October 11, 4021 22:02 [Sunken Forest]

“Fourth Division, Tortoise formation!” Indra barked, falling into place with his subordinates as they took defensive positions.

“All divisions, Diamond formation!” Tengri ordered over communications. The surrounding divisions quickly arranged themselves into tightly knit groups, their training allowing them to seamlessly slip into order despite the chaos.

The Homunculi created a protective barrier around their superiors, layering their shields while their rifles poked out of the gaps in-between. They took aim, shooting at the Yaksha descending into the valley. The creatures let out shrill shrieks as they brandished their weapons, a murderous glint in their eyes.

Arrows rained down upon the Yuèliàngian forces, picking off stragglers too slow to get behind cover. Indra’s eyes darted along the ridges of the valley looking for a means of escape. To his dismay, all points of exit were crawling with hordes of vicious Yaksha.

A storm of bullets and arrows crossed paths, the projectiles shredding their targets like paper. Traits ran wild on the battlefield, met with an equally ferocious array of gilded weaponry fashioned from the bounties of the forest and ancient metal, the likes of which Indra had never seen.

“What do you plan on doing, Indra?” Usha asked, unperturbed by the slaughter.

We’re surrounded and outnumbered. Indra noted, stating the obvious.

“The Yaksha are formidable, though their might lies in the strength of their collective.”

So what? You want me to break them apart? Easier said than done. Indra scoffed.

“Cause enough chaos and some will second-guess their decision. If they are not united as one, they will falter. Then, we shall slay them one by one,” Usha growled with delight.

Indra bit his lip, mulling over Usha’s advice. “Garou! Kuvira!” he called out. “Extend outward! Join with the Fifth and Sixth! Execute Line Saturation!”

They nodded curtly, peeling off from the main group and taking a number of soldiers with them to form a line, merging the flanking divisions with Indra’s. The Commander of the Fourth Division took flight, dark wings flapping powerfully.

He soared above the carnage, just in time to witness the dispersal of the Traitless vanguard as they attempted in vain to stave off the initial wave of Yaksha. They fought valiantly, though they were quickly cut down to size.

Yaksha continued to surge over the peak of the valley, clashing with the powerless soldiers. Their emerald coats darkened and became matted from wounds received and dealt.

The creatures tore into the flesh of their enemies with ease, biting at their throats and disemboweling them with razor-sharp claws. The verdant foliage of the forest turned a dark shade of crimson as the plants were watered with the blood of the fallen.

Tengri hailed a storm of ultramarine energy onto the oncoming forces. He sniped the Yaksha with pinpoint accuracy, taking great care to avoid his men in the process.

Grisha, on the other hand, employed a different albeit similarly effective strategy. Enshrouding her body in prismatic energy, she warped her figure into what could only be described as an abstract painting given form.

The Commander of the Second Division tore through companies of Yaksha with ease, ripping through their gilded armor with a fervent smile. She had a wild look in her eyes as she let go of her inhibitions, giving in to her bloodlust, becoming a violent maelstrom of abstraction.

Fractal prisms of color bloomed around the valley, marking Grisha’s path of destruction. Despite her manic state, she continued to relay orders to her division in perfect harmony with Tengri, adjusting their formation in response to the First Division.

Indra pulled back, abruptly halting the trajectory of his flight as Yaksha entered the atmosphere. An effervescent blue aura preceded their ascent, drawing his eyes to the source. Reinforcing the right side of the formation, Prasanna had once more donned the armor of the Sapphire Faery. She activated her Aviary Zone, leaving Yaksha to float helplessly within the constraints of the gravitational field.

“Azure Blitz!” Prasanna shouted as she quickly dispatched the Yaksha flailing in the air with fists of condensed matter. She feinted, diving low to pick off some of the more heavily armored Yaksha reinforcements streaming into the valley. Curling her fingers back, she pierced through their defenses, yelling, “Cassowary's Retribution!”

Spatial rifts opened in the midst of Yaksha battalions, pulling them close and crushing them inside the hyperdense voids. She carved a route for Emil and Xiāoshī as they created a labyrinth of environmental traps. Thorns and invisible barriers severely encumbered the Yakshas’ advances. In conjunction with the traps, Garou rushed through the maze, his silver coat shining majestically as he eviscerated the forest creatures in his beast form.

The Yaksha were no match for them, and still, they kept swarming the valley.

How many of these are there? Extinct—Indra scoffed—yeah right. They must’ve been hiding here all these years. At least now we know what happened to the fracking crew.

“Were it so simple,” Usha snarled.

Do you know something? Indra questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Merely an inkling of an idea. Though, for your sake, I hope I am wrong.”

Thank you for the insight. Indra shook his head, frustrated.

“Krodha! Enough gawking at your girlfriend! Get over here!” A voice erupted over communications. Kaluza bolted across the left side of the formation, dispersing throngs of Yaksha like a raging bull. “They’re flooding the valley!”

“I can see that!” Indra responded, gritting his teeth. They were getting nowhere despite the numerous Yaksha they had felled.

“No! I mean they’re congregating here, more than the other areas!” Kaluza exclaimed, pointing at a particularly dense swarm within the valley.

Indra furrowed his eyebrows. Why here? What was special about this area in particular?

Kuvira swooped in to pick off Yaksha as Kaluza launched them into the air, making minced meat of them with her talon-like fingers. “Indra! There’re too many of them! We can’t hold them all back!” she exclaimed, grunting with effort as she ripped through several more Yaksha, tearing out their hearts in the process.

Chōuyān flooded legions of Yaksha with nerve-damaging gas, slowing their reflexes considerably as Móhú charged through their ranks like the rising wind, finishing off the affected beasts.

Indra slowed his breath, scanning the swarm for clues as he raised an arm to the sky. Within the densest collective of Yaksha, did the screams grow the loudest. To dust their brittle bones turned as pyres beneath their feet erupted into columns of black fire, incinerating them slowly.

“Look, there are paths up the ridges!” Chōuyān pointed out.

Indra followed his finger, spotting dirt paths farther back that wound their way up the valley. A steady stream of Yaksha funneled into the valley via this route, filling the spaces left by the charred remains of Indra’s victims.

That must be the source! “Good eye, Chōuyān!” He remarked. Indra dove into the wave of incoming Yaksha, unleashing black hellfire to clear them out. Shadowy tendrils emerged from his body, snaking across the field and pulling Homunculi out of harm’s way. Only ashes remained in the wake of his flames.

And yet, without fail the Yaksha emerged from the depths of the forest once more.

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“There’s no end to these bastards!” Kaluza exclaimed. “Damn it! Why did no one think to bring the Crawlers?! At least an NMM or two would have helped!”

“There’s no use in crying over ‘what-ifs’. We adapt—simple as that,” Tengri remarked, though he failed to hide a frustrated groan before cutting the line.

Indra bit his lip, feeling responsible for the oversight. They were in a rush to find me. If I had just waited instead of running off…He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. No use crying over ‘what-ifs’ like Tengri said. I just have to do what I can to see us through this ordeal!

“They’re not impossible to kill, but we can’t keep fighting like this forever. We have to figure out a way to stop more reinforcements from showing up,” Indra stated. He relayed Chōuyān’s discovery over communications.

“Copy that,” Tengri replied. “We have our hands full at the moment. The Fourth and Fifth will have to hold back the main force for now. Ce—”

“I’ll send Eidolons their way to help,” the Crow interrupted.

“Right,” Tengri sighed exasperatedly. “How are we doing on pills?”

“We’ve still got a good amount. They’re not being used much because most of our casualties have been fatal,” Prasanna answered. “Still, they’re effective enough when given the chance.”

“Copy. Make sure to grab any you find off of dead soldiers. Those things aren’t exactly cheap to produce,” Tengri stated.

“The soldiers or the pills?” Prasanna half-joked.

“Both,” Tengri answered without skipping a beat.

Manic laughter could be heard from Tengri’s microphone. Someone’s having fun. Indra thought, a slight smile forming at his lips. Grisha seemed to be enjoying herself, allowed to operate unrestrained amongst the chaos.

“Ignore that,” Tengri stated curtly. “Now, about this horde; am I crazy, or did it just double?”

“You're not crazy,” Kaluza grimaced. “What the actual fuck,” he muttered.

Carbon copies of Yaksha peeled away from their progenitors as the creatures began to divide, stopping only after bolstering their forces tenfold.

“This is a huge fucking problem,” Indra noted.

“Ya think?!” Kaluza exclaimed.

The Yaksha climbed over themselves in their eagerness to kill. A tsunami of ravenous, screeching monsters barreled towards the Homunculi. The influx was too great to push back. They would be overwhelmed within seconds.

“Fourth! Assist the Fifth!” Indra ordered, bringing his men forward to face the impending threat.

Kaluza’s eyes flitted over to Indra, a moment of clarity crossing his mind. “You heard the man! Fifth! Fall into line formation with the Fourth! Execute Staggered Herringbone!”

The Fourth and Fifth Divisions merged together at the behest of their Commanders, forming an oval that faced outward at all angles. The soldiers within the center poked their rifles through the gaps, riddling the Yaksha horde with bullets. Those at the back picked off stragglers that slipped through the barriers the other divisions had made as they held off their own waves of monsters.

Even still, the Yaksha were relentless, eating through the first round of ammunition in the blink of an eye. Soldiers holding shields on the outer perimeter switched with those lined and at the ready behind them, maintaining pressure on the enemy. Pikes had been extended from within the inner oval, activating an umbrella shield fastened to the tip in order to protect their comrades from the rain of arrows above.

Usha—

“They are not supposed to do that,” the Siren remarked. “These Yaksha are different. I have never seen them create copies of themselves.”

So what does that mean for us?

“The unknown,” Usha growled. “Prepare for death.”

“Indra! Any ideas?” Kaluza called out to him.

Indra shook his head grimacing. “None. We’re shit outta luck.”

“There has to be a way!” Prasanna exclaimed over communications, grunting with effort. “We need to figure out how to stop them from multiplying. If we can do that, then we may have a shot at clearing them out!”

Indra stared at the ever-growing mass charging their way. His eyes widened. “Why are they multiplying?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Kaluza did not follow.

“Yaksha aren’t supposed to be able to do this,” Indra explained. “Everyone, I think I know—”

A blinding white light suddenly caused Indra to shield his eyes as it destroyed the northwest region of the valley. He coughed, waving away the cloud of dirt that had dispersed across the battlefield.

As the dust settled, Indra found, to little surprise, Jin in the midst of the devastation, razing the fields with no regard for friend or foe. Indiscriminately, he blanketed Yaksha and Homunculi in deadly light. The Homunculi of the Third Division could not even scream as they were erased from existence in an instant, removed as if they were mere stains.

Grisha and Tengri pulled their units away from Jin as he continued to cause havoc, an inexplicable fury driving him to massacre everything standing in his way.

“Filthy vermin! Do you know who I am?!” Jin exclaimed as he conjured arrows of light. Yaksha and the fleeing Homunculi of the Third Division evaporated the moment the arrows made contact with their skin.

Indra clenched his jaw tightly, a cold fury building within him. He could not help the Homunculi near Jin, but he would at least see to it that his own division was out of arms’ reach of his attacks.

“Fall back! Get clear of the Third!” he ordered over communications.

“Damn it, Jin! What the hell are you doing?!” Tengri exclaimed, furious.

“What does it look like?” Jin growled. “I’m getting rid of these nuisances. They don’t seem to understand the mistake they’ve made. I am the messenger chosen by Him! I carry out His will! You dare stand in my way, you fucking rats?!” He shrieked, punching the ground with a light-imbued fist.

Cracks erupted across the earth as waves of light rippled outward, wiping out any remaining survivors.

Once more, however, the Yaksha rose, emerging from the depths of the forest. Jin ground his teeth, the vein in his forehead bulging; his translucent hand shook, the bony fingers curled into a tight ball. “What—”

“They’re fakes!” Indra exclaimed before Jin could cause any more devastation to their troops.

Jin’s head snapped to Indra, a rage like nothing he had seen before. “What do you mean? Spit it out!” he hissed.

Indra glared at him, his hatred for the man growing by the second. “We’re trapped in a Domain,” he said through clenched teeth.

“A Domain?” Garou snarled. “That must mean the person who created it is here somewhere! Shit! If I still had my sense of smell, I could’ve sniffed them out!”

“Even if we know that we’re in a Domain, how are we going to find the creator? This place is swarming with monsters!” Xiāoshī pointed out. “Don’t you think we would have spotted them by now? Unless the Domain is coming from one of us!”

“Not likely,” Indra rebuked. “If someone wanted to cast a Domain, they could have done so at any point during our time here. The results would have been the same. No, the caster…” he stared at the swarm.

Prasanna snorted. “Wait you’re not seriously suggesting—”

“The caster is a Yaksha,” Indra stated calmly.

“This is seriously fucking with my brain,” Kaluza groaned.

“Expect the unexpected,” Grisha chimed. “There’s only one Yaksha that comes to mind, and it’s the little bastard who ran away from us.”

To Indra’s surprise, he heard a light chuckle come from Tengri’s line. “Once again, you’ve proven resourceful, Krodha. Nice work.”

Indra’s chest swelled with pride, causing him to frown. He did not need Tengri’s praise. It bothered him that the comment had made him happy.

“Spread out and search! The Yaksha can’t be far off! We need to kill it to escape this valley!” Tengri ordered.

“I’m sending the Eidolons now,” the Crow added.

“About fucking time!” Kaluza exclaimed.

The veiled figures shrouded in white rushed through the valley, joining the other divisions—barring the now non-existent Third. They held back the oncoming waves of Yaksha, mirroring Jin’s attacks. Though their power was merely a poor imitation of his, they landed devastating strikes against the enemy, holding their forces back with the strength of ten Homunculi each.

While the duplicates were kept at bay, Indra reached out into the Abyss, tendrils of black scouring the area for the presence of the elusive Yaksha that had created this particular Domain.

“I never imagined one would finally manage to achieve a complete Domain,” Usha mused.

So you knew they could create Domains and didn’t think to mention it?! Indra ground his teeth.

“Yaksha always had the capability to do so, but none that I had come across were even close to forming an incomplete, let alone complete Domain. Although, given seven thousand years to practice, I suppose it was bound to happen.” Usha sounded pleased with the outcome as if the deaths of Indra’s comrades were worth the price of admission for such a rare phenomenon.

Enjoy your twisted little pleasures for now. I’ll rid myself of you one day.

“Oh, I do look forward to it,” Usha snarled. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything without me. You need me.”

Indra did not reply. “Found it!” he shouted, relaying the coordinates to the others.

The might of Yuèliàng descended upon the Domain caster, though in the aftermath, Indra wished that he had been quicker to kill the creature himself.

Jin had reached it first, beating it to death until it was no more than a pulpy paste on the grass. Its death was slow and torturous; the Yaksha emitted wails of pain that were utterly horrible and almost childlike in nature, planting a seed of pity in Indra’s heart. It had meant to kill them, yet he felt remorse for its death. The animal had only been protecting its land, after all.

The duplicate Yaksha disappeared the instant the creature had perished, though Jin had continued to beat its body into the ground long after, stopping only when its remains had been reduced to nothing.

“Let this be a lesson to those who forget. I am…” he mumbled, speaking to no one in particular.