Upon confirming all the details from the boy, they began to move. Since they were going into dangerous and uncharted territory, they couldn’t bring the horse drawn carriages with them.
This especially made sense given where they were right now.
The steps of their footwear against the damp earth echoed between the tall green trees. The air here was heavy, thick with the smell of moss, pine and something odd she couldn’t quite place.
The stillness she felt in this place was suffocating. She couldn’t sense the presence of a single animal, not even chirping birds or crawling ants. This entire forest felt like it was abandoned.
With this unease settling deep into her, she wondered how Elias was doing.
The boy agreed he’d only tell them where the location to the drowned chapel is, if they took him with them. Naturally, Duskfall tried to convince him how stupid and dangerous of an idea that was. But he was too stubborn to listen.
At the very least he knew what he was going to be dealing with because before they departed he gave them ominous warnings about monsters lurking in this forest, near the chapel.
That only confirmed that they were going to run into Fallen Souls, one of the three objectives of this job.
Yor didn’t know how she should feel about that. Should she be thrilled she was going to meet actual monsters or should she be scared out of her wits?
That question lingered longer than it should have, because now, the forest seemed to swallow the group whole. They were starting to tread into dangerous territory now, and the moment they crossed its threshold, Duskfall made their move.
Temperance led in front with her hand near the revolver holstered at her hip.
Arthur drifted to the right, his cane tapping lightly at small stones.
Marcille glided to the left with her spear in hand. And finally Agnes taking cover at the rear, her giant hammer resting by her shoulder.
The rest of them folded into the center. It was Elias, who was getting along rather well with the twins, Seth and Silas. Yor herself, and the strange man Tobias, slinking like a viper beside her.
The position they took wasn’t just coincidence, no words needed to be shared either. Their years of brushing against death multiple times must have instilled this type of reaction as an instinct.
The barrier they formed dared the woods themselves to reach and try anything. The air was too tight and the pressure of astris they subtly emitted told her everything. Knowing that gave her a false sense of safety.
But still, that false sense wasn’t enough to keep her comfortable.
Standing so close to Tobias made her skin crawl. His very presence unsettled her more than the looming trees or the unseen monsters waiting to pounce on them.
Simply because, the man was just so damn creepy!
She only began to feel this way about him after that…incident.
The memory of getting shot by a needle in that carriage replayed itself vividly in her mind. What mostly irked her about it was that it was as if she had been reduced to a specimen for his experiments.
Just recalling it made Yor shudder.
It made it all the more harder to take in the landscape of this forest. To distract herself with how the currents of life threaded between the trees, how the air seemed layered with faint veils of energy, like silk draped over the world.
But every time Tobias closed to her side, all of that just vanished and thoughts began to swirl in her mind.
‘Focus, Yor. We are in enemy territory now. Don’t lose yourself here!’
Ahead of her Elias was laughing with Silas and Seth. The twins teased him in a lot of ways which would be considered rude, such as trying to snatch his satchel or nudge him into almost falling to the ground, but he didn’t seem to mind.
He must have not had many friends because he was enjoying himself way too much here.
She almost wished they would steal Tobias away and play with him as well. Take him far enough that his shadow wasn’t brushing against hers.
But she sighed at her wishful thinking.
Well other than the forest itself, there were other things Yor could focus on, like her sparring session with Arthur.
‘Yes…think of that’
Yor’s steps slowed as her mind wandered back to the hours before.
At the start of their session, Arthur had been the perfect image of a gentleman on the dueling ground. Not only did he out class her in every way, he also taught her a thing or two about swordsmanship.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
After rounds of countless losses, something strange happened. Yor had received a heads up from Sawatari, telling her that a threshold had been reached. What threshold?!
A minute after hearing that, her body moved in ways it hadn’t before. Her parries and strikes befitted someone who had wielded the swords for decades, but it was only the first time for her.
Each movement Arthur had taught her just hours prior became second nature, as though her bones had remembered for her. There was a word too…an interesting word.
“Intoxication…”
She muttered under her breath, low enough that nobody heard her. Intoxication was the name the Manifestation called it. If it was some sort of Spirit Art, then it would only make sense because it gave her the skills to clash with and overwhelm an experienced swordmaster to the point he had to use his Sealed Technique.
Yor wanted an explanation from Sawatari, but then felt the sudden change in the atmosphere. The timid warmth of dusk had bled away and was now replaced with the still chill of the forest night.
‘There’s that sinking feeling’
Even knowing the kind of protection she had, Yor couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. She had considered using the Spirit Art [Field Vision] to gain a better view of the entire forest but immediately protested against the idea.
The last time she tried to use it, a flooding tide of sensation overwhelmed her to the point of almost losing her mind. Trying it here didn’t seem like a good idea either, who knows what kind of horrors might invade her mind.
Yet, the dread she felt was still there. They walked on for a little longer before the group came to a sudden halt.
Yor understood immediately why.
Something was sprawled across the earth, just a little further from them. At first glance it had the shape of a man, but her astris induced sight told her otherwise.
What she saw…it was not human.
“Everyone stop! Don’t take another step!”
Elias’s shout immediately grounded everyone, freezing them in their tracks.
However, even without the boy’s warning, Duskfall seemed as though they were already going to stop either way. He just pointed out the danger verbally rather than with physical reaction.
Another thing is that they must have noticed the horror sprawled up on the ground, just a few meters from them.
It laid there like a discarded corpse, and when it rose, its frame creaked with the sickly shudder of a puppet strung up by broken wires. By the looks of it, the creature had also noticed their presence.
At first glance, its body resembled that of a man, or what had once been one. It had a gaunt and skeletal frame, flesh stretched too thin over brittle bone. Its ribs jutted against pale skin, patches of muscle torn as if clawed off by a predator.
Its arms were hideously elongated with curved blades of keratin in both ends. It had hollow sockets for eyes, its jaw slacked and its back was hunched.
That’s how everyone else saw it, but Yor saw it differently.
Through her astris vision, its body was a storm of jagged threads, each strand of corruption leaking like boiling tar. At its chest was something that stuttered like a dying heart, threatening to collapse at any moment.
Its arms smeared the air with trails of pressure, giving the impression that every twitch seemed faster, sharper and more violent than her eyes alone could register.
The whole creature felt…wrong.
Like something that shouldn’t exist and yet here it stood before her. The hollow echo of a man wrapped around a void that pulled everything inward.
‘This is a…Fallen Soul?’
Yor held her breath. For the first time, she felt her legs tremble of their own accord. She forced herself to clench her trembling hands, breathe slowly and steel herself.
Compared to the fear she felt against Daigo, this was a lot worse. This was a monster.
And it just stood there. Making no sudden movements. Just as they did as well.
“That’s it. That’s the thing I told you about…”
Elias whispered, drawing everyone’s attention to him. But nobody took their eyes off the creature. He swallowed and continued.
“A few weeks ago, I tried to visit the chapel…my great grandfather’s chapel. I’d heard the rumors of course. Monsters in the forest and people vanishing. But I just thought those were just more attempts to defile his legacy. I had to see for myself.”
He shuddered.
“I thought it wasn’t real at first. But when I tried to step closer, it…it came at me. Quicker than I could blink. If I hadn’t tripped on a stone and landed out of its reach…I’d be dead. When I ran, it didn’t chase me”
A hush fell on the group as Elias concluded.
In response, Temperance exhaled and lowered her hand to pull out her revolver from its holster.
“He’s not lying. Fallen Souls don’t always behave like beasts. Their patterns are odd even for most Chaos Creatures. It’s troublesome. On your guard everyone.”
She slightly turned her head to Arthur, her eyes still focused on the creature.
“Your judgement? What danger class could it be?”
Arthur twirled his cane once and revealed the blade hiding underneath.
“High Hazard, perhaps low Nightmare as well. Enough to gut a squad of ordinary Magisters, without question”
Agnes chuckled as she swung her hammer down from her shoulder, resting it against the earth with a dull thud.
“First step into the woods and we’re already facing a Nightmare? Just our luck”
She moved forward through the group until she stood at Arthur’s side, who had also moved a bit to the front, a few paces away from Temperance.
Then slung the hammer over her shoulder and held it with both hands.
“Best we earn our supper, then”
Temperance pinched the bridge of her nose before sighing.
“So be it. Art, Aggie, you two take point. Draw its attention and find the crack in its armor. I’ll cover you”
Arthur tipped his hat in a mock bow and Agnes rolled her neck. Both of them seemed to have their own ways of confirming they understood their orders.
With that settled, she swept her gaze over the rest and said.
“Marcy, Toby, you’re on guard duty. Keep the others alive. And the rest of you, stay back and stay alive. If this thing is half as clever as it looks, it’ll punish any mistakes. Clear?”
“Understood”
No one protested. Everyone moved into their assigned places. Arthur and Agnes formed the offensive line with Temperance just a few paces behind them. Marcille spun her spear once in her hands as she and Tobias moved to form a defensive line for the…kids basically.
The line was drawn and positions were taken. And yet, the creature made no movements. It just stood there and watched them finish as if no matter what they did, the end result was going to be the same. With them falling to its blades.
For a drawn out moment, they stood there sizing each other up. Until Temperance broke the standoff.
“Not going to make a move, will you? Then let me do the honors”
She lifted the Webley revolver and fired two shots in rapid succession. Both shells whistled past the Fallen Soul’s head from each side, missing it by an inch.
Despite missing, Temperance didn’t flinch, the same went for the creature. She waited for a few seconds before following it up with a third shot, aimed straight for its skull. This shot forced a reaction.
The shell screeched off bone metal and spun aimlessly into the forest floor. The creature dropped its arm again, returning to its deathly waiting stance.
Temperance lowered the revolver as she said.
“That confirms it. It won’t make a move against objects entering its field unless they mean it harm. The same doesn’t apply to living creatures as it seems. Now the question is, what’s the limit of its reach?”
She loosened her stance and pointed her arm at it.
“Go, test it!”
