It might have been the longest teleport Zane had been on yet. Reina sent him some coordinates with her letter, which the portal easily ate up. Then the array-circles started streaming a pale light, shifting like cogs in some vast unseen machine, and Zane felt a pool of essence gathering under his feet—quickly broadening, swelling to a lake of it—

Then it let loose and shot him straight into deep space.

Out of the Lightning Constellation in the blink. Then whiplashing sideways, feeling the forces yank abruptly—stopping by the main teleporter for a split-second, getting a flash image—a swirling red-black mass of galaxy, planets, stunned-looking Azure Flame Faction members in blue-black cowls—then gone again, lost in streaking stars and endless black.

By now Zane had mostly gotten used to the vertigo. But it was still a little heady stepping off after a good ten minutes of whirling. He took a moment to right himself, making a half-yawn, and looked about.

He seemed to be standing on a platform of pure bark. Another blink, and he made it out in full: a branch that stretched out for miles like a grand main road, wide enough for a parade to march through, with smaller branches and twigs going off into off-shoots, each thick with fluffy greenery. Little branching alleyways and side-streets, some colorful with pastel flowers. They kept splitting more and more, stopping at leaves that supported entire buildings made of stone and wood knotted up with dark vine.

Thicker vines swirled up and down, stringing this huge branch up to others below, and above, left and right, in what seemed a mess at first—but the more he looked it seemed to reveal a strange order, like a busy beehive. Thousands of elves flitted nimbly up and down. The branches just went on and on; up and down—if he looked down far he could make out tiny dots shifting along branches that must’ve been dozens of miles away.

The air here was cool and fresh, early morning stuff. He thought he could taste a light dew on the air. Sunlight came down in shimmering soft streaks.

It was quite a nice sight. Zane took a moment to appreciate it.

Then he saw the folk crowded about him. They were much less of a nice sight.

A horde of elves in rich cloaks of light-blue and deep-green, embroidered with intricate silver designs. A few gold cloaks too. Slight and white-haired, with angry purple eyes. Most were pretty young, and male, and pretty angry-looking.

A few even had Spirit Weapons out. Big slender bows and little slender daggers that glittered rather daintily.

…He seemed to be somewhat surrounded. They were all spread in a loose semicircle around the teleporters.

Something told him this was not the reception Reina had prepared for him.

Then one of them broke free of the rest, striding up to greet him.

"So you’ve show your face at last!”

The speaker was a thin elf with eyes more red than white. He was twitching quite a bit; he had dark circles under his eyes and severely disheveled hair. He might have been a pretty-looking guy if he didn’t look so sleep-deprived. Even his silk cloak was a bit of a mess, half-buttoned and sideways—like it’d been thrown on in a haste as he came. He seemed vaguely familiar to Zane.

A few more gold-robed elves ran to back him up. They didn't look quite as mad as this guy did to see Zane. Still pretty mad, though.

“I’ve been waiting… for so long… I’ve dreamed of this moment, Zane Walker, every night…” The elf shivered.

Zane frowned. “Do I know you?”

“My name is Val Arandor!” shrieked the elf.

Val Arandor

Essence Level 435

He jabbed a trembling finger at Zane. “And you—you’ve taken everything from me!”

His voice cracked at that last bit.

“Oh,” said Zane. Yes—now that he looked again, this did look like the elf who had sent him a challenge. He said something about claiming Reina for his own… Zane frowned. He really had taken a turn since whenever he’d sent that letter.

“I challenge you to an honor duel!”

“Sure,” said Zane. “I’ll fight you.”

For a second Val just stared at him, twitching. Then his eyes went even wider. A wild joy lit up his face; he let out a shrill laugh. “Fool!” he cackled. “Then I will show you what it is like to lose all you’ve ever known. I call upon the Noble Houses of Arandor, Valoran, and Rowan… great houses of the Temple of the World Tree, bear witness to this duel—to submission or to death!”

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The faces of the elves around him changed like something official had just been said. They came to close a circle around Zane and this fellow, cloaks swishing.

There was a vicious grin on Val Arandor’s face. He seemed a bit off to Zane—he really was twitching a lot… Val licked his lips.

“On your honors—do not interfere!” Val warned his fellow elves.

None of them seemed to have a mind to, though. There was an eagerness to them as they closed in, murmurs swirling. It was then that Zane noticed they were all over Level 400. This was equivalent to a mob of Outer Faction disciples.

Val Arandor thrust out his hands. And in slid twin daggers, slips of gold flashing the same color as the sun going through the trees… Arandor shivered gleefully.

“Do you know how much you've tormented me, Zane Walker?” He breathed. His daggers began to twirl. Began shining a sickly slick purple-green at the tips.

“Do you know how many times I've played back the recordings?” Val moaned. “Seeing you take my wife before me?!”

“…That does not seem healthy,” said Zane. It was also rather confusing since Zane was pretty sure this guy had never even met Reina.

“The Mistress Maker was my birthright—decreed by fate!” Spittle flew in a little cloud at every syllable. “She was mine, and I had to listen to you defile her every night, over and over…” He howled, clutching at his head, like he was trying to squeeze the sounds out.

“Wait what,” said Zane.

He noticed elves nodding angrily—they had gone even redder.

“Then you took my Father from me, in tribulation lightning… my title… the standing of my very family…”

He let out a choked sob.

His hands dropped limp to his sides. Then his fists clenched again, and when he set his gaze on Zane his eyes were clear and sharp. “It all ends now.”

His daggers stilled—and each began to seethe with a grotesque Law. Loaded to the brink with that sickly essence.

“I see you’ve hit Level 390,” Val snarled. “Noughtfire must be feeding you well back in the Azure Flame Faction… but here is a lesson you’ve taught me, Zane. An animal is most dangerous when it is hungry…I ought to thank you. If not for my hatred of you—I would never have become all I was meant to be!”

He let out a laugh.

“Behold!” he shrieked, and spread his arms. A domain erupted. Blanketed Zane in an instant. Thick gnarls of Poison Ivy started sprouting spontaneously from the ground; a sickly purple-green washed over the world, dimming the sunlight… Zane frowned.

“Uh—”

With one last screech, Val Arandor attacked.

He was fast—faster than wind. Maybe one of the fastest creatures Zane had fought yet.

In less than a blink, his dagger had reached Zane’s left eye.

Luckily with his new tendons, though, Zane’s reaction time had also gotten quite a bit better. He dipped his head out of the way a bit, and the dagger just missed.

Then he reached up and grabbed the guy’s throat. And all that speed came crashing to a sudden halt.

For a moment Val thrashed there, choking against Zane’s fist. But that iron grip did not budge an inch. His neck actually fit Zane’s hand rather nicely—it made for good gripping.

Zane frowned at him. And unleashed his own domain—which did to Val Arandor’s domain about what he would’ve expected a firestorm would do to a bunch of plants.

The color of the world changed again. A poisonous purple went to plasma—and the vines crumbled even as they formed, smoking up and blowing to ash. A great weight seemed to drop over Val Arandor then, a massive pressure of the soul, and he frothed, and thrashed and thrashed some more, but his daggers ping’d off Zane’s muscles. Useless.

Their eyes met—Zane’s unamused, Val’s bulging—he looked like he couldn’t quite believe the strength of the grip crushing down on his windpipe—he clutched at Zane’s hand with his own, but it looked like a child trying to break the grip of a grown man.

The guy let out a little high-pitched shriek.

“You are very annoying,” Zane informed him. Then he gave the fellow a slap on the face—SMACK!—which knocked loose two rather large teeth. Then a backhand—SMACK!—and out came a little splatter of blood.

Gasps rang out through the crowd. He thought they might do something but they seemed caught off-guard by the sudden turn. Most were still gaping.

Zane considered the quickly bruising face, then delivered two more solid smacks for good measure. Either this guy’s skin was quite soft and delicate or Zane hit harder than he thought, because in moments Val’s face had puffed up all purple.

This fellow wasn’t a serious threat, Zane was realizing. He was more silly than anything. For a moment Zane pondered just what to do with him. The elves around him were in an uproar, pointing and crying out.

Zane loosened his grip a little.

“Are you ready to behave,” Zane asked him. He gave Val a moment to collect himself—gasp in a few lungfuls of air, blink most of the tears out of his eyes, and so on.

“I’ll kill you!” wailed Val. “I’ll carve out your entrails—she’s mine, you b-brute, mine—”

Zane frowned, and gave him a few more good smacks for good measure.

By the end of it Val’s face had been reduced to a bloody pulp, and most of his teeth were gone. This turned out to be a pretty convincing argument, as it turned out.

“I can keep slapping you if you want,” Zane warned.

“I submit!” sobbed Val.

“You will go away forever,” Zane informed him.

“Y-yes...I swear—I swear—you’ll never hear of me again—”

“Good.”

He let Val go, who collapsed like a sack of potatoes, choking and sniveling.

Then a chorus of gasps ran through the crowd, and it parted at the far end.

“Zane!” said a familiar voice. The crowd parted all the way, and he blinked.

There was Reina.

She wore a loose dress of wood and leaves, with a crown of pastel flowers, and Zane was quite certain she was the prettiest creature he had ever seen. The moment he saw her, he forgot all about that guy. She was beaming so bright he could feel just how happy she was to see him, deep in his chest. He always felt like her smile felt like seeing the sun come out.

She ran up to him and leapt into his arms and gave him a passionate kiss. In the background, you could just vaguely hear Val sobbing as he watched on.

“You came just in time,” said Reina after she finally broke apart, breathing heavy. “Fall session’s just about to begin…”

“Fall session?”

“Mhm,” she said. She took him by an arm, lay her head on his chest, and led him into the World Tree proper.