An Owl's Rise

For nearly two minutes the vestige of the Verdant Warlord inspected the six of them until finally cutting off the wave of magical energy.

"A pity. Not a single one of you has a nature magic affinity. It seems it will still be sometime before I can complete my duty." The vestige said once it had finished checking all of them.

However, its attention soon turned towards Evelyn with a look of curiosity.

"You though, are by far the most interesting being that has every found their way here. To think that a beast with a human\'s soul and magic core, that also has a heavenly flame and some sort of impossibly powerful magic device I cannot even begin to fathom, exists. You are just one miracle after the next aren\'t you." The vestige said to Evelyn.

Hearing her secrets being revealed, Evelyn looked around at her comparisons to gauge their reaction, but none of them seemed to have heard. Each one was still just looking at the vestige intently.

"No need to worry. What the five of them are hearing is far different from what you are. I wanted to have this conversation just between the two of us."

At this Evelyn let out a sigh of relief. She may have trusted her friends and siblings with her life, but was not yet ready to trust them with all her secrets. The only one that currently held that privilege was Melisandre.

"What is it you want from me? You are not even a living being, correct?" Evelyn asked, unable to hide the hostility in her voice.

"That is right, I am not alive. I am a will given form in the image of the one who made me. A copy of the Verdant Warlord\'s memories. And as for what I want from you, is simply to satiate my curiosity. I may just be an echo, but I still retain the personality of my creator. Before me is an incomprehensible being, of course I would want to know more." The vestige said, staring intently at Evelyn.

"And if I was to refuse to answer you, what are you going to do to me?" Evelyn responded.

At this the vestige of the Verdant Warlord shrugged its shoulders, and said, "Nothing. Unless you try to destabilize this domain, I cannot harm you. I am just the keeper here. I must follow the rules set by the Verdant Warlord the same as everyone else who enters this place."

Sighing with relief, Evelyn felt all the tension in her body starting to fade. She had been afraid that this vestige was about to destroy her. Yet thankfully it was unable to enact violence on her for no reason.

After that her private conversation with the vestige of the Verdant Warlord ended and she began hearing and seeing the same thing as her friends and siblings.

"Okay, I have finished explaining the purpose of this place, so onto the rules. There are several floors within this separate dimension. In order to advance or leave you must collect a certain number of tokens from defeating the creatures that reside in the forest. These tokens may also be used at terminals that appear around the domain. Each of these terminals will allow you to trade the tokens you have collected for valuable items or information that the Verdant Warlord has left here. Be careful though, you can only access a terminal once before it disappears, and some are traps that may very well kill you. Now, I have finished explaining what I must. Anything else you will need to figure out on your own."

The Vestige of the Verdant Warlord then began to fade, but before it was gone, Rehni asked it one more question.

"Wait! You have still not told us who the Verdant Warlord is!"

"I see, a great deal of time must have passed in the outside world. There was a time when it was rare that even beasts like the six of you would not have at least heard of my creator. However, if you wish to know more, go and search for the answers yourselves. All I will tell you is that the Verdant Warlord was an expert of the highest caliber that reached the pinnacle of this world and left this domain before heading to whatever lies beyond." The Vestige said right before his from completely disappeared.

Looking up at the now empty spot in a daze, Evelyn wanted to yell at the vestige to come back and explain things to her. While the rest of her companions were getting information on this place, she had been questioned and only got the last bit about the rules.

Of course, she could ask anyone from her group what had been said, but then she would reveal that her conversation had been different from theirs.

\'Whatever. I at least know the basic rules and if I do anything stupid one of the others will help me out.\'

Shaking her head and pushing any lingering thoughts she had away she turned towards the others in order to begin planning their strategy.

"It seems we will have to gather at least some of these tokens in order to leave. Let us try and figure out how many we need before doing anything else." Evelyn suggested.

The six of them then searched around for a way to activate the warp pad and Aralee soon located one of the terminals that the vestige had mentioned earlier.

It was a floating, slightly glowing pyramid that was a bit larger than a human head.

When Aralee interacted with it, the pyramid displayed a number and asked for the requisite number of bronze tokens.

"So, we each need seven tokens to leave. Or three to ascend to the next level." Evelyn said, a pensive look on her face.

They had been told that they could gather these tokens by defeating creatures in the woods, but they had no idea what was out their or how many tokens that each one would drop.

There was also the fact the powers of whatever these creatures could be were a mystery. For all they knew, each one could be as strong as the wooden knights that guarded the entrance to this place or even more powerful.

"I suppose all we can do is head out and see what we can find." Evelyn said with a sigh.

From the crystal dome that they were in, none of them were able to see anything residing in the woods that were eerily still.

"Everyone, make sure to stay close and alert. We have no clue what could be out their waiting for us."

With Evelyn in the lead as normal, the six of them flew out of the crystal dome and into the dense woods all around them.

To start they tried to fly above the tree line to get a better vantage point, but Evelyn hit an invisible ceiling right at the canopy and was knocked back.

\'Ow!\'

The force pushing her back was a heavy impact that nearly caused her to crash into the branches below her.

"Looks like the domain ends at the top of the trees. The sky above is just an illusion." Evelyn said informing her companions of what she had painfully discovered.

It was just a moment later that their attention was diverted away from the false sky and towards the first bit of movement they had noticed since entering the forest.

Coming toward them at a quick speed was a large monster made of moss that was vaguely shaped like a human.

It was jumping through the trees like an agile monkey despite its large size that put it over five meters tall.

"Defenses up. We have no idea what this thing can do." Evelyn said, turning to face their quickly approaching foe.

When it had gotten within about thirty meters of them, the moss monster pulled back its right arm and then thrust it forward.

Like it was made of rubber the creature\' arm starched out to cover the distance between it and the six owls that were now its target.

Shocked by the speed at which the moss monster had suddenly attacked them from afar, Verrader who was its target failed to evade the attack.

Luckily, he was already on guard and had a barrier of pure magical energy deployed in front of him.

The first of the moss monster impacted against Verrader\'s barrier and splattered all around him.

It was at this moment that everyone began to panic as the fist of the moss creature wrapped around Verrader\'s barrier and pulled him towards the monster\'s main body.

Watching her brother begin dragged towards the entity that was unlike anything any of them had ever seen, Evelyn was the first to react and shot forward at full speed.

She propelled herself with her wind magic and fire magic, using both of them to launch herself like a rocket.

An instant before the creature fully reeled Verrader in, she aught up to it and unleashed a wave of her heavenly flame.

Whatever this thing was, she figured that it would be burned to a crisp.

Except, before her flames even touched its main body, the monster released the arm it had used to capture Verrader and jumped back through the trees at a blinding speed.

While it could not move as fast as Evelyn when she was going at full speed, its agility and ability to maneuver through the thick foliage surpassed her.

At the very least her swift attack had managed to free Verrader, and with a gust of wind he blew off the now dead moss that had been surrounding him.