As they are coming closer to the main plaza, they stop to see a barrier surrounding it. Made of Aura, with a combination of mostly yellows and reds, it is large enough to cover the main plaza, and the people that are taking refuge in it.

Looking around the barrier and to the sides, Bran catches the problem at hand: multiple, little shadows, running up and down the main plaza. With the sun rising, casting its light over the city, these shadows are cast away, to reveal that many, many goblins are attacking. Entering homes, fighting Aquamarines, kidnapping the women to take them away.

This doesn’t make any sense… attacking this in the open…

From outside the barrier, Beheaders and Aquamarines are working together, in order to put into safety, inside the barrier, all the women, children and old people that are still outside. For those that are taken away, Beheaders follow making groups of two for the chase.

Passing by Bran, Tomoe doesn’t stop, entering the barrier together with Lacus. As Tomoe is leaving the girl in the care of Olga, Bran enters the barrier, walking over the almost sea of corpses of goblins littering the ground.

“Ray!” Bran calls for. Hearing this, Ray comes closer.

“Good to see that you managed to rescue one, kid.”

“What is the situation?”

“Well, little after we sent you to search for the kidnapped women, these little bastards appeared out of nowhere in the city, and after a little while, started attacking. They are really weak, but their numbers are outrageous.”

“I can see that” says Bran, giving another look at the bodies in the ground “Why are they doing this though? This is nothing more than suicide.”

“Don’t know, and I don’t care. They seem pretty stupid if you ask me, trying to kidnap our women like this. I wouldn’t consider at first that they are kidnapping them only to have some twisted action, but seeing how they are coming to us, I now can’t rule it out.”

Bran’s gut tightens. A weak haze hits him, but he manages to stand on his feet. The memory of her fills Bran’s chest with burning chaos.

“Kid, take position. I want you to get ready at any moment to give chase to these little bastards if necessary. Work with the barrier meanwhile.”

“Don’t. I want to be out there.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You are clearly not in the correct state for the front line work.”

Standing up straight, Bran looks Ray to the eyes “I can do it.”

Ray raises his eyebrows, and putting a hand to his chin, he says “You know kid? Maybe I’m wrong… Alright then, be out here, but you won’t be on your own. Tomoe!” Ray yells, turning back to Tomoe as she is already at the barrier, helping.

Raising her head, she looks at her sides.

“Over here girl!” Ray yells “Come!”

Standing up, Tomoe moves to were Ray is “Protect the barrier from this place girl… and keep an eye on him.” Ray says as he points towards Bran.

Tomoe nods “Will do.”

Exiting the barrier, Bran engages his red Aura. Takes a jelly, creating infused water out of his Aura, and starts moving it, flowing it in the ground. Goblins plunge forward from the street he just came in, and Bran moves the infused water at high speed, cutting them by their stomachs. Some more goblins appear over the buildings to his right, jumping towards him and meeting Bran’s high-pressure water blade, making some heads roll to the ground.

From the street he is facing, two Beheaders appear, running towards the barrier, while one of them carry a little girl, followed by a wave of goblins. Taking two more jellies, Bran unites all the infused water in his control, yelling “Watch out!”. The two Beheaders manage to hear him and seeing how water is swirling to Bran’s sides, the one with free hands gets in front of the one with the little girl, engaging his Aura in a barrier, without stopping running. Seeing this, Bran waits until the very last moment, and throws the water against the goblins in the street, pushing them away, while the Beheader manages to fend off what water hit him, taking a chunk of his Aura.

“You’re getting better at controlling large bodies of water” Bran can hear Tomoe say, from behind him.

“Still hit him though” Bran says, as the Beheaders that were running stand up again, and go past him into the barrier.

Suddenly, a shadow blocks the light that was hitting Bran’s face, and in an instant, Bran felt something weighting his head down, and what he recognizes are the sounds the goblins make, just that this time is right beside his ear. The goblin that just jumped on his head goes for his throat with his sharpened fingernails, but Bran covers it with his Aura. Seeing this, the goblin grabs Bran’s hair and starts shaking from one side to another, with violence, enough to make Bran stumble to the ground. As he is falling though, he stills has some infused water in front of him, and taking position such that his face meets the ground, instead of landing on top of the goblin, he uses water taming and spears through the goblin’s body. Bran extends his arms, stopping his falling, while the body of the goblin falls limp to his right.

“Stand up, fast! They have you surrounded!” Bran hears from Tomoe, once more yelling from behind.

Getting on his feet, but before standing completely straight, Bran sees a goblin already jumping towards him. Infusing his body with Aura, he delivers an uppercut, right to the goblin’s chin, making it roll over itself in the air. Taking two steps in that direction, Bran shifts the weight of his body, turning fast, using the momentum to lift his leg in the air and kick two goblins’ head in the process, beheading them. A third goblin, a bit far enough that the kick didn’t reach him, jumps forward, wooden knife in hand, only to be met by Bran’s red Aura his left hook.

Suddenly, a scream can be heard. Raising his eyes, Bran sees how a group of goblins managed to take a girl, long straight red hair, about fifteen years. Working together, the goblins climb one of the houses with the girl and escape using the roofs, in direction to the lower levels of the city and the Starlight Forest. Two Beheaders jump at the situation, and Bran, without thinking, follows through, running towards a house and using water taming to elevate himself to the roof.

Having a view of most of the lower city, Bran can see that the goblins are headed to one of the other towers, circular for an unknown reason. The Beheaders that went first already are almost at the tower, water taming against the goblins that are attacking them. Jumping from roof to roof, Bran goes in a straight line, and when he is half the way, he water tames again, in order to cover terrain instantly and launch himself directly to one of the windows of the tower, only that he miscalculated a bit, engaging his Aura barrier to absorb the hit, but still managing to get a hold of the window with one hand.

Looking upward, he is met by a goblin, already raising his makeshift knife. Suddenly, a deaf sound pierces the air, opening a hole in the goblin’s body, right in the chest, and the goblin falls to the outside. Looking back, Bran can see Lacus and Tomoe, with one of her bubbles already raised and still gobbling, both making signs with their hands to tell him to keep going. Bran can’t help but snort at the scenario.

Pulling himself up, Bran enters into the top room of the tower, with only three more goblins, and the kidnapped girl with them. One of the goblins, seeing the situation they are in, pulls a makeshift axe to the little girl neck, screaming in a language that Bran just can’t understand, but he surely could understand the situation he is in. Getting to his knees, he pulls his hands to the sides, and releases his Aura, exposing his body. The other two goblins suddenly lost the expression of fear, and gained a twisted expression with smugness, showing their yellow teeth. Bran meets the girl eyes, only to see already that she has some bruises and tears that won’t stop flowing.

The two goblins come close, laughing in a strange manner as if monkeys were. Taking out their makeshift daggers, they start cutting Bran at the arms. Blood, bright like a ruby, starts flowing, falling to the floor. The goblins start laughing, even more, becoming more and more savage, being joined by the one that has put his axe at the girl’s neck. As they start stabbing Bran’s stomach, they find it hard to penetrate besides the points of the daggers, putting more and more force with each stab and cut.

Here he was, once again. Even in a dangerous situation like this one, even when he is getting hurt, even when blood is pouring out of him, even here he can’t stop thinking about her.

“Why?” Is the question that he has repeated himself, one thousand times and it isn’t even midday.

Looking at his blood on the ground, he can’t stop himself from remembering. The first time he saw her at the Muscle Squid. Showing her around the city. Playing with the children at the plaza in front of the Old Cathedral. Eating until nothing could fit any more in their stomachs. Getting together and watching the sunset at the distance, as the sky turned red and blended seamlessly with her ruby hair flowing in the wind. The first time he held her hand and the moment right next to it when he stole their first kiss. Now he can only see his red blood flowing out of him, surrounding him, tainting his clothes.

Who could have known, that in such a small time frame, someone unknown could turn into someone so important, so important, that she was able to paint his entire world with a new color?

Fire. The thought of her made him quiver more than the daggers and smell of the Goblins. Flames, searing into his heart the question that his mind can’t answer, that it can’t be answered anymore: Did he meant so little to this woman that he dearly loved so much?

And it hit him. He couldn’t deny it anymore. As the anguish like a million needles hitting him suddenly melted. The realization of how much space she managed to occupy in his heart and the emptiness he feels now that she is no longer with him.

You… You stupid, stupid idiot…

The room suddenly is filled with sounds of a liquid splashing. The goblins were taken out of their frenzy by this and started looking around, which provoked more sounds. Looking downward, one of the goblins saw what was making this sound: At his feet, he was surrounded by a little pool of blood. Realizing what happened, he raised his head, trying to scream and warn the others, but he was a little to slow, seeing how the other two were surrounded too by that blood, and in an instant, the bodies of the three goblins were speared, falling limp to the ground.

Standing up, Bran comes closer to the girl and tends his hand to her. “Glad that the plan worked out” he says, with a smile on his face. The girl, who was trembling in the ground, jumps towards Bran, circling his neck with her arms, sobbing.

“Seems you got it under control.”

Bran turns back, only to see Lacus getting into the room by the door, followed by Tomoe, entering by the window. The other two Beheaders enter the room following Lacus, and Bran delivers the girl to them.

“T-t-thank you…” reaches Bran’s ears, as the girl whispers these words before the Beheaders take her back, out of his sight.

Getting to the other side of the window, Tomoe calls Bran, signaling him to come with her hand.

“What’s the matter? Don’t we have to go back in order to protect the others?”

“There’s no need now, Ray told me. These goblins are pretty weak, and we have various sights that report goblins already are running for their lives, away from the city. Look.” Tomoe says as she points towards the last group of goblins leaving the main plaza, running in direction to the Starlight Forest.

“They aren’t going to stop, right?” Lacus says, joining the conversation “The dangers of the Starlight Forest, will I be able to see it finally?”

“That is true… so, what are the dangers of the Forest?” Bran asks Tomoe.

“Better if you see it for yourself. Maybe this way it will be ingrained in a way that you will never forget… Trust me.” Tomoe answers, making an expression that combines disgust, surprise, smug, and a bit of worry. Looking at the goblins reach the forest, Tomoe says “Any moment now… here it comes!”

The Starlight Forest starts to rustle, all the trees and branches. Lights start appearing as if it were a little galaxy of stars, and the very moment the first goblin reaches the forest, its body is blown away into pieces that end flying a couple of meters away. Bran is shocked, sinking between his shoulders at the sight of such power, while Lacus lets a loud whistle escape. Tomoe is only looking with the corner of her eye. The other goblins that were escaping also meet the same fate, with each strike being accompanied by a deaf sound, reaching them.

“Now that is nasty” Lacus says.

“I know.” Tomoe answers. Then, she adds “Lacus…”

“What?”

After a brief silence, she says “Nothing.”

“How did you come to know about this forest?” asks Bran.

“Long story.” Replies Tomoe.

“Ho-” Bran was about to ask, but a sudden burst of air pushed the three of them almost outside of the tower, away from the Starlight forest, well into the city, followed by a sound that is unlike anything else they have heard in their life in terms of how loud it was. Sudden really large rocks went flying everywhere, bringing it down, with Bran landing into a house, crashing through the roof.

Being dizzy by the sudden event, Bran stands up, only to see that an object has hit the steep featureless precipice that surrounds the Grand Castle, sticking right into it. The object, still glowing, isn’t larger than six horses, in two rows of three, in groups of two.

Bran turns but another sight cut his breath off while falling to his knees again. He can only muster the strength to say “H-… How?”