Chapter 313: The Students

The moment the path opened, Arthur ran.

He didn’t need to tell the others to follow.

Vedas was already beside him with King Maker resting on his shoulder, and Mithra moved ahead with Dawn Sovereign in hand.

Sun followed close behind with Kong following behind, Star bounced along at Arthur’s heels, and Athena, Athy, Eden, and Luna, riding on Melo’s back, kept pace behind them.

They were heading north, toward the students.

Eden kept the perception connection active, but Arthur could feel how much harder it had become for her to hold. The farther they went, the more distorted it got. Mithra’s view flickered, then Vedas’s, and for a moment Arthur saw through Athy’s eyes from high above before the image vanished beneath a wave of purple static.

Eden’s face tightened, and Arthur noticed immediately. "Eden."

"I’m okay," she said, her voice quieter than before.

Arthur glanced at her. "You’re struggling."

"A little."

Another pulse of energy moved through the ground, and the connection flickered again.

For a moment, Arthur saw nothing but darkness through everyone else’s eyes, and then Mithra’s view came back, the forest rushing toward them, followed by Vedas’s, Sun’s, Athy’s, and Luna’s all at once.

Arthur nearly stumbled. "Whoa."

Sun looked over. "What happened?"

"I saw everything."

Sun stared at him, and Arthur shook his head. "Never mind."

Eden looked embarrassed. "The World Tree is interfering with the mana around us. The farther we go, the harder it is to keep everyone connected."

Arthur nodded. "Then don’t force it. We’ll manage without it."

Eden hesitated. "But it helps."

"I know," Arthur said with a smile. "So only use it when you need to."

Eden nodded. "Okay."

They kept running, and the forest grew more chaotic with every step. The ground that had once been flat was broken into ridges and trenches, and golden roots pushed up through the soil everywhere, some small enough to step over and others large enough to split trees apart. Streams had changed course, the air was thick with steam where Fire and Water had collided, and far above them, the World Tree’s enormous branches covered the sky.

Arthur kept glancing up at it. They needed to reach the students first. Then they could think about climbing.

A distant roar shook the forest, and Arthur stopped, and everyone stopped with him. For a moment, there was silence.

"RUN!"

The voice echoed between the trees, and Arthur’s expression changed. He couldn’t tell whose voice it was, but he recognized the uniform panic in it. It was one of the students.

More shouts followed, telling each other not to stop, to keep moving, that they couldn’t fight all of them.

Arthur turned toward the sound. "There."

The group changed direction at once and crashed through the trees as roar after roar echoed around them. Arthur ran faster, branches whipping past his face, with Mithra already ahead of him.

"Arthur!"

"I hear them!"

They broke through the last line of trees, and Arthur stopped.

The students were running, and there were more of them than he had expected. Nearly a dozen first-years were fleeing through the forest, and none of them looked like they were enjoying the field trip anymore. Several were injured. One had blood running down his arm, another was limping, and two were supporting a third between them while his Beast staggered along beside them, exhausted and barely able to stand. Another student had a Beast curled protectively around him, its breathing heavy.

They weren’t running because they were cowards. They were running because they had already fought, and whatever they had fought had been too much for them.

Behind them came the reason. A massive wave of corrupted Beasts poured through the forest, dozens of them. Some had purple veins crawling across their bodies, others were covered in blackened growths, and a few had already gone through unstable evolutions, their bodies twisting between forms as the Miasma kept forcing changes through them. The students were completely outmatched.

"Keep running!" one of them shouted, turning around. "We’re almost..."

He froze. Arthur was standing ahead of them.

The student’s eyes went wide. "Arthur?!"

Arthur looked at him, then at the injured students, then at the horde behind them. "You’re still alive." The student blinked, and Arthur nodded toward the path behind him. "Good." He turned toward the corrupted Beasts. "Now move."

The student stared. "That’s it?"

Arthur glanced back. "Do you want a speech?"

"No!"

"Then move."

The student immediately shouted to the others. "You heard him! Keep going!"

The students ran, and Mithra stepped up beside Arthur, raising Dawn Sovereign. "How many?"

Arthur looked at the horde. "Too many."

Sun sighed. "That’s becoming a common problem."

Vedas grinned. "Good."

Sun looked at him. "Why are you happy?"

Vedas raised King Maker. "Because there are enough to warm up."

Arthur laughed. "That’s the spirit."

The first corrupted Beast reached them, and Arthur stepped forward as Dusk flashed and the Beast’s claws came down.

CLANG!

Arthur deflected the blow, but instead of striking back, he immediately stepped aside. "Don’t kill them!"

Mithra looked at him. "What?"

"Cut the roots!"

She understood at once. As the Beast turned toward Arthur, the golden roots beneath its feet pulsed.

"There!" Arthur pointed.

Mithra moved.

[Dawn Sovereign: Golden Flash]

Her blade sliced through the root beneath the Beast, and the corrupted creature staggered as its purple aura weakened.

Mithra’s eyes widened. "It worked."

Arthur smiled. "Of course it did."

A second Beast lunged at Sun, and he raised his staff. "You’re not getting past me!"

He blocked its jaws and slid backward, and when he looked down, a root was wrapped around the Beast’s leg. "Arthur!"

"Cut it!"

Sun swung.

BOOM!

The root shattered, and the Beast collapsed.

Sun stared. "It actually works."

"The roots are feeding them," Arthur said.

The students who had been running had stopped a few meters away, and one of them looked back at the fallen Beast. "It stopped."

Another looked at Arthur. "How did you know?"

Arthur didn’t answer. He pointed at the ground. "Look."

The student followed his finger to a network of thin, purple-veined roots spreading beneath the battlefield. One pulsed, then another, and the students finally understood.

"They’re connected."

"To the World Tree," Athena said.

The students looked up at the enormous branches covering the sky, and one of them swallowed. "So those things are getting stronger because of it?"

"Yes," Arthur said.

A corrupted Beast suddenly charged, and the student’s face went pale, but Arthur didn’t move. "Cut the root."

The student hesitated. "What?"

"Your Beast."

The student looked down. His Beast was exhausted, but it was still standing.

Arthur pointed at the root beneath the approaching creature. "Have it attack that."

The student gritted his teeth. "Do it!"

His Beast lunged and slammed into the root.

CRACK!

The root split, and the corrupted Beast stumbled.

The student’s eyes widened. "Again!"

His Beast struck again, the root broke, and the corrupted Beast collapsed. The student stared at his Beast, then at Arthur. "It worked."

Arthur smiled. "See?"

The student suddenly grinned. "Everyone! Don’t attack the Beasts!"

Another student caught on immediately. "Cut the roots!"

The rest of the students reacted. Their fear didn’t disappear, but now they had something they could actually fight. One student sent his Gale Hawk into the air to search for the roots, and it screeched as it circled overhead.

"There! Behind that one!" another student shouted.

The Gale Hawk dove, and its talons tore through a thin root. Another student rushed forward with his Beast toward the next one, and the whole battlefield changed. Instead of desperately trying to kill the corrupted Beasts, the students started going after the connections keeping them alive.

Mithra moved between them, cutting the larger roots whenever the students couldn’t reach them. Vedas smashed through clusters with King Maker, Sun and Kong tore apart the smaller ones, and Athy stayed above the battlefield, calling out positions.

"Three roots behind you!"

Vedas turned.

BOOM!

King Maker shattered all three.

"Two under Mithra!"

Mithra jumped, and Dawn Sovereign flashed, cutting both apart.

Arthur moved through the battlefield, watching. The students were adapting quickly, and that made him smile. They weren’t helpless. They had simply been fighting the wrong battle.

One of them caught Arthur’s attention, the same student who had once argued in the King’s Arena about who would get to fight him first. Now he was covered in dirt and blood, his Beast breathing heavily beside him.

He looked at Arthur. "You know..." He laughed weakly. "I really thought you were exaggerating back then."

Arthur tilted his head. "About what?"

"Your strength."

Arthur thought about it. "Oh." He smiled. "I wasn’t."

The student stared at him for a second, then laughed. "Yeah." He looked at the corrupted Beasts. "I believe you now."

Arthur grinned. "Good."

A massive roar cut them off, and the students froze as the ground shook. Arthur’s smile disappeared. Something enormous was moving through the forest.

Mithra tightened her grip on Dawn Sovereign. "That’s not one of the smaller ones."

"No," Athena said, looking at the trees. "Something bigger is coming."

The forest exploded.

BOOOOOOM!

A corrupted Beast burst through the trees. It was enormous, something between a giant boar and a heavily armored Beast, with black growths covering its back and huge purple veins running beneath its skin.

The students stepped back, and one whispered, "That’s the one."

Arthur looked at him. "You’ve fought it before?"

The student shook his head, his face pale. "Not directly. It chased us for almost ten minutes."

Arthur looked at the Beast, then at the roots beneath it. There were dozens, and he smiled. "Then this should be easier."

The student stared at him. "Easier?"

Arthur raised Dusk. "We already know how to beat it."

The Beast roared and charged. Arthur didn’t attack. He waited as the Beast came closer, and closer.

"Now!"

Everyone moved. Mithra dashed left, Vedas charged right, and Sun and Kong went underneath while the students went after the roots. The Beast swung its massive head at Arthur, and he stepped aside as its horns tore through the tree behind him. He spun and struck the root beneath its front leg.

[King’s Mark: Piercing Light]

Golden light tore through the connection, the root exploded, and the Beast stumbled.

"Again!"

The students attacked. One Beast tore through a root, another shattered one, Mithra severed two, and Vedas destroyed another. The giant Beast roared and tried to retreat, and Arthur noticed. "Don’t let it run!"

The students surrounded it. "Cut the roots!" one shouted, and his Beast struck.

CRACK!

Another root broke, then another, and another. The Beast’s purple aura began to fade, its movements slowed, and the black growths covering its body began to shrink. Finally, the last connection snapped, and the Beast collapsed.

Nobody moved.

"...We did it," one of the students whispered.

Arthur lowered Dusk. "Yeah."

The students looked around at each other. Everyone was exhausted, but they were alive, and for the first time since Arthur had arrived, they looked less like people running from a catastrophe and more like Beast Tamers again.

Mithra sheathed Dawn Sovereign. "Everyone okay?"

A few students nodded, and one raised his injured arm. "Mostly."

Sun looked at him. "That’s not what ’mostly’ means."

The student laughed. "I’ve had worse."

Sun looked at the wrecked forest. "I don’t believe you."

That earned a few tired laughs.

Arthur walked among the students. He recognized several of them now. They were the same students who had crowded around the King’s Arena, arguing over who would get to fight him. Back then, they had been excited about getting stronger, and now they were standing in the middle of a catastrophe.

He looked at them. "You all did well."

The students went quiet, and one of them blinked. "Really?"

Arthur nodded. "You were outmatched, and you kept moving anyway." He looked at the injured students. "You protected each other." Then at their exhausted Beasts. "And you didn’t abandon your partners."

A student smiled. "Coming from you..." He laughed. "That actually means something."

Arthur smiled, and then Eden suddenly grabbed his sleeve. "Arthur."

He turned. She was looking north. "I can’t see very far anymore."

Arthur’s expression changed. "Why?"

Eden shook her head. "The World Tree."

A pulse moved through the ground.

THUM.

Everyone felt it, and the roots around them shifted as the students looked down.

THUM.

The forest trembled, and Athena’s expression turned serious. "The roots are moving again."

Arthur looked at the distant World Tree. "We need somewhere safe."

Luna pulled out her compass. "There was an ancient structure farther north. I saw it when the Earth Region expanded."

Athena nodded. "If it survived, we could use it as a temporary shelter."

Arthur looked at the students. "Can everyone move?"

The students exchanged glances, and then one stepped forward. "We can."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

The student grinned. "We made it this far."

Another student lifted his Beast’s head. "And we’re not dying now."

Arthur smiled. "Good."

They set off, and for several minutes, everything was quiet. Too quiet. The students followed Arthur’s group through the forest while the World Tree towered over them.

CRACK.

The ground split, and everyone stopped. Arthur looked down as a thin fissure opened beneath their feet, then another behind them, and another.

"Move!"

The ground collapsed.

"AHHH!"

Several students fell. Arthur lunged forward. Vedas grabbed one student, Mithra caught another, Sun pulled a third back, and Athy dove from above and caught someone by the arm. Arthur drove Dusk deep into the soil and grabbed two students with his free hand. "Hold on!"

The earth beneath them gave way.

BOOOOOOM!

Everyone dropped, and Arthur felt the world vanish beneath his feet. Then they landed, not on soil, but on stone.

Arthur slowly opened his eyes. He was lying in an enormous underground chamber, and the students were scattered around him, groaning and checking on their Beasts.

Mithra pushed herself upright. "Everyone alive?"

"I’m alive," Sun said.

Athy flew up. "I’m okay!"

Vedas stood and looked around. "This place..."

Arthur slowly rose, his eyes moving across the enormous chamber. There were ancient pillars, broken roads, ruined structures, statues, and old carvings, and enormous golden roots ran through all of it. Some had grown around buildings, and others had pierced straight through ancient walls.

A student stared. "There’s a city down here."

Athena stepped forward, and her expression had completely changed. "No." She touched one of the ancient stones. "This isn’t a city."

Arthur looked at her. "What is it?"

Athena slowly looked around. "It’s what’s left of one."

No one said anything.

Then Arthur noticed something farther ahead, embedded in one of the enormous roots, and he stepped closer. His expression changed. It wasn’t a statue, and it wasn’t a Beast. It was a person, or what remained of one. Their body had been swallowed by the golden root, their clothes still partly visible beneath the hardened wood.

Luna stopped beside him. "...They were absorbed."

Athena’s face tightened. "Not killed." She looked deeper into the chamber. "They became part of the tree."