STANDING WITH THE SECOND STRONGEST

I thought I was hearing things for a moment, but Recall Memory would not allow me to fool myself. And Petty Danger Sense was still buzzing at the back of my head as I reentered the sunlight. Nevertheless, part of me could sense where the voice was coming from, as if the source was beckoning me towards it the way that open skill book lured me to this city.

I sighed,

PAIN

Whatever...

I turned south and looked over the manor to take in the beauty of the rising sea—a bright blue wall sparkling in the sunlight. The hair on my neck stood on end while tranquility relaxed my entire body. Great sea serpents rose out from the rising sea wall before diving back in, and I grinned with glee—the adventure in me wanted to ignore the city and the voices and fly out to explore.

But I turned back north, commanded my (Power Affinity) Steel Long Sword, Dominion Authority, to unsheathe, grabbed on to its hilt, and took to the skies towards the source of the voices.

The alluring mana source of the voice was northwest of the city, within a dense gathering of dead trees packed against the cliff wall. I frowned at a spot of lively trees near the center of the lifeless woods and lowered myself toward the edge of the woods. My eyes noted how specks of vibrant green grass began to emerge from the ground.

Sure, grass can grow fast, but why were there lively trees? Hmm, the source of the voices was coming from within them. And with each step I took towards them, Petty Danger Sense hummed louder at the back of my head.

I arrived at the dense cluster of oak trees bunched up as if to be hiding something within. Around the dense collection of oaks was a circular clearing of disturbed soil, further insinuating something about all of this was intentional.

I moved across the circular clearing and spotted rusty chains partially buried in the dirt. Stepping over it, I saw more chains, bits of metal, emerging loops of tree roots, more pieces of metal, and more chains.

I stopped just before the oak trees and eyed the skeletons that littered around the trees—likely brought to life by the moonlight and left to bathe in the sun when the day came. Like the bones I saw within the abandoned city, they crumble into dust with the slightest pressure.

The earth below me shook in response, and I Leaped onto my sword. I floated above the ground as the roots began to move. The two nearest oaks slid slightly apart, revealing a gloomy passageway.

VOICES

Flesmescian, I require your aid.

I floated towards the entry, too afraid to touch the ground. Inside, I saw that the oak branches were curved awkwardly and blocked off most of the sunlight. The further I went, the darker it became, and the more I began to regret my decision.

Halfway through the hall of trees, I relied on Petty Night Vision and suddenly noticed something strange at the end. An overgrown oak tree wrapped in chains with a massive hieroglyphic talisman upon the chains—a seal!? The hieroglyph upon the talisman changed every few seconds, and whenever I looked directly at it, ??? clogged my mind, forcing me to look away.

But... why in god's name was an oak tree sealed up in chains? The chained oak tree suddenly opened its eyes, revealing giant sockets of raging green flames that instilled sheer fear in me. I clenched my fist and tensed my jaws as the mana energy around me condensed.

It seemingly raised its body to look at me; its mouth was agape and caved in like that of an elder without teeth. It raised slightly, blocking out more light, and was as wide as two cottages. My eyes adjusted and saw that it had short legs and its long arms were chained behind it.

My heart slammed against my sternum every millisecond as I stared at this creature. Petty Scan revealed nothing but Oak Tree even though this creature, noted by us kinans, is said to be the second strongest creature known in existence—an ent.

VOICES

Flesmescian,

At this distance, the voices boomed not only in my head but from within the ent as well,

VOICES

Kin of magic, cursed one, quencher of the open book—take caution, they are coming.

I frowned, raising myself slightly higher into the air and looking around,

PAIN

Wh-who's—

I cleared my throat and attempted to calm my fear,

PAIN

Who are they?

Petty Danger Sense began to flare as the ground trembled with the sound of a stampede approaching.

VOICES

The flesmescians, lesser ones, they seek to consume me.

I began to hear their cry before they stormed in, and their heated wet stench irritated my nose—a horde of lagardientes!? These oversized red lizards, their chest glowing from internal lava-breathing chambers, scrambled over one another through the hall of oak trees towards us. Petty Danger Sense was sensing these bastards, not the ent!

I had no clue why they sought to feast off an ent—

LEK

I, Lek, am too weak to defend myself.

Well, yes, clearly.

I leaped off my sword and allowed it to zip through the air into the horde of lagardientes—piercing through the first dozen of them. I landed gracefully and Quickstepped toward the horde.

I blinked, noticing pearls of white-bluish orbs floating above the slain lagardientes—souls? As the oncoming horde of lizards approached, they spat gallons of lava at me, but their sluggish preemptive movements made it too easy to dodge. I eyed the floating souls while avoiding the lagardientes and saw that my range of Petty Soul Harvest was minuscule. I flexed my claws and began to dig in through the horde—their hide was tough! But still, one by one, they fell while I occasionally gave myself space with blasts of Telekinesis from my staff.

Closer now, I activated Petty Soul Harvest, and the souls flowed into me, filling up an internal repository within me. Then, with Petty Blood Control and Petty Blood Manipulation, I drained the blood from slain lagardientes to form floating Blood Swords that reacted to my Petty Danger Sense and protected my blind spots.

The lagardientes began to ignore me and sought to go around—hmph, I Leaped backward into the air and, remembering that I had recently acquired Petty Elemental Control, I gave it a test.

Mid-air, I reached out towards the soil beneath them and pulled it forward, resulting in jagged spikes of hardened dirt piercing through their bellies. I then called back my sword and grabbed onto it, flying through the air to cut off those that survived the earthly attack.

I dropped before them and released the stored mana within my staff into the ground beneath the charging lagardientes. Combining my casting with Petty Elemental Control and Petty Elemental Manipulation, the ground erupted in a wave of unrelenting spikes, impaling the horde and lifting them several meters off the ground.

At the sight of destruction, the lagardientes reclaimed their cowardice and turned tails. I watched them flee, eying each one while breathing heavily. Certain that none of them would become brave, I exhaled and commanded my sword back within its sheathe.

I faced Lek,

PAIN

Why were they after you?

I asked as I approached.

LEK

We, the supreme plamescians, the ones you call ents, are conduits of pure mana. Our energy radiates the same energy lesser flesmescians feast upon.

Pure mana?

PAIN

So, you have control over pure mana?

It was as if its eyes became heavy as it answered,

LEK

Yes. Indeed... please, I, Lek, ask of you to undo the seal.

I eyed the ??? seal and felt a powerful mana presence emitting from it—I could not unseal this.

LEK

You can.

Fearfully, I looked at it,

PAIN

You can read my mind?

It said nothing, and I figured that was the case. Similar to Petty Scan, Petty Interference did nothing against an ent. Lek's eyes closed slightly, yet the weight of its glare was still too much to bear—as if the eyes of one thousand people were staring at me.

I looked back at the seal, and despite the visible hieroglyphs upon the talisman, I could not understand the ??? that lingered in my mind. But the longer I stared at it, the softer the emitting mana became. Then it hit me; this was just like the open skill book! With my sword, I floated upward towards the seal and felt the sensation of learning a spell tickle the back of my head.

The tickling sensation peaked as I glared at the talisman from just inches away. But the feeling began to die down, and I was only able to translate one of the hieroglyphic words to be Drie-eenheid.

LEK

Pay no attention to the Words of Symbology.

It sounded as if it was wheezing and wanted to say more but closed its eyes.

Well, I was here now. It would be incredibly rude of me to turn away to leave it to its fate. Besides, what could damn an ent to this state—I was eager to find out why. So I extended my right hand toward the seal and emitted my mana.

It seized hold of my mana, and my mind recalled when I unsealed the magical rings I wore upon my right fingers. Damn, this seal was considerably stronger than I thought—and I was hungry and quite tired.

Fear struck me as my mana had run out before I realized it. Pain I have never felt before coursed up my right fingers, my hands, and into my arms. I screamed in agony—feeling the seal tug on my mind and soul. An image plagued my mind—I was seeing out the eyes of Lek. Glaring down at a gaggle of kinans in their luxurious green and golden cloak of the Scholar and surrounded by magical instruments—all too similar to Scholar Lao's devices that resided in the Fire Kingdom.

The image began to speed up, and so did the intensity of the pain. Days went by within seconds, then months flew by, and then years. The event of the open Skill Book: Soul Harvest happened within a fraction of a second—the trees around Lek exploded into blue flames, and birds and fiends alike fell as shriveled corpses.

Tens of years began to flash within seconds, the seasons came and went, and I soon realized the pain I felt throughout my body was the pain Lek had felt for centuries—resisting the effects of Soul Harvest for years.

A screen of blinding light filled my vision, bringing me back to reality. An eruption of mana hurled me meters away from the seal, and I crashed into the ground. My entire body was limp. I struggled, but I could not feel my own body.

PAIN

Fuck!

I cursed out in anger, quickly realizing that I could speak... I could still see, although my face was planted in the ground.

A prickling sensation crawled up my right arm—it became itchy, then painful, then unbearably painful. The feeling of my body slowly returned, and I weakly picked myself up—I gasped at my right arm. It was utterly blackened, and I was unable to move it. I then blinked—my right eye was blind.

The pain in my right arm did not cease, and so I cast Blood and formed a Blood Sword—

LEK

Control yourself, kin of magic.

I refused to look up at it as I held the Blood Sword above my right shoulder—my anger wanted to blame it for this curse.

LEK

Curses are soul-bound. Your arm will grow back the same.

I looked up at it while controlling my anger and belittling this curse as another obstacle I must overcome. I focused on getting answers to why an ent was here, the images I saw, how it—

LEK

I, Lek, supreme plamescian, understand your plight.

It broke free of the chains and seemingly stretched its body.

LEK

But first,

It stretched out a lengthy arm and planted its straggly wooden palm onto the surface of the ground,

LEK

Allow me to regain my former self. Brace yourself, kin of magic.

The air froze at the sudden release of Lek's mana, making it hard to breathe or even stay standing. Unearthed roots around me were crushed down into the ground. I planted my foot forward to stay upright.

I remembered how I collapsed in the presence of a dragon back when I was mortal and weak. But this time, I stood upright as the oak trees around me began to shrivel and crack at their trunks. I studied the oaks—they were shrinking, resembling Soul Harvest's effects, but this was Lek's doing.

Lek's body became thicker, its lower torso widening as if to inflate with air. The leaves upon its head decayed, and the branches that harbored it thickened. The oak trees around me were now nothing but shrunken husks, allowing the sunlight to enter and reveal the lagardientes waiting by.

What used to be a lively green hidden part of the woods now resembled the rest of the barren and dead trees. Lek's body was now sturdy, its arms and legs as thick as oak trunks and its body wider than three cottages.

It looked over at the lurking lagardientes and emitted a pulse of mana with a relentless glare—the lagardientes screeched out in pain before scurrying off in fear... hmph, I thought it was about to kill them.

LEK

We, the supreme plamescians, do not kill or lay waste to flesmescian.

That bugged me,

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

PAIN

Why?

I asked—almost shouting at it.

PAIN

After what my kind did to you? And those lizards coming here to eat you?

It was as if it was looking down upon me as it slightly closed its eyes.

LEK

We, the supreme plamescians, contain ourselves far beneath the plains you and your fellow kin live upon.

It leaned forward, and its mana pressure, still pulsating down on me, became unbearable.

LEK

Your kind, flesmescians, are plagued with blood.

It leaned backward and appeared to sit on the ground—the ground that quickly rose to caress its body.

LEK

My kind and I do not take well to such a liquid, for it seeps into the roots and enters our realm. Nor are we spiteful, for I do not believe we have such emotion.

Now that Lek mentioned it, bloodtrees came to mind—

LEK

Cursed ones. Like yourself.

I could not help but think its reading of my mind was—

LEK

My apologies, flesmescian, kin of magic. I, Lek, shall never delve into your mind again—less you order so. But please, do allow my addition to your limitless knowledge. Knowledge of how I came to my imprisonment.

He extended an arm up to the sky, and I gawked at the sight of clouds appearing from out of thin air. Thunder boomed within the darkening clouds before rain leaked out from within.

The trickling of water stopped mid-air before my eyes and converged into a dense mist that engulfed the area around me. Colors began to form within the fog—the ground beneath my feet grabbed hold of my ankles, and I wobbled as I was pulled around the mist of imagery.

The scent of kinans reached my nose as two dozen formed within the mist. Even my Petty Heat Vision revealed to me their heat signatures. I looked around—Lek had disappeared—my own body had disappeared!

LEK

My story began with kins of magic seeking to bear a magical tree as an offering to my kind.

Before me, the two dozen kinans clothed in white and gray robes had formed a conjuring pentacle within the ground out of sticks, stones, logs, and plant pigment.

LEK

One thousand-five years ago, these kins of magic worshiped here, prayed here, celebrated here—

Time hastened, and the scenery around me changed. Within each century, I noticed an ent or two sitting nearby, unmoving.

LEK

We shared a neutral bond even though many considered us gods or deities. We emerge from our plains solely to give nature to our seed.

Recall Memory helped me recognize Lek sitting near another ent—despite being over five hundred years ago, Lek looked no different. Near the two ents were Fire Kingdom mages, three adults, and twenty or so children practicing conjuring.

LEK

Our warning came when this kin of magic—

I was pulled around to face him, and to my surprise, Petty Scan revealed Joshua, Kinan, Mage/Summoner/Warrior/Scribe, Twenty-nine.

LEK

Utter his words to us.

Joshua, annoyed with his students' failure to create a summoning pentacle, a circle of hieroglyphs with one large one at its center, eyed the ents in the distance.

JOSHUA

I will be back. Keep practicing.

The children he was teaching watched him go before looking at the other instructors worriedly. Jurabaal, Kinan, Mage/Summoner/Scribe, Nineteen took notice of Joshua, heading towards the ents.

JURABAAL

Instructor Joshua?

JOSHUA

That is my name.

He uttered back as he continued on toward the ents. Jurabaal looked over at Ezak, Kinan, Mage/Summoner/Scribe, Twenty-Five, who averted his gaze.

EZAK

Hmm...

He shrugged,

EZAK

Ents are peaceful; they will cause him no harm.

JURABAAL

I am not worried about their nature—their mana is worrisome—can you not feel it?

Ezak shrugged again as he attempted to focus back on teaching a student the proper body motion while conjuring.

The ground pulled me towards Joshua in time for me to see the struggle on his face as he endured the mana pressure of two ents. He stopped a few meters out, and I looked ahead of him—the ground and trees seemed unaffected by the mana pressure of the Lek and the other ent.

But, I soon realized Lek and the other ent were purposely warding Joshua away.

JOSHUA

Why do you come here and taunt us?

Joshua yelled at them.

JOSHUA

You could at least help. Talk!? Do something, but just sit there! Are you not trees that could move?

I assumed he had a tirade of pent-up frustration.

LEK

For five hundred years, those of my cluster came here to bore our seed in peace. For five hundred years, no kinan had ever spoken to us with ill will.

The scenery began to speed up, resembling the imagery I saw when I unsealed the talisman. I watched Lek and his fellow ent nurture a small tree growing within the aperture of their legs as they sat. Their bodies became slightly smaller as they constantly gave their energy to the premature ent for what seemed to be sixty years. So long...

LEK

I was warned not to return to this place, but I had one more seed to nature and no place to go. Among these plains, my fellow supreme plamescians were now hunted down due to our peaceful nature. We are few in number, and for us to not nurture our seed can lead to the extinction of our kind. But, unfortunately, nowhere near was it safe, so I returned here.

I watched Lek rise from the soil, pulling itself up and plopping down to sit. I assumed they had a limited amount of seeds to bear, but taking sixty goddamn years was absurd.

I watched as lagardientes, unicorns, wudos, and rabbids attempted to feast upon Lek, but he would send them fleeing in pain with a simple glance. Twenty more years passed before Joshua, Kinan, Mage/Summoner/Conjuror/Warrior/Scribe, one hundred-eleven years old, arrived with twenty-two Mages along with Jurabaal, Mage/Summoner/Symbolist. Flanking the group of Mages were Fire and Earth Elementals—small ghostly-like creatures that hovered alongside them.

Jurabaal commanded an earth golem, a seven-foot mass of walking rocks at his side, while Joshua commanded a lava golem, a ten-foot mass of molten walking rocks that quenched its heat to keep the forest from kindling.

Each of them wore royal Fire Kingdom robes, black robes with spheres of fire at the center back, while the lower part of the robes depicted red, yellow, or blue flames—depending on their rank—Jurabaal robes had yellow flames, Joshua with blue flames, and the rest had red.

LEK

I did all I could do without killing any of them.

The ground before Lek exploded in a torrent of rocks and dirt and rippled toward Joshua, but the earth golem charged in and commanded the wave of rocks and dirt to rest. Ten Mages split off and surrounded Lek, pushing through Lek's mana pressure.

JOSHUA

Any time now, Jura!

Jurabaal and the remaining Mages formed a circle while facing Jurabaal's back, and they all emitted their mana energy in unison. Their mana pressure reached me—it was heavy but nowhere near the raw strength of Lek's. A beacon of light slowly appeared from within the circle as Jurabaal extended his right arm toward Lek.

LEK

This was the power of communion,

Lek explained.

LEK

The gathering of magical energies to match the power of my own.

I caught sight of Lek's lower trunk cracking open and swallowing its premature ent whole.

LEK

Delving into their minds, I knew I was at risk. So, I protected my seed within myself.

A devastating burst of mana erupted from Lek, tremoring a few surrounding Mages to their knees. Jurabaal's lava golem charged Lek and began to pound on Lek's mana shield.

LEK

I then chanted a ward upon my seed in the case of my demise.

Lek's body shriveled slightly—reminding me of my familiars using their bodies as energy. But just as Lek chanted his ward, a translucent beam emitted from Jurabaal's extended hand and engulfed Lek in a jelly-like ward, decreasing the mana pressure Lek was emitting.

I postured myself to keep from collapsing as mana pressure, exceeding that of Lek, washed over me from behind. I craned my head up and saw that the beam of light had bent, connecting with another light coming from the city.

LEK

Four thousand seven hundred and four Mages of great power.

The ground beneath my feet took me high into the sky, and the city appeared to float towards me. I was pulled through the city's great walls and could see through the affluent homes and stores. There, I saw two to three thousand Mages surrounding the manor, all in communion, generating a beam of unrivaled mana into the sky that emitted from the center of the manor. Hundreds of Mages were in communion inside the manor and down the halls.

I was brought back to Lek as Joshua hammered his fist into the air around him, seemingly hitting the air and causing ripples of summoning pentacles to appear mid-air. Chains shot out from within the pentacles and wrapped around Lek.

The ten mages surrounding Lek mimicked Joshua and sent forth their chains to bind Lek. Lek emitted another mana pulse, but Jurabaal contained the blast within his translucent ward.

LEK

We, the supreme plamescians, can not hope to overcome such a force of power. We have succumbed to kings and generals all too often when we seek to nurture our seeds.

Jurabaal, along with the ten mages in a circle and the four thousand plus Mages in the city, glowed in a profound golden aura—Willpower, together they lifted their arms, and over four thousand mages uttered in harmony—

FOUR THOUSAND MAGES

Duro!

—forming a thick golden canvas to assemble before the chains. The golden canvas emitted golden threads that wrapped around the chains. Lek's body glowed as it began to use Willpower, but Joshua and his ten Mages countered with their own Symbology—forming hieroglyphic symbols to dampen Lek's Willpower.

LEK

Their communion was perfect. Not a fault in their magic; for one mistake, I would have broken free and escaped.

It was hard to believe that four thousand seven hundred and four kinans were working together. But then again, they were working together out of sheer greed and to imprison Lek to gain something.

LEK

To go to such length, I delved into their minds and saw they were at war with a nation called the Ice Kingdom.

Ice Kingdom!? So, the book Bane of Winterfort was accurate.

LEK

For I knew it would have been simple for them to slay me.

Afterward, four thousand seven hundred four Mages began to move their arms in a unique pattern forming hieroglyphic symbols that floated here before Jurabaal. Each new symbol formed combined with the previous one, becoming thicker as it floated. Finally, the hieroglyphic symbol ended with the only symbol I knew, Drie-eenheid.

The floating and constantly changing hieroglyph slammed into the golden canvas, the impact causing tiny strands of hieroglyphic text to web out and around the chains. The four thousand seven hundred four mages then emitted mana that converged into Jurabaal, who shot it forward onto the talisman. The mana beam rippled off the talisman into a bluish bubble around Lek, which finalized Lek's imprisonment.

Time sped up again, and I watched how Joshua led his fellow mages into setting up equipment around the imprisoned Lek. They were harvesting branches from atop his head that radiated with powerful mana energy akin to raw puries, and after a few days, the branches grew back.

LEK

They did not only seek my body but the seeds I harbored, for you see, we supreme plamescians bore three complete seeds within our lifetimes but house thousands of incomplete seeds. With only one of our incomplete seeds, refined by the tools these flesmescian use, will grant them the power equivalent to a percentage of the total incomplete seeds of the supreme plamescian that harbored it.

I watched in horror as kinans hacked their way into Lek's lower body, desperately searching for seeds, but all was in vain. I clenched my jaws at their ruthlessness day after day.

LEK

With my last chant to protect my premature seed, I hid the incomplete seeds I bore.

Soon, Joshua no longer appeared, and Jurabaal led for a short moment before he, too, stopped appearing. Finally, the imagery faded into mist, and I was brought back before Lek as he commanded the fog to evaporate.

The way they sliced into him as if he were a pile of raw iron ore lingered, and I swallowed in disgust.

PAIN

I am sorry...

I apologized softly.

PAIN

Sorry for the greed of my own race.

How could such a being be so peaceful? With such power to easily slay thousands of my own kind, and yet, it refused to do so. Never before had I harbored this much hate toward kinans as I stared at this magnificent creature before me.

How could one possibly endure harm to such a powerful, peaceful being? We kinans already have to deal with randomly appearing dragons causing havoc and destruction.

PAIN

My kind is lucky that you and your kind are not spiteful.

It extended a branchy finger toward me,

LEK

But we, the supreme plamescian, are grateful.

A golden apple formed from out the tip of its finger.

LEK

Please accept my fruit of gratitude, one of many incomplete seeds that I harbor.

The golden apple broke free, and I let go of my staff to catch it. The feeling was like thousands of puri crystals were in my hand, giving off a thick yet soothing mana energy.

The ground began to shake before a crack slowly opened beneath Lek.

LEK

I, Lek, supreme plamescian, the one you call ent, shall forever be in your debt, Ire Farcatcher, Pain, flesmescian, kin of magic, cursed one, quencher of the open book.

Its legs dipped into the crack, and its whole body slowly sank into the earth.

LEK

Sow my incomplete seed within the earth. It shall grow with what you despise the most.

PAIN

Wait—what?

LEK

I must now return to my realm. Farewell, savior of Lek.

And just like that, Lek was gone; his mana pressure, scent, and any traces it left vanished as the earth sealed itself.

I eyed the golden apple, Incomplete Seed of Lek, and smiled at such power. I Stashed the Incomplete Seed of Lek into my Inventory and retrieved my staff. Despite the curse that radiated intense pain in my right arm and eye, I was content with all that had happened. Not only did I save, but I also stood with the second strongest creature known to kinans.