It had been nearly two days since Roko set out with his new dark elf allies. With their expertise, they found the water they needed without any trouble. With their senses, Roko traveled comfortably without running into anymore predators. And a regularity even began to return to the sunless forest as these dark elves seemed able to tell the time of day. But where they were going past the river was a mystery to Roko. Wherever this Sanctuary Lily was, Roko couldn't tell from the warping surroundings. But before Roko could piece anything together or gather enough courage to ask, the dark elves stopped in the middle of the forest and announced that they were here.
Looking around, Roko immediately noticed a thin red string that wrapped around the trunk of two trees and another piece of string stretched out to wrap around two more, creating the image of a path in the loosest sense. But from how they were crowded around the end to this "pathway" meant that there was clearly more that Roko wasn't seeing.
"This is is?" Roko asked, looking around more, "This is where the Sanctuary Lily is?"
"Yes." Reaumur replied, her injuries having healed enough for her to stand on her own with only a light cast, "This is where the entrance to the Sanctuary Lilies are."
"I assume there's some unlocking to be done?" Roko said, "Should I look away while you do it?"
"Haha. No, it's fine." Drift chuckled, "The lock is not that complex. Anybody could really unlock it assuming they have the skills and know the right location."
"Is that so? I assume you three can unlock it then?"
"Indeed. Come, Reaumur, Ohm. Let's show our human friend what we can do."
The three dark elves approached the trees and reached out with their hands.
"Fire."
"Ice."
"Lightning."
Three elemental spells burst to life in front of the elves and the image of a seal appeared between the trees. From what Roko could tell from his limited understanding of archeomancy, it was an incredibly complex magical structure. And now it was beginning to absorb the elemental magic from the dark elves. Reaumur's fire, Drift's ice and Ohm's lightning was absorbed into the seal. The energy moved through the magical components, spinning and shifting until the entirety of the seal disappeared and a pathway opened up in between the trees. The dark elves turned to Roko with smiles on their faces,
"This is it."
Even before stepping through the portal, Roko could tell this new space that they opened was different. What felt like genuine sunlight shone out from the portal onto vibrant green grasses and sprightly trees. Entering this realm was like being suddenly plunged into a pool of water. From the dark, gloomy, shadowy blue trees of Arbrea to the bright, healthy and peaceful and otherwise normal piece of forest. The dark elves followed Roko as he walked deeper into this world, moving through the unkempt grass until they came across a small field decorated with an abundance of a single flower. Peach white petals whose soft diamond shape was outlined with a royal looking blue color. Roko recognized it as the Sanctuary Lily from the textbooks.
"Go ahead and pick one." Ohm said, drawing Roko out of his trance like immersion in the sheer natural beauty of this space.
Roko knelt down next to the edge of the flower field, the blink dog trotting up alongside him curiously. Unsure of which of these Sanctuary Lilies would be in the best condition for a present, Roko picked out the first healthy flower he saw and stood up. Turning around, the dark elves seemed to be watching him in approval. With little time to take in the sights, the dark elves suggested they leave not long afterwards.
Back in the Arbrea forest, the portal to the lilies had closed the instant they all stepped out of it, leaving the one flower that Roko held in his hand the only evidence that such a beautiful sanctuary existed in such a dark forest.
"Congratulations!" Reaumur beamed, "You got the Sanctuary Lily!"
"All thanks to you." Roko replied as he tucked the softly glowing flower in one of his belt pouches, "Thanks for your help."
"It's only natural to repay others after being helped." Drift smiled back, "But if we may ask, what are you going to do now?"
"Well, the only thing left to do now is to find the grave before my supplies run out." Roko sighed, "All I need is to figure out how."
"Are you sure you don't want our help for that?" Ohm offered, "We do have our own way into Lady Brea's grave as well."
"No, I have to do some part of this trial alone or I just won't feel right. Besides, you all have already helped give me some hints as to how to find this grave."
"Oh really?"
"If the elves' entrance is similar to yours, there will be a pair of strings marking a path and a large magical seal to deal with. And from the unlocking you've done, I have an idea on how to unlock the elves' seal as well."
"Think you can do it without your special arrow?" Reaumur asked.
"I'll have to." Roko shrugged, "I have an idea but I need to train a bit more before I can say for certain if it'll work. Worst case scenario I return to the elf city to see if I can get another arrow."
"You think you can find the elf city again?"
"Well it's either that or they start sending a search party to find my remains." Roko sighed, "Anyway, I'm glad we met and had the opportunity to help each other. But what are you going to do now?"
"True, by all means our business with each other is completed." Draft smiled slyly, "Anymore help and I'm sure the elves would complain and invalidate your run."
"And we've been meaning to return to our village so we can doctor Reaumur's wound properly." Ohm nodded.
"Eh? But I'm fine." Reaumur said, cluelessly, "Look, I can probably run now!"
"No no, we need to make sure it doesn't get infected or anything." Drift said as he grabbed Reaumur and began to drag her away, "We shall see each other again, human."
"Wait but I'm fine!" Reaumur continued protested as Drift and Ohm dragged her away, "Wait! Hold on! S-Shadow! Wanna come back with us boy?! Shadow?!"
The blink dog sat next to Roko watching as his handler was dragged away into the shadows of the forest.
"Well..." Roko sighed, "Do you, boy? You could go back if you want."
The blink dog stood up and gave a firm bark back.
"Well, that's fine. But I'll be studying this seal for probably the rest of the day. If you get bored you can go do some hunting or something. I'll have lunch ready when you get back."
The blink dog barked again and disappeared. With no one left to distract him, Roko reached out and pressed a hand where the seal should be. Naturally, his hand went right through as if nothing was there. The seal wasn't going to show itself without reason. So if it wasn't going to react to physical contact, Roko would have to try magical contact.
After several days of practice with archeomancy, Roko had managed to condense magic enough to make visible threads. Supposedly, bringing enough magic together would be enough to create a reaction that could be called a spell. However Roko had not managed to recreate any such reaction. He was told to just practice making his threads as thin and compact as he could. Which felt more like a presentation problem than it was an actual measure of expertise. At least for what its worth, his wispy mana threads interacted with the seal well enough. Upon touching the space where the seal was, the magical structure revealed itself. Complex layers of magical design layered on top of each other working in tandem. It was impossible for Roko to comprehend its mechanics but it was enough to recognize the magic's signatures. The way the magic moves and pulses, the subtleties of its construction. The hope was that he'd be able to find a gate similar to this through sheer observation. If he was optimistic, he might think to try and adapt his scan spell to search for magic similar to this but his magic has NEVER been able to preform a search. Not even that map scan could actually do anything other that outline the surroundings around him. It was all up to Roko to read and determine what was actually usable. And then he had to come up with a plan based on it.
Roko sighed, "When do I get to have a vacation?"
The day passed with Roko studying as much of the seal as he could. At least what Roko estimated as the day. Without the dark elves, Roko was back to no longer being able to tell what was day in this godforsaken dark forest. For someone who loved nature, you'd think Brea would realize that plants needed goddamned sunlight to live. And in the middle of Roko complaining in his head, the blink dog returned so Roko decided to have dinner and go to sleep. And so the next day...the next time Roko woke up, he shared another simple breakfast with the blink dog before he packed up and began the next part of his plan.
"So." Roko turned to the blink dog, "Do you want to help me, doggo?"
The blink dog looked up at him and barked in an approving manner.
"Do you think you can sniff this and find another place like it?" Roko reached into his pouch and pulled out the Sanctuary Lily, "I'm assuming the grave is in a space similar to where we found this but if you can't track something like this through separate dimensions, it's fine."
The blink dog stood up and sniffed the Sanctuary Lily. Roko waited as the dog memorized its scent before it turned around and began sniffing the ground and walking off.
"If this works, I'll be impressed." Roko muttered.
The tracking continued for several hours. Which was much longer than Roko expected. In that he didn't think dog tracking would take quite this long but this was in a pretty supernatural situation so who knows how much longer it would make it. But also in that the blink dog has continued tracking for so long without giving up. Surely if the dog wasn't able to do as Roko requested, which would be understanding given the complexity of the task, he would tell Roko, right? Even when they stopped in what might've been late noon for lunch and Roko asked if the blink dog could actually complete Roko's request, the blink dog just barked in nonchalant confidence. So there was either something Roko was not privy to or blink dogs are powerful beyond Roko's expectations. Either way, there was no harm in letting this hunt go on for a bit longer, though Roko wasn't quite satisfied doing nothing but follow so he made sure to practice archeomancy the whole way. Which was turning out to be much more exhausting than Roko ever expected. His spells, primarily scan and analyze, were comparatively effortless to cast. Roko had been able to cast scan multiple times on different people in short time together and only really suffered a bit of information overload that sort of felt like it was...compressing his brain. But that was to expected from a bit of overwork.
Archeomancy on the other hand...it was a new field, certainly, so Roko wasn't going to be able to pick it up as quickly as...well actually he never really had to train for either oh his spells. He just kinda had to know the words. Realizing this, Roko felt more appreciative of his spells as he never really had a problem using either of them. As for archeomancy it was like putting his head in a vice. Making these magic threads, as amateur as they apparently were, was easy enough. Making them into shapes was the difficult part. For some reason, the magic refused to be constrained into shapes. Even making a circle took more effort than Roko felt like it should. Containing the magic felt like containing his own mind. Squeezing his head together as Roko flickered between closing his eyes to focus on the magic and opening his eyes to make sure his efforts are making visible progress and that he was still following the blink dog properly. No matter how hard he tried, Roko could not get the magic energy to form and retain properly. And before he knew it, a sharp bark alerted Roko to the blink dog suddenly stopping.
"What's wrong boy?" Roko asked tiredly.
The blink dog pointed it's head towards some trees where a string hung between them.
"Oh." Roko said, "Great job, boy. Now it's my tur-"
Roko moved towards the trees but his legs gave out beneath him and he collapsed onto the ground.
"...On second thought, let's have dinner first." Roko groaned.
The blink dog barked in agreement.
Making camp not far from the threaded trees, Roko prepared a simple meal of herbs and meat that was starting to become a little repetitive to him. The blink dog didn't seem to mind chowing down on the juicy owlbear meat though.
"We'll make our way through the barrier tomorrow." Roko said as he tiredly patted the blink dog, "As soon as we wake up."
The blink dog yawned in response. Roko blinked as he felt his body start falling asleep on him but he did his best to fight it to bring his hands in front of him and start practicing archeomancy again. Yes, he was tired as hell. Yes, his attempts at practice has taken a drastic fall in quality but Roko couldn't bring himself to stop. Now that he was here, Roko felt more pressure to do his part. What came next, if there ever was anything next for them in this journey, now depended on him. It was something only he could do so-
The blink dog bit onto the sleeve of Roko's arm and dragged it away, dissipating the mana Roko was holding onto before crawling onto Roko's lap and curling up to sleep. Roko watched the sleeping dog for a moment before he sighed and stroked the dog's back.
"Alright, I'll go to sleep." Roko sighed, "No point in exhausting myself is there?"
And so Roko laid back and fell to sleep with a dog on his lap.
The next day, Roko woke up feeling...a bit groggy, the stress of his practice hadn't fully been remedied. But he felt well enough to tackle the seal after a repetitive breakfast. Roko approached the trees that the blink dog had guided him to. Reaching out between the threaded trees, Roko couldn't feel anything like the previous seal. But unlike the previous seal, there was no second pair of trees tied together to form a corridor. There was only the two trees with one thread. So Roko reached out underneath the thread with swirls of mana around his hand. The mana revealed another seal between the trees, a magical door that looked quite similar to the ones the dark elves had shown him. A quick analyze told him that this seal was also structurally similar to the one leading to the Sanctuary Lily's realm. If this was a gate to the grave then that meant Roko needed to demonstrate the three "natural" elements like the elf queen had explained. It was at this point where Roko would finally use the arrow that Rivera had enchanted for him but that charge was spent saving the dark elves. So now Roko had to demonstrate the three elements, water, earth and wind, all by himself.
Roko took a deep breath and stepped back. Taking a moment to mentally prepare himself, Roko raised his arms and began to pull magic to him. An immense amount of magic coalesced into threads and began to weave themselves into symbols in front of him. And Roko immediately began to feel ill from the stress. Roko had been there to see Rivera weave the enchantments in front of him. And while that would certainly not be enough, Roko also had the opportunity to scan and analyze the magic in the arrow before it disappeared. And it was from these designs, recorded in his book, that Roko was straining to replicate in front of him. Three circular magic seals that created no magic on their own, at least not yet. All Roko could do was attempt to recreate these magic seals with his limited ability. This feat burned away at Roko's mind, like a layer of magma underneath his skin burning him from the inside out. But no matter how much his body felt like collapsing, the magic moved, seemingly without Roko's supervision at times. The more Roko endured, the closer the magic came to the images he'd seen. When he could no longer endure the strain and the seals were close enough to completion, Roko shoved this strange form of magic into the seal. And without even seeing the effects his efforts created, Roko blacked out and fell to the ground.
But Roko didn't stay unconscious for long. He had only just woken up so he wasn't quite prepared to slip back to sleep so soon. Rather, he floated in a sort of numb darkness, pierced only by light when his eyes decided to work. Thankfully he didn't feel much pain in his mental limbo. Really, he didn't feel or sense much of anything except for the sense of his body being dragged away by his arm though he didn't even have the energy to worry about it, much less deal with it. Same with a piece of jerky that was unceremoniously kind of shoved into his mouth that he just ate without thinking. Well, he did have concerns about all this but those concerns felt like they were being directed to a completely different person.
After who knows how long anymore and Roko's mind went through a restart, Roko managed to open his eyes to grass that was being lit by the sun. Picking himself off the ground with a groan, Roko could see he was back in a space that was similar to where he had found the Sanctuary Lily. He barely had time to look around when the blink dog suddenly reappeared in front of him, panting happily and wagging his tail.
"Hey buddy." Roko said as he began to rub and scratch the dog's head, "Did you pull me in while the gate was open? And then feed me some jerky? Thanks bud. You're a lifesaver."
The blink dog barked happily, his tail wagging even faster.
"You hungry?"
The dog shook his head.
"So I haven't been unconscious for too long right?"
The blink dog barked again and nodded.
"That's good." Roko sighed, "Well then...let's see what we've gotten ourselves into now, huh?"
Roko stood up and followed the overgrown forest path. This space was pretty much like Sanctuary Lily. Except it was a bit brighter probably. But before Roko could ponder for long, the path opened up to a paved ground. A stone platform in the middle of the forest that had only one structure on it. A giant stone monument that was larger than Roko was and crafted with intricate and fancy decoration. From the cross that was more like a pointed star, Roko could tell that this was a grave. And upon further investigation of this structure's plaque,
Crafting this forest with her dedicated hand, we honor and respect the efforts of the great archdruid, the mother of this forest and her animals, Bera Worldline.
May she rest in peace
"This is it." Roko sighed, "This trial ended up shorter than I thought but more stressful than I ever imagined."
Reaching into his pouch, Roko pulled out the Sanctuary Lily and gently placed it in front of the monument. Standing back up, he placed his hands together and silently offered up a respectful prayer for the dead. The blink dog sat down beside him and bowed his head as well in prayer. Roko remained like this for a few seconds until he began to hear the rustling of foliage and a loud crude voice.
"Are you sure this is the way, buddy?"
Opening his eyes and turning towards the noise, Roko was stunned to see what he could only determine as an orc stumbling out of the pristine trees. And scrambling in front of him, on multiple slimy tentacles, was one of the Paranmesia monsters.