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"What the hell was that?!" Helena cried as she ran through the forest towards the sound of the frightening explosion.

"Hang on, are you sure we should run in the direction of the explosion?!" Roland yelped as he ran after her.

"Roko might be there!"

"...Are you sure we need to go there?"

Helena scrambled onto the clearing where clouds of smoke rose up from the middle of a destroyed structure.

"I can't believe that exploded."

"Well, that was a lot of powder." Recognizing the voice, Helena turned towards the edge of the explosion where she spotted Roko standing there with a young girl, "Once we spread enough powder, the dampness of the room was lost which gave the fire enough room to expand absolutely everywhere so-"

"Roko!"

Roko turned around as Helena ran up and hugged him, almost toppling him. Helena took a deep, relieved breath as she pulled back but kept her hands on Roko's shoulder, "We need to get you a phone."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Roko said awkwardly, "I saw someone watching us and had to go chase it."

"Was that this little girl?" Helena turned towards the small child who was watching her with a distrustful glare, "Hello there."

"..." Aida drew her body back ever so slightly, feeling anxious and shy.

"My name is Helena." Helena offered a hand out, "What's yours?"

"...Aida." Aida replied sourly, not shaking Helena's hand and keeping a hand on the dagger at her hip.

"Nice to meet you Aida." Helena grinned as she pat Aida on the head.

Aida snapped at Helena's hand angrily, trying to bite it but Helena quickly withdrew her hand playfully.

"Cute kid." Helena chuckled.

"She's the only remaining member of her tribe." Roko explained, "Don't tease her too much."

"Is that so?" Helena nodded, "What else have you figured out?"

"So there's a fake book with real powers that's somewhere out there in these woods that we have to retrieve?" Helena repeated.

"That's the gist of the current situation, yes." Roko nodded.

"...There are some details that might need expanding on but I guess that can come later." Helena sighed, "For now, we have to try and relay this info to the others."

"Can we get an idea of where everyone is?" Roko asked as Helena pulled her phone out of her pocket, "If we can coordinate together quickly, we can get a head start on this headhunt."

"Well, I don't really have good connection here." Helena said as she looked at her phone.

"Even magical phones have connection issues?" Roko sighed, "Then, what's the point?"

"Well there is one person I can call." Helena said as she pressed a few buttons on her phones, "They were VERY interested in talking to you."

"I don't like the sound of that." Roko gulped as the call began to go through.

Click.

"Hello?" A familiar voice came through the phone.

"Hey, it's Helena. I've got Roko here."

"Can he hear me?"

"Yeah."

"WHAT THE HELL, ROKO?!"

"Hey, Edea." Roko sighed, "It's been a while."

"We see each other everyday." Edea retorted, "Anyway, what the hell are you doing in the Paramnesia Wildwoods?"

"That's Helena's fault."

"Yeah, I'll take the blame for that one." Helena laughed nervously, "Me and Melia just wanted to check them out."

"The Paramnesia Wildwoods have been strictly closed off for a while."

"I don't remember you guys announcing that."

"We...posted a bulletin…" Edea growled, "And cut off access to the Wildwoods for the foreseeable future."

"We noticed. I assume you knew what was going on in the woods then? Why did you reconnect to them only now?"

"...Well, we only knew about the monsters thanks to you coming across that tomb. We destroyed it quickly thinking it hadn't spread that far but that got us on bad terms with the chief of the Valrin tribe."

"That's your dad right?" Roko turned to Aida.

"Yeah." Aida nodded.

"Wait, is there someone there?!" Edea cried, "Who's who's dad?!"

"Never mind that." Roko replied, "I assume negotiations didn't go over well?"

"Well no. Especially when we began to find traces of more of those monsters in the woods. We tried to set up an extermination party to patrol the woods, at least of the parts that we were allowed to visit but the chieftain really didn't like having us around after blowing up a that tomb. We tried really hard to explain the situation but he wouldn't listen. As such, we closed off access to the Wildwoods since it was no longer safe. We never gave up trying to deal with the monster situation but we weren't making progress and before we knew it..."

"The monsters had overrun the entire forest." Roko nodded.

"...There wasn't much we could do. If we could have cooperated with the Valrin tribe we might have been able to contain the invasion but with them in our way, we couldn't do anything. We didn't want to get on their bad side and we didn't want them to get annihilated like this."

"They're not completely gone." Roko said as he patted Aida on the head, "But I have to ask a question."

"What?"

"What were you planning once you knew that the tribe and all indigenous wildlife were gone and only the tentacle monsters remained? Were you planning to wipe the entire forest off the map?"

A chilling silence settled over the conversation. Once that only grew colder the longer it took for Edea to reply. Eventually she spoke up, "We...considered it. We really wished we could have done something before it could have come to this but..."

"Is that why you finally reconnected to the Wildwoods today? After all this time?"

"...Zadkiel was going to send a recon first. To check the situation and rescue any survivors. But before that happened, you all ran in and destroyed a good bit of the forest yourself."

"Momo got a bit overzealous."

"Yeah, I'm not buying that. I need an explanation once you get back. Which you should do now. We're not going to blow up the forest, just come back before anything else happens to you all. Kaguya and the others have been looking for you, I'll call them and-"

"I'm not leaving."

"Goddamn it, Roko." Edea sighed, Roko's response drawing no surprise or ire from the teacher's voice, only tiredness, "Look, what can you do against an entire forest? You've done enough so-"

"There's a book."

Another silence fell, this time on Edea's side.

"A grimoire you mean?" Edea asked, her voice dead serious now.

"Kind of. I had it in my hand for a bit and, I concluded that it was in fact a fake."

"A FAKE?! What does that mean?!"

"I don't know but the monsters were pretty keen on keeping it safe. It's somewhere out there in the woods now. I plan on tracking it down."

"How do you plan on doing that?!"

"The book is damaged. It needs to recover inside a pillar. Ones that appear in the middle of breeding grounds."

"You can't be serious." Edea moaned, "I'm going to tell you right now, we're not going to send you any help at all."

"Why not?"

"Why not? Well for one, there's the nature of these creatures and...no scratch that, you're better off not knowing."

"What does that mean?" Roko frowned.

"Anyway, you remember that boulder you rolled out of the forest?" Edea quickly changed topics, "Yeah, that ended up in the middle of a local road. And some of those monsters didn't die and attacked some civilians. We were quick enough to respond to prevent any casualties and we think we got all of the ones that escaped that way but we're making doubly sure. We're checking a wide area around the road and setting up a perimeter just in case more of those bastards decide to come slinking out. You want to deal with the book and the forest and the monsters, you're going to have to do it yourself."

"That's fine." Roko replied, "I'm going to have to ask for some supplies and for somebody to come and pick up Helena-"

"I'm staying here too." Helena quickly added.

"By force if necessary." Roko sighed.

"You're going to need a lot of force." Helena teased.

"How long are you planning to spend in those woods?" Edea scoffed, "Your friends are already there so there is no point in excluding the only people we could possibly send to help you."

"..."

"Come on, you know you can't do it alone." Helena pressed.

"...Alright." Roko sighed, "Then, can you set up some way for our phones to communicate with each other within this forest?"

"Well, I can try but without the proper set up, it won't be all too reliable."

"What, do you need to set up a cellphone tower?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"...Well, our first step is going to have to be to ascertain everyone's location and find the nearest target for each of them to-"

"Just come back to the edge of the forest." Edea interrupted, "I already told everyone to reconvene there."

"..."

"I can hear your grumbling." Edea called, "Look, you need to explain the situation to everyone else as well don't you? Besides, you need supplies and Kaguya has been busy preparing them here in the school. We're not going to force you to come back so just do a strategical retreat already, you blind tactician."

"I am none of those things." Roko growled, "Fine, we're heading back. Aida, you're coming with."

"You want me along?!" Aida cried, "Sounds like you've got everything under control now!"

"Hardly. This is your forest. In order to move through it properly, we need your knowledge."

"My knowledge?" Aida frowned.

"Yeah. You're crucial to this whole operation."

Aida looked away, a bit abashed by the importance Roko was placing on her before quietly following the group.

"Roko!"

Roko arrived at the edge of the forest to be immediately hugged by Momo from out of nowhere.

"We need to get you a phone." Momo said as she let go of Roko.

"Yeah, I've heard." Roko sighed, "Anyway, "Where's everyone else?"

"Well, Kaguya's still preparing supplies and Corissa should be here soon. Ah, Melia's here too, Helena."

"Heya bestie!" Helena high fived her friend.

"I have to say, this is a bit more than I bargained for." Melia said, "Is this what goes on all the time in this school?"

"No but if you hang out with Roko, it is!"

"I resent that remark though I can't deny it's authenticity." Roko sighed, "At any rate, you're free to leave if you want, Melia."

"Nah, this is nothing compared to what I went through in Aporia." Melia shrugged, "Plus someone has to keep Helena in check."

"I've got Roland." Helena said.

"Roland doesn't keep you in check, you keep Roland in check."

"That's true."

"Hey! I don't appreciate that comment even if it's true!" Roland scowled.

The rustling of leaves alerted the group to the appearance of Corissa who walked out of the greenery with a collection of herbs and plants in her arms.

"Ah. Roko!" Corissa smiled when she saw everyone together, "I'm glad to see you're unharmed. But if you keep running off like that, we're going to need to get you a phone."

"I get it already." Roko sighed again, "We can deal with that later. I assume those are medical plants?"

"Oh. Yeah. Luckily the monsters don't seem interested in flora so I could grab a few extra supplies. They probably aren't as good as actual medicine but they should do in a pinch."

"Well, that's helpful." Kaguya said as she rode up to them on her horse, "There was only so much supplies to go around."

Mikado helped Kaguya down from her horse.

"First of all." Kaguya reached into one of the bags hanging from her mount, "Here."

"What's this?" Roko asked as Kaguya placed some sort of device in his hands.

"A phone. I feel like you need this."

"And it comes full circle." Roko sighed, "Fine."

"Ooo! Add me on Lane!" Helena cried as she pulled out her phone.

"I already added all our numbers to it." Kaguya smiled, "What's more, it has an app to allow us to communicate in the Wildwoods. We'll have to download it on our phones as well."

"How?"

"Here." Kaguya pressed a few buttons on her own phone, "I'll send it to you."

"Wow. Technology, these days am I right?" Melia said as every girl pulled out their phones to begin downloading.

"Now there's this." Kaguya unstrapped a backpack from the side of her horse, "I have three bags full of supplies. About as much as I could scrounge up on such short notice."

"That's pretty damn good, all things considered." Helena blinked, "Good job, class president."

"I recommend we go in groups of two." Kaguya nodded, "Well...counting a princess and her knight as one group. That means each pair of princess and knight pairs up with another."

"That's much less searchers than I expected." Roko noted.

"It's for the sake of safety." Kaguya explained, "If you think we can handle it alone, we can spread out."

"...Safety first." Roko sighed, "If we manage to move carefully and optimally, we might be able to resolve this quickly but we shouldn't get complacent."

"I'm glad we agree." Kaguya smiled, "Then, what should the pairs be?"

"I can handle the girls." Roland said as he began to stretch an arm around Corissa's shoulder, "Just leave them to me."

"Yes, yes." Helena sighed as she grabbed Roland's arm before he could pull Corissa close to him, twisting his arm back around behind him, "We all know how reliable you can be."

"Anybody got any ideas?" Momo asked the group but the group all turned their eyes to Roko.

Roko sighed and rubbed his eyes before answering, "Okay so out of this entire group, we have two outliers. Momo doesn't have a knight and thus is actually acts solo and Kaguya and Mikado who don't have any magic they can use."

"That's true." Kaguya nodded, "Then are you suggesting we team up with Momo?"

"The important thing is that we are able to destroy pillars." Roko explained, "The easiest way to do so is with magic. Momo's magic is strong enough to do that and should prove helpful in that regard."

"So we're covering each other's weaknesses." Momo nodded, "Alright then."

"Helena, Melia is new to this so I'm counting on you to keep her safe."

"You hear that bestie?" Helena grinned as she leaned on Melia's shoulder, "We get to go on an adventure together."

"Well, it's been a while since we last did that together." Melia smiled, "And Roswell, I'm counting on you for when Roland is slacking off."

"You and me both." Helena added.

"I'll do my best." Roswell laughed softly as Roland continue to struggle to get his arm free.

"Then that leaves..." Corissa said.

"You're with me." Roko said, "I assume that's okay?"

"Y-Yes!" Corissa yelped, "I-I'd be happy to- I mean, I'd be honored to accompany you."

"Oh?" Helena raised an eyebrow, "Don't go flirting while we're gone."

"What kind of person do you think I am?" Roko sighed as Kaguya handed him a backpack, "I'm not Roland."

"And I'm glad I'm not you." Roland snarled as Helena finally let go of his arm.

"For what it's worth, with Varis being the strongest out of all of us, I'm confident he can keep more noncombatants safe. What's more, having Corissa around to treat wounds is especially important since I'm bringing Aida along."

"Aida?" Kaguya blinked, "Who's that?"

"Oh, right. Aida?" Roko turned around to introduce the young girl but she had disappeared, "Aida?"

"Did she run away?" Momo asked.

"She was here with us when we arrived." Helena said, "Is she hiding maybe?"

"Aida, come out now." Roko called.

No response.

"Aida, if you come out, I'll give you some chocolate." Roko called.

"What are you, a child kidnapper?" Roland smirked.

"I'll let you kick Roland in the shins."

"Hey, these are MY shins you're offering! I'm the one who gets to decide who gets to kick them! Offer up your own!"

"If she wants to kick me, then she can." Roko sighed, "Just so long as she comes out."

"Is this girl really that important?" Kaguya asked.

"Not important, crucial. If we can't get her help, we won't be able to get anywhere."

"You think you can get her to cooperate?" Helena asked, "People of the Varin tribe are pretty insular aren't they?"

"She helped me so far. I just need her help for a little while longer."

A small sound of shuffling dirt came from around a tree and slowly, Aida came out of hiding...wearing a wooden mask.

"Did you get that from a coffin?" Roko frowned.

Aida nodded.

"You do know that was left on top of a rotting corpse for years right?"

Aida didn't reply.

"Do you know what maggots are?"

Aida looked away defiantly.

"Roko, is that how you talk to a child?" Kaguya chuckled, placing a gentle hand on Roko's shoulder.

Roko sighed and dug around his backpack for a bar of chocolate. He approached the girl and knelt down, offering the sweet candy to the young girl.

"Here. You ever had chocolate?"

Aida stared at the candy before quietly taking it into her hands. She continued to remain silent as she stood there, unwilling to remove her mask.

"You can't eat it with your mask on you know." Roko said, "You survived out here for three months against an innumerable tide of monsters. What's a few more people compared to that?"

Aida stood there for a moment longer...before she unwrapped the bar of chocolate...placed one hand on her mask...and pulled it aside to reveal her face.

"Daaawwwww!" All the princesses with the exception of Helena began to immediately began crowd around her, "She's so cute! How old are you? Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

Aida stood shock still as the girls poked and prodded her and ruffled her hair, slowly beginning to nibble on her bar of chocolate while trying to ignore all the attention she was getting.

"Your ace in the hole is a kid?" Roland scoffed, "Kinda sad isn't it?"

"She's more competent than you are." Roko replied.

"Yeah right." Roland smirked, "I've got two named swords now."

"You named one of those yourself." Helena said.

"W-What's wrong with that?!" It's better than this guy who has no titles!"

"Actually, people have been calling him the Nameless Sword."

"Who has?!" Roland and Roko cried.

"Alright ladies, give the young girl some space!" Helena clapped her hands to get their attention, "We need to get back to business!"

The girls stepped away from Aida whose appearance has been thoroughly tousled though she continued to slowly eat her bar of chocolate with hints of tears leaking out from the corners of her eyes.

"Seriously, you want to use this kid?" Roland rolled his eyes, "She can barely handle other people. I'm really starting to question your abilities here."

"Alright Aida, you got your chocolate, time to move on." Roko stated, "Come kick Roland in the shins."

"That was still on the table?!"

Aida flew over and landed a heavy kick on Roland's shin.

"Augh, my shins! Goddammit! This is why I hate kids!"