Heda shook me. I saw her mouth gesticulating, but it took me some time to hear what she was saying. "COMING!" 

I turned just in time to see the withered old man swinging his long curved sword my way. I pushed Heda aside and jumped just in time to avoid a devastating blow. The earth split open as the sword landed. Dark matter began spreading, turning every blade of gra.s.s into dust. 

I shook Sylens out of his daze while Heda did the same for Friede. 

"Can you hold him off? Slow time until we figure out a way to hurt him?" I asked Sylens. 

He looked at me, wide eyed. I felt a presence behind me and quickly jumped at Sylens. We fell and rolled on the ground as the Roosa'al swung horizontally. The sword missed my back by a hair's width. When we got up, we saw the Roosa'al heading toward the ladies. 

It swung its sword at Heda, who nimbly dodged and ended up behind him. I noticed Friede's s.h.i.+ning hands then. She thrust them at the corpse and, with a loud grunt, released her energy. We heard a deafening screech then black smoke left the old man's corpse and retreated into the darkness. 

Friede fell to her knees, out of breath. "s.h.i.+t!" she swore then hit the earth with her fist. "I let my guard down for one b.l.o.o.d.y second!" 

Heda hurried to her and wrapped her arms around her. "You did well, Friede," she said as she patted her back. Friede's breathing returned to normal after a while. She stood, adjusted her clothes and her long hair then looked at us. 

"I should have rejected the Roosa'al when it tried to possess us." She bowed to us "I deeply apologize." 

I smiled and bowed to her. "You've done well. Only life can reject death. That was an impressive move you pulled back then." 

Friede smiled. Her eyes opened up to more than narrow slits. "I won't fail you again." 

"We will fail each other at some point. What matters is, your quick reaction saved us all," I replied. 

"What if it comes back?" Sylens asked. 

"We'll chase it away again," Friede replied. 

"Until when?" Sylens retorted with a heavy frown. 

"Until we defeat the one controlling them," Heda said. 

"Where might we find him? I don't want to live in constant fear of that thing..." Sylens went on. 

Heda heaved a heavy sigh. "We can't find him unless we have our champion of death in here," she answered.

"Or when we get our hands on the cauldron," I interjected. 

"What do you mean?" Both Friede and Heda asked. 

"The cauldron can show us the location of each ritual material. We need to collect them to make the weapon, remember?" 

"Why give us these visions if they were in the cauldron all along?" Heda asked, frowning. 

I chuckled. "Imagine if one of the champions turned against us, or if not all champions made it to the war? Lys's champion hasn't been seen in thousands of years. How will we know where to get the ritual materials?" 

"This is why we're going to Rimbaldi's," Frieda said, thoughtful. 

"I have another motive from going to Rimbaldi's, but I also want the cauldron," I said. 

Sylens was about to speak when Heda raised her hand. "Someone's coming," she said. 

"Or something," Friede said. 

"Definitely someone," Heda said with narrowed eyes. 

We saw a man running toward us. He was waving his hands in the air, as though he knew us. I squinted then saw the man I spoke to two nights ago in Imlil. He reached us, a big smile plastered on his face. 

"Thank goodness I found you," he said. He was folded in half, breathing heavily. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked. 

"You said you wanted to reach Rimbaldi's lab," he said, still panting. 

I nodded. 

He took his time breathing in and out until he could finally breathe normally. "This is not the way. You need to cross the lake, west of here."

I shot Heda a dark look. Was she deliberately misleading us? 

"It's not the lady's fault," the man said, as though he read my mind. "This forest continuously twists and twirls. If Rimbaldi doesn't want you to reach him, he'll gently guide you outside, or chase after you with his monsters." 

So Rimbaldi had eyes on us all along. Suddenly, I felt as though millions of invisible eyes were watching us from every angle. I spread my senses around me, but I couldn't sense a single living organism. I couldn't sense his strange crystals either. 

"I know of a path we can try. I use it all the time to deliver food to Rimbaldi. His machines don't attack me," the man said with a wide grin. 

"What's your name?" I asked. 

"Pawel," he replied and extended a hand toward me. "You said you could save us, right?" 

I could feel Heda's glares at the back of my head. "I said I will try," I replied then shook his hand.

"That's better than Rimbaldi's got to offer. All he ever does is tell me how we're doomed. How does he get to decide?" Pawel said.

I turned to Heda. "What do you think? Should we follow this man?" I asked her through our psionic link. 

"No," she dryly replied. She was glaring at him now. "He's lying through his teeth. His end will not be pleasant, and neither will ours if we follow him." 

I turned to look at Pawel. His grin hadn't faded. He was either an excellent liar, or he was genuinely truthful. Heda couldn't describe what would happen to the man in details. She could only see where his threads of fate led. If they led him to doom, I'd rather be far away from him. 

"I'm sorry we made you run after us all along," I said with an amiable smile. 

"It's no trouble at all, really," he said. He winced as his side ached from running for so long. 

"Pawel, we can't accept your help. We need to find Rimbaldi on our own. It's part of our quest," I lied. 

Pawel's smile vanished immediately. His face turned placid. "I see how it is," he said in a low tone. He was looking down at his feet. "The mighty warriors... Our supposed saviors... They don't need a lowly farmer's help, do they?"

"Something like that," Sylens muttered under his breath and Friede jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. 

Heda approached Pawel. She buried her green eyes deep into his. "If you help us, it would jeopardize our efforts to save all of you," she said in her honeyed voice. 

Pawel's cheeks turned red. He averted his gaze, opened his mouth but no sound came out. 

"Promise me you'll get back safely to the village," Heda said, resting her hands on his shoulders. 

The man nodded. 

"Now off you go. Trust that we'll do what's best for you, for everyone in Arkadia." She patted him on the back and the man walked away with a hunched back. 

Heda observed him with teary eyes. "Good bye, sweet Pawel..." she whispered.

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