Timewalk
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Chapter 383: Fleeing Through an Angry Forest
🕑 Added 2025-08-04 14:05:01 +0000 UTCA/N: Bonus chapter today. 2 of 2
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Malika
Malika landed lightly in the forest beside Mato and Calen and immediately pulsed her healing magic through all of them at the throbbing palpable weight of the aura of despair that flooded the air and seeped in through every pore.
You have gained Clarity.
She had Fear Ward, but she wasn’t about to trust a cocktail drink over her own bloodline ability – no offense to Morwynne.
Up ahead, the dark figure of the Blind Lich loomed large with incomprehensible spells billowing into the air about him. The desiccated husk of Tol’brekk lay sprawled across the ground like a sun-bleached heap of whitened bone. A familiar polished pyramid of black stone hovered behind the Lich, and shifting with unnaturally stiff movements beside it stood the blackened and rotting form of a Dryad. There was a hole the size of Malika’s head bored through the center of her chest.
But Malika’s eyes were glued to the small, crumpled heap on the scorched forest floor. Nestled up against the thick roots of a giant oak that had been snapped in half, Ali lay in repose as if she had simply curled up for a nap – but beneath the mud-splattered green hair, her face was twitching and trembling as if wracked by great pain.
“Malika. We will hold off the Lich – he is still too strong for you. You get Aliandra and flee with your friends,” Rezan said, his face twisted into a grim mask as his eyes never left the Lich for even an instant.
“Elder Rezan Jin,” Nevyn Eld hissed, without bothering to turn. “Surely you cannot believe you are my match?”
“We will have to see,” Rezan said, lowering his center in preparation. “But, I did not come alone.”
At that moment, a pillar of lightning and dancing flame flared beside the elder, and Lyeneru Silverleaf materialized in the center of the conflagration, bow drawn and arrows nocked to the bowstring.
“Aah. You brought that pesky Night Elf,” Nevyn said with a sneer. “You are the reason I had to dismiss all my simulacra for the first time since Artur Dragonsworn and his annoying friends. I trust you are aware of what this means?”
He’s at full power, Malika thought. Rezan had explained it on the way over. As unbelievable as it seemed, the Lich’s avatar they had faced in Aman Rak hadn’t even been close to his full strength but, standing here in the intensity of his despair aura, she had to believe it.
“Nevertheless, we will still stop you here,” Rezan said.
“Fool! I was plumbing the secrets of the realms beyond the rifts before you were even born,” the Lich shouted, his voice somehow echoing as if in a large hall. “I have mastered more soul magic than you will ever know!”
A subtle shimmer caught Malika’s Soul Sight, and a wiry troll emerged from the Spirit Realm, leaning on his gnarled walking stick. Val’korr straightened up and leveled the branch at Nevyn Eld. “Pshaw,” he spat. “I had already forgotten more about the subtle intricacies of the soul magic you claim to have mastered before your race figured out how to root through the dirt for grubs to eat. Here, let me educate you, boy.”
The wooden staff crackled with more soul mana than Malika had ever witnessed, and a blue beam intense enough to leave afterimages in her Soul Sight shot out to pierce the Lich’s bony chest.
Nevyn Eld howled.
“Go now, Malika, before… his minion summons a dungeon,” Rezan said, and then he blurred forward, leaving a gale in his wake.
Malika didn’t need to be told twice. She stepped through space, appearing instantly beside Ali where she lay unconscious, and scooped her up. Her eyes caught Nevyn Eld’s blind gaze as he shot a bolt of dark magic in her direction, but as strong as he was, his shot had been rushed as Rezan’s fists came down like sledgehammers. Malika dodged the bolt easily, holding Ali tight as she launched herself away from the blast zone and pouring healing mana into her.
An explosion rocked the chamber as lightning and fire smashed down on the Blind Lich. The force of Lyeneru’s assault tossed him sideways like a rag doll, but Malika did not wait to see what happened. Already, fungal creep was spreading rapidly along the ground, originating from the floating dungeon shrine and the undead dryad standing beside it. By the time Malika reached Mato and Calen, they were already contending with a half dozen plant monsters.
A brilliant flare pulsed outward, lighting the withered corpse of Tol’brekk for an instant.
“After him!” Rezan shouted, and Lyeneru and Val’korr followed him, chasing after the Blind Lich, wherever he had gone.
“Ali?” Mato asked.
“She’s healed, but I can’t wake her,” Malika said.
“We need to run,” Calen said. “That dungeon is consuming everything.” As the words left his mouth, another misshapen Fungaloth materialized beside them. It raised its warty, gnarled head and let out a screeching roar and then smashed into Mato.
Braconid branch spiders – the same as from the Blooming Rot dungeon – sprouted from the spreading creep, crawling toward them, already launching their spore poison clouds to hang floating and deadly in the air.
A tree suddenly tore its own roots from the ground and began to stomp toward them while in the distance, an army of strange green humanoid shapes began to sprout like weeds, drawing bows nocked with green arrows.
“Back! To the library!” Calen called, picking the clearest path. “We can’t go up, but we should be able to make it to the mines. Ali’s bosses will help us hold back the monsters.”
“Right,” Malika said, and sprinted after him, with Mato bringing up the rear. Given the levels of Ali’s minions relative to the townsfolk, he was making the safest choice he could.
***
“This should stop them,” Calen said, sprinting through the archway.
“I hope so,” Malika said, following him into the Landing, pulsing her healing magic against the potent hellfire aura of Ali’s imp boss. It screeched and hopped about in a mad rage, but it held its fire, perhaps recognizing the insensible form of its summoner still cradled gently in her arms. Mato bounded up and into the fire right after her.
Hellfire against plants. It should work. But deep inside her heart, Malika felt the knot of doubt twisting. The dungeon – the reincarnation of the Blooming Rot – had expanded unimaginably quickly, consuming the entire jungle and its hordes of plant and fungus monsters. Dozens of Fungaloths and dark Treants had swarmed every boss on the way down, and the relentless legion of strange plant-men had laid down a withering hail of arrows from afar. But this time, they would face a pure fire boss.
Still, the voice of doubt within her reminded her that while it was a raid boss, it was only level sixty. Many of the monsters the dungeon was throwing at them were evolved – even Calen was worried. She retreated into the Landing with her friends, sharing her healing magic to ensure they would be able to fight if needed.
Then, it came. Like a relentless tide of fungal sludge, the creep grew at an astonishing pace, washing up along the walls of the tunnel and spreading rapidly through the Landing itself. Immediately, it caught alight in the hellfire aura, but it flowed onward, more and more growing over the smoking, smoldering layers. Creep Spores sprouted from smoking pods and erupted from charred fungal growth, throwing themselves mindlessly into the flame. Every detonation spread the creep further. Moments later, the horde of monsters erupted from the tunnel, charging the Hellfire Imp with howls and shrieks of hatred.
“Holy fuck, this is not good,” Mato growled, immediately shifting back into Bear Form.
The Hellfire Imp reacted to the assault by launching five simultaneous empowered and accelerated balls of roiling hellfire, all of which detonated within the confines of the entrance tunnel. Smoking monster chunks rained down through the chamber, bouncing off walls and splatting into the creep. Everything immediately caught fire. The screeching Hellfire Imp summoned a dozen more imps and then unleashed its minions at the attackers.
The wave of monsters from the revived Blooming Rot dungeon ground to a halt, pouring into the cavern and being summarily burned to ash by the sheer volume of hellfire and the fireballs that fell like rain.
“That’s bad news,” Mato said.
Then Malika saw it. From within the hordes, a single monster stepped up. It was a bark-covered humanoid creature with four arms and two bows. Leaves sprouted from its head, and hazel brown eyes just like Lira’s squinted as it aimed. Even from this distance, Malika could sense the power of its presence.
“Three-mark Sylvan,” Calen said, already unleashing volleys of arrows in its direction. Malika’s notification chimed as he shared what he saw.
Archer – Sylvan Elf / Plant – level ??? (Nature / Death)
The mana in the chamber rippled, and the Sylvan swelled, growing taller and sprouting branches and thicker bark from its back. It drew back its bow strings, and an array of magical arrows appeared, launching into the chamber and ripping through hellfire imps, reaping them like chaff.
“It’s… a raid boss!” Calen yelped.
“You’re serious?” Mato asked, clearly having repeated himself to both of them.
“Yes, the dungeon just turned that thing into a raid boss! We need to run.”
Malika turned and sprinted, hoping the rune-guarded doorway would hold them back for a while. “There’s not a lot more dungeon left,” she said.
“The rift chamber,” Calen said, sprinting beside her. “Ali put Mok’freja there. An evolved ice troll should be strong enough to face this.”
But as they ran, Malika could already see the creep accelerating ahead of them. “How is it doing that?” she asked. “How is it so fast?”
“I don’t have Ali’s mana sight, but it looks like it’s consuming her domain, using her mana to establish itself,” Calen said.
As soon as she heard it, she saw it. Whatever was driving this dungeon was like a parasite, invading a host and turning the resources it found into weapons to fight.
They sprinted or flew past the tar pits and rocky crags, dodging the monsters that began to appear on the edges of the fungal creep, desperately trying to outrun the avalanche of summonings the dungeon was throwing at them.
Finally, they arrived.
Malika burst through the arched doorway into the rift chamber and immediately dodged a continuous stream of ice bolts fired from above down into the center of the room. She pulled up short the instant she realized the chamber wasn’t empty. A thorn-laden vine lashed out toward her, and she dodged again, careful to hold Ali close.
Down below, in the center of the rift chamber, a deadly, familiar monstrous plant sprouted.
“Mana Eater!” Calen said, identifying it immediately and launching volleys of arrows down into the creature. Mato charged, filling the chamber with the echoes of his roar. Just as before, the monster suddenly swelled up to more than twice its previous size as it filled hungrily with domain mana.
Another boss. Malika didn’t need to wait for Calen to confirm it. Carefully, she laid Ali down on the ledge beside Mok’freja.
“Protect her,” Malika said in Trollish.
“How the hells can we even stop this?” Calen shouted, but his hands never paused as he launched volleys of arrows back the way they had come.
The tall ice troll glared at her with rage-filled eyes but nodded once without pausing her onslaught.
Malika threw herself into combat, unleashing fury with her Soul Strike. Vines lashed out in all directions, the attacks far more devastating within the much smaller, cramped space.
We can kill this! she thought. It would be hard – they didn’t have Naia’s help this time, but they had an evolved ice troll raid boss on their side. She punched again, sending the pulse of her soul strike right through the huge plant monster. All along its trunk, the tiny blue flowers shimmered, a scintillating ripple of ethereal beauty, and she immediately reacted by spending all her mana to make stamina, pumping the excess into accelerating her body to the extreme. The blue spores exploded from the shivering trunk, somehow filling the entire chamber in a dense cloud.
How is it so large?
Suddenly, the ice bolts ceased.
What? Malika glanced around in surprise. It took her a few moments to realize what had just happened, but up on the ledge, the ice troll stood still, presumably drained of all its mana. But then it roared incoherently and turned and punched Ali, still lying unconscious on the ledge beside her.
“Ali!” Malika shouted.
She teleported up to the ledge, but Calen had the same idea, swooping in and snatching Ali from the grasp of the suddenly incoherent and enraged troll.
“What’s wrong with this thing?” she shouted, punching the troll in the neck and driving it back.
“Ali lost all her mana,” Calen said.
“Aah, shit,” Malika cursed as she suddenly understood. When she was drained, her mana reservations all dropped, and she was forced to rely on stamina instead. Ali didn’t have that choice. She must have lost every single minion she had reserved as soon as the Mana Eater filled the chamber with its cloying spores.
“This is bad,” Calen said.
They didn’t have Ali or any of her minions, and they were facing a raid boss that had a healing debuff and a mana drain. Calen likely could barely shoot without mana, depending on his mana leech – it was only her and Mato that could function without it. “We need to escape,” Malika said. “Recall.”
“Yes,” Calen muttered, but then a thick whip vine lashed out. Malika ducked instinctively, but it ensnared Calen, coiling around his waist and yanking him and Ali clear across the room. They bounced once right in front of the rift, and to her horror, both of them fell through it.
But the rift was closing.
In a flash, Malika was across the room, sprinting through the air and using teleport for the rest of the way. Halfway there, the boss unleashed a second cloud of mana-leeching spores, and the rift collapsed. Even with her speed, she was unable to make it – by the time she reached the rift, it had shrunk to the size of her fist. A moment later, it vanished.
“Mato! We’re going!” she yelled, retrieving two recall potions. She tossed one at him and, as soon as he vanished, she broke her own. There was no choice left. They needed to run, even if it risked bringing this dungeon down on the rest of Myrin’s Keep. Hopefully, with the help of the rest of the guild, they would be able to stem the tide. Somehow.
As the dark cloud of smoke enveloped her, she eyed the spot where the rift had been. Calen has recall potions. He will bring her back. He must!
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Comments
Froyo Baggins
I honestly don't understand why she didn't time stop to destroy the gate. Other than that, this isn't so bad.
Mateusz Lokś
No, you're not the only one thinking there... I also have a lack of feeling any progress. One step forward and 100 steps back...
noVa
Honestly this is it for me I think.. this novel started out exceptionally well, but got progressively more inconsistent the longer it went on, the same mistakes were made over and over again, it’s like the cast forgets the lessons they were supposed to learn in just the next chapter and we end up in a loop. A lot of content is forced and doesn’t make sense. And yes I know Nevyn eld is portrayed to be super op and basically controls the world, but the pacing of the story got to a point where I don’t enjoy reading it any more. I kinda expected the story to go a different way as well, with her dungeon building the bastion of this world to defend against the undead and rebuild or whatever, but with them constantly getting steamrolled and all they’ve built destroyed over and over does not make for an engaging read. Well maybe that’s the way it will go but the potential I’ve personally seen in the early chapters got lost along the way, at least from my perspective. I’m really sorry if this honest critique ends up hurting you, just know that I wish you the best. might just be my ramblings so don’t take it too seriously, it was a fun read anyways! cheers to you all.
Alex V
I feel like this "death" happened too early in the story. There was no meaningful progression made in the last 20 chapters; heroes are still majorly fucked, and they just cleared 1 dungeon. So this setback felt like a meme "aw shit, here we go again". Now they have lost another ally, and the dungeon of knowledge will be destroyed by rampaging monsters and the Lich, but it's not even the end of this encounter. At the same time, heroes from the Daria or Torion kingdom are absent from the story. They couldn't all be that bad/evil/corrupt, so they just want to join the Lich. Where the fuck are they? This was a nice story that I read for fun, and now it's just a fanfiction about a "punching bag" main hero that cannot accomplish shit or be prepared. This "dungeon invasion" from a flower pot felt cheap, and I don't see a good reason for it.
Mateusz Lokś
So this is how the story ends? Sorry if I sound a bit whiny – I genuinely enjoy reading this series and have been following it for a long time. I like it so much that even when I see the characters acting suicidally or recklessly, I grit my teeth and keep going. Just to give an example: dozens of times our group of heroes should’ve backed off, taken a breather, or approached the situation more carefully – instead of constantly walking the razor’s edge of death, relying on blind luck and hoping “maybe we won’t all die.” In many cases (not all, but very often), they simply could’ve retreated. Plot armor is definitely a thing here. Most of the time, it’s tolerable – but this chapter? It honestly feels like “Okay, I’m tired of writing this story, so I’ll just kill everyone off.” Unless there’s some ridiculous plot twist coming, it seems like the story could end in the next 2–5 chapters. Another thing: because I’m so invested in the story, I’ve been doing my best to ignore the nonsensical power levels of the characters and the world around them. The protagonists level up too fast, their gear is too weak, and they somehow defeat enemies that should vastly outmatch them. But once these enemies become allies or drop loot? That loot suddenly becomes overpowered. Really? Just a moment ago it was average, and now in the hands of the main cast it’s OP? Or take the world’s scaling. Trolls are supposedly insanely strong and long-lived, right? And even after their city gets turned into a dungeon – making them even stronger – they get trashed by the first random party that barely hits Gold rank. Weren’t they portrayed as one of the world’s mightiest forces? Meanwhile, the human kingdom has several Platinum-ranked teams that could apparently do the same thing effortlessly. So what, the human kingdom could conquer the continent – maybe even the whole world – if they felt like it? That kind of logic just doesn’t add up. And it’s always the same: the dungeon or challenge our party faces is perfectly tailored to their level and abilities. It’s never something too weak (so we could see how much they’ve grown), like revisiting an early zone in an RPG with a high-level character. And it’s almost never too strong either. The only exceptions I can think of are that infernal rift and maybe the rotten dungeon near Nali’s... That’s two cases in how many chapters? Yes, I’m complaining a lot – and honestly, I could go on. I haven’t even covered everything on my mind. I’m probably forgetting some things or skipping over others to avoid making this comment even longer. I’m not claiming I’m right about everything, but I think I have some valid points... And I’m writing this because the last two chapters hit me hard. The losses in the previous chapter were way too much, and this one feels like there’s no way out. Like the end is inevitable – unless, of course, some miracle happens. Still, I truly wish the author all the best, and I’m only writing all this because I genuinely care about this story. But damn... this is getting painful. Today, for the first time, I seriously considered dropping the series. I’ve done it before with other stories – when the author started pulling logic-breaking stunts just to let the characters escape impossible, absurd situations with no real way out. You know the kind: “Sure, I’m only level 25, I’ve used up all my items, and I’ve only taken 1% of the boss’s HP – but I’m sure I’ll manage somehow!” Ugh... I really hate that kind of nonsense.
Dylan McConnell
Others have already expressed this, but I'm getting frustrated with the lack of progression. Its like a rubber band of "something advances" followed by "just kidding it doesn't matter"
Mull16
I don't really understand how the rift closed. I thought it might be because the mana eater took all the mana so there was nothing to sustain it but the raid boss at the other rift was a mana eater as well and that rift was fine staying open.
Chyre
Agreed. The lich is effectively the Illuminati. He rules the world, you just don't know that he rules the world, because he does it behind the scenes.
Matthew
I think what everyone who's upset about the various governments not getting involved yet need to realize is that the lich has had a LONG time to set things up how he wants them and he has infiltrated likely every institution that might either be a threat or be useful to him. He had/has agents in the government and town watch of Myrin's Keep, a middle of nowhere worthless town. His agent in the one of the largest organizations fighting against him was the LEADER of that organization. The troll nations fell like dominos in large part to having been massively infiltrated by his people. Everything from the layout of borders to the way laws are written and enforced has been shaped by him and his agents and his agents agents for thousands of years. Even all the anti dungeon laws and sentiment are likely directly because of him. A powerful enough dungeon, especially a sentient one, seems to be one of the few threats to him. Especially if they can use their truly insane abilities and powers to help equip and level up their allies. So he has all his dungeons behave in ways that are evil and/or untrustworthy, and wipes out any competing dungeons that might not be so shitty, and before long it doesn't even matter if he misses any wild dungeons, nobody will ever trust them anyway. All of this is a very long way of saying that even if most of the people in an organization would help if they knew what was actually going on, be that a nation, a city, another adventures guild, an unaligned fighting force like the pathfinders, or whatever. There are almost definitely laws/rules and high ranking members actively making that harder or impossible. Meaning going and helping a Dirty, Evil, FUCKING Dungeon (read in the voice of Goblin Slayer (abridged) when talking about goblins) is also likely to set off something akin to a civil war or mass arrests for things like desertion or treason.
Choronach
I agree with you but we're readers. To be fair to them... It's the responsibility of their government (their's is a shitty one alright). There's not supposed to be the ones responsible for a world ending threat. But! I agree that they're looking for troubles by putting themselves in the light. And by that, it's Ali that has shitty reactions : she again and again hide her PTSD by never ending work and side quests but don't hesitate to put herself in the way of the Blind Beach a each occasion possible and putting everyone at risk. She's still a child with trouble and a some point, she will have to face her fear, fix her mental health and grow up. Only then I think, will they be able to really plan. Right now, everyone is just riding the Ali's train sadly. And the worst is that the Blind Beach has probably gotten what is was looking for 3 000 years ago and don't need her bloodline and knowledge like he needed her mothers sadly
CherMi
They've been in this cycle of victory and defeat for a while, except each defeat is significant, while victory is small and unsatisfying in comparison. And after each victory you just know that next defeat is looming now, so it's harder to enjoy the in-between chapters. For me, it's making it unsatisfying and frustrating to read the scheduled deafeat chapters and the inevitable comeback is only expected, with a dose of plot armor in there. Bonus points when the defeat happens because characters didn't plan for (gasp) their enemy attacking them.
Rip Woodham
Why didn't they plan for this? They couldn't imagine the Lich would target them, really??? If they plan, they get to think about everything they can imagine beforehand and develop protocols for it. Protocols are useful because they don't have to think about what to do THEN in that moment of panic like how Ali took too long to realize what was going on and then everyone split up leaving Ali to her own devices. Couldn't they have developed an alarm? They couldn't imagine the need after they were part of the Troll and Elf kingdom falling the same way, and they then go on to house the refugees and mount a resistance and base of operations! No protocol would of had anything going the way it did in this chapter. Lira just bought Ali a few seconds with her life and gave the Lich a powerful tool to further turn the tide against them. A few seconds that shouldn't have been necessary if she knew Lyra had been informed, and she wouldn't have even been in that situation in the first place since no protocol would leave Ali alone against the Lich. It's just so frustrating I can't even be sad.
Choronach
Ali's isn't dead so no one can do anything to the shrine. But her domain must be restricted to the immediate vicinity of her shrine I guess
Choronach
That got my heart pumping! That's the Mother of All Curveballs! And I'm so fucking sad for Aunt Lyra. They'll obviously power up a little but hoping against hope that they'll finally stop fighting alone and start forcibly rallying the Reste of the word, the rulers of the kingdoms are the most useless fuckers I've ever read!
Alex Woolfson
I ain't gonna lie, those last 2 chapters feel like a nightmare. It is becoming at the same time too predictable and too outlandish that they cant progress without Nevyn Eld setting them back while getting more powerful. Each time they gain momentum, he is there. It's hard to explain why but this seemingly neverending cycle of the same setback is starting to wear on me.
Karnevale
Big yikes! Excited to see how this turns out!
Sce7tm
Wait how were the mines still part of Ali's domain? Her domain spreads from her altar throught the library into the mines. If the library was taken over by undead Larisa's dungeon then the mines should have been cut off from her domain. I'm pretty sure something similar happened way back when the dungeon was first attacked by the guard/the ice dude.
The one Sith to rule them all
Actually conter srgument: considering that solid barier did hold him back, and some skills pass level differences like her interrupt, if they gathered all evolved fighters in the city they might have beat him, He is a necromancer, not a 1v everyone champion
Scyfe
Yea, this is why I just don't find the lich a compelling villian. The power level is just too disparate to be interesting. It's always either he is choosing not to deal with them or someone's going to predictably die.
