The sun had set long ago, and the forest was now lit only by the light of distant stars.
Valen and Calistis stumbled into Talen's previous camp after stumbling in the dark for far too long.
They couldn't notice the corpse, camp, or fireplace with their restricted vision.
All they saw was a large enough clearing to rest, and so rest they did.
Both candidates quickly fell into slumber's alluring call, giving their exhausted bodies the break they had been yearning for.
They slept like logs until the sun rose, illuminating Roku with its golden light.
Its golden light shot through the thick forest, landing on Calistis's face.
Slowly raising her hand, Calistis shielded her face from the ray of light.
With her adjusted eyes, Calistis placed her hand on the warm surface of the leaf, using it to push herself up.
Sitting up, she froze.
In front of her, a couple of steps away, was a small camp.
There was a fire pit with a sitting log, a pile of wood scraps by the side, skewers in front of the fire, and not far from the fire, a makeshift leaf tent.
Next to the leaf tent lay lifelessly the second most astonishing part of the scenery: the Red Scorpion's corpse.
Swallowing, Calistis stood up, her pupils narrowing on the dead, most paralyzing part.
Atop the monster's head was a killing blow identical to the Tempest.
"Found you." Calistis whispered, her heartbeat growing more rapid.
Picking up her knight sword, she began walking to the slumbering giant.
"Wake up." She ordered, poking Valen with her sword's hilt.
He didn't flinch.
Glaring at the sleeping giant, Calistis sighed.
Clenching her fist, she crouched next to him and delivered a firm punch.
Calistis's punch met Valen's jaw square, jolting him awake.
Clenching his throbbing jaw, he sat up, scouting around for his assaulter. He quietly grabbed his weapon.
He saw Calistis, crouched in front of him, with a clenched fist.
Jaw still in hand, he muttered, confused. "Calistis, did you punch me?"
Looking at his confused expression with a subtle, satisfied smile, she began walking to the mysterious camp.
Valen watched as she walked away, confused. 'Why would she hit me though.' He thought, standing up.
Releasing his jaw, he asked. "When are we hun-." However, before he could complete his sentence, his lips froze.
As his eyes landed on the corpse, his stomach growled in anticipation.
To Valen, the corpse or camp weren't clues to any mystery. To him, the corpse was food, and as for the camp, he was too focused on his meal to care.
Running to the camp with an eager smile, Valen thought. 'Finally found food.'
Arriving at the camp, Valen paused next to Calistis, his smile turning into muffled giggles.
Picking up his muffled giggles, Calistis sighed. "What is so humorous?" She asked, her tone flat.
Hearing her question, Valen couldn't suppress it anymore; he exploded into laughter—a long, heartfelt laughter.
Growing impatient with the laughter, she walked into the camp, heading for the scorpion's corpse.
Calming his laughter, Valen followed.
Pausing her stride before the Red Scorpion, Calistis began walking around, examining it.
Occasionally,she would place her hand on the scorpion's red chitin.
Her pupils darted about, dilating in and out of focus, collecting all possible data from the corpse and its surroundings.
After half an hour of inspection, Calistis jumped onto the scorpion to study the killing blow.
After another half an hour on the scorpion's corpse, she jumped down.
Now on solid ground, Calistis sighed.
The corpse provided her with plenty of raw data on who killed it and their mold, but not who it fits. 'Its complication grows.' She thought, looking around for Valen when suddenly she smelled meat grilling.
Turning her head, she saw the previously cold fire ignited; around it were rows of scorpion meat on skewers grilling.
Valen sat on the log in front of the fire, his eyes drooling.
Calistis sighed, walking to him. 'This fool. Even exercising patience seems to be beyond him.'
Standing next to him, she cleared her throat.
Eyes locked on his grilling, he said. "Oh, hey Calistis, find anything interesting?" His tone was a betrayal to his words.
Clicking her tongue, Calistis sat next to Valen. She was very much frustrated with his lack of patience; however, similar to Valen, she was hungry. Very much so.
Both of them sat waiting eagerly in silence.
After ten more minutes, the meat was ready. Immediately, Valen grabbed over half the skewers and began devouring them like a starved animal.
Calistis stood up. Cautiously, she grabbed the remaining skewers; sitting back down, she began eating.
The meat was tasteless; however, it was juicy. 'Edible.' Calistis thought, as she put down her first skewer.
"You still eating." Valen asked.
Raising her head, Calistis froze.
In the time it took her to eat a single skewer, he had eaten, or rather devoured, multiple.
She replied. "I eat my food." She paused. "You do not." She said, going back to her second skewer.
Hearing her reply, Valen's shoulders sunk. 'I was just hungry, that's all.' He thought.
Even though he was beginning to adapt to Calistis's attitude, her jabs still somehow hurt. 'Still.'
Clenching his fist, Valen asked with a smile. "So, what did you find?"
Swallowing, Calistis glanced at him. "All this." Looking around she continued. "Gives your earlier suggestions some merit." She paused, taking another bite.
Her words travelled through the air, tickling Valen's ears and ego.
He smiled, his chin and shoulders rose high. "Is that so." He said, his words delivered in a slow, syrupy drawl.
Noticing his smug demeanor, Calistis smirked. "Giving it some merit does not make it a fact."
Taking another look around the camp, she continued. "This camp gives my suggestion more merit than yours." She smiled, looking at Valen's smug face crumble.
As Valen heard Calistis's reply, his smile shrank, and his shoulders and chin deflated. He sighed in defeat.
"What did you find?" He asked, his tone flat.
Swallowing, Calistis listed. "Both Tempest and Behemoth had identical deathblows." She glanced at the pile of wood scraps. "Here is the source of the wooden spears." Pausing to take another bite, she continued. "The same candidate."
With newfound knowledge, Valen glanced around the camp. "This really was your camp, hero." He whispered, his eyes beaming with reverence.
As his eyes landed on Calistis, he wondered. 'How does she know this much.'
With all of Calistis's suspiciously excellent analysis and a relatively small sample pool, Valen attempted to do his own analysis.
'Seven candidates.' He thought, placing his chin in his hands. 'Lillian has a mind Zone, Henry and Kestis both have body Zones....'
Slowly turning his head towards Calistis, a light bulb lit up.
Jumping to his feet, mouth agape, Valen pointed at Calistis, screaming. "It's you!" Stumbling back, he mumbled. "Y-you're the Hero."
Calistis kept her eyes on Valen, her expression blank. "Why?" She asked, taking another bite.
Valen looked at Calistis, shocked by her nonchalant reply.
He sat back down, his breathing heavy. "It all makes sense now." He muttered.
Calistis sighed, not from frustration but exhaustion. "Why?" She asked again.
Inhaling a deep breath, Valen began explaining. "Well, there are only seven candidates, and we already know the Zone type of four." He paused, his eyes locked on Calistis. "I know my Zone type, but not yours."
Calistis listened to his blabber patiently as she ate. However, as she heard him talk about each of the other four candidates and their Zone types, she froze mid-chew.
His rant had unexpectedly cleared a thick fog in her mind.
Raising to her feet, she ran to the Red Scorpion's corpse.
Valen paused mid-sentence as he watched Calistis sprint to the monster's corpse. He stood up, running after her. "Wait, I'm not done yet."
Arriving in front of the scorpion, Valen saw Calistis kneeled on it, her hands grazing the hole in its chitin. "You can stop now; I know it's you." Valen spoke, his smug tone reappearing.
However, Calistis didn't answer him; she just raised her head.
Her pupils and iris merged together in an intense shade of blue, her whites black.
Her gaze was a rock, a rock that shattered all of Valen's confidence. 'If it's not her or me, then.' His eyes ignited with the same light again.
Up on the scorpion's corpse, Calistis kneeled, her eyes locked on the hole in its head. There was something about it she was only noticing now: the cut.
'Most swords are single-edged, making one side of the cuts cleaner. The cuts on the spider and scorpion are clean cut on both sides.' She raised her head up. "Double-edged sword." She whispered, remembering the first candidate out of the plane, Talen. "A jian. Double-edged." She whispered, standing up. "It is Talen." she spoke aloud, her tail slumping on the scorpion's corpse.
The dual enhancer; he was the same candidate that kept an eye on her unlike the others, her only standout, the one with the same dead eyes as her father, the one without a last name.
Swallowing, she glanced at Valen.
His mouth hung wide open; it seemed he had made the same discovery.
Taking in a deep breath, a faint smile graced her lips.
...
Far from Calistis and Valen, in front of a mountain, Kestis stood.
A bloody sword curled around his arm, blood dripping from it.
Glancing at the distant nest in the mountain, he muttered. "Almost there." Raising his hand, he wiped the blood off his face.
Kicking the dead Chaos Monster at his feet, he turned around, walking into the forest.
After a while walking, he thought. 'Just a simple act is enough to fool them.'
Imagining the four candidates being devoured by the Bird of Plague, Kestis chuckled lightly.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Kestis heard rustling in the trees followed by quiet growls, from all angles and sides.