Volume 1 Chapter 6 the Spring of Sylvanus

Chapter 6 the Spring of Sylvana

I

The silver moonlight of the wee hours were pouring down from the sky. The night didn’t look dark anymore because the lights from the night sky were showing Aislina the way home.

She was walking towards the Dream Forest and behind her was the Grey Factory, on the surface of which some green vines commenced to grew because of her magic.

The Cube of Necrus had been taken away by her. The Grey Factory used to be only a soulless architecture but the Cube of Necrus had granted it a murky soul.

Now, the Cube of Necrus had been taken by Aislina, thus the Grey Factory was losing its soul as well as its overwhelming power which had been threatening the Dream Forest for years. Therefore, the factory didn’t look oppressive and powerful anymore now.

The Cube of Necrus had been stored in the Pocket Dimension created by Aislina. If Master Mortis wanted to take the cube back, he had to kill Aislina first. And Aislina was confident that she was powerful enough to fight against Master Mortis, thus the Cube of Necrus was safe for now.

However, the power of the cube was corrupting the Pocket Dimension quietly, so she had to destroy this cube as fast as possible.

To build this cube, the factory had spent countless money and the raw materials were extremely rare. If Aislina really destroyed this Cube of Necrus successfully, it would be almost impossible for humans to build another one.

However, before destroying the cube, Aislina decided to heal her friends first, all of whom had been severely injured.

Floria, Yanni and Starsha were still in deep coma now. The bones inside their bodies had been broken by Sir Bellum. They were now floating unconsciously in the air, following Aislina. Obviously, they were being moved by some unseen magical energy of her.

Suddenly, someone placed herself in Aislina’s way. It’s the Farseer.

“Hello, elf,” greeted the Farseer.

“Hello, Ms. … Umm … What would I call you?” inquired Aislina.

“I am the Farseer of Wildshadow Tribe, which your friend Yanni and Floria belongs to. I’m also Starsha’s mother. You can call me Mistress Deane. Deane is the family name of Starsha and me,” the Farseer answered and asked, “what’s your name, elf?”

“My name is Aislina,” replied Aislina.

“Aislina… That’s a beautiful name, a typical elven-style one. You’re the last elf in this world, aren’t you? After you leave this world, there will be no elf on earth anymore, but you can live for centuries, and in those centuries of your life, many things can possibly happen,” whispered the Farseer.

“Yes, many things can possibly happen,” agreed Aislina.

“Many people will talk about destiny and the so-called Inevitability, but in fact, things can change very fast. Nothing will last for eternity and nothing can’t be change if you have a yearning heart,” continued the Witch Doctor.

“But I don’t understand,” Aislina lowered her head.

“Be brave and dare to love,” explained the Witch Doctor.

“Dare to love?” questioned Aislina.

“I can see through many things, girl. I can see through the past, I can see through the truth, and I can even blurrily see through some of the future. I know the dark side of human nature, but I also know the bright side of it. We humans are selfish and hypocritical, but we also dare to love. Although we know that time can wash everything away, we dare to love and treasure the present, regardless of what the future will be,” intoned the Witch Doctor.

“What will my future be?” asked Aislina.

“It’s a secret, Aislina. You’ll see me again one day in the future. Bye for now, Aislina …”

“By the way, please tell Floria and Yanni’s father what’s going on and take care of him t. He may not see them anytime soon,” begged Aislina.

“I will,” agreed the Farseer.

II

Yanni, Floria and Starsha woke up and found themselves at an alien forest. It was definitely not Dream Forest because the trees were much taller than those in Dream Forest and there were some sort of green mysterious fog filling the air.

This forest looked like a place which didn’t belong to the reality at all. On the contrary, it was a place that could only exist in dreams.

The sky couldn’t be seen there, since it had been fully blotted out by the leaves on those enormous trees in this forest and it was hard to judge whether it was during the daytime or night hours.

Though the moonlight, or probably sunlight, had been veiled by those leaves on the trees, the brightness of the environment around was still high enough as if the whole world itself were luminous somehow.

It was true that this forest seemed completely foreign, however, some parts of it looked familiar to some extent. Maybe, this forest existed somewhere in the collective consciousness of humans and therefore some parts of it would become blurry fragments in people’s dreams.

There were also some kind of fragrance which filled air, making the whole world even more dreamlike as if the whole scenes seen in this place were in fact not real at all.

However, some kind imperceptible smell of corruption were also lingering there. Without a shadow of doubt, the pollution in the reality had even successfully corrupted this spiritual world too.

“Where are we?” asked Yanni.

“I have no idea, Yanni,” Floria shrugged her shoulder.

“Wow, it’s a fantastic place. I think I must write a song about this place. Wait, the last thing I remember is that I was knocked out by that eerie dark knight,” exclaimed Starsha.

“You mean Sir Bellum?” questioned Yanni.

“Yeah, Sir Bellum, the legendary general that has crushed the army of us barbarians twenty years ago. He is horrible,” complaint Starsha.

While they were chatting, wind started to gather and put the fallen leaves, twigs, branches in the air, which were assembled and became a giantess with green skin. The clothes of this giantess were made of plants too.

The giantess was almost three meters’ tall and looked considerably powerful.

“Welcome to my dimension,” greeted the giantess.

“Umm, no matter who you’re, you look really cool!” gushed Starsha.

“Thank you, girl. My name is Sylvana. I am the demigoddess of the Forest,” the giant introduced himself.

“Aislina told me about you. You’re the true owner of Dream Forest and you’re also the creator of elves,” Yanni stared at Sylvana, his eyes wide in astonishment.

“Yes, I am. In the ancient times, I transformed some humans who loved the world of greenness into the first elves. They were the ancestors of modern elves. However, elves are going to be extinct soon. That’s a pity. Perhaps my era will end one day, after all, a new demigod is coming to our world, eager to take my place” narrated Sylvana.

“A new demigod?” inquired Floria.

“Yes, a new demigod constructed by humans. He is hidden in the Cube of Necrus right now and he is waiting to conquer the world one day,” responded Sylvana.

“I forged that cube,” muttered Yanni, lowering his head.

“It’s not your fault, kid. The birth of the Cube of Necrus is inevitable, but it’s your vocation to destroy that cube,” Sylvana reassured him.

“But we’re too weak. Even a squirl of Master Mortis has nearly killed us,” sighed Yanni.

“Though you’re weak right now, you will be strong soon …” intoned Sylvana, an elusive smile lingering on his face. After those words were spoken, he disappeared with all the twigs, branches and leaves that composed him falling back to the ground once again.

After that, the whole forest of Sylvana disappeared as though she were just some illusions. The whole scene faded out in a slippery way and the real world began to appear into their sights.

At first, there were just some blurry combinations of colours, but soon, it became clear and the three found themselves standing at the centre of a pit.

The trees surrounding them looked familiar and obviously, they were in Dream Forest now. They were not as tall and enormous as the trees in the dimension of Sylvana, but they were also emanating the innate power of life and wilderness.

They got up to their feet, and found out that the soil under was wet and sticky, there were also some sort of humid smell in the air. Several fireflies were flying around them, fluttering their tiny wings weakly. Although the lights they gave were too faint to help to illuminate the world, they didn’t give up giving off the lights.

Some birds and other animals were making strange sounds. Although those sounds were totally foreign and weird, they didn’t sound creepy at all but add a sort of familiarity to this forest.

Aislina was with them too.

“You three wake up,” said Aislina, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Sylvana …” muttered Yanni.

“What did you say?” asked Aislina.

“Sylvana, we saw Sylvana, the Forest Presence,” answered Yanni.

“Calm down, calm down,” purred Aislina tenderly.

Clearly, they had fully recovered from bone fractures caused by Sir Bellum, and besides that, there was something running in their blood, something mysteriously powerful.

“My head is aching … but, wow, I feel extremely vigorous and powerful, what is happening to us?” questioned Starsha.

“Seemingly the Spring of Sylvana worked,” drawled Aislina, lifting her eyes towards the sky.

“The spring of Sylvana? What is that,” pursued Starsha.

“You’re standing inside it right now,” smiled Aislina.

“But we’re just standing in a dry pit without water. I mean, a spring is somewhere full of water …” Floria pointed out.

“In the ancient times, male elves were not capable of magic, but those who were physically strong would be selected to become the guardians of forest. They would take a bath in this Spring of Sylvana, the sacred water in which would help them communicate with Sylvana, who would grant strong power to them. However, with the development of humans’ necrology, the forest had been polluted and this spring began to dry up and turn into a pit without water,” narrated Aislina

“Power? What kind of power? Are we granted those power too? I mean, there are no sacred water in this dried pit now,” inquired Floria.

“Before I threw you three to the spring, there was still a little water remained. However, you three just absorbed the last drops of the water and now it has been fully dried up. I failed to heal your injuries, so throwing you three into this spring was the only way to save your lives,” explained Aislina with a sad look in her eyes.

Clearly, this spring was a priceless treasure to elves, as well as an important legacy. Yanni said nothing but patted Aislina on her shoulder. He knew exactly what did that mean.

Humans were always elves’ enemies, but Aislina made her decision to give the last drops of water in the Spring of Sylvana to three humans. It was a hard choice, but Aislina still did it without hesitation.

Anyway, the Spring of Sylvana had given the three of them power. Although they were still not capable of magic, their enhanced physiology had surpassed peak human physical prowess. They could be the greatest human fighters in this world and with greater power came greater vocations.

“Dad will worry about us,” murmured Yanni.

“I have asked the Farseer to take care of him,” Aislina reassured him.

“That’s great, after all, he was forgetting things and there shall be someone looking after him. He has dementia now. Life is cruel,” muttered Yanni.

III

“We’re now at the Shrine of Hephaestus, and out there is the Furnace of Hephaestus. I can summon some magical fire inside this furnace, which could reach a temperature that humans’ furnace can never come up to. Though the furnace in the Grey Factory cannot destroy the Cube of Necrus, maybe this magical Furnace can,” speculated Aislina.

They were standing inside a temple-like elven building. Although this Shrine of Hephaestus was nearly 10 meters tall, it only contained one floor. Therefore, the inner space of this architecture was pretty vast and there was a dome fixed on the top of the building, which looked sacredly majestic from inside.

At the centre of the Shrine of Hephaestus was a furnace made of white marble.

Aislina snapped her finger and a flame of green fire appeared inside the furnace. With another finger snap, the Cube of Necrus appeared in her hands from nowhere after a flash of green light. Then she threw the cube into the burning furnace.

“Wow, you just conjured that cube from thin air, what did you do?” exclaimed Starsha, her mouth opened in astonishment.

“Oh, I hid the cube in a small Pocket Dimension that I created. Elven wizards always use this kind of Pocket Dimensions to hide important objects which will only return to the Material Dimension when the wizard who creates the Pocket Dimension dies. Therefore, if someone wants to take the Cube of Necrus, he or she has to kill me first,” explained Aislina.

“But you’re in fact putting yourself in danger by doing that,” whispered Yanni.

“Oh, Yanni. It’s not dangerous to Aislina at all. You know how powerful Sir Bellum is. Though our physiology have been enhanced by that Spring of Sylvana, I reckon that we’re still no match for that monster, since he is crazily strong with the necrovirus inside his veins. However, Aislina saved us three from his hand as easily as a piece of cake,” Starsha pointed out confidently.

“You’re right, but Master Mortis is not a person whom we can easily deal with. We still need to be careful,” argued Floria.

“That’s true. Fighting with the Grey Factory is nearly impossible. They can be unbelievably strong with necrology. We need to destroy the Cube of Necrus as quickly as possible,” agreed Aislina.

The cube was burning inside the Furnace of Hephaestus. Clearly, that green magical fire summoned by Aislina was trying its best to devour and melt that abominable black cube.

However, the Cube of Necrus was fighting back the magical fire as well. Although it was in the wee hours now, the Shrine of Hephaestus had great lighting system which took advantage of natural lights, including the moonlight.

Therefore, it was in fact rather bright inside the shrine, but the Cube of Necrus was absorbing some of the lights, which made the environment murkier quite obviously.

Some parts of the green fire was turning into a colour on the boundary of green and blue which resembled ghost fire haunting the tombs. The Cube of Necrus was corrupting this sacred furnace as well as the whole shrine.

Soon murkiness commenced to dominate this place. Shadow began to spread, penetrating deeply into the white marble that composed this building. The shrine was shaking like mad in an attempt to accumulating its energy to fight against the cube, but this ended up in vain.

“Has the cube molten?” questioned Yanni nervously.

“No, not at all. The Furnace of Hephaestus failed to destroy it. Like the Spring of Sylvana, the power inside this furnace kept degrading in recent centuries. We must find another way to destroy this cube,” sighed Aislina.

She snapped her finger and the green fire inside the furnace disappeared in a second. The Cube of Necrus stopped burning as well. Aislina snapped her finger again and that cursed Cube of Necrus was put into her Pocket Dimension.

After that, the brightness of the environment around them became normal again.