After Aster had split ways with Baz and Valentine, the two of them had continued looking for more of those demonic creatures' nests.
Once they had noticed their presence, they seemed to be everywhere. It was as if the entire west side was plagued by them. Like following a trail of breadcrumbs, they went from nest to nest destroying them. Due to the demonic creatures not being that powerful, a complex purification seal didn't have to be performed on their remains; a prefabricated one was enough, making the job easier and letting them move on faster.
It hadn't been too long before the landscape around them had completely changed. They had been so engrossed in following the trail of nests that they were now lost. Looking around, Baz realised they had gotten so far away from their starting point that the forest was now in sight. This was an area where he had never been.
As a rule, the forest was given a wide berth, there would be no buildings within kilometres. But years ago, whether out of ignorance or stupidity, some houses had been built almost next to the forest. The houses were surprisingly sold quickly, and soon, all of them had been occupied. But not even a full month after the people had moved in, reported "supernatural" events started occurring. People would report having recurring nightmares, objects would go missing without any signs, and at night, strange sounds coming from the forest could be heard. As more time passed, people even started getting sick with seemingly no cause behind it. The breaking point came when several children went missing. The children had never been found, and after that incident, all the people that had been living there left. While never officially closed off, the area had remained deserted, and no one had come to live in these houses again.
All of this had happened years before Baz had been born, but with time, the area had become somewhat of an urban legend amongst the children of the town, and it was a popular site for dares. The legend said that it was the forest that had cursed the place, and the children had been eaten by it. At night, it was said that their ghosts could still be seen walking around. That was, of course, part of the legend that had been built around the incident. Though there might have been some semblance of truth behind all the myths.
Being here now, the theory that the place was haunted certainly seemed plausible. With the demonic creatures crawling around, the unnatural stillness in the air, and the sudden temperature drop as soon as they walked into the neighbourhood, it was as if there really were ghosts lurking about.
Valentine felt a chill run down her spine. Just then, she felt as if there was someone, or something watching her.
"Baz…" She looked around the perimeter, trying to determine where the presence she felt was coming from.
"What is it?" Baz turned to look at her. "Do you want to go back?"
"No. It's not that, it's just…" Valentine felt another chill, but she could not sense any other being in the area. No natural energy signature apart from Baz and hers was in the vicinity. But there was definitely another presence here… She just couldn't put a name to this hunch she had.
Baz noticed her acting weird, and studied her face for a few seconds. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "How else will you get rid of all these creatures?"
"Ah…" Baz sighed. (She's dodging the topic, he thought.) "Well, I suppose you're right." He looked around; the ground basically crawling with the creatures, leaving a slimy trail that withered everything in its wake. "These… They are a bit too much for me to deal with."
"Of course they are," Valentine stuck out her tongue at him, "why else do you think I'm staying? Otherwise, who knows if you would be able to get back in one piece." She went on ahead, starting with the disposal of the demonic creatures and the destruction of the nests.
Baz didn't know whether to feel touched or offended. On one hand, he could take it as Valentine being concerned about him, but at the same time… Did she really think he was that pathetic?
"Are you just going to stay standing there, or are you going to do something?" Valentine turned to look back at him, tapping her foot impatiently.
Baz clicked his tongue internally. So impatient. "I'm coming, I'm coming." He hurried to catch up to her.
The concentration of nests here was higher, one of them being found almost every three steps. After a while, Baz felt that something was off.
"Valentine, come here," he waved her over.
She came trotting up to him. "What is it?"
"Don't you feel like something's… weird?"
Valentine tensed up. Could he possibly have felt the same strange presence as her? "Weird… how?"
"Weird as in there are too many of these… um…" Baz waved his hands around, "little guys around."
So he hasn't felt the other presence, Valentine thought. "Huh. You're right." Now that Baz mentioned it, there did seem to be too many of the creatures considering they had already gotten rid of a good number of them. In fact, it was as if there were more than when they had just arrived. "What do you want to do?"
"Hmm." Baz bent down to look at the slug-like creatures more closely. They seemed to be the same as the ones from before. Well, he hadn't paid any special attention to them until now, so he couldn't actually be sure. But at least at first glance, there was nothing out of the ordinary about them. Except for the fact that they were… Well, that they were demonic creatures.
"I don't–" Baz started saying, when he suddenly saw several creatures crawl out of the nearest hole in the ground. His eyes widened. "Valentine." He shook her shoulder. "Look."
"What?"
"Look!" He pointed at the nest from where the creatures were crawling out of.
It wasn't that there were that many of them, it was that they would spring up every few minutes. As soon as one creature was destroyed, two more would come to take its place. In this way, no matter how many one killed, there was no end to them. The nests had to be destroyed first and then the leftovers would be taken care of. Baz destroyed the nest nearest to him, and they watched as the creatures writhed and trashed around in the flames, until they melted into a thick pile of black goo. From the goo, a foul stench like rotting meat came off.
"Gross." Valentine scrunched up her nose.
"Haven't you seen this a bunch of times already? How are you not used to it?"
"Just because I've seen it a bunch of times, it doesn't stop being any less gross!"
"Hahaha, maybe you're right, but–" Baz's jaw suddenly hung slack. "Valentine, did you– Did you see that!"
The nest that had just been destroyed, had disappeared, and now, two other holes had just appeared where the previous one had been. Not only were the creatures coming out of the nests, the nests themselves were multiplying!
It was no wonder they seemed to be endless.
"What- What should we do?" Valentine asked with a shaky voice. Her fingers were digging into Baz's arm. "You have to do something!"
"I think…" Baz looked as more and more creatures came crawling out of the holes, "I think we should investigate this matter further. We have to find out where these nests are coming from."
"H-how do you plan to do that?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know!" Valentine's fingers dug deeper into his arm, and Baz grimaced with pain. "How can you say that?!"
"Valentine…" Baz tried to pry her fingers away, but her grip was iron-like. "Please let go of my arm…"
"I'm not letting go until you figure out what to do!"
Baz cursed internally. "...Fine! Why don't you try sticking your hand in there, see what happens?"
Valentines let go of his arm. But she kicked him in the shin. Baz had to admit he probably deserved it.
"You stick your own hand in there!" Valentine huffed.
Not for the first time that day, Baz wished Kit were here. If Kit were here, he could perform the mind-linking technique with one of his ink summons, and send it to investigate down the holes. But alas, Kit was not here. They would have to figure out another way.
"Valentine," Baz had waited a few seconds for her to calm down to start speaking again, "can you sense anything abnormal from the nests?"
Valentine cocked her head. "Abnormal?"
"Anything that would seem weird."
Suddenly, her eyes started darting around, and she seemed to become wary of something. "Well… There… There is something…" She paused, biting her lip. "It's just that… Ever since we came here, I've had this feeling that there's… something else here. I can't sense its energy, but I'm sure there–" She abruptly stopped, her face becoming pale.
"What? What is it?!"
"That– The nests!" She pointed at one of them by her feet. "They… There's something in there!"
"What do you mean?"
"They… They're not… There's another thing in there. The energy… It's off. It's like a whole sea of evil energy is brimming under the surface. There's something else in there. It's not just the slugs…"
Baz felt his mouth go dry. This was… This couldn't be. The evil energy these creatures gave off should be minimal, not even with these numbers would they amount to anything like what Valentine was describing.
"Are… Are you sure?"
"I'm sure!" Valentine was almost shaking, all the colour drained from her face.
Could it be… Baz felt himself going weak. He brought a hand to his head, his thoughts in complete disarray.
These… These weren't nests! They were portals!
"You–!" Valentine became worried seeing him become pale. Would he faint? What was she going to do if Baz left her alone?!
"I'm fine," Baz swatted away her concerns. "But…" If these holes were in fact portals, that meant that unless the origin of the summon was found, the portals would keep opening and the demonic creatures would keep coming. Even if they were the lowest levels of demonic creatures, the damage they had done was already so much, destroying the vegetation of everywhere they spread. If they kept coming at this pace, who knows the level of damage they would cause. They had the potential to destroy entire fields of crops…
He would have to find where these portals were coming from. But finding the source… That was probably impossible. Even if he were to find the source, he wouldn't be able to do anything, since the summoner of the portals was probably the demon…
There had to be some other way to stop them then. Some spell or seal… Something. He racked his brains, trying to remember. (Once again, he wished Kit were here. Kit would know what to do.)
Finally, a light switched on in his head. There was a way, he remembered reading something about it once. It had been somewhat of an experimental spell still in its early stages back when he was in the Academy, and they had learned about it in one of his classes. A kind of blocker for other magic…
He just couldn't remember how the actual casting of the spell went. He didn't even know if the spell worked! When he had learned about it, it had only been hypotheticals and demonstrations under controlled environments; never out in the field.
In theory, if by some miracle, he managed to get the spell working, it would cancel any and all other magic under the area he determined, leaving only the caster able to use their magical energy. Any spell or seal that had been casted in the area would stop functioning as long as the blocking spell was still in place.
"What was it, what was it…" he muttered under his breath. For the first time in his life, he wished he would have paid more attention in classes. Maybe if he had, he wouldn't be in the predicament he was in right now.
Suddenly, Valentine was tugging and pulling at his robe, an insistence with which she had never done so before.
"There! It's there!" Her tone was panicked, and there was a wild look in her eyes.
"What? What's there?" Baz asked.
"It's– It's there!" She pointed at the sky, where a black cloud was forming in the horizon.
But it wasn't just a normal black cloud like the ones that brought rain. This cloud was expanding in a spiral, and it was a deep black colour, the same as charcoal, the texture similar too.
"It's coming!"
"Valentine, what–"
"It's here! It's coming!" she shrieked. Valentine stared on in horror as the cloud expanded, covering the sky until the sun was blotted out. All the nerves on her body had started to tingle. It was as if there were hundreds of ants crawling all over her body. Not just on her skin, but underneath it too, eating her up from the inside out. She covered her face. She couldn't stand it anymore. It was too much. Too much. If she stayed here, she was sure she would die.
Baz tried to touch her shoulder. "Valentine, you–"
"Leave me alone!"
Baz pulled back his hand, shocked at the sudden outburst. Never had she spoken like that to him before. Telling him to leave her alone? She had said it countless times before, but never in this tone; not in a way where she meant it. "Valentine…"
"Go away! Just leave!" Valentine was covering her ears with her hands, her eyes shut tight. "Shut up! Leave me alone! Please!"
After a few seconds, Baz realised she wasn't speaking to him. She had probably even forgotten he was here. Before he could react, Valentine bolted out of there, running towards the forest like a scared animal.
"Valentine!" he called out after her, but she didn't hear him.