Nox leapt away quickly, dragging Li Zemin with him to a safe distance.
The hostile presence showed itself.
"... Zera."
The brown haired girl waved at him. "I see you've hunted down the heart. Isn't this what we need to pass the trial?"
"It is, but why are you here?" Li Zemin asked bluntly, prying Nox's hands away so he could stand up properly.
She shrugged, before giving him a response. "Just here to make sure you weren't trying to run off with it yourself." She walked closer, admiring the crystal hart. She gave a low whistle, saying, "You did a pretty good job. You even took the heart of the hart." She smiled at him, eyes narrowed.
"Weren't you hunting by yourself?" Li Zemin questioned.
Nox stood there silently. Although everything Zera said made sense separately, it didn't feel right when all of her sentences were combined. He had an impression that she wasn't talking about the hart in front of them, rather…
"If there's nothing else, we're going to go." He had a bad feeling even without Keen Intuition telling him.
Giggling like she just heard a funny joke, she smirked, "You can certainly try."
Li Zemin, "Huh?"
She opened her mouth and hollered, "Guards! Guards! It's the crystal heart of the Red Queen!" Her shout echoed through the forest, startling nearby animals into fleeing.
Zera looked at their astonished expressions with bemusement, bending down to snap off an antler with her bare hands. The crystal's iridescent glow dimmed slightly.
Within a minute, card soldiers rushed to their location. They pointed their spears at Nox and Li Zemin.
Zera stood off to the side, looking at the scene she created as if she was a bystander.
Bak Soomin soon arrived with Liam, out of breath. She gave Nox an apologetic look, her brow furrowed as she saw Zera.
There were still other participants hunting, but a number of them who were in the same area came because of the commotion.
What was she playing at? Nox glanced around, considering if he could break through the card soldiers surrounding him.
[Keen Intuition has been activated. An angry presence comes your way.]
Just as the screen appeared, the crowd parted to reveal the woman who sat on the red throne, a stormy expression on her face. Trotting behind her, the white haired girl followed with her brows furrowed, accompanied by a white knight.
The card soldiers knelt down. "We greet her Majesty, the Red Queen."
The Red Queen's foul expression grew darker after she spotted the dead dear. The Red Queen let out a booming demand, "Who dares to kill my hart and harvest the crystal heart?!" She looked ready to flay someone alive.
Zera stepped forward with a bow, the crystal she snapped off nowhere in sight. "My Queen, your prized hart was killed by these two men." She pointed to Nox and Li Zemin.
Before they could refute, the Red Queen's fury immediately turned on them. "You! You dare kill my hart and take its crystals?"
Nox started, glaring at Zera. She stared back innocently, her eyes cold with triumph.
"Answer me or I'll have you beheaded!"
The white haired girl stepped in to intervene. "Now now, sister. Does thy not cut blood from the flow of the stream? I'm sure the winds of time shall give us the answer."
"Your Majesty," Nox spoke up, glancing around at the soldiers. It was time to see how far his affinity could go. "I've heard that the crystal heart is your most prized treasure."
"And yet you Outlander dare to kill it?!" she roared, making the nearest card soldier tremble in fright.
Nox remained calm. "Why is your prized possession wandering in these woods then?" he countered.
The forest fell into a deadly silence.
The second task had been a clue and a trap. The message that appeared before the trial had been an invitation by the White Queen. By making their prime target the Red Queen's hart…
Nox had naturally assumed that 'Hunt of the Hart' meant that the goal was to kill the deer. But it was actually leading them to the answer of the main task all along. The crystals themselves were the 'crystal heart.'
It was also a cruel joke the White Queen decided to play. Nox glanced at the little girl. He didn't know if she could tell the contents of their trial, but the task issued to them right after her invitation couldn't have been a coincidence.
The Red Queen fell silent at his unexpected question. A conflicted look appeared on her pale face.
Slowly, the white haired girl inched away from the red haired woman.
This time, the murderous aura engulfed the entire area. Nox felt his body stiffen at the dense pressure. Li Zemin groaned, sinking onto the floor while Bak Soomin and Liam were bracing themselves against a tree.
The card soldiers cried in alarm. Nox noticed that the ones with smaller numbers quickly fell onto the floor, while the ace card and the ten of hearts were able to remain standing.
"Dear sister of mine," the Red Queen hissed, looking like a frilled lizard with her collar fanned out. "You did not steal, my most beloved crystal heart; did you?" Her eyes glowed dangerously.
The White Queen scrambled for an answer. "He lies!" She pointed an accusing finger at Nox. "Thou time art not what it seems!" Despite her words, her face gave away her guilt.
Nox replied, "I didn't even know what the crystal heart looked like, how could I have stolen it to the White Palace?"
The Red Queen no longer paid attention to Nox. With startling speed invisible to the eye, she threw a punch. The White Queen dodged it nimbly, causing the Red Queen to miss and hit the ground. Where she stood moments before was a crater three meters wide, upsetting the nearby trees and the soldiers around them.
"Ayye! The Red Queen is angry!"
"Run backwards! Backwards!"
The card soldiers were scattered around the clearing, trying not to get caught up in the fray.
Nox felt cold sweat dot his back, remembering the task's note.
[The crystal heart is unexpectedly fragile.]
It had almost broken his ribs in two, but to the Red Queen it was definitely considered… fragile.
The way Zera casually took a part of its antler too- his head snapped up, scanning the surroundings. As he thought, she was missing, having slipped away during the commotion.
Nox clenched his teeth in frustration, gripping the dagger in his hand. She was strong enough to move under the Red Queen's domineering pressure. For him, moving under the Red Queen's aura was like waddling through mud.
He breathed a sigh of relief as she moved further away, taking her pressuring aura with her.
The White Queen dodged her sister's attack with incredible agility, quickly reducing their surroundings to rubble with their game of cat and mouse.
Bak Soomin and Liam joined him and Li Zemin as dumbfounded spectators of the sibling squabble.
"This makes me glad that I don't have any sisters," Li Zemin shuddered, rubbing his arms. "Women are scary."
Nox let out an agreeing hum. Thankfully Roxanne didn't fight with him like that… "You're such a hypocrite, dating women then saying they're scary."
Bak Soomin laughed at that, a subdued smile on her face. She turned to Nox with a serious expression. "I apologize. I lost track of her while we were fighting off a bear."
"Be- a bear?" Li Zemin gaped, not hiding the disbelief in his tone. "But- where are your weapons? And we? As in Liam too?" He looked at the young boy, who ducked his head to avoid eye contact.
Hesitant, Liam peeked at Nox then stared back down at the shaking ground, shuffling his feet before looking at Bak Soomin.
She sighed helplessly. "Up to you."
"It's my ability." Liam spoke so quietly that Nox could barely hear his words.
Li Zemin didn't hear anything above the fighting commotion. "What?"
A blurred shadow lept towards Liam. Nox reached out with his ability instinctively, ready to attack before he realized that neither Bak Soomin or Liam were concerned.
"What is that?" Nox looked at it quizzically.
Liam held up the ball of fur happily. "This is Roscoe."
Roscoe was a very round… raccoon. Nox stifled a laugh as he watched Liam hold up the ball of fur by its short paws, swinging around in protest.
"Roscoe, stay put- ah, I'll put you down." Liam gently lowered the fat racoon. When it stood on all fours, the only thing that could separate its existence from a ball was its long tail sticking out from its behind. "Sorry, he gets jumpy sometimes."
"Pwahaha," Li Zemin bursted into laughter as he watched the creature chitter away at Liam.
Nox smiled slightly at the fat raccoon's antics. Roscoe made a few clicking sounds and took something out of thin air, showing it to Nox.
He raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this the mace I saw back in the White Palace?" The one he thought about smashing monsters with.
Roscoe puffed out his chest proudly, the round ball becoming even rounder. Liam explained worriedly, "Roscoe has a habit of taking things he likes."
Bak Soomin ran a hand over her face, sighing. The doctor seemed to have experienced Roscoe's troublemaking tendencies firsthand.
Amused, Nox replied, "It's a pretty good ability. Does it only apply to Roscoe?"
Liam hesitated, shaking his head. "My ability is beast taming but I don't want anyone but Roscoe." The green eyed boy looked at Nox with a surprisingly steely glare. "It can't be anyone else."
Scchrak.
The group turned their attention to the noise.
The queens' fighting came to an abrupt halt, the two sisters freezing in their tracks.
Standing there in the middle of the newly cleared forest, was Zera.
The short haired girl floated half a meter above the ground, the crystal antler embedded in her chest.
A faint light surrounded her, sparking against the ground as the girl rose further into the air, eyes glowing with an uncanny white light.
Everyone watched in awe and surprise as the energy intensified.
'Stop her.'
Nox was moving before he could control it, pushed by an unknown urgency. All he knew was that something instinctive was telling him to stop whatever she was doing at any costs.
'Stop her,' it urged. 'Before it's too late.'
Devouring the deer's heart directly raised his ability to level 10, giving him more control over his blood. Nox slashed his arm unhesitatingly, feeling his ability rush out.
He lunged for the crystal, only to be stopped by an oppressing force, the contact creating a sharp spark as it threw him off.
Undeterred, Nox regained his balance and spun around, slamming crimson blades into the shield. He was tired of these damn barriers always getting in his way.
"It won't work." Zera's voice sounded brittle and distorted. "This is inevitable. You should accept your fate."
The crystal antler was starting to fade as it was absorbed by Zera.
A dozen questions flashed by in his mind, but they all faded away as Nox continued his assault, skin stinging from the crackle of energy the barrier was extruding.
Suddenly, a sharp object flew past Nox and sank its tip into the barrier. It penetrated the bottom left and formed a small crack where his blades didn't.
Nox turned; Bak Soomin still had her arm in a throwing position.
She nodded at him, her silent assist giving Nox the opening he needed.
Without hesitation, Nox merged the blades and concentrated his power on breaking through the small crack. He slammed it once, twice- the invisible barrier made it seem like cracks were forming in the air, the impact running through his entire arm with a giant shudder.
The fissure grew in size, cracking under the pressure until the barrier shattered, allowing Nox to reach Zera.
"Ah-" Nox's fingers closed around thin air as he watched the crystal shimmer out of existence, intensifying the glow emitting from her body.
Shit.
Warning bells rang in his mind even as his blades cut into her too late, even as he was thrown backwards with a large blast of energy.
When his ability cut through her, he felt that she… wasn't human. Not anymore.