"We'll take a short break, then we'll proceed. It'll be over soon, folks. I need everyone at their best—we're almost finished," Alex addressed his troops, taking a moment to check on his soldiers and boost morale as much as possible.
Once he had settled his soldiers' restlessness, he made his way to a secluded spot where Kragash awaited him with some rations of dehydrated food.
"What do you think is behind the door, sir?" the young Gnoll asked.
"I don't know. What about you? What do you expect to find?" Alex deflected the question.
"I really don't want to fight that void entity again. It was abnormally powerful. However, I sense a tremendous disturbance of void energy on the other side of the room. Although nothing 'alive' remains, there are still traces of void energy lingering. Something must be sustaining them," Athena responded.
"As for me, there's no doubt that those here are elves or have connections with elves. I just need to find something that connects this group with the faction that killed my husband, and I'll have a lead on where to start searching," Torel replied.
"What about you, sir? Is there something you hope to find?" Kragash asked.
"Actually, there's nothing here for me. Since it's been verified that they were with the elves, I doubt there's any information about humans, specifically those who came from the same planet as me," Alex replied.
"You know, although this forest is spoken of as if it were a local identity, the spirit of the forest is one and large in essence. Its roots extend to the very birth of this world. Although its being is fragmented into multiple personalities in each forest, all of them can communicate with each other. It's very likely that you can find your people through the forest," Athena commented after pondering.
"Do you really think he can do that? Thousands of people have tried for centuries to obtain something from the forest spirits, but no one has ever been known to actually make contact with them," Torel remarked.
"It's really difficult for 'civilized' beings to connect with the forest. It usually proves easier for beasts and other races. However, the boy is different; he has the favor of the forest, for whatever reason. So, although I can't say for certain, it's very likely that the forest spirit would be willing to listen to you, at the very least," Athena replied.
"So, the forest hates the 'civilized,' it would be happier if we fed on the babies of other species," Torel scoffed.
"You 'civilized' creatures do that yourselves. Don't deny that you hunt the young animals of the forest under the guise of their meat being tender," Athena retorted.
"Well, their meat is indeed tender," Torel responded without a hint of apology in his tone.
"Regardless, we're not interested in your behavior or your insipid justifications. In the forest, there are only two laws, and one of them is that the most adaptable wins," Athena replied.
"What the hell does that mean?" Kragash asked, confused.
"Even the strongest can die of hunger if there's nothing left to hunt. However, the most miserable rat can survive hidden in a cave if it can feed on stones," Alex explained.
Alex, with a pensive look, added: "Allow me to quote Charles Darwin, a famous naturalist who studied the evolution of species. He said, 'It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.' In this forest, and in life in general, it's not about who's the strongest or fastest, but who can adapt best to new circumstances. Those who learn and adapt, thrive. Those who resist change, fall behind. That's how evolution works."
"That doesn't sound very logical to me. If you're very strong, you should be able to overcome anything," Kragash responded.
"It's not, little one. Perhaps you don't know, but at least a dozen species have been wiped out from this forest in the last hundred years. One of them was among the top 5 for a long time—the violent boars of Iretar. In one of the chaos invasions, they thought their strength would reign supreme over the weak chaos spawn. Their arrogance led to their downfall. Nowadays, hardly anyone talks about them; they've almost been forgotten," Athena replied.
The atmosphere fell silent for a brief moment, and the defiant Kragash, who still held onto the belief that strength was everything, began to reconsider the matter.
"It's been a nice conversation about evolution, but what do you say we focus on this big, heavy, ominous door in front of us that surely doesn't hold void monsters that could end us?" Torel interjected abruptly.
"I agree. The atmosphere down here is starting to become suffocating," Alex responded.
The others nodded.
"Alright, troops, prepare your weapons and armor. The final battle is likely near. Remember always that those beside us are our brothers and we must do everything in our power to ensure they return home with us. We didn't travel this far to be buried in this damned temple. We still have many other brothers to liberate on the surface," Alex shouted to his troops.
"For freedom!" the soldiers shouted in response to his rallying cry.
The soldiers began their preparations, even Torel made his own preparations, this time entering ready for combat from the outset.
Athena, on the other hand, had depleted much of her energy and was not recovering, so she couldn't rely on her transformation. However, she could still fight in her basic form and even use elemental magic.
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Alex distributed replenishing herbs among his initiates to restore their energy, although it was a waste of resources since they hadn't yet developed their fundamentals. However, it was clear that having an excess of forest energy in their bodies provided them with a much greater resistance to fatigue than their peers, as well as slightly improved strength and dexterity. Every advantage they could gain would be necessary, and even if there was nothing behind the door, it was always better to be safe than sorry.
The confirmations from the different squads came in one by one, and they all began to assemble in front of the grand door.
"Everyone ready?" Alex finally asked.
"Ready," Torel responded, his hair slightly tousled as if there were a strong wind around him, one that the rest couldn't feel.
On his shoulder sat Athena, her white fur gleaming, and the wind around her shining, almost like snowflakes. There was a strong magical radiation emanating from her that could blind those who looked at her carelessly.
"Ready," Athena responded.
Finally, there was Kragash, who carried a rather large shield in addition to a short sword. The contrast was almost laughable, but everyone knew the young boy's intention. His hands trembled because down here, in the depths of the earth, in front of this ominous door, they could all feel traces of void energy and corruption left behind.
"Re-rea-ready," Kragash responded.
Alex looked him straight in the eyes, and although he saw fear, he also saw determination, so he knew there were no words in this world that could dissuade the boy.
Finally, Alex closed his eyes to look within himself, traveling to the island with the shield and sword statue and the stone tree.
The statue was still severely cracked, and although many pieces had come off, the statue tried to keep them floating in the air near them, with the same optimism as someone who cuts off a finger and then keeps it attached to the rest of the hand in the hope that it will reconnect, or that the doctor will manage to reattach it.
Alex tried to feel his connection with the statue.
A wave of power illuminated his body in an ashen crimson color. For a moment, he felt the power, the strength to wield a great weapon and carry heavy armor, the strength to face the waves of hell itself. However, what followed was weakness and fragility; he felt like a sickly child, weakly hoping his mother would see him as sick enough not to send him to class.
"You're not ready. I understand," Alex murmured.
He turned to look at the stone tree.
At the same time, the tree's crown looked at him.
Alex began to disconnect from the statue slowly and instead started to connect with the tree.
Over time, he had gained much experience handling forest energy, feeling its intricate truths, and now he had understood one of its powers. He had finally developed active techniques where he could use his energy in the field. A green light began to condense in the tree's crown, then split into two. One traveled to Alex's forehead and began to trace a tattoo with tribal shapes. Interestingly, it seemed that the tattoo used exactly the left half of Alex's forehead.
The other light entered his left hand and began to trace tattoos with the same motif, covering almost half of his hand.
Alex had developed these techniques by himself with his knowledge of forest energies. Of course, his high affinity with the forces of the forest allowed him to greatly accelerate his understanding of its energy. Another positive aspect was that from now on, he would not only have a wider arsenal of his own but these could even be taught to his initiates, although the effectiveness of the techniques would vary depending on the degree of affinity.
"Good," Alex murmured finally satisfied to have been able to condense two abilities. He knew exactly what they did, so there was only left to test them on the battlefield.
Finally, he dedicated some last looks to the statue and the tree. Alex had a great natural source of energy, it could be said that it was between 4 to 5 times greater than that of an ordinary person for some reason, so much so that he generally never ran out of it since he had developed his own reservoir.
However, now that he had to start using it, he had realized that he had to dedicate even more forest energy to maintain the condition of his ash energy. He raised both hands and extended the roots of the stone tree to surround the shield where the stone statue stood, and designated a large portion of his reserve energy to preserving his source of ash energy.
Satisfied with his decision, he finally stepped out of his inner space.
"Forward!" he shouted to his troops.
The soldiers turned the crank.
At first, nothing happened, but soon a crackling sound began to resonate. Slowly, the doors began to open, and those present could swear that the crackling sound sounded like a laughter.
Ha ha ha ha, the door sounded like an old senile person laughing at the stupidity of youth and their audacity. They wanted to fight against the void, ha, with only those pathetic numbers, ha ha ha, the door exclaimed constantly until it was completely open.
"Forward!" Alex shouted.
There were no more rallying cries or encouraging shouts.
Everyone began to march forward, feeling as darkness engulfed them. Crossing the threshold of the temple door felt like submerging oneself in an extremely viscous liquid, giving the sensation that something had stuck to their bodies.
The nervousness of the troops began to rise slowly as they advanced, as their torches didn't allow them to see the walls of this new room they had entered.
As the troops continued to advance, they suddenly heard a sardonic laugh—something was laughing maniacally, somehow sounding like the laughter of a boy delighting in his trap.
"The door!" one of the soldiers from the rear guard shouted, realizing that the laughter was coming from behind.
Quickly, that squad ran back to see what was happening with the door, but after a short run where they should have reached the door by now, they found nothing. The limited vision of the torches didn't allow them to see much further, but they were sure of one thing—the door had disappeared.
"Get back to formation!" Alex ordered with a shout, watching the group that had separated from their formation. There was darkness on the floor that separated both groups, and fear began to grow in the group that had separated—they somehow felt as if they were at a great distance from their comrades.
The group slowly began to return, fearing that they might encounter an impassable chasm that would permanently separate them from the group. Darkness could hide many things, and now they were beginning to regret their rushed decision.
The squad had a lump in their throats, and although they wanted to scream to relieve the tension, nothing came out of their mouths. They had no choice but to keep walking back.
Slowly, they made their way back, and a sigh of relief could be heard coming from their mouths.
The soldiers of that squad were immediately admonished by some of the more veteran soldiers, so Alex let them deal with it.
"Do you feel that?" Alex asked.
"I don't feel anything," Torel replied, serious.
"Neither do I," said Athena, frowning.
"No, sir," Kragash responded.
"It's extremely rare. I don't feel anything, almost as if there's nothing beyond this darkness. However," Alex said, closing his eyes.
He knew something was wrong, and both Torel and Athena had tried their tricks, but they hadn't been able to penetrate the mystery.
Alex thought it would be necessary to use his own trick, although he really didn't want to because it would require using a thread of ash energy to disperse any presence that was trying to cloud his judgment for a fraction of a second if there really was a power to cloud his judgment. However, it wasn't necessary.
"Incoming hostile force, we're surrounded!" Torel shouted.