The chilly night air rushed past Elaine's ears as she scampered down the mountainside. Her breathing was ragged, and her lungs burned. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this weak as she had to resort to her mortal body—her Soul Core was utterly depleted.
"Being... so... weak... sucks." She said between gasps as she reached up to clean her glasses. She was still in the first stage of the Soul Fire Realm, so she wasn't that far from a mortal, especially when she was out of Qi. One day, she could be freed from her thick glasses when she advanced her cultivation.
Feeling her burning muscles due to a lack of Qi, she debated sitting down and spending a few minutes meditating but concluded that staying in place was an unwise decision.
The dense forest of demonic trees that unnaturally clung to the steep mountain face she was rushing through was eerily silent—devoid of any people or animals.
It would have been impossible to navigate this treacherous environment at night without her Soul Fire illuminating the way as the scarlet-leaved canopy blocked the moonlight overhead.
But to her surprise, there was a warm orange glow from these fire Qi plants growing on the demonic tree's trunks, providing light so she didn't trip on the exposed roots underfoot.
She honestly had no idea where she was going, but she figured that following the steep slope downward was for the best. Once she was as far from the cavern and demonic cultists as possible, she could quickly meditate and figure out things.
Her mouth was beyond parched from all the running she had been doing without the assistance of Qi, but without her spatial rings, she felt almost naked. No weapons, life-saving artifacts, or even spare clothes to replace her sweat-drenched ones.
A quiet rustling overhead broke Elaine from her thoughts. Glancing over her shoulder at the canopy, she saw nothing but the scarlet leaves illuminated by the fire Qi plants rustling in the wind.
"Ah—" She felt her left foot get stuck under a root, and she stumbled forward, barely catching herself in time on a low protruding branch from a nearby demonic tree to stop herself from tumbling a thousand meters down a cliff.
Having to take a longer route to the side to avoid the cliff, Elaine proceeded downward at a good pace. Although the rustling seemed to follow her, there were no other signs that anything was amiss. So without incident, she reached the mountain base many hours later.
Collapsing against a tree with shaking legs, burning lungs, and a pang of hunger, she took a deep breath of the damp air. Then, looking around, she noticed a dense mist flowing between the trees that sent chills down her spine as it reminded her of the dreaded mist demon that had caused all of this misery.
Trying to ignore the constant rustling overhead, she closed her eyes in a vain attempt at meditation. Eventually, the noise stopped, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she cycled her Qi a few times.
As she entered the perfect state of meditation, she felt a waft of foul breath that startled her—opening her eyes in a hurry, she came face to face with many red eyes that seemed to stare into her soul.
Many giant legs cast a looming shadow, and she couldn't even see the forest past the monster's body. It was that enormous. The two stared at each other for a while—Elaine swore her heart had ceased beating in her chest from fear, and every muscle in her body had seized up as if making a single move would lead to her demise.
Seemingly amused by her state, the enormous spider crawled a little closer with an eerie silence that didn't match its colossal size, and Elaine was ashamed to admit she totally freaked out.
"S-Stay back! Ah!" She shouted as the little bit of void Qi she had cultivated moments earlier engulfed her fist, and she waved the soul flame-coated hand in front of the spider as if trying to deter it.
The weird ring of floating ash that seemed to rotate around a crown of horns on the monster's head sped up, and Elaine paled as she felt a mere hint of the monster's true cultivation press down on her—making her legs buckle slightly, and her arms fall to her side.
It then looked at her with an expression she could only describe as curiosity and backed away, seemingly unbothered by her previous threats.
Elaine didn't move, wondering if the monster was messing with her.
She then turned to leave very slowly, keeping the spider in sight as she ensured not to trip on the tree roots by feeling them with the back of her foot as she retreated.
This stare-off continued as the spider crawled closer with every step she took backward—always stopping when she did. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore and did something potentially foolish—she gave her back to the monster.
Cycling the little bit of Qi she had cultivated, Elaine rushed through the dense misty forest and was relieved to see some typical green trees for once rather than the ominous demonic ones that made the place reek of death.
Unlike the demonic forest growing on the mountain, this forest did have some wildlife, as Elaine could hear birds chirping, signifying the coming of morning. Through the treeline, she could glimpse the vast walls of the Darklight City in the distance, illuminated by the rising sun.
She couldn't hear anything else besides the rustling of trees in the early morning breeze and the cheerful birds. Had the monster given up? Glancing over her shoulder, her heart almost jumped out of her chest when she saw the spider behind her, moving with creepy silence through the foliage.
Not seeing where she was going and with no Qi to utilize for spiritual sight, Elaine ran straight into a low-hanging tree branch—knocking into the back of her head. Her strengthened body and speed meant it was torn off the tree and sent flying in a shower of splinters, crashing into another tree and exploding.
Elaine suffered a similar fate to the branch as she spiraled through the air until her exhausted body failed to smash through a sizeable green-leafed tree. Her head spun, and she wanted to cry as her entire body was in pain.
If things weren't already terrible enough, an ash-coated spider limb loomed over her, ready to squash her to the next life. She winced and closed her eyes, "Screw you, demonic cultists. I will meet you in hell!" She cursed under her breath.
But the crushing death never came. Instead, the limb nudged her, and she had the unsettling feeling of all the hairs on the spider leg seemingly searching her skin for something. Elaine knew from her research that spiders tasted and smelled through the hairs on their limbs, was it trying to smell her or something?
Whatever the monster was searching for, it seemed to have found it when the beast paused as its limb was pushed up against her neck, where the mist demon's blade had left a scar.
Elaine watched wide-eyed as the sun crested the mountain range, basking the back of the ashen spider in warm light, casting a looming shadow over her.
Maybe she was insane, but watching the spider curiously poke her made her feel it was domesticated somehow, and if there was someone who could tame such a beast, it would be the immortal Douglas had mentioned earlier. That man's cheeky grin when she had left, and he had told her to say hello to someone...
"Are you... Larry...?" The words half died in her throat due to the absurdity of it. What kind of name was Larry for a spirit beast of this capacity?
The spider seemed taken aback by her words as it crawled backward to give her some space.
There was a brief moment as they stared at each other, the silence only broken by birds chirping. "So your name is Larry?" She questioned again, unsure if it had understood her.
Instead of answering, it raised its limb again, and rather than stepping back like every instinct in her body told her to, Elaine raised her hand and met the tip of the limb.
Elaine wasn't sure why, but a small smile manifested as she held the limb of a creature that could obliterate her with a mere thought. She then broke into a small chuckle as all the exhaustion she had bottled up overtook her while shaking hands with a spirit beast.
No wonder Douglas had been so confident she couldn't escape with a beast like this roaming around. All those hours of punching the slime wall until her hands bled and wandering the mineshaft until she was reduced to tears... a fucking waste of time and effort.
As Douglas had said, escape had been pointless from the start. Instead, she should have just listened and relaxed while helping him design the alchemy lab.
Elaine knew that was twisted logic, as only an insane person wouldn't have tried to escape that prison run by demonic cultists that threatened her life, but she was so tired from running and fighting a pointless fight that thinking was the last thing she wanted to do right now.
As Elaine let the exhaustion consume her, she leaned on the limb, and the spirit beast kept her standing by giving her a limb to rest against, like a fluffy tree. She almost wanted to snuggle up to it and sleep...
But then she felt an explosion of spatial Qi behind her, and before she knew it, the limb she had been resting on pushed her through a newly formed rift that instantly closed with a pop of air.
The forest's damp misty air and morning sunshine were replaced with the blue glow of mushrooms and stale air.
"Oh, you're back."
She was back in the cavern, and Elaine heard those same accursed words she'd been told hours ago before all the running for her life with false hopes and dreams of escape.
Turning around while gritting her teeth, Elaine saw Douglas leaning on his shovel implanted in a patch of dirt next to the slow-moving stream running through the cavern's center.
"Y-You fucking bastard! You knew all along that I never had a chance!" Elaine didn't know what she was saying and understood it wasn't wise to accuse the only person that hadn't threatened her life so far... But she couldn't care less right now. She was mad.
Douglas shrugged and grinned, "I tried to warn you many times, but some people refuse to listen to reason. Especially the smart ones, they always think they know everything."
He then picked up the shovel and gestured toward the half-constructed alchemy lab, "Now a bet's a bet. We only have a few hours until the Silverspires arrive. So come and help me with this."
Elaine wanted to scream and shout, stomp her feet, and punch the smug bastard in the face. It was clear he had taken some entertainment in her antics. He could have explained everything to her and avoided all of this, but he hadn't done that!
But all her anger vanished as Douglas swiftly walked toward her with a cup of cold water and food. His smug grin was replaced with one of concern, and her body reacted before her mind, reaching out for the water and food her body so desperately desired.
"I still hate you." She muttered as she took the food and water to a nearby rock and collapsed against it.
Douglas chuckled to himself and wandered away, leaving her to wallow away in peace.
***
Ashlock hadn't expected to wake up to a prison escape. Last thing he remembered while succumbing to sleep was setting some mushrooms and flowers to grow within a flowerbed.
As his mind had slowly awoken at the crack of dawn, he'd heard Larry informing him of a suspicious person wandering the forest through the tether that apparently smelt like Diana.
Curious, Ashlock had used {Eye of the Tree God}, and after locating Larry's position, he found him confronting the Voidmind woman they had captured.
Without delay, as they weren't that far from Darklight City's walls, Ashlock had Larry push Elaine through a portal that led back to the cavern. While Douglas and the woman conversed, he checked the cave for ways Elaine could have escaped.
"Bob is still guarding the tunnel exit, and by his color, it's clear Elaine gave the slime a real beating, and she certainly hadn't escaped through my root as Stella is meditating on the bench under my canopy and would have noticed her escape..."
Ashlock was perplexed. There were no other noticeable exits she could have taken. So had Douglas let her out? Stella had definitely told Douglas to not let her escape, so there was no way he would create a path, as that would break his oath of loyalty to the Ashfallen sect.
Or would it? He had some suspicions that the oath wasn't a very airtight contract. What was loyalty anyway? If Douglas let her escape with good intentions for the Ashfallen sect even though it went against Stella's orders, would that breach his oath?
"What a headache," Ashlock muttered, "Diana brought the woman back yesterday, claiming she was the daughter of the Grand Elder of the Voidmind family, so killing her would be dangerous. I took all her items and verified her cultivation was barely in the 1st stage of the Soul Fire Realm. So how could she escape a mountain shrouded in my spatial Qi via my roots and with Douglas watching over her?"
Ashlock let out a long sigh. So early in the morning, and already there were problems. But he made a mental note that Douglas was a very lousy guard and shouldn't be trusted with prisoners in the future.
As for Elaine, he wasn't sure what to do with her.
According to Diana, she had worked as a research assistant to the Voidmind Elder that he had consumed within his soul, so she might be an excellent addition to the Ashfallen sect with her knowledge.
But they hadn't exactly gotten off on the best foot.
You know... the kidnapping and her traumatically encountering Larry in the forest while being so close to escaping. The poor girl looked like a miserable mess as she slowly ate the food and water Douglas provided her while half asleep against a random rock.
Ashlock didn't exactly plan to torment her or anything, but he needed to decide his method of approach with her. Should he force her to take an oath of loyalty like Douglas had? Or take it slower and let her ease her way into living here?
Why keep her around as a glorified prisoner in the first place? Despite his immunity to void Qi, he didn't wish to take his chances against a 9th-stage Star Core Grand Elder or fight their allies, such as the merchants. Keeping her alive but out of sight allowed Ashlock to avoid or delay a conflict.
But that relied on her not escaping and causing a scene.
"Larry, if Elaine escapes again, I will leave it up to you to bring her back," Ashlock declared through the tether, and he felt the spider's acknowledgment.
***
The rest of the morning passed without incident.
After moving all the remaining demonic trees that had piled up in the Academy's colosseum out to the wilderness and expanding the wall, he spent the rest of the morning observing Elaine and Douglas as they worked on the alchemy lab he had instructed Douglas to build in anticipation of the Silverspire's visit.
There was a chance a deal wouldn't be signed, but he was hopeful. It had only been a few days, and Diana's negotiation tactic of offering a higher percentage in the business the faster they agreed to a deal was paying off. They seemed desperate if they were already asking for a meeting with Diana.
Ashlock was rather happy to see how well Elaine and Douglas seemed to get on as they bantered and half messed around. He could see a future with Elaine being part of the sect.
"Wait, she doesn't even know anything about the Ashfallen sect or me... we kept that all hidden from her." Ashlock mused as he saw Stella finally awaken from her meditation and stretch her back.
"Good morning, Tree!" She yawned and snacked on one of his low-hanging fruit that he had decided to grow to match the summer mood. "So, how's the prisoner?"
'Go and see for yourself if you wish.' Ashlock wrote, 'She could make a good addition to our sect, so be kind to her.'
He didn't miss the small pout on Stella's lips, "Fine. Open a rift for me, then. I needed a break from cultivating anyway."
Ashlock happily opened one for her and watched as she put on her black wooden mask and stepped through. He was curious about what she would say to Elaine, but then he felt something lightly hitting Bob.
Shifting his view, he saw Diana knocking on the slime wall as if it were a door. She then stepped back and waited outside the cavern's tunnel alongside Ryker von Silverspire and his butler Sebastian.
"Now is really not a good time to arrive..." Ashlock sighed as he saw the half-finished alchemy lab and its three occupants conversing. Wait... Elaine was still down there.
Should he let her stay or get Stella to hide her before the Silverspires entered?
