It has been five days since they became surrounded by the vile pulsating mass of red flesh and crystal-like knives with no way out. The barrier still held but it required constant care and replenishment of mana to keep it active at all times of the day.

There had been attempts to burn out the nearby corruption, but so far, every time they tried, it would grow back within a day or two. Not to mention the amount of power it took to do so wouldn’t realistically see them through the forest safely considering how far home was.

While they couldn’t be sure, they had to act under the assumption that the entire forest was taken by the corruption, just to err on the safe side. After all, there was no telling how far the red knives, as they found out it was called, had spread.

Van at this very moment was pacing around, trying to figure out what to do next when he saw something in the sky take his attention. Not a few moments later, Luna came down riding Sephira, the wyvern she finally named.

Attached to Sephira was a large wooden cage that she carried. It was used to help transport any survivors they could find that were still alive and unaffected by the red knives. A somewhat difficult task considering how far it has spread. But thankfully they were able to find small pockets here and there of people in need, and even a few villages with their own mana barrier looking for a way out.

Suffice to say, it has become very busy these past few days…

“How was today’s run?” Van asked as Luna got off Sephira, looking concerned at her haggard face.

“Not good...” she replied, turning around to help the few people she had riding behind her down. Van quickly joined her to help out while he watched from the corner of his eye some goblins help open the cage that let the rest of the people out.

After a few minutes, Van watched with Luna as the last of this run’s refuges left into his soul realm. “How much is not good?”

Luna sighed, sounding far too tired for how early in the day it was. “There are… fewer villages than there was yesterday. Even a few of the ones with an actual working mana barrier were missing…” her face looked sad and hurt like she felt every loss that came with each village gone…

Van wanted to comfort her, but he did that already a few too many times to count, and was worried anymore would simply be met with a terse response. And… he had to admit… even he didn’t feel like he was in the mood of trying to look on the bright side of things at the moment.

Despite that, he knew he had to say something, otherwise, Luna might take these feelings of hopelessness and let them settle permanently in her heart… but before he could, a goblin came running up to him, looking somewhat excited, a rare expression during these times…

“Master! Master! It’s Kella! She said her and Gwen finally built up the emergency signal! We can call for help!” she said with a slight twinkle of hope in her eyes.

Van looked kindly at her, he too was relieved to hear this, but his inner worries prevented him from completely jumping in on the happy feel-good bandwagon that the goblin was displaying. But he made sure not to let it show and only told her that he will be on his way and to go and tell the both of them he will be there soon.

After the goblin left he turned back to Luna. “Shall we go together?”

Luna gave it a few moments thought, looking towards Sephira and the cage. It was clear as day she was wondering if she had the time to take a detour, or in her mind, a break from what she now perceived as her duty. But after a while, she came around and decided to come with.

The two then went for a walk near the center of the fort, where another magical circle was painstakingly built.

“Hey Kella, so is it finally done?” Van asked as he looked over the new circle that was built not so far from the portal to his soul realm.

“Yes, with this we should be able to send a beam of light up into the sky, high enough for the watchtowers at the border of the forest to see. The beam of light will then flash in colors and code to designate our area of the forest and where we are.” Kella explained.

“I see…” Van thought about it for a moment. “But what if it doesn’t work? Not that they can’t see it, but there's no one ‘to’ see it? Or they see it but can’t do anything about it? What then?” asking so they could talk it out and perhaps prepare for the worse.

“If it so happens that no one sees it because no one is there to see it, then I suppose that means we are just on our own. But fortunately, the light creates a pulse that travels silently and can be picked up by nearby pulse towers. So while it might take some more time, unless the red knives block out pulse signals, then we should at least be able to notify our position if nothing else.” Kella explained.

“Pulse signals?” Van asked until he remembered that pulse signals were this world's equivalent of radio waves. “Ah… okay.” nodding that he just got it, but then continued with the subject since there was an idea that he wanted to broach with her.

“I actually came up with an idea not too long ago that I want to ask you about in case things go any further south than it already has,” Van said. “Would it be possible that… that should we not be able to keep the barrier up before rescue arrives, that perhaps we can get everyone into my soul realm and just me and Luna take off on Sephira out of the forest. I know it might be just a tad too much for her, considering how far she will have to travel, but at least it’s an option… what do you think?”

“Hmm…” Kella gave it some thought. “It’s… not a bad idea I suppose… but it has too many variables, not to mention we will have to time it right. If we leave the mana barrier core here and it goes out, and those things swallow it up, it could increase the growth of corruption or worse. It’s never a good idea to leave such highly dense magical materials in the hands of abominations or corrupting… things… such as what we're dealing with right now.”

“I see… so not only would we have to figure out how to increase Sephiras stamina to fly us out of the forest, we would have to figure out how to safely power down the barrier core quickly enough…” Van thought aloud. “And since it could take a few hours after cooling down for it to be movable again. Waiting around with all those tendrils trying to come in would be a bad idea…”

Kella nodded. “Exactly.”

Van sighed. “Alright, we will save that as a last resort then. Other than that, how much longer will it take for you to send the signal?”

“Not much longer now, another hour and it should be ready to go. Now we’re just pondering if we should wait till night to start sending out the messages or start right away.” Kella said, looking over at Gwen who was finishing the last touches and placing a core in the center to act as the focusing point where the light will shoot out from.

“Does it matter?” Van asked, also looking over to watch Gwen work.

“Not really, but it will require Gwen to focus on it for a while, which means that will take her out of doing other tasks she could be helping with,” Kella explained. “Normally there is a device that will help in these kinds of situations… that would come with its own power source and everything... but clearly I have a lot more learning to do, because out of all the things I made sure to bring… I… forgot to check if it was with us…” looking cross, probably berating herself inwardly.

“Well… we were dealing with a few months of food and equipment and a bunch of other things… it makes sense that you, one person, couldn’t keep track of it all… if anything… It should be on me, as the leader of this group, for not making sure we were sufficiently prepared.” Van said, taking the blame.

“But you are still a child… and I promised your parents I will take care of you. All responsibility falls on me.” Kella said with her own sigh. “It doesn’t matter now…” shaking her head to get rid of some bad thoughts, she then noticed a goblin quickly running towards her and trying to wave her over. She turned back to Van. “Excuse me, I have to take care of a few things.” and walked away.

Van frowned. “You had sex with me, how many times? And who’s knight are you? Mine or my parents?” he thought, feeling slightly offended, before taking a deep breath and just letting it all out. “I suppose it makes sense she still sees me as a child considering the age difference, but that doesn’t excuse her attitude… even though she’s probably just stressed out.” he sighed again. “Stop thinking about it Van, you’ll just make yourself angry…”

He then decided to take his mind off it by doing a round of the fort to make sure everything was in its place. “I should also visit Agnès, she should be with her mother. I heard Alecto was trying to brew something up that could help deal with this mess. Glad we saved her on the first day, who knows what may have happened to her if we came even a bit later…” recalling the time they flew over to Alecto’s house a few hours after the red knives spores were cast.

“...I hope Lyn is doing okay…” creating a silent promise to go searching for her when he had the time.”

Moving over to the small hut that they set up Alecto with, he walked in and noticed her hunched over a boiling cauldron, really looking for all the world like an actual witch that stories told about. Agnès was there with her, helping out where she could, mostly trying to organize the last of the herbs and other things they were able to save from Alectos house before it became engulfed by the red knives. Which sadly wasn’t much…

“Hey Alecto, what have you got for me? You said something along the lines of weed killer?” talking about that time she was muttering to herself about how she was going to kill the stupid red tendrils and a bunch of other things.

“Ah! Van! Just in time!” Alecto said, looking up from the strange reddish-blue liquid that she had been stirring and giving him a warm smile. “I want to show you the progress I made so far! Just another day or two and we will have a suitable method of dealing with this little pest of ours.” motioning him over.

Van quirked a brow at referring to this fubar as just a little pest problem but moved over to see what she wanted to show him. Once close enough, Alecto took out a knife and dipped the blade into the strange liquid, when she pulled it out again, it had a strange layer of that reddish blue, glowing a little.

She then moved over to a glass case where a red tendril was being kept. When she opened the lid, the tendril went crazy, undulating and whipping about, as if trying to figure out how to get out of its glassy prison. When Alecto stabbed it, the blade cut into it like a hot knife through butter, almost as if it was corrosive to the tendril. Where the tendril was cut, it began to die, shriveling up and blackening, spreading out from the stab wound and infecting most of the tendril in a wide area before stopping.

Alecto chuckled evilly. “See? Not bad right?” looking towards him with pride.

Van nodded, impressed. “That’s really amazing! But… I'm not sure we can wait another day or two… nor do I think we can make enough to really matter… the whole forest is almost taken over, I’m afraid what you have in your pot won’t be enough.” sadly shaking his head.

Alecto pouted, but couldn't refute the point he made. “Well… at least it will make it easier defending ourselves,” she said with a sigh, turning back to her work.

“Sorry…” Van said.

Alecto shook her head. “Nothing to apologize for, it is what it is. At the very least it might help us get out of here. I’ll see what I can do to speed this up and maybe even make more of it…” her attention focusing back on the cauldron to the exclusion of all else.

Van took that as his cue to leave. He knew how she could get when she was focused, so decided to just leave her to her thing. As he left the tent he saw Luna take off once more, after talking with Kella a bit, she had made preparations for her departure to save others where she could, not even telling Van anymore when she would leave. But at this point, it didn’t really come as a surprise to him, he just hoped for the best, his heart always tensing up a bit every time he saw her go.

Just then, another goblin came running up to him with a panicked expression on her face. Van sighed. “What is it this time…” he thought.

“Master! Master! There’s another fight in your soul realm! Please do something!” the goblin as she ran up to him, looking at him with pleading eyes and pointing back where she came from in the direction of the portal.

Inwardly sighing Van left with the goblin to see what all the fuss was about this time. Though if he had to be honest, he already had a bit of an idea of what it was…

---

When Van arrived, his suspicions were confirmed. Two groups of insect-kin were arguing and looked on the cusp of a total break out of violence.

One side yelled about how the other started the war, about the lives lost, about the ravages and destruction that the uncontrollable insect hordes created. While the other side yelled about discrimination, persecution, and the release of the red knives.

At the center of it all was Xenith and Anya and a few others like Lyn’s sister trying to calm everyone down. He knew it may not have been such a good idea to save anybody that needed help… but he wasn’t sure if he could just abandon them at the same time…

With that in mind, he saved anybody and everybody he could, not just from the alliance, but from the horde and the few that still tried to remain neutral. Which sadly… brought situations like this along, as, despite the near-extinction event that was happening right now outside the soul realm, the two sides didn’t seem, or want to, put their differences aside and let bygones be bygones…

Van took a deep breath. “ALRIGHT FOLKS, THAT'S ENOUGH! EVERYBODY GO BACK TO YOUR SIDES! WE DON’T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH YOUR BULLSHIT! BREAK IT UP, PEOPLE! ANYBODY WHO REMAINS IS GOING TO BE ZAPPED OUT OF HERE!” he yelled over them, using some of his aura to project his voice.

After the two sides recovered from his aura-induced shouting, they both turned on him, yelling at him how it was the other side's fault, with a few complaining about who the hells he thought he was ordering them about. With a sigh, he pointed at a few and began willing them out of his soul realm. It still stung a bit, but after seeing a few dozen of their friends disappear, probably sent back to that hellscape outside, they got the message and dispersed into a dozen different directions.

“Thanks for that Van,” Anya said with some relief in her voice. “We feared for the worse…”

Xenith nodded. “You really helped us out of a bind…” then looked down, a little guilty and shamefaced. “Sorry about not being able to keep my people in line…”

Anya turned to Xenith. “That’s hardly your fault! We both-”

“Enough…” Van said, cutting them off, surprising them both since it was rare for Van to do something so rude. “Just… tell me what happened…”

They picked up on how tired Van really was and decided to just explain the events that led up to this mess. At the end of it, he couldn’t help but sigh about the silliness of it all and just told them to handle things themselves the best they can, but to call on him in the future should things go south once more. As he turned to leave, Xenith called out to him.

“Hey, Van… I… know I don’t know you well enough to ask this of you… but… if it is okay with you… can you let me out? I don’t plan to betray you or anything but… I’m just really worried about my mother… I would even be willing to tell you how to get to our capital if you promise to help me get to her. Please…” sounding a bit awkward since it was extremely rare for her to ask such a thing of anybody.

Van paused but slowly nodded. “Alright… if we have the time, we’ll go see if we can’t save your mother.” his thoughts falling back on Lyn and wondering how he was going to save her…

“Thanks, Van…” Xenith said, looking a little relieved.

Van nodded and walked away, he had a lot more crap to deal with before the day ended...