Trees touch the mellow, orange light. The forest is quiet, peaceful, and tame, drastically different from the darkness of the mist one.
Despite the radiant aura within the forest, an uneasy presence fills inside both the wanderers' minds. They have still yet to understand the abrupt death of Akwan, the mystery of both the Innings Infinitum's reality and where the children got abducted.
However, the immense view of Pladtioa behind the trunks of the trees; completely distracted both of them.
Never would they have thought to see gigantic twisting terrain spreading out all the way from Dreamtoe to the Fields of Purity. Trees sprawl up from the mossy tops of the natural rocky arches; some spiral mountains almost look like dragons.
The wanderers never knew how high up they indeed are, until they saw the edge of Dreamtoe cliff. Pladtioa doesn't look like a mountain; it more or less looks like a continent.
Aletha yelps in awe as she dangles her legs over the cliff.
"Wooow! The scenery is beautiful! I feel like I am in a different world!"
Asahi lightly chuckles, then turns his head to the glistening sun. He never thought that the world they had in the past; could transform into a prettier panorama of epic proportions. It's somewhat comforting to see such a view after the horrific events that unfolded when they arrived.
Asahi pulls Aletha away from the edge of the cliffs to make sure that she doesn't accidentally lose balance and fall to her death. She amusingly hisses at Asahi and whines, crossing her arms and looking away from his face.
"Hey, I wanted to enjoy the scenery some more!"
Asahi shakes his head and pulls her entire figure away from the edge. He then pants heavily and tilts his head behind him. There, he sees Drimi happily chuckling and shaking her head.
"You two never know how to agree with each other, do you? Aletha's quite the whiner despite the way she looks, and Asahi... is the complete opposite. How old are you two?"
The wanderers fall silent and nervously whistle, trying to part away from Drimi as much as possible. Both of them have a pounding feeling inside their minds, a feeling of resistance. Drimi and grabs both of the wanderers by their neck and repeats.
"I won't ask you two again. How old are you?"
Despite Drimi's honeyed tone, Asahi and Aletha didn't want to reveal their age. Perhaps it had to deal with the mystery and confusion behind their longevity that made them resistant to answer? After a long silence, just as Asahi is about to answer, Drimi hastily pulls both of them back into the forest.
* * * * * * * *
"You can't endure the mists in the forests. I've eavesdropped on your conversation with Belial the whole time."
The wanderers back away in shock, unable to comprehend what Drimi just said. It appears that Drimi had been stalking them the entire time; she didn't even think about saving them. As the mist slowly consumes small chunks of the forest, Drimi pushes the wanderers to it and tosses the two dark masks toward them. She says in a stern voice.
"Don't ruin it! Or else both of you will be sorry."
Asahi and Aletha grab the masks from the ground and slowly strap them over their mouths and noses. They can feel the tingling aura resonating underneath the unique fabric of the cover, almost as if the mask's material was carefully extracting the toxins floating within the mists.
As they tread further deep into the forest filled with both trees, dead or alive, the glowing moon rises up from the horizon. Stars twinkle from one area of the sky to the next, giving their distant rays out to the world of Gincad.
The sky fills with twilight, drifting clouds, and flocks of birds; behind the openings of the treetops. The wanderers fall into pure awe just gazing at the scenery.
It's almost enough to say that Night in Gincad is just another form of day.
As they heard their feet shuffle through the grass and fallen leaves, they noticed something. Aletha cries as she tightly grips on Asahi's wrist.
"Drimi is gone! Where is she?"
Asahi faintly mutters as he swiftly turns his head left and right.
"She was just behind us a moment ago…"
Searching from one corner of the foggy forest to the next, there isn't anything but the sight of logs, trees, and wilderness. As they hear the sounds of howls, spectral screams, and cries, the wanderers cower in fear at the center of a circle of stones.
They couldn't bear to wander off into the mist again, considering what happened to them the last time they did it.
"Asahi… I can't breathe under this mask."
"Just keep it on, sis. I don't want you to see you get engulfed in the mist. Remember, this stuff is toxic. We don't have immunity like we used to."
As Aletha begins to calm herself down, Asahi whispers to himself.
"I thought this quest was going to be simple. Turns out, it's the most difficult adventure imaginable. I hope the villagers weren't lying to us. Otherwise, I would burn the houses; after all, they ARE pathetic humans."
The sullen and ominous silence continues, with nothing but the quiet whistling breeze sounding; a silhouette appears behind the dense fog. Asahi hops up and grabs a branch like it was a sword, then asks Aletha.
"Sis, try to summon your waker's blade! My storage won't open in here."
Aletha nods her head and reaches for her hip.
"On it!"
The luminance shines on her hip shortly afterward. Asahi hastily turns his body from one area to the next. He saw two glowing purple eyes shining over the silhouette, encircling around him at supersonic speeds. Even the winds get tampered by the sprinting shadow, swirling at a cyclone shape filled with the hue of dark purple.
"Where is this even coming from? Drimi, come over here!"
Asahi lifts his branch over the silhouette of a woman, waiting for it to dash toward him. A voice sounds out from the enshrouding mist.
"You know close to nothing."
Immediately, two legs hastily pop out from the thick fog and kick against his chest. He flies into the air and crashes against the ground.
"Asahi?!"
Aletha swiftly pulls her blade from her hip and dashes toward the dark silhouette. Abruptly, two streaks of light scratch her leg and punch her into the soil. Asahi slowly pulls his head up from the dirt and sees a dark feminine silhouette jabbing at Aletha with full force.
"Aletha!"
He pushes himself off from the ground and dashes to the silhouette. Asahi instantly gets tossed into the air again, then pounds through a tree and knocks it over. Aletha's gray eyes widened. She hastily crawls to her sword and tries to jab the shadow with force. Unfortunately, the attack misses, and instead, the feminine silhouette clenches her fingers around Aletha's neck and strangles her. She hears an aggressive voice relentlessly whispering to her.
"You are too weak. Where is your blood?"
Instead of crimson, it is Dust that spills out from Aletha's wounds. It scatters into the air like tiny flickers of light, almost as if the essence is sand. Asahi, panting heavily and his skin covered in luminescent liquid, jolt head first to the shadow and pushes her through the dirt.
"Why are you attacking us? Get... away!"
The woman didn't respond, and instead, she ripped Asahi's mask off from his mouth. With his vision covered in a blur, he can only make out that the woman has long hair and wears a mask also. The woman then forces a powerful punch through his face and kicks him to the ground.
"Are you just going to stand there and whine? Or are you going to do something about it? If you couldn't do it the easy way, I'm doing it the hard way."
"What are you even talking about?! I don't even know who you a--
His face then gets pummeled into the ground and covered in dirt.
"Don't act stupid! You know who I am. If you're just going to cower in fear in the face of danger, how are you supposed to survive in this world?"
Asahi wipes his Dust from his eyes, and his vision clears. He sees dark purple eyes piercing through his soul, wearing a dark mask over her pale face and dark hair resting on her back. He can't believe it, the one who beat them up…
….is Drimi herself.
Without effort, Drimi tosses Asahi forty meters through the forest and turns to Aletha.
"Oh, are you going to challenge me? Haha, that's pathetic. NOW FIGHT ME! Use whatever you have and beat me senselessly! I don't care. In this world, you shall show no mercy to monsters. Now hit me! HIT ME WITH ALL YOU HAVE!"
Aletha grits her teeth and pierces her eyes through Drimi's dark lavender eyes. She knows why Drimi is doing this but couldn't comprehend it because of the current state she is in. Her face, covered in blood that isn't her own, glares at Drimi.
"Survive?! Fine! If you want to do this to my brother and me, I will--
No warning, Aletha swings her fist toward Drimi's face with all the strength she has. Blood spills out from Drimi's mouth in one mighty punch and scatters onto Aletha's white hair. Asahi's eyes widened.
"Sis?! What are you doing?!"
Aletha didn't answer.
She continues to punch Drimi continuously with tears in her eyes. Instead of a frown, a small smile shines on Drimi's face. A smile that looks as if it was proud, even though her face is covered in blood.
"Die! Die! Die!..."
As Aletha screams out the same word while punching Drimi towards unconsciousness, suddenly, she swiftly gets tossed into the air and slides on the ground. Asahi leaps up and squints at Drimi. He then charges at full force to her and kicks her in a decisive move. Drimi then blocks the kick and breaks his arm with one chop with her hand.
"AHHHH"
Aletha shakes her head in disbelief at seeing her brother like this. She then grabs her blade and sprints towards Drimi with her face smothered in her Dust. (A vivid representation of her blood.) Drimi chuckles and tosses Aletha's sword into the air with an invisible force.
While wiping her crimson liquid off her face, she slowly approaches Aletha and slides her finger over her spilling dust. She scoffs in amazement while Asahi tries his best to get up.
"Dust? Hmmm, so you two are not humans, but rather; gods? Well, that makes my life… e-easier. Knowing that you will recover in a few hours."
Aletha coughs and trembles in fear.
"H-Huh? I c...ca...can… recover?"
As Asahi approaches Drimi from behind, a green force knocks him into the air and drags him to the ground.
Drimi slowly rubs her own head and lifts herself up as if the punches did nothing to her. She wipes Aletha's Dust off from her body, then hears a quiet, silvery voice sound from the mist.
"You are okay."
Aletha cannot recognize the feminine voice, while Drimi's eyes widen in complete utter shock, knowing who this voice belonged to. As she pulls Aletha up, they dash towards Asahi's position only to notice that he has vanished.
"Where did my brother go?"
Drimi shakes her head and slowly recovers Aletha's wounds with her dark magic. As the mist slowly lifts from where they stand, Drimi bends down to the ground and comments, seeing a faint trail stretching towards the fog.
"Asahi... has been kidnapped."
"H-Huh?"
"I hope he knew that I did this for training. Hopefully, you did too, Aletha."
Aletha crosses her arms and fumes, understanding Drimi. Though Drimi stopped, Aletha is furious about the lack of warning from Belial. It's as if the absence of caution is on purpose. As Drimi slowly straps her dark mask over her mouth, she whispers to Aletha.
"Be-Be even said to be merciless towards you two so that you can hopefully combat the monsters in this world without dying. Maybe I went too harsh?"
Aletha mumbles.
"Yeah. MAYBE you did. How could I possibly forgive you for what you did? You almost led me to slaughter you."
Drimi chuckles and shakes her head.
"That's not the issue now. I know who that voice belonged to. If we can follow these trails, maybe we can find your brother and her?"
Monstrous growls sound from behind them. Drimi hastily pulls Aletha away from the circle of stones and dashes through the stream.
"We have to get there... now. Asahi could be in trouble."
"Wait, Drimi, you're just going to forget what just happened?!"