Leaning back against the tree I let the back of my head rest against the trunk as I stared up at the canopy. Spears of sunlight penetrated through the gaps in the leaves dappling the forest in light and shadow.

My tree was the tallest one in the vicinity and it punched through the cloud of green. I was sure that if I climbed to the top of it, I would be awarded with a panoramic view of the region.

But before I did that, there was something else that I wanted to try.

The girls might have beaten me to testing my link with them, but I had another path back home they weren’t aware of.

Regiis’ Nexus of Demigods.

After I’d been officially inducted into their ranks, the Demigods had helped me place an anchor there. If it was still working properly, I could use it to manifest a clone there and ask for help.

Morgan could probably use the anchor to grab me directly and Shadow Walk me back to Regiis.

It was my ticket back home and I hoped it hadn’t expired.

Reaching into my pocket I brought out a small metallic vial. Popping the top with my thumb, I poured a small amount of the powdered crystal contained in it into my mouth. It was a perfectly balanced mix of all six kinds of elemental crystals. It was a medium that strengthened my link to my anchor which was basically a chunk of the same material.

Clearing my mind of distracting thoughts, I cupped my palms and formed a small flame within them. The yellowish-orange wisp danced cheerfully in response to my emotions – hope, anticipation, and a whole lot of fear. Calming myself, I worked through each of them, taking one at a time, distancing myself from it, and studying it rationally. The cause of the emotion, how it made me feel. And as I did, the emotion faded to a pale shadow of itself and the flame in my palms grew steadier.

Until finally, after I dealt with the fear of failure, it barely flickered at all.

I had reached the Void.

I blew out gently and a weak stream of air mixed with the powdered crystal in my mouth touched the flame, feeding it.

The flames turned green and roared to life. They filled the hollow of my palms and spilled out like water, leaving me unharmed as they rolled over my skin. And as I reached out to them with my soul, I felt something echo from a great distance away.

A very great distance away.

I tried to reach out to that feeling. Grab it with my soul and pull myself over like I had learnt to do whenever I attended the bi-monthly meetings at the Nexus.

There was no response. It was like someone had slammed a transparent gate shut in front of me. I could see my destination, but I could not reach it. All I could do was ineffectively scrabble at the walls.

Protected from my crushing disappointment within the Void, I focused my thoughts into a lance and thrust it towards the barrier…only for it to bounce away and give me a splitting headache that nearly knocked me out of my mental state.

Gathering my wits and clenching my teeth, I was just about to try again when the connection was unceremoniously snapped.

Opening my eyes, I found that the flames had burnt out, having exhausted all of the crystal powder I had fed them with.

I reached for the vial to try again, but stopped my hand halfway with a sigh.

I had a limited amount of the powder. Using it all up here where it hadn’t worked once would be foolish. I would have a better chance of success if I tried it somewhere with a lower concentration of ambient mana. The high density here was sure to produce a lot of interference.

I sighed again and put the vial away.

I wish I’d thought of that before I tried this. I wouldn't have wasted a chance if I had. I’d been too impatient…too eager to get out of this godforsaken forest.

Then again, hindsight was always too harsh of a judge.

If I hadn’t tried and sneaked laboriously out of the forest only to learn later that I could have just teleported my way home, I would have been kicking myself for being so paranoid. At least now I knew for a fact that I was stuck here until I made my way out.

‘Well, no time like the present…’

Getting to my feet, I patted the moss off the seat of my pants and released the lock on my emotions and they came flowing back. My shoulders stooped and my back bent like the weight of the world was pressing down on me.

Breathing out, I straightened up, determination glinting in my eyes.

Lightening myself with Gravity and sticking my palms to the trunk by forming a vacuum between them, I resumed the climb like an oversized gecko.

This time I met fewer creatures. It was as though the higher I went, the less populated it became. By the time I reached the canopy, the only living things I could see apart from myself and the trees were large colourful beetles that roamed the surface of the palm sized leaves.

Still no sight of the birds I would expect to thrive off such an abundant insect population though.

I squinted against the bright sunlight as I emerged above the canopy.

The world expanded, filling my vision with trees as far as I could see. The forest spanned the horizon and except for a few trees that towered over their brethren, the canopy was relatively level. Here and there the trees were sparser making the canopy appear darker under the sunlight while the denser portions glinted an emerald green. The leaves swayed lightly in the morning breeze turning the canopy into an undulating ocean of greenery.

It was beautiful, but I wasn’t in any mood to appreciate it.

‘Damn!’ I cursed silently. Getting out of the forest would be harder than I thought.

Facing up, I continued my climb. Maybe I would see the edge if I got a bit higher.

This high up the tree, the branches were thinner and sparser, but the leaves were more abundant, the trees having adapted to the lack of sunlight below the canopy by shifting all their leaves as high as they possibly could. I could barely see anything beyond the dense mass of green.

My head bumped up against something hard.

Reaching up, I felt around and my palm touched upon a structure of woven vines and twigs. A nest. So, the birds were there all along. They were just all the way up here.

Judging by the curvature of the nest, it was huge. Like, ‘How the hell is this tree not collapsing under the weight’ huge.

Sweeping up with my soul sense, I was relieved to find that its occupant wasn’t home. I wouldn't want to be caught trespassing by a room sized bird.

Lightening myself even further, I floated towards the outside, following the curve of the underside of the nest with my palm. Reaching the edge, I peeked over it.

The first thing I noticed was the stench.

The smell of corpses left out to rot in the sun combined with the pungent smell of bird shit assaulted my nostrils making me gag and nearly lose control over my levitation spell. Hastily creating a barrier of wind in front of my face that brought in fresh air from below me, I stabilized myself and took in the sight of the nest.

There were carcasses of all sorts strewn over the nest, ranging from ones barely a day old to sun-bleached skeletons begging to be buried. I could make out all sorts of animals amongst them, including a sloth and a few flying squirrels. I even saw a much smaller version of those giant lizards – one the size of a man. Probably a mere hatchling.

The owner of the nest had been busy… and in the centre of the nest was the reason why.

Three large eggs glinted under the sunlight, their alabaster shells unblemished by all the death and decay surrounding them. Judging by how their parents were trying to stockpile food, they were probably going to hatch soon.

Suddenly, a shrill screech shattered the silence of the forest and a shadow covered my head.

Looking up, I found a gigantic form silhouetted against the sky, the sunlight shining through its membranous wings and making them glow a demonic red.

The corner of my eye twitched. ‘Great. A giant flying lizard.’

A giant flying lizard, that didn’t seem too happy to see me near its eggs.

With another ear-splitting shriek, it dived towards me, its razor-sharp beak glinting in the sun.