Faris, Ella, and the Seredums followed the Celestial Ki trace to Coronini – a small border village in Romania, just across the Danube from Serbia. It had a tiny population and was surrounded by cliffs, forests, and caves. With nearly three hours to sunrise, the place was dark and silent. But the group walked through the thick borderland fog to try and lock into the faint Ki signature lingering there.

  They had left the Palace only an hour and a half earlier, but they had made quick progress. From the eerie discoveries at the Pyrenees, to the Celestial Ki trail leading them along the Danube to Romania, the night was proving fruitful. Yet with every step, with every teleportation jump, the group felt more unsettled and uneasy. It was as if something was calling them. But it was calling them into a trap.

  “They passed through here,” Faris quietly said, finally locking into the Ki signature. “And they were definitely carrying Celestial Ki.”

  The signature felt stronger at the western border of the village and provided a clear trail going north. They followed it deeper into Romania, arriving five minutes later near the southern edge of the Hoia-Baciu forest.

  “The Celestial energy is radiating quite strongly from that forest,” Erina commented as they waited and observed nearly 20 meters outside the covering of trees. “Exercise caution here – this forest reeks of evil.”

  Faris nodded. “Let’s jump in and see what’s going on…”

  As soon as they teleported, however, they found themselves standing at the opposite side, 20 meters outside the northern edge of the forest.

  “What was that?” Erina asked.

  Ella turned around to look at the trees behind them. “Something went off. We weren’t supposed to come this far.”

  “Our Ki was deflected,” Faris said. “We missed the entire forest.”

  The others looked at him. The Freelance Mystic was the most experienced and well trained Ki Manipulator of them and could recognize patterns that the others may have missed.

  He walked a few steps closer and sat down on one knee. With a hand on the ground, he sensed for any Ki charged activity in the vicinity. He shook his head.

  “Look deeper within the layers of stagnant Ki,” he said quietly. “They’re here…”

  The sisters closed their eyes and dropped their heads. Erina slowly looked up nodding. “Yes… they are.”

  Faris stood back up. “You said you couldn’t sense any combatants in Pyrenees like the ones we faced in the forest.” He looked at the Seredums. “That’s cause they’re all here.”

  “What?” Ella was left wide-eyed. “What are you guys talking about?”

  Eira shook her head as she observed the trees in front of them. “There’s nearly a thousand wizards hiding inside.”

  “Then we must call for backup!”

  Agreeing with the young Mystic, Faris immediately brought out his Seekers’ Scroll paper and started writing to send a message directly to the Seear informing him of the situation.

  Inside the Hoia-Baciu forest, a ritual was underway and Celestial Ki from the Xoitique Diamond was being extracted by none other than Derek, the Alchemist.

  A wizard walked up. Bent on one knee, he said, “Multiple units approach, my Lord. Orders?”

  “Keep them occupied,” Derek replied. Opening his eyes, he looked at the wizard and asked, “Who?”

  “The same difficult Mystic and some spiritually enhanced beings. But then the Seear is also moving closer. And he has an extremely powerful contingent with him.”

  “But is he coming here?”

  “Our intel for now suggests that he is not, My Lord. But close enough, he will be able to sense as well…”

  ‘I need less than 10 minutes,’ Derek thought and closed his eyes again. “Keep them busy,” he said. “Tell the brothers to form their barrier. This will not take long. And once it is done, none of them will matter…”

  Outside, the Seredum sisters suggested attempting teleportation again but Faris advised against it. “I’d rather not waste any more time,” he said. “This entire area is contaminated. Black magic, demonic energy, vile experimentations – you name it. And it’s been going on for years. If they’ve set up camp here, they’ll keep deflecting our Ki signatures all day.”

  “What should we do then?” Ella asked.

  “Let’s just mask our Ki and try to enter quietly.” Faris sighed. “I wanna know what the hell’s going on in there.”

  Eila nodded. “I must agree. Keepers marked this area as a hot spot for rituals decades ago. And instead of shutting it down, both the Eye and the Order used it for their own agendas during the Cult Wars of the ‘60s and ‘70s.”

  As they all masked their Ki preparing to move in, Faris kept shaking his head in frustration. ‘I have a bad feeling about this. They’re stealing remnants, they have an Alchemist, they knew me and Hugo would be at the outpost, then the Pyrenees situation, and now this… things just keep getting weirder and weirder.’

  As soon as they stepped into the covering of trees, they felt the weight of the dense fog of contaminated Ki. Even the inexperienced Ella felt the blot and found it hard to manoeuvre through the stagnant corrupted Ki. But Faris and the Seredums had felt it before – it was repulsive, evil, and not of this realm.

  Demon worshippers had been practicing their black magic in this region for years. The Eye and the Order used places like these as off-site, covert execution platforms and ritual sites. And that had left a lasting effect on the atmosphere itself. Even the trees stood contorted, their trunks bent at impossible angles.

  Furthermore, they even felt signs of alchemical Ki Manipulation. Derek must have been honing his craft there.

  Carefully, they slipped past the initial layer of defences. It appeared as though the wizards had not sensed them. But the Seredums suddenly stopped.

  “What’s the matter?” Faris asked, whispering.

  “They know we’re here,” Erina replied in kind.

  “What do you mean?” Ella stepped closer to her. “How can you tell?”

  “We can tell.” She looked up. “We can sense their intentions. They know we’re here and they wish to stall but not stop…”

  “Then should we move back out?”

  “Not when we’ve already come this far,” Faris said and began moving again. “Renekom must have read my message by now and they shouldn’t be far. They’ll be here in minutes to back us up.”

  The rest of the group slowly followed.

  The deeper they went, their surroundings kept getting more unsettling. Trees were twisted and mis-shaped even more deep inside as if they were avoiding something or growing through cracks in some invisible structure. They passed through intermittent fog clouds, each messing with their Ki networks and tickling their bodies from the inside out. And through these clouds they could see maroon lights floating in the far.

  Suddenly, Ella began to tilt. Her eyelids fell to blink but could not come back up. Before she could fall, however, Eira caught her and shook her out of the trance.

  “Didn’t we go past this fallen trunk a minute ago?” she asked, looking at a dead tree trunk to her right.

  Faris shushed her. His shushing sound echoed through the unnerving, grave silence. Everyone looked around. There was nothing there but the contorted trees illuminated by the few rays of moonlight getting through the fog. No animals, no birds, no insects, no reptiles, and no sound – just an eerie feeling of disgust and repulsion.

  “Forests aren’t supposed to be this quiet,” Ella whispered as she looked through the trees at the near-full moon, glowing low in the sky, drifting steadily toward its setting point.

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  “Forests…” Faris stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Not this one. You alright?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. This place, like the lady said, has been soaked in all sorts of curses, rituals, and demonic hexes ever since the time of the Cult Wars.” Looking around, he added, “Spirituality aside, even the physics here has been warped.”

  Slowly and carefully, the group began moving on. Until eventually, Eila said, “Wait a minute… we’ve been past these two trees before.”

  Faris looked around. The visuals truly seemed odd. Even he felt confused. He sighed and jumped straight up, going high above the tree line, and observed for a few moments just hovering there. He was trying to understand how far they had come.

  Landing back down, he looked at Erina. “The trees aren’t the only thing twisted in this God-forsaken place! Somehow, the paths we’ve followed are not going straight at all.”

  “What do you mean?” the Seredum asked.

  “We should have reached the middle of the forest, but we have gone quite way west.”

  After a moment’s thought, Erina said, “Charge your Ki, masters – they already know we’re here. Without deflecting the thick layer of Ki accumulated here, our senses will never work properly. We’ll just keep wandering aimlessly.”

  With no other choice left, the group charged their Ki to undo the effects of the forest’s stagnant Ki. As soon as they did, all of them sensed a Celestial Ki concentration 600 meters away from them.

  “We’re all sensing it, ladies,” Faris said, nodding. “Let’s move!”

  Instead of teleporting and risking an unnecessary, unwanted displacement, they decided to run to the Celestial Ki source. But as soon as they did, a dozen wizards jumped in and blocked their path.

  They were formidable, but not as powerful as the wizards who fought the Zeta Squad at the outpost. Even if they were, it would not have mattered. The Seredums moved a step ahead and extended their arms. The dozen wizards froze.

  Faris tried to assist but was promptly stopped by Erina. “We can handle them,” she said. “Conserve your Ki.”

  Soon, one by one, the wizards in black cloaks began falling down.

  As the last one hit the ground, the group leaped forward.

  “I can see light up ahead,” Ella said, pointing straight.

  Faris nodded. “That’s it. That’s the source!”

  They soon arrived at a clearing – an area of the forest completely devoid of any vegetation, trees, or plant growth. Erina stopped them at the edge.

  “Wait,” she said. “Be careful here.” Looking around, she whispered, “This is a ritual sight…”

  At the centre of the clearing there was a dome-like barrier of faint Ki. It had a radius of roughly 25 meters. Inside, Derek stood with the fused half of the Xoitique Diamond hovering in front of him. Celestial Ki was gushing out of the stone, illuminating the entire clearing.

  “There he is.” Faris pointed as the group advanced taking each step as carefully as possible. They could now see Derek clearly – he was wearing a grey cloak distinguishing him from the wizards, and he did not have the hat on either.

  Ella looked around. Wizards started to appear on the trees at the edges of the meadow.

  “Why does it feel cold and sharp suddenly?” she asked.

  “Celestial Ki,” Erina explained. “You’re sensing the effects of pure Celestial Ki.”

  The young Mystic was inexperienced. She lacked the skills to properly detect Celestial or Demonic Ki. But this close, it no longer mattered. The effects were hard to miss. Even a plebeian in this situation would have felt the effects of the Celestial Ki.

  Close enough, the Seredum sisters unleashed a Ki blast aimed straight for the Ki dome. Much to their astonishment, it vanished just before it could hit.

  Wide-eyed, they stared until two wizards leaped high and hurled large boulders at them. Jumping up in the air, Erina and Eila punched and destroyed them.

  ‘Let’s move things along,’ Faris thought. “Hey, Seredums,” he called. “Need a lift?”

  A sudden Ki thrust pushed the sisters and Ella into a portal, carrying them into the Continuum of Sempiternity. Faris dragged them out of it.

  “What the fuck?!” The senior Mystic stood dumbfounded. Wide-eyed, he stared at the Ki barrier still many meters away from them.

  Erina looked at him. “Why didn’t we get closer?”

  “Master, what happened?” Ella asked.

  “We should have bypassed it.” Faris removed and threw away his cap. “The damned barrier is transcending dimensions.”

  “They must have a Mystic amongst their ranks,” Erina commented. “No one but a Mystic could have altered your bearings inside the Continuum.”

  “Not as easy as it sounds… there are only two people who can put up a forcefield of this kind to block me out. One is on our side and no longer strong enough to do something like that. And the other guy is sitting ducks at the Palace.”

  He observed carefully. There were three spots of denser Ki on the barrier wall.

  Ella chanted, “NAVAS-GOVAN-PETRICHOR,” and unleased a Ki wave. It bounced off the barrier like a person jumping off a trampoline. The Ki rushed back at them. The group had to move away to avoid getting hit.

  “It’s no use, kid,” Faris said, looking at her. “We have to use a considerable amount more and concentrate fire on the denser areas. The ones creating the shield are sitting there. Take them out and the whole thing comes down.”

  “Master Naji,” Erina said pointing towards the barrier. “Look…”

  Faris and Ella looked and saw the Alchemist move a step back. “It is time!” he screamed, grinning from ear to ear.

  Hundreds of cloaked men and women began arriving all around. Unfazed by the presence of the Mystics or the Seredums, they kept their attention fixed on their leader. One after the other, they began kneeling down.

  The huge amounts of Celestial Ki extracted from the Xoitique Diamond began rushing towards Derek. Then they saw…

  “Is that…” Ella was confused.

  Erina gulped. “Is that a body?”

  “That bastard…” Faris whispered. His eyes were left wide open, lips parted, and heart pounding fast. “He was never gonna raise an army… just one…”

  All the Celestial Ki began getting sucked into the body as it started to float. All the wizards went down in prostration.

  “ARISAM-MERGEM-SPIXYL-XYRUM-TOLAR,” Derek began screaming the enchantment.

  Faris opened another portal to the Continuum and jumped inside only to reappear outside the barrier just as before. All the while, the Alchemist continued, “SPIXOM-FOXITE-ALOFAM-XORAM-SPIXYL-XYRUM-TOLAR!”

  “Anything?” Erina asked looking at Faris who shook his head sideways. The Seredums quickly began glowing bright green and rammed the barrier simultaneously. It did not budge. They fell back, bruised. Not bothered, they tried again, but to no avail. Hurt, they did not stop and kept trying again and again and again…

  Derek continued inside. “DIXUM-TOXUM-TIFAR-SPIXYL-XYRUM-TOLAR!” After a slight pause he screamed, “Arise, my master! All is as the plan! ARISE MY LORD! ARISE!”

  Seredums kept ramming and eventually broke through and fell on the ground with bloody wrists and knuckles, and bruised shoulders and arms. But they were too late. The glowing body moved, stretched, and landed on the ground on all fours.

  It breathed.

  Slowly then, it stood bent ahead.

  Derek too went down prostrating.

  “No…” Faris whispered as he looked on in horror, his face going pale. His hands shook uncontrollably as a buried memory resurfaced – the night this man wiped out an entire attack squad of the Eye, sparing only Faris because they had once fought together. “What have you done?”

  Six feet tall, skin pale as a ghost, white long hair slowly darkening to brown, and pale eyeballs slowly taking shape – the dead stood alive. And Faris recognized exactly who it was. How could he not? He had worked with this man, he had worked under his leadership, and then he had spent years helping the Outsiders hunt him down. His heart thudded, pounding at his chest like a drum beat.

  In the blink of an eye, the glow on the body vanished. And then he stretched. The result – a huge explosion of Celestial Ki!

  The Mystics, the Seredums, the Alchemist, and the wizards, all were pushed several meters back by the shockwave. The leakage of Ki, however, was so strong and unstoppable that it was felt as far as Athens and even near Irkutsk – reaching the Regal Palace.

  Horrified by the sheer amount of the Celestial Ki she felt, Fiona rushed to find Hedish.

  “Master!” she exclaimed. “Did you feel that?!”

  He stood wide-eyed, panting. “Yes, Fiona. We’re both Mystics. That was Celestial Ki, right?”

  “I couldn’t pinpoint it, but it came from somewhere in Eastern Europe.”

  “Renekom’s in Europe as well.”

  “Contact him.”

  “How?”

  Her head jerked back, eyes narrowing. “Use the Seeker’s Scroll.”

  Hedish shook his head. “Renekom left his entire pad with me for official communication.”

  “What?!”

  Both of them walked inside and found Renekom’s Seeker’s Scroll papers lying on his table. They picked up the pad and found Faris’s message.

  “Oh my God…” Fiona had a hand covering her mouth. “We have to inform the others.”

  “I will contact Gina and the European outpost,” Hedish said. “Can you contact anyone from Renekom’s group?”

  “Yes.” She brought out her own Seeker’s Scroll papers. “I have to prepare the City Guard as well. No telling what fallout reaches our shores.”

  Hurriedly, Fiona stormed out.

  Five thousand miles away, at the Death Valley in California, Gina and Marcus too felt the Celestial Ki fallout.

  “What the hell was that?” Marcus said, looking wide-eyed at his partner.

  “It felt like a Ki blast,” she replied, quietly. “But different…”

  Neither of them had the knowledge and understanding to recognize a Celestial Ki signature. The only one in their group who could properly understand it was Hugo, but he was inside the Moving Bazaar and the leak could not enter there.

  In Hoia-Baciu Forest, the wizards chanted in unison: “Hail, the Basilisk! All hail, the Basilisk!”

  His hair had now darkened and skin was no longer so pale. His open eyes observed the surroundings. He took several deep breaths then stood tall. Faris, Ella, and the Seredums looked on in horror. He had truly come back to life. Before them stood none other than Ambris Ferrer!!!

  “Hell is empty…” he said. His voice low and without emotion. “So I walked back to finish what we began…”