Back to Ren and Infernia.

  The two minutes had passed and Infernia's skill activated

  Flames poured out of the feather ring and shined brightly, then molded into the familiar form of the little red bird with black feathered tips: the long curled tail feathers and the crested head.

  I couldn't hear her voice in my head anymore, and the dancing chirping bird gave off a very different impression than the very serious monotone woman that had been speaking in my mind.

  “Chirp Chirp”

  Infernia bounced up and down, as the little bird ran over to a patch of ashes that looked to have been a rather bulbous plant, it was all dried up, its leaves having curled and several were burnt to ashes.

  She tore at the withered plant, pulling out a pretty red stone, it was round and had a slight glow to it.

  She brought it over to me and placed it in my hand. It was warm to the touch, but I wasn't sure what its use was. I remembered the Thunderbird had grabbed a similar-looking crystal, though it was much larger and the shape and color were more defined.

  “I'm not sure what this is, Infernia?”

  I held it back out to her and she plucked it out of my palm, then she struck it a few times with her beak breaking the glowing stone up, and then she ate the pieces.

  It was likely some material for enhancements so as we continued moving through the burning woods, Infernia would pick out more and more of the gems munching on them. Surprisingly I hadn't gotten attacked by any veteran player or their huge beasts yet, it seemed to me we had the forest fire all to ourselves, or perhaps the map size was just very large.

  Then a huge burst of frost covered all of the tree tops, extinguishing the flames and freezing all of the plants and terrain in an instant causing a huge misty fog to fill the air.

  “You know, while this is a fight between new players, the fact that you slaughtered them all. Must mean you're quite the hotshot, tell me who's your Teacher?”

  My eyes were drawn to the speaker as I looked up. My eyes hurt from the chilling frosty air.

  A large white witch hat covered her face, while her body was clothed in a white gown that looked weaved from Ice, her long hair, white like the rest of her was in a braid that coiled down hanging past her legs, and below her where she sat, was the giant Face of a white snake, it's blue eyes staring at me, as its tongue the size of a tree slithered in and out of its mouth.

  Infernia quickly flew in between me and the large snake, Chirping loudly

  “Teacher, I don't know what you mean?”

  “What a cute little bird, are you the one who set the fire?

  Infernia stared at the woman and looked back to the snake sensing the hostility

  After a pause as she seemed to expect an answer from Infernia, she continued.

  hmm, so you don't know what an apprentice is.

  then how about this, who invited you to Dragons Nest?”

  “Oh, well that would be Shiro”.

  “Ah the guy with the title The Tree at the End of Time, well that's quite ironic isn't it, that the apprentice Shiro took in, but I suppose it makes sense that such an annoying man would have an equally annoying trainee ”

  The snake's eyes had focused on Infernia, its eyes that were larger than her whole body fixed its slit irises on her tiny flapping form.

  Stolen story; please report.

  *Snap*

  The snake engulfed Infernia in a single precise movement.

  “no matter, I'm going to kill you and end your session right here even if your mentor is Shiro,

  You see all those ashes and burnt trees that you engulfed in your silly flames, my sister was one of the new players, and your fire burnt her up, and scorched her to death!”

  She smiled down at me openly with rage, her face looking identical to the predatory gaze of her serpent

  A detonation went off inside the snake's mouth as bits of fire escaped its closed maw, but it had no effect as the snake simply exhaled the smoke with a misty breath.

  “Normally it's wrong for high-level players to interfere with the newbies, it's a taboo of sorts, but I'm quite annoyed by you burning up my little sister on her first ever time here, so I think I'll be destroying you now” she spoke with a sly smile that hardly hid her deadly wrath.

  As the snake opened its large icy white mouth bearing its long fangs.

  “I want to see you freeze!”

  “The world turned white as a blast of winter was released from the snake's mouth my eyes closed tight from the cold were frozen shut, but I hadn't left the game yet, and the cold stopped before it swallowed me whole”

  When I opened my eyes, there was a huge pink flower now frozen blocking the path of the snake.

  “Shiro!” the woman snarled

  The snake's tail shattered the frozen flower with an annoyed sweep, the ash was kicked up into the air and froze becoming like snow as the tail continued on its path to crush me, but then thick roots sprouted from the snow and coiled around the snake length stopping it's momentum

  The snake moved its head, carrying the woman to face a massive tree that stood far above the forest, its branches reaching the clouds.

  Compared to the snake whose head peaked at the top of what used to be the forestline, the tree's size nearly eclipsed the entirety of the forest.

  Flowers begin to blossom outwardly from the large flower that has blocked the ice, sprouting up from the ashes and burnt trees covering them and making a field of flowers reds greens blues purples all sorts of colors cover the area of the burnt forest even the frosted areas near the serpent are covered by bluish icey flowers.

  And then a voice resonates from them as if the flowers themselves were Shiro standing there

  “Lume, you tried to eat up my buddy, you know you're not supposed to get involved in the new player's quarrels”

  “I don't care! He killed my sister! She's probably crying out there waiting for my session to finish, it's not fair that he set the whole forest of beginnings on fire, she didn't have a chance, what would I do if she's traumatized and says she doesn't want to play anymore!”

  The woman in the snake screamed in the direction of the tree, her huge hat wobbling as she shook her head and arms in fury.

  “Haha, yea I'll give him a talking to, but for now, I'm going to have to remove you from this session”

  A colossal branch matching the size of the snake itself shot out from the distant tree, Proliferating and splitting off into its branches, as they struck the ground new trees sprang from the ground. It was like a forest was erupting from the ground and charging at the snake

  the snake blasted a breath of frost at the incoming cascade of trees, but the ice was torn through in an instant as the trees continued to sprout and multiply

  The giant snake was quickly surrounded by these coiling trees as vines and branches all cracked and bent to ensnare the beast.

  The snake begins to slither rapidly, zig-zagging around the branches. Leaving patches of frost in its wake

  “Damn you, your blessings are so much higher ranked than mine, isn't this just bullying

  “Well I figured I should show off to my buddy so he doesn't get a big head about his big win against the newbies”

  The white snake snaps its tail with lightning-quick reactions as it avoids the thorns and wooden spikes that shoot from the surfaces of the branches.

  Vines wrap around it but then are turned to ice and shattered.

  The snake with its incredible speed had slithered all the way to the base of the tree which had been attacking it.

  it bit into the side of the tree injecting a frost that clung and broke off chunks of the tree, but then the clouds parted and the large upper branches that created a canopy that blocked out the sun revealed countless purple flowers with yellow insides that seemed to glow like the sun.

  Then with a flash, the area around the tree was destroyed with some areas still glowing red from the heat of the laser shot from the flowers.

  The snake was scorched along with the woman who had been riding it.

  "Lilly I'm sorry, I promise, I'll make it up to you."

  she and her snake then vanished entirely.

  Then the giant tree rumbled its way over the flowers and the trees, as the plants seemed to integrate with the tree itself as they touched, blending into the bark. The sound itself was terrifying as such a large mass moved the sun was once more blocked by its canopy but those flowers mimicked the sun producing the light from above so that any who looked up would simply think it was the sunlight.