"What do you mean you can't talk to him?" Yuuki asked, worry creeping into his voice.
"I-I mean I can't talk to him!" Tear rubbed her hand through her hair. "Usually I can talk with him if I focus, and now I can't!"
"That's it?" Liuva grumbled. "Pervy dragon isn't talking, big whoop."
Tear glared angrily at the blaster.
"'Big whoop'?" She spat. "Of course it's 'big whoop'! I can't fight like this!"
"Sucks to be you, then." Liuva snarled back.
"Let's take off those big robot arms of yours, see how hard you punch without them!"
"At least I can-"
"ENOUGH!" Yuuki thundered. "Neinheart made me the leader of this team and I am not going to see it fall apart on the first day because of some petty squabbling, do I make myself absolutely clear?"
The outburst caused the group to go silent for a moment.
"…sorry I made fun of you." Mumbled Liuva.
"…sorry I yelled." Tear replied.
"Great, we're all made up." Yuuki tapped his foot angrily. He sighed and turned to Legato.
"I'm sorry we weren't able to help immediately. Could you give us some time to get out bearings?"
The chief nodded. "I understand completely. As long as you help us, I am eternally grateful."
And with that, the chief walked away, leaving the six explorers to themselves.
"Sorry I have to do this, Liuva…" Aran said, breaking the silence. "…but I gotta side with Tear here. We have a problem…a big one. Tear can't get ahold of Eskalade, and I can't sense Maha."
The blaster said nothing, and simply stared at the ground. Yuuki rubbed his temples.
"Ok, so let's run through what's happening here…" The warrior said. "We have two people down for the count because they can't tap into their main sources of power."
"Add on to that…" Hayato continued. "Our normal attacks are being deflected, or somehow weakened."
"Possibly outright blocked." Xenon added.
Yuuki sighed again. "What a wonderful start to this mission, really. Well, let's start sorting through what Neinheart gave us."
The tension as thick as mushroom stew, the group began to sort through the equipment the strategist had stowed in the bags of holding. Their inventory for the mission, along with basic food and water supplies, included a set of six tents, blankets, tools of varying kinds, and some kind of smooth, black object that looked similar to the smart phones Yuuki had seen on Earth.
"…it's a communications tablet." Liuva explained, still avoiding the gaze of the Angelic Buster. "Checky designed modified some designs he got from the Other World; it should let you talk to the receiving tablet."
"Neinheart did mention sending consistent reports." Xenon clarified.
"That sounds like something he'd say, yeah."
Liuva glanced up at the orange-haired Nova. Tear met her gaze briefly, but turned back to focusing on her bag. The idol nonchalantly pulled out a rue-powered lantern, a set of flint and steel, a toothbrush…
"Wait!" Yuuki gripped her hand as she held up an irregular-shaped, orange stone. Yuuki reached into his bag and pulled out an almost-identical blue stone.
"Ah." Aran let out a small sound. She then reached into her bag and pulled out the purple triplet of the previous two stones.
The group of six formed a circle around the stones. They didn't seem to be glowing, or to be all that special.
"The goddesses did say these would be needed, correct?" Asked Hayato.
"D-do you think this is why?" Asked Tear. "Because our powers wouldn't work here?"
"I'd bet my money on it." Said Aran. "Hell, I'd bet Phantom's money on it."
"Then how do we use them?" Asked Liuva. "They didn't exactly come with instruction manuals, right?"
Yuuki hesitated for a second.
"Liuva, put your hand on Maple World's stone." He finally said. The blaster did as she was told. "Xenon, you do the same with the Grandis stone, and Hayato you do the same with the Tynerum stone."
The group did as they were told. Yuuki took a deep breath.
"Now…touch!"
The group pushed the tips of the stones together. They hit one another with a small "tink" noise, but otherwise did nothing.
"Well…" Said Hayato. "That was pointlessly dramatic and disappointing."
"Maybe we need a magic word?" Liuva asked sarcastically. "Abra-kadabra, alakazam, increase our powers with a 'bam'!"
"This isn't working…" Grumbled Aran. "Maybe if we-"
There was a small spark of light where the stones met, and suddenly a loud "bam" echoed across the landscape.
Yuuki coughed and waved fruitlessly at the smoke surrounding him.
"Is everyone okay?" He called out. "Sound off!"
Six independent voices groaned and mumbled responses.
"No system damage." Xenon reported. "Running basic diagnostic…"
"Owie…" Tear complained.
"Ugh…even my teeth are vibrating…" Liuva clutched at her head. "I was just joking about the 'bam', seriously…"
The dust began to settle and in the center of the former explosion was a floating sphere, about the size of a baseball, that glowed with a pale light. The sphere began to glow brighter, and Yuuki could have sworn he saw the others in the party glow as well, until the group had to avert their eyes.
The light died down, and the stone was gone.
No one spoke a word for a solid minute.
"That…" Hayato said, breaking the silence. "…was the absolute weirdest thing I have ever seen since I have come to this world, and that is saying something."
"Is the exploding and the glowing over now?" Asked Tear. "Or do we have more magic rocks in our pockets ready to blow up?"
"Sadly, no magic rocks here." Said a new voice.
Tear blinked, then broke into a grin. "Eskalade!"
"Who else?" The dragon said, materializing in front of the group.
"You're back!" Tear exclaimed, her eyes watering slightly. "Where were you, I was worried!"
"I never left." He explained. His face contorted into a frown, which was an odd look for a dragon period, let alone Eskalade. "I could get ahold of you, it was like some kind of giant glass wall that cut off our link…"
Aran closed her eyes for a second, then opened them. "Maha's back too, though he seems to have been asleep through the whole thing."
"Diagnostic complete. Error found." Xenon announced mechanically before frowning. "Yuuki…I appear to have developed a new readout on my sensor…"
"New…readout?"
"My sensors are now capable of detecting a form of energy they were not previously calibrated to detect." He looked at his hands, then around the group, then back at his hands. "I believe I have an explanation for our apparent weakening."
"Does it have to do with this 'new energy' you've found?" Asked Hayato.
The cyborg nodded. "Chief Legato described the townspeople and the creatures here as 'Erdas'. I believe this area is made up of Erdas energy. Hence, a normal attack had little effect on the creature."
Xenon held out his arm and examined it. "But the goddesses gifted us the ability to manipulate the Erdas Flow. Those stones were their gift. It has apparently manifested, in my case, as an energy readout to my normal sensor output; a measurement my system has reformatted to read as 'Arcane Power'."
"Arcane power?" Yuuki seemed confused.
"As a current estimate…" He continued. "…my sensors indicate that we, individually, currently possess approximately '30'. Units: unknown. Sense of scale: unknown. Method of training: unknown."
"I can feel something…" Hayato closed his eyes and concentrated. "I feel…stronger. Less weighed down."
"That's nice and all, but we're completely in the dark." Aran pointed out. "We don't know if 30-whatever is 'normal' for humans..."
"And Nova!" Tear chimed in.
"…For all we know, that Erda might have been at 250 or something."
"Oh no, there's definitely something new there." Said Eskalade. "I can feel it. Alongside my power. Great, untapped potential just begging to be released. You guys just touched a couple rocks together and unleashed a great power within you; lucky you guys."
"Still though, how 'great' are we talking? And how can we release it?" Aran sighed. "We should have brought along a mage…I'm not used to things you can't train by sparring or meditating."
"Having Xenon be able to read it is awfully convenient, though…" Liuva muttered.
"What'd you say, Liuva?" Yuuki asked.
"Eh, nothing, nevermind."
"Well kid, you're the leader." Aran said as she crossed her arms. "What do we do now?"
Yuuki hesitated for a moment. With Xenon's ability to read their new power in units they might have a strategic advantage, but that would be assuming his ability even worked on the creatures. Eskalade did say they were stronger than before, but were they strong enough?
"We might not be strong enough to fight just yet…" Yuuki cracked his knuckles in preparation. "But we'll need to check either way. Let's go hunting."
This was met with a series of confident nods and grins. The warrior proudly took a few steps in the direction the creature had run off previously before he felt something underfoot. He bent down and dug out of the sand a- now very dirty- toothbrush.
"Er…actually, let's pick up after ourselves first, and then let's go hunting."
The group grumbled unintelligibly in agreement.