Elijah immediately cast Healing Rain, then cycled Soothe onto each of his companions. At the same time, he whipped around, searching for the source of so much movement in the ambient ethera. Yet, he found nothing, even when he focused all of his attention on One with Nature.

“I have a really bad feeling about this, bro,” Dat said, holding his crossbow to his shoulder as he scanned their surroundings. “A really bad feeling.”

“You jinxed it,” Elijah muttered. “Now something terrible is going to happen.”

Just then, the sound of cracking ice filled the air, drawing their attention to the statues all around them. Elijah peered closer, looking even deeper into the sense granted by One with Nature. And when he saw what was happening, his complexion turned pale. But before he could warn his companions, the first ice sculpture moved.

“What the –”

Kurik never got the chance to finish the exclamation, because the closest statue hit him with a backhanded blow that sent him flying across the chamber. He slammed into the ground, then slid to a stop a few feet later. Thankfully, Elijah’s quick thinking with Soothe kept the dwarf from losing consciousness, but none of them could afford to pay any attention to his fate. Instead, they were busy reacting to the suddenly mobile statues all around them.

Elijah had some insight into what was going on. As had been the case with the trees and crops, the ice in the sculptures wasn’t really ice at all. Or not completely. Instead, it was a collection of microorganisms that used ethera to bond with their host. The ice was simply a byproduct of that process. However, unlike was the case with the flora, the frost bacteria in the statues had been weaponized and mobilized into something wholly different.

Something extremely dangerous.

“Don’t let it get on you!” he screamed.

“What? Why?” demanded Sadie, already embracing her personal shield. She also used Consecrated Shield on Dat, leaving Elijah and Kurik to fend for themselves. It was a bad move, considering that the dwarf was the most vulnerable among them, but Elijah wasn’t going to tell her how to use her own abilities.

Backing away from the statues, Elijah answered, “The ice is like those fungi that take over insects. I don’t know how I didn’t immediately see it. It’s not symbiotic. It’s parasitic. Or viral, maybe.”

Indeed, the ice-based microorganisms had more in common with a virus than with fungi, but old, Earth-based classifications were wholly ineffective in describing their new world. It would take someone much more intelligent – and diligent – than Elijah to understand it all.

But for now, he only needed to destroy it.

So, as the rest of the statues came alive, Elijah leveled his staff at one, then used Storm’s Fury. A bolt of lightning arced out, slamming into the nearest statue’s chest. Oddly, Elijah recognized the shape as a human, and in a moment of clarity just before the thing went stumbling backward, he realized that the sculptures almost assuredly had once been other Trial-takers who hadn’t had the misfortune of running into an ice worm. Instead, they’d entered the challenge through the front door.

It was a clear warning, and one they could not ignore.

“Retreat! Go full defensive,” he shouted.

“What are you going to do?” Sadie yelled over the sound of grating ice. She kicked out, connecting with one of the statues. Thankfully, they moved slowly and were quite light, so the result of her kick sent the thing crashing backward into the other ice sculptures. However, when she pulled her foot back, she nearly stumbled as her leg collapsed under her. Elijah sent a cast of Nature’s Bloom her way, and she recovered.

“I have an idea.”

“What is it?”

“No time to explain! Just do what I asked! Please!”

Sadie clearly didn’t like the notion of following his orders, but she wasn’t willing to argue in the middle of a battle. So, she and Dat retreated to where Kurik was struggling to rise, collected the dwarf, then carved a path to one of the chamber’s corners. Without a means of escape – the doors had already sealed behind them – the most they could hope for was a defensible position. That was what the corner represented, though it was far from ideal.

As Sadie used her skills to defend the others, Elijah leaped as high as he could manage, then shifted into the Shape of the Sky. He flew to the vaulted ceiling, latching onto one of the beams before adopting his human form. Clutching the stone buttress with one hand, he extended his staff, pointed it at one of the statues, and used Nature’s Rebuke.

He had good reason to expect it to work. After all, the creatures were made of the same stuff that had suffused the ice worm, and he suspected that that was the reason his spell – or the system – had classified it as unnatural. Because that was what the living ice was. It had taken him some time to come to that conclusion, but now that he had, it seemed so obvious.

Ice wasn’t supposed to be alive, but even if it was, it certainly wasn’t meant to be weaponized.

And he prayed that his spell would recognize that fact.

Nature’s Rebuke blasted into the statue, and for a moment, there was no indication that it had done a thing. The spell didn’t come with any fancy lights or outward effects. Instead, it was entirely invisible, completely silent, and wholly unimpressive looking.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Until the ice sculpture started to melt.

At first, it was represented by a sheen of moisture on its exterior, but then, it started to look like someone had shoved an ice cube into a microwave. It melted, leaving a puddle of water on the ground. That was all the encouragement Elijah needed before he got to work, casting the spell on every ice sculpture in the chamber.

As one statue after the next melted, the air filled with more swirling ethera. Moreover, the puddles tried to coalesce and reform into ice crystals, but Elijah’s spell prevented them from amalgamating. Meanwhile, Sadie and the others fought for their lives, defending themselves as Elijah clambered to cast his spell, over and over, as quickly as possible.

Then, at last, the final sculpture melted, leaving a floor covered in a sheen of water. The puddles were not inert, though. Indeed, they continued to pull themselves back together. Elijah refused to allow that, continuously casting Nature’s Rebuke until, minutes later, the water evaporated.

The ambient ethera stilled, and Elijah finally resumed his flight form before gliding down to join his companions. He spent a few more moments healing them until a voice echoed through the chamber.

“How dare you?” it demanded in a hiss. Elijah searched for the voice’s owner, yet he found nothing. “You come into my domain, kill my servants, then destroy my work? Who do you think you are?”

“Show yourself!” Sadie shouted, having fully recovered. She’d only taken a few hits during the fight, though things would have been much worse if Elijah hadn’t destroyed the sculptures so efficiently.

Finally, Elijah found the culprit. They were one of the Ka’alaki, though a larger and more muscular example of the race. More importantly, they were entirely invisible. The only reason Elijah found them was because of One with Nature, and even that sense was barely adequate to the task. There was no void, as there had been with previously encountered invisible opponents like the vampire he’d killed in the Magister’s Estate. Instead, he could only sense a slight agitation in the ambient ethera.

Elijah aimed his staff at the spot and let loose with Storm’s Fury. Lightning tore across the chamber, scorching into the invisible Ka’alaki. They flashed into visibility, though seemed entirely unhurt.

“You will regret that, intruder.”

“It’s not nice to hide from your guests,” Elijah quipped, his own ethera stirring as he prepared a number of spells.

“Guests? Invaders. How many have you killed, then? Hundreds of my loyal subjects. It is bad enough that we have been exiled, that our planet has been excised, but then you slaughter my innocent retainers?” the creature demanded. “Have you no shame? No morality?”

“They’re stalling,” Elijah said, feeling tendrils of living ice creeping across the chamber’s floor.

“On it,” said Dat. Then, miraculously, he disappeared even from Elijah’s perception.

At the same time, Sadie stepped forward, and Kurik drew an arrow from his quiver. For his part, Elijah focused on what he was feeling, and he didn’t like it. Not one bit. There was something familiar, yet corrupted about the Ka’alaki and those tendrils of ice. Something disturbing. Something unavoidable.

“You’re a Druid,” he said.

That surprised the creature, and they cocked their head to the side in confusion. Then, their shoulders sagged. “Once upon a time, that was true,” they said. “So long ago…”

“What happened?” Elijah asked, stepping past Sadie. He was disgusted by what he felt, but there was still a undefinable kinship stretching between him and the other Druid. He wanted answers. He needed to fix the horror of what he felt, to remove the pulsating tumor marring what should have been a beautiful thing.

Because it was obvious that the Druid had been corrupted, that they no longer served nature. Elijah needed to know why.

“What did not?” sighed the Druid. “Do you know what happens to nature on an excised world?”

“No.”

“Cut off from the world tree, it becomes something else. Something wild and free, but also debased. The taint infects everything, though those of us closest to it feel it most keenly.”

“I’ve felt the world out there,” Elijah said. “It’s fine. A little different, but…”

“Silly child. Nature cannot be denied, even without the input of the mighty World Tree. But we are not so enduring. Nor are our domains. Once, I was the steward of a magnificent grove of ice. The living ice you’ve encountered was once benign. Beneficial, even. But now, it is all I can do to control it. The perversion of the excisement made it so,” the Druid said. “That is why you must surrender.”

“What?” asked Elijah.

“You are not the only one participating in a Trial,” the creature said. “Ours is simpler. More dire. We need only kill your people, down to the last individual, and we will be reconnected to the World Tree. That will save this planet. Otherwise…we are doomed. Even with the protection of the Corruptor, we will succumb. One deity – even one as powerful as the Lightning Emperor – cannot hold back the Ravener for all eternity. He will fall, and with him, the rest of us will be consumed. It is inevitable.”

“Inevitable,” Elijah echoed. “Why was this planet excised.”

“That is not important,” said the Ka’alaki Druid. “The only thing you should be asking yourself is if you believe the lives of a few thousand of your people are more important than an entire planet.”

“We can leave,” Elijah suggested. “The system has given us that option.”

“For now.”

“Are you saying that we’ll be cut off?” asked Sadie.

“I am. The system is only there to help those who help themselves. It does not care. It is incapable of taking pity. If you do not give it the results it is designed to seek, then it will change the entire paradigm. It is a machine, and one with a purpose. To it, nothing else matters.”

“Who did you betray?” Elijah asked.

“What?”

“The system notification we received after entering this challenge called you the Betrayer,” Elijah explained, assuming that the Druid was the object of their task. “Who did you betray that it gets you that label from the system?”

“Everyone,” the Druid answered. Then, they added in a quiet voice, “And everything.”

Just then, the floor exploded as vines of ice and corruption erupted through the tiles. Elijah was ready for it, though, and he shoved Sadie and Kurik out of the way. The tendrils themselves were as thick as Elijah’s waist, so when they hit the ground, they did so with enough force to crack stone. The shockwave of the impact sent Elijah and his companions tumbling to the side.

But his quick action only gave them a moment’s respite, because a dozen other icy vines were coming their way. Elijah readied himself, letting loose with his various spells. Precipitation began to fall, bathing them in healing as he cast Nature’s Rebuke on one of the vines. It took hold, and Elijah sensed that its damage was accelerated and enhanced by the unnaturalness of the icy vines. However, they were so large and powerful that he knew that their dissolution wouldn’t come quickly enough to save them.

Then, suddenly, the vines quivered and fell inert, crashing to the floor before they’d even had a chance to get started with the devastation they were intended to bring forth.

And when the dust settled, Elijah saw that the Druid had fallen. Standing over him was Dat, his shortsword covered in blood.

“Good job keeping him distracted, bro,” the Witch Hunter said. “I don’t think I could’ve snuck up on him otherwise.”