'The tree beast.' Lucian thought, lying on his back with his leg crossed while he reflected on the conversation he had with the spirit beast. 'She's the only gateway out of the belly of Hlasked.' Lucian let out a tired sigh. He didn't care about helping out the spirit beast, but he couldn't remain in a place that was filled with corrupted mana; staying at the belly of Hlasked made him feel powerless because using magic was dangerous.

'How am I supposed to defeat that damn tree if I can't use magic?' Lucian thought in irritation. The spirit beast didn't give him any tip on how the tree beast could be defeated; it only asked for help as though Lucian had any option of saying no. He wanted to be free, so he would have to fight. The more Lucian thought about it, the more irritated he became.

"Huh… guys." Reed called out in an unsettled tone. But everyone ignores him and keeps to themselves with their own thoughts. "Guys!" Reed shouted out this time; he ran to Soren's side and grabbed his head, forcefully turning it towards the direction where the root monsters were marching in together. "What the hell is that?" Reed gulped down in fear; the monster didn't look friendly, not like the spirit beast that had been hanging around Lucian's team.

"F*ck!" Soren's eyes widen in surprise. Quickly he grips his sword. His anxious actions made everyone else turn towards the root monsters.

"I thought there were no other monsters around here." Luna mumbles, her lip twists into a frown, and her glare is hidden by her long bangs. "I shouldn't have forgotten that Hlasked never runs out of ugly beasts."

"It can use magic." Marta muttered out in surprise as one of the monsters brought out flames from its root-shaped hands. "How are we supposed to fight against that with a sword?" She rubbed her itchy eye that was making her lose focus on the monsters that were about to attack. Marta could feel a piece of herself urging her to use magic; the feeling had obsessively lingered with her since the day she used magic against the spirit beast when she thought that Lucian was dying. The voice whispered into her heart that she was strong and needed to use magic and grow stronger for Lucian's sake, but Marta had resisted the strange voice because of Lucian's orders.

Grove growls in his monster form and sends a huge fire blast towards Lucian's way.

"Captain!" Marta activated her magic and controlled the ground, creating a stony shield to block out the fire blast and protect Lucian.

"No." Lucian muttered to himself. Even if the attack was sudden and their situation seems out of control, he would have been able to dodge the fire blast. A part of his arm would be burned, but he would still be alive. To Lucian, being alive was all that mattered.

Lucian turned to Marta, about to tell her not to use her magic again, but Marta fainted. He rushed over to her side while Soren bravely stepped forward and cut off the arm of the monster with the troubling flame; his efforts were wasted because the monster opened its mouth and brought out another fire blast.

Soren reacted fast on instinct and rolled away from the monster.

"Your hair!" Luna shouted.

"My hair?" Soren asked and then realized that his hair was burning. "Shit." He quickly put out the flames.

"Marta! Marta!" Lucian shouted, attempting to wake her up, while glancing at his back to check if there were any monsters advancing towards him. Two spirit beasts stood behind Lucian, protecting him; no attack could work against them, so Lucian knew that he was safe for now.

Marta gently snapped her eyes open; she smiled at Lucian's worried expression and then moved her hand towards what was blocking her other vision.

"Don't touch it." Lucian orders in a serious tone, stopping Marta's hands that shake with fear.

In one of Marta's eyes, a tree branch had pierced through; it was small and unpleasant to look at. The tree branch was unnatural and didn't completely block Marta's sight; she could feel it, and somehow she knew that what was happening to her was because of her disobedience to Lucian's words. 'I shouldn't have used my magic.' Marta thought, tears gathering at her eyes as she became afraid that Lucian would leave her. He wouldn't want a useless teammate like her again. It was something her last captain would have done; he would have abandoned her or killed her on the spot.

"Stop crying." Lucian's voice cut into Marta's thoughts: "Don't worry, I'm going to fix this." He turned towards the rest of his team and gave the order to retreat because Marta had lost her will to fight, and he also needed to figure out what was wrong with her.

The spirit beasts increased in numbers as they gathered around the root monsters in circles, blocking their path while Lucian and his team escaped.

"Her mana core has been corrupted, although it's just a little, but it will become worse if she uses her magic again." The spirit beast said.

Lucian was back to the dimension when he could understand the spirit beast; he needed to know how to save Marta.

"It's very important that you keep an eye on her. She will face an inner battle with the corrupt mana in her body, and within a few days, the corrupt mana will break her will not to use magic. The moment she uses magic again in that state, then there is no way to save her. Even if you kill the tree beast after then, I'm not sure your friend is going to make it." The spirit beast voiced out in a sad tone.

Lucian ran a hand over his face and paced around. He was angry, and he didn't know why this had to happen to Marta when she only used magic once to save his life. Then he thought back to Luna and remembered that she had also used the corrupted mana. Does this mean that Luna is next?

"Is it possible for you to check a human and know if they have already been corrupted by the tree beast mana?" Lucian asks.

The spirit beast nodded. "I can tell if I touch them. Who do you want to check?"

Lucian gave a description of Luna, and then, for a moment, the spirit beast stepped out of the dimension and stretched out another hand towards Luna, who was startled by the sudden touch, but she didn't pull away from the spirit beast, knowing that the beast wouldn't harm her.

"She is clean; her mana hasn't been corrupted." The beast said as he stepped back into the dimension Lucian was in.

Relief washes over Lucian; his shoulders relax a bit as he becomes less tense.

"The corrupted mana doesn't affect people the same way; it takes longer to infect some people and little to no time to infect others." The spirit beast paused, its voice heavy with guilt as it said, "I'm the reason why your female friend has been affected. The first time she used her magic after getting to the belly of Hlasked was when I first brought you into this dimension. She attacked me. I'm sure that she was only aggravated back then because she didn't understand my actions and thought I wanted to harm you."

Lucian had a questionable expression on his face; no one told him that Marta used her magic after he woke up from speaking with the beast the first time.

'Why did they hide the secret from me?' Lucian asks. He felt his head ache as he inwardly responded to his question that there was nothing he could do even if they told him about Marta's mistake. He couldn't turn back time to stop her.

'So at the end of it all, it's all my fault.' Lucian thought bitterly. Finally coming to a conclusion on what to do. Marta had risked her life to save him twice; it was only fair that he risk his life to save her.

"I'm going to kill the tree beast." Lucian was determined. "I'm going to use my magic. If I fail, then I will fall into the hands of the beast's corrupt mana and end up infected."

"Those root monsters you saw earlier are humans who have fallen into the hands of the tree beast mana. Once your mana core gets corrupted, there is no going back; you are going to lose your senses and change into a monster. So think carefully about your decision, human Lucian. I may be a beast without a human heart, but I'm not ruthless enough to send you to your death."

Lucian snorted. 'Spare me from your fake act of kindness,' he thought, glaring at the spirit beast. 'You knew exactly where you were sending me to when you begged me for help, but now that I'm left with no choice, you are trying to act as though you care about if I survived or not.'

"You and your damned spirit brothers are going to help when I attack that mana-gluttonous beast." Lucian said he refused to be the one doing all the work while the spirit beast reaped the benefits of his efforts.

The spirit beast frowned at Lucian's choice of words but nodded anyway.

"You guys will handle those root monsters. I'm not going to waste my time with something that refuses to die. I'm going straight for the main sources." Lucian cracks his knuckles. "I'm sure that once that tree is down, those roots will disappear as well."

'And Marta's eye will be normal again.' Lucian let hope linger in his thoughts.

"Captain, I'm sorry." Marta said when Lucian regained his consciousness, he was out of the dimension he needed to be in to communicate with the spirit beast. Marta's eyes were red; she had been crying and couldn't stop blaming herself for her current state.

Lucian placed one gentle hand on her head. "It's not your fault." He stared into her eyes. Tears begin to gather at Marta's eyes again. She covered her face with her hand, not wanting Lucian to look at her in her current state.

Lucian felt sadness in his heart over Marta's condition. "I have made my decision!" His loud voice pulled the attention of his teammates. Reed also listened carefully. "I'm going to use my magic and fight against the tree beast." He explained all the spirit beast had told him about what would happen if he failed: "You don't have to risk your life and fight with me."

Reed couldn't believe the kindness he was witnessing from Lucian; after watching the brutal way Lucian had killed Nova, he had always thought that Lucian was evil and didn't care about others.

"I will fight with you, captain!" Soren raises a hand and smiles at Lucian, ready to follow him to the end.

"Me too." Luna added. She wasn't sure about if she wanted to follow Lucian to the end, but she was sad about Marta's condition and wanted to help.

"And I…" Reed muttered, embarrassed with the sudden eyes that pulled to him. "I will look after her." He pointed to Marta. "You said that someone needed to watch after her and stop her from using magic."

"Thank you." Lucian said, making Reed narrow his eyes at him because of the sincerity in Lucian's voice.

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