Meera sat up and immediately regretted it. Her world spun as her head threatened to burst, and her shoulder burned something fierce. She quickly activated Greater Vitalize, and it did the trick. Her world stopped spinning, and the pain instantly vanished. She mentally commanded the armor to open up around her shoulder so she could verify it was okay, and it was. There was no lingering damage from the basilisk's poison.

It took several moments for everything to come under control, until she felt like she could move her head without sending her vision swimming. She wasn't seeing double for one, and so she carefully stood and surveyed the dimly lit room.

She was in a study or someone's office, from the looks of things. There were several bookcases filled with what seemed like ancient-looking books and yellowed scrolls, some of which were unfurled across the table.

There was no one in the room. She had been lying on a makeshift bed, which was nothing but another table. It made her neck ache, but Greater Vitalize had taken care of that. She took a careful step, not trusting herself, and when she didn't crumple to the ground, she sighed in relief.

That basilisk's poison really did a number on me.

She walked over to the table to try to figure out who the man was who had saved her, and the several unfurled scrolls with pictures of dragons had also drawn her attention. As she walked, she realized that her vision was pathetic. She wanted to reach for her glasses, only to realize that her Mirrorbound Sight was no longer active. She activated it and sighed as her true vision returned.

She scanned several papers, and it seemed like whoever this man was, he was doing some research on dragons. Truth be told, she couldn't even read half of the papers as they seemed to be in a dozen different languages. But she could tell they all had something to do with dragons, as most of them had drawings of one part or another of a dragon.

Then something caught her eye as she lifted a scroll that had the title—Dragon Evolution. The first thing that followed was a paragraph detailing how the dragons evolved into archdragons. She had precisely one moment to wonder what this man was doing reading up on archdragons when the door burst open.

She instinctively dropped the scroll and pulled off a chakram, ready to hurl it at whoever or whatever was coming through the door.

The man froze. He wore a dark green smock that had splotches of what she figured were dark blood. What creature the blood belonged to, she could not say. In his right hand, he held a massive machete.

"Who are you?" Meera barked. "And you have two seconds to drop that machete before I drop it and your hand to the ground."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Is that any way to greet your savior?"

Meera lowered her chakram. "So, you're the…"

"Yes, I'm the one who saved your life," he replied.

He moved in without caring what Meera did next. He dropped the machete into a wooden bucket and dropped to the ground beside it. He seemed exhausted. He had some grey running through his otherwise mostly black beard. He had a small turban on, which was just as messy as his clothes. He had a scar that ran down the left side of his face and into his beard. It was hard to determine his age; he looked to be anywhere from thirty to mid-forties.

[Keeper of the Wilds – Level 288]

"Though for your crimes against the poor animals of this jungle, I should've let you die," he said with a sigh. "If I hadn't taken the oath to safeguard all life within my borders, I would've let the poison finish its vicious task."

Meera stared at him a moment before replying. "Why do you say that?"

His eyes turned hard. "Do you really need to ask that? You, who decimated the lives of so many innocent Druvis. It's been four days, and I still haven't come close to restoring all the lives you've destroyed in your hunger to get stronger." He shook his head. "All you Ascendants are like this. Only caring to gain more power, not caring one lick, who you trample in your path to power."

Meera started at the mention of her being an Ascendant. She realized that Misidentify was no longer masking her Ascendant aura. So, right now, he was feeling her aura. She nearly panicked as she didn't want anyone to know about that yet.

Her first thought was to activate Misidentify, but she stopped as she didn't want to raise any questions as to why she suddenly lost her divine aura.

Then something else he said had struck her. "Did you say it's been four days?"

"If you weren't an Ascendant, I truly would've let you die." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Walk with me."

He didn't wait for Meera. He stood and walked to the door. She fumbled after him, banging her knee on the edge of his desk. The treehouse, as she figured, was where they still were, and it was bigger than it looked from the outside. They moved to another room, which looked to be his living room. Finally, he opened the door, and fresh air wafted into the treehouse. The air smelled of trees and decay.

Stolen story; please report.

She walked outside and was unprepared for the scene she saw.

There were stacks of what appeared to be dead Druvis. Mutilated body parts were scattered in the trees. It was as if someone had unleashed such fury upon these creatures to ensure that they were minced meat. The ground was stained black with their blood. But that was only one portion of the ground. The other was even more strange.

A giant snake was gathering the cut-up body parts and placing them in neat piles. With a start, she realized the snake to be the basilisk that she had cut right down the middle. But it was whole again. It's two halves joined together, leaving behind not even a trace of the cut.

"Is that…"

"Yes, it's the basilisk you killed," the man replied. "He's been helping me restore what you did."

At the sound of her voice, the basilisk turned and spotted her. Its whole demeanor changed immediately. She could feel the hate radiating from the snake, but there was something else as well. There was a slight shake to its body. At first, Meera thought it was trembling with rage, but then she realized it was fear. The snake was afraid of her.

"Stop that," the man snapped, looking at Meera.

"What did I do?"

"Have you recently just become an Ascendant, or are you just an idiot?" His voice held unchecked annoyance. "Basilisks are very smart creatures. They can sense emotions, and you're radiating an aura that says you want to attack."

So, it was true, what she had felt from Arhazar when he radiated aura was true for her as well. She would need to learn to control it, or she could simply use Misidentify. She activated the skill, but this time only used a part of it to hide her aura. The basilisk stopped trembling immediately. Now it looked like it wanted to attack.

But the man let out a series of hisses and clicks, and the snake went back to work.

"How did you do that?" Meera asked, bewildered. "Who are you?"

"I am Dara, and I am the Keeper of this jungle and all the creatures that call it home. I am the one who brings back all these poor creatures when so-called adventurers like yourselves waltz in here and do this."

He motioned to the scene of carnage.

"I just did that because they were surrounding your home," Meera said. "I wanted—"

"To save poor old me, whom you thought was trapped," he interjected. "If you had taken a moment to stop and assess the scene before you. You might've seen that the animals were not attacking. There were predators and prey alike roaming and milling about. But no, all you saw were druvis and an easy way to earn lots of experience. So, you rained down your fury on them." He clapped sarcastically. "Bravo, Ascendant, bravo, you must've earned lots of levels from that."

He might as well have slapped her. Her cheeks burned, and she couldn't meet his gaze. He was right. That was precisely what she had thought, and she did see it as an easy way to gain lots of experience.

"I'm sorry," Meera said.

He scoffed. "Well, you're sorry isn't going to bring back all these innocent creatures. You're healed. It's best that you leave, Ascendant, before you unwittingly cause more loss of life."

He pushed past her and walked into the treehouse, slamming the door shut. She couldn't deny that she was taken aback by his words. If it weren't for his curt words, she wouldn't even have thought back about what she did last night. After all, they were just monsters. But the Meera back on Earth would've been horrified by her actions. She would've been disgusted with this new one. It had only been two months, but she had changed so much. All these animals had indeed just become experience for her when she used to run a bunch of NGOs that focused on saving animals.

Meera stayed there and watched the basilisk pick up the body parts of the slain animals and put them in neat piles. She couldn't figure out what it was trying to do. By all accounts, it should've just eaten them all, but it made no such move.

As she watched, she realized the piles weren't random. It was putting together pieces from animals of one kind into a single pile. The limbs from the Kyldars went into one pile, and the ones from Exarions went into another, and so on.

Meera stared at the creature for a long while. There was intelligence there, for how else would it know what went where? She must've been there a long time, as the door opened behind her and Dara returned.

His face soured. "You're still here?"

"I didn't want to leave without truly apologizing for my actions," Meera said. "Please let me stay and help clean up this mess. I have a skill that can put them all to rest immediately. We can give them a funeral pyre and clear the mess I created."

His eyes widened. "And create a forest fire that will burn down half the jungle. And who said, I aim to burn all the dead."

Meera frowned. "You're not?"

"No," he snapped. "We're putting them in piles so I can breathe life anew into them once again."

Her eyes widened. "You can do that?"

"I can, as long as I can find all their body parts. I've only been able to restore a third of the creatures that you killed, and the gods only know how long it'll take me to finish my work."

Then something clicked. Manazhar had mentioned that there were always two Kyldars around the door. The pieces fell into place.

She stared at the Keeper. "You're the one who puts the Kyldars together by the door once the prince leaves."

He grunted in response. "In their arrogance, the Varshans supplanted that infernal door, and every few days, someone comes through to kill those Kyldars and many more creatures."

"That is incredible," Meera cried. She almost added that he was perfect for training, as he could keep bringing back animals that she had killed. Though she bit her tongue about that, as she figured he wouldn't be too happy with that statement.

"Of course, you would say that," he grumbled. "It's time for me to get back to undoing the damage you've caused to this ecosystem and for you to leave."

Meera clasped her hands together and bowed at the waist. "Please, Dara, I beg forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. Please let me help you in undoing the damage I've caused."

He stared at her intently. She was being serious. It wasn't like she had anywhere to go. The gala wasn't for a few days, and what the man had said touched the part of her soul that she had left behind. She truly wanted to help him restore the animals that she had killed.

"Fine, but no more fighting or killing any of my animals," Dara said. "You raise your blade one more time, and I will unleash the strongest being on you. Then we'll both see how strong you truly are, Ascendant."

"Meera," she said. "My name is Meera, and I won't kill anyone else in your jungle."

"Then let's get to work."

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