The five Mages waiting for Ezekiel were shocked and outraged as they were bound in leaves and branches. Martin and Nina immediately tried to fight them off but failed to make a mark. Fiana was too surprised to do anything, while George and Sasha seemed to be resigned to their fate. So, it was much to their surprise when they found themselves being dragged through the forest at speeds similar to when they were originally brought to the massive Forest Spirit.
Looking around, Fiana managed to calm down enough to realize that they weren’t being harmed, nor did it seem like they were really being kept prisoner. Moving her arms, she noticed that she was much more comfortable than she was on the initial journey. However, she also saw that Ezekiel and Shine were nowhere to be found. To the side, a smaller figure that looked like the wooden knight from before grew out of the branches.
“Greetings once again, humans. As per the agreement with the young Void Mage, you are to be released within the proximity of the next nearest expedition that is not the one you originated from.” The little figure said in the deep rumbling voices of the Forest Spirit.
“Where’s Ezekiel!?” Fiana asked. “Why isn’t he here as well?”
“The Void Mage has agreed to aid me. He will begin his infiltration of the Cruor’s Desolate territory, come tomorrow morning.” The Forest Spirit explained.
The group was entirely shocked at this. Martin and Nina couldn’t believe that Ezekiel had agreed to such a ridiculous request. Fiana felt guilty for allowing Ezekiel to go through with this. George felt relieved to be free, and a little bit worried that Ezekiel was going to die. While Sasha felt horrible, thinking that she could’ve stopped him from agreeing to a suicide mission.
“You’re not worried he’ll turn on you? Void Mages can turn into Original Cruors after all. Wouldn’t it be a big problem if he suddenly decided to turn against you in the middle of the mission?” Martin asked.
He wasn’t sure of the exact process, but he knew that such a thing was possible. He had no desire to have the most prominent Void Mage in the world turned against them. He honestly thought that it’d be better if Ezekiel died than to have him become a Cruor.
“Do not be concerned. I will be taking precautions to ensure that does not happen. Also, the boy would not have agreed to this quest if he did not think he could survive without being turned. He has too much to do in this life to simply forsake humanity.” The Forest Spirit stated. “I have no doubt that he would rather die before being Turned into a Cruor. The Remnant of the Void he once met would not have aided in providing him a Void Spirit otherwise.”
This surprised the Hunters even more, as they hadn’t known that the Forest Spirit was fully aware of Shine’s origins. They had only learned the bare minimum from Ezekiel the night before, so they were only partially aware the Ezekiel had bonded to a Void Spirit due to his experience in the Senera Temple of the Void. They hadn’t been aware that the Remnant of the Void had been the one to directly give him a Void Spirit. Though they were still unaware that the Void Spirit was born from Ezekiel’s split soul.
“Bring me back!” Fiana said to the forest Spirit. “You can’t just send him into the island’s Desolate territory on his own. I don’t care how skilled he is, he’s only Tier one. He won’t last long enough to do whatever it is you’re asking him to do.”
“By the time he leaves he will be Tier two. I made a deal with the boy. You will be brought to one of your expeditions. Besides, you will need to focus on other problems right now.” The Forest Spirit said.
That brought the group up short. As far as they were aware, there were no other problems that they needed to worry about. They were the ones that were kidnapped after all. What other issues did they need to concern themselves with?
“Wait, you said you’re taking us to the next closest expedition. What happened to our expedition?” Nina asked. Her question made the others look towards her with wide eyes before they turned to the Forest Spirit.
“There has been an attack. Your entire expedition has hidden themselves in the ruins of Trigat. The city beneath the bluffs. These are the symbols of the Hunters that are attacking.” The Forest Spirit showed the symbols of the Cult of Light and the Reaching Spires Guild. “The boy nearly became distraught when he saw these symbols. He demanded that I explain all that I knew of the situation so that you might convey it to your fellow expeditions.”
George and Fiana turned pale when they saw the symbol for the Cult of Light. They were aware of what Ezekiel had been though, so they could understand why he would’ve been upset at knowing they were here. It was obvious that they had managed to get information regarding Ezekiel. While the possibility of finding new Ruins, especially a Temple of the Void, there was no doubt in their minds that they were here for Ezekiel as their main priority.
“As it is, you face Four Legendary Hunters. One of the Radiant, Tempest, Lightning, and Glacier affinities. As well as at least a hundred others of varying strengths. It seems like there is a mix between Hunters and Mages.” The Forest Spirit told them. “I believe it would be in your best interests to gather at least two, if not three expeditions together before you attempt to reclaim your territory. If you even can.”
Martin and Nina couldn’t help but clench their fists at the sound of the Forest Spirit’s voice. To them, it sounded like the Spirit was mocking them. As if it was saying that their own expedition wasn’t enough to take care of its own problems. Their pride took a heavy blow. But there was nothing they could do about it. They had already been blindsided by the dangers of the island.
However, as they remained bound by the Forest Spirit, they realized that the Spirit’s words were likely meant to be a warning. As if there was something going on that they weren’t aware of. They knew they were playing into the Spirit’s hands at this point but figured that it was likely necessary for them to team up with the other expeditions. If only because there was no way the two of them could take on a Legendary Hunter set on their own anyways.
For Fiana and George, they had no problems with the Forest Spirit’s advice. They were Church Scholars. As such, they were more than accustomed to working with other groups and Guilds. Given the situation, it just made sense to them that they would need to work together to take down four Legendary Hunter teams. It wasn’t like they could do it on their own after all. A Legendary Hunter wearing their Spirit armor could usually beat two Grand Scholars at the same time if they were within a Step or two of each other in the same Tier.
At the same time, Sasha was just growing paler and paler by the second. She was starting to realize that she might be extremely in over her head at this point. With everything that had happened up until now, she couldn’t help but feel like joining a Guild was the worst choice she’d made since she got strong armed into helping pirates. She was only supposed to be a part of the support teams. Not get involved with what seemed to be mounting up to be a war between two religious factions.
“How long will it take to get us to the closest expedition?” Nina asked.
Right now, she wanted to get word to the other expeditions as soon as possible. Given the size of the island, she knew that it would take them days, after reaching the other expedition, to get word to the other expeditions, as there weren’t any preset signals for cult activity. From there it would take even more time to meet up with each other to actually form an attack force to strike back against the cult.
Unless the expedition they were meeting with was willing to extract all its members to gor and directly meet with another expedition. From there they could just strike the cult directly, not needing to ferry messages back and forth. Unfortunately, it was unlikely to happen. The Church forces might be willing to perform such actions, but the Guilds were too competitive to give up on being the first to reach the Temple of the Void. Though the fact that it was guarded by a Forest Spirit might make them back off for the time being, as they would likely have to regroup with this information anyways.
“It shall take us until midday before I will have brought you all to an area within the territory of the closest expedition. Then, I will need to retract my avatar. I will need to prepare to commence an attack on the Cruor as soon as possible.” The Forest Spirit said. The knowledge that it was going to attack the Cruor confused them all.
“Why do you need to attack the Cruor? Don’t you have a mission for the kid to do?” Nina asked.
“Yes. But a distraction will help him fulfill his mission. I am not so insane that I would send a child to die on a quest without any intention of making sure that he completes his objectives. If I can help him survive without undermining the removal of the Cruor, then I will do that as well.” The Forest Spirit said.
The group fell silent at that point. Fiana knew that there was nothing she could do about Ezekiel at this time. The best hope she had was to deal with the cult as soon as possible. Then she could worry about getting a team together to try and help Ezekiel. If such a thing would even be permitted. Ezekiel had chosen to take on this mission of his own free will, after all.
As for the rest, bridges had already been burned. For now, they would worry about the enemies attacking their expedition. Then, they could worry about what was happening with the Cruor. Though Martin and Nina fully intended to disclose the information they had obtained to their superiors. It didn’t sit right with either of them that the Church was hiding things from them like this. The fact that it was their expedition that was attacked also made them suspicious, considering what they had recently learned.
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Back at Morncrest, a couple of hours after Ezekiel’s team had been brought away, Ezekiel found himself meditating as best he could to ensure that he could break through to the next Tier without too many issues. He had, of course, read as much literature on the process of reaching Tier two as he possibly could. As well as asked several Scholars and Hunters, when available, what their experience was, so that he could get a sense of what to expect.
In all honesty, he wasn’t certain that he’d be able to break through today, which was why he needed to get the pure crystals from the Forest Spirit. If he failed the first time, he’d need enough mana to reach full mana capacity to try again. Usually, so long as you could find your second Chakra, it was possible to break through even if you used some mana up in the process.
However, if you failed, then the moment you dropped to less than the ninth Step when it came to the amount of mana you had on hand, then you would need to work your way back up to the top of the ninth Step before you could try again. Usually, for Hunters, this wasn’t too big an issue, since they and their Spirits were close enough in power to share both ways, allowing the Hunter to try again soon, if not right away. But Shine was too many Steps below Ezekiel at the moment, and while their soul might be strong enough to get close enough to share mana, it wasn’t something they wanted to risk. Especially since it would be a waste of the pure crystals they would soon be receiving.
Thus, as Ezekiel did his best to absorb anything but Life mana in order to form Void Mana, all they could do was wait until the promised pure mana crystals arrived for them to use. Hopefully, when he reached maximum capacity, Shine would still be able to help him search for his chakra. If not, then they were in trouble.
Neither Ezekiel nor Shine believed that the Forest Spirit would allow them to leave without attempting to complete this mission. Regardless of whether or not they were powerful enough to pull it off.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you.” Shine said in a morose tone as they meditated together with Ezekiel. “If I was just a bit stronger...”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You are only three years old. Even with knowledge from my memories, your soul is young, but it can already nearly reach Tier two. You have nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to your strength and progress.” Ezekiel said to placate Shine.
His voice was somewhat dead, however, as he focused on his task, his mana taking much of the feelings out of his tone. Shine couldn’t help but flinch, as they had never seen Ezekiel go this far into his mana before. They didn’t like it. Not one bit.
“Are you sure you can’t ease up on the mana a bit? I don’t like it when you’re like this.” Shine muttered quietly.
“You will need to make me.” Ezekiel said back. “I believe I’ve gone too far at this point. Even further than I did in Senera. I’m doing this on purpose after all.”
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“How can I stop you?” Shine asked. “Why can’t you do it yourself?”
“You can stop me by knocking me out. As to why I can’t stop... I fully believe that this is necessary for us to survive right now. It seems like, being a Void Spirit, you are immune to the emotional effects of our element. However, that means that you do not have anything to compare this state to. My meditation has improved, and my focus has enhanced.” Ezekiel explained. “I know that this state will not make me happy, nor is being in this state a good thing for me, but I honestly can’t imagine how we will be able to survive without this focus. As such, I cannot bring myself to stop. You will need to do so in my stead.”
“... Okay. When we’re done with the mission, I’ll snap you out of it.” Shine agreed.
“Thank you. I do appreciate it. It may not even be necessary, so long as I can do it myself.” Ezekiel said back. “One step at a time. That’s all we can do.”
Shine didn’t say anything else. The pair just fell into silence as they worked on gathering as much mana as possible. There wasn’t any point in attempting to practice the spell at this point. They were going to have to make do with the instinctive knowledge of the spell that Shine had acquired. Ezekiel hoped that it would be enough.
Luckily, they didn’t need to spend too much longer in silence, as the Forest Spirit’s avatar came through a newly grown doorway. It was carrying several sacks on its back. Tossing them onto the floor, Ezekiel nearly gaped at how many pure mana crystals were in front of him. There must’ve been at least a couple hundred. Give or take a dozen or so.
“It would be best if you broke through as soon as possible. You will be alerted when it is time for you to begin.” The Forest Spirit said before the avatar was absorbed into the walls.
Ezekiel moved to the pile of crystals. He wasn’t sure if there were enough to get Shine to the peak of Tier one, but after they got Ezekiel to Tier two, it might be possible.
“Are you ready?” Ezekiel asked. He pulled Shine from their sheath, placing them across his lap as he grasped a hand full of crystals.
“Yes.” Shine replied.
Ezekiel immediately absorbed the mana within the crystals, bringing him up to the maximum his soul could contain. The moment he did, he dropped the still partially full crystals that were left in his hand. He then fell into a deeper state of meditation. However, instead of imagining a phenomenon to attract mana, he began to imagine himself. He pictured every inch of his body and began channeling his mana throughout his body in the process, mentally diving into the image he had visualized.
At this point, Shine seemed to reach across the bond that existed between them. They pulled themself toward Ezekiel, until they both felt something click into place. Ezekiel felt somewhat bloated, while Shine felt as though he was being squeezed on all sides. Shine’s soul was now occupying the same ethereal space as where Ezekiel’s mana was gathered. They then began to travel through Ezekiel’s soul, along the countless pathways that mana seemed to travel through when it was being channeled.
As this was happening, Ezekiel also worked to find his second chakra. He spread his consciousness throughout the pathways that Shine’s soul was not traveling through. The two of them would continue to do this until they finally managed to find a hole. An empty space within his spiritual pathways that could be opened up and used to expand upon the gathering space for his mana.
The two seemed to travel the pathways for what seemed like hours. Yet neither of them managed to find anything. Time eventually became meaningless to them both. Yet no matter how long they looked they couldn’t find anything. It was as if the chakra they were looking for didn’t exist. But that was impossible. Carrian had already informed the both of them that Ezekiel’s soul was more than strong enough to have developed a second chakra. It needed to be there. Somewhere.
Suddenly, the both of them felt a sudden ‘snap’ and Shine was ejected from Ezekiel’s spiritual pathways. The sword resting on Ezekiel’s legs seemed to jump as it shuddered from an invisible impact. Ezekiel himself nearly threw himself backward as he felt like his heart was pulled from his chest.
The pain was not exactly staggering, but it was still harsh enough for tears to form in his eyes. A dull throbbing pulsed through his torso, centered around his chest and stomach. This was followed by a cold feeling, as if he had become somewhat empty inside.
“Ezekiel! Are you okay?” Shine asked in worry. Ezekiel sent them a feeling of reassurance, but it took him a few minutes to answer with words.
“I’ll be fine. I knew that this would happen. I’m just... shocked, at how little we actually managed to travel. I had thought that having a larger, stronger, soul would be a good thing for me. That it would make it easier to break through to the next Tier. It seems like I was wrong.” Ezekiel said.
“How so?” Shine asked.
“Having a bigger soul definitely means that I have my chakras fully formed, but it also means that there’s more soul to search for us to find them. The cool feeling that I have in my chest is due to the presence of both our souls consciousness searching my spiritual pathways. Less than a tenth of my body is feeling this. Meaning we need to search for a lot longer before we manage to find my second chakra.” Ezekiel explained.
Shine fell silent at that. Ezekiel to the moment to catch his breath and center himself. He realized that he had fully used up an entire Step of his mana. Looking at the pile of crystals in front of him, he realized that if they weren’t lucky, they might not have that much left when they were done.
“Morncrest.” Ezekiel called out the Forest Spirit’s name. “How long has it been since you gave us these crystals?”
“Two hours.” The Forest Spirit’s voice rumbled through the room.
Ezekiel’s face scrunched up in worry. Even if they managed to search the entirety of his spiritual pathways, they might not be able to do it in time before the next morning came. It might take them another twenty hours before they’d searched everything. Barely long enough to get any rest before they needed to go to the Desolate territory on the island.
“Looks like we’re gonna be at this for a while.” Ezekiel said to Shine. “How’s your mana.”
“I only used a Step. Same as you, but since I’m a Spirit I don’t need to be at Step nine to enter your spiritual pathways. I can go five more times before I need a break. How about you? Is the strain on your soul going to be alright?” Shine asked with worry flooding their voice.
“I’m going to need to be. But I think we can do this before evening.” Ezekiel said. “I just wish I had reached the maximum of Step nine sooner. If I had, then you would’ve been able to search for my second Chakra much sooner since the ‘door’ to my pathways would've been opened much earlier.”
“Yeah...” Shine was quiet as Ezekiel expressed his own regrets at not growing stronger sooner.
“Let’s do this. We need to keep going.” Ezekiel said as he fell into meditation once again. Shine mentally followed him, and they both began searching through his spiritual pathways once again.
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It had been several hours since Ezekiel had the Forest Spirit take his team away. They had been left to their own devices after getting a final review of their situation. From there, the Forest Spirit told them where they needed to go to reach the other expedition. It took them less than ten minutes of walking before they managed to run into a scouting team. One that recognized Fiana and George right away, as they were dressed in their Church garbs.
From there it didn’t take long for them to meet up with the rest of the expedition, wherein Fiana and George reported to the Grand Scholar in charge of this particular team. A man with mostly gray hair tinged with red named Marwyl. He wasn’t from Sanafalls, coming from an island a bit further away called Tillsmont, but he was still respectful towards the two Scholars. From there the party gave an in-depth rundown of the events that had transpired.
At first, he didn’t seem to believe them, but then George showed him something that changed his opinion. It was a leaf that George had taken from the Forest Spirit. In fact, George had taken numerous leaves from the Forest Spirit. It just seemed like it didn’t care.
Even disconnected from its main body or avatars the leaves still had the remnant aura of a Legendary Being. That, plus the fact that it would be impossible for them to have reached the Tillsmont expedition within a day as they supposedly had, made it slightly more believable. Only a Legendary Being would be able to move them that fast.
Unfortunately, there was little they could do at the moment. The Legendary Guild leader tied to this expedition was off making contact with a Legendary Wild Spirit that had been attacking them for about a week now.
Unlike the Sanafalls expedition, which had needed to split its focus on the city under the bluffs, and to move further inland, the Tillsmont expedition wasn’t at a point where it could simply pull back and reroute themselves. Pulling back now would mean abandoning the expedition from this avenue. At least for the foreseeable future.
Luckily, Marwyl seemed like he was more than willing to pull back if it meant joining up with another expedition to wipe out the cultists that were attacking them from behind.
“Once my fellow Legendaries return, we can begin planning our retreat. It seems like this avenue isn’t going well for us anyways.” Marwyl said to the team. “But you need to know, the Guilds that I am working with will undoubtedly demand compensation for this. You likely won’t be able to keep the spoils from the Ruins you count to yourselves.”
“That’s only to be expected. Ideally, given the true dangers of the island, I am starting to believe that splitting up into multiple expeditions was not a good idea.” Fiana said. “If anything, we should’ve looked at this as more of a resettling rather than a standard expedition.”
“Many other Grand Scholars agree. But given our location within the Desolate Land’s territory, that isn’t likely to happen. Though, things may change if your Apprentice can get the job done.” Marwyl said. “Though, I’m not going to hold out too much hope.”
Fiana and the rest looked confused. They had no idea what Ezekiel’s ultimate objective was, other than to infiltrate the Desolate Territory on the island. They weren’t sure how that would change the state of the island. Marwyl noticed their confusion.
“If I’m right, then your Apprentice is going to be spreading seeds throughout the Desolate Territory. This will allow the forest Spirit to strike at the heart of the Cruor’s territory.” Marwyl explained. “If the strike goes well, then it will allow the various Spirits on and below the island to devastate the Cruor. Potentially pushing them back enough to clear the waters a little bit.”
A look of surprise appeared on all their faces. They hadn’t expected the mission the tree Spirit had needed Ezekiel for to be that significant. But it seemed like it was more important than they’d expected.
“As it is, the only reason we’re not suffering the full effects of the Desolate Lands on this island is because of the distance from the continent. We’re near enough to the boundary that we might be able to cleanse this area. If given enough time. The Desolate part of the island might even become inhabitable within a few years.” Marwyl continued on. “Although, like I said, I’m not keeping my hopes up. That mission... it’s practically suicide.”
The team was silent at Marwyl’s statement. The ones who cared the most were Fiana and George, who had a several year’s long relationship with Ezekiel. They didn’t want Ezekiel to die, but it was hard for them to think otherwise. Even an Adept wouldn’t likely survive what he was doing right now.
Sasha was also worried, but to a lesser extent than Fiana and George. The sting of the secrets Ezekiel had kept was dulled now. But the memory wasn’t gone. She was thankful for everything that he had done for her, but she also felt like everything might’ve been his fault.
For now, work needed to be done to get enough people together to meet up with the other expeditions. Messages needed to be sent, and teams needed to be organized. There was too much to do on their end to be spending time worrying about Ezekiel. It was unfortunate, but most people who learned of what had happened had already written him off as dead.
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It was evening back at the Ruins of Morncrest. Ezekiel and Shine had gone through nearly half of the pile of mana crystals while searching through the expanse that was the spiritual pathways within Ezekiel’s soul. Ezekiel felt like he was going to faint, while Shine had taken a few hours to rest, naturally regaining their mana since the crystals were necessary for Ezekiel to maintain a peak state.
Shine already had it much easier than Ezekiel, so they were in significantly better condition than Ezekiel. It had gotten to the point that Shine wanted to make Ezekiel stop, but they knew that they needed to do this. It was only a matter of time before they set off to the Desolate territory of the Cruor. They needed to find that second chakra soon if Ezekiel was to get any rest beforehand.
It seemed like it wasn’t going to happen, however, as they were nearing their time limit, something they grew accustomed to recognizing the third time they’d been expelled from Ezekiel’s soul.
A feeling of hunger suddenly passed through Shine’s soul as they moved through the spiritual pathways. They stopped, mentally moving themselves backwards. The feeling was amplified. A feeling of emptiness. Hollowness that desired to be filled. Like a dry throat that needed to be quenched.
“Ezekiel!” Shine mentally exclaimed. “I’ve found it!”
Ezekiel gave a mental sigh of relief before they seemed to tense up in the connection he shared with Shine. Suddenly, it was as if Ezekiel was pulling on Shine. He was using him as an anchor to lead him to his second chakra. It was uncomfortable for the both of them, but they didn’t have much time before they’d lose their chance to open it in this session of meditation. If they needed to do it again, then they’d need to waste more mana crystals.
A sense of urgency flooded the minds of both Ezekiel and Shine. They could feel their time coming up. As Ezekiel’s consciousness moved through the ephemeral pathways within him, he lost track of how far he had moved. How far he had left to go. For a moment he felt like he wasn’t moving at all, such was his focus that all other things seemed to disappear.
A nonexistent ‘crack’ echoed through Ezekiel’s soul as his consciousness collided with Shines. He barely had the attention left to realize what had happened. It was only when he felt that foreign feeling of hunger that he knew where he was.
By reflex he flooded the area around him with his mana. The remaining nine Steps of mana filled the hollow area that he was feeling. Instantly he felt as if an unknown pressure was released from inside him. A new chakra had been opened, and with it, a new limit to just how far he could grow with his mana.
As this happened, he found himself gasping for air as he returned to the waking world. With shine lying across his lap, he couldn’t help but cry tears of relief as he felt his soul seem to open up even further to the world around them.
He then realized that he’d let go of his mana, unwillingly, as he had forced it to move. Because of this, his emotions had returned, but they were not as bad as he’d expected it to be. It was as if he knew the emotions were there, but they didn’t ram into him like before. Not that there was nearly as much repressed this time around, but still. It was different. It was like he could withstand more, mentally, than before.
“Ezekiel, are you okay?” Shine asked. They were incredibly worried when they’d been forced out of Ezekiel’s soul. Even more so when they realized he was crying.
“... Yeah... I think I’m okay. I just... I’m so happy I managed to break through. Even if it was with the use of mana crystals.” Ezekiel explained.
“Oh, okay. Can we get some rest now? I’m kinda tired...” Shine asked.
“Yeah, we can rest now. We’ve got a big day tomorrow, and I might need to focus again.” Ezekiel said with regret in his voice.
Shine did not reply. They were already sleeping. Ezekiel stood up, moving back toward the bed in the room. Though he did not forget to pack up the mana crystals into his Void Pouch. He sheathed Shine, holding them to his chest as he curled up on the bed. Rest was what he sorely needed right now. As he wouldn’t be getting any come the morning.