Paulio and James turned towards the camp with a highly alarming sense of urgency. In an instant, the trees shift in a quick clockwise rotation, and another layer of trees behind shifted anticlockwise. The speed slowly increased as the camp seemed to slowly fade like an illusion, an object of imagination. James' eyes widened in surprise as he realized.
"Hmm. An illusion?". James asked in surprise. --No, that's not right--
"No, we have been teleported away," Paulio said calmly. His eyes contained a subtle cold light. They had been transported further away from the camp. --When did we get teleported away? How did we not feel any mana fluctuations--. Paulio's eyes darkened. "It seems our enemy has more understanding of his forest". Paulio said a subtle smile appeared on his cold, calm face. --It seems our opponent is stronger than we thought--. A forest can only be strengthened by those with an understanding of their own abilities. The higher the understanding of one's abilities, the more connected they are to the forest, the stronger they and their forest become. --This is indeed a problem-- Paulio shook his head in understanding, as to why James was panicking. Paulio watched James through the corner of his eyes. Even tho James was not physically panicking, his heartbeat was beating louder than its usual calm. Paulio breathed out a sigh.
"I can hear your panicking heartbeat, you know. How did you ever make it into being an assassin? You should have just been a priest. A feminine-looking priest," Paulio said with a dirty look. James shook his head in indignation. Paulio laughed out before getting dropped-kicked by James. Paulio hit into a tree. The tree shook violently, as the purple pulses flowing through suddenly started flowing faster each second. The roots of the tree wrapped themselves around Paulio. Paulio's smile vanished, and he looked towards the tree.
"Hey Buddy, who brought you into the conversation?". His smile widened as his body shot out bright rays of light. Paulio breathed out as he brushed the roots of himself. He then walked towards James in feigned anger. Paulio held Jame's front collar with his two hands.
"Are you trying to kill me?" He yelled, his eyes full of excitement, betraying his angry look.
"Sorry, Sorry, Look on the bright side". James pointed in the direction where Paulio had been trapped. It then showed the tree exploding violently along with other trees behind it. The explosion caused dust to cover their proximity in darkness. At the end of the darkness was a light. Paulio slowly placed James back on the ground. He placed his hands on his waist, laughing in amusement. James eyed Paulio closely --He looks awfully excited--. James thought as he brushed off dust from his clothes. He sighed in frustration. James and Paulio turned towards the camp running on the bare patch of land that Paulio had created. The now bare patch of ground, which had normal muddy sands, slowly began to grow dark purple. The ground shook as trees began to sprout. James and Paulio dodge with pure perfection. As they navigated through the tree. Paulio turned back at James, calling out.
"Better hurry up, James." James rolled his eyes, ignoring Paulio. His eyes were fixed ahead.
"Paulio…" James called out.
"I know," Paulio cut him off. The reason? Up ahead, the bright yellow light that illuminated the camp had turned a bright purple, and little embers of yellow light were slowly dying out.
"This is impossible". Paulio breathed out in surprise. James understood why Paulio was shocked. The mission was supposed to be a general-level threat. Escort the bastard noble, help him kill a monster plaguing a village, and let him emerge a hero, showing the public that he had turned over a new leaf. But what they saw now was a stark contradiction to what they were told. --Did these bastards rally hold out on us? Or did they make a mistake? No, Impossible, they wouldn't have been able to make such a blatant mistake-- James' eyes shook in disbelief. The color change illuminating from the camp ahead was so gut-wrenching that Paulio and James stopped at a breath's distance away from the camp. In the entirety of Sanctuary, there was a spell or an artifact of sorts that was used to complete missions, its use likened unto that of a beacon. This magic artifact was used to protect enforcers and other participants on their missions. The beacon was placed in another artifact created from the sands of time. It was a storage artifact made from time magic instead of space magic. Whatever is placed within the lamp artifact is ostracized from the world completely, making it impossible for anything or anyone to affect it. It also prevents whatever is inside the lamp from affecting reality. A perfect fit for something like the beacon.
The beacon, A gift of appreciation from the fairy Queen after being saved by the king of the Empire. This beacon wasn't just a token of appreciation. It represented the passion that had ignited within her to protect her benefactor, a form of reciprocation. The queen had condensed a tiny percentage of her fairy light, handing it over to the empire. The fairy Light, an ability that is born from high-level spirit beings, is formed from the sheer will of their existence. Such a powerful will that affected reality itself was what made the spirit species one of the feared creatures to exist. That sliver of fairy light contained an endless flame that never quenched. The flame had only one desire to evolve and reproduce, becoming the mother beacon. The flame is placed in a much larger magical artifact that contains the magic of time. The lamp is then placed within the flame, taking a piece of it, forming the beacon. That's all Paulio knew. What he saw now was beyond his understanding. The beacon was known to adjust to its wielder's strength, not just in protection, but in the detection of danger. Which means that the beacon would scan the owner's magic signature, deducing the owner's abilities. And then scans the surrounding proximity for threats. If there was no threat, the beacon would have a green light; if there was mild danger, the beacon would burn yellow, orange for high-level dangers, red for certain death, and black for human extinction. Upon reaching the levels of certain death or human extinction, the beacon would alert the mother beacon at the Sanctuary's Headquarters.
What James and Paulio saw now was the beacon glowing a dark purple. Purple didn't exist. It was unheard of. Even in the stories of all the fellow enforcers, they had never mentioned dark purple. Paulio guessed whatever had created the forest had somehow contaminated the beacon. --This is bad news-- One had to know the fairy queen was the mother of all spirits. The progenitor of all the beings of the spirit race. It would take a very powerful entity to be able to cause a reaction from the beacon. Paulio and James slowly approached the camp. As they reached the entrance, their eyes widened at the scene before them. Large wooden spikes poked out of the tents. Human figures hanging from the spike, the spike protruding from their bodies.