J'baki woke to find himself surrounded by stars and planets beyond his imagination. Floating In a vast galaxy deep in this subconscious.
"Where am I?" He thought.
J'baki could feel the invisible current around him, how it swirled, rose, sunk, rocked too and fro. Pulling him in towards two pink stars burning with equal luminesce.
"Oh, he's finally made his way to us." Spoke one star in the voice of a wizened man.
"Finally indeed, I began to wonder if he'd find his way at all." Spoke the other star with an identical voice.
J'baki was getting a strange familiar feeling through his body.
" oh look Atlas, he's confused" the first star laughed.
"He has no idea how he got here. And who we are." Atlas responded. "I guess he lost manners in this life Aster."
The two stars orbited J'baki as they teased him.
"Who are you two?" J'baki asked.
The two stars erupted in laughter.
"We'd tell you," Atlas responded.
"But you made us promise long ago never to do that." Aster finished.
"Who do you think we are?" They asked in unison.
J'baki couldn't follow.
"You've come back as a bumbling idiot this time haven't you." The bluntness of Aster's voice hit him hard.
"What are you talking about?" J'baki asked.
"Ah ah ah, no questions. That was the contract you signed" Atlas responded. "We are not to tell you anything, you have to figure it out."
The two stars sat right in front of J'baki.
"You should have come here years ago, but jumping through that portal really threw you off course." Atlas continued. "But then again, how can you be off of a course that's yours?"
While J'baki meditated on their words. He felt something inside of him that he'd never felt before, suddenly realized, he wasn't burning up anymore.
"I-I passed out, my body was burning up, what happened to me." J'baki exclaimed.
"Hmm, beats us," Aster replied. " what did happen to you?"
The two stars laughed again.
"How do I get out of here? You guys aren't helping!" J'baki was irritated.
"J'baki you chose this, we are not required to help you that's our choice." Aster explained. "And besides that, you explicitly told us not to."
" we can show you the way out though." Atlas said floating right in front of J'baki. Atlas made itself shine bright as the sun blinding j'baki in the light, a voice different than the ones of the stars flowed into his head.
"You are the catalyst!" The voice said. "Why wouldn't you tell me that?" " I could have helped you Adrian." It continued. "Because of you we have to start over."
As the voice faded, and the light dimmed, J'baki found himself in the presence of a giant black hole pulling in everything around it. J'baki struggled against the pull of the black hole to no avail. As he plunged in, with the rocks and planets around him he saw the two stars again. They burned brightly in the distance dimming out as he fell deeper and deeper into the abyss. The black hole became him, he felt it enter his stomach and plant itself there. He took a panicked breath and jumped up. He flailed around a bit before realizing he was suspended above a massive hole in the middle of the root. His view of pin straight black hair, accompanied by the position of his arms made him realize he was being carried. In a panic he tightens his arms around the persons neck.
"Oh, someone's awake. Did you have a good rest?" Isadora turned her head trying to meet J'baki's eyes. She kept sliding down the pulley ropes she rigged up. "It's a good thing Isshi brought you to me. I was able to do a spore containment just in time."
"I'm sorry, I just had a crazy dream." J'baki rubbed his head.
"Crazy dream huh? What happened?" Isadora asked as they quickly descended down the rope. J'baki explained the dream he'd had, the weird feelings he felt, and the two stars named Atlas and Aster.
"That sounds a little too real to be a dream." Isadora thought out loud.
"Since I've gotten here, I haven't been feeling like myself, memories of a life I never had keep coming."
"Who you are now and who you were then are one in the same." Isadora explained. "You came here with a purpose obviously, and who's to say you aren't living that purpose right now?"
"If that's the case I hope my past self can help me find my siblings." His tone was sarcastic, but truth peppered his words "That's all I care about, what I've spent years training for."
The two reach the end of the rope dropping into a water soaked cavern. The orange spores were few and far between, gathering on clusters of rocks outside of the water's touch. Isadora and J'baki walked through sloshing with every step.
"What's with all this water?" J'baki asked.
"It's not water," Isadora pulled a small light from her pocket. "It's sap from the tree, we're close to an inner wound."
"Wound? How can a tree be wounded ?"
"We're you not listening up there? The tree is infected" Isadora snapped.
"I do remember that, I was barely paying attention, everything happened so fast."
"The Empress can be short at times, you should know what you're getting yourself into." Isadora shined the light on the ceiling of the tree looking for the opening of the wound. "Hmm, where to begin."
"I'd say from the beginning." J'baki replied to the rhetorical question.
"Yes." Isadora rolled her eyes. "Fifty years ago, there was no tree on this planet. No spores at all, actually. Humans could barely handle the resources we did give them, let alone spores. They were not evolved enough to receive a connection to the mycelia network. A rouge group decided they wanted to connect the humans anyway, that group called themselves Dark Basin. Are you following?"
J'baki was right behind Isadora. Looking around the cavern.
"Yea, Dark Basin, humans, what does that have to do with the tree?" He asked.
"Good, now Dark Basin needed something to get the humans connected, a way for them to evolve quickly. A Catalyst."
"A catalyst! I heard that in my dream." J'baki exclaimed.
"Really? What did you hear?" Isadora was intrigued.
"It said 'why didn't you tell me you were the catalyst.' I don't know what it means."
"I wonder if the voice was your past self, or if it was speaking to your past self." She left that question for him to answer. "Anyway, their catalyst was in place, and their plan was set in motion. Their goal was to infect the whole planet, however with the construction on The Vivabor Tree, it only spread to the southern part of what the humans call The United States."
"So the tree stops the whole world from being infected?"
"Precisely."
"But, isn't it the goal to have everyone connected to the network? Why keep the humans out?" J'baki questioned.
"Some humans did get connected, the southern states exist because of the tree as well, keeping the connected humans secluded from their actual home on Earth." She explained.
"Dark Basin wishes to infect the tree completely and continue its plan. Every year they send agents, and every year, we seek to destroy those agents. That is the nature of The Root Down"
J'baki walked in silence piecing together all the information he just got.
"I think by attacking the Sulcis, Dark Basin must have gotten there hands on another catalyst." Isadora was pondering. "I want to get to the bottom level and see for myself what's caused this."
The cavern came to an end. Isadora shined her light on the enormous wall that stood before them. Rings encircled the entire thing, strange markings were all over it. Isadora and J'baki marveled at the giant wall. Without warning, yellow slime like spores started to ooze from the markings making a wet crunching noise.
"J'baki step back!" Isadora warned.
"What is that?" Jbaki questioned while taking a few steps back.
Isadora didn't respond. She stared in horror as the spores quickly began covering the walls.
"Isshi. What is this yellow slime." J'baki asked in a panic.
No response. J'baki grabbed his bat from his side and prepared for what was coming.
The bubbling yellow spores covered the entire wall. The wet crunching sound ceased. The spores gathered in a humanoid shape at the bottom of the wall, they slowly crept out, making limbs as they climbed off the wall. The legs, firm and muscular covered with pants, it's torso shirtless it's arms covered in mushroom gills. The creature used its hands to push off completely from the wall. Before J'baki and Isadora stood short muscular fiendish creature with a mushroom cap adorned upon its head.
"Heeheehee infiltration complete." The tiny fiend laughed. The Fiend faced the giant wall "finally in! Take that! A Mal-2 made it through the barrier!"
J'baki and Isadora a couple of feet apart, he had his bat out ready to swing, but Isadora still hadn't moved a muscle. Isshi kept off of J'baki's arm, turned into a bird, and landed on his shoulder.
"I must say, running into a Mal-2 here is unprecedented." Isshi chirped. "Isadora, what should we do?"
J'baki walked up to Isadora, the Mal-2 still hadn't noticed them. It was still dancing around excited about getting through the barrier. J'baki walked up to Isadora and placed his hand on her shoulder. She was shaking, her bright fiery eyes dimmed to a cool blow making J'baki take caution.
"Isadora, what about this guy has you so tense?" He asked. "Should we do something."
"We don't know what he's doing yet." Isadora said through shaken breaths. "W-we have to wait and see what it does before we try to eradicate it."
"Oh?" The fiend turned around to face Isadora and J'baki. "Friends from the other side" he laughed. "Are you two lost?!"
"What are you doing?" J'baki was direct with his question.
"Oh me?" The fiend responded. "I'm doing what any Mal would do, I'm opening the gates to allow my brothers to join me!"
J'baki pointed his bat towards the fiend.
"We can't let you do that." He tried to look serious.
"Let me? Heeheehee" the fiend laughed. "Hmm let me see, a young woman who can't even move, and a naive boy and his bird. I don't think it will be a problem."
The fiend stretched his hands towards the wall, excreting yellow spore that viciously started breaking down the structure. J'baki rushed towards him preparing to swing his bat in full force. The swing broke the bat over the fiends head.
"Heehee. You're gonna have to do much better than that." The fiend turned to face J'baki. "You didn't even have your spores activated during that swing. Are you an amateur?"
The fiend walked over to J'baki. J'baki tensed his hand around the broken handle of his bat.
"Now you have no weapon, all because you're a novice." The fiend was getting serious. "You should just go home, I've wiped out chosen ones far greater than you. Admittedly, I'm one of the weak ones, you'll never make it."
J'baki felt the sting of the words in the back of his head. He couldn't believe that his weapon broke in a single swing. All he had to protect himself was now gone.
"Isshi, how do I activate my spores?" J'baki said to the bird.
"Your body is still getting used to your beo, activating your spores isn't possible." Isshi explained.
"We don't have time for this right now! Just tell me." J'baki was irritated beyond belief.
" you didn't let me finish." Isshi flew in front of J'baki's face. "Activating your spores right now isn't possible, but I can activate them for you."
The fiend was getting closer to J'baki who was stepping back from the oncoming threat.
"Well then do it. I have nothing against this guy now!" He said in a panic.
"Right away. Initiating link to the Mycelia network."
Isshi split in two right before J'baki's eyes. Without hesitation, Isshi whirred changing its composition to a pair of earbuds that merged onto J'bakis ears. The feeling was exhilarating, the feeling of the spores inside of him gave him a sense of weightlessness, he could suddenly see the spores in a different light, and the once yellow spores around the fiend turned into a deep black hue.
"Connection complete." Isshi said directly into J'baki's ears. "You're reading at a level two connection, same as the mal-2"
"So I'll be able to take him?" J'baki asked.
"Maybe, that is up for you to decide."
J'baki readied his broken bat, prepared to fight his first interaction with the infected curse.