Into the Forest

"Melia!" Helena cried as she hugged her friend, "I'm so glad you're here!"

"Calm down Helena." Melia giggled as she hugged her friend back, "I've only just got here."

"So this is our new transfer student." Momo smiled, "It's nice to meet you. Helena was very excited about your arrival."

"I'm even more excited now!" Helena said as she pulled away from Melia, "Heya Roswell! How you doing?"

"Excellent, your majesty." Roswell bowed, "I'm honored you ask."

"Oh, enough of that formal stuff. You know I don't like stuff like that."

"Now Helena, now that we're here we have an image to uphold." Melia said, "We mustn't act improper for our station."

"Maybe you have to." Helena scoffed.

"Hello Roko!" Melia waved as she looked behind Helena at the rest of the group, "Are you friends with all these people too?"

"I know them well enough." Roko shrugged, "Though I don't think you need much introduction to most of them."

"Well, I recognize Lady Momo from the famed Battousai Dynasty. And you must be Lady Corissa."

"Y-Yes!" Corissa yelped nervously, "Hello! It's nice to meet you!"

"Hmmmmmmm..." Melia came over and began to closely examine Corissa's body, particularly her breasts.

"U-Ummm..." Corissa glanced towards Helena anxiously.

"You really are as pretty as they say." Melia noted, "How exactly does one get a body like yours? Are these real?"

"Uuuuuuummmmm..." Corissa's face became red as she became unable to form an answer.

"Down girl." Helena said as she pulled Melia back, "Corissa's a delicate girl. You can't just go staring at her like that."

"Of course, of course." Melia coughed as she straightened herself.

"Also, they're totally real, I checked."

"Wait what?!" Roland cried.

"Oh hello Roland." Melia blinked as Roland finally spoke up, "I didn't notice you there. You look well. Is that a new sword I see?"

"Yep!" Roland puffed out his chest proudly as he drew his new sword and his slightly older new sword, "It's goodbye to useless shields for me! Now I'm going to be at the forefront, cutting my way through enemies!"

"You're supposed to protect me, not kill people." Helena sighed as Roland began posing and waving his swords around.

"Mmhmm." Melia smirked, "Helena, one moment if you will."

"What's up?" Helena whispered as her friend drew her into a private huddle.

"You know what happened to us during your stay home?"

"How could I forget?"

"I just want to say that I'm very thankful for what you've done for me."

"Oh, don't mention it."

"Really, I have to extend my thanks to Roko and Roland as well. They both worked very hard."

"Yep."

"And honestly, I never expected to see Roland be so competent for once."

"I know right? It's really weird."

"I'm very impressed myself. So what do you say we trade knights?"

"No way!" Helena smiled smugly, "Roland's mine!"

"As expected." Melia laughed as she and Helena stood back up, "You're super weird when it comes to Roland, you know. I can't tell if you like him or hate him."

"Who's to say it's not a bit of both?"

"That's a good thing right?"" Roland asked as he watched the girls laugh to themselves, "They're saying good things about me right?

"Is there anything good to say about you?" Roko scoffed.

"Oi, you want to catch these blades?"

"Maybe once you catch some sense."

"We should do something once you've settled in!" Helena cried, "Anything you want to do?"

"Well, I should like to see the campus for myself." Melia smiled smugly, "But I've looked over the brochures dozens of times so I pretty much have the entire building memorized."

"It's a pretty big building though." Momo said as she looked around at the enormous castle around them.

"And I'm sure it's not that interesting to you all since you've been here this entire time. Plus, it's not exactly something that would warrant all of us going together."

"That's true." Helena mused, "Then...we can explore the connected biomes."

"You mean the forest?" Mikado asked.

"It's true that we're connected to the Paramnesia Wildwood right now." Kaguya nodded, "But we haven't taken any classes there recently. I'm not quite sure why."

"Think something's going on?" Momo asked.

"I haven't heard anything about it." Corissa shrugged.

"Well, whenever something's up with it or not, we can find out together!" Helena cried, "Let's go explore the woods together!"

"Well, we don't have much to do right now." Momo smiled, "So I'm in. Could always use more training."

"I'll come along just to make sure nothing troubling happens." Kaguya nodded.

"I-I'll come too!" Corissa cried.

"How about you, Roko?" Helena asked, "Feel like doing some field work?"

"I guess I can come along." Roko sighed, "Shouldn't be that much of a trouble."

In a few minutes, Roko rejoined the now expeditionary group in front of the forest, each of them now marginally more prepared for their excursion. Entering the woods, Roko followed everyone as they talked among themselves. After all he's been through, Roko was fine with being left alone for a while. In the last month, Roko has had more than enough social interaction for one lifetime. Even now, he felt like he could lounge around his room doing nothing for a week just recovering from all the stress he's accumulated from traveling to multiple different lands. But instead, he was here in this forest because an anxiety ate away at his ability to relax. The grimoire he had retrieved with Kaguya had been given to Zadkiel and stored away some place that no one knew about. He was assured that he wouldn't need to worry about it anymore but there was still a feeling. Something inherent that warned him not to become complacent. Something that spurred him onto his feet even as he dragged them across the ground. Whenever it was paranoia or something that constant contact with these malevolent forces had trained or infected him with, Roko had no idea. At this point, his body was moving on instinct rather than willpower.

"Are you okay?"

Roko looked up. Corissa had slowed down to walk next to him as everyone continued traveling through the forest. She seemed to have noticed Roko's exhaustion though she seemed much more happy to see him rather than concerned.

"I'm fine." Roko sighed, "Just tired, I guess."

"You've barely come back from your little tour over the entire world." Corissa giggled, "It feel like it's been forever since we've last seen each other."

"It can't have been that long." Roko replied, "Only about...a month."

"See?"

"Well I was around for a day or two between each trip."

"Would you believe you never met up with me at all every time?"

"That...sounds like me." Roko sighed.

"See? I've missed you." Corissa smiled, "I wanted to talk to you more ever since what happened in Cordis but I guess that's been the least of your adventures now huh?"

"It has been a while but I haven't forgotten what happened there."

"Really?" Corissa said, her face lightly blushing.

"Yeah. Those...Red Wind was it? They were trying to control those flesh creatures. But now I know about the existence of grimoires which allows normal people to control otherworldly elements like those black fluid creatures or even zombies. So what was their plan? Were they just trying to force the creatures to listen to them? Or could they have been researching ways to create a grimoire? Did they know about grimoires? That's not even getting into these books and what they're about. There's so many questions but all the answers are just being kept from me."

Roko scowled as his frustrations came to the surface once more but any genuine ill feelings he had was old enough to be disregarded at this point. Instead, Corissa just stared at him blankly,

"I'm not quite sure I understood all that but it sounds frustrating." Corissa nodded, "Well, after all you've been through, you deserve an actual vacation at this point. How about a hot spring? You want to go to a hot spring?"

"A hot spring?" Roko raised an eyebrow, "My hometown had a public one but I never bothered going by myself."

"Then we should go!" Corissa cried happily, "I'm surprised, Hatsuyuki is supposed to be known for having a few really good hot springs. You didn't go to one while you're there?"

"I didn't see any." Roko nodded, "Though if we're going to Hatsuyuki, Kaguya should be able to easily get us rooms for everyone. That's assuming everyone else wants to go as well."

"Ohh..." Corissa's enthusiasm faltered, "Everyone else too huh?"

"Hm? What's wrong?" Roko asked.

"N-Nothing!" Corissa smiled once more, "Well, let's shelve that idea for when we actually have time for a trip like that. For now, we should focus on what's going on right now."

"Right."

Even without looking around him, Roko could see, practically feel the shadows of a creature, several creatures moving around them. It was attempting to be stealthy or rather, imitating stealth like an animal but the way it moved was clearly unnatural. There wasn't just one of them either, several shadows flitted about around them, noisy and obvious enough that without a single word to each other, their entire group had petered out of conversation and moved to keeping a careful eye around them as they continued to move forward. They were clearly surrounded, the path back innocuously blocked and despite trying to move forward, there seemed to be no end to the creatures around them.

"You thinking what we're thinking?" Helena called back towards Roko.

"The same creatures from the tomb from last time?" Roko nodded, "From the glimpses I've seen, that's most likely the culprit."

"I don't think we're getting out of this." Momo frowned, "Should we make a stand?"

"I don't know. There's enough of them to surround a large group like us but there's also a lot of us. We could force ourselves out but there's also a lot of people to evacuate. And not all of us can fight."

"I'm sure we can get everyone out." Kaguya replied, "We have enough combatants to keep everyone safe. The problem is moving quick enough."

"And having some place to go." Roko added, "There's no point in running if we can't escape to someplace that is actually safe."

"We can always go back." Helena said, "We should be safe if we get back to the school."

"We should, but we've been moving away from the school this whole time. Are we going to be able to make it?"

"We have a better chance of escaping there than if we run further inside the forest."

"..."

"But I guess that's not what you want huh?" Helena smiled.

"I've come across a lot of different foreign entities since our last time here but I haven't come across those tentacled maw things again. If there's any way to get rid of them, they're going to be here."

"Right." Helena nodded, "Exactly what everyone's thinking."

"Then I guess we're all in agreement? Including the new student?"

"I'm not sure what's going on exactly." Melia nodded nervously, "But this is an adventure isn't it? It's a staple of Memoria Auspice's culture. I can't back down now!"

"What the hell do you think this school is?" Roko sighed, "Whatever. We'll bait the creatures into coming out of hiding to ascertain the situation and escape further into the forest if need be."

"Alright. But I think we got this." Helena couldn't hide the anticipating grin on her face, "We've gotten so much stronger since then."

Once they came across a clear enough part of the forest, the group stopped and shuffled around, the non-combatants huddling together in the center as the knights formed a protective wall around them as they drew their weapons. Sensing the shift in their intentions, the creatures began to step out of the shadows. As Roko had guess, it was the small eldritch creatures from before, a giant maw moving about on multiple tentacles. They began to line up around Roko's group, surrounding them completely as they closed in on the group from the ground and even from the tops of the trees. And as the creatures moved into position, everyone could see the seemingly endless mass of them that seemed to stretch across the forest as far as they could see from every side.

"We might not got this." Helena gulped.

"Uhh...what now?" Melia gulped.

"Escape before we get overwhelmed." Roko stated.

"How do you expect to do that now that they're all bunched up?"

"..."

"Roko, Roko!" Momo called to him in an excitedly hushed tone that failed to be any sort of subtle, "Can I do that? You know! THAT!"

"If you want to do it, then you go ahead and do it." Roko scoffed, "You don't need me to tell you to do it."

"No, I need your help to use it!"

"No you don't."

"This isn't the time, Roko!"

"Fine!" Roko scowled, "Use it then."

"But where do I aim it?"

"Further into the woods I guess. If there's a nest to be found, it'll be deeper in the forest."

"Got it! Everybody hold on tight!"

"Wait, what's going o-"

"Amp!" Momo ignored Roland and turned her immense temporary power towards the rear of the group, "Lightning!"

A bolt of lightning larger than a hill blasted outward and vaporized the monsters in its path, along with the surrounding trees and rocks and earth. Everybody was forced to cover their ears as the thunderous force blasted a crater into the earth and a hole in the forest's foliage. As the dust settled, the winds calmed and the ringing in their ears stopped, there was a veritable trench that served as a path through the monsters and then some.

"I think I was a bit too excited." Momo admitted sheepishly as her spells expired.

"What?!" Helena yelled over her deaf ears, "How the hell did you do that?! That's like archmage level magic!"

"How about we run before the monsters regroup first?" Roko called.

"What?!"

Roko sighed and began to run down the path that Momo had created for them. Taking the hint, everyone scrambled to maintain a formation as they escaped through the trench.

While the trench was pretty much free of obstructions in front of them, the tentacled creatures were already swarming after them, filling the scoured earth with their inhuman bodies and monstrous cries. Some had even gathered on the earth above them and begun throwing themselves off at the group, forcing their guards in the center to start fending off the aerial foes as the ranged magic users tried to stem the tide of monsters chasing them directly.

"Are we getting anywhere?!" Helena called, "We can't possibly have that much crater left to run down! I don't think we want to be stuck pulling ourselves back up onto higher ground!"

Roko continued to lead them, running in front of them as fast as he could, far in front of the monsters as well. While he hadn't needed to deal with any monsters, he was also desperately looking for some way of getting them out of their situation. And not far in front of them, Roko spotted a small cliff that hung over the trench they were running down.

"Momo, cliff!"

"Huh?! Oh!" Momo looked up as Roko pointed up at the cliff.

"Helena, can you stall the monsters for a moment?!" Roko said as he stopped running not far past the cliff.

"Huh?! How?!"

Helena stopped with everyone else around the cliff as well, not sure what Roko was talking about. With the monsters not far from overtaking them and no time to further explain, the first one to react was Varis, forming a wall of ice between them and the creatures in a flash.

"Oh, that's what you meant." Helena gulped, "Sorry."

"Momo, now!" Roko shouted.

Momo nodded and aimed a bolt of lightning at the cliff, blasting bits of it apart and dislodging a giant boulder that tumbled down and crushed the ice wall and the monsters underneath, plugging up the trench completely.

"Push!" Roko yelled as he ran up to the giant rock and began trying to push it.

"T-The road's not exactly sloped!" Melia cried.

Despite her reservations, everyone else joined Roko in trying to push the boulder down the trench. With no time to reconsider, Melia joined the others in trying to push the boulder though even with everyone's efforts, it refused to bulge.

"Momo, rally?!"

"The effect wouldn't exactly be strong if its divided across all of us!"

Before Roko could reply, a flash of light occurred underneath them and the boulder began to move, very easily as it tumbled forward and picked up enough speed to run down the trench and run over every monster in its way. Looking down at the ground, Roko could see that the earth had been frozen over with a thick layer of ice.

"Phew." Helena sighed, "Hope that made up for my slow reaction just now."

"No, I didn't think of that yet when I was planning." Roko sighed, "Good thinking."

"No problem!" Helena chuckled, "But man, we somehow managed to kill all of them didn't we?"

"In one fell swoop as well." Kaguya said as she walked over to the repulsive, gross mess of crushed and compressed inhuman corpses, "Though I suppose it might be too much to hope that we killed them all."

"Is that enough of an adventure for one day?" Melia gasped, "We just got here but we were almost overrun. Is this what it's like every time you come into this forest?"

"No, now that I think about it, I haven't been able to see any of the forest's natural fauna." Kaguya noted.

Roko looked around at the forest around them. Momo's amped lightning seemed to have blasted through a rock shelf which created the cliff that they utilized. Evidently, amp was a much more dangerous spell than even Roko imagined. Perhaps there was merit in locking it so that no one person could use it. Though how that could be enforced, Roko didn't know.

Looking around one last time, his eyes quickly caught onto a shadow. A shadow of a small person in the trees, looking at them.

"That's-"

Before Roko could say anything else, the figure suddenly ran off into the forest.

"Wait!" Roko called as he scrambled up the trench and after the shadow.