Suddenly, Trian jumped on Cyan and hugged him. "Cyan!"
Gold hopped in, full of energy. "We were looking everywhere for you!"
Jade was beside Gold, rubbing his arm. "Yeah... we were really worried."
Cyan couldn't believe his eyes. It was the other heroes!
Trian gave Cyan some kisses on the face, and then a kiss on the lips. Cyan kissed back, crying tears of joy.
"You guys are alive!" Cyan said, ecstatic. "We're all together now!"
Gold nodded, smiling. "Yeah!"
Jade threw himself onto the couch, sighing in relief. "It feels so good to get some rest after so many obstacles..."
"Yeah, it was rough, but it was all worth it to see you again!" Trian finally got off Cyan, dusting his sweater. "By the way, the others are here, right?"
Cyan nodded. "Yeah... I'll tell you everything tomorrow." He yawned.
"Got it..." Jade laid down on the couch. "I'll sleep here..."
"Where am I sleeping?" Gold asked.
"Well, there's one spare bedroom over there." Cyan pointed.
"Got it! I'll be in there then!" Gold began to walk away. "Goodnight!"
Trian looked at Cyan. "I'm sleeping with you, right?"
"Yeah, obviously!" Cyan pecked him on the cheek. "I love you..."
"I love you too..."
It was morning. Cyan had told the other heroes what had happened so far. He had also announced the others of their presence.
Now that all four heroes were present, everything seemed a bit less tense.
The tranquility only lasted for a moment.
Lycanthropy groaned. "We're running out of snacks!"
Barracuda sighed. "Don't... eat too much... we're limited on food..."
"All the water outside doesn't look that safe to drink..." Gold shivered. "The only pure water is in the fridge..."
"All the other houses we found here looked too broken down to move into..." Blixer added. "I think I heard some growling in some of 'em as well."
Cube was staring down at the table. "So... you're saying that we don't have much time?"
Barracuda nodded. "We need to... find a way... to get rid of this new corruption..."
"So... Do any of us have a plan?" Blixer asked.
Cube thought for a moment. "No... I can't really think of anything at all..."
The others nodded in agreement, causing Cube to panic a little.
Are they going to die here? With no information of who might've caused this?
Cyan noticed everyone's panic and felt a little guilty.
He finally built up the courage to tell everyone about the strange dream he had...
"Hey, can I tell you guys about something?"
Everyone snapped out of their thoughts and looked at him. "Hm?"
Cyan sighed. "It's this... nightmare I had. I was in this black and white Paradise, and... I saw the Tree of Life, but it was pitch-black... then... I saw this other guy, then he attacked me... that's all, I think..." He shivered, visualizing everything again. "I sometimes hear his voice..."
"That sounds... too similar... to our current situation..." Barracuda slid over to him. "Do you think... that your subconscious... is being tampered with by this unknown shape?"
Cyan froze, holding himself. "I... I hope not... I thought it was all just a dumb dream, but now I'm a bit freaked out..."
"This guy sounds like a real jerk! We should search for him and teach him a lesson!" Gold suggested.
"We don't even know if he's real or not..." Jade said. "We don't even know where the Tree of Life actually is!"
"I think Cyan knows what he's talking about." Trian leaned on Cyan's shoulder. "I think we should go outside and find where the tree is."
"The last time we saw it, it was missing... only that hole was there..." Cube caressed her arm. "I can barely sense its energy..."
Cyan got up from his chair. "So, from what I've heard so far, there's corrupts roaming outside, and the guy behind all of this is either completely made up in my head or somewhere out there...?"
"Yeah, we ran into a few while looking for you guys..." Trian said. "They're nuts! They saw us and immediately started attacking us. No cool introductions or anything like that..."
Cube shivered. "Me and Cyan didn't see anything like that at all..."
"Well, we're all together now." Blixer leaned back. "I'm sure we can get through them while looking for the mastermind."
"Yeah, what Boss said!" Lycanthropy added. "Let's go!"
Everyone prepared themselves, then left the house to search for the Tree of Life.
The woods used to look as friendly and peaceful as the rest of Paradise, but now it was dark and dangerous.
Gold was walking along with Jade, holding their weapons; Cube was using the pure triangles on her head to try and detect the Tree of Life easier-Cyan and Trian were beside her, on guard; Blixer, Barracuda, and Lycanthropy were together, also searching.
"If anything bad happens, I'm blaming you..." Jade glared at Gold.
"Come on, we'll be fine!"
"Cyan's the strongest out of us heroes, yet he seems to be getting affected by all of this-and now you're making everyone split up?!"
Gold's friendly smile disappeared. "Are you gonna just complain all of your life or do something useful for once?!"
Jade flinched at the yelling, then sheepishly looked away. "Sorry..."
Gold was silent. Why did he have such an outburst?
It came out of nowhere, like words were being forced out of his throat...
They continued walking down one of the many paths of the corrupted forest.
They eventually stopped once they found something strange...
A monochrome circus.
"What the...?" Jade scratched his head. "I don't remember a circus being in Paradise..."
Deep growling was faintly heard behind them.
Gold took Jade's hand, panicking. "Let's go inside! Quickly!"
"Wait, wha-?!"
Without a second thought, Gold ran into the circus with a struggling Jade. The door closed behind them.
Jade pushed Gold away from him. "Gold, what the hell?!" He yelled at him.
"We were gonna get attacked again!" Gold yelled back.
They continued arguing until a third voice giggled, and they both froze.
"You two seem to be having fun..."