Gale and Falco got shivers just hearing Night talk like this. For someone as strong as Night to seemingly have a fear of this forest, something truly horrible must have happened to him while he was in it.

  Falco said nervously as he now looked at the forest in fear, “Wh- Why are we even going in there in the first place? I think we should just go right over the top of it, right?”

  Gale tried to muster up some confidence as he said with a noticeable shakiness in his voice, “C’mon Falco don't be a scaredy cat like you always are! We’re strong! We can handle this easily! There's no doubt in my mind!”

  Falco retorted, “I am not a scaredy cat! I'm just trying to keep us safe, that's all. And anyways, how do you know what kind of person I am? We’ve only known each other for a single day!”

  Gale nodded, “Alright, that's fair. I shouldn't judge your character off of a few actions, but still, we need to go into that forest no matter what.”

  Night yelled over the other two, “I don't know who said it was negotiable. We're going in there for your sakes and my own. Anyways, we’re going to nose dive now so hold on tight, make sure to grab Demon and hold her as well.”

  Gale grabbed Demon’s still unconscious body and held her close with one arm while his other hand grabbed onto the feathers tightly. He then clenched his legs tightly against the body of the bird and braced himself.

  Night said reassuringly, “We're going to be landing at the perimeter of the forest so we won’t be plunged right into the fog. Trust me, being engulfed in the fog with no plan of action can be extremely deadly.”

  After Night said that, Zephyrus immediately began to tilt downwards and quickly became almost vertical as she tucked her wings in to dive. They began descending so fast and wind around them started exerting so much pressure, that Gale and Falco’s hands almost let go from the feathers. Luckily, the adrenaline was able to permeate through their bodies fast enough to strengthen their grips momentarily.

  As Zephyrus got close to the ground she quickly extended her wings again to slow down, causing their momentum to suddenly stop. Gale and Falco whipped forward and back quickly, leaving them in a bit of a daze, all while Night was looking completely fine.

  Moments later, Zephyrus landed on the azure grass gracefully and squawked as she lowered her wings to the ground for the passengers to get off. Night patted Zephyrus’s neck a few times before hopping up and casually walking down the wing onto the grass. Gale, still in a daze, just sat there for a bit as he was still holding onto Demon tightly, almost hugging her. Feeling a slight movement in his arms, Gale jolted out of his daze.

  As Demon woke up, she was a bit surprised at her position. Smugly she said to Gale, “Hugging me like this while I’m unconscious? That's a smooth move Gale. Were you worried about me or something?”

  Gale, a little flustered, said, “It's not like that! I wasn’t worried about you, I was just trying to keep you safe!”

  Condescendingly, Demon said, “Wow. I didn’t know you were so chivalrous. Well, thank you for protecting me Gale.”

  Gale looked away, “Sure, whatever.”

  ~~~

  Gale, Demon, and Falco swiftly departed the bird and stood next to Night as he was looking up at the forest in front of them. The forest was way more menacing in person than the descriptions could ever depict. The tall twisting trunks of the purple trees slithered their way up into the sky, even piercing some of the lowest clouds. Not to mention that the trunks of these trees were at least 50 feet wide with roots that creeped outwards almost like the legs of a ginormous spider.

  The thick pink wall of fog stretched from the tips of the grass all the way up the trees and into the sky, spilling slightly into the plains below like pink waterfalls that dissipated into the air before they could reach the ground. Through this process, the bright yellow starlike centipede egg sacks stayed completely motionless as they floated in the ocean of pink, almost as if they were strung in place by some unknown force.

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  Even under his mask, Night looked confused as he looked closely at the formation of trees in front of him, “It’s… Changed. This is definitely the South entrance so why does this look and feel so weird… Zephyrus, what do you think?”

  Zephyrus looked closely at the trees before letting out a high pitched call that none of the party members could hear. This call bounced from tree to tree through the forest before finally coming back to Zephyrus’s ears. She looked perturbed at the response and backed away quickly. She tilted her head as she looked at Night.

  Night nodded, seemingly able to understand what the bird was saying, and mumbled too quietly for anyone else to hear, “I see… It's as I thought. Something must have happened in that forest, something drastic. Normally, I’d expect the revolutionaries to handle something like this, but something is telling me that I have to intervene… It's a gut feeling or something.”

  Interrupting Night’s concentration, Demon said, “I know you're in the middle of some situation right now, but could I have my crystal? I want to attach it to my weapon already and see all the cool as hell new skills that I’m bound to have.”

  Still mumbling to himself and not breaking his train of thought, Night just said, “Ok, here.” As he handed the pulsing blood red crystal to Demon.

  Demon held the crystal in her hands as she looked at it with giddy excitement. She pulled her massive scythe off of her back, and almost like it was a magnet, it pulled the crystal towards it with overwhelming force. The crystal was ripped out of her hands as it quickly implanted itself into the top of the scythe’s handle, momentarily engulfing the weapon in a dark red aura.

  For a second, Demon’s mind seemed to blank, as if it was turned off directly with a switch. When she snapped out of it, the powers of the crystal seemed to be implanted in her mind as if she had always known them.

  Demon was a bit suspicious about the whole process, but in her excitement she took no mind to it as she yelled, “Gale! Falco! Come here! Let me show you my new powers!”

  Gale and Falco quickly gathered around her as she held her scythe out in front of her facing the open plains away from the forest. As she began to pour her energy into the crystal, it shone brightly, brighter than both Gale’s and Falco’s combined. She slashed her scythe horizontally through the air and a dark red wave of blood flew out of her scythe and through the air, dripping onto the ground as it travelled. Eventually the slash lost momentum and turned into a puddle of blood on the ground.

  Falco blurted out, “That's disgusting.”

  Gale retorted, “Shut up Falco. That was really cool, if not a bit grotesque, but still cool!”

  Giddy with excitement, Demon said, “I know right? It's such a cool and edgy skill, I just love it! I'm gonna use my other skill now, I’m sure this one will be even cooler!”

  Demon poured her energy into her scythe again, this time having to put a little more in as she was now going to use a tier two skill. She slammed the tip of the scythe into the ground and held it there as blood poured out of it onto the ground making a circular puddle beneath her feet. Her body began to transform into blood starting from her head. The blood poured down the rest of her body and combined with the puddle on the ground until she was completely gone into the puddle. Moments later she manifested out of the other puddle that was left by her previous slash.

  Demon’s mouth was ajar as she stood there looking at Gale and Falco who were now quite a bit further away. In surprise and excitement she exclaimed, “You're kidding me… There is no way! I can teleport?! Through blood puddles?! That's like… So damn cool!”

  ~~~

  Demon had teleported back to where the group was, still marveling at her newfound powers as she and Gale discussed the many different use cases of her abilities. Falco stood back from the conversation, not because he was left out, but willingly. There was something strange which he noticed as he had been standing there, a quiet voice which he had never heard before was seemingly coming from all around him.

  Falco chimed in, interrupting the conversation, “Do you guys hear that? There's some strange voice, but I can’t pinpoint where it's coming from. Any ideas?”

  Gale paused to listen for a moment before saying, “I don’t hear anything. Are you sure it's not just the wind or something?”

  Falco insisted, “No, I swear I can hear a voice! It's a bit too quiet to understand, but I can tell that it’s saying something. I'm not going crazy am I?”

  Cupping her hands around her ears, Demon said, “I don’t know Falco, I’m trying, but I can’t hear anything either. Maybe go ask Night about it? It might have something to do with the forest, like an effect of the fog or something.”

  Falco agreed to go ask Night. Strangely, as he walked closer to Night and Zephyrus, the voice continued getting louder. Standing behind the two, Falco could hear the voice clear as day. It was not Night’s voice, as it sounded kind of feminine, and it also seemed to be ominously coming from every direction at once.

  Just then, as Falco was about to speak, Zephyrus turned around and faced him just as the voice echoed through his mind, “Boy, you can hear me can’t you? I could tell, as there was another presence in my mind. It’s interesting… I thought only my master had that ability… You must be blessed by nature… One of the elves I’d assume.”