Oracion's POV

"Ready to go?" I tap on Indura's back, encouraging him to join the rest of my group of 30 or so individuals.

"Whenever you are!" He cheers but insists on staying beside me for the time being, not wanting to join the large group of people standing around the gate.

"Be sure to take care of him" Freya rests an arm behind my back, looking equal height to Indura as they briefly smile at each other before Requis takes the spotlight.

"Are we fighting together!?" He quickly jumps to her, showing a minor strain in his new armour.

"I'd love to kid, but Xandier specifically wants Oracion to look after you. And...we don't usually fight alongside him." She answers honestly, causing Freya to frown.

"Good luck!" I hear from someone in the back, changing the focus on me.

"Good luck!" Another one calls out, probably relatives of those who are heading out.

Reminding me of Ira, "How'd it go for Ira yesterday?" I ask Requis.

"That's the thing! When I got home, he said nothing much happened. If anything, there were less than before." She answers with a little bit of confusion.

"How many are there usually? Of these Shadow things?" Indura jumps in.

"Uh...I don't typically count. Their bodies sort of disappear afterwards, and from that I'm a bit too tired to even care." I try to recall, only ever remembering the times that Requis has called out an unsettling amount, one I don't particularly want to reveal to him.

"Are we okay to head out?" Akira walks into our small circle, looking better than yesterday luckily.

"Yeah I guess we ar-" I place my hand in place of my sword, realising I still never received my sword from Aeron. "Shit" I deadpan, flicking my head in the direction of his blacksmith.

I felt my instincts take over as my head pulls my whole body a step back, responding to a sharp whistle of metal cutting through the air. And sure enough, between the centre of us, a sword lands cleanly into the stone of the ground. "One of my finest! Don't break it you idiot!" Aeron shouts with his back already turned, uncaring whether or not the throw killed someone.

"I guess...now?" I continue. Leaning to pick up the sword from within the stone, almost being blinded from the reflection of the radiating Veil. I swing it once or twice, jumping back when the stone cracks a little bit more from some kind of aftershock, 'Xandier's gonna kill me' I plea before placing it into my sheath and standing over it with my foot to cover it.

"We're heading out! Plan sits as usual, you all remain together with Requis in charge!" I shout, pulling Indura closer to me as I continue. "This is the first time Indura's going out and Xandier's requested that he stays with me!" I head forward with him alongside Requis.

"See ya, Freya!" She waves, prompting me to do the same as the gate begins to close behind us.

-

I'm not particularly strict about the form my group takes while making their way there, but one thing for certain that does bug me is the clunking and thudding from the weighted steps of their feet. I feel my face tense as I try to block the sound out, becoming more frustrated the longer my ears become overstimulated.

"You okay?" I hear Indura call, forcing me to look up with a smile to him.

"Yea-" I go to answer, being cut off by my group as they all begin talking amongst themselves over something.

"Oracion?" Akira asks in between them.

"What's up?"

"The Veil..." He points at it, changing colours with its iridescent glow.

"Is that not normal?" Indura suggests with innocence.

I gawk at it for a moment, ultimately not wanting to stress them out more than is and deciding to ignore it. "Just continue on, it doesn't seem to be doing anything significant, we might not of even noticed it before." I try to normalize it before encouraging Indura to follow me as I cut through the rest of them to get ahead. Receiving a look of annoyance from a few as I take charge again at the turning point.

"Requis, take care of them and come back safely." I encourage.

"Will do!" She sternly acknowledges before turning to the right with them all, "We're just doing our usual defence, continue to follow me!" She orders.

"Alright I guess it's just us two now buddy" I turn my attention to him, speeding up my walking pace to see if he can keep up with it.

"Yup!" He confirms, speeding up beside me.

-

"Where the violet trees meet the dusk stone...this is it?" He announces while looking down to the ground begin to blend together. Opening his mouth once he looks at how close the Veil is, something he's probably never experienced before.

I plant my ass to the ground with a large thud, "Let me see what you can do, Indura" I smile, pointing at a Shadow that just appeared through the Veil. Something that's rather easy looking and more on the slower side.

"That frog looking thing?" He sounds grossed out, but he's not wrong about the description. It hops every 5 seconds or so, a singular eye on top of its bulging head that isn't even trying to observe the things around it.

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"Head on in" I gesture more, making him realise I'm serious and forcing him to draw his own sword. "I heard Requis was giving you some lessons yeah? Just pretend they're someone you hate, or something that fills you with a drive of motivation." I encourage, and faster than I could get my words out, he's already off and charging at it.

He gets a few feet from it, waiting for it to jump once more as per the usual interval. Passing 5 seconds...it doesn't jump. Instead focusing its eye on him, making his impatience clear as he instead charges at it first. I'd facepalm but I'm supposed to be taking care of him, so no looking away for me.

Just before the blade makes contact, it grazes itself with a leap height significantly higher than the previous. Causing him to drop at the missed contact, quickly fumbling back to his own feet before it crashes back down to the ground and quaking it a little bit. I'd love to just sit back and watch but I notice the Shadows all beginning to come in.

Unsheathing my own sword, I get closer to his frog thing. "No! I've got this!" He holds an open palm to me to stop my motion.

I laugh in reaction, still keeping my calm for his sake, "I'll be taking care of these, take your time." I point at the pseudo-humanoids walking through the Veil, having both features of something of an animalistic nature and yet limbs of a human.

Dashing towards the three in front of me, I quickly slice whatever's reaching for me first, whether it be an elongated neck or a hurled ball of sloshed meat from their innards. Admittingly holding my breath at the stench that their bodies emit, exploiting their forms of birth and jumping onto the human skull attached to the top of a hairless bear torso and crushing it instantly.

I tread within its blood, kicking off some intestines that wrap themselves around my boots, quickly looking back at Indura to make sure he's safe but he's still fumbling around it. Trying to find a way to hurt it without getting himself hurt.

I focus back on myself, facing forward at a serpentine like body that has the scales of a fish. Crawling along the ground with an increasing pace as its humanoid legs digs into the dirt, bouncing off of it to throw itself at me. I crouch, allowing it to go over me but realising my mistake as it forgets about me, hurriedly making its way towards Indura.

My feet almost slip from the apparent slimy blood from before, still having enough friction to let me catch up to it, stabbing down against its small frame and twisting my blade like a key that crunches its bones...or maybe that's just the sword breaking already. 'In which case...fuck' I think to myself. Looking up at Indura who's at a stand still with this thing, pointing his blade at it and closing his eyes.

"Something I hate...?" He thinks to out loud. His persona changes as he reopens his eyes, taking a clear glance at it once more before slicing the eye horizontally, lacking the previous hesitation he had before. A burst of purple particles gush out which cause him to instinctively jump back with the same serious face.

"They don't do anything to us, they're safe as far as I'm aware." I speak without announcing my presence, earning yet another one of his swings and forcing me to parry with my own blade. Admittingly annoyed a little bit, I push my weight back, tossing his defence to the ground with ease.

"Oh! Sorry!" He stares off elsewhere, avoiding eye contact but accepting my hand to stand back up. He looks back at the disintegrating body as the post-excitement hits him "Did you see that though!?" He points with a little jump.

"Of course I did, congrats" I congratulate him.

"I see another one over there! I'm gonna head for it!" He cheers, sprinting off in a different direction not too far off from the original as I try to keen in on what he's referring to.

The sound of a screech however, stops me from continuing that as another one of the common bird like Shadows remain on my side. "Again..." I sigh.

The Shadows each have names documented within Xandier's books, anything between the common to the uncommon...but some in particular are rarer than others. These tend to be the ones that are more 'human' than the rest. I run along the forest edge, not wanting to be picked up like the last time, waiting for it to dart in as per usual from their behaviour.

And sure enough, it does. Driving itself through the air with its left legged talon first, urging me to parry it with my sword's sheath. Knowing it'll grab on as it attempts to pull me into the air but I remain firm on the ground, overpowering it and pulling it back down to my level...close enough to decapitate it entirely. A painless death for something that functions as thoughtless as that.

I regather my composure, remembering Indura as I run back to where I was before, scouting for him and finding one other Shadow's body. 'Good job' I quote to myself, a little proud of what he's done already. But that isn't enough to satisfy me of his safety. I focus my sight along the edge, catching a shine from his blade as he runs up to something...rather human.

"INDURA!" I scream, feeling pressure within my legs build as I kick off of the stone. "INDURA!" My voice deepens as I try to get the boy's attention. "IT'LL KILL YOU!" I scream once more, finally catching his attention and forcing him to slow down, just a few feet in front of it.

"Wha-" He stops speaking as we both hear the deafening crunch of the disfigurement from the thing next to him.

A woman with body length hair covering her face but flowing down her sides. Its fingers extend episodically, twisting and bending until wrapping around him aggressively. Replacing her hair with eyes that wrap around strands of twitching veins. Her Shadowy like form glistens as if from nothing more than glee as she turns around and tries to head back outside the Veil with Indura.

With his lips sealed by her finger, all he can show is a singular emotion. Fear, coursing through him to the point where you could mistake his drained colour as part of her. "I feel you! It's okay!" I try to reassure him, running but being blocked by another idiotic spider-like Shadow. Tensing the blade within my hand and simply crippling it by sweeping its legs with my blade, quickly glimpsing its thrashing lost limbs before hurrying closer to Indura.

As she begins to carry him out the Veil, my body freezes. 'He won't remember me. Nobody will remember me. You'll be forgotten.' A voice that's never been my own, ringing through my head and paralyzing me.

Further and further...she takes him out of the Veil. 'You won't make it outside. What more could you do?' It asks me as I freeze completely, folding to my knees and doing nothing but watching him.

'He's thrashing...fighting for his life' I answer it.

'Fighting for his life...or fighting out of confusion? Does he remember you? Does he even remember he's in danger?' It grows sinister, almost knowing what to say to me.

"ORACION!" He screams, managing to get a piece of it away from his mouth. That's...all the confirmation I needed.

Faster than she left with him. Faster than he thrashed for his own life...I find myself next to her. I know she can see me within this motionless space of scorched land, her many eyes latched onto me the moment I got within inches of her. But I don't think she realises...I've already killed her. Holding onto her head with the help of her hair weaved eyes and crushing them with the fuel of animosity.

The rush of adrenaline seals my mouth, sheathing my sword as I grip her branching fingers, snapping them one by one in order to release Indura until he drops into my arms from a decent height. His body shakes a little in response, "Are you scared?" My voice still raspy and deep.

"N-no, thank you." He responds. "The ai-r" He seems to struggle to catch his breath at first, the climate itself becoming a whole new experience to him as brief as it is. Along my walk back to the Veil with him, I feel something spike my chest. Ignoring it for a second as I place him within the Veil, standing within it myself and glancing at the tree line from here.

"Oracion?" He asks me, noticing my odd behaviour.

I step back, once again outside the Veil and feeling a line within my brain physically pulse as something clicks within my skull. "Haha don't worry about it." I answer to him, feeling my stomach sink at the lie. As I walk back into it.

I look out, squinting but unable to sedate my thoughts. 'If only for the perception outside the Veil, it appeared to me...like those trees within the inside...are bending.'