On the table there was a cold stew, it was the only food left from yesterday. Rayen took the big pot outside to heat it up.

"Hey." Takuya was waiting for him with a rabbit in hand.

"Good morning. Do you want some?" He burned the firewood he had prepared.

"Yeah, I'm hungry. I was going to cook a rabbit, we can add it to the stew." He cut the rabbit into pieces and put them into the pot.

Rayen added some herbs and mixed it all.

"So, how are we going to enter the Rakuya Forest?" Takuya asked.

"I don't know yet. The Elder is going for sure, we just need to follow him and do what he does." Rayen filled two bowls with stew and gave one to Takuya.

"I wonder if eating the guardian beast will give me its power. I heard people who get stronger by eating beast meat."

"No way you can beat it. The guardian beast is far stronger than a normal beast."

"But who knows what those disturbances were. He may be dead."

"I hope not. If the rakuyas fall, the village will fall after them."

"I don't care what happens to the village. It's dying already."

"We still have family left..."

"If the Elder thinks the village is in danger, we will evacuate. Nothing will happen to them."

"I will check on my grandma and prepare myself. We will leave afterward." Rayen took the rest of the stew and poured the green medicine on it. His grandma was still sleeping, but since this was the only food in the house, she will eat it. He opened a chest covered in dust. It was his father's. It has been years since the last time he opened it. It had a hardened leather vest and gloves. Since the forest will be dangerous, he needed all the protection he could get. He put them on and took his knife and the herbs left from yesterday. He had prepared them for today. When he left the house, Takuya was outside with a wooden shield and his sword. They were ready.

"There is no sign of him..." Takuya said after looking for him for half an hour. "The forest is too big, what will we do if we don't find him?"

"I will figure it out when that happens... Shh." Rayen ducked. "He is over there." He pointed deeper into the forest.

"Uh? I don't see anything."

"Look at the sky. The birds flew away from that place. Someone is over there, it can only be him."

Takuya wasn't sure, but he followed Rayen nonetheless. It was better than blindly looking around the forest. After walking a couple hundred meters, they saw him. They stayed away, not daring to get too close, but they were near enough to see what he was doing. He touched a tree, his hand seemed to vanish by how fast it moved. On the tree a carving appeared. It was a strange symbol that Rayen didn't recognize. There were three of those carvings on other trees, forming a perfect square.

"Come out." Seeing that no one answered, the Elder looked at the direction where they were. "I know you are there, Rayen and Takuya."

"Ehmmm... Hi, Elder." They came out from their hideout. "What a coincidence to meet here, isn't it?"

"I didn't want you to come, but it seems like there is no way out." The Elder sighed. "You are capable of burning the forest just to find a way in..."

'I haven't thought of burning the forest...' Rayen thought. 'That may work though, the rakuyas hide on the forest, so without a forest, they cannot hide anymore.'

A drop of blood flew from his finger into the carving. "Come, stay close to me. I will try my best to protect you..."

Rayen and Takuya stood behind the Elder. A light emanated from all the carvings which joined together at the middle. The space around it ripped forming a portal. The Elder shouldn't have been able to use a portal, he wasn't powerful enough. So it must had come from the forest itself. Rayen paid close attention to all the carvings, trying his best to memorize them. If it failed or the Elder tricked them, he would have to make them again on his own.

"I learned this from the last Elder. It's my first time going there. If you come with me, you will be responsible for yourselves. If you are afraid, this is the moment to leave."

Rayen nodded. "Let's go."

"From Takuya's Forest to Rakuya's Forest." Takuya said.

"I don't know what to expect, so don't leave my side."

The three stepped inside the portal at the same time. Everything distorted as the portal closed and the three disappeared.

When Rayen opened his eyes again, everything became blood red. It was a completely different forest. He looked around. There were neither birds on the red sky, nor bugs on the red ground. There weren't any herbs here either. This pained him the most, no rare herbs to collect. There were only red trees with red leaves. He touched one and it felt different than any tree he had ever touched before.

'Uh? Where is everyone?' There was no one else here, he was completely alone.

"Takuya! Elder!" He shouted, but there was no response.

'I guess I must keep going alone then.' He walked for what must had been half an hour, the only thing he saw were the red trees. The forest was like an infinite red labyrinth. 'I guess rakuyas must love red.' He took out an herb from his pouch and put it on a tree. An ominous feeling invaded him. 'I need to get out of here fast.'

He kept walking for ten minutes more. The path never ended. He noticed something green contrasting with the red of the forest, it was the herb from earlier.

"I see it now." He took it out, as to not leave evidence behind. "This path is just a trap to catch outsiders. Something dangerous seems to be lurking here. It guards the forest without leaving a trace of its existence behind, it must be the guardian beast. If I linger long enough, I will be its food.

"The path may be a trap, but there has to be a way in." He touched tree after tree. "This one." The tree appeared to be there, but it wasn't really there. It was an illusion. He jumped into it. The trees around him scratched him, leaving small cuts on his arms, but he passed them all. A rotten smell inundated him, like when his grandma didn't bathe for a week. Along with the smell came a sensation that his head was going to explode.

*Paf* He fell to the ground, still conscious. "Ugh..." He tried to get up, just to fell once again. He couldn't see where he was at. He reached for his pouch and took out a couple of herbs. He had prepared them for these kind of things. He knew which ones they were by how they felt. He chew on them, enduring their sour taste.

He sat for a few minutes, the worst had passed. He looked around. This new area had the same trees as before, but there were grass and bushes on the ground. Green grass. There was something big and red fusing with the sky at the distance, he couldn't make out what it was. The trees formed three paths. He choose to follow the middle one, simply because that's where the smell came from.

Rotten wood populated the ground. Along with a green and orange liquid. Looking closer, they seemed to be small arms and legs, entirely made of wood. There were also bigger chunks, which should be the torso. If he were to put them back together, they would become statues of little girls. Like human sized wood dolls.

"They must be statues of rakuyas." Rayen nodded.

"Those aren't statues." It was the Elder's voice. Rayen looked back at him. "Those are real rakuyas."

"I thought rakuyas looked human."

"When alive, they look like human girls, but when dead they revert to their true appearances, closer to trees than to humans."

"They are all... dead. What happened?"

"They were attacked, they died fighting. Who were they fighting? I don't know. I don't see any trace of their attackers."

"And the liquid?"

"That is blood from beasts. The blood of different beasts joined together."

"But I don't see any beast corpse."

"Yes. They disappeared, or worse, they were desintegrated... Anyway, it's good to see that you are safe. Where is Takuya?"

"I don't know either. I just got here."

"This might by more dangerous than I thought. We should find him."

Rayen nodded.

"Stay close." The Elder said. "Their village is up ahead."

The bushes ahead rustled. The Elder stepped forward. "Move back. There is a beast there."

Two beasts similar to ferrets jumped out of the bushes. They were covered with a red aura. *Hsss* Their eyes were filled with hate. They got in the middle of the path and did weird little jumps.

"Strange... Those are the weakest monsters on the forest. Normally they aren't aggressive like the other beasts. Be careful." The Elder walked toward them, his hand shined with a green light. One of the ferrets jumped at him followed by the other, he slapped it, then backslapped the other. They flew one meter in each direction, then ran away wailing.

"That was easy." Rayen went to the Elder's side.

"They barely have any mana, so they aren't much different than normal animals. But you shouldn't grow overconfident, it was only easy for me because I can use magic." The Elder was the only person left that knew how to use mana at the village, but he hadn't reached a level to be considered a mage.

They didn't encounter any other beasts all the way to the village. It's not that there weren't, but after seeing the Elder's performance, they were too afraid to appear.

In front of them stood a breathtaking giant tree. Even without clouds to hide it, it didn't matter how far back you threw your head, you could never see its end. Not only it was high, it could fit the entire village inside. It had innumerable branches, some of which had treehouses. There were no other buildings in sight, so those must be the houses of the rakuyas. The majestic tree had patches of gray. If you paid close attention, you could saw the patches growing bigger each second. It was slowly withering. Because of its size, it would take months or even years for it to completely wither.

The smell of death wasn't as strong here, but it still lingered on the air. The floor was also covered by pieces of dead rakuyas. Unlike before, there were no beast's corpses here.

"That's Dokenra," the Elder said, "the holy tree of the forest. Ra means tree of life. Their lives depend on the tree, but it doesn't seem that any of them is alive."

"Can we stop its withering?"

"I don't know, the only way is to ask a rakuya. We must look for survivors. There may be some at the houses."

"Uh? What's that?" Rayen pointed at the corpses. It was hard to notice, but a flame was moving.

The Elder looked carefully and ran there. Rayen followed him.

"A spirit!" The Elder shouted. "Spirit, I'm the Elder of the human village vowed with this forest."

"I'm... Senku." The flame flickered. It was becoming dimmer and dimmer.

Rayen barraged it with questions. "What happened here? Who attacked? How can we stop the withering?"

"Attackers... different... from... us... They... shouldn't... exist... They... must be... defeated... Danger... for... world."

"Who are they?"

The flame went to the tree and disappeared. The withering seemed to slightly retreat and stop for a second, but then it continued like before.

"What a way to not say anything..."

"Let's look at the houses."

"I will look on my own, that way, we will search quicker."

The Elder nodded and left to a nearby house. Rayen acted as if he was going to a house, then went to the Dokenra tree.

"A part of the tree must be valuable, it's a holy tree after all. And they won't notice, they are all dead anyway..." He took his knife and used all his force to stab it. The knife flew out, the tree was harder than steel. There wasn't even a scratch. "All that for nothing..." He climbed to a house.

The house was simple, without any decorations. It was completely empty, it didn't have a bed, only a small table. He went to another house and it was the same. Then another. There were some vases, but they were empty. Rayen looked at the distance, farther away from the tree there were some bigger houses. He went to one of them. The house had sealed vases on the floor, a table and empty racks on the walls.

"It must be some type of storehouse." He tried to open the vases, but couldn't. "Well, there is always a way to open them." He lifted and dropped them. *Crash crash* One after another, until all were broke. He searched the remains. There were beans, herbs, roots, dust, lots of dust. They were all common. He recognized most of them, he had seen them in the forest before, and even the ones that weren't, he knew them from the books. They didn't even have the complete plants, only the roots. The dust seemed worthless as well, although he couldn't tell what it was. He still took everything he could. Once he finished, there was a noise from the entrance.

A small pair of eyes observed Rayen. Rayen readied himself for an attack and took out his knife. It was one of the ferrets from before.

"It should be easy, I saw the Elder do it before."

It did the little jumps and pounced at him. Rayen punched him, it was hard and heavy, he could barely move it. It struck his shoulder and made him fall. He quickly got up, he will be at a disadvantage on the ground. He slashed at it with his knife, but the ferret evaded all his attacks. The ferret scratched him and moved back.

"Calm down." Rayen breathed out. He concentrated and carefully looked at the ferret. It was fast, but he could follow it. When it was about to scratch him, he slashed.

The ferret cried and jumped back, blood covered its face. It hissed at him. It moved in circles around Rayen. It jumped to the table, then the rack. It jumped again to the wall, making the rack fall on Rayen. When Rayen was busy with the rack, it jumped at his body. Rayen fell to the ground, he couldn't get up. The ferret scratched his body, breaking his shirt and his leather vest. It kept scratching, stuck on Rayen's body.

"Argh..." He couldn't move it away. He rolled, but the ferret didn't leave. He hugged it and stabbed it with his knife. The ferret kept bitting and scratching until it stopped. Rayen stabbed it more. He had to be sure.

"Ufff... I never saw a ferret being so vicious. The Elder made it look so easy." He took his things and left the house.

A ferret appeared in front of him. "Another one? Heh heh I can take another one."

Followed by a second one. "Two?... A worthy challenge."

Then a third one. "..."

And a fourth one. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah Elder!!"