ZOEI got a little more of Ambrosia''s past than even she remembers. I have experienced past lives so I know some freaky stuff.

    For instance, the Earth is round, but not in the way we understand it. You''d call my model “flat” I suppose. Contrary to popular opinion, the Earth is not constantly spinning at high speed, as people definitely would be able to feel this. With barely any wind speed, a feather or leaf floats away, yet somehow it ignores this high speed. We are told this is an illusion, that the sun actually stays still, and we orbit it, but not one person feel motion sick, when they would be sensitive to far lower speeds. And then there''s the tidal lock of the moon despite Earth supposedly rotating much faster, and the sun and moon appearing the same size despite being at different distances and vastly different sizes. The idea of gravity is that it''s some magical force that not only holds an atmosphere in place during all of this supposed movement (ignoring multiple laws of friction, momentum, velocity, and so on because “gravity”), but also allows people to stand upside-down in the lower hemisphere. What we call gravity is actually just the density of objects compared to the air (similar to how buoyancy works in water). It can be overridden by wind pressure pushing light objects into the air temporarily, other forces like magnetism, or attractive forces between objects. Gravity and a round Earth is often used to explain how water can cling to a convex surface, but it simply doesn''t work since water would naturally drip down the surface if it were round, as it would washing the bottom skillet or pan. And then there''s the fact that after six months, not only would there be completely different stars in each hemisphere (and this would happen often in the amount of time between this), not only would rotation on the axis mean no hemisphere had a monopoly on any group of stars, but after six months an area in which the time is noon would look more like midnight because it would be facing the wrong direction). All of these things are things I found out by remembering my reincarnations. But don''t tell people. It''s a secret from everyone.

    As for how it works... The surface has mountains and valleys and deep oceans, but the poles are on the east and west. It resembles a circle to casual observers, having a northern and southern hemisphere, but actually it is more like a open waffle press, with two parts connected in the middle from north to south. These two hemispheres are somewhat flat discs, each having a dome (or firmament) on top for atmosphere. The sun and moon under this model are roughly the same size but not the same mass or energy. The sun and the moon are far closer than you might think, not light years but inside our atmosphere! This is why our puny eyes cannot see past the horizon even on an ideal day, yet somehow can see something light years away. As for the stars, they aren''t really stars at all but pinprick holes in the firmament which gradually rotates each hemisphere, producing a different set of stars for each hemisphere. I have no idea if space travel is real, but since I always reincarnated as a human, there was little need to explore outside the Earth, so I wasn''t sure if distant planets were there. All I saw though outside Earth was a mass of white empty space, so I doubt it. Maybe those green aliens are from other dimensions? The sun and moon simply rotate overhead, and watching them from an angle gives the impression that either the Earth is turning or the sun and moon orbit around the whole Earth (actually, we are seeing the bottom of the moon not its front). From my observations, the sun of the New Earth moves north to south, swinging gradually between the two hemispheres so while it is day in one, the other would be night. The moon is heavier than the water so it creates a pull that causes tides, while water is heavier than the air so it typically doesn''t leave the ground except as vapor. You see the moon mainly during the night, because the glare from the sun prevents other lights from showing, in the same way as turning on the lights in a car makes it difficult to see outside the car during certain times of day. Likewise, the phases of the moon were nonexistent because while normally in such case the sun cast shadow on the moon as they were both orbiting along the same lines, this moon actually orbited at a 90o angle from the sun, going from east to west then circling back east to west in the southern hemisphere. This meant that the two rarely crossed or eclipsed because their timing was different. And by rarely, I meant it almost had to be induced by a powerful ritual.

    This firmament separates the world we see from the world outside our perceptions. This meant for the seasons, if you''ve ever seen a pendulum going in a line, it gradually changes position until it hits all points in a circle. Similarly, the sun as it rotates around the Earth, at certain points shifts closer to the northern edges producing hot weather there, while at other points it swings closer to the southern edges. It also meant the way things worked was very half-baked. You see, unlike a truly round disc, east is to the right, west is to the left, north is toward northern edge, south is toward the southern edge, and of course you can walk in a narrow space between hemispheres. But since this is not widely known, maps show a version of the New Earth with no hemispheric bridge, meaning it is possible when going east or west to fall off the Earth, as well as missing the bridge when going north or south. To say nothing of gardeners or construction types digging too deep and falling through. I bet you didn''t know that, huh? Yup, those crazy Flat Earth types are the only sane ones.

    The point is, we can''t ever be sure we know what we know, because we could be wrong. I''m sure those with a perception of Earth as round and moving can make tests to say that their notions are right. They aren''t though, because I saw it.

    When you enter the Afterlife, you leave the Earth and indeed this mortal universe. Humans are supposed to forget this, but I swore to secrecy in return for retaining my memory. But this is probably by last incarnation once I finish this quest, so screw it. I kept this secret for centuries even from Azrael, so when I saw the truth about Ambrosia''s past, it shook my to the core. I locked it so tightly within my heart that even sharing about everything, she couldn''t see it. What I learned about her shocked me, even more than finding out the Earth was flat.

    AZRAEL

    I have no idea what those two experienced in there, but I can certainly tell you my trip was relaxing. Except the turning into human part afterward. That hurt a bit. I called the others to stop before heading to our destination. We needed to rest and recover, since teleportation was potentially an emotionally overwhelming experience. The town had a huge library, and I had some necessary research to do. After having studied what I needed, we packed for our journey.

    Exiting the town of Kushiyama, we headed east through the mounds of heavy snow. It must have fallen recently, because it was higher than I remember on our last visit. We entered the grounds of the so-called Castle of Fear. It was a large angular building with two nearby towers built diagonally at their base but their actual structure faced us. The rough stone structure was marked by a series of archways, and the front of the building had some strange pillars nearby capped with glass orbs. The orbs were constantly discharging electricity around the building from one pillar to another. This electricity was generating just enough heat that any nearby cold weather turned to rain, so there was green grass near the castle where the area outside the castle had snow. A woman waited nearby this castle. Something about her was different, but I couldn''t figure out what it was. She had long blond hair parted neatly despite the weather, she wore a light blue dress, and she was clearly beautiful, it just seemed odd for her to be out in the middle of nowhere like this.

    She touched Ambrosia''s shoulder, “I am Tiamat, and I would like to talk with you, miss.” Ambrosia muttered, “She''s got a very gentle and kind appearance. Looking at her, I''d never believe she could hurt anyone. I trust her totally.” I wasn''t so sure, as I had seen enough demons in angel''s faces. Still, my senses didn''t pick up demonic aura. Aqorm agreed with me about the aura, but had other doubts, “Ummm, Ambrosia, aren''t you rushing your judgment a bit?” Ambrosia shook her head, “Nonsense! How could anyone beautiful ever hurt anyone?” Aqorm laughed, “I gather you''ve never seen other women reject men, then?” Elias silenced them both,“Shhhh, you guys, pay attention to her.”

    Tiamat continued, “As I was saying, there is a creature terrorizing the tower nearby. I hear you need a proof of courage, so if you defeat that, I''ll be sure to give you mine.” Ambrosia mumbled something I couldn''t catch.

    AMBROSIA

    I muttered, “Wait, I thought the Border Guard said he needed the head or heart of the creature, not something that can just be given like that. Ah well, who cares so long as the job is done.” I guess I had misunderstood. Heading past the beyond creepy pillars, we entered the tower. The first thing we noticed was that it was terribly dark, so we turned on our lantern. It was a good thing we kept this with us. The first room wasn''t terribly scary, it was just a room with a divider. At least, it wasn''t scary until... okay, I was gonna say until some creature popped out at us, but nothing really did. How disappointing.

    The second room had Grims. As we entered, we noticed them rushing towards us, and fled the room. We entered again, cautiously, and noticed that they seemed to reset to their original positions rather than crowd the door, or follow us to the next room. This was handy. After repeated visits, we took notes about the pentagon-shaped formation of the ghosts, and drafted strategies around it. Grims normally wandered aimlessly around wide areas such as graveyards, but when they were clearly summoned to guard an area like this, we could plan stuff around them. “We could study their movement pattern and weave around them,” I suggested. This was dismissed as too risky. Elias''s plan to prep a trap using holy water and gunpowder and a system of gears seemed too convoluted, and it wasn''t clear how the Grims would allow him to set all of this up before they rushed all of us. Zoe''s plan involved send a Fire spell spiraling around the room to engulf everything. We put it on the back-burner, since it wasn''t clear if the reason these creatures showed up in the exact spot was that they were actually summoned there. If she blasted everyone, then they respawned, things could be dangerous. Nevras said, “I''m pretty sure I could cut these ghosts into ribbons using my Vacuum Slice. How about I...” We all shook our heads at this one. It was the sort of plan for someone like Sera entering alone, but a team of people in the dark would get in the way of the attack. And it had the tendency of dismembering and decapitation, so no thanks. Azrael''s plan was also complicated, but it seemed like it could be the solution to the problems of Zoe''s plan. All of us would get inside Azrael''s barrier. We''d start pushing the cube of force from inside, while Zoe flooded the room with fire. The fire would keep the Grims from slicing at the runes of the barrier, and the barrier would protect from the fire outside it.

    ZOE

    I''m not sure I ever used so much mystic power. As Azrael pushed, I stretched my Fire spell fine enough to cover the entire room, aware that the Grims were closing in on me. I was stressed out enough that my stomach was turning, but I gradually turned up the juice. The flames began to smoke around the rags of the Grims. Grims, if they haven''t been described before, are a sort of floating spirit with long curved appendages, with wool rags covering their body, no feet or lower body to speak of, and a face shadowed everywhere but bright glowing eyes. I turned up the heat. The Grims were now pushed up against the wall, and their rags were starting to burst into flame. It was no good. The barrier was holding, and they were making it to the other side of the room, but the Grims were starting to push back against the intense heat. I turned up the heat even more, but with so many targets, so far apart, it was draining too much of my power...

    AZRAEL

    I glanced back at her. Noticing she was starting to look tired, I decided to help. Zoe had some serious magic, and if she survived this, she''d have even more, but for now, her lack of skill was putting her in serious danger. I set down a small stone, and imbued it with barrier generating ability, parking them in this position. Covering myself in another barrier, I moved beside Zoe. The fan of flames was still going and the creatures were now covered in a steady flame, but without some help, they''d eventually win, since she would likely run out soon. Gathering fire runes instead to an extremely tight sphere, I called out, “Flaming Sphere!” I tossed the ball at the farthest left, and then the farthest right with another. The Grims hit by this spell suddenly exploded into fire, ripping away the rags to reveal floating bones and shadows beneath, before they too were stripped away by the intense heat, turning the critters into light and ash. Zoe could now narrow her spell into a tighter stream, and so she did, finishing the rest. S~ea??h the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    We entered the next room carefully, with eyes open for creatures that might attack. Instead, much of the room was torn up, with gaping pits covering most of the area. It didn''t look like the floor had collapsed, though. There had been no bits of stone rubble on the floor below, and the holes appeared to be planned, with even gaps and stone shelves holding up the remaining area. We would need the Jump Boots to navigate this area.

    AMBROSIA

    It was my turn to shine. Only I could do this, so I mustn''t let the others down. Running pigeon-toed, I kicked hard against the ground. I ummm flopped on the ground because I was running pigeon-toed instead of properly. Let''s try this again. Stepping more deliberately, I extended my left leg while my other leg bent at the knee, then switched legs, getting off to a good run, then raising my left leg high in the air, bending the right leg backward, and pushing the rest of my body forward, carrying my legs forward again. I jumped as hard and as far as I could, clearing the pit and landing on the ledge. I wobbled a bit, but the Jump Boots worked. The others were safe by my side.

    Of course, this was far from over. I jumped to the left, then forward, then right, and all around, carefully navigating the gaps in the flooring. One false step, and I''d fall to my doom. We were on a long platform that swept around one of the pit sections, so we carefully stepped sideways around the walkway, making our way carefully to the door. The section of walkway nearest my left foot started to crack. “Jump!” Nevras called out. I lunged forward clawing at the ledge as I jumped just short. Nevras was a tad more athletic, and jumped past me. “Give me your hand,” he requested. Moving my shoulder, I reached my arm up. I was taking a risk, as I reached with the one arm, my other arm had to hold the rest of my body. Suddenly, I understood why people don''t offer their hands easily, since I now had to hold my own body up with one hand. I was slipping... Some of the others held his legs so he could reach over some more. Nevras wasn''t especially strong but he managed though, yanking me up to the top. He grabbed my arm, then as I ascended, grabbed his other hand around my waist, carrying me past the threshold of the nearby doorway. Setting me down, he looked at me as I hugged him close. I was kinda relieved to be alive.

    The next room looked peaceful enough. Unlike the others, it appeared well lit, only having some tiny dots on the floor. Aqorm rushed forward, only to stop suddenly. “Hold up,” she said, “something about this feels wrong.” I continued walking, saying as I went, “Nonsense, this looks fi-” Then it happened.

    AQORM

    Elves has sharp senses. In addition to my ability to smell and hear much more strongly than the average human, to see in the dark, and to read Elvish, my natural abilities of geomancy mean that I am able to understand traits of the terrain around me.

    Ambrosia likes to rush forward blindly without thinking meant she wound up stepping on a spike trap. Thankfully, the spike wasn''t too long, and she wasn''t impaled since it retracted, but it stabbed through her shoes to her feet, then as she fell over, it stabbed her knees too, then she caught herself but it stabbed her hand.

    We helped her get out of the spikes, and to flat ground. Elias used a Regenerate spell on her to gradually let her whole body heal. She shivered a bit, as her wounds closed. “It hurts,” she said. I told Elias, “Why don''t you stay with her? I imagine we''re near the top. If you guys don’t catch up with us, we''ll catch up to you when you come down.”

    Nevras and the others headed up without those two, and for the first time since I joined, I was alone with him. I had always found him sorta hot, so I tried to come up with conversation. “Hey ummm...” I said, but ultimately realized I couldn''t think of anything at all to talk about with him, “nevermind.” He said “Alright, then.” We walked along in relative silence, while I missed Elias''s conversations. Skirting around spike traps, with me every now and then telling the group to turn at a certain spot, we managed to avoid being stabbed. Finally, we made it to the room''s exit. It was funny how all of these floors had traps that were effectively contained. I wonder what the next one had... oh fuck, no.

    ELIAS

    In a rare moment, Nevras and I had effectively switched partners. I attempted to make conversation, but I noticed immediately that she did not share Aqorm''s interest in my favorite topics. It might have been around the point where she rolled her eyes that it became obvious. “Can you walk now?” I asked. She nodded, “I''m pretty cool now. Your healing did the trick. Took awhile though. Why didn''t you use something quicker?” I explained that typically to heal large areas, I''d have to use Recover... which was overkill since it typically healed multiple people at once. I continued to explain that Regenerate was typically the best way of healing minor wounds anyway because while healing closed up wounds quickly, it often left breaks and sprains unnoticed, while this used the body''s own systems to address everything. She looked more confused than when I started. “Let''s try to rejoin the others,” I finally said, “I''ll lead.” Using my staff, I poked in the ground, testing for spikes popping out. I hadn''t Aqorm''s senses, so this was an incredibly slow process. “Can''t we do this any faster?” she pleaded. I thought carefully, “Hmmmm... sometimes designers hide a safety disarm in case they have to get through the area and can''t remember what to do. Look around the room for... a lever or switch or anything that looks out of place.” After some time passed, she noticed that one of the beams in this floor''s ceiling just seemed to hang there. “I think it''s that one!” she said as she pointed it out. Pulling out her fishing rod she cast a few times unsuccessfully, until finally leaning just so, in order for the line to wrap several times around the dangling wood. Pulling down hard, the plank turned, and we heard a distant mechanical sound like the grinding of gears. The holes in the floor began to close up, so Ambrosia unhooked the fishing pole from the ceiling, and we continued on our path. We hadn''t gone far into the next room before watching Nevras bloody, disarmed, and on his knees.

    NEVRAS

    Let''s back up a little. I made it into the next room with Aqorm only to find my path blocked by Sera. His intense eyes glared at me. He said, “So, we meet again...” Aqorm was either clueless or just liked getting under his skin, because she asked him, “Wait, who are you again?” I put my palm to my face in despair. True, it had been months of journeys, collecting Crests, and generally not encountering the pair at all. Besides, he was separated from his counterpart. Wait, why exactly were the two split up? “My name is Sera!” He as much as shouted, “We met at the Hidden Forest and fought over those keys. Is any of that familiar?” She grinned, and suddenly I knew she was trolling. She said, “Nope, sorry. Never met you before.” Sera looked ready to kill her.

    I found myself wondering how he had gotten here anyway. He would have had to get past the spike traps, pits, and the Grim. Ah, of course. Without Phim, he was a solo adventurer and could use moves that I had been afraid to because of their tendency to hurt people nearby. And the rest was probably his athleticism. Sera took what she was saying in stride for a few seconds, but eventually her continued teasing got to him. “Okay, that''s it,” he said, “you''re dying now!” Stepping between the two of them, I mediated, “Stop teasing him, Aqorm. He''s pretty mad.” Then I thought of something, “Hey ummm, what happened to your friend the dwarf?”

    He scoffed, “The guy went off on some damn fool quest, trying to find some huge Crystal. He said it controlled reality, but I know. He just wanted a gem that he could sell for loot, and not cut me in on the deal!” Aqorm blurted out, “Welp, you''re the sucker then, aren''t ya?” Those were fighting words. Sera drew his sword and charged us.

    Zoe and Azrael didn''t try to cast in sword fights. Yeah, I know it sounds like bringing a knife to a gun fight, but there''s a small gap while you''re drawing in runes, where the caster is wide open. They weren''t straight casters like Elias so they helped, Azrael with her sword Raphael and its glowing flame aura and Zoe with scythe in hand. Aqorm, having only knives and probably wanting to stay out of combat anyway despite sorta kinda provoking this fight in the first place, spent most of the battle trying to dodge out of his way. You don''t bring a knife to a sword fight, after all.

    Sera was incredibly skilled. Despite not having Phim to help, he had obviously spent most of this time training, while we had done significantly more aimless wandering and avoiding creatures. Plus, he''d probably been training against a great number of creatures with just him fighting. As good as those two were, and believe me when I say Zoe and Azrael were experts at their weapons, they still weren''t good enough. Zoe was seamlessly rotating her scythe hand over hand, attacking from above and below, swinging fiercely against him. At the same time, Azrael swung her sword at him from the other direction. She used Taijijian, an ancient sword style. She thrusted her sword in a rapid motion, but it was no good. Sera beat their attacks aside from both directions. It looked almost like we were moving in slow motion. He swung high, then back, low, and back again. The speed seemed impossible, until I noticed his sword. His sword had broad blade but an extra long handle suited for juggling, and this is more or less what he was doing. This cut the time it took to swing the sword by transferring his sword from one hand to another, so it was a good trick. He was obviously ambidextrous. “Hey, I got this,” I told them. As before, Sera was strictly an honorable fighter, and refused to battle noncombatants. Despite fighting two people at once a second ago, and despite someone else who shall remain nameless provoking him into this battle, he left such parties largely alone. Although, he did give Aqorm a stern glare.

    Sera had definitely improved. I tried fighting him with techniques, but he pulled out a shield that had been conspicuously unused against his whole battle against those two. Apparently in the time he had been gone, he had also been practicing shield techniques. As I used the Standing Jump Thrust against him, he called out, “Nullifying Block.” With almost casual form, he pressed his shield forward. The wide fanning strike was sucked into the shield, leaving no sign that there was any kind of impact. I tried Wave Thrust next, but watched him slam his shield hard against the ground, calling out “Radius Barrier” as he effectively stopped the seismic motion from getting anywhere near him. At his skill level, using a short-range technique like Speed Slash might be a bad idea.

    I switched to basic sword attacks, confident that my sword was sharp enough to cut through his blade, a feat which would normally be impossible but for the unorthodox materials of my sword. And yet, he handled the blade like a katana master, expertly avoiding impact with the sharp edge of my blade while simultaneously fending off my attacks. Every blow I made wound up with him hitting the side of my blade with his edge, rather than the other way around. “Sloppy,” he said, trying to veer his sword around my sword to slash my arm, causing me to step back, “maybe if you spent less time on fancy techniques, and more time rehearsing the fundamentals of sword-fighting, you could beat me. You have a very sharp blade, yes. But you forgot the basic principle all good swordsmen adhere to. ''Pounding a blade and sharpening it cannot be kept for long.''” He was right, of course. In owning this beyond razor sharp sword, I had a blade that was so sharp because parts of the blade were about an atom thick. But despite all reinforcements, this meant that it could be shattered easily by something that could cut those bonds. He used Vacuum Slice without even calling it out, something only possible for one who had mastered the technique, making one surgically exact slice through the blade. My broad slices used from the same technique earlier appeared clumsy in comparison. The blade fell to the ground with such force that the ceramic material shattered into bits. The durasteel inner part was also cut through. My sword was now a fractured, sliced up, and worthless nub of a blade. I tossed it aside.

    Sera was well-disciplined fighter. If I had to say, he''d probably been in one of the armies, and was well-trained. I imagine if he was specifically hired to kill us, we''d all be dead. As it was, it was lucky he didn''t know that the bounty he was actually after was that “girl” who I''d been awhile back. The last thing I wanted was to have this guy after me. He was going easy on us, because it wasn''t part of a bounty, meeting every attack with only about the same amount of force as I gave. While I continued to fight with just my hands and feet after my sword broke, he quickly ended that by hamstringing me.

    It was around this point that Ambrosia saw me. “Nevras, no!!! Don''t hurt him.” Seeing that I was unarmed, she lent me back the First Iron knife that I had given her earlier. Sera swung, yet I focused on blocking. I won''t say it wasn''t difficult, my knife didn''t give a great ability to block due to the sheer difference in size of the weapon. On the ground, unable to really walk much, I slashed at the blade, forcing his blade back just enough that it stopped his momentum. Amazingly, his blade was not even chipped by this impact. Seeing I had some other rare weapon, he apparently decided I hadn''t learned my lesson. He attempted to use the Vacuum Slice on this as well, but when it hit, the sword just started rejoining itself. He glanced at it, “First Material? Where on Earth did you find that weapon?” He brushed past me admitting what had turned out to be a very narrow defeat. I felt no joy in such a victory, for I knew how close it had been.

    After all of us were healed, we made our way up to the top of the Castle of Fear. Outside, it was cold and rainy. A creepy-looking beast awaited us. This was obviously our mark, right? The beast was roughly shaped like a dragon, but almost an undead caricature. It was filled with rot and its eye sockets had eyes but they had a creepy look to them. Defending myself, I cut at it with the knife. Strange, I felt no resistance at all. Normally, despite the First Material being fairly sharp, it cut well past the point of a normal material since it was not actually sharp in the conventional sense. But this... this was like I''d just cut through mist. There was something deeply wrong here... “Wow,” said Ambrosia, “that knife really is sharp.”