The soaring branches weaved a canopy and fostered gloom like their own infant. Only the finest of rays filtered through them. Slyun purged the shady undergrowth with a dazzling burst. He molded it into a sphere and anchored it near him. Airborne, the impish ball guided them through the crowded thicket.
"Gosh, these trees…" Mara's attention darted from tree to tree as they infiltrated the forest ground, wreathed in a plague of twisted, stiff roots. The forest was devoid of versatile vegetation. Only the barks of the trees, erect like unkempt stone pillars, were blemished in sooty moss.
"Sylun did you hear the–"
"Shh!"
He picked up an unsettling disruption in the still air besieging them and warned her with the back of his hand.
As they snuck into the depths, the disturbance translated into a pleading voice.
"Sylun, look!" She pointed at the upturned body, fallen like a slain soldier.
He shed more light on it and drew closer with cautious steps.
"Damn, what happened to him?" Sylun said, "What's pulling it down so hard?" He flipped the cloaked body over and dusted the sienna off him. It was neither a skeleton nor a corpse, the only aspects piquing his interest were the rattling jaws and a head devoid of eyes and a nose, all bound by cold, famished skin.
As he checked the cloak, he retrieved a small bag. He unknotted it and picked up one of the dull white fragments.
"Mara, take a look at this." He handed it over.
"Sylun! These are soulshards!" Her neck recoiled. She snatched the remaining and crammed it in her pocket. "Derod will be needing these."
"That is, if we find him. Let's hope he didn't meet the same fate as this guy."
Mara frowned. "Be a little optimistic for once."
"How do you expect me to be, princess?"
A root ambushed him from behind, impaling his ear. Sylun ripped his head from the woody stake, baying.
He glanced back at the withered body. The assassin that sniped him emerged from the jaws. A barrage of more rootstock thrust at him, shredding the soiled bag of bones. He snapped a glint, evolving it into a gleaming blast, and immolated the assailants.
Sylun caught a peek at the princess, numb with fear.
"Mara, look out!"
She skipped in an instant, dodging the troops of thorny arrows in the nick of time, though a few of them brushed off her, leaving strokes of crimson behind. However, as she prepared her stance to avenge her cuts, a pair of roots clutched her ankles. Their thorns pierced through her sole and climbed through her shins. They penetrated the skin from the inside out and skewered her thigh bones, reaching into the marrow and anchoring her to the spot.
"Get off me!" She heaved in the opposite direction while the crippling roots trespassed into her hipbone.
Sylun leaped, engulfing his hands in a glistening shine of silver, but a thick vine wrapped itself around his waist and towed him away in the distance. He intensified his attack, despite the burning flow in his veins, and incinerated the staggering coil.
What? Why wouldn't it burn? He repeated the attack, enslaving his efforts to a cycle. He arched his torso into any suffocating gap he found. The vine clasped him harder, breezing through the turmoil.
"Sylun!" Mara twisted her body, capturing her companion and sucking him into the shadows.
Mara focused, drawing a deep breath amidst the multiplying thorns. As she collected a lethal dose of power from the pain, the princess gnashed her teeth. As she extracted more power, greater anguish bloomed while atrophying her abilities. They secured her lower half and dragged her into the damp, fawn soil.
An explosion boomed. Sylun galloped out of the smoke and reached Mara's hand, extending to clutch the final and only hope at her disposal.
"No!" He roared as his fingers scraped the air, missing hers by a mere inch.
She drowned in the chaotic network of roots, which tread over her face and strangled her from sight.
Sylun seethed, collapsing to his knees.
"Stop growing, you piece of shit!" He shredded through the never-ending layer of entanglement with hands ablaze in scorching red. His heart clobbered against his ribs.
"That's it! Enough!" Sylun stabbed the ground with a sinister flame, whipped up all his wrath, and channeled it, feeding the heat with its favorite delicacy. He seared through the layer and reduced it to char, divulging the protected soil.
Sylun extinguished the flame and hardened his hand, from skin to the very bones. He reinforced them to be as hard as the toughest known steel to man, with the aura of pure callousness he harnessed.
He clawed through the soil, digging a chasm. A sound ascended, distorted with agony.
"Mara! Hold on there, I'm coming!" A hand flickered, embedded in peaty dirt, as if it were searching for the nearest rope it could find.
Sylun clamped onto it like a bloodthirsty crocodile, refusing to let its prey escape. He tugged her out.
A cacophony cannoned through the vicinity, shaking the unruly columns of wood.
"No! My legs!" Mara's lower body, decorated with spikes, provoked her to engage in a boisterous uproar.
Sylun panted as he witnessed an unrivaled abomination. He wrapped his arms around the princess. The raging upbeat in him deadened, and the burning sensation replaced it.
Mara pressed her jaw against the other, locking them, but refrained from retaliating against the warm embrace as her defiance petered out.
"Sylun, thanks. to I can never forget this act of yours." Her eyes sparkled with sincerity amid the suffering. "Forgive me for being a burden."
"No, what the hell are you saying? I… I just needed to repay my debt."
"Think of it however you want." She gasped, "But I need you to do me a favor."
"What's that?"
"Get rid of these." She glanced at her thighs. "Sever them."
Is she insane? How can someone survive such pain? The questions clouded his mind.
"I refuse."
"These roots aren't dead. You do realize that, don't you? They're still growing inside, draining my potency." Her expression spoke for her. "And if all of it depletes, I'll die."
His blood froze.
"Don't worry, as long as you remove them, my legs will slowly regenerate."
He gulped, conjuring a fine, fiery blade, white with heat.
"Forgive me, Mara." Sylun swept the flaming edge at the base of the thighs with a pair of blistering chops. The femurs reformed, caked in flesh and skin.
He watched the legs regrow, though snails could outpace them.