There was another possible solution to their dire situation—allowing the dark Ery to take over Veyarel’s body.
However, the Supre Magus was firmly against it. Forced soul possession was an extrely dangerous act. The toll it would take on the host was imasurable, and Veyarel’s soul, already strained, would likely shatter under the weight. Unless they had no other choice, this desperate option would remain off the table. Truthfully, the dark Ery wasn’t fond of the idea either.
With the matter settled, both Erys turned their focus to the mysterious energy that continued to tug at them like an invisible thread. Whatever it was, they had to find it.
Soltz, noticing their intent, offered to join them. But Ery shook his head. With Soltz’s cosmic powers heavily restricted by the anomaly, his strength was diminished. More importantly, Rosin Karat had his own plan, and Soltz’s earth spells would be invaluable in supporting Kaelyn and protecting the wounded.
Before setting off, Ery took a mont to carve a simple stone formation in the earth—a reinforced spatial anchor. It would serve as a stabilizer for the portal, allowing for a swift return or ergency extraction should anything go wrong.
Seeing such ticulous preparation, Galael, the Ember Sage, stepped forward. "I’ll co with you; we can watch each other’s backs."
Ery raised an eyebrow. He knew Galael’s real motivation. The sage wasn’t interested in helping. He was more likely lured by the potential discovery of rare magical plants and materials. Still, his presence would be useful. The cosmic fla he wielded was primordial in nature and didn’t rely on the suppressed cosmic energy.
With a silent nod, the trio departed.
To avoid drawing attention, they neither flew nor used spatial magic. Each cloaked themselves in a different concealnt spell: Ery’s water cloaks, Galael’s fla mirage, and Dark Ery’s spatial blending.
The deeper they went, the stranger the forest beca—gnarled trees with bark like dried bone, luminous fungi casting a pale blue glow, and vines that hissed when disturbed.
Now and then, bizarre creatures flitted between the shadows: translucent deer with too many eyes, floating fungi that gave off pulses of heat, and rootbound serpents that hissed with no mouths.
They moved cautiously, pausing often to avoid danger or to harvest peculiar materials.
Eventually, the suffocating woods began to thin. The trio erged into a field that looked as though it had been plucked from a different world entirely. Before them stretched a vast open grassland—except the grass wasn’t green. It shimred with a cool, ghostly blue, each blade glowing faintly as if absorbing light from another plane.
Small orbs of light hovered lazily among the tall grass, vanishing when approached.
"By the fla...!" Galael gasped.
The Ember Sage couldn’t help but grin with excitent. To his eyes, almost everything in sight was a treasure trove. Without hesitation, he darted ahead, crouching beside clusters of glowing foliage and rare herbs, plucking each one with practiced hands.
"Wait—!" Ery called out, trying to stop the overzealous Ember Sage before he wandered too far.
Ignoring the warning, Galael continued forward until the two of them reached the base of a small rise—what appeared to be a low, moss-covered hill encrusted with strange, translucent blue crystals. The structure shimred faintly in the dim forest light, and the crystals pulsed with a faint inner glow.
"Co on, be quick!..." Dark Ery muttered impatiently, clearly irritated at the delay.
But Galael didn’t move. His eyes glead as he beckoned Ery closer. "You! Co take a look at this!"
Ery furrowed his brows and cautiously stepped closer. The crystal formations did indeed seem unnatural, almost too refined to be shaped by nature. The liquid within had an ethereal movent; a swirling pale silver and gold danced like living rcury.
When Ery probed closer, VIA’s voice rang sharply in his mind.
[Molten Auracite]
[Warning: Bio-reactive mineral of Droslith]
[Droslith - Godly Beast level 8]
Ery’s expression changed in an instant. "Retreat! That’s not a hill!"
Even as the words left his mouth, the ground trembled violently beneath their feet. The "hill" began to heave, crystal fragnts falling away like dried scales. The earth cracked open as the massive form beneath stirred. With a rumble that sounded like the groan of a mountain, the creature uncoiled itself.
A colossal jaw, lined with rows of jagged crystal fangs, split open where the hilltop had been. From beneath its body, dozens of thick, vine-like tentacles burst from the ground.
"RUNN!"
Ery reacted instantly, leaping back with the dark Ery covering his flank, void blades severing tentacles with surgical precision.
"ARRRGHH!!" Galael scread.
The sage had been standing atop the creature. Several tentacles coiled around his limbs, dragging him toward the beast’s mouth.
"You filthy thing!" Galael roared, his entire body igniting in an inferno of crimson and gold. His cosmic fla incinerated the tentacles ensnaring him, charring them to ash.
But as the smoke filled the air, Galael gasped.
"Poison!" he coughed, stumbling. The smoke from the beast’s burning flesh was venomous, rapidly paralyzing him. More tentacles surged forward.
"Help!!"
Ery’s Twilight form had already taken over—his limbs grew with nature-born power, claws tearing at the approaching appendages. The dark Ery fought at his side, wielding his void blade with precision.
But they weren’t fast enough.
With a guttural roar, the monstrous creature’s maw opened wide, and in a single, horrifying gulp, it swallowed Galael whole. The ember sage barely had ti to scream before disappearing down its throat. The beast then slamd its bulk back into the earth, shattering stone as it burrowed deep into the underground.
"No!" Ery shouted.
He dropped to one knee and plunged his hand into the dirt. The Elysian roots burst from his palm, spreading like a web beneath the ground, tracking the fleeing beast and ready to chase.
But the dark Ery grabbed his arm. "Are you insane?! You can’t save him. He’s gone!"
"No, he is not dead yet!"
With mastery over nature spells, the light Ery surged through the earth, his Elysian roots glowing faintly as he burrowed swiftly, closely tracking the retreating godly beast.
But above, the dark Ery didn’t follow—he didn’t possess the sa abilities as his light counterpart.
"Stupid fool... This side of is always the one that causes trouble... That damn ember sage wasn’t even worth saving."
Still, his stance never relaxed. He stayed alert—ready to cast a spatial rift at a mont’s notice if either version of himself needed extraction. He hated it, this waiting.
The minutes stretched endlessly.
Suddenly, a ripple tore through his senses—a subtle warping of space. His eyes snapped upward, instincts flaring. Sothing was approaching—fast.
But it wasn’t his other self. No, this presence ca from soone else... Yet it was unmistakably familiar. The energy signature aligned with the one he had been tracking all along.
As it drew closer, Ery’s breath caught. He finally recognized it. The Khaos energy within him stirred violently, and then Chuutulu’s voice echoed in his mind, confirming his dread:
From the distance, a dark figure broke through the swirling air, sprinting toward him with unnatural speed.
A familiar dark elf.
Ery’s heart pounded as he whispered the na.
"...Tolaro."
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