Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 2.14: Alice

**Disclaimer: This chapter has violent/gruesome content .**

Multiple carriages were already gathered at the entrance to the North forest when the carriages Leah and Alice were in reached the destination. Alice immediately headed to the side of the crowd to leave the sea of people while Leah wondered seemingly aimlessly around the crowd. It took quite awhile before each of them found what they wanted. Alice jumped up onto a low tree branch to take a breather. Leah had the expression as if she finally found their rendezvous point with the other three. 

"Sorry for taking so long! There are just so many people." Leah apologised then peeked at Ethan only to see that he was paying attention to anything else besides her.

"Nothing to worry about. They still have not signaled the start of the exam." Violet reassured her with a small smile.

"But they would anytime now." Stephan said without hiding his irritation.

Leah lightly bit her lower lip. 

Just a few seconds after Stephan talked, a loud explosion sounded in the air and everyone jumped in shock then looked up and towards the source of the sound. There was a large earth tablet that rose from the ground near the entrance of the forest. Large words clearly engraved into it that even Alice who was at the opposite end could easily read the words. 

EXAM START. ENTER THE FOREST. 30:00

The crowd was split into three waves. The majority made up the first wave. They were people who wanted a head start so rushed in the moment their brains registered the message on the tablet. The second wave followed closely behind as they were people who hesitates or trails others to make use of their resources. The minority made up the final wave. These included Alice who waited for everyone to clear out before making a move. 

Alice secretively observed who else stayed behind. BaoBao immediately caught on to what Alice was doing so knew it was time to report his observation. 

I tracked all the people that Leah passed by earlier. You are right, the people whom she made bodily contact with grouped up as soon as they entered the forest. However, they were split into the different waves. There are 4 of them here.

Alice felt that BaoBao's tone sounded a little chirpy. BaoBao, what are you happy about?

...How are you so perceptive...? Sorry if it's not the right time to say this but since you asked, my confidence in my prediction just increased~ 

Why?

I know your guess is that Rosalyn is involved in this but she is the only one here besides Violet's group that Leah didn't touch~ BaoBao sounded extremely pleased with himself as if he has already won the game. 

The 4 that Leah had touched finally moved to enter the forest when the timer below the words wrote 01:00. It was now left with Violet's group, Alice, and Rosalyn. 

Alice lazed on the branch and finally moved when the timer dropped to 00:30. People who did not make it into the forest by the end of the timer would fail the exam by default. Not many people would try to hold anyone back by fighting though. It would pull themselves down and everyone had their guards up already. 

Just as Alice jumped down from the branch, Rosalyn happened to move at the same time. She headed Northwest, while Alice headed North like she told Leah. Seeing that Alice made her move, Violet's group deftly followed behind. 

Leah silently let out a sigh of relief. She knew that the other three was confident that Alice knew what she was doing but Leah could not bring herself to trust their judgement. Alice was completely erratic in Leah's mind. Leah could not tell if Alice intended to drop out for whatever strange reason. So she ended up being the only one silently fretting to the point of breaking out in cold sweat once the timer hit 01:00.