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That made him want to get cursed on purpose so Xen could see how loyal he really was.

“Bring Reth along,” Xen ordered, staring at the stone doors of the Old Temple.

Zeev bowed, a hand pressed to his chest, a smile threatening to taint his blank face. “Yes, My Lord.”

And he vanished.

Xen turned in the direction in which Evan had taken flight. He picked up Evan’s coat that he’d dropped earlier and dusted it before folding his hands behind his back and trailing Evan’s scent.

On the other hand, Evan was struggling for his life as he sprinted through the densely packed trees and ducked under overgrown branches. He ran and ran, almost tripped over a protruding tree root and broke his face, but it seemed like he was running in circles. In the dark of the night, with the crowding crowns of the trees overhead, barely any moonlight made it to the forest floor.

Coming to a stop under a huge tree with a twisted trunk and a huge hole right at the center, Evan huffed and puffed, hands on his knees, heart in his mouth. Even through the haze of his exhaustion and roaring pulse in his ear, Evan could hear some faint sounds trying to surface from his surroundings.

His guard, which had ironically failed to raise around two powerful demons earlier, now jerked and extended high.

Something was not right.

When Xen and Evan had entered the grounds of the restricted area, they’d crossed over overgrown weeds and bushes, then the residential area, and finally the old temple.

Evan had taken off in the same direction, so he should’ve first encountered the abandoned residential area, then the overgrown shrubs. It was a straight exit with no detours. But not only had Evan wandered into a strange forest that seemed to have emerged out of nowhere, this forest didn’t look normal.

In simple words, this place didn’t look real. Or at least, not a part of Emberlyn.

Evan walked over to the twisted tree, staring through its gaping hole at the other side, trying to figure out what portal had swallowed him and then spat him out in this place.

Suddenly, that gap in the trunk started widening, and Evan stepped back in alarm. As if drawn by impulse, he pressed his palms together and conjured a long, sharp shard of spiritual energy, shaped like a blade. Only when it was firmly grasped in his hand did he realize what he’d made. He blinked down at the spiritual weapon, recalling the warmth of Xen’s hands on his when he was teaching Evan.

“Who’s…there…?” A voice slurred, sounding like it had just woken up from a deep slumber.

Evan snapped back to the present and held the crystal up in a defensive position. He looked around for the source of that voice but didn’t dare respond.

As he spun around and shot daggers from his eyes in every direction, the sluggish voice spoke again. “Have you lost something, light-bearer?”

This time Evan’s ears were strained in focus, and he whipped into the direction of that voice. Only to stare dumbfounded at the gaping hole in the tree. It was moving, like a mouth.

The voice was coming from the tree.

Wary and a little curious—he couldn’t help the latter—Evan stepped closer to the tree. Just one step, the crystal blade still held firmly in his grasp.

“Who’s there?” He prompted, eyes wandering above the mouth of the tree to try and find its eyes. Although something in the shape of two eyelids was moving in the dark, the crown of the tree was so dense, Evan couldn’t make out the details.

The tree yawned. “You didn’t lose anything. You’re the one lost, aren’t you?”

Although his words were meant to mock, they almost held an undertone of reprimanding, like a father scolding a child.

“I am not,” Evan announced confidently. “Just taking a stroll. Who are you?”

The gaping mouth quivered as the tree chuckled. “You cannot wander into the Dark Woods for astroll, child.”

Dark woods? This? But Evan had been to the Dark Woods several times and had never come across this particular area or a talking tree, for that matter.

Of course, a massive area of the dense forests surrounding Emberlyn was still undiscovered, but what didn’t make sense was how he had teleported from the Old Temple several miles away to the Dark Woods in a span of a few minutes.

Naturally, Evan was suspicious.

First of all, because he was talking to a tree.

“This is not the Dark Woods, is it?” he asked. “This place is not real.”