Arching over us, was the huge tree in the centre of the grove. It looked, strange, as if rustling a little. Suddenly, something akin to oranges began falling and I could feel there was something inside it. Not wanting to find out for myself, I cast Purist and let forth a blazing fast Chain Lightning, killing off whatever life I felt inside them.

Suddenly, a scream rang out and forced my attention behind me. Someone was impaled with a root coming right out the wall. I didn’t even feel that, so the seed has a limited range! “Everyone, get away from the walls. Kegan, Kor’zha, Kira, Earth Walls around this entire place!”

Dawn’s Hydrotendrils grabbed the injured officer and brought her to the leviathan for treatment. It already transformed to its translucent orca form and a piece of the white part flew to the wound. We subverted that situation, but a lot more was to come.

Whilst Purist was on, I used Clone and then removed the buff. “Listen, dude, I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” I told my double.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “we should’ve soloed this.”

At that point, we were both thinking something pretty risky, but still weren’t quite sure if it was the best move. We wanted to get everyone out of this place to do it. But, how? As we sank into thought, there were yelps of pain left and right, all around us. Roots sprouted forth from the ground to puncture anyone they could. Vines entrapped many of us, even me and Moken. Flames, wind, and lightning thrashed about to cull the attack of nature, yet, more and more of my allies fell. Volt, stabbed through the leg, zapped himself over to get treatment and went back into action. Spores floated down onto us from the tree. Gale, on my notice, blew it all away, but our real problem, the surprise vines and roots from underground still tore through us. That is, until Kor’zha and Kira realised the issue was from the tree itself. “Destroy the tree!” she yelled out at us when she poked her head out the ground.

My clone and I cast another Frost Trap, then began our siege on the colossal tree; fire of course, being the number one go-to spell type. Phoenix, the devil, and Pyro as well as some other officers joined in on the scorching project, but this was met with ire by the wooden humanoid like creatures appearing out the bamboo patches around us. Using their fingers like Dawn used her Hydrotendril, they grazed my face when I felt their attack coming and nudged my head back. Moken ran in like a madman, making quick work of them, but their numbers proved overwhelming and defenders like Donna, Kira, and Keagan began to focus on intercepting the small half-tree, half-man wooden dolls.

I summoned a few fire wyrms and gave them the order to eradicate all those tree men, which they did quite easily because of their mobility. We were able to focus on the tree once again.

But Liana didn’t intend on sitting back and watching. A bright blue plasma-like matter suddenly engulfed us, paralysing every single person here except Moken. His quint’s magic resistance was damn near too high. Donna, Kira, and I were able to break it with Dispel, but not so much the rest of our party.

The minute the paralysing spell had taken effect on us, a wispy sprite floated out the fires of the tree and Aerellis skipped past all of us, her spear in tow, to get a good angle. When she chugged the spear, a strange energy enveloped it, turning it into a translucent weapon. It struck the oblong sphere which we assumed was the actual form of the druid, Liana.

“Young one, sleepy one! The spear will now kill mother! Her energies cannot be destroyed, only transferred. At first, it will spread in every direction and be absorbed by the creatures in the grove and the forest above. Leave now, before they awak–”

The druid suddenly exploded, energy flying every which way just as Aerellis said. There was almost an army of animals, insects, and magical creatures like the tree men and other grotesque wooden creatures made to mimic other animals.

“Yo! Plan B!” I told my Clone, “Donna, make a clone as well!” I used Frost Trap once more to stop the creatures, then buffed myself with Purist again.

My clone grabbed Donna’s clone, “Enter the void!” he said, and quickly did the same. They flew upwards into top of the dome-like grove and through the soil to appear outside in the Withering Forest.

“The hell are you thinking?!” she shouted as we both fought off the tree-creatures.

“See up there? We’re gonna make a big-ass hole! We use Divergence and they use Convergence! You ready?!”

After a final blast and Frost Nova from both of us, we focused our power to the top and let Kira, Moken, and Kor’zha handle the tree creatures since they weren’t affect by the plasma.

Above around, our clones summoned a zephyr and used Purist to place hundreds of Convergence orbs on the ground of the Withering Forest. Donna buffed herself with Purist as well and we placed our all into level one Divergence, not wanting to damage our paralysed party.

We did that, time and time again. Then, I had this crazy idea. I wonder if… instead of even thinking about it, I just did it. I double-cast Purist and it didn’t just make me unable to move around, it paralysed me, something like what happened when Liana used her plasma.

Donna! I talked through our link, unable to even conjure words. Face my palms upwards!

“Huh?” she looked at me, “why the hell are you on the ground?!”

Just do it, will ya?! Sheesh! I rued her questioning at this point. If only she knew, I thought, without putting mana into it; didn’t want her to hear those thoughts, that I have three stacks of Purist on, I chuckled mentally, she might beat me to death for endangering myself.

With my hands now turned upwards, I decided to wait a minute for my mana to regenerate. My Clone knew to use my disappearing mana as a sign that I was casting spells, so he’d know exactly when to cast himself. Finally, when my mana topped-off, I let loose the strongest level one Divergence spells ever in quick succession. My mana almost depleted, and wouldn’t you know, your favourite mage broke the barrier to a new spell. Well, not so much new, but a true confirmation of the total mastery of a spell’s inner workings. All this time I’d been using a weak version of Divergence. I didn’t know there was a level four. In fact, it would be strange to give the spells levels in the first place. Being able to use level two or three simply meant that your skill in controlling Divergence had reached a certain place, it didn’t mean they were actual individual spells.

With my new Divergence at hand and another horribly long few minutes of waiting for my mana to refill, I let a blast through, which felt like I tried to blow the entire sky away. Our clones above tried to dodge but still got caught up in the dirt that spiralled towards them. Donna watched me wide-eyed, unable to wrap her mind around what I’d done. Before my mana hit a quarter, the hole was finished. I cancelled the stacks of Purist on me and helped Donna move everyone’s paralysed bodies onto the zephyrs.

In a couple minutes, we were all out of both the Grove of the Ancient and Withering forest, except for me and my clone of course. We still had work to do.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked Aerellis. She was keen on destroying her home, since Liana’s mindset had soaked deeply into the life around these parts.

“History will repeat itself if we were to leave this place as is, young one.”

“What about you? What will happen to the energy the druid released?” I asked, my clone nodding in agreement.

“Energy cannot be extinguished. It will merely look for another vessel to exist within. Me.” She suddenly held both my hands, and swallowed, looking into my eyes. “I must make a rather selfish request, young one.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

“You’ve seen first-hand, what the guardian of nature’s powers are like. I want your word, that if I ever become corrupted, or vengeful, or unjust, that you will deliver unto me the same fate as my late mother.”

Phew, what a way to rile me up. “How can I jus–”

“Promise me! Do not wait until your kingdoms are on the verge of war!” She squeezed, “Do not spare one life and watch countless others wither away, young one.” A tear fell from her and landed on my hand.

“Hey, I’m not ‘young one’. I have a name.”

“It was Eric they called you, right? Well, can I count on you?” she finally looked up at me with teary eyes.

I sighed mentally. They could’ve been tears as fake as plastic, but just in case they weren’t, I hugged her, “You have my word. This shall not happen again. Rest easy, Aerellis.”

“Thank you, Eric. Thank you!”

We flew her out to where everyone was, miles away, a very safe distance, then returned on two zephyrs and once again, triple-cast Purist to the point of paralysation except for involuntary muscles and organ function we couldn’t do without. Donna and her clone used Purist as well atop the birds. There were two Arctic Rage spells cast at double its usual potency from Donna and her clone. As for me and mine, our mana power-up from that hell the witch put us through meant we were always operating at twice times the usual spell power. It was like a Purist without the side-effects. Then we both triple-cast the actual Purist spell for a three hundred percent increase in potency. The entire Withering Forest and Grove of the Ancient was now a frozen wasteland.

The greenish energies of the druid bolted out the controlled area of Arctic Rage and headed straight for Aerellis.

When we returned, everyone was being cleansed of their paralysis. So, I guess there’s another guardian of nature now. The number of people I brought into this party made me wonder just how come none of us died. It’s a hell of an accomplishment. But in the end, it was just me and Donna who finished it. Would we have needed Pyro and his devil to burn the tree down or would me, a clone, and Phoenix suffice? If there were fewer people, then there would be less risk of death. Did I really need to put their lives in danger because I underestimated myself? If it was just me and Donna, then injuries shouldn’t have been a problem if I just used Renew. Thoughts of just how many people I really needed scattered across my mind, but in the end, I couldn’t deny the unparalleled power of group attacks. I sighed wearily when I realised how much I scrutinised myself. In my eyes, it was both a defeat and a win because someone could’ve ended up dead. A severed head wouldn’t be able to just reconnect like a limb. Any one of us could’ve died. That was poor planning, Eric.

We celebrated that night, song and dance around a warming bonfire with the refreshing taste of mead on our tongues.

~

“-ric!” I felt a gentle tapping on my face. “Eric! Wake up!”

Dawn forced my eyes open and brought the gentle, yet horrid morning sunlight into them. Hydra’s ass! I held my forehead in not-so-mild discomfort. It felt like volcanoes erupted one after the other in my head. My eyes got a little used to the light, and noticed everyone else were pretty much prepared to move out. Why is it only me with a hangover?! That’s unfa–

“Wake up you over-glorified firecracker!” someone yelled out and I heard a thump, which promptly followed a wail of pain.

“Ugh, I knew this would happen,” Dawn lamented, “no more competitions for you. Thank god August wasn’t here. Now come on,” she pulled me upright then used Hydrotendril to get me on my feet, “you gotta summon our transport, man.”

Ah, right, yeah. Before I did that though, I cast Renew on myself and it immediately ceased the headaches and reduced how much alcohol was still embedded in my blood, although not entirely. Hell of a spell. I did the same for Pyro, then summoned Gale and her zephyrs to aid us once more.

We were then on our way home after bidding Aerellis farewell.

In the town before Aquan, we made a pit-stop to get some supplies.

“You know,” Donna sounded disgusted, “if you’re trying to hide something from me, you’re not supposed to think about it when I’m in your head.”

Ugh, can we not?

“No, we can’t not! Are you a fucking idiot? Who triple-casts a buff like that? You didn’t even try it with the Avatar buffs, nooo! You had to go with the thing that doubles your spell power!”

Why are you still even getting mad at me for doing experimental magic at this point? Like, you know me better than you know yourself.

She sighed, then came out of me, startling the poor vendor I was buying from. I could hear him mutter “queen” under his breath as he weakly walked back. Donna just looked me in the eyes, wordless. I knew she was guilt-tripping, but I wasn’t any good at receiving it anyway.

“There you go scaring people,” I picked up the goods and then held her hand, “someone’s gonna get a heart attack someday because of you.”

I caught back up with the others and placed Donna on Gale, opting to fly on my own for the rest of the day.

By noon the following day, we set wings into Aquan. Our party was rather quiet after we saw the lands around Aquan look as if they were the grounds of a rough-house session twenty Ashfurs. Our lush and beautiful lands were scorched to hell, our picturesque countryside farmlands in the distance were uprooted. But most alarming of all…

Corpses. Orc corpses.

Some mages were dragging a couple orcs through the streets and getting a bird’s eye view of that as we circled above must’ve ruffled Moken more than I could possibly imagine. He leapt off his zephyr from an incredible height, one that would absolutely rule out any possible hope or survival, one that took more than just a few seconds to land. The mere fact that he was able to move immediately after meant his quint control was great, and after our little tussle the first time we met, one could not deny his finesse and dexterity quite unlike creatures his size.

“Everyone, go to your families and ensure they’re safe! Dismissed!” I shouted out then bailed off Gale as well, flying downward because the speed of falling just wouldn’t cut it. Spells already began flying around down there. I cast Levitate at a reasonable height but still landed a little harsh, feeling the pressure on my joints, “Mages! Stop!” I shouted after casting an Earth Wall to protect the surroundings from their spells, because Moken would’ve probably just dodged the spells if they even had an effect on him.

“Huh? You’re that kid. You’re with this thing?” they pointed at Moken.

“Yeah, listen, can you not do that right now? And can you give him a minute?”

“Kid, we were given orders to ge–”

“I said, give him a minute!” I kept my voice somewhat low, but my irritation could be heard clearly. He jumped, a little startled, and eventually backed off with his subordinates doing the same.

“Moken,” I said in a hushed voice after I closed distance between us, “seeing that things came so far, I can only urge you not to do anything rash like attack them or try to rescue these orcs. You’re strong, we both know that, but remember, this is the city of mages. They will retaliate, and I cannot protect you this time around. In fact, I may have to do the opposite. So please, even if you plan to take action, do not do so right now.”

He remained silent, but boy, could we feel the killing intent just gushing through his blood. “I understand, mage.”

“Your sword?” I asked, and he handed it over without batting an eye.

Hydra’s ass, this thing is heavy! I stumbled with it and settled for simply holding it upright instead of lifting the entire thing. The grey-skinned orc walked over to his beaten-up brethren and kneeled near them to hear their weakened voices. They spoke for a couple minutes, much too soft for anyone to hear, then Moken stood up once more and nodded at the mages that were detaining them.

I let him take the sword back and we flew him over to his mountainside home. He didn’t even go inside, he just sat on the ground and watched into the very still scenery of a far-off valley.

His sword laid between us when I sat next to him. “They, wanted this,” he said, his body a bit curled as he leaned his elbows onto his crossed legs.

“You’re gonna have to be more specific there, buddy,” I asked him to elaborate, not wanting to take guessing chances as to what he meant.

“My tribe,” he chuckled, a tear rolling out his eye when I looked up at him, “they, weren’t under mind control. In fact, the moment the druid was killed, they were free of it. Yet, yet they…”

“But, why would they attack? Subjects under mind control still have a general idea of what’s going on. When they came out of it, they should’ve known they would no longer have the strength that the druid granted them. So why attack?”

He laughed even more. “Pride. Pride, mage. Conquering lands, living in the blood of our enemies, relishing the battle, gaining strength over all others. That is what it means to be Virai. But, our people weren’t happy ever since the battle between us, the Ingen, and humans began slowing down. They knew it to be wrong, starting a war, yet, they couldn’t say no when the opportunity to conquer showed itself.”

Some seconds of silence passed between us as I deciphered his words, then it clicked. “Wha– are you saying, they, accepted the mind control?”

He nodded once, closing his eyes, “The power from the druid was, too tempting. In our culture, it is an unspoken rule to finish the challenge, to back your words with actions and concrete your place in the hierarchy of power and glory. The moment they took the Ingen chieftain, there was no turning back. In fact,” he finally opened his eyes, “the moment my people took the druid’s blessing, war became inevitable. I, should’ve known…”

“Well, what will you do now?”

“I do not know.”

“Well, whilst you make your mind up, I must go back to Aquan. I’ve probably got a shit-ton of work to do.” I stood up and dusted my backside off, “Oh, Moken. What of burial rites? Is there anyone you wa–”

“No.”

Man, that’s cold. Without any further words, I flew off, going back to Aquan to help stabilise things. After all, the hundreds of thousands of corpses surrounding Aquan and other small towns would be a problem if left unchecked.