Sunlight shone through the lone window in her tower. Its warmth woke her up.

    Finally.

    “ General? “ was her first word after so many years, but there came no reply.

    She stood up from her bed and felt the cold sea water at her feet. Her room was flooded and outside her window, there was no view of the Towns below. There was nothing but the sky and an endless expanse of water. She knew that her tower was the highest in the Citadel. That could only mean one thing…

    Without a word, she walked out to the balcony and continued to walk away from her bed. She had nothing but her torn clothes and a tattered book. As she reached the end of the balcony where she should have fallen to the depths of the sea, a water lily grew beneath her feet. A path opened up for her and disappeared behind her as she walked forward.

    With no goal in sight after waking up to an unfamiliar age, she walked on.

            Town #27 was loud and busy that day. The streets were full of children who cried and screamed and yelled ' Black Blood discovered! ' at every corner. Despite being such a large Town, news spread like wild fire and before the wooly cows could blink their sleepiness away, every human in 27 knew about the discovery.

            " At the border… "

            " Is it true? Maybe it's just grey blood, maybe a Gardener was injured. "

            " No, no! It was definitely black. I heard that the Captain saw it with his own eyes! "

            " And he's in a meeting now, with the Keepers. "

            But the townsfolk had to murmur amongst themselves until the sun was well above their heads, for the meeting went on for quite a while. When the Captain finally came out of the modest stone structure that was the Town Hall, almost everyone dropped what they were doing. They surrounded the Town Hall. Those who were of small stature gathered their wit and courage, and climbed atop wood and stone houses so that they could see the Captain.

            " You may have heard about a rumor about a sighting of Black Blood, " Captain Xing cleared his throat and his voice bellowed through the Town, " I am here to put an end to this rumor mongering. "

            No one spoke or blinked, some even held their breath.

            " Black Blood was indeed discovered during sunrise, " he said.

            The townsfolk were so loud just then and some of the Guards had to shush them.

            " Old Man Ashen found it when he followed his growling lamb that ran away, " the Captain stepped to his right side a bit so that a very frail man could step forward.

            Old Man Ashen had his lamb in his arms. It growled deeply and hissed at the Captain. Despite being a baby, the creature was almost half the size of its owner.

            " See… I was chasing little… Missy here, " the old man smacked his lips. He was drooling a bit, " She… went… past the picket fence… you see… "

            There was a long pause. Ashen forgot what he was about to say, therefore the Captain continued the story which he painstakingly listened to earlier.

            " This lamb was following a trail that went past the picket fence. Its owner caught up to it just a little way beyond the border, " Xing pointed at the creature who hissed at him again, " Old Man Ashen knew that the trail was something unusual, so he picked his lamb up and called the guards who were on duty. They, in turn, called me out to the site. "

            The Captain held up a very small crystal container. It was a bit difficult to see inside it but those who were close by noticed the very dark liquid beyond the crystal.

            " This is most definitely Black Blood, as confirmed by our Keepers and elder historians, " Xing said, " There were some samples in the past which were well-documented due to… "

            He glanced at some Gardeners.

            " –well, due to humans' curiosity, " he finished.

            At that, one of the Keepers stepped forward.

            " Our ancestors made their mark by accepting children from another Town, to save those children's lives, " the hooded, squeaky-sounding little old lady Anise said, " It is our turn to put 27 in history once again. By a two-to-one decision, and with the agreement of Captain Xing, the Keepers have decided to send out a group to follow the trail of Black Blood. "

            At that point, it was apparent that there was more Black Blood to be discovered in the wilds.

            " Those who have the heart, and time to spare, step forward now, " the Captain's voice boomed through the Town once again, " You will have one moment without sunlight to prepare. Your guide will arrive once the sun shows us its face, and your journey will begin. "

            The young ones scurried about, unsure of their experience. The old ones were lost in thought, unsure of their strength. After much uneasiness in the crowd, a strong foot stepped forward and stomped on the ground in front of the Captain.

            " I'll go, " a tall, bulky farmer growled.

            " But aren't we going to search for fertile land tomorrow? " another farmer shouted to the volunteer.

            " I trust that you can lead them, " came the reply.

            " … alright. Good luck then, Steel, " sighed the other farmer.

            Named after the ancient Earth alloy, Steel was a strong man but his age was showing. He had grey hair and some wrinkles on his face. Despite this, he was confident. He wanted to travel and, perhaps, meet the Overlord herself.

            " Very well. Anyone else? " Captain Xing was visibly pleased that such a wise, experienced farmer joined the expedition.

            The Captain's pleasant feeling was short-lived. His face turned pale when a brown-haired, blue-eyed young man stepped forward.

            " I'm up for it, " said a familiar voice.

            The crowd murmured, muttered and sighed. It was Xing's son, Hunter. Named Yue Li when he was born, the boy took on a new name ever since he became a tamer. He looked up to his mother, aptly named Huntress, who traveled far and wide when she was younger. Now, Huntress was content with taking care of wooly cows, and Hunter thought that it was time for him to continue his mother's adventures.

            " Anyone else? " Xing coldly said without rejecting his son's offer. He knew that the boy was just as stubborn as his mother.

            " You really found Black Blood?! " someone shouted and as the crowd let her pass, a historian stumbled to Hunter's side.

            " Rina! You're not… " protested one of the Guards.

            " I want to go. I want to meet her! " Rina excitedly spoke to the Captain. Her emerald eyes were wide and expectant, and Xing did nothing but sigh and nod.

            " Anyone else? " was the Captain's last call. After a few moments of waiting, the crowd was dispersed.

            As the historian ran off to the Library to pack her belongings, the guard who protested earlier ran after her. He took one quick, sharp and accusing look at Hunter before he sped off after Rina. The Captain's son, on the other hand, followed his father into the Town Hall. Steel turned towards the farms for one last soil check before his grand adventure.

        Captain Xing’s heart was heavy as he watched his son pack his bag. The boy’s mother, Huntress, had been supportive just as Xing expected, and she went to work as usual. She firmly believed that Hunter would return; Xing did not. The captain knew the perils that lay beyond the Town’s borders. Although the wise and capable farmer Steel would be in the group, Hunter’s other companion was the historian Rina who never learned any survival skills. At the Town’s library, Rina busily packed her bag and also compulsively double-checked everything. Behind her, the red-haired guard spoke words which were completely ignored until-

        “ Rina! Are you even listening to me? “ the guard finally grabbed the historian’s shoulder and he made her face him.

        “ You’ve been ranting all night, you should rest, “ Rina replied with a weary smile.

        “ I’m not letting you go out there, “ the guard insisted.

        “ You can’t stop me, “ the historian brushed him off, took her bag and headed out of the library.

        Defeated, the red-haired guard left the library as well but he went the opposite way. By the time that Rina reached the Town Hall, the farmer Steel was already waiting outside.

        “ I'm late? Sorry! “ the historian cried.

        “ No. I just came here early. I had to get up at dawn to tend to the farm, and I finished that quickly, “ replied the farmer, his voice deep but calm.

        Rina noticed Steel’s bag. It was massive. Some porcupig quills were attached to it, and a round object seemed to have been stuff into the bag at the last minute. By comparison, Rina’s bag contained nothing but an extra set of clothes, two vials of water, some traveler’s meat and a lot of writing materials. As the two waited for Captain Xing and his son’s arrival, Rina put her bag on a large, grey rock beside the Town Hall.

        “ Umf, “ the rock complained.

        Startled, Rina jumped back as two tentacles emerged from the grey rock. Steel quickly put himself between the golden-haired historian and the moving boulder.

        “ Hmf! “ the creature revealed its face, if one could call it a face, but before chaos ensued, the shell-like structure on its back opened up. Out popped a black-haired boy’s head.

        “ Hey! Captain Xing! “ the boy yelled.

        Only then did Steel and Rina notice that the captain and Hunter stood behind them.

        “ I told you not to bring that creature into our Town, “ Xing sighed.

        “ Puppy is a very nice Puppy, “ the boy reasoned as he hopped out of his pet and landed, quite gracefully, on the dirt.

        Rina’s puzzled look prompted the captain to explain.

        “ Your guide, “ Xing nodded at the black-haired one, “ Errol. “

        At that, the historian looked so shocked, as if she would faint.

        “ Well, that’s great. Let the troublemaker lead us to our doom, “ the guard spoke up. He had a bag full of weapons and items on his back.

        The captain need not ask. Thyme, Anise’s grandson and Rina’s fiancé, had decided to join the expedition. He was not going to let the excitable historian out of his sight. At least there was another capable fighter in the group, thought Xing.

        “ Errol! The one who wrote THE book?! “ Rina exclaimed.

        She rushed over to the little boy’s side and examined him and his pet.

        “ So this is a tardigrade, he’s so huge! “ the historian poked Puppy’s shell which earned her another loud hmf.

        Errol, a very curious black-haired, black-eyed historian, was a resident of Town 27. He was also the author of the World’s only history book: History of the World. It was also Errol who made the first map which was later reproduced in every Town Library, but it was rumored that Errol kept his own map that was even more comprehensive and contained the secrets of travelers.

        Thyme thought badly of Errol; to the guard, the boy was just a nuisance. Steel had heard of Errol but it was their first meeting and he thought that the little boy looked so fragile. Rina gushed over THE historian who wrote THE book. Hunter, on the other hand, had much respect for the small boy who was able to tame a creature as massive as Puppy the tardigrade.

        “ Anyway, don’t we need a Gardener? “ the red-haired Thyme asked, longing to distract Rina and to make her stop swooning over Errol.

        “ Oh there’s no need for that. I’m sure that Sir Steel is enough for this expedition, “ the black-haired historian replied which made Thyme hate him even more.

        In Thyme’s defense, Errol can be rather obnoxious; in Errol’s defense, Thyme is so easily angered.

        “ Well… if you’re all ready… “ Captain Xing mediated.

        At that, the people of Town #27 emerged from their homes and the guards cleared a path to the edge of the Town. The small group which consisted of two historians, a farmer, a tamer, a guard and a tardigrade walked until they reached the border between the Town and the forest which grew amidst the World’s massive desert.

        After a few tearful farewells from their friends and family, the group took the first step into the forest and moments later, they disappeared from sight. The people of Town #27 could only hope that they would return with good news.

        During the Age of the Sun, the World was almost a wasteland. Except for a few water sources, the planet consisted of nothing but boulders and dry ground. Then, something happened; some say that it was the Overlord's doing while some say that it was the course of Nature. Either way, the World began to change back to the way it was before Apocalypse.

        Errol led the group into the leather oak forest, a place greatly feared by humans. Amidst the massive desert of the World, the oak forest was the sole reason for mankind's continuous survival. It provided shelter and changed the composition of the soil, making it arable. The leather oak was one of only two trees that evolved enough to survive through the Age of the Sun and into the new age. Stationary and similar to the Earth Age leather oak in appearance, it could grow very tall and their sheer number created a dense canopy that shielded the ground from harsh sunlight. The adult tree gathered nutrients from the soil, but farmers and gardeners knew that the leather oak was dangerous despite its appearance.

        " Watch your step, " Steel warned the young ones, " Stay away from acorns. "

        But no one in the group knew what an acorn was, save for Steel and little Errol who had been traveling most of his life. The forest was so different from the Town, and even Thyme, a guard, only ventured as far as the forest's edge. He'd never gone into it. Now that he was in the expedition, his mind was not set on his role as a guard. His only concern was Rina's safety. Armed with a spear made of porcupig quill, the guard watched the shadows. He was wary of anything that made an inhuman sound. Although he never ventured into the forest before, Thyme did hear stories about dandelions which swooped down from the sky and impaled their victims. He also heard stories about massive molds that could make humans and animals hallucinate.

        " Ow! " the guard suddenly yelled, " Darn it. "

        Something fell on his head, and it hurt. It was still there. With his gloved right hand, Thyme took the offending thing from the top of his head and, much to his surprise and shock; it was a roundish object that had spines. The spines were bloody.   

        " Let it go! " Steel shouted.

        Thyme complied. He threw the acorn to the ground just as small roots began to grow from the spines. It seemed as if those roots were looking for something, but it did not find what it needed on the ground. The roots began to grow towards Thyme's direction yet the guard was quick to step away from it. Without a food source, the acorn quickly withered.

        " You should patch that up, " the farmer pointed at Thyme's head, " The spines injured your head, but it shouldn't be a problem since you took it off before the acorn rooted itself into your skull. "

        Rina looked worriedly at her fiancé before she tended to his wound. The historian checked the other explorers to make sure that they weren't injured by acorns.

        " And that's why I'm wearing a hat! " Errol pointed out.

        " If you knew, you should have told us before we left the Town, " Thyme snarled. He didn't like the snotty little brat one bit.

        " I thought you knew, " the black-haired boy shrugged.

        An awkward silence followed while Steel, who wore a thick, hooded coat made of wooly cow's hide, pulled another coat from his massive backpack. He then handed it to Rina. The historian offered it to Thyme, who refused it, of course. She put the coat on, hood up and all. Hunter had his own hooded coat made of growling sheep wool. It was lighter than wooly cow coats but also more difficult to make since growling sheep hate being touched by humans.

        " Hey, where's your pet? " Thyme asked Errol.

        While waiting for the little boy's reply, the guard improvised his own headgear by tying up a thick layer of bandage on his head. Errol did not seem to be worried about anything at all.

        " Puppy travels underground, " the more experienced historian simply said then reminded the group, " We need to move faster. The scent of your blood will attract trouble. "

        While Errol led the group of humans through the Oak Forest, a lone figure unknowingly made its way towards them. During daybreak, when humans were just waking up, plants and animals were already on the prowl. Most of them were opportunistic, taking advantage of the time when larger creatures were still asleep. Dodder, which found it difficult to move around when the sun was at its apex, slowly slithered across oak trees to find unsuspecting prey. It flung itself from the branches of an oak branch right onto the thin body of the lone figure.

        The forest fell silent as some animals watched the struggle between the dodder and its prey. It was a short battle where the tentacle plant tried to release as much of its toxins and acids to melt its supposed victim. However, the dodder was overconfident. With one strong pull, its target dragged the offending plant down to the ground where it laid helpless, unable to slither on loose soil. The lone figure trampled on the hungry dodder which would soon shrivel and die, or be food for other hungry plants or animals.

        After that brief encounter with the dodder, the lone figure walked forward. Suddenly, it stopped and raised its heavy, green appendages which twitched towards a specific direction. The creature's mouth, if one could call it that, began to drool. It picked up the scent of its favorite prey. Few of those ever ventured into the oak forest, and that was an opportunity which the creature would not pass up. It was an opportunity to dine on humans.

        With its arachnid-like legs that could stab its ends onto anything for balance and stability, the lone creature sped forward. Its size was average, just around a regular human's, but it was agile and could walk or run. Beautiful and adored before the Age of the Sun, the creature was afterwards considered beautiful only from afar. And by "afar", that means preferably on the far side of the forest. It ran at full speed towards its prey while it used its tentacles to clear its path and soon it got close enough to the group of humans. The sunflower let out a screechy sound of utter madness; the hunter jumped and aimed for the human who was, ironically, named Hunter.

        The young man heard the screech and he managed to turn around just in time to see the creature. Beautiful yellow petals, a drooling, fanged mouth, sharp legs and two powerful appendages, the Sunflower was truly a sight to behold.

        Hunter's mind went blank. One moment, he was just following Thyme and Rina; and then, he heard a screech from somewhere behind the group and turned to see something big, bright and yellow leaping towards him. It did not seem to be an animal or anything that he'd ever seen before at least. Rina's horrified scream just went into one ear and out the other. Hunter waited for his life to flash before his eyes, since according to some stories that was what happened to people who faced death.

        But there came no flash of memories, no painful fangs on his head and no tentacles around his torso. Barely a second after he heard the sunflower's screech, the ground beneath Hunter's feet moved. A mix of earth, human and animal bones, and sheer power burst forth from the ground as a massive grey figure put itself between the hunter and its prey. Xing's son came back to reality when Steel pulled him back.

        " What are you standing there for? " the farmer yelled at his face, " Let's go! "

        The young man was not completely aware of himself even as the group turned to run away from the chaos. But they stopped so suddenly when a small figure stepped in their way.

        " Don't run, " Errol calmly said.

        " Are you out of your mind?! Hunter almost got attacked and… " Thyme yelled, full of rage; Rina had to hold him back so that he would not hit the small, black-haired boy.

        " Look around you, " the little historian said.

        Only then did the humans notice the plants that gathered on the branches of the oak trees. Animals peeked from their hiding places, though nothing could be seen but their glowing eyes. They formed a circle around the group of humans and around the two creatures in the middle of that small clearing.

        " The possibility of such an occurrence... " Errol's voice was hushed.

        Hunter looked up at the plants and animals that gathered around them. He knew that if they tried to leave at that point, they would be attacked. He then looked at the middle of the clearing and realized that the fight would decide their fate in the oak forest. There, he saw Puppy which dragged its eight large feet across the ground as it assessed its target. On the other side, the sunflower hissed and spat at the tardigrade while it moved.

        Errol's pet looked nothing like the meek, sleepy creature that it was back in town. It was focused on its target; its eyes on nothing but the yellow plant. Two antenna-like tentacles protruded from above the tardigrade's eyes and the tips followed the sunflower's movements. The flower, on the other hand, had much larger appendages. Puppy was larger than the plant, but the sunflower seemed to be better equipped for a fight, what with its sharp fangs and legs.

        The humans could barely follow the next few moments. Both the sunflower and the tardigrade moved quickly and flawlessly, and it was unbelievable given Puppy's size. The large, grey creature slid through the forest floor; it used all of its eight feet nimbly so that it could avoid the sunflower's attacks. The plant, on the other hand, used direct stabs and slashes. It was not used to fighting something so big or determined. The sunflower usually had to deal with targets that cowered at its presence, but there was Puppy, a tardigrade, a foreigner to the oak forest and it feared nothing.

        Surprisingly though, the yellow plant had a tactic. It backed the tardigrade up against a large oak tree and, with one powerful leap and a tentacle straightened to form a sharp point, the sunflower attacked Puppy's seemingly unarmored head.

        "How silly, " Errol laughed.

        Puppy did not move from his spot. He straightened his own antennae, forming two thin, sharp spikes. He grunted a resounding HMF as the sunflower's tentacle met his skull… and the appendage was squashed to icky, green slime. The force of the plant's attack met the tardigrade's impenetrable armor, and the result was a completely destroyed part. But Puppy did not stop there. He quickly ran his own appendages through the sunflower's head and, with a powerful bite to the enemy's neck, he ripped off the petaled face from its insect-like body.

        The tardigrade spat on the ground; he seemed to dislike the taste of the sunflower's green blood. Other plants and animals, however, moved in towards the sunflower's carcass. The tardigrade grunted, hid away his antennae and calmly walked over to his owner.

        " That's a good Puppy, " Errol patted the tardigrade's head; while plants and animals busily took apart the sunflower he turned to the awe-struck humans, " NOW, let's go! "

        Time passed and the group traveled without as much as a word. Errol occasionally looked at them but the humans seemed afraid. Rina even hid behind Thyme when the little black-haired historian looked her way.

        " Well… we're here, " Errol finally said as he stood in front of a very wide yet strangely dark clearing.

        On their way to that place, Thyme noticed droplets of black blood which surely were signs of what they were following. However, the entrance to the clearing had no traces of black blood.

        " Is the Overlord… " the guard began to ask, but he was interrupted by the farmer.

        " Are you serious about this? " Steel tried to keep his voice down, " You know what this place is, right? "

        Errol nodded, and then he tapped the ground. A faint rumbling gradually grew closer to their feet until Puppy finally emerged.

        " Rina, you can't help here. Hop onto Puppy's back and guard your belongings, " the little historian said.

        The girl gasped and trembled a little when she looked at Puppy. The tardigrade did nothing but lower itself as much as it could to let the human get on his wide back.

        " There's no way that- ! " Thyme began to yell, but Hunter put his hand over the guard's mouth.

        " Sit this one out, " Xing's son said, " Steel and I will do this. You can stay with Rina. "

        Hunter barely spoke earlier, even after his ordeal with the sunflower. But at that moment, he spoke with such certainty. The tamer then put his bag on Puppy's back, noting that Errol had nothing but his clothes, a book and his drawing items. The young man and the farmer secured their coats and pulled part of it up over their noses.

        " Hmf… if you do something weird, I swear, I'll… " the guard was going to say 'stab you' to Puppy as he helped Rina to get up the tardigrade's back, but he realized that such a threat was futile given what they saw earlier.

        " I'm ready when you guys are, " Hunter stood at the edge of the clearing as he waited for Steel and Errol.

        The three volunteers then stepped into the clearing, and to Thyme and Rina, it seemed as if the darkness swallowed them. Within the dark area, the tamer, the farmer and the historian could see just fine. The wall of darkness was the edge of the mold colony's territory. It released dense spores that made the area seem dark from outside but within it, one could clearly see.

        Steel did not speak. He knew very well that if he swallowed or inhaled too much of the mold spores, he would begin to hallucinate. At that moment though, they were still safe. Hunter, who was not a farmer but a tamer, also knew that fact because mold colonies were home to one of the most dangerous small animals in the World: fuzzyworms. Both men found it curious that a historian like Errol knew about it; furthermore, the child did not cover his nose or his mouth. Instead, he seemed to be holding his breath.

        - Who is this kid? – the farmer thought.

        Just then, Errol pointed to something close to their feet. Steel fought his urge to jump back as a fuzzyworm slithered by his leg. The creature was almost as large as Hunter's arm; it was very brown and, as its name implied, fuzzy. It had no eyes, limbs or ears, but it had one circular mouth that was filled with sharp teeth. The farmer knew that while they were in the mold colony and did not fall to the ground or get injured, the fuzzyworms would think that they were either mold or fuzzyworms. They were 'safe', so to speak, but things would quickly go downhill if any of them began to hallucinate.

        Suddenly, to Hunter's horror, Errol walked over to a fuzzyworm nest and took one of the massive eggs. It was almost as large as the little historian's head. Errol shook the egg and nodded; he then handed the item to Steel, who held onto it tightly. As the tamer thought, the historian did not bring them to that place to look for the Overlord. It seemed to be a preparation for a longer journey. Hunter looked at the farmer and they nodded at one another. Both men knew how to check fuzzyworm eggs, and so they checked other nests.

        The trio took eggs which had not begun to develop yet, signified by a swishy sound that its contents made. A developing egg had a plop sound instead, and they put those things back into the nests. Steel and Hunter had two fuzzyworm eggs each; Errol got only one. That errand went without incident, much to both men's surprise. By the time that they got out of the clearing, they exhaled heavily and almost collapsed, not because of fatigue but because of relief.

        " We got it! " Hunter handed the items to Thyme and Rina.

        " W-what is it? " the blonde historian reluctantly took what was handed to her.

        Large and with patches of fuzz, the egg was strangely light for its size.

        " Fuzzyworm eggs, " the farmer replied, which almost made Thyme throw the object away, " Careful. They look weird, but it's a stable food source. And it will help us survive in the Desert Beyond. "

        Rina blinked a few times.

        " The Desert? THE Desert Beyond? " the historian's eyes lit up as she hugged the egg.

        " There's only one desert, " the guard huffed as he put his new food source into his bag, " But why there? "

        " The droplets lead to that place, " Errol explained, " And we're almost there. But we can rest for a while before we head out. "

        The group fell silent again when the black-haired historian spoke up. It was obvious that the humans were still shaken up due to what Puppy did to the sunflower. Thyme and Rina quickly slid off the tardigrade's back, and the massive beast dove into the ground once again. The travelers then moved forward, searching for a place where they could rest before their expedition into the desert.

        Her eyes were as wide as they could possibly when the historian Rina saw the stream which led to a small, clear pond. It was like a gem in the middle of the forest, and she quickly scribbled down its location on her own map. Errol did not seem pleased by this, but his smile was as wide as ever.

        " Be careful. Don't tell everyone about this, " he reminded the girl, " Humans tend to… pollute things. "

        Steel took a roundish object from his bag; it was a beautiful crystal jar that, strangely enough, was still half full though he had been drinking from it all day long. He knelt beside the pond and filled the jar with the thirst-quenching liquid.

        " Just take some water and let's camp out in a nearby clearing, " Thyme commanded.

        Hunter and Steel complied, but Rina was hesitant.

        " Ehhhh~? " the pretty historian whined, " But but… water! "

        " If we stay here, little miss, " Steel explained, " Other creatures might get attracted by the presence of both water and food. "

        Enlightened, Rina filled her water containers and ran to Thyme's side. Hunter had already gone ahead and cleared an area beside a dead oak tree. He carefully checked the ground for stray acorns, and surrounding tree trunks for hidden danger. Steel arrived shortly at the clearing and the farmer quickly started a bonfire.

        " You're used to this, huh? " the young tamer asked just as he finished his perimeter check.

        " So many moments with sunlight, and without it, " the farmer grunted as he sat down.

        Once the couple Thyme and Rina arrived, Steel showed them how to open the fuzzyworm egg. He used a shortened, sharpened porcupig quill to cut off a part of the thick eggshell. Porcupigs were reputed to be the only creatures that could penetrate the armor of any known creature, and their quills were usually used for tools and weapon. Once the quill opened the eggshells, the soup within was revealed. Steel and Hunter quickly dug in, but the guard was hesitant. He took out a makeshift spoon made of bone and tried a sip of the completely white, fuzzyworm baby soup.

        " It's… " Thyme then made a very rare happy face, " – it's delicious! "

        Rina began to eat her fuzzyworm soup when her fiancé confirmed that it was safe and palatable. Tired from traveling, the couple almost finished off the contents of their eggs, but Steel stopped them.

        " If you leave about a quarter of it, " the farmer explained, " It'll grow back. "

        The guard thought that Steel was joking, but he wasn't. According to both Hunter and the experienced farmer, the contents of fuzzyworm eggs would evaporate if cooked, but would regrow if eaten raw and little by little. That ability seemed to be connected to the presence of non-hallucinogenic young mold, the fuzzy brown patches, on the eggs. Even the eggshells seemed to 'heal' if one replaced the removed part. Rina excitedly wrote that information down, intent on covering every aspect of their journey.

        " You really know a lot about plants and animals, " Thyme said to his male companions, " But still, don't we need a gardener? I mean, with that sunflower earlier… and that dangerous tardigrade, what'll we do if- "

        The guard was interrupted by Hunter.

        " Where's Errol? " the young tamer worriedly looked around, stood up and headed for the direction of the pond, " I'll look for him. Stay here."

        " Come back before the sun sets, " Steel reminded the young man.

        Beyond the branches of the oak trees, the brightness of the sky was slowly fading to make way for a moment without sunlight.

        Steel kept the fire going by throwing pieces of oak wood into it. Rina had just asked him a curious question as a follow-up to Thyme's inquiry: what did he know about gardeners?

        " Gardeners… " the farmer began the story with a very serious expression, " They make our lives easier. But unlike us, their role is not something that they chose. "

        " I did hear about that from one of the other guards, " the red-haired Thyme shared what he knew, " Being a gardener is the only role that is decided by birth. "

        Steel nodded.

        " When a human is born, the first thing that his parents check is the color of his blood, " the older man explained, " Gardeners have grey blood. "

        Rina, who was fairly young, only knew about the role of gardeners. They kept plants at bay and tended to tame plants alongside farmers. She marveled at this information which was new to her and impulsively wrote it down.

        " Grey blood… I did hear about that, but does it mean- " the guard didn't finish his question. The grim look on Steel's face said it all.

        " Some humans, despite the lack of knowledge about science, tried it out of desperation, " the farmer explained, " When the Overlord vanished, plant life began to disappear. Humans… did everything to survive. They… we, even went as far as to use our own kind as hosts for droplets of Black Blood which were kept at the Citadel. "

        The golden-haired historian continued to write, but her enthusiasm was obviously dampened.

        " There were many deaths. My grandfather was among them, " Steel looked into the bonfire with sad eyes, " Black Blood is incompatible with most humans. Up to this day, gardeners are rarely compatible with non-gardeners, and a pure gardener pairing usually ends up in sadness due to having stillborn children. Even just touching grey blood usually triggers an allergic reaction on non-gardeners. "

        Rina already knew the rest of the story. Gardeners, or greybloods, could influence plant life. They could hasten the lifespan of a plant, strengthen it, repair it, or allow it to flourish even in very harsh environments. However, unlike the Overlord, gardeners cannot influence the movement of plants and they cannot make plants grow out of nothing. Their role was both a blessing and a curse: a blessing to Towns but a curse to the gardeners themselves. The first ones were horribly disfigured by Black Blood, but eventually, succeeding generations looked more like humans except for the color of their blood and the incredibly sharp thorns along their spine. Such thorns did not cause injury to the gardeners themselves, but the sharpness of those features and danger that it posed if concealed eventually led to the creation of backless clothing for them. Additionally, there was the frustration of wanting a different role and the pressure to remain a gardener due to necessity.

        While the people around the campfire continued their conversation, Hunter arrived at the stream. He walked up a little further and arrived at the pond where, just as the last rays of sunlight began to vanish, the tamer saw something that made him look twice. A familiar large brown hat, a cloak and a bundle of brown clothing lay at the side of the clear pond. In the water, there stood a familiar figure who stared at him eye to eye. That figure was small, black-haired, wide-eyed as if surprised and… and…

        Everything went dark.

        " Puppy! " was the next thing that Hunter heard.

        The tamer couldn't breathe but he could flail his arms. He then heard a clonking sound and after that, he was free! But from what? Hunter gasped for air, and then he looked up. Puppy grunted at him while Errol held the tardigrade back. Rina and Thyme seemed terrified, but Steel was laughing so hard.

        " We found you… " the farmer said between gasps and laughs, " … your head, in Puppy's mouth… slobbering... Errol hit him with that big old book… "

        Steel clutched his belly as he sat down and continued to laugh. Thyme was extremely pale, and Rina seemed as if she'd faint. All that time, Errol scolded his pet; the little historian's hair was still wet and sloppy under his big hat. A thick copy of History of the World was on the ground beside the tardigrade.

        " It's alright, " Hunter finally spoke, to the couple's relief, " It was my fault. "

        The tamer looked at Puppy. Despite his grunts and hmfs, the tardigrade looked nothing like the deadly creature that killed the sunflower. His antennae were not protruding, and it seemed as if he wanted to say something. Hunter, much to the group's surprise, put his slobbered forehead against what seemed to be the tardigrade's snout.

        " I'll keep that secret, " Hunter whispered.

        The forest had just begun to wake up behind them, and at that moment, in front of their eyes lay the Desert Beyond which was eerily quiet. The sand was a pale yellow but it glimmered a little under the bright night sky. Steel's first step into the desert was a moment filled with both joy and fear. The farmer had traveled to many places before, but never into Beyond.

        " I had a friend whose dream was to go into the desert, " said the tall, muscular, greyish-haired man.

        A petite figure ran over to Steel's side. Her emerald eyes wide and curious, Rina looked up to the farmer as she waited for him to continue his story. Her neatly-trimmed hair almost fell over her eyes, but those strands could not hide the historian's desire to hear more stories from her fellow travelers.

        " I'm sure that you've heard about the towns in the desert. There are gardeners and farmers who try to find arable land here, " Steel walked at a steady pace as he continued his story, " There are also tamers in those towns, and of course, curious historians. "

        " What happened to your friend? " Thyme ran up to the farmer's other side. His short, spiky red hair was completely visible when he removed his makeshift headgear. The guard was also noticeably tall, taller than the tamer but he was still shorter than the farmer.

        " I never heard from him again, " came the reply, however, there was no tinge of sadness or worry, " But there are times when travelers come by my stall at the vegetable market and they give me bottles of sand. "

        Rina and her fiancé looked at the farmer as he suddenly laughed.

        " Over time, I noticed that the sand changed in color. It was slowly becoming brown, and less … well, sandy, " Steel had a momentary sparkle in his eyes as he said that.

        " Change is the only permanent thing, " the golden-haired historian said matter-of-factly, " That was one of the Absolute Truths in the Age of the Sun. It still is. "

        Thyme looked up at the night sky. He remembered about one of the many seemingly useless things that Rina said to him before. The historian said that back then, in the Age of Ancient Earth, a large white orb shone in the sky. It was called the moon. She said that in that age, a moonless night would be dark unless the sky was clear and the stars were out. Stars – those were the white specks in the night sky; they were still there though the moon vanished due to Apocalypse.

        " Aurora, right? " the guard looked down at Rina.

        " Oh, you remembered! " the young lady seemed to be very pleased. She also looked up at the sky, " In the Age of Earth, this was a rare occurrence but now, it lights our way during a moment without sunlight. "

        Steel also looked up at the sky. The sand beneath his feet felt warm and it wasn't as heavy as he thought it would be. There were no rocks or tree roots that could make him trip. He took that moment to marvel at the ever-changing colors of the night sky, the colors that lit their way in place of sunlight.

        The group's pace was slow but steady. Since the townsfolk were not used to traveling in the desert, their guide Errol walked slightly ahead but he paced his steps. Hunter, who was playfully harassed by Puppy earlier, walked close to the little historian. He looked at the child-like boy and wondered if what he thought he saw earlier was true or if his eyes tricked him.

        " Where are we heading? " Xing's son asked; he tried to start a conversation.

        There was no answer from the black-haired historian who continued to walk forward. The tamer had nothing else to do but to walk, and did not have to worry about stray sunflowers, dodder or an acorn that could fall onto his head; Hunter looked over their guide. The first thing that anyone would notice was Errol's height. He was very short and his forehead would reach only up to Hunter's chin.

        Another noticeable feature was Errol's completely black hair which was longer at the front while the back seemed to have been crudely cut. His head seemed quite small because of the massive brown hat that he wore, but the smile that was usually plastered across his face was very wide. Behind Errol's brown goggles, his black eyes could be occasionally seen under proper lighting. The rest of his body, unfortunately, was almost completely hidden by his large, hooded cloak. However, Hunter did notice that the historian's left sleeve was rolled up to his elbow, and his whole left forearm had a thick, strapped leather glove. The rest of the boy's clothing- his shirt, pants and boots- were in various shades of brown and made of either wool or leather. And he had a book; it was a thick, heavy-looking brown book which was, apparently, Errol's original copy of History of the World. That book was twice as thick as the copy that Hunter saw in the Town Library.

        " We're here, " Errol suddenly said.

        Hunter stared at the large grey rocks in front of him just as the rest of the group caught up to them.

        " And where is … here? " Thyme asked, wary of losing his temper around Errol because he was afraid that Puppy might eat his head.

        " Here- here! " the little historian declared.

        Suddenly, the grey rocks moved and revealed familiar faces. They looked like Puppy's clones.

        " Tardigrades! " Rina gasped, a bit scared but also excited, " There's so many of them! But I thought they were… uhm, rare? "

        A shadow appeared amidst the awakened tardigrades and as it got closer, the figure was revealed to be a human. He had wild reddish-brown hair; not quite as red as Thyme's, but not as brown as Hunter's either. The man wore a large grey cloak which explained why the humans did not see him earlier.

        " Errol, brother! " he had a toothy smile as he greeted, picked up, hugged and spun the little historian around.

        After that odd greeting, he put Errol down and greeted the other humans in a conventional way.

        " Oh, hello, " the man waved. He was tanned; the darkness of his skin was obviously unnatural. Behind the unkempt look, he seemed to be just a few years younger than Steel.

        " Your… brother? " Hunter turned to Errol.

        " He calls everyone his brother, even if they're girls, " the historian shrugged.

        Something burst out of the ground and it made Thyme reach for his spear, but when the sand settled down, the culprit was none other than Puppy. Errol's tardigrade heaved off the sand and, as he grunted loudly, landed right on what seemed to be the head of another tardigrade. Soon, the rest of the large creatures joined in and in the end, it was a tardigrade pile.

        " Hah! See that? " Errol's friend laughed, " They're all so happy! "

        As the tardigrades rolled around, Thyme swore that such a ruckus could effectively destroy a whole pack of volcano wolves; thus he could not believe that to those creatures, it was all just play time. Meanwhile, Hunter was deeply humbled; to have seen such a rare creature as Puppy was already enough to make a tamer feel accomplished, but at that moment, he was in front of a tardigrade colony. He tried to count them, but he stopped at forty-five and got lost when the creatures began to chase one another at top speed.

        " I'm here to ask if you've seen, you know… " Errol's voice interrupted Hunter's thoughts, " … that THING. "

        The historian seemed to be worried about something as he took out a piece of paper from his book and handed it to his friend.

        " Errol's map! " Rina shrieked as she ran over to the stranger's side, " With all of its drawings and stuff! "

        The map looked like Rina's but it had more details. There were numbers, figures and scribbles that the female historian did not understand.

        " Hmm… I guess, the numbers are towns? " she asked.

        Errol's friend laughed, clearly delighted by the girl's enthusiasm and intelligence.

        " I'm Rina! " she took that chance to introduce herself.

        The wild haired man nodded at her and politely introduced himself.

        " And I'm Shoo! " he offered a handshake while his other hand held onto Errol's map, " It's nice to meet you, brother! "

        Rina shook his hand, much to Thyme's annoyance.

        " Shoe? Like the ones that we wear on our feet? " the guard grunted, " I'm Thyme. "

        " Er- no, " Shoo replied as he let go of Rina's warm handshake and looked over the map.

        " … it's shoo as in ' Shoo, go away, we don't want you here ', " Errol explained, " He was driven out of town and these tardigrades took him in. "

        The group fell silent while the massive grey creatures rolled around in the background. It was a long, awkward moment without sunlight.

        â€‹" Hmmm… " Rina was lost in thought as the group continued their journey.

        â€‹The girl looked at her own map as they walked on under the aurora. Occasionally, they would stop and eat some traveler's meat which was tough, dried animal flesh, or a bit of fuzzyworm soup. When someone was tired, they took turns and kept watch. Jackets and cloaks weren't just for protection; they were also portable beds and blankets.

        " What are you writing? " Thyme sat beside Rina as they kept watch while the farmer slept.

        " Errol's map… I remember some of what I saw, " she showed her own map to her fiancé and pointed to an area below Town #27, " I think we're here but… "

        " But what? " the guard sounded agitated, " Is he leading us around in circles?! "

        Thyme's voice was a bit loud so Rina put a finger over her own lips which meant that he should be quiet. The young man complied, but he still shot an angry glance at Errol who seemed to be writing something on scraps of paper.

        " … I saw a number here. It was 135, close to a drawing that looked like a tardigrade, " she looked up at Thyme, " I think we're near Town #135, but we're going around it instead of through it. "

        The young man was thoughtful for a moment. He then walked over to Hunter who was taking down his own notes about tardigrades. Rina heard a bit of their conversation-

        " … into a town… "

        " – bad idea! "

        " – don't trust him… "

        " My father said… "

        " – Rina knows the way. "

        It ended when Hunter sighed and went back to what he was doing, and Thyme angrily went back to Rina's side.

        " Let's go, " the red-haired young man said as he picked his bag up.

        " Go? Where? " his fiancée asked.

        " You know the way, right? " Thyme picked Rina's bag up as well, " To 135. "

        The female historian didn't want to be separated from the group but at the same time, she wanted a peaceful moment's sleep. Rina did rest every now and then, but she was never at ease; the sandy desert was nothing like a comfortable bed. So despite her better judgment, she used her knowledge of the positions of stars to lead the way to Town #135.

        " Steel! " the brown-haired tamer woke the sleepy man up, then he turned to Errol, " Thyme and Rina are leaving! Do something! "

        The young historian sighed and smiled at Xing's son as if all was well. He stuffed his drawing items into his hat and stood up without the faintest hint of urgency, and then he stomped on the ground twice. Puppy emerged from beneath the sands of Desert Beyond and began to follow the couple who went ahead.

        " He's the kind of person who will do as he pleases, " Errol said as he helped Steel pack his stuff, " Better let him learn from his mistakes. "

        Hunter was very worried about Thyme and Rina, both of whom were his childhood friends, but the black-haired one was right. He was surprised at Errol's maturity despite the unnatural smile on the historian's face. Steel grumbled something that sounded like those darn kids before he got up and followed Puppy. Their pace steadily grew faster and after a while, Rina collapsed. Her fiancé rejected the others' offer to help and instead put the girl on his back as he carried their bags in his hands.

        " You could just hop onto Puppy, " Errol suggested.

        " Like hell I will! " Thyme yelled, which earned him a loud grunt from the tardigrade.

        Steel grumbled again but he knew better than to agitate the guard any further. After a bit more walking and just as the first rays of the sun emerged from the horizon, the group saw large, white stone structures in the distance. They were houses.

        " A town? " the farmer was surprised. He turned to the little one, " Errol? "

        " Thyme said something about a town around here, " Hunter explained, " I thought he was mistaken… I guess he wasn't. "

        Errol did not explain. He did not defend himself. Instead, the black-haired guide followed Puppy and the couple into the town. As the aurora vanished from the sky, it was replaced by a familiar clear blue color. Hunter sighed and just followed Errol; the farmer, on the other hand, was hesitant. Something in his gut told him not to go forward, and that feeling never failed him before. The deep, massive slashes on the sides of the houses only served to strengthen that horrible feeling inside him.

        There were no children in the streets, no people in the markets, and the small, improvised farm was completely barren. When Thyme walked into the tiny town, he didn't notice it at first. Or… no, he didn't want to believe it. But as he walked farther down the dirt paths, as he peered into the white houses, the guard could no longer deny it.

        Town #135 was dead.

        " This was once Shoo's town, " Errol appeared from behind one of the smaller structures, " He tried to warn them. He was driven away instead. "

        Thyme was speechless for a while.

        " If you knew, why didn't you just tell us? " Rina woke up from her short nap. She looked a bit better than before they arrived at the town.

        The other historian, the child-like one, was thoughtful for a moment. He looked at the guard who could not look at him eye to eye; he then looked at his fellow historian who had just asked Thyme to let her down from his back.

        " Trust cannot be taught. It cannot be bought, " Errol finally answered, " It is learned… and it is earned. "

        The pigheaded guard flung his bag onto his back and walked towards one of the alleys.

        " Where are you going? " the little boy asked with a slightly concerned tone.

        " We're already here. We might as well look for supplies, " Thyme reasoned and before Errol could say anything else, he already vanished between two houses, closely followed by Rina.

        " Damn it! " the guide showed signs of agitation for the first time since their journey began.

        He ran back to where he left the other humans and Puppy; the tardigrade could not go any further for the pathways were much smaller compared to other towns.

        " Where's Hunter?! " Errol almost screamed at the farmer.

        " He said he was going to look for his friends. Hey, these scratches… they look like porcupig slashes, " Steel was nervous. He asked a question but he did not seem to want an answer, " … but we're in the desert. It can't be what I think it is, right? "

        Errol didn't answer his question directly, but the grim look on the boy's face said it all.

        " Stay here. Please!" the historian sternly said, " All of you… you will complete this journey. "

        At that, the little one ran back into the town as the farmer looked down at his own hands which shook uncontrollably. Steel heaved himself up onto Puppy's back. The tardigrade then looked forward and his antennae slowly emerged. There was no mistake; even the massive creature knew that there was an enemy close by. The farmer clutched his chest, unable to contain a feeling that he had almost forgotten: fear.

        â€‹In town, Thyme had no luck at finding supplies. Everything was either shriveled to useless bits or was too filthy to use. Rina, the ever-curious historian, ventured further beyond the houses until she reached the middle of 135. She looked around the town hall and it was there that she found the townsfolk. They lay on the ground as sun-bleached skeletons. Most of them were in awkward positions as if they had been tossed around before they died. Some of them had completely crushed skulls. And then she saw the strangest things: yellowish spikes that protruded from the ground.

        The historian looked around for obvious contraptions, but the spikes did not look like traps at all. It really did seem as if those spikes grew from the ground itself. She stepped a bit closer to one of them… just a little closer, she thought. That piece of knowledge was right in front of her, and she couldn't ignore it.

        " Rina! " yelled Hunter.

        SNAP!

        The living booby trap emerged from the sand. Nicknamed bloody thorn tree, it lived up to its reputation and never missed a target, until Rina.

        " Hey! "the tamer shook his friend's shoulders. He arrived just in time to pull her away from the spikes.

        Just then, Thyme arrived at the scene. He had been drawn to the town hall by Hunter's voice.

        " What ha- " the guard's eyes, which were on the shaken blonde girl, looked up at the towering tree, " Oh shit. "

        It was a dream, right? He was still sleeping somewhere in the Desert Beyond… right? It can't be true.

        " A-acacia… " Rina whimpered as she tried to calm down.

        It was the only other tree which survived through the Age of the Sun. Unlike the leather oak which made the soil arable, the acacia was completely useless to humans, animals and other plants. In fact, its existence was a bane to almost all life in the World. It looked very different from its ancestors because the acacia no longer had any leaves. It only had a trunk, branches, roots, and thorns. It was a ravenous tree that would eat anything and everything that contained moisture. All acacia, despite their size, shape and color, would definitely eat animals, humans and other plants. Its tactic was to bury itself in the sand, and then it would snap up at nearby moving objects like a gigantic trap. Its thorns were almost as sharp and tough as porcupig quills, and they were used to stab a target and drain it of its flesh and blood.

        " Run… " Hunter whispered to his friends.

        The couple didn't budge. They were shocked and speechless, until the tamer yelled at them.

        " RUN! "

        At that, Thyme took Rina's hand and they both ran up the street to where they last saw Errol. Meanwhile, Hunter turned to look at the massive tree just as it brought down its thorny branches at the fleshy human. It wasn't his first encounter with death…

        … and it wasn't his last either. Hunter swore that his eyes failed him once more, because he thought that, just then, Errol deflected the acacia's massive branches with nothing but one key-shaped bone knife. He shook his head and saw that the branches narrowly missed both him and the historian who stood between his shaking, fear-stricken body and the most feared plant in the desert.

        " Let's go! " Errol turned to Hunter and picked him up by the collar, " Come on! "

        The acacia's thorns were buried deeply into the sand, and so the tree was having a bit of difficulty when it attempted to straighten itself up. Hunter did not look back at all. He just ran after Errol who led the way; once again, the tamer noticed the peculiar key-like knife in the historian's right hand, but it was not the time for questions. It was the time for running at top speed.

        " It's just a tree, right? " Rina frantically, and repeatedly, asked Steel when they arrived at the edge of the town, " It can't possibly… "

        Just then, a loud crash came from the direction of the town hall. It was followed by the destruction of many houses. From between some of the crumbling structures, Errol emerged and Hunter was right behind him.

        " What the heck was that sound? " Thyme yelled at the two boys as he stood close to Rina, Steel and the tardigrade.

        " Hop onto Puppy's back! " Errol yelled.

        " Like hell I wi- " the guard's statement was cut short when some of the nearby houses were completely destroyed.

        Beyond the ruined structures, the acacia towered higher than whatever was left of the town. It moved.

        " GET THE FUCK ON PUPPY'S BACK! " the little historian screamed as he pushed Hunter towards the tardigrade.

        â€‹Setel did not wait for Thyme and Rina's reactions. He immediately lifted the two up onto Errol's pet as the creature began to turn towards the open desert. The black-haired historian hopped onto the steadily accelerating tardigrade once everyone else was secure on its wide back. Behind them, Town #135 crumbled to a mess of white stones but Steel remained nervous.

        " I heard that the bloody thorn tree… " his voice broke as he spoke, almost as if the experienced farmer whimpered, " … could jump. "

        " How the heck is it doing that?! " Thyme yelled as he looked back at the acacia.

        Puppy ran at top speed, but the tree seemed to be getting closer.

        " It bends its trunk- " Steel began to explain.

        The tree did just that as the farmer spoke and once its branches almost reached the ground, the trunk straightened up. The force of that maneuver resulted in a very powerful leap which allowed the ten-meter high tree to quickly cover short distances. They had a head start when the acacia was still held back by the narrowness of the town's streets, but when they were in the open desert, the tree seemed to be getting close- and fast.

        " We're too heavy… " the farmer pointed out as he looked down at Puppy who was focused on moving forward, " I'm sure that he can go faster if you guys lost some old baggage. "

        " Eh? But what about our food and water? " Rina asked, oblivious to what Steel meant.

        Errol grabbed the farmer's hand and held it down firmly.

        " I told you already, " the guide said, " You will complete this journey. "

        Steel looked at the historian. His eyes lit up as held tightly onto Puppy's shell.

        " KYAA~! " the blonde girl screamed when she almost fell off the tardigrade.

        Puppy swerved suddenly to the right side. The humans didn't notice that the acacia was right behind them already, and it just narrowly missed their group due to the tardigrade's quick reaction. Thyme put an arm around the girl and held her down as he grasped the divisions of their mount's armor. A swerve to the left followed, but it was not as sudden as the first one and they also managed to avoid the bloody thorn tree's grasp.

        The acacia prepared to jump again and Errol was almost sure that the tardigrade could dodge once more, but then, they were almost propelled forward by a sudden halt. A hollow, deafening cry echoed through the desert as Puppy screamed due to an unfamiliar sensation. One of the acacia's thorns pierced his left hind leg and the tardigrade's dark blue blood spilled onto the sand.

        " He's hit! " Thyme looked at the wound, " We have to do something! "

        " Just hold on, " Errol said and the humans complied without any complaints, " Forward! "

        The tardigrade grunted and ripped his leg from the acacia's thorn. He then ran on as if nothing happened.

        " He's bleeding! " Rina cried as she held tightly onto the creature's shell, " Oh, Puppy… "

        â€‹The humans could feel the uneven movements caused by the wound despite the tardigrade's attempt to maintain his balance. They could also hear the sloshing sound of the useless limb which Errol's pet dragged across the hot desert sand. Then, there came another powerful leap that almost drove the acacia's thorns through their bodies.

        " We can't outrun it, not like this, " Errol stood up and was able to remain on his feet atop the tardigrade's back even though it moved, " Hunter, hold onto this for me. "

        The little one took his cloak off and wrapped it around his bone knife. He then put it in Hunter's bag. His shoulders were narrow and his shirt and pants were fairly loose, as if the historian really was a child… or…

        " You have a plan? " the tamer asked.

        " Of course, so stay down and hold on, " Errol began to unfasten the straps on his left glove, " Are you ready, Puppy? "

        The tardigrade grunted. Just then, the acacia leapt towards them and its shadow fell upon the group. There was no escape. Puppy could not swerve due to his injury, otherwise he will fall over. Their only hope was that somehow, the thorns would narrowly miss them again. The humans closed their eyes except for Hunter who, after his earlier ordeal, felt that he could face death with a peaceful heart.

        But there was no death. There were no thorns on their bodies. There was just Puppy who stopped so suddenly, and Errol who jumped off his pet's back, landed gracefully on the ground, knelt down on it and buried his left arm into the sand. For brief moment, Hunter caught a glimpse of the hidden arm; it seemed to have black thorns. But before he could think about what that meant, a massive amount of thick, thorny, woody vines erupted from the sand and formed a dome around them. It almost completely blocked the sun's rays but there was just enough light for him to see that the dome entangled the acacia's branches and held it in place.

        " Whoa! You did i- " the guard almost rejoiced at their victory, but his eyes fell upon Hunter who stared blankly at something on the ground.

        One of the acacia's branches had gone through. The dome was unable to entangle it completely before it hit its mark. On the Desert Beyond's warm surface, there knelt a small, black-haired figure with its left arm in the loose sand… and two acacia thorns that ran through its back and out to the front of its chest. A dark liquid dripped onto the desert as the humans stood on the tardigrade's back; they were frozen in place. Even Steel, who had seen many deaths before, was speechless.

        " Ah, shit, it hurts, " Errol suddenly coughed up, " I can't hold it much longer. "

        The vines tightened its grip around the acacia and tried to pull the thorns out of the historian's back, but the bloody thorn tree was stubborn.

        " You should go- to Linnorm, " the little one said.

        " Errol! " Hunter almost jumped off from where he sat, but Thyme held him back.

        " We can't do anything, let's just- " the guard's sentence ended abruptly due to a strong punch to his face.

        " If only you listened! " the tamer furiously grabbed his friend by the collar, " If only you weren't such a stubborn bastard! "

        " Oh, c'mon… humans really are… " Errol coughed again as the acacia managed to rip through the vines. It stabbed another thorn through its target and it managed to impale the little one's right leg onto the ground, " I know that you won't like it but… just this once… Puppy… please. "

        The tardigrade grunted loudly and the divisions on his shell opened up. The humans and their belongings fell into the creature's back but before they could climb out, the shell closed up. Each human was in a separate area though their belongings were mixed. Puppy's back was soft and warm like a bed, but it was still incredibly tough. Rina began to cry when she felt the tardigrade move; her fiancé was speechless and he felt empty as he realized what just happened. Steel kept saying thank you, thank you- Hunter was the only one who would not go down without a fight. He kicked and screamed at Puppy's shell, but soon stopped when he realized that he might be hurting the tardigrade. The young tamer grasped Errol's bone knife and cloak tightly in his hands.

        As the journey continued, the humans felt as if they were traveling forever. They didn't want to fall asleep, but their weariness overcame their frail bodies. While his passengers rested, Puppy continued to run as fast as he could. Forward, always forward; he did not waste a moment, he did not look back at the vine dome which was soon beaten down and completely destroyed by the acacia. By the time that the solitary hunter was done with the one who was left behind, the others were safely on their way to their destination: Linnorm.

        â€‹Puppy continued to run at full speed but he allowed the humans to get out of his back. The tardigrade did not feel comfortable with so many passengers under his shell. He was only used to Errol, who occasionally went to sleep in his back but even then, Puppy felt uncomfortable. As for the humans, they looked at the direction where they came from yet there was nothing but an endless expanse of sand. When they looked forward, there was nothing but sand as well. Their journey continued even as the sun began to set once again to make way for a moment without sunlight, an occurrence which humans referred to as "night".

        " Hunter, " his blonde friend tugged at the tamer's sleeve, " Are you still angry at Thyme? "

        There came no reply. The brown-haired boy busied himself with a thorough examination of Errol's knife. There was no sound aside from the wind that brushed against their ears.

        " Honestly I… " the seasoned farmed broke the silence, " I was completely unprepared for this. "

        The younger humans looked up at his sullen face as they all sat on the tardigrade's closed shell.

        " I didn't think that we would end up in the desert, " Steel continued, " And I have not seen a single drop of Black Blood ever since we came out of the forest. "

        Rina blinked just then, as if the farmer brought up a very interesting topic.

        " But… I don't think that Errol was misleading us, " the farmer pointed out, " I think he definitely knew where we should be going. We should have trusted him. "

        " Trust huh… " Thyme muttered, " What will we do now? Our guide's dead. "

        His fiancée gasped. It was as if no one wanted to say it out loud. No one wanted to bring up that topic, but the guard said it so easily and that almost earned him another punch to the face. But suddenly-

        " A town! " Rina pointed to bright lights in the distance.

        It seemed to be a lively place that was much bigger than 135. The historian hurriedly pulled out her map and looked up at the stars which had just begun to appear in the sky.

        " It's the last town- " she excitedly said, " 144! "

        The humans waited for Puppy to slow down or to change his direction, but the tardigrade kept moving forward.

        " Aren't we supposed to go there? " the girl was the only one who dared to speak to the tardigrade, " Puppy, is Linnorm a place or a person? "

        The grey extremophile merely grunted. He seemed to know exactly what he should be doing, therefore not even the defiant guard attempted to question Puppy's actions. The sun continued to set at the east and soon, its bright face disappeared completely below the horizon.

        Four tall, grey pillars came into view just as the group passed by 144. As their mount continued to run towards it, the grey pillars seemed to be getting larger. The rock formation was truly a sight to behold; it was like a massive mountain in the middle of the desert, but the humans knew that the only mountain ranges of the World were all contained within the oak forest.

        " If you don't disturb them, " Hunter inhaled and exhaled deeply. He seemed to know just what that place was, " – they won't disturb you. "

        As he held onto the tardigrade's shell tightly, the tamer looked down at the grey beast.

        " So Puppy, " he finally spoke to the blue-blooded creature, " Why are we going to disturb them? "

        They arrived at the rock formation without incident. Hunter, who had an idea as to what was going on, hopped off the tardigrade first. He slung his bag on his back and held the bone knife tightly with his right hand. Steel walked up to the tamer and stood by his side.

        " These rocks are very ancient, " the farmer used his expertise, " But they don't seem to be natural formations. "

        Hunter looked up at his comrade while Thyme helped Rina get down from Puppy's back.

        " You see those rough edges and the way that the rocks are slightly inclined? " Steel pointed at the formations around the four pillars, " Those things could only be formed if there was a sudden disturbance that broke through the ground and displaced the solid rocks around it. "

        " An impact? " the historian piped in, " Could this be… Impact Cavern? "

        Every human in the World knew what Impact Cavern was. The Age of the Sun which changed the whole planet began when Apocalypse occurred. The remnants of Apocalypse were within that cavern. According to the history book which Errol wrote and distributed to towns, the Overlord found something called the Mechanism deep within that cavern and she activated it. Upon its activation, life on the planet began to flourish, but not before humans had already begun to experiment with Black Blood.

        " I wish I could open this, " Rina held onto a familiar thick brown book in her arms, Errol's original History of the World, " There's no lock, but I just can't open it… "

        While the humans murmured amongst themselves, Puppy walked a little closer to the massive rock formation. Then, he burped. It was a fairly loud burp that echoed through the grey rocks, and some of the smaller formations began to move.

        " Tardigrades? " Thyme rhetorically asked, but he was mistaken.

        " No… " Hunter finally spoke to him, if only to answer his question.

        The grey figures began to glimmer and they unfolded to reveal long bodies. They then slithered towards the humans and the tardigrade. Steel noted that most of those creatures were as large as the acacia, while some were much larger. Soon the four towering pillars which they saw earlier moved as well, and all of the creatures which they 'disturbed' gathered around the group of humans.

        " … armored desert snakes, " the tamer said, his voice as soft as possible.

        Their armor-like scales reflected light, thus under the aurora, the desert snakes seemed beautiful. But the humans could not forget the stories that travelers once related. It was rumored that one full-grown desert snake could completely destroy a large town overnight. Despite their bulk, they also moved fast just like tardigrades. But oddly enough, armored desert snakes did not require food or water. The plates along their back seemed to gather nourishment from the most abundant resource on the planet: sunlight.

        " They feed on sunlight, " Hunter pointed out, " And they don't bother humans unless they were bothered first. I wonder if this counts as bothering them… "

        A gigantic shadow, even larger than the four large snakes, slithered from farther within the rock formation. It soon revealed its face: an armored desert snake whose plates seemed to be incredibly heavy, and whose armor scales reflected the most beautiful colors of the aurora. Its purple eyes were wide set and its face had deep lines that indicated its advanced age. It took one look at Puppy, lowered its head towards the tardigrade and, with one quick movement, the snake gobbled Errol's pet up.

        " HWAAA! " Rina screamed.

        " Puppy! " the guard finally did something unselfish. He threw his spear at the desert snake, confident that its porcupig quill could hurt the creature enough to make it drop the tardigrade, but the spear was simply deflected by the armor scales.

        Before the humans could even consider running away, the snakes had completely surrounded them. Most of the obstructions were much smaller than the old snake but they were still massive. Finally, just as Steel considered tackling a snake to let the others get away, the purple-eyed one lowered its head and spat Puppy out. The tardigrade did not seem fazed at all; in fact, it seemed to be feeling much better.

        The humans would have talked amongst themselves to try and figure out what was going on, if not for the sudden movement of the old snake. It gobbled up all four humans at the same time. Hunter held his breath as he was helplessly sloshed around by the creature's tongue. Every now and then, his head bumped against someone else's and by the time that the snake was done with them, his head hurt and he was covered in desert snake slobber.

        " Was that a greeting? " Thyme asked once they were on solid ground again, to which Puppy replied with a happy grunt.

        Oddly enough, the slobber did not taste or smell bad. Their joints and muscles, which had been aching earlier, felt lighter. Their cuts and bruises began to heal up just as the slobber itself evaporated. Hunter checked Puppy's ripped leg and instead of a large gash, all that was left was a scar. The tardigrade still could not put all of his weight on it though.

        " You're him, aren't you? " the tamer walked up to the old snake, " Errol's friend, Linnorm. "

        His question was answer with a loud burp which the tamer interpreted as a simple yes.

        The passage of time was difficult to measure. Hunter felt as if he looked down at the snakes and his fellow humans for the longest moment. He found a place where he could be alone near the top of one of the pillars. The tamer just could not deal with human interactions for a while. On the even rock surfaces below him, Rina set up camp and busily wrote down notes on her map and on her history book. He remembered back then when they were kids, Rina had always wanted to be a historian. She asked about anything and everything, and had to be scolded many times whenever she tried to leave the town.

        As for him, Hunter, the only child of the Captain, everyone thought that he would be a guard so that someday, he could take his father's place. But his heart was set on becoming a tamer just like his mother, and his father Xing did not stop him. Thyme, on the other hand, was undecided. He remained as an artist for a very long time. In the World, children who had not decided on their roles were Artists who tried to do various things; very old people who could no longer do their old roles were also artists.

        " You became a guard so that you could protect Rina, " the young man muttered under his breath as he looked at the couple, " If I became a guard instead of a tamer, I wonder if I could have… "

        Hunter looked at his hands. They were clean and there were no signs of injury or work. He wondered if he was fulfilling his role, if he was doing everything that he should be doing, and if he was really giving it his all. So far, his journal had a few entries about tardigrades and at that moment, he was occasionally jotting down notes about armored desert snakes:

The aurora is reflected beautifully by their armor scales.

Their greeting involves tasting a part of whomever they want to greet.

Their saliva heals external wounds and soothes the body.

They care for their friends and families.

        That last bit made him look at Steel who, while he examined the rock formations, was stalked by a curious young snake. The farmer would occasionally run off and the snake would slither after him; in the end, it became a game of hide and seek. Hunter laughed at that scene until he noticed Puppy who was all by himself. The tardigrade stood on one of the rock formations and looked at the direction where they came from. It seemed as if the extremophile was waiting for Errol, but Hunter knew that the little one was gone forever. No human could possibly outrun the acacia; even the massive vine dome was unable to keep it away; and the pool of blood beneath Errol as the historian knelt on the sand…

        The tamer almost fell over when he felt a nudge against his back. It was Linnorm; despite the snake's size, it was able to sneak up behind Hunter who'd been so lost in his thoughts. As it gently brushed against the side of the human's face, the boy wrote down on his journal: They are led by Linnorm who is very kind and wise. They could not speak to one another directly, but he felt as if the snake asked how he was doing.

        " It hurts, " Hunter said as he clutched his chest, " Right here. "

        At that, the snake playfully tried to gobble up the human once again. It pulled back at the last minute though and a wheezing, laugh-like sound came out of its mouth. Hunter laughed as well, partly because his getting gobbled up by creatures was becoming frequent, partly because he wanted to forget the fact that no matter how many times Linnorm tried to heal him, the pain in his chest would never go away.

        â€‹The humans made their decision. As a group, they traveled across the sands towards Town #144. Hunter was hesitant but he agreed with Rina when she reminded him of their objective. Despite the lack of a guide, they still had to find out where the droplets of Black Blood came from. If there was anything about the Overlord in that area, they should pursue that knowledge. Although Steel believed that the snakes' home led to Impact Cavern, they were unable to confirm it since the creatures made them stay away from the darker parts of the rock formations. If that place was indeed Impact Cavern, the humans thought that perhaps, someone from 144 documented it or, even better, found another way in.

        Puppy did not leave with the group. The tardigrade was, for some odd reason, adamant on staying on his rock pillar. Linnorm did not stop the humans from leaving but it had a worried expression on its face. Hunter bade the snakes farewell and promised that he would come back someday. Their journey so far seemed to have changed Thyme a bit. He was less apprehensive of animals and became more supportive towards his fiancée. At one point, the guard even admitted that porcupig quills can't solve everything after all.

        Despite their worries, the humans reached 144 without delay and without any untoward incidents. Steel grumbled every now and then about the lack of something new to look at, but it wasn't a chronic disease or a mortal wound so the others did not worry about it. Rina was as enthusiastic as ever; she particularly liked how her own map turned out and the additional information which she wrote down on the pages of her history book also delighted her.

        Up close, Town #144 was, in one word, normal. The houses were made of the usual white stone and they did not have any telltale acacia slashes. Beside one of the houses at the edge of the town, there stood a large figure in an earthen pot. Hunter, who was almost as curious as Rina, approached it. His fellow humans thought that he suddenly vanished, but their worries turned to bursts of laughter soon enough.

        " Not again, " the tamer said while his head was inside the mouth of a snap dragon, " Why me? "

        Steel tried to hold his laughter as he walked over to Hunter's side and tickled the offending plant's stem. At that, the flower opened up and the brown-haired boy was free from his bright red captor.

        " At least that snap dragon only had one flower, " the farmer jested, " Imagine what would have happened if you stumbled up to a bigger plant? "

        It was nothing to worry about, he said. Snap dragons are just overly friendly tame plants, he said. There's a very low chance that a human could be allergic to them, he said. But Hunter scratched his face repeatedly as bright red rashes broke out on his cheeks. It was quite an inconvenience, but at least it was just a snap dragon. Compared to what happened to them earlier, the tamer would not complain about his current situation.

        " Wow~ this place is pretty! " Rina was awe-struck by the many colorful tame plants that co-existed with humans in 144.

        There were more snap dragons, which Hunter cautiously avoided, bellflowers and some flowering witchweed too. As the group walked farther into town, they noticed the friendly people who didn't mind the presence of strangers and, as they got close to the town hall, Thyme stopped and pointed at his feet.

        " Grass… " the guard said.

        " So? " Hunter raised an eyebrow at his friend, but it could not be taken seriously because his face was full of red rashes.

        " It is growing on sand! " Steel pointed out.

        " Of course. Ever since she arrived, this place has blossomed, " said a small man with a very squeaky voice, " It's good to see you again, Steel. "

        The farmer could not believe it. His old friend who had gone to the desert and never came back stood before him at that moment.

        " Ochre! " the large man picked his friend up and embraced him tightly.

        " Argh! Your friendship still hurts! " the small farmer coughed until Steel let him go, " If you want to meet her… "

        He led the group to the town hall where people sat around a lone figure. There, on the soft grass, stood a woman with pale skin, waist-length black hair, and narrow black eyes. Her pinkish lips had a gentle smile and a simple white dress fit her beautiful body perfectly. But the most remarkable thing about her was the fact that when she opened her bare hand, a single black rose blossomed upon it. While the others stood in awe, Rina approached the woman and looked up at her flawless face.

        " We've been looking for you, " the historian bowed slightly, " Overlord. "

        â€‹Rina furiously wrote short passages and notes in her history book. The humans from 27 were invited into the town hall and they had been there for a while due to the historian's insistence that she must write everything down. Unlike their town where travelers were invited into houses, 144's town hall accommodated the town's guests. 27's town hall was wider than 144's, but the latter had more floors. Steel busily checked their belongings when the group arrived at their room on the second floor. There were no beds, but they were given soft grass mats which were more comfortable than wooly jackets.

        Two crystal windows allowed them to look out from their room. Once their bags were neatly tucked into one corner of the room, Thyme looked out the window and the first thing that he noticed was the group of people around the black-haired woman. It seemed as if she noticed him, for the woman looked up and smiled at the guard's direction.

        " Is that really her? " Thyme backed away from the window and sat down beside his fiancée.

        The historian did not reply. She was still focused on writing down her notes; occasionally, she turned the pages and referred to older notes, but she never spoke. Steel walked over to Hunter who had been examining Errol's knife again.

        " How about you? Do you think it's her? " the farmer paused as he sat down beside the much younger human, " The Overlord? "

        When Rina walked up to the woman earlier, she neither denied nor confirmed that she was the Overlord. The black-haired lady merely smiled at the historian, and offered the single black rose to her. The blonde enthusiastically took the rose back then and she ran to the group. Rina spoke too fast at that point and no one could understand what she was saying. Steel's old friend Ochre then took them to the town's Keeper, an aged little lady named Gabriela, who told the travelers about 144's arrangement for humans from other towns. Apparently, each family already took in many travelers before; therefore their own houses were crowded.

        " Based on what we know about the Overlord, it seems to be her, " Hunter replied.

        There was some common knowledge about the being that helped the planet survive through the Age of the Sun. First of all, she was a she. The Overlord had always been referred to as female. Second, she had Black Blood. At that point, they had not seen the color of the woman's blood yet, but there were other details that did match the Overlord's description. Third, she could make plants grow anywhere. The presence of grass in the desert was proof of that. Normally, grass would become poisonous on inhospitable soil such as sand, but the grass which grew in 144 was soft and sweet-smelling. Fourth, she was able to make plants grow without any source such as saplings or seeds. The rose blossomed in the woman's empty hand. And lastly, a piece of information that only historians, farmers and gardeners knew…

        " The black rose, " the farmer remembered, " Even in ancient Earth, black roses were just legends. But in the Overlord's diary, she drew such a plant. It was tame and beautiful. I think that woman is the Overlord. "

        " You just answered your own question, " Hunter pointed out.

        " I know. But I was asking about what YOU thought, " Steel laughed and clapped his large hand against the tamer's back.

        For a moment, the room was quiet as Rina continued to write in her book.

        " So that's it then. We found her, " Thyme spoke up and broke the silence, " Now what? "

        â€‹One moment with sunlight quickly passed by. The day ended and soon afterwards, the sky was filled with beautiful colors of the aurora once more. At night, 144 was no less lively. People wandered the streets and chatted as if it was still daytime. Even the snap dragons, which usually slept when people went to sleep, were still awake and they occasionally tried to gobble up passers-by. Early that night, Steel had his fill of fuzzyworm soup after which he headed out for a stroll with Ochre. They had many things to talk about and his young companions understood.

        " Rina, are you done with this? " the guard said when he noticed the half-eaten fuzzyworm egg.

        The historian just nodded as she continued to read and re-read her book's pages. Rina squinted and frowned every now and then; other times she smiled and nodded.

        " Hey, if you want to go out, it's fine, " Thyme spoke to his brown-haired friend without looking at him.

        " Won't you be bored here? " Hunter asked, " Since she's still preoccupied with that book. "

        " What's the difference? You still hate my face and won't talk to me much, " the guard shrugged.

        Thyme was right, so Hunter took his own journal and headed for the town's streets. It was illuminated by the colors of the aurora and by the light of honey mushrooms. Back at 27, the humans made candles from animal fat; they rarely used any plants or animals to light their way in the night because life in the town slowed down around dusk. Once sunlight disappeared beneath the horizon, Town #27's humans stayed inside their houses. 144 was different from the place where Hunter grew up. Honey mushrooms, which were small, defenseless and relied heavily on oak trees' kills, lit the way. There were no animal carcasses beside the mushrooms, therefore the tamer thought of only one explanation: the Overlord made the mushrooms grow and sustained them in a way that only she could do.

        " This is amazing, " Xing's son muttered under his breath.

        When he turned a corner, the boy narrowly avoided a snap dragon which made him bump right into Steel.

        " Whoa! " the farmer seemed a bit jumpy, " Ah, it's just you. But darn it, I swear, these snap dragons are more annoying than the ones that I've dealt with before. "

        " Did it eat your head too? " Hunter snickered.

        " Twice! So don't go down that alley, " Steel pointed to a path behind him, " The snap dragons there are massive! "

        " Why do people keep those things anyway? " the boy wondered.

        The farmer shrugged, then he gestured towards the other direction and Hunter followed him away from the large snap dragons.

        " They're tame and entertaining. They're easy to feed too; you just need to put some blood near their roots. Oh, but, " the greyish-haired man, " Don't piss them off. They have this thing in their flowers, when it sparks… ohoho. You should run. "

        Hunter couldn't clearly understand what Steel meant, but it sounded serious.

        " Don't piss them off- noted, " the tamer said out loud.

        â€‹" Can you tell me what you saw in the town? " Rina repeatedly poked Hunter's side until he woke up.

        " Huuuh? Uhm… " the tamer managed to sit up. He rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes and then he took a journal from his bag, " Just read that. "

        Without another word, the brown-haired boy curled up on his grass mat and went to sleep again. It was almost daybreak, but the tamer spent his night out on a stroll with Steel and had just gotten back. The old man was equally tired and he snored loudly. All of the men were asleep, but Rina continued to analyze anything that she could read and she wrote every piece of information down in her history book. Every now and then, she still tried to pry Errol's book open but to no avail.

        Later in the day, Thyme woke up but the other two were still asleep. He noticed that his fiancée remained wide awake, and she had two more books to read. The guard recognized Hunter's journal, but the other book was unfamiliar. It was very old, tattered and had dried mud. He deduced that it was Steel's journal.

        " I'm going out, " he said, and the only reply that he got was a nod from Rina.

        Although the redhead was annoyed by the historian's preoccupation with her work, he knew and accepted that she would always be like that. When they were kids, Rina and Hunter were the only ones who did not pester him when he could not make up his mind and choose a role. Thyme thought that maybe, over the years, he became uptight and must have seemed ungrateful. He felt regretful of the way that he treated Errol, but he knew that he could not do anything about it anymore. Determined to redeem himself in the eyes of his friend and of his fiancée, Thyme walked down the streets of 144 with a mission. Unfortunately, he was delayed.

        " AAAARGH! " he yelled but no one could hear him, " Help! Someone! "

        With his head in the 'mouth' of a snap dragon, Thyme panicked. He tried to run away but the plant was securely rooted in its earthen pot. Unlike Hunter's captor, the snap dragon that caught Thyme was a pale orange; the bite did not hurt but the guard was quickly running out of breath. He flailed his arms until they accidentally brushed against the snap dragon's stem, and that tickled the plant which made it let him go.

        " HAAAAAAAAAAAAH! " Thyme exhaled as he fell on his bottom.

        The guard looked at the snap dragon which got back into its usual position.

        " So that's… " he gasped for air, " How it felt like… for Hunter. "

        As he stood up, Thyme thought about his friend's encounter with the plant and he swore that he would not laugh at the tamer if it ever happened again. He walked down the streets and as he turned at a sharp corner, only then did the guard notice something peculiar. The streets were completely empty. He looked around him but there was no sign of movement. Worried about Rina and the others, Thyme headed back to the town hall but his mind was soon put at ease when some people emerged from one of the larger houses.

        " Oh, did they have a meeting? " he wondered as he slowed down, " OW! "

        A sharp pain on the back of his head made Thyme wince. He put his hand on where he felt the prick, but there was nothing there. The guard looked at his hand and there was no blood or any sign of injury, so he shrugged it off and went to look for 144's trade market. He knew that soon, they would have to go back to 27 and the least that he could do was to look for provisions for the journey home.

        â€‹When Hunter opened his eyes, Rina's face was the first thing that came into view. He almost yelled, for it seemed as if she had been staring at him for the longest time as she sat there by his side.

        " I figured it out! " she excitedly screamed right at his face.

        " Okay but… can you back off a bit? " the tamer asked his friend.

        No matter how pretty the blonde was, waking up to someone's face THAT close was still nightmare-ish, and in his half-asleep state he wanted to make sure that he was not having a nightmare. However, it reminded him of how lucky he was; Hunter heard, from Rina of course, that in the Age of the Sun, people usually did not have dreams or nightmares. Only a few humans and the Overlord herself experienced the phenomenon called dreaming.

        " Look at this, and this, and this! " Rina pointed at the writings in her history book which she shoved into Hunter's hands, " See? "

        The tamer sat up and tried to make sense of what the historian showed to him, but her handwriting was horrible.

        " You know that I can't… the way that you write… " he sleepily said.

        " Oh, you! " the emerald-eyed blonde grabbed her book.

        â€‹Rina pointed at one of the excerpts from the Overlord's diary.

        " She wrote that she liked how her hair shielded her from the sun, " she began, " Because it was the darkest color. That means, the Overlord had black hair- just like that woman! "

        The girl hurriedly turned to another page and pointed at it too.

        " She disliked how her skin never got any darker, and that it made her stand out, " Rina said, " And it was the palest color, like someone who was ill and had not gotten out of their house for ages… just like that woman too! "

        " Where are you going with this? We already established that the woman is… " Hunter yawned before he could continue.

        " That woman can also manipulate plants and even create them out of thin air. She's definitely the one who has been keeping 144 like this but… " Rina paused, " … did you see any animals? "

        The tamer was puzzled.

        " Huh? Animals? " he asked, " What does that have to do with the Overlord? "

        " I read Steel's journal. He only wrote about the plants along the street. And I read your journal. The last entry was that line about Linnorm, " Rina then took out a neat drawing of 27's layout, " All towns look like this, only with minor differences. But 144… "

        " … isn't like this, " Hunter finished her sentence, " There are no markets, not patches, no library… just houses and the town hall. "

        " According to her diary, the Overlord was very fond of animals. She kept them close to her and preferred their company. Even if there was no vegetable patch here, the Overlord should have kept animals in farms. And that black rose… " Rina took out the flower that the woman gave to her, " … in her diary, the black rose never withers. "

        The historian held up the withered blossom which Hunter took in his hand. Before he could speak though, a sharp pain pierced the back of his head.

        " OW! " the tamer almost fell over; the inside of his skull felt as if it would explode, " I think I overslept… my head hurts now. But… Rina, you're saying that… "

        " That woman, she's not the Overlord. I made a mistake… " the historian admitted as she rubbed her friend's back, " I got your hopes up. "

        " If she's not the Overlord, then who is she? To keep so many plants alive, I've never heard of a gardener who could do that, " Hunter's headache subsided as he spoke, " And where are the others? "

        Only then did the two notice that the room, no, the town hall was completely empty if not for their presence. Rina, both confused and afraid, took the tamer's hand as they walked down the stairs and headed outside.

        Hand in hand, the tamer and the historian walked down the stairs. The town hall was completely empty. There were no signs of a struggle, as if people just… vanished.

        " Steel left first, " the golden-haired girl said, her voice shook a little, " Thyme followed him. I thought they were just going out to the markets… but I went to the highest floor and I looked out a window… "

        " And there were no markets, no patches, no farms, " Hunter finished Rina's sentence.

        On the ground, it was difficult to check his location since he was new to the town. When he did not find an animal farm on one of the town's corners, Hunter simply thought that he was on the wrong end of town. But Rina, who had seen the town's layout when she looked out the window, knew that there was something wrong with 144. However, she didn't think much of it back then, not until she spoke to Hunter about it.

        The tamer let go of his friend's hand when they reached the large, wooden double-doors that would lead them out of the town hall. He told her to stay behind him and, with one strong pull, he opened the doors. Bright light flooded the hall and Hunter's eyesight was blurred for a moment. Therefore, when he looked at what was in front of him, he thought that it was an illusion. Hunter blinked a few times, but he realized that it was not a dream when Rina grabbed his arm; she was obviously frightened.

        " What are they doing? " the historian whimpered as she tightened her hold.

        In front of the town hall, the townsfolk were gathered around the black-haired woman. They just stood there staring at her with blank eyes. It seemed as if they were mesmerized.

        " – ter… tch… " said a familiar voice, " Hun… ter… "

        It was Thyme; he stood with the crowd, but he tried desperately to look at his friends.

        " R-run… " said another familiar voice which turned out to be Steel's. The farmer stood beside the guard; both seemed to be unable to move but they had no physical restraints.

        " Hold on, I'll… GAH! " Hunter fell to the ground when he walked towards the two, " My head! It hurts! "

        His arms went numb and the boy fell onto the soft, sweet grass.

        " KYAAA! It's moving! There's something… Hunter! " Rina screamed and ran to her friend.

        She looked at the back of his head and sure enough, she was not mistaken. Something was moving under his skin. It looked like a spherical thing, but she couldn't see the exact form. When the historian looked up at the townsfolk, the backs of their heads looked normal, but Thyme's and Steel's didn't. Much like Hunter's, something moved under their skin.

        " … can't… can't feel my arms… and my legs… " the tamer managed to speak, but the light in his eyes seemed to be fading away.

        As Rina cried beside her friend, the crowd parted. With dainty steps, the black-haired woman walked towards them. She stopped just in front of Thyme and Steel.

        " I thought you smelled weird, " her voice was cold and breathy, " Desert snakes, hmm? "

        She then looked at Rina who could barely see through her tears.

        " And you, haven't you been to town? " she asked.

        The woman then snapped her fingers and a snap dragon burst from the ground beside the historian. It opened its mouth and from within it, a spherical plant with six sharp limbs emerged. It was much smaller than the sphere that grew on the back of Hunter's head, but the shape was similar.

        " Ah… ah… that thing… " Rina's eyes widened as the creature hissed at her.

        " Para- " Steel spat out with much difficulty, " –site. "

        " Hmm? I guess you're not familiar with the hydnora, " the unnamed woman had a cold smile on her lips, " Such an obedient little one… unlike this boy. "

        At that, her right hand grabbed Hunter by the neck and lifted him so that they ended up face to face.

        " Your scent, " the woman closed her eyes for a moment, " A tardigrade? "

        She closed her eyes again, breathed deeply, and then she opened her eyes. Those orbs which looked like beautiful, shining gems before became hollow, endless black holes.

        " And not just any tardigrade, " her eyes narrowed down to slits, " It's HERS. "

        Her voice was calm but Hunter could see the anger on her face. He felt it too when the woman's grip tightened around his neck. He wanted to move, but every time that he tried, a sharp, numbing pain ripped through his skull and his limbs fell limp. He gasped for air as the woman closed her hand around his throat.

        - Save them, - screamed the thoughts in his head.

        He wasn't even thinking about himself. Hunter thought about Rina and Thyme who were engaged; he thought about Steel who sacrificed most of his life so that 27's farms could flourish; and then, he thought about his mother who believed that someday, he would return to their town.

        - Save me, - he finally wished.

        He wanted to say those words, but he couldn't The woman tightened her grip even more. Rina cried in the background and from the corner of his eye, the tamer saw the hydnora which was poised to leap onto the historian's nape. Hunter's thoughts became muddled when he felt that his windpipe could be crushed at any moment; all would be lost, they would die in the middle of the desert- yet before he blacked out, he heard a familiar voice. It was that voice that he thought he'd never hear again.

        " Oi, " said a small, black-haired figure that stood on a moving grey rock, " Hands off my human, you bitch. "

        Deafening silence fell over Town #144 as the unnamed woman stood there, her right hand still on the brown-haired tamer's neck. Beside the town hall, close to where Thyme and Steel stood, a familiar grey rock dragged itself into view. The rock's passenger stood on the creature's back, and they both stared with worried eyes at the scene before them. The farmer and the guard wished that they could turn around to look at that direction; however, the hydnorae which controlled their movement did not allow them to move any part of their body and even speaking was nearly impossible.

        " As I thought, " the beautiful but cold long-haired woman broke the silence, " Your pets' filth made things difficult for my little babies. "

        She let go of Hunter's neck and turned him around so that he faced Rina; his back pressed against his captor's soft body. The woman then put her arms around the boy's torso to make sure that he didn't fall over. Still barely conscious from nearly being asphyxiated, Hunter couldn't make sense of what was happening. He thought that he was already dead, for he could see a dead person just a short distance away from him.

        The familiar black hair swayed every now and then as warm breeze blew through the town. But the large brown which used to hide most of that black hair was no longer present. Instead, goggles kept the shiny black strands in place. With nothing over them, the figure's black eyes could be clearly seen, and they had subtle fierceness behind them. Though of short stature, the lack of a cloak revealed that the little one's body wasn't exactly child-like. Beyond the tattered shirt and the ripped pants, Rina thought that she saw a few curves here and there. However, some of the exposed parts had thick, tight bandages; even the arms which lacked any sleeves or gloves were tightly wrapped by white strips of cloth.

        " Stay still, " said the one who was thought to be dead.

        " Tch~ you think I'd listen to you?! " Hunter's captor exclaimed as she slowly backed away with the tamer in tow.

        However, Rina knew that those words weren't for the long-haired woman; those words, Stay still, were for her. The hydnora inched closer towards her and she was sure that if she tried to run away, it would leap onto her head. The presence of the snap dragon, which seemed to be the parasite's host before it transferred to humans, was equally intimidating. The small, parasitic plant leaned back and as it did so, the grey rock grunted; when the hydnora jumped towards the blonde girl, the tardigrade spat out a sizable ball of saliva and it hit the parasite midair. At that, Rina ran towards the grey rock and embraced its cheerfully grunting head.

        " Puppy! " she kissed the creature's forehead, then the girl looked up at its passenger, " We thought you were… "

        The black-haired figure smiled at her warmly.

        " It's good to see you again, Errol, " Rina smiled back.

        With slow steps, the long-haired woman backed away into the crowd with Hunter in her arms. The townsfolk of 144, including Thyme and Steel, then turned and faced the interlopers. Errol held an arm out to Rina and helped the girl to get up on Puppy's back.

        " I read Hunter's journal, " the golden-haired historian whispered, " You're … "

        " I can't hide it forever, " Errol shrugged.

        The grass began to turn orange under Hunter and his captor. It slowly became poisonous, wild grass and that color spread outward. Overhead, a swarm of dandelions gathered. Their white tufts which served as floating mechanisms were lovely, but the sharp points around what seemed to be their mouth were very dangerous. Humans were always wary of dandelions which tend to float down from the sky in their massive swarms; the airborne plant had a habit of swooping down at anything that moved and then it would use its toothed mouth to bite off a large chunk of flesh. Occasionally, it would attach itself to an animal's back and stab its knife-like tongue into its flesh so that it could slowly feed on its victim's innards.

        " You shouldn't have come here, " the vile, black-haired woman snickered.

        " Tch. I was hoping that Shoo was mistaken, but here you are, " Errol spat on the orange grass beside Puppy's right leg.

        " You're completely surrounded, " growled Hunter's captor, " You should be running. "

        At that, Errol grinned. With one strong tug, she pulled the bandage off of her left arm. Black thorn-like markings were etched all over her forearm; the thorns were nothing like gardeners' thorns- they seemed to be birthmarks, or scars. The little girl then instructed Puppy to STAY as she jumped off the tardigrade and headed for the crowd. The townsfolk moved so suddenly and reached out to grab her, but she ducked and weaved between them. The hydnorae tried their best but they were not used to controlling humans; their movements were not fast enough.

        With a flick of her wrist, Errol used her bandage as a whip to grab Thyme's outstretched arm and she pulled him towards her. The guard stumbled forward and fell onto the grass, separated from the rest of the crowd. The black-haired girl then slid towards Steel; due to her size and speed, she easily passed by the hands that tried to pull her up. When she ended up below the farmer's legs, Steel picked her up and raised him over his head. The hydnora intended to throw her away but Errol looked up and-

        " Now! " she yelled then a large shadow fell over the town hall.

        A massive beast landed on the structure and crushed it completely, and as it got up, the creature's head dove into the crowd. It gobbled up the farmer whose position was marked by Errol's voice. The creature also gobbled up Thyme who was already writhing on the ground away from the other townsfolk.

        " Linnorm! " Rina yelled out as the snake's body surrounded Puppy tightly enough to protect the tardigrade and its passenger, but loosely enough to make sure that they weren't suffocated.

        The snake opened its mouth and Errol jumped out of it from such a height that could kill a human. However, before she reached the ground, thorny vines grew out of the sand, caught her and formed a path above the townsfolk's heads. By then, Hunter's captor looked worried; her eyes darted from side to side as if she was looking for a way to escape. But before Errol could reach them, the swarm of dandelions moved in. Their sharp limbs were aimed at the black-haired intruder.

        " Ah! Help her! " Rina yelled out to Linnorm who had just finished healing Steel and Thyme.

        The armored desert snake lowered its head and spat the guard and the farmer onto Puppy's back. It also swiped some attacking hydnorae and townsfolk away with one quick swish of its tail. Linnorm seemed uninterested in moving in to assist Errol.

        " Ugh… my head, " Rina's fiancé stood up as the parasite on his skull began to wither and die.

        Soon, the dead plant turned to a small, shriveled sphere which popped out of the incision on the boy's neck through which it entered earlier. Steel was also soon free of his unwanted passenger, and the wounds on their nape were healed by the snake's saliva. They managed to look over and check how Errol was doing just as the little one protected herself with a thick covering of vines that entangled the dandelions. As Errol reached the end of the vine path, her target pushed Hunter towards the thorny plants; therefore, the girl had to dismiss the vines so that the tamer would not be injured. The hydnora on the boy's head finally gave up; it couldn't control Hunter's movements no matter how much it tried, therefore it rolled up to a ball and slid out of the incision on the tamer's nape.

        " Hunter! " exclaimed Errol as she landed gracefully on the wild grass.

        She caught the tamer in her arms just as he was about to fall forward. The wound on the back of his neck bled a little, but it was not life-threatening.

        " I'm glad…you're not... " Hunter tried to put his arms around the little one, but he was too weak.

        " If only you stayed with Linnorm until I caught up to you… " she scolded the tamer as she ruffled his hair, " Humans really are so stubborn. "

        Errol sighed, but there was a gentle smile on her lips. That smile was there only for a moment because soon, they were surrounded by the townsfolk of 144 and the culprit of that tragedy quickly ran away. Despite the complications of having to save the humans while going after her doppelganger, Errol was determined to not let it get away.

        The old snake Linnorm looked down at the humans just as it finished swatting some townsfolk away. They had been asking it to help the other humans, to get rid of the hydnorae in their bodies, but just moments later, they realized that the townsfolk were beyond help. The parasites seemed to have gotten bored of moving around in slow human bodies. However, since they were already completely integrated into the humans' skulls, they couldn't return to their small, spherical form. Instead, the overgrown hydnorae's legs burst out from the humans' ears and lifted the whole head off of the body. The result was a large pile of headless humans and many arachnid-like severed heads which ran towards Linnorm.

        By then, Rina already fainted due to the amount of gore and blood that she saw. Puppy grunted and opened his shell so that Thyme could let his fiancée rest securely in it; after which, the farmer and the guard armed themselves, ready to fight off the hoard of heads. They knew that it wasn't enough to get away from the creatures; if they allowed those parasites to live, surely, they would overrun some other town. Thyme had his porcupig quill spear and Steel had his makeshift quill knives; with Linnorm and Puppy by their side, the humans felt optimistic.

        On Errol's end, things were just as bloody. Hunter tried his best to keep up with the girl but every now and then, she had to create vine walls to prevent the hydnorae from jumping on the tamer's face. She held his hand as they ran between the houses in search of the long-haired woman, and the warmth of her skin reminded him of that moment when he discovered her secret. Back then, he didn't bother to bring the issue up since Errol did not seem to mind; Puppy was the one who acted defensively. The tamer did wonder why she had to hide that fact, why she allowed people to refer to her as a boy, why she always hid under her cloak; but as they ran through the streets, flashbacks from his childhood played through his mind.

        " Errol, " he called out to her.

        " Hmm? " the girl didn't look back.

        " Have we met before? " Hunter asked, " When I was much younger? "

        Errol's hold on his hand tightened for a moment, but relaxed soon after. As the tamer ran behind her, he thought about that one day when the sky was purple. He had gotten lost near the border, but the guards had already run off to hide somewhere else. Everyone knew what a purple sky meant: solar storms. Sudden bursts of heat from the sun would hit the planet, and anything that it touched would be either damaged or dead. Tears ran down his cheeks back then; a child who was completely lost and afraid. That was until someone took his hand and told him to run as fast as he could. Her hair was short and black, and she was just slightly taller than him. Back then, he thought that she was also an artist, a child. Time did not seem to have changed Errol. She looked exactly the same.

        Suddenly, Hunter snapped back to the present as a shadow appeared from above. Errol, whose eyes looked forward, did not notice it. His legs still felt a bit numb and he was tired, but the boy used whatever strength he had left to dash forward, then he pushed the black-haired girl to the side. He owned her that much already, right?

        His head felt light, his body felt numb, but there was a sharp pain in his chest. The pain wasn't because of his emotions; as Hunter lay on his back on the ground, he looked at the left side of his chest and found a hand buried in it. He looked up at the face in front of him; the woman's eyes were completely black and devoid of any emotion, but a smile on her face meant that she was pleased of the outcome. Her long hair almost suffocated him as it fell all over his face. And he saw red. A lot of red: all over his chest, around the woman's right hand and arm, and splattered all over her face.

        In the blink of an eye, he then saw black. Hunter did not black out; he literally saw Black Blood as thorny vines attacked from his left side and grazed the woman's upper arm before she could back away to a safe distance. More vines erupted from the ground and created a dome over the tamer and his companion; rays of light passed between loose thorns and lit up the insides of the dark container.

        " Idiot! " Errol ran over to his side. Her eyes seemed as if they were holding back a great flood of tears, " You didn't have to do that! I'm immortal! "

        She frantically ripped off the tamer's shirt to see just how much damage had been done. The girl was no longer able to hold back her tears when an open wound revealed the lower part of a beating internal organ.

        " You might not be able to die but, I know that just like humans… " Hunter coughed up dark red blood and almost choked as he spoke, " … like me, you feel pain. "

        Linnorm crushed most of the parasites and their hosts with just his sheer size and power. Those who got through his defense were taken care of by the humans who ran beside the snake. Puppy, whose wounded leg was almost completely healed, shook off unwanted passengers from time to time as the group made their way to Errol. The tardigrade, through some inexplicable ability, knew where the girl was and so he led the way.

        But at their destination, the vine dome was slowly giving away due to the weight of attacking hydnorae. The parasites crawled here and there, occasionally stabbing an appendage through the thorns. Within the protected area, Hunter gasped his last few breaths. He tried to calm down so that he would not bleed out, but the wound was deep and fatal. If the long-haired woman's hand remained a bit longer in his chest, she would have been able to grab the tamer's heart itself.

        Beside the blue-eyed boy, there sat a whimpering, shaking figure. Just a short while earlier, she took on dozens of enemies without breaking a sweat, but at that moment, she was vulnerable and devastated. However, Errol's sadness was not caused just by the horror of holding a dying person in her arms; it was also caused by the conflict in her mind. She remembered her later days in Impact Cavern when the humans died one by one. Back then, she could do nothing; back then, she was absolutely helpless… but that was back then.

        The Overlord felt drawn to her General during the Age of the Sun. That was how she found him in the crowd; that was why she appointed him to his role. She could not make sense of what she felt at that time. Practical and completely logical, the Overlord did not understand human emotions. When she returned from Impact Cavern to share the good news about the Mechanism, her citadel was empty. Even the General, who had always been by her side, was gone. Due to blood loss, fatigue and, unbeknownst to her, a broken heart, the Overlord fell asleep for a very long time. When she woke up, her citadel was flooded and she found herself in the middle of the Overlord's Sea.

        As a historian, she was happy; much happier than she had been as the Overlord- though that may have been because she did not know what happiness was back in the Age of the Sun. In her travels, she met many humans until one day, she noticed a familiar feeling. A human who looked like her General came into view and at first, she was surprised. Later on, the Overlord, then in the guise of an annoying brat, found out that he was the General's grandson. Many moments passed and finally, that human died, but Errol kept watch over the General's descendants. Every now and then, she would feel something familiar from one of them. In the recent moments, it became known as blood compatibility by the historians; it was something that gardeners had with specific humans. Gardeners seemed to know whom they were compatible with even before their blood was tested, and there was always just one specific human who was compatible with one specific gardener. The humans had a strange term for it: soul mates.

        The General's descendants always lived in 27 therefore, the Overlord returned to that town every now and then. She remained enigmatic and distant, known merely as "that brat", but Errol was content with watching humans from afar. She knew that her time with them was over, and that the current Age was theirs. As time passed by without affecting her, Errol noticed that sometimes, the blood compatibility skipped a generation; she did not have that familiar feeling when she first met Xing. But one day, when the sky was purple, she was drawn to and helped a child who was lost at the edge of town. Later on, she found out that he was Xing's son, Yue Li.

        Sand flew through the air as Puppy burst forth from the ground beside his master. He grunted loudly and that was Linnorm's cue: the snake destroyed the houses around the dome and crushed the vine container itself so that it could kill the remaining hydnorae. It was skillful enough to avoid its allies and when the sand settled down, the old snake spat Thyme and Steel out of its mouth.

        " I will never get used to that… " the guard grumbled while the farmer laughed at their circumstances.

        The shell on the tardigrade's back opened up and out jumped Rina. She was still unnerved by the amount of blood and gore around them, but what made her gasp in shock was Hunter's state. The boy's breathing was erratic and he could barely keep his eyes open. Beside him, there was Errol who held his hands tightly.

        " You can help him… you can do it, right? " the historian's pretty green eyes looked up at Linnorm.

        She wished for a nod, but the snake looked away. Hunter's wound was deep and even if it did close up, the human already lost so much blood. At that, Puppy nudged the Overlord as if he was telling her to do something. Errol leaned against the tardigrade's head, and she sighed.

        " I can save him… " her voice was a whisper and it sounded as if she was apologetic, " But he will hate me. "

        Hunter chuckled and coughed up more blood.

        " I'd never hate you, " he assured her.

        Errol sighed once more as a single thorny vine sprouted from the sand. It wrapped itself around her forearm until the thorns cut through her skin, spilling Black Blood onto Hunter's wound and into his body.

        " So be it, " she whispered and closed her eyes.

        â€‹Hunter woke up to Thyme's angry voice and to blinding sunlight. He looked up and saw Rina who smiled at him; the tamer found himself on his friend's lap with her fiancé right in front of them, and he seemed to be yelling at someone in the distance. When the brown-haired boy managed to sit up, he realized that they were, once again, on Puppy's back and were traveling at full speed.

        " It was you all along, but you didn't say anything! " the redhead screamed at Errol who was on Linnorm's head.

        The snake and the tardigrade ran through the desert sand side by side. Steel, who felt very adventurous due to his brush with death earlier, happily sat on the old snake's back; he just sighed at Thyme's outburst.

        " We've been looking for you, and you were with us all that time! " the guard continued to yell. At that point, Errol could stand it no longer and had half the mind to punch a hole through his head.

        " You were sent out to follow the trail of Black Blood, " she calmly replied without looking at Thyme, " I wanted to know where it would lead to as well, because those droplets were not from me. "

        Thyme finally shut up at that point. He did notice it at the site where Hunter almost died. There was Black Blood on the ground, but the Overlord was not injured and there were no traces of fresh Black Blood on her clothes as well; not until she began to transfer her own life source to save his blue-eyed friend.

        " Then, that woman… " the guard looked ahead but there seemed to be no goal in sight, " She looked like you, didn't she? I mean… older-looking but… "

        Hunter listened to the conversation as the wind howled past their ears. He looked over to the golden-haired historian and caught her writing furiously on her history book while she checked her map. The tamer then felt that place on his chest where he had been stabbed; it did not hurt at all. He lifted his shirt up to check if there was a scar and instead of unsightly red markings, he saw a circle of black thorns etched on his skin, much like the ones on Errol's left arm.

        " The Mechanism, " said the pale little one, " … didn't like it when I left. "

        At that, Steel spoke up. He wasn't going to pass up a conversation that could answer his own questions.

        " Is the Mechanism a person? An animal? A plant? " he asked one question after the other.

        " Uhm… it's… " Errol thought about it for a moment, " It is a little bit of everything. That time when I was connected to it, I saw its memories… how it had veered off-course because of a chain reaction, and soon it crashed on the planet which, at that time, was called Earth. "

        As she tried to recall what she saw back then, those memories overlapped her own memories for a moment.

        " The humans who spoke to the sky called it Apocalypse, " she continued, " It ended up deep within the planet. The humans who practiced science found its nine parts and scattered them around… uhm… a molten orb deep underground. The largest part became the Mechanism. There was a lock… "

        Errol looked at her left arm.

        " … and a key, " she then yelled and pointed at a large hole in the middle of the desert, " There! "

        The tardigrade and the snake slowed down as they approached their destination.

        " They are me, but not me, " Errol tried to explain.

        " The woman? But… they? " Steel frowned; he knew what the answer to his question was, but he wanted to be sure, " There's more than one of her? "

        The Overlord nodded.

        " There were eight locks on the Mechanism. I've already undone three, " Errol said, then she hopped off Linnorm's head when it stopped close to the massive hole on the ground, " I thought that placing guards on the entrance would keep them from getting out but… they found another passage. "

        Linnorm huffed. It did not look happy or Linnorm-ish at all. Hunter could only wonder if the desert snakes' home was indeed the entrance to Impact Cavern; perhaps the old snake was not pleased that they were outsmarted by the Overlord's copies.

        " I would not have cared if they ran around looking like me… " Errol clarified as she looked around the hole for any signs of the long-haired woman, " But unfortunately, they think like the old me. "

        â€‹Rina finally stopped what she was doing. She shuddered. Some of the things which she read from the Overlord's diary were quite appalling after all. Humans knew that they needed the Overlord but at the same time, many of them hated her. During the Age of the Sun, Errol was cold and heartless; she was not the Errol whom led the humans through the forest and through the desert. It was then that the historian realized something. She looked at the foreword of her history book and laughed when she saw Errol's signature Errol D' Theov. It was a funny way of hiding in plain sight, and Rina wondered if anyone else noticed what those letters spelled out.

        But that was her secret, and she did not want to bother the others with such trivial matters. The events which unfolded in front of her were much more important than an anagram. The farmer had just gone ahead to check the hole for it seemed familiar, but instead of being surprised by an antlion's head, he was surprised that all that was left of the massive desert creature was its exoskeleton. Clearly, something- or someone – got rid of that beast so that they could use its burrow.

        " They're not down there, " Errol exclaimed.

        She then looked a little to her left at a nearby toadstool colony. They were massive tame plants, but they had their own dangers.

        " Four… " the Overlord's eyes were still on the bright red toadstools, " … and six. "

        Though a sight to behold from afar, toadstools were among the few tame plants which posed danger to humans and animals. Their white-speckled red caps seemed innocent enough, but toadstools released spores which would grow in a creature's body. A simple witchweed soup could clear up one's airways due to its vapor which was fatal to nothing but toadstools. When he thought about witchweed, Steel remembered something.

        " It was too good to be true, " said the farmer as they rested beneath Linnorm's shadow for a while, " I thought Ochre was acting a bit weird. He'd forgotten a lot of things although he wasn't much older than me. "

        The tragedy in 144 left no survivors aside from the small group from 27. Errol explained that hydnorae could live indefinitely without food or water since all it had to do was to take small amounts of moisture from its hosts. The humans of that town seemed to have been long dead due to the complete assimilation of the parasites into their skull; the hydnorae planted their roots into a host's nervous system and in the long run, their brains, if the hosts had any. The Ochre whom Steel hugged was probably being controlled by an older hydnorae which could access some memories and use them to trick more humans.

        But at that moment, not even a whole day after their near-death experience, Errol was about to take them into another one. They were hesitant, of course; Hunter was the only one who immediately jumped into the seemingly-suicidal mission. Apparently, Errol could feel her copies if they used their abilities. Consequently, she traced their location to the massive red plants. And by "massive", that meant "no less than five Linnorms stacked end to end". Like mold, toadstools grew together; their root system supported one another much like weary travelers in the middle of the vast desert.

        " You're absolutely sure that they're in there? " Steel asked the black-haired girl, " Is that why you're making him cook some soup? "

        A few paces from where Errol and Steel stood, the red-haired guard did what he could do best: cook. A guard's role demanded that he stay at the town's edge for moments on end. They had nothing to do but to guard the outskirts of town, and the only highlight of their days and nights were mealtimes. Uneventful moments resulted in the creation of many wonderful and tasty dishes which guards perfected for their own consumption.

        Not surprisingly, the farmer's bag contained many utensils which Thyme was able to use. He wondered if Steel stuffed his whole house within his pack. Errol's ability to create plants from seemingly nothing was equally convenient for she was able to make rows of witchweed grow on desert sand. When the soup was done, the humans inhaled the vapor and then had their fill of the delicious dish.

        " Thyme's dishes are the best! " Rina happily declared, and that resulted to a rare blush on her fiancé's face.

        " Are we really going in there though? " Steel asked in a very serious, monotone voice.

        " Of course, " Errol nodded, " Or… you could stay here with that- "

        She pointed to a familiar massive figure which waved in the distance. Its large trunk and thorny branches still had Black Blood on them. All four humans balked at the thought of staying behind with the bloody thorn tree. They immediately packed their belongings and stood up; Errol snickered before she stepped forward to lead the group into the toadstool colony.

        " Linnorm, stay here and guard that antlion's burrow, " she said, to which the snake replied with a nod, " Puppy will travel underground. "

        The tardigrade dove into the sand and soon he was completely out of sight. Errol walked until they were just outside the toadstool colony. A thick, dark mist filled that area; Steel already explained beforehand that the mist was comprised of toadstool spores which would root itself into a human's throat. They were very fragile but a single surviving spore could kill its host. As they stood there waiting for Errol to lead them into what could possibly be their graves; Rina poked the Overlord's butt. Yes, it was inappropriate, but she thought that it was okay since they were both girls. Startled, the little one turned around and faced the culprit.

        " I wanted to know… what happened to that tree? " the historian asked the question which lingered in everyone else's mind.

        Errol's eyes narrowed down to slits; it was clearly not a pleasant memory.

        " It was massive. And it was stubborn, " the Overlord turned towards the toadstool colony as she explained, " ... took a while to tame it. "

        The acacia still waved from where it stood. The tree was rather strangely enthusiastic and, though it seemed to pose no immediate danger, the humans did not want to get close to it at all. When Errol walked into the mist, the rest of the group followed her quickly. Puppy moved underground, Linnorm stayed and did as he was told, and the acacia's branches drooped. The bloody thorn tree seemed to be depressed because it was not allowed to join in the action.

        Hunter covered Rina's mouth just before she screamed. Within the mist which barely allowed any sunlight to reach the ground, hundreds of skeletons laid on the cold sand. Humans and animals- they were all victims of the toadstool colony. Thyme almost tripped over what seemed to be a recently deceased man with a toadstool growing out of his chest. The plant clearly broke through that human's ribcage but it remained unclear whether he died because of that, or because of the fact that the toadstool had been slowly draining his strength.

        Due to the mist, almost everything appeared to be in shades of grey. As they walked farther into the colony, it became increasingly difficult to avoid the skeletons which had toadstools growing out of them. Rina held onto Thyme's left arm as they walked, while his right hand held his porcupig quill spear tightly. Steel had a dagger in each hand and Hunter armed himself with Errol's knife which he was allowed to keep at that moment.

        Errol suddenly stopped.

        The wind did not reach that far into the colony. No sound aside from the humans' breathing could be heard.

        " Defend yourselves, " the Overlord broke the silence, " They're coming. "

        White noise filled the humans' ears. It sounded as if many small voices screamed all at once. It was not deafening or loud; instead, it was like a distant chorus that was getting closer. Thyme looked to his left and pulled Rina towards him. With dexterous movements and flicks, the guard spun his spear around with his fingers; Thyme effectively deflected a swarm of hydnorae. Without a host, the plants were easy to kill as long as one reacted quickly. Behind the group, a small figure darted from one of the toadstools. It headed for Hunter, but the aged yet strong farmer stepped in front of him. His daggers clashed with scythe-like vine formations. Steel forced one strong push to break his opponent's defense and as the scythes parted, the figure stepped back.

        " You're… " the surprised grey-haired human was not able to finish his statement.

        A gust of wind that carried sand and bones came from Errol's direction. Thyme put his arms around his fiancée to protect her while Hunter and Steel put their arms over their eyes. As the sand settled down, the humans tried their best to look at what was before them despite the grey mist. The first thing that they saw was a massive bright red cap which seemed to be sitting right on Errol's spot. But as the sand settled down further, the little one was still there. Her right arm held the toadstool up; her legs were buried halfway into the sand. It was evident that she took on the full force of that attack.

        " Predictable, " Errol scoffed.

        At the other end of the medium-sized toadstool which seemed to have been ripped from its roots, there stood a figure that looked just like Steel's opponent. The farmer had to check his enemy once again; the scythe-wielding girl was still there. His attacker and Errol's attacker were clearly different figures, but they looked the same. Just like the woman at 144, they looked like Errol; however, unlike the woman who seemed to be an older version of the Overlord, the twins seemed to be younger versions. Their haircut was short and they had neatly trimmed bangs. Both wore nothing but bandages on their child-like bodies.

        " Unforgivable, " Errol's attacker said.

        " Despicable, " Steel's attacker exclaimed.

        " Giving Black Blood… "

        " … to a human. "

        " Our sacred blood… "

        " … heretics! "

        " Shut up, Six, " the one true Overlord finally had enough. With just one arm, she pushed the toadstool cap upward and to her left; she then pulled her legs out of the sand and stepped forward, " That word, sacred, who taught you about that? "

        " Seven, " said the toadstool-wielding one.

        " Seven knows all, " said the scythe-wielder.

        " I thought so, " Errol sighed.

        " We are the gods of this world, " continued Errol's attacker.

        " We created this planet, " said Steel's opponent.

        The humans were confused, but they were still on their toes.

        " Bullshit, " the Overlord spat on the ground. The anger in her voice could be clearly noticed, much like when she referred to one of her copies as 'bitch', " This world already existed long before I was created. "

        She then pointed at the one who attacked her.

        " And definitely long before you were created, " Errol exclaimed.

        " Oh? "

        " Oh? "

        " Seven did say… "

        " … that your mind was polluted. "

        " Polluted, yes. "

        " By humans. "

        " Humans, filthy creatures. "

        " Humans, stupid ingrates. "

        " Walking fertilizer. "

        " Animal fodder. "

        " Damn, I feel so insulted, " Thyme suddenly piped up.

        Hunter snickered and Steel tried to hold back his laughter, but Six remained serious. The one in front of Errol put her fists up, and the one in front of Steel put her vine-covered arms up. Their eyes became completely white.

        " Six is synchronized. You'll just get in my way, " Errol said, her voice stern, " But I do need you to round up the other one. "

        Without looking at the humans, she pointed to her left side into the darkness where the swarm of hydnorae came from.

         " The woman from 144 is my fourth copy, " the Overlord explained, " She was injured. Find her. "

        Steel nodded at the other humans and they headed to Four's direction. But before they could leave, Errol spoke up again.

        " Hunter, do you trust me completely? " she asked, " If you do, stay behind me. "

        The tamer blinked and was rooted to his spot. He knew that he was utterly useless, but Thyme forcefully shoved him towards Errol. The other humans then went to look for the one who caused the tragedy at 144.

        " I… I'll do my best, " Hunter said as he turned to face the scythe wielder.

        " A fair fight, " Six said, echoed by both of its bodies, " Good. "

        As Hunter braced himself, he noticed that the black thorn markings on his skin quickly enveloped his body. He glimpsed at Errol and he saw that the same thing happened to her. His body felt light and his vision became clear, as if the grey mist was no longer present.

        " You don't have to do anything, " Errol said and as she called forth dark, thorny vines from the sand, so did Hunter though he was unsure of how he did it, " Just leave it to me. "

        Thyme led the way when they looked for the one who was called Four. Despite the presence of the thick mist, his eyes were still sharper compared to the other two's. As a guard, he was used to keeping a watchful eye on the border. There were telltale hydnorae tracks on the exposed toadstool roots and the disturbed skeletons; he ran ahead as the historian and the farmer followed him. Steel and Rina pulled up their jackets' hoods to make sure that the plants would not be able to latch onto them easily. The tracks soon led to a narrow path between some toadstools and so Thyme slowed down.

        " This could be an ambush, " the guard said to his comrades as he kept his voice close to a whisper.

        Steel's daggers were ready while Rina had, well, Errol's massive history book. Both men looked at her weirdly, but the girl just shrugged. It was better than nothing after all. They muttered for a bit and when the group finally decided on a course of action, the guard continued ahead. He held his weapon close and expected attackers as he walked on, but soon the humans reached the end of the narrow path without incident. That path led to a small clearing where a bit more sunlight was able to shine through. In the middle, there sat Four, similar to how Thyme and his comrades found her in Town #144. However, her long, black hair wasn't neatly combed down her back; it was all over her body, and she looked paler than before.

        " Come with us. We're taking you to Errol, " Steel bellowed. He knew that this woman could not be trusted, but he would rather not have anyone's blood in his hands.

        " Do you want to hear a poem? " the woman spoke in her familiar cold voice. She stared at the direction where the humans stood but she seemed to be looking beyond them.

        " We have no time for that. Come with us or we'll force you to, " Thyme pointed his quilled weapon at Four.

        But the woman did not respond to the threat. Instead, she began to recite a poem:

Into the darkness

A path of stone

Halfway with twenty

Halfway alone.

Eight locks to open

Ninth lock to bleed

Eight lives created

Ninth life soon freed.

First wise but frail

Second skillful but meek

Third strong but foolish

Fourth cunning but weak.

Fifth quick but mad

Sixth one but two

Seventh charming but vain

Eighth perfect but blue.

To end their story

To ensure it is done

From one to nine

Ebb nine to one.

        With her ink pens and her paper, Rina hurriedly wrote down the poem. Once the woman was done, she smiled coldly at the humans; at that point she looked directly, no longer beyond, them. A vast amount of hydnorae descended from the toadstools' caps and they surrounded the clearing.

        " Nowhere to run, " Four smirked.

        At that, the plants leapt and ran toward the three humans. Steel slashed some of the parasites and crushed others with his feet. Thyme used his spear to impale the creatures before they could get close. A seemingly-smart hydnora leapt up towards the guard's unprotected head, but Rina swatted it away with Errol's book. She was very afraid and her body shook, but her love for Thyme was greater than the sum of all her fears.

        " Humans will bow down to us again, " the cold woman suddenly laughed.

        As she moved a bit from her spot, her black hair swayed over to one side and her severed right arm was revealed. It was nothing but flesh and slivers of bone which hung from what seemed to be her shoulder blade. Apparently, Errol caused more damage than she thought.

        " The Citadel will rise once more! " her laughter seemed so empty and distant.

        The farmer noticed that the hydnorae became hesitant and some of them even seemed confused. He looked at the daggers in his hands and sighed. Thyme did his best too and he was skillfully keeping the swarm away, but soon they would be overrun. Steel made a decision and he could only hope that it would not haunt him forever. With one quick dash towards the middle of the clearing, he soon found his target.

        " Guh~ " the woman coughed up black blood as Steel buried one dagger into her stomach, the other to her right side, " Pathetic. "

        The hydnorae slumped down onto the ground and those who were still up in the toadstool caps fell down to their deaths. Steel felt a bit of pity for the woman.

        " Pathetic! " Four laughed, then she said, " While you are here… Seven is taking over the World, one town after another! "

        At that point, the grey-haired man no longer felt any pity. He wanted to rip Four's head off if he could- and that he did. The haughty woman's head rolled amongst her dead and dying hydnorae as Black Blood dripped from Steel's bare hands. Rina gasped at the sight, but she was more confused than afraid. As the light faded completely from Four's eyes, she muttered:

        "So... this is what it feels like- death. "

        Vine clashed against vine for Six wasted no moment. She immediately dashed towards Hunter and Errol right when they began to call forth their own weapons. Unsurprisingly, by the time that Six's fist was in front of Errol's and Hunter's face, dark vines managed to stop them, though just barely. It was the first time that Errol had used such a method, and she wasn't even sure if it worked. It was, after all, the very first time that she transferred her Black Blood to a compatible human. Six backed away when it was apparent that Errol's shield could take on the force of her attack.

        Hunter didn't say a word, but his heart almost jumped out of his chest. It was due to both excitement and happiness. He'd never been the fighter type, which is why he never aspired to be a guard; but there he was, at par with the Overlord's doppelgangers. Aside from the capability to actually fight, he also fought by Errol's side. The tamer's face turned bright red at this thought, and he barely avoided a cheap slide attack to his left leg.

        " Don't think about… stuff! " Errol said.

        She was flustered as well. The Overlord had always been used to one-way control such as when she tamed plants, but synchronizing with Hunter was different. He now had Black Blood, which meant that if he willed it, he could control Errol instead. At the moment, his emotions were unchecked and it distracted the Overlord. However, fighting side by side with him was essential for Six's attacks were…

        " Tch! " Errol rolled to her left side, and Hunter to his.

        It was another narrow dodge. Six decided to throw quick slashes and punches; she knew that Errol could not keep her shield up indefinitely for it would obstruct her view, but at the same time, she acted suspiciously sluggish. Six grinned. Hunter clearly dragged the Overlord down. The copies had nothing to worry about after all.

        " Seven said… "

        " … that Six could beat Errol. "

        " Seven said… "

        " … Errol is strong. But Errol fights alone. "

        Those words struck a chord with Hunter. Alone. What did Errol say earlier? Just leave it to me. He was there but he was… just… there. Errol still fought by herself. He didn't know what to do; he didn't know Six. He knew nothing. But that didn't mean that he should continue to do nothing.

        Six moved in again. It was a direct attack like before: Hunter's attacker had vine scythes around her hands, and Errol's attacker had vine wrappings around her arms and fists. As the scythes and the fists got closer, Errol got ready to duck… but she couldn't move. What? She wanted to yell at Hunter, but the boy's will was stronger. He didn't even allow her to speak. The attack was almost instantaneous, but to Hunter and Errol's eyes, time flowed slowly. At the last moment, the boy released his hold over his partner and they were able to dodge the attack; but that hold was removed only for a split second. Hunter resumed control and, using the momentum from the sudden dodge, he put one foot back as the opposite arm formed a fist.

        Crack.

        The attack connected to Six's side and the loud sound was that of a broken rib. Hunter didn't know that he could be that strong, and Errol didn't know that he could be that decisive. The Overlord shot a glance over her shoulder when the boy lost his control over her. Six dashed backwards and almost fell over as she grabbed her side.

        " Strong… "

        " Really strong! "

        " And so sudden… "

        " … but how? "

        As Six circled cautiously and moved in closer, Errol and Hunter looked at one another for a while, and then they finally nodded. The vines which lingered close to their feet moved up their legs and soon covered their limbs. No words were spoken, but the pair knew what to. Let's do this together. That was what they wanted to say.

        Mangled corpses and bleached bones flew through the air as the scythed Six crashed through the ground. Errol and Hunter had switched opponents; at that moment, the Overlord was not about to let her target recover. She jumped and intended to land on Six's body with full force, but the copy rolled out of the away. On Hunter's side, the tamer held his ground just fine. The vine covering on his forearms were thicker than the ones on the rest of his body due to that other Six's inclination to punch and kick her target's torso.

        While Six tried to remain fully synchronized, Errol and Hunter limited their synchronization. They could feel and see each others' movements, and their thoughts and strategies remained coordinated; however, neither one restricted nor directly controlled the other. Six was an individual with two bodies and that was both her strength and weakness. On the other hand, Errol and Hunter were two completely separate individuals who had a connection; therefore, they could play all of their individual strengths while covering for one another's weaknesses.

        Hunter found an opening and he took it. The tamer ducked just as Six moved in; he grabbed her torso and ran forward until they fell down on the ground. The boy held the little copy's arms over her head as he sat on her stomach. It was a surprising sight, especially to their comrades who'd just arrived at the scene.

        " Oh my~ " Rina gasped.

        The historian held Errol's book to hide her blushing face as she looked at what Hunter was doing to his opponent. Thyme was equally awe-struck until Steel lifted the couple up and dragged them out of harm's way. Errol had just kicked the other Six over and the copy's body struck down a toadstool. Sunlight began to flood the cold sand as a domino effect was triggered and more toadstools fell over. Puppy, who'd been underground all that time, appeared from the sand and opened his shell to let the humans in. They eagerly complied with the offer as part of the toadstool colony fell down around them.

        Under the brightly shining sun, grey mist in that area faded away. Linnorm peered between two toadstools to see how the humans were doing, but it did not interfere when it saw Errol who used her thorny vines to swipe the falling toadstools away. Hunter still held his Six down and, surprisingly, he had been able to call forth a protective half-dome of vines. The Six who was targeted by Errol tried to stand up, but her leg was stuck under many skeletons. As the Overlord walked towards her, Six made vines grow out of the toadstools and they rushed through the air towards their target. It was a convenient strategy, but a useless one nonetheless. Errol simply waved her hand and the vines disintegrated into dust.

        But the cheap shots did not end there. The Six who was pinned down by Hunter attacked him with her own vines but, although the tamer's lower right arm was scraped by that attack, he managed to jump back just in time to avoid getting impaled. The Black Blood really did help; even though he'd been fighting for a while, Hunter did not feel tired and his body felt light. However, his mind was getting a bit foggy since there were too many things to think of all at once. Errol saw the attack and felt the weariness in the boy's mind, therefore she ended their synchronization. A stinging sensation on her right arm remained at the exact same spot where Hunter was scraped. The tamer's attacker tried to stand up but she froze in place when she saw her other half…

        Completely black eyes burned with a rare emotion : rage. Errol walked over to the incapacitated Six and, with most of the incredible strength that she could muster; she stomped on the leg which was covered by skeletons. Both of Six's bodies howled in pain although only the scythed one's leg was mangled by the attack. The copies' eyes returned to their normal appearance; the pure white color was gone, thus signifying the end of their synchronization. But Errol was not done with them, oh not at all.

        " Gods? " the Overlord grabbed the injured Six by the hair, " I guess I'll have the pleasure of killing gods. "

        Errol dragged her copy along the ground; Six kicked and screamed while her other body, still numb from the pain on her leg, struggled to get up. It was the first time that Six ever felt that much pain. Nothing stood in her way until she faced the Overlord. When Errol reached one of the toadstools which remained upright, she lifted Six so that they ended up face to face.

        " Seven said that you're gods? " she had a grin so wide and scary that her copy just stammered.

        Before Six could reply, Errol bashed her copy's face against the sturdy toadstool. Blood splattered against the aged plant and Six spat out a familiar black liquid along with some of her teeth. Her other half yelled since, although they no longer shared any sensations, she knew that if Errol continued… it would be the end of her. And Errol did continue. Strike after strike, bash after bash, the toadstool shook as Six's face met its rock-like resilience. Black Blood flowed to the root of the plant and brain matter soon broke out of its shell.

        " Errol! " the tamer yelled as the other Six, though without sign of illness or injury, slumped down on the ground.

        Hunter approached the intact Six cautiously. He poked it with a skeleton's detached leg bone and when the body did not move, he lifted it by a shoulder to make it face the sun. The look of terror on the dead Six's face was undeniable. Errol still held onto the bloody Six's corpse but it did not take long before it disintegrated into black ash. The other body also disintegrated and the ashes flew in the wind for a while before it dove into the sand, and then it vanished from sight.

        " Gods huh… gods... " the Overlord, wide-eyed, muttered repeatedly.

        Linnorm, who watched the fight with worried eyes, slithered to Hunter's side and nudged him gently. The tamer, although slightly afraid of the violence that he just witnessed, walked towards Errol. He didn't know what to say; he was never good with words, and his actions had always been lacking as well.

        " I don't know if I'm still me… " the black-haired girl said without turning to looked at Hunter, " Every time I fight, I feel as if I'm becoming more like them. "

        When she traveled, she didn't have to fight. Errol often wandered with Puppy and the pair merely dove into the ground at the first sign of trouble. Eventually, she had to face her first three copies, but those battles were few and infrequent. She felt as if she was losing her self who had a name, the one that the World knew as Errol- the one who could relate to humans and understand some of their emotions. She felt as if she was going back to who she was during the Age of the Sun, the nameless one who was known only as the Overlord- the one who was feared and hated.

        " For the first time in my life, I felt that I could really do things. I felt powerful because of the Black Blood, " Hunter approached Errol and put a warm hand on her shoulder, " I became overconfident and even tried to control you… I almost forgot that we were supposed to fight together."

        The girl's shoulders shook. The boy knew what it meant.

        " You wrote about yourself in that history book. You knew who you were and you tried to change, " Hunter suddenly dashed in front of Errol so that she could not turn away, " But you can't always try to do it alone… "

        Errol buried her face on the boy's chest. She could feel his warmth; she could hear his heart which began to beat faster as he put his arms around her and held her close. Something warm trickled down her cheeks; she hated those droplets for they made her feel weak. Behind her, Puppy emerged from the sand and the humans hopped out of the tardigrade's back. Steel, his own eyebrows raised, playfully covered Thyme's and Rina's eyes as they shot teasing glances at the flustered tamer. The farmer saved the bad news for later. Errol's mind, body and heart deserved a bit of rest.

        " I figured as much, " replied Errol when Steel told her about what the late Four said.

        By then, the group was on Puppy's back while Linnorm slithered beside them. The acacia still followed Errol and was still shunned by the humans. It wasn't easy to forget what the bloody thorn tree did before. However, the uneasiness that the men felt as they headed back to Town #27 wasn't just because of the deadly, giant tree that followed them.

        " Kyaaaa~ so fluffy! " Rina yelled as she sat behind Errol, put her arms around the girl's torso and groped her chest.

        " Wah~! D-don't get too friendly! " the black-haired girl tried to pry the historian's hands off of her.

        Errol's shirt was completely tattered, and after the fight, they found her bone knife and her cloak somewhere beneath the chaos. The latter was mostly ripped up. So, basically, Errol had nothing left but her pants and the bandages around her torso and arms. Rina took that opportunity to build what she called skinship, something that she read from one of her many books.

        " Isn't that harassment? " Thyme whispered to Steel; both tried to look away from the girls who were having inadequate fun.

        Conveniently, Puppy's back was wide enough to accommodate all of them. The guard crawled towards Hunter, away from the shrieking Errol, and ruffled the tamer's hair.

        " So… " the redhead cleared his throat when Hunter seemed to ignored him, " You still hate me? "

        " I don't hate you, " was the reply.

        " Good, " Thyme then sat down beside his old friend, " I acted like a total jerk back then. And now I… "

        He glanced over at the girls when Errol shrieked again, but quickly turned his head away.

        " … I'm just so sorry about the way that Rina's acting, " the guard's face was completely red as if he'd just seen something that he shouldn't have, " You know how she is… "

        Hunter snickered. He'd seen more than that, which was the reason why Puppy 'attacked' him before, but Errol's embarrassed face was one of the few things which made his heart skip a beat. All those times that Rina talked about history when they were younger, it always seemed as if the Overlord was a cold, distant figure. But Errol wasn't like that at all. Despite her seriousness and resolute appearance when it came to pursuing her copies, the way that she interacted with their group implied that she was just as human as any of them.

        " Whoa! " Steel almost fell over to one side when Puppy suddenly halted.

        Fortunately, Rina managed to finish patching up Errol's clothes by then. She stitched up a small shirt from what was left of the cloak, and it was better than nothing but bandages. Errol put the new old shirt on and hopped off of her pet's back.

        " Oi… " she sighed, " We have to turn to the forest here. "

        The girl scratched her head and pointed at the sand which slowly moved.

        " A straight path to 27 would have been the fastest one but… " Errol pulled her arm back just as something reddish jumped out of the sand and tried to snap at it, " Centipedes. "

        The entangled bodies moved beneath the surface. Errol walked back to Puppy and patted his head, and then she jumped up the creature's back.

        " Ehhhh~ can't you just make them go away? " Rina whined.

        " We can only see a few from here but there's at least fifty centipedes per swarm, " Hunter explained, " They just stay underground until something walks over them. They travel around the desert… of all the places, why'd they have to be here right now? "

        â€‹Linnorm shook its head. Sure, desert snake armor could withstand centipede bites, but it would still be stupid to dive right into a swarm. Puppy turned a little to his right and headed for the forest; the large snake followed closely. In the distance, the acacia stopped jumping and just stood in place. It swayed in the wind as if it said farewell as the group disappeared into the oak forest.

        â€‹Inevitably, Linnorm had to return to the other desert snakes. The oak forest was much too crowded for the large creature and it could not find a clear path which it could take. It would have to uproot all of the trees which stood in its way, and that was a bad idea for a considerable portion of the forest would be wrecked. Puppy also had to dive into the ground for the tardigrade tripped on exposed oak tree roots. The group said farewell to Linnorm and Rina even hugged the massive creature's snout. Once the snake was out of sight, the tardigrade dove underground, and the humans and Errol continued their journey home. The succeeding moments were uneventful. That is, until Rina skipped to Errol's side. She had two history books: Errol's and hers. The Overlord looked at the girl, then at the history books, then at Rina once again.

        " No, " the black-haired one bluntly said, with a forced smile on her face.

        " But… but… " Rina nudged Errol's face with the thick, heavy history book, " Open it! "

        " No. "

        " Open iiiiiiiit! "

        " No… "

        " I want to see what's inside! "

        At that point, Errol stopped on her tracks. She looked at Rina sternly.

        " No. And that is final, " she said. The blonde historian looked so defeated when Errol stepped forward again, therefore, the Overlord sighed and continued, " You can ask me any question. If I want to, I'll answer it and you can write that down. "

        The girl's emerald eyes sparkled. She handed the massive history book to Thyme for safe-keeping, took out her writing materials and opened up her own history book which contained many handwritten notes.

        " What's your name? " was her first question.

        " Errol, " came the reply.

        " No, not that. Errol D' Theov is just an anagram for The Overlord! " Rina exclaimed, a revelation that surprised the rest of the group, " Your real name! The one that your parents gave you. "

        Silence fell over the forest as they continued to walk.

        " They didn't give me a name, " was Errol's honest reply. She did not look at Rina, and so she missed the apologetic look on the girl's face.

        " Hmm… do you know who your parents were? What about your siblings? " the blonde historian asked. Once again, Errol's answer was not instant.

        " I don't know their names. I had three younger siblings. The first two died and were buried. When the third one died too, I killed my parents so that they would not eat it, then I buried the little one and left the other corpses to be eaten by animals, " the reply was cold and distant as if Errol was telling a story.

        Rina hesitated to write that down, but she was a historian…

        " Did you have any husbands? "

        " No. "

        " Did you have any children? "

        Errol looked at Rina as if the girl asked the most ridiculous question, and then she muttered a definite, " No. "

        " Have you ever fallen in love? " was Rina's next question.

        Her beautiful green eyes were wide and expectant. She looked at Hunter, then at Errol - with a mischievous grin on her face. But time passed, they continued their journey, and that question remained unanswered. Rina finally sighed and moved on to her next question.

        " What is the Mechanism? " the historian asked as she turned a page of her history book.

        " Oh~ good question, " Errol's eyes lit up as if she remembered something; then, she shrugged, " I don't know. "

        " Ehhh? " Rina whined, " But you saw it! What does it look like? What does it do? "

        " I can describe it… a floating roundish thing with symbols on it. There were nine symbols; eight were scattered and the ninth was in front, " Errol explained as she walked on, " I call it the ninth because the symbols were locks, and they had to be undone in a specific sequence. "

        Thyme's fiancée nodded and frantically wrote everything down.

        " It had… a voice, " the Overlord continued, " - a small voice that called to me. I unlocked the eight. Then, when I reached for the ninth, it opened by itself … an endless hole in the Mechanism, and the voice said that I had to reach in to unlock it. "

        Errol looked at her left arm. She winced.

        " Many small things sunk into my flesh. I could feel them grind against my bone… they stabbed and cut and sliced and… " she clenched her fist and sighed, " And then I couldn't feel anything. "

        Rina wrote it down and did not ask another question.

        " Then it let me go, " Errol continued, " And the symbols began to move. I could also feel something move beyond it, but I couldn't see what it was. I went back to the citadel, but no one was there so I went to sleep. "

        The group was silent for a while.

        " And your copies? " Rina finally asked.

        " The first was One. She came to me and asked me to end her life, " Errol explained, " She knew that our time was over. It was the age of humans once again; we lost our place in this world. She warned me about the others… especially Seven and Eight. "

        " Four recited a poem, " the historian showed the Overlord what she wrote, " Have you met them? "

        " No, but I've felt them, " the black-haired one replied after she took one look at the poem, " I went to the cavern and found the empty pods, but I didn't know where to start. So… when I went back up, I put Linnorm's colony at the entrance. I didn't know how many of them got out, so I traveled through the forest constantly. "

        The men looked on as the girls conversed. Rina asked one last question.

        " Errol… " she began, " How does it feel to be... immortal? "

        The Overlord looked straight ahead and didn't hesitate. She had a simple answer.

        " Cold."

        It was almost time for the sun to set when the travelers reached a clearing. Completely devoid of plant and animal life except for what seemed to be a green leaf in the middle, it could be used as the site of a house for a human family. However, not even a lone acorn rolled through that clearing, and imminent danger was confirmed when Errol backed away from it- slowly. She put a finger to her lips and gestured for her comrades to remain quiet.

        But the universe did not seem to agree with this tactic, for an acorn fell suddenly in front of the black-haired one. It rolled towards the clearing and rested upon its bare ground. The green leaf twitched and turned its whole body. Then, it stood up. The plant was just around a human's height, much like the sunflower, and its features were like that other carnivorous plant except for its leaves. The leaf was comprised of two halves that had fang-like protrusions. Known simply as a drooler because of its leaking liquids, the rare plant was even more dangerous than the sunflower but its myth was yet to spread across towns.

        As it opened its leaves, the scent of human flesh wafted through the air. Most plants loved eating humans, and the drooler was not an exception. Despite its hilarious name, even the Overlord herself would rather stay away from it. Once the plant realized that its prey was close by, it walked towards them and, with a sudden dash, it was able to close in on the humans in an instant. Errol put up a barrier of vines just in time, but the drooler's acid spit broke through it. However, by then, the humans had disappeared behind the oak trees.

        " What the heck was that thing?! " Thyme tried to keep his voice low as they ran.

        " I forgot what it's called, and I've never seen it before, " Steel ran alongside Rina who could barely keep up, " But I heard that there's a plant that can melt wood and leather. "

        With a strong heave, he picked the blonde girl up and flung her over his shoulders.

        " You'll have to excuse me, Miss, " the farmer apologized, and then he ran at full speed.

        Normally, the guard would complain if any man touched his fiancée, but that moment was an exception. The look of urgency on Errol's face, how she quickly put up a barrier, turned around and told them to run instead of fighting the plant head on- that was enough to make Thyme run away without stopping to catch his breath. They didn't hear anything behind them, so the guard was surprised when the drooler jumped overhead.

        " Duck! " he dashed forward and grabbed Hunter.

        Both young men narrowly avoided their incredibly aggressive pursuer. Errol quickly put up another barrier between their group and the plant, but the acid spit made short work of it. Just as the creature broke through, Puppy emerged from the group and made the drooler jump back.

        " It's the thingy! " even Errol forgot the plant's name, " With the melting spit! "

        Puppy's antennae straightened up and twitched. He let out an unsure grunt, but held his ground as the plant cautiously advanced. Steel, who'd just put Rina down, stepped over to Thyme and took the boy's porcupig quill spear. The farmer walked over to Puppy's back and nodded at Errol. The Overlord nodded back; she then whistled and the tardigrade let out a cry that sounded as if a hundred rocks fell from a great height. The drooler leaned back, surprised.

        " Cover me! " Steel yelled as he jumped up on Puppy's back, ran quickly on it and leapt towards their enemy.

        The farmer threw the spear just as the drooler opened its leaves and spat a large amount of acid at him. Errol put up a barrier in front of Steel but the spit easily went through it. Much to the group's astonishment, another barrier suddenly erupted between the farmer and the acid. Steel looked behind him after he landed safely at just a short distance in front of the creature.

        " Was that cover good enough? " Hunter exhaled deeply. He was not used to making plants grow out of seemingly nothing, but he did what he could and he succeeded.

        Errol put up more barriers just for good measure and when no acid attacks hit them, she cautiously lowered the vines. On the ground, there lay the acid-spitting plant. The spear hit a spot right between the two halves of its leaves, and the force of the attack buried the quill deep into the ground which resulted to a pinned-down plant.

        " Wow. Farmers have really strong arms huh? " Thyme quipped as he walked close to the flailing creature, " But now my spear's ruined. "

        The guard grumbled even as Rina embraced him tightly. Covered by acid spit, the spear's handle disintegrated quickly. The porcupig quill fared better though; despite direct contact with the plant's leaves, it was still completely whole.

        " Well… let's get this over with, " Errol sighed as she stepped forward to end the drooler's life.

        The group rested for a while and by the time that they got back on their journey home, the sun was already below the horizon. Thyme still lamented his spear's ruin; he couldn't even take the quill with him since it was covered in acid spit. It was the first weapon that he ever made and though he was happy that they were alive, the guard still grumbled about his loss every now and then. Rina apologized to Steel for her fiancé's behavior, but the farmer told her not to worry about it. It was then that the historian noticed something in the sky.

        " Red? " she pointed at the distance, " And orange? "

        The aurora occasionally had some orange in it, but not that much. They then realized what was in that direction: Town #27. With the aid of whatever strength they had left, the humans and Errol sprinted towards the edge of town. They expected the worst, but instead, a curious sight met their gaze. The whole town was surrounded by dead or dying plants which were kept at bay by a towering wall of red and orange fire.

        The edge of the town was completely surrounded by a wall of fire. Errol looked for a way inside but even as they walked around the wall, they found no opening. The only way to get into 27 was through the sky or from beneath the ground. But before they pestered Puppy into letting them ride inside its back once again, the group inspected the surroundings first. Eventually, they reached the area where they should have found a lake… but there was no lake.

        " Eh? What's that stuff? " Rina pointed at the bubbling green mess amidst a lot of small plants and oak trees.

        " Moss. It absorbed all of the water, " Steel explained, " It's tame but problematic; usually, it doesn't grow to this size. "

        Instead of the familiar crystal clear lake, they found an uncoordinated and inexplicable mess of plant life, surrounded by a lot of moss. Beyond that monstrosity, an even bigger mess of plants towered to the sky and right in the middle…

        " The Citadel! " Rina yelled. She compared the drawings in her history book to a large structure in the distance, illuminated by the aurora, and sure enough, it was the Citadel and the highest feature was the Overlord's Tower.

        All eyes were on Errol and the furious look on her face explained it all. Seven succeeded in raising the Citadel from the depths of the Overlord's Sea. But the copy did not seem to be content with just that. The whole sea and the lake near 27 were gone. Instead of water, they contained various plant life, most of which were probably hazardous to humans.

        " We're going… to 27, " she muttered.

        Puppy, despite his aversion to letting so many passengers in his back, opened his shell and let the group in. He then dove into the ground and soon, he emerged on the other side of the wall of fire. The tardigrade found himself surrounded by many humans who armed themselves with their tools. He cautiously opened his shell and as his passengers emerged, some of the townsfolk lowered their weapons.

        " I thought they finally tried to attack from underground, " a familiar voice came from beyond the armed humans, " I'm glad that you're back. "

        Hunter hurriedly jumped off of Puppy and ran through the crowd which parted. He embraced his father tightly. However, something didn't feel quite right; he only felt one arm around him as the Captain reciprocated his son's gesture.

        " What happened to you? " the tamer stepped back and looked at his father's left side. There was his shoulder… then, nothing.

        " They caught us by surprise, " Xing explained. When Hunter's eyes widened, the father ruffled the young man's hair, " Don't look at me like that. I would have given more than an arm to save your mother's life. "

        A small, dark-brown haired woman ran towards Hunter and she embraced him tightly before the tamer could react.

        " I knew you'd be back… I just knew it, " Huntress had tears in her eyes. There were scratches all over her arms and face, but she was completely intact and healthy-looking.

        Some of the faces in town were unfamiliar, but the familiar ones were almost mostly there. Thyme, who lived with no one else but his grandmother, hurried to the Town Hall and was relieved when he found her there. He had Rina, also an orphan, in tow, and the strange little family sat down to tell stories. Steel got back to his farm where his friends greeted him and complained about how difficult life was without the experienced farmer. Errol was left behind on Puppy as children curiously poked the tardigrade with oak branches. She didn't want to ruin the tamer's moment with his family, so the girl hopped off of her pet's back and disappeared into the crowd. Puppy dove back into the ground, annoyed by the little human younglings.

        The Overlord soon found out that the wall of fire was kept ablaze by farmers and gardeners who worked together. At least, she thought, the Greybloods were still able to maintain control over some plants. A large space with absolutely no flammable materials kept the wall of fire away from the town itself. Soon, she arrived at the human graveyard and noticed the many newly-erected markers. While they were away, the town suffered a heavy loss. At that moment, Errol thought about the recent events that transpired and she came to one conclusion. The droplets of Black Blood were placed there to lure her away from the towns so that Seven and Eight could set their plan into action.

        " I'll tear your heart out with my own hands, I swear I will, " she gritted her teeth as those words escaped her lips.

        " Tear whose heart out? " said a voice that suddenly made Errol feel unsure of what she just said.

        Hunter stood close to her and his parents were nearby as well.

        " Seven, and Eight, " the girl answered though she shot a worried look at Xing and his wife.

        " I told them about it. Well, some of it… and about how you saved my life, " the tamer shrugged, " If you have nowhere to stay, you're welcome to come with us. Or did you intend to sleep here? "

        Errol stepped away from the graveyard and walked towards the captain. She bowed slightly and forced the usual smile that she had before.

        " It's good to see y- KYAA! " the Overlord screamed as Xing's wife 'inspected' her, " W-what? Why?! "

        The girl stepped away from the woman who seemed to be as inappropriately friendly as Rina.

        " Oh~ I always wondered what was hidden under that cloak, " the woman giggled, " Hunter said that you're the Overlord… and the Overlord was a she, right? I was just checking. "

        Laughter and greetings echoed through the town amidst the crackling of fire. It was nighttime and, while animals hunted, plants were mostly asleep; Town #27 sat safely within a blazing ring and they had nothing to worry about... until sunrise.

        â€‹Complete silence filled the room with two prominent figures. The aurora's ever-changing colors found its way into the wide-open window, but that didn't break the lack of conversation. The boy sat on a thick wooly cow mat and, every now and then, he fluffed his pillow which was filled with soft, growling sheep wool. The girl fidgeted on the small bed; it wasn't uncomfortable, but the setup made it difficult for her to relax. Perhaps his parents found it funny, but Hunter didn't and neither did Errol. The two were locked in the tamer's bedroom by a giggling Huntress, and though Xing did not completely agree, he just shrugged it off and said "see you in the morning."

        Of all the words that could possibly describe the situation, there was only one which could sum it up. Hunter's heart pounded in his chest; he was happy that he's close to her, but he was worried that she might be angry. Errol's head ached; she didn't fully comprehend what she was feeling, and her usual coping mechanism of breaking stuff was obviously not a good idea at the moment. Therefore, as silence lingered longer than it should, there was only one word for the situation.

        " Awk- "

        " –ward. "

        They said the same thing which surprised the other. Hunter looked at the Overlord, and Errol looked at the tamer. They laughed.

        " Your parents are… hum, " she couldn't find the proper word which wouldn't offend him.

        " – weird? " Hunter suggested as he fluffed his pillow for the last time.

        " Hmm… maybe, " Errol relaxed and turned towards where the aurora flooded the floor. There was no sign of the sun's light just yet.

        " What's on your mind? " the tamer asked. Sure, he could force synchronization and read her thoughts, but he respected her privacy just as she respected his.

        " The town, " she stood up and peered through the window.

        The streets were busy even though it was nighttime. While some people were asleep, half the town was awake to keep watch. The farmers and gardeners took turns to keep the wall of fire ablaze. Hunter stood up and stopped beside Errol; he also looked out the window. She saw humans that scurried about, fearful for their lives, helpless and broken. He saw people who hurriedly ran across town to assist their friends, hopeful for the future, weak by themselves but strong together. What she saw made Errol sad, and Hunter could do nothing but wonder how the Overlord saw the World through her dark eyes.

        " Sometimes you worry too much, " the tamer said.

        Errol looked at him, surprised.

        " Didn't you say that it's the age of humans? " he pointed out as he looked down at the streets, " Believe in us. "

        The Overlord sighed. She learned a lot over the many moments that she spent in towns, but some concepts still eluded her understanding: love and hope. It didn't matter. She had forever.

        " Are you going to the Citadel? " the boy's voice distracted Errol from her melancholic thoughts.

        " I should, " was her short reply.

        " Yeah, you should, " he was worried but Hunter knew that he no longer had a reason to go with her. Even though he had Black Blood, he was still inadept at using it if compared to her or any of her copies.

        " We'll see, come morning, " Errol sighed.

        The black-haired girl suddenly felt warmth on her back and on her sides as Hunter put his arms around her. She quickly put her own arms around her chest, a reflex that resulted from Rina's skinship. But Hunter merely touched his own arms as he held the girl close, and he rested his chin on her head. He wasn't sure if she'd hate him for that, but the tamer wasn't good with words so he figured that he'd just show her how he felt. Moments passed and the pair just stood there, awash in the colors of the aurora.

        Panic finally struck when the sun reached its apex. The gardeners were close to running out of plants which could be used as fuel for the wall of fire, the animals were getting restless, and water was scarce. As the humans scurried about, Errol stood at the top of the town hall and thought about a meeting that transpired early that morning. It happened behind the closed doors of the town hall where only the Captain, the Keepers and the Overlord were present.

        White was as quiet as ever. He had always been the ever-cranky one, the Keeper who voted against the other two just because he could, and the one who always grumbled whenever Xing arrived for his daily reports. And then there was Valor who seemed to be rather fond of Errol. He was youngest among the three and had no more than a few grey hairs; some say that Steel was born before Valor, but that the two were evenly matched in skill when they were still both farmers. He was disturbed by his friend's story about Ochre's demise; nonetheless he was relieved that Steel survived the journey and returned to 27. Lastly, there was Anise who was every bit Thyme's opposite. She was a cheerful little woman with very white hair. The oldest Keeper seemed to be frail but she used to be a very capable guard herself. Anise once mentored White when the latter decided to be a guard, though they ended up with very different outlooks in life.

        When the inevitable question Should the Overlord protect the town? came up, Errol was sure that the vote would have been at least two to one, in favor of Yes. But humans had always surprised her, and the outcome of that deliberation was no exception. All three Keepers voted No. The Captain didn't even say a word; he knew that the Keepers were serious when they needed to be and even White did not vote against the others.

        " Many towns are suffering. The Overlord is not with them, but we believe that they are still fighting the wayward plant life, " Anise explained, " We can survive by using our own skills, our own hands… you ought to do what you must. Reclaim the Citadel. "

        Errol thought about the current scenario as she stood on the hall's rooftop. The old woman was right. She could help 27, and then what? The plants would still continue to advance unless the cause of their growth was taken care of. If, at that point, she revealed to the townsfolk that she was the Overlord, it would just distract them. At the meeting, Errol declared that she would let the Keepers disclose her true role at their discretion. They knew the townsfolk best. After the discussion back then, the black-haired girl went up to the rooftop so that she could see if there was a clear path towards the Citadel.

        With her sharp eyes that could see clearly beyond a normal human's range, Errol searched for any clearing or paths beyond the wall of fire. Those which led to what once was the Overlord's Sea were gone. However, she did notice that the crazed plant life was focused around the town. Beyond the town's edge, particularly at the direction from which they came on their journey home, the plants were more or less normal. Once again, she looked at Citadel in the distance; that place which used to be her home. Errol blinked, and then she looked at the endless expanse of open forest which remained untouched by her copies.

        The Overlord immediately went back into the town hall and spoke to the Keepers and the Captain once again. She told them about what she'd experienced in her travels, and about what she'd seen beyond the town. At first, the humans were confused as to what she meant, but as Errol explained her observations, they could only nod in agreement. Xing hurriedly gathered the townsfolk for an emergency town meeting. The gardeners left just enough plant materials so that the fire would continue to burn until late in the afternoon, and a few farmers stayed at the wall to keep the blaze at bay. Just as the sun dove into the horizon, the wall of fire died down.

        The humans bade farewell to the stone structures which they thought would be their homes until their death. With large bags on their sides and their backs, and on very annoyed sheep and cows, the townsfolk began their journey towards the river which stretched throughout the oak forest. Guided by the Keepers, Xing, and, strangely enough to them, the little black-haired brat named Errol, they made their way past the sleepy plants. They were eastbound, to that place where the sun vanishes when a day ends and a night begins. When someone asked the vertically-challenged historian about their destination, her answer was blunt.

        " To the Iron Wall. "

Entry #91

Dear Diary,

        It's been so long since I've written on your pages. As I flipped through the previous entries, I felt as if I was reminiscing the past with an old friend. In the Age of the Sun, I was loathed, but my existence was necessary. Now, it is the Age of the World, and I thought that my existence was no longer necessary. Recent events proved me wrong though; even just as Errol, the overenthusiastic brat, humans looked forward to my guidance. Truth be told, I feel…

        … happy.

        However, at the same time, I feel afraid. If they find out that I am the Overlord, what will they do? Will they drive me away? Will they hate me? Will they be angry because I kept it a secret? The 'me' who lived back then in the Age of the Sun- I feel as if I am no longer that person. I can remember her and she is a part of me, but I no longer want to be her. I have never truly envied humans because I think that they are too weak for their own good, but there are times when I wish that my life can be as simple as theirs. My role as the Overlord was truly daunting, and that was the reason why I did not announce my return after I left my tower.

        I am currently surrounded by some interesting humans. There is a blonde girl who insists that she must see the contents of my history book, but I do not allow her to do so. She does not know that half of the book is actually a compartment where you, my frail friend, are resting. Although some other humans find her annoying, I like her quite a bit. I am, after all, a lot like her when it comes to pursuing knowledge. Her fiancé gets to my nerves though. Sometimes, I feel the urge to break his neck; but that urge quickly passes and I will never actually do it. I also traveled with a farmer but I do not know where he is now. Last I heard, he stayed behind at 27 to make sure that the wayward plants cannot follow us. Then, there is that person… I feel strange towards him. It is not a bad feeling, but it is not pleasant either. I cannot explain it at all.

        At the moment, we are almost at the river. It remains unnamed because humans do not really care about it. However, since Seven and Eight took over the Overlord's Sea and nearby lakes, the river is the only useful water source that is close to us. Refilling crystal jars are not enough to quench the thirst of a town full of humans and animals. Amidst all of my worries, Diary, I remembered you. As the Overlord, I took solace in speaking to you. And now, as Errol, I once again take solace in burying my thoughts within your pages.

        I must cut my entry short. I can hear the sounds of the river.

        I shall confide in you again, Diary.

        The townsfolk of 27 finally reached the unnamed river. There, they found many other humans from different towns, led by their own Captains and Keepers. Tall leather oak trees stretched above the travelers and their branches formed arches which almost hid the aurora. It was almost daybreak, and the humans became anxious since some plants already woke up. Though tired, they knew that they should not stop and rest for the attacking plants from the Overlord's Sea could catch up to them.

        " Let's set up a camp here, " Xing instructed the people of 27.

        A loud murmur echoed through the forest as humans from other towns looked on.

        " I've already spoken to the other Captains. They'll watch over us while we rest; they've taken turns to rest and guard earlier, " Hunter's father assured them.

        Though not entirely convinced that it would be safe, 27's townsfolk followed their Captain. The weariness which they felt was undeniable, and it was impractical to continue the journey if they would just die of exhaustion later. As time passed little by little, more humans arrived at the site. It was apparent that most if not all the towns around the sea were attacked, but although Errol was worried about the situation, the humans still seemed to be happy.

        " I don't understand, " she tugged at Anise's robe while her grandson Thyme set up a tent.

        " Hmm? " the little old lady smiled up at the Overlord.

        " You too… how can you smile at a time like this? " Errol asked. Her usual pleasant face was ruined by a frown.

        " Oh! Well, bad things happen all the time. There's no reason to be so worried, " Anise giggled.

        In the past, the Overlord did not care if humans lived or died. She saw them as annoying creatures which were only useful as fertilizer for plants and as food for animals. But was that really the truth? Did she truly despise them? Errol ran over to one of the older men; he had been injured and found it difficult to walk around, but he still tried to help a friend of his. With her little arms that seemed frail to human eyes, she held the man up when he almost tripped on his own belongings.

        " Thank you! " the man ruffled Errol's hair, " What a nice little boy! "

        The black-haired one did not mind that last statement at all. In fact, she was used to being called a boy, or a brat even. She was focused on the two words which came before that last statement. With a light heart and a cheerful face, she helped the old man and his friend with what they were doing. The evening passed with just minor incidents such as acorns that randomly fell and sleepy humans who almost slipped into the river. During their time of trial, Errol was able to understand humans a bit more. They have improved over the years; the lessons which the older generations learned were not forgotten- they passed it onto the next generation.

        Since she barely required rest and did not need food for sustenance, Errol went around the humans' camp and helped them out. Before the first rays of the sun rose in the west, the people of 27 had their much needed rest. She knew a lot of information and memorized many facts, but the feeling that she got when she understood some abstract concepts, such as hope and optimism, outweighed all her knowledge. Contented with her forgettable achievement, the girl sat on Puppy's wide back as the tardigrade munched on a tasty rock. The aurora began to fade away as the sun rose slowly, but the smile on Errol's face was brighter than sunlight.

        As the day moved forward, the humans did not seem to be in imminent danger. The plants may have been too slow and could not catch up to them, or perhaps their growth stopped altogether. However, the forest itself was still a threat to their survival; they were, quite literally, not out of the woods just yet. As the townsfolk continued their journey beside the nameless river, the guards tried to keep them in line. Old people tended to wander off due to their forgetfulness, while young people tried to run off due to curiosity. But at least, they did not have to deal with the harshness of the sun for the arched oak branches above the river protected them.

        Much time passed without incident until someone screamed from beyond an oak tree. A handful of guards hurriedly checked it and they found a little boy who had fallen to the ground. He seemed to be in good shape... until they looked at his foot. It was bleeding and some red tentacles were wrapped tightly around it. The boy was an orphan but he had a guardian, the Keeper Valor. Much like Rina who was taken in by Anise many years ago, the boy was taken in by the youngest Keeper of 27.

        " Don't cry- just calm down, Spirit, " Valor put a hand on his son's head and ruffled his hair gently.

        His foot had been entangled by a sanguinea. Bright red and beautiful, the flower-like plant attracted a lot of unwitting victims. In Spirit's case though, he merely tripped over the plant which was common in some parts of the oak forest. Sanguinea was a large underground plant that looked like the ancient potato. The only part that may be seen above ground was its blossom. If anything approached the blossom, it would lunge at and entangle that target. The plant would then emit an anesthetic that could paralyze its victim to keep it alive for a long time as its blood was slowly drained. If the blossom caught a plant and not an animal or human, the blossom would let it go.

        Spirit was obviously not a plant, therefore the underground potato held onto the boy's foot tightly. Without taking a moment to rest, the plant then began to sip the boy's blood. Some farmers and gardeners gathered around the child as they tried to remove the tentacles. Afraid, the boy moved his foot every now and then, thus the plant tightened its grip. Errol heard about the situation and she was worried, but Anise assured her that the humans could handle it. After a bit of prodding from the gardeners, the sanguinea soon let the boy's foot go and they patched up his wounds.

        After that minor mishap, the townsfolk were on their way. Some towns had already gone ahead, but 27 did not mind. As long as its people managed to remain safe, the town as a whole did not mind if they were left behind or not. There was only one river which led directly to the Iron Wall; it would have been difficult to miss. Errol breathed easily as soon as the town moved again. However, the worst was yet to come. A loud rumbling approached the group of humans, and it seemed to be coming from the north.

        " I hope they're alright, " Steel sighed as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

        " Mister, mister, " a little girl with ash-brown hair tugged at his shirt, " Would you like some wodur? "

        " Wodur? " the farmer asked as he hacked at a tree root that wiggled out of the ground.

        " Water! She meant water, " a little boy with ash-brown hair explained as he handed a cup of the thirst-quenching liquid to the old guy.

        Steel nodded and thanked them, and then the children ran off to give water to the other farmers. Ash and Ashley were part of a gardener family who chose to stay behind at 27. Their parents worked hard to grow plants for a smaller fire wall that they created, and they also aged some of the attacking plants. But as time passed by, the humans became weary and some plants managed to get through the wall. Their group already lost four members who were dragged away by some occasional root or vine. It was just a little past midday but the siege seemed to be taking forever. Unlike humans, the plants seemed to need no rest; they just kept coming.

        " What's that?! " another farmer, Quartz, yelled as the ground began to shake.

        Massive tree roots which were adorned by skeletons and carcasses burst forth from the ground. They then began to search for moving targets and the ill-prepared farmers could not chop away at the large, woody attackers. The roots began to advance towards the human and one of them spotted Ashley who had been separated from her brother. Confused and scared, the girl just sobbed as the root crept towards her but as it lunged at its target, something funny-looking and orange got in the way. It caught the root in what a human would describe as its 'toothy mouth', and the pumpkin began to chew on the helpless root.

        One of the tame plants that humans found helpful, pumpkins grew in patches; and they were highly territorial. They only fed on animal carcasses and did not have a taste for human flesh, and they did not necessarily eat other plants, but if disturbed, pumpkins would definitely attack by the dozens. Normally, they were asleep during the day but it seemed as if they'd lost their temper. Some of the small pumpkins attacked the roots and the bigger pumpkins rolled past the wall of fire to engage other incoming plants. Town #27 was one of the few towns which had enough space for a pumpkin patch, and theirs was the largest patch in the World.

        " Whoops! " Steel lifted Ashley up and put the girl on his shoulder, " A wise man knows never to get in the way of an angry pumpkin! "

        The orange plants helped the humans somewhat. They were such fierce creatures and the humans could not believe that they were the same docile pumpkins which shied away from the townsfolk. But Seven's plant army continued to advance and soon, even the pumpkins had to fall back into their patch just as the wall of fire died out. The farmers and gardeners hoped that they could at least delay the pursuers for a whole day, but their effort was not enough. As roots and vines grew around them and threatened to suffocate each and every human who was left in 27, Steel thought that he saw a flying tree.

        What?

        The flying tree landed on a house and crushed it completely. It shook its thorny branches as if it was disoriented, and then it bent down to swat some roots away. The telltale signs of dried Black Blood immediately identified the tree as Errol's acacia. It was quickly followed by another flying tree, but Steel noticed that the latter was an uprooted leather oak. Part of the forest was completely upturned and more houses in 27 were demolished. After the dust settled down, a pair of wise, purple eyes appeared in front of the humans.

        " Linnorm! " exclaimed Steel; it was so sudden and his voice was so loud that some of the gardeners almost fainted.

        The old snake towered high above the houses and it seemed to be ready to take on the invaders by itself, but Linnorm was not alone. Four smaller snakes, each still taller than the humans' homes, slithered into town and they lowered their heads once they reached the place where the humans were gathered. The acacia continued to swat at the attacking plants while the snakes lowered themselves onto the ground.

        " It's a losing battle. We have to go, " Steel nodded.

        " Go? Where? W-wait… " Quartz stammered, " … you're not saying… what? No way! "

        " We're going on a trip, " the aged farmed said as he hopped onto Linnorm's head, " On armored desert snakes. "

        â€‹" Porcupig stampede! " a human from one of the other towns yelled just before brown rolls of spikes, gore and death impaled him.

        But he wasn't the only victim. As the stampede rolled through the forest and across the river, many unsuspecting humans from different towns were killed as well. With the plant life on a rampage, it was natural for animals to follow suit. Porcupigs, which were widely known for being aggressive, seemed to be the first ones to snap. A stampede of ten porcupigs ran over a part of 27's camp and the humans narrowly escaped death by dropping everything that they had so that they could run away.

        The stampede passed so quickly that even if Errol opted to use her abilities, she would not have been able to prevent the many deaths. However, the worst was yet to come as a lone porcupig, slow but massive, rolled right into the middle of their camp. The animal snorted and unrolled itself; a small, fat face with a large nose was revealed. The rest of the creature looked like a thick covering of thorns and barbs. It seemed to be a fairly old porcupig but while other creatures grew wiser as they aged, porcupigs just became larger bullies. Tamers at the northern part of the World tried to raise their own porcupigs for quill harvesting, but the beasts were just too wild and painful to handle.

        " A porcupig! " Rina exclaimed and pointed at the creature as she emerged from between two oak trees. The girl had been looking for firewood and she did not know the danger which lay before her.

        Easily agitated, as any porcupig would be, the creature rolled over to Rina. The historian froze in place, still unable to fully comprehend what was going on even as Thyme yelled for her to run away. As the spikes appeared overhead, Puppy emerged from the ground behind the girl and it stood on its four hind legs with its body slightly bent forward to form a roof over Rina. Curiously enough, the porcupig's quills did not touch Puppy for a mess of vines formed a net between two oak trees and the porcupig was momentarily entangled within it.

        " Puppy! " Errol called for her pet and the tardigrade immediately responded.

        The greyish creature dropped down on all eight and Rina quickly jumped on its back. Soon after, the historian was safe beside Anise and the sobbing red-haired guard. While the porcupig was still trapped in the vines, the Overlord gave her pet a stern talking to.

        " Bad Puppy, bad! "

        The creature replied with a bored grunt.

        " You know that you can't take a porcupig to the face! "

        Puppy's antennae emerged and pointed at Rina, and the tardigrade followed it with a loud hmf.

        " Playing a hero's no excuse, Mister! You're grounded for a day! "

        The tardigrade's antennae straightened up, it pounded the ground with its front legs, and then Puppy dove into the ground. Some humans looked on at the strange conversation, but soon they gathered their belongings and got ready to get the heck away from the porcupig.

        " That's pointless, " Errol sighed at the humans' attempt to run away, " It'll just follow us until it gets bored of impaling humans. We have to kill it… somehow. "

        Though her carefully placed vines kept the creature in place, soon its quill cut through the plants and the porcupig turned to the humans. The ground shook a bit and they braced themselves for another stampede, but it turned out to be reinforcements.

        " Hey! How are – whoa, a porcupig?! " the young maize-haired farmer Quartz excitedly greeted the other townsfolk. He seemed to have enjoyed the ride from 27 though his comrades, excluding Steel, had motion sickness from traveling on the snakes.

        " The acacia fell behind. Desert snakes are really fast huh? " Steel said to Errol as he hopped off Linnorm's head. Rina ran over to the farmer and hugged him excitedly; she then pulled a jealous Thyme into the hug, much to the guard's chagrin.

        As if the mere presence of armored desert snakes was not enough, Linnorm slithered towards the agitated porcupig. Wise, purple eyes stared into dumb, yellow ones. The snake straightened its body and rose way above the quilled creature, but stupidity knew no bounds. The porcupig rushed headfirst at the snake, then it rolled itself up and buried its sturdy, aged quills into Linnorm's exposed underside. The old snake let out a cry…

        … of laughter. It sounded as if Linnorm was wheezing, then it looked down at the porcupig. The quills did seem to be buried in the snake's flesh, but when Linnorm huffed, the porcupig popped out of the massive desert beast's scales with such force that its quilled back was buried deep into the trunk of an oak tree. The aggressive old porcupig squealed as it flailed its feet, but to no avail. The humans soon gathered around it and after a few moments of stabbing, skinning, slicing and cooking…

        " Bacon! " Xing's wife Huntress happily exclaimed as the townsfolk dug into their rare meal.

        â€‹Due to the presence of desert snakes and the acacia, which finally caught up to the group of humans, most of the journey was relatively safe. The bloody thorn tree even took to pulling sanguinea out of the ground so that it could eat the potato-like plant, much to the humans' amazement. But something bothered Hunter and he could not figure out what it was exactly.

        " Linnorm looks… " he said to Steel, " … old. Don't you think so? "

        " That snake's always been old, " the farmer laughed.

        Out of the corner of his eye though, Steel did notice the sudden change in the creature's appearance. The purple eyes were dull, the once-shiny scales no longer reflected light, and the snake slithered slowly. There were times when Linnorm even fell asleep as they traveled; a smaller snake which had one white eye usually nudged the old one to wake it up. Hunter's fear became reality when Linnorm let out a shrill sound followed by a few grunts. The old snake then fell onto its side. The odd-eyed snake once again nudged their leader, but there was no response.

        " Linnorm's dead! " Rina wailed as she shook the snake's massive head. Some children soon joined her.

        Errol calmly walked up to the snake and pressed her ear against its neck.

        " Nope, not yet, " she declared, " Linnorm's just dying. How inconvenient. "

        The look on her face wasn't one of worry, but of annoyance. Xing walked over to the black-haired girl and ruffled her already-ruffled hair. He then told the townsfolk to rest a bit while he and the Keepers discussed what they should do with the dying snake. So far, they'd been safe because of the beasts' presence, but if Linnorm was left behind, the other snakes would probably stay by their leader's side.

        " There's nothing to worry about. It's just a minor delay, " Errol shrugged.

        When the meeting concluded, the Overlord hopped onto a tree branch near the old snake. Hunter, who'd been keeping his distance from her so that the townsfolk would not ask so many questions, climbed up the tree and sat down beside Errol. The girl had her chin in her hands and she sighed every now and then.

        " He's a tough guy, " Hunter assured her, " He'll make it. "

        He expected a nod, but all he got was a weird look from Errol. Her next statement took him completely by surprise.

        " I wish Linnorm would hurry up and die already, " she grumbled.

        Hunter felt a pain in his chest. Was it because she'd been fighting so much? Did Errol go back to who she was in the Age of the Sun? He thought that his feelings reached her heart and changed her, but perhaps that was wishful thinking. Soon, his thoughts went back to Linnorm for the sun began to set and the lack of sunlight meant that the snakes would have to rely on their stored energy. As Errol looked on, the tamer hopped down and gathered all the wooly jackets that he could find. He then put them on Linnorm, or, at least, whatever part of the massive snake he could cover.

        The evening passed quickly for the tired humans and animals. Come morning, Linnorm was absolutely still and was very cold. Even Steel could not hold back the tears when Errol pressed her ear against the snake's neck and confirmed that it was dead. While Hunter found it odd but nice that the townsfolk seemed to care about the snake's death somewhat, he found it even weirder that neither Errol nor the remaining snakes looked sad.

        " Come on, how long will this take? " the black-haired girl kicked Linnorm's neck; the humans gasped.

        Anise was about to lecture Errol on respecting the dead, but the Keeper nearly yelled instead when something moved beneath the snake's skin.

        " Oh, there you go, " the girl said and at that, she and the odd-eyed snake pried Linnorm's mouth open.

        A large, disgusting, vomit-like length of unrecognizable crap popped out of the dead snake's mouth. It squirmed on the ground and there seemed to be an endless length of weirdness. The thing did not smell bad, but its appearance was enough to make one have nightmares for a few days. Finally, the end of the thing popped out of Linnorm's mouth and the dead snake was allowed to rest.

        " Need help? " Errol spoke to the disgusting piece of something.

        The thing replied with a huff, and its head soon broke out of what turned out to be a thick protective membrane. When the creature slithered out of its birth organ, it slowly opened its eyes and revealed wise, purple orbs. Despite having been just reborn, the young Linnorm was still bigger than the other snakes.

        " What the heck did I just see? " Thyme broke the silence.

        The humans began to murmur, some due to disgust but most due to awe; then there came the questions.

        " Do all desert snakes do that? "

        " Why do they do that? "

        " Is that Linnorm's baby? "

        Errol shrugged and answered what she could.

        " No, just Linnorm, " she said, " It does that every now and then. Bad timing, really. "

        Since the creature's old body was too massive, they just left it beside the river and the people of 27, with their escorts, continued to travel towards the Iron Wall. Other towns passed by the snake's old body, and the river soon became known as Linnorm's Way. While Hunter mentally cursed himself for doubting Errol, the black-haired girl turned to an old entry in her diary. She skimmed through that page until she found the part which she wanted to read:

        I found a huge thing at the bottom of the Citadel. I wonder if it had always been there. It seemed to be the only one of its kind, so really, I was not surprised when it coughed and gagged and spat out another one that looked like it. The other one was smaller and had a white eye, and it seemed to be just as smart as the first one. They're in the animal shelters now; last I heard, the odd-eyed one coughed up more things but they all had green eyes, unlike the first one which had purple eyes. It's a funny way to multiply, but quite practical. I found a word from one of the ancient things called books; I think it will suit the purple-eyed one. I shall call it Linnorm.

        Errol had many questions for Seven. Although she created the Nine Absolute Truths in the Age of the Sun, she never thought herself a ruler, much less a god. As the Overlord, she saw herself as the caretaker of the planet who was responsible for each and every life. Sometimes she had to make hard decisions and choose the lives of many over the life of one; she particularly despised humans who thought themselves better, higher and more important than other living creatures- but that was all there is to it. She gave them chores not to cause pain and suffering, she punished not because they were her slaves; Errol always thought that work and responsibilities must be divided so that the whole could survive and appreciate what they had.

        Obviously, she and Seven did not share the same views on that matter. She did hear from One that Seven had a complex; Errol had no idea that it was a god complex. And apparently, it was contagious for Five and Eight nodded in agreement with the charming tall man. If words would not work, then she had no choice but to beat him to a pulp and make him understand that he is not a god. Errol held her knife with her right hand. Vines formed from empty air and twisted themselves around the weapon until a great sword was formed. It was twice Errol's height but she wielded it effortlessly with one hand. She then pointed the weapon at Seven.

        " You're not gods, " the true Overlord exclaimed, " I'll prove it by killing you with my own hands. "

        Seven snickered and readied his thorns and roses, but Five suddenly dashed into Errol's view.

        " No no no no no! " the wild boy repeatedly said as he crouched low, like a pouncing cat, " I'll be the one to eat your heart! "

        Eight rolled her eyes and sighed. The mad boy truly was difficult to control and she wished that they had not shared the plan with him. But what's done was done, and all they could do was to make sure that they could overpower the Overlord and take her heart. Seven looked at Eight and the latter nodded. She didn't have the patience to deal with Five, so she thought it best to leave the fighting to the mad boy and the haughty man. With a cross look on her face, the long-haired little girl sat beside her vine snake and waited for her comrades to finish what they started.

        The descriptive word "quick" was an understatement. It didn't even look as if Five moved at all. Due to his sheer speed, it seemed as if he vanished from where he crouched and appeared right in front of Errol. Even Hunter, who was able to use Black Blood to strengthen his senses, was unable to follow Five's movement; but Errol wasn't the least bit surprised by the attack. She blocked the wild boy's kick with her sword and pushed him back. Five landed on his feet after he spun in the air, much like a falling cat, and he would have attacked again if not for Seven's whip which wrapped itself around Errol's sword.

        " She's mine! " the feral boy hissed as Seven ran up beside him.

        " Don't be selfish, " said the smiling man who then tugged at his whip to pull the great sword out of its defensive position, " Let's share this trophy. "

        Despite his slender appearance, Seven was fairly strong. He was able to pull the sword down and gave Five an opening to attack. The wild boy took that opportunity; once again, he moved with such speed that could not be followed by human eyes. With his thorn-covered arm stretched towards Errol's face, he thought that the attack would connect, but the girl caught it with her left hand. Black Blood dripped to the ground as his thorns cut into her skin, but Five was not done. He kicked his left leg off the ground and aimed for his target's torso. Once again, Black Blood trickled to the earth as his thorns cut through Errol's shirt.

        A wide grin appeared on Five's face as he savored the moment of his first few hits; that was until he heard the bones on his right hand crack. He pulled his leg out of her side and tried to back away, but Errol's grasp on Five's hand was impossibly tight. The wild one watched in horror as his fist was crushed by the Overlord's bare hand then, with a quick movement of her wrist, she twisted his right arm completely.

        " GWAAAAAAAAAAH! " Five screamed as he felt his forearm break, and soon his elbow followed.

        When his arm was limp and useless, only then did Errol let it go then she pulled her great sword. Seven, not wanting to suffer a similar injury, removed his whip from Errol's weapon. He looked at her feet where drops of Black Blood riddled the ground; she did not even move an inch. Five dashed back and hid behind one of the rose bushes as he nursed his arm. Behind them, Eight scoffed and mumbled something inaudible but she was obviously annoyed. Her vine snake nodded in agreement.

        With her attackers back on their original positions, the Overlord buried the tip of her great sword into the ground. She shook her left arm until blood stopped dripping from her wounds. The girl looked down at her injured side and, finding no use for her shirt which was in no way a reliable armor, she took it off. Errol also tossed aside the goggles which used to keep her hair in place, along with the boots on her feet. Wearing nothing but bandages on her upper body and tattered pants below her waist, the Overlord waited for her copies to move in once more.

        " Gods eh? " Errol smirked at Five as she nodded at his ruined arm.

        The Citadel was completely silent. It looked more like an ancient relic or a ghost town than a seat of power. Only three distinct figures moved about within the Citadel's halls. One of them was a tall man with jet black hair. His face was very pleasant and there was a subtle smile on his lips, but his eyes had a mysterious expression. A short figure ran up to the tall man; it was down on all fours, like a beast, but when it was reprimanded, the figure straightened up and revealed itself to be human-like. It had wild hair and an excited expressed on its face; every now and then, the figure, which seemed to be male as well, ran around and bounced off the walls.

        " Shall we pay her a visit, Miss? " the tall man spoke to a third figure which was bathed in shadows.

        The only reply that he got was a nod, and that was enough. A path of dead plants paved the way for the three figures. Instead of going around a tree, the tall man simply touched the helpless oak and made it wither. The wild figure then kicked the oak tree repeatedly until it fell down. The third figure, completely reserved and quiet, walked behind the man and the boy. Soon, they reached the place which was once occupied by a lake.

        " They probably put up a good fight, " the smiling man said to his companions, " But now, they're just fertilizer… "

        To his horror, he soon found out that he was mistaken when they arrived at the site of what used to be Town #27. There were a few dead bodies beyond the border, but the town itself was not littered with corpses. The remains of the fire wall left a black mark on the ground and the wild boy poked it repeatedly. His hands were soon covered in soot and, after he found out about the joys of rolling around in burnt, dead plants, he tried to pull the tall man onto the dirt.

        " Please stop, you sorry excuse for a living creature, " was the smiling man's reprimand.

        His voice was still pleasant but there was something sinister about it. The boy sat on the dirt and pouted, but he knew that the tall man could not be swayed. Bored, he then ran over to the third figure which finally emerged from the shadows. She was smaller than the wild boy and beyond that, there was a simple description: she looked just like Errol. The small face, the petite build and the dark eyes were completely identical to the Overlord's. There were only two notable differences: her hair was incredibly long and almost reached down to the ground, and her left arm was completely spotless.

        " You made a mistake, " her voice sounded like the Overlord's, but it seemed cold and distant.

        " My calculations have always been perfect… " hissed the tall man, the smile gone from his lips.

        " Until now, Seven. Until now, " the girl said as she walked towards where the sun would set.

        " Hmmm? Where are we going? " asked the wild boy as he rolled around some more on the dirt.

        However, the little girl did not reply. She merely walked forward without looking back.

        " We shall catch her and remind her who we are, " Seven exclaimed, " So you best stop acting like a beast, Five. "

        The wild boy grumbled but he soon followed the other two in their journey. They walked in silence as they followed the path which was created by the desert snakes. As time passed, the little girl seemed to be getting impatient. Occasionally, she would uproot an oak tree by summoning vines to lift it up, then she would throw the helpless tree away.

        " She will pay dearly for running away from us, " Eight hissed, " I'll remind her why we are the rulers of this new World. "

        The massive black mountains and volcanoes of the Iron Wall came into view just as the first rays of sunlight rose on the west. Errol, who had a sinking feeling in her guts for almost a whole day and a whole night, urged the townsfolk to move faster. She could not explain what she felt, but she had an idea as to what it was: her copies were on the move… towards them. Therefore, she was visibly relieved when the mountain range appeared beyond the forest.

        " But isn't that place impassable? " came a question.

        " That's what I heard, but apparently, some towns were set up beyond it, " was a reply.

        " Only because they went around the Wall, right? " someone else joined in.

        " In any case, I heard that the other sea lies beyond that Wall… can't we just go around it then? " some other human said.

        The townsfolk's fears were not unfounded, but the historians already agreed with the black-haired one and tried to explain: the river connected the two seas, and it was the only assurance of survival for such a long journey. If they tried to go around the Iron Wall, there was no guarantee that they would have enough food and water for such a detour. That did not immediately quell the fears of the humans, but when the Captain reminded them that the desert snakes would escort them through the Wall, the townsfolk became more willing to go through that part of the World.

        The sun was halfway up to its apex by the time that the humans reached the bottom of the mountain range. Their only guides were the black-haired brat Errol and the river which became narrower as it passed through the black mountains. Every now and then, something bright orange jumped out of distant volcanoes as if the planet spat it out. The historians called it lava.

        " Stay together! " Xing yelled to make sure that all humans heard him properly.

        As the group walked on, the path became narrower until finally, the snakes could no longer stay beside the humans. Errol instructed Linnorm to go at the front while the odd-eyed snake remained at the end of the line. The other snakes were scattered between the traveling humans and Errol herself stayed around the middle to keep an eye on everyone. The Keepers led the way as they followed the river, and the Captain and the farmers stayed at the end of the group.

        Every now and then, shadows passed overhead. The tamers peered between rocks and stones for any signs of volcano wolves, the Iron Wall's residents, but so far the pass seemed to be clear. Therefore, it took them by surprise when rocks fell from above them and two massive slate grey boulders landed right on three humans. The victims were crushed beneath the boulders, which soon grew spikes and revealed themselves to be living creatures.

        " T-that's a volcano wolf?! " one of the guards backed away as the wolves ripped their prey apart.

        As tall as two humans that stood one on top of the other, the smaller volcano wolf stepped toward the guards as its even larger partner continued to munch on their helpless victims. Its coat was completely grey and its limbs had scaly coverings which could easily be mistaken for rock and stone. Four spikes protruded upward from its shoulder blades, each one also rock-like but with a narrow tip. The wolf's teeth were dark brown, tainted with red blood. As it snarled at the fearful guards, its red eyes glinted.

        " What are you afraid of? " Thyme yelled at his comrades as he readied his newly-made quill spear, " We're not going to die here! "

        Guards rarely fought since towns were already firmly established, and animals and plants knew to stay away from their borders. But at that point, guards were the townsfolk's primary defense and farmers could barely dent such formidable foes with their smaller tools. As 27's guards formed a circle around the wolves, the tamers stayed behind them to assess the situation.

        " Their sides are unprotected, " one of Hunter's colleagues pointed out, " They'll attack head on because their heads and shoulders are armored. "

        Wolves were known to be independent, but they had a tendency to form temporary partnerships or packs to make hunting easier. Shadows loomed overhead as more wolves appeared above the pass. They seemed to be assessing the situation as well; perhaps they wondered if they should join in the fun. As for the desert snakes, they found it difficult to maneuver in that narrow pass, therefore, the guards and tamers were on their own against the two wolves.

        With nothing but hand gestures and nods, Thyme put two guards in front of the small wolf and three in front of the larger one. They wore thicker armor than the others and had porcupig skulls as their shields. Thyme himself walked over to the sides with other guards who had spears. They finished their formation just as the small wolf lunged towards them and bit down on a porcupig shield. The guard held his shield tightly to keep the wolf in place, but he forgot about the wolf's claws. Thankfully, his fellow shielded guard was ready and put up his own shield to defend against the sturdy claws. At that, Thyme and three other guards attacked from the sides. The wolf immediately noticed it and it tried to back away, but a small, scared guard moved in quickly enough to run his short quill spear through the beast's side.

        The larger wolf turned around when its partner howled in pain. Instead of facing its own attackers, the second wolf clamped down its fangs on the guards on Thyme's side. Their formation ruined, the humans escaped violent mutilation when they jumped to the side, but the narrow pass would not let them go any further. Above them, the wolves began to howl.

        It was a chorus to celebrate death.

        The attack of the volcano wolves split the group into two: the ones who were on the Keepers' side ran towards them and were protected by the snakes, while the ones on the Captain's side tried to keep the wolves from going after defenseless humans. Farmers, with their physical strength and knowledge of various terrain, managed to strike a protruding boulder off the mountain and buried the smaller wolf beneath it. With its partner dead, the other wolf became even angrier than before. However, instead of mauling the humans whom stood before it, the wolf howled.

        A deep, resonating, sorrowful howl echoed through the Iron Wall. The other wolves stopped their pursuit and, oddly enough, they ran away from the pass. The humans were puzzled but relieved, that is, until an even louder sound came from the mountain's summit. Massive black rocks fell down the mountain side and, due to its inclination, began to fall into the pass. It was a rock slide. The humans had never seen anything like it, thus the only thing that they did was run away. Even the snakes headed east, unsure if their armor could take such a beating.

        The rumbling rock slide lasted for a while and when it was over, most of the pass was completely buried beneath black chunks of the mountain. The attacking wolves were buried beneath it, much to the guards' relief, but they had no idea if they could hike up the unstable rock pile. Many of those who were left in the middle of the pass were buried alive and there was no way to retrieve them. When Linnorm tried to move some of the rocks, the mountainside rumbled again and let loose a smaller rock slide.

        " We'll take care of this, " Errol said as she tried to make the humans calm down, " Look, there's Town #54, right beside the Unreachable Sea… you should go. "

        The Keepers looked at the place where the Overlord pointed to. Somewhere beyond the foot of the Iron Wall, there stood a fairly large town and beyond it, there was the only other sea in the World. They were sorrowful because of their losses; the people whom they once knew perished beneath the rock slide. However, they had to pull themselves together and lead the rest of the town. Anise turned to Valor and nodded at him, then she turned to look at White… but he was not there.

        " Where is he? Have you seen him? " the squeaky-voiced old lady looked through the crowd.

        Her grandson was left behind and she was unsure of his condition, so she had no choice but to wait for Errol and the snakes to find survivors from the pass. But Anise thought that White was right behind her when they ran away from the rock slide. Try as she might, she could not find her fellow Keeper until finally, Valor asked her to lead what was left to Town #27 down to 54. Some unfamiliar faces also looked up to her: they were survivors from 38, 40, 41 and a large town on the other side of the wall, 45.

        " Very well, " the little old lady sighed and at that, they walked towards the Unreachable Sea.

        The people of Town #54 warmly welcomed the survivors from beyond the Wall. They were also surprised and amazed by the fact that those people went through the pass along the river instead of going around the mountain range. While the humans tried to settle down in town, those who were left at the other side of the Wall tried to find a way through. The mountainside was quite unstable and that made things difficult even for farmers.

        The odd-eyed snake offered to let the humans ride on its back and it would then try to scale the sides of the pass. However, most of them thought that it would be too dangerous thus, against Xing's warning, they opted to go around the Wall. Only three farmers and two guards, including Steel and Thyme, agreed to ride on the snake's back. Slowly but surely, they made their way over the fallen rock and against the high walls of the pass. On the other side, Errol and Linnorm tried to find a way to remove the rocks, but to no avail.

        " I think I found someone… " the black-haired one said as she peered between a few loose rocks, " Anise will be upset by this. "

        Just before night fell, two snakes slithered down to Town #54 and were greeted by the bloody thorn tree which was left to guard the border. At first, the town's guards tried to drive them away but Anise explained that those were their companions during the journey. Upon the snakes' backs, there laid the victims of the rock slide. Linnorm and Errol remained at the pass as they still tried to look for a way to go beyond it. Even Puppy had fallen behind and he had to go around the mountain range, for the Iron Wall lived up to its name. The tardigrade had to go around the Wall because of the range's composition, and had just arrived as the rays of the sun vanished on the horizon.

        As time passed by, the people from 27 became pessimistic. White, one of the Keepers, was amongst the victims and things didn't look well for the guards and farmers who were left behind. The artists were mostly lost too for they could not keep up with the group; but at least they still had some of their tamers and gardeners. From 54, the humans could see Linnorm moving about in front of the pass as if it was looking for something until finally, it stopped. The aurora's colors changed just then and the Iron Wall was left in darkness.

        Hunter and his mother stood by the seaside. It was the first time that he'd ever gone to a sea even though they lived close to one before, and even though Huntress told him fantastic stories about the plant and animals that lived around it. He also remembered Rina's stories about how animals used to live within the seas but that they died out during the Age of the Sun. Hunter sighed as he looked up at the night sky; he was lost in his thoughts therefore, sudden cries and cheering from the town took him by surprise.

        The tamer ran back to town just in time to see Thyme jump off of the odd-eyed snake's back. Rina, who'd been incredibly worried, dropped everything that she was doing and ran to embrace her fiancé. More cheering resounded through the town as the pretty historian pressed her lips against the guard's. It was a momentary kiss but Thyme felt as if he would die of embarrassment, though Rina's colleagues cheered her on. Hunter could do nothing but laugh at the situation, for the historian was one to do as she pleased and the guard could never do anything about it.

        Anise also walked up to her grandson and gave him a strong pat on the back. She was simply thankful that he was still alive. Huntress ran up to Xing and embraced her brave, one-armed Captain; the older couple was more reserved than Thyme and Rina. The farmers, who did not seem to have had enough of working, immediately went to 54's vegetable patches and inspected that town's terrain and plants. The historians were welcomed into the Library, though the place ended up a bit cramped. In the distance, Errol and Linnorm were still at the pass. They seemed to be watching the celebrations but soon, the pair went back to digging through the rock slide.

        The aurora was almost gone by the time that Errol arrived at 54. Most of the humans had settled down in houses which welcomed them. Though they lost many friends and family members, the people who lived in the Age of the World were always more thankful of the life that they still had; they rarely wallowed in the sadness of a loss. Hunter, who still thought about how he almost lost his faith on Errol because of what seemed to be Linnorm's death, stayed by the seaside. His father and his friends were alive and well; that was all he needed to know. At that moment, Hunter wanted to go to the pass and speak to Errol, but he was ashamed of how the doubt which he felt. So, the tamer punished himself by staying away from that which made him joyful. He looked at the endless expanse of water instead of staying with his family or with the townsfolk.

        " Are you happy? " a familiar voice made Hunter turn around and give the speaker his full attention, " Or are you still sad about… you know… "

        The black-haired girl removed her cloak for the first time in days. She then put it on the tamer's back and she herself sat down beside him on the cold seaside. Errol looked at the same endless expanse of water, but she did not seem to be focused on its coldness. Rather, she looked at the last dance of the aurora which was reflected upon the sea's surface. For a moment, Hunter pictured himself being as bold as Rina- that he'd just take the dark-eyed historian in his arms and make her understand how he felt about her… but that was wishful thinking.

        " Death is inevitable. I was sad about it but… you're here now, " he settled for words, " All is well. "

        " Settle down, we're not here to hurt you… " said the black-haired tall man who had just emerged from the pass, " … much. "

        He and his companions, a small girl who looked like Errol and a wild young boy, broke through the rock slide somehow. The vigilant town guards who'd been watching the borders of 54 had noticed some movement in the pass that morning. They knew that it couldn't be the volcano wolves for those creatures preferred to stay in their territories which were deeper inside the Wall. Wary of the invading plants which the survivors told them about, they immediately alerted the town hall and set off to investigate. With their own eyes, they saw that the man used plants to break through the black rocks and stones.

        " We just want her! " the wild boy suddenly yelled, then he sat down on the ground and scratched his ears like a dog.

        " Her? " the guards looked at one another, puzzled. Their weapons were still at the ready.

        At that point, the rest of the town had been alerted and so the humans began to gather at the foot of the Wall. They murmured to one another, wondering about the strangers' demand. Their questions were soon answered when Errol stepped forward. Her bone knife, which was kept by Hunter for a while, was in her hand. The answered questions gave way for more questions, for the whole World thought that Errol was a boy.

        " Good, good. Now, the stage is set, " Seven clapped twice. The smile on his beautiful face was rather eerie.

        The hardened farmer Steel stepped forward. He'd been telling the farmers of 54 about their experience in 27, and memory of how the wayward plants took the lives of some of his comrades still stung.

        " Are they the ones who are responsible for raising the Citadel? " he growled. The question was directed at Errol.

        " Oh? So we're quite popular, I see, " Seven interjected.

        Black rose bushes emerged from the ground and surrounded the three copies. Bloody dark thorns emerged from the wild boy's arms and wrapped themselves around his body like a spiked armor. Lastly, a large snake appeared from behind the girl who looked like Errol, but it seemed to be made of entangled vines instead of scales and flesh. The rose bushes crept towards the guards, which made them fall back a considerable distance. Errol herself walked towards her copies instead.

        " What say you, Black Blood traitor? " the little girl suddenly said.

        " I say shut your mouth, Eight, " Errol replied coldly.

        Anger glinted in Eight's eyes. She was furious.

        " Now, calm down, " Seven seemed to be trying to diffuse the situation, " We can have our chitchat later. Let's get rid of the trash around here first, hmm? "

        He titled his head a bit to the side and then, in a flash, his rose bushes, with all their thorns and woody vines, dashed towards the guards. The bushes were stopped by tall walls of various plants just as Errol took the bandages off her left arm.

        " Are you taking the side of these worthless pieces of meat? " Seven gritted his teeth while he spoke so that he remained smiling.

        The humans were utterly confused but Xing managed to persuade them to go back to 54. At a time when plants were invading the World, going up against people who could clearly control the invaders was not a wise thing, or so the Captain reasoned. He promised that he would explain it to them at the town hall. So, by groups and by pairs, most of the townsfolk returned to 54 and watched the fight from afar. The guards remained within earshot though, and Errol's companions during their earlier expedition remained on the sidelines with Puppy and Linnorm. The other snakes were left in town where Errol had left the bloody thorn tree beside the sea since she was worried that her copies might try to control it by force.

        " You've got the guts to call them worthless, " Errol snapped, " But you don't even have a clear role in this world. "

        " Kill! Kill! Kill the heretic! " the wild boy yelled as he waved his arms over his head.

        " Fifth quick but mad, " the true Overlord deduced, " I guess you are Five. "

        She then squinted and looked at the tall, black-haired man.

        " That means you are Seven, " she said, " The one who has been telling the others that you are gods. "

        The man smiled widely but his eyes were fearsome, even murderous.

        " We ARE gods, " he exclaimed, " The gods of this new world! "

        Five snarled. Thorns were buried into skin as he used his armor to force his arm back to its original shape. Despite the pain, he rushed forward, more determined than ever. Seven, worried for no one's safety but his own, moved in after the wild one if only to support him from mid range. As the feral copy attacked Errol head on, the Overlord herself remained on the same spot. For her, moving backward meant that she was bowing down to her enemies; moving forward meant that she treated them as worthy opponents. Therefore, she stood her ground.

        Even though she could very well do what she did before, Errol took on the next attack cautiously. As Five came within her great sword's reach, she put up a thorny wall between herself and the attacker. Due to his speed, the boy almost dove face first into the defensive structure, but Seven was able to put up his own rose wall in front of Five. The flowers did not have thorns, which displayed the charming man's control over his creations, and they merely cushioned the overspeeding boy. He bounced to the side just in time to avoid Errol's great sword which cut the defensive walls in half. A deep gash was left on the ground where the thorn-edged sword landed.

        Without taking a moment to breathe, Five turned towards his target whose weapon was still on the ground. He kicked up some dirt as he sped off and threw a punch to the left side of Errol's face. His eyes met hers and he thought that the attack would connect with her cheek, but with a movement that happened within a split second, the black-haired girl dodged by ducking out of his way. His body continued to move forward with his punch which hit empty air. He soon felt a mind-numbing pain on an unprotected part of his body: his nose.

        Black blood trickled from Five's broken face by the time that he managed to back away. Errol's forehead was as hard as her resolve. But as the Overlord's eyes rested on her wild enemy, Seven managed to throw his whip around her upper right arm which held her sword. As a precautionary measure, he put up two rose bush walls between himself and his target which had a small space between them to let the whip through. With his insane strength, the tall, smiling man then pulled his weapon and its thorns were buried into Errol's flesh. The girl kept her stance up and merely buried her weapon deep into the ground, and then she clenched her fist around her sword's hilt so as to strengthen her limb. Though she bled a little, the thorns could go no further into her arm.

        Errol's thorns erupted from the ground beneath Seven's feet but he stepped aside and deflected those that followed him by using his own rose bushes. The leaves were stuck together, incredibly dense like a solid wall. He would not let any of their target's attacks get through to them again. He ran to Errol's right side with his whip still on her arm, and his rose walls followed him. The ground was upturned by the quick appearance of plants from beneath the planet's surface.

        It was a most curious sight for the worried humans who could do nothing but watch the fight. Hunter tried to step in earlier, but Linnorm stopped him with a stern, angry huff. Neither the snake nor the tardigrade would let anyone help Errol, and the animals themselves did not interfere. Rina diligently wrote everything down or at least, everything that her eyes could see. They made sure to stay a safe distance from the fight so that the Overlord would not have to worry about them. Errol was resilient but from a third person perspective, she was on the losing side what with the injuries that she already sustained, two enemies that attacked, and a third opponent who was still sitting lazily on the sidelines.

        " Won't you just give it to us? " Seven said in a singsong voice as he threw another whip at Errol, " Your heart, that is. "

        The second weapon latched itself around the girl's right thigh. Her pants provided almost no protection and the thorns easily dug into her skin. Still, Errol had no intention to move and it was apparent with the way that she looked at her whip-wielding foe. Her eyes weren't dead serious but it pierced through his resolve nonetheless. Seven found himself rooted to his spot for a second and for seemingly no reason at all. Time seemed to slow down around them as Errol stared him down. Just for that moment, he felt as if his world crumbled, as if he felt completely powerless against her.

        A timely attack to the Overlord's legs snapped Seven out of his trance. Five's slide nearly swept Errol off of her feet, thus she had no choice but to jump out of the way. With her hand still firm around her great sword's hilt, the girl kicked off the ground and ended up in an upside-down position with nothing to support her weight but her right arm. Seven had just collected his thoughts but Five barely noticed it. As soon as the wild boy stood up from his slide, he grabbed the middle part of the second whip with his functional hand and pulled it as hard as he could. His tall comrade took advantage of the situation and also pulled the first whip.

        Their combined strength pried Errol away from her sword. The vines were undone and the bone knife fell to the ground as soon as she let go of it, and the Overlord herself was dragged through the dirt and pulled towards her attackers. Five let go of the whip and he jumped into the air. Once he reached the highest point of his jump, his thorn armor expanded until the boy looked like a gigantic reddish-brown ball of pain and suffering. Said ball then landed on Errol as she tried to get up on all fours. A terrified shriek from the blonde historian who chronicled the fight echoed at the foot of the Iron Wall just as the thorn ball connected with the ground and kicked up the surrounding dirt. Silence fell over the battle ground as both sides waited for the dust to settle.

        â€‹Linnorm wound its body around Hunter and his companions. It seemed as if the snake wanted to protect them from something, but if it was that last attack on Errol, they'd already seen it. The massive ball of reddish thorns fell upon the black-haired girl and the impact was so strong that a dust cloud covered the area for a while. Hunter managed to climb up to the snake's back, much to its annoyance. Steel also managed to lift himself over Linnorm's body.

        " She can't die, right? " the tamer's voice shook, " She won't die… "

        At that, the purple-eyed snake lowered its head close to the Black-Blooded human. It huffed, eyes fixated on Five and Errol, as if it wanted to say Just wait and watch. That was exactly what Hunter did. He clutched his chest; his heart pounded within it, but he did not believe that Errol could be so easily defeated. As the dust and dirt settled, the red ball came into view. Seven stood close to it with weapons still ready in his hands.

        SNAP.

        - came a sound from within the ball. The tall, charming man no longer had a pleasant smile on his face. He thought, no, he saw that Five's attack crushed Errol's body. He stepped a little closer to the ball when he heard another snap. And another. And another- snap… snap. His rose walls were still close by and he had his whips in front of him. Seven wondered how Five was doing inside; could the boy already be feasting upon the Overlord's heart?

        " Step away, " Eight suddenly stood up, " Step away from- "

        Too late. Much too late. A small hand covered by thorn-like marks emerged from the side of the ball and grabbed Seven's whip. It then pulled the weapon, which in turn dragged the surprised man along. Due to the strength of that little arm, Seven's face hit the thorny ball and he was barely able to look sideways. A sharp protrusion buried itself on his right eye, and that instantly blinded him.

        " ARRRGH! My face! " he yelled as he let his whip go, then he backed away from the ball as he clutched his bleeding eye, " My beautiful face! "

        Something then broke through the top of the ball. It turned a few times mid air and then, with a rather full squish sound, it landed in front of Eight. With horrified eyes, she looked at a body so mangled that it was almost beyond recognition. Five's limbs were torn apart in so many places that it seemed as if a wild animal attacked him. His neck was also twisted completely and stuck on one side. Black Blood dripped from his wounds and his mouth. Five was very cold… and very dead.

        Seven did not notice the corpse immediately and before he could take a good look, a thick whip of thorny black roses swiped at his knees. He felt as if he suddenly lost some of his height as the tall man fell onto the dirt. He managed to lift himself up with his arms then, he noticed that he could not feel his toes. He looked at his legs and there was nothing below his knees. Or rather, his legs and feet were left standing on their own. He couldn't even scream. His whole body felt numb; the pain that shot through his flesh and bones was unlike anything that he'd ever felt before.

        The dying man's mind was just completely blank but he did see that the ball of thorns was suddenly lifted off the ground. Beneath it, a familiar small figure held Five's creation. She lifted it way above her head and, with one fell swoop, she crushed Seven's body with his companion's own weapon. He survived, but that was no reason to rejoice for Errol merely repeatedly bashed the helpless Seven with the massive reddish ball of thorns and death.

        As he watched that scene, Hunter felt a numbing sensation all over his body. It wasn't because of the blood and gore; there seemed to be an inexplicable reason. He squinted and looked at Errol closely. The tamer then noticed that her body was covered with the black markings similar to how it looked like when they fought Six. Errol's eyes also seemed to be completely black and devoid of emotion. Hunter wanted to try to read what was on her mind, but the fearful feeling that he had stopped him from actually doing it. He looked at Linnorm and noticed that the snake watched the fight with lonely eyes.

        Beneath the weight of the thorns and Errol's strength, Seven was soon completely crushed both in spirit and in body. His brain still functioned for a while and his one good eye managed to catch a glimpse of Eight's horrified face. His skull was unable to bear the next blow and as soon as his brain splattered onto the blood-covered ground, Seven finally died. But Errol did not stop there. She continued to bash the motionless corpse until there was nothing left but a mess of Black Blood, bones and flesh.

        Eight advanced towards Errol. She kicked Five's corpse to the side and spat on it. Her vine snake tossed the dead wild one farther away as if it was just a piece of garbage. Sturdy, long, black thorns grew on the back of Eight's vine beast. It had no eyes, merely two massive holes on the side of what seemed to be its head. They stopped a short distance away from Errol, who then turned to her perfect copy with a mad look on her face. The long-haired little girl took one look at the pool of flesh and bone. She sighed and shook her head; Eight seemed to be exasperated. Their confrontation was inevitable.

        " To kill gods, " Eight murmured as her eyes met Errol's, " You became a demon."

        Awash with Black Blood, Errol's iris and retina were completely black. One could assume that it was just one of the effects of a defensive mechanism which was triggered by Five's attack, for her appearance, though similar to when she synchronized with Hunter, was strikingly different from how she looked like before. The black thorn-like markings on her body moved every now and then; it gave off the illusion that rather than being permanent marks on her body, they were moving parts that surfaced only when needed.

        " I don't know why the Mechanism created such imperfect trash, " Eight glanced at the pile of flesh which used to be Seven, " But they were rather useful. "

        The long-haired girl ran her fingers through her black strands as Errol tossed the red ball of thorns at her. The vine snake put its head over its creator; numerous spikes emerged from the beast and it impaled the ball, and then the snake tossed the red weapon aside. More spikes appeared around the snake's head and along where its spine should be. Once the transformation was done, Eight's pet looked more like ancient Earth's mythical beast, the dragon.

        " I can do this, see? " the eighth copy taunted her opponent, " But all you have is that filthy mutant. And them."

        Linnorm ignored the statement even as Eight nodded at its direction. The old snake had lived through so many moments and rebirths; such a childish remark would not provoke it. In front of Eight, Errol remained expressionless and fixated on her target's face. If one looked through the Overlord's eyes, what would they see? Darkness? Colours? Maybe red?

        Within Errol's head, there were many voices. Through her eyes, she saw nothing but black and white. The World was black and it was littered by many small white specks. Those specks moved… and they spoke to her. They asked many questions; they questioned her motives- they asked her what she wanted. The only other creature that could hear the many small voices was Puppy, whose antennae pointed at Errol's direction. At a frequency which was inaudible to humans or animals, the ancient, minuscule extremophilic tardigrades spoke to Errol and to their gigantic descendant.

        " What I don't understand… " Eight suddenly broke the silence, " … is why… I can't control them. "

        Her voice sounded cross as she looked at Errol.

        " I will not accept this imperfection! " she pointed at the true Overlord, " I will take all that you have, and I will rule them all! "

        " Ah, cannibalism. One of the most barbaric of ancient practices, " the Overlord finally spoke up, still expressionless. Her voice sounded hollow, " You wish to eat your enemy's heart to gain her strength? "

        Eight did not explain any further. Vines from her dragon beast grabbed the girl's body and pulled her into its neck. She vanished behind the spikes and thorns, and the creature itself lunged at Errol. The latter could hear the voices that warned her of the impending attack before it happened. Despite Eight's control over their counterparts from a far corner of space, she could not control their kind which resided in the World. For the ancient tardigrades which populated the whole World, the original Overlord was the only creature of a different species which was worthy of their power.

        With the strength of her will, the true Overlord guided life on the planet through the Age of the Sun. Despite the pattern of her Blood which allowed her to communicate with the Ancient Ones, as the Overlord she did not use her abilities all the time. Just like every other living being on the forsaken rock which was slowly crumbling away due to the sun's heat, she had filthy, blistered hands and feet. Over time, in addition to her natural ability to command the minuscule tardigrades which were unseen by humans, she also gained their respect and trust. But Black Blood did not come without a price; as she spent more time with the Ancient Ones, she felt more disconnected with other creatures of the World.

        Despite their hesitation, the ancient tardigrades encouraged the Overlord to live her life amongst the humans. We're always here, they said, even though you can't see us with your human eyes. Extremophiles of an unmatchable level, ancient tardigrades never die. They merely multiply and occasionally drift off the planet to settle on another one. The Ancient Ones of the World found it tragic that their brothers and sisters who arrived from the sky, on-board the heavenly body that was aptly called Apocalypse, were of a different opinion. Through the effort of the Apocalypse tardigrades, they created eight copies of the Overlord, each one based on a part of her, each one closer to perfection than the one before it. Eight, who embodied immortality and an unending loop, was their perfect creation… or so they thought.

        The vine dragon crashed onto the ground, controlled by the Apocalypse tardigrades under Eight's command. Its movements overturned soil and stone. Without any pity for the corpse of her comrade Seven, Eight sent her dragon to crush Errol at any cost. Whatever was left of the charismatic man's body scattered between dust and dirt before it disappeared into the earth. With simple sprints and dashes, Errol avoided the massive creature. Eight was indeed powerful; the World's tardigrades told the Overlord about how that little girl single-handedly raised the Citadel from the depths of the sea. However, she was also constantly depressed, was oversensitive, and easily lost her temper. There was strength in numbers, but Eight did not know how to work with her comrades. Seven was the one who tried to pull the group together, albeit with twisted words and inane beliefs.

        Both immortals stopped on their tracks when a large shadow moved across the ground from the far side of the Desert Beyond. They looked up and stared at what seemed to be a heavy, dark grey mass that floated in the air high above them. It did not look like a plant or an animal. While many tiny voices rejoiced and repeatedly said Rain! Rain! Rain!, Errol took that opportunity to swipe her bone knife from the ground. She recreated her great sword, her weapon of choice when she was the Overlord, and with all her strength, she brought her sword down upon the head of the dragon.

        Hunter's heart almost stopped when the dragon's mouth opened up. Thorny spikes, each as large as Errol's own sword, shot out of the creature's orifice to intercept its attacker. But seemingly out of thin air, a black armor formed over the Overlord's body. It was slightly jagged and rough but, unlike Five's reddish thorn armor, it did not have any spikes. If anything, the substance looked like the stones of the Iron Wall. That was close! said the many voices around Errol, Too close! They then covered much of her face with the same black substance and when they were done, the short-haired girl looked like a humanoid part of the Wall.

        " Why are you worried? " she asked them, " I won't die anyway. "

        The humans who were close by heard her speak. She thought that she spoke to them. Steel, who felt useless and helpless as he watched the fight, suddenly stood up and yelled much to his comrades' surprise.

        " If you want us to stop worrying, " he bellowed, " – then kick her ass already! "

        The World tardigrades laughed and Puppy laughed with them. It was a cross between a snort and a giggle. Their lives are so short, they said, But they are interesting. A playful smirk formed on Errol's lips. She didn't look at Steel, but he knew that the girl understood what he meant. The farmer sat back down on Linnorm's armor scales as the snake shook its head in disbelief at the human's audacity. Meanwhile, Errol sprinted towards the dragon's far left side and made it face away from Hunter and the others. Eight, of course, followed her target without taking a moment to rest.

        When the dragon opened its mouth to let loose another barrage of spikes, Errol dashed toward its neck where she last saw Eight. With one thrust, she pierced the underside of the beast and black blood trickled down her sword. However, her sword would not go in any further and she had to pull back when spikes protruded from the creature's neck and tried to impale her. While she was immortal and would recover from her wounds, if she was debilitated, Eight could seize that opportunity to wipe out the last few towns which stood on that side of the Iron Wall. As the Overlord of the World, Errol could not allow such a tragedy to happen.

        Meter by meter, she led the dragon away from the town and from her human companions. Hunter became upset when the distance between them grew, but Linnorm threatened to gobble him up if he moved. The humans had to stay where they were; they didn't know why, but even Puppy would not allow them to leave their spot. With no choice but to look on as the Overlord fought with her last copy, they settled down even as their hearts pounded in their chests. They wanted to help her, but what could they do? As mere humans which could be easily crushed by Eight's dragon, they would just get in Errol's way.

        In the distance, the girl in the black armor dashed around the dragon. It wound itself around her little by little and soon, the Overlord ran out of places to run. However, instead of being distraught at her predicament, the girl took that chance to dash toward the creature's neck. Initially, it seemed like a bad idea since the sword which she once again thrust into the dragon was stopped by its thick armor. Hold on, the World tardigrades said. Spikes sprung from the creature's body, but Errol's armor merely deflected them. Minute amounts of time ticked by but she held the sword in its place.

        The immortal Ancient Ones, which had the blueprint of each and every creature and substance in the known universe within their bodies, converted everything that was around them into moving vines and thorns for the great sword. The result? The sword's length quickly extended to almost five times its original length. It pierced through the dragon's neck, reached the one who controlled it from within, and beheaded the long-haired girl. The dragon fell limp as Eight's head rolled away from its body. With no one to control the Apocalypse tardigrades that swarmed on upon and within it, the vine creature became unresponsive.

        Curiously, Errol immediately jumped away from the dragon and Eight. The humans began to celebrate, but their joy was short-lived for an oak tree soon grew out of the ground and somehow tossed the rolling head back to its body which caught it. The leather oak tree then withered away when Eight willed it to be so. Errol's eyes were on her opponent whose head was quickly reattached, albeit still wounded around the neck area. Eight soon regained control over her dragon and she recreated the damaged parts. An odd reaction to a seemingly-lethal attack… the humans could only deduce that the long-haired girl was a perfect copy of Errol's appearance, abilities and immortality.

        It seemed like an endless battle. If neither of them would die, when will it ever end? The sun could very well set and return the next day to shine upon Eight and Errol's faces, still locked in a fight. Unseen to the human eye, the ancient tardigrades also clashed, albeit not physically since that was beyond pointless. One side fought to take over the planet, while the other side fought to defend its freedom. But the most glaring difference was that the Apocalypse' side thought that their champion was perfect in every way for they did, after all, create it themselves. The World's side, on the other hand, knew that the Overlord was imperfect for she was created by humans, and to fill that gap, they fought with her rather than for her.

        Beast against sword, Eight and Errol clashed. The first collision was so forceful that both fighters were thrown back. Still nimble and fast within her black armor, the Overlord merely flipped in the air, landed on the ground and left a deep impression of her tracks, then she dashed back into battle. Eight was momentarily stunned as her dragon's head was driven backwards, but she managed to regain control just as Errol brought her sword down upon them. The vine beast's spikes met the sword's thorny edges and they momentarily sparked due to friction.

        Errol was strong but Eight was equally powerful. When the Overlord kicked off the dragon's head to get ready for another attack, her opponent lunged at her with its mouth agape. She did not know if the black armor could indefinitely take damage, therefore Errol lodged her sword in the beast's mouth. With her hand firm on its hilt and her armored arm up against its blade, she kept her weapon in place. The dragon crashed through ground, stones, rocks and even the foot of the Iron Wall. Its huge body also upturned everything that it slithered through.

        It was a one-on-one fight, but the damage to the area beyond 54's border looked like the aftermath of a porcupig stampede. The dragon soon raised its head above the cloud of dirt and dust. With Errol still in its mouth, the beast reared its face towards the Iron Wall itself and repeatedly bashed the Overlord against it. Black shards flew in the air as the repetitive strikes broke off parts of the mountain range. In the distance, volcano wolves howled in response to the unnatural loud sound which resonated across their territory.

        We should end this, said the voices that Errol could hear, End this now. But the Overlord shook her head and with renewed strength, she pushed the dragon away from her and kicked its chin upward. With its neck exposed, she aimed for Eight once again, but the copy's position was already lower than before. Trust us, the voices said, It will rain soon. So trust us. Errol closed her eyes for a moment and then she pulled her sword out of the dragon's neck. She kicked off of the beast and landed on the foot of the Iron Wall.

        With one powerful leap, she reached a height that was a few meters above her target. As soon as she was airborne, black stems emerged on the shoulders of Errol's armor. They grew longer until each one was thrice her arm's length. Many fine black strands then formed net-like features beneath the stems. It resembled the structures called wings which extinct ancient Earth creatures, " bats ", once had. Due to the terrible heat of the sun, almost everything that could fly died out; the fate of flying creatures was sealed when dandelions evolved and began to hunt them. But at that moment, it seemed as if a creature of the past reappeared in front of humans.

        The townsfolk looked on, for the massive black figure was visible even from the farthest end of 54. It raised something over its head and the historians hurriedly took out pen and paper to chronicle that eventful occurrence. Above the grounded dragon, Errol hovered. Her wings caught the wind and the Ancient Ones grabbed even more of their brothers and sisters as gusts carried minuscule tardigrades to that part of the World. Part of the collective consciousness of the planet, the newly-arrived tardigrades knew what was going on and, in fact, had leapt into the eastbound winds so that they could join the battle.

        " Fuel. "

        Through Errol's eyes of Black Blood, she could see the white specks which surrounded Eight, who in turn was completely puzzled as to how her target remained in the air. Conversion, alchemy, whatever humans called it- the World's tardigrades changed the composition of the air around Errol's target as their champion kept her great sword raised over her head. The sun's face was almost hidden by dark, grey clouds which moved in from the desert, but the tardigrades assured her that there was still enough time.

        " Heat. "

        The white creatures then moved against her sword, and soon, even though they were incredibly tiny, they created enough friction which surrounded the thorns with visible blinding-white sparks. Errol breathed in deeply as she used all of her strength to bring down her great sword. As her movement threw the weapon downward, the tardigrades paved the way for its descent by making the air less resistant. Errol's completely black eyes looked at the dragon which had its mouth wide open and full of spikes.

        " Air. "

        The Overlord's massive wings then flapped downward. Its wind made the sword descend faster and as the sparks met the inflammable cloud which the tardigrades created around the dragon, their target went up in flames. Alarmed and confused, Eight soon panicked as bright-white flames ate her summoned beast. She screamed in horror as the searing heat burned through her clothes. Soon, her flesh felt as if it was being torn off by many small hands. Her hair was instantly consumed by Errol's blaze while the Overlord herself flew down into the fire.

        Errol picked up her great sword. It was soon consumed by the blaze, but the bone knife remained. Her black armor, unlike Eight's dragon, was not made of flammable substance. Eight staggered towards the Overlord. She held her burning hand out but the long-haired girl screamed in horror when she saw that the fire burned her skin off. Eight looked at her own hands and saw that while her flesh was being burned off, it was also, at the same time, trying to regenerate. Around her, the flames continued to dance. She tried to run towards the Iron Wall, but the flames followed her. She tried to cover herself with dirt, but that merely intensified the pain as the rough substance rubbed against her bare flesh. Soon, the immortal Eight was nothing but a walking mess of burning flesh and bones. It was an eternal inferno.

        â€‹Errol's world seemed to stop when innumerable small voices bombarded her head. She could hear each one clearly and her mind struggled to keep up. After she tried to make sense of what was going on, it finally struck her that the voices were not of the World's tardigrades, but of Apocalypse's passengers. Those were the same small voices which called her down to the Mechanism a long time ago.

        " Would you like to see? " they asked, " … see how we arrived? See what happened? See where you came from? "

        The Overlord relaxed her grip on her bone knife. The wings on her back were shattered to many black shards, and then, she closed her eyes. Errol breathed deeply as the flames raged on against her copy, kept alive by the World's tardigrades. Eight remained unable to fight it, nearly immobile. When her allies assured her that everything would be alright, the armored girl finally nodded.

        " Show me, " she whispered.

        She felt a sudden rush into her head as the Apocalypse tardigrades went into her body. Kept in check by the World's Ancient Ones, the invaders merely used their abilities to form images in Errol's mind. A collage of many scenes almost made her dizzy, but soon, it slowed down. She saw a vast, dark and seemingly empty expanse that was dotted by distant sources of light. Errol then realized that she looked at the past through the eyes of Apocalypse tardigrades.

        For a while, nothing happened. They just sat there on a slightly icy ball of dust. They traveled towards the direction of the sun and followed an elliptical path, until suddenly, the icy ball was hit by something which was even more frozen and massive. The tardigrades' home spun out of control until it reached a blue and white sphere. And then… complete darkness.

        The tardigrades fell asleep. That was their coping mechanism. But a little later, they woke up to the sound of unfamiliar voices. It was their first interaction with the Earth's creatures called humans. Those bipedal creatures referred to their icy, dusty home as Apocalypse. Without warning, the humans then cut up their home into nine pieces, the largest of which was the only one left on its original spot. The tardigrades were furious, but they could do nothing. The humans could not see nor hear them.

        The ancient tardigrades hated the humans, and they also despised the creatures which the bipeds referred to as bacteria. To them, the ancient travelers of space, bacteria were ugly mistakes of nature. The tardigrades preferred to stay away from humans and animals which arrived near their home for they carried bacteria all over the place. In contrast, they liked plants which were home to few bacteria. Occasionally, the tardigrades went to sleep though the sounds of humans' workings did wake them up every now and then. They were almost appeased when the bipeds brought different plants into the cavern and left them there.

        As the humans of that rocky planet which, the tardigrades noticed, was called Earth continued their work, the ancient creatures learned a little about their plans. The bipeds, as dumb as they seemed, managed to create a pattern which was similar to the blueprint of creatures which they called tardigrades. Errol was slightly puzzled by the lack of surprise or alarm from the ancient ones, but she realized that the passengers of Apocalypse did not know that humans referred to their kind with that name. The creatures of Apocalypse merely referred to themselves as 'us' or 'we', for they thought that names were unnecessary.

        The humans also spoke of something about a chain reaction in the solar system, the destruction of the moon as the Earth spun out of orbit, and the death of the core. Errol understood nothing of it, except for the bit about the moon. She read in ancient books that a large rock once lit up the night sky, but it was no longer present in the Age of the Sun. While some of them talked on, other humans attached things to the largest piece of Apocalypse. Once it was done, they called it the Mechanism.

        The Apocalypse tardigrades thought that the humans would finally leave, but they returned to do just one last thing. They brought a plant that had a dark green body and one completely black blossom. Humans called it a black rose. As cruel as it sounded, they separated the rose from its body; the body from its rose. They then left the plant in the Mechanism and tightly locked its small doors in place. As they turned away, Errol heard that the humans spoke about the pattern of the black rose and how it was the key… that someday, it would return to be reunited with its body.

        Many dark moments passed. Errol felt that the tardigrades grew stronger somehow and soon, they were able to influence that plants which were around them. She watched the once tame plants grow larger, some even became mobile, and many began to glow with a strange white light. She felt as if much time passed and then, suddenly, she saw… herself. It was that day, that time, that moment when she reached the Mechanism. She felt that the tardigrades sensed her and knew her- she was the key, the child of the black rose.

        As she solved the locks and opened them, the Apocalypse tardigrades grew excited for the reunion of the body and its blossom. Within the Mechanism, the plant survived and grew as it waited for the return of its other half. When the Overlord put her hand in the final and ninth lock, they thought that the body and the rose would be reunited…

        … but they were very wrong.

        The human-made contraptions within the Mechanism trapped the girl's arm in place. It slowly grinded its jagged edges against her flesh, against her bone. The tardigrades screamed in terror and their voices reached her, but both had no idea as to what they should do. Slowly, the Mechanism began to move and the girl's blood seemed to be its fuel. The movement of the Mechanism, in turn, unlocked the other eight pieces of Apocalypse. Based on what the tardigrades of the fallen heavenly body felt at that time, Errol could only hypothesize that the movement of all nine mechanisms made something in the planet's center move as well. That was what she felt at that time too as she was there with her arm being crushed.

        By the time that the initialization process was done and the Mechanism let go of her hand, the Overlord's left arm was broken in many places. Her bones jutted out of her skin and eventually, pieces of it fell out. She gathered her broken bones which Errol used later on as her weapon, the bone knife. But even with a limp arm and much blood loss, the girl was able to hike out of the cavern. The tardigrades watched her as she left, and they swore that they would make a creature which would be better than her… one which was not as weak, one which was not as frail, one which could attain perfection and, in that perfect state, be reunited with the blossom's original body within the Mechanism.

    â€‹    â€‹The tardigrades which resided on Apocalypse had good intentions, but their vision was skewed by their hatred of humans. It did not help that they evolved far beyond what they originally were and instead of dying out, they became immortals. At first, they tried to influence the World by using plants. However, they soon realized that they were not alone.

        The planet was occupied by its own colony of tardigrades, and despite being of essentially the same natural blueprint, they had opposing views. The World's tardigrades enjoyed their life with the planet's creatures. They were particularly fond of a being which they referred to as The Overlord. They spoke highly of it. Soon, the Apocalypse tardigrades grew tired of their World counterpart's passive ways.

        As they originally planned, the inhabitants of Apocalypse began to weave life based on the pattern which they read in remnants of Black Blood. They created eight pods which contained similar basic forms, but as time passed, they slowly altered those copies. The tardigrades tried different interpretations of what could be 'perfect'. Within the cavern, as time moved on, the copies grew within the pods which the tardigrades created by using the dark plant. Little by little, it all made sense and Errol's mind managed to complete the pieces of the puzzle:

        The first one was left in her shell for far too long after she was 'complete'. Her mind was developed beyond what her creators intended, and so she had a different understanding of their predicament. Her weakness was that her body had not developed to its full potential; it seemed as if most of the development was concentrated on her mind. Soon, that first one left and was never seen again. But Errol knew what happened… One appeared before her and told the Overlord about herself and the other copies. She also wanted to die by Errol's hands, and the latter reluctantly obliged.

        The second one was incredibly skilled. She was also most artful, but she expressed her thoughts through her actions, never through words. She had been sent to retrieve One, but came across the Overlord instead and discovered that she was the historian named Errol D' Theov. Two was fairly smart and managed to gain information about the World, which she subsequently brought back to the other copies. Due to her meek nature, she did not ask for the others' help therefore, in her next escapade, Errol managed to catch her and, still with much hesitation, the Overlord killed Two.

        The third one was insanely strong. He managed to uproot many trees south of the forest, but he was as dumb as a rock. He was so stupid that Puppy was actually the one who took him on, and the tardigrade emerged victorious. Although the creature did not kill the copy, Errol arrived just before Three got away and she immediately disposed of him.

        The fourth one was very cunning and used parasites to gain control. Her body, however, was very weak for her influence over Apocalypse tardigrades was developed instead of her physical strength and endurance. The tardigrades refused to admit that it was a miscalculation on their part, and so Four continued to exist even though her body could fail at any time. Around that time, Errol already put Linnorm at the original entrance to Impact Cavern. Four was the first one to use the exit through the antlion burrow which Three once worked on from the surface.

        The fifth one was the animalistic boy. He was quick on his feet and adept at fighting. Unfortunately he was, in one word, mad. Five was very wild and even his comrades found it difficult to control him. They avoided him if they could, and Seven was the only one who seemed to be patient enough to work with the boy. Like the ones before him and the two ones after him, however, Five was far from perfect. They were mortal.

        The sixth one was a being in two bodies. At times, Six split her mind between the two and each part could make independent decisions and movement. Her strength lay in her ability to control both bodies at once in perfect synch. Her weakness was connected to her strength, for if one was injured while synchronized, the other would feel the pain as well. Regardless of whether they were in synch, Six's bodies would both die even if just one was mortally wounded.

        The seventh one was the charismatic, tall, perpetually smiling man. He was very good with words, and he tried to make his comrades work together. Unfortunately, Seven also resorted to indirect lies, things that he called "half-truths" which were not true at all anyway. He read many books and convinced the other copies that they were gods. But he cared more about his appearance than the lives of those around him. His patience with Five was also a way to manipulate the boy into fighting in the front lines for Seven disliked close quarters combat.

        Lastly, the eighth one emerged from her pod. By then, the Apocalypse tardigrades decided to just copy most of Errol, even her appearance. They removed the part which they identified as the Overlord's humanity and instilled within Eight's mind that she was far superior than the other copies, other creatures of the World and even the Overlord herself. It worked. She was perfect… or so they thought. The copy which they created turned out to be just like the Overlord of the Age of the Sun- depressed even though she did not know why. This resulted in Eight's preference to distance herself from the other copies, and it also led to her downfall. She underestimated the strength of Errol's will, that which allowed her to control collective consciousness of the World's tardigrades. Eight, who was just used to exercising her control over the Apocalypse tardigrades, did not think that they would be overpowered. She was very wrong. The flames continued to burn through her flesh while her creators tried to hasten her regeneration. Their attempts to put out the fire were overcome by the Overlord's unseen army.

        Errol then snapped out of the trance. To her, it felt like eons but in the World, it was a mere few seconds. The experience was enough to keep her distracted and while she thought about what she saw, the dirt beneath her feet began to shake. The ground opened up and down fell Eight into a seemingly-endless void. Errol managed to grab onto the side of the chasm but as she struggled to get out, the more it crumbled and even when she tried to use her vines, the walls of the chasm widened. When she thought that she would fall into the darkness below, a warm hand grabbed hers. She looked up at bright blue eyes and a familiar face which made her feel something odd and bittersweet.

        " Hold on, " Hunter said as he grasped Errol's left hand tightly.

        â€‹Linnorm's head and body were completely still on the ground while Hunter knelt down on its head. His arm was outstretched and his hand held Errol's firmly. Around the chasm, the earth was unstable and only the large snake could approach it safely. Half of its body was on solid ground and Hunter, without hesitation, used Black Blood to strengthen himself so that he could dash to Errol immediately.

        " I'm going to pull you up little by little, " the tamer held out his other hand as he spoke to her.

        But Errol looked at him with sad eyes. She glimpsed at the darkness below her feet, then up at Hunter once again. She could hear the many voices around her as the World's tardigrades, for the first time, headed down to Apocalypse of their own accord. The fight was not over and they needed their champion. It was a long fall but she would surely survive. However, based on her previous journey into Impact Cavern, she knew that it would take an extremely long time.

        " The cycle will repeat itself, " she said to him.

        " I don't understand- " Hunter frowned as he still held out his other hand.

        We have to hurry, the World's Ancient Ones said, They will use the rose's body again. Evidently, there was no other way. She was the one who unlocked the Mechanism. She was the one who fueled it and gave it life. The core had already been restarted and it will continue to move; the Mechanism was unnecessary. The plant within it was just being used by the Apocalypse colony for their ideology.

Halfway with twenty

Halfway alone

        The journey to the Mechanism would be a long one. The humans whom she knew would be dead and gone by the time that she reached her destination. The poem which the tardigrades recited…

To end their story

To ensure it is done

… was a chronicle of the lives of Errol and her copies. Of how it began, and how it should end.

From one to nine

        The Apocalypse tardigrades would just repeat the process. Once they have Eight in their possession, they could remake her in a place where they were numerous, a place which the World's tardigrades refrained from invading out of respect. They would, without hesitation, recreate all of the fallen copies. They could even, at that point, make all eight true immortals.

        Errol's bone knife was still in her right hand. It was a bitter reminder of what she went through when the Mechanism crushed her arm so that it could harvest her blood. She undid the locks; she should lock them again. If she sealed the plant away, if she removed whatever remained of her Black Blood from the Mechanism, the Apocalypse tardigrades would be unable to recreate their children.

        Of all the things that they could do, there was one thing that those creatures from the cold depths of space could not accomplish: they could not multiply. The World's tardigrades continually increased, but the Apocalypse' remained the same. It was because of their shortsightedness, their arrogance; they believed that they should be the only ones of their kind that should ever exist… the only passengers of the fallen Apocalypse.

If the Mechanism was shut down…

… they would go back to sleep.

If the Mechanism was shut down…

… they would settle for their quiet life in Impact Cavern.

If the Mechanism was shut down…

…their delusions of grandeur would be lost in their slumber.

        The black rose's body would remain there, forever, but it would be locked up safely within the Mechanism… and only Errol's Black Blood, something unique to her and her alone, could ever open it.

        " Let me go, " she said to the blue-eyed boy, " And the World will live. "

        Linnorm's eyes widened as Errol opened her left hand. Hunter tried to hold onto it.

Ebb nine to one.

        Soothing, cool drops of water fell down from the sky as she disappeared into the darkness of the abyss.

        â€‹That day changed the World.

        For the first time after the Age of the Sun, rain fell from the sky. It was like a myth that suddenly became reality. Humans never questioned the sources of their water; unbeknownst to them, the World's tardigrades worked hard to fill the seas. As the planet's temperature lowered, the seas were filled up with water and that allowed life to flourish in the World despite the lack of precipitation.

        But while the tardigrades could accomplish many great feats, they simply could not do everything or recreate every system that the planet once had. Weather was one of the most unpredictable systems and the tardigrades did not understand it well enough to meddle with it. However, at long last, the planet's healing process reached a vital point. Once again, it rained.

        The humans were wary at first, but when Rina ran into 54 despite the downpour, they emerged from their homes. It was day of both joy and sorrow. The attackers were defeated, clear water fell from the sky… but Errol was gone. She didn't return that evening, and she didn't return the following morning, or the day after that, or a week later.

        The chasm soon caved in on itself as rain continued to pour. For many days, water fell from the sky and the streets were flooded, but not so much that it hindered the humans of 54. When the rain finally stopped, the humans saw another miracle of the planet: a rainbow. The return of rainy days was accompanied by many changes, one of which was the emergence of a deadly plant from the depths of the Overlord's Sea. Historians called it kelp and it kept humans away from the Citadel. With its many long leaves, it could grab anything and crush it. Some said that it was left behind by Eight; others said that it had been there all along and resurfaced when the Citadel was raised above water level.

        But the changes did not end with rain. Human lives also moved on. Errol's original history book finally revealed its contents on the day that she disappeared. Rina decided to continue the Overlord's studies but before she left 54 to travel all over the planet, Thyme proposed that they be husband and wife. Unlike the ancient days, there was no grand ceremony or obligatory blessing from some complete strangers. All that was needed was the affirmation of their life-long love, respect and fidelity to one another.

        Someplace else in the World, the oak forest expanded its reach. To help the planet recover its supposed former lush green and blue state, Steel and his band of determined farmers set out to the Desert Beyond. His friend Ochre failed in his undertaking, but the older man's experiences during his journey with the Overlord made him want to live more. He no longer wanted to stay in a town to exist in a mundane way. The farmer gathered young visionaries and, with the aid of the ever-enthusiastic acacia, they traveled to transform parts of the desert into arable land.

        The townsfolk of what used to be 27 soon moved out of 54 and, along with the people of other ruined towns; they built Town # 145 south of the Unreachable Sea. The part of the forest which stood to the west of the Iron Wall became more dangerous than ever during rainy days. But humans, after everything that they'd been through, still strived to expand their towns beyond the Wall. However, it was not due to conquest or greed, but due to the desire to co-exist with the rest of the World's inhabitants.

        Hunter was happy for his town, his family, and for his friends. He also managed to understand the intricacies of Black Blood. As gardeners explained to him, such a gift required a strong will. Due to his diffidence, he initially found it difficult to use his abilities but over time, he was able to use them to help improve the life of his fellow humans. By his side, Puppy remained. Although Linnorm and some of the snakes returned to their home in the desert, Puppy did not return to the giant tardigrade colony. The odd-eyed snake stayed with the humans as well, ever curious and willing to help.

        Within their own journals, they wrote their stories in much the same way that the Overlord confided in her diary. During one of her occasional glimpses at the pages of Errol's confidante, Rina could barely hold back her tears when she flipped to the last entry and read its last line.

        I will see you again tomorrow, Diary.

        â€‹Life in the World soon went back to normal. Some of the towns were rebuilt though the larger, completely ruined ones such as 27 were left in rubbles. But the lives of those who once lived in the ruined towns still continued. Practical and ever optimistic, humans moved forward. They learned from the mistakes of their past, appreciated the present, and hoped for the best future.

        â€‹Xing, who became the Captain of the newly-built town #145, soon became the father of an eager little boy. The opposite of his older brother Hunter in almost every way, Zhao wanted to be a guard as soon as he was able to walk and speak. While Hunter's eyes were blue, Zhao's eyes were a fierce reddish brown. Despite their differences, the brothers got along and complemented one another. Both grew up to be fine young men but as time passed, Hunter himself noticed something strange.

        He stopped aging.

        By the time that he was nearly as tall as his father and reached the best moments of his youth, Hunter felt that time stood still for him. Many people noticed it but they did not say anything, and his own family treated him as they did before. But as his parents grew older, Hunter could do nothing about the sad realization that he would outlive them. Some days, he was depressed due to his predicament; other days, he was thankful.

        Much time passed and those whom he knew died and were buried. In his death bed, Zhao assured his older brother that there was much to live for, and that if Yue Li had the gift of immortality, he should cherish it and make a difference in the World. And a difference he did make, for Hunter soon followed the late Steel's footsteps and explored the desert. His guides were the eternally joyous redhead Lavender, daughter of Thyme and Rina, and her twin brother Oren. On Puppy's back, the tamers journeyed to many parts of the desert. They discovered that beyond it, there lay a wasteland of stone and rubble.

        At first, they did not notice any living creatures. Hunter only saw massive brownish structures on the ground. They looked like large coverings that could have towns within them. But as the group approached the brown towns, the structures moved. A foul stench shot up through their noses and into their heads as the 'towns' stood up. The creatures, which Oren identified as ridiculously overgrown descendants of ancient Earth's cockroaches, merely looked at the puny humans. They then turned to the mountains of jagged rubble and stone, and proceeded to eat the inorganic boulders. Posing no immediate threat to the rest of the World, the tamers decided to write about their findings while suggesting that the roaches be left alone.

        Time continued to flow, but not for Hunter. Soon, even his little companions died of old age. His only comfort was the company of Puppy who was ever cheerful and supportive. Though the tardigrade occasionally showed signs of being as dumb as a rock, his empathy for the Black Blooded human could be felt. Day and night, the two traveled together and wherever Hunter was spotted, surely, Puppy was close by. Though the human's heart ached severely, he was thankful that he was given the opportunity to understand how Errol felt; how he wished that he could see her again. But no matter, he had forever to wait for her.

        Moments, days, nights, and years passed. The World continued to change. Ever so slowly, the planet was restored. There was rain, and soon, there was evidence of the onset of seasons. The desert became more forgiving and the oak forest continued to expand.

        Humans and animals thrived and co-existed.

        Plants flourished.

        The Citadel fell to ruins and the forest around it was soon mostly submerged in water. As some of the plants in it died away, the empty spaces were filled up by the clean, clear, drinkable liquid. The trials of the past were soon put in the History of the World; forgiven but never forgotten. Some towns were rebuilt slowly and they expanded to make room for more humans from all over the planet.

        The World continued to turn on its axis though that was not felt by its inhabitants. Unseen in the atmosphere and almost everywhere else, the World's tardigrades watched on as the lives of the planet's creatures improved. Benefactors who were invisible, even to Hunter for he did not know how to use Black Blood eyes, the tardigrades soon fell asleep. The Mechanism had been successfully shut down by their champion and yet the planet's core continued to move. All was well.

        Days were brilliantly beautiful, rarely too warm or too cold. Night skies were lit up by the majestic aurora. Its colors danced during the evenings and were reflected upon the surface of the Unreachable Sea. Sunsets and daybreaks were some of the prettiest sights that humans could see, and they became inspiration for the many young and old artists of 145. Over a few years, the town became known for having the best painters in the World.

        Humans learned to appreciate art once more. Though the role of each artist was a temporary one, they cherished it dearly and that enthusiasm resulted in happier days. They loved their roles in their days as children, and the humans also looked forward to the days when they would be able to return to painting and drawing. But they never neglected their roles as farmers, guards, historians, or tamers.

        It was just like a new beginning for the World. Life continued to become much easier for the humans. It was almost similar to how life was like before Apocalypse buried itself into the planet. Plants became less aggressive; some gardeners suggested that it could be because of the balance of water and sunlight. Before, water was difficult to find thus the plants had to actively seek it. Once rain fell from the skies again, they became content with just remaining in their spots on the ground.

        New towns, new lives; things could only get better for the New World.

        27 remained in ruins. The mark of the fire wall was washed away by rain over many moments, but the houses which were destroyed remained. The pumpkin patch continued to thrive and its pumpkins were still as territorial as ever. A human figure and a large creature with two antennae and eight legs walked amongst the rubble while the rain poured once again. They soon stopped in front of a ruined house. He was taller than before but his brown hair and blue eyes remained the same. Although it was torturous for his heart and mind, he always found his way back to the town where it all began.

        Day and night he wished that he could see her again. Not once did he wish for his death. The blue-eyed tamer believed that she would return one day. Many generations passed and those whom he grew up with were already gone, but such was what humans called the curse of being immortal. To him, however, it was not a curse but an opportunity to be with the one whom he loved. He turned around to leave, and that was when he saw her standing there.

        Her black hair was longer than before. It was almost down to her waist. She wore a tattered brown dress which was soon soaked by the rain that fell from the sky, just like on the day that she disappeared into the darkest chasm. Her left arm was riddled by even more black thorns and her skin seemed pale and cold, but the smile on her face was warmer than sunshine. She looked tired and weary, but happy; her right hand found its way to her greyish pet's head which the latter welcomed joyfully with a grunt.

        " It's good to see you again, " she said as she looked at her giant tardigrade, then at the blue-eyed human.

        The ageless man replied with a nod and he held his arms open. She rushed forward and embraced him, and his warmth was most comforting amidst the pouring rain. He kissed her forehead gently and they sat down on the doorstep of the ruined house. The black-haired one rested her head on his shoulder, and he put an arm around her to keep her close while the grey creature curled up near them.

        " I'm not going to let you go again, " the man said.

        " I know, " the girl whispered, and then she closed her heavy eyes, assured that he would still be there when it was time for her to wake up once more.