"Do you guys see where he went?" A bandit asks, peering through the trees, "I can't see him anymore!"
Shaking their heads, the bandits make their way back out to Holan, who is waiting patiently for them. Seeing them leave the forest without Sydra, Holan tosses Shdra's bag to the ground and pulls out his sword.
"You guys had one job," he says, walking between the shivering bandits, "And you couldn't even catch a powerless person,"
Dropping to his knees, one of the bandits begins to beg, "We tried, but he just up and vanished,"
Before the bandit could say anymore, his head was sent flying through the air, landing a few feet away. Seeing this, the other bandits began to tremble even more uncontrollably as Holan walked past them.
Watching the bandits soil themselves, Holan sighs and puts away his sword, "I don't want excuses, I want results. Bring out the Blood Mutts, we'll have them track him,"
Nodding their heads, the bandits hurry towards some carriages hidden in the woods, and uncover the largest cages on the back. Inside the cages are three pure red creatures that resemble a mix between dogs and armadillos the size of a truck.
Opening the cages, the bandits lift Shdra's sleeping bag up to the Blood Mutts, who take off after sniffing it for a second, "There is no way he can escape these creatures," a bandit says, watching the Blood Mutts tear through the woods.
Back below the cliff, Sydra crashes into the cold water and is swept under the surface, his body slamming into the rocks. Raising his arms, Sydra protects his head from the sharp rocks as he tries to figure out the way to the shore.
Feeling his feet touch the ground, Sydra kicks with all his might and propels himself back to the surface. Glancing around, he sees that there is a tree hanging low over the water a few feet in front of him, and reaches out to grab it.
"Dang it, I slipped," Sydra says, his wet hands sliding off the branch closest to the water. As the water sweeps him farther, Sydra decides to swim to the shore, but to get there he has to go against the current.
After fifteen minutes, Sydra drags his soaking body out of the water and flops down on the grassy shore. Lifting up his head, Sydra listens for the sounds of bandits, hoping that the river brought him far enough away from them.
"Who even was that man, and who are the people that sent him after me?" Sydra wonders as he thinks back to the man he had fought with. Other than the blue sword that sealed Sydra's powers, Sydra remembered that the man also had a crest on his black jacket, one of two blue pythons wrapping around the handle of a dagger.
'I don't recall hearing of a society that used that crest before, but maybe I can find out more when I reach the Lunarmoon Kingdom,' Sydra thinks as he stands up and takes note of his surroundings. Other than the river beside him, the only other thing around Sydra are towering trees, swaying in the night wind. 'It seems I have yet to leave the forest, but where exactly am I in it?'
Sitting down, Sydra attempts to enter his Arbor Sanctum so he can use the world map to get a sense of where he is. However, upon opening his eyes, Sydra finds himself still sitting on the shore beside the river.
"Fudge, does this mean I can't use my Arbor Sanctum either?" Sydra sighs as he looks down at himself. Getting up, Sydra checks to see what he has with him, and what he will need to get to survive.
Reaching his hand in his pocket, Sydra pulls out a bag of jerky and two daggers, the petrifying one, and the eroding/absorbing one. Other than these three items, Sydra also has the Void Shadow Cloak, which was cleaned of blood while he was swept through the river, as well as the regular clothes he always wears. Frowning, Sydra checks his other pockets before remembering he had sent the map pieces into the Arbor Sanctum.
"Well, this isn't terrible, but the jerky won't last me more than two weeks, and being unable to enter my Arbor Sanctum means I'll have to find another food source," Sydra says as he puts the jerky back into his pocket and straps the daggers to his back. "I guess I should just head into the woods and see what I can find. Staying near the river leaves me too far out in the open,"
Entering the woods, Sydra passes through the foliage as quietly as he can, keeping track of where he goes along the way. Every few meters, Sydra would slash one of the roots of a tree to leave himself a marker in case he needs to go back to the river.
By the time the sun is rising above the forest, Sydra has made his way deep into the forest, not encountering any obstacles along the way. Deciding to rest for a bit, Sydra goes to sit down on a rock in the middle of a small clearing, but when he sits down the rock begins to glow yellow.
Startled, Sydra jumps up and looks around for an ambush, thinking that the rock was some sort of trap. Peering through the tree's around him, Sydra notices a faint glow coming from something hidden beneath vines. Cautiously making his way over, Sydra pulls apart the vines and uncovers a stone standing taller than himself, and covered in glowing yellow runes.
"What in the world?" Sydra wonders, pulling the rest of the vines off the stone. Taking a step back, Sydra notices another stone covered in vines off to his left. Turning around, he sees a total of eight stones surrounding the smaller one in the center.
Uncovering each of the stones, Sydra discovers that each of the stones has different runes on them, all of them glowing with the same bright yellow color. Running his hand across one of the stones, Sydra unknowingly activates it, and a bright yellow beam shoots out of it into the stone in the middle.
Surprised, Sydra waits a few minutes for something else to happen, "That's odd... Maybe I need to touch all of the stones?"
Making his way over to another stone, Sydra places his hand against it, and another yellow beam shoots out. Smiling at his own genius, Sydra hurries to the other stones, and activates their yellow beams as well, before turning to face the stone in the middle.
With all eight yellow beams hitting it, the stone trembles as it rotates in a full circle. Coming to a stop, the stone absorbs the yellow light hitting it, before a large yellow beam fires out of the top of it.
"Dang it, I can't see," Sydra says, rubbing his eyes as the yellow light fades away. After a few seconds, Sydra pulls his hand away from his eyes and looks towards the area the stone had been. Instead of seeing the stone, Sydra finds himself looking at a rune-filled stone valley.
In the center of the valley is a raised pedestal, covered in chains that are holding down a red Wisp. Seeing Sydra, the Wisp becomes excited and starts pulling against the chains holding it down.
"Is it safe to enter this valley?" Sydra wonders, hesitantly taking a step forward. After nothing happening, Sydra concludes that the valley is safe and approaches the pedestal in the middle. Getting closer, Sydra notices that the Wisp seems to be observing his movements.
"That's odd, it seems to be studying me," Sydra says, stopping in front of the pedestal. Glancing at the chains, Sydra sees that they although they are incredibly old, the runes placed on them still hold a bit of power, "I wonder why this wisp was chained here,"
Pulling out one of his daggers, Sydra places its tip inside one of the chain links and turns it, breaking the chain in the process. Seeing its freedom right before it, the Wisp stars bobbing up and down, making it difficult for Sydra to break the rest of the chains.
"You need to calm down, otherwise I won't be able to finish," Sydra says, ending the Wisp's early celebration. Focusing his attention back on the chains, Sydra finishes breaking them, and sets the Wisp free.
Finally unbound, the Wisp shoots up into the sky in excitement, before floating back down and circling Sydra a few times. As it circles, the Wisp releases a faint red glow over Sydra's body, causing the wounds on him to heal.
About to thank the wisp, Sydra pauses when he hears a loud howl coming from behind him. Turning around, he sees a Blood Mutt standing at the edge of the stone valley, howling into the night sky. "Well, that can't be good,"
As he turns to escape, Sydra notices the red Wisp bobbing up and down in the air beside him, as if it's telling him to follow after it. Glancing back, Sydra sees that the Blood Mutt has begun to descend into the valley, and another two have appeared behind it.
"I guess following the wisp couldn't be worse than falling prey to those beasts," Sydra says, running as the Wisp leads the way towards the northern edge of the valley.