“Benny boy, wait up.”

Despite the request, Ben continued at the same pace making sure not to react. The sound of heavy footsteps followed behind him.

“Come on. Don’t be upset. I’m only a little late.” Though he couldn’t see his friend’s face, he could detect the obvious smirk of satisfaction in his voice.

Ben kept up his silent protest as he walked down the busy street. People quickly shifted out of his way. Either he was projecting an aura of irritation, or his notoriety was coming into play as everyone gawked and stared.

Passing by the final gate of the city, the guards saluted him and his companion who continued to silently follow behind.

Once they were a few hundred meters beyond the gate, Ben decided to break the silence. “Why were you late?”

“Late?” his friend asked puzzled. “Oh! Oh. It was nothing. Just a bit tired,” he answered without the usual enthusiasm.

Turning, he stared into the green eyes of his best friend. “Lucian, where were you this morning?” His voice held an edge of accusation to it.

Lucian shifted his eyes for a second, but that was enough to know he wanted to avoid the question. “What’s the big deal? I am only an hour late.”

“Two.”

Lucian just shrugged. “These things happen.”

“I went looking for you. Nobody had seen you all night. Even your usual nightly haunts,” Ben accused.

“Ahh… I was with a new girl.”

“Where and who?”

“What the hell is going on? Why are you getting on my case?” Lucian’s tone turned defensive.

“I searched for you for two hours. I couldn’t find you anywhere in the city. No blood signature anywhere. Not a soul knew of your location. The guards never saw you leave.” Ben couldn’t help but let out a concerned tone equal to the panic and hurt he had felt inside. He knew it was irrational to get upset at his friend. Lucian didn’t yet know of the news they had received at the mourning call.

“What the fuck does it matter? So, I was a little late. I don’t understand why you are getting so worked up. It’s not like you’ve never been late before.”

Ben took a step getting in Lucian’s face. His blood boiled. “If your ass had been at roll call, you would have known that two teams didn’t check in last night. Both were patrolling the Jungle Myr. Eight squads, including us, were ordered to find them with haste,” Ben reiterated. “And in case you weren’t aware, it was Squad Torch and Awe, and Squad Echo 9.”

“Lucian’s mouth rounded in an “O” shape as it dawned on him. “Danielle is missing?” his voice filled with worry.

Ben nodded. “I thought you might have been missing with them.” The possibility of losing his best friend frightened him. Though he wouldn’t admit it aloud. It was a given that their lives would be in danger every time they left the sanctuary of their city and its walls.

“Fuck.” Lucian ran a hand down his hair. Turning his body, Ben could see he was gripping his black hair tightly. “Fuck, fuck fuck,” Lucian repeated.

Not needing to say anymore, Ben took a dagger from his belt and drew it across his palm. Crimson blood pooled immediately. With a mere thought, the blood crawled down his arm and to his back where it began forming into a pair of wings. The cut remained open, but no blood no longer spilled from it. Flexing his hand, only a minor pain remained. Just a nuisance he was used to by now. “Ready?” Ben asked.

“One second,” Lucian said, as he tugged down his monster hide chest armor that had appeared from nowhere.

Ben knew that upon entering the fourth realm, Lucian had unlocked a skill that allow him to store items inside an independent space inside his body. All of the other soldiers and merchants envied that ability. Though he claimed he wasn’t able to keep store much inside it for now since the skill was only at level 1.

The two took flight, with Ben’s wings quickly propelling him up and over the trees. Lucian followed. His space manipulation was much less flashy than a pair of red wings comprised of liquid blood.

Flying side by side, the two kept their eyes peeled for any potential predators over the next hour. After an hour of flying, they came upon a massive cliff. On top of the cliff was a line of trees indicating the beginning of the Jungle Myr. The mass of trees continued for an unknown amount of distance. It went well past what Ben’s enhanced eyes could see. He knew there were entrances into the jungle short of scaling the cliff or flying that he couldn’t see, but they were far away from where the missing groups should have been.

Nearly half as thick as a building, each tree was massive in scale and size. It was a jungle with up to a dozen layers of ecosystems depending on where you traveled through. Each easily towered over any building inside the city of New Hope. Though Lucian claimed they paled in comparison to the buildings of Old Earth where his friend had lived prior before his parents took refuge in this Myriad of Worlds.

The two eventually stopped right outside the jungle. Ben’s wings of blood flapped keeping him afloat. While Lucian stood stiff as he looked down into the jungle from the air. He neither hovered nor swayed in the air.

A frown formed on both of their faces as they stared at the vast jungle. Both knew they were more likely not to find their missing friends than they were to find them. It would be like finding a specific pebble thrown into a lake.

“We can’t search by air,” Ben stated.

“No… we can’t,” Lucian agreed with a grimace.

Ben’s blood signature skill could detect life comprised of blood within 30 meters, but the trees towered well over his max range. Unfortunately, Lucian’s skills were even worse than his when it came to searching for life. There only option. The less desirable one which would be to search while traveling on the ground level.

Landing on top of the cliff, mere feet from where the line of trees began, Ben’s blood wings reformed, shifting into armor that covered his body. He kept a dagger in hand, in case he needed more blood quickly.

Focusing on his blood signature skill he concentrated. He groaned aloud at what he sensed. His blood signature skill was pinging dozens of lifeforms all in close proximity to them. Most were tiny and inconsequential, but some were larger. He was thankful that human blood was vastly different from monster blood. At least, according to his blood signature ability. His ability had never failed him, at least for those comprised of blood within 30 meters of himself.

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Stepping inside the jungle, there was a drastic change as day turned to evening. The sun barely penetrated down to the ground floor, even at the edge of the jungle, making it very difficult and dangerous to travel through.

The two traveled deep into the jungle with Lucian taking the lead as he hacked and slashed at brushes and vines. Any light from the sun had completely vanished over the last hour causing their eyes to become accustomed to the darkness. Even without the lack of light, Ben was able to make out things a few meters ahead.

The journey was slow going. Both made effort to minimize noise, causing them to move slower than they wanted. Neither spoke out of fear of drawing monsters towards their position. Any attacks would impede and slow their progress.

Ben felt his skin crawl as they traveled through the eerie dark jungle. Lucian had the fortune of not being able to sense the many monsters nearby as they passed, some only a few meters away. Some shifting about, but most remained unmoving and asleep. The worst was those that followed the two and watched from afar but did not attack. It wasn’t just the monsters on the ground that gave them pause, but they often passed underneath many in the different layers of the jungle above. Ben couldn’t relax knowing there were so many monsters lurking just beyond their sight.

Sensing they were about to run into another monster in 20 meters, Ben caused one of the drops of blood he placed on top of Lucian’s hand to heat up, signaling his friend to shift his direction to the left.

Both were seasoned enough fighters to not overly rely on Ben’s blood signature as a warning system to ambushes. The possibility remained that they could encounter an enemy that could attack them outside of Ben’s sensory skill or possessed no blood at all.

Ben trusted Lucian to keep them orientated in the right direction despite their many zigzags. Their goal was to travel a few kilometers and find a hidden natural spring that was the original goal of the missing squads. Inside the spring was a newly discovered type of rock that seemed to complement water-based enchantments quite well. It was theorized that these rocks could create new natural water springs, thus providing fresh and clean water to the populace. Their goal was to both find the missing squads and the rock, though the missing squad was the priority at the current time.

Another 30 minutes later, Ben froze. His chest squeezed at what he sensed. For once he hoped his skill was wrong. “Lucian,” he said breaking the silence.

Stopping, Lucian turned his eyebrow arching in question.

“25 meters straight ahead,” Ben’s voice croaked. His throat felt suddenly dry as his eyes welled with unshed tears.

Light sprung into existence. Holding a lit torch, Lucian pushed forwards. Neither cared about being stealthy anymore.

“No...” Lucian dropped to his knees. “Danielle,” he moaned with a sob.

Before them was a husk of a body, which was undeniably their deceased friend. Devoid of nearly all her blood, Danielle was nothing but a shell of her former self. All that remained was skin, bones, and clothes.

“What could do this?” Lucian growled.

Ben opened his mouth, but no words came out. He stared down at his at the corpse. Finally, he spoke, “Something drained her blood.”

Lucian whipped head at him. Ben could see the controlled rage simmering and grief behind his friend’s eyes and even an unspoken accusation. Then Lucian shook his head. “I know it wasn’t you.”

Ben turned back to their deceased friend. “We don’t know what happened. Some monster could have drained her blood after whatever killed her.”

“Are we looking at the same thing?” He brushed his thumb over Danielle’s neck. “There are no injuries on her besides this small mark at the neck. Whatever killed her did so by draining her blood as she lived.”

Ben grimaced. As much as he didn’t want to agree, Lucian was right about the way Danielle had died. It was a horrific way to go. One Ben had witnessed many times, since his magic took blood from his enemies, whether they be dead or alive.

Nothing bothered the two as they stood over Danielle’s corpse. In fact, all the monsters were gone from his blood sense, as if this was a territory they dare not tread.

With the light from the torch, Ben took in his surroundings. Blackened and crooked branches littered the area. It was as if many explosions had gone off. Ben ran his hand over one of the trunks. Little bits of charcoal flaked off as he brushed away at it. The power of fire had belonged to Danielle. But to these massive trees, her magic had hardly harmed them.

“What do you want to do?” Ben asked, wiping his hand on his trousers.

A minute of silence passed. “Let’s go back, we’ve done enough for today.”

Ben silently agreed. The others in her group were still missing, but it was unlikely they would also be found alive considering Danielle had been one of the stronger members of their group. And night would be falling soon, and despite the jungle already being dark, that was when the monsters became very active. Only fools would tread through the Jungle Myr at night. Fools or those wishing to die.

The corpse went into Lucian’s personal storage space. Kai could see the man’s eyes were bloodshot in the low light of the torch. Blinking out of existence the torch and light vanished. There was a snap and rustle of leaves, as Ben sensed his friend fly upwards and out of the range of his senses. Following, Ben broke through layer after layer, until finally he crossed the top of the jungle. Covering his arm over his eyes, he was blinded by the unobstructed light.

Lucian was gone. The man was already a dot in the distance. Ben could excuse his friend’s shitty behavior, only because he knew that Lucian and Danielle had been a thing off and on. The death of their friend was undoubtably hitting him hard at the moment.

Each flap of his blood wings propelled him over the jungle. Despite what was impressive flying speed, Lucian’s dot eventually vanished. Between his short-range teleportation and space manipulation, the man could travel across any distance faster than most.

By the time night had fallen, Ben had finally returned to New Hope. Stepping up to the gate, the guards saluted him. Ben scanned their half-hidden faces, recognizing a few.

“Greetings, sir,” one of the guards said.

“Evening gentlemen,” Ben responded. “Has General Lucian returned?”

“Aye. The general returned an hour ago. The man was in a determined fury. Marched off without a word.”

“Dan,” hissed the guard next to him as he bumped his armored forearm against the others, creating a metallic ring.

“What?” Dan asked.

“I see. Thanks gentlemen. Have a good watch.” Ben proceeded into the city and took the path straight to his parents.

The path was rowdy and crowded as he walked to his parent’s home. But Ben remained quiet, contemplating the day’s events. He felt at a loss. It felt like the harder he tried to save people, the more he lost. Just in the last month he could count the number of people he knew who had died on two hands. The gods had promised humans salvation, but instead all they were offered was delayed death.

He quickly found himself in front of a familiar door. The smell of mint invaded his nose. His eyes shifted to the culprit in the flowerbed outside the window. His mother had taken on cultivating plants and flowers, after the transfer to the Myriad of Worlds.

Walking inside, both his parents were both sitting down reading.

“What’s wrong?” His mother ran up to him and both her hands on the side of his face.

Ben stared between them at their feet. The moment he looked up he knew he might cry. His body and mind were exhausted. No matter what he did, the scent of death followed him. It lingered like a stench he couldn’t wash off, slowly taking and taking those he knew, until in time it would finally take him.

“Ben?” his mother questioned concerned. His father too had walked up and placed a heavy hand fell on his shoulder.

“Danielle’s gone,” he sniffled. “Found her body in the jungle. A husk of it.”

“I’m so sorry, honey.” She embraced him. His body was wracked by a single sob.

Awhile later, the family of three sat at the table eating dinner. His parents had waited until he came home to start. They were familiar with his unpredictable schedule, but Friday was always family dinner night. During dinner his parents did their best to distract him from the day’s woes. His father discussed new interesting data regarding his findings of gravity and the effects that magic had on it. But Ben was too tired to listen properly.

When dinner had ended his father asked, “Will you stay the night, son?”

“I think—” Ben froze. His blood sense was picking up a mass of people walking in organized lines towards the house. His eyes flicked to the ceiling, where above the house a number of people had just appeared, including Lucian. Most of the others he knew too. Dragging his dagger out he slashed it deeply across his arm, blood gushed out as he severed some arteries. It began pooling around his body immediately.

His voice came out panicked. “Mom, dad—”

Then his world was consumed by fire.