Kayde, having stumbled upon a curious mountain and golems made of rock, finds himself face to face with a nude woman, whose eyes are the exact same red as God’s.

“Who are you? How were you able to come here?” The naked woman asks him, maintaining a calm demeanor despite some man coming across her in such a vulnerable state.

“Hello, I’m Kayde. I was running away from this one guy and felt the earth shake. Was kind of curious why so I walked towards the sound… found some of these golems. I noticed a path and it led up here… kind of straight forward,” Kayde explains how he found his way there.

The two of them stand in silence, the woman pondering what this could mean.

Before she has a chance to think everything through, Kayde blurts out, “So I introduced myself, who are you? Also, why can’t I see this mountain from the forest? I mean it’s really tall and yet I couldn’t see it until I passed the treeline”.

“Curious, it would seem you are not like other humans,” the woman notes as she realizes she is unable to read Kayde’s mind.

“You going to introduce yourself or… no?” Kayde asks, not a fan of her ignoring his questions and monologuing to herself.

“I am Koralia and you should leave here, I know not of what you are but I know that you need not bother me,” she introduces herself, trying to get the man who stumbled upon her home to leave.

“Wait! I have so many questions though. You never answered my question about the mountain, also why are there golems made of stone walking around? Why was the one at the base of the mountain digging into the side of it? Who are you and why do you have eyes that are exactly like God’s? Also, why are you naked? Not that I’m complaining… but there are too many things I need to know,” Kayde starts to ramble on, knowing his curiosity will never be sated if he leaves now.

“God? Is that what they are going by?” Koralia comments, having an idea of who they might be if this creature said they had the same eyes as her.

“I knew it, that guy isn’t really a God. So what’s his name?” Kayde asks, assuming she knows about him.

“I do not know who you speak of. Is this God a young man with black hair or do they appear older with grey hair?” Koralia asks, knowing who Kayde is speaking of.

“Black hair,” Kayde responds quickly.

“Gudea…” Koralia mumbles to herself.

“Gudea? Weird name… what is he to you? Both of you have the same eyes. I take it you know him,” Kayde asks, curious to know more.

“I do. But I do not need to answer you. You are nothing but a trespasser into my domain. Now leave or suffer my wrath!” Koralia declares, her voice booming within the walls of the alcove.

“Look! I’m not going anywhere, this Gudea guy you know is using my friends like his personal playthings and I don’t appreciate it. I just want to know what the hell is going on so I can get my friends out of here safely. Is that too much to ask?” Kayde refuses in frustration, not backing down despite her intimidating presence.

Koralia ponders what this strange creature might be referring to, knowing that Gudea, despite what she had hoped, hasn’t changed.

“What is it you want to know? I will answer... but only because of what Gudea has done to your friends,” Koralia decides, her voice filled with guilt as she feels a sense of responsibility for what happened.

“Cool, see we didn’t need so much animosity between us. How about you tell me what’s up with your eyes? Who is Gudea? Is he your son or something?” Kayde guesses, based on her matronly appearance.

“No, he is my younger brother. And these are just our eyes, there is nothing special about them,” Koralia reveals.

“Oh, I thought maybe it was linked to the whole reading minds thing. How can he do that by the way? Oh, wait… can you read minds too?” Kayde moves on.

“I can... but not yours, you must not be human. That was one of the gifts… no curses bestowed upon us along with this dreaded immortality,” Koralia laments, seeing their fate as loathsome.

“So what other things were you cursed with? You made it seem like it wasn’t just mind-reading and immortality,” Kayde notes, reading her tone.

Koralia sighs before answering, “You can see my unique gift. These golems are mine to command, I can create one out of anything around me. I can even control the earth to an extent”.

Kayde watches as Koralia raises a hand, the water from the pool next to her starts to whirl up creating a creature made completely of water. It walks from the pool onto the ground, still dripping while it lumbers forward. Koralia releases her fist, the golem turning back into regular water, splashing down into the dirt.

“Gudea’s power is crude but you could say he has more flexibility. He cannot create animate beings as I can, instead, he holds an arsenal of weapons that he can wield with his mind. As to why it is more flexible, I can only manipulate two hundred of my creations at a time while the amount of weapons he can control surpasses a million. My other brother Solomon’s power is much more fearsome, he can possess one hundred humans and control their every move if needed,” Koralia explains, believing her power to be the least extraordinary of the three of them.

“Hold on… this Solomon, is he the one with the grey hair you mentioned? Older looking dude, maybe likes to hang out in a swamp?” Kayde inquires, piecing together what all of this means, knowing that this Solomon must be the man from the island of immortals and that those with scars on their necks are the ones he controls.

“I am afraid I might have said too much, please leave here. I have given you more information about my brother than anyone could possibly know. Be satisfied and leave,” Koralia asks, almost begging as if she was at Kayde’s mercy.

“Fine, I won’t ask you any questions but I have one more favor to ask of you. Some of my friends and I are trying to evade Gudea’s capture even now. I take it this place should be hidden from his men, let my friends and I hide out here until we are able to leave this island,” Kayde requests, knowing she feels guilty for some reason even if he doesn’t know the exact reason why.

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After a long silence, Koralia agrees, “I will drop the barrier, I assume they are not like you so bring them inside. I warn you though, this is not the safe place you think it to be. If you or your friends do something I deem as a threat, I will not hesitate to eliminate you”.

“Phew, thanks Koralia. You really saved us there. I thought I was going to be running for the next three weeks but now I don’t have to. I’ll go get my friends,” Kayde tells her before walking off back down the path.

“Kayde! Where have you been? I was so worried it’s been hours since you left,” Klara exclaims in relief.

“Come with me, I found a place where we will be safe but we need to be on our best behavior,” Kayde informs them, starting to lead them back to Koralia.

As they break through the treeline they see the mountain, hidden somehow despite its height.

“How? How is this here? It’s giant we should have been able to see it,” Klara asks, not believing what she is seeing.

If the mountain surprised her, the stone golems walking around the base of the mountain shock both Klara and Francine, the two of them not having seen anything like them before unlike Kayde.

“She controls those. Don’t pay them too much attention, they should be harmless. Follow me, she is at the end of this path,” Kayde urges them forward, leading them up the trail.

“She? Who is this she?” Klara asks, wondering what happened to Kayde in the two hours he was separated from them.

“Koralia, you’re about to meet her,” Kayde explains, just as the four of them make it to the alcove where she resides.

“So these are your friends,” Koralia comments once they come into her view.

“Well, kind of… the blonde one is, the rest of my friends are still in the city with Gudea. The other two are friends of a friend I guess,” Kayde explains in his usual hectic tone.

“I’m Klara and this is Francine nice to meet you,” Klara can get out despite being taken aback by the naked woman in front of her.

Koralia eyes the new faces, confirming that she can, in fact, read their every thought unlike with Kayde. She stops on Gwendolyn, finding her demeanor and thoughts to be curious.

“What happened to this one?” She asks, approaching to put a hand on Gwendolyn’s head.

“That’s Gwendolyn, she didn’t use to be this spacey… it’s your brother’s fault, he tortured her because she refused to sleep with him,” Kayde explains as he watches Koralia’s eyes grow wider as she stares at Gwendolyn.

“Her brother? God’s her brother?” Klara deduces, recoiling away from Koralia out of fear.

“Worry not, young one, I will not treat you as my brother has. That is if you do not cause trouble. This arrangement is temporary, I am sure your friend of a friend has made that clear to you,” Koralia responds, emphasizing that hiding here is not a permanent solution.

“I kind of did. Anyway, she told me that God’s name is really Gudea. Kind of a weird name isn’t it?” Kayde asks the others, not getting a response as the other two are silenced partially in fear of this odd woman that is touching their friend.

“I do not understand, she has no physical scars and yet she is broken,” Koralia observes, having finished feeling all around Gwendolyn’s body for some sort of ailment that Gudea might have caused.

“Hold on, Koralia you can read her mind, right? What is she thinking?” Kayde realizes, hoping that perhaps knowing Gwendolyn’s thoughts will help him find a way to get her back to her old self again.

“You promised no more questions, the one they call Kayde,” Koralia responds harshly, causing both Klara and Francine to take a step away from her.

“Sorry, I forgot. I just really wanted to know,” Kayde apologizes, realizing it is pointless to ask her for something after she has already given him so much.

“I will answer, seeing as how it is not a question about me or my family. Your friend is thinking one word over and over again, breathe,” Koralia enlightens them, pain easily sensed in her words as she does so.

Meanwhile, just before night falls, Lunette and Maximus make it back into the city.

“I suppose we should find another inn to stay the night at,” Maximus notes, knowing Lunette will need a place to work.

“Sure, you’ve been here longer than I have. Lead the way,” Lunette agrees, assuming he already had one in mind.

As they walk through the streets they hear a man yelling, “Get away you mangey thing!”

Lunette grins as she sees the man trying to shoo Fore away from his waste bins, the hungry wolf just looking for a snack.

“Over here buddy,” Lunette calls out, holding out a piece of meat for him. Fore notices her and runs over, eagerly tearing away at the meal provided to him.

“That your wolf? Keep him away from my trash,” the irritated man calls out before escaping inside, slamming the door behind him.

“Fore, where have you been?” Lunette asks him, taking a few seconds to remember that she cannot communicate with him at all, unlike Kayde.

After Fore finishes the food, he barks at the two of them, signaling for them to follow as he darts off, headed to the outskirts of the city. They follow eagerly behind, eventually coming to a single building slightly outside of the city.

Fore bursts through the door leaving it open behind him.

Lunette and Maximus barely hear from inside a man’s voice declare, “Your friend is back”. The two of them wander inside tentatively, trying to see why it is Fore brought them here.

Lunette’s face lights up when she sees Kali lying there, still recovering from her defeat to Arua.

“Kali!” She exclaims with glee.

“Lunette! And Maximus, what are you guys doing here?” Kali asks, perplexed as to how they could have found her.

“We saw Fore and he brought us here. Oh man, we have so much to talk about, what happened to you guys in the tournament?” Lunette asks, having been unable to attend the latest round.

“I… I lost… but both Drakthar and Xander won their matches so they moved on while I’m stuck here,” Kali notes dejectedly.

“Yeah, you don’t seem to be in the best shape. Things have been crazy for us too. We broke Gwendolyn out and then we ran into the forest and I even had to fix Kayde’s leg… it got busted in his fight with God… but then I remembered that I promised Xander I would create a couple of gadgets that would help him beat God so I left and came back to work on them. Kayde, Gwendolyn, and some other girls we broke out are still out in the wilderness trying to evade capture,” Lunette hastily explains, her thoughts just as scattered as her words.

“That’s good. Once I’m healed up, bring me to her. It’s been months since I’ve seen her last… is she still…” Kali asks, not finishing the thought knowing she doesn’t have to for Lunette to understand.

“Yeah… she’s still not herself,” Lunette sadly informs her.

“Dammit, I guess I was just hoping she would get better… but I guess if she’s still been in that tower all this time she wouldn’t have gotten any better,” Kali notes dejectedly.

“These two more of your friends?” The doctor butts in on their conversation.

“Yes, this is Lunette and Maximus,” Kali introduces the two of them.

“Hello, I’m taking care of your friend here. Try not to make too much of a ruckus if you can,” the doctor greets them.

“Wait! Can we stay here too? I want to make sure Kali recovers if that is okay with you?” Lunette requests, knowing this is a place the two of them can hide out for while instead of at an inn.

The doctor lets out a sigh before agreeing, “Fine, but I don’t want too much racket coming from the two of you. The wolf causes enough of it as it is. I don’t need anymore. I live out here because I like things quiet”.

“Okay, thank you mister doctor sir,” Lunette thanks him with a wide grin, making the doctor immediately regret his decision knowing a woman with a disposition such as her’s can only cause trouble.