Everyone was still waiting patiently for me to return; in the same place I had left them. I could tell they were ready for anything to happen, their body language tense, their expressions one of concern and curiosity.

I glanced at Arata as I could still feel the released power I had used. I hadn’t used his power like that before, he seemed unfazed by it, perhaps previous masters had used his power like that.

“What?” He snarled as he sensed my gaze.

“Nothing.” I looked forward again, he was still testy.

“Well…” Ibiki spoke first as I approached closer.

“I defeated most of them, but it isn’t over yet, two survived and more maybe coming,” I informed.

“Who was it?” questioned Raoul.

“I do not know, but I have seen this before.” I thought back on it remembering what happened to Queen Daz, wondering how they were making them. “Let us talk in private about this matter.”

Raoul nodded as we headed back to his tent, sitting under the grand tree. I allowed my team to stay with us, feeling they could benefit from this knowledge.

I went on to explain what had happened in the past, with how these clones were created, used for war, leaving out Queen Daz’s fate in the matter, along with my own experience with the vast number when retrieving the winged lions, how unstable they were, compared to the ones in the forest.

“How is that even possible.” Edge looked at me puzzled, perhaps thinking my words were something more out of a story book than actual fact.

“In the time of our first master, it was called dark magic or science depending on your point of view.” Raziel had been the one to respond. “Dark forces seek to keep control of this world and so many lives were lost in their creation of such clones and in the long-forgotten wars.”

“I don’t remember learning about any of this at the academy,” commented Lin.

“You wouldn’t,” I said. “The darkness wants to wipe out the tales of the legendary Fang, in an attempt to wipe out hope itself.” I let out a sigh. “Even I almost let it win.”

“We must locate the source.” Ibiki nodded. Accepting what I had told them.

“It could be anywhere,” said Kiba. “This area of dense forest is huge.”

“Leave finding them to me,” I responded. “I want the rest of you to start patrolling the area and guarding the foraging Pardus.” I would consider those my first real orders. “Ibiki, Edge and Lin, you will take the first patrol. Rex, Finn and Kiba watch over the foraging group.”

“Understood.” They all nodded, getting to their feet and straight to work.

“Quite the loyal lot,” commented Raoul.

“Loyal, a bit early to say, obedient perhaps.” My gaze turned to the great tree. “Do you mind if I started my work here?”

“Not at all,” replied Raoul. “What is it you are planning to do?”

“Thanks to my high sync rate with Larana and Mila, I can use their elements as my eyes in a manner of speaking, but it takes a lot of concentration,” I answered.

“I see, you are becoming much like the Fang from our legends,” remarked Raoul.

“I wouldn’t say that.” I shook my head.

“From what I hear you don’t give yourself enough credit.” Raoul stood up. “Again, thank you for helping.”

“The pleasure is mine.” I slowly nodded in respect. Raoul smiled as he headed off, leaving me alone.

I moved closer to the great tree, placing my hand against its trunk. I felt a twinge within my chest, it was obviously suffering, one thing I was certain about it was infected by the darkness, ridding this place of the problem would resolve the strange sickness the tree seemed to be inflicted by.

I sat in a meditated position, what I was about to try was something I had only read about in books. Talismans were mysterious beings holding more power than anyone could ever imagine.

“You sure you’re ready for this one master.” Larana appeared on Raziel’s head.

“It can be tricky.” Mila also appeared sitting next to me.

“Yeah,” I nodded, glancing at Raziel. “Any advice?”

“Only one thing,” he responded. “Keep a close eye on your energy consumption, the further you look the bigger the toll.”

“Got it.” I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, allowing my energy to flow freely between Larana and Mila. I could feel their energy flowing back through me as I released it, letting it spread out through the village, where I sensed my team, still on the move to their ordered locations.

It continued to spread further out than that, sensing through the wind and water, passing over the site where I had fought against the clones.

Being mindful of my own energy, making sure I had plenty of it for reaching to wherever it was my targets had gone.

It wasn’t too hard to find the dark aura as nothing else came close to being like it, just sensing it through my talismans made my hair stand on end and made my mind almost wonder to a certain Leo, was he behind all this.

“Focus,” whispered Mila. She needed to say no more as my focus returned to the task, I had set myself.

I received thousands of little pieces of information, it wasn’t like physically seeing, but more of the life force of everything, their auras. If I ventured too far from what I was actually looking for my senses would have been blinded by a mass of greens, yellows, reds, and blues. Each tree, animal and plant were different, they might have looked the same, but their life force was different to the individual.

I continued to follow the dark aura, but it led to nowhere, either through the water or the wind, it took me to the same place, nowhere, to a dead end of trees, the aura would stop suddenly then circle around again. With so much more going on as I had gotten closer, it led me to nothing, was there something I was missing?

I heard a snicker and a snarl. I opened my eyes as if waking from a dream.

The first thing I noticed was it was night. I’d spent all day searching, then Edge.

“What were you doing?” he asked.

“Searching for where our targets went,” I answered, standing up, just to stumble.

“Whoa.” Edge quickly supported me.

“I think I over did it,” I admitted.

“I told you to watch it,” remarked Raziel.

“Sorry.” I pushed a little away from Edge. “Was there any sign of anything?”

“Nothing to report, peaceful,” replied Edge. “You, okay?”

“Fine.” I began heading towards out tent back at the heart of the village, explaining to Edge what it was I had been doing, hoping he’d explain it to the others later, so tomorrow I would not have to, meaning I could quickly return to what I was doing until I found my intended targets, they had to be out there somewhere.