The next stretch from the rocky terrain to the steep hills was marked by big trees with barks thicker than any other they'd ever seen. With combined efforts, they wouldn't be able to wrap themselves around half of its diameter, and one wouldn't even think about reaching its spiky, dark green leaves, which extended high into the sky, covering different twigs and branches with flowers or petals growing on the sides, turning into a mossy slosh. Daress believed that the crowns of these trees hid fruit, but even if he were to fly up, he wouldn't be able to dig through. The ground laid before them was made out of soft soil, not grass or rocks, possibly a strange mix of sand and dirt, as Daress explained.

It wasn't a long road, but if they were to tread a different path, since at one point, there were many, they'd somehow find themselves back in the Harm Lands. Daress made sure they didn't lose their sense of direction, and from time to time would fly up and look towards the Karaia Springs, which rested on an actual plateau.

The Morians couldn't see the stretch. They were far out of its reach, but Daress described it as pools of steaming water, surrounded by bushes and twigs which all seemed to fall into a stream going through the middle, covered on the sides with small rocks that conveniently extended to its bottoms. Reddish grass made up most of the plateau, with a few trees of the same colour splattered here and there.

"I've never seen red trees," Morio muttered, out of nowhere, even though no one said a thing in the last five minutes. The two halted, and Daress turned to Morio with a rather reassuring smile.

"When we get to the top, you'll be able to spot them!" Daress proposed. "Maybe you could even sketch them down, eh?"

"I don't have enough paper for that." Morio shook his head. "But I don't want to forget about any of this." Morio scratched his head, and his eye twitched again. "My mind feels foggy," he added, without much emotion in his voice.

Daress continued, while the two stayed behind.

Jyuzou gulped. "This is the last stretch, Morio," he muttered. "We'll be out of here soon enough."

"Will they have more paper for me to scribble on, Daress?" Morio asked.

"Of course, uuh! As much as you'd like!" the Clowinger nodded.

"Do you promise?" Morio asked.

"I promise, uuh!"

Morio eventually turned back to Jyuzou, who seemed to eye every one of his moves.

"Do you promise as well?"

"I wouldn't know." he shook his head.

"I'm asking you as well, Jyuzou." he continued. "Do you promise?"

He wanted to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth.

At this specific moment, Jyuzou felt like he was looking at a stranger, someone he saw for the first time in his life.

How could it be that Morio simply kept pushing on? In Shimori, if an obstacle was too impossible to cross, they'd find a different way to overcome it. Morio did not listen to others, simply, he followed his gut instinct and did whatever came to mind. He could cite virtually anything as well. Morio was the one who jumped in to kill the whale, and it was his idea to sleep at Tilted Hill even if it was full of dangers.

He thought of his screams in the Tukman Woods when he realised that he did nothing to kill the demon, and even refused anyone's help. He thought of their meeting in the Bore Forest, and how Morio outright denied him leaving if both of them don't take the boat.

Where has this led them now?

Morio wouldn't blindly step into the fire if told to do so. He would carve his path with the torch he held. But where has that flame gone? It seemed so far out of reach that its light had long gone out.

Jyuzou left Morio without an answer to his question. The white-haired Morian slowly turned around and headed forward, right after Daress.

***

Two smaller trees marked the steeper hills of the Plateaus, and Daress flew up a bit, before breathing out.

"Come on, Dorians!" he said. "Quickly, quickly, up the hills and above the mountains..."

Morio put his hand on one of the sharper rocks that stuck out from the tilt and climbed on, putting his leg up. He barely made it, and Jyuzou followed after.

The Morian laid down, and furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Daress' wings.

"D-Don't worry, Morio!" Daress shook his head. "I won't be able to use these to make my job any easier. I'd get tired after flying up a bit, and if I were to carry you, this would take us a few days."

"Huu." Jyuzou sighed, climbing on. "Is there no easier way?" he breathed in between words.

"No, uuh." Daress denied. "But, the Plateaus are the last of Asno's dangers!" he smiled. "There won't be any in Amaru Toni! I promise, Dorians!"

Morio slowly nodded, standing and looking at the mountain they were about to climb. "It's only up from here."

"We'll be going down a few times, but don't run too fast or you'll lose your step! It's going to be a little hard to get used to, but, there isn't anything we won't overcome!" Daress scratched his head.

Jyuzou put his hand on his forehead, rubbing it, feeling a slight pain.

"Use both your hands and your legs, Dorians!" Daress informed as he started climbing up the tilt that wasn't as steep as the obstacle they crossed. "As if you always walked on all-fours." He started speeding up, and without further hesitation, the Morians followed.

The plateaus, or rather, formations, were made out of small clumps of colourful stones. The shades of the rocks they climbed ranged from a light grey to a very deep and grim black, sometimes stepping into brown or moving back to a reddish-tint, without much of a pattern. Whenever they would move up, the backbones of the mountains shook a little bit, as if everything they were made out of weren't connected in any way, even though Daress reassured them that nothing would happen. Small rocks slid down each time they moved up, and when they finally reached the first peak, Jyuzou and Morio immediately turned to the Karaia Springs, recalling Daress' descriptions.

"Even though these lands may not be the best of places, you don't see things like these in Shimori, eh, Morians?" Daress chuckled.

Morio nodded, and Jyuzou squinted his eyes. Although he didn't take his books out, his mind went back to the drawings and sketches of the 'Wonder Flora'.

"They're in Lignoria too," Jyuzou uttered. "Orawood's waterfalls and the jungle."

"Hm! Not the same ones as here, though!" Daress continued.

"Not that I can check," Jyuzou replied.

"You haven't been keeping up with your books, Jyuzou," Morio added.

"There's nothing to add." Jyuzou trod forwards. "Maybe the rest of the world is more interesting than this."

"I hope so," Morio responded.

The three walked down from the top towards a road carved downhill. At moments, the rocks slid down with their footsteps, forcing them to speed up, and one time, Daress fell, rolling a bit, before standing up and acting like nothing happened. A few wounds appeared on his hands, but when Jyuzou glanced, they were gone in the next minute.

Later on, they had three paths to choose from. The one to the left, led further downhill, eventually wrapping around to a formation pointing to the Karaia Springs. The middle guided upwards, towards a mountain higher than the one they just climbed, and the right directed towards an open terrain, something that Morio dubbed an arena, one that Bancho described in his stories.

Deep in the Orawood Forest, sat the Orawood Waterfalls, home to streams of water and rocky mountains, much like the ones that made up most of Morta's terrain. Bancho said, that the olden, more ill-meant Royals from Saphrith demanded that an arena be built somewhere, to enjoy brawls between prisoners with the longest sentences. Its winner would get their punishment shortened significantly, and make the loser's a bit longer. However, the one who lost had all rights to participate again. Because of this, many who came out of prison had great physiques, as well as dangerous fists.

The only place that was natural enough to be transformed was the Orawood Waterfalls, and behind one of the water walls, sat an arena, almost naturally carved out of the cave.

Mentioning that story, Morio said that Bancho showed them a small stone from the Waterfalls, as well as one of the participant's brass knuckles, no clue how he got his hands on them, but both Morians silently concluded that much of Bancho's life was a great mystery.

The two, from that point on, seemed eager to visit the place they thought might be an arena, but Daress quickly broke that dream, informing them that they'd have to take the middle path since it's the quickest.

While climbing, Jyuzou thought about how much time had passed since they left Encea in the morning. He hesitantly admitted to Daress that he had lost track of the hours, something that rarely happened to Jyuzou, and was unable to tell by looking at the sky, covered with thick and dense orange clouds.

"You can't tell the time here, uuh!" Daress said. "You can't see the sun on the plateaus!"

"Why?" Jyuzou shook his head, putting his hands on the rocks in the front while Daress started walking around a bigger stone.

"The plateaus are always cloudy. Day and night, it all looks the same."

"Well, eventually we can tell when night comes, right?" Morio muttered. "We'll get tired."

"I'm not sure, Dorians." Daress looked around, grinding his teeth. "This place has it that you can keep going and going and you won't even realise that something's changed. You can lose a hand or two, and you'll notice that it's missing only after you climb out of here. You're blindly following a path that you're not sure leads to the right place..." his voice lowered.

"Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?" Jyuzou asked, shaking his head.

"I'm leading, Jyuzou. I live here, I don't think the tastes of these lands have such a strong effect on me!" he added.

Jyuzou glimpsed at Morio, quickly noticing his twitching head.

"Only you," Jyuzou added before a small rumble could be heard in the distance. The thoughts of the storm from earlier only came closer.

The three continued treading the steep edge of the mountain, pushing their hands against the wall and looking left and right, down and up. After a while, they had to jump across a hole in the ground and found themselves on yet another hill, leading towards even more dangerous walks along the edge.

At one point, Morio tripped, falling a bit, as the rocks slid next to him. Jyuzou offered him his hand, but Daress was just a bit quicker, taking him out of a stonedrift, formed by all the smaller pebbles crushing against one another. Afterwards, they continued to the top, and the road carved something resembling an open corridor.

Sometimes, it would bend forward, forcing them to crouch down and squeeze through unsafe bits towards their way to the wider parts of the track. For a moment, they had to put their hands on thin and long, stick-like rocks and jump around them to safely land on the other side. After Morio made his jump, he immediately put his hand right where the emblem was, feeling nothing.

Jyuzou tried his best to ignore Morio's actions and stepped around when eventually something caught his attention.

"Hm?" Daress waddled over. "Oh, yes! We're on the other side!"

The two gazed into the place the two Morians assumed was an arena, seeing sharp rocks marking the clear opening above. However, something seemed strange. Inside, were pedestals, and something resembling a tombstone. There were no entrances on either side, as well as no seats for the people who would view the fights.

Morio put his hand on his forehead, feeling a sharp pain, before he stood up, blindly gazing at Jyuzou and Daress.

"What's that?" Jyuzou asked, pointing.

"I think it could be a temple!" Daress informed, after hesitating for a little while. He lay down and put his hands on the edge of the cliff.

"A temple?" Morio was confused. "Like..."

"The thing we saw at the Tilted Hill," Jyuzou recalled, gulping. "It wasn't active, yet, a demon ambushed us. We should be wary."

"I think we concluded it was searching for refuge, wasn't it?" Morio asked, in a light tone, as his body made involuntary movements that no one caught.

"Still, no reason to stay here and t-tempt fate." Jyuzou gulped. "Daress..." he crouched, putting his hand on his shoulder and shaking him a bit.

"Shh! Shh!" Daress shushed him, pushing his hands to the sides and smiling.

"Come on! This is no place for the three of us to be." Jyuzou added, grinding his teeth, and all of a sudden, the Clowinger jumped down, landing on all fours inside the temple. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Jyuzou lay down on the ground the same way Daress did, and Morio quickly followed, eagerly taking a peek.

"Come back here!" Jyuzou raised his voice, and Daress slowly turned to what resembled a tombstone. Something gleamed in his eyes, and the same smirk now turned into a grin, noticed by the glassy Morian.

"The..." Daress mumbled, moving back, blinking a bit. The expression on his face shifted instantly after he cleared his throat. "The temple is still active!" he pointed, with worry in his voice.

Jyuzou furrowed his eyebrows.

"Let's get out of here, then," Morio said. "Come back, Daress! Before something-"

Out of the blue, a black shadow blinded Morio and Jyuzou's eyes, forcing them to move back. Things suddenly went quiet.

After a moment, the two cautiously peeked over the edge again and spotted a horrifying sight. Daress was being held in the claws of a demon. The creature was three meters in size, and its wingspan stretched from one wall to the other. The Clowinger screamed in terror as he tried to look over at the Morians.

Jyuzou stepped in fear. "Aah!" his eyes shrank.

Morio immediately got up, breathing in and out, putting his hand on the Gloria.

"MORIO! JYUZOU!" Daress screamed out, battling with his claws, as the demon bit into his wings.

"Daress!" Morio yelled out, before taking a leap forward and running down the edge, before sliding into the temple.

"Morio!" Jyuzou reached his hand out, breathing heavily.

The other Morian furrowed his eyebrows, took out the sword, and slowly pointed it at the demon. A bolt of lightning swiftly went through, connecting to the handle and moving through Morio's entire body.