What lies beyond the reaches of Heaven? Can one even go further than the borders of the Heavenly realm? Many have tried, Immortals and Mortals alike, yet none have ever returned. Only Heaven himself would know, and he rarely shares anything with anyone these days.

  There was a time when Heaven spoke via his angels to everybody in the era of [REDACTED]. Now, everything has changed, ever since that blight took root in the realm.

  –Excerpt from [REDACTED], by [REDACTED]

  Harry stalked a lone Ratkin from a distance, hidden behind layers of thick bushes and vines, watching as it munched on a green bug-like creature with a soft, glowing outer layer. The Ratkin itself looked different than the usual ones Harry encountered; A smooth black wooden exoskeleton grew from sections of its body, covering most of its vital parts. It also functioned as a natural weapon; parts were over the Ratkin’s arms and human-like hands and fingers, ending in sharp, serrated wooden claws.

  He’d been watching this Ratkin for the last hour or so, waiting for the right moment to strike.

  Harry wanted to attack, but couldn’t be rash; the entire forest was crawling with Ratkins, some hidden and others in plain sight, sweeping through almost every part of the outskirts.

  Some even hid from his [Thermal vision] trait; these were the worst and gave off a great sense of danger. Thankfully, Harry only encountered these when he tried to reach the Ratkin forest's middle regions.

  Still, it hadn’t been easy, because of the [Kin link] trait; they always had a vague impression of his presence and were constantly alert.

  Harry’s only silver lining was that the primal presence that had amplified the Ratkin’s trait temporarily had withdrawn before he entered, else they’d be able to track him just as he tracked them.

  As it was now, they could only sense his general direction vaguely. That all changed when Harry felt something brush against his mind from the depths of the trait, slamming into [Wall] and recoiling with a shrap hiss of pain.

  At this moment, Harry realized something; he’d fallen right into their trap.

  His mind exploded with connections as [Kin link] flared, alerting him to hundreds of kin signatures rapidly encircling him.

  “Found you,” echoed a voice within his mind, somehow managing to bypass [Wall]. “Fret not, strange kin, come with us, I will help you.”

  Hundreds of ratkin burst through what Harry thought was previously solid ground as soon as the being finished speaking, trapping him and cutting off any potential avenue of escape.

  Harry’s eyes darted around rapidly; he counted at least three hundred and felt more rapidly closing in.

  The rat’s mind went into overdrive as he considered his options. Should he surrender to this strange being? Or should he fight his way through and escape?

  If he went peacefully, what did this entity mean by ‘fix’? Did it mean death? Or perhaps some form of enslavemnet? Harry didn’t know, but what other option did he have? There was no logical way to win against thousands of Ratkin.

  They weren’t even the basic kin he encountered regularly; Harry could barely find any weakness in any of them, no matter how he looked with his [Enhanced Eyes] trait.

  Though the rat hated the thought of surrendering, he forced himself to be logical; his intuition warned him of immediate death the moment he tried to fight, so he had to surrender if he wanted to live.

  The rat made up his mind in a split instant, deflating visibly as he relaxed, retracted his claws, and teeth in an attempt to look as submissive and harmless as possible.

  The ground behind him parted a second later, and a thick brown root slithered out of the opening and over Harry’s paws, legs, and snout, binding them in a web of roots that barely allowed any movement.

  With an audible snap, the root disconnected from its source in the ground and began to rapidly dry up until it resembled the wood used in Kin exoskeletons.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Very good, strange Kin, now follow your brothers and sisters home.”

  A massive and fully armored stepped Ratkin stepped out from the crowd after that, grabbed Harry as if he weighed nothing, and hoisted him over its shoulder before it began moving inward, into the depths of the Ratkin forest alongside all the other Ratkin.

  The world became a blur of shifting heat signatures and sensations as they moved with shocking speed, more than what Harry thought possible for Ratkin.

  He attempted to keep track of his surroundings, but the wooden binding on his snout grew out after reaching further into the depths of the forest, covering his eyes and ears, leaving only his nose and mouth to breathe.

  Harry couldn’t clearly sense what was happening after that, but the rat felt himself picking up seed as the Ratkin carried him sped up, leaping, ducking, and gliding as it moved.

  All this made Harry wonder where they were taking him; was the environment within the forest depths so drastically different from the outside to warrant such movement?

  Harry didn’t know, but the rat suspected as much, which only made his curiosity burn brighter. It felt as if they weren’t moving through a simple forest anymore but a vast and hostile land determined to kill or hinder them.

  The erratic movements of the Ratkin eventually slowed down and shifted back to normal as the entire group came to a pause. Harry felt his wooden bindings come alive and vanish the next instant, allowing him to finally see where he was.

  He was in the center of a vast clearing, surrounded by mighty, towering emerald trees that grew so high that Harry had a hard time seeing their canopy that cloaked the world in darkness, not allowing a single ray of light through.

  In the center of the clearing was another massive tree, even more majestic than the ones around it. It was truly massive and took up a good chunk of the clearing and emitted strong waves of spirituality that brushed across Harry’s mind like an ethereal wind.

  Its bark was covered in lines and runes that subtly glowed in the darkness with the soft, golden glow of spirituality, giving it an out-of-this-world aura and appearance. Its bark wasn’t emerald like the rest; it was black mixed with hints of celstail gold.

  At its base were massive root arches connected to dirt mounds that Ratkin constantly moved through, disappearing into the earth below.

  Harry counted at least 60 of these arches, each a hive of activity as hundreds of thousands of Ratkin used them to go about their business.

  The rat’s mind went blank; how was he supposed to get out of this? He had underestimated these creatures and was now paying the price. Harry didn’t think there would be that many. In his mind, the Ratkin were nothing more than a large source of biomass that posed a slight threat to him, nothing more.

  He never thought they’d play him like this, and boasted such scary numbers. The rat was sure what he saw was only a fraction of their true numbers, too, which made them even more terrifying.

  “Welcome home, strange kin, please follow Mandu to your chamber for disciplinary action, we can talk after that.’

  Harry shivered from head to toe as the crowd of Ratkins surrounding him dispersed, leaving only him and the massive Ratkin—Mandu. Mandu grasped him with a single, massive hand and hefted him over his shoulder once more and made his way to the nearest root arch.

  Harry observed that as they drew closer, the busy Ratkin sensed their presence and cleared a neat path, allowing them to pass through without issue.

  Harry expected inside to look like a dirt tunnel that wound down, and he was right, at least partially; roots made up a significant percentage of the mound, mixed in with the dirt, pulsing with faint spirituality.

  At first, the rat was confused, at least until he saw a patch of roots drop down from the ceiling, gasp both him and Mandu, and began moving them down the tunnel, periodically passing them to other patches of roots that came alive in their presence.

  This method of travel, while unconventional, was surprisingly fast and efficient; Harry’s mind was in disarray from the constant, erratic, and jerky movements of the roots, but it only lasted for what felt like a minute.

  It threw them to the ground deep within the maze of tunnels and roots after that. Mandu landed skillfully, but Harry had no such luck; his mind was still disoriented and confused, so he simply crashed into the ground painfully.

  The pain woke him up and washed away the haze within his mind, and the rat instantly raised his guard, only to relax a second later when he realized how cooked he was.

  Mandu simply gazed at him until he recovered, then beckoned for him to follow as he moved into an opening in the side of what Harry initially thought was just a mass of roots until it opened up to reveal a medium-sized oval room made of dirt and roots, mostly roots.

  The Ratkin suddenly grabbed him by the neck and threw him in, vanishing a second later as the entrance sealed itself shut, plunging the world into a thick darkness that permeated the entire room.

  Harry didn’t know what to say or think; he’d never been captured before, at least never in a manner such as this. The rat thought this was surprisingly….comfortable? He didn’t know how to describe the feelings within him.

  He felt a certain sense of peace; his entire life revolved around moving and fighting to stay alive, and any moment of respite couldn’t be enjoyed fully, lest he forfeit his life. This was especially true after Harry left the relative safety of Lu Town and ventured out in the wilds, in search of strength.

  He never had the chance to sleep out of his own violation after that; the only way such a thiing came was if he was extremely tired or he had no other choice in the matter, like the time he fell asleep right after escaping with his life barely intact, only to wake up in the belly of a massive snake.

  The rat couldn’t even enjoy his rest anymore; there was always a 90% chance of something unspeakable using his mind as a bridge to escape into reality, at the cost of his sanity and soul. He’d wake up feeling worse and with an empty or nearly broken mind, like what nearly happened to him before his trusty [Wall] trait manifested, saving his life.

  The rat chuckled inwardly as he recalled his previous thoughts of peace vanished the more he thought about how scary sleeping was becoming.

  The more Harry thought about it, the less he wanted to sleep, much less dream; his dreams were too much for his mind could handle. Harry doubted many could handle the strange things in his dreams, perhaps only a few peak existences that roamed this world.

  Attracting the attention of such entities now would be beyond foolish, though; they’d no doubt take him as a test subject, performing countless experiments on his mind and body, trying to extract and utilize his power.

  The rat felt like such things occurred to him already but had no desire to experience such things in this life.

  He didn’t know how he knew, just that he did; it came from his intuition, which seemed to be the culmination of all his knowledge from his previous lives, distilled into a simple sense that could guide and keep him out of danger, most of the time.

  Harry didn’t know what to make of that, or if it was even true, but it made sense to him the more he thought about it.

  The thought of his past lives raised many questions, like why he inherited the name Harry in all the dreams he could recall, and how he always managed to be entangled with one or two unfathomable entities.