.....After Ivery and Luther woke up the next morning, they went to Yannel"s room to tell him that they were leaving.
"Go get her for me." Ivery told Yannel
"Okay." Yannel nodded and walked to Danya"s door
"We should just leave her here." Luther said
"Just deal with it for now." Ivery sighed
"...." Luther"s eyes narrowed as he saw Danya walking out of her room
Danya noticed the chilling look Luther was giving her and she looked away from his eyes with fear spreading across her body.
"Let"s go." Ivery walked down the stairs
.....
They checked out of the inn and soon left the town. Ivery opened the map and continued where they left off.
Luther walked closer to Ivery and suddenly grabbed her hand to hold. She looked up at him with a smile.
As Ivery led the way, she felt something wet drop on her forehead. She looked up and saw dark grey clouds gathering in the sky.
"It"s going to rain." Ivery said as she waved her hand and set up a magic shield on top of her and Luther
"Looks like it..." Yannel looked up and twirled his staff, the staff glowed and the tip of it turned into a magic umbrella
Danya, however, didn"t know any magic to shield herself from rain, she sighed and accepted that all of this was her karma. She couldn"t be upset, she didn"t have the right.
As the proceeded on into the forest, just as Ivery said, the rain came down on them. The rain became harsher and the winds that came with it made them realize it was a rainstorm.
Ivery picked up the bottom of her hanfu as she saw the path in front of them was becoming muddy.
"Can"t you both just fly across?" Yannel asked, noticing the muddy path in front of them
"It"s too windy.." Ivery shook her head
"Oh.." Yannel frowned
Ivery pushed on and trudged through the muddy path.
....
After walking through the mud, they all stopped at what looked like a dead-end, because all that was in front of them was just a huge pond. Ivery looked at the map and didn"t understand why they were in front of a pond.
"Let me see." Luther took the map from her hand
Luther looked at the map and raised an eyebrow. There was no mistake, they strangely were where they were supposed to be.
"The h.e.l.l..?" Luther was confused
Ivery stepped closer to the pond and kneeled down beside it. She strangely saw something inside..
"Ivery?" Luther looked at Ivery who seemed mesmerized by the pond
Ivery reached out and touched the water with her finger.
And to Ivery"s surprise, a glowing hand grabbed her arm. Ivery"s heart dropped as she felt another hand grab her ankle. But for some reason, Ivery didn"t feel a need to fight back. It was as if there was no malice in what was happening, it didn"t trigger her instinct to defend herself...
Luther"s eyes widened at the sight and he rushed forward in an attempt to pull her back. Two hands wrapped around her waist and Ivery was pulled inside of the water.
Luther unhesitantly dove into the water, the same glowing hands that pulled Ivery inside grabbed his arm, and pulled him in the water deeper.
Yannel stood there in shock, he snapped out of it and ran to the pond, ultimately jumping into it.
The glowing hands grabbed Yannel"s ankles and pulled him down.
Danya stood alone, shaking in fear. The rain still pouring down, soaking her clothes further. She slowly approached the pond and looked down, seeing no sign of them coming back up.
Just as Danya backed up, thinking to run and seek help. Another glowing hand emerged from the water and grabbed Danya"s leg.
"No!" Danya screamed
The hand tugged on Danya"s leg, making her fall on the ground, pulling her slowly towards the water.
Danya struggled and tried to pull her leg back, but it was useless. The hand pulled one more time and Danya was dragged into the pond, her head went under the water, and she reached for the surface, but it just continued to get further and further away.
...
Danya opened her eyes and coughed.
"Took you long enough." Luther said
"What?" Danya looked at Luther, Yannel, and Ivery standing in front of her
"Where..?" Danya looked around with her eyes filled with confusion
"As if we"d know where we are." Yannel sighed
As they all looked around, the gra.s.s was a pastel green color, and in the gra.s.s were hundreds of beautiful glowing golden flowers.
The sky was the strangest thing they"ve seen so far, it looked like the galaxy, and there were still clouds but oddly there was a giant blue sun in the sky, and a golden moon.
The trees around them had golden leaves and as some of the leaves dropped off of the branches, the leaves that fell off turned into golden particles.
And behind them was the same pond they were pulled through but this pond was placed differently.
Ivery slowly walked up and was captivated by the beauty of everything she saw.
Just when Ivery approached the golden trees, and there seemed to be a forest full of them nearby,
A powerful wind suddenly blew, the golden leaves on the trees came off and flew with the wind. The golden leaves then gathered and swirled around Ivery, she looked around at the strange phenomenon with confusion.
The leaves turned into golden particles and continued to swirl around her.
"It"s her!"
Ivery was alarmed by the high pitched voice. Just as the golden particles began to dissipate, Ivery couldn"t believe what she saw...
"F-Fairies?" Danya saw a group of fairies flying out of the golden forest and towards Ivery
Ivery lifted her hand and smiled at the small beautiful creatures that swarmed around her.
A fairy reached out and touched Ivery"s hand.
"Do you know me?" Ivery asked
"We"ve heard about you from above!" One of the fairies told Ivery
"Above?" Ivery looked up with confusion
"The G.o.ds!" Another fairy said
"G.o.ds..?" Ivery stopped to think
"Hecate...Hades.." Ivery thought it all made sense now
"Give me the map." Ivery turned around to say to Luther
"Here." Luther gave the map to Ivery
"Just as I thought..." Ivery saw that the map changed again
"Lutris, come closer." Ivery said
"Alright." Luther stepped closer to Ivery
"This map isn"t magical at all." Ivery told him
"Oh? How is it not?" Luther asked
"Everything that happened wasn"t normally supposed to happen after all, if adventurers had to go through what we went through to get to Ridgefall then no one would get to Ridgefall.." Ivery felt stupid for not realizing it sooner
"What do you mean?" Luther asked with an eyebrow raised
"It"s Hecate and Hades leading us to these places.." Ivery whispered
"What?" Luther"s eyes slightly widened and then he stopped to think
"The portal that took us to that spirit, that strange hole in the ground that eventually led to you getting more black magic, everything...it was their doing.." Ivery put everything together
"This most likely their way of helping us be strong enough to officially fight against Eos..." Ivery concluded
"So this..." Luther looked around and was finally figuring out why they were taken here
"Yes, this place is most likely where I get new magic..." Ivery said
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