The tension between Sable and Adelheid grew tight as a string while the bead-girl knelt in the dirt as Margaret stood silently, caught between the two.
Sable stood her ground, forcing the tremor out of her voice.
"I said no. We don't need to kill them! The trial's about bracelets, right? Then that's all we take."
Adelheid narrowed her eyes.
"You're naïve. Do you think mercy will earn you anything here? Those who crawl away today will stab you tomorrow."
The wiry boy groaned from the ground, trying to crawl to his scroll.
Margaret stomped a foot onto it, crushing the parchment to ash before it could reactivate.
"She's not wrong, Sable. If they regroup, we'll have to fight again, and next time, they'll come with reinforcements maybe."
Sable grit her teeth.
Her fists were still raw from shattering the so-called "invulnerable" shield.
And her stomach twisted at the thought of finishing off people who were already defeated.
"I can't... I'm not like them. I'm not a killer."
The bead-girl's trembling hand shot forward, tugging at her bracelet.
With a small cry, she wrenched it free and tossed it toward Sable's feet.
"Take it... just take it! We'll withdraw. You won! Just don't, don't kill us! I was only being a fool!"
The wiry boy glared at her through swollen eyes, but when Adelheid's gaze landed on him, even he faltered.
They all took off their bracelets while Margaret even stole it from the unconscious guy she decked a moment ago.
"That makes four." She said, slipping it into her pockets. "It's enough to pass, if we hold onto them."
Adelheid turned toward Sable with her expression sharp as a blade.
"You just made a mistake."
"Maybe." Sable said. "But I'd rather risk my own mistakes than live by yours."
Adelheid's smirk returned, but thinner now.
"Sentimental. Let's see how far it carries you when someone puts a knife in your back."
"Yeah yeah." Sable turned to the defeated group. "Alright, go on! Get out of here!" She said, shooing them away.
The candidates limped off into the undergrowth sighing while carrying their unconscious partner.
Meanwhile, the trio moved deeper into Arcseal.
+
The forest was rich with many trees and bushes everywhere they turned.
It was unnatural.
With mushrooms glowing underfoot, and the sounds of unknown creatures in the distance.
"This whole place feels... alive." Said Sable.
"It is." Adelheid replied. "Arcseal is a separate world in the body of the Spacetime Spirit."
"Spacetime Spirit?" Questioned Sable.
Adelheid's droopy eyes fell upon the Hasteheart.
"The Elufray Spirit who embodies all of spacetime. We're inside its body currently."
"What the?" Sable cringed at the thought. "That's pretty creepy."
Margaret scanned the canopy with her eyes sharp as ice.
"The Supervisors are probably watching everything we do inside of this place."
"Of course." Adelheid said, not even trying to hide it. "They want to see how we struggle, who we trust, and who we kill."
"Talk about merciless." Says Sable.
The trio pressed on, but every step deeper made the atmosphere heavier, until out of nowhere, the first growl broke through the silence.
It came from the left, almost guttural-like.
The underbrush rattled as glowing eyes blinked open in the dark.
Another pair soon came above them in the branches.
Then another.
Sable froze as her stomach plummeted.
"...Oh shit!"
Shapes slipped out from the treeline; hulking beasts with bodies sculpted from hardened mana.
Some resembled wolves with jagged fangs, while others slithered like serpents with skeletal, wing-like protrusions.
Margaret's fists clenched.
"Just our luck! Hexbeasts. Constructs of pure mana."
Adelheid tilted her head slightly, as if admiring them.
"They seem to be newborns. Their mana control is feeble."
One of the beasts lunged forward; a wolf-shaped thing whose body split into shards mid-pounce.
Sable yelped and dove aside as the crystalline fragments reformed into its body upon landing.
"Uwahhh!" She shouted, scrambling back onto her feet. "That is not normal wolf behavior!"
Margaret leapt forward with her fists already glowing with Adira's strength.
She slammed a punch into the beast's chest, shattering its body into shards of light, only for the fragments to swirl together again, reforming in seconds.
"Crap." Margaret yelled, backing off. "They regenerate. They don't stay down!"
Another serpent-shaped construct whipped through the forest, snapping its vicious jaws.
Adelheid barely moved her hand, uttering, "Bind." Chains of green mana lashed out and snared the serpent mid-slither.
It writhed violently, thrashing as the bindings strained.
Adelheid's grin widened.
"Persistent. But predictable."
The ground trembled.
More eyes opened in the canopy and below the brush.
A dozen shapes.
Then two dozen.
They were surrounded.
Sable was scared, though she forced bravado onto her words.
"...When I said this place felt alive, I didn't really mean alive!"
Margaret slid back into a stance.
"Sable, these aren't enemies you can break with fists. You'll need to adapt! Do you know Mana control!?"
Sable blinked, confused.
"Mana what?"
"Focus your mana into your eyes. Peer beyond the body and soul, and find their core!"
Sable staggered, not knowing what she meant, but nodded nonetheless.
Mustering up her mana, she focused as hard as she could until she was given X-ray vision.
She could see the Hexbeasts' both body and soul, alongside a floating sphere inside their anatomy.
"I-I think I see it?"
"Hit their Nucleus! See the glowing sphere in their chests? That's their weak point. Break those, or they'll keep reforming."
Sable's eyes darted to the wolf construct stalking as she swallowed.
"Break the nucleus... okay! I hope it's easier done than said!"
The beasts howled in unison before lunging.
The forest immediately exploded into chaos, but Sable wasn't going to back down.
She lifted her hand, conjuring forth a Magic Circle.
"Everyone, stand close!"
Both Adelheid and Margaret lifted their brows at Sable's comment, but complied nonetheless.
Standing closer to the Hasteheart, she furrowed her brows.
"Determination Flames!"
A wave of fire spewed forth from the magic circle, immediately incinerating the Hexbeasts in front of them down to their nucleus.
The creatures of mana howled in pain with their informational bodies hissing and shattering.
Their nucleus flared violently before popping into ash, and for a moment, the forest was silent, except for the sound of burning wood.
The surviving beasts behind Sable and on Margaret and Adelheid's
Side shrieked inhuman, distorted wails that rattled the leaves.
More of them circled the trio, pacing like wolves around a pit.
Sable gasped, clutching her wrist where the magic circle had faded.
Her chest heaved and sweat streamed down her brow.
"O-Okay, so basic magic can work on them!"
Margaret's eyes widened as she lowered her fists.
"That's impossible. Hexbeasts are immune to magic, they're practically made out of the stuff that makes magic!" She looked almost impressed. "Sable, what the hell are you?"
Adelheid smirked as her droopy eyes narrowed sharply like blades.
"You are indeed unorthodox, Sable. Flames that can override a Hexbeast's magical immunity are nothing to scoff at. You did that through sheer will alone, hmm?"
Sable tilted her head.
"I-I don't know? Maybe!"
"You are a magnificent freak."
Sable widened her eyes.
"You're saying that like it's a compliment!"
"It isn't." Adelheid's grin deepened. "It's terrifying."
The momentary awe didn't last.
From the darkness, more eyes lit up.
Not a dozen this time, but hundreds.
The ground shook as heavy bodies pressed against the earth and larger and more terrifying monsters emerged.
The Hexbeasts were converging from every direction with their roars overlapping into a sound that made the air vibrate.
"You've got to be kidding me… It's like the whole forest just woke up!"
Margaret cursed under her breath, lifting her fists.
"They're drawn to your flames. We're not fighting a pack at this point, we're fighting against the entire hive!"
The first wave lunged through the smoke, baring their fangs.
Margaret intercepted with a crushing blow that shattered three of their nucleus' at once with the shockwave blasting leaves into the air.
Adelheid snapped her fingers as chains of green mana lashed out to bind and drag serpentine beasts into the fire's edge, where they burst apart.
Sable took a deep breath and ran straight into the line of fire, quite literally.
"Sable?!" Margaret turned to face her, bewildered.
"Don't worry about me!" She shouted, running through her own flames. "Hey, Hexbeasts, come and get me!" Sable shouted as loud as she could before exerting her mana out of her body, gaining their attention.
All Hexbeasts turned to face her, distracted from battle.
Wasting no time, they chased after the Hasteheart, attracted to her aura.
"Huh?" Sable widened her eyes. "I can't believe that worked! So they're attracted to other people's mana, huh?" She grinned, now increasing her pace. "Alright, good! Keep following me assholes!"
Both Adelheid and Margaret stood there, questioning Sable's strategy.
"That is one reckless girl." Said Margaret.
"Sometimes being reckless is needed in these situations." Responded Adelheid, curling her lips into a grin.