A violent shove forced Temia away from Sofis, the moment abruptly ended via external intervention. Temia tumbled backwards and landed amongst some bushes, while Sofis gasped for breath, her hands covering her face as she attempted to regain her proper senses.
Gennai looked over them in concern, and soon, Jorn also joined to maintain separation between the two.
‘What are you doing?’ Gennai’s voice was forcibly kept down, but Sofis noticed he was on the verge of screaming. He was also out of breath, his clothes dishevelled and parts of his body bruised as if he had fought his way towards them with great difficulty. His question had no intention to be answered. Gennai’s expression told Sofis that he already knew what would unfold if he didn’t stop them earlier.
Sofis was dragged up to her feet by Jorn, the latter maintaining a steady but gentle grip so as not to injure her. She was still in a daze, unable to fully process everything that had happened within the last few moments.
‘You alright?’ he asked.
‘B-Barely…’
She looked at Temia for a brief moment, only for Jorn to quickly shield her eyes with his hand.
‘Don’t do that,’ he warned, the first time Sofis heard his voice becoming stern.
It was then that Sofis noticed that Gennai and Jorn refused to make eye contact with each other throughout the entire time. While Jorn held her still, Gennai had also recovered Temia and was leading her away to a slightly further, more open location.
‘It’s a good thing that we figured out this hall in time, or else…’ Jorn couldn’t let himself speak further.
‘Bring the two of them back to camp for now,’ Gennai ordered. ‘We need to leave this place as soon as possible.’
Before long, the two were carried back to the main camp, the grass scorched and the nearby vegetation hacked away, revealing a layer of dry, sandy dirt. The other treasure hunters were staring at the ground, only occasionally looking up for a brief moment before lowering their eyes again. Some of them were merely in mild shock while others were covered in bruises. As Jorn placed her down on the ground, Sofis thought she heard a cackle from some kind of bird in the distance. Temia was nowhere to be seen.
‘Alright, pack your things,’ Gennai said as soon as he arrived. ‘We need to leave. Now.’
Sofis quickly complied despite not knowing what exactly the hurry was. She couldn’t really think of a way to talk back at this point. The image still shocked her, and she had no proper way to deal with the influx of emotions just yet.
The other treasure hunters also followed suit, seeming to understand the meaning behind Gennai’s words. They were all silent, completely focused on themselves as they packed their belongings. When two hands accidentally touched, they were quickly swatted away by a third person. There was to be no contact at all.
‘This hall changes our character in weird ways,’ Jorn explained, noticing Sofis’ confusion. ‘It’s a good thing we figured it out fast.’
‘Sofis, I’m sure you know already, but we treasure hunters are obsessed with physical objects,’ Gennai added as he approached her. ‘The hall lures us with safety and comfort before putting in thoughts of intense desire for everything we saw, especially of our fellow companions. The desire would become difficult to suppress, and eventually, we’d pounce on each other like predators, forcing the other to submit to our impulses.’
‘We had a big fight earlier when I lost control,’ Jorn said. ‘It’s how so many people got hurt. Then Gennai saw you and Temia.’
‘A bit of violence is needed to break the impulsive obsession,’ Gennai continued. ‘But it’s only a temporary fix. It’s why we can’t look at each other directly for now. The place is too dangerous. We have to go.’
‘A lot of us both hated and listened to Gennai when he said that. He’s removing us from our quick happiness, but we need this to escape the trap in this hall.’
It reminded Sofis a little of illegal drugs. The vials or dried herbs would be sold in markets, introducing a new bunch of people to addiction every single day. Even if the consumers knew of the harm the drugs brought, they couldn’t stop because of their addiction. This hall was similar.
Whether the mechanics of the hall was to encourage, perhaps force a specific kind of addiction or just the feeling of addiction in general, she couldn’t fully understand yet. But she had no time to ponder on these things.
They all had to leave, and fast.
The progress of packing up was surprisingly slow. Sofis noticed an unusual reluctance when she went to dismantle her tent, her arms struggling to move naturally as she attempted to take things down. The same happened for the rest of the band, even Gennai who desperately shouted and called for everyone to pick up their pace.
The hall was attempting to drag them back with more temptation. Flowers were blooming quicker than ever, the fragrances competing against each other as they raced into everyone’s noses, filling them with temporary feelings of relaxation.
She had to focus.
Sofis cut out a piece of cloth from her robes and stuffed it in her nose, blocking those pleasing scents with great reluctance. Many others, however, were already succumbing to the scents, drowsily shifting back and forth, dropping their tools to caress their bodies in various manners.
‘Focus! Focus!’ Gennai ran and slapped each of their heads, hoping to jolt them from their sensations. And it did work for a while, the treasure hunters panicking and returning to work for a moment. Yet it didn’t take long before they relapsed, some even uttering words of sexual profanity the likes of which Sofis had never heard of before.
Sofis noticed that even Jorn was beginning to relapse, the giant man shaking his head every now and then for the sake of his continued sanity to little avail. Gennai’s slaps made no effect, and gradually, she could see that he was slowly turning his face towards her, attempting to make eye contact.
Without hesitation, she cut off another piece of cloth, closed her eyes, and forced it up against Jorn’s nose. It didn’t matter how disgusting it felt, how she felt she was literally dirtying an integral part of herself to a man whose physical appearance was among the worst she’d encountered. At that moment, Jorn needed to be rescued from his misery.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Jorn choked at the sudden obstacle in his nose. He blinked hard and shook, blowing his nose against the piece of cloth. But he was saved. Realising his grave mistake, he quickly turned back to his work, his face fully red with embarrassment and shame.
‘Faster!’ he roared, convincing himself to work even harder. His voice boomed across the hall, shaking the others awake from their misery spiral.
It was like a chain reaction. One by one they shouted, some even hitting themselves lightly on the cheek to maintain their focus. The strong smells continued to bombard their senses, but they wouldn’t allow themselves to fall this easily into the trap of lust again. For the sake of the future treasures, they’d gladly leave this paradise-like hell and welcome their next trial. This was their collective strength as a band, using a mix of insults and shouts to encourage each other to go onwards together.
With puffed faces and sweating bodies, they rapidly dumped everything into the chests, shutting them tightly before rolling them out to the opposite door. Sofis didn’t allow herself to document the event, tossing her precious notes into a random chest before joining the others in their efforts.
The path towards the exit was filled with soft bushes, beautiful trees and blooming flowers. No one would be fooled by that now, their eyes ablaze with the fire of destruction.
‘Cut down the obstacles!’ Gennai ordered.
It didn’t matter that the plants felt like cushions, that every touch was practically inviting them to a moment of pure bliss. It didn’t matter that this was the most beautiful scene known to their entire lives. It didn’t matter that to cut all of these down would require so much more effort than surrendering to thei embrace.
They had to leave.
Handing out large sticks to each of them, they began hacking at the scenery. Jorn and a few others even utilised their bare hands to tear apart and uproot entire plants, tossing them away like trash. Sofis, being physically weaker than the rest, could only contribute little, but it didn’t stop her determination. The work was unlike any project she’d done at the Academia before. Instead of pages of books, she was flipping through and clearing out layers of leaves and vegetation. The entire process was extremely taxing for her body, but somehow, as she continued on, she felt a sense of relief and release from the beautiful trap.
Temia appeared beside her, the woman hacking at the plants with all her might. While initially tempted for a single moment, Sofis soon focused herself once more and dedicated to the task at hand, never taking more than a brief glance at her fellow companion.
‘Get moving, Sofis!’ Temia shouted.
‘I know!’ Sofis responded in kind.
As Jorn put himself between the two of them, they were separated from each other again. But for Sofis, this was no longer necessary. No form of temptation could now stop the band from clearing away the obstacles, no matter how easy it was to give in, no matter how comforting those precious moments seemed to be. They were but an illusion to lower their guard, to trap them in this eternal prison of lust and solace.
No determined person would allow themselves to fall into such a situation.
Finally, after what seemed to be an entire night’s worth of work, the path was completely cleared. Though the vegetation was desperately trying to grow back and tempt them with fine smells, such fragrances held little effect compared to the tattered atmosphere the band had inflicted upon the hall.
It was done.
‘Let’s go.’ Gennai, as usual, went to push the door…
And it didn’t even budge.
‘Huh?’
For the first time, they noticed text etched into the door’s surface: destroy all temptations.
It didn’t take long for Sofis to understand its meaning, especially when the plants were stretching towards them again, gradually wrapping themselves around their limbs.
‘We need to burn everything here.’
Gennai paused for a moment, but later quickly turned to the band. ‘You heard the scholar.’
Torches were immediately placed on the ground. The grass quickly caught fire, the flames soon spreading to the flowers, scorching their delicate petals and turning their fragrances into a foul-smelling smoke. Soon, the entire hall was ablaze, generating near-unbearable amounts of heat to the band yet removing any lingering doubts they had on taking this drastic path.
Sofis thought she heard the plants scream as they were being burnt alive, screeching until there was nothing left but ashes on the ground. Everyone was drenched in their own sweat as they witnessed the carnage, their bodies hunched down to avoid breathing in as much smoke as possible. Using what little water was available in their portable canteens, they kept themselves relatively cool and hydrated, at the very least enough to not let the heat be too much for their bodies. No one held any sympathy for the plants, only relief as the beauty withered away.
Finally, after a long wait, the fire died down with nothing more to burn. Flickering embers and dried up branches still twitched and twisted, pretending to have life, but they could only languish in a field of ash. No trace of that initial paradise remained, only a faint smell of smoke and a graveyard of once-beautiful plants. No one held any sort of regret in their action, for there was nothing to tempt them anymore. Instead of a comforting glow of light, there was now only the bare illumination of sparks and embers here and there.
Some of the chests had been burnt and damaged, but surprisingly, the contents inside were mostly safe and intact. Only a portion of the mana food they collected before was damaged. For all that had happened, this was far beyond the best result they could ask for.
Gennai pushed against the door again, and this time, it moved, allowing the band to depart.
Sofis wished she could document the relief and happiness on the treasure hunters’ faces as they went out of the hall. Without their collective decisiveness, who knows how long they’d have been trapped inside here with their own folly?
As she exited the door, she saw Temia waiting for her, her hands fidgeting a little and still unwilling to look at her face.
‘Good work,’ she said, struggling to maintain her composure. ‘And sorry about that.’
Sofis took a deep breath. She still hadn’t fully recovered from that incident, still a bit frightened by that woman. She almost wanted to ignore her and return to their distance before. But she knew, of course, that Temia couldn’t be held at fault. Besides, things had already passed. They had saved each other at least once already on this journey. To dismiss everything because of a single incident was far too cruel and irrational.
She walked towards Temia and, with some hesitation, grabbed her hand for a brief moment.
‘All is forgiven, Temia.’ If only Temia knew how difficult those words came out of Sofis’ mouth.
‘... S-Sofis, thank you.’ There was still some tense awkwardness between the two, but for now, the conflict was resolved.
----------------------------------------
After an extensive break camping at a rather uncomfortable corridor, the band finally ascended the next set of stairs. Unlike the first set, there were barely any steps, instead each being almost like large platforms that then raised up to the next. With some work, the luggage was all transported up, and finally, they faced the next hall: a hall without doors.
None of them dared to enter, not even Gennai who usually led the way. The hall was brightly lit with orange lights, brighter than any chandelier they had seen. There was nowhere to hide or to ambush. The interior was round and devoid of decoration, but there was a single bed, a table, a chair and what looked like a silver book placed at the centre for all to see.
Sitting on the bed… was a boy, wearing a grey hooded shirt, a pair of blue trousers and black shoes, his entire outfit resembling nothing of the cultures of the world.
Sofis recognised him immediately. She couldn’t even stop her mind from connecting the dots. Everything fitted too well.
The boy looked up and stared straight into her eyes.
‘Come inside, everyone.’