The young knight breathed heavily as the shaped smoke receded once more into the darkness, still gripping his spear as he tried chasing after it, to catch a glimpse of where it came from. But it proved too fast for him on the unfamiliar terrain. He was caught by the forest, unable to move past a thick wall of twisted branches and leaves. With one final snarl at the darkness, he lowered the spear to signal the battle was over.

"It's gone... for now..." he muttered slowly, glancing around the red-tinted darkness, "But it would appear that it isn't a sort of invisibility trick at least. My spear struck nothingness. Perhaps it is simply a sleep inducing hex... but why are we resistant to its foul purpose?"

He then knelt beside the still body of metal, flicking the visor of the helmet up and placing a finger underneath his nose. A faint breath. He was still alive. Mikhael lowered his head gratefully, but immediately looked up with a sternness as he tried to wake the man, patting him lightly at first then one hard smack against the cheek. He was out cold. With a sigh, Mikhael climbed himself back to his feet, shooting a look over at Ezekiel.

"More importantly though, what will we do about him?"

...

Ezekial looked over Lucas and picked him up without sparing a second. "We carry him, of course. I doubt this is a simple sleeping hex, else we'd have fallen prey to it as well. This may be a mana font. Maya spoke of it with Joshua and I before. It's a dense mass of arcane energy, used to overcome a person's consciousness. Those who are adept at arcana may be immune to weaker fonts, which might explain why we aren't unconscious. That also might explain why only you can see whatever kidnapped Henry. Your arcana in inherently superior to mine, and it could be a different sort of font, with different effects. It even covers why Henry was the first to fall prey to its whims, as his magical abilities are practically non-existent," Ezekial extrapolated, heaving Lucas over his shoulder. "This cannot be good. If the caster is aware that were are still conscious, they may be able to increase the output, and take us out just as easily as they did Lucas."

Mikhael gave Ezekiel his unwavering attention when the experienced knight explained the magic. He learned a great many things in the personal studies he's indulged in across the years, but none of the countless tombs and scrolls in the library covered something like this. It wasn't the comfy quietness he was used to when absorbing lots of information, but it wasn't the first time he was forced to do things on the fly. Being faced with this extremely tense situation, stuck in a dangerous and unknown place and treading on the edge of life and death, not only his own, but now two others. He had unintentionally started reverting to olden habits of his youth in the slums. His expression was that of constant unease and wariness, frequently glancing over his shoulder and the surrounding forest. He quickly caught himself and straightened out his stance once again.

He nodded his head in understanding at the basic concept of the 'mana font', scowling upon being reminded that their already strained time was shortened even further. He was beginning to worry how Henry was faring in the clutches of their unknown kidnapper. If the boy was harmed in any way, he would never forgive whatever did this. His hand wrapped tight, the dark emotions stirring in his chest again as he began to doubt and fear for the worst.

"Well, we better hurry then." moving under the arm of Lucas to help support the unconscious giant. He didn't have another arm, but he was able to snake underneath his armpit, "Tell me, is there a way to track the font back to source? Does it leave a trace in any way?" he breathed, "If not... we might have to try a more drastic tactic to lure out or little mage."

Ezekial though for a moment, and then reached into the hollow recesses of his breastplate, pulling out Henry's glasses. "We just might," Ezekial muttered, gazing into the enchanted lenses with a great deal of hope.

Ezekial looked to Mikhael, expecting the boy to understand his idea immediately. That's right, Henry's glasses were enchanted to track magic! "Maya be praised," Ezekial murmured, pulled the glasses closer to his eyes, "These might even be able to pick up on the smoke invisible to us. Unfortunately," the royal knight jerked the glasses away from his eyes and blinked uncomfortably, "These lenses blur my vision far to violently for prolonged wear. We may be able to track the source of the mana font if it is used again, but I will not be able to fight with these equipped. I'm still depending on you to guide me, Mikhael."

A few moments later, something began to shuffle across the forest floor, creating a barely audible crinkling sound as it strode through the remains of dead leaves and rotted twigs. Ezekial turned his gaze away from Mikhael, and put the glasses away. The crumpling of leaves stopped, but there was still a very quiet pattering of tiny feet, and it wasn't just a single set. It was hundreds, perhaps thousands, and the number of shuffling steps grew, quickly surrounding the two knights in a sea of subtle noises. There was nothing in sight just yet, but with so much wildlife covered the majority of the upturned dirt, there was no telling how big the approaching creatures were, or when they would be upon them. One thing was certain though, they were ground-bound, at the very least.

He didn't think Henry would leave behind his glasses, looking at Ezekiel for a moment before nodding to the plan.
"Lucky indeed..."

As they proceeded forth, the knight didn't think it was anything at first, the rumbling being that of the forest or his own heartbeat disillusioning him, but the sound quickly became an alarming drum roll as the dark redness shifted around the two. From what he can tell, they were severely outnumbered. Fortunately, the creatures didn't seem to be any large, otherwise they wouldn't be able to hide themselves so easily. He squinted to find anything that could help him determine exactly their enemy, but was forced to make guesses, the mysterious horde lurking in the wild obscurities of the leaves and foliage. It would be foolish to run out and fight, so he gave a look to Ezekiel that said they should stand their ground. He moved over and rested Lucas against a nearby tree, the metal of the spear pointed outwards as he made a stand beside his two companions.

"Well, it's not the best of circumstances to be ambushed..." he muttered, legs spreading in a readied stance, "But this is at least something we can hit."

...

"I hope so," Ezekial muttered, raising his right arm readily. Lucas put quite a bit of weight on his shoulder, making it very difficult to move, but he still had access to his magic. Even if he couldn't use his short sword, Ezekial was a formidable user of Arcana, possibly near the level of Maya herself in his own field of study.

As they got closer, Mikhael and Ezekial could see what they were. Hundreds or thousands of little millipedes, all bright red and skittering through the roots and leaves near their feet. The grew closer and closer, moving to climb the feet of the knights. Ezekial aimed his palm at the ground nearby, and released a torrent of cold air that froze a considerable amount of the approaching critters, but they easily flanked him and went for Mikhael as well. Ezekial began charging his magical power again, but was taken aback by the sheer number they were facing. "I can't freeze them all," Ezekial grunted, "What can we do?"

He felt an uncomfortable jerk rush up his spine when he saw the wormy shapes pour from the woodlands, his face forming a look of disgust at the revealed enemy. He shouted and immediately started at the critters with everything he's got, taking a few steps forward and lunged his weapon into the mass of carapace. The steele point punctured and severed a number of the swarm, the segmented bodies writhing wildly in their dying breaths before being shoved aside by the others pushing up from behind. But he couldn't catch them all, a few sneaking up and latched onto his boots. The knight hopped back and forth to kick them off while retreating at the same time, falling behind to what little ground they had. He was too busy with dealing with them that he only noticed Ezekiel's magic when he felt a chill in the air and the wave before him turning into icicles as a pale gust swept through the forest.

"Whoa..." he muttered, glancing over in awe. But it was not over yet. The magical torrent had stopped many of the insects, but there were still more climbing over their fallen comrades yet. And the elder knight looked like he needed time to cast his spell again.

He scowled at their dire predicament, knowing his own arcana was too dangerous and unpredictable to be unleashed like how Ezekiel had done so just now. Even though his decision was firmly planted in his mind, the presence inside beginning to rise from within his chest and flowing into his head like a ghost stuck inside a cage. But he did not allow it passage, forcing it to the back of his thoughts, the presence reacting with a violent shutter. It pushed at the wedged thought by weighing on his doubt and fears, as though eating at the emotions and growing suddenly.

An unfamiliar voice then whispered at him, similar to his own, but sinister and harrowed through and through.

Use our power... you have little choice... do you not? I suppose... since you like running like a coward so much, why not use the large one as a distraction...? It will take some time for them to chew through so much meat...

Mikhael suddenly cast a strange look at Lucas, eyes glaring hard at the stilled body, but quickly shook his head.
"No, I cannot..." he muttered, looking down with a disgruntled expression.

They really did have no choice. If he didn't do anything, they would be overrun. Without the use of his other arm, he was nowhere near effective in melee as he used to be. With those thoughts, his resistance to the dark feelings faltered as he allowed the presence to flow completely through him, a satisfied sigh passing through his ears as it moved down into his hands. With a short gasp, a golden flame shot from his palm all the way up the shaft. It was surprisingly easy to manifest despite him having only used arcana a handful of times. He didn't feel this dark force trying to take ahold of him either. Did he actually overpower it? Or was this all part of it's little game? He didn't have time to think about it now however, as the rod wouldn't last long, seeing as how the wood was already being eaten away by the brilliant fire, quickly waving it before him to form a flame-like barrier.

"I'll buy us some time!" he shouted, stepping forward and pushing the horde back, "Hope you got another shot left in you...!"

...

Ezekial stepped back at Mikhael conjured his golden flame, taken aback by the sudden magical prowess. The creatures at their feet that still held life stopped and scurried in little U's, turning away from Mikhael's magic in a panic. They didn't go far though, stopping no more than 3 yards away from the flames, afraid to go any closer. But it was not just the fire that deterred the little vermin, it was Mikhael's Arcane energy. The power he'd used to manifest his spell. Ezekial looked onto the bugs in relief, and rose his hand again. He waited, longer this time, to know that they were truly safe, but the bugs did not retreat. Henry's spear however, did not hold for long. Within a minute, it fell apart, and the flames that Mikhael had conjured set a controlled blaze by his feet. The Millipedes took advantage, and flanked around the flames. Were they intelligent? How so? A flower dropped down from behind Mikhael and glared upon the three knights with another human-like eye that glistened against the shine of Mikhael's magic. Ezekial looked up and noticed the subtle glint, twisting his face in horror at what he saw. But now it was time to act. "Jump, Mikhael!" Ezekial shouted, lugging Lucas over his shoulder and sweeping his hand in a 290 degree arc around his body. A wave of frost shot out in all directions, immobilizing and freezing over all the bugs within his radius that clung to the forest floor. Straight afterwards, he flicked the same hand after a short delay, toward the eye in the trees, launching an icicle right against the fleshy substance. The eye popped like a balloon, squirting green liquid before falling from the tree as nothing more than a decrepit lily.

He held the make-shift torch as long as possible, feeling the golden flames singe the flesh of his head, dropping the burnt remains when he can no longer bear the pain any longer. A desperation overcame him as soon as the flames no longer protected them, the buggers taking advantage and immediately charging around the scattered kindles. He tried frantically kicking back a few, but there was simply too many to completely hold back, one managing to slip through his flurry, grabbing hold and starting to rattle up the metal plates. He pulled at the creature with a disgusted snarl, yanking its trashing winding body of legs and casting it into the darkness, stomping down on another that crept from behind. But they kept coming. The unsettling feeling of countless little legs latching onto him made it clear to anyone watching that this was now or never.

His prayers were answered upon feeling a chill build up behind him. At the command from Ezekiel, he quickly twisting his body to fling off the clinging millipedes and bent his legs low. With a heavy clang of metal, he leapt into the air as high as his body could possibly propel him. He watched below as a wave of frosted air swept underneath him at all the surrounding shifting forms, stopping the tide of insects right in their place, landing with a low crunch back on the frozen ground.

He noticed a shard of ice pierce into a dark shape in the distance, turning to Ezekiel while yanking the thin dagger from his boot and approaching the sickly plant.
"What do you propose this is?" looking at the fleshy substance, "Is that... an eyeball?"

Ezekial knelt down and huffed with Lucas still rested against his left shoulder. He reached towards the fleshy plant as it fizzled away, but as he grabbed it, the lily dissolved in his hand. Ezekial kissed his teeth and stood back up. "I don't know. It might have been, I've never seen anything like it before. Maybe it was a creature in and of itself? Or.." Ezekial's eyes scanned the treetops, but he couldn't see anything else between the dark recesses of the leaves. "Somebody might be watching us, through whatever this was." Ezekial continued forward, through the thickness of the forest, urging Mikhael to follow him with a curt nod. "This forest all looks the same to me. If we're already lost, and somebody is watching us, we may never escape its grasp."

The young knight made a sour face at the vanished evidence, but that was not the only thing bothering him. When the urgency of battle drained from his system, an aching suddenly gripped his missing arm. The wound seemed to be burning, a sharp pain as though it was being prodded with a burning hot iron. He was forced to cant his face downwards to hide the pained expression from Ezekiel, but luckily enough, the feeling gave him mercy and subsided. As the pain cleared away, a piece of the weight ever-present in his chest so very slightly lessened along with it. He felt better than he did in a what seemed like a very long while. Perhaps since he had been kindled. Was this a sign that he was overcoming the control of the presence, of his very strange brand of demonization? He felt like jumping in joy at the prospect of a life free from the fear of the wretchedness he bred and housed. But this uplifting feeling washed away as soon as his sense of logic floated back after the tide of optimism quickly drained away.

It can't possibly be that easy.

He quickly joined beside the knight and propped himself underneath Lucas' arm again, giving both of them a look. "Wonder how long he'll be out for... we can't keep lugging him around all night. At this rate, we won't have an strength left to deal with our culprit." he breathed, suddenly getting serious, "...Say, you are one of the finest mage-knights in our order, brother Ezekiel. I'm sure Maya has taught you a great many things. May I ask you something about demonization...?"

As he said this, the dark red eyes glanced over as though in doubt, then turned away, "Ah, forget about it. Let us find Henry first and make it all out alive. Then we can sit and talk."

...

"No," Ezekial urged Mikhael, grabbing his shoulder and stopping his retreat, "No, you may ask as you'd like. With Lucas in Tow, it's best if we pace ourselves. It seems the forest has calmed, at any rate. If there was ever a time for discussion, it would be now." Ezekial trudged past Mikhael, deeper into the forest.

"Ask what you will."

The two knights continued forward. There was no longer a presence watching them, but their path was still unsure. They passed a giant stump, easily the remains of a tree that was centuries old, and then a small purple bush with red berries scattered throughout its breadth. Ezekial nodded and awaited Mikhael to question him, hoping he would be of some service to the young royal knight.

Mikhael shook his head firmly, "It's nothing. I'm fine now." purposefully dodging the topic, "I'm more concerned about how we're going to continue to fight while also protecting Lucas. Do you know any way of snapping him free of this unnatural slumber?"

It was clear he didn't want to talk about the issue, turning his head away. He had begun periodically cutting marks into the sides of the dead trees with his dagger as they went along. After the attack by the swarm of bugs kicked in his old survival sense, he was thinking more like his olden self, the untamed urchin kid that lived purely on refined cunning and resourcefulness. He was mostly paranoid they would get lost here forever if he didn't create any sort of trail leading back, but it would further serve as a good retreating point if things ever got dire. Just as he moved to carve another deep slash into a drooping tree, his eyes looked across the incredibly aged stump and foreign plants in a secluded grove, the sight filling him with a renewed vigor. They were getting deeper. This made it clear they were actually making progress. Even if just a little.

He quickly made the incision and pointed it out, "Older trees. We must be getting deeper in the forest... though I'm not sure if that is a good thing."

Ezekial shook his head, but shared Mikhael's concern for Lucas' well being, and the handicap that he posed. "If it is a magic based in illusion, or attacking the mind in some drastic way or another, the only way to undo it is with equally powerful mental magic. That, or Lucas himself would have to overpower the grasp on his body, which for him, a knight inept at arcana, would be impossible," Ezekial explain. He watched closely as Mikhael notched the passing trees. Hopefully this would keep them from going in circles, but Ezekial was making sure that their path remained true to the best of his abilities. If they were to truly make a circle in the endless trees, it would take hours, if not days. Hopefully the woods did not go on for much longer, though. They had left their comrades behind to fend for themselves. Surely, this could not end well if they dawdled. He remained silent when Mikhael spoke again, for nearly a minute.

"Maya tells me that the Tear's corruption is dormant within us all, and reacts to our body's ability to harness the Arcane. She's told me many things during our time together," Ezekial paused and shook his head, "Though I may not know as much as she, my knowledge is vast. Please, do not hesitate to ask if you must know. I understand that it is frightening, Maya thought it so as well, but this journey is not only for the people of Kale. It is for you."

"I'm thankful for your concern, brother..."

He started, but stopped short, a deep frown pressed against his pale face, "But for now, my only concern is for everyone to be safe."

The young knight continued deeper into the woods, cutting marks upon the trees, pausing periodically to properly find the words that can describe his timid thoughts. "I envy those who are selfless, because I find it hard to be..." he said after a sigh, "I am not the hero everyone deserves... I am cold and heartless, vicious and brutal. I have to remind myself that there are others who want to help me, otherwise I forget. " Mikhael cast a gaze up to the stilled giant resting across his shoulders, "These few, Lilith, Henry, Lucas... I treated them with resent since the begin ing, yet never have they scorned me. To be honest, anyone here is more deserving of the glory... That's why I find it hard to swallow that this is 'all for me'." shaking his head from the gloomy mood, stabbing his spear into the ground to hoist himself up a steep hill they had been working on, "If killing whatever cast this spell will free Lucas and return to us Henry, then that is what I will put all my effort in. We will all see this road to the end, all sharing in the glory together. That much I owe them."

...

Ezekial remained silent, walking alongside Mikhael as he thought over the boy's words. Perhaps now wasn't the time to pry, he simply nodded and looked forward, patting Mikhael's left shoulder lightly, as he readjusted Lucas' weight. "You will eventually see it, and learn to accept the truth that Maya has bestowed upon us, I am sure of it," he said sternly. But something caught his eye as they continued forward. The Tree stump that they'd passed earlier, and the strange bush as well, in the same order. "W-Wait one moment," he stuttered, "Had we not passed these landmarks less than a minute ago?"

Mikhael blinked a few times when Ezekiel pointed out the aged stump. He looked back into the woods they had just passed, seeing his marked trees. Leaving their side for a moment, he stepped forward to get a closer glance at the landmark, "You're right this is the same one as before...!" rushing forward a few paces even further, "And this bush over here too. I remember these red berries!" in a shocked whisper, "But how? I swear I've been marking our path this whole time. There is no possibility we could loop around, we'd see at least one of my gashes beforehand."

He looked at his partner incredulously, "Have we stumbled upon a trap? A spell?"

Ezekial opened his mouth to speak, but an echoed cackle sounded throughout the woods before he could utter a single word. Suddenly, a snaking mist, invisible to Ezekial once again, moved to snatch Luke's body from his grasp, winding up from beneath a set of brambles and roots.

"A trap! A Trap! That's what you've stumbled upon, a trap! You six, all six! Ingredients for a tasty treat, oh ye-he-hes!" The voice was high pitched, and echoed from every direction, as if Ezekial and Mikhael were trapped in a sound-sealed bubble. But aside from the looping surroundings, nothing else seemed off. What kind of magic was this? And powerful enough to ensnare both Mikhael and Ezekial so easily? "No talk, you will tire fast!"

"What in blazes is that?" Ezekial blurted, as the snake-like mist began to encompass Lucas' foot.