The red flare originated in front of Jake, and it showed him first, who was talking to him.
It was the guardian beast, like he had suspected. The red flare shined a tint on the stone that formed the winged tiger's body. But the flare wasn't nearly big enough to show the tiger's full body once more.
What it did show, was what existed beyond the tiger, right around Jake.
He didn't need to even turn to suddenly feel some breathing along his neck. He could feel it. The beasts were right next to him, just inches away.
"The master put out the flare. Not the trial challenger." A cold and sharp voice came from much, much farther than where Jake was standing.
And with that, the breathing that Jake felt suddenly stopped.
"This concludes the ending of the trial." The guardian beast spoke.
"That means that you are obligated to do a few things. You must never, ever speak of what you have seen within the trial. If you do, then you will be smitten by god."
"Ah! I am already going to be branded by the Evil God. I would rather not offend the one god that is protecting me." Jake smiled.
"Then you can leave. I am honestly quite surprised that you were able to finish the trial so quickly. Faster than those stronger, and more experienced than you are."
As the guardian beast said this, Jake suddenly saw a white light right ahead of him.
This light wasn't blinding, and he didn't close his eyes instinctively. Unfortunately, it was way too far to see what lay there, but he knew that it was where he needed to go.
But Jake paused. He knew that there was a little something that he needed to confirm.
[You have completed the Path of Saints.]
[You will no longer receive a branding if you die]
Jake sighed with relief. This was official confirmation, confirmation that couldn't be denied. If the path of the saint was still going on even after he recieved this notification, then he could just give up.
There was no way that he could clear it, if it went on even after the game told him that it was over.
Jake walked over to the light that was visible to him. It was a light that only screamed one word: exit. It was an exit to this haunted place where he felt slimy and disgusting.
Maybe whatever was touching him was actually touching him. He didn't take out his sword, so he never knew, but maybe something actually touched him all over.
It was disgusting even thinking about it.
It took very little time for him to walk over to where the light was coming. And that was when he realized why it was not the bright.
What he was looking at, was the sky. And the sky in the evil lands, well, they were gray as they could be.
The illusion was just what it was, an illusion. The skies even in the holy grounds weren't golden like in the illusion, and there was no holy energy keeping things together.
The first thing that greeted Jake was another row of trees. And again, these trees were rotten, charred, and slowly falling away.
Some of them were completely black, and had lost all signs of life. Just looking at them, Jake shook his head with pity. This was the state of all life in the evil lands. Either it was corrupted, or dead.
But the thing was, the sight that he saw was way too familiar to him. It was the exact sight that was shown to him when he entered that illusion.
This was the same orchid to the left, the exact same wall of leaves in front, and an arch that led to what probably housed the devilish rock.
But just the colors were different. The walls weren't covered in leaves of lush green anymore. Instead, they were covered in brown and black leaves, all of them rustling in the eery and cold wind.
They weren't tended to. Who would actually tend to the walls when there was something else, more important, in play here?
Jake turned around to see if the path of the saints had disappeared here as well. And yet, it didn't. It was there. A cave exactly as tall as the one that he and the entire party entered before.
He could leave through this path if he wanted to.
"Where the hell are these people? Am I the last one to finish this path? That can't be it. He said that I finished it faster than most people." Jake thought to himself.
He turned back to look at where he clearly needed to go.
Taking out his blue sword, he brought it close to his chest as he started walking forward cautiously.
Every three steps, he would look at the two arrays of trees to his two sides.
With the trees spreading far inside, he had no idea what existed within. Probably monsters that he could handle, but of numbers that he could not.
After all, every thing in this place was suppressed to the same fighting level. That meant that Jake could, in theory, kill everything within this holy grounds if it was a one on one fight.
Jake looked up in the sky once more.
It was early morning now, and the sun was slowly coming up. But that was only visible because there was a small spot in the sky that was slightly yellow, and it didn't even give off much light.
He felt a chill run through his hands for some reason.
"It feels like something powerful came here." He muttered.
"Did the ninth follower come here? Is the final boss here, and am I going to have to face him alone?"
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