After staying the night in Jut, we were on our way to the forest of Eviltrees , which stood in front of the mighty Garuberk Tower. As we approached, the enormous structure loomed over the Ice-Digger with a dark and dreary presence. It was a very strange looking building, mangled and twisted, just like the Eviltrees. In fact, it looked to be a giant tree itself, but somehow different. There was almost a feeling of life to it, although it looked no more alive than the stone the Esper Mansion was constructed of.
We exited the Digger and Chaz held the Eclipse Torch high above his head. It released a brilliant beam of light, and in an instant, the forest of carnivorous trees had disappeared, leaving a clear path leading to the tower. We started to walk towards the mighty structure, all the while noticing the acrid smell that the air had just taken on.
I had forgotten how hard it was to walk in a snowstorm, and let me tell you, it was no picnic. It seemed like it took forever to get to the huge, towering door, and we walked in to see a great surprise. My senses had been right; this place was…alive. The walls and floors pulsed with a steady rhythm, a heartbeat, if you will. The walls and ceiling seemed to be made of a sticky substance almost like what the inside of your body may have looked like, had you turned it inside out. I turned to Rune and said, "This place is alive. We are inside a living organism." He gave me a look of acceptance and grasped my hand tightly. This entire building was an emanation of Dark Force itself, pure evil.
As we walked further into the first floor, we came upon what seemed to be a giant eyeball sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Just before, Chaz had remarked, "Hey guys, there aren't any doors around here. How are we supposed to get higher up into the complex?" Wren did a quick scan and then replied, "My sensors indicate that the giant eyeball in the center of the room has something to do with hidden walls and doors." Chaz got a sickening look on his face and queasily asked, "You mean I have to TOUCH that thing?" Wren nodded his head and motioned for Chaz to approach the object. Chaz reluctantly put his hand out, and while starting to turn green, placed his palm on the top of the eye. His hand sunk into the moist, spongy mass and then was suddenly expelled. "Whoa! What did I do wrong?" Chaz asked. As he spoke, the walls on the right side of the room suddenly disappeared and a door materialized set into a new wall some ten meters back from the old one. "Apparently you did nothing wrong," Wren remarked, as the party began to move forward once more.
We had been moving upwards for a good hour, climbing higher and higher into the tall structure. While walking through the dark halls, we heard thumping, like giant hooves moving towards us. Wren used his sensors and couldn't come up with a source for the noises. We were all kind of befuddled and kept on our way, paying it no mind. We rounded a corner, made of bone-like objects, and walking towards us was a giant King Saber. The floor shook under its colossal hooves, and in its hand it carried a Ray-Spear, a deadly weapon that kills with a laser beam. It quickly took aim and at Wren. He was hit with the massive beam and immediately fell tot he ground, in an electric seizure. Kyra rushed to his side and instantly used a repair-kit, while Rune cast an immense blast of Tandle. Rika followed with Disrupt, slashing the behemoth in the lower torso. It retreated in pain for a moment, long enough for me to fire an arrow of pure Savol right into its heart, killing it.
"What the Hell was that thing?" Chaz questioned loudly. "It was a King Saber," I replied. "And apparently it left us a little prize." Resting in a pile of steaming entrails that used to be the colossus, was a shiny Genocyclaw. "Another one?" Rika questioned. "Your ability to instantly kill, from my calculations, has just doubled," Wren spoke as Kyra was putting the finishing touches on her repairs to his metal framework. "You will have a better chance of achieving the Diem effect with both equipped." Rika approached the heap of innards, and carefully retrieved the weapon. Then we pressed on, further into the living building.
When we emerged from the tiny, quasi-elevator that whisked us up about seven floors, we saw a giant window, or what appeared to be, in front of us. Upon closer examination, Wren determined it to be a transparent film, skin-like. Looking out of the "window," we saw the barren terrain of Dezo, covered with a thick blanket of snow and ice. "Hey," Kyra whispered. "Do you hear something?" We all ceased our talking and concentrated on listening. From the shadows at the end of the room, came a noise, one that I recognized. As I combed my mind for its source, it suddenly hit me. It sounded like Rune breathing in my ear at night…breathing. I realized, just about the time that Kyra and Rune sensed it, that the sound we heard was Dark Force, and the Garuberk Tower itself, breathing. As we approached the origin of the sound, two red eyes appeared from the murkiness of the room. Dark Force had just opened its eyes to see who had awakened it from its slumber.
