Rushing through the woods, Sydra ducks underneath tree branches as he tries to keep sight of the Wisp. Glancing back, Sydra sees that the Blood Mutts are easily shortening the distance between them, and if he doesn't do something soon, he might become their dinner.
"Damn it, where is this Wisp leading me?" Sydra wonders, watching the Wisp dart through the air in front of him. As he runs, Sydra notices that he has begun running beside a cliff, and the Wisp seems to be searching for something on it.
Suddenly, the Wisp makes a sharp turn and disappears into the cliff, leaving Sydra confused as stares at the place the Wisp disappeared. Still running, Sydra hears the sound of the Blood Mutt's meeting galloping behind him, and makes a split decision.
"If this doesn't work, I'm going to kill that Wisp," Sydra says, bracing himself as he aims towards the area the Wisp went and jumps forward.
Once his feet leave the ground, Sydra feels his body slipping through a rubbery veil, before landing safely on the other side. Opening his eyes, Sydra turns around to see the Blood Mutts charging past him, their eyes red with rage.
Watching them continue running in the opposite direction of himself, Sydra releases his breath and looks around. The cliff that he had just jumped through turned out to be an archway, and separating the two sides was a flimsy type of material. Behind him was a wide garden, filled with exotic trees and colorful plants. In the center of the garden was a tower, standing tall within the middle of a glowing pond.
"What is this place?" Sydra asks, turning to look at the Wisp floating next to him. Not paying attention to him, the Wisp makes its way over the pond towards the tower. "I guess I should keep following it. I just hope that this barrier will keep the Blood Mutts from finding me,"
Approaching the tower, Sydra notices a bridge made from stones in the shape of lily pads floating on the surface of the water. Crossing over the stones, Sydra follows the Wisp through an archway and into the tower.
The tower would have been considered beautiful at one point, but now all that remained were items made from stone. There was even a statue sitting down at a stone desk, a look of surprise sculpted across his face.
"I wonder who would have the patience to sculpt all these things," Sydra says, picking up stone beetle crafted delicately down to the tiniest hairs on its legs. Setting the beetle back down, Sydra notices a set of stairs leading to the floor above.
Heading up the stairs, Sydra finds himself in a room filled with stone paintings of the person sitting downstairs. The paintings showed the man doing incredible feats, such as taking on a dragon alone or facing off against a pack of Razor Wolves with only his bare hands.
"Wow, just wow," Sydra exclaims, his attention grabbed by one of the few paintings showing the man in an unfavorable light. In that painting, the man downstairs was betrayed by his apprentice, who resembled the man Sydra had fought with before losing his powers, albeit a few years older.
Hearing a commotion coming from downstairs, Sydra descends the stairs to find the Wisp flying chaotically around the room. The commotion Sydra heard had come from a few things the Wisp knocked over as it bounced off the walls.
Seeing Sydra, the Wisp rushes over and stops in front of his face for a few seconds, before circling him and heading back over to the stone statue. Curious, Sydra walks over to the statue to get a better look. Getting close to the statue's face, Sydra gets an odd feeling in his stomach as he notices that the artist was incredibly detailed when it came to this statue.
"Whoever made this was incredible. They even managed to give the statue nose hairs that go so far back," Sydra says, shoving one of his fingers into the statue's nose. Seeing him do this, the Wisp becomes agitated and flies towards Sydra's face.
Pulling back, Sydra watches as the Wisp flies past him and slips through the statue's open mouth. Before the Wisp can come back out, the statue starts to crack, causing Sydra to go stumbling backward.
As he gets up from the ground, Sydra pauses as a loud howl echos through the garden outside. One of the Blood Mutts had managed to find the veiled archway leading to the garden and was now calling for the other two.
Pulling out his two daggers, Sydra peers out of the tower in the direction of the Blood Mutt. By now, the other two have entered the garden, and they had begun to sniff around. Watching them prance around the garden, Sydra looks down at his daggers in disdain.
"These have no chance at breaking through that tough shell of theirs, and if the crushed trees are any indicator, then their weight must be tremendous," Sydra says as he backs away from the archway and looks around the tower for something better to use as a weapon. Turning around, Sydra is surprised when he comes face to face with someone who looks exactly like the statue.
"Who are you?" the man asks, studying Sydra as he pulls on the end of his long white beard.
"I am just someone who was passing by," Sydra says as he warily backs away from the man. Glancing past him, Sydra notices that the statue that had been sitting at the desk is now gone. 'Did the statue come to life?'
Suspiciously looking at Sydra, the man's attention is soon pulled away by the sound of his garden being torn apart. Pushing past Sydra, the man walks outside and glares at the Blood Mutts. Pointing towards them, the man looks back at Sydra, "Are these creatures yours?"
"Definitely not, I don't even know those creatures," Sydra says, watching as the man frowns and looks back at the Blood Mutts. Noticing the man, they begin to charge at him, their maws snapping open and closed.
Calmly raising his hand, the man points towards each of the Blood Mutts one by one, a blade of emerald wind leaving his finger each time. The wind blades swiftly swept over the ground, before cleanly cutting the bodies of the Blood Mutts into two.
'Holy crap, those Blood Mutts were at least at the Emperor stage, if not higher, and he cut them apart with a wind blade,' Sydra thinks, watching the man with new respect.
Turning around, the man motions towards the bodies of the Blood Mutts, "Go clean those up for me, and then you and I should discuss a few things,"
Quietly nodding his head, Sydra left the tower and made his way over to the bodies of the Blood Mutts. Bending down, Sydra attempted to send them into his Arbor Sanctum, before remembering that he was cut off from it. Sighing, Sydra picks up one of the bodies by hand and looks around.
"Um... where am I supposed to take this?" Sydra wonders as he turns around, only to find the man in his face once more. "Ahh! What are you doing?"
"I was just curious about the method you would use to take care of the bodies," the man says, taking a step back as his eyes dart down to Sydra's hand. "What were you trying to do just now, before you picked the body up?"
Frowning, Sydra tosses the body of the Blood Mutt back to the ground, "Look, I don't really know who you are, or where you even came from, but I don't think I need to tell you anything,"
Before Sydra can say anymore, the man lunges forward and grabs him by the shoulder while also sending a gust of wind towards Sydra's feet. Swept off the ground, Sydra falls onto his back as the man stares intensely at his arm.
"Hmm, it seems that you had some of your powers sealed away, am I right?" the man says, getting off Sydra and letting him get back up.
Dusting himself off, Sydra glares at the man before answering, "Yeah, that's right. I was recently attacked, and this man used his sword to seal my powers,"
Clicking his tongue, the man turns back to the tower and motions for Sydra to follow him, "Come with me, I might have a way to restore your abilities,"
Watching the man walk off, Sydra looks down at himself as a feeling of powerless washes over him, 'I couldn't even keep him from slamming me into the ground. Am I really that weak without my powers?'
Shaking his head, Sydra follows after the man, figuring that if the man wanted to harm him, he could have done so by now.
"By the way, boy. What is your name?" the man asks, "Mine is Solomon, and I was known to be one of the strongest people in my time,"