Ep.11 - The Darkness Cast Over the Elf Forest
***
There was a reason the women couldn't come to Delin's rescue. Beyond their infighting and the nature of the elf forest itself, they had encountered yet another obstacle.
"...What the?"
In the forest of the elves, even the most seasoned adventurers and the most mana-attuned mages and witches easily lost their way.
They felt a strange sense of dissonance. Helen was the first to feel it, followed by Chichi, then Riko, then Neva, then Eva. (Kaede wasn't using any divine power, so she didn't notice.)
"Doesn't this place have a rather different feel to it?"
Helen said, stroking a massive tree that had grown nearby. Thick and towering, it breathed quietly, its surface thick with moss and even mushrooms.
The women gazed at the tree, which stood unshaken by the wind, their expressions filled with puzzlement. It seemed almost to be resisting the wind.
"I have a terrible feeling about this. We must hurry and save Delin...!"
Neva shouted, leaning against the thick trunk as if venting her anger. Her mind was filled with all manner of indignities Delin must be suffering.
The women all knew the ways of the elves well: their culture, and all the unsavory rumors about them too.
"Hoo, those elf bastards..."
There was no danger of Delin being captured and killed. Thanks to his ability, even if he died, he would return to their sides again.
And yet, the reason all of them were searching for him with such desperate urgency was because every humiliation Delin suffered at the hands of the elves would remain with him.
Who could stand by and watch the one they loved be tormented?
"Neva, do not worry yourself sick. I, Kaede, am also concerned for our husband's safety, but in a situation like this..."
"I know. In a situation like this, we need solutions, not just worry. Hoo... I apologize."
At Kaede's reminder, Neva clenched her divine power and steeled herself once more. Of course, Kaede hadn't been planning to offer some textbook advice — she'd been about to pull out some wild strawberries she'd secretly stashed away and suggest they all eat something tasty. But since things seemed to have worked out anyway, she stuffed the strawberries into her own mouth and played dumb.
"Chichi-ssi, is it still too much?"
Desperate for a solution, Neva was anxiously hoping for Chichi's miraculous ability to decipher the mana of the elf forest. Chichi had said she'd analyze the forest's flow and had been meditating for a solid two hours — the cold sweat pouring down her face made her effort utterly pitiful.
"J-just wait a little longer! This isn't exactly easy, you know...!"
Of everyone in the party, Chichi was the most well-versed in mana, so her help was absolutely essential to make it through the elf forest. The blue mana that had spread all around her and the green-tinged mana drawn out by it were gradually intermingling, forming a steady current. If this continued just a little longer, she'd be able to understand the elf forest.
"Philmark, what about the search?"
"There's nothing, so shut the hell up. If there were something, I'd have said so, you dumbass."
"Fine. Understood. Eva, you hold your sister's hand tight and walk."
"I-I am!"
Until now, they had been walking relying on Riko's detection. It was better to follow the faint traces left by Delin and the elves than wander the forest aimlessly. Of course, even those traces were fading under the forest's mana, making them hard to sense — but Riko stubbornly pushed forward, relying on her senses as best she could.
"Ha, fuck... this isn't working. I don't know what kind of bullshit this is, but from here on, there's nothing."
"Nothing? What do you mean?"
"No sign of those elf bitches, not even a trace of a single rat crawling around. This is seriously some shit..."
Riko scratched at the ground furiously, venting her frustration. Unlike the lush green forest growing around them, the woods themselves seemed to swallow everything, hiding all traces. The path a squirrel had crossed, the weeds a wild boar had rooted through — all of it vanished rapidly. The forest embraced all things, yet strained desperately to clutch them tight.
"How the hell do they live in a place like this? Goddamn elves, I swear..."
The countless creatures adapted to the elves' forest no doubt survived by wielding their own special abilities.
But those who came from outside suffered hardship no matter how powerful they were.
The elves did not welcome outsiders.
And likewise, their forest did not welcome outsiders either...
"Aaaagh!"
At that moment, Chichi's scream rang out. At her sharp cry, everyone turned to look at her.
"Hah... I-it's nothing! Don't mind me!"
Her face, twisted in pain, began to tremble with strain. And then, the green-hued mana that had been following Chichi's blue mana in resonance began to gradually grow fainter...
"What the...?"
"Chichi, are you alright?!"
In an instant, mana she had never seen before began gathering around her. It shimmered like smoke, an ashen gray. Helen looked at it and murmured.
"Ashen gray..."
Chichi, her eyes squeezed shut, shouted as if trying to soothe them all.
"I said I'm fine! I'm fine, so...!"
But the beads of sweat forming on her brow, the blood trickling bit by bit past her lips—
and her head beginning to sway dizzily back and forth told everyone otherwise.
Something was going wrong.
They had to hurry to save Delin.
But something was blocking their path.
"Chichi-ssi, would it be alright if I assisted a little?"
At some point, Helen had mounted the broom behind Chichi and whispered.
Her hands, still carrying the scent of cigar smoke, rested upon Chichi's faintly trembling hands,
and a gentle, serene light wrapped around both of their hands in response.
"I never asked for help, you know...!"
"No need for thanks. Comrades ought to willingly bear such things for one another."
All that ashen gray mana, which had been shimmering like cigarette smoke, began to fade little by little.
Like a fragile, lingering thread of emotion that helplessly faded, it was washed from Chichi's mana and gradually receded...
"Hah, hah..."
"Chichi-ssi is a vital member of our party, so you must not come to harm. Please, I hope you will generously overlook my meddling."
Chichi, finally restored to calm, cracked one eye open and glanced at Helen seated behind her. The ashen gray mana she'd just seen was puzzling, but so was the help Helen had provided to fend it off.
"If you handle mana that well, why didn't you say something sooner?!"
"I am wholly unlearned in mana. Having spent my entire life going against the grain of all things, my interest lies only in sins that flow as twisted and crooked as myself."
Helen simply continued to assist Chichi with a gentle smile. Chichi's weary spirit was gradually being replenished by Helen's divine power.
The relationship between mana and divine power had yet to be properly clarified, but Chichi decided that divine power wasn't all that bad, let out a snort, and attempted to refocus on the mana.
"That's enough. It's done, so get off now..."
"I've already dismounted. Please don't worry."
"...Hah, honestly... unbelievable..."
...Because of that insolent bitch who never listened and did whatever she pleased, Chichi found herself disliking divine power just a little bit again.
Anyway, Chichi once again handled the mana with utmost care and made it her own.
Astonishing skill befitting a great witch.
That a woman neither born nor raised in the elf forest could understand and adapt to it could only be called a miracle.
"It's almost done. Now we just need to go find him, right...?"
But before she could announce the miracle to everyone,
all eyes simultaneously snapped to a single spot.
It was the ground. Unremarkable, ordinary ground — but for some reason, a small fern-like thing was sprouting there.
Suddenly alive, it began to grow larger for reasons unknown. It grew until it reached the women's knees, then grew until it met Eva's eye level, then grew past Kaede's perked ears, and finally grew until it reached Chichi's head where she floated on her broom...
"..."
From beyond the thickened stalk, a being abruptly materialized. Once it had appeared, the fern-like curled thing lost all moisture and vitality and began to wither, and soon a passing breeze reduced it to dust and carried it away.
"Eva, behind me."
The women each swallowed once, then stared intently at the robed figure, their hands resting on their respective weapons.
It clearly had a human form, but none of them could see its face.
The darkness draped within the robe swallowed all light, so their eyes perceived nothing. Only a robe, a long gaunt staff clutched in its grip, and a deeply sunken darkness remained.
"..."
It uttered not a single word. Only its robe shifted slightly, as if surveying all the women.
Then, the face portion of the robe paused briefly on Helen, moved on, then paused again on Chichi...
"..."
And then it vanished. It left behind no trace, fading away quietly like morning mist lifting at dawn.
"G-g-g-gh-gh-ghost..."
Unlike Kaede, who made a huge fuss with her tail trembling wildly, Chichi's eyes quietly gazed at the spot where the vanished being had stood, etching its lingering presence into memory.
Alongside the ashen gray mana, she looked at something of a violet hue—so faint, so tenuous that no one else could perceive it—and Chichi spoke.
"It's not a ghost — but we've gotten tangled in something far more annoying than a ghost. And if you start a whole commotion again going on about ghosts and whatnot, you're really going to get it, you hear me!"
The mana it had left behind was speaking, saying that they all needed to die here.
"Everyone, sharpen your wits."
Everyone's vision darkened.
Darkness fell upon the forest that had been so blue and lush.
"Because we have... to fight...?"
Within the darkness, stars began to rise one by one.
Those stars were beautiful yet sorrowful, captivating Chichi's eyes and making all the other women gaze at them intently as well.
"If we die here, we can only come back... after Delin dies and returns... so everyone..."
In a space where sorrow hung heavy from the stars and the Milky Way despite the boundless darkness, a woman with an expressionless face walked out. Her face was beautiful but hollow—and within that hollowness, loneliness and sorrow could ironically be felt.
"I'm sorry, but all of you must die. I can't allow you to head toward the World Tree."
Her words were not long.
She packed everything she had to say into two sentences, and with a gaunt, skeletal hand gripping her staff, she carefully rose into the air.