…
….
The forest was reducing as they neared closer to their destination.
The chattering was not.
"Y… How do you even get that ridiculous control? Your arm strength should be massive, and that's not even thinking about how you're imposing a limit to your distance!"
"I'm just… better than you, girl."
"I've known you for a week at the maximum! This is literally the longest we ever talked-"
"We're nearly there, so can you both please reduce the noise?" Déa asked.
Complete silence followed his simple request, so they turned around to see who got tackled.
His companions were stoically looking at him, and the forest in short bursts of head movements.
…
"Today is going to be the base measuring and an approximate sounding," Déa began. "Which means you two need to watch the perimeter to prevent me from becoming mauled."
"Yes, sir."
…
Branwen quietly moved ahead to stand aside Déa, and whispered to him.
"Are you positive she can manage to do this? She's supposed to be a trained hunter, and she didn't even kill a single one."
Déa tilted their head to the left in acknowledgment.
…
…
The trio left the waning forest ground into a large and rather flat area of snow covered ground. A bright light shimmered in front of them, mirroring the sun.
Déa's hand slipped on the grip of their cane, scraping a small furrow into the snow.
They walked with confidence to the edge of the light, and rummaged in their clothes for a few seconds.
"Aha." they shouted. "I have it." before removing a round stone attached long, bumpy string.
With a whistling sound, the stone whirled around the cartographer's hand and a short "hup!" launched the stone towards the centre of the lake.
…
…
…
Branwen watched the sight before nudging his current assigned partner.
"Ready to go o-" he whispered.
"Wait. I need you two to help with something." Déa called out to them.
They looked at each other with some shared confusion before walking forwards.
…
In a short time, they were all standing by the lake, and Déa handed Branwen a disk with a set of small rings on each cardinal point.
…
…
…
"What is this?" he said, rotating it around in his hands.
Déa calmly replied. "It's the other end of the sounding line. I need you to help set it up."
"How do you need help?"
"After I measure the circumference, I have to get you both to help me prepare a rod that's the radius of the lake."
They stared blankly at him.
… "I'd have you two help make a rod that is the same length as the radius of the lake."
"That… isn't feasible, sir." Lucille said.
"In this case, it is, Lucille. That's the wondrous thing about this lake."
"That it's… an equidistant lake?"
"This lake appears to be a perfect five pointed star shape, yes! It's incredible!"
…
…
Silent pondering between the companions followed these words.
….
That's quite an interesting thing to know, Déa. Branwen thought.
"Are you going to suggest that such a shape is man made and not natural?" he asked.
Déa turned and stepped away from the lake edge. "Branwen, since our small village is the closest place nearby, I can't say with certainty, but all reasonable conclusions give the impression that this is a natural occurrence."
…
Branwen listened, and held out his hand as he thought of an alternative. "Could I suggest that it's actually some kind of Atlesian military operation?"
"That could be it. If this is practically a nowhere location where nobody can interfere-" Lucille added.
"Wouldn't we be notified if that if it happened?" Déa countered.
Branwen realised his ploy was failing, and he began to prepare himself for the rest of the day's work-
"Well, if they had the precedent to do it before, they could have just done it again. It could have been created by some military bomb testing."
… He wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this situation. The conversation was going on for longer… but not in the way he wanted-
"Lucille. You're saying that this actually could have been manmade?" Déa asked.
Lucille held her face with a hand and frowned.
…
…
….
What was that wolfman's name? They could just… jump up and break the ground on landing.
… just to maybe 2% of this size though.
Lucy's mind then wandered and thought about one of her more technologically prone companions.
Specifically, the sight of the thin blonde boy easily lifting a gun nearly as large as a battering ram before blasting a courtyard into ruins.
… jerk. I just didn't share my meal, Ezekiel. Why does that warrant a death match?
She frowned and mentally complained about the boy for a moment then returned to the lakeside.
"I know of a couple of people that could do something like this." she explained.
…
"How many, exactly?"
Lucy shook her head. "I can't do that. It's at least two, but one of my teammates was a cloned human, so there could be countless more of him."
…
…
"Ah." Déa said.
"To keep in mind, the cloned guy is the one that fought Alexander and won in… five shots? I still think Ezekiel was bragging about the number of shot-"
"Fought… who?"
She paused at the confusion. "Alexander. The waaaay too militaristic leader? The one who uses a gigantic mechanical battle suit the size of a couple of buildings?"
… Lucy sighed.
"Clone could destroy the town in at least four shots. He could do this."
…
…
…
…
"That sounds absolutely insane-" Branwen began.
"It is, Bran-"
"-but… could you do this?" he asked, before laughing slightly at the thought.
She stared at him.
Lucy thought about the idea, and tried to think about all the things she'd done over her time learning how to fight.
Thunder Rage, the second stage of the first version of the spell.
The spell in question was one used for movement, where the wielder invokes a ring of lightning to damage attackers in front of herself, then is raised over the ground as five bolts stun and launch away whomever touches them.
Using the second stage could allow a mage to create such an impact crater, but it's just a completely hypothetical scenario that would never be used by any self respecting mage.
...
...
...
….
Approximately two weeks ago.
Solitas continent, Remnant.
Roughly a day or less travel to the village of Mantle (Governed by the last Vassal of the King.)
….
GGGGGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA-
A young enchantress was currently trying to preform a spell in midair, while falling to what will likely become her death.
The wind bit and she couldn't hear herself speak without the words getting snatched away into the air.
Her eyes glistened with tears and she gritted her teeth to invoke her spell.
She started moving her left arm inwards to her chest, reaching for something, but the wind began to spin her wildly, blurring everything into a streaming grey blur.
Inching, struggling, straining, she managed to grasp at her goal and winced as bright wings burst from her spiralling back.
It caused a brief moment of change.
But, that was enough.
"THUNDER RAGE THUNDER RAGE-WORK DAMNII!-"
Blue light shined beneath as it embraced her in a gleaming cup.
WAIT. WAIT WAIT WAIT A MOMENT. I'M GOING TO BE THROWN INTO THE GROUND AT WAY TOO MANY MILES AN HOU-
…
She stared down at the rapidly approaching ground and shouted out a solution:
"FROZEN WAVE!"
The whistling very… slowly… stopped as shimmering fragments fell to the earth, and her falling became more graceful.
…
…
…
Phew. That could have been bad.
She looked down at the ground beneath her, and quietly prepared to land amidst the large tower of ice.
… Feet moving to a slant, she crouched and started hoping her landing would be smooth.
It appeared that her plan would succeed… until she heard a familiar crackling beneath her.
…Noooo…
….NOOOO….
The enchantress glanced down for an instant.
"… I didn't cancel the second stage…"
…
The light slowly fell with the girl as she descended through the towering ice, melting, or shattering, when a spark went wayward.
The shattering echoes around the excavation until she couldn't hear herself think.
…
…
In the last moment, she stood surrounded by the walls of ice, and only really had one thing she was able to do:
She regretfully took a breath, and glumly spoke.
"….Thunder Rage."
..
..
….
The present.
Solitas continent, Remnant.
Less than a day's travel to the village of Mantle (Governed by the last Vassal of the King.)
….
Lucy looked up from the ground and stared into the air.
…
"I…"
She hesitated, flinching when she took a breath. "I could have done it," she mumbled.
…
"…not anymore."
Lucy faded a shade as she exhaled and shakily sighed.
…
…
Branwen tugged at his sleeves and looked down at the quiet young woman.
"So, former force of nature," he began, raising an arm towards her in a tired sweep, "-how deep were the lakes you made?"
"Hmmp?"
Déa straightened and turned towards the tallest member of their crew.
"Pard-"
She spat out at his statement. Literally spat in anger at Branwen's calm gesture.
Then, after a moment, she sighed in a dead voice.
"Forget it. I'll just get your sounding whangjanger to the middle of the lake and you can do all your measuring then. Everyone fine with that?" Lucy cried out. She pinched her nose as she exhaled tiredly.
Branwen stared at the outburst, coupled by Déa flinching for a brief moment.
"That would.. be helpful?" Déa said quietly.
She was already walking, grabbing the end of the line and hiding out her staff over the ground.
T-thunkkk, and the staff plunged halfway into the earth. This pinned the line into the dirt a few feet away from the water's edge.
Lucille stretched, yawning a little before taking a full sprint into the water. In that short moment, she was under without giving anyone time to react.
…
…
…
..
.
The two men stared at the inconceivable sight.
..
..
..
..
….
Lucy had started to forget how nice it was to fall into a deep depression of water.
The kind of depression where the blue deepens smoothly into black.
A rhythmic quivering echoed in her ears as the light faded and her body fell deeper.
Deeper.
Deeper.
Deeper.
She sighed, following a small bubble among many as it fell upwards to the air above. Eventually, she felt instead of saw, and a rounded stone hit her back.
Lucy felt around the floor, pulling up particulates and swirling them around in the water. She tugged a line, and tightened her hand around it.
After this, she slipped further into the darkness downward.
…
…
…
…
At one rather interesting point, she felt her neck get touched lightly, and, seeing nothing, visualised herself rotating around while falling deeper down.
…
…
…
…
Lucy stopped moving. Her knees pressed into the floor, and she tried to "stand", or do something like it in any way she could.
… "Huh. I've ma-"
Humph.
Air flew out of her lungs, and she closed rapidly.
…
Lucy hesitated, and, unintentionally re-opened her mouth.
"I—iiiii….."
…Ahem….
A deep sound rumbled in the water. Lucy stilled, and listened.
She felt a twinge of uncertainty.
…
Lucy looked around, ignoring the futility while trying to swung her arms out and feel something, anything.
A gold stream glimmered, shining on her chest.
She tilted her head down to watch the light.
Floating there, quietly.
A small tug pulled at her arm, and she turned around to face it, moving hesitantly in the direction of the feeling.
Lucy slowly breathed out for a mere moment, and the light widened, distorted by a sudden change when large bubbles rose past the ray.
She faltered, but her body still seemed to want to go elsewhere.
..
..
A low murmur bubbled up from the darkness. A deep voice that sounded like an old worn and water damaged statue turned to speak to you.
"Human?"
..
..
..
….
Déa was still.
Branwen was still.
It wasn't the exact same level of stillness, but they were of a similar timbre. Déa breathed out slowly, and stepped up to grasp the string impaled into the ground.
They turned, giving an order. "Branwen, tie your blades to this and launch them as far as you can behind us."
"It's not going to work like that."
"Do it." they demanded. "This is a near death situation, and I am not going to try to explain to you why we do not want that!"
…
"Gods. Hand it over."
Branwen ran forwards and fluidly constructed a bladed mass directed away from the lake. Yanking up the staff that secured it, he grabbed the end of his sharp bundle. Spinning it around him a few times, Branwen launched it like a cannon blast and it flew away from the lake.
Then, the two men began to see a faint ripple emanate from the shining middle of the lake. The rippling distorted with the moving of the wire, and a patch of the water appeared to darken.
Branwen grabbed into the lifeline and began to walk away from the water, the knifes quietly shuffling along, carving away the snow.
Déa appeared to hesitate.
"This… is going to work?"
Branwen scoffed, and tightened his grip. "This is your plan. You're giving up?"
…
"I never had to use my sounding wire as a tool for carrying people-"
"It's not going to break on us." Branwen said.
"How can you be sure th-"
"It's not going to-"
"-BREAK."
With a heave, Branwen yanked back with both hands. A loud scraping sound came behind him, and a small body was flung out of the water, lying in a brown mass on the ground.
It laid there like a large mound of damp weeds.
Branwen dropped the wire and strode towards the mound. He leaned over them and barked out a few of his issues with this recent event.
"WHAT MADNESS DID I JUST SEE? ARE YOU INSANE?"
….
The babble was soothing. Lucy laid there, wondering when someone was going to get physical with the complaints. However, they appeared to just be trying to get everything off their chest about the mission.
…"-absolute miracle you didn't even drown! If you were eaten alive, I'd say you deserved it-"
…"You're not prepared for basic land combat so you took to aquatic? No rational human would even consider-"
…"THE GALL. The pure GALL."
Lucy mentally blinked a few times in comedic blankness. She knew this voice.
Huh. It's Baku. Why're they reprimanding me? We're not even in the same team.
"Hello, Bakumi. What are you doing?" she asked.
… the complaining continued, the rage familiar.
Lucy flapped her arm forwards and felt resistance. She rolled around and-
-igh.-
She winced at the light, blinking tears while looking up at furry grey hair of her no longer amicable senior.
…
…
….
What are you doing? Branwen thought. The girl stared at him like he grew a horn.
"Plains." she abruptly said, and jumped herself up to stand, arms raised up above her sides. "Snowy Plains. First mission."
"Are you oka-"
She turned to stare at him blankly, and he straightened up to run. He felt the silence.
…
…
…
Oppressive, quiet silence.
"You noticed." she said.
Branwen twitched and turned to verbalise it to Déa-
"There's something in the water." they said, pointing towards the water.
He followed the pointing, and saw nothing.
But they heard the water bubbling.
"Run."
"That's a good idea."
"…"
The girl turned around to the water and stood still.
Branwen stared at her. "What. Are. You-"
"I have to fight."
…
Branwen paused for an instant.
…"Oi!"
…
… then grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her along.
….
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Death.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four-
"How are you doing this?!"
"Be still, you idiotic girl!" he shouted.
"Are you trying to leave?"
Branwen increased his pace as the dread failed to lessen. He refused to shake his hands, and went forwards three steps in a bound. "I'm leaving after acquiring all necessary analysis."
He turned to the man running in front of them, already nearing the tree line. "DÉA! We're not coming back here again!"
The brown faded into the trees and a white light glinted. "NO. UNLESS WE GET A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN SAFE-"
Gods, you two are completely unstable.
"We can't leave! You know this!"
Branwen… felt a bit too tired for this behaviour. "No. We're going. You endangered us all by doing that!"
"But the border line!"
Lucy had a momentary lapse of communication as the ground sped towards her face. She rolled a few feet and landed in a pile of undergrowth.
Nonononononono!
Frantically, Lucy spun herself around and thrust out her arm twice before falling into the snow.
Branwen, in an instant, stood a few feet away from her, so she stood up, and stomped over to the man.
"What was that for? We need to be here!" she cried out.
What is WRONG with him? He knows the rules! You don't ever leave the border lines in combat!
…
Branwen slowly approached her, lifting her up be an arm.
"Get over to the forest, or I will force you." he said, crisply.
…
.
…
She tilted to look at the lake. It appeared to be calmer, with a few low ripples.
Lucy didn't want to say it… but…
"It could have a diplomatic solution?"
"What? I'm not thinking there's any-"
"Normally, when something talks, there's a better chance you can communicate. So… the reason nothing's happening… could possibly be a misunderstanding?"
… She had made friends from old antagonists.
…one, really, but still! It could be a situation to do the diplomatic path again?
…
Branwen paused and looked at the water. He still felt it… but she has, begrudgingly… a point. He was heading onto a minute, and he never had this feeling of anticipation for so long.
He gritted his teeth.
"What-"
Branwen froze.
"Talks."
She looked up at him, facing away from the lake. "It did look at me and say 'Hyooomaaan?' when it saw me. That's a proper word. I don't think there's many gold eyed aquatic creatures that talk proper- HEY."
Branwen grabbed her and began charging towards the forest once again.
A loud roaring came from behind him as…
He looked behind for a second.
-aaaand that's absolutely massive and I'll never sleep around water until the end of my days-
Something leapt out of the water.
KRAKUBOOOOO-
Branwen sped up to avoid the water that must be rushing towards them at any moment.
…
…
…
-ptupp.
..
….
Branwen tripped and hastily stood up.
"Ah. What are you creatures?"
Whatever was running along his back had decided that now was a good time to shank him out of his comfort.
The thing stood at the edge of the forest. It was, to use a single word in describing, "hulking".
Branwen, if he had to use multiple words, would call it "a hulking thing that makes me terrified for my safety."
It stayed still, and watched them with bright gold eyes.
"Hmm. I… apologise for that."
...
..
.
"I did not know you creatures were scared of me."
It spoke softly, water dripping into the snow. Then, after a gaping sigh that revealed far too big a mouth for Branwen's liking, it started asking questions in a brisk voice.
"Animal?"
What?
"That earlier reply… is probably a 'no' for all purposes, as we understand each other." it said.
Ahemmmmmmkukkk. It coughed harshly, almost like a croaking rasp.
"Human?"
"What else?" Branwen said indignantly.
"Hmm… quite a lot, in fact. You could be a bipedal creature with more animal-like traits."
Branwen backed away slightly. It spoke with an accent he heard a few times in occasional journeys to port towns in Anima. It sounds like a seaman.
This thing's a Faunus if I'm an Altesian soldier. Nobody gets that big.
"Are you part of a governing society?"
"No." Branwen said-
"Yes, we have a society with rules." Lucille said.
..
..
..
The silent pause was... rather awkward, but the interrogation then continued, ignoring it.
"..." it said nothing audible, before grabbing something obscured by the shade of their bulk. "Are you… believing in gods, deities, or any other beings of power you yourselves cannot possess?"
"No-" he said.
"Yes." someone hissed.
"We have stories about them, but I personally do not really believe." Déa said.
…
…
It paused.
"Do you mind if I ask a question specifically to the creature that said yes?"
…
They took three steps forwards and leaned down to fit under the branches.
…
…
"You can ask me a question." she said.
"Do you like your god?"
"No."
"…hrmmm….."
…
…
"I wonder why? Did it… wrong you in some way?"
…
The insane girl chose to idiotically approach it. "It wronged everyone, and should be held accountable for all his crimes."
The creature squinted. "Y-"
"To every creature." she interrupted. "I will not rest until we end his madness and bring peace."
…
It stilled, and sighed slowly.
"You believe… but you do not like this god?"
..
..
...
… silent tension appeared in her shoulders.
"One of you lot."
…
It then shuffled around an object, before gleamingly locking an eye through the forest.
"Do you have good manners?" It said quietly.
"What?"
"Do you leave doors open?"
She was bewildered. "No. I don't-"
"That's false. You take action without thinking of consequence.."
It slowly walked towards them, the ground shaking slightly as they moved.
A large, mottled head with blue flesh and slightly bulging eyes leered at her.
The lower half of the creature was various shades of browns and black-
…
Branwen paused his analysis. That… is clothes. Specifically, it appeared to be a set of soaked traveling clothes, decorated with a no small amount of metal and trinkets.
He looked up at the thing's head.
… that's a ha-
…
…
"Animal?" he asked.
"… That is insufficient information to describe me, creature." it said, turning eyes to look at him. "I am under the 'what else'."
It straightened up and looked down at him. "My name is Nemo."
…
…
...