The group, following a road, ascended the gorge. At that point, it would normally be possible to see Krimisha from afar, were it not for the hills and rugged terrain.
The vegetation was prominent, with very green leaves. The woods and forests were very hot and humid, even more so than the one around the Scorched Mountain.
During the day, nothing unusual happened, and night fell quickly. Luna trained more than usual before sleeping, as she wanted to tire her body and make falling asleep easier.
As soon as she considered herself tired enough, she lay down and slept.
Soon she dreamed again, a different one from the previous, although the events were similar. Luna seemed a little older now, but it was another memory of her playing with her father.
She tried to follow Sariel's suggestion and make her father wear large glasses with a huge nose and exaggerated mustache, but the traveler didn't take long to appear in her dream again before she could make any progress.
"Practicing?"
"Yes, but I still can't do what you told me."
"Don't get frustrated, eventually you'll be able to do it. Now, shall we?" He offered his hand and pointed at the door.
"Where to?"
"To my Dream Realm."
Without thinking twice, the princess took the traveler's hand, and they both went through the door together, its interior glowing intensely with a white light.
The light was so dazzling that Luna had to close her eyes and cover them.
Some time passed when Sariel's voice awakened her.
"We've arrived; you can open your eyes."
Obeying the recommendations, she opened her eyes and found herself in an infinite place made of white light. It was impossible to distinguish any form or silhouette or even perceive the ground she was stepping on.
"W-What?" Due to the surprise, she almost lost her balance and fell, as the lack of perspective and shapes made her feel slightly dizzy and confused. "Why is everything white?"
"When someone finally reaches the deepest layer of their subconscious, this is what they find. Now, let me make this place more comfortable."
With a snap of his fingers, the entire place transformed. Suddenly, Luna found herself on top of a tower at the peak of a mountain, with a scenery that could only be described as magical.
Tall mountains with snow-capped tops rose around. Lakes, rivers, and seas with water so clean they were like mirrors, and in the distance, it was possible to see deserts, tundras, swamps, and large forests.
As if that weren't enough, countless animals grazed, hummed, played, and flew. It was like a fantastic version of the real world.
"Wow..." Luna sighed, unable to take her eyes off the scenery. "Do the animals have consciousness too?"
"No, nothing here except the two of us is conscious; they are just imitations that copy their behavior for the sake of realism."
"I see." The princess continued to admire the scenery when she decided to look down, noticing something similar to a palace, but the size of an entire kingdom.
It took her a while to realize that the tower she was standing on wasn't even the tallest tower, as the tallest one pierced through the clouds and disappeared above them.
"What is this place?" Her breath hitched.
"My library, where all my knowledge is organized. Let's go down." Without prior warning, the traveler simply jumped from the tower hundreds of meters above the ground, disappearing quickly due to the distance.
"Sariel!" Luna leaned against the parapet and shouted his name, trying to find him.
"Don't worry, this is a place where anything is possible depending on your imagination. Jump as I did and you'll see." The traveler's voice echoed from all sides with equal intensity.
With a knot in her stomach, Luna looked down hesitantly. Of course, she faithfully believed Sariel's words, but that wasn't enough to erase her natural predisposition to fear for her own life.
With trembling hands and legs, the princess climbed the stone parapet that was supposed to prevent her from doing exactly what she was about to do. Standing up, she felt her heart rate accelerate.
"I recommend you keep your eyes open and spread your arms."
After taking a deep breath and gathering courage, Luna let herself fall.
Suddenly, all fear vanished from her as she felt the wind hit her face, blowing away all her insecurity. Perhaps this was due to her being an angel and naturally belonging to the heavens, even though her wings had not yet awakened.
Her hair swayed violently as she accelerated towards the ground, and the princess felt something like an electric current pass through her body.
That made her feel free and relaxed. She was falling headfirst towards the ground, and that couldn't be called "flying," yet it awakened in her, for the first time, her desire to explore the clouds.
When she approached the ground, her descent slowed until she stopped in mid-air, allowing her to adjust her body and step onto the ground.
Breathing heavily due to the adrenaline, she saw Sariel in front of her, smiling and waiting for her.
"Welcome to my subconscious." Stepping aside, he revealed an enormous library larger than the entire kingdom of Fordurn. The entire place was decorated with precious metals and jewels, and the floor was so polished that it reflected everything perfectly.
Huge bookshelves rose to the horizon and were all numbered in various organized sections.
Feeling drawn, Luna approached the bookshelves and took the first book in front of her; however, she was surprised to notice that all the pages were blank.
"Why is it blank?"
"You are in my domain; you can only read if I allow it." Sariel looked at the book in her hands. "Try now."
Looking at the book again, she was surprised once more not to find text, but a moving image, like a dream or memory.
It seemed to be about a yellowish-green magic raising a human skeleton. Its eyes glowed the color of this magic, and its movements were fluid like those of a human, unlike the undead she had encountered in the village, who moved awkwardly.
"What is this?"
"Reanimation magic. In short, it allows you to raise corpses; it's more effective than Conjuration, but it consumes more magic."
"So, you keep all the magic you know here?"
"Yes, but not just spells; memories too, as well as copies of real books, maps, and many other things, well, everything that I know, actually."
The princess put the book back in its place and walked among the thousands of bookshelves, impressed by the sheer scale of everything.
"It must have been a lot of work to make this..." Her admiration reflected in her quiet voice, as well as in her bright eyes.
"Indeed, the more I learn and live, the more I have to expand this place. Therefore, I believe only the kingdom of Acropolis has a larger library; well, of course, that one is a physical library, and this is just a visual representation of my knowledge created by me..."
"Can I do something like this?"
"Of course, but you must practice."
"Can you send me back then?"
"Oh, don't you want to see a bit more?"
"It wouldn't be fair for me to see the knowledge you fought so hard to gather, and I want to be able to do this soon..."
"I understand. Well, in that case, I cannot refuse." Sariel smiled at her. "See you tomorrow."
Suddenly, Luna felt her consciousness being pushed away from that place, as if a divine force violently pulled her up to the sky, seeking to tear her from the planet. Then, when she least expected it, she hit into something soft that cushioned her fall.
It took her a while to realize she was looking at the ceiling of her room and, after sitting up, realized she was in a dream of hers again.
That made her feel slightly dazed and confused, but she soon recovered.
Following the traveler's advice, she practiced as much as she could to try to alter something in the room, having a small success by making her father a few years younger, more precisely from the oldest memory she had of him.
It wasn't long, however, until she heard a voice calling and waking her.
Upon opening her eyes, she realized the sun had begun to rise. Soon, the group quickly prepared and departed even before it was fully up.
Another day passed without incident. At that point, the princess's life revolved around training in hand-to-hand combat, practicing magic, and navigating her subconscious.
Night fell, and everyone gathered to discuss the strategy for Krimisha, the next kingdom they were going to.
"Why are we even going there?" Sariel looked at Aegreon.
"Despite being a large kingdom, the Council's presence is weaker there. We'll cross the capital and take the northeast road."
"Judging by the route you're taking us… Are you planning to go to the White Mountains, by any chance? Do you really believe I also killed Feng Ping? You know I was just provoking you."
"I'm taking you there because if this bastard truly killed two Pillars, you'll have to accept that he shouldn't be with us." Aegreon ignored Sariel and looked at the rest of the group. "Besides, since you did something that will attract the Council's attention, we'll have to use a faster, more dangerous, and unexpected route, which is crossing Krimisha."
This reminded them of when the two first fought, back in the arena on the Scorched Mountain. The traveler constantly implied to the Aegreon that he had met Feng Ping and assassinated him.
Initially, everyone believed Sariel was bluffing, but now that he had killed Indra, there was a chance, and the fact that he was denying it now was strange.
Of course, being a Volatile, Raymond and Shiina still believed him, but there was a doubt, something in their minds that asked: "But what if...?"
Aegreon considered him a menace so big that he was willing to make a detour of their original objective, the Astrum Lux, to go to the White Mountains and check Feng Ping's state.
The only one who completely trusted him was Luna, since she knew the truth about Indra.
"Krimisha is Indra's birthplace; won't it be dangerous to enter?" Raymond asked.
"During the war, perhaps... but Krimisha has changed a lot recently," Aegreon replied.
"How so?" Luna asked.
"Krimisha has been abandoning its faith in Kura at an increasing rate, reaching its current point where basically everyone follows a God known by the name Shiva."
"Worship another God?! Does that exist?!" Luna was surprised.
"This might be news to you, but when you think about it, it's not too absurd that Krimisha converted," Sariel explained. "The people trusted Kura, but the result was a war that killed countless innocents. In fact, there are other places like Krimisha that abandoned the Goddess, like Yggdrasil."
"But... what if it's a God of Darkness in disguise?"
"It's a valid fear, as we know of the existence of four Gods of Darkness: Elgor, Astrid, Nergal, and Baba Yaga, while we only know Kura as a Goddess of Light. However, Shiva's followers follow a path of peace, seeking never to harm any living being, human or animal. Furthermore, many people with incurable diseases claim to have been saved by him."
"The Gods of Darkness and the Sects only appeared after the end of the war," Shiina explained, remembering her past. "Shiva also has a presence in the White Mountains, and he existed there long before the emergence of the Sects."
"What does the Council think of this?" the bodyguard asked.
"This bothers the Council, but since we've never had a problem with it and we need to deal with Sects, we haven't been able to investigate this matter thoroughly yet, so we are just observing from afar for now," Aegreon explained.
"Well, at least we should thank Shiva this time; he's going to make our job simpler," Sariel let out a sigh of relief.
"And why would that make our job easier?" Raymond asked.
"Krimisha doesn't view some Council members favorably due to their belief in non-violence; they believe some Pillars, like Indra, cause pain and wars by seeking to become stronger, calling them 'Shura.' But they respect people like Feng Ping, Ardos, and Clementius."
"Wouldn't that include Aegreon too?" Raymond looked at the Pillar.
"Yes..." he replied after a brief silence.
"So, you mean they won't allow Aegreon to enter Krimisha?"
"I'm not as well-known as Indra; if we don't draw attention, we'll be able to enter."
"And if they don't allow it?"
"I can use Illusion magic to sneak in," Sariel suggested. "Or change our appearance during our stay."
"We can rotate the illusions," Shiina suggested. "Although I don't compare to you, my illusions are still good, and you'll get overloaded if you maintain so many illusions simultaneously for so long."
"Then it's decided," Aegreon said. "Tomorrow morning we'll arrive in Krimisha and we will cross the kingdom's capital as fast as possible."
With everything decided, everyone gathered to sleep.
Luna soon fell asleep and dreamed. However, this time it wasn't a normal dream.
She was once again back in that cave with a blonde woman in discreet robes holding her newborn self.
She focused her attention on Elise, who was humming a lullaby.
She still wasn't able to tell if those dreams in the cave happened at an interval of hours or days, so she couldn't understand if Elise found her and was killed in the same day, or if she visited her many times.
After observing the surrounding area for a while without finding anything, she decided to train again, making objects appear in the room, finally making some progress, but she still wasn't able to swap her memories as she wished.
When she woke up the next morning, she trained once more before departing, but this time Sariel planned to teach something else.
"Well, you're already capable of using Ice magic, so let's move on to another very useful element: Alteration."
"Okay. You said Alteration is capable of detecting elements, right?"
"Yes, but the capacity of this element goes far beyond that.
"Communicating mentally over short and long distances; invading another person's mind and analyzing, altering, deleting, and implanting false memories; levitating objects, these are all things this element can do. Alteration stones also have these properties; it's possible to store knowledge in them.
"For this reason, Alteration is known as the element of knowledge, as it is mainly used to research, study magic, and pass on knowledge in the form of memories, which is much safer than through books that deteriorate over time."
"Therefore, it's a good idea for you to learn how to use it. Let's start with the simplest: try to make this stone levitate." Sariel threw a small stone to Luna.
"Alright, just let me think for a bit."
Luna carefully remembered the times Sariel made objects float, like on the Scorched Mountain when he juggled their lunch. At that time, the objects floated independently of any body movement he made, so, to do this, the answer lay in something else.
Therefore, the princess judged that it wasn't necessary to point her hand directly at the target object, but how was it done then?
If she hadn't been practicing in her dreams, perhaps she would have had more difficulty, but since she had been using her mind in creative ways, it became easier.
She imagined her hand slowly approaching the stone and slowly closing her fingers. Then, she tried to imagine herself lifting the object.
When she imagined doing this, she felt a tingling sensation in her mind, as if the sensation of touch had come directly from inside her head, as if her brain had touched the stone.
At first, the stone only shook a little, but it began to float a few centimeters off the ground after trembling a lot.
The princess tried to lift it even higher but just keeping it in the air required a lot of concentration.
"Good," Sariel commented. "To improve your control, you can practice while we travel; you'll evolve a lot if you can steer your horse while making an object float. Now let's move on to another thing: try to see the magic in the environment."
"Alright."
This time it was a little more difficult. She had no idea how to see magic, so she closed her eyes and thought about the possibilities for a long time, without reaching any answer.
Minutes passed without her being able to think of anything, even though her mind was working a thousand miles an hour, even though she tried every possibility that came to her, nothing worked.
"I can't... what should I do?"
"You're overthinking it; it's much simpler and, at the same time, more complicated than you think."
'Simple and complicated? How could that be possible?' That didn't make sense to Luna. 'You're overthinking...'
The words he spoke were certainly a hint, albeit an enigmatic one, so there was only one thing she could do following those words: think less.
With her eyes closed, she cleared her mind, sharpening her other senses. The smell of the vegetation, the warmth of the sun on her skin, and the song of the forest became intense.
It was then that she noticed something strange. Even with her eyes closed, she seemed to be able to see a faint and almost imperceptible shape made of green light.
At first, she believed it was nothing, but that shape became more defined and its color more intense, until it began to take on the silhouette of the trees that were right in front of her.
Fighting to keep her mind clear, over time more colors emerged. A grayish light that moved through the air like wind, something light blue on the ground like a puddle of water, a flickering red shape that stayed right where a lit bonfire was.
Then she saw a human shape right in front of her, with a light blue color so intense it would be capable of blinding her eyes and seeming much larger than her.
Finally, she decided to open her eyes. To her surprise, she was still able to see everything that way, but also the real form of things, as if a child had painted figures in a coloring book without fully filling in their empty silhouettes.
"Sariel... I see!" She looked around, excited to see the world in such a different way. "Why are you so bright?"
"The greater an individual's magic, the brighter it is. Also, you can feel my power, almost like a sixth sense." Sariel walked behind Luna. "For example, you know exactly that I'm here without needing to turn around."
The princess realized it was true; she could feel his presence, like a chilling aura that seemed capable of freezing everything around it just by existing.
Then she decided to explore the auras of her companions.
"Why do the horses glow in that yellow-green hue? I thought animals couldn't use magic."
"Well, there are rare exceptions, but that's the color of Reanimation, as you know. It's believed to be the element that keeps us alive, which is why everyone, including animals, possesses it. It's basically the same with the Nature element; all plants have it."
"I see..."
She saw Raymond's aura, which was violet with some golden spots, and Shiina's, which was a mix of gray and pink.
She eagerly searched for Aegreon, but upon finding him, she saw and felt something terrible.
His aura was a darkness-shrouded purple, an abyss so deep it was almost black, and within it, chaos, a storm that seemed to try to destroy itself.
Furthermore, she almost felt as if just seeing him would be capable of burning her skin, in a way so painful that even the flames of hell would not compare.
Pain, death, suffering, illness... This was what she saw and felt in Aegreon.
That made her feel a primordial fear, which ultimately broke her concentration and made her lose her magical vision.
"Luna, are you alright?" Sariel noticed her agitation and approached her.
"Yes, I just... need to train more."
"Hmm, indeed. You have a low percentage of Alteration, but since your magical power is high, in the end, you even have enough to be able to use Alteration to detect magic, although not very accurately."
"What do you mean?"
"The silhouettes you must have seen were imperfect and flickering, correct?"
She nodded.
"The greater your quantity and percentage of Alteration, the better the quality of the shapes and the better you can assess how powerful someone is. When I convert most of my power to Alteration, I can see the world even better than with perfect vision, even details like the veins of a leaf."
"And why can't I see things like rocks? I thought everything was made of magic."
"Once again, that's a matter of quantity. You can't, but with a high quantity, it is indeed possible to see everything with Alteration. But don't feel demotivated; if you train, you'll be able to feel and see more things."
"Alright, I'll do my best."
As they conversed, they noticed Shiina approaching them.
"There's an interesting thing about Alteration, which is that it kind of nullifies Illusion."
"Kind of nullifies?"
"I'll show you." Shiina used a spell that altered her face, making her look like a red-haired woman with blue eyes and freckles. "Use Alteration now."
Following her words, Luna concentrated and noticed that the assassin's face was basically entirely painted in a pink light.
"Your face... has a higher concentration of magic."
"Do you know what that means?"
"Hmm... I still see your face as a red-haired woman with blue eyes... So, I can detect that you're using magic on yourself, but I can't see your real appearance?"
"Exactly. That's why Alteration is a problem for me. Even if you don't know my face, you know I'm doing something. This is even worse when I become invisible, because you can see my aura anyway." To prove this, Shiina immediately became invisible.
Luna, with Alteration, was more than capable of seeing her pink silhouette, as well as feeling her presence.
"That's why it's good that you learn it; it can save you," the assassin said as she dispelled her magic.
"Alright, I'll do my best."
Sariel and Shiina continued teaching Luna for a while, but soon they had to depart again.
*****
Hours passed, and the group finally encountered the first people and dwellings along the road. It wasn't long before Krimisha finally appeared, its beauty hidden behind a high wall.
Even though they were still relatively far from the entrance gates, it was possible to hear thousands of voices coming from the capital, which made Luna think they had arrived on a special date or during a festival.
Everyone wore long, brightly colored clothes, without exception. Furthermore, most people had dark brown skin, probably due to the strong sun.
When they finally reached the gates, they saw the capital. Stone constructions stretched to the horizon, yet they coexisted with nature, with enough trees to provide shade from the scorching sun.
Everything was enormous: the buildings, temples, and even the streets were so wide that even several large animals, like elephants, could walk side by side.
Even so, the kingdom was so populous that walking even a single meter required great effort; of course, there were also countless animals.
"This place hasn't changed at all..." Aegreon commented.
"What? You mean this is normal?" Luna asked.
"Krimisha is an extremely populated and populous kingdom, but I didn't imagine a normal day would be so chaotic," Sariel said.
The group then advanced with difficulty through the crowd that didn't care about their existence. Just reaching the gates was a costly task that took several minutes, but with patience, they finally arrived at the entrance.
"Do not draw your weapons under any circumstances, understand?"
In response to Aegreon's words, everyone nodded in affirmation.
Since there were too many people, the guards wouldn't stop them unless they did something to draw attention, and even though Sariel and Shiina were altering their appearances with magic, it wouldn't be good to risk it.
"We need to cross the capital now, so let's go."
The group looked dispiritedly at the wide streets, whose path was blocked by a crowd of thousands of people.
There was no shortcut or alternative route they could take to avoid the crowd; the entire kingdom was in full swing, with vendors, cooks, and healers shouting at the top of their lungs while attracting countless customers simultaneously.
Gathering courage, everyone resumed their slow and painful walk towards the heart of Krimisha.