The sun hung low in the sky, bright blue faded into painted ribbons of red and orange across the cloudy sky. Even from so far away, the smoke of a city on fire, of Greenleaf, soared high into the air like a pillar holding the distant heavens up. It was a cold reminder of everything that had happened in such a short span of time - of the hornets’ assault and the subsequent defense against an underground enemy.

But for the small army of bedraggled, determined warriors currently marching through a silent forest, the only two things left in mind were how to save their kidnapped people that were about to be massacred together by the aptly named Massacre Hornets, and whether or not their undertaking was anything but a suicide mission. There was a difference between seeing the hornets numbers depleted, and truly believing it. According to what they knew, though, the hive should have less than ten percent of their number still remaining, judging simply by how Massacre Hornets tended to hunt.

Niko wasn’t sure if he believed that, but they were well beyond the point where he would be willing to turn back. There were too many people missing for him to be able to comfortably move on without having even tried to save them. The hornets were weakened, at least, and Niko would be lying if he said he didn’t harbor something of a grudge against them. Even if they were sapient, thinking creatures, Niko wasn’t certain that he had enough mercy in him to allow their transgressions to go unavenged.

After thinking of that Niko’s thoughts took something of a turn, he asked his closest companion, “Skye, what do you think about the Gods?”

Skye paused, her half-elf features much more recognisable now that Niko knew what he was looking for. He idly noted the slight elongation of her ears, more pointed than they should have been for a human. Her eyes were rounded and modestly wider, with her cheekbones slimmer and a face that was overall, perhaps, fractionally more narrow. Her human side seemed to add a little bit more definition to her, filling out her features more than Stella’s, granted he wouldn’t say that the full-blooded elf was bony.

“That’s a… complicated subject,” Skye said, briefly glancing around at their surroundings, “But, for the most part, I don’t.”

Niko took the hint that she didn’t want to speak on the subject amidst all of these people. He nodded, remembering that people could sometimes take their belief in certain gods very seriously. While on Earth he would chalk that up to someone’s personal choice, here, on the continent of Teros, at least, people sometimes actively took up arms at the call of their God. But, then, they tended to directly give out boons to their devout, so he supposed that was to be expected.

With all of that in mind, Niko didn’t miss the way that Skye had answered his question. “You don’t think of the Gods, you mean?”

Skye nodded once, before remembering that she could speak with Niko through the bridge between their minds. “I don’t. The Great Mother is… somewhat of an exception? I don’t view her as a God, necessarily.”

That surprised Niko, “Really? If anything, I’d count her as most definitively godlike.”

With a smile, Skye explained, “She doesn’t need our faith, and she doesn’t need someone extolling her virtues on the steps of some building. Not that I’m saying that I don’t still worship, but… It’s different to me. It’s more like she’s all around, a God, but not? I don’t know any word that can explain it.”

Niko nodded, understanding what she was saying. Alterra was everywhere, every part of the world. The Gods in this world, on the other hand, were more akin to trespassers or parasites, though Niko was positive that saying that out in public was a good way to become a social pariah in a flash.

From beside them, a dirty blonde haired man slipped closer, followed by a shorter woman of gnomish-descent with icy blonde hair. Dachna moved with a kind of smoothness that made him almost inconspicuous in a crowd, even here in the forest, no doubt an homage to his past growing up in the streets of the capital. Mithel had less finesse in her motions, but practice and patience had made great improvements for the young alchemist.

“It looks like a damn army ransacked Greenleaf,” Dachna said while shaking his head sadly, “I’ll bet some of those fires are going to be burning for days.”

“If everyone’s alive to see them, then I’ll count that as a win,” Mithel said while reminding the others, “Even with their numbers depleted, raiding the Massacre Hornet hive is going to be risky, right, Skye?”

Skye turned to her friend, nodding firmly, “They’ll still fight with everything they have, the only thing that matters more to the hive than their queens are their larva. From what I recall, the massacre pits aren’t far from the larval hatcheries.”

“That’s lovely,” Niko huffed while casting a backwards glance at Dachna, “I don’t suppose your Lure is going to be effective enough to distract that many of them?”

“Not nearly,” Said Dachna tiredly, “I can maybe keep a dozen of them occupied for a few minutes, but that’s all I’d be good for. Maybe less if there are too many high tier creatures in the hive.”

Just then, a large man flanked the group, walking in easy strides in spite of the heavier plates of steel and leather banded armor he wore. Ronald was someone that Niko thought of when he imagined a stereotypical ‘tank’ in video games, but the man also defied the standard nomenclature at the same time. He was charismatic when he needed to be, and far more clever and intelligent than his otherwise straightforward demeanor might suggest.

“Keep Lure use to a minimum. We might need to use that more aggressively while extracting from the hive,” He said, before widely gesturing to the group, “How are we doing?”

“My everything still hurts, I’m maybe halfway up on essence reserves, and ready for some violence.” Niko answered happily without a trace of jest in his voice.

The group was nevertheless amused by the comment, but answered in turn shortly, each some variation of the same. Those on the march with Orson were eating whatever essence rations were still available, but no one expected to get anywhere near full in the short term. The hope was that their bodies could digest enough of the meal to be useful.

Technically, Niko had already reaped the bulk of the essence he could from what he was fed, but his reserve was also larger. That was due to his Chosen status– whether from Alterra or Venris, he wasn’t certain– and the blessings he was granted therein. If they had any more, Niko would have asked for them without shame, but their supplies were either nonexistent, or anyone with any in reserve were holding them for personal use.

Stolen story; please report.

Skye directed them forward as the group fell silent once more, moving in tandem with several other teams. A scant few messengers drifted between said teams, but for the most part Orson and the other high tier adventurers were leading the way. The Wyldwalkers stepped over the corpse of a hornet as they carried on. Niko guessed that it was likely one of said high tier’s handiwork, ensuring that their approach would be undiscovered for as long as possible.

While they walked, Niko was left to his own devices, and he chose to examine his own body. His nerves were up, only partly due to what they were doing. As though to exacerbate an already dangerous situation, Niko could feel the strange curse-brand-turned-blessing in his soul, and while his pokes and prods at it resulted in nothing, it was clearly beginning to react. He felt it like a shudder in his soul, a heartbeat of sorts, only with every pulse he felt heat in his blood, extending out to his real body. That was deeply concerning, considering that the source of the curse was Bant, God of Fire, Bloodshed, and Martial Prowess, and the one responsible for subverting it was Venris, known as the God of Madness and Monsters.

Given the two involved, Niko did not have high hopes for what he was going to have to deal with.

‘Still… it hasn’t done anything much yet. I don’t even know what I can do about this thing.’ Niko sighed internally before turning his focus to the rest of himself. Many wounds still dotted his body, but they were bandaged and cared for as well as they could be. His feet were, frankly, not well off in the slightest, but they were slowly healing with the combination of bandages, poultices, and the careful, discrete application of Niko’s essence. While nudging the healing along, Niko also felt at the edges of his legs’ pattern, the pseudo-flesh deep carving that allowed him to perform supernatural feats.

‘I should name them all,’ Niko clucked to himself, ‘I’ve gone and named the chest one Clarion and Carrion Call, may as well bring the others up to speed… So, for legs, we’ve got speed through power, and stealth ability.’ He pondered on names, immediately throwing out several that he found far too unimaginative, ‘Shadow Strider has got to be the most edgy one. Not like people judge too much about that here I guess, but still, I have principles. I do like Strider, though…’ Niko paused as a thought sprouted from his subconscious, ‘Hmm… Wyldstrider? I like that, that’s a good one. Now about the eyes… probably keep that one simple. Seeing Eyes? No, no, that’s too simple, how about Vision of Beyon–Nope, I’m not seeing the dead, here.’

He glanced around, activating the pattern in his eyes as easily as breathing, before peering through the forest around them. Essence became visible, and with careful control and straining, he looked through the layers of the world for any oddities. When he saw nothing besides the other guild members and guardsmen around, Niko returned to his musings, ‘It’s versatile, enhances my normal vision somewhat, but the big effect is just that I can see essence. So far, I’m pretty sure everything in this world has essence… I think Aether Sight is a good name. That or Omnivision… nah, Aether Sight.’ The victor of the round was decided, and Niko turned his attention to the last of his patterns.

It extended from his beak, down into his neck, and, surprisingly, seemed to have grown somewhat from when he’d first made it long ago. It was his simplest pattern, and even now remained as such, an Ol’ Reliable that he could fall back on. Sharpness with power, the name was obvious as it was unimaginative to Niko, ‘Sharp Strike, no need to go extra on this one. Maybe I’ll supercharge it when I tier up again? However that works, anyways.’

‘So, that’s Clarion and Carrion Call, Wyldstrider, Aether Sight, and Sharp Strike,’ Niko repeated back to himself, feeling somehow better at having named it, ‘That’s a good lineup.’

Something felt like it slotted into place in his subconscious at that, and Niko felt like his patterns somehow felt just that little bit more right in their places. With a frown, Niko felt for his patterns again, feeling them as seemingly more attentive to his attention now.

‘What the cluck? Have I been handicapped the entire time? Seriously?’ Niko blinked furiously, ‘No, no way. Nobody said anything about this. Is… wait, no, maybe people just subconsciously name their patterns, but I just didn’t? I mean… Ugh…’ Niko stopped thinking about the topic, feeling no slight amount of disgust at himself for having not done this before. He felt he couldn’t have possibly expected that naming these things would actually have a tangible effect.

‘It’s… not a total waste at least,’ Niko sighed, ‘At least my manual control of them is superb.’ At that, Niko gingerly cycled his essence through his patterns, doing so manually, just to test them. Each of them flowed smoothly, no different than any other time. He stopped, allowing his essence to return to its normal flow before he called upon his patterns by name. Almost instantly the effect occurred again, his Wyldstrider pattern silencing his steps and dimming the noise in his surroundings.

The others looked to him questioningly, and Niko clucked at them quietly, before they simply acknowledged that nothing was wrong and turned forwards once more. With more active control, he called upon the Wyldstrider pattern once more, only this time regulating the power.

‘Well… it’s more efficient? Harder to regulate how much essence is going in, though.’ Niko let the pattern cycle through essence, watching how it moved, mentally noting how the pattern seemed to move naturally. In a way, it almost seemed alive, but more in the sense of watching an organ function.

At any other time, Niko would have contented himself with just watching, but he couldn’t afford to use essence in experimentation too thoughtlessly. He deactivated the pattern and reabsorbed as much essence as he could back into himself, before internally glaring at his other patterns.

‘I’ll have to check the others later… so far it’s not a major game changer, but I feel like there’s something I can use here.’ After that reminder to himself, Niko turned his attention back to the forest.

To his surprise, they’d progressed much farther through the woodlands, and the forest trees had gone from tall to towering. Wild growth, unchecked and overflowing in greenery sat in eerie silence, save for the occasional rustle or snapped branch from the small army moving beneath the dense boughs. On reflex, Niko used his Aether Sight, and confirmed what his body was feeling; essence was lacking in this area, thinner even than the lands surrounding Greenleaf. However, there was one exception to that, and Niko was positive that if it weren’t for the towering trees all around, it would be easily visible from their position.

Ahead of the group what looked like a rotund oval was visible through his Aether vision, bloated along the edges and brimming with essence.

“Looks like the hive is just ahead.” Niko spoke, turning his attention to the rest of the Wyldwalkers, “It’s pretty pecking huge, too.”

“Did you see any flying around?” Skye asked, referring to the hornets themselves.

Niko took a second glance, before shaking his head in the negative. Skye spoke out lightly, “Then, they’re either heavily depleted, or…” She began, before stopping and shaking her head, “We’ll need to move quickly.”

“That’s the plan, I think…” Ronald pointed ahead to Orson, who had turned and was awaiting the other teams.

Niko and the Wyldwalkers approached, all the while with the Phorus sweeping the skies for signs that they’d been detected.

“Everyone, gather up,” Orson said loudly, “We’re nearly there, so listen closely…”