2 The Wilderness

"I have been aching to fight," Ebris said with a grin.

"Take it easy," Dawn reminded.

"Yes, mom," Ebris responded sarcastically. "Ouch!"

The guards who were watching the squad could not prevent their veins from popping out with anger.

"Kill them!" the leader of the guards commanded. Then he raised his sword and said, "Army, Cry!" Just then, Universe Essence flooded the troops, causing their power to increase.

"Chaos will ensue if these many guards die. Just knock them out. This will be our parting gift to this city," Aez said.

"Yes, Sire!" they responded immediately.

The five then rushed to the guards without fear. They flawlessly dodged the attacks of every guard that propelled their way toward them. Without a miss, Dawn knocked every guard she passed through using her sheathed sword. The rest were doing phenomenally as well.

Meanwhile, Aez was sitting on the rock Thea had previously sat on while watching the fight unfold. There was no trace of doubt in his eyes as he was confident in his allies. He was positive that the past five years they were away from each other, training, was not for naught.

"Strangler!" Raven cast. Universe Essence covered every ounce of her chains as they elongated and wrapped around the guards before smashing them to the ground.

"Come out! Frozen Wolf!" Zeir cast with his book open. Just then, Universe Essence flowed out of the book. It transformed into a Spirit Portal where a Frozen Wolf came out. It was a gigantic wolf that was still frozen. A huge block of ice appeared in the middle of the battlefield that was slowly melting through the heat.

"Damn it!" the leader of the guards could not help but cry out. "Destroy the Frozen Wolf!" he shouted. 'Damn! That is a Warrior Stage summon! If that thing comes out, we are done for!' the leader thought.

"You can actually summon a Warrior Stage Spirit without activating the full force of your Stars. You grew a lot, Zeir," Raven complimented.

"Tsk!" dismissed Zeir. However, he was shy deep inside.

"It seems like I have to show off a little as well," Ebris said with a grin.

"No!" vetoed Thea, Raven, Dawn, and Zeir simultaneously.

"Why!?" Ebris asked with a frown.

"You know why," Dawn said to him with a meaningful glare.

Ebris could not refute, so he just hit the guards much harder than before to relieve some of his anger.

"This is enough. The Frozen Wolf will wake up soon. Let us get out of here," Aez said before standing up. Without a hint of refusal, the squad quickly wrapped their battles up and moved to Aez.

"Don't let them get away!" the leader of the guards who was busy trying to pierce through the ice covering the Frozen Wolf commanded. However, it was a little too late.

"Rawrrrr!" cried the Frozen Wolf as it woke up from its slumber. The ice around it exploded as it raged and glared at the guards.

"See yah!" Zeir taunted as he, together with the rest of the squad, jumped off the cliff.

"Damn it!!!" were the last words they heard from the guards before they started their free fall.

"I still find it surreal that we are heading to The Wilderness," Thea said with a nostalgic expression.

"Yes, it feels just yesterday when we were planning on doing this," Raven said.

"Buckle up. This is not where we stop. After we find the door, we head to The Path," Aez said with an excited look.

It was not just him; after The Path was mentioned, the other five also had wide smiles on their faces. They all heard tales about The Path. The books said that it contains endless amounts of adventures. Countless races desired to cross The Path in order to reach the Supreme Universe.

"Aez, just what is in the wilderness?" Ebris asked.

"There is no concrete information regarding The Wilderness in the books. However, it stated there that the door to The Path is in The Wilderness. Apparently, the door moves in The Wilderness, and only those who are lucky, tenacious, and destined will be able to cross it," Aez said while looking below then with an expectant gaze.

"So, why are we falling again?" Dawn asked with a wry smile.

"The gate to The Wilderness is below," Aez answered.

"So, do we just crash, or do we stop and save our lives?" Raven asked.

"Well, we--" Aez could not even finish his sentence before getting teleported to The Wilderness.

"Ouch!" Ebris cried as he fell butt first to the red soil. When he looked around, he saw his peers standing mightily, gazing at the bloody spectacle before them.

"Oh, what fresh hell is this?" Zeir rhetorically asked.

"Welcome to The Wilderness, I guess?" Thea said with a forced smile as she stared at the bloody scene before her. Bodies of countless creatures filled the red land. It was evident that the soil was red due to the surplus of blood around. A bloody stench filled the vicinity, together with the rotting smell of the corpses.

Dawn's eyes were filled with sadness as she looked around her. Her gentle eyes shook a little before she regained her composure.

"How come there is only one type of clothing here?" Raven asked after seeing that every dead creature was wearing the same crests on their clothes.

"The book said that there are various factions in The Wilderness. They were formed through years of searching. It seems like this one fell before any of them found the door," Aez said with a melancholic tone.

"There is, indeed, no room for the weak in The Path," Zeir said while looking meaningfully at the horizon.

"Let us get out of here. This place is too morbid for me," Dawn said before moving.

They had been moving for quite a while already, but they were still inside the massacred land. It gave them a perspective of the power that creatures can have after seeing such a scene. Even until now, they only saw a single crest in the bodies. The thought of a single group being powerful enough to kill this amount of creatures without losing a single soul terrified them.

"You know what would be even more horrific? If only one creature did this," Zeir said.

"Roar!!!" an ear-piercing cry reverberated around the red land, which sent chills down their very spines.