Coffee shop - outskirts of Lunar Forest
"Sir, reporting in, all forces assembled and awaiting orders!"
Wei looked up casually from his morning paper and assessed his subordinate before giving a slight nod in affirmation. "Very well, we begin the operation in one hour." Returning his gaze back to his paper with a smirk he inwardly chuckled to himself, 'Not long now my dear, not long, you will be mine soon' he mused to himself.
Thinking of all of the plans, years of searching, time and money used to gain his deepest desires, Wei was very pleased. His Intel mentioned her being alone in that forest with nothing to be seen for protection. An innocent lamb just for him. He knew there were others gathering for her but he didn't care, as far as he was concerned, nothing would stop him or his plans.
Glancing out of the window he fell into his memories when he was young. The days he spent obsessively pouring over old scrolls, books, and various legends. One day he came upon one such legend depicting the most gorgeous goddess like figure. It was said she was a Unicorn, he remembered thinking how silly it was for a human to be able to change forms, especially into a mythological creature such as a Unicorn. Nobody believed in such things anymore, each and every myth had died out many centuries ago without a sighting.
After years of research he came upon a talisman that was buried inside a ruin, i had a Unicorn depicted with a moon circling it. The interesting part is it emitted a type of energy that could not be gauged by modern equipment. It brought him back to the legend he found and he paid closer attention.
'Magic is real!'
The legend spoke of a young Unicorn girl who was the last of her kind, she held a power that could never be matched. She was the key to their planet's future, lives held in the balance. Peace or chaos depended on her alone. It was said that whoever could gain her would rule the planet and dictate its fate. It spoke of the year she would be born to this world. That was the year he turned 15. His teenage lust drove him like a magnet to locate her.
He vowed at that moment to possess her, he used his family connections, money, and resources with wild abandon. How could he not?
"Sir…. Sir... It has been an hour…"
The abrupt voice yanked him from his reverie, he scowled at the boy in front of him. As he stood up tall with his jet black eyes that peered through a persons soul, he walked out of the shop and over to his men. Not once acknowledging the boy.
His cold gaze locked onto his men making them instantly straighten, he was a cold ruthless man, he would do anything to achieve his goal, even murder and torture.
As the large force marched into the Lunar forest, every living being, be it an insect or animal, scattered in terror at the multiple steps resounded within this quiet place. Not a soul dared to even peek at the group.
Hours passed without a single sign of anything living here apart of local wildlife, a scout suddenly ran up to Wei and reported new findings.
"Sir… we found a lake nearby that has some strange markings and footprints…. Also…"
He hesitated a bit to gather his thoughts.
This was just something too crazy to believe!
"Speak!!!" Wei growled at his scout.
"Em.. sir it appears as if.. some type of magic is there.. I don't know how to explain it… there's swirls of colors, strand of translucent light trailing in the trees...it simply looks.. magical!"
A glint of excitement surfaced in Wei's eyes as he ordered his men to proceed to the lake for investigation.
'Not long now!'
"Hahaha… not long at all, ah! Keep watch when we enter that lake area, this is just the beginning boys!" Wei was practically maniacal at this news.
"Send three scouts ahead in different directions, make sure they stay hidden, report back if anything or anyone is found!"
The three best scouts disappeared like a shadow instantly, after entering the lake area everyone was beyond flabbergasted. Wei strode through the area and found exactly what he wanted to see, remnants of her presence. He began to get giddy with excitement as a cold flash went through his eyes.
Moving forward another two hours passed before a scout returned. He popped up in front of the full command instantly halting the marching group.
"Sir.. I found a cave that had an old campfire. Seems to be a few days old. How would you like to proceed?"
Rubbing his chin he was in deep thought as the other two scouts returned with news of multiple makeshift lodgings or campfires that were days to weeks old.
"There was nothing else along the path?"
"Nothing sir aside a road leading to a village. "
"Very well, lead the way, we will ignore the other two directions, there are many hunters in this forest. My prey will most likely run to other people for provisions. Let's set off."
After taking a rest for an hour, the entire group marched off towards the cave, along the way various beasts attempted to attack, these were stronger than earlier on and had no fear of the force invading their territory.
They encountered over fifty different beasts along the way resulting in their force being depleted by half due to the ferocity of the battles. This absolutely did not sit well with Wei. He knew a huge battle was coming, he needed his men desperately for what was to come. Now it seems he will have to recruit more people… possible mercenaries or military to combat alongside him.
Gaining that amount of forces will not come easy, he thought he would have to detour eventually along the way resulting in a further set back of capturing his goddess.
'Damn… how could these beasts be so strong!? Let alone the girl must have passed by here… was she left untouched?'
Indeed she was, these beasts feared and respected her aura immensely. Thus she came across only one battle so far.