They flew over the great root, allowing Evelyn to take a bird's view of its true extension as the research lab was getting closer. The root crossed the entire cavern, from one point to the other, twisting and stretching until it went deeper into the ground. In the direction they were going, which would correspond to where the central abyss at the center of Zero Point would be, the root grew progressively thicker until it came to a reinforced metal wall as tall as the tallest buildings there once were just outside on the surface.

There, just where the root would have probably met the base of the colossal tree it once belonged to, stood the main research laboratory of Overbloom. Crowley's lair, where he and his cronies had experimented on her, other children, and who knows how many people before and after.

What happened after Mama Anima had freed her would have wiped out most of the investigators who participated in the whole affair. Monsters had taken over the place and started to slaughter and wildly mutate them. That's what she remembered, at least.

It was hard to trust blindly in her memories anymore after the revelation about one of her mother's powers. Had Eva used it on her on any other occasions besides her final day alive? Why would she have wanted Evelyn to forget about Doctor Crowley? Maybe so she wouldn't obsess over revenge? But if he was looking for Evelyn still, wouldn't it make more sense to let her be aware of his existence so she could prepare, or at least hide until she was strong enough to defend herself?

Evelyn could not understand what Eva Anima might have been thinking before she died, or in the years before that. Was she really the woman that she remembered? Or had she idealized her so much that, mental manipulation Skill or not, her child-like mind had excused everything that was off about her?

She squeezed the sleeve of her leather jacket, trying to find comfort in the familiar material like many other previous times, but now it only brought doubts and anxiety. At that moment, she decided to put the jacket into her Inventory but stopped herself at the last second. She had just promised not to run away again. The past was painful, but refusing to acknowledge her increasingly confusing and contradictory feelings about her adoptive mother wouldn't serve any other purpose but to allow Evelyn to escape what felt bad, like a child.

The leather jacket stays. I won't give up on the memories attached to it just yet.

They arrived at a platform built over the root, in front of the research lab facility, connected to it by a bridge made out of transparent plastik. A single man awaited there, standing with arms crossed behind his back and a satisfied face. In fact, he looked like he had seen the face of god with how at peace he seemed.

Like nothing could disturb him anymore.

He had a long face made more apparent by his small nose and beady little eyes. His thin lips, over a prominent chin, made his mouth barely a line, adding to the effect of a non-descript individual. Otherwise, the only characteristics of note were a healthy bronze tan on his skin and a thick tuft of dark green hair at the top of his head, giving his head the appearance of a vegetable that could be found in Kornos' garden.

He was wearing a white lab coat with sandals, a shirt stamped with gaudy tropical flowers, and a pair of short trousers that left his legs and feet out in the open.

Besides his weird sense of aesthetics, if it weren't for the very clear runitronic circuit lines across his visible synthetic skin and the bright blue light in his unnatural eyes, he could have passed for a perfectly normal human.

He had no visible weapons, no assistants or bodyguards. And no trace of any scarflock, but they could be hidden somewhere, waiting for them to arrive.

With a heavy thud, Kornos landed on the platform, dropping Evelyn from his arms as they both locked in on their target. Evelyn pulled her metalwood staff from her Inventory as soon as her feet touched the metal ground, ready to go into attack mode, but a big hand stopped her gently.

Surprised, Evelyn looked up at Kornos to a face barely containing a primal rage such that beasts in a jungle would run in fear of his presence. He growled, teeth bare and clenched, dragon eyes focused on the runicron ahead of them, waiting just at the other side of the bridge. Lights installed on the bridge illuminated them while stretching the shadow of the man enough to menacingly cover almost the entire front of the research lab.

His attitude irked her; there was a certain smugness to it, but also a sort of... resignation. It was like Doctor Crowley was satisfied with whatever could happen. Or perhaps he was so sure about the result of his plans that he couldn't be bothered to be careful anymore.

For that reason, he didn't even move as Kornos went to all fours with a roar and rushed him. Powerful claws grabbed the runicron sage by the neck and snapped it like a twig.

His metal body hung limp in Kornos' grasp, a doll with cut strings.

Evelyn attempted to go, but again, Kornos put his hand open in her direction, prompting her to stop before she crossed the bridge.

From the research lab main door, another identical Doctor Crowley came out. He rested his weight on the door, arms and legs crossed in a nonchalant posture as he looked at his would-be murderer with contempt.

"Did you get that out of your system? Was it enjoyable, breaking my neck? Feeling for a moment that you had won against the bad guy and all would be okay in the end? I know you are not stupid enough to believe that. Which is why you don't let her come closer."

Evelyn's fist closed tight in frustration. Of course, it wasn't his real body, the one that would hold his Core. A runicron of his level of power would have no problem controlling additional bodies; he had already proven to be more than at ease doing it with living ones that had other people in them. As a Tier 5, his dominion was the highest a runicron had ever achieved, according to what she knew of the Three Metal Sages, the leaders and representatives of all runicrons in Neo Vorath.

"Not even close," growled Kornos, throwing the inanimate puppet body towards the one that just came out of the building with such force that he broke both bodies against each other in a rain of body parts.

He waited a second before giving Evelyn the ok to come closer.

"We need to find his main body. If we can get his Core, he's done. Then we can kill him for good." She said vengeful.

Kornos shook his head and relaxed his posture, although not completely. He was still very much on alert about his surroundings, expecting any possible attack.

"Destroying his Core will get us nowhere." He pointed with his chin towards the broken remains of the Crowleys. "That was just for personal satisfaction. Let's go."

They entered the building, ready for an ambush or a trap of some sort. Instead, they were received by a more terrible sight.

Standing in the entrance of the lab, surrounded by dozens of skeletal remains, stood a woman.

Blonde, fair skin, long legs, and curves that could take the breath away or give it back at her leisure. She was wearing a bloodstained lab coat and clothes underneath it that, by the mismatched look of them, were probably taken from some of the bodies that plagued the site.

What made them both stare in disbelief, then horror, and finally unbridled anger was the face of the woman.

It was Alice. An adult, full runicron, human-looking Alice.

"Maybe you will consider a conversation if you actually care about the face of the conversator? Hmm?" Asked the fake Alice mockingly, with an eerily similar voice to their friend, just a little lower and matured by age, which, by the looks of it, put her in her late twenties to early thirties.

"How dare you?" Accused Kornos, brimming with anger.

"Well, at least we got to the level of exchanging words! How civilized of you to attempt basic means of communication before jumping to murder." Her words were playful, but her blue eyes were locked on Evelyn, piercing her like daggers to the heart.

"Have you no shame at all?" Evelyn asked against the pressure of those piercing blue eyes. "You would receive us with the face of a loved one, thinking we won't strike you down? You are done, Crowley."

"Why would I be ashamed?" The runicron asked, looking at them in apparent confusion before giving them a cruel smile. "Oh, I see. You haven't realized it yet. I thought with the other gone... Well, that's both sad and hilarious. Which I guess summarizes our entire relationship, hmmm?"

"Enough games, Crowley." Demanded Kornos as he walked forward. "If you think I won't destroy this body, you are sorely mistaken. We will find every single one of you and break them all, until we find your Core. Then you will talk to us, whether you like it or not."

Crowley's demeanor stayed calm, unperturbed by the incoming threat of the powerful chimera.

"You take my Core. You get your answers. Victory for the good guys! Hooray! And then what?" Asked the runicron sarcastically just as Kornos stopped put his claw around the delicate neck of the body before him.

"Then we will have our happy ending." He answered as she raised the woman in the air.

Evelyn had expected many things, but not what happened. Crowley just started to laugh.

"And I always took your animal instincts in such high regard! To think that I could ever consider that you were worthy of being my companion! What a shame!"

Something was terribly wrong here.

"Companion? What are you talking about?" Evelyn asked, a strange cold feeling in her Core. Like the coldness of steel.

The blue-eyed runicron gave them a cruel smile and shrugged.

"You ever wondered why the scarflock never attacked Menagerie? Why did they never attack you? Or why are they not even here attacking you right now?"

"You had Kornos marked, you could connect to him, like with the other people you have enslaved," Evelyn said, a knot in her stomach, knowing there was something she was missing. A sinking feeling in her guts told her her answer was wrong.

"Incorrect!" The runicron crossed both arms dramatically. "While it would have been nice to get a hold of this hunk of a man as a hostage to ensure this entire thing went smoothly, I wasn't really planning on staying there for long. Not with the manastorm gone and the NVLine fully restored. I can reform my Core back on District Prime with ease. The tattoo was a nice touch, you have to admit it. Shame you didn't see it coming, you big doofus."

Kornos froze. Evelyn gasped in horror.

"What... what did you just call me?" He asked, his mouth suddenly dry.

"Eva was always so careful. Her powers allowed her a level of foresight like no other Classer in history before and probably after. The greatest Awareness specialist of all time. One of the few to ever reach the mythical Tier 6. And yet, she didn't see me coming. How could she? It took decades of patient planning and waiting for just the right moments, the right fateful meetings with just the right people. Hiding in the last place she would ever consider. In plain sight."

Kornos let her go and backed away, first one step, then another, from the blonde runicron with bright blue eyes.

"I had so much time to think, how can I get us to work together again without her knowing? She was so stubborn that dusting Eva. So obsessed with old grudges, unwilling to let go of the past. And so it came to me. She always tended to take in strays. So motherly that Eva. So kind." She mouthed the word with disgust, like a rancid candy that had lost its flavor long ago.

"And so, I would craft one for her to get into her inner circle. One who casually wore a face so similar to an old friend of hers. I made the most irresistible trap for someone like her, if I say so myself!"

Evelyn felt a terrible cold inside her. Fear, confusion, and denial danced in chaos around the most terrible feeling of all.

Betrayal.

"I chose a young scion of a minor noble house, one that didn't have much of a role herself, so nothing important would get out of place without other families taking her place, but not too small that she wouldn't have any value for me. Her family had been tasked with legacy classes that hold duty over the sewage and sanitation of Neo Vorath. They were pretty much glorified janitors, so it would be the ideal family to find a discontent spirit filled with generational resentment against the rest of the nobility. I presented the perfect little story to her. A good friend of a similar age that would play with her, an only child with an upbringing that made her vulnerable, lonely, and lacking in companionship. I saw her grow, pushing her to become distant from the ideas of noble society. My perfect little rebel. Then she sold everything she had inherited to "save" her friend from dying as young runicron candidates so often do. To get her a body that would keep her at her side. Forever."

The smell of old death from the dozen of bodies filled Evelyn's nostrils as she uselessly attempted to breathe herself calm. The runicron chuckled seeing her altered state.

"Careful there, Lyn. You may get sick breathing this air. Yet again, there's not much that can make you sick anymore, is there? Do you even remember the last time you felt hungry? That's the runicron in you. Well, in more ways than one, right?"

"You are not Crowley. Who are you?!" Evelyn demanded to know as she saw Kornos fall to his knees, utter despair on his face.

"Come on, I know you are not that dense. Why the long faces? Isn't this what you wanted? We are all truly reunited once more!" She stretched her arms, then ruffled her hair a bit, removing a diadem from her head.

A pair of fuzzy bunny ears, their fur blonde like the rest of her hair, rose from her skull, twitching as she adjusted them.

"The good Doctor Crowley and I didn't see eye to eye about this plan, so I had to punish him severely to remind him of his place. Taking his identity in the meantime as the benefactor of Overbloom was easy, but I guess presentations are in order. My real name is Jaqueline Dupont. I'm one of the so-called Returned Four. But you know me better as Alice."

"YOU LIE!" Roared Kornos, still on his knees.

Evelyn stared at the runicron that claimed to be Alice and knew it to be a lie. Alice was inside her; she could feel her presence right now. And yet, the mannerisms, the nicknames, and that terrible feeling of... connection.

A part of her believed what she was hearing, even if Evelyn wanted to deny it with every fiber of her being.

"It's the truth, Kornos. I'm Alice. Just not your Alice. I know everything she knew. You can thank the reinstated NVLine for that. Thanks for fixing the wraith problem by the way, though I guess I also did my part with that one, didn't I? I'm still aligning to the new set of data; it may take a while. Good thing I could at least download an automated copy of Alice's memories just before you ate her anima, hmmm? Good thing hers were always transmitted directly to me and not to the Chrompendium!"

"How is this possible? I know Alice is inside me! I can feel her right now, horrified about what you are saying!"

"Is that right? Fascinating. Her sense of self has managed to survive enough to avoid total assimilation. Though I guess your Tier is still too low. Oh, and the how is quite simple, actually. I needed a soul pure enough, good enough to fool even the Tier 6 Awareness of the great Eva Anima. So I made one with a piece of myself. I took all of my most useless emotions and put them all in a nice, meaty-looking packet, all child-shaped with innocent eyes and rosy cheeks for her to meet the young Lady Lucretia Eredigna. Alice had no idea she was me, of course. It would have defeated the purpose."

"You say you are one of them? One of the tyrants?" Evelyn spewed the word with all the venom she could muster. "You own Neo Vorath! What was the point of doing all of this? Funding Overbloom, deceiving everyone, hurting so many innocent people...? What did we all lose so much for?"

"Tyrant. That's rich." She remarked bitterly. "No, Lyn. I'm no tyrant. And I don't own Neo Vorath. Nobody really does, and that's just part of the problem. There's a lot I would like to tell you, but the truth of the matter comes down to this: I'm a slave."

Evelyn glanced at Kornos, who had fallen into a catatonic state, his will all but shattered as he glared into the floor.

"You? A slave? If what you are saying is true, even if I decide to believe half of what you are saying, then that would make you one of the most powerful people in the world! You are a Tier 6! Practically a demigod!"

"I'm trapped by invisible chains in rules and oaths that bind me to the will of others. I'm no more free than any other runicron. I'm just the first of them all. Their creator, so to speak. I'm not even exactly a runicron myself. I'm actually a Classer, technically. It's... complicated."

Evelyn couldn't hold it in any longer and exploded. She ran to this impostor, this liar, and punched her in her fake face with the arm that the real Alice made her.

The woman flew and fell hard on the floor, rolling several times before stopping.

"You were there! That night, floating in the sky with the other three! I asked for your help. I begged you to help my mom, but you did nothing! Did you hate her that much?"

"I hate her immensely. She betrayed me." Answered Jaqueline plainly as she stood up. Unlike with Kornos, this runicron body hadn't suffered much damage, if at all. "But I didn't want her to die, much less suffer her ultimate fate. I wanted to work with her. We did, for a time. Even after I revealed who I really was. We were friends once upon a time, when the world was a much simpler place, and I was just a traveller from another world, seeking to enjoy new experiences and adventures. How young and naive we all were, thinking we could win when the game was rigged against us from the start!"

Evelyn felt another pulse of cold inside her.

"Our Alice. You say you made her with a piece of you?"

"I did. Everything that I didn't need anymore I used as material. My weak human spirit. My heart. The things that made me too weak to do what needed to be done. I took it and shaped it, then turned it into a small Core by itself. I had never managed to do it with just a fragment and not a whole soul before. Even for someone of my Tier, it was quite a challenge. Fortunately, I'm not allowed to kill myself, so by trial and error, I managed to divide myself and create a new independent life. One that was still connected to me, so I could get what I wanted."

The Returned turned around towards a big golden door at the end of the entry hall, covered in claw marks, bloodstains, and burns.

"And I did. I got you. Our hope." She said, walking towards the door.

"Wait! I said wait!" Evelyn demanded, but Jaqueline ignored her and kept going. Kornos was still unresponsive, so she went to him first. "I know how you feel. Betrayed, scared, confused. Like your life has been a big lie. But believe me, the real Alice is inside me. That's the one that matters, not this monster that has hurt so many. We have a job to finish, and you had something to show me, remember?"

"There's no point. We can't win. She's a demigod. That's a Tier 6. For her, even I'm no more than a cat meowing at a mountain. Nothing we can do will even scratch her, if that's even her real body. Alice... Lucretia... Eva... Master Cid... Doctor Crowley... William... They are all gone. I'm all alone. This is all too much. It's too much."

She slapped him across the face with her crimson hand.

"Snap out of it, you big doofus!" Screamed Alice through Evelyn, her one blue eye bright for a moment before it dimmed again.

Kornos blinked, surprised to hear the Alice he knew. He touched his cheek and gave a half smile.

"She's still in there."

"Which means that that is not our Alice. You heard her. She is a self-lobotomized sociopathic bitch with demigod-level powers. No reason to hold ourselves back. So let's see what she wanted to achieve with all the pain she's brought us. Then we find a way to kill her for good. And we get Alice that body to boot."

"You want to kill one of the Returned and steal her body?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"I promised, didn't I?" She said, following Jaqueline into the next chamber through the now-open golden door. "I'll get your happy ending. If you can't punch her face, leave that job to me. I have no problem. What I break, Alice can fix herself later. And tint that ugly blonde in a nice blue."

They entered the chamber together as the golden door closed behind them. The center of the chamber was open to the exterior, having been built around the shape of the giant tree root. Specifically, to host one of the stone buildings that were embedded into one of the roots' knots. This was the biggest stone temple she had seen yet.

It was covered in markings and reliefs, the most defined Evelyn had seen yet, even compared to those in the Last Glade. In fact, this temple felt much like a piece of home in a twisted way.

Evelyn couldn't avoid finding it ironic that both halves of Alice had made their workshop in parts of what was essentially the same place. Or maybe it wasn't a coincidence at all.

There were thick cables everywhere, all connected to a particular object held aloft in an altar-like structure at the top of the temple.

A spear. The one in the photo. It had been restored and hooked up to several runitronic machines at the base of the temple. There were several industrial-level mana batteries the size of trucks filling every possible space left in the chamber.

"What is all this?" Asked Evelyn, answered immediately by Kornos.

"This is the temple where I learned about her. The Goddess."

"That's right!" Said the Returned. "Oh, how many weeks we spent here together, deciphering old murals and a lost, forgotten set of rites. I had to pretend to be Crowley the whole time. Can you imagine how frustrating it was? We could have been letting our base instincts take us to more fun activities all over these stones..."

"You are not Alice. I don't care if you remember what she does. You don't feel like her. You don't think like her. Her heart is what makes her human. If you don't have that, you are nothing but a pale imitation wearing her face. You won't get a reaction out of me anymore." Said Kornos, adamant in his renovated will.

The woman called Jaqueline grimaced, annoyed like a kid that just lost a fun toy.

"Very well. Business first, pleasure maybe later ♡."

"What do you want from me? Why did you make me whatever I am?" Asked Evelyn, interrupting her blatant flirting. "What is so damn important that you would sacrifice so many lives? You already went on a journey, became heroes, and won against the wraith king! You got everything the world had to offer, and what it didn't, you took by force! Don't you have enough of ruling it? Haven't you ruined it enough?"

"You still don't get it. This world is not as it is because we won." The Returned activated the machine by simply snapping her fingers. "It's like it is because we lost."

As the machines came to life, energy hummed in the air as mana was sent in waves to the spear in the altar. A few golden marks, like drops of gold, shone bright in the ancient spearhead of the weapon.

"What do you mean by lost?" Asked Kornos, suddenly interested.

"We didn't win. That's the gist of it. We lost against the coming of the dark and were turned into slaves. They created a fake cult around us, paraded us like glorified mascots, but we are just trophies of war. We don't wear the Tetracrown; we are the jewels in it. Adornments for the four great families to wear with obscene pride, generation after generation. We lost and became the most powerful pets of all time, easy targets for everyone to focus their hate on for all that the Tetracrown does in our holy name. Much easier to conquer and rule the world that way, I hate to give them their laurels. That's an earthling reference, Kornos darling, don't mind me. Oh my, you are so hot when you look confused like that ♡."

"Ehem." Coughed Evelyn, interrupting her renewed attempts at shameless flirting. This woman was messed up in the head in more ways than one. Alice had never been so... exuberant in her infatuation. Maybe she had also given her all of her inhibitions along with her sense of morality?

"So in summary, I want you to go back and fix it." She pointed to Evelyn as the floor shook violently. "Rot and dust, they are already here. That man is truly as big a pain in the ass as his father was. No wonder Alice couldn't stand him."

"Fix it? Fix what? Go back where?"

"In time! You are gonna go back to when we first became a group, and you are going to help us get things right. We will win, and we won't be slaves anymore. Easy."

Another shake of the facility, stronger and closer.

"We don't have much time. Go to the spear and channel your Skills on it to make the transfer. I made sure to make them the right ones, after all. The portal that appears will send you where you need to go. Or rather when." She said, walking away towards the golden door. "I will buy you time, but I'm afraid I'm not gonna be much of a match against them in this body with all my bindings still in effect." She looked at Kornos. "I could have used that one, I could still use it nooow ~~~ ♡." She said in a sing-like seductive voice.

"Forget it. I think I know who's coming, and I'm not going to help you against him." Refused Kornos, his arms crossed.

"Then this body will be destroyed. And your Alice won't get one in time before assimilation happens." At their reaction, she feigned innocence with a finger on her cheek and a cutesy pose. "Ooopsie. Did I forget to mention that? Eventually, Evelyn will completely fuse Alice to herself, erasing her and turning her into a fixed part of her own soul. Just like any chimera would with the monster cores they consume. Isn't it fascinating? Getting the trifecta of powers in a single Core was quite the ordeal, let me tell you. So many dead children until I got it just right. My true ultimate masterpiece." She said with a big smile, her hands towards Evelyn in admiration.

"Stop talking like that with that face!" Admonished Evelyn before asking. "What if I don't want to do it? I could just let whoever is coming capture you. You are a murderer. A psychopath. You destroyed all our lives. You deserve to suffer whatever happens to you."

"Because the first thing I'm gonna be ordered to do is kill everyone in District Zero. Sorry about that, I don't really like to waste good materials like that, you know? But my owners are complete puffing rootworms. Then the Tetracrown and their vassal noble houses will raze everything to the ground and fight among themselves for the Governor position. In the meantime, while they are too busy in civil war, the world will end, and everyone will die."

"What?! When?!" Both Kornos and Evelyn asked, screaming at the same time.

"Oh, I calculate that in the coming few months, six to eight, give or take. About half of Neo Vorath is already taken over, didn't Kornos tell you that already? Naughty, naughty, my hunky lion man. The monster horde has grown so strong by now, thanks to the wraiths that command it from the shadows, that it's just a matter of time before they make their move on one of the big four Districts. Once they reach District Prime and the Chromantorium, the Chrompendium and the Chromclave are taken, is all over. If those three places fall, humanity is doomed. And you are the only one who can fix it. Apparently, I, or rather your Alice, promised to someone far more powerful than me that you could do it. I was planning on sending you back anyway, but it's good that she saved you from becoming a vessel. I don't really trust what that thing would do with an avatar, and besides, I wouldn't be able to make another one like you in time before the apocalypse finishes what we failed to stop one thousand years ago. So get to it!"

And with a few hops and jumps, she left the chamber with murderous intent.

"Evelyn. What do you want to do?" Asked Kornos. "This is it, little pup. I won't judge your choice, whatever it may be. We can still just turn away and leave."

She shook her head. She knew there was no other path. If what Jacqueline had said was true, then it was up to her to do something about it. Evelyn still didn't know exactly why she was made the way she was, why things had to be this way, but she would get her answers one way or another. If she had to go into the past to change the future, the so be it.

"I'll go. And Kornos, I think you may need to help her. We do need that body more or less intact for Alice. So do try to at least recover it in one piece?" She asked, smiling at him warmly.

Kornos sighed in defeat.

"Very well. I'll go save... that thing. But only for Alice. Our Alice." He remarked.

He went to Evelyn and hugged her before kissing her on the head.

"May the Goddess protect you, wherever you may end up. You are strong, stronger than you think. Not because of special powers or a unique Core. But because you are you. And you are my kid. So I forbid you to die where I can't murder my way to your killer, is that understood? Dust in the wind, blood in the ground. I love you, Evelyn."

"Dust in the wind, blood in the ground. I love you too, Kornos."

Giving their goodbyes with bitter tears, Evelyn walked up the stairs of the temple until she was before the spear. Kornos got right in front of the golden door before he turned back to see her. Energy crackled in the air, mana so high that reality started to bend, just like in a manastorm.

Evelyn grabbed the spear and focused her power, letting the mana flow through her and into the spear as she absorbed it. She activated all her Skils, one by one, letting instinct guide her.

She felt the hand of destiny at play, perhaps even the will of this mysterious Goddess. She couldn't tell, but somehow, she knew exactly what to do.

"[Verdant Toolset]"

The spear shone as the material transmutated into metalwood, little vines and flowers with metallic tints growing from it. The cracks filled with amber pulsing with energy as circuits surged across the shaft and spearhead in geometrical patterns that carried mana efficiently. The broken spearhead itself changed into a series of closed metal petals, ending in a point like a flower bud.

"[Hylosynthesis]"

Black cable vines with amber circuits grew from the verdant spear and, commanded by a will outside of Evelyn much bigger than her own, formed an arch in the stone wall before the spear.

Everything shook again as the strongest earthquake yet opened cracks all over the stone temple.

She turned around to look at Kornos, hesitantly waiting at the golden door.

"I'll be back!!" She screamed at him just before activating the last of her Skills. "[Pulse Link]!"

Power surged, connecting with the past of the object, the industrial mana generators and batteries drained themselves dry and started smoking as they died one by one. Mana accumulated, a growing wave moments before the crash, when a familiar voice, one she hadn't heard in three years, called out to her.

"Don't do it!" Screamed a young man from the door, where he was being stopped by Kornos. He had lost his power armor, down to a damaged NVOS uniform in black, white, and blue; he had taken off those stupid diamond teeth, and his ceramic face was full of cracks, a sign of very recent battle, but it was definitely him.

Robert Kino had finally fulfilled his promise of coming back to his little sister. Just a bit too late.

"Robert!" Screamed Evelyn, or at least she tried, as no words came from her mouth. The immense power now in her rivaled anything she had felt with a broken Core before.

"Come back! Don't help her! Don't kill...!" But the rest of his warning was lost, as all sound and colors in the world were swallowed.

All that remained was the portal opening before her in the archway made by her cable vines. At the other side, she could see something she had not seen in a very long time.

The green of a forest.

Undecisive, she felt a warmth inside her Core, prompting her to make a choice as the portal wouldn't stay open for much longer, already flickering.

"Puff it."

And with that, Evelyn took the verdant spear with her, as she could not break contact or the skill would stop, and jumped into the portal.

To a world where fantasy and adventure were still a reality.

Where heroes still travelled the land to defend the innocent.

Or so did the stories tell.

But they also told her about a very special group of people.

One that only Mama Anima had known about.

A group of guardians of nature, the stewards of the world. Those who once protected the lands and life itself.

Evelyn would finally fulfill one of her oldest dreams, awakened by the stories her mother told her about them.

Evelyn Anima was going to meet druids.

 

ARC 1 - THE FALL OF DISTRICT ZERO

END