"This feels amazing!" shouted Tiara from behind him, and Arthur agreed. His soul seed more sensitive to the gentle breeze hitting their bodies as they glided through the plains. The clovers above them acted like helicopters, slowing their fall.
They crossed the forest they ca through and even the village, but there was still a long distance before they reached the ground. They reached the mountain range from which they had erged when the clovers began slowing down. It seed they recognized the threat of going into a mountain range like this and began their descent.
Arthur felt the hard ground underneath his feet as the clover began to untie itself from around his torso. It then flew away in the wind, returning toward the green mountain. Tiara floated next to him as they watched it go.
"Do you think that spirit is trustworthy?"
"I don't know," Arthur said with a shrug. "I couldn't sense any lies from it, but I cannot trust its words fully. It helped us too readily."
"Are we bad people for doubting soone who helped us?"
"Just regular people, not necessarily bad," Arthur said with a smile. "Caution is always necessary."
Tiara nodded as she turned toward the mountain range. A small path was in front of them, turning and twisting between the mountains. According to Faywhisk, the Gatekeeper would be at the end of that path. Their journey through it began.
Seekers erged from the mountain range, confused and disoriented. So of them attacked Arthur and Tiara as soon as they appeared, thinking that they were monsters. Arthur deactivated their abilities with a wave of his hand.
"Let try sothing," Tiara said as she floated toward the seekers who were chained. She reached out toward them, and her green aura seed to affect them. They began floating like her as they scread in surprise.
"You can let other things float?" asked Arthur in surprise. Tiara turned toward him with a shrug.
"I thought my green aura was because of how connected I am to nature, but it seems I was wrong. My floating ability is similar to the green sigils, which affect the seeker himself. I wondered if I could give so of my ability to others."
"You an I could have floated all this ti?" asked Arthur with a speechless expression. Tiara laughed a little and did not answer. Then, she reached toward him, and her green aura affected his body as well.
Arthur felt his body becoming lighter, almost like sothing was pulling him from the ground. The seekers above him were growing restless, begging for forgiveness in a language that Arthur did not understand, before he used his wrath to disable the floating and let them crash to the ground.
The seekers fled away, running down the path. Arthur ignored them as he enjoyed the feeling of floating among the clouds. Tiara rushed next to him, a little panicky.
"You need to—"
Arthur couldn't hear the rest of her words because he suddenly felt his body release a pulse of wrath. His body was heavy again, and he began falling toward the ground. He fell through the air as he flailed his arms, slamming into the hard ground without anything to cushion his fall.
"As I thought," Tiara said as she descended toward him. "Your wrath also disabled my powers, just like sigils. However, it seems it needs so ti to unconsciously disable them."
"I figured…" Arthur said with a groan as he rose from the ground. His golden body was a little dented, like clay after falling from a height. He rose to adjust himself. "Does that an our colors represent our abilities?"
"It should be."
"Then what about ? I haven't seen another seeker that was also golden in color," Arthur said as his body reshaped itself. "Do I get the chains only?"
"The chains can cast so effects, right?"
"I have yet to understand those effects. Sotis they freeze things, other tis they turn them into leaves. I have no control over it."
"Let's ask the Gatekeeper about that as well."
Arthur agreed, and the two resud their journey. Most seekers avoided them as they ca down from the mountains. Arthur realized that the Waking Glade was a series of mountains that differed in size.
The farthest mountain was a black one, bigger than all the rest combined. It had a winding white road spiraling, connecting the base to the top. Arthur saw a gate at the beginning of the white road.
[The Waking Glade]
Three words were engraved atop the gate. Arthur and Tiara saw countless seekers co down the mountains, all different in colors and shapes. The two of them began climbing the mountain.
---
The summit was a temple with a giant white altar. Seekers ca down from the altar through a white door. Arthur rembered the first ti he entered the spirits' realm, where he also found himself inside a white space.
At the far end of the temple was a figure shrouded in silver armor. Arthur and Tiara didn't need any introduction to understand that this was the Gatekeeper, the person responsible for keeping anything unwanted from the spirits' realm.
"Greetings," Arthur said as he stared at the Gatekeeper. The giant armored creature was as big as a building, standing with a long sword impaled into the ground in front of it. The creature turned toward Arthur, its hollow eyes studying him.
"Greetings, Ancient One," said the Gatekeeper. "It has been… a long ti since we last t."
"A really long ti that I forgot about it," Arthur said with a grin. "Are you the person in charge of this place?"
"I am the Gatekeeper, the guard appointed by the sovereign to maintain order in the Waking Glade. I do not rest, and I do not forgive."
Arthur stared at the giant creature and felt like he was talking to a robot. He turned toward Tiara, who simply shrugged at him. They had to cut to the chase.
"We ca here for two reasons," said Arthur as he pointed toward Tiara. "My friend here didn't receive a Soulbind. Everyone gets one, right?"
"Indeed," the Gatekeeper said with a thundering voice. "My modification failed because she arrived with you. Your soul is too powerful for to alter, and I failed to alter hers."
"My soul?" Arthur asked with a raised brow. "Can I even use the Soulbind?"
"What use would you have for a sword when you are the blacksmith?" asked the Keeper as its eyes lowered to look at Arthur. "The modification is automated as you walk through my gates. I do not decide who is deserving… and who is not."
"All right, can you alter her soul now?" asked Arthur.
"I can bestow her with a Soulbind," the Gatekeeper said as he raised his hand. Threads of energy darted from his silver fingers and wrapped around Tiara. A strange necklace began appearing around her neck. "You can now use the sigils in this place, and your soul will grow within the spirits' realm."
"Thank you," Tiara said as she stared at the necklace.
"Why did the Spirits' Sovereign change how the seekers fight?" Arthur asked with a frown.
"The Sovereign knew that the countless worlds connected to the Spirits' Realm would face the war that ends all," said the Gatekeeper as it retracted its hand. "In order to prepare them for what's to co, our Sovereign decreed that seekers must learn to harvest spiritual energy… before mana betrays them."
"…I understand that," Arthur said with a sigh. "Mana is external, while spiritual energy is internal. If we want to fight against Naless and Devaheim, we will need more than just mana."
"You understand it well," the Gatekeeper said with a nod. "What do you plan on doing here, Ancient One? What is your goal?"
"I want to find my friends," Arthur said. "A group of elves and a demi-human. They were chasing a dark elf when they should have fallen into the Spirits' Realm. Do you know where they are?"
"I ca across no such thing," said the Gatekeeper. "But I believe that what you are looking for… is in higher layers of our realm."
"What is that?"
"A few years ago, sothing precious was stolen from the Divine Layer of our realm," the Gatekeeper said. "It was stolen by a creature that our realm has never encountered before… a tainted soul, touched by Naless itself."
"Famine," Tiara realized with a frown. "It must be my uncle."
"What did they steal?" Arthur asked.
"They stole the thod… to create a spiritual dinsion," said the Gatekeeper. "The creature fled, never to return. If you wish to find them, you must seek out our Sovereign in the highest layer. I am sure… that he will guide you."
"I know that he will," said Arthur with a sigh. "I just didn't think that they would be in a separate dinsion, although it makes sense. But why did a creature like that steal the thod to create a spiritual dinsion?"
"We believe…" the Gatekeeper said and paused, "that sothing dark is rising from the abyss. A war is coming, and your arrival here… must be fate."
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