"Maria?" Wander murmured, noticing Maria was standing next to him.

            " You have finally awakened, my demon prince." The girl said, smirking.

            Memories flashed through Wander's head. He remembered playing cat and mouse with some classmates, then that thing got him again. The image of the beast made him shudder. It would not give up no matter what.

            " I got saved again. This can become an embarrassing habit."  Wander stood up, wincing at the pain on his shoulder as he did.

            He looked in the direction of his school and noticed the overwhelming Demex. Now that his body was similar to that of a demon rather than a hunter, the demonic miasma did not hold true to what he read in the book. It did not give him a chilling, paralyzing cold, but rather a whispering sound that pleased the ears. He unconsciously walked towards his school.

            "The Demex is not in that direction," said Maria."It's from Swordgrave."

            "We must go there. The demons must be attacking the city."

            "No, we will leave New York immediately."

            "We can't abandon Aria and Hiatus!" Wander raised his voice.

            "The Demex does not belong to the demons, Wander. It's from a machine. A contraption capable of generating Demex"

            "How do you know?"

            "I put it there." Maria said nonchalantly.

            Wander stared at the girl with eyes wide open.

            "Why did do you that? Didn't you think of all the panic it can cause? An  Demex of that degree can knock most of the hunters out cold!"

            Maria lifted herself off the ground. She hovered mid-air for a while, long enough to observe the city whole.

            "It seems my plan works well enough." She said, landing next to Wander."The city is in a relatively peaceful state."

            Wander frowned. Even from here he could hear the helicopters, the sirens and the screams." Your definition of "peaceful" is skewed."

            "Oh look, our friend is back." Maria pointed at the sky.

            Wander looked up as an earsplitting shriek enveloped the sky. He knew what to expect. The beast that chased him two times in the forest spread wide its eight wings and shot down its steel hard feathers. Maria raised the ground and shielded Wander and herself from the projectiles.

            " That thing is fast," said Maria "and annoying. Be prepared, the trip will be a little rocking."

            Maria trapped Wander and herself in a globe made out of rock, then covered it with layer of ice. Before Wander could grasp the situation, she shot the globe across the forest at a terrifying speed. Wander could still hear the cry of the beast above the sky and the sound of feathers stabbing the ground.

            " How are you driving this thing?" Wander shouted."Can I help?"

            "Be quiet. I'm trying to focus" Maria shouted back " It's arcane magic. You can't use it anyways."

            " Actually, I can. Now."

            " What? Why didn't you- Wow, so close!" Maria turned the globe to the right-" Why didn't you say so in the first place? Okay, put your hands on the globe. Done? I'm connecting you to it."

            Wander could feel his hand sink into the globe a little. Electric currents ran through his fingertips into his body. A blinding light similar to the flash light of a camera struck Wander; before long, he felt connected to the forest. His feet become tangled with  the roots in the forest through an invisible thread.

            " What the- It's like I am the earth!"

            " You can sense the trees' root now, right? Evade them all. Give me a minute"

            Maria closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against one another. She whispered strange words that Wander could not understand. He shifted his focus back to controlling the globe.

            It was a bizarre sensation for Wander. He had become the globe itself. He could sense the boy that was driving it, as if he were not him but an entirely different being watching Wander. It was the feeling of staring into the mirror and realized you were the reflection.

            The feathers of the beast hit the globe , inducing a tingling pain all over Wander's body.  The pain was minimal but before long Wander realized it could drive him insane. It turned into itches, itches that Wander could not scratch. Wander bit his lips to suppress the maddening itch, losing his grip on the globe. Its movement turned volatile, and the forest became a ping-pong game.

            " Wander, lend me your body." said Doom Mark

            " Silent, Doom. I'm trying to focus."

            " I can endure the pain for you. If this goes on you will completely lose control!"

            " Then just take it already!"

            Wander heard a bang in his head. Another flash appeared before his eyes. He watched his body turn black, heard the cracking sound of his skin falling off and smelled the bitter smoke. Apart from the three senses, he could no longer feel anything. He had taken the backseat of his own body.

            " This is freaking weird. I have never been one with nature and now I can be sure I have no regret about it," said Doom Mark.

            " You're saying? In one day I've experienced becoming happy trees and a mere thought in my own body. Urg, this better be the last time for both of these things."

            " Ouch! That chicken is shooting laser beam now? Will it transform next?"

            " Don't jinx it. Drive!"

            The explosion made the globe shake even more. It was now no more than a ball being kicked across the field. Cracks appeared on its wall and got wider by seconds.

            " The ball is breaking!" Doom Mark shouted.

            A lustrous orb manifesting between Maria's hands. She opened them and the orb flared up, engulfing the whole globe and painting the surroundings with white. A loud thud sound ensued as the ball fell to the ground, broken into pieces.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

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            Through the eyes of his own body, Wander  saw a forest with nothing like Mirilad. He doubted if he could call the vegetation here tree. Their height was no less than that of a normal redwood or pine back at Mirilad but their shape and structure were foreign: A few of them had a huge spiky part at the top that resembled a blooming lotus; others developed red flag-shape leaves while some looked like a multitude of hands enveloping each other.

            " It's getting freakier every minute." said Doom Mark

            " Can you give me back my body now? I'm not used to being an electric current of the brain."

            " Wander, I'm sorry but I can't return this body to you."

            " Make it more convincing next time. Come on, Doomy, don't waste my time."

            " Tch, you are no fun. I'm leaving you."

            Wander saw flashes and heard a buzzing sound resonating. A minute later, he was still just a mere thought and did not regain the control of his body.

            " Doom Mark, this is not funny."

            " Wander." Doom Mark said with a grave voice.

            "What?" Wander asked in a threatening tone.

            " Uhm, something's off. I can't go back inside."

            " Bull!" Wander yelled." Okay, first, deactivate the demon form, you are exuding Demex like there is no tomorrow."

            "Is everything okay?" asked Maria as she finished concealing the broken globe.

            Doom Mark turned to her, at a loss for an appropriate reply.

            " I cannot turn off this thing! What is wrong with your body? How to turn off the mode?"

            " For God's sake, tell her, tell Maria you can't turn it off!"

            " Maria" Doom Mark said " I cannot turn off my demon form."

            Maria stared at him like he was a monkey scratching his flea-ridden fur. She raised her eyebrows, pouting , clicking her tongue.

            " This is purely stupid. A joke has its limit you know."

            " I am not joking! I really cannot turn this thing off!" Doom Mark shouted.

            " What do you mean you cannot turn it off?" Maria frowned " You have been doing it since forever right?"

            " Darn it! I just can't."

            Their conversation was cut off  as the three heard a series of cling clang resonating in the air. They immediately realized it was the sound of swords clashing against their scabbards. The hunters had caught on to the trace of Wander.

            Maria glanced at Doom Mark, then squinted at the approaching shadows of the hunters.

            "Carry me." she said " We're heading South."

            "Don't question her, Doom Mark. Just do it." Wander said.

            Doom Mark nodded, taking Maria into his arms. She pointed at an overgrown field looming miles away.

            " That direction. Run as fast as you can."

            " What about them?" said Doom Mark as he began to run.

            Maria stretched her arm towards the hunters. The ground under their feet began to quake, throwing them off balance. The vegetation around them developed at an abnormal rate, trapping them in a circle of grasses, flowers, roots and leaves. The overgrown flora swiftly spread across the forest, turning into a natural labyrinth

            " I thought you were good at water type of magic, not earth type." said Doom Mark.

            " I'm best at water type and very good at almost anything else."

            " Show-off."

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            On their path to the field, the hunters kept emerging and attempted to hinder their advance. Maria had no trouble holding them at bay, creating mazes even more convoluted than the first one. The hunters could only catch a glimpse of Doom Mark and her before getting blocked by the plants they were used to stepping on.

            "At this rate nothing can harm us," said Doom Mark.

            Maria did not reply.

            "She is too powerful even by Exsomnis' standard," said Doom Mark to Wander " I cannot gauge the power of a non-demonic being, but she is not below titanium level."

            " How about that thing back at Mirilad?" asked Wander.

            " I don't know. We've never really fought it head-on. Still the rate at which it recovered from its wounds is frightening."

            " Recover? That thing straight-up came back to life. Nothing recovers from having its head impaled or half its torso blasted away."

            " Hey, is it me or they have stopped chasing us?"

            Doom Mark looked around so Wander could observe the surroundings. There was no  sign of the hunters: no more the sound of metal clashing against each other, no  more the sound of people running in haste, no more the sound of people swearing or cussing.

            " Hah, they're afraid. Good job Maria!" said Doom Mark.

            " They do not fear us," replied the girl."They fear what dominates the field."

            Doom Mark frowned as he charged into the fynbos-overrun field. He immediately became aware of the rise in temperature. The rise was sudden and sharp, rendering him even more cautious.

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Till now, can you picture the true events that have been transpiring since the beginning? A glimpse of it?