Dana opened her eyes within the fortress, nodding her head in satisfaction. “Okay! Looks like it worked out alright.” She said, having been watching the event unfold from a safe distance. She didn’t want to take the chance that anyone within the dwarven camp would be able to sense her, as unlikely as it was.

“They accepted your demands?” Tsubaki asked in surprise, having been fully prepared to make her own demonstration if they did not ‘see reason’.

“Yup! It helped that I had a few extra monsters to spare. I’ve attached a shadow dragon to the shadows of each of the messengers and given them clear orders. If the person they’re attached to raises their arm like they were told, they will emerge and put on a display. If the person they’re making that display towards still tries to be stubborn about it… well, the Ashenborn are energy beings, so it’s fine for the shadow monsters to eat them. It will serve a good warning to others, as well!” Dana nodded her head happily as she said that, apparently seeing nothing wrong about the ordeal.

Tsubaki merely nodded her head. “In that case, do you need to recall the Stone Father before we leave?”

Dana thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head. “You go on ahead. I’ll stay here just to make sure the little ones don’t get too disobedient. Let the boss know that I’ll be back at the Citadel once I take care of things here. Should be just a few days, probably.”

Tsubaki nodded her head, looking carefully at Dana. It was rare for her to volunteer to stay away from the Citadel, but she seemed quite happy with her decision. Thus, she merely nodded her head. “Very well, then. I will let him know on your behalf.” Tsubaki said, her body shimmering briefly before it entirely disappeared.

Giles sat across from Sprigga, the latter reading through a document that had been delivered to her. “Is everything okay?” The half-merkin asked curiously. He had managed to integrate himself into the society of his people, operating as an intermediary between the merking and the sylvans that managed the underwater forest in which they lived.

“Hmm? Oh! Yes, everything’s fine!” Sprigga said with a brilliant smile, which faltered after just a moment. “Things are just a little weird, is all. These reports don’t make any kind of sense.”

“What’s wrong about them?” Giles asked, moving over to sit next to Sprigga so that he could look at the report himself. They were in a rather large lounge built into the great tree, with a large circular couch, so the was plenty of room.

Sprigga smiled a bit more as he came closer, before directing her attention to the reports again. “Some of the workers have gone missing, but we haven’t noticed any kind of monster within the forest. In fact, it’s hard to even really call them missing in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” Giles was quickly becoming confused by the subject, not sure what the problem was, or rather what he could do.

“Well, there is no sign of any violence, and the workers don’t appear to be registered with the Mother Tree. Oh! Ah, when we’re born, one of the first things we do by instinct is to touch this tree, so that our minds can be connected with the rest of the forest. However, there is no trace of the minds of any missing workers having ever been present.”

“Could they have been sent to another forest?” Giles asked, doing his best to be helpful in the situation, but Sprigga simply shook her head.

“No, neither myself nor Carol have sent anyone away. It’s just… like all traces of them have vanished. The only reason we even know that they’re missing is because of the discrepancy in the numbers. There are roughly ten percent less workers than there should be for a forest of this age.”

Giles furrowed his brow at that, his webbed fists clenching. “Is it… possible that a god has gotten involved? My father was abducted by one some time ago, so maybe someone has taken an interest in Sylvans now?”

The plant-like brow of Sprigga scrunched up, and she placed her hand on the wooden table before her. “No… the Mother Tree is somewhat divine herself. It’s unlikely that someone would be able to take away her children without leaving any sort of trace behind. While it’s not impossible, I’d like to rule it out for the time being. If we can’t think of anything else, I’ll ask for an investigator to come and see if there are any traces I can’t detect.”

Giles shook his head, not having any other ideas for the moment. The green Sylvans, known as the ‘workers’ by Sprigga, had very little personality traits of their own. Typically, they didn’t even have their own identity, simply a part of the greater network that was the forest. “Are there any missing from the scholars or the guards?”

Sprigga blinked, placing her hand on the table again and focusing. “Currently, we possess roughly two hundred and twenty thousand scholars… but a grove of this age should have roughly three hundred thousand. As for the guards… taking into account those that have perished in combat… we seem to be missing five thousand? Adding in the missing workers, that’s nearly two hundred thousand sylvans that have just… disappeared?”

Giles blinked his large eyes at that, pulling out his terminal and looking at the news, flipping through various articles. “I’m not seeing anything about a rising rate of missing persons… can you contact the other forests, and ask them if they’re experiencing something similar?”

Sprigga nodded her head, focusing and sending a message through the new system. Giles waited patiently next to her as she contacted various other forests, before shaking her head a few minutes later. “None of them are seeing anything strange about their own numbers. Maybe it is a new monster that has appeared in the waters here, able to devour people without a trace?”

“Possibly… there are some monsters like that in various parts of the world.” Giles nodded his head, having heard stories of such creatures before. “But even then, most of them would leave some traces--”

“Just a moment!” Sprigga interrupted him, golden eyes wide. “I just got an update from Claret of Fortune. She’s helping Helena of Beasts manage a forest in this world. She’s saying… she ran another check just now out of curiosity, and the numbers don’t match. It’s only a few, but there are workers and scholars that went missing in just a few minutes.”

Giles looked confused at that. Just as they had settled on the idea that it was a new monster in the area, the same effect appeared somewhere entirely unrelated? And… only moments after the news reached that region? “That timing is… too good to be a coincidence.”

“It… couldn’t be a void beast, could it?” Sprigga asked in a hushed tone. “I read that they can spread their effects simply by having information about them passed on.”

“It’s possible.” Giles had to admit that the claim wasn’t baseless. “However, you’d think that there would be reports of people missing elsewhere in the world, unless this was the point it first spread from.”

After saying that, Giles shook his head. “Even then, though, the Guardian should be preventing any directly harmful void beasts from attacking the world.”

“Maybe… maybe it’s not harmful?” Sprigga suggested, tilting her head and blinking slowly.

Giles raised an eyebrow at that, wondering how this could be defined as not harmful. “Hear me out.” Sprigga explained. “Maybe they’re not gone… if the void beast isn’t killing them, it might have slipped through the Guardian’s watch? Maybe… maybe we just can’t detect them?”

“That… makes some sense.” Giles admitted. “But how would we prove that? Without knowing where one of the missing sylvans are, we can’t perform any tests like asking them to show their presence indirectly. Either way, they aren’t here anymore. Functionally, that is the case regardless of the current scenario. If the void beast is making them undetectable, then getting rid of it could solve the problem. Otherwise… getting rid of it could just prevent it from spreading further.”

“Either way, we have to defeat it, huh…?” She smiled bitterly. “I don’t know any fallen gods, do you? How do we get rid of it?”

Giles thought about that for a moment, before pulling up a new site on his terminal. “We have to contact the Starry Night church. They’re the only one with reliable ties to fallen gods. If we explain the situation to them, they’ll surely get involved.”

Sprigga’s eyes went wide, and she quickly nodded her head in agreement. “That’s great!” As she said that, Giles was already typing out a message to the church of Leowynn.

“Hmm? A potential void monster with harmful properties?” A priest of the church muttered to himself when the report came in. “Details… oh, wait, better add the filter.” He placed a hand on his chest. “Oh Goddess of the Void, protect me from any harmful influences that may seek to befall me at this time.”

Soon, he could feel the swift response of his goddess, a holy aura wrapping around him. “There, that should do it. Now, let’s see… roughly ten percent of a sylvan forest’s population has disappeared without a trace? And the disappearances spread to another forest after asking for reports of similar incidents? It certainly sounds like it could be a void problem, that’s true… I’d better push this report up.”

The man closed his eyes, activating the private messaging system. Holy Cardinal, I have received a troubling report about a potential void monster that has bypassed the Guardian’s watch. I would like to petition for Strea to investigate, with your permission.

Although Strea and Lyra were two fallen gods in service to Leowynn, they often helped out with the smaller matters of the church whenever it came to something in their field of expertise. Typically, this meant investigating any suspicious void beast reports. For this reason, they had added most of the support staff to their contacts list as soon as it became available, that way reports could quickly be sent to them. Of course, said staff members still sought permission before asking the aid of one personally trained by their goddess.

You may. The voice of the Cardinal came in, making it clear that she was giving her permission to employ the fallen deities. If there is truly a problem with the Guardian, we need to know immediately.

Yes, Holy Cardinal. The man nodded his head, ending the conversation before switching to a different contact. Strea, Fallen of Leowynn. I would like to beseech you for aid.

A black portal emerged next to the man, closing just as quickly and surprising him. When he turned to look, he could see the smiling figure of Strea, her hair as dark as the night she represented. “Jaden, wasn’t it?” She asked, arms crossed behind her back. “How can I be of service?”

Jaden smiled, surprised that Strea even knew his name. “Yes, thank you. There is a troubling report that I would like to ask you to look into.” As he said that, he directed her attention to the report on his screen. “There is information of a potential void beast, so--”

“No need to worry.” Strea shook her head with that same smile, leaning closer to look at the report. “I asked for the blessing before I arrived. Let’s see… oh, yes… that is troubling.” She said, her face surprisingly close to Jaden’s as she read through the report.

Once she was done, she stood up fully, nodding her head with vigor. “Alright! Leave this to me.” After saying that, she tore open a void portal behind herself, looking back at Jaden. “I’ll be back once I have some news.”