Gale looked at Demon with a look of shock and surprise as he put his hand to his forehead, “How could I forget that? It was the only reason we even went there in the first place. I guess so much happened that it just slipped my mind… Night, can we please turn around, this is important.”

  Night didn’t even look back from his seat in front of Gale, he just said, “Sure, I mean I was never really filled in on all the details of why you guys were there anyways, but if it was for a crystal, then I’ll gladly turn around. We need to take every chance we can get in order to make our party stronger.”

  Night promptly commanded Zephyrus to turn around and head towards the heart of the storm which was now overtop of the dark tower. The clouds above where they had once been were now spiraling in a large lightning illuminated vortex. It was a menacing sight, but the reward for the risk was just too high to not see it through.

  Approaching the dark tower, Zephyrus began to descend towards the base of it as that's where the fiftieth floor had fallen after Night cut it off from the rest of the tower. The fiftieth floor, of course, contained the coveted enchantment crystal that Demon had been trying to get.

  Zephyrus promptly landed on the now wet and muddy soils of the Azure Plains, directly in front of the rubble that contained the enchantment crystal. Gale and Falco decided to stay on the bird while Demon and Night went off through the wall of rain to scavenge through the rubble. Compassionately, Zephyrus raised her large wing above Falco and Gale to shield them from the rain as they sat there.

  ~~~

  Demon and Night had been scrounging around the ruins for a few minutes now with no signs of luck. The rain was coming down so hard that it obscured their visibility, allowing for them to only be able to see a few feet in front of them at all times. It was also impossible to communicate over the sound of the constant rain along with the explosive cracks of thunder which rang off almost every ten seconds.

  Finally, as Demon was rummaging through a pile of broken black steel beams, she spotted a slight white light coming from underneath one of them. Quickly pulling up the beam, she revealed the small rectangular white crystal sitting unscathed on the beam below it.

  Without hesitation, Demon grabbed the crystal and held it tight in her grasp so as to not let it slip out of her wet hands. She tried to call out to Night that she had found it, but her voice got drowned out by the rain.

  As the crystal was grasped in Demon’s hand, unbeknownst to her, it was slowly absorbing some of her life force. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, she passed out right then and there, banging her head against one of the steel beams as she fell.

  As she laid in the rain unconscious, her grasp loosened and caused the now deep red crystal to fall out onto the ground. It sat there for a second, before suddenly glowing with an overpowering red radiance which could even be seen through the thick storm.

  The instant that Night saw this light, he knew what was happening, so he dashed quickly to Demon’s side to help her out.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Night looked at Demon’s head that was now streaming with blood, and he mumbled to himself, “Damn it! This is bad, of all times for this to happen…”

  Wasting no time, Night hoisted Demon’s body over his shoulder and grabbed the crystal before quickly finding his way back to Zephyrus through his memory of the cardinal directions he had travelled.

  Night jumped onto Zephyrus’s back and before he even needed to give a command, she already knew to start flying. As Night placed Demon carefully down on the soft feathers, Gale and Falco just looked at her unconscious body in shock.

  With a sense of haste in his voice, Night said, “Falco! What are you doing just sitting there? Hurry up and heal her already!”

  Falco quickly perked up, “Okay! I’ll get on it right now.”

  Taking the staff off his back, Falco poured his energy into the yellow crystal at its end until it shone bright. He then touched the crystal directly to the wound on Demon’s head, causing the blood to almost immediately stop flowing. As he held it there, the skin and flesh began to slowly reconstruct to look exactly as it had before. After about five minutes, the wound was sealed shut and looked good as new.

  Only after Demon was all healed and they had left the terrible storm, did Gale finally ask Night, “What even happened out there? Why was she knocked unconscious?”

  While looking at Demon, who was still unconscious, Night replied, “It was the crystal’s doing which caused her to pass out. Pretty much, when you acquire a new crystal and touch it to your skin, it begins sapping your lifeforce from you in order to transform into a crystal that resonates with the innate power of its user.”

  Gale nodded, “I understand that. I remember when I first got my crystal it made me feel extremely lightheaded for a while, but I never passed out.”

  Falco pitched in, “Yeah that happened to me as well. It felt like I had a blazing headache for around an hour or so, but I didn’t pass out either.”

  Night looked at the two while holding up the red rectangular crystal for them to see, “The difference here is that Demon was going up two tiers simultaneously. Instead of going from no crystal to tier one like you guys, she went from no crystal to tier two, skipping the first tier one power up. The previous tier’s power up helps to prepare the body for the next tier’s power up. So when you go up two tiers at once, it overloads the body with too much energy, causing it to shut down momentarily, which is precisely what happened to Demon here. After about an hour or so, she should wake up and be completely fine though.”

  Gale let out a deep breath, then said, “That's relieving to hear. I thought something really bad might have happened to her. I do have a question though, what would happen if you were to go up three tiers or more at a time?”

  Night looked down for a moment and paused before answering in a somber tone, “Well… Going up three tiers could permanently paralyze your entire body, and going up four or more tiers… Will instantly kill you. I know from experience… Don't ask.”

  The sudden somber mood caused Gale and Falco to fall silent. The curiosity was killing them, but if it was something that even Night, the hardened warrior that he is, didn’t like to talk about, then it was probably best if they didn’t hear it either.

  ~~~

  The rest of the ride was mostly silent as they glided peacefully through the serene sky, leaving the storm behind them as it slowly dissipated, not able to hold its immense strength for too long.

  About an hour had passed, they were finally able to see the ginormous trees in the distance which were illuminated by the rising sun which was now peeking over the horizon. The pinkish wall of fog which encompassed the majority of the tree trunks, was sparkling with small yellow dots which almost looked like stars shimmering in the vastness of a pink sky.

  Demon was still out cold lying down in the middle of Zephyrus’s back between Night and Gale, while Falco was sitting in the back. Gale and Falco looked down in unison at the magical landscape in front of them, taking in all its glory.

  Night looked back at them and said ominously, “I remember I was just like you guys when I first saw it, I was in absolute awe. It may look beautiful on the outside, but trust me, that's how it tricks you. Whoever came up with the name, ‘The Forest of Dreams’, must have been a real masochist, because the only things you’ll find under that cloak of fog are the things of your worst nightmares.”