Emanai had left the day before. She was gathering materials that they would need to have in a house, which they would build if they returned from their journey.

"Wow." Andrea's jaw dropped as they emerged from the forest, colossal cliffs towering high above them. "It's so beautiful."

The cliffs soared up into the sky, seeming to form a staircase which ascended into the clouds. They continued on into the distance, sheer cliff faces which seemed as if they would be impossible to scale. They appeared to form a pattern that could not be deciphered; a puzzle in itself.

Andrea rushed forward to scramble up part of the wall. Reaching a ledge a number of meters off the ground, she looked back over the road that they had traveled. It had taken them many days and different forms of traveling to reach the cliffs, and they had finally arrived.

As the falling sun spread its light, the cliffs seemed to have an inner glow. They seemed warm and welcoming, as if they were not made of hard, cold granite. Yet there was still something mysterious about them, as if there were some secret that was yet to be unlocked.

As the others walked towards the cliffs, Concord made a platform for them to mount so that they could travel up the cliffs without having to make the treacherous climb. As they settled down upon it, he began to raise it up into the air. Omar gave it a little boost to make it go faster, and soon they were well on their way to the top of the cliffs.

As they shot upwards, the wind gently sifted through Cascade's hair, a cold chill racing through her. She almost wanted to ask Andrea to make a small flame, but she didn't. She wanted to enjoy the cold of the wind, and the view, which grew ever more magnificent. Cascade shook her head as they ascended higher and higher. The world that they lived in was so beautiful. She simply could not understand why Sephtis or Vespara would ever want to destroy it. For she was sure that would be the result of letting strange, vicious creatures out of a trench and using them to conquer the world. A demolition of the beautiful, green world that they lived in.

As the sun started to disappear below the horizon, the cliffs became shrouded in shadows. A light mist settled down upon it, and it seemed that the mysteries that the cliffs held only deepened.

Andrea shivered in the cold of the evening. The sun had gone down and mist showered down upon her.

Cascade saw Andrea shiver, and raised a hand, stopping the mist from enveloping her. Andrea shivered once more, then seemed to recover from the chill of the mist and become warmer once more.

"Thanks." Andrea whispered. It seemed that if she spoke any louder, then it would disrupt the peace and quiet of the cliffside, where there was no noise other than a faraway waterfall, the rustling of leaves in the wind, a few lonely crickets, and the whisper of her voice.

Cascade nodded in reply, not even willing to go so far as to speak. The peace seemed to surround them completely, and for a moment Cascade almost forgot that they were trying to stop Sephtis. It just seemed so unbelievable that he would be at the cliffs and they could still look so peaceful and unscathed.

A small smile spread across Cascade's face for the first time in days. Ever since her meeting with the creature made of roots, she hadn't really gotten the chance to smile much. Every time they reached a new place, it seemed there was something corrupted by Sephtis, or some place that had been robbed. Some dark reminder of Sephtis' deeds that he had done before they had arrived, too late to stop him.

Now simply given a larger view, not a confined one that only showed her the path in front of them, but rather all the possible paths, Cascade saw that Sephtis had only caused havoc in a small area. As of so far, the world was safe. Cascade was reassured by the peace and quiet of the cliffs that there was still something left. That something would still be there for them, even if they failed.

Cascade didn't feel cold anymore. All she felt was the warmth of reassurance. It gave her reason to smile.

Suddenly, Cascade spotted something out of the corner of her eye. Her smile faded, and she turned to get a better look at it, but it had gone away once more. "What..." She looked around to see if she could catch a glimpse of it once more. It could have been a stray branch. But it also could have been Sephtis.

She saw it again and called it out. "There's something to the left! Towards Andrea!"

Everyone turned to look at the strange occurrence. Boulders were falling from off the top of the cliff. "Why would they be coming from only that place on the cliff?" Andrea was puzzled. "Oh no." The realization hit her as soon as she said it. "Con-"

The boulder appeared right above them. Concord threw his hands up to hold it in place. It was a huge chunk of rock. He realized, too late, that he could only have enough energy to hold up either the platform or the rock. The platform fell.

"CONCOOOOOOORD!" Omar wasn't particularly pleased with the situation.

Concord shoved the boulder aside, then created another platform for them to ascend the cliffs upon.

Sephtis shoved Concord downwards, increasing the pressure above him, making him fall faster than the others. He smiled evilly.

Concord saw the slab that he had created approaching rapidly. He put his arms out to brace the impact, but he knew that it wouldn't do much. As he hit the slab, everything went black.

Cascade landed forcefully on the slab of rock. Andrea and Omar landed lightly beside her. She shook her head. "How do you do it?" Then her face fell as she saw Concord laying still on the slab beside her.

"What happened to Concord?!" Andrea shouted at the others, dropping to her knees and desperately trying to wake Concord. Cascade checked to see if Concord was breathing.

"Is he alive?! Is he alive?!" Andrea was still shaking Concord vigerously.

"Please stop, Andrea. I can't tell whether if he's alive or not if you keep shaking him like that." Cascade's voice sounded worried, and her breaths came shakily.

Omar looked very concerned. His brow was furrowed as he tried to sense whether Concord was still breathing.

Andrea stopped shaking Concord, but she continued to fidget.

Cascade was starting to panic. She was unsure whether Concord was still living or not. She didn't say anything, even though Andrea was looking at her desperately for an answer, because she didn't want to tell them something false. No, it was better to wait to find out the truth.

"He's alive," Omar suddenly said.

"He is?" Andrea's hopes soared.

"Yes. But just barely." Omar continued to look very concerned as he knelt down beside Concord. "He's breathing very lightly. And it's getting lighter." Omar was noticeably anxious, though he tried to conceal it.

Then Omar took a deep breath. He blew small gusts of air into Concord's nose and mouth, to re-create the action of breathing in. Then he sucked the air which had already been used from Concord's lungs and released them back into the air. He continued the cycle until Concord could continue it on his own and breathe normally.

"He should be fine." Omar let out a deep sigh.

Andrea and Cascade had become tense, and now they both sighed with relief and dropped back onto the slab to recover. "Thank you so much, Omar."

"You're welcome." Omar sat down on the slab as well, exhausted. "That was close."

They all nodded.

"We should start moving now." Cascade looked at the falling sun. "It'll be too late to continue any later."

"But what about Concord?" Andrea asked.

"We'll have to leave him here for now, this rock is safely wedged into the cliff. He should be safe." Cascade sighed and rose from the slab. "But we can come and get him later. Plus, if there is a fight up there, we'd only be putting him in more danger than he needs to be in. He can't fight while he's not awake, and we'd just be putting him at risk."

Andrea nodded reluctantly.

Omar sighed. "All right. But how do we know that Sephtis won't just do the same thing? How do we know he won't just try to send some stones down to hit you, and then we'll all fall, with you not there to catch us?" 

"We don't know that." Cascade peered upwards. "But if he tries it we'll be prepared. Andrea and I can shoot many different types of projectiles up there, and I'm pretty sure that you can give us a boost back up if we fall while trying to dodge a boulder of some sort. Also, Sephtis can't be that accurate when he throws down those boulders. He can only make them fall. He just got lucky last time."

"How are we getting up there?"

"Another platform, actually." Cascade chuckled.

"Oh... right. I forgot you could do that as well."

"It's a... newly acquired skill. Concord's probably better at it than I am. And also, you might want to hold on really tightly to the handlebars. Because, you know, it's made of ice." Cascade quickly assembled a thick platform made of ice and put both Omar and Andera's hands on the handlebars.

"Yeah. Th-AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Omar dropped from his standing position once more and hugged the handlebar as the platform shot upwards at a high speed. "Maybe- maybe you could warn me before you do that next time?"

"Sure. If there is a next time. But I hope there isn't."

Andrea was holding onto the handlebars for dear life. Her eyes were closed and she had wrapped both her arms and legs around it. "Do you have to make it go this fast?" The wind whistled around her ears.

Cascade shrugged. "I suppose not. But if you want to stay alive longer, this is the way where there's less time in which we're vulnerable to Sephtis' attacks."

"Won't we be more vulnerable at the top of the cliffs?"

"Maybe we will. But I think that we should move along faster. Otherwise Sephtis might finish his plans even before we get there."

"How come we didn't move this fast before?"

"It takes practice," she admitted. "Plus, if there's any people down there, I didn't want them to wonder why there was a giant slab of earth speeding up a cliff face."

"Oh. That makes sense. So, once it was nighttime, we were going to speed up?"

"Yes. That was the plan."

"Oh. Well then. So... are we just going to zoom upwards like this until we reach the top?"

"Yes."

Andrea whimpered softly. She wasn't exactly looking forward to the trip ahead.

"Are you all ready?" Sephtis' voice echoed around the top of the cliff.

Ten huge, stone heads nodded, their dark eyes empty and hollow, and their faces expressionless and bleak.

A malevolent smile spread across Sephtis' face as he looked over at his new slaves. They could not make decisions for themselves, as their minds had been warped by Sephtis' trickery and twisted thoughts. He had contorted their minds to be bent to his will, though they did not know it consciously.

"They don't stand a chance." Sephtis shook his head as he walked past his ten stone soldiers, standing in a line.

The stone soldiers were twenty feet tall, with no weakness that he had discovered as of yet. Sephtis had seen them obliterate boulders, trees, and shelters at his command. Now that Concord had been taken care of, the Elementals appeared to have no defense against them. After all, Concord was the only one who could shift stone.

"If I wanted to stop them from coming up, I would have gotten rid of Cascade as well. But what's the point of stopping them if I can rid this world of them permanently?" Sephtis talked aloud to his stone soldiers, even though they could not hear him, and they could not react.

"I just needed to get Concord out of the way so that I could use you. The defenders of the cliffs. Well, you'll certainly be defending them now. Because you belong to me." Sephtis broke into hysterical laughter. His excitement was nearly too much for him to handle. He was taking in too many things. His small army of stone giants, the merciless creatures that he was about to discover, and the three demigods that he was about to subdue.

Sephtis clambered up on top of a rock and pointed towards the point at which the Elementals were going to appear on the summit of the cliff. "They have no idea! As they arrive, they'll be stunned!" His cackling laughter erupted once more. His vision became slightly blurry. His head spun. But he ignored it. "I will kill those weak children who ascend the cliffs, approaching! They will never again see the light of day!"

Sephtis tripped and stumbled as he leapt down from the boulder. Placing a hand on the feet of one of the stone soldiers, he turned to look at the edge of the cliffs, a malicious glint in his eye. "Come now, little children. Come to meet your fate."