The white ash tree stood alone at the edge of the wood.

  They found it just past dusk, where the mountain pass gave way to thick mist that clung to the forest floor like a living thing. The tree’s bark was pale and worn, its surface scorched with a jagged lightning scar that split it down the middle. It loomed tall and silent, ancient beyond reckoning, its bare limbs twisting into the sky like fingers clawing at the moon.

  No birds sang here. No wind stirred the branches. The air itself seemed to hold its breath.

  Kael crouched beside the roots, pulling out the bone tokens. “You sure about this?” he asked, glancing up at Lorelai.

  “No,” she admitted, stepping forward, “but we’ve come too far to turn back now.”

  With careful hands, she took one of the bone tokens and etched the first rune into the bark. The wood protested with a deep groan, sap trickling down like tears. One by one, they marked the runes as Nyra had shown them.

  Then, without speaking, Lorelai knelt and buried the pouch at the roots. She struck a flint, and the dry bundle caught flame with startling ease. The fire flared violet, casting eerie shadows that danced along the white bark.

  Then came the whispering.

  Soft at first, barely audible over the crackling flames. Then louder; dozens of voices turned to hundreds. Layered over each other in a chorus of unintelligible murmurs. Some laughed, some wept, others spoke in tongues lost in the annals of history.

  “Okay… that’s not normal,” Aeryn muttered, hand drifting toward her blade.

  “Steady,” Lorelai whispered. “Maybe this is how it got its name?”

  The mist surged forward like a crashing wave, enveloping them in moments. Visibility vanished as the moon disappeared, even the ash tree faded from view.

  Then, just as suddenly, silence.

  The mist parted before them, revealing a path that hadn’t been there before—a stone archway wrapped in vines and fungus, set into a wall of gnarled roots. Beneath the arch, the darkness shimmered like the surface of a black lake, the entrance to the Wilds.

  Thrax exhaled a long breath. “Let's not waste any more time on this harebrained quest.”

  Kael nodded. “Keep yourself alert, be ready for anything.”

  They stepped through.

  The sensation was like falling without moving. The world twisted—color drained, sounds elongated, space bent in impossible directions. When it stopped, they stood in a forest that wasn’t the type of forest they were used to.

  Towering trees arched high above them, their bark patterned with glowing veins of silver. The canopy formed a web of pulsing light, and the leaves seem to whisper to each other, an audible sound that made the hairs on the back of Lorelai’s neck stand up. The ground beneath their boots was soft and warm, like flesh wrapped in moss.

  “I don’t like this,” Aeryn murmured.

  Lorelai scanned the horizon. “Nyra said the Wilds test you. This place—it’s alive.”

  “No,” Thrax corrected grimly. “It’s sentient.”

  A low hum echoed through the trees, the forest shifted. Paths opened before them, winding through trees that hadn’t been there seconds before. Stones rose from the soil, etched with the same symbols from the bone tokens. A choice presented to them now lay ahead.

  Three paths, each led into the darkness. Each looked identical… yet all felt wrong in different ways, maybe it was just their unfamiliarity wtih the place.

  Kael frowned. “They’re warded. Each one’s got its own magic.”

  Lorelai stepped closer. She could feel it too. One path pulsed with pain. Another whispered fear. The third felt hollow—empty, like forgetting.

  “They’re tailored,” she said softly. “To our weaknesses.”

  “Lovely,” Thrax grunted. “So we just pick our poison?”

  Before they could decide, a voice echoed from the trees. Not Nyra. Not Calder. The ancient voice echoed unnaturally.

  “Only one path may be walked. Choose together. Or fall alone.”

  Aeryn bit her lip. “That’s not ominous at all.”

  Kael pointed toward the middle path. “The one that feels empty… I think that’s mine.”

  Lorelai turned to him. “What do you mean?”

  He hesitated. “It’s… familiar. That kind of emptiness. From before you guys ran into me, the world was just empty. My fate had mattered to no one.”

  She stepped closer, her voice quiet. “Then maybe that’s the one we take. Not because it’s the least painful… but because it’s real.”

  Thrax groaned. “If this ends with us crying around a campfire again, I’m blaming you.”

  They stepped onto the middle path.

  As they walked, the forest changed. The air thickened with palpable magic, like a humid day that made your clothes stick to you. Memories flickered in the corners of their eyes, shadows of people long gone. Loved ones, foes, the dead; Lorelai saw nothing except for those that held contempt for her previous self. It rekindled the feeling of her verse the world and heightened her previous feelings of helplessness. She was mentally strong now, but this illusion made her want to give up on everything, feeling her pysch with poison; that she would never amount to anything.

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  Kael stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide.

  A young girl stood in the path before him, no more than twelve. Pale. Eyes like his. Her dress was stained with blood that didn’t look hers.

  “Kael?” she said softly.

  He took a step back. “That’s not possible.”

  The girl tilted her head. “You left me.”

  “No,” he whispered. “You… you were gone when I got there. I didn’t—”

  She walked forward, but her feet didn’t touch the ground. “You could have saved me.”

  Lorelai moved between them, hand glowing with divine light. “Who is that Kael?

  He looked away, jaw clenched. “Its my best friend, she died a long time ago.”

  "It’s not her, Kael. This is the illusoin using her face.”

  With a cry, he fired an arrow—not at the illusion, but into the ground beside it. The phantom flinched, hissed, then dissolved into mist.

  The path ahead cleared.

  Lorelai laid a hand on Kael’s shoulder. “You did what you could.”

  He nodded, eyes dark and if Lorelai saw correctly, wet. “Let’s keep going.”

  When they reached the clearing at the end of the path, they were not alone.

  Nyra stood at the far edge, her expression grim. Calder was beside her, blade drawn, eyes scanning the woods.

  “You made it,” she said. “Most don’t.”

  “Where is the boss? Isnt that what you needed our help with?” Lorelai asked. “So what’s next?”

  Nyra turned and pointed toward a tower with a massive doorway half-buried in earth and root—a massive structure, golden light bleeding from the seams between the tower and the door.

  “The Gilded Hallows is this tower,” she said. “Beyond that door is the challenge of the Wilds.”

  Calder added, “Whatever you face inside… it’ll be quite the hardship.”

  Thrax grinned, resting his axe on his shoulder. “Then it’s about damn time we faced it.”

  The doors began to open.

  The Gilded Hallows, ancient and eternal, welcomed them in.

  The moment they stepped across the threshold, the world twisted.

  Wind vanished. Light collapsed inward. Lorelai felt the ground buckle beneath her feet as space warped. It wasn't falling, exactly—it was shifting, like they were sliding through the skin of the world. Then, suddenly, they weren’t in the forest anymore.

  Stone. Iron. Cold.

  They stood in a dark corridor lined with flickering amber torches. The air was damp and smelled of moss, blood, and something older—something watching.

  “We’re underground,” Calder muttered, checking his surroundings with narrowed eyes. “A dungeon beneath the tower?”

  “No.” Nyra’s gaze lifted. “Inside it. The Hallows is the tower. We’ll have to climb through it.”

  “How many floors?” Lorelai asked.

  “Five,” Nyra replied. “Each frought with dangers and each with a gatekeeper before the next level.”

  “And let me guess,” Thrax said, stretching his arms and cracking his knuckles. “We don’t get cookies and tea from the gatekeeper.”

  “It's our first time attempting the challenge, I don't know if the floor bosses reward you,” Calder explained.

  The corridor widened into a grand chamber. The ceiling stretched high, hidden by fog. Cracked statues lined the walls—half-shattered warriors with hollow eyes and broken weapons. The floor pulsed faintly with magic, glowing gold when they stepped near.

  “The first floor tests endurance,” Nyra warned. “It drains you—body and mind. Keep moving and don’t trust the walls. It was for this reason we had to retreat from the first floor boss, we were just too tired to beat it”

  “The walls?” Lorelai asked.

  Thrax patted her shoulder. “You’ll learn real quick not to ask questions like that in dungeons. Makes ‘em answer.”

  He was right.

  The moment they pressed on, the corridor changed. Stone shifted. What had been a straight path now twisted. Spikes jutted from the walls. Ghostly whispers echoed through the chamber. Illusions shimmered at the edge of their vision, shadows of themselves turning to flee, or laughing with unfamiliar faces.

  Lorelai stumbled once, nearly stepping onto a pressure plate. Thrax yanked her back just in time.

  “Lesson one,” he said with a wink, “don’t trust the floor either.”

  She scowled at him, heart racing. “You think this is funny?”

  “I know it is,” he grinned. “You gotta laugh at the things trying to kill you. Keeps your stress down, not alot but enough.”

  As the traps grew more erratic, Lorelai found herself relying more on instinct than sight. Her sword flashed in quick arcs, slicing through vine-tentacles that lunged from the walls. When a corridor collapsed behind them, she spun and leapt forward, pole-vaulting over a fissure with her spear.

  Her breath came harder. Sweat slicked her brow. With each encounter, she felt herself growing more accustomed to the rhythm of the dungeon.

  The constant fighting finally gave her the insights into her swordsmanship and spearsmanship she had been waiting on and entered their third forms.

  [Diamond Cutter: Dragonslaying Sword third form [Cataclysm achieved!]

  +3 Str

  +3 Will

  [Spearmanship: Spear of the Divine: Precision and Punishing third form [Heaven's Needle acheived!]

  +3 Agi

  +3 END

  [Level up!]

  Cataclysm was no longer a gentle sword, but an overbearing one. Her blade became a force of nature. Cataclysm unleashed a relentless surge of power, each swing capable of collapsing defenses and overwhelming even the most fortified foes. It was the sword as judgment: heavy, inescapable, and absolute. She didn’t dodge traps or deflect projectiles anymore; she obliterated them. Her Heaven's Needle spearsmanship enabled her to perform a long-range, force-propelled thrust that pierces through magical barriers or airborne foes, the spear becomes a bullet.

  Thrax gave a low whistle after she disabled a flying blade trap mid-spin.

  “Look at you,” he said. “Third forms already? At this rate, you’ll be the boss of this tower before we even get to the top.”

  She smirked. “Maybe, but you and Aeryn had hit your third forms a while ago. I wouldnt be surprised if you hit your fourth soon.”

  “Oh, I tried, having a mental block with it somewhere, Ill get it though.”

  Finally, the hallway widened into a dome-shaped chamber. At the far end stood a towering stone golem, twelve feet high. Its arms were covered in rusted chainmail fused to its rocky skin. A jagged crown of obsidian circled its head like horns, and its eyes glowed with golden fire.

  “That,” Calder said flatly, “is the first floor boss.”

  It turned slowly toward them, grinding stone against stone. A deep rumble echoed from its chest, almost like a growl.

  Thrax raised an eyebrow. “So… big, slow, and angry. Kinda like me before breakfast.”

  The golem stomped forward.

  “Split and strike!” Nyra barked. “It’ll try to separate us—don’t let it!”

  As the others fanned out, Lorelai stayed in the rear. She swapped her blade for her spear and immediately began to charge it with her crimson lightingn. The spear began to spin faster and faster sending tendrils of electricity into the ground as kinetic energy began to build. Aeryn and Thrax glimpsed what Lorelai was up to out of the corner of their eyes and began drawing the creatures attention. A coordinated volley followed. Calder pinned one leg with an earthen spike. Nyra’s blades slashed at the joints. Thrax hurled his axe with a yell, striking the creature in the back. Aeryn tied one of its arms with a blood chain mid attack and even though the attack hit the ground, the impact nearly knocked her backward. She twisted, ducking under the next swing, and leapt high, landing on the creature’s opposite side.

  “Now!” she shouted.

  Lorelai, channeling electromagnet spear railgun, launched the protectile across the room. Nyra and Calder were astonished at the sheer speed and power the spell showcased and had to leapt out of the way in the fear of getting caught in the collateral damage. The golem’s core, a molten heart, shattering. The golem fell with a thunderous crash, its body collapsing into rubble.

  Silence returned.

  Thrax clapped his hands. “So... what did the golem net us? Please say a crown.”

  Lorelai glared at him.

  He winked. “What? He had style. I want the crown.”

  “You’re insufferable.”

  “And hilarious. Don’t forget hilarious.”

  At the end of the chamber, a new staircase uncoiled from the floor, spiraling upward into darkness.

  Nyra looked at Lorelai. “You ready for the second floor?”

  Lorelai retrieved her spear and wiped a smear of dust from her cheek.

  “Lets see what the first floor boss left for us.”

  class: Martial Force

  3 Unused stat points

  Agi - 27

  Will - 25

  End - 24

  Int- 20

  Lightning Animus: Scarlet Thunderbird

  Aura of Purity (Rank II)- emanate a protective aura that radiates from you granting allies protection and curing against poison, charm effects, and status ailments such as paralysis and petrification. Cures minor curses. After a meditative prayer the caster can cause a small healing instead of purification

  Bolt Slash/Piercer: A slash(sword)/Punch (Spear) that sends out lightning/radiant magic attack from a weapon. Small chance of paralysis effect, duration 1.5 s

  Gravity Slash/Piercer: The slash presses down, the punch presses to a wall or other object. Str of gravity effect coordinates with WILL stat.

  Daylight(light magic)- illuminates dark areas, weakens undead, and dispels magical darkness below a certain level/tier

  Zakir- large bolt of lightning shot with two fingers, high piercing effect

  Oppression- greatly increase the gravitational force in an aoe

  Gravity Centrifuge-you create a focal point to create your gravitational pull point. Any enemy within a fifteen meter radius is pulled towards the center. The closer to the center, the stronger the pull. The ball of gravity explodes at the end of the spell dealing damage proportional to proximity to the center

  Repulse- can repel or pull any metal object under the effects of lightning clad

  Weight Manipulation (upgrade pending)- Alter the weight of yourself or target, concentration required. Drastic changes are available at a higher tier

  Spatial Storage: Provides a pocket dimension to store non-living things in, the size of the space is dependent upon your INT stat.

  Rapid thrusts - Give numerous quick thrusts, number of thrusts dependent upon AGI stat power of thrust dependent upon STR stat

  Dash(Rank II)- rapidly increase movement speed for up to 2 meters cd 15 seconds. Speed of dash is dependent upon AGI stat, distance is dependent upon STR stat. At a small mana cost create an after-image to confuse enemies

  Counterstrike- Parry and counter strike with a higher chance to critical. crit chance dependent upon WILL stat, damage dependent upon STR

  Smite(Rank II) - coats weapon in radiant energy and provides a minor heal/stamina to allies within 60 feet when an enemy is slain by smite. Radiant dmg is scaled off of STR and WILL

  Affinities: holy, radiant, light, lightning, gravity, spacetime, electromagnetism

  basic skills- dash unarmed combat

  Swordsmanship: Diamond Cutter: Dragonslaying Sword (third form)

  Spearmanship: Spear of the Divine: Precision and Punishing (third form)

  unique talent - shapeshifting (human only)