Amy splashed the water from the reservoir on her face. She had to clean off the blood and grit from their last fight. Well, if it could even be called a fight, that is.

Until now, Amy and Lina had survived by relying on each other. Amy may have been calling the shots, but she knew just how important Lina was for the both of their survival.

“Pwah! That feels good. Hey, Lina, c’mon. you gotta clean up as well!”

Lina stopped keeping watch for a second, and went to sat on her knees by the edge of the water with her sister. She cupped the clean reservoir water in her hands and washed away the grime that’d built up on her face so far.

“See? Feels good doesn’t it?”

Lina nodded.

Amy looked across the reservoir. There was land on the other side, but the body of water looked huge from where they were sat.

“If we’re going to get to the others, then we’ll need to go that way. I can feel it, my gut’s telling me that they’re in that direction somewhere.” Amy said.

“How... how can you tell?”

Amy grinned at her sister. “I’m a genius, duh!”

She burst out laughing.

Lina rolled her eyes at her sister’s words.

“... Do... do you think they’re all okay?” Lina asked.

“Yeah, they should be. The rest of them are definitely stronger than us, so they’ll be fine as long as they’re together.”

“Hmm.”

Lina seemed to ponder.

“What’s wrong?” Amy asked.

“Well... they all have big heads right? So maybe... maybe they won’t work that well together.”

“Huh. Yeah...” Amy brushed her curls behind her ears. “They’re probably arguing about useless stuff right now, instead of searching for us.” She thought back to the pointless argument she had with Tullian recently.

*Pfft.*

“What? What’s so funny?” Amy asked.

“You are.” Lina said with a smile.

Amy didn’t get it.

Lina stretched as she stood up.

“Alright! Let’s get moving!”

Amy followed Lina’s lead and got up.

The two of them followed the edge of the water reservoir. The side that Amy had spotted was a darker forest than what they’d come across so far.

It had been about 6 hours since the ‘tournament’ began, and the twins had only come across a very specific type of biome until now. It was an area filled with mushrooms and spores of varying sizes and shapes, alongside pockets of water that was lined by algae across the waters’ surface.

Finding this water reservoir was a blessing to both Lina and Amy since they hadn’t found clean water since they got teleported here.

The mushroom forest, as they had dubbed it upon looking around for more than three seconds, was humungous. And mostly safe, apparently. The only creatures that they’d come across were ones that required very little effort to kill. But that wasn’t to say that they were harmless.

Small rabbits and birds were the only living things they’d come across in the mushroom forest.

Lina didn’t want to kill them, but they continued to attack both her and her sister, even though they couldn’t do any real damage to either of them physically.

After killing them and analysing their bodies, however, Lina discerned that there was a type of toxin lining the little creatures’ teeth. Had those teeth burrowed their way into either Lina’s or Amy’s bodies, then the two of them would’ve been in real danger. Neither of them had any way to combat poisons or toxins.

Lina figured that after living among mushrooms, spores, and algae for so long, those critters must’ve gotten accustomed to it over time. Their bodies must’ve evolved to be just as toxic, as part of the entire ecosystem.

It was fortunate that they’d eliminated the little buggers.

After walking through the mushroom forest for a long while, Lina and Amy finally came to a clearing that seemed to split the biomes. It was there that they’d found the exit out of their mushroom forest to the water reservoir.

They’d stopped and rested for about 20 minutes, then continued.

Lina looked back on the events that had taken place so far and tried to make sense of them.

This isn’t a conventional tournament. They’re definitely testing us and our abilities, but it feels like there’s no real goal here! Just what exactly do they want us to do? I know that they mentioned leadership qualities and duels, but it feels like those two things don’t really work together.

Amy stopped.

Lina bumped into her.

“Oof. Why’d you stop?”

“L-... Look.”

They’d arrived at the dark forest.

Amy pointed at the ground.

Blood splats.

Lina almost panicked, but her nature as an alchemist kicked in just in time. She crouched and began to analyse the blood.

She dabbed her finger onto the blood splat and checked her finger afterwards. There was no blood on it.

“Not wet... so it’s a little old at least.”

“Does that mean that the others got hurt here?”

“We don’t even know if they’re together yet, so we can’t assume.”

“Okay okay. But, the blood splats lead into the forest, see?”

“Which means... someone tried to escape, but was pulled back in!”

Amy gasped. “That’s horrible!”

“Yeah... come on.”

Lina pulled Amy by her hand and started to go into the forest.

“Wh... Wait a minute! What if it’s dangerous!?”

“Amy... we have to make sure they’re okay. This is our first clue about where they could all be, so we have to do this!” Lina spoke with conviction.

“Argh! Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn us.”

Amy and Lina carefully tread into the forest together.

The trees were not only gloomy, but it seemed like the wood on their bark was rotting. Many of the tree roots were in poor shape, to the point that it was almost impressive that the forest was even still standing. On top of that, the creepiness of each tree was way more pronounced given the silence.

The whole place was harrowing.

Lina only noticed after they’d walked for a while... there wasn’t a single sound coming from an insect. One would think that when walking through a forest, they would hear at least some sounds from an insect or two. But the only sounds that they could hear came from the creaking of some of the trees, and the wind blowing against the large leaves scattered across the ground.

The twins slowly edged forward into the forest, following the trail of blood splats over the next half an hour.

The silence broke.

*Groan*

“You hear that? It sounded like an echo coming from ahead!” Amy whispered.

Lina nodded.

The twins came upon an open clearing as they made their way towards the origin of the echo.

It looked like some weird orange sap had merged with the blood on the ground.

Amy almost puked on the spot, but she managed to hold it back.

A scream came from nearby, followed by a gargling sound.

Lina could hear where it was from.

Amy could too.

They both ran towards the noise.

“H-... holy...”

Both of their hearts sank.

Lina was in shock. She couldn’t move.

Maya was being held up by the neck by some kind of tree roots. She had three holes in her side, and cuts all over her body. The roots that had stabbed through the holes in her retracted, causing a disgusting squelching sound and blood to spray from the holes it left behind.

Maya went limp.

Her limp body was tossed along the ground, where she slid towards the twins.

A trail of blood followed her body’s path on the floor.

Amy snapped out of it. She acted quickly by dashing to Maya’s side on the ground.

“LINA! MAKE A BARRIER!”

Lina pulled herself together.

Instantly, she entered her Siren form and called forth a massive barrier between them and the rest of the trees. Sounds of lashes and strikes came from the outside of Lina’s ice barrier. She’d made it translucent enough to be able to make out what was going on outside.

Amy began whispering an incantation under her breath. She’d also entered her Siren form by now.

A warm bubble of water with soft golden rays and runes formed over Maya’s body.

Her wounds were slowly mending themselves under Amy’s healing powers but... since Amy acted to heal Maya before anything else, she couldn’t tell if Maya was still breathing or not.

Lina didn’t want to think of the possibility. She refused.

Maya will be fine. I need to protect them while she heals! Then... then we’ll go on our date!

She maintained the ice barrier against the treants’ assault.

Multiple lashes and strikes came from the nearby roots, but there seemingly wasn’t a single large monster in sight.

It was almost as if the forest itself was rejecting them.

“JUST DIE YOU STUPID TREE FUCKER!” A voice yelled in the distance.

Lina could tell that it was Feris’s voice. So... if Feris is still standing, then the others must be fine as well!

*Thud!*

“SHIT!” Sin yelled.

She’d fallen just beside Lina, outside of her barrier.

“SINDYL! GET IN!” Lina screamed at her.

Sin turned to look at Lina, who’d just opened her barrier to let her in.

She dashed inside the barrier, narrowly avoiding a tree root that was close to piercing her.

“CLOSE IT!”

Lina closed the barrier quickly.

Sin took a moment to breathe.

Lina started to heal some of Sin’s cuts while maintaining her barrier.

“What happened?!” She asked.

Sin took a deep breath.

“We got ambushed! At first, none of us thought anything of this place. We thought it was just a forest that we could rest in after escaping those fucking saxumites. But... none of us realised...” Her voice trembled, “This place is home to fucking treants!”

The gravity of the situation was just hitting Lina now.

Treants... they’re creatures that are difficult for experienced adventurers to deal with... so... how...

Sin looked around to re-gauge her surroundings.

That’s when she saw it.

Maya.

The air shifted around her.

“... Hey. What... what’s that...”

Amy turned to look at Sin. Sin’s eyes were wide open. Far wider than what was supposed to be natural.

“Sindyl! Wait please! I need to heal her. She had holes in her side and a bunch of cuts, and she’s definitely lost a lot of blood so please!”

Sin took a step towards them.

“No... that’s not it...”

Another step.

“Why’s she... on the floor?”

Another step.

“That’s...”

She stopped.

“Not right.”

Amy stared wide-eyed at Sin.

“Your... your face... again... those runes! LINA!!”

The barrier shattered.

Amy and Lina felt an insane pressure on their shoulders, pushing them down into the ground. Strands of bark ripped off nearby trees and stabbed into the ground. The roots that were once aiming for Sin and the barrier were now trapped on the floor. They were ripping apart at the seams.

The ground itself began tremoring. It cracked underneath the pressure.

“Oi. Get up Maya.”

“SINDYL SHE CAN’T! LET ME HEAL HER!”

“What was that? No, she has to get up.”

“She’s... not listening...” Amy shuddered. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. “LINA, POUR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE INTO A BARRIER!” Amy did the same. Everything except what was needed for the healing spell, she put into the strongest barrier that she could muster.

Lina let loose. She poured her absolute everything into a barrier that layered with Amy’s.

Even while forced onto the ground, the two of them maintained their spells through the sheer force of their combined will.

“Maya. Stand up. We’ve gotta move.”

Sin took another step towards Maya. The pressure on the twins increased. They were being crushed by an invisible force.

“C’mon. Let’s go.”

Sin reached down towards Maya on the floor.

Then she stopped.

Sin’s hand twitched.

*Thud*

The pressure on the twins stopped. Sin fell to the floor beside Maya, unconscious.

Their barriers had numerous cracks and shattered parts along their surfaces, but they’d held on strong enough to keep everyone safe.

Amy’s body screamed out in pain from the sheer pressure that pushed her into the ground.

Lina was mostly fine, except for the soreness against her muscles from being pushed down by such a strong force. She’d gotten up and quickly gone to check on Amy, who was still laying on the ground.

Lina used mana to scan her torso.

“You’ve got a cracked rib. I’ll heal it.”

Amy nodded softly. Tears forced their way out of her eyes. Still, through it all, she’d maintained the healing spell on Maya.

A cough came from Amy’s patient.

Maya spat out blood.

“Stay there!” Lina shouted at her. “Let Amy heal you!”

As much as Lina was barking orders and trying to help Maya, the only thing she could feel right now was relief. She was wholly relieved that Maya was alive.

In her stupor, however, Lina had released her concentration on the ice barrier that she’d conjured, which dissipated into thin mana.

The view that met the twins’ eyes when they looked beyond the broken barrier was... absurd.

The entire forest of treants...

It was gone.