With every passing second, the hedges grew larger, expanding outward. Nathan realized he'd soon be crushed between the leaves if he didn't escape quickly. Around him, the ring of spirit water seemed to glimmer in the sun.

  He leaped into the air but immediately saw the hedges had already grown beyond his maximum jump height. He landed with a quiet thud, eyes darting toward a visible exit. Of course, it was a trap—in those narrow corridors, he'd be crushed even faster.

  "This is really, really not good," he muttered.

  A faint impression brushed against his mind: Again. Try.

  Nathan glanced at his arm. Worth a shot. He pressed his plant arm to the ground, and roots sprang forth, threading through the soil.

  A sudden sensation flowed back through his connection with the flower, not quite words but an urgent impression: Want back. Family. Thorn.

  "Of course it is. Typical."

  Nathan stood up.

  The hedges loomed closer. Two minutes left? If that.

  Nathan gulped.

  What could he do? His eyes flickered to his hands. Cultivation? Once again, Maelstrom's temptation swirled within him. He'd use it if cornered, but he'd prefer any other option.

  Unfortunately, nothing came to mind—

  He froze.

  Fire. Set it all ablaze. But how?

  Lightning. If questioned, he could claim he'd used a barrel of alcohol from his inventory.

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  Nathan concentrated on his core, letting energy flow to his fingertips as he'd done countless times before.

  What was lightning? It embodied destruction. It was sudden, faster than an eye's blink. Millions of volts of electricity, burning, raging, indifferent to who you were.

  A spark echoed in his ears. His eyes snapped open.

  Lightning erupted from his fingers and struck the hedges. The world blazed white, forcing Nathan to shut his eyes against the brightness. A shrill screech filled the air as the hedges recoiled from the strike.

  When he opened his eyes, the hedges had retreated.

  Then pain surged up his arms. Suppressing a groan, he looked down.

  Red, branching scars covered his skin.

  And it hurt. Badly.

  He collapsed to his knees. Through blurred vision, he noticed misty water surrounding him.

  His gaze returned to the hedges. They were closing in again. Nathan stood, nearly falling before catching himself.

  Maybe Maelstrom wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

  He was still weighing options, and that hesitation doomed him.

  A root snaked up and seized his ankle. Too drained from his first lightning use, he couldn't resist as it dragged him into the spirit pool.

  He was falling. And falling. And falling.

  He couldn’t feel anything. It was as if he was in the space between worlds.

  He suppressed the urge to scream. All around him was nothing but mist.

  What do I do? What do I do?

  He grabbed at the air.

  The spirit water!

  Wait, he knew this. He knew how to manipulate the stuff. He just had to flood his body with ki.

  But if that made it interact with his body, would he just… suffocate? Or slam into the ground? This could kill him.

  He would have to perfectly control the energy to absorb his fall. And how was he supposed to get out of here after the fact?

  It didn’t matter.

  He had to do something, and he had to do it fast.

  "Here goes nothing."

  He reached out with his ki toward the edges of his skin.

  He felt the mist begin to interact with his body. It was like being cut by dozens of tiny daggers. He slowly expanded the amount of ki on the edges of his skin. As he did, the impacts grew heavier and heavier. Instead of tiny daggers, it felt more like being hit in the back with a hammer repeatedly.

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  He grit his teeth through it and slowed to a stop.

  Nathan let out a breath, then breathed in. The air felt… light. There was no other way to describe it—it was light. He looked up. There was no sky, just that continuous mist.

  "I need to get back up there,” he muttered.

  He stepped his foot up as if climbing stairs. Then, he increased the amount of ki on the soles of his foot. His foot was now trapped within the mist. He used that leverage to push his other foot up. He repeated this a few more times, then sped up. He ran, and ran, then jumped up as hard as he could. At that exact same instant, he pushed all the ki back into his core, away from his skin. He flew through the air, the mist brightening and brightening until—

  He slammed through the surface and into a tangle of roots.

  The roots were strong, and for a moment, Nathan thought he wouldn’t be able to break through.

  Then they cracked apart like chips.

  He continued to fly into the air until he broke out at the very top, above the entire hedge maze. There was a faint glow on his skin, and everything seemed so much… dimmer than before.

  He looked down. The hedges were stretching up toward him, weaving, reaching out their tips to grab him.

  Nathan concentrated on his wind cultivation. A gust surged from behind him, propelling him to the side. He flew through the air like a meteor.

  There was no water to break his fall. He could’ve tried to summon some, but that sudden burst of energy from escaping the spirit pool was rapidly fading. His limbs shut down, one inch at a time. He couldn’t even keep his eyes open.

  He forced himself to stay awake—

  Then he crashed into a tree and blacked out.

  The visions passed through his head in a blurry, concentrated mass. Sometimes he thought he saw Emi. Sometimes he thought he saw Chad. For a brief second, he even saw his sister.

  When he finally woke up, he was alone.

  Nathan reached up and rubbed his forehead. It felt like someone had taken a brick and smashed it against his skull.

  In the distance, he could hear faint voices.

  "Where the hell did he go?!"

  "Look, I was focused on getting out of there as fast as I could. I didn’t have time to go searching for the guy."

  "Seriously? So not only did we lose Nathan, but we didn’t even get the thorn?"

  Nathan stepped out of the tree line.

  "Hey," he said.

  Bree and Chad turned to look at him, their jaws dropping.

  "You’re alive?!" Chad exclaimed.

  "Yep. Not only that, but…" Nathan reached into his inventory and pulled out the thorn. He threw it at bree, who caught it easily.

  “Holy…" Bree said, her voice trailing off.

  She quickly reached down and stashed the thorn into her inventory.

  “So, guess that settles that,” Chad muttered.

  They headed back toward the urban pocket. The whole time, everyone was quiet. Derek kept on staring at Nathan, wide eyed. The rest of the group averted their gazes like scared mice whenever Nathan so much as glanced at them. The only exceptions were, of course, Bree and Chad.

  By the time they arrived back, Nathan received an invitation from Bree to speak privately. Having nothing better to do, he accepted.

  The two found themselves in an abandoned building, its structure decrepit and ancient. Bree walked over to the door and shut it quietly.

  "Nathaniel, I think it's time we had a talk about who you really are," she said.

  Nathan froze. "What?"

  "In retrospect, it was pretty obvious," she continued. "For goodness' sake, you didn't even try to hide it. Nathaniel? Really?"

  Nathan felt his heart sink. “What do you mean?”

  "I think you're Nathan Lee. I think you're the number one delver alive right now. And I think you're the key to getting to the bottom of this and escaping the circles."

  Nathan froze.

  “I’m sure I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about,” he said.

  "Oh, shut up."

  Bree crossed her arms and looked toward the concrete wall.

  "I was lying," she admitted. "Back when they asked if I saw you."

  Nathan's mouth went dry. "You did?"

  “The lightning,” she said. “You've been holding back. You've been holding back a massive amount. And… it all just clicked. Your name, your secrets."

  Nathan licked his lips. "Now what?"

  "Now?" she said. "Do you know how much of an inspiration you could be? The number one delver, leading us into battle? People would finally start grinding again. They'd start leveling up. They'd push themselves because they'd know there's a chance—you can be that symbol. A symbol for all mankind to rally behind—"

  "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not interested."

  Bree's face twitched. "Look, they need this. They need you."

  "That's ridiculous—"

  "There's nothing ridiculous about it!" she shouted. "Just by throwing my title around, I was able to get hundreds of people on my side. If we had you, we'd be able to get everyone. In the next circle, we could rally together, eliminate the Harrowed Hand, stop the orcs, stop the elves, stop any of the other races trying to get ahead of us. We'd be a united front—"

  "I don't know how much clearer I can make this," Nathan hissed. "I'm not interested in being your symbol."

  Bree clenched her jaw. She was quiet for a moment, shutting her eyes and breathing deeply before snapping them open again.

  "Why?" she demanded. "You at least owe me that much of an explanation."

  "Because—" Nathan put his hands together, his nails digging into his skin. "Because I can't do it. You know what I was before I came here? I was behind on rent for three months. My home was a garbage dump. I did nothing but play video games all day, every day. I dropped out of college. This? This is all luck. This is one big, massive mistake. I don't know why I'm in this position, and I don't know how. But I know it can't last forever. Sooner or later, this whole thing is going to collapse in on itself, and I'd prefer that when it does, I don't bring down thousands—millions—of people with me."

  "That's ridiculous!" she said. "I've seen you fight. I've seen you face impossible odds, when anyone else would have given up. You didn't. There's something in you, Nathan. Some kind of will, or strength, or something—I don't know. But we need it."

  Nathan turned around and started heading for the door.

  "My son died because of me,” she said.

  Nathan clenched his fists.

  "You know why?" she continued. "I was so in despair, so devastated, that all I was doing was waiting for death to come to me. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late."

  Nathan shut his eyes and tilted his head down.

  "If there had just been someone—anyone—who could've made me believe that we could survive. Someone like you… then maybe he'd still be alive. And there are going to be a thousand more stories like that as we go deeper in. We need a reason. We need something, someone to latch onto. Are you the best choice? I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe you've made mistakes in your past. But if doing this saves even one life… wouldn't that make it worth it?"

  Nathan let out a long sigh.

  Something's coming, a voice said.

  Nathan's eyes flickered toward his plant arm. It shivered beneath his sleeve.

  "What do you mean?" he asked.

  The plants from earlier. Something's leading them. Leading them right here.

  Bree stared at him. "Who are you talking to?"

  Nathan's heart raced.

  His eyes darted to the right. As soon as they did, a hedge smashed through the wall of the building.