Escape, Lost Soul

Escape, Lost Soul: ✧Chapter 2✧

Cyra could see the forest entrance in the distance. Damn, the entrance is in the western part of the forest. We still have a ways to go. The Chuyoku forest wasn't small, and anyone could get lost in the maze of massive oak trees and wild fern if they didn't know where they were going. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as most of the other forests in Vyrium although there have been instances where an animal would wander out of the forest and attack nearby homes. Please let them be safe. Cyra thought to herself as she and the others continued to run through the forest, crunching through the leaves and jumping over fallen trees.

A shriek cut through the forest. Cyra could feel her heart pounding in her chest harder than before.

"It's coming from that direction!" Yuna said pointing to the right. Elves always did have spectacular hearing.

As they neared the sound, they could hear the frightful children frantically trying to escape and hide from their attacker, a shadow demon. It's unknown where shadow demons originated from, and not much is known about them since they disintegrate as soon as they're killed. According to the history books, they've existed as long as humankind has which is primarily the reason why Hogosha were needed in the first place. Sonara had reached the students first, since she was the fastest. But instead of taking action immediately she just stood there with a look of astonishment.

"Sonara, what are you doing! Go help the chi-" Yuna begins but cuts off when she sees what Sonara had been staring at.

Someone had reached the students before them. But it wasn't another Hogosha. Cyra didn't talk to many others outside her friend group, but she knew that the girl in front of them was not from the academy, and couldn't possibly be old enough to be a Hogosha from Headquarters. She could tell by Sonara's expression that she didn't know the girl either, despite her being the most social one out of the three.

The girl had long hair placed in two low twintails. Cyra wasn't sure what color it was. It looked like a pale green with streaks of blue and purple mixed in. It was normal to have unnaturally colored hair because of gene mutations that occurred hundreds of years ago, but streaks that were different colors was rare, unless it was dyed. She had two horn-like figures jutting out of her head, each one twisting around itself with beads hanging at the ends and looked terribly worn out. Even though Cyra knew for sure she didn't know the girl, she felt something familiar about her. She wasn't sure what it was about her, but ignored it as that wasn't as important at the moment.

"Water mode: Roaring sea-dragon!"

She was shooting water out of her hands towards the enormous shadow demon that had been attacking the students.

So she was a mage, huh?

Yuna ran to the students to see if anyone was injured. Although she wasn't a healer, she did have some basic medical skills and could perform simple first aid.

"Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt?"

A short boy with spiky black hair responded. "Yeah, we're fine. That guy over there helped us out already." He said, pointing towards a boy who looked about Yuna's age dressed in loose trousers and a long, black cloak. The boy was wearing a scarf that covered half of his face, even though it was still Summer. Even though he had his hood up, she could catch a glimpse of his white hair and pale brown skin. He was leaning back casually against a tree, closely watching the girl fighting the shadow demon.

There's two of them? Yuna thought to herself completely puzzled. Where had these strangers come from?

"Quit standing there and help me out Caelum!" The girl yelled.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." He responded casually.

Cyra, Yuna, and Sonara were completely baffled. They were glad that the children were safe, but wanted to know more about the strangers that had saved them. Sonara ran over to them to help them fight, but before she could even take out her weapons the boy turned around and said, "Don't worry about us, we can handle this. Just go keep the kids safe."

"But-" Sonara sighed. "Fine, you win. But it's your fault if you get injured." She said pouting while turning back to the small group of students huddled together in fear. Myria and Seira pushed through and unanimously cried "Big sis!" as they ran into Sonara's arms.

"How are you two doing?" She said with a big smile on her face as if she didn't have a care in the world, hugging the two tightly. Myria and Seira have been attached to Sonara for as long as they had known her. They were orphans found in a nearby town that had been completely annihilated by shadow demons. Sonara found them while being out on a different mission with her brother about two years ago, and the twin sisters were one of the very few survivors of the massacre. They were half dead when Sonara found them, but she and her brother managed to rush them to the nearest hospital and got them taken care of. The shadow demons that attacked their hometown weren't ordinary; it was clear that someone had genetically engineered them to be much more ferocious than usual. It was a huge issue that has been recently becoming more apparent, but thankfully the one they were facing in the forest was just a normal one. Paradignia, the Hogosha headquarters, has been struggling with keeping the news about the evolved shadow demons a secret. If citizens found out, it would be a disaster.

"We're okay since those two strangers came to help us. If it weren't for them, I don't know what we would have done." Myria says, shuddering at the thought.

"Do you guys know anything about them, or where they came from?" Cyra asks inquisitively.

Seira shakes her head. "While we were running away from the shadow demon, Tenka over there tripped and fell over a tree branch. That thing was about to grab him but then those two quickly jumped in and blocked it's attack with some water spell."

They were going to ask more questions, but were cut off at the sudden sound of the shadow demon screeching in agony. It twisted and made spontaneous movements as it continued making ear-splitting shrieking noises until it finally toppled over and faded away into black clouds of dust.

The mysterious girl walked over to the group as the boy followed a few feet behind. The three friends were analyzing every inch of her. They were taught in the academy how to read a person based on their body language among other things, in order to discern how trustworthy someone is, especially if they're a stranger. She was smiling and seemed like a very lively person. None of them noticed before, but she had a pet accompanying her- a three-tailed fox-like creature that Cyra recognized from pictures she'd in a textbook- a Jioku. Another red flag. Cyra didn't know much about animals, but she knew that Jioku aren't native to Vyrium. What were these two up to? Finally, the girl spoke to them. In a cheerful, innocent voice, she says:

"You guys sure do seem interested in us. Let's start with introductions. Nice to meet you! My name is Primoria, and I'm a traveler looking for a certain someone."