I can see the risk was great when looking through the heavy background of the forest. It was hard to ignore it. However it was more necessary for me to listen to the briefing. It was a review of our roles of the mission at hand. Away team was in charge of me as an escort while the home team was gonna stay outside of the forest. Despite me getting the instructions, I was still distracted.
I was double checking my gear to make sure everything was set. I checked at my scribe and it looks like the techniques are there Ashura Majutsu. There was Jikiniki and Gaki listed there as well as the chorrupted version of Genki Ito which was Kokujou. Yet there was a section at my page that read Kamiyama-ryu's form of omnyoudou. Majinken was there. I tapped on the name. There appeared a flavor text describing the technique in Japanese. It read, 'A forbidden technique of the Kamiyama Clan. It cloaks the blade in an aethreal aura, darker than black that can cut even through steel. The more lives and souls the wielder has taken, the sharper and deadlier the blade will cut.'
After reading that last line I can hear a thousand screams echo in my head. I retracted the scribe after an awkward pause. My hands were shaking and all I could do was grip one of them to stop it.
Even if I had to keep my cool, my mind started to wander off. Why was I even doing this? The goal if for my memories to come back but the rest of the group doesn't know it. The team is doing it based on a god and they followed me, a random stranger. Is this for my goddess or for me? If this is to be done for a god then the risk must be too high for a couple of rookies to get exposed to. If it's for me then at what lengths do I owe them?
It was hard to think. Either way I needed to find answers. We split into our separate groups. Our whole routine was gonna be on foot. There was no hunting path to look at neither a clear view of what was going on. We were all given machetes to hack away at the tall grass. The grass was up to put stomachs and harder move around with. Yet again I felt light headed. Turning up my Magus eye and I see nothing. At the edge of my eye I see it again. That strange orchid. I cut it off the ground and I was able to see mana again.
Gram notices it the flower I was holding. "Those things again." He commented. "You know what this is?" I asked.
"It's nothing that I've seen before. But whatever it is, it's dulling our senses." Gram says, "I can't even sense heat with those things around."
"There were some at the campsite with those redcap things. We could have died if we didn't find that." Mr. Williams added.
"Maybe we should keep them. We can probably sell the pollen." Richard suggested.
We soon hear static from our radios. "This is Kit to Itachi. Stock and Minerva are manning Valkyries one and two respectively. Over." Magna said on comms.
"Copy that. Away team here. Waiting for orders. Over." Richard replied.
"Iris here. Status report on Valkyries one and two. Over." Sakuya replied.
"This is Stock on Valkyrie One. Everything is clear on canopy. Over." Tyrell said.
"Minerva here, arriving at away team. Over." Rebbeca said.
Her drone then appears and hovers above us. The drone's movements were light and smooth. It wasn't like the drones that we had at Terra. I was even able to see it glowing using Magus eye. Looking above and I can see Tyrell's drone. I guess the Mana crystals really do have a lot of uses.
"I'm getting something on your radar, Valkyrie two. Turn 90 degrees to your right. Over." Magna said on comms.
"Copy that." Rebecca replied.
The drone then did a slow quarter turn. It stopped to zoom in on something. "I got a visual however it's far. Kinda hard to make out." She replied.
"Valkyrie One, hover east a few clicks away. Over." Tyrell replied.
"Copy." Tyrell replied.
Tyrell's drone then hovers a bit to our right. After a few length, Valkyrie one arrives to it's destination. As it hovered above it soon gained a visual. "We got a party of four red caps. Three stubby ones and a big one." He said.
"Copy. Permission to eliminate target?" Richard asked.
"Granted. Eliminate with discretion." Sakuya agreed.
"Rin. Fly towards the group with one of your shikigami and see if you can get their attention." Richard said.
"Got it." I complied.
I then summoned a bird shikigami and made it fly towards the group. Closing my eyes, I gained a first-person view to where I'm flying. But something went wrong. My visual of the shikigami was getting blurry. Soon I wasn't able to control the shikigami and it starts to swerve. Eventually my visual faded and my connection with the familiar was lost.
"I lost contact with my shikigami." I said.
"What? How?" Richard asked.
"I don't know...the farther I got from our location, the worse I was able to connect to it." I answered.
"Hmmm...let me try something." Gram suggested.
Gram then takes a few seeds from his pocket and grasped them at his palm. They start to glow. One by one Gram threw a seed. Once they land at the ground, bushes grow out of an instant. But Gram looked perplexed. "Uh oh..." Gram react.
"Wait...what do you mean by 'uh oh'?" Richard asked.
"Take a look at the bushes." Gram directed to us with his finger.
The bushes told a story. Each bush had a different size. The farther the magic bush was from us, the smaller it was. I didn't understand at first but Richard managed to get it. "Rin...cast a shikigami out to the distance and use your magus eye." He ordered. I summoned a doll shikigami and told him to walk as far as it could. It walked and I soon saw the problem once I used my Magus eye. Energy was being absorbed by the trees around us. But as soon as it passed a few meters away, the familiar faded.
"The magic energy from your familiar is getting sucked out, isn't it?" He asked.
"Yeah...it looks like that." I replied.
"So does that mean we have to get out of here? Rin might not make it around this trek." Mr. Williams asked.
"Fae woods such as these absorb only mystical energy from spells. Our bodies prevent chi from getting out so we'll be fine. However this is gonna be a problem." Gram said.
"Being that we aren't able to use magic?" Mr. Williams guessed.
"Yeah. Magic is useless here. It's almost like shooting blanks." Richard confirmed.
"What's the status of the drones then? Don't they use magic to run?" Mr. Williams asked.
Richard paused for a moment. We then hear the comms go on the fritz. "Home team, check on all magi-tech gear. What's your status?" He asked, concerned
"Negative. It looks like our equipment is malfunctioning." Sakuya replied.
"The drones' command center is going on the fritz. I'm getting power malfunctions on both drones." Magna informed.
"I can't get a hold of my drone!" Tyrell reacted.
"Mine too! I can barely fly mine right!" Rebecca added.
"The forest is absorbing the mana in the area!" Richard shouted.
"We need to get those drones out, stat!" Sakuya commanded.
"Copy that! Valkyries one and two, get above the canopy, now!" Magna ordered.
Both the drones hovered above higher away from the canopy. Just by looking with my magus eye, the forest's ability started to fade as the drones climbed higher. But the higher they rose, the less I saw of them. But this brought another problem.
Because of the ruckus we caused, we could hear something coming. Whistling could be heard at the wind. Mr. Williams looked at his scope and started to fire. "We got company!" He shouted.
At the distance I saw something coming fast. Little by little they came and soon came into visual. They were the Red Caps, riding on top of direwolves. I tried to generate a barrier but all the talisman did was glowed. A direwolf jumped onto me and was about to take a bite on my neck. For dear life I held onto to the jaws. But I soon changed to my demonic form and ripped the jaw off then stabbed a knife through the eye socket. The rider then falls off. The redcap then attempts to kill me as he grabbed his spear. I was stuck under the heavy direwolf and attempted to lift it off from me. But as the redcap goes for the attack, a bullet enters his skull, coming from Mr. Williams firearm. Mr. Williams then gets a hold of me and attempts to lift the animal corpse.
However behind him a redcap draws an arrow. But the attack didn't make it as I launched a knife at the redcap using my telekinesis and it landed at the neck. The arrow as still launched, only for it to land on another direwolf and its rider falling off. The redcap rider then charges towards us, only for Richard to shoot it at the head. Gram then throws a net at the distance and it traps two wolves with their riders. He then jumps with a reptilian growl and started to plunge his spear rapidly at them. Yet another redcap rider then lassos him at the neck and drags him. Gram then takes the line and chomps the line in one bite and tumbles free. There I take a knife and throw it at the wolf's hind leg. The redcap falls forward.
It rolls like a tumbleweed and hits a tree. The redcap moans in pain. But in a brief moment it just jumps like a rabbit and runs straight to Gram with a club for a last ditch attempt. Yet, Gram swings its tail at it and it flies a few feet away. But the only problem was that it was going straight towards me. A memory comes of a person being thrown towards me.
My body reacts on its own and slashed the guy in half. There I saw, a body of a student split in half with Majinken. I went to the nearest tree and hurled. I looked again and the memory desynchronized to reveal the redcap. Everybody watched as I started puking my guts out more. Mr. Williams then starts patting my back to make sure all of it was out. "Sorry!" Gram reacted.
Once more I was grasping for air. What the hell was that? Looking down was my lost lunch. My vision soon started to become sketchy. It glitches like a computer screen and for a slight second a glimpse changed. The sight of my vomit became blood. Looking up I find myself at the hallway again. The bodies of students beyond something I saw before. They were torn apart. It look like an animal tore through them. They were too wild from a blade or a saw.
But soon the memory stops. I was out of breath again. "Rin, are you alright?" Mr. Williams asked. "I'm fine, just give me a second." I replied.
I resumed to try to stand straight. But by the moment my back was elevated, I heard a faint whisper from my ear. My body reacted by itself and threw a hand of throwing knives. They only hit a nearby tree with then each of the blades sunk down to the handle. I barely calm at all. It was shaking and my demon claw revealed itself.
"What happened?!" Richard shouted.
"I though I heard something." I replied, hesitantly.
"It must be the forest playing tricks at you." Gram suggested.
"How can you tell?" Mr. Williams questioned.
"Fae woods have been infamous to cause hallucinations. If you happen to see or hear something weird, let us know." Gram told us.
Soon the static from comms. "Since we can't go within the forrest, we'll be giving you a view above while on radar and FLIR." Sakuya notified us. "Copy that Ibis. We'll fill you in if we see something weird." Richard replied.
"We got a couple of bogies around FLIR at the west. Over." Magna said.
"Should we engage?" Mr. Wlliams asked.
"No, proceed. The're not moving anywhere. Just proceed with caution. Over." Sakuya replied.
Comms were over. Everybody diverted their stare at me. "You're the one we're here for. Where to?" Richard asked.
I accessed my magus eye and looked around. It was that dark aura again. The more I looked at it the more I could see it passing through us. The eerie sensation was haunting. I could barely feel my legs. But despite the fearful sight I turned off the ability and knew where to go. I pointed northeast and say, "This way...just be careful."