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After a short walk, Adam noticed an abandoned horse stable next to a large house that seemed to have lost its family. To confirm, everyone entered the house and searched around. They found traces of the monsters' claws, scattered blood, and from the damaged pictures on the walls, it appeared the house belonged to a family of a couple and twelve children. This family had been a perfect dinner for the monsters.
Adam left the house, but Amnia heard the cry of a small baby. Adam told her: "It's not our concern. In the end, they were all going to die."
Amnia said: "Damn you!"
Amnia went upstairs and found a monster holding a baby—a little blonde girl—in a pink ornate cradle. She broke into a sweat, drew her gun, and fired several shots. The monster lunged at her and pierced her stomach with its hand, causing Amnia to fall dead, drenched in her own blood.
The group noticed the sound of gunfire and rushed up to find her dead. None of them could believe it—until the monster fell to the ground, showing a hole in its stomach. Then Amnia woke up as if nothing had happened, smiling: "I'm strong! What's wrong with you? Hahaha."
Malah said: "Ugh! Is this the power of the Karma Gun?"
Amnia shook her silver gun at him and said with a smile: "Yes!"
Adam calmly stepped forward, picked up the baby, and handed her to Amnia: "This is your responsibility. You decided to bring her."
The baby cried, and Amnia stroked her hair, comforting her. Everyone relaxed while Amnia hummed to the child. Adam broke the stable doors, freed the horses, and gave each one to a member of the group.
At night, in the forest, the horses' hooves pounded the ground as they ran, but suddenly they stopped, neighing in fear as if sensing danger. The riders dismounted and began dragging the horses forward. Then they smelled the scent of marijuana and heard a coarse, deep voice: "Wendigoaa!"
The sound repeated, and Ziad shot arrows in the direction of the voice, revealing a massive creature covered in moss and plants, smoking a marijuana joint like a giant jungle ape.
"Unfortunately, you've found my spot! Don't you know this is my land? I'm the Wendigo!" it said.
Adam replied: "Let's just continue without trouble."
The Wendigo said: "You started this. I don't trust you—you seem more like a demon than a human."
The Wendigo inhaled deeply, exhaling smoke that filled the area, blinding everyone. Jonathan, the child, clung to Adam, while Amnia checked the baby. When the smoke cleared, each of them found themselves alone in the forest. The Wendigo's voice echoed: "I can deal with each of you individually."
Amnia and Amin, isolated in the forest, felt uneasy as the trees began moving like an army. Amin shouted to Amnia: "Move! Take the child!"
Amnia fired multiple shots at the tree army, hitting them all, then shot Amin in order to escape with the baby. Sitting under a tree, she cried: "Why?! Why?! Haven't we finished playing? Enough of this game!"
Looking at the child, with tears falling onto her, she realized how unfair it was to have the baby in this world—a world beyond her strength, terrifying enough to stop the heart. She heard Amin screaming as he ran, wiped her tears, and ran from the moving trees. Amin said: "You used the Tear skill, but it didn't affect them!"
Amnia asked: "Do trees have hearts?"
Amin muttered: "Uh… sorry."
Amnia retrieved the bullet from Amin's body, fired it at herself, and exploded her head. Seconds later, the tree army collapsed, and Amnia returned.
Meanwhile, Ziad and Malah, who hated each other, argued. Malah said: "You told me there was an Arabic and French test today. When I was on my way, they said you lied. Why?!"
Ziad replied: "We were going to fight, and you wanted to avoid it, so I told you there was a test."
Malah shouted: "Damn you! Damn! Ha! Here we are in a world we don't understand, and all our friends are dead. You wanted to give me a social experiment!"
Ziad said: "Watch out behind you!"
Malah turned to see a giant tree branch thrown at him. He shouted: "Hey! They say nature doesn't act… It threw me meters away! God, I miss the old forest days!"
Malah struck with his gauntlets, covering them in volcanic fire. Ziad fired three arrows, which Malah ignited, forming a single massive flaming arrow that destroyed the tree.
The Wendigo, seeing the blood, remained silent for a while, then said: "I left you alone because you are a threat. You possess something strange—a strange energy and spirit. I feel you intend to kill me. Whatever scares me, I kill."
Adam said: "So do I. What scares me most is life…"
The Wendigo lifted massive trees, throwing them at Adam, who sliced them into thousands of pieces with his light sword. Suddenly, before the next strike, the Wendigo fell. Adam examined its body: every tendon, nerve, weak point, and muscle had been cut at lightning speed—without the Wendigo seeing. The Wendigo died, its last sight being Adam's sinister smile.
A flock of white doves covered the Wendigo's corpse, which disappeared as they flew away.
Malah asked Adam about the child. Adam said: "Here! I hid him with my power. Show yourself!"
The child ran and hugged Adam's legs: "I want to be stronger!"
Amnia and Amin, grateful for the group's safety, decided to camp and head the next morning to a nearby village to inquire about the Karma Stone.
On the perilous road, after half an hour, they reached a village where Adam asked merchants about the stone's use. No one could give him an answer. Some merchants asked him to buy it without knowing its use. An old lady stopped them and led them into her house, full of relics and mystical gemstones.
Sitting before them with clear innocence on her face, she said: "No one can help you understand this stone. Even if I knew its powers, there are strict rituals in the Dead Sea Scrolls for its use—and I possess that manuscript."
Adam asked: "And what must we do to help you? Is there a price?"
The old woman: "I loved you, boy, from the moment I saw you."
Malah: "Wow, your luck with old ladies is amazing!"
Old woman: "To help you, you must bring me my children."
Amnia asked: "What do they look like?"
Old woman: "They are infants. They never grew. Their heads are gold, and they have golden wings. Take this compass—it will lead you to all twelve flying babies."
Amnia took the compass: "Consider the mission accomplished, auntie!"
Old woman: "Thank you, my daughter…"
The group followed the compass to a cave above a place called Nivida. The mother there cried, and from her eyes, water fell into a circular pool where a naked blue-haired woman with bat wings floated, saying: "The sins of humans, the masters of spiritual energy, made the mother cry. You all have purity within you—the father's spirit makes you feel pain and ignites your souls with fire. But the ruling father is dead, and only his whispers remain. But you!" (pointing at Adam) "A soulless being—without purity, who does not feel pain."
Suddenly, writing appeared on Adam's neck, bleeding: "I do not feel pain, I feed it to others."
Adam touched the ground, shook his sword, and picked up a handful of soil, kissing it: "How painful it is to not feel pain."
Chains descended, carrying cages with the infants described by the old woman. The woman cried: "I am the Virgin!"
Her hair transformed into snakes, which Adam cut with his sword. The Virgin pierced Adam's stomach with her hand, saying: "You! You do not have the father's or mother's spirit. Are you the Prince of Light?"
Adam decapitated her, releasing the cages, and the rest of the group carried the infants onto the horses. Questions raced through their minds as they prepared to rescue the remaining babies.
Their next destination was a temple where people of golden heads inserted their heads into molten gold. Before the group attacked, Adam asked them to sit and listen to the priest.
The priest said: "This is knowledge for the sect organizers. Will you join?"
Adam: "Yes."
Priest: "This world is self-made and expands every hour. It is a spiritual world built on beliefs—whatever humans believe becomes reality. Humans' faith creates lands and creatures. We, the Golden Head sect, are one of twelve sects. We must make people join us and believe in us to make the law our law. Since the father died, this truth is set. For the organizers who immerse their heads in molten gold, pain is the means of salvation and showing loyalty. Yes, pain defines humans and measures love and loyalty. Now, immerse your heads in gold!"
Suddenly, a flock of white doves covered everyone except the group and the priest. Afterward, those under the doves vanished—the doves tore out their heads.
The priest, terrified, wet himself. Adam stepped forward confidently: "You believe in the doctrine of pain, but you forgot the greatest fear—fear drives everything. You fear pain, judgment, and death. That is why you are weak… Where are the infants of the Golden Heads?"
The priest: "They are above us."
Adam looked up, stabbed the priest, and said: "I do not feel pain," decapitating him.
Amnia lowered the cages with gunfire, carried the babies onto the horses, and headed back to the old mirror woman. On the way, the sky turned a dirty dark red. A massive woman, resembling a nun but enormous enough to touch the sky, appeared. Everyone, except her, and all humans bore a mark of two intertwined trees, causing excruciating pain.
Malah: "Friends, what the hell is happening? Everything's flipped!"
Adam: "It must be the Lich. He tampered with the fundamentals of this world—disasters are coming."
Malah: "Nothing new—disasters always hit us like flying arrows."
Amnia: "Quick, friends! If the world is in danger, this may be the end—time is costly."
Ziad: "Amnia is right—let's focus!"
They arrived at the mirror woman, who confronted her children with acid and tears. They prevented her and asked about the symbol. She examined the seal and gasped: "Noooooo!?"
She pulled out an ancient manuscript and read:
Name: The Knot of Roots Seal
> "Deep in the earth, where light does not reach, two trees grew from different seeds—one nourished with blood, the other with tears.
When their roots met, they twisted together until choked, forming an eternal knot… not of love, but of fear of separation."
Story:
The forbidden manuscripts say the trees were originally human sisters, daughters of a sinful priest. During their trial for heresy, the Church crucified them alive in the forest, entwining them with the branches of sin. Over decades, their bodies transformed into interwoven roots, pulsing with undying blood and shedding leaves like burned skin.
Whoever touches this sacred knot receives the mark of the two trees on their skin—a wound that never heals, symbolizing an eternal pact: to share each other's pain, and for one's life to be uprooted if the other dies. Some see it as a blessing, others as a curse without salvation.
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