This realm seemed to be pretty big. Jake couldn't see much, and he was pretty sure that the devilish rock that they were hunting would definitely be in the center of this vast realm.
As the party went forward, they were stopped multiple times by small fries. Each time, the party did all it could to finish the battle as fast as they could.
Eventually, the trees started fading away.
Their pale yellow leaves, and the rotten cores at the bottom were out of sight, and a new ordeal faced them now.
They had stopped in front of a straight path. A path that was laid out in front of them, in stone and grass.
The grass was all but dead, while the stone remained intact. This was a path that could be crossed with safety. And yet, looking at it, Jake felt like something bad was going to happen.
It seemed like the others of the same party shared the instincts that Jake had.
"Wait." Ganshin said, but before he even said this, most of the party members stopped walking, and everyone looked at the path that was laid out like a honey trap.
There were no trees to each side. Instead, it was two walls.
These two walls were a little to the side, giving enough place for exactly two files to walk. But the concern wasn't time.
It was traps.
"There is only one way to dispel the traps of this path, and that is through holy energy. There is no other way. Priests, please." Ganshin said.
"No. I am afraid that using holy energy will only make the traps more intense." Father Joseph shook his head, disputing the leader's claims.
Ganshin looked at Father Joseph, raising his eyebrows.
"What do you mean by that, Father? Why would holy energy aggravate the situation? I have been through this path before, and I know that my words are not false." Ganshin asked.
"They are not false, sword master, but that is a truth of the last generation. It has been a long time, and the arrays and runes that have held these traps tight have been corrupted over the years." Father Joseph said, shaking his head.
"That means that only directed evil energy can dispel this path. That is the reason why all of you are apprehensive toward this path. That is God's sense telling you not to take this here path." Father Joseph explained.
"Then what path do we take? This is the only way to the center, unless we go all the way around. That will take too much time. Time which we cannot afford at the moment.", Ganshin said.
"There is still one path left. A path that only the Saint Ester took. A path that was meant for saints and saints alone." Father Joseph said.
"The path of the saints? That is not one that we can take! It is blasphemy!" Ganshin shook his head.
"How is this blasphemy when God himself has instructed us to take this path?" Father Joseph shook his head.
"But there is one problem with this path that we want to take here. The beast that guards the path of the saints, that beast is eternal. No evil energy will corrupt a beast of god." Ganshin said.
"Whether it will let us pass, that can only be said when we go there. Let us hope that it will also listen to what His Divine Brilliance has said." Father Joseph said.
While these two were conversing, everyone looked at each other, unsure of what direction they were going to take next.
Were they going to take this path that clearly had traps, or were they going take this path of saints that was being spoken about?
And Jake knew that this path of traps wasn't going to be easy to handle. The traps here weren't as simple as just throwing a rock on the ground and see the traps activate.
The traps that were made with holy energy, they were alive. They wouldn't just activate for some rock that was thrown.
But traps made with holy energy never intended to kill the intruders. The primary goal of those traps was to make sure that no intruders would pass.
It was different if Evil energy corrupted these alive traps though.
Evil energy wasn't so forgiving. The corrupted traps would go to all lengths to use the energy at their disposal to destroy any intruders.
"We shall make for the path of the saints." Ganshin sighed and said after some deliberation.
He then looked at Father Joseph.
"Although I have made this decision, it is not in my power to lead the way. I have only ever heard that the path exists. I have never seen it, and I have never seen anyone take it. Maybe you know where it lies?" He asked.
"Indeed, I do. But we will have to turn back and walk through the orchid. That might mean that we will face much stronger beasts." Father Joseph said.
Ganshin nodded, his face grim.
With this, they were going to have to prepare for a harder battle. They would have to prepare for the chance of death now.
Everyone turned back. They had no time to slowly move and regroup.
Ganshin and Father Joseph simply moved to the fore front, and led the group once more.
"Watch the back carefully. While we might be leaving the path, there might be beasts much deeper which might come out and try to ambush us." Ganshin said.
With this, the line slowly moved back the exact same way that they had come here.
The stone walls were gone, and the rotten trees, deader than ever, greeted them once more.
Seeing what should be a sign of vitality so brown and yellow made Jake feel a little weird.
But he was more concentrated on what lay ahead of these trees.
He could feel them beyond the cover that these rows of trees provided.
There was something watching them. And he didn't know what.
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