Adam and Benji sat beside each other inside the living room of their home in North Dortmund.
They sat there totally dazed, staring at the ceiling like their souls had left their bodies.
Adam was the first to speak, ["A f*cking tiger..."]
Benji blinked a few time, finally moving, "A tigress bro, it had a female voice..."
Adam sighed in defeat, ["She is so big and her aura was terrifying..."]
Benji also sighed, "I didn't saw that coming, what if there come other animals and take a spot?"
Adam didn't know what to say, ["We will see..."]
Benji agreed, "That's something for the future. Let's talk about the present, how are things progressing?"
Adam walked over to the table taking a Bourbon bottle and two cups, he poured some of it into both cups and handed Benji one cup over.
["The wall is almost finished..."] Said Adam as he emptied the Bourbon in one go.
Benji sighed again, "Tell me the bad news."
Adam poured himself more Bourbon, ["The bad news is that the red fog is spreading, it should reach Dortmund in a few days..."]
Not it was Benji that emptied his cup in one go.
"One more bro..."
Adam refilled Benji's cup with more Bourbon.
Benji played with the cup inside his hand, "How about paying a visit to one those areas."
Adam pondered over his suggestion, ["You want their crystals?"]
"That too, I also want to check how strong they are." Said Benji as he gulped down half of the Bourbon inside his cup. The strong burning taste ran down his throat.
"Good stuff!"
["The best of the best!"] Agreed Adam as he emptied his cup, ["Let's go then."]
"Huh? It's in the middle of the night."
["Yes, it's better to act now without anyone noticing our absence."]
"Alright, you are the smarter of us two."
The two arrived on the northern wall in a few minutes, they avoided the guards patrolling on the 50 meters tall steel wall. They jumped down and Benji used his Gravity Body to create a weak pulling field that made them float softly downwards.
Benji looked back at the wall, "It looks impressive..."
Adam also looked back, ["I hope it helps against the animals."]
Adam had 10 balls made of metallic liquid floating around him. He experienced a fast improvement in controlling Cain's powers over the last weeks and created his own fighting style.
The two ran fast through the area, heading towards a rather larger forest near the north of Dortmund.
Benji noticed 3 silent shadows joining them on their way.
He recognized them and shot a questioning glance at Adam.
["Just to be sure, they will come with us and we will use them as sacrifice lambs if needed."]
Benji nodded, the three newcomers were two fire elite puppets and a physical elite puppets.
Benji and Adam were surprised when they saw their destination in the distance.
The forest was good visible despite being dark, the red fog inside it shone strong enough.
They stopped right outside where the fog began.
The fog wasn't dense at all, it floated in all directions, not influenced by the strong winter wind.
They looked deeper into the forest and saw some of the trees were pitch black with crystalic red leaves that shone in the darkness.
They stared at the surreal looking forest.
["It looks like it came straight out of a fantasy novel..."]
"Yeah, come on let's check it out."
The five entered the red fog.
Benji froze immediately and Adam also did the same.
Benji felt like he was welcomed the moment he stepped into the fog, his two obsidian like black horns reacted towards the red fog. The fog also reacted towards his horns, it surged towards it and was absorbed.
Benji felt his body greedily absorbing the fong around him, a new form of excitement flooded his entire being.
Adam felt the same, their mindspace he resided in surged with power after the red fog entered the body.
"Incredible!" Benji couldn't help but say it out loud.
["These horns are more useful than we expected."]
Benji turned to Cain and the other puppets, "How about them?"
Adam who was controlling Cain's body shook his head, ["Nothing, it has something to do with having horns."] Guessed Adam.
"Okay, there nothing we can do then, let head deeper inside."
They walked slowly deeper into the forest. They noticed that the amount of black trees with red crystalic leaves grew steady, the deeper they went into the forest.
["It's so silent here, I don't like it and my inner eye doesn't work here!"] Alerted Adam Benji.
Benji frowned and looked carefully around, his two horns never stopped absorbing the red fog around him. They acted like an addicted person who finally got the stuff after a long withdrawal.
Benji and Adam didn't mind it, they felt their powers growing slowly.
They walked for 40 minutes deeper into the forest without meeting anything beside the bizarre trees.
Benji and Adam noticed something in the distance, a stronger red light was shining not far from them.
[Is that the source of all of this?]
The group advanced more carefully forwards towards the source of the red light in the middle of the forest.
Their eyes widened when they finally saw where the bright red light came from.
It came from a single huge tree, how huge it was? It was almost as tall as the wall around Dortmund!
The red crystalic leaves swayed slowly from one side to another on their own rhythm, they looked more pure and bigger compared to all the others they had seen so far.
Its broad and pitch black trunk reflected softly the red light that shone from the leaves.
Benji and Adam stared fascinated at the tree. It was majestic and emitted a soft soothing aura.
They walked slowly towards it like in trance.
Adam noticed that the grass beneath them was also red and crystalic, they produced wisps of red fog that swirled strangely around the majestic tree and spread through the whole forest.
["This is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen..."] Commented Adam half dazed.
Benji nodded slowly, "It is, this place is magical..."
They were only 10 meters away from the majestic tree when the crystalic leaves that had been swaying softly suddenly shook. They began to tremble, acting up to their arrival.
Adam and Benji looked up and paled.
There were hundreds if not thousands of bloody red eyes glaring straight at them.
[Oh...]