I looked at the “spinal stones” in a new light. This whole time, I was tossing bloody rocks into a bag as if they were the most irrelevant thing in the world when, in reality, I was collecting raw power.

“This probably won’t mean much to you,” Lithco said, “but second evolution is the last evolution creatures can reach on the other side of Galfer’s Gate. So everything you’ve got in that bag would sell for serious money.”

“These?” I asked, looking at the reiga and shalk cores. “Is everyone so weak out there?”

Lithco’s lips curved into a sinister smile.

“What’s that smile for?” I asked.

“Those creatures are the bunnies and rats of the Areswood Forest,” Lithco said. “If you weren’t in the divide, you’d be facing beasts with powers like Kline.”

I imagined fighting beasts that could teleport and turn invisible and release long-ranged attacks and shivered.

“Get it?” he asked seriously. “Luckily, you have the resources and mana cores necessary to get strong. That starts with building a core.”

“You already have a core,” Lithco said, “It’s just weak. To make it stronger, you use a chant to spin the core. The energy becomes a magnet that sucks in more mana like a winding thread around a bobbin. The more mana you have on hand, the stronger you can get. That’s where cores come in. They’re mana reservoirs; by unraveling them, you can absorb the mana inside.”

“So how do I do that?” I asked, looking at them, regretful that I wasn’t taking care of them.

“Well, you can start by cleaning them,” Lithco said, curling his lip and scrunching his nose. “After that,” he said, “you put them into your mouth and use another chant to unravel them.”

I now understood his expression—I almost gagged.

“But you don’t have to worry about that right now,” Lithco said. “That elixir will link you with the area of your subconscious necessary to manipulate mana, and you’ll likely have a guide giving you instructions. You won’t have any problem absorbing mana.”

“A guide?” I asked. “Wait, that’s a real thing?”

“It is. There’s not a lot of data on lumidra since it’s rare, but everyone who has taken it in the Areswood Forest describes meeting an entity called ‘Yakana’ who taught them the nature of mana. A famous god named Brindle Grask is said to have had a close relationship with this entity.”

“Allegedly? How don’t you know?”

“I have recording restrictions on higher-level entities,” Lithco said, leaning back. “It’s a perk of reaching higher evolutions. As for the lower evolutions…” He tapped his temple twice. “I can only read their surface thoughts. The conversation with Yakana happens in an area within your subconscious.”

I rubbed my eyes. “But if it’s in my subconscious, how can I speak to it? That seems… impossible.”

“I’m not sure how it works,” Lithco said, “but I imagine it’s like a radio station. By ingesting the spores, you connect to a certain frequency, and you can hear Yakana. That would explain why only people who have taken the elixir in the Areswood Forest have heard Yakana and the rest haven’t.”

I nodded. It was all so strange, but I couldn’t stop thinking about that strange voice from the river. No one should have been able to speak underwater—no one was around. They were in my thoughts. I wondered if it was the same entity.

Lithco studied my expression. Then he looked at the bag of mana cores. “Well? You gonna clean those or what?”

“R-Right…” I quickly complied, activating the bathtub and washing them with soap. Only then did I groan and stare at the cores. “Purify,” I whispered. All the grime and blood and gunk that was still stuck to them instantly slid off as if it were carried away by a running river. It was surreal. “Seriously?” I groaned.

Kline heckled me. I sent him the stink eye but then sighed and offered him the turquoise core. He pawed it back at me. Translation: No, you need it more, you weak-ass bitch. That wasn’t the real message, but it was how I felt about it. So I was grateful and petted his ears. I would get stronger, for his sake.

“Is there anything else I should know before I take this?” I asked Lithco, grabbing the elixir.

“Nope,” Lithco said. “Just drink it and chant. It’ll take care of the rest.”

I turned to Kline. “You ready?”

He smiled wryly.

“Yeah, me neither.”

He slunk over to the corner of the room and reluctantly brought me his water bowl, dropping it on the ground before me.

“Okay.” I shook the elixir, measured out a spoonful, and put it into the bowl. Kline immediately licked it up and howled, dropping to the ground. But he crawled back to the bowl and licked up the rest. He didn’t waste a single drop.

I measured out a spoonful and put it in my mouth as well. It burned like dry ice, and it took everything in my power not to spit it out. But I forced it down and closed the lid.

2.

As Mira was waiting for the elixir to take effect, Aiden was in a liscan-drawn carriage with his proctor, Alitalia, inbound to the Third Ring, where Aiden would be tested on his candidacy for making trips to the Fourth Ring.

He looked out the window. It was almost sunset, and the carriage was passing through Restam, a city with water flowing in the sky and purification channels. He found it strange how advanced certain parts of the city were and how… lacking other areas were.

“Aren’t you curious?” Alitalia asked.

“About what?”

“Where we’re going?”

Aiden furrowed his brows. “Aren’t we going to the Cursed Aviary?”

Alitalia narrowed her eyes at him. “Seems you already know what we’re doing.”

“Was I not supposed to know?”

“You weren’t,” she said. “That’s why I know you gotta quest. Judgin’ by the difficulty, I take it it’s a legacy?”

Aiden smiled wryly, disturbed to have been discovered so easily.

“It’s okay, kid,” Alitalia said. “I already know. It’d be more surprising if you didn’t, after contracting with Skia. Three-tailed fox—ring a bell?”

Aiden’s eyes widened. “You know her?”

“Not supposed to,” Alitalia said. “It’s common protocol to kill higher level entities on sight. But she’s a bit different. You can take that girl through the first six rings of the Areswood Forest and she’ll still be cursed. So no one pays her any mind. I think we’d have released her into the Fourth Ring if she could survive the Bramble.”

“What’s the Bramble?”

Alitalia smiled wryly. “The Areswood Forest is on a power gradient, and that power gradient’s set up with the domains. The first three rings go from mortal creatures and small herbivores, to the Third Ring, which has mid-tier second-evolution beasts. The Fourth Ring has second and third evolution beasts and so it goes. But there’s an exception—and it’s called the Bramble. It’s an area about five miles from the gate that’s full of third-evolution beasts and killer plants. Without fail, it kills every person that even flies over the wall before the Black Harvest.”

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

“W-Wait, how does that make sense? Why?”

“To keep people out. It was set up by a god that ruled this forest for millenia. He did it so that people couldn’t set up supply lines and slowly push their way into the forest. It makes it practically impossible to enter the Fourth Ring except the week it’s open. To be honest, everyone flocking here for the quest is about to die. We’re warning people, but they never listen.”

Aiden laughed and looked away. “And you want me to do this?”

“I don’t want you to do anything. It’s the Oracle, and the Oracle’s only asking because you might have a chance.”

Aiden smiled wryly.

“Don’t worry, kid,” Alitalia said. “It’s mandatory for me to take you to the aviary—but not to support you. The minute you walk in, I’ll tell you to walk out. That’s a fact.”

Aiden nodded and looked out the window, falling silent. Alitalia did the same. Soon, they passed through the Goliath gate to the Second Ring and hit a dirt road. After that, the carriage lifted with magic like an airplane, and Elionis and the other liscans rocketed forward, moving at speeds that rivaled cars—or beyond.

Meanwhile, Mira was just starting to feel the effects of the Lumidran Awakening Elixir.

3.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to happen when I took the elixir, but it was far more gentle than I imagined. It took twenty minutes to start feeling the effects, and the effects were pleasant.

I closed my eyes, and I could see colors. Yet it wasn’t a chaotic mix of colors from some hallucinogenic drugs, I could see strange and wondrous streams of color moving inside Kline and I, like a second circulatory system.

So this is mana… I thought, accepting it as a fact. It was as evident as my ability to breathe or move my fingers.

Mana.

It was all around me, caressing me, weaving me together with the world’s grand tapestry.

I giggled at that. I was sounding like a mushroom-lovin' hippie holding yoga sessions. Tapestry? Connectedness? Caressing? It was so bizarre—

—but I knew it was true.

Mana was flowing around me—within me—within Kline, binding us together with this world. I basked in that feeling for about twenty minutes before I heard the voice. It wasn’t just any voice—it was the male voice from within the Diktyo River.

So you’ve returned.

“Returned…?” I whispered. “Returned where?”

To the assimilation.

I wiped my face, feeling hot sweat pouring off my forehead. “What’s that?”

The assimilation is the journey souls take to become mana and return to nature.

For whatever reason, mana being made of souls felt self-evident and natural, so I didn’t question it. Instead, I was more confused by something else: “So why am I here?” I asked. “Am I dead?”

No, you’re not dead. We’re all a part of the assimilation—just at different stages. Yet you have merely connected to it, just as you did in my river.

“River… who are you?”

I am Yakana.

I giggled. “That’s a useful description.”

Perhaps it's best to show you. Yakana said. Suddenly, the void around me changed. Colorful flowers sprouted in the darkness, and symphony bugs started creating melodies. A forest slowly emerged from the blackness, leading to a world that was half black and vacant, half alive and full.

I peered between the trees, feeling my body sucked into it, as if my soul was trying to leave my body and join it. I resisted, but it still beckoned me to enter the forest.

A sharp light passed through the trees, blinding me. I covered my eyes, and when I looked through, I saw the silhouette of an elk walking through the trees, clacking its hooves over the rocks as it entered the clearing. It stopped and looked at me. Then, it turned and shook its fur and took another step—

—but the moment its hoove touched down, the elk turned into a bear. The next step turned it into a shalk. Then, it took a third and became a human man. He paused and turned to me.

“So you’re everything?” I whispered abstractedly.

No. I am an assimilation—a remnant of the many souls who wished to protect this forest instead of merging with nature. So I exist through such souls, but I am none.

“I see…” It didn’t make sense—but it did. It was both abstract and clear as day, like knowing the importance of air but unable to truly know why without theories and science. “So what do you want?”

I wish to show you the nature of death so that you may appreciate life. To show you destruction, so that you may learn to protect.

“To show value...”

Yes. What do you want? What do you seek in this forest?

“To live my life in nature,” I whispered without hesitation.

Even after what you’ve seen?

I might have struggled more, but under the effects of the elixir, I felt far more honest with myself. “Yes…” I said. “I love this forest. I’d love to live here. I just… don’t want to die.”

Then allow me to aid you so that you may appreciate it.

Yakana morphed into a silhouette of me and walked over, offering his hand.

I grabbed it, and my entire body jolted as Yakana’s form melted and absorbed within me. It felt revolting, but I could feel nothing but trust for Yakana, and once we merged, I felt nothing but absolute comfort.

Now close your eyes, Yakana said.

I closed my eyes a second time, feeling a deeper connection with the mana around me. It felt like a galaxy.

Repeat after me, Yakana said, ‘Eroí kai mythikoí, ektithémenoi sti…."

The words and their accent slipped off my tongue as if I had spoken them my whole life. Energy flooded into my body, and suddenly, the words had meaning, as if they were keys on a piano. Soon, I began speaking the words I had never heard before Yakana said them, locking our words together in a hypnotic chant. With each word, mana entered my body, circulating around in complex networks.

Suddenly, all the blockages in my mana channels started to break away, like a flowing stream breaking through dirt blocking its way. For the first time, the mana reached my heart, which spread it through my body—making it to my spine. It felt loose and chaotic—lawless.

You have now established mana flow. It is through this state that you have energy. Now thread. Kryfá orízonta éklampan…

Yakana began chanting again, and so did I. That chant shifted everything. The energy reversed course in some areas, pressing forward in others, weaving together in a complex framework. It was intricate, but Yakana’s presence made it as effortless as breathing. I was so free that I almost stopped chanting.

Now speak the word and activate your core, Yakana instructed.

“Churn,” I responded. It wasn’t a grand word—it was a nickname. Any word would’ve done, but my subconscious chose that one, helping ground me. Suddenly, that sliver of energy in my spine spun, and that mana flowing through me wrapped around it like a ball of yarn.

Faster.

I followed Yakana’s instructions, speeding up. That caused blockages in my mana channels to burst open. I cried out and wanted to stop—but I didn’t. I took all that energy and threaded it.

Tighter.

I took that network and wound it like a bobbin, keeping the threads together.

Do not lose focus.

I didn’t. I kept focused. This energy felt so real, natural, and intoxicating. My body was in pain but euphoric, like all the times I had eaten Ghost Peppers and Carolina Reapers. I loved it. I needed it. So I kept pressing on and on and on until the atmosphere around me changed.

The forest disappeared, and soon, I was surrounded by a cosmos-like image of mana flowing around me. I was seeing mana in its rawest form—the tapestry.

“How?” I asked, wondering how to interact with that mana.

Speak the language of the world. Pyriná trápeza lékountai….

I started chanting, and the world shook and trembled as if there were powerful, chaotic winds around me.

Control it.

Sweat poured down my body, but I kept focused, trying to interact with the chaotic hurricane outside.

Do not forget about your threading.

I groaned and regained control of the energy flowing within me. Doing both was like juggling and riding a bike. If I hadn’t been connected to mana and fused with Yakana, I would have failed. Yet I had many advantages, so I kept focused, trying to do both. It took many hours before I could do it, but soon, mana was flowing around me, captured in reds and blues and greens and yellows and purples, each swirling around me—and within me—in beautiful patterns.

Now speak the word, child.

I had been waiting for this moment for quite some time. I thought of Yakana’s desire—to show me the nature of death and rebirth, so I chose the word I felt was most fitting.

“Apokálypsis.”