Chapter 10

"Agh!" Hoku groans, grasping his head with both hands.

He applies pressure on his temples, to relieve the irritation.

Juno doesn't notice his change in condition.

Her senses are occupied as she tries to move swiftly past the branches because the large skeleton monster is persistently knocking over trees in its wake.

'Who are you? How… are you speaking to me even though I'm awake?'

"..." There is no response.

The ringing abruptly stops, shorn of regressing gradually like it had before.

Hoku's face scrunches with confusion and self-accusation.

Am I losing my mind? It would make sense…

An unanticipated percussion reverberated in the sky, Hoku loosely flinched and his gaze shifted like a bullet above the trees from the center.

Juno was firmly clutching to the sharp end of the tree. Her other arm was stretched outward toward the "Return."

A seemingly boundless twinkling vine was wrapped around a cracked rip of the creature.

Particles of light floated around the vine that appeared to be retracting the half-skeletal creature.

Juno held onto the crown, gritting her teeth.

The trunk was being pulled by the force of both her fan and the weak immunity of the monster.

Each time she drew her arm closer to her chest, the tree bent more in the "Return's" direction.

Eventually, Hoku heard a crack and his eyes widened followed by a nervous shiver.

He is tempted to stand up, but each time he begins to push his leg into the ground, he is reminded of Juno's instructions to stay low and not move unless he is about to be crushed.

Strangely specific, he thought.

Juno's movements ensued with prowess. The vine dissolved from her fan and petals fluttered toward the roots, dismantling into snowflakes as they reached the bottom.

Hoku prepared for Juno to lose her hold from the impact of the recoil, but instead, the tree remained bent, unmoving.

It was a puzzling sight that shortly dawned on him when he saw the vine that was firmly secured below the middle of the trunk.

She was using her fan to bend the trunk and balance on the arch!

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Juno pulled on her closed fan, extending the line with ease. She maneuvered the fan and the vine seemed to loosen, swirling around it like ripples while keeping a grip on the trunk.

Juno pushed her ring finger between one of the crevices, holding half of it closed whilst sweeping her arm across her body.

The crescent attached to the handle kindled a pure light. Juno retracted her hand and repeated the same motion without restraining the other half.

Light reflected off of her eyes as luster permeated across the pattern painted on the red leaf.

It spread like water being soaked into a towel, lighting blossoms that were scattered into a star-like disarray in front of the branches that overlapped a full moon.

The aura cast golden ripples, nearly flaunting the power it held.

For an artifact that is meant to be used as a tactic, it was the utmost resplendent trinket Hoku had ever laid his eyes on.

Even just the design engraved on the guards was breathtaking.

Juno squinted, intensely prying in the direction she had aimed her fan.

Although Hoku hadn't discerned what happened to cause the creature to tilt like a ship being lifted by a wave—he understood at present, that running was an inevitable demand.

Picking himself up, Hoku briskly moved his legs without giving it a second thought, given how his mind raced with an objective beyond escape;

Distance.

Hoku hadn't observed behind him to see how Juno leaped off the curve on the tree, using the vine extending from the crescent to land on her feet.

Rather than dissolving as it had done previously, the ring that was harnessed around the center approached the crown which bent a narrower arch.

Juno's steps were stable and calm, giving the impression that she was calculating her motion to a certain distance.

The fan was missing a rivet pin, instead, the handle was hollow in the center so the vine appeared to be latching onto nothing.

She was using the latch to pull the tree back. Hoku had managed to reach a carrying range.

He stole a few glances behind himself as he ran through the forest, and although he couldn't see Juno, he heard the ear-splitting cacophony that overcame the decaying woodland.

Juno stopped beneath an arch, shaped by two branches, then grabbed the vine with her hand. The monster was drifting rather slowly, giving her the advantage of pulling the tree lower.

She kneeled toward the ground without entirely pressing her knee into the dirt.

"Spread."

She kept her voice subdued to the fan, clasping the guards like a hand before pulling her arm as far back behind her as she could.

A few refulgent vines extracted in unison binding on the trees that were closely aligned to the initial one.

Each vine moved closer to the dirt as they pulled the trunks. Branches snapped and flung at The "Return," a few trees were on the verge of breaking in half.

From an aerial distance, the scene appeared similar to a half-constructed spider web.

The creature spit something into the dirt that caused it to bubble and darken.

Juno stared intently at it, pressing her lips into a thin curve.

It spits again, but Juno reacts quickly, releasing her handle on the single vine so that she can raise her mantle over her face.

The substance cascaded thickly from the seemingly durable fabric.

She stepped back, glimpsing over her mantle to sight how close the creature had cruised.

Juno anticipated another dive was approaching, the instant that the monster reached the minimum range she needed to hit, Juno used both hands to hold the guards and expand the leaf of the fan.

"Release."

The Memoir Chapter 6

Rule 11

The eleven immunities are deadly weapons that require obtainment from the sequel. Most are forged with elements, but low-grade weaponry such as The Elixirs can be gathered through the discovery times mysteries. Elixirs link themselves to the holder's soul to remain bound after a sequence has reached an end. These 'higher grade' devices begin as raw materials that can be provided with spells to enhance their effect.

It is theorized that the stream's wiser guardians forged them first.

Objective 5

Your guide resides with Qi. If you are not cautious, your fate will reside at his blade.

Greet him in the nucleus if you must, but avoid sharing too many of the memories you will recover amidst vast journeys.

-The Memoir Chapter 6 End-