When she woke up, the first thing she saw was Storm lying on the ground next to her. After taking a closer look, she calmed down a little; her companion was still alive. She shook her head and got up, trying to come back to her senses.
She was greeted by the old familiar sight of a bottomless abyss. Memories came rushing back and she finally remembered what happened to her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she got caught in an illusion. As for the ins and outs of it, she wasn't exactly sure.
Were those scenes real or fiction? Her emotional state could have played a role in it, after all. It wasn't rare for people who had lost their loved ones to 'see' all kinds of things. Taking into account that this place had a strange effect on her soul, it was more than likely that everything was just a product of her own imagination.
But she didn't want to believe it.
She lifted her head and saw two moons hanging high in the grey sky. The memories of their last night suddenly resurfaced in her mind.
***
They lay on his bed, staring at the Twin Moons through the window. His face was calm, but she could tell that it was only a facade, an attempt to make her feel safer. She appreciated his efforts.
Finally, she summoned up all her courage and whispered into his ear, "Let's have a baby."
His gaze froze for a good while.
She saw it and got a bit scared. "It's okay," she said and buried her face against his shoulder.
"You have so little faith in me?" he whispered back.
He suddenly smiled and leaned to kiss her.
After a series of soft moans, their bodies finally separated. Sounds of heavy breathing filled the room.
"You..."
"I'm sorry, but your father would kill me."
"What kind of a joke is that? Your master is..."
"Think about it. We are still so young. I don't want to rob you of your future."
"It will only cost me a couple of years, whereas we can live for hundreds of years! It's nothing!"
"I'm sorry. But fret not—we will have plenty of time in the future."
They both knew that for young and talented practitioners like them, this wasn't the best time to start a family, yet she couldn't help but imagine the worst. What if...
***
Her thoughts traveled back to the present. The howling winds ruffled her white hair, obscuring her vision. She briskly wiped away her tears and kneeled down beside Storm to check on him. She didn't want to spend here a second longer.
Despite that, seconds stretched into minutes.
After Storm finally opened his eyes, and it became clear that nothing was threatening his life, they hurriedly left the place.
On the way back, they saw many fallen trees and half-crumbled mountains. Soon, they reached a forest that was in a very sorry state. Half of it was uprooted and swept away by a storm that had visited this place not that long before them – a normal everyday occurrence in a place like this.
They traveled through the desolate lands of the Forbidden Territory, moving farther away from the ominous gorge, yet her condition was only getting worse. Something drained them of their mental energy during that incident, which had little effect on Storm but could pose a lethal danger to Kathryn.
The human body differed in many aspects from that of a beast, but it was especially so when it came to storing and using the primal energies of the world.
Beasts had strong bodies that highly relied on the purity of their bloodline. Most of them were born without chakra points – their meridians were connected to muscles and other organs. In order to survive, they would kill and eat other beasts and consume their vital energies to evolve their physiques. Some were herbivores, others carnivores, and a portion of them even preyed on human blood.
Humans, in turn, had very strong souls. With enough mastery, they could transform the elemental energy into practically anything, or even—anyone. Here, the legends diverged from one another.
But what would happen if that energy got out of control inside someone's body?
Well, even children knew the answer to this question – the Profound Core would collapse, the Etheric Body would crumble, and the meridians would explode. But these were the rarest and most extreme cases. Usually, it would only leave some scars that would heal on their own with enough time. But those scars—when accumulated—could pose no less threat.
Kathryn's soul was in a similar situation, for it was weakened due to the mysterious gorge, and yet her physical body remained mostly the same.
As far as she could control at least half of the energy inside her Profound Core, she would be fine. But that obviously wasn't the case. When she crossed that threshold, the balance shifted, and Mother Nature started demanding back what was rightfully hers.
She struggled to keep her pace, taking one pill after another. Her head felt like a balloon that was about to explode.
Finally, she reached her limit. She found a secluded cave, sat on the ground, and started meditating with Storm as her guard.
***
Tens of thousands of kilometers away, under an enormous spiral-shaped three, surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of wild, uninhabited land.
Kirk found it hard to breathe. He looked at his palm and the area above it where the light flashed just a moment ago. He summoned it once again, but the result was exactly the same.
According to what he felt, hundreds of years should have passed while he was trapped in that cave.
"Maybe the balance of nature was shaken? A cataclysm?" Kirk thought, but then another idea came to his mind. "The Forbidden Territory has expanded yet again?"
This seemed to be the most logical explanation. His master once showed him the old maps of the Vascan Empire he brought from the Imperial Library – 100,000 kilometers from south to north, and three times as much in the east-west direction; less than 10 percent of this huge territory was marked as 'forbidden'.
But this was more than 100,000 years ago. Now, in the present era, the number has doubled, and there were no signs of it stopping any time soon.
One more thing that added to the puzzle was the manner in which the Forbidden Territory expanded. Once in a while, it would suddenly explode in size and occupy a massive piece of land, and no one could do anything about it. Multiple hundreds of cities were erased from existence due to these apocalyptic events.
Kirk looked around and tried to find any clues, yet no matter how carefully he examined his surroundings, everything hinted that this was—its size considered—a normal forest. In addition to that, his soul didn't spot any trace of the dark ink-like substance in the primordial river of energy.
"Maybe my body has perfectly adapted to the climate of the Forbidden Territories?"
Many experts chose to spend their lives exploring the Forbidden Territories; his father was a good example. The more time they spent, the less control the Forbidden Territories had over their bodies and souls.
It was also known that their blood and flesh would gradually become different from that of ordinary men and women. Moreover, this metamorphosis seemed to be irreversible. Many tried to study it but eventually gave up.
Meanwhile, Kirk's body was silently undergoing transformations that were no less mysterious.
He slowly sat up and saw the world spin for a moment – the side-effect of losing too much blood. He was going to wait until his spine was fully healed, but in the end, decided against testing his luck.
What if more beasts came sniffing around? Who knew if the tree would protect him at that time? Maybe it would decide to devour him instead, just as it did with his pursuers.
Living trees were ultimately just as dangerous, if not more. In fact, Kirk was more concerned about the latter suddenly turning hostile toward him. At the very least, he knew how to deal with the beasts.
And besides, the primal energies of the world couldn't satisfy all of his needs, so he would eventually have to go and find something to eat.
In the end, he made finding a reliable source of water his main priority. Along the way, he would look for medical herbs and signs of human activity.
But at the end of the day, what he needed the most was a stroke of luck and a helping hand – it was nigh impossible to survive here on your own.
Eventually, he made it to the top of a huge thick root while trying to conceal his presence as much as possible. The forest was frighteningly quiet all this time. The only sound he could hear was that of the leaves shaking gently.
Concerning the local flora, the smallest shrub was three times taller than him. He raised his head and saw a massive tree that spiraled past the clouds like a coiling dragon. He held his breath as he admired the sight.
His mouth felt dry, which reminded him of the situation he was in. He looked around warily; this was the highest viewpoint he could find. Behind him, he saw the wolves that were still pitifully hanging above the ground – a scene he would rather forget. Their dark-grey fur had long ago turned black-red from the blood.
In the end, he found a relatively safe path and started advancing northward through the forest; he moved with the speed of a grown man who hadn't embarked on the road of cultivation. Even with the mysterious energy supporting him, his legs felt heavy while waves of pain kept spreading from his back.
After an hour or so, he came across a small pond. The water in it was clean, no—it was suspiciously sterile. He waited and observed the birds and other small animals, but none of them came to drink from it, so he decided to move on.
***
It was early in the morning, and the sun was just rising.
Three people—two black-clothed young women and one slightly older white-clothed young man—sat around a campfire in the middle of an ancient forest. Here, the trees blotted out the sky and obscured most of the sunlight.
"Sis, don't listen to him," the girl who had short black hair chimed in when she noticed that her sister—the young woman who sat next to her, and whose head was wrapped in bandages—started losing control over her emotions while arguing with the white-clothed young man. He sat there as calm as a monk, cleaning his fingernails with a sharp knife.
"Don't waste your time with his nonsense. In the end, he knows no more than we do."
"Alas," said the young man without raising his voice. "Just because you are blind doesn't mean others can't see."
"See what? That you are full of shit?"
"Erland, Izetta—both of you, shut up!" Agnetta, Izetta's elder sister, couldn't stand their squabble any longer. Their third sister, Marletta, got stuck in a cave about a week ago. The three of them did everything they could to move that boulder, yet their combined strength was inadequate. In the end, Erland decided that it was enough.
"She is already dead. No water, no food... For a ten-year-old girl, this is a death sentence. This place isn't safe for us either. We should move on."
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Agnetta grabbed the knife from his hand and threw it far away; blood started dripping down her fingers, yet she cared not.
"Yesterday, I finally opened my 128th chakra point, and so, I decided! Today, I'm going to make my breakthrough to the second stage and form the Etheric Body! This way, we will finally have a chance!"
"Big sis, you can't!"
"You really should not."
Even Erland tried to dissuade her.
"What do you know? I'm not one of those geniuses or anything. What am I really losing?"
"Your mind, obviously," Erland said calmly, taking out another knife.
"I don't care!"
"Where is the cave? I can save your sister."
Suddenly, a clear voice rang out from behind them. They instinctively turned around and saw a half-naked, black-haired young man who stood not too far away from them, with his hands up. Immediately, all three of them unsheathed their swords, ready to fight to the death.