By each step we take the denser the terrain became. The grass started to become higher and reached up to our abdomens. The tall grass mixed with all these trees made it hard to navigate. Some of us even tripped over a few saplings or boulders along the way. The deeper we got in, the more condensed the plant life was.
All we can do was cut away and make a path. It was a good thing that the redcaps had some machetes with them, otherwise we wouldn't be able to cut a path that can lead us out of here. They were one of the good things salvageable other than their piercings. Each of us took turns in clearing the way.
But I was the outlier of the whole operation. My current job was to navigate in where to go. My magus eye was what kept us moving. But whenever we couldn't sense anything, I had to look for that orchid again. Yet the further we went in, the more of these plants I managed to find. It's weird how one plant can cause so much. Sometimes I would find them at the ground, on a tree, or even hiding under some rocks. I wouldn't be even be able to us the magus eye properly a single one of these was around a few meters near us.
But more we went up against this aura, the heavier it got. It was hard to even lift my feet. The sensation felt like weights being strapped at my thighs. It lead to a point I was already out of breath just by walking. But soon I started to see something. Faces, images of faces that were incomplete. Sometimes I would see a forehead, some hair, a jaw, eyes, even just a nose. I kept on walking and raised my hand... something isn't right. When my arm was up straight, something came out and took me by the wrist.
Soon I tripped and I landed on my body flat as I was pulled upwards. My group went to help me up. By the time the group lifted my body I was already dripping sweat. Mr. Williams takes a good look at me, knowing something is wrong. The man sighs. "How about we take a break for now." He said.
"Yeah. The magus eye isn't really an ability meant to be used for long periods of time. Maybe we should stop for awhile." Gram suggested.
Richard then calls at comms. "Itachi to home base. Will take twenty. It looks like the VIP isn't looking so well." Richard said.
"Noted. Home team will continue to scout the area at the canopy. We'll fill you in on further details." Sakuya replied.
"Copy that." Richard replied.
Our group decided to rest under some trees and take a breather. We were all tied and legs and arms were sore. We were eating canned pasta for today. Canned ravioli of all things. It was lukewarm with salty meat sauce. Richard then cracks a can open and just digs in. "So we're not going to put up a fire?" I asked.
"It's better off that we didn't. With the forest mixed with trees there might be a treant hidden somewhere." Richard said.
"I agree. The temperature is bearable enough to deal with anyway. I don't wanna be under those."
Mr. Williams then had a pessimistic stare. "Easy for you to say." He says, "Your tail shivering like a leaf."
I looked at his tail and it was jittering. He then hugs his tail embarrassed. "Give me a break will ya?! I'm cold blooded!" Gram reacted rather bashfully.
My friends laughed. But despite the embarrassment, Gram started to laugh with them. But while eating, Gram noticed something. You can really tell as some of the back frills started to stand up. "What is it?" I asked him. "It's just that thin tree with the weird leaves... I can't help but notice the weird fruit dangling on it." He said as he pointed at the direction in front of him.
As I gazed at the distance, there I noticed a coconut tree. "You mean the coconut tree?" I asked.
"Coco...what?" The lizardman questioned.
"You don't have coconuts at Aria?" Mr. Williams asked.
"Yeah. Ever since coming to Terra I've been seeing a lot of things that you normally don't at Aria. Most of them being plants and animals. Everyday is pretty much a culture shock for me." Gram expressed.
"When I think about it...we don't have any screaming mandrakes at Terra either. That was quite a scare." Richard joined in.
"What?" I expressed in confusion.
"They're giant mandrake plants like yours but they can grow as large as a baby. Pull them out and they scream so hard that you'll become deaf." Gram explained.
Both me and Mr. Williams were weirded out just hearing that. "I don't think either of us would wanna see one of those either way." Mr. Williams said.
"That's what I said about the durian but it ended up being delicious. One way or another you'll be trying that. It's practically an unwritten rule here." He replied.
We enjoyed our meal for a moment, but just for a moment. There wasn't even five minutes and something already came to us. It was a visible, light aethreal fog. The colors kept on shifting. They were translucent and the colors kept on swirling much like what would happen soapy water would reflect against the sun. If I were to compare it, a misty fog of the Northern Lights auroras. As it past us the sensation would also shift from cold to warm, dry to humid, and many other sensations. It was hard to tell. What was this?
"What is this? Fog?" I asked.
"No...Etherium." Gram corrected.
"What...?" Mr. Williams questioned.
"It's a kind of anomaly in which high concentrations of mana bundle together and become visible. Usually some thing for this to happen there must be some powerful entity somewhere." Gram said.
"Like a monster?" I asked.
"Well yeah. That or could be some giant magic crystal could be around here somewhere..." The lizardman guessed.
Richard's radio then starts to fizz like crazy. The radio even starts to light up red. He gets a hold of it immediately "Away team to home team! Do you read me?!" Sakuya shouted at comms.
"Loud and clear. What's your situation, Iris?" Richard replied.
"We're getting high mana readings in your location. What is going on?" Sakuya told us.
"Eitherium fog is starting to bundle to our location. We're doing fine." Richard replied.
"It's starting to cluster into mist. The mana readings are starting to spike beyond normal." Magna said on comms.
"Something's wrong with my battery! Is this even right?" Rebecca asked.
"What is it?" Magna asked.
"The battery's power percentage is increasing. I just went from sixty to eighty!" Rebecca told Magna.
"Mine too! I'm reaching ninety percent!" Tyrell added.
"The Mana Crystals are about to overload! Valkyries one and two! Ascend! I repeat ascend!" Magna commanded.
From comms I could hear the chatter getting louder. But it was there something else has happened. Gram's Neptune dagger started to glow a bright blue. It was getting brighter and brighter. Gram then chucks the dagger far away and shouts, "Get down!"
Mr. Williams then grabs me and slams me at the floor. And everybody was at the ground, the dagger explodes in midair. A shockwave passes us and streams of water shot at all directions. The water pressure coming out of the malfunctioning magitech was so strong that it could even tear through wood. Trees started to tumble down like dominos and fly in the air. As the trees started to tumble, one was about to fall on me and Mr. Williams.
With quick thinking, I pushed Mr. Williams away. I was about to shift to my demonic form to catch it but the transformation was too slow. My body was about to be flattened. But soon I was at the white room. But something was wrong. The origin plain was in a shade of grey and everything around me was moving slowly. What was this? In front of me appeared Kenshin. "Rin! Grab my hand!" He shouted.
I was confused. What was going on. The white room was getting unstable. The floor was getting shaky. My mind was barely thinking straight. But somebody shoves me from behind. It was Furukizu. "Go for it!" He shouted. I then fell forward in full force. Kenshin rushes towards me and grabs my hand. There I could feel my body taken over. Kenshin was in control of my body. He then draws my sword and uses the Majinken technique and quickdraws my sword to do multiple crosscuts at the falling trees. Soon the aethreal fog entered in the spell and my sword's aura grew. The blade's dark aura grew as long as a flagpole, more jagged and violent. It was so long that it was even able to slice the trees behind it. Time returns one by one all the logs start to split into pieces.
Once the blade faded, the fog dispersed and I was on the floor. There I started coughing blood. I started feeling vertigo. The whole forest was spinning. I could even stand up without tumbling to the floor. It was too much. Kenshin left my body. "Breathe, Rin! Breathe!" He shouted. Slowly I took breaths and calm down. But the blood flashed me back at the hallway again. I could hear screams again. It was getting harder to calm down. Mr. Williams then gets a hold of me and pats me at the back.
Whatever what happened was over. Richard then struggles to get up as he pushes a branch away from his body. "Who's not dead? Start moaning!" He nonchalantly said out loud. Gram followed and shoves a tree away from him.
There was radio silence after that. It was only after a solid ten minutes later we managed to get a hold on them. "Home team to away team. What is your status?" Richard asked.
"We had to increase altitude due to the Etherium mist. it was causing a couple of technical difficulties." Sakuya told us.
"I'd say. A bit more and the mana crystals would have exploded." Magna added.
"Explode?! The drones could have exploded?!" Tyrell reacted.
"This fog is eitherium mist. It's an unstable version of the phenomenon. It gets into any magic related item to the point they reach full capacity and explode." Magna explains, "Something in the forest must be messed up. Whatever Rin's god wants, it looks like we're gonna be in for a hell of a trip."
"What's the status of the drones then?" Richard asked.
"They're fully charged now and we barely made it. These batteries take twelve hours to charge and they gained a quarter of juice in a matter of minutes." Magna said.
"Just barely. One of my propellers is barely functioning and the camera has static. I could barely see anything with it." Rebecca butted in.
"Got problems on mine too. Looks like the sensitivity of the gyroscope stiff and my FLIR is busted. However sonar is still good." Tyrell added.
"Can you look at your settings then if the Mana Level Scanner works?" Sakuya asked.
"Yeah...it looks like mine is shot out. How about you, Stock." Rebecca asked.
"My Mana Level scanner works." Tyrell informed.
"Can you check at the distance then to see what is up ahead at their direction then?" Sakuya asked.
"Sure. I'll check it out." Tyrell complied.
"At the meantime have Minerva check out FLIR just in case." Magna suggested.
"What for?" Rebecca asked.
"Just a hunch, I guess." Magna told her.
We waited for awhile for some details to come. Soon the radio's lights up and buzzes again. "It looks like the Mana readings start to fade at the center of the forest." Tyrell said.
"How about you, Minerva?" Magna asked.
"FLIR is picking up temperature readings at the single digits. It keeps on climbing and descending rapidly but never beyond the numeral." Rebecca told the orc.
"What do you make of it, guildmaster?" Magna asked.
"Looks like the mist is starting to become a storm." Sakuya says, "The center must be the eye."
"The eye? Like a typhoon?" Mr. Williams speculated.
"Yeah...looks like we reached a worse case scenario...but not we expected.." Richard said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Etherium storms are the most violent kinds of the Etherium fog." Gram said.
"I can't follow. There was fog, mist and storm. What does that mean?" Mr. Williams asked confused.
Gram then soon goes onto mention what the Etherium phenomenon is. The Etherium is a phenomenon where the mana of an area is affected by an anomaly that can be caused by an entity that can be equally or far powerful than the anomaly itself. It would cause the mana to be visible and affect the world to the point the natural order of things start to be chaotic and contorts.
The etherium would start off in three stages. The first stage is the fog. The fog would effect the world by a minimum. Often by distortion of the world's laws. This can be from the nature of spells being casted to change or contort, change in gravity, sensory hallucinations, and minor electronics malfunctions. In many cases the fog may not be visible but the aura would be visible by magus eyes.
The second stage would be mist. The mist stage would allow the mana to be more denser and visible. At this stage the previous signs would be proven to be stronger however shows additional signs. This can display of abnormal growth of flora, rapid and inconsistent changes of temperature and climate, and the rapid dysfunction of magitech and many other devices that require the use of mana.
However the third stage is when it gets complicated. The storm stage is when the mana starts to act violently to the point that the mana around the area becomes unpredictable. In some cases the mana has been proven to change the physical landscape to the point that it alters reality. In other cases even the biology of both flora and fauna can be altered if they absorb the mana of the storm for a long period of time. Eventually it will spin like a miniature tropical storm and form an eye at the center where mana ceases to exist in the area.
Hearing that alone just says it all. We are clearly over our heads with this one. Gram looked at the Etherium as the mist was starting to move sideways. Slowly it started to even pick up speed. The lizardman didn't look pleased. "It looks like this is forming into a storm. We should head back." He said.
"Yeah...Going into a storm like this is practically suicide. The way you put it might end up as croenburgs." Mr. Williams agreed.
"Not all of them would alter you know. We can still enter but it won't be easy." Richard said.
"Why such the rush? We still got a few more days, you know." The lizardman questioned.
"Think about it. We are almost there and the cause of this storm might be the reason why we're here." Richard says, "It might be the best chance that we got to find the answers we need."
"You do realize what you're talking about is close to suicide, right?" Mr. Williams put out.
"Yet with Etiheriums having the ability to teleport their catalysts we might only have a matter of even a few minutes before it goes somewhere else." Richard defended.
"Yet the problem is whether or not we can still find it. For all we know when we reach it the core might go somewhere else." Mr. Williams pointed out.
"We still got Rin, Maybe his magus eye can still catch the path." Richard replied.
But the moment I used my eye something was wrong. "I can't find the path." I said.
"What?" Richard reacted, confused.
"The aura I was following, it's gone. I can only see the mana from the storm." I told them.
"Speaking of which, my senses aren't feeling so well. All the Mana from the storm is getting to me." Gram said.
Noticing that opened Richard's eyes. He looks at his compass and see something off. It was his compass. Is was spinning like crazy from all directions. The needle was even going at all directions, switching clockwise to counterclockwise constantly.
"Shit...the output of these storms must be affecting our abilities. The storm is even messing with the magnetic field." Richard said.
"We probably might need to wait till the storm fades. The effects of the Etherium might get to us." Gram suggested.
"I'll radio in Home team and call this out. I don't like how this is going." Richard told us.
But Richard's radio glitches. He smacks it a little but to no avail. "Great...is there anything that doesn't break in this forest?!" The man rants, "I swear this forest just loves to get a hands on us."
The etherium was getting brighter the more we stood here. it was really getting hard to breathe. Then something odd happened. There were floating orbs floating around. What were these things? There as something odd about these things. But none of my friends seem to notice these things.
They kept on getting closer to me the more they walked. But my body soon started to feel heavy. "Guys, what are these orbs?" I asked them.
"What orbs? I don't see anything." Mr. Williams questioned.
"You're probably hallucinating because of the Etherium. Just keep walking." Gram told me.
I did what I was told and kept on moving forward. But the more I moved, the more these random orbs kept on following me. It was starting to bother me. But soon something ringed at my ear. "Nii-san..." was the words that I heard. That was Japanese for big brother. The sound of it was almost nostalgic but I don't remember where it was from.
However I continued to walk. The storm was catching up to us. I kept on moving forward until I felt something touch my shoulder. "Nii-san...where are you...going?" That voice mumbled. My eyes widened as that voice sounded familiar. I looked behind me as I saw all these orbs floating behind me. The number of these apparitions doubled from before. It was like a wall of Christmas lights in front of me.
My body couldn't move anymore. My heart was beating do fast. I could feel the cold sweat going down my skin. "Rin...are you doing okay?" Mr. Williams asked me. But I didn't reply. All I kept on hearing repeating in Japanese, "Nii-san look at me."
I'm looking at them and yet what do they want me to see? It was the same orbs all over and over again. it was there I was about to even turn my back on them but again something prevented me from moving. I felt as if something was holding my arms and legs. My limbs felt restrained. But one of them then asked, "Why don't you look at me properly?"
'Look at you properly?' I questioned in my head. And that was where I got the idea. There I activated my magus eye. Only by using that I saw what was gripping me. But in all honesty this was one stupid mistake. The ability revealed black silhouettes of people of different sizes with white orbs at the center. Some of the sizes of fully grown adults while others of kids. They were all around me. The small ones were holding my legs while the ones around or near my height were at my arms.
A woman then floats above me and holds onto my sholders. Chilling sensations could be felt at my spine. It was faint but something was wrong. There that sensation grew stronger as the signs were showing. The head started to fizz like tv static.
"Rin...Something wrong?" Gram asked.
I couldn't reply. The woman's hand was covering my mouth. My body was starting to shake.
"Rin! This isn't funny! Turn around!" Mr. Williams demanded.
"He's not really looking so hot. Something's up." Richard alerted them.
My breath started to become heavily. Soon went to hyperventilating. The woman soon got a grip of my throat. I wanted to say something but my body refused to react. Was this really a hallucination?
But it was there that something clicked. The apparitions then pushed me down to the floor and there the silhouettes changed. Their bodies changed to show skin and clothing. It was a range from school uniforms to business attire. Their faces were censored. The woman hovering me turned out to be a highschool student. She then asked in a fuzzy voice, "Why do you look at us like that?"
The mosaic slowly disappeared to show heads without faces. The faces then started pulse and starts to move. Slowly worms as thick as whiteboard markers. The worms started to plop on my face and the soon the rest of my body. The worms kept on dropping on me nonstop. It face resembled a meaty hive. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. Then a mouth forms and says, "You were apart of this as much as us."
The bodies then explode into a fleshy mess. I was drenched in blood and could feel the worms slither all around me. Memories of that same hallway came in. And yet with a twist. I could see bodies exploding like water balloons. Blood and guts were everywhere at the floor, walls, and ceiling. The flashback kept on repeating over and over. There I screamed as I was sinking into the puddle of oversized worms. Hands then came from below and tried to drag me down. I started to panic.
As I was drowned in the illusions of my trauma, my team struggle to hold me down. They were trying to get a hold of a man who was going under an episode. My demon form even revealed as I was losing control. "Get a hold of him!" Mr. Williams shouted. Richard then gets a hold of Sakuya. "This is Itachi to Away team! Akuma is causing havoc! I repeat! Akuma is causing havoc!" Richard shouted.
"This is Iris! Break the tube at Akuma's necklace and toss it a few feet away from you! I repeat! Break the tube at his necklace and toss it.!" Sakuya shouted back. Mr. Williams then grabs the tube and breaks it open. As soon as he snaps the tube in two. The tube starts to glow and he tosses it a few feet away. A flash of light surrounds the are and Sakuya appears out of thin air.
"I'm here, what happened?" She asked.
"Rin's going on an episode! Don't just stand the there, help!" Mr. Williams shouted.
"What do you want us to do?!" Sakuya questioned.
"Sakuya, Gram, use your magic to bind him to the floor. I'll get the tranquilizer ready!" Mr. Williams instructed.
"On it!" They both complied.
Gram and Sakuya throws some seeds at the floor and vines grow from the ground floor. The vines entangle me but with a problem. The vines started to whittler the longer they remain. Sakuya then throws some powder at the vines and brings something unexpected. She then takes out a paper ofuda talisman and slaps it on the vines. The vines started to expand and become thicker. But the trees started to move. The trees started to contort. It was there we soon realized that treants were starting to awaken. "That won't hold! Hurry!" She shouted.
Mr. Williams then gets a syringe and a vial of tranquilizer from his bag. He does a quick measurement and rushes towards me. But once he approached me, One of my flailing arms managed to get out of the vines and accidentally smacked the needle out of the man's hand. Soon I was free and convulsed and even faster. "What now?!" Gram shouted.
"Ben, and Sakuya, get a hold of his legs! Gram, since you're the strongest here, put him in a masterlock! Make sure to hold him tight! " Richard demanded.
Everybody followed suit and got a hold of me. They barely managed yet only for a few seconds. "Now what?!" Grams asked. Richard then grabs a diamond from his pocket and cast a spell. His fist then is coated by a diamond layer then he drinks a potion. All the hairs from his body start to stand and his eyes turn red. After that he punches me with a cross jab with the diamond hand. It was so strong I felt like a wrecking ball hit my head. With that hit I was knocked out and out for the count. I slowly close my eyes as my colleagues started to fight. I couldn't hear what they were saying. My eyelids turned heavy and soon my body. And just like that the crisis was everted and I was knocked out for the count.
It was crude but effective. I was slowly passing out an my group was running away. The illusion disappeared but the for a brief moment a small glimpse of a white silhouette. It was there, reaching for me. But as I let out my hand to reach, my consciousness was fading. I could feel my eyelids closing as my body heat was falling. And yet a memory comes in. There was no visuals but sound. 'Nii-san' was being said repeatedly by different people. Whenever I heard that I was needed for some reason. Yet looking at this silhouette reaching for me makes me wonder why am I needed...? And here a question formed in my head. Of all the things happening...why do I see myself needed here?