The Moonweaver Chronicles Part 16

After what felt like an hour of walking about our camp, I came to a decision. It was clear that there was no getting through this ordeal without fighting. Also, if the creature here was the phoenix from before, in a state strong enough to completely destroy the balance of power on this plane in favour of creatures who are enemies of Rin and Vincent, it was my duty to stop them. Even if not, I should probably help anyway, it sort of feels like the right thing to do.

As I walked in, Rin hugged me. She seemed worried and I nuzzled her neck. I noticed that Vincent was now awake and already seemed to be in the middle of something. He was finishing his work on about four metal bands. He had some leather near him as well.

"You're going to need a weapon" Vincent told me, he had a piece of leather between his hands It was floating in mid-air. Slowly, it began to take the shape of a glove that didn't appear to cover the fingers."Reapers can only be taken out with special equipment forged using a specific quantity of certain metals..."

"That's alright Vincent, you've done enough for me, I can just use my glaive." I told him. I didn't want to be a jerk but my glaive was probably strong enough.

"Ok, so a channeller-class weapon, got it." He told me without looking up, he was quite meticulous and seemed to want to focus mostly on getting the details exactly right. "You can't take out the Reapers without special objects. Even if you only fight your specific quandary, they might have somehow acquired Reaper abilities."

"Why in the world are you at war with these creatures? Why do you call them Reapers and for that matter, why call yourselves Wardens?" I asked, I couldn't help but think this was an awful lot to swallow and I wanted answers now.

"Well you see.." Vincent set down the glove and traced a finger in the dirt, creating a rather large circle. In that circle appeared many figures, taking shapes that I didn't even remotely recognize. "The Forest is a hub that connects to many different planes. As far as I was taught it serves two purposes. It takes in many creatures before they go extinct, giving them a chance to reproduce and a second shot at life. The second, which may or may not be related, is that it is host to hundreds and maybe thousands of different creatures that can't be found elsewhere." The creatures seem to have a semblance of life as they seem to interact with one another and live in harmony.

"The Reapers of life and souls are creatures created from the dark shadow in the soul. Some of them are ancient monsters from time immemorial." A bunch of shadowy creatures with mini scythes suddenly come along and start killing things, a shadow covers wherever they move. "Areas they control have no wildlife whatsoever and are hard for most creatures to even bear." He tapped the ground and suddenly, creatures that emanated a weak amount of light appeared and began slaying the Reapers. "When a Warden purifies an area, slaying the shadows in control of it, they can bring back enough of the creatures to regrow the race and save the species. They are the caretakers of the forest, the protectors."

I stared mutely as he grabbed a piece of metal and squeezed it, when he opened his hand, there was a strange shapeless clump of metal. He offered it to me and when I took it, my glaive appeared before me, looking little like it had ever before. The pole had a metal serpent wrapped around it and it glowed with an ethereal red light. The blade, jutted out before curving down in a straight line and meeting back with the pole, attached by two metal strands and the part on the top. It was my weapon yet so much different from the way I remembered it. The serpents 'grip' on the weapon loosened where I normally held it, creating a handle.

It faded away a few moments after it appeared. A shiny serpentine creature, seemingly made of the same metal he had given me just now, wrapped itself around my left arm. It made me think of Rin.

"I imbued that metal with a property that responds to the energy of your soul. Its constantly leaking out since you don't seem to be able to control it. That's often the case with people who have strong souls that are able to manifest weapons through them. It wouldn't really work on anybody else here."

"Interesting..." I told him, though in truth I was only half listening as I poked this strange metal thing now adorning my arm. "Are there any side effects?"

"You might find that it drains more of your magical energy faster. Its quite a bit stronger though now, but should be far more stable." Vincent informed me.

"Do any of you know where these creatures are holed up?" I asked the room, hoping at least someone here had an idea. I suddenly recalled something that may or may not have been relevant. "They referred to one of their supposed leaders as the fire princess, is it possible there's a castle somewhere not far from here?"

"Actually, the area we were investigating before Vincent came back supposedly had a castle. The information broker that gives us advice on various sections was telling us about strange goings on there." The one called Mira mentioned. I hadn't even noticed her coming in. "It was also perhaps the only one I've seen in the forest. Our parents told us about such things, it was interesting to see for the fist time." She remarked. "I wanted to investigate it but Iggy decided that without Vincent we were outnumbered."

"How long will it take to get there?" I asked, we had to check this place out, it was our best bet at finding what we're looking for.

Before I got my answer, a I heard something that sounded like thunder crashing.