Apocrypha - Book 2: War

by LoneTaker

After weathering the storm of Demons, the world lulls back to a normal calm. But with every calm, a new storm brews as ghosts of the past and new threats alike all ready themselves for the second wave. If the world desires peace, then they must be ready for war.

31. Saga 31: Forest Part 7

Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.

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Saga 31: Forest Part 7

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Inside [CENSORED]'s Fractured Memories...

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No one says a word as they were all made witness to this diametric scenery of which the words "infernal paradise" can only used to describe this place that they've ended up in.

"... So wait," Corrin remarked, "you're saying that one of these memories belongs to the Captain?"

"That's what I said, yes," nodded Ogmios. "You have ears, and if they work, then don't assume that I'm bullshiting."

Zenon looked at him suspiciously. "... Why are you suddenly helping us?" he asked. "Are you trying to let down our guards so you may strike again-"

Ogmios then telepathically shuts off Zenon's ability to breathe for a few seconds before the [Bone Magic] user gasped back to life. "Letting your guard down?" he asked bemusedly. "Please, all of you are naked before my mind. Except for Roland's. That man's mind is incomprehensible."

"I try my best," said the nude Paladin.

"So why is he kept alive aside from that one caveat where we're going to have to explain to Dagda?" asked Vanica. "I mean, at this point, aren't we better off explaining ourselves in the first place?"

"Trust me, you don't want to push him the wrong way," Rinaldo remarked. "When I first got introduced to Ulster, Rule #1 is usually: 'Don't fuck with Dagda'. I saw the consequences with my own eyes, and let me tell you, him being reasonable is a privilege, not a right."

"How exactly?" asked Corrin.

"He's one of those people that subscribe to the belief of 'Only I can do X to Y'," explained Aengus. "For example, after when he'd ripped off Cissonius's arms and beat him with it, when he found that the same thing happened to him outside of daddy's notice... I was told to in my room and stay there until he said so. We all then cleaned off a lot of blood on the tavern floors."

"That and there are way too many unknowns about our current state of affairs to try anything rash," Ogmios smugly beamed. "So if anyone wants a piece of my ass, I'm not stopping you. Go right ahead. What happens afterwards are all on you."

Everyone reluctantly agreed that they're better off not rocking the already-about-to-capsize-boat even if it meant keeping this dangerous [Memory Magic] user around for much longer than they'd like to.

"... So it's a case of 'better the devil you know'?" Corrin remarked.

"Trust me, my roommates got away with much, much worse," the [Memory Magic] user kept smirking as looked at the Zogratis siblings. "Exhibit A: those two charity cases."

But just as the group can further argue, the soul being torn apart by the middle begins screaming in unfathomable agony as the two polar opposite realities began melting into each other, with rivers of fresh water and ones floating with charred corpses converging together and the windmills on one side now catching fire due to the other side influence. The world around them began to tremor, threatening to fall apart below their feet.

"... Uh, guys?!" Corrin asked. "This is all a hallucination, right?! The shaking is just special effects that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that we might actually die inside someone's neurosis, right?! RIGHT?!"

"Should be," Zenon remarked as he looked about the utter pandemonium unfolding around them. "I mean, this is all just someone else's memories-"

Than the flames coming from the memories of ruin then catches fire onto the surrounding trees of the forest that they were in, causing it to creak before it fell down near the group, scatting a cloud of fresh ashes before them, searing onto their skins, with the burns feeling all too real.

"... It's real," the [Bone Magic] user doubled back. "HOW IS ALL OF THIS REAL?!"

"FUCK THIS!" Vanica then broke off from rest of the group and runs off, only for her to immediately come back out from another part of the chaos as if the whole area is trapped in a loop. "... WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"We're trapped!" Aengus then turns towards the tied up [Memory Magic] user slung over Roland's shoulder. "HEY! YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"All I know is that the memories are coming to life, but I have no clue on how said memories suddenly decided to physically manifest themselves!" Ogmios remarked. "That said, we should probably do something, since that soul is the only thing keeping this clusterfuck together, and if that thing craps out on us while we're still inside... even I don't want to find out, tying back to my prior reason on why you shouldn't kill me just yet."

"So what's the plan?" asked Roland as he punched through the same burning tree with little effect to his skin before the burning tree put itself back on its own. "Doubt that I can punch our way out, as much as I could."

"We're first going to have stabilize that soul holding this place together," he then eyed towards the tormented soul at the center of this madness. "Specifically, we're going to have to play match with these memories and make sense of it. That's where Roland comes in. He's gonna have to carve out the landmasses and place em where they originally belong. Simply put, return this chaos back to order as a start."

"Like so?" the nude Paladin then carved out the windmill from the river that it was damming it and then lifted it up to reveal a bottomless pit of void underneath. "... Okay, so don't fall in. Got it."

"Why can't things ever be easy?" asked Corrin as she then threw nails into the excavated landmass before telekinetically lifting it up with her [Magnet Magic]. "Alright, so where to I put this?!"

"Over there!" Aengus pointed towards the hole between the hills now surrounded by burning trees. "Someone please cut the trees out and put them back!"

"Leave it to me!" Rinaldo then drew his [Froberge] right as the mercurial lash carved out the earth that the burning trees were rooted into, allowing Corrin to make room for the windmill to be placed back where it originally came from as the burning trees were all then lifted up by his [Mercury Magic]'s tendrils.

As the windmill returned to its proper place, the scenery around it molds itself back to a more coherent and solid state, akin to an orderly island in a sea of anarchy. As a response, the soul at the center slightly calmed down in its spasm.

"Well, at least we're doing something right," said the Paladin as he looked at the excavated burning trees. "... With that said, can we find a place where these things go?"

"Not as if the landmass around us are going to move as we like when we say 'please'," snarked Ogmios. "Through force, I suppose. Any objections?"

"None, so let's," nodded Corrin as the group then began their wade through the chaotic world that they've found themselves within a piece of the world that made no sense to begin with.

At this point, no one bothered to even ask how this place worked. For all they knew, their collective survival was their highest priority.

---

Ahead of the [Myconid] Graveyard...

---

"... When are you going to take that armor off?" asked Nozel. "You look stupid in it."

"Eh, I've gotten comfy inside of this thing," answered Brigid as she waddled around. "Kinda like sleeping in an ice closet without the risk of suffering hypothermia."

Nozel rolled his eyes just before his nose began to pick up on the smell of smoke. "... Something's burning."

Brigid then takes off her dry-ice helmet and also sniffs the air and also smells the exact same thing. "... I can assure you, that wasn't me."

"If it were, the flames would've melted your armor," said the Silver Eagles Captain as the two then runs towards where the smoke was coming from, now finding themselves inside of a forest on fire. "... That explains a few things."

"Okay, who's the asshole started this fire?!" Brigid exclaimed as her dry ice armor hissed into vapors from the surrounding heat.

"Worry about the culprit later," Nozel remarked as he then looked back from where they've come from, only for their way back to be replaced with the same hellscape that they're surrounded in. "... We're trapped."

"Hey, what's that thing up there?!" Brigid pointed towards the geometric device floating up in the sky with numerous wisps converging towards it. But as soon as she noticed it, she then falls onto her knees as she felt her mana being depleted.

Not soon after, Nozel fell to his knees too. Thinking quickly, she then digs her hand into the earth and absorbs the mana from it to regain her lost stockpile before taking the Captain's hand and pooling some of her own mana into his lost reserve.

"Careful," spoke the artificial spirit as she took off her shoes. "That thing up there will suck your mana dry, so don't let go of my hand."

"... Why are you helping me?" asked Nozel as he tried to break out of Brigid's iron grip. "I'm a noble. I don't need charity from the likes of you."

"Too bad, you're gonna," she smirked as she then dragged him along through navigating this hellscape only for them to find a spot of unspoiled rural village standing out in the roaring inferno. "... Well that isn't weird or anything-hey! I think I got Ogmios's signal!"

"What is it?" asked the Captain.

The spirit closes her eyes as she then heard her charge's thoughts from afar. "... Okay, so we're apparently trapped in a composite memory made manifest and if we don't get out soon, we're all gonna be sent careening down the endless abyss that this whole place is cloistered in."

"What do you mean, bottomless-" his words were then cut off as the ground behind them gave away to an infinite black void that devoured the land into its endless pit. "... I stand corrected."

"Start pumping those legs," both Brigid and Nozel then ran through the hellscape all the while trying not to get their mana sucked out by that weird geometric-looking thing floating above them.

As they begun exploring with each other tied to their hips, Brigid and Nozel kept looking around the patchwork world of hell and heaven alike.

In the "hell" they saw silhouettes of people being sucked dry of their mana as they were all shot down on sight by other, laughing silhouettes. The scenes of drainage and slaughter not only played itself back again and again, but the sequence of the events was disjointed, akin to a theater play missing several acts between its prelude and encore.

At the "heaven," they could see a silhouette the size of a small boy gathering water from a river with some sort of magic that lets him use tendrils that let him carry a bucket. The mundane scene again, like the "hell," played itself out in a consistent ad-infinitum.

"I think I sort know what Hell looks like now," commented Brigid as kept up her own mana reservoir from being sucked dry. "... Ignoring that, does any of this look familiar to you?"

"... Vaguely, but only the ones that are not caught on fire," he replied. "... Must not be important. Or if it is, then damn the ones that dare to make a lock that only opens with the most obscure of dust bunnies."

"Ooh, I better patent that," the spirit giggled as she dragged Nozel along before finding Ogmios group up ahead, with Roland carrying an endlessly-flowing river that was cut off from the rest of its stream. "HEY GUYS! WE'RE OVER HERE!"

"Finally, some other company-" Roland's words were then cut off as Corrin ran past him.

"OI!" she yelled out while she ran towards Brigid and Nozel. "YOUR PAL ALMOST KILLED US-"

Corrin then collapses before reaching Brigid's bare feet.

"... Hold on, I got it," Roland then shepherds the rest of the group to where Corrin was laid at before planting his sword next to her, allowing her to get back up.

"What the hell just happened..." she groaned. "... Felt like I was sucked dry when I left you guys."

"[Durandal]," Ogmios pointed out. "It's healing properties also include automatic mana-regen. Maybe next time, consider the following."

"Hey," Brigid remarked as she let Nozel go to allow them both to fall under the Relic's effects that protected them from the geometric deathtrap. "... What the fuck happened for you to end up tied up like a burlap sack?"

"Ogmios threatened to kill the others and I was forced to nearly kill myself to make him stop," Aengus explained.

"Eh, figured," shrugged the spirit. "Not the first time it happened."

"Seriously?!" Corrin remarked.

"Why do you think there are so many surgical scars on his head?" she pointed out. "Half of those came from lobotomy to keep his murderous impulses in check. The other half came with him when I found him near-death."

"By keeping said bloodlust in check, you mean 'kept exclusively to the Witch Queen'?" snarked Vanica.

"I respect his wishes," Brigid replied. "But in return, I expect him to respect our boss's set boundaries."

"... I'm so gonna get spanked to near-death again, am I?" deadpanned Ogmios.

"Given that you gave his favorite a scar..." the spirit sucked her teeth, "... we're gonna have to wait."

"Uh, guys," Zenon remarked. "The memories?"

"Got it," Roland then tosses the chunk of land he'd excavated prior into the void, the earth then realigning itself back into its proper orientation, the scene of the carnage stabilizing itself upon recombination. "Alright, uh, you two find any piece of land that are not on fire on your way here? We're playing the world's worst game of match just not to die."

"A few," Brigid remarked as she pointed her thumb behind herself. "Come on, I'll show you the way."

The now group of nine then continue this game of death within the tormented memories.

---

Exiting the Deserted Forest Area...

---

"Goodbye open space..." sighed David as the group he was with left the sands as the towering trees surrounded them once more.

"Aw suck it up," Cu shrugged. "Its not like dat de sands were any nicer te us."

"What?" Letoile remarked as she cupped her still-recovering ears before getting the message. "... I see. If you're worried, then my advice is that you best keep your wits about you."

"If not, then I'll protect you and everyone else," Jericho declared.

"White-knighting much?" Salim smirked.

"Eh, let de boyo 'ave 'is fun," smirked Cissonius.

Bizon rolled his eyes as he followed Makarov on their trek.

No one again dared to point out the repetition that they were trapped in. Everyone knew that they were effectively trapped inside a proverbial hamster wheel of nature's prison, where the only escape from this infinite loop was death.

Even then, their "escape" wasn't an easy way out. Their jailer had meticulously planned out their deaths to be the most painful and agonizing ways possible. The internals of an airtight concrete box had more sense of freedom then wherever they were.

"Hey," spoke Mudo.

"Yes?" replied Dorothy.

"Might be just me trying to not think about... the obvious," she pointed out, "but I have to ask, how are you holding up? I... I mean, out of the rest of us, you're the one who's been the most physically affected by that so-called god."

The witch nervously chuckles before answering. "... Honestly, I feel a bit light-headed," she confessed. "My brain feel as if it got sucked dry while at the same time my left ear feels uncomfortably damp inside."

"Come te think of it, yer [Glamour World] when I was tossed in dere..." Cu bemused as he tried to recall what he'd seen while he was in his [Beastman] state, "... shite, me brain can't remember anythin'!"

"Can't remember anything?" Letoile picked up. "... Are you referring to the time when the two of us were transferred into the [Glamour World] during our fight with [Tefnut]?"

She then sees Cu nodding.

"... Sorry, I didn't see anything either," apologized the [Compass Magic] user. "Light must've gotten into my eyes."

"Was my [Glamour World] that bright?" asked Dorothy. "I mean, I went in there a few times myself and I'm pretty sure adjusted it to make it easy on the eyes..."

"Eh, it's your shite, so ye know betta den we do," Cissonius commented.

"Perhaps the brain breach might've affected it to some capacity," Mudo pointed out. "So with that said, can we take a look inside together-"

Suddenly, all of their noses then pick up the scent of smoke.

"... Fire," Makarov confirmed. "And it's too strong to be mere campfire!"

The blaze then completely surrounds them in an instant as they now find themselves within an inferno.

"Okay, who's the jackass we have to fight this time?!" Salim exclaimed only for his words to be met with silence. "... Really? No one? I thought the god would be gloating at us right now."

"I agree with ye," nodded the [Snatch Magic] user as he tugged his gloves. "Sumthin' but de flames smells like shite."

Bizon wastes no time putting out the fire with his [Gravity Magic] smothering the flames with the mount of earth, only for the mound to disappear as the fire reignited. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"We'll make no further progress if we remain here!" Makarov remarked. "RUN!"

Everyone then ran towards the way they've come from, only for them to find themselves staring at the melded world of hellfire and untouched rural countryside.

"... What am I seeing," Letoile remarked in the flattest tone imaginable.

"I dunno, but it looks fun!" Cu cackled as he then jump in. "COME ON! LAST ONE IN IS A ROTTEN EGG-!"

The wild man's enthusiasm was then grounded along with the man himself, twitching like a partially-dead insect.

"... What the fuck just happened?" asked Salim.

"LOOK OUT!" Makarov then tackled everyone out of the way right before he used his [Aura Magic] to conjure up a wave of black flames from his [Chernobog], the wisps reacting as if they were being buffeted by something unseen.

"What's going on-" Mudo then falls unconscious.

"EVERYONE FIND COVER-" Bizon chokes on his words before falling flat.

"SERIOUSLY! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING-" Salim then falls shortly after.

David then notices something floating in the sky above their heads. "Hey! Is that-!"

Jericho then catches the now-unconcious David as he and Letoile drag everyone else to where Makarov was holding his ground at. "What's wrong with them?" he asked. "Captain! We need an update!"

The Captain then checks their vitals to see what was wrong with them. "... They're out of mana," she confirmed. "THEY'RE BEING SUCKED DRY!"

"I'm assuming it's from that," Makarov pointed towards the geometric device floating in the sky. "Some kind of... magical device siphoning mana throughout this whole land... what sort of denizen of Hell would come up with this kind of contraption?!"

"Said spare mana?" Cissonius then snatches the white wisps out of the air before taking in for himself. "... 'Nd before ye ask, no, I only got two 'ands to nick em with. Yer gunna 'ave te carry de rest."

Letoile then tries to use her [Compass Magic] to fire the needles towards the device, only for her spells to be converted into raw mana before being sucked in. "... Okay, spells aimed towards that thing won't work."

Jericho then picks up a rock before throwing it as hard as he could, only for the stone to break against the device. "... And infuriatingly well-made too."

"Not to mention, Cu's put out of commission, meaning that unless someone wants to replace their spine with his [Gae Bolg], then we're officially out of options," Makarov remarked as his [Aura Magic] protected the rest of those who haven't had their mana sucked dry from their bodies. "... I get the feeling that we're not in the forest anymore."

"No shite, but where de fek are we?!" Cissonius asked as he kept up his own stockpile of his now-constantly draining mana lest he joins in on the burden.

Dorothy then places her hand onto the earth and discovers something horrifying. "... Guys," she spoke with a worried tone. "I think we're transferred into someone else's mind."

"Something about us being inside someone else's mind?" asked Letoile, to which everyone else nodded in confirmation.

"And worst of all, it's breaking down super-fast, even if there are some efforts being made on the brain's part to preserve itself," Dorothy confirmed as the ground around them shook slightly. "I'd estimate about five minutes before all of us suffer the worst kind of collective ego-death."

"Well, we got a plan then," Jericho confirmed as he then carried the unconscious Salim and David over his shoulders. "Find the source, calm it down, and get the hell out. Captain, guess it's your time to shine. Given that this place is short on time and the fact that you might be slightly brain-damaged, I recommend you save your [Dream Magic] until we reach the proverbial core."

"Then we'll protect her along the way!" Makarov confirmed as he then carried Bizon and Cu onto his back. "I'll keep our mana safe! The rest of you will have to break through the hazards present!"

Letoile nods as she then manifests a compass as she then piggybacks Mudo. "... This way," she and the others then followed where the compass needle was pointing towards.

Throughout their traversal, the present four sees numerous silhouettes being chased down, shooting down the aforementioned with sadistic glee, and the occasional odd one out with one silhouette being seen collecting water from a river.

"... So wait," asked Makarov. "If this is someone else's memory that we're in, then doesn't that mean we're going to get caught in the crossfire-"

Then from the side of the road which they treaded upon were then shot by magic blasts coming from the laughing shadows that warped into something less humanoid as they closed in towards them and their laughter became ever more deafening.

"... I'm partially deaf but this chortling is already grating," growled Letoile.

"DO NOT ENGAGE!" ordered Makarov. "THEY'RE NOT OUR PRIORITY!"

More magic blasts fired from the shadows, with Jericho parrying the shots with his [Stardust Knuckles]. "I'll defend the rear, so focus on running!" he requested as he kept parrying the magic blasts. "Once we reach our destination, we can then set up a defensive perimeter around there!"

"Got it!" Dorothy remarked as she and the others now ran from the tide of jeering and cackling shadows edging towards behind their heels.

Through flame and foetor alike, the active four kept running in the direction where the compass needle was pointing towards, all the while the geometric device floating up above their heads kept absorbing white wisps into itself, threatening to do the same with the rest of them as it did to the others.

"Quick question," asked Jericho as he skipped over a flowing river. "When a person's sucked dry of his or her mana, will it eventually replenish itself or is it permanent?"

"Assuming if their MNA hasn't been tampered with, they'll recover on their own," Makarov stated. "That said, mana deficiency is still physically crippling, even if you're a freak like Cu."

"I stole few bits of mana meself during me rovin' days," testified Cissonius as he caught one magic spell before absorbing it into himself as raw mana. "Wen I didn't kill em outrite afterwards, dey were rite as rain de next day."

"So it's like suddenly being deprived of oxygen?" restated the [Platinum Magic] user as he blocked the shots with his gauntlets. "Or something akin to altitude sickness?"

"Yeah, something of a combination of the two examples," Dorothy remarked as she ducked under another magic blast. "The real threat of Grand Magic Zones without proper conditioning is basically your mana being squeezed dry under the pressure of external mana, hence why [Mana Skin] acts as the proverbial suit that keeps our mana from rupturing."

"My ears aren't still fully working, but I can sort of hear you guys making smalltalk!" Leotile pointed out as her needle then made landfall towards their destination. "WE'RE CLOSE BY! PREPARE TO DISEMBARK!"

"Jericho!" Makarov exclaimed. "On my mark, get ready to switch formation!"

"Ready when you are!" he remarked as the group then closed in on towards the white silhouette that looks to be writhing in immense pain.

"CONTACT!" the Vice-Inquisitor barked as he then expelled out further his [Aura Magic]'s black flames that began chasing the shadows and the device's leeching influence away from them. At the same time, Jericho then throws both David and Salim into the air before unleashing his spells upon the now-staggering shadows.

"[PLATINUM MAGIC]!" Jericho barked as he then drove his fists into the earth as a field of platinum weapons burst from below the shadows' feet. "[PEACE SWORD]!"

The amorphous shadows all break against the reef of blades as both he and Makarov began to set up a defensive perimeter around their current location as Dorothy and Letoile looked at the pained soul.

"Alright, guess it's my turn," Dorothy remarked. "If this is someone's mind, then I can isolate the core with my [Dream Magic]. So in the meantime, don't die, okay?"

Letoile nodded before giving a salute. "Godspeed."

The witch salutes back before she then casts [Glamour World] onto herself and the soul right as Letoile joins the other two in their defensive perimeter. "Everyone, hold the line!" Letoile then used her [Compass Magic] to then stem the tide of writhing shadows closing in on them. "Maintain the position until Captain Dorothy returns!"

"Rite!" Cissonius remarked as he kept absorbing more mana into himself in order to both maintain himself while lessening Makarov's own burden of having to protect more people with his [Aura Magic]. "Hopefully, de othas come before we all crap out..."

---

Throughout the Broken Memories...

---

"Another match!" exclaimed Roland as he fixed in the cabin back to where it belonged, allowing the farmland half to become more orderly.

"I wouldn't call half of the world around us being anything better. But that said, our efforts are contributing to this place gradually stabilizing, so keep it up guys!" spoke Ogmios before he shot a look at Nozel. "Oi grumpy-Gus! Stop twiddling your thumbs and start helping us!"

"Or what-" Nozel was then cut off by Brigid literally dragging him by the ear before she then dropped a giant chunk of burning earth carrying a charred wedding arch on top of its surface onto him, forcing him to catch the earth with his mercurial tendrils or get crushed. "... Fine."

"... I know that Captain Nozel's not the most amicable, but is it just me or is he acting even more of a dick as of late?" asked Corrin.

"Eh, hardly makes a difference," shrugged Vanica as she willed [Red Beast] to perform physical labor. "Although I gotta wonder... why aren't the silhouettes attacking us? I mean, we're prime real estate-OW!"

"Don't tempt fate," Rinaldo grimaced as he removed his [Froberge]'s pommel from the Zogratis child's head. "In my opinion, I'd rather not have my hands tied long enough to have all of my mana sucked dry!"

"Speaking for all of us, that's for sure," Zenon nodded in agreement as he carved out a mismatched patch of earth with his [Eternal Fangs] spell. "I got another one. Does anyone know where this thing goes?!"

"Over there, next to the windmill!" pointed Corrin as Zenon placed the patch of earth into the hole, with the cavity now filing up on its own and now most of the village has returned to normal. "Alright, just a few more to go!"

"Nozel, you're carrying the last ones to make up for you being a sourpuss," Brigid ordered as she then proceeded to dump the remainder of the out-of-place landmasses onto him. "Everyone else, time to excise the last bits of out-of-place landmasses!"

The group then gets onto their final push through correcting this chaotic menagerie that they were trapped in. Roland and Rinaldo cut out the patches of verdant bushes that were hidden behind the flames of the ruined forest, making way for the scrapped earth to be placed back into their original spots.

Chaos slowly returned to unabated chaos as flames and silhouettes alike now melded together without contradiction. Order was gradually restored to the rural countryside as it rivers and windmills resumed movement back to its normal operation.

With the last of the pieces returned to their proper places, the chaos of the fractured memories has now returned to their prior states. "There," sighed Ogmios. "Took a while, but I think we're able to make sense of this utter bullshit. At least the occasional tremors stopped."

Nozel blinked at the sight of the half-and-half scenery of the forest set ablaze and a peaceful foetor with spinning windmills, flowing river, and rustling tea leaves. "... I... seem to... remember something."

"Which one?" asked Brigid as she leaned in.

"Nothing now that you've come in and breathed down my neck," the Captain gritted his teeth.

"Can we go now?" asked Aengus as she pinched her nose. "... I hate the smell of smoke."

"We all do," Ogmios deadpanned. "... But you have a point. Less we stick around in here, the better."

"Hey!" Corrin then pointed towards the soul shining from afar. "Did the soul just move from where we first saw?!"

Everyone then looks out towards where the soul was now newly spotted at. It was being surrounded from all sides by a tide of shadowy apparitions being fended off by a few people. Meanwhile, the soul itself was now floating inside a bubble of light occupied with another figure with a pointed hat.

"... Guys, I think we found the others," Brigid remarked. "Hey Vanny, guess your wish came true. Just don't hit our allies or you're joining Ogmios in his post-Dungeon spanking, understood-and she left."

Just as Vanica ran towards the tide of writing and jeering shadows, the [Blood Magic] user then collapses onto the floor as her mana was drained from her body until her tank ran empty. And just as she collapsed onto the ground, some of the shadows broke off from the crown and began closing in on her as easy prey, but not before Corrin then shot her nails into the shadows to fend them off long enough for the others to get to her.

"Now, what did you learn about running ahead before finishing what the others has to say?" asked Roland as he used [Durandal]'s passive healing properties to restore Vanica's drained mana.

"... I'm so gonna get spanked to near-death, am I?" the [Blood Magic] user bemoaned.

"Eh, silver lining, you'll only be paralyzed from the waist-down for a month at worst," Ogmios reassured semi-sarcastically. "That said though, I guess we figured out the prerequisite of what causes the shadows to attack."

"Definition of opportunists right then and there, although kind of rich coming from an Ulsterian like me," commented Brigid as she also saw the shadows eyeing towards the other unconscious/mana-drained people being defended by Letoile, Cissonius, Bizon, and Makarov. "... Not gonna lie though, I can respect initiatives that."

"Everyone done complimenting the enemy?" asked Rinaldo, to which everyone present nods. "... Good. Waste them."

Everyone now then charges towards the shadowy tide in unison/within [Durandal]'s reach as everyone plowed through the moaning tar mob with their spells and Relics that they had in disposal.

"[Magnet Magic: Rampage Dress]!" Corrin charged through the horde as she was surrounded by a rotating dress of all of her nails that shredded through the shadows.

"[Anima Magic: Snowplow]!" Brigid then combines [Water], [Wind], and [Earth] elements to create a diamond dust drill that bored through the blackened crowd.

"[Mercury Magic: Silver Arsenal]," Nozel dispassionately walked through the shambling shadows as his weaponized tendrils did all of the heavy lifting for him.

"[Food Magic: Sloppy Seconds]!" Moccus as he carried Aengus on his back then slurped up the shadows with his mouth as a pig would when fed with food scraps. "HANG ON TIGHT AENGUS! DON'T GET SWEPT OFF!"

"TIME TO CUT LOOSE ZENON!" Vanica cackled as her [Red Beast] devoured the shadows sprawling around them. "COME ON YOU GUPPIES! FEED ME IF YOU DARE!"

"Curb your enthusiasm... but alas," sighed Zenon as his [Eternal Fangs] literally walked over the shadows as if his bones were sharp spider's legs.

"HEY GUYS!" Roland cried out as he duel-wielded both [Durandal] and Ogmios himself (the latter being healed by the former to prevent him from dying while being used as a bludgeon), sending the shadows flying across the non-existent horizon with each blow akin to that of a hurricane. "HOW ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!"

"YE CAME JUST IN TIME, YE BASTARDS!" Cissonius cackled rapturously as he caught Rinaldo on his way down. "... By de way, de others passed out from mana deficiency from dat thin' floatin' up dere," he pointed towards the geometric device floating above them. "Anyone know how te use [Gae Bolg] without 'avin' der spines replaced by it?!"

Everyone then stares at the squirming crimson shaft covered with an assortment of thorns and spearheads shortly before they all backed away from it.

"... Yeh, I figured," he grumbled as he kept stealing the Demonic parasite's "freedom" to prevent it from going haywire at the worst possible time. "... Just... just 'old de line," he sucked his teeth in dismay. "... De witchy-lass is inside dat bubble called [Glamour World] tryin' to calm de core down and hopefully, find a way out of dis shitehole."

"Points for thinking ahead-!" Ogmios's words were then cut off as soon as he was back swinging in Roland's hands.

"USE THIS WHILE I'M OUT THERE!" the nude Paladin remarked as he threw his Relic into the ground near where the others were at. "AS SOON AS THEY FINISH HEALING UP, TELL THEM TO JOIN OUR FIGHT!"

Suddenly, Nozel's eyes widened in realization. "... I just remembered something."

"What is it?!" Corrin remarked as she fired her nails from her [Rampage Dress] in a rapid volley.

"That village we've just rebuilt..." he remarked as his mercurial tendrils whips around their arms of warfare by themselves, leaving their caster to ponder properly, "... that village is where I've had tea with the Golden Dawn Captain!"

"Wait, that's what you remembered?!" Jericho barked out as he punched down another shadow with his [Stardust Knuckle]. "OF ALL THINGS, THAT'S IMPORTANT ENOUGH FOR THAT LONG OF A BUILDUP?!"

"It's important enough of a locale in the Forsaken Realm of all places that I didn't instinctively scrub it from my memories instinctively like I did with other foetors that those peasants live in, so yes, it is that important," Nozel remarked as he then looked out towards the spinning windmill from afar. "... For backwaters, their tea leaves were... tolerable. Bit on the bitter side, but oddly appealing in its own unique sort of way."

"... Actually, this might even more important than we've give it credit for," Brigid pointed out right as she then unleashed a cutting tornado spell to rip apart the shadows. "... Hell, he might actually hold the key of Captain Licht's scrambled memories!"

"THAT'S IMPORTANT ALL OF THE SUDDEN?!" Corrin cried out.

"WHAT'S IMPORTANT?!" Bizon roared back as he then threw his [Labrys] across the mob of muddy mucks like a boomerang, having it return to him with the flick of his [Gravity Magic].

"I MEAN, HE'S KIND OF THE THE FIRST EVER ELF IN ALL OF CLOVER KINGDOM'S HISTORY TO BECOME A MAGIC KNIGHT CAPTAIN AND FIND HIS OWN ORDER!" Corrin pointed out. "HE'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL-!"

"No," Nozel shook his head while his [Silver Arsenal] did all of his work. "... Something doesn't add up."

"What do you mean?" asked Corrin as she then saw the Silver Eagle Captain look upon the chaos once more with a contemplative look.

The Silver Eagles's Captain then confirms the following. "I don't remember the Captain being an elf."

---

Inside [Glamour World]...

---

"What the heck happened here?!" Dorothy exclaimed as she found herself and the soul within an endless white void that was supposed to be her [Glamour World].

She tried to manifest her imagination into this enclosed space, but no avail. Or rather, she couldn't think of anything to begin with.

"... Motherfucker," she then realized what'd happened when [Leshy] was clamping onto her brain. "... Did he steal literally steal my brain's imagination?!"

But just as Dorothy was about to ponder in her own newfound turmoil, the cries of the soul that she took with her began resounding throughout the white void as cracks began to form.

Realizing that there are bigger problems then her's right now, the Captain begins to rack what's left of her damaged brain for solutions lest her plans unravel in record speed.

"Okay, stay calm," she spoke to herself as the number of cracks around her [Glamour World] grew in tandem with the soul's pained screaming getting ever louder with each passing second. "I have to get this situation under... control."

In the absence of her youthful imagination, a flash of genius gleams in her newly-furnaced mind. But rather than exclaim in realization, she instead adopts a different mindset.

Don't think of the vacated [Glamour World] as an act of vandalism, she thought as she slowly approached the tormented soul. Think of it as a blank canvas where I can do anything!

Right now, she needed to be calm.

Dorothy now needs to view this soul not as a bomb that was about to go off, but as a scared child who's utterly alone in the world.

She needs to provide him with safety.

"Here," Dorothy softly whispered as she embraced the crying soul. "Don't worry. I'm here for you. You're safe now."

The white void then turns sky blue as the cracks ceased to form around the space. Stagnant air gave way to a calming, slightly-minty aroma that soothed the soul's wails. Tremors ceased into perfect stillness.

"[Dream Recovery Magic: Safe Space]," said the witch as the soul began to sob, its illuminated features now revealing an elven boy in a pure-white toga who physically looked no older than twelve. "... There, you're safe now."

"... Really?" the elf boy whimpered, still hesitant.

Dorothy nods in reassurance. "I promise," she remarked. "So, what is troubling you?"

The boy's tears continued to flow down from his eyes. "... I can't remember," he remarked. "I can't remember anything about myself. I don't know my name, my body, nor where I'm from. And still, people call me 'Captain Licht' even though that isn't it! How can I be a Captain?! I'm only a kid!"

So that's the issue, Dorothy thought. Guess I'm not the only one who got literally brain-fucked.

"... Okay, so first of all, I'm sorry that you had to go through that all by yourself," she remarked as she held his hand. "It's hard expecting to be an adult when you're not, isn't it?"

The boy nods. "... So you believe me?"

"If 'Captain Licht' does exist, then it's definitely not you," Dorothy replied assuredly. "I mean, you're a kid and he's an adult. So that makes sense, right?"

The boy finally smiles a little bit. "Yeah..." he nodded as he dried his tears with his hands, "... I'm a kid, which I know it's the truth. Thanks for believing in me."

"No sweat," she then gave him a thumbs-up with a beaming smile. "... Now then... where to find your missing memories-"

HEY! a voice from outside blared into [Safe Space]. ANY PROGRESS YET?!

"Ogmios?!" she remarked as the boy clung onto her for safety. "... And the others?!"

Yes, and in case if you're wondering how I got in, [Memory Magic], he answered.

"Well speak softly next time!" Dorothy remarked while trying not to scare the boy more than he should. "... I'm in therapy."

That explains why this place became more stable, Ogmios relented his scathing tone before composing himself for pragmatic reasons. ... Anyhoo, you're in memory-finding mode right now, correct?

"Yeah!" she replied while keeping a tight hold on the boy. "All he can remember is that his current memories aren't his!"

Alright, here's the news, spoke Ogmios. Apparently, the village-half of the memory is the exact same place where Captain Nozel had tea with the real Golden Dawn Captain. So kid, you like your tea bitter?

"... N-no," he trembled as his taste buds flared in a shudder at hearing the word "bitter". "... I like mine floral and sweet."

Alright, that confirms Nozel's theory, the [Memory Magic] user remarked. As much as I like to help you both right now, I'm kind of on a time-out while the others are fighting for their lives, so instead I'll leave you two with this: he then cleared his throat before sharing his motivational speech. Dorothy Unsworth, you're literally our only way out of this mess and as a person who deserves your absolute loathing... I'm counting on you, legit.

"... Weird way of putting it, but okay," Dorothy nervously chuckled.

As for you kid, continued Ogmios, remember that even though whatever may be your true memories, even if it's the worst, it's not your fault. Don't apologize for anything and focus on finding yourself. You can do it, for your mind and life are your own and no one else's. Got it?

The elven boy nods nervously. "... Thanks."

Godspeed, Ogmios then cuts off as the two of them now resolved themselves to heal the broken mind that they've found themselves in.

"... Ready?" asked Dorothy. "Remember, I'm with you."

The boy nods, clutching onto the witch's hand. "... I am."

[Safe Space] then begins producing bubbles of numerous images of faded-out colors that each vaguely resembled a portrait of a landscape.

"Okay, so let's start from here," spoke Dorothy as the boy observed the faded images in the bubbles. "... Which one do you want to start with?"

"... That one!" he then pokes his finger into one of the bubbles, causing it to burst as the faded colors spread themselves out into a lush spread of verdant nature. "... This place! It... it feels familiar!"

Then two bubbles are presented before him. One depicted an orchard of fruit trees whereas the other showed a row of windmills erected over a flowing river.

"... I don't know what those spinny-things are made of," remarked the boy as he popped the bubble with the fruit trees. "This one feels just right. I know for sure."

The orchard then appears before the boy as two more bubbles are shown before him. One read "peace" while the other read "ruin."

These choices causes the boy to hesitate. As he stepped back in visible panic, Dorothy catches him from behind before he could fall.

"... It's okay if you're scared," she reassured. "It means that your very being knows what the truth is."

"... And if the truth is something that I don't like?" the boy asked.

The witch places her hand on his shoulder. "Then you won't have to deal with it alone," she answered with a confident smile. "If you're feeling scared, then hold onto my hand and don't let go, alright?"

The boy slowly nodded as he then pops the "ruin"-bubble, setting the idyllic nature ablaze as the skies turned blood-red, the air howled with screams of dread and cackling of ridicule, and in place of flora and quiet, crackling flames dominated the two's senses like a Devil that had escaped from the depths of Hell.

"I... I remember now," he muttered. "... My home... was destroyed by humans... during the day... when Chief Licht and Princess Tetia were supposed to be wed."

Dorothy was utterly speechless at the truth behind his past. Then as she'd continued to bore witness to this horrific carnage playing back, a sense of familiarity washes over her as she then recalls what had transpired.

... Specifically what had been told to them after the battle of Libratium, when William Vangeance came clean about his true self. "... Oh my God," she gasped in horror as she now understood what she and the others have inadvertently done to him. "... HOW COULD WE'VE FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT THIS?!"

To be fair, it wasn't entirely your fault.

Then, the scene of the carnage pauses. Then a small sapling sprouts out from the ground before several more grow and coil around the first until the small trees converge into a wooden humanoid-like figure that resembled a man with a stag's head, with its antlers being the gnarled branches that made up the treetops.

"Sup," waved the antlered figure, causing the boy to shrink back in fear.

"[Leshy]," growled the witch. "You did this."

"You mean siphon people's memories and watch all of you lose your collective marbles this whole time?" the forest god snorted with a notable guff to his sneer. "Oh it was a treat. Screw killing you all from all directions. It's more... fitting that draw this out longer for my amusement."

"Get behind me," Dorothy told the boy, to which the latter complied without question. Then the [Leshy] lunges towards the two as Dorothy prepared to fight back, only for her to realize that her imagination has been forcibly stripped from her, meaning that she had no means to fight back with the method that she'd just adopted into. "CRAP!"

But just before the wood man's finger could pierce itself into the witch's skull, the god stops before giving her a playful boop onto where he was supposed to make brain-mincemeat out of. "Oh relax, it's not like I can do shit in a dream save for trapping you all here," he remarked. "I mean, what do you think my [Ambient Haunt] was used for?"

It took no less than two seconds for Dorothy to figure out what the god was implying. "... We're literally in a dream within a dream," she then looked at the wooden figure standing before the two of them. "... THAT'S HOW YOU GOT INTO MY [SAFE SPACE]!"

"Think of this whole forest as your prison built like an onion that I dumped all of the forest's inhabitants into the moment I cast said spell," sneered [Leshy]. "Now, since I'm a nice guy, I'll give you all a mercy lead and peel you guys back a single layer/that brat's fractured memories."

"... But why?" the boy asked. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME AND EVERYONE ELSE?!"

"First of all, I'm a god, ya dingus," the [Leshy] pointed out. "What livestock are to mortals, mortals are to us gods. Granted, there are ones out there that treat them better than some, but honestly, after losing about... 99.9% of my followers and reduced to a single believer with powers contained within a single environment rather than as a part of a natural universal concept, you can see why I have zero incentive to give a crap your well-beings in general. Which then brings me to my second reason!"

"Second?!" Dorothy parroted unknowingly, too peeved to think straight at this being's entitlement.

"... The elves used to worship me before the Druids filled in the missing gap? That brat's predecessors were once my faith before they up and left me, so I'm enacting some... karmic justice," explained [Leshy]. "... How ironic is it for the elves, specifically the very congregation that your ancestors were part of, to die at the hands of humans when the very Sephira that you and your kind worshipped was once human herself! Now I would've saved your people if they've come crying back to me, but since none of you even remembered me... well, just desserts. Even us gods have standards when it comes to choosing who worships us. We don't force people to worship us. We just eliminate all nonbelievers without exception."

"THAT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING A STANDARD!" Dorothy defended the boy. "ALL YOU'RE BEING IS A BULLY! HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO SUFFER FOR WHAT HIS ANCESTORS DID!"

"You may call it 'disproportionate,' but I consider it... 'joint liability'," the god coldly replied. "But if you have a problem with it, take it up to this place's warden. Just be sure to have all of your belongings on your person by the time you and the rest arrive, alright?"

Both the boy and Dorothy's shared sense of fear then turned into stoic rage. "... We will stop you and this whole madness."

"Bite me, buttercup," the [Leshy] then flips the bird as he slowly returns to the earth that the body had sprouted from. "Catch you later... Patry."

As soon as the god utters the boy's true name, the scene of carnage resumes its playback within [Safe Space] as both begin to crack apart at the seams.

"... Well, I guess I figured it out," Patry nervously chuckled with a sense of relief. "... Do you finally remember too?"

Dorothy nods. "If everyone else doesn't remember, then I'll make sure that they will."

The boy beams. "Well..." he kicked some dirt aside in awkwardness, "... I'm still a kid trapped inside an adult's body. My own reincarnation or not, it's like wearing clothing that don't fit you."

"Sounds awful," she replied as the shared dreamscape began to collapse. "Well, at least we now know what to do next."

"Find William, get his soul back into the body that I'm in, and escape this place," Patry remarked confidently. "... Normally, I'd say that the odds are against us... but really, after one too many city-destroying monsters made by a Devil, it's now business as usual."

"Heck yeah," the witch nodded as she and Patry grabbed onto each others' hands tight as they could. "Hold on tight! This is gonna get bumpy!"

[Safe Space] shatters completely as the two were then ejected back into the chaotic hellscape that they were originally from. As everyone saw Patry manifested himself in William's body, everyones' memories related to him came flooding back in.

"ARGUH!" Corrin then proceeds to vomit all over her legs as sensory overload took effect along with everyone else present, save for Brigid, who instead vomits out a tidal wave of magma from her to drown the shadows under. "... Captain... CAPTAIN VANGEANCE?!"

"Okay, who keeps fucking with our brains?!" Rinaldo remarked as he whipped out his [Froberge]'s mercurial blade into a giant cobra that sprayed a jet of raw mercury at the horde surrounding them. "Brain damage might be the least of our worries at the rate of how much has this occurred!"

Nozel spits aside a glob of bile before glaring at Patry in William's body. "... Took you long enough."

"... I'm sorry," Patry apologized. "But I didn't know what would've happened if I said that I'm not Licht while you all remembered me as such."

Nozel clicked his tongue as his [Silver Arsenal] took care of the enemies for him. "Risk dying next time."

"ALRIGHT! WE HAVE OUR OUT!" Ogmios cried out as his face was being reconstructed by [Durandal] after Roland had used it as a bludgeon. "HEY YOU! THESE ARE YOUR MEMORIES, RIGHT?! SO GET US OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE ALL DIE INSIDE OF YOU!"

"... Why yes, I do in fact, have the exit," the elf remarked as he opened his grimoire while ignoring the Warlock's rancorous tone. "EVERYONE CLEAR OUT!"

A ball of light then forms before Patry everyone else does what he'd told before securing those who were still having their mana recovered. With this opening, the shadows came flooding into their position, but just as they were about to drown them all into their black muck, the orb of light erupts outwards into an all-devouring flash as a winged spear manifested before Patry and everyone else.

"You're all nothing more than bad memories," the elf declared as the shadows began to cower before his will. "Die and remain forgotten."

The winged spear then extends its wings further outwards, wide enough to sweep the whole earth across with its width alone.

"[Light Magic]," Patry declared as the spear took flight upwards before quickly descending towards the shadows now fleeing before the shooting start. "[Pathfinder Partisan]!"

As the spear makes landfall, the ground itself shatters, causing the whole world to collapse onto itself and send everyone careening into the abyss below.

"NCE JOB YOU DUMBASS!" Ogmios cried out. "NOW WE'RE GOING TO FALL FOREVER!"

"Actually, this is our way out," Patry pointed out.

"WHAT?!" everyone (sans Dorothy and everyone who's suffering from mana deficiency) exclaimed in unison as they all plunged into the abyss that the world was hanging over.

"There's a saying that 'if you stare into the abyss..." the elf remarked as then a giant eye opened below them where they were falling towards, "... the abyss stares back!"

Ogmios then peers into the eye's retina, and spots the outside world reflected on it. "HOLY SHIT! HE'S RIGHT!" the [Memory Magic] user remarked. "THAT EYE IS LITERALLY A WINDOW LEADING A WAY OUT!"

"And like all windows..." Roland then places his shoulder behind Ogmios's back and use the latter's body as a battering ram, "... YOU BREAK IT!"

"SCREW YOU, YOU CUN-!"

The eye then shatters into a million pieces as Ogmios's body broke through the metaphorical glass before everyone else fell through.

---

Back in the Waking World (for real this time)...

---

Corrin's eyes shot open before she herself quickly got up. The first thing that was introduced to her was her head feeling like if several of her own nails were driven into her brain, the vertigo causing her to vomit all over herself again, and for real this time.

"... Yep," she groaned as she kept vomiting until she had nothing left to give, the smell and moistness of her own bile being all too real. "... I'm back-"

"And all over me too," spoke Nozel's voice as Corrin then looks down to find the Captain's glare staring through the bile and into her very soul. "Get off of me, now."

The [Magnet Magic] user quickly scrambles herself off of him before letting out a scream of terror (at the prospects of her vomiting all over a member of royalty), which then causes the others to wake up around her.

In fact, upon further inspection, it appears that everyone had woken up, looking less like a group of people who'd been released from a spell but more akin to an aftermath of a mass bender where the main course consisted nothing but the hardest drugs and the strongest of booze. Everyone waking up either vomited, struggled to get up, clutching their thumping heads, or in some combination of the three.

"... We're really back, huh?" chuckled Jericho after he'd finished vomiting.

"Yeah, and apparently, I soiled myself in my sleep," groaned Salim as he waddled off elsewhere to "fix" his pants.

"... My ears aren't working fully still," grimaced Letoiile as she helped up David. "... So Cu blowing out my eardrums happened for real. Damn."

"Sorry if I couldn't do anything," apologized David.

"Geez, quit being so apologetic," jeered Ogmios as he crawled out from beneath Aengus and Moccus who'd been laying on top of him. "It's already a few seconds and I've already had it up there with you."

"Pot calling the kettle black there, Ogmios," Moccus pointed out.

"Bite me," the [Memory Magic] user then flipped the bird, to which Aengus flips him off back.

"Three of you, behave," Brigid chastised as she then walked up towards Cissonius. "So, glad to see you still alive and all."

"Yeh, it wasn't exactly a picnic," the crimson-clad cook replied as he looked at Cu, who'd just fallen off from a tree branch and landed onto Rinaldo's stomach, causing the latter to shoot his bile at the former's face. "... Oi ye two. Peachy or in need of sum 'elp?"

"I'm alright!" Cu replied as he got off the Paladin with the caved in stomach. "... Sorry 'bout dat. Dunno how I ended up dere."

"No one does," grimaced Rinaldo as he saw Patry (in William's body) help the others with his [Healing Particles of Light]. "... I'm just glad that the worst is over."

"Not quite," Dorothy remarked as she helped the others who were injured into the recovery spell's range. "We still got that [Leshy] to deal with. And if he's not bullshitting, then he's literally this entire forest."

"So why he hasn't killed us all yet?" asked Mudo. "... I mean, I figured that he's a god, so he has the means to do it."

"According to him, he enjoys watching us suffer and lose our minds," Patry pointed out. "In his words, this forest is a multi-layered prison constructed like an onion. And as a show of 'mercy,' he'd merely peeled off one layer, i.e., our collective drug trip and the [Dream Magic] he'd stolen from Captain Dorothy."

Everyone then looks at Dorothy for clarification. "... Yeah, it turns out that when he casted [Ambient Haunt], we were all transferred into a parallel dream version of said forest, caster included. In fact, the spell was so massive in scale that it didn't register into our brains until he himself told the two of us himself. Basically another Grand Magic Zone was overlaid on top of the already-existing Grand Magic Zone."

"So wait..." Vanica then tried racking her brain with this equation. "... If we were in the forest and the whole spell went off throughout the whole forest that was so massive that we didn't notice it-"

Zenon recoils at his sister's head exploding into a cloud of heated smoke. "... I think her brain just exploded."

Nozel resigns in exhaustion. "... I give," he muttered as he threw his hands up before he walked off. "Logic had died from choking on its own blood-DID I JUST STEP ON SOMEONE'S EXCREMENT?!"

"UNCLE! MERCY! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Salim's voice screeched from behind the trees before the two Silver Eagles began running about in circles.

"... My ears may not be working, but my nose does," sighed Letoile as she rolled up into a ball to spare herself from another sensory overload.

"... So glad I'm useless right now," David semi-sarcastically remarked. "... Anyone have a spare pair of pants?"

Speaking of lacking in clothing, Roland appears out of the bushes. "Hey guys!" he greeted. "While you guys were still out after I woke up first, I went ahead and looked for help, and as luck would have it, I ran into someone who was protecting our bodies this whole time we were knocked out!"

"That's great!" Dorothy remarked. "So who is it?"

"Me," an authoritative voice remarked followed up by a murder of crows.

Heralded by a flock of the black-winged birds was none other than the Witch Queen Agatha herself, her jade-green pointed hat made all the more noticeable through the row after row of trees.

Ogmios's stomach dropped to where his feet were as his heart stopped for a moment upon realizing who he was seeing. Then he saw red as he took out his switchblade and lunged himself towards the Witch Queen.

In less than a second, Agatha parries the thrust with her [Lifeblood Scythe], causing everyone present to go into a state of shock.

"OGMIOS?!" Cissonius remarked.

"WHAT THE FUCK MAN?!" Roland cried out.

"Finally... after 666 years, YOU FINALLY SHOW YOUR MUG!" the [Memory Magic] user snarled in a mix of elation and bloodlust.

Agatha tilted her head in confusion. "... I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

Bloodlust then engulfs elation as Ogmios lunged at the Witch Queen again with his switchblade now propelled by his [Ionróir] pendulum Relic like a rope dart, this time, nicking her across her cheek as a cut was formed from the blade that came faster than she'd anticipated.

"BULLSHIT THAT YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" Ogmios remarked as he retracted his Relic and switchblade back. "THE ARBOREANS, THE WARLOCKS, AND THE WHOLE 'GLORY TO SEPHIRA'-CRAP-?!"

"It was merely a jest, #063105," Agatha deadpanned as her cut was instantly healed with her [Blood Magic]. "I let you live twice out of goodwill and this is how you repay me?"

Ogmios immediately got the hint as he then looked at Brigid in a confused look.

"... She knew this whole time that you were alive," the spirit confessed. "Days after I found you, she literally came knocking at the door looking for you while you were asleep."

"... Why?" he began to sob in an indescribable feeling of betrayal. "WHY DID YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME?!"

"Dagda, that bastard," Agatha clicked her tongue in disgust with a hint of resentment. "As soon as I demanded him back and was turned away, I literally found him trashing my home as soon as I returned, eating my own dinner that my golems had cooked and drinking my entire celler's worth of wine within the utter mess that he'd left in his wake. I concluded that getting involved with him brings nothing but trouble."

Ogmios's despair of betrayal quickly taken over by his bloodlust tempered with his rage. "... YOU ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR TROUBLE WHEN YOU LET ME LIVE AFTER ALL YOU HAVE DONE!"

"Dagda's not around, so I might as well humor you," Agatha remarked as she and Ogmios began their fight. "[Blood Magic: Massacre Exsanguination]!"

A murder of crows made of blood all flew towards Ogmios while ignoring the others. Ogmios then used [Ionróir] to breaking through every single crow before launching counterattack.

"I'VE WAITING FOR THIS VERY MOMENT!" Ogmios cackled as an energy bow manifested around his wrist with his Relic as the nocked "arrow". "[MEMORY MAGIC: GRUDGE TRACER]!"

A bright violet energy arrow shot towards the Witch Queen, only for the arrow to swerve out of the way and hit one of her crows, revealing that said crow was the Witch Queen herself, while the present Witch Queen then exploded into a murder of blood crows.

"I ALREADY MEMORIZED YOUR EVERYTHING SINCE THAT DAY AND YOU SHOWING UP RIGHT NOW HAS ALL BUT CONFIRMED IT!" Ogmios remarked as he nocked another [Grudge Tracer] onto his energy bow. "RUN AND HIDE ALL YOU WANT! MY ARROWS WILL CHASE YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH UNTIL YOU'RE NOTHING MORE THAN A BLOODY PINCUSHION!"

Agatha pulls the energy arrow out of her shoulder before it healed on its own with her [Blood Magic]. "Riveting."

"SOMEONE STOP THEM!" Jericho then tried to run in, only for Cu to stop him.

"Dun't," he shook his head. "It's a blood feud. So let em 'ave it."

Corrin nodded. "... And besides," she remarked with bated breath, "... what good will it do stopping it?"

"Not to mention, this is gonna get good," giggled Vanica as her hands reached into her crotch. "So shut up and watch."

Jericho looked at the others who were present, with the half of the group letting it happen while the others didn't move. Before he could protest, Brigid steps up to him from behind before placing her hand onto his shoulder.

"... It'll all be explained later," she remarked as Ogmios and Agatha continued to sort each other out.

As the grudge match continued, both Ogmios and the Witch Queen continued their duel. And despite their spells threatening to hit the bystanders, not one hit the others standing out of bounds of this conflict. In fact, despite the emotions behind this conflict, it was surprisingly careful to not drag outsiders in, both internally and externally.

"[Blood Binding Magic]," Agatha then summons a blood crucifix behind Ogmios before it bound his arms and legs onto its shaft, "[Martyrdom Pole]."

She then manifests her [Lifeblood Scythe] in her hands as she then sped towards the bound Ogmios with her weapon wound back. But just as the blade could rake itself across his body, his eyes glowed purple before emitting a blinding flash so intense that it shatters his glasses.

As soon as the flash ceases, Agatha's [Lifeblood Scythe] melted back into liquid ichor while [Martyrdom Pole] was missing its sole occupant before it also dissolved.

Just as Agatha could start looking for Ogmios, the latter appears out of nowhere behind the former before he then drives his glowing hand into her head. "Checkmate-"

But hidden within the Witch Queen's sleeve was a blood spike that stabbed into Ogmios's heart at the exact moment when his hand grabbed her brain.

"Stalemate," she coolly remarked without even looking at Ogmios's general direction. "... My only regret is that you were born a man. The way you hold yourself... you could've easily been my successor."

"Bite me," he growled as he kept his fingers clutching into the Witch Queen's brain while the spike planted itself deeper into his very cardiovascular system. "And here I thought you've gained some weight from sitting your ass down on your throne all these centuries!"

As both sides literally dug themselves into each other, both began reading each others's minds through their respective manas.

"[Blood Curse Magic: Blood Ransom]," Ogmios spoke as he read the spike's description. "That spell literally homes into my heart and let you take control of it directly. Goddaamn, if I didn't hate your guts, I'd actually be impressed."

"[Memory Curse Magic: Psycho Garrote]," Agatha plainly remarked how the hand got into her head. "First you used [Memory Magic: Amnesia Flashback] to both blind me and temporarily disable my [Lifeblood Scythe] and [Martyrdom Pole] spells before the your next spell used my cognition as bridging point to my very soul. Tell me, how long were you planning to use this on me?"

"Since the very day I've first dreamt of this moment," he growled. "... The day when my fear grew into hate."

"Kill me, and Sephira will never return to this world, damning it for the rest of its days," the Witch Queen appealed, although not for her life, but as a cold hard fact.

"Fuck Sephira, fuck this world," the [Memory Magic] user pointed out. "AND FUCK YOU-!"

"[Counter-Curse Magic]."

In an instant, both arms dug into the Warlock and Witch Queen were severed from each others' elbows with Dagda landing between them, his [Fragarach] drawn out from his scabbard during his descent. With the arms severed, both [Psycho Garrote] and [Blood Ransom] were rendered null and void.

"[Null Denial]," the half-Demon spoke as both Ogmios and Agatha start screaming as blood sprayed out of their stumps with the ichor spraying onto Dagda's head. With a sigh, the half-Demon sheathes his sword before giving the two of them each a hard slap across their faces that resulted in them losing some of their molars flying out of their mouths and their bodies bodied into tree trunks.

"Aw man," groaned Vanica as she plopped herself onto her back. "It's over."

"De fek are ye talkin' about?!" Dagda exclaimed as he then looked at the others, who were all standing there slack-jawed (save for Nozel and Salim, the former too busy beating the latter). "... 'Nd wat are ye bastards lookin' at?"

"Hey bossman," greeted Cissonius as he helped up Ogmios, the latter now nursing his missing arm. "... De others with ye?"

"Right here!" spoke Lugh from above as from up the treetops, he and Cernunnos were seeing standing atop of Danu's shoulders, the giant girl who was now missing her clothes, not that it bothered her.

Jericho then sighs as he and the others snap themselves out of their funk. "... Miss Danu, where are your clothes?"

"Gone," she answered. "Dagda and the others told me everything. I got possessed by some schmuck named [Chloris] and I was growing leaves and flower pedals out of my body."

"Gross," Corrin commented.

"Eh, not that much," shrugged Dorothy. "... So you're okay wandering about naked?"

"Keep in mind I'm bigger than you all, so don't try anything," smirked Danu. "... That is, unless any of you are into it. In which case, save it for after we get out of this place."

Meanwhile, the Witch Queen was reattaching her missing arm back onto her fresh stump and reattaching her loose teeth with her [Blood Magic]. "... Ugh, it's going to take two hours for this arm to be back in working order," she grimaced in pain as the nerves began reattaching themselves back together. "Thank the heavens above that I'm right-handed, or it would've taken me three hours to this two."

"So," Cernunnos remarked as he came floating down from atop of his plush dog, "... the fuck happened here? And why are some of you covered in vomit?"

As the group begins their exchange of information, Dagda then tosses Ogmios his missing arm to him right as Aengus and Moccus walked up to him.

"... Oi," the half-Demon remarked. "De fek's with dat scar?"

The white-haired girl tells him everything while Cissonius was mending Ogmios's arm back onto his stump by stealing his "missing link" correlating between his wounds.

"I see," Dagda then let out a sigh. "Oi Ogmios! Yer gettin' a spankin' when we're out of 'ere!"

"Saw it comin' boss..." he replied as he picked up his severed arm.

"Anyway..." the half-Demon then turned towards the Witch Queen. "Agatha, ye geriatric misandrist, how de fek did git 'ere?"

"I opened the front door of my bedchambers and found myself in this place," she revealed. "Thankfully, there are no signs that my girls are harmed and most of them are stationed at Clover Kingdom as per agreement with our joined front against the rising threat of Demons."

"Well shite, so was Ulster and Libratium," Dagda then looked at Ogmios, who was still staring at the Witch Queen with murderous intent while being held back by Cissonius's [Snatch Magic]. "... Well, one horrible day after another, I think we'll be able te work thins' out when we git out of dis place."

"... Can I trust you that you'll keep your more unsavory men in line?" asked Agatha as she tried not to murder #063105 with her thoughts alone.

"It's business as usual, so no need te ask," he replied as the others finished with their exchange in greetings of reunion.

"... Well, now that all of us are here, along with an additional company," spoke Mudo as she clapped her hands of dust before getting up, "I suggest we all get a move on. FAMAS or no FAMAS, I'm still representing Libratium, who've earned our liberation through fighting for it, and I'll be damned if I am found dead sitting on my ass!"

"Oh 'nd, speakin' of which, I found yer rig while we were passin' by," Dagda pointed out as he overheard their conversation. "Gnarled on top of sum roots."

"Really?!" she exclaimed. "Then there's gotta be some MASS packs that we can salvage."

"Better than nothing," sighed David as he helped up Letoile. "We'll follow your lead."

The group then head towards where Dagda had mentioned, and soon after, they end up finding the steel rectangular prism now crunched like a constricted prey.

"I tried prying it out myself, but I think I heard a few things break inside," Danu explained herself with a hint of embarrassment. "... I need smaller hands."

"'Nd more too," Dagda then rolled up his sleeve. "Sumone 'elp me. I can only remove one root at a time before de others snap back."

"Got it," Roland then walked up towards where the half-Demon was at before the two managed to untangle enough roots to free the carriage from its bindings. "Alright, let's see if there's anything useful inside!"

"All of you, wait outside," Mudo remarked as she then went in. "Holler if something's about to go down."

The nude Paladin then pries the collapsed door off of its hinges, revealing the caved-in interior of the mobile hanger. All of the maintenance equipment for the FAMAS have been rendered inoperable, with the only remaining features related to the FAMAS being the Shadow Gear's [TROY] and [JET-Options], both modular packs still intact thanks to them being folded up for travel.

"... They'll never see the light of day," sighed Mudo as she looked at the contraptions that she'd never got to use properly.

Dagda then pries open a cabinet and finds a shelf full of intact MASS packs. "Found one!" he exclaimed. "Any others?!"

Roland then opens another cabinet, only this time, a third of the MASS packs in it were found too broken to be used. "... I'm just glad we have some that we can use," he remarked. "But which begs the question, how are we going to carry them all with us?"

Dagda sighs. "Shite. Normally, we'd let Danu carry it inside 'er bag, but we lost it with 'er clothes," he pointed out. "Not te mention, our big pig is still missin'."

"So take what we can?" said Roland.

Mudo then empties her toolbox of its contents to make room for the MASS packs. "Better than nothing," she remarked as she walked elsewhere. "I'll see if the emergency aid bag is still intact."

The two then start loading while Mudo began salvaging for more supplies. She manages to find the emergency aid bag, with all of its contents being relatively intact, save for the jars of painkillers and syringes, all of which were shattered or had their needles bent out of place.

Soon the three of them come out with what they could salvage from inside the trailer right before Danu then rips off the box's roof with her bare hands and finds the two modular Option Packs still inside. "... You guys are not taking these?"

"What, you're gonna carry em?" asked Mudo as she shifted her bag now carrying a few MASS packs in place of the broken contents.

"Seems like a waste," she pointed out as Danu walked away from the trailer.

"Just leave it," Dagda ordered as the toolbox rattled behind his shoulder before setting it down and sitting on it.

Before the group can traverse through the forest again, Brigid raises her hand.

"... First, we'll need to reestablish our navigation method," she pointed out as she then gave a look towards Ogmios and Agatha. "Second, we need to make sure that our group cohesion doesn't collapse from infighting. And finally, figure out where William Vangeance's soul is, which hypothetically speaking, might be in the possession of who's really in charge of this place."

"Welp, it's not like I want to, but what the hell," Ogmios cheerly remarked. "CORRIN! LETOILE! I NEED BOTH YOUR HELPS!"

"... Okay, that one, I heard," the [Compass Magic] user remarked. "Come on, Miss Index. We don't have time to dawdle."

"I'll tell you guys the rest of the story later!" Corrin promised as the [Magnet Magic] was dragged away.

"... Hm, guess you've softened over the centuries, #063105," snarked Agatha.

"Don't push me," growled the [Memory Magic] user as he was taken away by Brigid.

Makarov senses the same tension building up between the two from afar yet again. "... I'll go help them so that they don't end up killing each other," the Vice-Inquisitor sighed. "Captain Dorothy, you mind coming with me to separate the two?"

"I'll also help," Patry raised his hand as he accompanied the two dragging the Witch Queen away from Ogmios, only putting up a token of resistance due to her spells being stolen by Cissonius's [Snatch Magic] repeatedly.

"... Ugh, I let a man touch me," Agatha grimaced as she was then let go taking out a spray bottle of cleaning aerosol and applying it onto herself.

"Ever the germaphobe, aren't you, Agatha?" smirked Brigid as she walked towards the gathering navigation team.

"... I'll go help the others," Dorothy awkwardly remarked as she got up. "You'll be fine without me, right Patry?"

He nods before the witch took her leave, leaving the group not part of the newly-reorganized Navigation Team then began to exchange information amongst themselves while the aforementioned got to work under Dagda's watchful eye (and drawn [Fragarach]) and Dorothy's.

"... So, who wants to start?" asked Cernunnos.

"... How about the respective monsters we've fought?" suggested Jericho. "... Given that all of us look like as if we've been through a few rounds in a fight pit, I'd figured we'd compare notes."

Everyone looks at each other before nodding in agreement.

"... Yeah, I guess we got nothing better to do while the geniuses are at work," shrugged Cernunnos. "As you were the one to suggest it, why don't you start?"

Jericho then nervously chuckles before he began. "... Yeah, I got captured by one before I woke up apparently."

"It was a [Fear Gorta]," Cissonius explained. "Ye know, one of does grass monsters dat suck up yer nutrients til ye die?"

"Seriously?" Vanica remarked as she then looked at Jericho, who was still healthy-looking despite the allegation. "... Bullshit."

"He's tough son of a bitch, I'd tell ya what," Salim smirked. "... He killed a noble kid with his bare hands when he was a kid."

"Get out, mate," Cu smirked wildly before running up to him and glomping him. "I knew Artio's son had it in 'im! Sorry fur ever doubtin' ye!"

"... I'm not exactly proud of it," he rebuffed.

"So I suppose that it was slain?" Zenon asked.

"... It wasn't a cakewalk," David shook his head. "... It was a fast runner. Even Cissonius couldn't keep up until we had to make it slow down via... unorthodox measures. Really, Letoile was practically the MVP of our party."

"Like I said before, wish me boyos had sum of 'er brains, I'd tell ye wat!" Cu heartily laughed.

"... So yeah, that's it," Jericho remarked. "I got captured, the others saved me, and we ran into the Inquisitors and others soon after, where we had to fight Captain Dorothy possessed by [Leshy]."

"That of itself needs no further explanation," remarked Bizon remarked before he then faced down at the Zogratis siblings. "... So, what manner of hell did you experience?"

"Oh, we ran into a [Barometz]," Vanica explained. "Basically a plant-goat man who stole Patry's grimoire and took his spells as its own."

"Luckily, I am an elf," the boy playfully boasted as he then manifests a [Mana Weapon] made from his raw [Light Magic] before putting it away. "My mana's overall potency make me using a grimoire a suggestion rather than a requirement."

"Noice," Cu grinned as he clutched onto his [Gae Bolg]'s thorny shaft. "... Let's fight after we're out of 'ere. Fur fun, of course."

"Hard pass," Patry vetoed. "You might not want to kill me, but your spear might."

The wild man then glances at his Relic/"Tamed" Demonic Parasite, which was pulsating and writhing with a hunger for death. "... Fair enough."

"Wait," Cernunnos remarked. "Aren't [Barometzs] usually connected to a dead body?"

Patry looks away in shame. "... I couldn't save Shiren from being used as its battery."

"Shite man," Cissonius remarked. "... Dunno wat I should say about dat."

Cu then looked towards Cernunnos before looking towards Danu while letting the Captain mull on his own. "... So, I've 'eard sumthin about de jotun growin' plant parts out of 'er. Care te explain?"

"... Yeah, I got turned before bossman and the others saved my butt," Danu sheepishly remarked. "... Apparently, I was called [Chloris]."

"... Oh," coughed Agatha. "... I see-"

"HOLD THE FUCK ON, DID I HEAR [CHLORIS]-?!" Ogmios's words heard from afar were then cut off by Dagda kicking him into his mouth.

"IT'S NOTHING!" Brigid shouted. "CARRY ON!"

But at that point, everyone's eyes were now on her due to their shared history.

"... Elaborate," Jericho requested.

"The name [Chloris] belonged to a minor goddess of flowers that Ogmios's people, the Arboreans, had worshipped," explained the Witch Queen. "... By depriving her of all of her worshippers and turning them into the genetic basis for my Witches, I suppose desperate times called her to make desperate measures."

"... Have you have no shame?" asked Jericho.

"Only Sephira matters, boy," she coldly remarked. "I'm willing to kill millions more if it means bringing her back to have her guide this rotten world from sin."

Jericho tried to protest, only to be stopped by Cissonius.

"Let 'er go," he remarked. "I know dose kinds of folk. Der de ones who will literally die on de hill dey stand. Anythin' else ain't gunna cut it."

"... Still!" he grimaced. "... Why?"

"The other faiths and their gods were doing the very same to lesser faiths," Agatha pointed out. "The Golden Age of Magic wasn't exactly a golden age for mankind. Just because magic was breaking new ground didn't mean that there weren't targets for said magic. Even more egregiously, the Arboreans were ardent pacifists. They made easy prey. I just got there first."

At this point, Jericho knew that he was exercising in futility, but there was something deep within his heart that was yelling for vindication and justice to be done for those past atrocities.

"... That look in your eyes," Agatha commented, "... stop it. Reparations are useless to those who are already dead. If you have a problem, then get in line. Ogmios is first on my queue to murder."

"If you're so inclined to treat lives as this expendable, then why are you allying with the Clover Kingdom against the Demons?!" asked Jericho. "Is it pity like the Ulsterians and the Libratians?! Is it fun for you to watch your fucking pawns die in droves knowing that you can make more of them on a whim?!"

"Partially," she answered bluntly. "The other parts are motivated by pragmatism, in which that a world destroyed is a world where I cannot continue my development, and also in part due to opportunity to test my girls on the field en masse."

Jericho sits down in defeat. "... Realpolitik," he grimaced with a small, whimpering cackle. "... Ain't that a bitch. Can't I just run into a person who's willing to help us just because they wanted to for the greater good?"

"... Eh, no?" Cu remarked. "I mean, reasonably speakin', people know wat dey want and the how... varies, but dey'll take it all de same. I mean, yer pretty selfish of wanting to git everyone on de same page... but really, me advice is dat when ye want te git people with differin' wants in line..."

"You beat them up until they comply?" Jericho replied. "... You know that it's not guaranteed to work in the long term, right?"

"Dat's why I dissolve said party after one excursion," Cu replied. "As fur de Witch Queen... I think she just uses 'er reputation te make sure dat no one feks with 'er... save fur a few."

"And besides, aren't you the self-serving hypocrite preaching unity and common ground when you already have blood on your hands?" Agatha pointed out.

"At least I have the decency to feel some shame about it!" the [Platinum Magic] user pointed out before letting out a sigh.

"... Wat's shame?" Cu asked the Witch Queen.

"Nothing important in the grand scheme of things," she replied.

"... That little tidbit explaining a ton of things aside," Zenon grimaced. "... We just went off topic. Any other gods we missed?"

"Oh right! We fought [Tefnut]!" Cu exclaimed.

"... 'Eard sumthin' about dat beastie bein' from sumwhere called 'Atum-Ra Empire'," Cissonius pointed out as he looked towards the Witch Queen. "... Oi governess, does dat name sound familar te ye?"

"Vaguely," she replied. "During my time in service of Da'at, they were one of our biggest contenders on the international stage... but one day, they all just... collapsed internally."

"And..." Vanica remarked.

"... That's it," said the Witch Queen. "... I requested an investigation, but they all went scattered into the four winds until they all returned as Dama, now a self-contained kingdom with no interest in external affairs."

"Pity," Cu remarked. "It put a 'ell of a fight. Force me te use me [Beastman] form."

"We... at best, slowed it down," David chuckled. "I think it somehow supplemented Vice-Captain Kirsch's [Cherry Blossom Magic] into its flames, turning the former into anti-air mines using the latter. I think that was the threshold where the fight became nigh-unwinnable, resulting in Cu beasting out."

"And said form is why Letoile is rendered deaf," Jericho pointed out. "... Let us hope we never have to use it again."

Cu nods. "... Dat's true. I dun't use me [Rage Magic] unless it's fur a gud reason," he explained. "I like fightin' and I'm more den willing to lay down de law when it comes te keepin' de party intact... but I'd never go far as kill me own boyos! Dat's stupid!"

"... Wow," Danu gasped, "is [Rage Magic] that bad?"

"Take our word for it," Salim confirmed. "Cu's better off fighting normally."

Nozel grumbles before glaring at Cu himself. "... So are you a liability?"

"I dun't want te kill ye all by accident, dat's all," he replied with sincerity.

"Glad you're self-aware to an extent... fucking mongrel," hissed Agatha.

"Anyway," Cernunnos remarked before pointing towards Nozel. "... You, braid-man. What monster did you fight on your way here?"

The Silver Eagle Captain sighs. "... I fought mushrooms," he answered. "One of them being my sister, Nebra. I killed her on the spot. End of story."

Normally, one would point out the drug trip that came with said mushrooms, but given that he got his face puked on by Corrin (accidently, mind you), no one pressed the issue. It was evidently clear that from the little revelation of [Ambient Haunt] literally trapping them within a parallel dream plane and that the [Myconid] spores sent all of them into another dream bubble within said dream plane.

Nobody needed a refresher on that last part, for the same reasons why they don't talk about [Leshy] brain-fucking Dorothy.

"... Wait," Danu spoke, "why do you think those three specifically died before we arrived? And why was I the only one who survived?"

"Maybe you're just too big," Salim commented (still bruised even after being healed). "Kinda like a beached whale. Those things can only die slowly."

Jericho's head the recalls the moment when Kirsch's [Cherry Blossom Magic] being integrated into [Tefnut]'s arsenal. "... Wait, I think I found a connection between them!"

"Explain," Bizon asked.

"Okay, so Vice-Captain Kirsch has [Cherry Blossom Magic], Nebra has [Mist Magic], and Shiren has [Stone Magic]," Jericho pointed out. "... What does those things have in common with each other, in context of Danu's own reported [Terraforming Magic]?"

"... Oh fuck," Patry's eyes widened like dinner plates upon realizing what was happening. "... They were targeted for their attributes."

"Elaborate," Nozel remarked.

"All three of those attributes are things and phenomenon that one can find in nature," Agatha explained. "In fact, this explains why the others who barely made it out were prioritized."

"... [Platinum Magic] is derived from a rare natural ore!" Jericho realized why he was captured by the [Fear Gorta].

"My [Terraforming Magic] is based off what happens to nature over time!" Danu gasped in shock.

Patry then begins breaking out in cold sweat as he figures out why William Vangeance was taken. "... The forest itself took William's soul and his [World Tree Magic] for that reason. I was only spared because my [Light Magic] is counted as an abnormal attribute!"

"So what?" asked Vanica. "Is the reason why that Witch Queen's left homeless is because the forest is using said attribute to expand its borders?"

Agatha sighs in reluctant agreement. "... And before you say anything, I am aware of the irony."

"Wasn't gonna..." pouted the Zogratis girl.

"Okay, so where does dat leave us?" asked Cissonius. "I mean, if all natural-attribute spellcastas are being taken, where does dat leave us all conceptual and abnormal attributes?"

"... I think we're just hanger-ons," David pointed out. "If I recall from Captain Dorothy had said before, the god was enjoying fucking with our brains. We don't matter to his plans. We're all just bugs that he can crush us at his leisure!"

"And given that the forest is implied to be spreading outwards..." Jericho remarked.

"We're on a time limit," Mudo confirmed with a fearful gulp. "Logically sepaking, when there's no landmass left to expand the forest, our homes are toast."

Everyone sighs before bracing themselves in their new objectives and rules that this Dungeon is operating at. Escape was no longer an option as long as this Dungeon keeps expanding while bulldozing everything in its warpath.

"We're fighting against a god," Makarov commented. "Of course everything is rigged to his and his side's advantage."

"... Guys," Cernunnos spoke as he glanced at the giant girl. "If... and it's huge 'if', we're going to die here, then me and Danu have a secret to share."

"Surely it can't be that important-" Nozel then shuts up upon seeing Danu break off her hand to reveal earthenware in the stump. "... Explain."

"Truth is... I lied about being a jotun," she sheepishly grinned. "I'm actually a first generation-golem made by the Dwarven Empire. My whole backstory was made up by Dagda to help me make me appear more... plausible. And also to get possible assholes away from me, trying to replicate me or some shit."

"... To think you have fooled me of all people," Agatha smirked. "Impressive."

"So wait, you mean like you're one of those golems that Sol from Blue Rose Knights makes with her [Earth Magic]?" Jericho asked.

"Nope, that's nothing more than a degraded replica of what is considered a 'golem'," Cernunnos explained. "First generation-golems were fully sapient and can cast their own spells, making them less 'weapon' and more 'super soldier.' We don't know how she ended up in the small frontier village where she was worshipped as an idol. We only made the connection when bossman recognized the serial number."

"It's sanded out though, so yeah," she remarked as she reattached her hand back onto her stump. "... You guys are... taking this really well."

"Well, I'm just glad that growing plant matter out of your body didn't affect you in the long run," Mudo remarked. "Still though, when this is all over, can I take a look at your specs after Cu bangs my brains out?"

"Like I said, serial numbers are sanded off, and so are my schmatics..." Danu grumbled before looking at Agatha. "... So uh, did you happened to run into me by any chance during the Golden Age of Magic?"

"No, all you war golems look the same to me," the Witch Queen bluntly replied.

"Racist," she pouted.

"... Vanica?" Zenon looked at his sister, who was also pouting. "... You don't look happy."

"She doesn't bleed, so of course my dreams of fighting her is thrown to the wayside..." she grumbled.

"Wait," Salim pointed out, "is Danu being able to shrink and grow at will also a golem thing? Like how adding more sand to make a bigger mound and vise-versa?"

"Actually, that's where I come in," Cernunnos remarked as he then takes out a seed before it transforms into a magic circle. "... My [Fae Arts] lets me change the appearances of anything as long as I have a proper conduit. Hell, this isn't even my true form."

The magic circle then drapes over him, transforming the young boy-looking figure into that of a palm-sized Fae with a pair of butterfly wings growing from his back. His clothes and plush dolls remained the same look and size respectively.

"So wait, yer a Fae?!" Cu remarked as he got up and approached him. "... Like de same shite 'nd bones dat's used te make Pixie Dust-?"

Before he could get any closer, [Gae Buidhe] and [Gae Dearg] pointed their tips at Cu's face. "Don't. Even. Think. About it," the diminutive Fae remarked. "My bones aren't for sale."

"Small, but still dangerous, got it," nodded Vanica as she then looked at Cissonius, who was also eyeing at him. "... Looking to get high too?"

"Nah, I went clean because of 'im and bossman's orders," the cook pointed out. "Dis is actually de first time I've seen 'is true form."

"Another field of study to add to my agenda after Cu gets me pregnant!" Mudo giggled as she then took notes on an actual Fae, stemming her excitement to a manageable level. "... So, are there others like you?"

"No," he replied somberly. "... I'm literally the last of my kind... at least, I thought I was, until this forest came along."

"Which... you're saying that..." Salim strained his voice as he noticed that implication in his voice. "... A FAE IS ALSO BEHIND THIS BULLSHIT?!"

"Probably teamed up with that forgotten god to make their ends meet," answered Cernunnos. "... Ulster used to have a forest where us Fae lived before it was destroyed. Guess they wanted it back, bigger and better than before, and we're not invited to said future."

Jericho's mind then recalls a certain pixie-like spirit that accompanied Yuno ever since that disastrous Dungeon dive. "... Cernunnos, you and this culprit may not be the only Fae left," he spoke bluntly. "... The [Wind Spirit, Slyph] is bonded with my friend, Yuno."

Cernunnos's eyes begin tearing up. "... The Royal Family." His waterworks then escalated into hysterical sobs. "... Thank Sephira, at least one of them are still alive!"

"All the more reason to stop the culprit and his forest," Mudo pointed out. "If the forest succeeds in its expansion, then her chances of survival... might be put into jeopardy."

Cernunnos wipes his eyes before nodding. "... If a Fae is at the heart of this, then I'll try and talking some sense to whoever it is just so I can prevent another tragedy befalling on whatever's left of us," he remarked. "... That, and there's also one more danger present."

"Which is?" asked Jericho.

Lugh, who up to this point, had remained silent, now spoke out. "... We ran into a Demon."

"WHAT?!" Bizon cried out as he jumped up from his seat. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT SOONER?!"

"Because taking that thing on is ill-advised, so we avoided talking about it so none of us gets any ideas," Cernunnos pointed out. "It was strong enough to put bossman on the ropes and me and Lugh barely drove it off. Our advice, don't fight the Demon."

"Of how she looks like, she's a black-furred lioness standing on her hind legs carrying what appears to be a Demon baby who has somehow copied boss's [Counter Magic]," Lugh explained further. "Her name is Ishtar, she represents the Sin of [Greed]."

"... The fourth strongest of the Eleven Elusive Evils!" Makarov gasped.

"Blyat!" cursed Bizon.

"What magic does she have?" asked Zenon.

"[Gauge Magic]," said the Fae. "Anything that can be measured with a numerical value can and will be taken over by her and its integers manipulated to her liking. Captain's [Counter Magic] got weakened to the point of nigh-impotency when fighting her, and I got lucky because I managed to get a cheap shot off of her."

"Not to mention, her preferred weapons are yul bullions," Lugh further elaborated. "Either using them to conjure up a tidal wave of gold coins with her [Gauge Magic] or simply flick and ricochet different shots mid-fire, both of which are hard enough fore each to bore through [Mana Skin] and into your bodies. Fancies herself as 'Hell's Ultimate Sword and Shield,' which she lives up to and more."

"Avoid engagement, got it," Bizon nodded.

"Huh, I thought you were all about 'kill all Demons and their worshippers'-kind of guy," Vanica commented.

"Right now, we've got bigger fish to fry," he pointed out, "so if you wish to die here as a form of penance, be my guest."

Everyone's morale were shaken to a significant extent. An entire forest driven by a possibly-murderous Fae's will, an encroaching time limit on their own lives in conjuncture to this Dungeon's completion/termination, and there being a high-ranked Demon prowling about with an unknown agenda. The odds were already high to begin with, but now, their odds of collective survival has become significantly less favorable for them.

"... Not the first time we were but mere ants standing before the feet of titans," Jericho remarked. "Although if this becomes a reoccurrence... then it's going to be a problem."

"Don't jinx it," Salim replied with a grimace. "... Still though, fighting monsters and gods in the same month? Sounds like something out of a badly-written story."

"Don't overthink it," Nozel advised. "They're just another enemy to kill."

"I agree with de braid-man!" Cu nodded eagerly. "Save me de skins. I want em as me cape."

"That is, if they don't do the same to us," Mudo pointed out. "Not that I'm downplaying our prowess. Just advising reasonable caution."

"Agreed," nodded Bizon as he clenched his hand into a fist. "... The denizens of Hell exploit our shortcomings to usher us to our doom. It's no different any other enemy we may face in the future."

"Hm, there may be hope for you yet, for a filthy man-thing," deadpanned Agatha. "... Then again, I've seen worse party compositions achieve more, so fingers crossed."

"Insults and horrible compatibilities aside, I think we can do this," Lugh nervously reassured.

"So another gamble?" David asked before he chuckled to himself bitterly and nervously. "... Probably the worst kind of gamble I've ever taken. Thank Sephira that I'm not doing this alone."

"Unless you're outright suicidal, one simply does not solo a Dungeon this big," Cernunnos remarked as he flew up towards Danu's shoulder for safety.

"What he means to say, is that we're all in this together!" the golem exclaimed as she pumped her fist with vigor.

"Have been since about a few centuries," Cissonius smirked. "Wat de ye say? Shall we fek sum shite up?"

"FUCK YEAH!" Moccus squealed. "AIN'T NO WAY WE'RE DYING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS!"

"Yeah!" nodded Aengus before she looked around. "Hey guys, where's the naked man and his tall-hat friend-?"

From the brushes, Roland and Rinaldo appeared before the group. "Sorry about dipping beneath your notice," apologized Rinaldo. "We were just patrolling the perimeter."

"And yes, we heard everything since we've left," Roland looked up towards Danu's shoulder to find Cernunnos perched from up there. "... Well, life ain't easy, so I guess we all have that in common. Save for a few people, but I shall not judge."

"Yeah, I've ate enough of your guys' microaggression to know whom you're referring to," Salim deadpanned.

"Good, because we're just about done here," spoke Brigid as everyone then turned towards her.

"De others's findins' 'ave located sumthin' strange," Dagda remarked. "Sum kind of raw, pulsating surge of mana comin' from over dere."

"And this time, we have a definitive hit," Ogmios spoke out as he was dragged by Corrin and Letoile. "So unless something gargantuanly huge happens to throw us off, I think we'll be able to get there undetected-"

"ATTENTION, YOU MORTAL SHITBAGS," the [Leshy]'s voice echoed from all of the forest's trees.

"Sugar honey iced tea, it's him again," growled Dorothy as she pulled her pointed hat down from its brim. "What is it this time?!"

"As some of you may already be made aware of, there's a high-ranking Demon within our midst," the god explained. "As such, I shall now conduct a routine sweep across the whole Dungeon to expel said unwanted intruder, effective immediately."

"Wait, what do you mean 'routine sweep'-" suddenly, the ground that they are standing on begins to tremor in tandem with the ever closing-in sounds of stampeding feet coming from just ahead of them.

"... I'm detecting a massive surge of mana numbering tens of thousands," Letoile spoke.

And through the trees, numerous [Treants], [Aluraunes], [Barometzes], [Jabberwockys], and [Myconids] all rampaging towards them, all of whom totaled to about tens of thousands. The mob was too dense (both in numbers and hallucinogens) to simply fend off.

"... Well shit," Ogmios chuckled. "RUN!"

Everyone then broke off running as soon as they could from the mob that spelled instant death.

"JUST WHERE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO RUN?!" asked Corrin as [Treants] of simian build swung from branch to branch as it got closer towards them, throwing both [Mandrakes] and [Myconids] alike in a cocktail of different deaths.

"THANKFULLY, TOWARDS THE SIGNATURE!" Ogmios exclaimed as he then threw away his switchblade towards one of the hurled [Mandrakes] behind them, causing it to prematurely explode and take the others with it. "FORGET ABOUT APPORACHING STEALTHLY! WE'RE GOING IN BALLS-FIRST!"

"GUD!" Cu remarked as he then sliced down one of the trees with his [Gae Bolg] on his way. "NEVER BEEN DE TYPE FUR STEALTH ANYWAY!"

"SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!" Makarov remarked as he ducked under an [Aluraune]'s vine whip and a thrown [Treant] tossed by its fellow. "JUST WHERE THE HELL IS THAT DEMON ANYWAY?! EVEN IN MOB LIKE THIS, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PICK UP ON THAT MALIGNANT AURA WITH EASE!"

In truth, Ishtar was actually skipping from tree to tree along with the simian-build [Treants], using her [Gauge Magic] to lower her presence/"malignant aura" to that of its lowest output akin to that of a fly's.

Too clever by half, god, thought the lioness as she cradled the Demon baby in her care. That said, I wonder what this presence could be up ahead... something new to feed the baby with I hope.

As everyone continued to run for their lives, Corrin then trips on a root and falls face-first into the dirt.

"CORRIN!" Jericho then ran back to help her up.

"LEAVE HER!" Nozel barked. "SHE'S ALREADY DEAD!"

Even though they would've like to have protested his notion, the Captain's notions proved to be correct as the forest's residents have already closed in towards them in a matter of seconds. Mere inches the horde were away from crushing them beneath their tide of rough bark and waxen stems, it was utterly impossible for anyone to save them lest they were also swept under the wave.

All Corrin and Jericho can do in their last moments was to pray for salvation.

That one spark of a plea then lit itself like that of the sun's surface.

I've heard your lamentations. Let me help!

Then from the flank of the rampage, a massive blast of prismatic fire devours the horde of the forest's creatures instantly, reducing all of them and the surrounding forest into ashes. But stranger skill, the flames didn't affect either Corrin or Jericho. Rather, instead of being burnt to a crisp, they felt as if their bodies were being healed by this divine-feeling fire.

"Wha... what the?!" Jericho exclaimed.

Corrin then touches her own face. "... It feels as if my face wasn't even scratched."

As soon as the flames ceded, two figures emerged into the now-slash-burned clearing. One of them was a human clad in a full suit of rusted and moss-covered armor with an antlered helmet and a tattered cape, wielding a zweihänder one-handed with its blade wrapped up in a length of briar, as if he were living in this forest since birth. Clashing against the former was flame-winged man with draping long hair with a plate-armor-toga combo, wielding a two-pronged spear whose tip was sizzling with insane amounts of heat, indicating that he was the one who'd unleashed the flames that have saved them.

"What the hell was that?!" Salim remarked as he and the others ran towards Jericho and Corrin.

"Guys, I think we found our hit," Ogmios confirmed the two's presences being their intended source of mana. "... Especially that green guy. That guy's definitely the one in charge of this whole place."

"So that means..." Zenon sighed with his teeth clenched.

"It's the final boss!" Vanica gleefully squeed.

"So who's that guy with the pair of flaming wings and enough mana to make anyone go blind if he weren't holding it back?" asked David. "... Please tell me he's on our side."

The flame-winged figure then looks towards them. "Glad I can help you all," he serenely spoke. "Are you all lost?"

Agatha's heartbeat slowly quickened as she realized who they were beholden to. "... No, impossible!" the Witch Queen exclaimed. "I THOUGHT YOU ALL HAVE DISAPPARED BEFORE THE GOLDEN AGE OF MAGIC WAS USHERED IN!"

"Not disappear from this world, but rather, simply separated," he plainly remarked as he offhandedly fended off against the antlered knight's sword blow before breaking the knight from their lock and knocking the latter away several feet back. "We'll talk later! Right now, he needs to be stopped!"

The antlered knight lets out a low groan as it then planted its zweihänder into the ground to support itself. "... Stop me?"

"Oh balls, it talks," Salim groaned. "It's definitely this place's final boss."

"Duh, wasn't it made clear already?" spoke [Leshy] as it then sprouted its antlered humanoid form made of gnarled wood. "So, you schmucks made it this far. Congrats."

"[Leshy]!" Dorothy exclaimed as everyone readied themselves for battle.

"Remove the square brackets between my name, sweetcheeks," the now-manifested god remarked with an arrogant posture. "I'm the True Leshy now."

"So who's the guy in the rusted armor?" asked Jericho as he manifested his [Platinum Gauntlets] around his arms. "Because I'm getting a distinct feeling of deja vu just looking at it right now!"

"Speak for yourself," Nozel growled as the hair on the back of his neck all stood on their ends. "... I should've been able to remember... such character."

"Oh right, it's because when my boss ran into you the first time, he made sure to wipe your memories of ever seeing him!" taunted True Leshy before he turned its head towards Dagda specifically. "... Save for you, but I'm sure that you had your reasons, doncha?"

"Ye pulled the same exact shite on Patty-boyo on everyone else, Green Knight," the half-Demon remarked to the armored being as he pointed his [Fragarach] at it. "Tell me, wat's dis forest fur anyway?!"

The Green Knight chuckled to himself before erupting into full-blown cackling that reverberated from its rusted helmet. "LIKE YOU ALREADY DON'T KNOW, MALACODA! DON'T YOU PRETEND THAT YOU WERE BLAMELESS FOR WHAT YOU AND YOUR TEN TYRANTS HAVE DONE TO OUR KIND!"

Everyone then stares at the accused half-Demon upon this reveal, whose hands were now trembling in both shame and rage at this exposure. "... I ain't gonna deny wat'd happened. But de way yer goin', yer goin' te kill people dat dun't deserve yer wrath!"

"WELL BOO-FUCKING-HOO! TOO BAD FOR THEM!" mocked the Green Knight before he then turned towards the flame-winged person. "AND YOU! WHAT'S AN ARCHANGEL DOING STANDING AROUND AND LETTING THIS SCUMBAG LIVE AND GETTING IN THE WAY OF MY DIVINE WORK?!"

"AN ARCHANGEL?!" Bizon gasped as he and Makarov stepped back in awe of the being's presence. "... Then those flames!"

"Archangel Mikhael..." Makarov's voice trembled in reverence. "... We are in the presence of Sephira's herald. The Torchkeeper."

"A ex-member of the Ten Tyrants and an Archangel within the same breathing distance?!" Mudo could barely contain her rising excitement. "... OMG, SOMEONE PINCH ME! I MUST BE DREAMING!"

Zenon then sees Rinaldo pinching himself before nodding, confirming that everything that they're seeing is all too real. "... I believe in gods now," said the boy. "And right now, they're all laughing at us."

"Okay, is everyone's sordid pasts going to be kept aired out in this place?" groaned Corrin. "... Then again, the sheer absurdity of this whole engagement explains why we're all not just attacking it right now."

Mikhael remains unfazed at the Green Knight's accusations. "... There's a difference, Green Knight," he began, "the half-Demon is genuinely repentant for his sins, while you seek to destroy everything in sight out of spite. One chooses to try and help others besides himself, while the other continues to rage blindly. I know who I must stop."

The Green Knight's rage boils over as the ground beneath him grows back its verdant grass and various flowers as the earth tremors beneath everyone's feet.

"... Leshy," heaved the Green Knight as it gripped the handle of its zweihänder to the point of causing it to slightly bend sideways. "... Let's kill them all right here and now. No matter who's in the way... the forest must keep expanding... until nothing else but the forest remains."

"Always was the plan, boss!" then the True Leshy belts out a roar as the ground then emerged out more [Sylvan Slaves] from everywhere that the group saw, as if they were inside an ant colony. "And since we're in the endgame, TIME FOR A MAKEOVER!"

From the opening of its chest, it then produces a clover-emblemed grimoire.

"No way..." Patry gasped, "... that's William's!"

"EVERYONE! STOP HIM FROM CASTING!" ordered Jericho as he and the others all jumped towards the True Leshy.

"Thanks for making yourselves easy targets!" the manifested god declared as the grimoire opened while more [Sylvan Slaves] burst from the earth between him and the attackers. "[World Tree Transmutation Magic: Bifrost Horizon]."

The undead, both within the clearing and outside were all then emitting aa prismatic aura as the rainbow light began to morph the [Sylvan Slaves] into facsimiles of the Green Knight itself, weapon and armor included, with the only thing missing from the clones being the inclusion of the original's cape.

"ATTACK MY [SYLVAN SOLDIERS]!" declared True Leshy. "ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTTAAAACCCK!"

Upon the completion of their mass transformation, the [Sylvan Soldiers] all began mobbing towards the group, popping out at random intervals that causes their formation to be disrupted, leaving the ragtag groups to hold their respective lines. As soon as the attackers were then put into disarray, Dagda and Mikhael used their [Counter Magic] and [Flare Magic] respectively to break through the spawning enemies as they blitzed towards the Green Knight itself.

The knight then blocks the Archangel's [Longinus] and the half-Demon's [Fragarach] with the width of its greatsword. "We've done this song and dance for months, Mikhael," the Green Knight taunted. "You both know that neither of you can kill me."

"I'm willing to try," said the Archangel as the tip of his spear sparked an ember between its prongs. "Dagda, this might get a little hot!"

"DO IT!" the half-Demon then with a burst of strength, knocked away the Green Knight with the swing of his sword.

"[Flare Magic]!" the Archangel then pointed his [Longinus] towards the staggering Green Knight. "[Beacon]!"

A stream of engulfing prismatic flames devour the Green Knight whole, instantly disintegrating it on the spot.

"Alrite, we got 'im-it's too easy," Dagda gritted his teeth as his back touched Mikhael's. "So, where's it gonna come poppin' out-?!"

From where the others stood fending off the [Sylvan Soldiers], one them started acting up before unleashing a geyser of roots that transformed into a giant tree with the slam of its sword that sent everyone caught in it flying. Those who weren't continued their offensive, with Cu barely making a dent in their armor with his [Gae Bolg] as he tried to plow his way towards the True Leshy, who was still summoning the evolved undead from a fair distance away from the confrontation.

"GET OUT OF ME WAY, YE SHITES!" roared the wild man as he swung his thorny shaft around and about like a bloody windmill before it was stopped by an undead who was now bearing a cape.

"You get of out of the way," then the Green Knight throws Cu up into the air before performing an uppercut swing with its own thorny blade, sending Cu flying back as his [Gae Bolg] was then kicked aside like a missile that didn't care where it landed, scattering both friend and foe alike upon impact.

"Found him," Mikhael remarked as he then flew towards while mowing through the never-ending horde. "EVERYONE! HOLD ON!"

"Easier said than done!" Corrin remarked as she then tried to stand up and use her [Magnet Magic] to control the undead's armor, only for it to be unresponsive. But just as she could figure out why, she was then grabbed by the head from behind before being lifted off of her feet by the reborn Green Knight.

"My sword and armor are made of 100% lead, you dumb bitch," sneered the Green Knight as the tip of its brair-wrapped blade's tip then jabbed onto her back. "How about a taste-?"

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!" Jericho roared out as he then leapt up into the air to bring down a hammer-blow with his [Stardust Knuckles].

But just before he could make his landing, the Green Knight then throws Corrin into Jericho to knock both of them away and out of reach from the others, while offhandedly throwing his zweihänder towards Letoile's direction before she could rescue them with her [Compass Magic], the thrown sword nearly taking her head off as it obliterates her compass mid-manifestation.

In the place of its missing weapon, the Green Knight simply grows a spare out of the dirt as if it were mere produce while the thrown sword was now claimed by another Green Knight clone that crawled itself out of the dirt to join its brethren along with its endless fellows.

"Wonderful," grimaced Agatha as her [Lifeblood Scythe] scraped against the hyper-dense converts, doing little to no damage to their leaden armor while the others tried to break through with little to no avail. "[Fae Arts] bullshit, I presume?"

"And the culprit's keeping it real hush-hush about it too, so I can't tell what's its influencing!" Cernunnos remarked as his [Gae Dearg] and [Gae Buidhe] corroded the convert-clones's plant matter, only for it to be replaced with even more lead, making them slower but harder to break.

Patry then tried to break through the leaden knights with his [Light Magic], but his rays were shrugged off by their armor like water off a duck's back. "GODDAMMIT!"

Cu's [Gae Bolg] manages to break through a few, but he then realizes that the leaden armor had the nasty side effect of dulling the barbs around his Relic. "... Well shite. Bare-knuckled it is."

Danu screeches as she was then found herself being crawled all over her body by the clones, weighing her down to the point where she was then pinned down by their total combined weight (of 600 tons to Danu's maximum threshold of 20 tons), forcing everyone within her shadow to get out of her way before they were crushed underneath her as she began to topple around like an unsteady tree.

"DANU HOLD ON-!" Cissonius then tries to use his [Snatch Magic] to lighten her load, but then his outstretched hand was then impaled by an arrow that was shot at him before it took him flying in its trajectory and stakes him into one of the trees, pinning him like a nailed hex effigy.

Roland sees this and immediately latches onto her, peeling off the crawling army of clones with his brute strength and [Durandal].

From afar, the cook saw the True Leshy wielding a bow and arrow made from William's grimoire. "Oh I just love this new thing!" he giggled as he then fired another arrow that shot through Cissonius's other hand, with both arrows morphing into nail-like shapes upon staking into Cissonius's hands to prevent an easy extraction. "[World Tree Creation Magic: Yewfelle]. I surmise that you need your hands to use your [Snatch Magic] in the first place, yes? So stay put right there, I need to go and make your friends suffer slow and agonizing deaths."

It then aims for the toolbox that Mudo had on her, firing the yew-arrow towards where the MASS packs were kept within, only for the arrow to be intercepted by Brigid and her [Anima Magic], but that opening results in one of the [Sylvan Soldiers] swiping its sword at the toolbox's lock, undoing it and causing its vital contents to spill.

"OH SHIT!" Mudo panicked as she tried to salvage her objects, only for several more clone-converts to begin focusing themselves towards her, forcing Cernunnos to defend her by transforming his Relics into their plush animal forms to act as buffers while the others came to her rescue.

"GIVE ME THE BAG!" Rinaldo shouted at Roland before he caught the duffel bag full of MASS packs and other medkits. "GO HELP THE OTHERS! I'LL KEEP THIS SAFE!"

Moccus manages to catch one yew-arrow from the air before eating it, but shortly spits it out after its repulsive taste. "SERIOUSLY?!" the talking pig upsettedly remarked. "I CAN'T EAT THAT SHIT!"

"COME ON, GET UP ALREADY!" Bizon roared out as he tried to lift the Green Knight clones up into the air, only for all of them to remain rooted to the ground and each other (literally). "VICE-INQUISITOR!"

"EVERYONE! GET BACK TOGETHER!" Makarov barked out as he dual-wielded his [Chernobog] scythe and [Belobog] sword while fending off the leaden knights surrounding them all. "THE ENEMY IS SEWING CHAOS TO THEIR BENEFIT!"

"NOTHING'S FAZING THESE GUYS!" David cried out as he threw his [Gambler's Fallacy] dice everywhere as much as he could, only for not one of the explosions to even scratch their armor, which kept growing back at unprecedented speeds and making them heavier and harder to scratch.

Salim meanwhile, was too busy dodging to get off even one spell (likely due to his spells taking too long to chant its incantations) while Dorothy kept popping in and out of reality in hopes of taking some of the Green Knight clones with her, but to no avail.

"Good grief," Nozel grumbled as he then left the rest to their panic while he engaged True Leshy by himself with his [Silver Arsenal]. "Guess it's up to me now-"

Then suddenly, he found his ankles being grabbed on by a growth of [Sylvan Slaves] who slowly turned into more [Sylvan Soldiers] as they emerged under [Bifrost Horizon]'s effect, buying enough time for the actual Green Knight to punching his half of his teeth out of his mouth as soon as the Captain freed himself, sending him skidding across the dirt.

"Dumbass," the Green Knight remarked as it then skillfully blocked Dagda's backstab while not even looking at his direction before using the width of its sword to flip the half-Demon over, only for the latter to blast him with his [Counter Magic], which then the True Leshy summoned more of the clones of his master to take the blow in their places.

"SHITE! HE PULLED A FAST ONE ON ME AGAIN!" cursed the half-Demon.

"COOLDOWN'S DONE!" Mikhael remarked as he carried Jericho and Corrin back to the others. "DON'T WORRY EVERYONE! MY FLAMES WON'T HURT MY ALLIES!"

"THEN DO IT!" Brigid ordered as she rescued Ogmios from being mulched after he was beaned by a clone's pommel blow from behind.

"Mindless bastards... can't even read their thoughts..." he grumbled in a seething manner as he was rescued by Brigid. "... Or their mana... as if they're all just extensions... of this whole place."

Roland then sees the two Zogratis siblings before he then picks both of them up while several Green Knight clones were pulling on his exposed genitals in an attempt to cause him pain (which he doesn't even register at all). "Okay kiddos, we're gonna play a game called 'upsy-daisy'!"

"Wait, what-?!" Zenon asked right before he and Vanica were then thrown into the air and out of reach from everyone.

"NOW!" the nude Paladin roared out as he then swung his [Durandal] to knock away the surrounding [Sylvan Soliders].

"[FLARE MAGIC]!" the Archangel then conjures up a massive globe of flames before casting it down unto the others. "[SUNBREAK]!"

The bomb makes contact, triggering a massive explosion of cleansing flames that resets the whole battlefield of its enemy occupants save for the Green Knight and the True Leshy, both of whom used the latter's [World Tree Abjuration Magic: Midgard] to summon a ring of oak trees around themselves to shield themselves from the divine inferno. As for those who were exposed to the flames, their wounds were healed, their mana restored back to full capacity, and Lugh's body turned muscular upon being bequeathed of its full glory.

"I can hear again," Letoile then smiled to herself.

"... This is what it feels like to grow back teeth," a sharp pain panged across Nozel's left side of his gums. "... I hate it-"

Then a pair of screams came down before both Zenon and Vanica crash lands on his back. "HOLY SHIT!" the [Blood Magic] exclaimed. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Everyone seems fine..." commented Zenon before looking down. "... Mostly everyone."

"Given how sinful you guys are, I doubt that you'd survive his anti-friendly fire clause," Roland commented as he pointed his thumb towards Mikhael, the latter nodding with a face of regret.

"I'm sorry that I cannot help you two," the Archangel apologized. "... But hopefully, the residual effect of my recent spell will."

Then from above, a miniature sun came alight. It's light that the others were bathed in began extending the flames's effects prior.

"My spell not only smites those who I deem my enemies, but to whom I deem my allies, their bodies return to their prime fighting conditions!" Mikhael declared. "Everyone! Now it's time to strike back!"

[Midgard] then dissipates around True Leshy and the Green Knight. "... Well this ain't good."

"Appreciated," Agatha replied as she then opened her grimoire to unleash a murder of blood crows towards both the Green Knight. "[Blood Magic: Massacre Exsanguination]."

"[Magnet Magic: Psychic Railgun]!" Corrin then fires her nail with deadly force through magnetic propulsion.

"[Platinum Magic: Glimmer Darts]!" Jericho then flicked the projectiles at bullet-like velocity.

"[Mercury Magic: Silver Star of Execution]," Nozel then brought down a massive cage-like sphere of mercurial blades from above.

"[Lightning Magic: The God of Lightning, Rising Salim]!" the [Lightning Magic] user then unleashes a sphere of electricity that was then fired like a cannonball.

"[Dice Magic: Gambler's Fallacy-Double or Nothing]!" David then threw a pair of house-sized dices into the air.

"[Mercury Evocation Magic: Murder Mamba]!" Rinaldo's [Froberge] then transformed its blade into a giant blade-like serpent that swiftly slithered towards its designated prey.

"Hey Cu! How about a team attack?!" Roland spoke as he brought forth his [Durandal].

"On me mark!" Cu then brought out his still-dulled [Gae Bolg] as the two then swung their weapons down as hard as they could, unleashing a combined shockwave that can be compared to that of a high-level spell.

"They're showing me up," Makarov smirked. "Can't stand around and do nothing."

"With me, Vice Inquisitor!" Bizon then brought down his [Labrys] Relic down with his [Gravity Magic] while his superior then crossed his dual Relics before intersecting their mana together. "[GRAVITY & AURA COMPOUND MAGIC]!"

A dense sphere of pure grey crackling with pure power forms before the two Inquisitors of the Order of the Spade Cross. "[Gromovoi Znak]!"

With a loud whine, the orb of heavy rage fired.

"... Me 'ands are still reelin'," Cissonius remarked as his wounds on his palms were still being filled in. "Mind hittin' dat bastard extra 'ard fur me?"

"No need to trouble yourself by asking," Lugh remarked as a grimoire of flames formed in his open hand. "Consider it done."

"RUN OVER DOSE BASTARDS!" Dagda barked as he then stabs himself with his [Fragarach] to unleash a blast of redirected force from his body. "[COUNTER MAGIC: AFFLICTION BOUNCE]!"

"Applying all elements of [Fire], [Water], [Wind], and [Earth]," Brigid coolly remarked as the four orbs converged into one sphere of light. "... Generating [Anima] and [Animus]-the latter's missing?!" she clenched her teeth in surprise before shaking it off. "... I'll pry the answers out of their carcasses then! [Anima Magic: Magnum Opus]!"

"[TERRAFORMING MAGIC]!" Danu then brought down her fists to the earth to unleash a wave of subterranean glaciers sharpened into blades, "[GLACIAL GLADIUS]!"

"[Solar Magic]," Lugh's flaming grimoire then transforms into a glowing eyeball that then fired a ray of concentrated light, "[Bás Balor]."

"[Fae Arts: Perception]!" Cernunnos then combined his [Gae Buidhe] and [Gae Dearg] into their composite form before sending it forth. "[Arms Fusion-Birgha]!"

"[Memory Magic: Grudge Tracer]!" Ogmios then tries his pendulum like an arrow with his magic bow.

"You can do it everyone!" cheered Aengus as she sat atop of Moccus.

"KICK THEIR ASSES!" the talking pig squealed as both Zogratis siblings listened on and watched.

"... You thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Zenon.

"Must you ask?!" Vanica then ran towards the group to help them out. "WE'RE DOING WHAT WE'RE BEST AT!"

He smiled lopsidedly as he then brought out his grimoire. "... Guess some things never change."

"LET ME IN! LET ME IN! LET ME IIIINNNN!" Vanica chattered as she then unleashes a massive hulking beast made of her own blood and mana. "[BLOOD MAGIC: RED BEAST-JUGGERNAUT]!"

"[Bone Creation Magic]," Zenon then manifests [Eternal Fangs] from his back as all of the spires of bone converged into a singular point, transforming it into a massive bone lance. "[Banebunker]!"

The last of the magical salvo then makes landfall onto where the other spells had landed, clouding the entire clearing with smoke and dust that blinded everyone present. Eventually, the chaff clears up enough for them to see nothing.

"What?!" Corrin remarked as she and the others looked around. "Where did they go-?!"

"Peek-a-boo," spoke the Green Knight as he suddenly appeared in the middle of everyone else with his sword wound back before it then swung it around itself, sending everyone flying with the sheer gale force of its slash save for a few.

Dagda and Cu flank him from opposite sides, only for the Green Knight disappear from sight before reappearing behind Cu's back, striking the back of his head with its sword's pommel. The half-Demon then climbs over the now-unconscious Cu with his [Fragarach] drawn, blasting his [Counter Magic] towards the Green Knight, knocking both of them away from each other as Mikhael approached the latter from behind with his [Longinus] pointed towards its back.

"I GOT YOU!" the Archangel then thrusts his holy lance into the Knight's back, only for the upper half of the rusted armor to turn around facing the Archangel to meet his blow with its sword. "Crud."

But to everyone's surprise, the entire top half of the Green Knight is dislodged from its waist, leaving the top half to then plant its sword into the earth before unleashing another wave of overgrowth to send everyone flying off of their feet again before expiring into dust.

"... Okay, did anyone see that?!" Corrin cried out as she tried to get up, only for her to find her feet mangled up beyond repair, causing her then to scream in agony.

"Hang on! I got the MASS!" Rinaldo then ran towards her with the duffle bag, only for it to be shot by another yew arrow that then spilled its contents while several of it were found skewered onto the same arrow. "MERDE!"

"It's fun watching them squirm, isn't it?" the True Leshy sneered in sadistic pleasure as he sat atop of a tree from afar with his [Yewfelle] in his hand.

Jericho then throws one of the spare MASS packs on the ground to Corrin's direction, activating it as her mangled leg is repaired. "How many do we have left intact?"

"I could only save about five or six while the rest got trampled!" Mudo remarked as she then closed her toolbox of its remaining contents before clutching it around her arms.

"Anyone else injured?!" asked Rinaldo as he picked up the remaining MASS packs, only for the ones to be not yet retrieved to be destroyed from afar by True Leshy.

"Use many as you wish," spoke the Green Knight's voice, now unfiltered through the rusted visage. "Prolong your suffering as much as you wish."

Everyone then turns their heads towards where the voice had come from, revealing a pale-faced, grass-haired Fae similar in size to Cernunnos's true form. The "Green Knight" was merely a suit of armor it had adopted as a facade or a puppet to interact with the surrounding world, simply recreating it after each destruction with its surrounding elements.

"Tell me," spoke the Fae floating above the waist armor that stood on its own. "Why is there a Fae among you lot?"

The aforementioned Fae's eyes widened in shock. "... A [Spriggan]?!"

"Wait, you mean one of the 26 Wilderbeast species that went extinct due to the rise of the Hellhound Demons?!" Mudo exclaimed.

"The same," it spoke, its eyes unblinking even for a moment. "So let's see, a couple of human filth, the progenitor of all Witches, her failed byproduct, an abandoned war golem, a Highlander with the power of the sun itself, a fellow Fae, an artificial spirit, a talking pig, an Archangel, and finally, one of the Ten Tyrants. A motley crew of the most mismatched motherfuckers ever conceived."

"... Yeah," Cernunnos remarked with a hesitant voice. "Glad to see you."

"Save it, traitor," the Fae then turned towards the rest of the group before confronting Mikhael. "And you. You knew about me all along, didn't you?"

"I didn't want to believe that it was the case," the Archangel answered. "... I know your pain. The loss of your kin hurts all the same-"

"Don't patronize me," the Fae cut him off. "You're nothing more than a supplicant to that whore Sephira. I never trusted her since the day that the Royal Family had parleyed with her, proposed to them to become one of the Four Elemental Spirits. Guess I bet on the right horse. Once a human, always a human."

"NO! ALL SHE EVER WANTED TO WAS TO SHARE HER FUTURE WITH YOUR KIND AS SHE DID WITH OTHERS!" the Archangel appealed.

"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US 500 YEARS AGO WHEN OUR HOME WAS BURNT TO THE GROUND?!" the Fae raged as he dodged Nozel's sneak attack before impaling his guts with spikes made of the roughest of briars, forcing a medical intervention by the others. "WHY DIDN'T YOU AID US WHEN YOUR SO-CALLED FELLOWS LEFT US TO ROT?! SAVIOR OF MAGIC MY BEHIND! SHE'S JUST ANOTHER OPPORTUNISTIC BITCH PULLING A FAST ONE ON US! LEFT US TO DIE AT THE HANDS OF BEHEMOTH AND THE TEN TYRANTS' RAMPAGE! YOU AND YOUR WHORE LEFT US TO DIE UNDERNEATH BEHEMOTH'S FOOT!"

Mikhael looked away in shame. "... I'm sorry. I am only one Archangel out of the four in world with too many troubles."

Jericho then steps up. "... Then what are you planning?" he asked. "What is the purpose of this forest? Why are you keeping us trapped in here?!"

"... Don't ask questions that you already know the answer to, boy," snarled the [Spriggan].

"I know," Jericho remarked. "I want to hear it coming from your lips."

"... Very well, a refresher," the Fae then began to elaborate on his goals. "... This forest, is indeed, an attempt to retake lost land. In the ages long past, we Fae ruled the world of Magic, opposed by no one but Gods and Dragons. Then came Sephira, who spread the knowledge of the arcane to the unwashed masses after uniting the differing races together, allowing them to claim our lands as our pool of mana we've Fae once monopolized as our own, slowly killing our kind in the process. As the Golden Age of Magic came to be, our homestead shrunk from the constant warfare between rising nations drunk off our supply of magic until we were all sequestered to a single forest that you mongrels call 'Ulster' today. That is, until Sephira and her four Archangels came to us in the flesh, offering us a parley."

Agatha buckled at the mention of the event. "... I was also there too."

"Seriously?!" Mudo replied while her hands holding a notepad and a quill pen moved in a blur. "This is like... super-huge! We're all beholden to witness the history of magic!"

"That parley involved the [Wind Spirit, Sylph], correct?" Jericho answered.

The [Spriggan] was taken aback by his claims. "... How did you know which one?"

"I met one," he answered. "She's bonded with a friend of mine after being released from her seal months ago."

"Tell me more!" Mudo plead.

But rather than feel relief, the Green Knight began cackling to itself, its laughter sounding broken and disjointed, as if its ability to properly express joy was obliterated by centuries of trauma.

"... You know what's funny?" the Fae remarked. "... All of this could've been avoided if it weren't for you lot."

"What do you mean?!" Danu remarked.

Dagda however, knew the answer. "Let me guess," he sarcastically spoke, "it's one of us that you've killed after he'd tried taking a shot at ye?!"

The half-Demon then throws a tattered Silver Eagles' robe before the [Spriggan]'s feet, the latter smirking bemusedly while Nozel's eyes widened in surprise. "... Where did you get that?"

"Oh would you like to know?!" the Green Knight taunted as it stomped on the robes until it became indistinguishable from a dirty rag. "Say Leshy, are they certain that they've figured everything out?"

"Hell no, boss," the god then slinked down from above like a spider. "But given that we've fucked with their brains so many times over, I guess we have to spoon-feed on what they've lost during their stay here."

"Let me get back on why this place is the way it is," the Fae spoke. "Just what are missing in your brains right now?"

Dorothy was then the first to hit upon an answer. "... My imagination wasn't the only thing that got stolen."

"And so wasn't William's soul!" Patry exclaimed before he turned around. "EVERYONE! I THINK HE AND THE GOD NICKED ONE MENTAL ASPECT FROM EACH OF US!"

"SO THAT'S WHY MY [ANIMUS] SIDE IS MISSING?!" Brigid exclaimed.

Everyone began their own self-observation to check if anything within their mental faculties were missing.

"... Come to think of it, I'm taking all of this rather well this whole time," Jericho commented.

"My heart now feels like its always on the verge of getting a heart attack," Corrin remarked. "And I'm pretty sure that it's just not the stress of being here."

"I'm feeling as if I'm less chronically bloodthirsty than usual," Vanica remarked. "... Is this what it means to be functional?"

"Weirdly enough, same," nodded Bizon. "Specifically towards the Hell-inclined of you lot."

"I just feel as if I hate Jericho less now," Salim commented.

"A small part of me feels as if it wants to commit suicide," David remarked casually before catching himself. "... Why did I say that out loud?"

"Strange, but my mind feels less muddled and focused..." Letoile remarked, "... but not exactly in what people call in a 'good way'."

"I feel like as if I no longer need to uphold a veneer of civility to you savages and neanderthals," Nozel deadpanned. "So let me say this, if I die here, it's all your guys' faults."

"What a coincidence, same," Ogmios shot back. "I wish all of you to die horrible deaths, double to the bitch that ruined my life."

Agatha flips him off. "There's nothing that I've lost," she commented. "Or at the very least, anything significant."

"Same," Dagda raised his hand.

"Dun't feel anythin' funny, so I must be aight," Cu commented.

"My soul is always protected from even the most vile of curses," declared Makarov.

"... I don't feel bothered at all," Rinaldo remarked. "... Feels, almost liberating."

"Me too," Zenon agreed. "If the intent was to cripple us, then it has failed."

"Ditto," nodded Cissonius, although really, it feels as if his eyes weren't locked towards the Relics anymore, or at least by default.

"Kinda applies to me too," Mudo commented. "... I feel as if I don't feel as lost about my FAMAS being wrecked to shit."

"I'm just a pig, so nothing significant feels off," Moccus remarked. "But I definitely know what Aengus lost!"

Said girl flips off Ogmios.

"Sure, shit on me," he smirked. "I might be on my way to develop a new fetish!"

Danu then looks down at Roland, who has been oddly quiet since before their encounter with the Green Knight. "... What's wrong?"

"... Nothing important," he reassured.

"Thank you all checking for your belongings, the exits is on your right," True Leshy remarked. "So yes, during your prolonged stay here, about... a fair majority of you had been... relieved of a piece yourselves that might or might not define your very identity."

"Some of you have lost the things that have raised you up," the Green Knight explained as it looked towards Corrin, David, Vanica, Cissonius, Nozel, Aengus, Dorothy, Brigid, and Patry. "Calm, confidence, bloodlust, greed, empathy, innocence, imagination, [Animus], and an entire soul." It then turned towards the rest of the group. "While some of you have been unburdened of your shortcomings," it then looked towards Letoile, Jericho, Salim, Rinaldo, Mudo, Ogmios, and Zenon. "Fear, anxiety, resentment, sentimentalities of the old, needless attachment, politeness, and stoicism."

"And then there're the outliers," True Leshy then pointed towards Dagda, Cu, Makarov, Cernunnos, Agatha, Danu, Lugh, Roland, and Archangel Mikhael. "For hot wings, the witch-bitch, and palmtop, I can understand, since one is an Archangel, the other is a latecomer, and shorty's a Fae that can't be affected by such machinations. But the rest of you?! Either it feels like there's something preventing me from coming in or there's nothing in your brains that I can take!"

"So that's why everyone's acting strange as of late!" Jericho realized what had happened. "... It was something worse than simply going stir-crazy!"

"Then that means you can..." Cernunnos then looks at the [Spriggan], "... your [Fae Arts] revolve around [Memory]!"

"Now that's using the good ol' noodle!" the True Leshy faux-praised. "... Allow us to formally welcome to your prison, the [Forest of Denial]."

"This place shall consume everything, starting with your minds," uttered the Green Knight as its rusted armor and sword reformed around itself. "... Everything that you mortals have built at our expense, ALL OF IT! MEMORIES, MONUMENTS, HISTORIES, AND EVERYTHING! IT WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THIS WHOLE CONTINENT AND ITS INTERCONNECTED LANDMASSES ARE NOTHING BUT TREES!"

---

Autonomous Invasive Ecosystem, [The Forest of Denial]

Time Remaining Until Continental Assimilation:

6 Hours, 6 minutes, 6 seconds

---

"... Fucking lying is what you are!" denied David. "THERE'S NO WAY THAT'S POSSIBLE!"

Brigid then touches the ground to see what was going on. "... I get it," she remarked. "This whole forest is basically Ulster before it was called Ulster! The Grand Magic Zone is using its own perpetually-generating mana to expand its borders!"

"And where we and the others come in..." gulped Mudo. "... We're all just fertilizers being processed piecemeal."

"And if you must know, the forest itself had already breached into Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom," the god informed with a smile cracked itself open on its root-face. "And although Spade Kingdom's assimilation is being heavily resisted by an outside force burning down our new trees at a sporadic pace and Heart Kingdom... actually, that last one's lack of progress is seriously concerning, but I digress. Point is, you fuckers already lost. It's only a matter of time that none of you have any homes or people left to return to. And with all the spellcasters and their natural-based attributed-mana that we've collected while you guys were mucking about, save for a few, the growth and expansion of this forest has been accelerating, with your friend William being the lynchpin of our operation. Again, you have our utmost gratitude, Patry. I'm sure your friends who ate shit are smiling at you up at Heaven... or still screaming their lungs out in Hell. Eh, big diff, same woof."

"... You're no better than the humans who used me and my people!" Patry growled.

Nozel's composure began to crack, since even if he never valued his empathy as much as he did prior to losing it, the fact it had happened to him without his permission was nothing short of an insult. "... If you're sure of your victory, why haven't you killed us all where we stood?" he asked. "For a so-called god and his sole patron who can warp our memories, I assumed you'd be more compelled to kill us... unless you don't even register any of us as a threat."

"Really, I honesty don't care how many of you die by the end of this, nor the fact that I can and will kill you because you piss me off. But I am more than content to draw this out as long as I need to, just to let you all know how it feels to not have anywhere left to return to nor fight for," the Green Knight remarked. "All that time spent being lost is for the purpose of destroying your homes without your notice. It's the least I can do in turn for what your people has done."

Dorothy herself was taken aback by this Fae's madness and nihilism. "... You're not avenging your kind," she pointed out. "You're trying to destroy this whole world out of spite!"

"Like you're any different, mister 'I defended the guy who used [Reincarnation Magic] to kill all humans with my fellow elves'," the True Leshy pointed out before turning his attention towards Patry yet again. "And before you ask, yes, I know, and I laughed when your plans bombed so spectacularly at the hands of those non-magical schmucks and so-called 'Dark Elves' that you did a complete about-face. Well, at least things worked out in the end, right?"

Patry's canines began to ground against each other in swelling rage.

"I'm sure that Fana die with a clean conscience."

In a blink, Patry dashes towards both True Leshy and the Green Knight with his [Light Magic]. "YOU'RE BOTH FUCKING DEAD-!"

Just before he could do anything, the Green Knight outspeeds Patry by smashing his sword's pommel into the latter's sternum, causing to vomit a significant amount of blood that splashed onto the former's helmet visor. It then follows up by flipping its briar-wrapped zweihänder to grab it by its blade before swinging his crossguard into Patry's right kneecap like a sledgehammer, dislodging the joint and causing him to lose balance, allowing the Green Knight to then headbutt him back to his group as a broken mess.

"Shit shit shit!" Mudo cursed as she then activated one of her MASS packs to reform Patry's wounded body. "How the fuck did it move that fast?!"

"Better question, why do you think I'm considered the 'enemy'?" asked the Green Knight. "Think about it, if I'm just a mere 'extension' of the [Forest of Denial], then what am I really?"

Mikhael's eyes widened before he then checks the surrounding mana. And sure enough, it was clear that the Green Knight was merely an avatar to this whole land of itself. "... Oh fiddlesticks, I just gave plants sunlight with my [Sunbreak], didn't I?"

"Meaning that I've also absorbed [Sunbreak]'s benefits," the Green Knight declared. "For I am no mere [Spriggan]! I AM ULSTER ITSELF! I AM NATURE'S WRATH INCARNATE!"

Then all of the surrounding mana then converges towards the Green Knight into a titanic surge of power as it wound back its greatsword while True Leshy dances in a childish jig amidst this stirring whirlpool of pulsating and quaking mana that everyone found themselves trapped within.

"THERE WILL NO FUTURE LEFT FOR YOU MORTALS!" declared the Green Knight as all of Ulster's mana concentrated into itself. "NOW DIE FORGOTTEN IN THE WINDS OF TIME!"

"Our future's gonna rule~ it's gonna totally-totally rule~!" sang the god as more [Sylvan Soldiers] were called to his side, boxing everyone inside the clearing as they closed in from all sides, forming a dense mosh pit to ensure none would escape this next attack.

"WHAT NOW?!" asked Bizon.

No one answers.

"... What else can we do right now?" Corrin despairingly replied. "... We've lost."

Dagda growls as he kept his [Fragarach] on himself. "... Oi Mikhael, yer magic runs on a cooldown?"

"Unfortunately," he grimly remarked as he then and Dagda stepped before everyone else. "No matter what, even if there's no one left to protect... I'll fight! It's the promise I've made to Sephira!"

"[FAE ARTS: MEMORY]!" roared the Green Knight as its zweihánder's blade glowed a bright jade. "[WILD NATURE'S RELEASE]!"

As sword's blade smashed into the ground, Ulster itself belts out a deep and booming roar that sends everyone sans Dagda, Cu, and Mikhael out of the clearing and separating the group once more.

Meanwhile, amidst all of this, Ishtar kept herself hidden from the rest of the conflict, still biding her time to strike, now taking the presence of an Archangel into account, reducing her presence to that of a single atom's.

Blast it all, and here I thought I was the only one poking around... cursed the Demon as she kept both her's and the baby's mouth shut. ... That last spell almost blew my cover. I need to gain some distance between myself and him!

As the Demon retreats beneath everyone else's notice, the Green Knight then turns his head towards True Leshy and the [Sylvan Soldiers]. "Hunt the rest down," it ordered. "These three are mine."

"Good luck, boss," said the god as it burrowed itself into the earth while the thrall scattered themselves throughout the [Forest of Denial].

Just as Mikhael's [Longinus] finally lets out a hiss of steam, the Green Knight returns to confront the three of them. "... The fight is over. You've already lost, but yet, you all still choose to fight," it commented. "Is it because of pride? Is it valor? Or is it something that I will never understand?"

"Nah," Dagda remarked as he twirled [Fragarach] in his grip. "I just hate ye dat much."

"I want te ground yer bones to dust and snort em," Cu smirked as his [Gae Bolg] finally returned to its peak state of sharpness.

"I'm just here to help them," Mikhael answered as his [Flare Magic] surged from his body and [Longinus] Relic. "Because you're now beyond all help."

The Green Knight shrugs with mild indifference. "... Fair enough."

The four of them turn into a blur as a 3v1 melee begins in tandem with the god's sadistic hunt for the survivors.

---

"... We're separated again," spoke Jericho as he and Corrin found themselves lying on the forest floor.

He then sits up, looking around for a way back before he then gets back up onto his feet.

"... No time to waste," he remarked as Jericho walked towards where Corrin laid. "Come on. We need to get back to the others-"

"What's the point?" she muttered.

Jericho blinks. "... I'm sorry, I must've heard something-"

"You know what I damn well said," Corrin bitterly remarked. "... We lost."

"... That's it then?" Jericho remarked. "You're just lie here, let the nature consume you like a piece of meat being digested inside a beast's belly?"

"We're not just fighting a god anymore," she pointed out as she began to tear up. "We're all being double teamed both by a vengeful god and all of Ulster itself. The whole game wasn't just rigged from the start... the deck was stacked, the tables were set, and the stakes were raised... and the only reason we're alive up to this point is we're not even a priority."

Corrin's heart then shatters into pieces as she began bawling her eyes out.

"WE FUCKING LOST JERICHO!" she wept. "JUST LET US JESTERS BOW OUT WITH SOME DIGNITY! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

"... I'd say let them."

Corrin's swollen eyes then turned towards Jericho. "... What?"

"You are not hearing things," he pointed out. "I'd say we continue playing their rigged game. But this time, we cheat our way."

He then picks Corrin up from the ground before carrying her onto his back.

"... Are you... enjoying all of this?!" she hissed in disbelief.

"... Maybe," he smirked to himself as the two walked. "But part of me is just telling me... that it's not going to accept an ending like this. That all of our time spent here, finding our way through this maze, fighting monsters and lost gods, exposing our darkest secrets... I don't want it all to be in vain. My instincts are screaming are telling me to fight against the dying light. To fight so hard that even if there's no one back home anymore... they'll remember me regardless."

Corrin felt a surge of emotions that were a blend of shame, envy, and anger. "... You're such a fucking self-serving hypocrite," she hissed as more tears wet themselves onto Jericho's back. "You're not so different from the Ulsterians that you hate."

"... Fine," Jericho remarked with his teeth clenched with both resolve and fury. "If it means getting the fuck out of this place, then I'll gladly be the world's biggest and the most selfish self-serving hypocrite! I'll accept the fact that I'll always be a bloodthirsty Ulsterian no matter how much my mother tries to distance herself from her past! If it means that my friends can live another day, if it means giving me the strength to defeat an impossible evil, then I'll gladly embrace hypocrisy wholeheartedly!"

The two then suddenly find themselves climbing upon an incline. Upon walking upwards, they spot a faint gleam from atop this hill's peak.

"... Jericho," spoke Corrin, "... I thought that the hills should've given out by the overgrowth."

Jericho then smiles. "... Then this could only be one place."

From the hill's peak lay none other than the badly-rusted [Hrunting] and the immaculate reverse-scale of Ulster's first Elderbeast, [Grendel]. The two then realizes that they were now stepping atop of Geatland Hills, the beating iron heart of Ulster and its warriors.

---

To Be Continued...

---

Author's Notes: Three, fucking, weeks.

Let's see, job searching, ASD therapy sessions, seasonal depression, internet went down, laptop broke (again), cramming two whole chapters into a single draft (I refuse to go beyond the maximum of 8 parts), editing this draft with a fine-toothed comb (I'm a one-man operation), reading "Senran Persona: Ninjas of Hearts," Goddess of Victory: NIKKE's 1-Year Anniversary Event (maxed out Red Hood and Snow White: Innocent Days), and combined with my plans to take a December off from writing, yeah, the process for this chapter was nothing short of an ordeal.

So yeah, this whole chapter can be a testament to the trope "All For Nothing" for the characters. The gods they fought, the bullshit they endured, and all the times and plans they've come up with... for naught. The duo antagonists pulled an "Arc Fatigue" trope as part of their plan by either keeping the conflict going on for multiple arcs "starting around the early parts of "Screaming for Vengeance" Arc) and Leshy playing a similar role to Jester/Arkham's alter ego from Devil May Cry 3, and as a result, the "You Can't Thwart Phase One" trope is enforced and their plans are nearing completion by the time the jig is up.

Speaking of their plan of complete oblivion... yeah, it's a rehash from my now-deleted "Chronicles of the Wayward Tome Hero" self-insert fic, where the forest acting as my self-insert's base was a forest that was siphoning the surrounding wildlife to the point of causing a regional famine, but I decided to add an "Eldritch Location" trope to the Forest of Denial as part of both the Green Knight's and Leshy's plans to punish humanity in a manner not too dissimilar to my self-insert's borderline sociopathic tendencies.

True Leshy... yeah, he's basically a Celestial Dragon/World Noble but the "god"-part is legit and my self-insert's "reincarnation" in a sense. I had in mind of how Mesopotamian Gods created humanity as their personal serfs and that Gilgamesh was the one who liberated humanity from the gods's yoke. The Green Knight is basically the "Enkidu" of the story, but the "Gilgamesh" is not written in. Then again, being the last of the 26 Wilderbeast species that went extinct thanks to Tiamat and her Hellhounds (before they were retconned out of existence thanks to 1/4 of Beelzebub and his [Drain Magic] and nerfing her to the fucking bedrock), that small detail from Book 1 is now coming back roaring with a vengeance.

And the whole metaphor for "pieces of meat being digested inside a beast's belly" present throughout the whole arc? That was the characters' brains. The Forest of Denial is designed to kill all organic lifeforms in the slowest and subtle way possible ala Darkest Dungeon's Stress mechanic.

The theme I had in mind for this chapter... revenge. One act sparks revenge, which then sparks another and another until there's nothing more than a wildfire of vengeances that will consume everything. Ogmios wants revenge on the Witch Queen, the Witch Queen and Cu do not apologize for their actions simply due to them semi-acknowledging that it won't bring the dead back to life, Leshy wants revenge against Patry just for his ancestors abandoning him in favor of Sephira, and the Green Knight wants revenge on all creation for simply leaving its kind to die after an unfulfilled promise made by their chief advocate, Sephira, which it considers a major violation of trust that can only be recompensed with several oceans of blood. Simply put, an eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind. Also, it's futile in the long run, but by the time anyone realizes that, they're already in too deep.

Hopefully, the next chapter will be significantly shorter, or at the minimum, come out before the end of November. Until then, enjoy the turkey.

Hypothetical Voices (for funsies):

- True Leshy: Kenyū Horiuchi (JPN), Frank Todaro (ENG)

- The Green Knight: Matsubara Masahito/"Mafumafu" (JPN), Casey Mongillo (ENG)

References:

- Jericho's [Platinum Magic: Peace Sword] is named after the song by The Flaming Lips that was used in the Ender's Game movie.

- Patry's physically-manifested mental breakdown is a reference to Bruce Wayne's "Reverse Repressed Memories" (diagnosed by Doctor Psycho) from Season 3 of Harley Quinn, with some absurdist elements involved in the "Edit Wilderness"-feature from the new mobile Gatcha RPG, Reverse 1999.

- [Leshy]'s physical manifestation within [Safe Space] and within the physical plane is based off the Future Devil from Chainsaw Man (he even does his dance) and the Queen Leech from Resident Evil 0, with his method of summoning himself being akin to that of Mr. Wood from American Gods.

- Ogmios's [Memory Magic: Amnesia Flashback] is based off Beholder's kanashibari/"sleep paralysis"-jitsu from Ninja Slayer.

- The spell [World Tree Creation Magic: Yewfelle] is named after one of the Holy Weapons used by the Twelve Crusaders in Fire Emblem Judgral's lore, and it's entomology is derived from Ýdalir (yew-dales), the home of the Nordic God of Skis (sharing with Skadi), Ullr.

- The spell [Gravity & Aura Compound Magic: Gromovoi Znak], is named after Slavic paganism's "thunder marks" symbol.

- Lugh's [Solar Magic: Bás Balor] is named after the leader of the Formorians and his epithet, "Evil Eye." The word "Bás" means death in Gaelic, alluding to the titular Formorian's fate at the hands of Lugh the god.

- Dagda's true name, Malacoda, is one of the thirteen Malabranche that try to screw Virgil and Dante out of their intended paths during Dante's Inferno. The other members of the Ten Tyrants follow the similar naming pattern.

- Archangel Mikhael's [Flare Magic: Sunbreak] is basically Pokémon's Sunny Day move, that's also named after Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak.

- The Green Knight's true form is based off the Forest Folk from the Etrian Odyssey franchise.

- The revealed name of the forest that the characters that they're in, The Forest of Denial, taken from the lyrics of this arc's namesake song by System of Down (Walk with me, my little child/To the forest of denial), and its effects of basically fucking with everyone's brains is a reference to a Korean Webnovel, The Second Coming of Gluttony written by Ro Yu-jin, where in the webnovel (later adapted to webcomic), the Forest of Denial is a forest placed with a curse that causes whoever that wanders in there to start "denying" certain existences (preferably, strong emotions), with effects ranging from turning people into fearless fools (if denying fear or despair) or turn them suicidal (if denying their own existences).