Was this Gate a good place to die? Synn wondered as she and Coraloa made their way from one door to another along the narrow collapsing corridor looking for any salvageable loot.

  It would be nice if they could scout out the boss’ lair, then she could come up with a solid plan of attack before the boys returned. Looking around the ruins, Synn hated seeing what little of the plant workers' lives remained scattered around them. What used to be the residential rooms were eerily quiet, the only sound caused by the creaking of wood where the two of them stepped.

  This place was so empty, yet so lived in, that it made Synn uncomfortable as it triggered the missing memories of the homeworld she had doomed to corruption. Was this a good place to find salvation, then? If she killed the creature that destroyed their home, would she finally be able to live with herself?

  On one side of the corridor, was a small and cluttered room that looked to have been an infirmary. There were broken beds on the floor and pushed against one wall was a large cupboard covered in dust and cobwebs. Synn summoned a Flame Spike, holding it in her hand to illuminate the room as they searched for anything useful.

  The cupboard was locked. She studied it, checking the lucents for any signs of magic on the lock. Since she found none, she surmised that it was a physical lock, and she didn't want to use heat to open it up as there might be flammable substances in there.

  “Help me out here, Cora. Maybe we'll get some health potions,” she called out as Coraloa shoved some books into her Feathervault bag.

  “Do you really think we'd find any stable ones right now? It looks like it's been decades since the maestril boss and her swarms took over this place,” she said sceptically but still came to help.

  Coraloa shot a weak ice bullet at the cupboard lock and then stabbed it with her Siyotanka, breaking the lock. Together, they opened it to reveal a collection of vials and jars of potions, syrups, and other odd mixtures that Synn shoved inside her bag.

  Her memory swayed in and out of focus as if she recognised some of the potions but nothing tangible surfaced.

  "These potions might still be usable," Synn said, scanning the vials. "Healing, mana restoration, and... this one is a maladic-spore repellent lotion."

  She supposed the locals would have had to develop an antidote to the corrupted mosquito swarms if they occurred nearly every day. There were also five jars of expired mosquito repellant mist.

  [Corrupted Mosquito Swarm Repellant Mist

  Rank: Common

  Alchemist: ???

  Effects: Repels corrupted mosquito swarms from their target and inhibits them from biting the target. Has a 10% chance of killing the mosquitoes.

  This product has expired and may no longer work as intended.]

  Synn decided to take it anyway. It was better than using up her mana to burn the swarms when they could save that for the boss.

  Coraloa picked up one of the books whose leather cover was well preserved. "A journal on water purification," she said, flipping through the pages. "It might have some useful information about this plant and the history of its people. Someone has to remember them. Plus, we could use it back in the Tower to help out people who can't afford water-lucent crystals to purify their water supply."

  "Sure, sure," Synn said, resisting the urge to shake her head at how absurd it was that Coraloa was always thinking of other people. This was the reason they became friends after all, since Synn was trying to find something worth dying for. She figured hanging around Coraloa would help her improve her alignment. Hanging around Liv'Kungsadu, on the other hand, she had a strong suspicion it might lead to the opposite. Joining their guild was her being selfish, her forgetting that living was her punishment. Her hell.

  Once she took all the potions, she moved to the desk. There were test tubes, beakers and a broken cauldron. There was even a wick of an old spitfyre under a tripod stand. If the system wasn't recording all the loot, then she would have taken it for herself to purify her mana. The fire lucents inside it called out to her, but she tempered her greed, figuring they could use it to recruit alchemists into the guild.

  They cleaned out the room, and then moved on to the next one. They found more old maps and a few enchanted trinkets that had managed to withstand the passage of time and some that were well past their durability. An enchanter could disenchant them for skill practice.

  At last, they reached the end of the corridor and found themselves in a circular chamber. In front of them stood a massive stone door, covered in runes that depicted water flowing from the hands of a perfect white figure resembling Hephaestus.

  The chamber was large, its high ceiling lost in darkness, and the walls were lined with religious symbols. There were also rusted metallic pipes all over, some broken, while others lay intact. To their left, a partially collapsed wall revealed another room, with the remnants of a shrine, and what used to be the altar lay broken on the floor. There were offerings, beautifully crafted jewellery, and metallic sculptures that were salvageable from the debris.

  “Look at this!” Synn exclaimed as she hurried inside and picked up a small rusted silver necklace. She couldn't wait to sit down once the Gate was done and study everything. “Imagine the magic that once flowed through this place! Ah, I love first clears.”

  “Hold on,” Coraloa said. “It’s impressive, but we need to be careful. Defiling a god’s shrine and taking the people’s desperate offerings doesn’t feel right.”

  Synn shook her head. “Do the saint gods and constellations teach you to be so hypocritical that you have to oppose everything grey? We’re not leaving this treasure here,” she said. Her eyes darkened, thinking of her world. “If Lord Haphaestus cared about his people, he’d have saved them from corruption. What is the loss of a single world to a god?”

  She hoped her pointed criticism would rouse The Nine-Tailed Fox’s anger and he would berate her, but he was quiet as always, not even looking at her.

  Coraloa crossed her arms. “I'm serious, Synn.”

  Synn knew that deities protected their shrines, she wasn't stupid, but as always her attribute filled her with the desire to take all the treasure for herself. She took a deep breath, deciding to be careful not to be overcome with greed.

  She moved past Coraloa, her instincts heightened as she approached a large, rusted bronze chest at the far end of the room. She augmented her perception with Mana Stitching using her mana sensitivity to check if there were any manabased traps.

  “Synn!” Coraloa warned.

  “Relax,” Synn urged, brushing off the dust that had settled on the lid. "I don't sense any magic protecting it." There could be something physical or mechanical though.

  She knelt beside the chest, lifting the heavy lid, but just as she pulled out the Spell Scroll inside, a rumble sounded through the chamber from above. Synn and Coraloa exchanged worried glances as suddenly, the second stone door behind them slammed shut, trapping them in.

  A mechanical trap then. Was it connected to the weight of the chest?

  “I don’t want to say I told you so, but dammit, I told you so!” Coraloa said as both of them looked up just in time to see a section of the ceiling begin to collapse. The pipes overhead creaked, and with a violent crash, a mass of black, corrupted water fell down from the broken pipe, coming towards them.

  "Shit, we're gonna get flooded in!” Synn yelled, activating her Fire Ring. “We have to break down that door!”

  Coraloa activated her Vibration Wave, the wave of air creating a barrier between them and the raging wall of water. The force of her magic pushed against the oncoming tide, but Synn knew she could feel the strain as the corrupted water fought back.

  “Synn, hurry and get away, I can handle the water, but you can't!” she urged, maintaining the barrier. “I can’t hold it for long!”

  Synn needed to get the door open so the water would flow outside instead of escaping. She focused her energy on her mana core, moving the mana through her mana channels and stitching them together, conjuring a pair of small Incinerating fireballs in her hands. She hurled them at the stone door, and the old worn stone began falling apart. It blew up, sending debris of stone flying in all directions.

  “Cora, it's open!” Synn shouted. She tossed her whip up, the hook grappling onto an unstable pipe, and pulled herself up into the air.

  Coraloa let go of the skill, and the water washed over her as she transformed into her mermaid form. She was covered in The Unrivalled’s Blessing, so the corruption in the water had very little effect on her. Once the water was exhausted, Synn jumped down and the two girls just lay on the floor, breathing heavily.

  Synn burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Coraloa asked.

  “Nothing,” she said thinking of an idiot who would be screaming in rage right now since he couldn’t swim.

  After a few minutes of regenerating their health and mana, the girls picked the shrine clean. To Synn’s disappointment, the Spell Scroll from the treasure chest was for enhancing Blacksmithing Skills, so she had no use for it.

  As they continued their exploration, they came across a large, broken magical pipe that ran through the ruins. The pipe was connected to the main control room and covered in mould and grime.

  "The lucents are disturbed," Synn muttered. The lucents surrounding the pipe were heavily corrupted and she could feel the magic in the air crying out for purification. "I think this may lead us to the source of the water plant's corruption."

  "Wouldn't that be the boss monster's lair? Let's follow this pipe, maybe there's a shortcut," Coraloa suggested.

  Synn agreed, and they followed the broken pipe through the corridors, occasionally checking the rooms for loot.

  “How long is the Trial supposed to take?” Coraloa asked quietly.

  Synn shrugged, peering into an empty room. “Even if they fail, the Trial of Trust isn’t going to kill them. They seem close, so it'll probably be fine,” she said.

  “I’m a little worried. I don't know Langa that well, but he seems decent, and AD Jandri spoke highly of him. Liv, though, he's nice, kind, and dependable, but he has… issues, and I feel like that kind of trial could be hard on him. I don’t think he gets along with his godly parent."

  That was something they could agree on. "That's not surprising. I can count on one hand the demigods I know who have a good relationship with their godly parents by choice rather than necessity," Synn said. "I get why he chose a Neutriarch for his patron because demigods are an investment to gods. His parent can't be pleased about losing him, but unless they're a Neutriarch themselves or one of The Quartenity, they can't really do anything about it."

  Coraloa snorted, opening another door. "A child of The Quartenity? They can’t find a seraphim compatible with their essence considering they were never mortal," she said. "It's always a disaster whenever Chaos tries.. we have enough angels roaming around."

  Just as those words left her mouth, a buzzing sound began to fill the new room. It was a hive filled with large insects. Synn shuddered. ”Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is.”

  Before Coraloa could answer, a swarm of large mosquitoes burst out from the hive, creating a buzzing sound. She instinctively raised her Siyotanka. With such small targets, all she could do was use Sonic Blast to make her mana inside them explode in order to deal more damage.

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  “Wait, Cora, I have a crazy idea. I wanna experiment something,” Synn shouted, eagerly. It had been a long time since she had a new type of magic to play with...at least she thought it had been long.

  "Please don't tell me you want to play around with magic experiments while we are surrounded by mosquitoes!" Coraloa snapped.

  “I'm not playing. Remember the expired bug spray mist we found?” Synn asked, her flames burning through the swarm. “Maybe it’s still toxic to them. Spray it around. We need to know if it's effective so that we can use it against the boss if it works!”

  Coraloa fumbled in her Feathervault bag, retrieving one small container. She shook it, spraying the mist into the air. The toxic vapour spread quickly, enveloping the immediate area in a stinking mist. The mosquitoes' speed slowed and a few started dropping while others started flying around erratically. The poison was a slow killer, and the swarm was far too numerous.

  An idea popped into Synn’s mind. Poison and Fire disciplines were always disastrous when combined. So, when Coraloa sent another wave of the alchemical compound, Synn set the mist on fire.

  The moment the flames met the toxic vapour, an explosion of flaming mist erupted in the air. It formed a circular vortex of misty fire, the flames igniting the mist. The fire raged, fueled by the toxic spray, and the mosquitoes shrieked in a high-pitched chorus of terror as they were engulfed.

  "Wow. You could have warned me," Coraloa said, impressed.

  “Damn, we should try this with those Lucent Patch Bombs,” Synn said. She loved trying new combinations with her magic.

  The heat was intense, and Synn watched the flames consume the swarm. The remaining mosquitoes began to fly around frantically but in the end, they fell to the ground, leaving only the faint smell of toxic fire in the room.

  “Those things are annoying.” Coraloa glanced around the room, now that they were done picking up the salivary glands, the mosquitoes dropped. “But we need to move. We don’t have a scout to sense them, so we might get swarmed again.”

  They passed through another room full of empty piles of pipes, and while Synn didn't know how valuable the half-rusted metal and other types of pipes would be, a new guild needed everything they could get. She did find a few thin strips of jaericium metal, so she put those in her bag too. Her inventory was full and her feathervault bag no longer weighed the same as a feather, and it was starting to take a toll on her.

  "Nice. Jaericium is good for absorbing lightning," Coraloa said. While they followed the main pipe, she cast Synn a glance. “I noticed you're okay with Langa. Didn’t you say lightning was a trigger for you?”

  Synn opened a door and looked inside, but it was empty. “I can bear it. Besides, it will only be an issue during the month of Lightning. If anything, I’m gaining tolerance by spending time with a lightning user."

  She had told Coraloa her issues with that mana discipline were because her partner was killed by lightning. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of how offended Tonare would be at the mere insinuation that lightning could kill him. Because of how she lost him, the month of lightning was sure to be hell. It was already bad enough feeling love and loss without the accompanying memories.

  Hopefully, she would have paid her debts and given her life for someone who deserved to live, so she wouldn’t have to suffer.

  She didn’t tell Coraloa any of that, instead, she said, “Hopefully when the time comes to face my wounds, I won’t break down and I'll be able to handle the curse.”

  Coraloa shook her head. “You know what works for me when I’m down? A distraction. Instead of wallowing in despair, I find someone pretty to decorate my bed so I don’t have to think. Once I feel better, I can toss the decoration away.”

  Synn couldn't understand people who deflected and distracted themselves from their problems. She wasn’t like that. No matter how much it hurt, she faced it head-on. But when it came to memories of Tonare…even she wanted to curl up in a ball and hide from the world.

  “I don’t think much of your taste in ‘decorations’, by the way. I mean Liv’Kungsadu? Really?” she asked.

  “What? He’s a pretty one,” Coraloa said dismissively. "We understand each other, and our goals align. A mutually beneficial partnership, both personally and professionally. He said he believes in creating a better life for everyone in this Tower, especially NPCs.” She gave Synn a sad look. “Ever since word got out that I might be the next Guardian Knight, I've had people try to suck up to me. I have a whole world looking to me for salvation. Everything in my life holds too much weight. It's nice to have a friend with whom I can spend time and have it not mean anything."

  Synn supposed she could see the appeal of a meaningless relationship, but not for her. Even though she didn't remember everything, she knew she'd experienced something real that filled her heart. She may not remember but she knew that when she lost it, when she lost him, she lost a part of herself and Ascended. She ended up betraying her master and dooming her people to die from being overwhelmed by corruption without a god to protect them. Right now, she had to focus on earning karma and gaining The Nine-Tailed Fox's forgiveness or repaying the people whose lives she had destroyed by dying to save others..

  "He's from the Veskka Nest, Cora. Their queen thinks what's best for everyone is to be suppressed under her talons," Synn said in exasperation. So many mortals had fallen to that Nest, and she was not about to trust Liv'Kungsadu just because he claimed to be different. "If it weren't for the Seraphim Intergalactic War Council banding together to strip her of her colonies all those years ago, who knows how many more people would be suffering right now?"

  "I know you've seen the horrors of the Veskka Nest’s expansion across multiple worlds, but they’ve fallen hard. They are just a mere shadow of what they used to be,” Coraloa said. “Someone needs to fight for the weak people, and Liv's willing to do that with the power and influence he has. When the Menika Shin Guild asked us to join them, he didn’t hesitate to say no. He called them out for their nonchalance and negligence of their territories. I admire someone who understands that the role of the strong is to protect the weak. It's unfair for you to judge him for the sins of his queen.”

  "I know, but Cora, he's half-dragonkin. I'm not being kinintolerant when I say this but that blood compels you to follow your Obsession to the end. Nobody knows what his Obsession is," Synn said. "I already have too much red in my karma, I don't need to be associating with people who can make it worse. How can I hope to find redemption if I keep making the same mistakes?"

  "I don’t understand how you can say that when you’re the one who’s joining his guild! What's your excuse? I thought you didn't want to make lasting ties," Coraloa said, looking up at her. "Why are you joining his guild?"

  Wasn’t that a question? Synn pondered her answer carefully. “When I came here, I wanted to keep to myself, but then I met you, Khaya, Undkese, Langa... and I wanted something more,” she said. Having friends made her want to live and that was dangerous. “You all have something that I want. Khaya is selfish like me, but she's not greedy, and she will do anything for her brother. Undkese is passionate about what he aspires to do. He doesn't stop until he has it and single-mindedly chases adventure. You are good, Cora. You inspire me to be a better person, even though sometimes I think it's exhausting for you to be as virtuous as you are. Langa has a very soft heart. If he sees someone suffering, he will complain the entire time, but he will help them.”

  Synn looked to the ceiling. “I joined them because I want a different ending this time. I am worried that maybe this time instead of not doing enough, I’ll end up doing too much. They have good intentions, and I need to have good intentions to raise my alignment."

  “Action matters more than intent to me,” Coraloa said honestly. "No matter how good your intentions are, if you do something awful, I won’t stand for it," she said and stopped. "The pipe ends here."

  The pipe led them to another massive room with a set of doors, this time leading out of the ruins. The doors were sealed shut, meaning they would have to use magic to break through them.

  "Should I ice the door?" Coraloa asked. "It looks strong but I'm pretty sure my Sonic Blast can shatter it."

  Checking the location against the map, Synn saw that it led in the direction of the boss' lair. "Wait, the boss' guards might be lurking around. It's best not to make unnecessary noise."

  The distant sound of rushing water caught their attention, so they pushed past the rusted door and walked outside, weapons raised in case there was something hostile there. The corrupted water from the plant flowed into a murky swamp. Synn glanced towards the far end of the chamber, where a series of broken pipes lined the walls. As they approached the source of the sound, they discovered an opening in the wall, partially hidden behind a tangled mass of vines and debris.

  Peering through the gap, Synn was surprised to see a large underground river. The water flowed calmly, frothing at the surface as it rushed over the fallen debris of the ruins. The water fed into the roots of a massive, corrupted tree that stood just outside the ruins in the centre of the swamp. Its bark was blackened, and its branches were torn up thanks to the corruption. Strange-looking purple fruits hung from the branches, their surfaces brimming with sickly lucents.

  Since the roots of the tree were deep underground, water flowed from both the water plant and the hill further up ahead. The water from the hill pooled around the tree and was covered in a thick, oily sludge.

  "According to the map, that hill leads to the source of the corruption," Synn said, guessing that meant the boss' lair was up there. The location was a problem because it meant the boss would be able to see them coming. "That tree, though, I've never seen anything like it before."

  The tree branches were also corroded when in contact with the corrupted water.

  Coraloa nodded, as Synn reached out to touch one of the fruits, but quickly pulled her hand back as a jolt of dark energy rippled through her and a snakeman jumped out of the sludgy swamp water.

  The snakeman’s body was covered in thorny vines and it carried a rusted halberd oozing with black sap.

  "Protect...must...home," the snakeman said, swinging the halberd, targeting Synn. .

  There were a few more snakemen, a all mindlessly protecting the tree. Coraloa played her Siyotanka, and the snakeman was paralysed, and stopped moving for a moment, giving Synn time to cast Flame Spikes to attack both it and its companions. She hated fighting against corrupted creatures because she couldn't help but wonder if that was how her people suffered when she'd been trapped in the Void.

  The battle was quick because Synn and Coraloa fought with the intent to put the creatures out of their misery. Synn's flames tore through the corrupted snakemen, and they fell one by one into the oily sludge that surrounded the massive tree.

  Synn took a moment to catch her breath and, once she surbveyed the area and was satisfied that they were temporarily safe, she looked up at the hill.

  Far above, at the top of the hill, she could see the source of the contamination. It was a dam whose stone wall was partially broken and overtaken by vines. It seemed to have been the main source of water for the kingdom, and where Funduvus the cleaver had made her base. The dam had mostly dried out seeing as how little water flowed down the hill but it was responsible for this whole domain being a swamp full of small pools.

  She could see the silhouettes of creatures patrolling the paths near the dam wall.

  "We can't just charge up there," Coraloa said.

  "No," Synn agreed as she scanned the hillside. She glanced towards the swamp bushes to the east, thinking they could be thick enough to give them cover. "We need to go around."

  Coraloa followed her gaze and sighed. "I don’t have a perception skill, but I can practically feel that it’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes. But better than getting shot full of arrows from those guards, I guess."

  They came to a stop at the edge of the treeline, where the hill began to slope steeply upward towards the dam. Between them and their goal stood a narrow ledge, barely wide enough to navigate without slipping. To one side, the hill dropped off into a ravine, while on the other, an intact section of the dam wall rose high, blocking their path, but also blocking them from view.

  Synn counted the number of king larvae standing at the entrance of the old dam.

  "If we can get to the wall there, I can use my Vibration Wave to propel us over the larvae’s heads," Coraloa whispered, pointing to a series of vines clinging to the rock wall.

  Synn agreed, already calculating the climb in her mind. They could probably take out the larvae quickly and get to the boss before she had time to prepare for them. Hopefully, she didn’t have too many elite guards with her.

  They quietly made their way back to the ruins until they stood in front of the massive tree. She knew they couldn’t let this corruption spread any further, as she sensed the high concentration of lucents within the fruits.

  "We need to find a way to cleanse this tree so we can use the fruits," she said.

  Coraloa nodded, her gaze fixed on the strange fruits. "I agree. It breaks my heart that even after their deaths, these snakemen are still trying to protect their world. We need to give them peace."

  Synn tried to think of possible solutions. She knew how passionate Coraloa was when she believed something was unjust, and would do anything in her power to correct it. She, on the other hand, was sure that setting the snakemen free from corruption would help raise her alignment a little bit more.

  "Can you read Adderion? That water purification book may have a few things here that can help," Coraloa said, pulling out a book from her bag. "My Adderion is awful."

  Synn supposed she would know more about water purification rituals, so she took the book and flipped through its pages. She could decipher the words enough to understand the basic principles of the purification described within. She hated that she knew this language but didn't remember when or where she'd learnt it.

  The two of them pored over the book for a bit, until Coraloa found what she was looking for. Coraloa knelt beside her, her keen eyes scanning the pages. "I think this one should work since it doesn't require much material. I have the enchanted sea shells that we use in purification rituals to turn seawater into drinkable water back home," she said, pointing to a specific passage. "I might be able to adapt one of them to cleanse the tree using Fulimi and The Unrivalled's Blessing."

  Synn studied the passage, working to translate the steps.

  Once the sea shells were laid, and the runic circle drawn according to the snakemen's notes, Coraloa poured one of the potions they'd found into the water and began the chant. She focused on her magic, channelling it through the trident into the tree. She picked up a fallen piece of bark and raised her left hand, infusing mana into the coiled bracelet she wore, activating her Spiritual Link.

  Fulimi the chameleon came alive. The chameleon spit out a small wave of blue water, and the blue waves and frost intertwined, wrapping around the trunk and branches as she muttered an incantation, a prayer to Aquarius as she invoked the Blessing of The Unrivalled.

  Golden light surrounded the mermaid as Synn watched. She was getting closer to unlocking the Higher Blessing, it seemed she'd learnt something from combining her Blessing with Liv'Kungsadu's holy aura.

  The tree shuddered, its bark absorbing the magic. The corrupted fruits thrummed more intensely as if reacting to the power of the ritual. The sickly pallour of the fruits, was replaced by a blue light. The oily sludge that covered the ground slowly began to recede, the dark water clearing up.

  Coraloa plopped down on the ground and took a mana potion as Synn watched some light return to the tree. She was itching to examine them now and see if she could make some juices with extra effects for the party before the battle.

  "Oh, Liv sent a message in the party menu," Coraloa said. "They're done with the Trial. I guess all that's left now is the boss."