Sergeant Major Eleanor Usaldo
Just Outside The Forest Glade
“Really? You’re using that route?” I amplified my voice using ATLAS to get to whatever way that thing is able to hear.
I think it may have taken offense to that, as it started to shift in a different way.
“You hath no idea the works in play here, leave or I shall remove you.” The forest threatened. Based on how it doesn't seem to know how to address me, I assume this forest has never met someone who can put up a fight, at least not as much as I can.
“Why do we have to resort to that?” I stated plainly, I put away my armor and sword as a show of respect towards the forest, and as a sign that violence does not have to be the answer.
If I can work this out without killing or destroying the physical embodiment of the forest that would be ideal. “If there is something that I can do to pay retribution for the damages then I would gladly do so.” I suggested it as an alternative, hopefully to prevent any deaths. The forest paused at that, perhaps even realizing that I am more than just a simple being. That I can be conversed and bargened with unlike what the ATLAS unit did earlier, just destroying anything and everything to get enough energy to reconstruct me.
“To pay retribution to thee forest thou shalt protect the side of the forest nearest to the side the sun rises on for no more than 105 days and no less than 100 days.”
Oh, I see, it thinks that payment is going to be enough to pay for the damages, and it does make sense, I’m assuming that the remaining few days is to not only pay retributions but to also get back on the forest’s good side.
“Ok, and say I accept this deal, what does the job fully entail?” I need to know the finer print, just like any other deal or contract you need to know all the details before you accept.
“From sunset to sunrise, you shall guard the side of the forest the sun rises on. You shall get naught but your own strength to defend, you shall not garner the assistance of others, and the creatures you face shall mimic your bloodlust three times over. This is the price you shall pay.”
God, its like I just heard someone read some shakespeare. Well, anyway, I think I know what it is referring to.
“Alright, fine, if that is the price I must pay then I shall. I’ll start sunset tonight.” I was trying to mimic the things wording, to show as much respect as I can (to little effect, I'm not exactly well versed in Shakespeare).
The thing nodded, or only what I can refer to as a nod as it doesn’t exactly have a head. It stopped cradling it’s hand before turning around, and promptly falling apart, crumbling down to pieces, forming a new hill.
In the span of about a minute the thing turned from a work of natural art into nothing more than a hill. Before it was all over I heard one last thing being whispered by the air itself,
“Don’t forget, miss one night and thou shall pay.”
That's gotta be one of the weirdest interactions I have ever had, talking with the literal embodiment of a forest and now I have vowed to protect a section of it. Oh well, I should be able to find some kind of a workaround.
Now, I need to find where those two crybabies went, I still have some questions.
…
George Yahjo
Enroute to Yahjo Cabin
Just what the fuck is that thing? It defies all logic, first it basically burns a hole into the forest and then it quenches the forest’s anger by striking a deal with it. Nothing that has happened in the past hour and a half has made any sense. The only thing keeping me from running away in terror from it is because dad has been there to face it head on along with me.
After the whole scheme with the forest, ‘Eleanor’ or whatever the other beasts call her back in its home realm, came back ravenous for more conversation. I swear that thing does nothing but talk, though it does make me think about a story my dad told me. A few years ago, when my dad was putting me to bed he told me a story passed down throughout the generations. One that spoke of strange people and inhabitants appearing seemingly out of nowhere. They were wearing some unnatural white cloaks with some strange apparatus on their heads. They talked about some weird world inhabited entirely by machines and ridden with holes like the surface of some rock. It is said that they disappeared as soon as they came though, one day they just went back through the hole they came out of and never came back. It is said though that some of their machines still live on inside the capitol, some say their machines are used as weapons of war, some say that they collect dust in the castle dungeon. But no one really knows for sure.
That was about 1400 years ago now. If what Eleanor said is true though, about the people that first managed to open the portal, ten they are long dead. Strange, I guess when I was a kid I wished that I had seen them some day, but dad always said that they were described to him in a way that desribed them as incredibly terrifying creatures.
I guess I got what I wished, but now it just leaves me with more questions, always with them it seems.
The walk back to the house took nearly half of the day, and we got there without the ‘Eleanor’ creature. What with the detour we took. The thing wanted to see the spot that the forest had loaned to her to protect, and we came along for some reason. Dad never said exactly why, but I could tell that he was concocting some malicious scheme. He always wanted to have the best for us, and he would exploit anything and everything he could to do so. Even if that means his death, I suppose that would be because of how he felt with his father; or my grandfather I should say.
Anyways, I have gotten off topic. The area that ‘Eleanor’ pointed out was the very boundary of the safe zone of the forest. It was practically crawling with things itching to get into your skin and kill you, things that wanted to force you into becoming a meal for the ecosystem.
While we were over there we did in fact see something that was truly dangerous, besides the small insects and poisonous bugs. We were walking along the boundary when off in the distance I saw a cobalt cross the boundary, it was beginning to become nighttime at this point and I could tell that ‘Eleanor’ was getting to be impatient with something, could not tell you exactly what, but she just looked at the cobalt for not even a second before sending a deadly spike flying into its waiting chest.
The thing had not even a chance to react before I saw its life slipping away in its eyes.
“You two can head back to your house now, I think have a general idea about this area.”
‘Eleanor’ said, my father quickly agreed and after saying our swift goodbyes we walked back in the direction of the house. I didn’t even look back for a split second I did not want to see that creature ever again.
“What do you think we should do about this 'eleanor'?”
Dad asked, and honestly, I have no idea what to think. We have learned so much about this separate realm that this creature came from. Obviously we have met other realms before, but none have been this strange. None have been able to hold even a candle to the power of the Acomore empire, which reminded me.
“Dad, do you remember the Jahlan theorem?” I asked, looking down.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Well it states that when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force, whatever happens, the object that contains the bigger infinity will survive the impact. I didn’t think about this until now, but, the sword you used to swing at the ‘root’ earlier today, what is it made of?”
He gave me a slightly concerned look,
“It’s made of low-grade magisteel. So, applying the Jahlan theorem, then that means that the ‘root’ would be stronger than low-grade magisteel.”
“To which the only thing stronger than low-grade magisteel is?”
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“High-grade magisteel…”He completed my thought.
That material is not made of magisteel, for one, there is no magic that I can sense coming from her at all. Meaning that there is no magic being stored within that material. Whatever it is, its base form would be stronger than magic-reinforced steel. And for two, it does not look like magisteel at all. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that dad wants to stay near this creature, who knows what must lie in its future.
…
Sergeant Major Eleanor Usaldo
Edge Of The Sacred Forest
Well, here I am, in a forest that is alive, fighting foes that are using some form of dark energy to generate projectiles, create fire, create ice, generate matter from thin air, and all manner of inexplicable phenomena.
"Hey ATLAS, you busy?"
Of course not, Sergeant Major. What can I assist with?
"I need a detailed analysis of the ‘magic’ or dark energy that they are using to attempt to kill me."
“Immediately, Sergeant Major. Here is what I know.”
It generated a series of screens beside the one I was using to watch what was happening on the outside explaining what this energy is, or at least as much as it knows. I looked at the screen of the outside again before I skimmed through the twenty page essay that the VI just generated, it looks like it’s currently fighting something that is a cross between a snake and a dog.
Of course I would have to be the one fighting it if it were not for the autopilot feature of the ATLAS unit. It generated a small living space for me to peek at what it is doing and to do whatever I want in while it patrolled the border. So far, it seems that the forest is fine with this little work-around I found. So I’m going to stick with it for now. Time moves five times faster in here anyways so it will make the night seem like a breeze.
Oh, ok, I think I get a general idea of this ‘magic’ thing. The VI’s working hypothesis is that ‘magic’ is nothing more than the dark matter of our universe, just on a completely different scale. Not only can it form into particles to create objects but it can also push and pull on this mini-verse. It can heat up particles in the atmosphere to create fire, it can copy the stone and other elements to create objects made of the same material. Strange it seems, this ‘magic’ is the exact same thing that is in our universe, just it effects this universe at such a scale because of how small this universe is.
I wonder if it can do the same in our universe.
…
Sergeant Major Eleanor Usaldo
Edge Of The Sacred Forest: Three Hours Later
GOD, I am so bored. I’ve had missions like this before, ones where I have had to patrol something, or protect something, but those were nothing compared to this. There hasn’t been any action in hours, the last thing I killed was just some snake ATLAS wasn’t sure I should kill or not. I haven't seen anything sense then. I've been able to spy on creatures and robots for days, weeks at a time without seeing any action for weeks at a time. Yet this patrol job has got to be the most mind numbing thing I have ever had to do.
Whats wrong with me, its like something is making me this bored on purpose.
As I sat there, sipping on my virtual scotch, I looked back at the status board.
Ah, it seems ATLAS was able to get a magic detector working.
I thought as I looked at the board.
Wait, something is wrong.
The board read,
Background Magic-Radiation; 40% above normal.
This is strange, the readings from earlier this evening also finished. And it says that the background magic levels haven’t gone above even 2%. It started this 40% thing just an hour ago.
Is someone playing a trick on me?
I told ATLAS to look around, as it did so I noted that there was no entities within 100 meters that were above the size of a caterpillar.
Something has to be causing this.
It is not a spike, nor even fluctuating, it’s just holding steady at 40% above. Well it did spike, just once, when it was raised to this new plato.
ATLAS locate source of localized magic spike.
Analyzing… source found, stream of magic flowing to user interface.
WARNING: Magic found to be interfering with operator’s emotional status.
What? Interfering with my emotional status?
Attempt breakage of localized magic stream.
“Orders acknowledged, now attempting breakage…
!!Successful!!
Directing local magic stream to energy converter, and energy reserves.”
Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that ATLAS was able to find a way to get the magic to turn into pure electrical energy? It’s really badass if I do say so myself, it not only did that but was able to do so when I was incapacitated by the portal. Within about a second of me being here ATLAS found a way to transform magic into energy.
Heh, whatever is sending that stream, it better keep it coming, it's really helping the unit’s power supply.
Almost as soon as I diverted that stream my mood went up.
“Something was keeping my mood down.”
I stated aloud, though technically I was the only one that could hear it.
GRR…
Warning: new entity detected. Threat level; high. Approximate distance; 10 meters and closing.
Alright, ATLAS do your magic.
Acknowledged sergeant.
Almost a second after I gave the order, the shadowy figure leapt out of some brush. The thing tried to stun me by attacking first and to get a good grip on top of my shoulders, of course ATLAS reacted immediately by twisting around and pinned the yelping creature under my weight.
Now, I was able to see the full form of the thing, it’s appearance seemed to be that of an off brand squirrel, a lot bigger though, standing at about four feet tall. It really was just a larger version of a squirrel. Its front teeth seemed to be more designed for meat rather than nuts and berries like an actual squirrel. ATLAS raised my hand and created a spike to be sent through its chest.
“Please, p-p-please don’t kill me.” The thing shriveled up into a little ball as it spoke. God, this was pathetic. The thing was able to cause ATLAS to pause for a few seconds, enough for me to step in and prevent the pitiful things death.
Finally back in control, I retracted the spike and got off of the shriveled being. I deformed my protective helmet to speak with the squirrel more sincerely.
“Just what in the hell made you think it was a good idea to attack me?”
I was off of the thing but I was still standing over it in a sort of ‘don’t even think about running away’ kind of stance.
“W-well, before you so brazenly attacked me. I was just doing my duty.” The thing sat up, collected it’s bearings, and puffed out it’s chest.
it attacked me first. I thought, while making a clearly disgusted face at the thing. I visually rolled my eyes.
“Listen, I don’t think you fully understand your situation. Don’t you think that's no such way to speak to the person with a spear to your neck?” the squirrel looked confused.
“What spe-” I cut it off by creating a spear and swinging it at its neck at lightning speeds, I don’t think it even had a chance to react or even finish its statement before the tip of the blade was at its throat.
“This spear, now, tell me why you attacked me or I’ll give my spear here a new red paint job.” I don’t think it fully understood my remark, but I could tell he got... the point (pun intended).
“Y-yeah, whatever you want…” it cleared its throat. “First I should start off by stating my name. I am Duke Vanhaven Hoverfeld of the Ratatosk Clan.”
I saw it reach for a pair of glasses in the dirt and place them precariously on its small snout.
“Ok… Duke, what are you doing here in the middle of the woods?” I asked, he decided to clear his throat before continuing.
“Well, before you so rudely attacked me, I was hunting for something to bring back to the king.” It looked down, as if he was ashamed by something, before his chin bonked against the spear.
“Well, I guess what I said wasn’t the most particularly accurate.” I froze, did it lie to me? I felt my head boiling with hatred at the thought of such a thing.
“What do you mean?” I hate it when something lies to me, it means that whatever intel they had given me previously was compromised, and that they could not be the most trustworthy source of information.
“I’m not a duke, at least not yet… The way that the system works is, if someone of royal blood becomes of age they have to hunt in these woods until they find something that could be considered prey. The level of the creature and how mighty it is decides what the nobile born child would become. It is also decided by how difficult it would be for the nobile to take down the animal.
Now, this is a great explanation and all but I am not sure if this is all true or not. Like I said, he lied before so who is to say that he would not do it again.
“How do I know this isn’t all a bold faced lie again?” I needed something to know that the thing is speaking the truth. Not only that but I still needed a reason for why the thing attacked me specifically.
“Well, that can wait for later. First, why did you choose me to be prey?” he looked up at me like I was crazy.
“What do you mean? Just look at you. You obviously pissed off the forest, and are now patrolling this side, you can’t be more powerful than the forest because why would you listen to it then, and finally… I thought I could bore you enough to get you to lower your guard.”
Wait What? That was him?
“So you were the one sending the magic stream to mess with my emotions?” Come to think of it it does make sense now. The magic stream did stop coming the moment he leapt at me.
But before he had the chance to respond, a powerful force suddenly sent me flying to the side. Whatever it was, it had enough power to send me soaring, my head even smacked against a rock wall that was like 50 feet away.
When everything finally settled down, I looked back at the squirrel to see another, armored squirrel helping him up.