Jacob continued holding on to Maria, when suddenly Lidia seemed to fall out in the grass in front of them. She looked up at the two in horror, then took a fighting stance. Jacob could tell there were some dried tears on her face. He didn’t know who or what she had to fight, but it clearly took a lot in her to do. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"What the hell. Now I have to fight Maria and Jacob?! They’re not real, Lidia. They’re not real."

Jacob stood up and raised his hands.

"Wait! We’re real, Miss Lidia! We just came back from fighting our trial too! I think it was a test we had to pass! A very cruel one, but a test nonetheless."

Lidia continued holding her stance.

"Yah right. You look nothing like Jacob. You couldn’t even copy his nose."

Jacob held up the severed nose and showed it to Lidia. Maria slowly stood up while sniffling and fixed her hair before looking at Lidia.

"It’s really us! I just lost this in my fight!"

"Mom. I’m so glad you’re okay. Where’s everyone else?"

Lidia slowly put her guard down.

"It’s really you guys? What the hell just happened?"

Jacob was about to speak but felt extremely lightheaded and fell to the ground. Maria quickly rushed to his aid.

"We need to stop the bleeding. You’ve lost too much blood."

She walked over to Docs pack and grabbed a few clean clothes from it before running back over to him and wrapping it around his face.

"Hopefully he’ll be back soon to reattach it."

Just then, both Doc and Squabee seemed to appear out of thin air in front of them. Neither of them looked too damaged, but both of them looked severely drained. Doc especially held a hollow expression on his face. However, Squabee simply seemed more annoyed than anything.

"I hate those stupid trials so much. They never get easier no matter how many times you do them."

An anger started swelling in Jacob’s heart and he walked over to Squabee. He lifted her by the collar of her shirt and screamed in her face.

"What the hell did you just make us do?! Why didn’t you warn us about this?!"

Squabee lifted her hands up and looked away from him, refusing to meet his gaze.

"The trials are completely random! Sometimes you don’t even get any on the way back. They are supposed to be a testament to show that if you are returning, you are returning loyally. In other words, it makes you kill the thing that you care about most in this world to show your undying loyalty to them."

Jacob released her from his grasp, letting her fall to the ground. She rubbed her neck while she looked back up at him annoyed.

"I’m sorry. I should have warned you guys, but they have never happened to me before so I thought we would get lucky."

’The thing you care about most. So, me and Maria saw each other?’

As screwed up as it was, Jacob was slightly happy to be the thing she cared about most. He was also sure that she felt the same about her being the thing he cared about most in his world. However, hearing this made Jacob wonder what Lidia or Doc saw and who they had to kill in their illusion. Not only that, but the illusions also seemed to be slightly imperfect in some way.

’Did they struggle just as much as us? And where’s Slimo? What’s taking him so long? Who does he have to fight?’

Right as he thought about this, Slimo seemed to appear out of thin air. His back was turned to the entire group. An eerie presence was coming off his being. Lidia saw him appear and called out to him.

"Slimo! It’s us! We’re not illusions, so don’t kill us please!"

Slimo still refused to turn around, completely silent. Instead, he simply sat down on the ground where he appeared and hugged his knees while staring off into the distance. Right as Lidia was about to approach him, she was stopped by Doc.

"I wouldn’t get near him if I were you. He seems to be fighting something in his head right now. Just leave him be and let me heal you all first."

Lidia looked at Doc, stunned.

"What? If he’s going through a rough time, all the more reason for us as friends to be there for him."

She tried to walk past him, but Doc stopped her again.

"Please, Miss Lidia. These types of wounds are not ones that can be healed with friends. He wants to fight it himself. Otherwise, he would have walked over here already. However, when he’s ready, be sure to welcome him with open arms. He will need it."

Lidia remembered who she had to fight and pouted.

"Maybe I’m just different. When I get reminded of how fragile life is, all I want to do is hold on to it tighter."

"I understand. Let’s get everyone healed up."

As everyone, except Slimo, huddled into a circle. Doc raised his hands at healed all their wounds at an alarming rate. Jacob had fixed his nose in place before the healing process started, allowing it to reattach itself. Maria studied his face when it was reattached and punched him on the shoulder.

"Stop being chopped up all the time! I’m tired of seeing your body parts being detached from you!"

Jacob chuckled and kissed the top of her head.

"I promise I’ll be more careful from now on. We’re really lucky we have Doc, otherwise my fighting style would have gotten me killed long ago."

"Exactly, so stop being such an idiot."

Maria laid her head on his shoulder after saying this. As they all sat back up, something seemed to slowly rise from the lake. It was the round disk that Jacob touched before. It seemed to be attached to a long arm, like a shield. When the arm breached the water, it pointed in a direction northeast of their location.

"It looks like we finally got a direction. Any more trials we need to worry about?"

Squabee shook her head.

"Whenever someone does get trialed, it only happens once on the trip back."

"Good."

As they all prepared to leave, Slimo finally seemed to stand up off the ground. When he turned around, Jacob was surprised to see he wasn’t remotely injured from his fight. However, his face looked dark and gloomy. Whatever, whoever he had to kill must have been taking a large toll on him. He slowly walked behind the group with his head down before addressing them.

"Let’s continue. I’ll watch our backs on the trip this time."

Lidia stared at him confused.

"Who’s going to keep me company in the front?"

Slimo didn’t respond for moment.

"Not me. Not right now. I’m sorry."

Lidia looked a little hurt by his comment but understood he needed his space right now and left him be. When everyone put their wooden packs back on, they all slowly started marching northeast, trying to leave the marsh as fast as possible.