Chapter 25 #2
My eyes widen. Only a few seconds separate life from death. I force whatever strength I have left to the surface as I start dodging. The larger ones are easier to evade. But the smaller ones… I can barely see them coming.
Fuck!
A small ice spear pierces my right shoulder, drawing blood.
I keep moving, pirouette after pirouette to escape the incoming missiles, but more small shards hit my body.
My legs and torso are now full of scratches and gashes, including a small one on my cheek right under my left eye and a larger one under my ribs.
The latter is the most painful, and going by the growing wetness of my shirt, the bleeding is quire profuse.
And just like it started, it’s over. There’s no more ice, no more restraint for the sentient forest.
The trees now sway from left to right, slowly closing in on me. What little space I had before is now fast dwindling.
I breathe harshly. More blood pools by my feet. My healing is inhibited. I don’t have enough energy to sustain it, especially for the large gash.
Perhaps the forest will just eject me, like before…
But that thought quickly vanishes when I notice the branches morphing right under my gaze. What looked like healthy tree branches before, with lush colorful leaves now turned into sharpened spikes, ready to penetrate my body.
The first time was a warning. I disregarded it, attacked the forest and now it is attacking me.
Do I have enough energy to fight with it?
How powerful is this forest even? So far, nothing has managed to deter it, never mind actually inflicting any damage.
Thousands of spears are aimed at me. And before I can even blink, they’re dispatched toward me.
Run! My mind screams at me. Give up!
But it’s too late even for running away. The speed with which the spears are thrown at me is too much for my level-three-borrowed-strength.
I squeeze my eyes, awaiting the impact.
Except it never comes.
I slowly open my eyes. The spears are right next to me, the sharp tips about to enter my body. But they don’t. They’re frozen all around me, caging me.
What’s happening?
And then I see it. There is one spear that’s closer to my body than any other; so close it’s almost piercing the skin of my abdomen. The tip is a bright red, and right above it is the large gash caused by the ice shards.
The redness of the blood seeps into the branch, traveling from its tip to the faraway trunk. An ecosystem of its own, the trees communicate with one another because in the next moment, all the spears are retracted; all the trees are stained red.
I watch the entire thing with wide, disbelieving eyes.
The spears disappear. The trees regain their initial appearance. But something else happens. Instead of ejecting me, or even crowding me like before, the trees sway away.
One by one, they clear a path for me directly to the building in the distance. The tree crowns bend inwards, as if they’re bowing to me.
If the events from before were strange, this one is straight up bizarre.
But I can’t scoff at such a fortuitous chance. I walk down the cleared path as fast as I can—which isn’t much in my state.
The one-thousand-five-hundred steps to the square construction feel like an eternity. But eventually I make it there.
The door of the square structure slides open, welcoming me.
Odd.
But I don’t question it too much. I’m one step closer to finishing this job and getting the bonus too.
Stepping into the single room of the construction, I look around, baffled. There is nothing inside. No furniture, no items, nothing. Only four black bare walls.
Frowning, I pull out my map again. I’m at the right location. This is where the book should be, but why…
As I try to think if I did something wrong, a loud noise startles me. I jump back just as something falls to the ground, seemingly out of nowhere.
“What the—” I mutter in disbelief.
It’s a book. But I don’t know whether it’s the book I’m supposed to retrieve. When it dropped from the ceiling—really, there’s no other explanation—it did so already open to the middle so I cannot ascertain whether the cover matches the description.
With slow, apprehensive steps, I move closer to the book on the floor. I first wipe my hands on my pants to remove all residual blood. Then, with careful movements, I lift it off the ground.
Before I can close it to look at the cover, my eyes zero in on the chapter heading.
The Doom of Urteos.
“Urteos?” I whisper, the name familiar. “Urteos?” My eyes widen in realization.
Isn’t Urteos the ancient Tartareian ruler who is infamous for plunging the realm in chaos? And wasn’t he also born on the day of the eclipse?
As soon as that information filters in my brain, I forget about the rule of the mission: don’t open the book. I simply read on, quickly realizing the book is a biography of Urteos.
But why would something that’s found in all corners of the realm be under the protection of the sentient forest? Why would it be so elusive…?
The chapter details the last years of Urteos’ life.
His quest for power pushed him to the brink of madness, which likely impacted his political decisions.
But something else makes me pause: this book states Urteos had a double domain.
I’ve never heard of something like that before.
Nothing in my library, or even in the information available at the War Department suggests it is possible for someone to have two domains.
I keep reading.
Urteos’ fall occurred because he failed to nurture both domains. He advanced only one of them and according to the book it was the wrong one. One of the Seven Primordials took note of his attempt to advance to their realm and killed him.
What?
What does that mean? Advance to their realm? Why would the Seven bother with that? And more importantly, how could they kill someone when they’re supposed to be locked inside Tartarstasis, an unbreakable prison?
The history books say that Urteos’ death was by his own hands—he’d gone so mad he’d self destructed. But this… What is the reality?
The door behind me creaks. Scared, I quickly close the book, and sure enough, the cover matches the description.
Hopefully no one knows I glanced inside it.
Not lingering more than I need to, I leave the building. The trees once more move to the side to clear a path for me.
When I’m a distance away, I tap my token and open the proto-realm. Inside, I hand over the book and receive my second payment as well as my bonus for finishing the mission in time—only a few hours.
Then I head home, wishing for nothing more than Moe’s company and her cooking. But first I must find a way to treat my wounds since I don’t have enough energy to accelerate my healing.