Tales of Faith

Main Arc

Chapter 3 The Blood Forest

"…Hmm…" Luca was sitting at a fair distance away from the group, in deep thought, it seemed from the rest of them. After leaving Fone Village and a day's worth of travel, the group has now stopped to take a break before carrying on with their travel towards the Kingdom of Namdiascar. "What are you doing?" Someone suddenly said, and it scared the skin out of Luca. "Aah!" he screamed, nearly toppling forward. He turned to see Vanille standing behind him. "Oh, Vanille! I was just… doing some writing…" He said, showing what he was holding on to.

Vanille looked at the writing material. "So, is that your… uh, diary?" She asked.

"Well, no." Luca said. "I've decided to make this enemy journal to put in records of the enemies and Shadows that we may encounter during the trip." Vanille nodded, looking at the few entries that he has made. "That's really good!" she said. "Then, we may not have to know what to do if we face an enemy that we've met before!"

"You think so?" Luca wondered.

"You two!" A voice shouted. Luca and Vanille turned around to see Sara calling out for them. "Van and Elazul are done, and they're waiting for you!" Luca and Vanille stood up. "Oh, alright!" They said, quickly heading back to the group. Resuming their trip, they were ready to enter a section of a forest to pass through in order to reach the Kingdom of Namdiascar. Several hours ago, they had reached a route that would have took them less time to travel, but…

Several hours ago…

"Huh?! The mountain trail is blocked off?!" Luca screamed. He was speaking to a Pokémon who was standing in front of the mountain trail that would have took a shorter time to travel to their destination. "Yes, dear travellers. Due to a seismic activity that occurred, most of the mountain trail has now collapsed. It is currently too dangerous for anyone to pass through." The officer explained.

"Boo boo!" Luca pouted.

"There's no problem if we take the forest route, right?" Elazul said.

"No, the forest route wasn't affected by the seismic activity." The officer replied. "But I must assure you that you must be careful when you enter there. Bandits are on the rise in the forests now since the mountain trail is blocked."

Luca was looking at his Sapphire. "No glow today…" he said, placing the gem back in his robe pockets. "Okay, let's get through the forest now and…" As he walked, he didn't notice a small projectile being fired towards him. Most of the group, but Elazul, did not notice that projectile as well. He quickly pulled his iron lance from his back, suddenly thrusting it forward to knock that projectile away from harming Luca.

"Huh?" The rest of the group's attention turned left where the projectile landed after Elazul's interception. A small knife was resting on the soil. "Who's there?" Elazul said.

"Ahh, he saw through it, it looks like!" A voice said.

"Man, and I thought that we hid ourselves very well." Another voice spoke. Appearing from behind a set of trees, there were two small figures. Based on the black bandana they had, the group realises that they are bandits.

"Who're you?" Vanille asked, reaching out for her bow.

"Black Wings." The first bandit, a Sandile, said. "The great Black Wings, we are!" The second bandit, a Pawniard, pointed towards Luca. "Eeh?!" Luca gasped. "We want that jewel he's got!" the Pawniard said.

"Who're the Black Wings?" Vanille wondered. She looked at Elazul and Luca. Both of them were prepared for battle, although Luca was moving nervously. "Either way, I think that we need to fight!" She said, grabbing an arrow. Van looked at Sara. "Sara, get behind me. And continue to hold on to my sword." He said. Sara nodded, moving behind him, dragging the broadsword with her, since it was really heavy for her.

"Ready for this, you are?" The Sandile bandit said. The Pawniard bandit readied a stance. "Because here we come!" The Sandile began by jumping towards Elazul, and attempting to cut him with the knife that he was biting on. Elazul easily dodges that attack, and focuses his attention towards the Sandile. Vanille grouped up with him as a support. The smaller size of the Sandile benefited him greatly, as it was harder for Elazul's lance and Vanille's arrows to land on him.

Now, for the rest of the group, Luca was practically in the same situation yesterday: him being attacked and unable to retaliate at all. Van's movements were greatly restricted because of Luca's Bind spell, and he could only respond with kicking. Sara was hiding behind a tree, since she couldn't use the broadsword because of its' heavy mass. Van observed the situation, and made a low sweep on the Pawniard's legs, causing him to fall on his back. With the small moment ready, he faced Luca.

"Hey, Luca!" Van said. "Release those binds around me!"

"Huh?!" Luca said.

"You're useless in battle without a physical ally to help you! And now your friend, Elazul, is in a separate battle! I'm the only option left." He turned to face Sara. "Sara! Swing my sword around and throw it to me!" Sara looked surprised, but she responded with: "Okay!" She started to spin around, trying to gain some momentum to lift the sword off from the ground. Van looked at the Pawniard, who was getting up from the fall.

"O-Okay… Release!" Luca said, pointing his staff to Van. Instantly, all of the bindings holding Van disappeared. Van could finally move his whole body freely. "Van!" Sara said, using all of her might to throw the broadsword in the air. It was a comparative distance above the ground, as it was nearing over Van and Luca.

"That was a dirty move!" The Pawniard said, now standing up. "But I'm going to win in the end!" He quickly made a charge towards Van and Luca. As the sword was above him, Van quickly grabbed the hilt, swinging the broadsword down. The Pawniard manages to catch sight of this action and backed off to avoid the attack. "That's it! Rioting electricity! Lightning!" Luca shouted, a sudden bolt of lightning appearing and diving at the Pawniard.

"Whoops!" The Pawniard said, evading the lightning bolt. "Whoa, they're tough!" he said, regaining his balance.

"P-Pretty good, you people are…" The Sandile said, panting from the movements. Regrouping, the bandits stood close to each other. "Okay! Let's end this right now with our secret attack!" The bandits shouted.

"Boys, that's enough." A voice spoke, and mere seconds after those words, daggers suddenly landed on the ground, right in front of the two bandits. When they looked at the daggers in front of them, the bandits gulped, facing the direction where the daggers were thrown from. This prompted the group to face that same direction, looking up towards one of the trees. Everyone was now looking at a Weavile, with several knives held on her left hand. "Now, what're you doing?" She said, jumping off the tree and landing beside the bandits. "Steel, Dice. You aren't spreading lies again, aren't you?"

"Uhh, umm…" The bandits stuttered. "Well…" The Weavile shook her head in response, sighing. "The 'Dark Wings' aren't that bad, remember? We steal. Just to give to the poor. And this group has nothing of any value that could help the poor."

"'Dark Wings'? They said they were from the Black Wings!" Luca said. The Weavile faced Luca. "They did?" She said, and faced the bandits again. "Now, you two have some explaining to do."

"H-Hold on, Mellissa!" The bandit on the left said. "S-Steel's idea, it was!" He said, pointing to the other bandit.

"What?! The moment you caught the gems on your eye, you suggested that we take them!" The other bandit, now known as Steel, countered. The Weaville, named Mellissa, looked intrigued. "Gems? Hmm…" she scratched her chin. Finally, after a couple of minutes' worth of inactivity, Mellissa faced the group. "I'm sorry, darlings. As their leader, I'm taking full responsibility for their actions. Now, my boys here'll be apologizing, right?" she said, turning back to face the duo.

"Uhh…umm… We're really sorry…" Steel spoke weakly.

"…Really sorry, we are…" Dice said.

"…For?" Mellissa said.

"…For lying about our status… and trying to take your gems…" The duo finished. Mellissa gave a smile. "Good. Now, let us be off before more those earthquakes come from the forest of red." She said, walking away.

"Wait a minute." Sara said. "You said that the three of you are thieves… but what are you doing?" Mellissa did not face Sara, but answers her question. "There are many thieves out there. Mine focuses on taking from the wealthy, and passing the treasures we find to the poor." With those words, Mellissa dashed away from the group.

"Hey, wait for us!" Steel shouted.

"Leave us behind, you always did!" Dice said, the two trying to catch up to their leader.

"I don't believe that thieves do this…" Luca said, watching the Dark Wings disappear from their side. Vanille looked at them curiously before she recalled something that no has answered yet. "So, does anyone know what is 'Black Wings'?" she asked.

"I heard from rumours, that the Black Wings are a big crime organisation." Elazul said. "This group has done many evil deeds. Stealing, assassination, you name it. Whatever crime there was, they were able to perform it with efficiency. Many lives were already taken by this organisation…"

"What?!" Vanille gasped. "Then, why aren't they stopped yet?! Can't anyone do something against them?"

"But even if they could…" Luca said. "It's still impossible to stop them. If they tried… they would be killed by this mysterious leader of the Black Wings. As of this day, we still don't know who the leader is or what species it is either… and anyone who would have known the leader's identity didn't last long enough to tell the tale…" He clutched his staff harder on the last words.

"Anyway, we've wasted some time here." Elazul said. "Let's bring Van to the capital and convince the city that he isn't bad."

"But it is getting late…" Sara said. "We should camp out here."

"There's no need for that." Elazul said. "I've been in this forest before during a request I took. There's a rest stop just further over here. We can spend the night there."

With Elazul's directions, the group has made it to the rest stop Elazul spoke off. By then, the sun was setting. Luca gave a yawn. "Finally… so… sleepy…" he said, falling on the ground. Elazul began to grumble, heading over to Luca, carrying the sleeping Mage into the building. Vanille, Van and Sara followed Elazul to get some sleep as well.

On the next morning, the group were now having their breakfast. Luca was having a sandwich, Vanille and Sara took croissants, Van had a salad, and Elazul was eating a slice of toast. So far, no one has said anything yet. The silence was somehow useful, as Elazul could hear a conversation from a table from some distance away from them.

"The seismic activity's growing."

"Yes, I guess so. Looks like that the epicentre is coming from Blood Forest."

"Blood Forest? But that place is too dangerous!"

"Speaking of that place, rumours says that travellers who pass through there may hear some sort of sound. Actually, a melody. But no one has been able to investigate because of the belief of haunting spirits there. They thought that the melody belongs to a ghost."

"…Hey." Elazul said.

"Hmm?" The others respond.

"Let's pass through Blood Forest."

"B-Blood F-Forest?!" Luca shrieked. "That's the most haunted, scariest place in the woods!" Vanille looked at Luca's fearful face. "What is the Blood Forest?" she asked Luca. Van looked at her. "I've heard of this forest. It is said that the whole section of Blood Forest is red as compared to the other forests." Van said. "Also, some unfortunate travellers who pass by this forest…"

"…Are found with blood drenched all over them!" Luca screamed. "Aaah! That's really, really, absolutely, scary! That place is haunted with gh-gh-ghosts!"

"That's just a myth." Elazul said. "I can assure you that there are no ghosts."

"Huh? Are you scared of ghosts?" Vanille asked Luca.

"Y-Yes! They're scary!" Luca said. "Too scary! I'm frightened of them!"

"…I see a ghost behind you." Elazul said. Luca's reaction was to immediately shriek in a loud voice, practically jumping off from his seat, and was scampering around on the floor the moment he landed. "That's a mean trick, Elazul!" Vanille said, staring at the wyvern. She faced over to Luca, who was still in a state of terror, running all around the building. "It's okay, Luca! There aren't any ghosts in here!"

"AAH! GHOSTS! SCARY!" Luca continued to scream, not hearing anyone else' words, but his. Soon, his panic caused him to crash into someone. "Ow!" Immediately, Luca managed to stop his panic to face the one he bumped on. "Oh, sorry!" He apologized, facing a green hedgehog, known as a Chespin, rubbing his behind and several scattered fruits and a basket in front of him.

"Owow…" The Chespin said, looking at the scattered fruit. "Ah! Gotta get these up!" He exclaimed, hastily grabbing all of the scattered fruit and carrying the basket. "Okay! Got to bring these to him! Man, is he rather impatient when he is in Blood Forest…"

"B-Blood Forest?!" Luca shouted. It was then the Chespin took notice of Luca's presence and faced him. "B-But there are ghosts in there! You shouldn't head there!" The Chespin looked at him weirdly. "I-I'm not supposed to socialize with people I've never seen before!" The hedgehog shouts. "Anyway, whatever you do, don't head into Blood Forest! If you wanna continue on living, that is!" With those words, the Chespin took off from the rest stop.

"Now, I am really curious." Vanille said, the group heading over to Luca. "This makes me want to head into Blood Forest!"

"B-But! There're ghosts in there!" Luca said. "I'm deadly frightened of them!"

"I already said that there are no ghosts." Elazul said.

"He's right… there aren't any ghosts…"

The group's attention turned to face the entrance. A gray and pink sprite floated from the doors, but everyone could see that there were several wounds all over the sprite. "H-Hey! You're…!" Luca said.

"You're hurt!" Sara said.

"No… I'm alrigh…" The sprite says, before collapsing on the floor. Now, everyone present in the rest stop headed over to get medical attention for the sprite. After a half-hour, Luca and Vanille were waiting outside the medical room. Meanwhile, Van, Sara and Elazul were waiting outside of the rest stop.

"Just what could have happened…?" Vanille muttered. "Luca, who is that sprite?" Luca looks at her surprised. "You don't know abo- oh, yeah. Amnesia." Luca said. "That sprite you see is called Mespirit. She's one of the three lake guardians. I kind of envy the guardians… but meeting Mespirit, in this state…" his eyes had a look of hurt. "…Alright."

"What?"

"…Let's investigate Blood Forest." Luca told Vanille. "I think that Mespirit appeared from there… I saw a fragment of a plant that I know that grows only in Blood Forest that was caught on her body."

"But I thought you never visited that place." Vanille said.

"I don't… I spent time reading about the various areas of Niata." Luca explained.

"Oh…" Vanille said. "Let's tell the others." Luca nods. Heading outside, they told the party about heading over to Blood Forest because of Luca's decision to check it out.

"Hm. Looks like you're sucking in some courage." Elazul said.

"It's nothing like that!" Luca said. "I'm just worried that something bad could be happening over there…"

"Let's not waste time and check that place out." Van told the group. They walked a fair distance through the woods, and reached a section of the forest where the trees and leaves beyond were of the colour red. The Blood Forest. The group walked in the forest of red, looking at the surroundings. "Ah!" Luca gasped, suddenly tripping over a root. Vanille noticed this and grabbed his robes, pulling him back to standing positon. "O-Oh, thanks…!" Luca said.

Van suddenly clutched his chest, making a small groan. Sara quickly notices it. "Van? What's wrong?" Van opened his eyes, taking a breath. "I feel that something… an evil presence… I think I can track it…" he said. "That might be a clue towards the cases of earthquakes." The other three started to think. Right now, they don't have any leads… so trusting Van was now the only choice that they could rely on. "Okay."

Van nodded. "Alright. Follow me." The trip took a rational amount of time with Van's senses. He had to stop momentarily to feel that evil presence, then he would continue on moving. Everyone kept close to him as to make sure they don't get separated.

"How much further?" Elazul said, after an hour has passed. Van had stopped walking. "Hmm… let me concentrate again…"

"Ah!" Luca said.

"Don't tell me you tripped again…" Elazul said.

"No, look over there!" Luca said with a louder voice. Everyone turned their heads to where Luca was facing. They could see a lake in front of them. There was a tree in the center of the lake brimming with life. But when Luca jumped off from a ledge and the group followed him, they could see that all of the trees around them were withering. Van bent down and touched the floor. "…There's no doubt about it… This evil presence is the cause of this."

Luca looked at the central tree. "I don't get it…" he said, advancing slowly towards it. When he took another step, black figures suddenly sprung out from the ground, all of them attacking Luca. "EYAGH!" Luca screamed, then the Shadows disappeared when they were taken down with Van's broadsword and Elazul's lance. "They're here as well?!" Van shouted.

"More are coming!" Vanille screamed, as the ground started to sprout Shadows all around them. The five gathered together as they watched an army of Shadows circling around them. Luca pulled out his staff and Vanille grabbed her bow. The battle was long, as no matter how many Shadows they took down, more Shadows just appeared in place of the defeated ones.

"We aren't making any progress!" Luca shouted, crushing an enemy with Stone Blast. "They just keep coming! I'm running out of energy to cast my spells…"

"Damm it!" Van slashed a Shadow, and then another. "What are we supposed to do!?" he yelled. He kept on shielding all of the attacks that would target Sara.

Everyone continued to retreat from the Shadows until they bumped into each other. "We really are cornered!" Luca said.

Then, a melody was heard through the forest.

"Here's my new piece! The sound resonates to the audience, and it's curtains for you! Blood Entangler!"

A strange circle suddenly appeared and surrounded all of the Shadows. "What is that?" Sara said. The group suddenly realised that the Shadows are all immobilized by this circle. Then, a big wave of energy blasted out from the circle, vaporizing all of the Shadows at once. Soon the circle vanished. The group were stunned; every single Shadow was now gone from the battlefield.

"Whoa…" Sara said.

"What an attack!" Luca said.

"Are you okay?" A voice inquired.

Chapter 3 End

Current Party:

Elazul del Fable (Noivern) – Lancer (One who has mastered the use of a spear)

Weapon: Iron Lance

Luca R. Ezperanda (Politoed) – Klutz (Countless miracles comes naturally. But is it okay to break a classroom?)

Weapon: Wooden Staff

Cloudia Vanille (Slurpuff) – Amnesiac (I don't know who I am…)

Weapon: Bow

Van Grantieur (Monferno) – Survivor (One of the only survivors from Fone Village raid)

Weapon: Broadsword

Sara Chrysalia (Mincinno) – Survivor (One of the only survivors from Fone Village raid)

Who has expected less for the 'Dark Wings' scene? Bandits don't have to be all bad, is what I think…

I'm also happy to announce the first Mystic Arte of this story introduced here! Used by the saviour of the group. Who says that the first Mystic Arte used must be introduced from the earliest main characters? (Take Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia) for example: his Falcon's Crest was only available near the end of the story.) My excitement is increased; I'll be writing up a Linked Mystic Arte in the chapter! Yes, it's early, isn't it?

Skit: What's your Hobby?

Vanille: "Umm, I was wondering… for all of you, what do you your hobbies to be?"

Luca, Elazul, Van & Sara: "!"

Vanille: "I know we just met, but I wanted to know what's everyone interested in."

Sara: "My hobby is gardening."

Van: "Mine is now practicing my broadsword skills."

Luca: (grins) "And my hobby is reading!"

Vanille: "That's some good hobbies! Now, Elazul…" (notices that Elazul is gone.) "Elazul? Where did he go?"

Luca: (nervous smile) "That's his hobby, getting out of 'meaningless' conversations…"

Vanille: (sad face) "Is that even a hobby…?"