Note: Multiple perspectives will be installed from now on, hence the barriers between text. Also, gone for two days. Not that I have much of an audience yet, but not a good look in my opinion. I spent a decent bit time going back over the future chapters and reevaluating Olivia's current powerset and those to return to her, by virtue of exposure to combat, and new ones to be created, but I have it all figured out now. As a result of the two-day pause, this will be a longer chapter.

Chapter 5: The Cursed Forest

It was bone-chilling.

In his entire life, Weatherall had never encountered such an anomalous situation.

What should have been a manageable reconnaissance mission to figure out what happened on the night of the twelfth of February had now been pushed several notches higher on the danger scale.

Half a day ago, they were arming themselves with the proper equipment necessary for this somewhat daunting endeavor; packing luggage, edibles, and spare tools in case emergencies occurred. Upon finalizing their preparations, they set out with an air of solemn duty and simmering confidence, using this as an opportunity to show their town that they had what it took to achieve their goals. Riding on the hides of their horses, and Weatherall's mighty stallion, they moved valiantly through the forestland, covering mile after mile, wading through dense trees and riding alongside deep ravines they could have fallen into if their horses committed to one faulty step.

Time dialed back to when Weatherall led his men around a mass of wreckage, evident of a battle between beasts. Trees were torn from their roots and snapped in twine. Claw marks gouged into bark and dirt, spilling the innards across the grassland and intermixing with dried blood that he easily perceived.

Similar scenes played out the closer they got to their destination, and from afar, they saw the crest of the mountain range they were looking for. The canopy guarding them from being seen by aerial creatures that passed by in a mass of green blurs as they sped on, galloping over overgrown roots and nearly trampling over smaller animals that accidentally got in the way during their foraging. However, upon getting within a certain range of their destination, something inexplicable happened.

Some time ago, Weatherall and his squad, along with their horses, seemed to fall into an invisible quagmire. Their forward pace slowed down to a snail's crawl, and when they realized this and checked their surroundings and physical forms, they realized they themselves were moving slow. Even their bodily functions were performing in a similarly abnormal manner. All around them, mysterious energy wafted in the air, filling their surroundings with an electrifying charge that stirred trees, bushes, stones, and myriad other aspects of mother nature awake.

Trees moved and their branches bended, snapping apart to create jagged edges capable of piercing and tearing flesh. Spindly fingers grew along the edges of the same branches as the ground at the foot of them broke apart and rose into the air. Underground roots exploded from underground, shooting through the air and piercing straight through one horse's body, plucking it from the group and raising it into the air as the ground collapsed more and more, revealing a field of darkness edged by the silhouette of sharp ridges that rotated like a chainsaw.

"Ah! AAAAAH—-!" One man's cry was swiftly silenced when he, along with his frightfully neighing and flailing horse, were tossed into the maw of the first tree to attack. With one chomp, blood stained the ground as a horse leg was left behind to be wrapped around by tendrils of vinery and pulled into the ground to merge with the dirt. Similar scenes occurred around them. Originally docile organisms were now in motion and wielded the ability to pluck their lives away.

Reflecting on that memory, Weatherall was deeply horrified as he and what remained of his squad—that initially numbered twenty—now dwindled to eight, including him, rushed through the forest to escape the trees that all exploded into motion and overturned the land in hopes of ensnaring them in their spindly grips. Rocks hurtled through the air, smashing into a horse's hind leg and snapping it at the joint, instantly crippling its ability to run as its rider was thrown into the air and into the awaiting arms of a mass of rocks given humanoid-ish form before he was crushed between its stone-like fists. His blood, organ matter, and skeletal structure were obliterated and sent scattering all over the area.

Some of that guard's organ matter flew directly into another guard's gaping mouth, and he instinctively chewed on it before his face rapidly turned green and he hacked it out and puked with a guttural groan and scream.

Weatherall clenched his eyes shut and leaned forward against the rhythmic bobbing movement of his stallion's head and neck, What the hell is going on?! This never happened before!

He tightened his legs around his stallion and clamped his gloves against his ears to mask the haunting sounds of groaning trees as they broke apart and uprooted themselves from the ground in order to snatch them up. He ignored the cries of fear as a boulder nearly took off one of his men's heads, and flinched as the sound of a man's arm being severed rang out along with his petrified scream of agony. Between the cracks in his eyes, he spied an opening in the terrifying path of death ahead of them, and a wave of subtle hope trickled into his heart.

"T-there—!" he coughed into a fist to clear his throat before hastily continuing, "There's an opening in the path ahead of us! CONTINUE FORTH! DON'T LOOK BACK!"

The other seven men were elated and clenched their teeth-one of them fighting through the pain of a missing arm spurting with blood-hanging on longer.

Boom!

Crackle… groan…!

Boom!

Crackle… groan…!

Weatherall and his squad leaned forward as much as possible, ducking under hurtled stones and arrow-like bits of bark that vanished into the lively forest depths. The sound of a beating drum rang out collectively in their heads as they got dizzy and experienced a throbbing headache. At some unknown point in time, a wafting gaseous cloud swept around them, hovering over them like the grim reaper.

However, Weatherall and his men ignored it as they got within twenty meters of the exit of the forest of death.

That distance was closing rapidly.

BOOM!

CRACKLE—!

Woosh!

The line of vegetation marking the end of the forest was both trampled and scattered across the air as Weatherall burst out of the forest with explosive speed along with his other men, sending tumultuous vibrations through the ground that made the docile vegetation in the surroundings tremble. They all released a chorus of furious cries and screams, not even bothering to feel happy for their escape.

"GODDAMNIT!" Weatherall kicked himself over the side of his stallion before flipping into the air and driving his gauntlet fist into the ground, sinking right through the dense soil as if it were as heavy as an anvil. Sweat pooled from behind his ears and the stringy mass of hair on his head, dripping down his trembling nose and chin as he raised himself up and came down upon the earth again with a furious onslaught of punches that left behind dent after dent after dent.

All of his men watched on with sunken expressions.

"WHY?!"

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"

Their captain's furious cracked cries of dismay, indignation, and utter disbelief resonated with them as their hearts swelled with righteous rage.

As if in response to their collective anger, a voice carried along the gust of wind that whistled through the line of trees ahead of them, "Ahahaha… humans. Foolish humans. That was merely the first phase, and you already lost so much!"

Weatherall was on his feet in an instant as chills dug down his spine and left his bodily limbs tingling with weakness, but that was quickly replaced by shock and rage, "WHAT ARE YOU?! FOUL SPIRIT OF DEATH!"

However, no response came aside from that demeaning laughter that faded into silence along with the rustling canopy above them.

Weatherall rapidly calmed his nerves and stood there silently for a few minutes as his heart rate slowed down and the bulging veins subsided. Then, he slowly turned around to face his men. His expression was dead, devoid of any traceable emotion. With eyes reflecting the path of death behind them, looming with the gaze of the grim reaper itself, Weatherall opened his mouth slowly and let out a few words, "Do we have an emergency signal?"

One of his men immediately blinked in realization and kicked himself over his horse before dropping to the ground beside it and lashing out at the satchel installed alongside everything else. His behavior drew everyone's attention including Weatherall's as his eyes gained a tinge of hope.

"We have one! But it might not have enough—SHIT! It's cracked!"

Weatherall's hope died out like a fading ember.

"Does it work?" One of the other guards spoke up, not willing to give up so easily.

"I think it can. It's just whether or not we will be able to attract the attention of the town sentries!" the first guard replied as he began fumbling with a small but thick flare gun with a yawning mouth large enough for someone's tongue to stick into. But that wasn't the signal, it was merely the medium. What was in his other hand was a small red lacrima that should have been shining bright enough to illuminate the field as if they were in a deep cavern but was dimmer than the light that reflected off the flare gun due to the cracks that carved along its exterior, allowing ethernano—valuable ethernano—seep out.

Clack!

The men closer to that edge of the forest flinched upon hearing something collide with the tree next to them, but they breathed a sigh of relief as they saw their captain chucking rocks at every tree in range.

"Load the lacrima into the gun and climb the tallest damn tree…" Weatherall ordered as he chucked several large rocks at the tallest tree ahead of them, aiming for the base of the tree, the middle of its stem, and the arms that slowly jutted out into branches.

"Alright!" the guard finished installing the lacrima before doing as told.

They knew what their captain was doing.

If the guard was ambushed by one of these docile trees because he let his guard down, they were sitting ducks in this forest of death where the atmosphere felt charged with otherworldly energy they couldn't recognize. Though they did send a messenger back a long time ago when signs of abnormality emerged, such as the influx of carnivorous animals edging closer and closer to the periphery of the deep forest rather than the middle area or depths they belonged, they weren't going to be able to rely on reinforcements this time.

None of them were mages, and though they had magic swords, they lacked the physical prowess to match the aggression and threat-level of whatever the hell attacked them and killed off their men back there.

They needed a bonafide mage, one worth their salt.

As a few guards solemnly rushed over to the tallest tree alongside the man wielding the flare gun, Weatherall's mind drifted toward the nature of the forest itself.

This is just… improbable. It makes no sense! Weatherall gritted his teeth and glared with dark eyes into the depths of the forest, the figures of his guards, who were in motion climbing the tree, blurring as his mind dwelled on the mysterious entity that revealed its existence by voicing its mockery of them, none of this is reasonable! It makes no sense. That thunderstorm was no run-off-the-mill type, it did something to this forest, something nasty…

As the guard with the flare gun stabbed two hefty daggers into the tree in order to begin his ascent, Weatherall continued formulating his future plans, if we get out of this alive, we need to find that girl!

Several miles away from the forest that had been forever changed after the advent of the freak thunderstorm, the town of Rosenhagen was far quieter than they were in the day. The moon of the extremely early dawn slowly drifted out of the central position in the starry sky. However, while the activity among civilians was minute, the armed forces remained as active as they were when the sun was in the sky. Guards remained outside, patrolling the cobblestone roads and smaller dirt paths that carved across different sectors of the town.

A trio of guards bypassed the wreckages of shops and homes that weren't repaired after the events of last year and spared them inexplicable gazes. They were walking down a street located not far from the main entrance gate to the town interior, so they frequently caught glimpses of guard squads patrolling the edge of the walls and the top of the walls. The direction in which they were headed was toward the general direction of the main street leading to the gatehouse.

"What do think about Captain Iyere taking that girl all over town?" One guard inquired.

The other two guards furrowed their eyebrows at the same time, gathering their thoughts.

"Eh..." A taller guard scratched his scruffy beard, scrunching his face up as he struggled to think of something, "I suppose it's a good change to our mundane lives, eh? I mean- we have a mage in our city, and even though she's a little girl, we can learn cool things from her."

"Oh, I heard that he took that girl out into the wilderness to test her magic. I hope she has something good to us. We need something like that in our town. In case..." the guard that spoke up after the taller one halted, his eyes drifting higher and higher in the sky.

"Why'd you stop? Goro-!" The first guard's breath caught in his throat when he traced the direction in which his comrade's gaze was aimed, the taller guard among them also noticed what was going on. In the distance, the very far distance, well over yonder, surrounded by the backdrop of blackness that was sparsely filled with stars in that section of the sky, was a red wave of light that was slowly ascending higher and higher, carving its distinct position in the sky.

It wasn't long before a commotion followed after.

"That's an emergency flare! Something's wrong!" That was the realization the guards had as they instantly accelerated, running with full speed toward the main street in order to get a read on what was happening. Down the road, they saw squad after squad rushing down the main street and the cacophony of noise roused the attention of the people in their houses as lights were flickered on, illuminating the windows as people opened them and looked out.

As they finally reached the main street, that spotted a large group of their fellow guards congregating before the yawning opening of the main gatehouse, standing before a few distinct men seated on their own respective stallions. They were Guard Captains, people of great prestige in the military community, but on their faces was no sense of pride, but utmost severity for the nonverbal information they gained from witnessing that red flash of light rise into the sky.

"Everyone, quiet down! We can't have the entire town waking up, can we?" The guard captain closer to the crowd of junior guards spoke up sternly, and though his voice couldn't hold a candle to the overabundant collection of voices that pitched every now and then, the augmentation of his status and presence allowed his words to slice through the vocal noise, causing everyone to quiet down and fall into a lull of whispers and grunts.

"Now," the same guard captain continued, "There is no time to inform the town mayor of what happened, but we were all prepared for anything to occur. First thing's first; five squads of fifty men will set out. Sometime after that, another batch will follow if we fail to fire a flare within two hours. We know not what Captain Weatherall and his men faced, and they very well could be in dire straits, if not dead."

"Then why are we wasting time here?!" A guard among the crowd spoke up in great frustration, and quite a few personnel among them spoke up in favor of what he said.

But the guard captain leading the conversation simply stared harshly at him, "Our little friend and Captain Iyere are still missing. We need a battalion of men to head out for Weatherall and his men, but we also need a squad to find Captain Iyere and her! We cannot be reckless; we've done this so many times in the past that being hasty is downright foolish!"

"Alas, Captain Yumo is correct as always!" Another guard captain spoke up, "But let us dawdle no longer, fifty men out of the hundred here will set out for Weatherall and his men. One squad is only necessary to find our missing people of interest!"

"Due to regulation and common sense, we will only set out with two captains: me and Captain Yumo. We need twenty-five men each, but that distribution is wholly unimportant. Men round up your horses, we will set out as soon as possible!"

"Commander Voirin, take some men with you and find Captain Iyere. Tell him to bring that girl back to this town! We want to know what magic that girl wields and its potency. If she turns out to be a worthy asset, sic her after us so we can finally get a grasp on what the hell happened that night and what's happening right now! Hurry up, damn it!"

In mere minutes, a man with rugged features and short, spiked black hair set out with a squad of five men including him. Commander Voirin possessed a stern but eager countenance, willing to brave the unknown dangers to find the mysterious girl, "Let's get this over with, men!"

"Yes, Commander!"

The development that occurred was completely different from would have been expected.

It was just a random discovery. On the surface of the mass of ethernano that undulated and churned in the surrounding small plain in which Olivia and Iyere walked across, the girl instinctively craned her head high to peer into the sky. However, her attention wasn't on the sky, it was aimless. Her mind was elsewhere, tugged on by the very familiar essence that dominated her environment like ethernano dominates this new world.

Spiria.

However, much to her consternation, this spiritual essence was unlike the one she grew up with in Elentear. The native spiritual essence in that world was as pure as it could naturally be. Granted, there were some diluted essences, but they originated from second-hand sources like people and animals. Pure spiritual essence came from the world itself, constantly being recycled through some mysterious chain of laws.

The spiritual essence she detected here was by far the most disgusting she ever sensed. It was so cloying and corrupted that it might as well have been dark spiritual essence. Something made to exist contrary to the power she naturally commanded by nature of her birthland. As she flared her nostrils and sniffed into the air her face was already facing, she slowly turned her face toward the east of her and Iyere's location, the exact same direction in which Captain Weatherall and his men encountered their calamity. It was from that direction that she sensed the greatest concentration of this malevolent spiritual essence.

Normally, she may have avoided such occurrences, but she has far too many reasons to act in the opposite manner.

Firstly, it had something to do with her birth world, and, most likely, her.

Secondly, it's another excuse for her to stay out longer and familiarize herself with more of her powers and identity.

Thirdly, well, she'd have to ask Iyere first.

"Sir Iyere," Olivia suddenly spoke up, rousing the man's attention as her earlier actions didn't, "I'm picking up very troubling energy coming from that location," she pointed in the direction of where she sensed its immense concentration. "Is that not where Captain Weatherall and his men went?"

Iyere halted, eyes sharpening, "That is. What do you hazard about this discovery?"

Olivia thought a bit before replying with a tinge of solemnity, "They aren't mages. They can't deal with threats that make even me feel threatened. I believe it would be wise if we head down there to check it out."

Iyere was hesitant, and Olivia simply stood silently with her eyes boring into the side of his skull, as he sank into his thoughts. His eyebrows furrowed continuously, and his jaws clenched. However, after a good minute, he sighed, "It makes sense. After seeing your strength, it makes total sense to sic you on whatever the hell is happening out there. How fast can you get there?"

"You said they were very far away, yes?" Olivia inquired, and his nod made her roll her shoulders, "From what I sensed earlier, I have pretty deep reserves. None of the power I used put any real dent in it. I can do fast-travel for a few minutes. I was most likely trained in it before, but I cannot recall the memories of my life prior to two nights ago."

"Don't let me waste your time, go out there now and solve the problem. Or at least check if that bastard Weatherall and his men are alright! I'll head back to the town and brief the other squads of what's going on. You know, put in a word for you," Iyere waved her off.

"Thank you for finally setting me free after arresting at least twelve hours of my time. Well, bye-bye!" Before Iyere could blink, Olivia's figure was engulfed in multi-colored aura, generating a fierce gale as he stumbled back, feeling a weight on his chest that even a boulder couldn't replicate. For a fourteen-year-old, the girl had a heavy presence, and as he watched her dark violet hair flare up like flames, her milky-white eyes shining brighter than the sun, he felt blinded with awe and dread for what he might have allowed to walk free.

Even though... deep, deep down, he could not have stopped her from doing anything she wanted.

Woosh!

And in an instant, she was gone, flashing into the forest in the blink of an eye.

It was then that Iyere caught sight of a crimson flare rushing into the sky, and he cursed, "An emergency flare?! Well at least that girl is headed over there. She'll be of great assistance!"

Rustle... Zhoom!

In the expansive forest where silence hung ominously over the verdant land, a glowing wave of multi-colored light edged with purple, blue, and gold hues, appeared in the distance. A mere second later, that wave of light shot by in a streak of light, waking up the forest by virtue of shredding wind gales, before vanishing just as quickly as it arrived, allowing the forest to fall back into silence ten seconds later.

Wrapped in blinding light to the point her lithe figure was obscured, Olivia's dark violet hair flailed around her violently as her legs blurred, taking her across a vast distance in mere seconds. It had only been a minute, and she was rapidly closing in on the location of interest. In the midst of her high-speed travel, her mystical senses were running at an even greater pace than her physical body as the negative spiritual essence in the distance drew closer and closer. In the next minute, she would be in the periphery.

However, before she could reach that periphery, she sensed the presence of large creatures looming in the distance. They were moving about slowly, like drones patrolling their areas in case something of interest crossed their detection field. What made her eyes narrow was the potent amount of negative spiritual essence coating their bodies, and she knew they were enemies that she couldn't let continue to exist.

So, she changed her path and diverged.

In an instant, she burst from the bushes and leaped into the air with her fist plowing into the head of the first creature, a lumbering gorilla-looking one, and punching directly through it, scattering its bone, blood, and brain matter all over the place and dousing her in blood as she vanished again, hunting down the other creatures of interest and beginning a killing spree. The sound of angered roars rang out as others noticed her immediate actions, but others were too slow, and terrified wails of pain followed after.

The forest trembled as explosions swept across the land in an attempt to kill the assailant. Some of them wielded magic as well, and the negative spiritual essence only made them more powerful and destructive. However, waves of ice and water carved through the forest, sweeping away fodder and freezing larger threats in record time. A terrifying chill slowly seeped across the forest as things fell silent, particles of coldness drifting in the air and covering various vegetation in sheets of frost.

A minute later, more tremors followed as even mightier explosions were generated, gradually drawing the attention of other organisms within a range of a few miles.

Iyere was rushing through the forest toward the town when he heard the explosions and felt the tremors. He could only hazard a guess as to who was involved.

"What a little powerhouse she is, indeed..."

Elsewhere, the large fifty-man battalion that was rushing through the forest like a stampede gradually detected the sound of booms. They even felt the tremors that followed soon after. They also saw the trees in their surroundings immediately and rapidly changing surroundings shake.

"What's going on?" Captain Yumo thought with narrowed eyes, "Judging from how far out they sound, they could be coming from Weatherall's location."

"Keep your eyes and ears peeled, men! We might have a dangerous situation on our hands-!" However, right as he said that, a large projectile shot through the air in a blur of speed before crashing through the trees ahead of them, immediately smashing them apart as it tumbled across the land and kicked up a storm of debris.

"Holy shit!"

"Slow down, slow down!"

Captain Yumo and the other guard captain grabbed the reins and held their somewhat panicked stallions back, halting their forward motions. All horses were alarmed, but the reactions of their riders did succeed in calming them as the two leaders rode their horses at a much slower pace toward what crashed up ahead. The silent atmosphere was sometimes interrupted by the sound of crackling bark, as if flames were licking about, as a feeling of overbearing tenseness filled the area, making everyone's heart and nerves fire up as the two captains made their way over and saw what it was that caused this ruckus.

Captain Yumo's eyes widened like saucers, forming complete circles as he and his fellow captain took in the sight of easily one of the most dangerous organisms in the nearby lands. The image reflected in their trembling pupils was that of the snot-hued and somewhat rust-scaled head of War Troll. Its human-sized tusks were broken, shattered completely, and drool pooled from its massive lips as its eyes had rolled into the back of its head. When they slowly dragged their gazes toward its severed neck, they saw nothing out of the ordinary except for the signs of something sharp having cleaved through it. Though when they inched closer and closer to the head, they did feel a sharp chill emanating from it as the whiteness of ice eventually gathered below it.

"This is... I-Ice?" The unnamed captain spoke up in bewilderment, "There are... no records of monsters that command ice in these parts. This is strictly a land dominated by temperate weather, mountains, and green forests. It rarely gets too cold."

It was then that Captain Yumo had an epiphany, and he was stunned beyond belief as he slowly looked at his fellow captain who eventually met his gaze with a question in his eyes, "I think that mysterious girl did this. She... she's the only entity out in this forest that commands the power of ice."

"You think a little girl did this? You-" The captain blinked a few times, clearly struggling to believe it.

The other guards got close enough to see what was happening, and they too were stunned. They even heard what was said, and hushed voices spoke up fiercely.

"That girl is responsible for killing a damn War Troll? This is crazy!"

"The captains said it, and it makes complete sense! We cannot judge mages by regular human logic!"

"Holy hell! That thing is deader than dead! Did it even have a chance against her?!"

The unnamed captain swept the battalion with a stern gaze and spoke up, "We continue on. If that girl is responsible for this, then Captain Iyere must be close enough unless she left him behind. Let's go!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Everyone else fell into formation again as they moved on, some guards sparing mortified glances at the War Troll's head before they could no longer see it behind the wall of vegetation and dense trees. For minutes, they road on. Every now and then, they heard rumbles in the distance, and they even caught the sound of the wails of monstrous creatures that would have instilled fear in them. When they drew closer to the source, they experience tumultuous emotional changes as they caught sight of more mutilated monsters and beasts.

"Fuck! That's another War Troll!"

"There's a massive striped snake as well! That thing is huge. But it's also deader than dead!"

They made more and more discoveries as they closed in on the source of the chaos, and when they finally reached a certain point, they suddenly felt bamboozled as a film of mysterious energy engulfed them, causing their movements, their very existence, to slow down. Their motions, breathing, and everything else seemed to fall under a spell that caused time to slow down. They were in slow motion, and they didn't know why.

Is this what Weatherall and his squad experienced?! Captain Yumo thought inwardly with growing dread as they continued moving through the slightly invisible quagmire.

But what they didn't know was that they were still moving way faster than Weatherall and his men. Even the surrounding trees that suddenly woke up and attacked them were strangely absent, reduced to stumps.

Of course, the battalion of guards noticed the strange scenery. Tree after tree along the path ahead were utterly erased from existence. Not a toppled tree, even a branch, were left behind. As far ahead as they can see, all they saw were stumps. Even far away from the path and into the depths that should have existed, there were stumps.

A few minutes earlier...

Weatherall and his men gathered back in the clearing, making sure to keep a good distance from the forest line so no tree would suddenly decide to get possessed by a malevolent spirit to kill them. They watched as the emergency flare climbed higher and higher in the sky, but they knew better than to have hope for being rescued. Even if a massive battalion were to be sent after them, so many men would end up dead. And even if they found them, retaking the same route to return to the town would result in even more death.

"We can only hope they send that girl here and that she has the power to do something!" A random guard spoke up with gritted teeth, his pupils trembling with regret.

"But that's just too damn unrealistic, and you know that. She's barely a teenager, and we don't know how good with magic she is. We don't know jack-shit about how capable mages can get in this backwater land." Another guard spoke up to let the first guard know the facts.

"Then we're helpless here unless those monsters don't function when its daytime. Shit! I really hope this forest is cursed only when its dark. Please, O'Venerable God of Earth!"

"As much as I abhor praying to gods, we might need that..." But the guard that said that still shook his head, not believing in the gods even at a time and circumstance like this.

However, Weatherall, who was staring at the sky, his eyes following the red streak of light in the sky as it illuminated the vast expanse, suddenly blinked as something caught his attention. He frowned and emphasized attention to his ears before twisting his feet to aim his frontside toward the direction that caught his attention. Despite being captain, not every behavior of his drew attention, but as time trickled on; second after second, some guards noticed just how frozen in place he was. Eventually, everyone else caught onto their commanding officer's behavior due to how rigid he looked and the slow twitching of his hands as they drifted toward the handle of his magic sword.

Everyone's heart dropped and they became extremely tense while grabbing their weapons as well.

It was then that they all heard it.

Boom... Boom...

Alongside the sound of faint booms, came the vibrations in the earth that traveled across the clearing and swept up their bodies, sending chills down their spines.

Boom... BOOM...

As the distant sounds of explosions became more potent and drew closer, so did the vibrations. They were now trembling as vibration after vibration reverberated through their bodies, making them feel really uncomfortable. They flinched when they heard the distant sounds of roars and immense activity in the distance. Hell, they even heard the forest ahead of them become active again as the haunting sound of groaning trees and grinding stones entered their ears.

Nobody spoke a word, waiting with a bated breath for what would happen next.

BOOM!

Suddenly, a certain section of the cursed forest far ahead of them blew up as countless tons of trees were scattered across the sky, breaking apart into chunks of wood, bark, stone, and shredded vegetation as white fog rose into the sky. They even heard the sound of rushing waves as the distant darkness, through the trees, held the silhouette of rapid and undulating movement. The forest rumbled as they saw, what was essentially a hill of trees, being unceremoniously displaced. They looked up and saw large projectiles flying toward them and they retreated in a panic.

Boom! Crackle!

The land in front of them was impacted by several large corpses. The ground was uprooted as one particularly large one smashed down, kicking up a plume of dust that caused them to retreat even further.

"W-what the fuck is going on?!"

"This is utter insanity. Insanity! IN-FUCKING-SANITY!"

"Shut up! Everybody, shut the fuck up! Panicking is helping nobody!" Captain Weatherall's nerves were set ablaze after everything that happened so far, and he wasn't the only one. Some of the silent guards had sunken expressions as the held their swords tight in their grips and prepared to fight whatever the hell was causing havoc in the cursed forest.

Rumble... woosh!

Everyone once again braced themselves as a rolling storm of dust and feather-light debris headed toward them, and they heard the haunting groaning of cursed trees moving about in that obscured area as the dust finally halted, simply hanging in the air like a wall of the unknown and mysterious.

While this was happening, the very tree that one guard used as a latter to unleash the flare gun groaned quietly enough for the guards below to not hear as the bark broke apart and shifted away, revealing yawning darkness in which two smoldering orbs of phantasmal greenish-blue light flared to life, "T-that power... Spirit Arts?!"

Tap... tap...

Everyone held their breaths once again as the sound of soft footfalls replaced the rumbling that fell silent moments ago. They long decided to create a wide distance between them and the hanging wall of dust and debris so nothing untoward would occur. Weatherall clenched his jaws and gripped his sword tightly as he caught the sight of flashing multi-colored light flicker off to the side, followed by the illuminated silhouette of a figure.

After seeing more activity, Weatherall's eyes metaphorically shot out of their sockets as the possible source of all the ruckus in the forest made itself, or themself, known to them in the form of a young teenage girl covered in soot, blood, and slight lacerations. Blood dripped down her dark and chaffed hair that stuck to her body like glue, and her once slightly scuffed kimono was now in a state of utter revulsion. However, he could not mistake the luminous glow in the eyes of the girl he saw in that infirmary.

"I-It's YOU?!" Weatherall blurted out while jumping slightly.

Every other guard widened their eyes in disbelief, and some of them recognized the girl.

"It's the mage girl!"

"My goodness. She actually came!"

"Not that, she made it through that cursed forest and caused mayhem!"

Weatherall couldn't bring himself to deny the wild claims of his men, so he slowly stepped toward the girl that remained ominously silent, "W-was the chaos back there a result of your actions?"

Olivia's gaze was placid, apathetic even. But then her lips curled into a smile, "Yes, it was. The land behind me was a cesspool of monsters. Far too many for me to fight without suffering some injuries. Some of those behemoths packed an explosive punch."

Oh god! Weatherall's posture slackened after receiving confirmation from the girl, and he was utterly floored.

"She's a beast!"

"Damn right. She saved our sorry asses! Hah..."

"I can sense a large group of people headed our way. I don't doubt that the ruckus I caused drew them over," Olivia commented idly as her gaze drifted from Weatherall's face toward the forest behind her, and her gaze eventually drifted up the very tall tree that stood out ominously. Her gaze sharpened as it reached the top where the mysterious entity was peering through earlier.

"It was very wise of you all not to continue on. That tall tree had the same presence as the ones that killed your men."

Everyone whirled around and looked at the tall tree, and they felt like a blade was pressed against their throats.

"What will you do, Miss Vespertine?" Weatherall inquired after swallowing deeply, his gaze flitting toward Olivia. His heart jumped when he saw her stride by him and toward the tall tree she called out. Everyone watched as she raised her palm skyward and gathered mysterious white energy before waving her hand, unleashing a plume of blindingly bright fire that engulfed the entirety of the tree and rapidly devoured it as she intoned the name of the spell that she casted.

"Moonlight Conflagration..."

"Woah..." some random guard whispered softly, but it was still loud enough for them to here.

However, watching the cursed tree burn to ashes, the ominous and chilling sound of dense wood being splintered and cracked under the tremendous heat, Olivia hesitated. She turned her head to look at Weatherall, "Tell the guards that are headed this way that I'm going to continue. I still have more than enough strength to tear this forest apart."

"Are you sure?!" Weatherall immediately recalled the ominous disembodied voice from before, "There's some mastermind behind all of this. It said this was merely the first phase! It's most certainly going to get even more dangerous. Is what you did before your limit?!"

"No, it isn't my limit. If I have to purge this danger zone of all threats to dig up my magic, then purge it I will!"

Purging an entire danger zone?!

Not even most hired mages would even entertain the notion!

Though the commonly hired mages, who all fall under the venerable S-rate, don't hold a candle to this girl in terms of skill and prowess, so they didn't know whether or not to call her foolish. She did carve a path of death and destruction across the land that even S-rated entities would take seriously.

This girl is comparable to an S-rated mage. Those characters are legendary for their prowess in all the lands. Anyone higher than that would be mythical, Weatherall could no longer express his shock in any other way they simply sighing, feeling overwhelmed by it all.

"Well, let us all wish you luck on your daunting endeavor!" Weatherall shouted, stabbing his sword in the ground and widening his stance before regarding the girl, that was the most valiant person he'd ever met, with respect, "Give this cursed land absolute hell and we will reward you nicely!"

Olivia felt some semblance of surprise swell in her heart as everyone else echoed Weatherall's words, and she didn't know how to feel.

They were complete strangers, so it was weird to receive accolades from them. However, she shook it off in favor of giving them the most radiant grin possible, even though her horrible appearance offset the charm she should have had.

"I will do so; you have my word!" Olivia said with a gleam in her eyes as she turned on her heel and rushed into the forest, gathering her power and vanishing.

Meanwhile, Commander Voirin and his squad have yet to find the people they set out to retrieve.

End of Chapter

Note: Olivia now has the perfect opportunity to use her powers to the fullest extent possible. The danger zone shall be a whet stone to dig up her obscured arsenal of power. However, the mysteries brought about by the freak storm were far more ominous than she imagined.

Also, I changed the terminology for the leader of the town. He is now called "Mayor," not City Lord, for the Town of Rosenhagen is not a city.