As we entered the forest a few minutes later, the visibility around us lessened. It was much darker than other forests here, and we found that there were mists which would rise up unexpectedly in our way. Several times I could see hints of light around us, but it was a sickly kind of light. Fyu told us that they were ghostlights, meant to lure the unwary to their doom.

“Shiar Ghan is the most deadly creature in this forest, to be sure, masters; yet between he and they, these deathly contrivances of the nether are more sinister,” he remarked.

“I'm amazed you can keep us on the right path under these conditions, though,” Maryn said as we plodded steadily through the wood.

“To be sure, it is difficult,” the dog-beast said in reply. “And I cannot promise we have not gone awry. Yet going around these infernal trees would have taken longer, and perhaps your other enemies may have kept on our trail.”

“Maybe,” I had to agree. I quietly looked back towards the east; were our friends holding out okay?

“It's kind of wild how far this competition has escalated,” Ariana sighed as she laid against me.

“It really is.” I nodded back.

“Getting rid of Djaziim isn't even the end of it,” Maryn added. “We have other competitors to deal with besides the King-Priests, and with that demon out of the way a lot of them will be knocking on our door.”

“And Venomheart will be right there with them, probably, since they have the key to eliminating our own trump card,” I said.

“I'll have to look on the forums some time and see if anyone else could make that poison they wanted to use against him.” Ariana noted.

“Come to think of it, it seems unusual for the game to allow that kind of trap or trickery in any NPC's home...” I suddenly thought.

“That's... true...” Maryn agreed. “Shouldn't their plan have not worked at all? Or is it because he's affiliated with us that they could get in there with a trap like that?”

“Ah! Maybe that's it,” I snapped my fingers. “I'll have to look that up later...”

“I would surmise your suppositions are not incorrect on the matter, masters,” Fyu told us. “But speaking for myself, I am grateful to have allied with such generous and wise masters such as yourselves,” he added.

“Aw, thanks, Fyu!” I beamed back.

“Mostly wise, anyway!” Ariana grinned, and Maryn smirked back at us.

That moment of levity was interrupted by a deep, guttural sound of growling that crescendoed into a terrifyingly loud roar. Fyu halted to look around, and Maryn drew out her sword at once while I pulled out my bow and Ariana readied her staff.

“He toys with us.” Fyu said after a moment, sniffing the air again and setting off towards a pathway on the left. “But I can tell where he is; at least we will force him to chase us instead of running headlong into his grasp!”

The dog-beast pulled us along at a faster pace, unerringly heading through the tangles of trees, vines, and mist that clustered around us. I activated Shadow Vision. There were several outlines I could see around me; ghostlights, monkeys and other animals scurrying out of sight, a bear of some kind lifting up its head further in the distance, some sambar deer galloping away, and several kinds of birds either idling about in the trees or flying away from the nearby area.

Now where exactly are they all running from...? I mused as I guesstimated the location, zeroing in on the most likely spot. There, outlined in a shape far larger than I had anticipated, was a huge, cat-like creature. I gulped audibly, and Rachel used her vision skill to look in the direction I had frozen up on.

“Ahh--!” she exclaimed, “Th-that's not a normal tiger size,” she said with a nervous laugh.

N-no kidding!?

“He is quite large, masters.” Fyu said matter-of-factly.

“Dare I ask?” Maryn wondered.

“Y-you'll see if he decides to come chasing,” I returned.

As if on cue, the great shape of the tiger came barreling towards us. Fyu needed no words from us; he immediately picked up the scent of the creature coming after us, and increased his speed. What an ironic reversal of the cats versus dogs trope, I couldn't help but groan to myself inwardly, a crinkly smile on my face. The waggon jostled about as we ran over large roots, narrowly avoided trees and rocks, and occasionally banged off of a smaller sapling.

A few moments later, Shiar Ghan came into view. He was a handsomely fearful looking tiger, almost golden in color, with vague hints of snowy white mingled in his black stripes; one of his eyes was green and the other was amber. Wickedly sharp teeth showed forth from his mouth, and he let out another blood-freezing roar as he caught direct sight of us. I couldn't help but think of that old poem my Grandma Maisy used to quote when she still had her old tom cat:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

That magnificent and arguably malevolent king of the jungles was now on our trail. As a warning shot, I fired Ballistic Arrow, which exploded right in his path. He wasn't even fazed by it. Ari set fire to the surrounding jungle with a flame spell, momentarily halting him, but the beast jumped over the flames and redoubled his pace.

“Anything I can do?” Maryn called back.

“Help Fyu keep on course!” I replied.

“Right!”

“Lana! Left!” Ariana said. I shot a flaming arrow in the direction she indicated while she set off another flame spell towards the right. I let loose two more, and she unleashed a wind spell that began spreading the flames. This time, Shiar Ghan paused more decisively, seeming to take stock of us.

I-if he's actually analyzing us, that's some incredible intelligence they gave him, I thought to myself as we hurried away. The great tiger roared, and, incredibly, the flames went out.

“Gu'hyeck?!” I gaped in disbelief.

“Huhh!?” Ari's eyes widened. Our furry antagonist came galloping our way again, but we had managed to get a small lead on him, at least.

“Shiar Ghan is the king of this jungle, masters,” Fyu explained to us. “Within its bounds there is almost naught he cannot overcome!”

“Heh...?” I mused in a calmer tone. “So if we can just keep delaying him until we get to the edge of this forest...”

“We can get out safely and he'll stop chasing us,” Ariana finished with a smile.

“That is the spirit, masters!” Fyu called back.

With that in mind, the two of us continued with our fiery distractions, keeping Shiar Ghan well behind us as Fyu Dongtian sped along through the trackless jungle. A couple of times the big cat actually jumped into the trees themselves, leaping from tree to tree to try and gain on us that way, but Ariana quickly reacted to each attempt with Flame Burst, and eventually he seemed to give up on that particular tactic. For the better part of forty minutes this dangerous chase kept going; at the end of those long minutes, we finally started to see a break in the trees. Shiar Ghan seemed to know it, too, for he trebled his speed as he came after us.

“Forget the fire, Ari -- use your Feather Enchant on the waggon!” I said to my partner.

“Right!” she nodded at once.

Feather Enchant was a spell that temporarily altered the weight of something to nearly no weight at all. When she had cast it on the waggon, Fyu's speed picked up considerably, allowing us to clear the jungles just as Shiar Ghan made a magnificent leap over a wall of flames I had created with a split-shot of fire arrows. I saw that massive paw with its claws extended striking within millimeters of my face, my heart almost stopping at the sight.

A second later Maryn's shield battered him away, and the massive cat reeled and then rebounded to his feet, almost glaring at us as we left the jungles behind at a swift pace. I almost fainted, Ariana taking my hands while Maryn held on to me from behind. The older girl sighed in relief.

“That was too close.” she said as she patted me on the head.

“Hahh...”

“Nice block, though!” Ari said with a smile.

“Thanks!” the other said happily.

“La-na!” my partner then said to me, snapping her fingers near my face.

“Let's wait until we get closer to the dungeon to snap her out of it,” Maryn suggested, and Ariana nodded. She came to snuggle against me as the older girl got back up to sit in the driver's seat.

“You alive?” Ari softly teased me.

“I guess,” I returned in a dazed tone. “My, kitty, what sharp claws you have...” I then remarked, and she giggled in reply.

“Maybe we'll get to see a real one on our vacation this year!”

“Hyeck!?”

“Now, now, don't give her another heart-attack so soon,” Maryn chided, nevertheless giggling as she said it.

“I'll try! But it's hard when she's so...” Ari turned to me, winking as the two of them chorused the next word.

“Adorkable!” they chimed together perfectly, and then laughed.

Hahh... I thought they finally forgot that word, I thought to myself bemusedly as we continued on our way towards the mountains.

***

As we drew near to the River Sh'ang, Fyu kept on its northern banks, following it back towards its source in the Guarding Mountains. These were not as tall as other mountains we had been through, but they were still vaguely ominous in appearance. Towards the south I could see a village nestled against a smaller stream that ran towards the Sh'ang, an expanse of rice fields stretching out towards the south of it. I looked up towards the mountains themselves; there were hints of movement, and as I turned on Shadow Vision to get a better look I could see them.

Crude huts were roughly outlined against the backdrop of the mountains and their sparse trees, but it was the figures moving around that caught my attention. The ape-men. I wasn't quite sure exactly which kind of ape they were meant to emulate, and I was definitely certain I did not want to find out. None of the adults were less than two meters in height from what I could see, and all of them were far more muscular and burlier in size than most player-races.

“Lana?” Ariana gently put a hand on my shoulder.

“We've got new friends to worry about, probably,” I remarked.

“Fear not, masters; I can better avoid these than I could the tiger,” Fyu told us.

“Don't they have a good sense of smell?” Maryn asked him.

“This is not untrue; yet they fear to come north of the river. There are winged creatures on this side that threaten them as they threaten the humans below,” the dog-beast explained. “They are some dark corruption of great birds that have a certain intelligence, like unto the ape-men but more devious, to my mind.”

“Come to think of it there were things like that in Age of Hyperborea, too... they were a pain to deal with...” I recalled.

“Another world, Lady Lana?” Fyu wondered.

“That's right,” I said, nodding back.

“Hmm. But for now, let us be wary of the things in this one. I believe I can still bring us to our destination on what folk of old called the 'Pilgrim's Steps' when the world was new. This ritual path was for the initiates of Wei-Zhi, who revered the place we are going to as a temple of that mysterious divine.” Fyu told us.

“The Pilgrim's Steps, huh?” Ariana repeated. “What happened to the temple?”

“Insofar as I know, masters, it is yet the same as it was,” the dog-beast replied. “Though I have heard of no pilgrims going to it but ourselves since we made our pact.”

So we'll be entering a temple; I wonder if this will be like the Hallowed Pagoda, where the only real trials were puzzles, with maybe a boss at the end to test us in some way or the other... that'd be ideal. Oh! I bet Ari's cube-thing will be necessary, I mused, looking over at my partner.

“You have that thing, right?” I asked her.

“The octahedron? Right here,” she told me, pulling it out to show me. “You think we'll definitely need it?”

“It'd be strange at this point for it to not have something to do with this dun--err, temple, that we're going to,” I said.

“Hmm... Heali did use it to reveal the location... and it's pretty big, too,” Ari remarked as she gently bounced it. It was about the size of her hand. “I wonder if it acts as a key, too,” she pondered out loud.

“That'd make the most sense.” I agreed. “But I bet there's some sort of gimmick to using it.”

“Oh def.” she nodded back. “Like a riddle or something.”

“Oh boy.”

“Pfft!”

“You do in fact have Wei-Zhi's key in your possession, masters,” Fyu told us. “One thing I do know of it is that the trials at the temple are never the same from one instance to the next.”

“So whatever Rama and Hathisis got isn't what we'll get.” Maryn noted.

“This is so.” Fyu nodded.

“Hmm...” I sighed thoughtfully, gazing around at the forlorn landscape now around us as we ascended into the mountains themselves.

Our journey through them was fairly uneventful. The quiet was eerie, but the bird-things that Fyu had warned us about seemed content to leave us alone so long as we stayed on our course, and of the ape-men we saw virtually nothing. Once or twice one of their scouts peeked up a head to give us a good look, but nothing came of it.

Finally, we came to a venerable covered bridge that connected us to a disused but serviceable roadway which led up towards an ancient flight of stairs. At their top were two great trees, or maybe even columns that looked like trees, between which was set a massive door in the face of the mountain. Fyu took us across the bridge, and then we halted to get off. There was a wayport nearby at the bottom of the steps. The dog-beast gave us a nod as we got out.

“Masters, this is as far as I may go; I will count against your party should I attempt entry.” he told us.

“I kind of figured,” I said with a shrug. “Thanks for getting us here, at least. I'll set it for home, and you can have the steward unhitch you from the waggon. Tell him we said to give you your favorite for supper!” I smiled, giving him a head-rub before dialing up Queen's Haven for him to return to.

“I shall indeed, Lady Lana!” he said with a faint grin. A few moments later he had gone through, and the three of us headed up the long stairs to our destination.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

I suddenly had the vague sense we were being watched. I wasn't sure from where or by who, but -- no, wait... I had definitely felt this kind of sensation before. There was still no clear direction, but I knew we were under the eye of someone from Venomheart. It's probably a far-seer spell like Ari's Mystic Vision, I reasoned as I subtly looked around.

“You feel it too?” my partner said to me as we got near the top.

“Mm, it's like your own spell.” I said.

“It's not quite the same; I think it's a less precise variant that allows far-seeing from a more distant location.” she told me. “Besides the diminished precision, it has the drawback of being something a player can sense, if they're attuned for such things.”

“You having the more precise skill and me being a shadow-player,” I nodded back.

“By the time anyone gets here, though, we'll likely have the orb.” Maryn said. “We'll have to be on the alert for a trap of some kind after we get through this.”

“Agreed.” Ari said.

“Then let's get started... hahh... it is a riddle,” I groaned as we got to the door.

“Hm! 'It is in all things, rarely ceasing', it says...” Ariana read aloud, idly rolling the cube-like object in her hands.

“Conflict.” Maryn said confidently. Ariana turned the octahedron to the side in question, placing it on the receiver. The doors opened, and we ventured inside.

“I don't think it's in everything, exactly...” my partner softly grumbled. I softly grinned, slipping my arm in hers. She smiled at me, and the three of us then began looking around.

We were in a long hall with many doors, each of them marked with various symbols. Two rows of statues lined the hall, each of them holding different kinds of weaponry. As I recounted the doors I noted there were precisely nine doors, and that all the symbols but one were familiar to me. This symbol was above the third door down on the left. It almost looked like a pair of eyes, which I found oddly suitable, if it referred to what I thought it did.

“Won't it be that one?” I pointed to it.

“Hm? Ah!” Ari smiled again, and we headed over to it.

“That must be the ninth orb's symbol,” Maryn said as we got closer. “And that must be Lana's favorite thing.” she smirked, pointing to the riddle underneath it.

“Gyeck,” I slightly stiffened as Ari giggled.

“This one says, 'Like twins they fight; yet how opposite they are',” she read for us. “Oh! That's simple enough; ice and fire,” she said, getting ready to use the key again.

“Hrrmm... I hope it's not looking for a specific order...” I remarked just in time. Ariana held the key out, a crinkly smile on her face as she looked over at me.

“Y-you just had to say that...” she said bemusedly.

“Ahh...” I looked away with a similar expression on my face, and Maryn softly laughed.

“Looks like there is conflict in all things!” she giggled.

“Oy...”

“Heyyy,” Ari and I turned to her with mock indignation.

“Still, it can only be those two things. None of the other symbols make a lot of sense if you 'twin' them; well, maybe ice and the sea, but that's a stretch...” Maryn pondered out loud.

“Well, if it doesn't open by ice and fire, then it should open by fire and ice,” Ariana said as she tried the first variant. The door made a sound this time, and four of the statues came to life.

“Ahh--!” I exclaimed, readying my short-swords.

“Fire and ice it is!” Ariana quickly exclaimed, using it again. The door opened, and the statues suddenly resumed their slumber. As we hurried through the door, I made a mental note to be on the lookout for anything else that might suddenly spring to life or unleash a trap of some kind on us.

After a long corridor that seemed to lead downward, we found ourselves in a sort of chasm, with tricky obstacles and floating platforms that continued into the depths. Seeing nothing that led upward, we decided to follow the path laid out to the bottom. It was at this point of the experience that I was actually glad only three people could enter this dungeon; coordinating a large party to get through these often bizarre hurdles would be a hassle for even an experienced raid-leader.

It brought to mind the time in Midgard Rings where one of the guild-leaders I had been an officer for had all-too patiently put up with people who, despite hearing the instructions three to four times over--consecutively, no less--had still managed to goose everything up, starting the whole process over again. In the end we never did complete the dungeons with those people, who somehow managed to blame our guild-leader in spite of their own incompetence.

Fortunately I was with two people who could basically read my mind about certain things in Panarena, and who were just as quick on the uptake as I was in this world. It was no trouble at all for us to get to the bottom. When we got there, however, there were a series of mystery beings that assailed us; these chased us all the way to the next door, which was also riddle-locked.

“Oh swell.” Maryn sighed as the mysterious creatures continued to follow after us. “What's it say?”

“It says, 'All these things are green; one is life, one holds life, the third has no life at all, and the fourth comes of cuprum' -- what the heck is cuprum?!” my partner said exasperatedly.

“Cuprum, cuprum... copper! It's copper!” Maryn quickly replied, taunting the creatures to get their attention.

“Oh! Okay!” Ariana smiled. “Hmm... that just leaves the other three...”

All of these things are green, huh? Wait... copper... what does copper make green? Isn't it... fire!!

“Ack! Ari, I need your fire!” Maryn called.

“Ari, give it here, I think I have it!” I said to my partner, who nodded as she handed me the key.

“Go for it!” she said, and I turned to the door as she went on the attack.

O-kay... 'is life'... jungle! 'Holds life'... sea! 'No life' -- jade! And finally, fire! I mentally noted as I entered the sequence with the key. The door opened, and I sighed in relief. The mystery creatures went back to their -- to wherever they had come from, and we made our way inside the next door.

“Hmm...? Nice going!” Ari smiled at me as I handed the key back to her.

“Ah-heh, I try,” I grinned in reply.

“Oh, right, copper makes fire green,” Maryn remarked. “Jungles are green, and full of life; the sea sometimes looks green, and has a lot of life... and of course jade is just a precious stone without life,” she continued.

“Lana's getting better with riddles, huh?” Ari said.

“We'll make a riddle-champion out of her yet!” the older girl replied.

“Hahh...” I bemusedly grinned, and the two of them laughed merrily.

The halls we now entered into were deceptively tranquil. Around every corner was a trap of some kind, and even my own skills were sometimes useless to avoid setting them off. One of *those* places, huh? I thought to myself ruefully after encountering the second one of these. Fortunately for us most of them only activated living statues or awakened spectral monsters that we could deal with quite handily, even if it was exacerbating at times to get through them all.

Just about the time I had nearly had enough of this running fight we had unwillingly brought down on ourselves, we stumbled into a room with eight sides. On each wall, including above the door behind us as we entered, was one of the other eight orbs' symbols. On the floor in the center was the ninth symbol. Maryn shut the door behind us, using a nearby table to try and barricade it. I unhappily noticed that there were seven other doors, and that each of them had sounds coming from behind them.

“Oh boy.” I sighed. “What's our way out?”

“Oh! There's a ninth door! It's in the center!” Ariana exclaimed, dashing over to it. We followed her, and she suddenly halted, looking sheepish. “… There's no ninth symbol on this key...” she quietly lamented.

“Gyeck!?”

“Ahh--!!” Maryn and I started in realization.

“Wait! Wasn't there a boss monster in that last train coming after us?” I suddenly recalled.

“Ohh! Good call! Maybe that one had something for this door!” Ari snapped her fingers.

“Hahh... I'll un-barricade the door,” Maryn said with a half-grin as she went to pull away the table.

“It's the blue and green one, remember,” Ariana told me.

“Gotcha.”

“I'm enchanting your swords so they can hit spectral monsters like it.”

“Right!” I nodded as Maryn opened the door.

“Go!” our shield-user told me, and I entered Shadow World, using Shadow Speed to barrel past the other monsters in search of the one Ariana had mentioned. I quickly found him, and disposed of him using the deadly combo-skill. Sure enough, a key appeared in my inventory. With my remaining time for Shadow Speed, I hurried back to the room, Maryn shutting the door again just as I entered. I set the key to the lock, and as soon as Maryn rejoined us it opened. Or rather, it went poof.

“Huh?!”

“What the--!?”

“Eek!!” the three of us cried out as the door dematerialized, and we began falling down a long, long... really super-long chute, screams bursting forth from us as we fell.

“I hate this trope!!” I cried out in-between screams.

“Where's the bottom?!” Ariana wondered frantically.

“Don't tell me there isn't one!?” Maryn sighed, and we began screaming again.

I'm not sure how long we were falling, but eventually we landed -- on a long, long, really stupidly long slide. The three of us held on to each other for dear life as we spiraled down on the thing, barely noticing the motifs around us that seemed to deal with all sorts of riddles, mysteries, paradoxes, and other similar things.

Uh-oh. I suddenly had a frantic thought, looking over at Ariana. Th-this has gotta be like... like a roller-coaster for her... I belatedly realized. She had shut her eyes, and was clinging to me for dear life. I wrapped my arms around her more securely, and Maryn enveloped the two of us in her own arms.

After who knows how long (it was probably only a couple of minutes, but it certainly didn't feel that way), we finally ended up at the end of the slide and landed in a heap at what was apparently the bottom. I can only imagine how comical we looked, the three of us sprawled out on the ground as we were and completely exhausted from our “trip” down. I tried to stand up, but I was still stupidly dizzy, and fell face-first onto the ground. I could hear Maryn laughing in an out-of-breath way as she herself tried to regain her feet, falling back on her behind with a thump. This of course made Ari laugh, and soon we were all laughing for a few minutes. Then I tried again, and got to my feet more successfully. I helped the others up, and we began looking around.

“Woof,” I said as I nearly stumbled again. “Oh, that's the way, over there,” I pointed, seeing a passageway marked with the ninth symbol overhead.

“Let's go,” Maryn said, catching me as I stumbled a second time, Ariana taking hold of me from the other side.

“That was too wild, even for us,” she smiled, her voice faint.

“Y-yeah,” I agreed.

She still seems a bit shaken up by it, huh? I noted to myself. Not that I have much room to talk, I grimaced as I felt my legs nearly give way again.

“Oop! Ari, do you mind if I carry her?” Maryn asked.

“If you're up for it, go ahead,” my partner said, and Maryn had me get up on her in piggy-back style while Ariana leaned on her staff and the wall for support as we continued ahead.

As we made our way slowly through the passage, I looked around at the designs on the wall. They were comprised of the same motifs and designs that I could recall seeing--briefly--on our descent. Each of them had an air of mystery and secrecy about them, some inexplicable meaning in their curious artistry. Most of them had a female figure presiding over or central to their design. I understood this to be Wei-Zhi, the patron of this temple.

“Some of these look disturbingly like things I've seen in my philosophy classes...” Maryn remarked with a weary sigh.

“You think so?” Ariana wondered.

“Mm, or maybe it's just me.”

“Where's the end?” I remarked, using Shadow Vision to scan the area before us.

“It looks pretty endless so far,” Ari said as she did the same with her own skill.

“At least there's no enemies,” I returned, switching mine off a moment later.

“That you can pick up, anyway.” Maryn added.

“Ahh--! True... it is that kind of place...” I recalled. “Oh, I think I can walk straight now,” I then said. But Maryn kept on going. I could see Ariana smirking over at her. “Ahh... Maryn?”

“Hmm?” the older girl turned back.

“Ahh... I can walk now, I'm pretty sure,” I told her with a shy smile.

“You're pretty sure? Or you are sure?” she softly grinned back.

“Ehh...”

“In that case you can stay right there!” she replied, turning back to the passage before us.

“Heh!? Ah--Ari...?” I looked over at my partner.

“I can let her have this much.” she lightly quipped, and I resigned myself to my fate, feeling my cheeks color.

***

Eventually, Maryn did set me down. We had just reached a suspiciously large door, and I was released to help investigate it. Ariana activated her Mage Lights, the luminescent orbs aiding us to get a better idea of what we were dealing with. There was a long riddle on the door, one which even I could read.

First is cold to chill the bone,

Second, the fight -- be not alone!

Third is a depth that merfolk know

While fourth is a thing to come and go;

Fifth is a radiance of heat,

And sixth, the stones upon the gate;

The seventh goes where it will,

But under the eighth all is still--

Around this dial, turn them right,

And the mystery then will be in sight!

“Hmm...” I rubbed the back of my neck, pondering the words.

“Basically we have to go clockwise,” Ariana said as she approached the door, taking note of the dial. “They're not quite in order... but it looks like... Ice, Contestation, Sea, Dreams, Flames, Jade, Wind, and Jungle.” she said, carefully using the key to enter the right sequence.

“But does the mystery refer to the orb itself, or to whatever might be guarding it?” Maryn wondered.

“I guess we'll find out,” I shrugged as Ariana finished the sequence.

The door opened, and a flash of light enveloped us for a moment. When it was over, we were in a room of ephemeral beauty, an ethereal presence all around us. I felt oddly calm, and I could see the others in a similar tranquility. Then, a female voice spoke to us.

“Riddles three for seekers three; answer true, as becometh you, and the orb indeed shall be for thee!” it said to us.

“Wei-Zhi,” I remarked softly.

“First: the more you give, the more you have; the less you get, the more you want.” the voice then said to us.

“Love.” Maryn answered immediately.

“Second,” the voice said again.

Hmm... it sounds like Maryn won't be able to answer the next two... I noted.

“The less you have, the more you want; the more you have, what more could you want?” Wei-Zhi asked us. I saw Ari's face light up with a smile.

“Time.” she said confidently.

That makes sense... oh boy, my turn, I thought as the voice started again.

“Thirdly: what is the goal of a life worth living?” the question came.

G'hyeck!?!--was my initial thought.

Wait... is this one of those things I tend to overthink? Maybe it has something to do with this place, this temple, or its philosophy... secrets, mysteries... oh!

“The goals of a life worth living are a mystery, for each of us have our own,” I replied.

“Well done, mortals. Enter now the Vault of Secrets, and claim your prize.” the voice said to us, and a door to our right opened.

We made our way inside, and claimed the Orb of Mysteries that sat upon a pedestal in the center. There was also a small chest that appeared in the room; inside it was a ring for each of us, each of them with a similar effect to the Bands of Unity that Ariana and I had, except this time it was for three people.

“The Perfect Triad, they're called,” I noted.

“The three players who wear these get an extra bonus in attacking or defending, plus thirty to vitality, it says,” Ariana read.

“Oh, cool,” Maryn smiled. “Hmm... I'll take the sapphire one.”

“Emerald!” Ari said happily.

“Leaving me the amethyst, huh?” I remarked as I took out the gold ring with its purple stone.

“Now then, let's get out of here.” Maryn said, and we made our way to the door on the other side of the room.

“Don't forget we might have an uninvited guest waiting for us,” I suddenly recalled.

“Ooh, right,” Ariana nodded, placing a couple of ward-spells on us as we entered the door. Like the puzzle door, there was a flash of light, and then we materialized outside the dungeon on an overlook of the mountains. I looked around quickly, espying the object of my concerns a couple dozen meters away from us.

Further down the path from us was a girl with green hair, dressed in the iconic fashion of a witch, Gothic-style. That's Clara Toxin, huh? I mused to myself, quickly using Shadow Sharing to hide us from sight before she could notice.

“Too late.” our enemy called up toward us. “I just saw the flash of light. Even if you sneak down to me from there, one of my traps will get you.” she said to us smugly.

Tch!! I inwardly hissed. None of us dared to move. I used Shadow Vision, and Ariana augmented it with Arcane Seeker; there was quite the plethora of nasty traps in our path.

“You won't get me the way you got me last time, you little rat. Ugh, I'm so sick of hearing Mel-mel fawn over you... why couldn't she just count on me for that sort of thing? After all, you have your boyfriend in the real world, even if you do play around with that wizard here...”

She really does think Rachel is Lana, huh? I quietly mused. I could hear Ariana's grip on her staff tightening; I reached over, gently enveloping her hand in my own. She looked over, biting her lip as she nodded back.

“It's laughable, really... she's trying so hard for someone so definitely unavailable to her... ha! She'll try so hard to focus on you I bet she fails her fencing tournament this summer. And then I'll be the only one who can console her... you think I'm wrong? I was her first friend here in this world; the only one she unburdened herself to. Not her brothers, not her parents -- certainly no one at that school of yours!”

Brother-s, huh? As in more than just Malcolm?

“I'll always be here for her... just for her, and only her! All my heart, all my soul -- every part of me, just for her,” Clara declared to the ostensibly empty air.

I mean, I can kind of understand her... or maybe not at all... it's gotta be frustrating to be in love with someone who's in love with someone else... ahh--!!

I glanced sidelong at Maryn. There was a vague hint of pain in her eyes. Clara's words, however possessive, did have a sort of resonance for her. My heart sank.

I don't want to see anyone hurt. I don't. Is there a right answer? Does she have to be hurt no matter what? I don't want that! I thought to myself frustratedly.

“Hah... you haven't even moved, have you?” Clara's voice said. I turned back to her; now her eyes were green.

Snap!! Witch's Eye!! I recalled instantly. It was a skill that allowed certain magic-users to see through shadow skills.

“That's fine! You can sit there and die, and I can collect the orb from your corpses!” she called, laughing evilly.

Just as she was getting ready to cast a spell, two great balls of flame landed at her location. With a shriek she jumped away and began racing down the path. I looked up in the air. It was Dracuoatlax!

“Lady Lana, hurry!” the dragon said as he reached our position; we jumped aboard his back as if we had been shot from a cannon, and he began flapping away towards home.

“Nice timing, friend!” I said as we flew out of Clara's spell-casting range.

“It is my honor, Lady Lana!” he said with a smug grin. “At last I can vindicate myself against your enemies and mine!”

“You said it, pal. You said it.” I agreed, patting his back as we flew through the skies of Panarena.