After recovering from the vivid imagery she had experienced, she set up camp and quickly jogged down her experiences in her notebook. Much had happened since her last entry, and though still shaken, she knew she needed to record everything immediately while it was still fresh in her mind. She wrote about the worms and drew pictures of what they looked like. Then, for every flashback Lilith saw, she wrote every detail and drew as much as she could.

Night quickly approached as Lilith lost track of time. She focused intently on recording everything she could that before she knew it, the hot blue sky turned into a chilly black night. “There,” she said, nodding her head while closing her notebook, then looked around. “When did it-” she paused, surprised by how much time had passed. “Did I do that?” She asked herself, while shifting her attention to the light.

With her anxiety gone and her concentration on writing over, her tiredness quickly overcame every other feeling. Lilith let out a drawn out yawn, she looked around one more time. It was as quiet as it was earlier, and she was happy about that. Spooky with the half-dead trees, but compared to the past two days, it was an amazing feeling, and she knew she could get a good night's sleep… if there were no nightmares.

……….

Lilith awoke from her sleeping bag with a long yawn and eyes that showed a lack of sleep. It was a peaceful night, but every now and then, Lilith would shuffle left and right with squinted eyes before shooting up with bated breath. Then, after calming down, she could quickly fall back to sleep and repeat the process.

After packing everything up and putting it all away, Lilith once again looked at the trees dotted around. “I wonder if the magic has been weakening over the years?” Lilith asked.

That would make sense, she thought.

“I wonder how fast?” Lilith asked, getting close to a tree. She hovered a hand over the trunk, but stopped, second guessing herself.

It’s not worth it, she thought.

“I rather not see those flashbacks again.” Lilith clutched her hand, and after a moment, let her arm fall. “But it was weird. Now that I think about it, the magic flowed like a heartbeat.” Lilith quickly took out her notepad and added in her observation. It was sudden, but it just never crossed her mind until now.

“Alright, where to next?” Taking a deep breath, she took a step back and brought out her map. Considering there were no trees big enough to obscure her vision, it was weird there was no sign of a city.

Was there even one left? She thought.

“There has to be,” Lilith said. “Or at least some of it left…” It was eerily quiet but peaceful as Lilith continued walking. “Why try to keep the trees alive, though?” Lilith asked, yet no one answered. “If there is a demon here, then would they keep this circle alive?”

Does it matter? She thought.

“There are more questions than answers,” Lilith said. “Is it even worth finding out?”

Is it worth dying for? She thought.

Lilith came to a stop.

Finding the city was hard, but it made sense. Just like the mega cities built by humans, the Elven city had a near identical barrier surrounding it as well. The surprise wasn’t that the barrier was there to begin with since it was Elven technology, but the surprise was the barrier was still active. Although Elven technology was leagues above anything else -even though humanity was quickly catching up- it still periodically required an infusion of mana.

Lilith gulped while thinking about what was beyond these walls. She already prepared herself mentally for something dangerous like the earth eaters from before, but now she felt far more worried.

“Let’s look at the upside,” she said, changing her frame of view. “This will be my first time visiting an elven city!” She said cheerfully. Even though the elves migrated west across the ocean to their own continent centuries ago, abandoning these cities, and although their borders are now open to humans, Lilith had yet to receive a carrier job to travel to their cities. This was her first chance, but something seemed different.

After entering the barrier, the mana became much stronger than before, and the trees, unlike the ones outside, looked as if leaves would suddenly appear. They had all their branches, and even looked healthy enough, yet no greenery in sight.

“Huge.” Lilith craned her head and looked up at the gigantic wall overshadowing its surroundings. “It’s more… modern?” Peeking through the opened gate, it left Lilith quite confused. From her research into the western elves, their buildings were more green. Hidden in and between trees, their houses used logs instead of brick. However, Lilith could quickly see that wasn’t the case for this city.

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“I guess this is what the cities used to be like?” Lilith made a guess. “I did see it in the flashback, though, but I wasn’t exactly paying attention to the buildings all too much.”

“Ah!” Lilith exclaimed, taking notice of the letter left by Arthur pinned on the wall.

……….

Arthur here,

This time is a little bit too dangerous.

This is a warning before you enter.

If you didn’t see a single demon the moment you entered the dead forest, then there’s a good chance that thing is still alive and I could not kill it.

The moment you enter the city, the demon will know you’re here, so enter at your own risk.

If you have a way to enter without being noticed, then head to the TEMPLE. The temple is the only haven within the city.

Arthur

P.S.

Arthur, from the future here!

The message above was just in case I died, but that wasn’t the case!

That said, I couldn’t fully kill the demon. Although it’s a demon, it’s something I’ve never seen before. Humanoid with black skin… something was weird. Off.

Anyway, I’ve essentially immobilized it within the castle, so it won’t be able to move for the foreseeable future, but I would still be careful if I were you. It’s sitting on the throne if you want to go look, but be careful. I’m not sure what it’s fully capable of.

Just in case, I attached a map behind this letter with my next destination if you choose to not enter. There’s also a map of the city with the exact location of the temple.

……..

“Humanoid with black skin….” Lilith bit down on her lip. “There’s no way it’s the same one, so does that mean there’s more than one?” She took a deep breath. “Even Arthur doesn’t know what it is?” She looked down at the barrier in her hand, determining if it was a smart thing to do. The one Lily and Jack mentioned had no problem entering the barrier, so that meant it knew of its existence and had no issue going in.

Grinding her teeth, she thought about it a bit longer, then took out Scarlet’s barrier. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t worth attempting to enter the city, knowing what was waiting, but after what she had experienced before, she felt a need to go in and find out. It was clear the Elven king was a cursed person, and the one powering all the magic she had seen had to be the demonized version of him. It was something far too close to what Lilith was, and she had to pursue this lead. The only issue was the delivery…

She knew the importance of what she was delivering, even though she didn’t know what it was, and the smarter thing to do would be to leave this adventure for later, but there was a lot of unknown. If this demon was free and if it knew she was here, then why wouldn’t it take the precaution and go after her, even if she was out of the city? From what Lilith had known, these demons weren’t mindless. They knew what they were doing, so it would make sense to adapt and even become more aggressive.

Lilith looked at the barriers then in the city and back. Maybe it was a false sense of safety, but knowing she was fine up to this moment, she couldn’t help but think it would be fine if she entered the city, and if the demon was loose, she could only imagine already being dead.

“Alright,” Lilith said, pumping herself up. “It should be fine. He said he stopped it.”

But that was 20 years or so ago, she thought.

“He has yet to lead me astray,” Lilith convinced herself.

Putting the barrier away, and keeping Scarlets out, Lilith dumped as much mana as she could into it before taking her first step into the city. A feeling unlike any other washed over her. It was reminiscent of the times she entered the safe havens made by the elves, but something was different. Familiar even but twisted.

“Something’s not right,” Lilith said, her heart beating faster while taking out a stealth vial for emergency sake. Lilith walked slowly, taking each step with caution. The city was as modern as expected with houses and buildings similar to the ones back home. “Was the damage because of Arthur?” Lilith asked herself. She figured some of it was from years ago when the events of the flashbacks unfolded, but some of it seemed newer with clear signs of a fight.

“Arthur seems way stronger than I expected,” Lilith remarked while taking in the damage that was done. The damage scaled with the castle being the large castle being the most damaged.

“Is this…” Lilith stopped, looking around at a place she remembered from the last flashback she experienced. “So this is the place…” She finally let out while looking down the road she recalled. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered the elf calling for help, but as soon as Lilith stepped into the direction, she froze.

A cry so loud caused Lilith’s heart to drop and her body to shake. Fear washed over her entire body as the onslaught of the screech continued. It took her a moment, but after forcing her arms and legs to move, she tossed the barrier away knowing it wasn’t going to help and chugged down the stealth vial just in case. Then, without a second thought, her eyes darted around before making a quick dash to her target.

The cry continued and with teary eyes, she continued to run towards safety. It was her only option, but she was confident she would be fine if she could just make it there. With heavy breathing, blood slowly dripped from her ears, eyes, and nose. The cry only lasted for a few minutes, but it felt as if her insides were scrambled beyond repair.

Her running came to a crawl as Lilith came face to face with the temple’s entrance. She moved her heavy legs in fear of another cry. It felt as if she was moving through knee deep mud, but she couldn’t stop moving. With one more push as her adrenaline was now coming to a stop, she crawled into the temple, a place with a striking resemblance to the previous one.

Collapsing onto the floor, her eyesight became blurry and her hearing was now nonexistent. She tried to keep herself awake, yet her eyes continued to close and everything around her turned black.