Luna wondered with her blade still in hand. She hadn’t moved one bit since her eyes landed on the mysterious figure. Or to be more specific, the person under the cloak.

  For a good five minutes, Luna's eyes stayed on the woman. And when they came to pass, the woman finally moved to the frozen building's entrance and touched the ice doors with her pale hand. A strange golden light left her body and dissolved into the doors and then Luna felt a burst of a familiar energy before the ice on the door melted away. The doors slowly opened and revealed an empty and dark corridor that seemed to be untouched by the conditions of the outside world.

  As she watched them open, a strange feeling washed down on Luna and her eyes widened when she recognized the energy that had just been used. ‘Life essence.’ Her eyes traveled to the beautiful woman. ‘This woman just used life essence like zenshi…’

  She gulped and put away her blade. If what Oblivion said was true then this woman was stronger than she had imagined.

  “Lunaris Feng…I didn’t expect you to be summoned this far…” She said quietly as she shook the snow off her head. She had short golden hair with curls at the end of her locks and her scarlet red eyes were like perfect rubies that felt so surreal and unnatural when she looked at them. It's like they could see everything in this tower.

  The woman then walked into the corridor first and all the fire torches automatically set themselves on to light the rest of the building's hallway.

  Luna hesitated to step into the corridor. It was this or the cursed creature patrolling the frozen sea--by the way, she still felt its bloodlust despite being so high up. If these were normal conditions, Luna would’ve taken her chances with the cursed creature outside.

  But…

  She drew in a sharp breath and gave the one a suspicious look. Then, her foot stepped into the corridor as if it was her first time walking.

  When she fully stepped into the interior, the coldness she felt disappeared along with the howling noise of the wind as if they had stepped into a soundproof room. ‘Advanced sorcery.’ She guessed after she noticed the runes on the floor threshold. She couldn’t interpret even one but she felt the active energy merged into every single one.

  “You can dismiss your armor. There is no corruption in this area. The levels of Ether are too low to infect mortals inside the Blood Tower.”

  Luna didn’t move far from the threshold just in case she needed to run. The fear on her face was palpable, considering how wild the past few days had been. This woman was a human but not exactly because her body produced a pressure she was finding difficult to stand in.

  “Are you a seer?” Luna finally asked. Of course she was not a seer but faking ignorance is the only way she could at least get some answers. “What do you mean you didn’t expect me to appear this far? Are you the one who brought me here?”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  The woman stopped. “What makes you think I have such powers?”

  “You seem to know everything about me yet we just met a few minutes ago,” Luna replied with a serious tone.

  With a gentle smile, the woman responded by saying. “Oh…that. I’ve been expecting you,” she started moving. “I sensed the rifts and thought you would appear somewhere near the sea god’s temple in the east. I only rushed here when I noticed that someone had crossed into my territory.”

  Luna remembered the strange feeling she experienced when she entered the building’s territory. She recalled the strange shift but didn’t mind it because she was focused on running away from her enemy. “I see. Then who are you?”

  The woman stood and looked at her like she had just asked a confusing question. “For now please just call me Storm Rider. I’m a Fire Keeper and the guardian of this level of the Blood Tower. If you’ve made it here, I assume you killed the Immortal King and Oblivion.”

  Luna froze at the mention of the word 'Fire Keeper'. It sounded so familiar. Where exactly had she heard it from?

  “So you’re aware of the Eternal Flame and what’s happening to the mortal realm?” She quickly jumped to the point.

  “Of course I am. I’ve known for so many centuries. I’m aware of the Heavenly battles that took place…the consequences, Everlight and her followers. The curse…”

  Storm Rider paused then fully turned around and faced her. “I am a practitioner of cultivation like the mortals of your realm, you see.” She smiled with her lips and continued. “So feel free to ask some questions while you’re here. But first, let's get you cleaned up and have something to eat. You must be famished after running for hours.”

  When she heard food being mentioned, all her thoughts disappeared and then her stomach growled to remind her of the hunger she had been ignoring all this time.

  ‘Oh yes, I’m hungry.’ Luna looked down with embarrassment.

  They continued walking through the white coral hallway without exchanging another word. After climbing down a few stairs, Luna found herself standing in the main of the building. Below this floor, Luna could hear the sound of the water hitting against the coral walls which reminded her of a beach shore, somehow. Just like the rest of the building, everything in here was made from white coral apart from the large twisted tree growing in the center. It was surrounded by a glowing magic circle that appeared to support the tree’s growth under such conditions. Its large brown roots stretched downwards up to the floor below and its branches were filled with crimson leaves that seemed to glow under the strange light source looming over it.

  Luna then proceeded to deactivate the damaged armor by sending a mental command. With that, all the nanomites on her skin started to release her as they merged into a small special chip connected to her spin on the middle back area.

  With the armor off, Luna was left in the tattered cream tunic she had picked up in the first ruined town where she discovered the buried temple. "At least I'm not naked." she consoled herself after seeing the state her tunic was in.

  Luna had been worried about being affected by the coldness of this level. But, to her surprise, the inner side of the building was warm and cozy. Her feet were bare and were in contact with the floor. But she didn’t even sense a tinge of coldness coming from it because the floor was warm enough to favor humans such as herself.

  She could stay barefoot and not notice that the outside world was covered in a snowy mess.

  "This level is sorcery is more advanced than humanity's."

  “Please make yourself at home.” Storm Rider said as she removed her cloak and hung it on a small hook on the wall. Underneath she was dressed in a long old-fashioned skirt with a baggy white shirt that looked like it was from a different era.

  Storm Rider was exceptionally tall for a woman. She had a white slender neck, long arms, and an appealing figure that was portioned perfectly. She resembled those foreign beautiful women in the webtoons that artists used to depict their version of a perfect woman and also appeal to the male audience and some women like Luna who occasionally found reasons to feel jealous.

  Feeling jealousy towards hand-drawn characters was low but Luna had never been the type of person who felt shame when she was displaying her hate.

  “I will go make us something to eat. Don’t touch the Mildrith. It will drain your blood and life force even though that’s just a prototype of the real thing.”

  All her jealous thoughts disappeared and a chill ran down her spine when she heard that. She turned her nervous eyes to the twisted tree. “This is a Mildrith?” she pointed at the tree as she made two or three more steps away from it. Gods...just when she thought she was safe, a bloodthirsty, soul-sucking tree existed in this witch's house.

  Storm Rider nodded. “Yes, but that’s just a replica I created to make this building special. The real Mildrith tree lies at the heart of this tower.”