The Earth After Rebirth

"Is everyone alright, can everyone see?"

It was too dark. Even the highly favoured Kiro couldn't see well in the midst of dense trees. He however had vibrations, so he was fine.

Hiro had infused his eyes with the special fire he possessed. Making it easier to see, he was the only one who could see in their group using his eyes.

His was now called Purifye, it was the most pure fire Asgard had. It was white in colour, with purple hints on the sides. It forced his hair and eyes to be the same colour as it.

He did not decide to use it on his hair, it just did all on his own when he activated it. The fire was kind of sentient, it decided all on its own that, its master and his mates needed light.

It didn't shine bright, but it was enough. Little by little vision came back to their eyes. Seeing Hiro's pure white hair they almost laughed, but then the eyes, the eyes were very frightening. They swallowed their mocking thoughts immediately.

"We can now." Nikolai said, suppressing laughter.

"Let's go." Hiro said in a deeper than usual voice.

Kiro looked at him and chuckled. Amused his friend was taking the role way too seriously. He knew that his personality hadn't changed, only his voice. But he'd taken the voice into account and acted accordingly, to maximise his authority.

"Where do we enter? the system said there'd be an entrance, so where is it?" Jorge asked still blinded by Hiro's flame.

He was grateful for the light, but he made the mistake of looking right at it which caused him temporary blindness.

Blind as he was, he wasn't wrong. The trees made it impossible for them to go through and there wasn't a portal like some of them expected there'd be.

At his question, they all looked to Kiro. He was their leader after all, and they didn't know what else they could do. Thanks to his vibrations, Kiro could see that a portal did exist, it just was invisible to normal eyes.

Even with his enhanced eyes, he couldn't see anything. But nothing could ever fool vibrations, unless it was a necromancer.

He simply walked up to the trees, specifically between the two, and shoved his hand through and sure enough, his hand disappeared.

"Here. The portal is here." He said and didn't wait for them to be impressed, he just passed on.

One by one, they went through. Hiro was the last to enter since he was their light. When he got to the other side, they hardly needed his flame anymore. His eyes slowly gained their original colour, so did his hair.

There was no sun, there were multiple moons in the sky though. They fully lit as far as their eyes could see, which wasn't that far since trees were also clustered together here.

The atmosphere wasn't a good one. It was suffocating the rest of the priests that weren't guardians. Jorge and Lyle were hanging on alright, but the rest were hanging by the thread.

It threatened to steal the air right out of their lungs. They had to gasp, and grab for the air in order to just breathe.

"I don't know how much longer we can hold on."

"We've been here less than a second, I know it's hard but hang in there." Jorge scolded his guildmates who were seemingly just ready to give up.

"Don't be too hard on them, I'm stronger than all of them combined, no offense, while I'm stronger I'm also suffering. How much more for them?" Lyle said seriously, trying to sound like a good vice leader.

It took everything in everyone's power to not laugh at the seriousness and the fact that he was stroking his ego while at it. Jorge simply nodded, afraid if he said anything he'd just make fun of Lyle.

"Can't Ishaan use his shield to protect them from dying?" Felix suggested, not wanting to fall back into being a healer. He didn't hate being a healer, he chose it because he wanted to be great support for Nikolai.

Nikolai had asked him about a hundred times if he was sure it was the class for him and every single time, he answered yes without hesitating. He didn't think the game would allow torturing other players the way he liked.

And now that he had a subclass that allowed him to be on the offensive, he found that he favoured that more than being at the back lines, supporting and healing others.

"Can't be done, they'd just suffer more." Ishaan answered him briefly.

"Can't we just—"

"No we can't. We'll recruit a healer once we're out of this, so please bare with it." Kiro cut him off before he could argue more.

It may not be time limited but they were wasting time just standing there arguing about things they couldn't do anything against.

Kiro's proclamation made him happier. He didn't care if they got a weak healer, he'd personally train them no matter what. He'd even receive a true blood potion if Hiro ever managed to make one.

When they started walking, winds picked up and got stronger. They were being pushed back as they tried to walk forwards, as if the place didn't want them exploring and finding its secrets.

"Curious. I'm receiving damage from just the wind." Kiro commented, albeit in a whisper. "I think we will need your shield after all Ishaan. The ones who will perish, I'm sorry, but if we want to win this, sacrifices should be made."

When they stopped walking, the winds also stopped. It was a game of cat and mouse. Kiro wondered how Isla's guild would manage, he surmised that most have been crashed by the atmosphere or the winds themselves.

What was worse was the fact that, they couldn't fight wind. It was wind! Kiro tried whirlwind with Ryu at first but it didn't work cancelling out the wind, he knew it wouldn't work since the damage it caused was significant enough that he noticed.

Ishaan didn't wait for the rest to agree. Kiro's word was final to him, they were all covered within his shield in seconds. The ones who were heaving had a temporary fix and then suddenly they didn't have air to breathe anymore.

"We're sincerely sorry we weren't strong enough leader. We will work harder to be stronger next time. See you on the other side." One said with his last breath.

Jorge nodded at him, sadness written all over his face. These were the guys who believed in him, even when they couldn't recruit members, they stayed by his side. Believing that he'd take them to greater heights.

They died within seconds of each other and the light took them immediately. Only two were left from Chasing Madness now, this made Jorge panic a little. He didn't want After Dark to do all the work, he wanted to reach the finish line with them.

He stilled his heart and steadied his breathing and they started walking. Kiro logged notes from his status bar, of the moons, the winds and the atmosphere of the place. He didn't trust anyone else to do this, this was a very crucial part of winning. So he used his brains and eyes to observe the peculiar forest.

They weren't affected at all while inside Ishaan's shield, they could walk however fast. They had to keep feeding him potions so they shield didn't dissipate.

The wind got more and more angry it seemed, it was howling. They could almost here its complaints, it clearly didn't like that it couldn't get to them anymore.

Everything it threw at them bounced right back at it. The very ground they stood on was now shaking. The trees were making strange noises.

"No wonder nobody has come back, this isn't easy." Nikolai commented.

They hadn't ran into a single corpse or bones in there. They wondered how that could be, surely, they weren't alive. So then, where were their remains?

The trees were being rooted and thrown at them, but Ishaan's shield persisted. The first tree that hit them scared the life out of the two that weren't used to an almost indestructible shield.

"I have a very bad feeling about this." Kiro unwillingly let out.

He was feeling dread he hadn't felt in a very long time. He didn't know what it was, he preferably didn't want to find out. But he could sense that they were drawing nearer to the trouble.

There were strangely no monsters that pounced to attack them, it was just a strange forest that didn't want visitors.

"I feel it too, I'm very scared for absolutely no viable reason." Hiro answered him.

When the two shared their feelings, the others stopped holding back. Previously afraid that they'd be judged and deemed weak. They also freely raised their concerns. Kiro was recording everything, including what they were feeling or what the forest made them feel.

They hadn't walked long after being sentimental when they were abruptly stopped by a giant cocoon, strung up on the trees. It was alive, the heart beat within it could be heard by all.

"What the f*ck?"