A Touch of Death.

Veritas followed through Queen Valeira's footsteps. He witnessed her leave the Central City and make her way to somewhere unknown. 

She walked while carrying the Seraphim of Feeling in her arms.

The scenery changed from wide fields of grass, to gloomy forests, to long stretches of a river, and ultimately ending up within an empty piece of land with nothing but a lonely tree in the middle.

It was not a mere tree at all, it enveloped the entire land and encompassed the landscape in shadows.

There was a dwindling light in the middle of the empty land, and Valeira made her way towards it.

She was still as empty as ever. Although 4 days of nonstop walking would inevitably cause a normal human to collapse under the fatigue, Valeira still looked ever-so alive, and blood still flowed through her veins.

As a Hallowed, she was much different to the ranks below her. It would take weeks for her to even feel the slightest pang of hunger, and starvation would take months! 

A Hallowed has refined their Soul to surpass its limits. 

Starting from a Beyond rank, the human necessities begin to plummet as they would only need to live from their Soul. Of course, they would still be hungry, but it would take a considerable amount of time for it to be required.

Still, Valeira ate almost everyday to feel the luxury of being a human. She did not want to lose her humanity at all..

Her humanity was part of her tether to individuality. Without it, she would ultimately end up losing her sense of identity and eventually lose control, turning into an abomination that would terrorize the whole Kingdom.

'I'd never known that this place existed in Elrod...'

As Veritas followed through, he was awestruck by the large tree that enveloped an entire area of a barren land. 

The tree covered at least 20 hectares of land, and with it sucking up most of the sunlight, the grass and luscious greenery below had died down. 

It was as if this land itself is a land of Death.

All in all, it took 7 minutes to reach the massive glowing tree trunk in the middle. 

Valeira walked at a fast pace so it did not take considerably long to arrive.

On the trunk of the tree, Veritas saw countless bugs lying dormant.

They were moths, and their wings flapped as it radiated a blue glow.

It seemed that these bugs were what gave the source of light in this dark and barren land.

However, the bugs were not perturbed by Valeira's presence at all. They merely resided there and continued to slumber in peace.

Valeira circled the tree and searched for an opening. 

And for a few seconds.. a 3 meter hole was located at the base of the tree.

There was no light inside, as no bugs dared to enter it. 

So.. whatever was in there had to be something ominous... or there was just something preventing them from entering.

Valeira walked forward and an illusory firmament allowed her to enter inside, it seemed to stop her at first but she continued to take a step and it eventually let the Queen in.

Veritas stared at the 3-meter hole which the Queen had entered. Her figure seemed to take a step but it suddenly halted in Veritas' vision.

'What?'

He saw her radiant white-hair frozen in the air, and the Seraphim the she held almost seemed to freeze too.

The Queen was stuck frozen as she entered the inside of the tree, her figure was unmoving and unbothered as she motioned to take a step.

Veritas was perplexed and questioned the scene before him.

He stuck his finger out to test if something was wrong, but the illusory firmament felt weird to the touch. It seemed to be cold and it tingled his nerves directly.

'What is this?'

A couple of minutes passed and the Queen was still frozen in time. 

'Time dilation? Could it be?'

He raised his fingers to his chin to ponder about the situation.

'If what I'm seeing is true, then the Queen Valeira that is moving in front of me seems to be moving slower as if she were frozen.'

'Is it the unique nature of this tree? Then, how long until she comes back? Should I try and enter with her, would I feel the dilation too?'

Veritas shook his head sideways.

'No, no. I'm only guessing based on speculation, maybe it's something else - not entirely time dilation, but something that dealt with the mystics.'

He looked around and saw the glowing moths sleeping calmly on the trunk.

'Wouldn't hurt to try..'

So, Veritas walked in front of the hole and scanned it thoroughly. He couldn't use his Attunement to scout inside the tree due to the nature of his vision. 

His body was intangible, as if it were a spirit that roamed around in the surroundings.

Veritas could fly around if he wanted, but he very much preferred walking. 

'Here I go..'

Veritas stuck his fingers inside first, and felt the illusory firmament stop his fingers.

It felt like touching a stagnant stone wall, one could not simply walk through it. Unless they're a Pathbearer with an Attunement related to the nonphysical, of course.

Veritas pushed through for a minute and even tried forcing his whole arm to go through.

..but, it was useless.

So he stood back and sat on the ground with his legs crossed.

'Even in a vision, it wouldn't let me in?'

It was weird, Veritas didn't exist at this period so how was he affected by the illusory firmament in front of him?

'Truly peculiar.. Is this really a mere vision?'

His eyes suddenly widened as he recalled something in the past.

'Was the Golden City as vision too? No, the runes explicitly said that my Soul got lost which caused me to experience that as well. But thinking about it now..'

Back then, Veritas was in a discombobulated state. He was stuck between zero and infinity, as his capabilities were endless but also nothing at once. 

Thus, he did not comprehend the explanation of the runes well.

'Could that really happen? If it could.. then, am I also experiencing the same thing that I am now?' Veritas pondered as he covered his mouth with his hands, 'It can't be right? I am experiencing the vision of Queen Valeira, the girl from that dream! This is similar to the previous visions that I've experienced.'

'Or were those visions a completely different thing?!'

Veritas was conflicted by his sudden realizations. He then stood up with his hands still covering his mouth, and walked towards the illusory firmament.

'Visionshaper. Where have I heard it before?'

His Path truly is a mystery, not only was it of Seraph-Rank but it also screamed familiarity in Veritas' mind. As if it had been revealed to him once before, but his memories of that had been erased.

'Is this really a vision?'

Veritas questioned the validity of his presence. He was illusory, and could move as much as he wanted like in the previous visions that he had. But seemingly, the world still affected him in one way.

That being, the tree right in front of him.

It was unlike his vision from the life of Duncan nor was it the vision of the partial and complete Truth. In those, he was incorporeal and was unaffected by reality.

Or was that truly the case? 

'What if I'm reliving these experiences? But what about my body, where could it possibly be?... It can't be.. I'm overthinking these.' Veritas breathed deeply and said, "Calm down."

Although he could not feel it, Veritas' nerves suddenly calmed down.

'For now, I should focus on the present. These are purely theoretical, I have no basis for these claims.'

With that, he scanned the 3-meter hole deeply, seeing if there were any links of it towards the mystic.

He saw the figure of the Queen taking a step, carrying the slumbering Seraphim, she had not moved an inch in the time that Veritas had been here.

He considered whether it was time dilation or something related to the mystical that stopped her. 

Veritas leaned more in the former, as it made proper sense.

Once again, he pointed his fingers at the illusory firmament.

'Still nothing.'

A stone wall seemingly blocked Veritas' path from entering.

He pushed his fingers and then his two hands, and then he even included pushing through his body! 

"Grrrnghh!"

But it was useless as the firmament did not let him through at all.

Veritas fell back after 10 long minutes of pushing through.

Having nothing else to do, he sat down and gazed upon his Soul.

[Veritas Alpas Elrod]

[Path: Visionshaper...]

He skimmed through his avatar and looked for something to be useful. Still, he was merely passing time and he could not use any of his skills at all, that goes along with his Path.

'Damn!'

Feeling annoyed, Veritas clicked his tongue and looked through his Soul instead.

It was still the normal pure-white splendor that enveloped his entire body. The only difference from before was it was significantly brighter and larger than before. 

His Soul was as calm as a soft breeze and there were no fluctuations that could be seen. 

Of course, after slaying thousands of Impure creatures, his Soul would've become more refined!

Veritas felt satisfied due to his accomplishments. Now, he was only a step away from ascending to Pure-rank. 

Others may have taken many months or even years to ascend but Veritas caught a lucky streak and had the opportunity to slay many abominations.

'I'm close.. so close.'

As he was leaving out his spiritual state, Veritas suddenly caught a glimpse of a peculiarity within the core of his Soul.

It was located directly at its heart and it pulsated black. Although it was a mere speck of darkness, Veritas felt quite concerned by this.

'Corruption? No, something different. What is this?'

Veritas reached for the tiny speck of darkness that pulsated across his pure-white Soul. 

Within a moment, his fingers reached the darkness and a sense of deja vu washed over him.

Upon reaching the speck... nothing happened.

'What is this feeling deep within me?'

It was a feeling of familiarity wherein Veritas sensed that this situation had occurred before.

Still, he dismissed that thought and left the spiritual state, coming back to reality.

Then, Veritas wanted to try entering the illusory firmament once more..

"Here goes." Veritas breathed deeply, and composed himself. "If it doesn't work then I'll just wait until the Queen comes back.."

He reached his finger to the firmament and felt the illusory stone wall stopping him.

However! He felt it pass through and wash his entire body with a touch of death. Dread immediately filled his Soul, and he suddenly felt like fainting.

But Veritas pushed through, and stuck his entire arm to the firmament.

Seconds turned into minutes as Veritas struggled to enter the hole.

However.. he was at the last stretch, and only needed his foot to enter!

"Come on!"

He pulled his leg to get the last part of his body inside, and upon doing so.. it slipped in and pushed him forward.

With a loud thud, Veritas lay on the floor and found himself eating the moss.

"Blegh!"

Spitting it out, Veritas immediately stood up and scouted his surroundings. 

Roots of the trees were overgrown and felt as if it were imbued with Soul. There was green moss on the floor and the walls, leaves hung from some of the roots, and the path led to a place further underground.

The inside of the tree was full of darkness but it was no problem for Veritas as he donned the Eye of the Kraken.

But most importantly, Veritas noticed that the Queen that had been stuck in time had suddenly disappeared.

Thus, he stared at the path leading underground and made his way down.