World Online

Slowly, his eyes started adjusting to the light. He could see bright spots of green here and there, before the true scene around him was released.

He was in a bright landscape. Trees all around him, and the bright sky above it showing off a wonderful picture.

Sister Annie was in front of him, looking at him with worry.

"What are you doing, Shadow King? Let us get going." She said.

Jake looked around one more time.

"That\'s it? The path of saints is that easy? That doesn\'t make any sense." Jake was confused and even wary.

"Look ahead. The rest of the party is already going forward. We have to run fast." Sister Annie said.

Jake looked at where Annie was pointing, and saw that the entire party of twenty or so people were indeed walking in front of them, a few meters away.

Father Joseph was in the fore front, leading the way. They had all gotten out, much earlier than he did.

"It makes sense that they all got there earlier than I did. They are more experienced in a way." Jake thought to himself.

But it still didn\'t sit well with him that everyone didn\'t even wait for him. They had left him and started walking.

"Let us go then. I don\'t want to lose ground. It is such a pain chasing after them." Jake nodded.

He took the first step on the slightly wet ground, when he looked back in the sky.

The sky was bright, without a single cloud in the sky, and the sun shining bright on them.

Jake looked to his right corner, and glanced at the time. It was seven thirty five. A relatively early time. Why was the sun shining so bright here?

But there was an even bigger question. Why was the sun even shining at all?

"Sister. Is the Holy Grounds a separate realm from the rest of the Evil Lands?" Jake asked.

"A separate realm from the rest? Why do you ask? Come on, let us get going. We have to run." She said, shaking her head.

"Please do tell me, sister. Why is the sun shining above us. The Evil God would never let there be a place where the sun shone so brightly." Jake asked, shaking his head.

"The power of the god of light is too strong for the Evil God to resist. Places like these, where the god of light controls everything, the evil god can\'t do anything." Annie explained.

"I see." Jake nodded.

They had already started walking toward the party, and slowly, caught up with the slow moving party.

Jake took this time to look around. He could see the trees here were different from the ones that he had seen before. These were lush green, with apples bright red growing on them.

"If these grow so well, why can\'t they just grow the same way outside? Why would the god of light restrict his power to a concentrated center? That concentration should be the holy grounds, shouldn\'t it? Then why is the whole place one sealed realm?" Jake thought to himself.

As he was questioning this, he heard a shout in front of him.

"I found it! I can see it! The devilish rock! We got what we came here for!"

It was father Joseph. Father Joseph ran forward, before anyone could stop him.

Jake wanted to say something, but he hesitated. Something felt wrong with what was going on around him.

"This is wrong." He thought as he turned around to look at where he just came from.

But it was gone. It was like he exited out of seemingly nowhere, and the exit to the path of saints was gone. Like it had never existed in the first place.

"This game is so frustrating. Why does everything have to be so complicated. If we have our hands on this rock, then how the hell would we even leave after that?" Jake thought to himself.

"Shadow King! Let us go! We have to catch up to Father Joseph." Annie shouted as she also started running forward.

The whole party had started running, running toward the singular goal that was where Father Joseph was running toward.

Jake sighed as he also started running forward. The trees behind him started passing by, and he could see that he was entering a different place.

All of the trees stopped in one point. At that point, there was a wall. But this was no wall of stone. This was a wall made of plants.

The leaves that made this wall seemed carefully trimmed, which seemed impossible to Jake. If they were trimmed, it would only be possible if there was someone tending to these walls.

And who would be doing that, when their lives were in danger because of all of the evil beasts outside?

The other problem, of course, was that there was no one here in this place. This was a deserted place, and had been that way for a few decades. The evil lands was no place for a human to survive.

"Who the hell is tending to this place? The orchids are neatly maintained, without a single apple on the ground, and the grass trimmed. The walls are the same. There has to be someone here who is doing this. Who?" Jake shouted, voicing his concerns.

Some of the adventurers at the end of the party, running to whatever laid ahead of the wall, stopped and looked at Jake with a weird face.

"The holy grounds of course!" Annie stood next to him all of a sudden.

"The holy grounds, of course. They use their energy to maintain this place. It is a place of god, after all." Annie said.

"This doesn\'t make any sense. Why would they use all of this energy to maintain this place, when instead, this clearly sentient place could have repaired that statue outside?" Jake asked.

"This whole place, none of it makes sense."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

076205