My eyes fluttered open and I scanned around before I found the glowing green door. I walked forward, glowing ripples resonating from my feet with each step. The door was a sitting in the same endless black void it always did. Once I was in front of it, I reached a hand out and turned the knob, pushing in the door and walking in to the bright room on the other side. I turned to the side and gazed at the black door. It was still here and the three of us in here were no closer to being able to open it or figure out its purpose than when it first appeared.

We had each tried to open it in several different ways, but none of us had had any kind of luck with it. The thing hadn’t even budged when threw magic at it. It seemed to be an enigma that we may never be able to figure out. None of us were responsible for making it. This entire room was something that had been created without our doing. It was simply a product of the release of Jester from their cocoon.

I walked forward and made my way up the spiral staircase before emerging above the room. On each side, there were all kinds of different things from Sylak’s fortress, to the meeting room, to the training grounds, and so on. Right now, I wasn’t interested in any of those. I was looking to practice some more with Sylak. While they couldn’t actually do the type of magic we needed to practice with, they were the most adept at controlling things inside of here and, through their analysis of Damien, they were able to conjure up clones with the ability to do the same things he could do, especially controlling blood.

This was extremely thankful because it meant that even while resting, I was able to practice in the most important magic skill to myself right now. Actually being able to get practical experience with Damien himself was an extremely dangerous task. Anytime I had tried it, I was usually too nervous to even try and think about practicing and doing it without the practice made it harder, so training inside of here made everything a lot easier. Not only, could Sylak ensure that the Damien clone never put me in any real danger, but they could make it so the clone would be able to perform as powerfully as the real Damien.

Recently, we had each helped design and construct a massive arena that we could use with fighting each other and with general training in a less open area. Because of the way we had designed the base for it, we were able to manipulate the terrain as much as we wanted without having to rebuild or deconstruct anything, it was just a matter of raising and lowering the arena in the way we needed. The first time Sylak and I had practiced my blood control in here, we had used the large arena, but then I decided that the training should be even harder and induce a bit more stress than it was in the arena to be able to better simulate the real situations.

Because of that, we constructed a second, smaller arena attached to the first one. This arena couldn’t really even be considered an arena though. The entire thing was about the size of a large shed. It was enough space for the clone and I to have a bit of wiggle room. Before I stepped inside, I placed my hand to the ground and focused on the rippling surface underneath my hand. I conjured up a firework with promptly shot in to the air before exploding in to an aura of green. Sparks showered around before I stepped inside the training space.

For now, it was empty. The entire place was loosely lit up by a single purple light which gave the entire room an eerie look to it. It was a fairly simple area, having nothing remarkable on most of the walls other than the one wall that had a window on it. The window was one way, so someone could only see in to the training area and not in to the spectator’s box on the other side. There was a circle of holes in the window so that anyone in the box could actually talk to someone inside of the training area.

I waited for around a minute before I heard the door to the box open and shut quickly. After a brief second of silence, the voice came through, resonating throughout the entire training area.

“Hello there, Avien. I can assume you’re here to run through the same training exercise once more?” Sylak asked from the other side.

I nodded and they took a moment, their seal forming across from me inside the box on the floor. Slowly, the form of Damien began to take form in all his menacing glory. While it was terrifying, I couldn’t help, but admire Sylak’s skill with molding the mindscape to their will. The idea of even trying to do something like this was so far beyond my own comprehension of manipulation. I could barely create a cube at this point. Hopefully, if I made it through this, I could spend some time learning to actually control this place better.

That would have to wait though. Right now, I needed to focus on actually learning to control life energy inside my blood to be able to even make it to tomorrow. I took a deep breath and stood up, forming a seal on the back of my hand. The Damien clone in front of me was staring directly in to my eyes and I could feel nerves beginning to creep in as I knew what was about to come.

The clone raised its hand and I felt as my body became rigid. I could feel that the blood in my body had simply stopped circulating. It was no longer moving. Staying this way for too long would cause serious problems. I could already feel my consciousness starting to slip. Damien had enough control to keep this from happening usually and only usually induced some mild light-headedness to us to thrown us off our balance, but neither Sylak or I had the control to be able to avoid this. If anything, this was helpful because it made it a lot harder and allowed me to prepare for the absolute worst possible scenario.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus, feeling and visualizing all of the blood inside my body, even trying to feel it with my essence sensing. It was a useful skill for this and since it was my own body, it was pretty easy to do. However, actually controlling the specific points of energy within my body was a lot harder. It was not the same as controlling actual essence like Damien could do with his blood magic. I had to focus in on the life energy inside of myself and force it to flow and to negate Damien’s control.

Negating Damien’s control seemed to be an almost impossible task, so what I would have to do instead would be to actually puppeteer myself in much the same way as Damien did. The first step was simply making it so that my blood was properly circulating. I focused in on the life energy in my blood and focused on the pathways in my body, the different directions that the blood needed to flow around. I could feel stuttering heat begin to resonate throughout my body as the blood began to move once more. My consciousness returned a bit and I could focus better which led to more circulation.

As I continued to move the blood around my body, my consciousness continued to return more and more. Eventually, I was fully conscious and able to once again think clearly. I was still a bit nervous. No matter how much progress I had made, doing any of this was extremely nerve-wracking.

I tried to simply move my left arm to a full horizontal position. I focused and attempted to will the blood to move in the direction I wanted. It didn’t work, so I tried again. And again. And again. Eventually, I was able to get it about a quarter of the way up before I felt myself growing extremely exhausted. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer. I was going to try and move my arm further, but I couldn’t.

“Sylak… stop…” I managed to gasp out. The hold on my body was released and I collapsed to the floor. I propped myself up against the wall next to the door and just tried to catch my breath.

I hear the door to the observation room open and close and a second later, the door to the training room opened up. Sylak stepped inside and sat down next to me on the other side of the door.

“So… How’d it go? Feeling any better about controlling your blood or your body?” They asked.

I just shook my head. “I’ve barely gotten any better at recirculating my blood, but actually being able to move my body is so hard and I feel like I’m burning through my essence supply so quickly. I have no idea what to do… I feel like I’m going to get both Viktor and I killed…”

They didn’t respond for a while, but when they did, it wasn’t what I was expecting. “Look, I’m not gonna bullshit you and say that isn’t very possible because it totally is. If you die in this forest, it was probably your fault.”

“Thanks, but-“

“I wasn’t finished. It was probably your fault, but knowing you, you tried everything in your power to make sure you didn’t die. If I’ve learned anything from having to watch you all these years, it’s that you are one dedicated bastard. But hey, that’s just my opinion. You’re shit at what you’re trying to do, but you’re trying to get better and that’s really all you can do. When you escape, you’re still going to suck because that’s not how you’re going to get outta here, eh? Now use that stupid head of yours and figure something out.”

Before I could say anything else, I felt my eyes get very heavy. My body became extremely heavy as well, sinking through the floor, the inky blackness enveloping me completely. When I opened my eyes, I was back in the cave that we’d stopped in the previous night. Light was streaming through the opening of the cave, but something was very wrong. Viktor was completely missing. He’d gone to sleep right in front of me and now he was nowhere to be found.

I shot to my feet and nearly collapsed back down immediately as a wave of pain shot through my leg. The wound from the previous day had not yet healed, but that didn’t matter right now. I hobbled over to the cave entrance and out of the opening. I scanned across the forest, but found absolutely nothing, so I flicked my finger over my eye. Auras began to pop up all over and I tried to focus in on specifically nature auras. This didn’t narrow it down too much, but I knew I’d be able to recognize Viktor’s aura the second I saw it.

I looked around, turning everyway, including up and down which proved to be the right move. When I looked up behind the cave, I found his aura. It wasn’t that far away either. It was actually very close. I climbed up the small formation atop the cave and atop it, I found Viktor standing there looking off behind the cave. He was holding his right arm with his left and there seemed to be blood streaming down it.

I walked over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. He jumped and turned around, Red grasped tightly in his left hand. That ended up exposing his right arm which showed that it was in fact bleed. There was a sizeable pierce wound just below his elbow on his lower arm. The blood hadn’t even dried yet, so it had to be pretty new.

“Did you seriously go and take on Damien alone again?” I asked, a little bit of irritation in my voice.

He shook his head, furrowing his brow as his expression turned grim. “It might honestly be worse…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Follow me,” he said as he turned and hopped off the formation.

I followed close behind and quickly saw what we were heading towards. “What in Ser is that?”

In front of us, carved in to the ground was a curved inlet that seemed to be filled to the brim with a rushing torrent of sloshing red liquid. I had a pretty good guess at what it might be, but I was afraid to be right, in this instance.

“I found this after I woke up this morning. In case you’re curious, it is definitely blood. I don’t know whose it is, but I think we both know who made this. You can cross it or it will attack you. I’m pretty sure that it can probably catch you even if you were to fly over, but I’d rather not test that.”

“You need to have that cleaned and bandaged,” I said, pointing to the arm he was once again clutching.

I saw his grasp briefly tighten before loosening again. He turned back around and walked forward. “We need a plan. I have an idea though. How far down is the seal that’s controlling this thing?”

I changed my eye’s focus to blood essence. I checked the position of Damien, but I couldn’t seem to find him, so I switched my gaze downward. Once again, I saw Damien’s seal, but this one was a lot farther underground. As I turned around, I also found that it was a lot smaller, only around one mile in diameter. I removed the seal over my eye and turned back to Viktor.

“The seal is place probably around two hundred feet underground and extends for about a mile. It’s a lot smaller than the previous seal and probably a lot less costly to maintain or create. I didn’t see him anywhere, but I’m sure he’s somewhere pretty close by. What’s your plan?”

Viktor closed his eyes as a seal erupted underneath his feet. A tunnel quickly formed underneath it, leading down at an angle. It was big enough for us to fit through and after a brief moment, the seal disappear and Viktor reopened his eyes. “This. Let’s go.”