Golden light washed over the trees. A gentle glow transformed the forest into a tranquil haven, a world apart from the menacing shadows of the mist.
Yet beneath the forest's radiant glow, a tight dread seized the wanderers' hearts. Akwan's sudden vanishing gnawed at their minds. The unanswered mystery left them cold and raw with fear.
But as they gazed across the endless sweep of Pladtioa, framed by ancient trunks, the sheer majesty of the view washed their worries away, if only for a heartbeat.
Never had they dreamed of such a landscape. Twisting terrain unfurled from Dreamtoe to the Fields of Purity. Trees perched atop mossy arches. Spiral mountains coiled like sleeping dragons.
Only when they peered over Dreamtoe's cliff did the wanderers truly feel the dizzying heights. Pladtioa seemed less a mountain now, and more a vast continent adrift in the sky.
Aletha let out a gleeful yelp, her legs dangling fearlessly over the vertiginous drop below.
"Wow! The scenery is beautiful! I feel like I am in a different world!"
Asahi chuckled softly, turning to enjoy the glistening sun. He had never expected their world to become so beautiful; after all the horrors they'd faced on arrival, this comfort felt almost surreal.
Asahi reached over and gently pulled Aletha a safe distance from the edge. Aletha hissed, then crossed her arms and turned away from him, expressing her frustration.
"Hey, I wanted to enjoy the scenery some more!"
Asahi shook his head and pulled her away from the cliff's edge. He let out a heavy pant. Tilting his head, he noticed Drimi happily chuckling and shaking her head at their antics.
"You two never know how to agree with each other, do you? Aletha's quite the whiner despite the way she looks, and Asahi... is the complete opposite. How old are you two?"
The wanderers fell silent and tried to step away from Drimi, each reluctant to answer her. Sensing their resistance, Drimi grabbed them by the necks and repeated her question.
"I won't ask you two again. How old are you?"
Despite Drimi's honeyed tone, Asahi and Aletha hesitated to reveal their age, unsure about their longevity. After the silence, as Asahi prepared to answer, Drimi pulled them back into the forest.
. . .
"You can't endure the mists in the forests. I've eavesdropped on your conversation with Belial the whole time."
The wanderers recoiled in shock and struggled to process Drimi's words. Evidently, Drimi had stalked them all along, ignoring any chance to help. As the mist consumed the forest, Drimi pushed them forward and tossed two dark masks their way. Her voice was stern.
"Don't ruin it! Or else both of you will be sorry."
Asahi and Aletha strapped the masks over their mouths and noses. They sensed a tingling aura beneath the unique fabric. It felt as if it extracted the mists' toxins.
Venturing deeper into the forest, where the realms of the living and the dead seemed to entwine, they watched the moon rise, luminous and bold. Stars pirouetted across the heavens, scattering their silver light over the world of Gincad.
Twilight brushed the sky with drifting clouds. Flocks of birds soared through gaps in the treetops. The wanderers stood transfixed, utterly lost in the wild beauty before them.
It's almost enough to say that Night in Gincad was just another form of day.
As they heard their feet shuffle through the grass and fallen leaves, a jolt of panic gripped them. Aletha cried out, her fingers digging painfully into Asahi's wrist.
"Drimi is gone! Where is she?"
Asahi faintly muttered as he swiftly turned his head left and right.
"She was just behind us a moment ago…"
They searched every shadowy corner of the fog-laden forest. They found only endless logs, trees, and wild emptiness. Howls and spectral screams echoed through the gloom. The wanderers huddled in terror within a ring of ancient stones.
The memory of their last journey into the mist clung to them like a shadow, making the idea of venturing out again almost unthinkable.
"Asahi… I can't breathe under this mask."
"Just keep it on, sis. I don't want you to get engulfed in the mist. Remember, this stuff is toxic. We don't have immunity like we used to."
As Aletha began to calm down, Asahi, almost inaudible, whispered to himself.
"I thought this quest was going to be simple. It turned out to be the most difficult adventure imaginable. I hope the villagers weren't lying to us. Otherwise, I would burn the houses; after all, they ARE pathetic humans."
The sullen and ominous silence continued, broken only by the quiet whistling of the breeze. A silhouette appeared behind the dense fog. Asahi hopped up and grabbed a branch like it was a sword. He then asked Aletha:
"Sis, try to summon your blade! My storage won't open in here."
Aletha nodded her head and reached for her hip.
"On it!"
The luminance shone on her hip. Asahi hastily turned from one area to the next. He saw two glowing purple eyes over the silhouette, encircling him at supersonic speeds. Even the winds swirled in a cyclone shape filled with the hue of dark purple.
"Where is this even coming from? Drimi, come over here!"
Asahi lifted his branch over the silhouette of a woman, waiting for it to dash toward him. A voice sounded out from the enshrouding mist.
"You know close to nothing."
Immediately, two legs hastily pop out from the thick fog and kick against his chest. He flew into the air and crashed into the ground.
"Asahi?!"
Aletha swiftly pulled her blade from her hip and dashed toward the dark silhouette. As she closed in, two streaks of light scratched her leg, violently punching her into the soil. Asahi slowly lifted his head from the dirt. He witnessed a dark, feminine silhouette jabbing at Aletha with full force.
"Aletha!"
He pushed himself off the ground and dashed to the silhouette. Asahi was instantly thrown into the air, then pounded through a tree and knocked it over. Aletha's gray eyes widened. She crawled to her sword and tried to jab the shadow with force. The attack missed. The feminine silhouette clenched her fingers around Aletha's neck and strangled her. She heard an aggressive voice relentlessly whispering to her.
"You are too weak." She said. "Where is your blood?"
Instead of crimson, Dust spilled from Aletha's wounds. It scattered into the air like tiny flickers of light, almost as if her essence were sand. Asahi panted heavily, his skin covered in luminescent liquid. He jolted headfirst into the shadow and pushed her through the dirt.
"Why are you attacking us? Get... away!"
The woman didn't respond. Instead, she ripped Asahi's mask off his mouth. With his vision blurred, he could only make out that she had long hair and was wearing a mask as well. The woman then forced a powerful punch through his face and kicked him to the ground.
"Are you just going to stand there and whine? Or are you going to do something about it? If you couldn't do it the easy way, I'm doing it the hard way."
"What are you even talking about?! I don't even know who you are--
His face then got pummeled into the ground and covered in dirt.
"Don't act stupid! You know who I am. If you're just going to cower in fear in the face of danger, how are you supposed to survive in this world?"
Asahi wiped the Dust from his eyes, and his vision cleared. He saw dark purple eyes piercing through his soul. A dark mask covered her pale face, and dark hair rested on her back. He couldn't believe it. The one who beat them up…
….was Drimi herself.
Without effort, Drimi tossed Asahi forty meters through the forest. She turned to Aletha.
"Oh, are you going to challenge me? Haha, that's pathetic. NOW FIGHT ME! Use whatever you have and beat me senselessly! If you want this scarf, you have to get through me! I don't care. In this world, you shall show no mercy to monsters. Now hit me! HIT ME WITH ALL YOU HAVE!"
Aletha gritted her teeth and pierced her eyes through Drimi's dark lavender eyes. She knew exactly why Drimi was doing this, but couldn't comprehend it in her current state. Her face, covered in blood that wasn't her own, glared at Drimi.
"Survive?! Fine! If you want to do this to my brother and me, I will--
No warning, Aletha swung her fist toward Drimi's face with all the strength she had. Blood spilled out from Drimi's mouth in one mighty punch and scattered and stained onto Aletha's white hair. Asahi's eyes widened.
"Sis?! What are you doing?!"
Aletha hadn't answered.
She continued to punch Drimi, tears streaming from her eyes. Instead of a frown, a small smile shone on Drimi's face. It looked as if she were proud, even though her face was covered in blood.
"Die! Die! Die!..."
As Aletha screamed out the same word while punching Drimi toward unconsciousness, she was suddenly tossed into the air and slid on the ground. Asahi leaped up and squinted at Drimi. He charged at full force and kicked her in a decisive move. Drimi blocked the kick and broke his arm with a chop of her hand.
"AHHHH"
Aletha shook her head in disbelief at seeing her brother in this state. She grabbed her blade and sprinted toward Drimi with her face smothered in Dust—a vivid representation of her blood. Drimi chuckled and tossed Aletha's sword into the air with an invisible force.
While wiping the crimson liquid off her face, she slowly approached Aletha and slid her finger over the dust that was spilling. She scoffed in amazement while Asahi tried his best to get up.
"Dust? Hmmm, so you two are not humans, but rather, Rulers? Well, that makes my life… e-easier. Knowing that you will recover in a few hours."
Aletha coughed and trembled in fear.
"H-Huh? I c...ca...can… recover?"
As Asahi approached Drimi from behind, a green canister of soil was tossed into the sky, and the force knocked him into the air, dragging him to the ground.
Drimi slowly rubbed her own head and lifted herself up as if the punches did nothing to her. She wiped Aletha's Dust off her body, then heard a quiet, silvery voice sound from the mist.
"You are okay."
Aletha couldn't recognize the feminine voice, while Drimi's eyes widened in complete utter shock, knowing who this voice belonged to. As she pulled Aletha up, the silhouette dashed toward Asahi's position only to notice that he had vanished.
"Where did my brother go?"
Drimi shook her head and slowly recovered Aletha's wounds with her dark soil canister. As the mist slowly lifted from where they stood, Drimi bent down to the ground and commented, seeing a faint trail stretching towards the fog.
"Asahi..." She said, "He has been kidnapped."
"H-Huh?"
"I hope he knew that I did this for training. Hopefully, you did too, Aletha."
Aletha crossed her arms and fumed, understanding Drimi. Though Drimi stopped, Aletha was furious about the lack of warning from Belial. It's as if the absence of caution was on purpose. As Drimi slowly strapped her dark mask over her mouth, she whispered to Aletha.
"Be-Be even said to be merciless towards you two so that you can hopefully combat the monsters in this world without dying. Maybe I went too harsh?"
Aletha mumbled.
"Yeah. MAYBE you did. How am I supposed to forgive you after what you did? You nearly pushed me to the edge—I almost wanted to kill you."
Drimi chuckles and shakes her head.
"That's not the issue now. I know who that voice belonged to. If we can follow these trails, maybe we can find your brother and her?"
Monstrous growls sounded from behind them. Drimi hastily pulled Aletha away from the circle of stones and dashed through the stream.
"We have to get there... now. Asahi could be in trouble."
"Wait, Drimi, you're just going to forget what just happened?!