating their grayish Light casting circle. The Orb of Transmutation spun faster and faster, jetting around the Orb Sector. It began to turn translucent, but before eventually dissolving into thin air and taking its high pitched shrieks with it, the thing launched into the Fire Chamber and struck the boy head on. As it vanished, the user of gray Light breached the cloak, dropping the thing to the ground causing it to make a very loud thud that echoed throughout, and revealing a woman with very long, black hair and an athletic build. She had simple jeans and a brown shirt, although she did not button it up so her white tee underneath could be seen beneath it.

The Man of the Earth Gate and Lady of the Wind Gate’s blackened eyes soon returned back to that of a human state following the Orb of Transmutation’s dissipation.

The black and white chain around the neck of the Man of the Earth Gate turned into a dead gray. It crumbled and fell into many pieces on the dirt ground, making him very lightheaded and dropping him to the ground only to support himself with a single arm. This freedom allowed his skin to reclaim its brown tone and his twig-like build grew into that of a mighty ox! He filled his attire perfectly, no longer shuffling like a shambling mummy. He scanned the chamber and glanced upwards, catching sight of many cloaked Penumbra watchers attempting to flee. His gaze filled with rage and his fist clenched with hunger for revenge.

He kicked off the ground with an ejection of black stone from his right foot, swinging his two muscled arms up with dark Earth circles, destroying the stands with a volley of dark boulders, each emitting a black gas. Six of the Penumbra were crushed to death there, and two more that frantically attempted to escape were grabbed by their necks by his large hands and dragged down. As the enraged Earth user descended, he assured his two victims met the ground face first, shattering their skulls like balloons full of jam. He turned to the Fire gate and sprinted for it, “Hielo!” he cried.

A pair of soft hands grabbed Zolton’s face. “Are you with me still? I know that shit hurts but I know you can handle it! Respond to me!”

Zolton’s eyes rolled back into their proper positions from behind the innards of his head. He looked up at the girl who had been calling to him. Her long hair covered most of her wrinkless face. “You opened your eyes, that’s a start. Can you hear me?”

He nodded slowly. She put her hands above his eyes and briefly summoned a bright purple Light circle, quickly maximizing its luminosity. Although delayed, Zolton flinched at it and his eyes shifted frequently in attempts to recover. He sat up from the flat stone, gray in the face. His body was jittering with bewilderment, pain, and a harrowing power that had infiltrated his blood.

“Calm down,” the woman said softly, showing the large difference in size as she grabbed his quaking hands, “you’re just working yourself up even more… I’m Pyrei. Who are yo-”

“What the hell is this place? Who are you? Why is this? What the hell happened? Why di-”

“Slow down, breathe. I just told you my name, Pyrei. Let’s take this slow… What is your name? How did you get here?”

Zolton’s heart slowed its attempts to break through its imprisonment. “I’m Z-Zolton. I came here to end a sp- the people said that a spirit haunted the woods… I was told to avoid it but I wanted to put an end to it, but holy shit…”

“Why did you come here? You should have listened! What the hell is wrong with…” the woman calmed herself and smiled, “I’m sorry. Thank you. You are the reason we are freed now. I know there was a price paid, but if you hadn’t been there for them to activate that orb thing, I don’t think I would’ve had the chance to destroy it.”

“Wha-what? What the hell is going on? What are you talking about?”

She stared at the half-broken glass beast skull. “The Transmutation Orb is what they called it, I think. I don’t know what these… ‘people’ are, but they seem to dabble in something scary. I don’t know what it is, but it’s so bizarre… Whatever it is has changed you and the others… You all are no longer who you were before…”

“Others?” Zolton grabbed his pulsating head, “There’s other people here? What do you mean we’ve been ‘changed’?”

“Yes, there are four of us… wait, the kid!” Pyrei swung around and rushed to the Fire gate, where the bulky man was crouched, holding a child. She slid in and joined him, eyeing the boy who’s chest slowly filled with air and depleted itself of it. Her eyes widened in astonishment, as the buff man held the child in closely and poured tears. “Hielo, you are one tough man…” he choked, hugging the child tightly.

Pyrei's words were still long from her mouth. Hielo’s burns… they’re gone… Half of his hair is still missing, but that will grow back. I had to bank on it, but it seemed like I played my cards right with the orb when that guy’s head started to heal up from it. It even brought the kid’s cute ears back.

The boy’s eyes opened slowly. He looked around with a serious glare and then up to the tearful man holding up. He looked at his arms and legs, noticing that most of the burns had vanished. He pushed himself from the man's arms onto his feet, examining his body once again. “I’m fine, Yujo… They aren’t there anymore.”

The Earth caster collected himself. “You need better control, son! You need to assure that your hate is focused on the enemy and isn’t blind. You seriously hurt yourself back there… I don’t know how you healed so well so quickly, but I guess that’s just a second chance from something miraculous. Be more carefu-”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Oh, ‘Be more careful’? Is that what you’re gonna say, Yujo?” Pyrei tore in, “You brought a goddamn nine year old into the woods to deal with a supposed 'demon', and you’re talking to him like it’s his fault?!”

“You! Oh, well—you aren’t wrong. I guess this is my fault then, huh? Sorry about that, Hielo… at least you got to use your magic a good deal for once. It was pretty impressive, I must say.”

Hielo gave an apathetic reaction, refusing to change his face from its dull demeanor. “I guess.”

“Is that all you two have to say?!” Pyrei boiled, “I get that you’re young and you may not know better, but do you really believe that this was fine, Hielo? You’re an adult man, Yujo! You almost got the kid killed!”

“No he didn’t,” Hielo spat, “I can fight for myself! I'm strong and I can kill anyone who tries me, you uppity bitch. I don’t know you and you don’t know me, so you best get rid of that shitty outlook of me out of your head!”

Pyrei’s top almost blew off, but she turned to Yujo and took it out on him. “Is this what you are teaching the kid? To think too highly of himself? And to be disrespectful? You’re gonna get him killed if you don’t give him barriers! He needs to know limits!

“The boy is fully capable. He’s stronger than you think. I have been raising him, so don’t act as if you know more about him than I do, even if you believe it’s in his best interest. All this ended up being a difficult trial of strength for him… and I’d say he passed.”

“It's far more serious than that“ she shook her head sorrowfully, “You were…changed.”

“What are you talking about? We killed a bunch of them and then finished them off after the darkness cleared… even though some got away. Sons of bitches...” he mumbled at the end, shaking the contents of smashed skulls off his hands.

“The darkness, you say? What darkness? What do you remember, Yujo?”

Yujo stopped to recollect. “Well, we entered the woods and paced through for a while… then these weird people covered in some goop raided us and we got dragged underground by something. Then me and Hielo started doing most of the damage, thanks for nothing by the way, but then I felt something get dropped around my neck and I couldn't feel my body anymore… I think. I feel like I'm missing something around there. But, uh, that's when I heard Hielo scream, but then things went black. And then I woke up to a white flash and saw some of those bastards trying to run away… wasn’t letting that shit happen.”

“I figured as much. You guys don’t have any recollection of being under the Penumbra’s control, it seems they jumbled your memory a bit earlier too. I guess they really did just take you guys over once they used that orb on you. We were overwhelmed. They had too many of those things running around. They took down you and Hielo first since you guys were being bold and rushed in gung ho. You two were giving them hell, I’ll give you that. But then the boy lost control and burned himself badly… almost hit the rest of us, too. You were aware during that part, but apparently your memory got fogged around then.

He was too hurt to continue and tired himself out after that explosion, that’s when those corrupted people piled onto and took him. Rightfully, you tried to rush there to his rescue but then they took advantage of you being distracted and then they dropped some necklace or some sort of chain onto your shoulders. The damn thing shrunk around your neck as they put it on you… Whatever it was, it drained you. You got so skinny I thought you were eventually going to just become literal bones… After that, they forced you under that ball.

Poor Hielo was bawling and screaming for them to stop as he saw that happening to you. I guess that means you must be doing something right. And then they put him under there afterwards, but that kid wasn't going down without giving them hell. Burned a few of them to death before he eventually used his last drop of strength. Kali didn’t fight back so I was stuck here trying to fend them off, but clearly that didn’t work out… but apparently someone else got pulled into their trap, that guy over there. He is a Water wizard, I'm fairly certain. I don’t think Glorho was too eager to go for a Lightning user just yet.”

"Is that him over there? Why's son so big? And who the hell is Kali? Oh, she was in that asian dress, right? Odd thing to wear when you're going into the woods.”

“Yes, the kimono. I--she… wait… what the,” Pyrei scanned the vacant Wind gate with worry in her heart, “Oh no… what if they got her!"

Yujo shrugged. “How unfortunate, sucks to suck doesn’t it? She never said much. Anyways, what the hell did they want with us?”

“That's all you have to say about her? You're a damn shallow man, Yujo."

"Sure — you could say that. Now are you gonna get to the rest of the important bits now or are we done here?"

Pyrei rolled her eyes, "Glorho, the one with the deer mask, he seemed pretty fixated on the ‘Origins.’ I assume he meant the magic we had. When he used that transmutation ball on you, it did something, to say the least, scary, to your Earth magic. Was the last thing you remembered? You went pretty crazy as soon as you snapped out of their mental lock. It made quick work of them, so there's that.

Yujo was taken back. “I don't remember that much. I remember the chain that you were talking about falling off and some of when we first got in here, but it is a bit fuzzy. Hold on…”

He summoned an Earth circle, which was pitch black and muggy. He fired off a small black stone that emitted a trail of dark gas. He did it again, trying to break the “fluke.” But once again, a pitch black rock soared with a dark trail behind it. He looked up into the stands above where his first pair of boulders rested, still smoking a bizarre black gas. Hielo awed, gifting them a face with emotion for once, although he attempted to hide by keeping his distance. “

“Am I the only one with this?” Yujo pondered.

“No, Hielo and Kali had it too. That guy over there was probably affected by it also,” Pyrei said, lazily and incompletely pointing towards Zolton. The man barely stood over the stone in dripping sweat, using his hands to arms to support him as he hunched over it. “I tried to cut it off before they could change his magic or whatever it is they do, but I don’t think I was quick enough… He isn’t doing well with it. Wish I could’ve destroyed it earlier, but the damn ball seems to be damn near indestructible when it’s not in use. ”

Hielo raised his hand. He summoned a standard Fire casting of reddish-orange. He launched a basic fireball, which also was the normal orangish-red of a flame. He did it again, sending a sharp pain through his right shoulder where part of his shirt was still burned away. He discovered that he had not been fully healed and that his shoulder was still burned. The burn formed a black nearly perfect band around a section of his upper right around, where his sleeve used to be, just below his shoulder. Stubborn, he tried again and ignored the pain, but his casting circle did not eject a fireball this time. It felt as if it was backed up or something was preventing magic from being expelled. All this accomplished was greater anger in the boy. Yujo placed his hand on the boy's head and created more chaos on Hielo's already catastrophic hair.

"If she ain't lying, maybe you just weren't strong enough to keep it," Yujo hypothesized, "I guess it was a one time thing for you. Maybe it's because you're young."

"That's bullshit…" Hielo muttered, spitting to the side. "I know I'm not the weakest one here, so that wouldn’t make sense, Yujo," he smirked as his gaze turned to Pyrei.

"Calm down, Hielo. She seems to know a lot about all of this… strangely,” Yujo’s eyes interrogated Pyrei’s soul. They glared at her, refusing to even blink, “Why have you been leaving yourself out as if you hadn’t endured the same shit as us? Now that I think about it, how do you remember anything? What secrets are you keeping, woman?”

“I’m not keeping any secrets,” Pyrei condemned. “I’m not too sure how I remember all of this myself… They put me through the same things as you all, so it really doesn’t make any sens- Wait, their goal was turning the ‘origins’ or whatever into a darker form, right? Shot in the... dark, but maybe Light is too difficult to be changed by what they're doing?”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” Yujo agreed, although reluctance was clear in his tone. He looked beyond Pyrei, “Seems the giant decided to stop moping over himself. You’d think someone that big wouldn’t be comparable to a daisy. What a damn disappointment.”

Despite hearing these words, Zolton disregarded it as his focus was directed to the attempts of calming his racing heart, breath, and the mountain of worry that crushed him. He felt that a part of him had been slaughtered and tossed aside for greater savaging. "I see that you're standing up, that's a good sign," comforted Pyrei, "Don't mind Yujo much. Something's wrong with him."

"According to you," Yujo breached as he scorned Zolton, "something's wrong with all of us. If that's the case, what's wrong with you, big ass teddy bear?"

"More than I have time to lay out. But I'm to restrict myself to the circumstance at hand, I guess you mean this."

Zolton stared at his right palm as his Water circle formed. Even though it was expected, the casting circle shifted into an ominous black and it did subject him to a bit of unease. The magic symbol was not different from that of water, except that it was dark. He studied it for a moment before he felt an immense weight bearing down on his right arm. He fought against the force with all of his might, but ultimately succumbed to the weight and was dropped down to the ground. Zolton struggled to pull his arm up, but it was to no avail. "The hell is this shit?!" He groaned.

They looked at him with awkward gazes. "What are you doing?" Yujo began with folded arms, "are you trying to free the excalibur or take a shit?"

Yujo grabbed Zolton's arm where the casting circle still gave an odd, very faint white light despite its darkness. He lifted it effortlessly and held it up for a moment, smirking. He then released Zolton's arm, letting gravity crash it down again. "You gonna close the circle or what? It's clear where the weight is coming from."

Zolton dissipated the magic circle, freeing himself from the burden of a thousand elephants. He was soaked with sweat and his arm laid limp as he panted like a dog in the desert sun. Although most of the flooring was dirt, both places where hand landed were some stoney ground. Two massive cracks were spurred in both from the impact.

"I thought I was just going crazy, but it seems you have confirmed my suspicions, vast one," Yujo replied.

"What are you talking about? Are you getting ready to mock him again?" Pyrei spat with an angry glare.

"What? Me? Mock him? Of course not. Why would I ever do that? The implication that I have before honestly hurts me, Pury or whatever that name you have is. Anyways, what I'm saying is that I felt my, uh, black Earth?—My Earth magic required me focusing more on my arm to keep it up. It wasn't daunting, but it did feel rather odd. Guess there's something physical behind it. Did you notice anything different, Hielo?"

Compressed rage reddened Hielo's face and he spat, "Yeah, for one I can't use my damn magic."

"Huh? Oh yeah that happened, sorry I didn't remember… and I can't ask the other woman since she decided to go off with the wind. And this one, Prey, claims to have not been affected. Well, regardless, it's embarrassing that you aren't strong enough to even hold your magic symbol, giant. You need to train with-"

"You?" Zolton pierced.

Yujo laughed and aimed his right hand at a point in the dirt above, "Of course not, I don't have time to train a stranger. Besides that, I have to figure out what's going on with my son's magic abilities since it is clear that we are all clueless. And now I forgot who I was gonna tell you to look for, thanks for that. Hielo, let's go.``

He launched a large dark boulder from his hand and it ate through the dirt ceiling effortlessly and exposed the catacomb to a now risen sun. Hielo still wore a heavy shroud of frustration that prevented him from giving acknowledgement to Pyrei nor Zolton. Instead, Yujo lifted the boy and allowed him to piggyback. Despite his attitude towards them, he gave a salute before kicking off and rocketing through the hole.

“Those two are something else,” Pyrei exhausted, “cute kid though. That strong Stahl’s ear he got really made him adorable. Too bad he has that guy for a father figure to turn his attitude rotten. Oh, are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve been too much of a baby already. That Yujo guy wasn’t really wrong. I need to get going instead of laying around.”

“Really? What’s with you guys? You just had some ancient evil practice performed on you by an underground cult that forced your very energy to change into something we’ve never seen before, yet you guys act as if it was just a bad day and that you need to get over it?”

“I’m not sure what sitting here and moping about it would do. Nothing progressive, probably.”

“You weren’t moping!” She raged, “You were drained! Your mind and body endured something unbelievably paranormal! Something no one ever and shouldn’t ever have to experience! And you—why do I care more about you than you do?!”

“I know. Calm down,” Zolton grinned, “I’m just messing around… a bit. Thank you. I need to get moving and let the town know that… this is over.”

“God…” Pyrei grieved, “I wish it was but I know it isn’t. Yujo caught only a couple of those devils, but some got away. Who knows what pit in the shadows they scampered their dirty asses off to? The job isn’t over until they’re all dead. Why are you smiling?”

"Your drive will better these seas and my goals are similar. Not that I doubt you, but I believe we can do a lot better if we were to cooperate."

"So you want to group up. Not a bad deal, but I'm perfectly capable on my own."

"Yet you were caught."

"And then proceeded to save everyone, without even a bit of gratitude from them… at least you gave some of that a bit. And, well, I shouldn't be so cold. Without you being subjugated to their… arts, we'd probably be stuck here still. Sorry that I couldn't think of some other way to save everyone. I literally banked on them bringing someone else down here."

"Why did you have to wait for someone else to fall into this? You handle that deer guy pretty easily."

"Well, I'm sure you noticed how my Light was different."

Zolton shook his head with denial, "No, not really. I haven't really met many other wizards in my life up until recently. There aren’t really any back at home, other than my dad - he had Wind and Gravity.”

“Gr-gravity?! That’s a thing?! You mean to tell me that you’ve never encountered someone with Light magic before now, but your father has Gravity!? What a way to be introduced to the world of magic! Oh, sorry, you put me off track! Yes, where was I… Oh yeah, the typical colors of Light magic in wizards are a glimmering yellow or a soft moonlight purple, although there are exceptions. It is light, after all! I think dear Mr. Klazza over there made a mistake when he subjected me to the transmutation orb. My Light used to be similar to moonlight, but after that it turned pretty bright white and sometimes gray, although it still does flicker its original color from time to time… not sure why that is. They put a heavy black cloak on me to try and keep me from using my magic against them. I suppose the thought process was that the darkness of the cloak would absorb the light. That would have worked if I had been stuck with my original Light, but those idiots gave me just the power I needed to break through.”

“They unintentionally made you stronger? Talk about a whole one-eighty.”

“Weirdly enough, I don’t think I should have been able to do what I did so easily. Sure, my magic’s strength increased, but not significantly. At most, it just made my Light brighter by turning it into such a blinding white. Something about the ease at which things went was too easy for me to boast... too much. And good news! Now that I’ve properly evaluated all things, I shall make you a part of my forces.”

“You already have a group? Why didn’t you bring them with you to deal with this? Unless, that one wind wizard, the Yujo guy and the boy were…”

“Absolutely not! I only met them when we were coming in here! Yujo is too cold of a person for me to stick around and I wouldn’t dare drag a little kid into the enigmatic mess that are these seas’ affairs. As for Kali, she was a strange one. I’m not sure what happened, but I hope they didn’t capture her. Oh there’s so much to do…”

“You got that right. But we don’t need to do it all at once. Let’s focus on what needs to be done now - getting out of this shit hole and back to the town to let them know that at least this place has been disbanded. Yujo already made us an exit, but there’s something that I need to check before we leave. Back where Klazza dragged me in. I managed to hear him when he sent his henchmen off to get copper or something. I need to know if that Orb of Transmutation had anything to do with them. ”

“Henchmen… Oh, yeah!” Pyrei boomed, “I forgot about them! Good thinking, let’s hurry. I don’t want to be down here any longer.”

Halfway to the section of the catacomb where Zolton was first introduced was an intersection, one he could not see clearly before. To the left was the green light from the room which he was chained in, but it was very, very faint. The flame was most likely on the verge of death after all this time. “Probably means his little minions didn’t do their job,” speculated Zolton, “Hopefully it’s because of my assumptions.”

He turned his sight to a path on the right, which seemed to dip even further down. The bone-blasted walls began to shift into simple sediment and stone. Roots from above became less prevalent, but then a more familiar color of flame from torches lit the hall - a soothing orange. They traversed the tight space deeper, but it quickly became too small of a space for the Vastus blood to continue. “I’ll be fine on my own anyways,” Pyrei assured, “You can just wait outside for me. I’ll be there soonish, I think.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just go back to the intersection,” Zolton contended as his feet moved backwards.

“Not like you can even raise your hands to do anything. You acting like my guardian is cute and all, but I’m letting you know now that you aren’t my superior.”

“Never said you were. Just hurry up, we could’ve been on our way out by now.”

Pyrei sighed with irritation and continued on. The cave walls came to a tiny point for an extended time. Green and yellowish-orange material seemed to have scratched the sides and left residue behind on them. The small cone-like corridor had many turns, but eventually there was a point at the end where a very vibrant orange color shone. It opened into a large, circular area with a pool of magma at the center. Large yellow chunks of material were littered around the pool of heat. A few tiny, flimsy pickaxes were next to them. Pyrei inspected them closely, attempting to get a whiff of them, but there was none. “This must be sulfur then. Figures as much…”

“H-hey? You know how to get out of here?” A shaky old voice questioned with desperation in his words.

She whipped her gaze to the tone, discovering a bald elderly man with clothing stained in black liquid.

“There’s a couple of us here, but we don’t know where the hell to go. I hope you aren’t just as confused as we are.”

“No… no, I know where to go. Where are the rest of you guys?”

“Down the other paths… Y’all, someone here knows where to go so we can leave this shit hole! Come to the center!”

Eleven or so revealed themselves, divided amongst three other paths. They wore typical clothing. Some had shorts or ankle-long pants. Tees, long sleeves, or no sleeves. Sandals or closed-toes. All except one had this type of attire, one individual in a thin, torn white over coat and red long sleeve shirt. Sitting on her buzzcut was a red cap with black letters reading “G.N” on it. The dark liquid, of course, still tainted the outfit, but it was still recognizable. As the huge weight was taken off her back, Pyrei fell down to her knees in relief.

“I’m going to safely assume that you all took part in the first mob trying to find out what was going on in the woods?”

"That is at least this group, yes… please, lead us out," the elderly man pleaded, ``This place is a nightmare, even for me."

"Ah, yes, of course. We can discuss all of this later back in Fayeign…. And hopefully tear this place down. Come with me, we're done here."