Hedon had ditched his plan to travel underground after two of his teammates nearly died from the poison of the Earth Crawler — a large poisonous worm that burrowed through the earth scavenging for dead and buried flesh to feed on. He only implemented that plan to practice using earth attribute essence in the first place. He wanted to learn how to wield another essence so he could have better protection, but he was still years away from learning how to properly wield earth essence.

As they got closer to the mountain, the dangers they faced became more severe. Attacks started coming from more powerful magical beasts. Before long, they had flown into the territory of a wyvern; a deadly relative of the dragon bloodline. Wyverns were known for their high intelligence and ability to produce sonic waves that could obliterate sacred artists at the Core Formation Realm – Sprouts.

Reptiles were very sensitive to their environment; their senses far surpassing that of a wolf. The wyvern raised its head inside its dwelling. It quickly flew out of its cave and circled the intruders as they flew by, ignorant of their situation.

“Do you hear something?” Hedon used his communications artifact to ask his teammates.

They were flying really fast, so the wind was in their eyes and ears. No one should have been able to hear anything but the strong wind blowing past them. But Hedon wasn’t the son of their Patriarch for nothing. He was a lot stronger than many elites in his clan, and his senses were far sharper than theirs.

“I don’t hear anything,” many of his teammates reported back.

“I do,” both Murray and Arkesha said at the same time. 

The moment they spoke, everyone stopped. Since the most powerful Sprouts among them heard something, there really might be danger. Everyone took position. A moment later, a huge shadow covered part of the sky moving in the opposite direction. The group stopped to look up but what they saw made them freeze in place.

A gigantic black reptilian creature with wings that literally covered the sky, flew slowly past them while eyeing them with one of its black-slitted eyes.

“Dragon,” someone whispered. She was one of the four female sacred artists present in the group.

“That’s not a dragon, that’s a wyvern!” Arkesha, who was close to her, shouted.

“Run!” Murray commanded and they all scattered in different directions, with Murray and Arkesha flying alongside Hedon to protect him.

The team of sixteen Sprouts split up and flew in different directions but the wyvern just landed on a small mountain, its wings still slowly beating. The creature was over two hundred feet long, with a wing span of six hundred feet! The wyvern let out a high-pitched screech from its throat, causing an area of half a mile around it to vibrate fiercely. Every one of the Alvrics fell from the sky with blood coming out of their orifices.

The Wyvern was extremely brutal. It chose its first prey and immediately went in for the kill. It raised its wings preparing to fly off the boulder. With a loud sonic boom, like the clap of thunder, it spat compressed air at one of the falling Alvrics. The Sprout instantly exploded midair and the Wyvern was there a split second later to gulp down its meal whole.

Team Alvric stood shocked midair, wondering how they just lost a teammate in less than a few breaths.

“Form up!” Hedon screamed into his communication artifact bringing them all out of their shock. They quickly regained themselves and shook off the pain of losing another teammate bringing them back to the reality of their situation.

The team gathered together and started cycling to execute a secret formation technique of their own. Flapping its wings to stay afloat, the Wyvern saw this and spat another bout of air at them to disrupt whatever they were doing.

But the Alvric Clan was not anything if not a Great clan of elites. Before the speeding compressed air reached them, a shield of air manifested in front of them. The compressed air collided with the air shield and pushed them downwards a few feet, causing them to let out loud grunts and almost disorganized their formation. The compressed air dissipated thereafter, as did the shield.

The wyvern looked down at them, puzzled. The next moment though, it unleashed the aura of its presence upon the surroundings, suppressing the Sprouts and disorganizing their formation.

Murray rushed forward to take charge of the formation. Hedon was too young and weak to face something like this. He willed himself toward Hedon’s position and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll take over,” Murray said, through gritted teeth. The pressure from the wyvern was affecting him too but he could handle it better than Hedon.

“I can do it. Go back,” Hedon insisted.

“All our lives are on the line, Hedon. Let him,” Arkesha said. She didn’t want an argument to break out. It’ll only bring disunity and they’ll become easy pickings for the predator. 

Murray didn’t wait for Hedon to decide though. A small cyclone spread outwards from Hedon’s feet and rose up to his waist level. Before he knew what was going on, he was transported to Murray’s previous position in the formation. Hedon cursed him out loud at that.

Murray activated the formation by triggering the script on his armor and wind essence poured in from the world. The other Alvrics followed suit. It was a good thing they didn’t need all twenty members of their team to activate the formation. The wyvern saw that its aura wasn’t doing enough of what it expected and dove down from above.

A two hundred feet tall ethereal armor-wearing knight immediately appeared around the Sprouts shielding them like living armor and wielding a longsword made of wind. Argonaut, the wind Spirit!

This wasn’t exactly the wind spirit; it was just a replica. But it was enough to protect the Sprouts anytime they ran into danger. The Argonaut, whose legs touched the ground from the sky, spread its legs apart and bent its knees. The ground shook as the Argonaut spread its legs apart, uprooting trees in the process. The fifteen remaining Alvrics who were powering the Argonaut from specific locations inside it grunted as the formation drew power from them.

The web of runes on its body glowed slightly and it shot upward like a blur.

The wyvern didn’t have the chance to stop midair and put enough distance between them before the mighty sword made of wind sliced through its huge neck like butter. It was still flapping its wings widely, trying to move out of the way of the wind spirit before falling out of the sky and crashing into the forest, spilling blood and gore everywhere.

“What the fuck?!” someone said a moment later startling everyone, “The mountain…it’s gone.”

 

~~~

 

Jerome woke up feeling refreshed and clean. He felt light, like he’d been weighed down for so long and had just gotten rid of the extra weight on him. He always knew impurities were a nuisance, but was confident his body was as free from impurities as a newborn. He sat up straight and the first thing he noticed were his legs. They were bigger — from his thighs to his ankle, making his feet look small. He looked himself over and noticed the same muscular improvements to his upper body. Then he noticed his penis.

“Damn, Achilles. You circumcised me.”

“Standard tradition for the Fae, Xerae.”

I’m not Fae.

Achilles gave him the mental equivalent of a shrug.

Jerome didn’t mind too much, though. He even saw that his manhood was bigger. And he knew he was big down there; even Csala acknowledged it.

He looked around the chamber where he had gone to rest. The chamber was filled with dream aura, which he could sense quite adeptly now.

“How are you feeling, Xerae?”

With a chuckle, he stood up from the pod-like construct he had slept in. His body was coated with a pink gooey substance like amniotic fluid that had a slightly sweet taste. He noticed that the gravity — which he had gotten used to — was lighter; like he was back on his own world. He hadn’t even thought about the stronger gravity since he arrived in Terra Praeta.

“Really good,” he said, cycling essence from his core into his body and jumping on the balls of his feet to get his blood flowing. “Amazing, really.”

The essence moved fluidly through his channels and Jerome could tell that his body had gone through enormous changes. He made sure to transmit essence into every nook and cranny, reaching places where he never thought his channels extended to, or perhaps he never had channels before.

“What exactly did you do to me?” He asked. “My channels are wider…smoother…stronger, and my bones and muscles feel tougher…my skin too. I also feel taller.” And his body was already very tough before now. 

“I injected your bones with essence and nutrients; quickened it to grow a few more inches. I also injected your core with more essence. All this has made you more resilient, Xerae. Your body is now highly resistant to poisons and your skin…well, your body is now as tough as armor. You should be able to use the pod of Hezvar I gifted you for much longer now.”

“Hmmm,” Jerome dragged out the ‘hmm’ with a smile on his face. He did feel full — nearly to bursting, even. “Anything, in particular, you want me to see?” He flushed as he realized Csala was probably still in the mountain. She wouldn’t dare go out. But Achilles might misunderstand him thinking that he was a weirdo and a creep, trying to peep in on an ignorant succubus.

“You should extend your senses outside,” Achilles said. “You’ll sense the other pods. So try to connect with one of them.”

Jerome closed his eyes and stretched his senses. It went beyond the mountain in a second as his perception stretched to its limit. Sensing points of similar energy in the atmosphere, he reached out to one of them. The action was effortless. He connected to another pod and his perception expanded again. He could sense them more clearly now. They were like nodes, bridging together all the different sections they survey to form one big map of the whole Terra Praeta.

He could only get a vague picture of the map, however. He couldn’t connect to all the pods, only a few in his vicinity. Though, he could sense a giant spot on the West of the map in his head — the night of Terra Praeta, they called it, the lands ruled by the Mother and guarded by her Children.

“Who is the Mother?” Jerome asked.

“She once was a concubine to Illyrah’s foe. When Tholor died, his children whom he took to war against Illyrah died too. His many wives and concubines committed suicide to escape the fate that awaited them. Except one.

“Dashani. She touched upon the precepts of abominable power: power that granted death as new life.”

“Interesting,” Jerome said. 

“And so, the Mother was born. The power twisted her mind though…made her a lot more than a creep trying to peep in on an ignorant succubus.”

“Fuck you, Achilles!” Jerome blurted out, his face red with embarrassment and anger. 

Achilles chuckled. “I didn’t think it. You did, Xerae,” he said, his voice dripping with mockery.

“It’s a good thing said succubus isn’t here right now,” Jerome pinched the bridge of his nose. “Someday, Achilles. I’ll find your source and pull your plug.”

“You can try, Xerae. You can try,” came the AI’s response. “You missed out on the Alvrics battling a wyvern. But no issue there, you can always see it on your own time. The Royals are close by, though. Would you like to watch the show?”

“Oh, yeah. But I should probably get dressed first,” Jerome said as he dried his body with a pulse of essence.

 

~~~

 

Approximately fifty thousand miles east of the battle with the wyvern. Team Vorthe was facing a nest of fire dragons. They fared far better than Team Alvric on their way to the mountain. One could say they were far more experienced in this regard and had far better resources.

Gleaming red scales reflected the light of the sun as the dragons beat their wings to stay afloat in the air. They were enormous with three sets of limbs each. Reaching up to 300 feet from head to tail-tip, their wingspan reaching several hundred feet.

There were three dragons, each exuding pressure as powerful as a Spirit Realm expert. Forester split his team of fifty into three. Surrounded by three enormous fire dragons, the members of team Vorthe were calm and got into formation. They were all covered from head to boot with the Vorthe family’s signature golden aura glowing around their bodies.

Even the dragons felt hesitant to attack; not for fear of the Sprouts in front of them, but for fear of the golden aura they were exuding. Jerome watched as the dragons intelligently chose to hesitate, he too had noticed that this golden aura was not the same as when he fought with Idrienne or Forester.

“This must be the work of the Sovereign,” Jerome said as he watched the fight that was about to happen. “Now I know how they were able to pass the Children’s blockade without any resistance.” 

He hovered midair in an ethereal state watching the faceoff from a vantage point — or at least that was his perception of himself in their midst. It didn’t take long for him to find Layla in the midst of the Royals. She was also covered from head to boots with the Sovereign’s aura.

As if by agreement, all three dragons attacked without warning. The golden glow intensified around the Sprouts as they shot forward wielding their swords with dexterity. Elaine and Elena, the white-blonde-haired twins fought side by side, they rushed toward the dragon facing them and slashed out a dozen times in a single breath while dodging the dragon’s fiery breath.

Jerome whistled to express his admiration. That required as much skill as it did speed. A normal Sprout would have taken at least a few hits. The Sovereign’s aura will protect them, but their execution wouldn’t be as perfect as the twins’. With assistance from others in their group, they took down the dragon in merely a dozen breaths without killing it. 

“Magical beasts can’t wield any other element besides what they are born with," Achilles said. "It’s in the root of their bloodline — but humans can choose whatever elements they want to comprehend. This makes your kind progress faster. But magical beasts make up for this by being far more resilient than humans and breeding faster, making them a nuisance when their population rises and they threaten human cities.”

The last of the dragons to be attacked saw this and wanted to flee. Without flapping its wings, it pushed off the air with its hind feet and shot forward with a booming sound, covering three miles in one thrust. Rings of cloud were left in its wake as it broke the sound barrier.

“What the…!” Jerome couldn’t help but exclaim. “I thought that was a fire dragon!”

“Dragons, on the other hand,” Achilles continued, “could learn to wield any element available. Though the element they were born with cannot be changed, like humans, they can comprehend other elements to increase the weapons in their arsenal.”

“How the hell is that possible?!” Jerome was flummoxed.

“Older dragons can do much more,” Achilles continued. “You can liken them to the Fae — far more intelligent than normal magical beasts. Especially when compared to their Mystic cousins; the dragonkin. They’ve got a language of their own — spells too — and can perform feats just as powerful as the Fae.”

Jerome’s head reeled from all the information as he watched the battle below him. He’d seen Mystic creatures in the memory stones he’d viewed; the mystic foxes and mystic wolves. They were like Shifters from his world; part magic beast and part sapient beings like humans and Fae. The difference is that they are an evolved race, born as they are; descendants of magical beasts.

If a magical beast reaches the Sage Realm on its own, it could evolve to speak. If it reaches the Saint Realm, its body could take on the form of a human. But the Mystic Creatures were different; they have human form from birth.

“Terra Praeta is an evolved world, Xerae, causing the creatures that live therein to evolve. Your world doesn’t have the same capacity. That’s why mystic creatures are nonexistent there.”

Jerome nodded, focusing on the battle before him. Forester looked coldly at the fleeing dragon flying away at high speed. He raised his sword, pointing it skywards, and its blade glowed with a golden light. A pulse of energy far greater than anything a Sprout should be capable of commanding, shot out of the sword’s tip into the sky, blasting air and pressure in all directions.

The sky darkened and all color was drained from the world — as if the sword had devoured it all. The dragon, miles away sensed that something wasn’t right, it spun itself around, belly to the sky, to look back only to see a gigantic golden hand reach out for it from the sky. With that hand bearing down on it, the fire dragon was paralyzed from the pressure it exuded. The next moment the hand grabbed the dragon and imploded.

“Remind me to steer clear of the Royals when I head North with Csala,” Jerome said, a little shaken.

“Wise choice, Xerae. A wise man knows his limits and works around them.”

Jerome scoffed at that. He had found power and access to practical knowledge, but it seems the world just got a kick out of making him the weaker guy. Every time. It pissed him off to no end.

The sky brightened up again and color returned to the world. But the dragon had disappeared from Terra Praeta. The last dragon had also been taken down at this point. Two of the sub-leaders of the three sub-teams pointed their swords at the remaining two dragons and just as with Forester, the world dimmed as if the color was drained from it again. Strong pulses of energy shot out of the tips of their swords covering the air dragons in golden light. The next moment the light disappeared along with the dragons.

“Where is the mountain?” someone asked.

“What?” Forester exclaimed and looked in the supposed direction of the colossal mountain that should be right ahead of them.

There was only sky.

“This cannot be happening. After all that effort?!” Forester said in anger.

The world had reshuffled them again!

Elaine and Elena looked at each other in shock as they knew they had both made a discovery. Although they had been reshuffled, their team was not split up. That could only mean the reshuffling didn’t have as much power over them when they were airborne.