"Is everyone alright, can everyone see?"
It was too dark. Even the highly favoured Kiro couldn't see well in the midst of dense trees. He however had vibrations, so he was fine.
Hiro had infused his eyes with the special fire he possessed. Making it easier to see, he was the only one who could see in their group using his eyes.
His was now called Purifye, it was the most pure fire Asgard had. It was white in colour, with purple hints on the sides. It forced his hair and eyes to be the same colour as it.
He did not decide to use it on his hair, it just did all on his own when he activated it. The fire was kind of sentient, it decided all on its own that, its master and his mates needed light.
It didn't shine bright, but it was enough. Little by little vision came back to their eyes. Seeing Hiro's pure white hair they almost laughed, but then the eyes, the eyes were very frightening. They swallowed their mocking thoughts immediately.
"We can now." Nikolai said, suppressing laughter.
"Let's go." Hiro said in a deeper than usual voice.
Kiro looked at him and chuckled. Amused his friend was taking the role way too seriously. He knew that his personality hadn't changed, only his voice. But he'd taken the voice into account and acted accordingly, to maximise his authority.
"Where do we enter? the system said there'd be an entrance, so where is it?" Jorge asked still blinded by Hiro's flame.
He was grateful for the light, but he made the mistake of looking right at it which caused him temporary blindness.
Blind as he was, he wasn't wrong. The trees made it impossible for them to go through and there wasn't a portal like some of them expected there'd be.
At his question, they all looked to Kiro. He was their leader after all, and they didn't know what else they could do. Thanks to his vibrations, Kiro could see that a portal did exist, it just was invisible to normal eyes.
Even with his enhanced eyes, he couldn't see anything. But nothing could ever fool vibrations, unless it was a necromancer.
He simply walked up to the trees, specifically between the two, and shoved his hand through and sure enough, his hand disappeared.
"Here. The portal is here." He said and didn't wait for them to be impressed, he just passed on.
One by one, they went through. Hiro was the last to enter since he was their light. When he got to the other side, they hardly needed his flame anymore. His eyes slowly gained their original colour, so did his hair.
There was no sun, there were multiple moons in the sky though. They fully lit as far as their eyes could see, which wasn't that far since trees were also clustered together here.
Ishaan didn't wait for the rest to agree. Kiro's word was final to him, they were all covered within his shield in seconds. The ones who were heaving had a temporary fix and then suddenly they didn't have air to breathe anymore.
"We're sincerely sorry we weren't strong enough leader. We will work harder to be stronger next time. See you on the other side." One said with his last breath.
Jorge nodded at him, sadness written all over his face. These were the guys who believed in him, even when they couldn't recruit members, they stayed by his side. Believing that he'd take them to greater heights.
They died within seconds of each other and the light took them immediately. Only two were left from Chasing Madness now, this made Jorge panic a little. He didn't want After Dark to do all the work, he wanted to reach the finish line with them.
He stilled his heart and steadied his breathing and they started walking. Kiro logged notes from his status bar, of the moons, the winds and the atmosphere of the place. He didn't trust anyone else to do this, this was a very crucial part of winning. So he used his brains and eyes to observe the peculiar forest.
They weren't affected at all while inside Ishaan's shield, they could walk however fast. They had to keep feeding him potions so they shield didn't dissipate.
The wind got more and more angry it seemed, it was howling. They could almost here its complaints, it clearly didn't like that it couldn't get to them anymore.
Everything it threw at them bounced right back at it. The very ground they stood on was now shaking. The trees were making strange noises.
"No wonder nobody has come back, this isn't easy." Nikolai commented.
They hadn't ran into a single corpse or bones in there. They wondered how that could be, surely, they weren't alive. So then, where were their remains?
The trees were being rooted and thrown at them, but Ishaan's shield persisted. The first tree that hit them scared the life out of the two that weren't used to an almost indestructible shield.
"I have a very bad feeling about this." Kiro unwillingly let out.
He was feeling dread he hadn't felt in a very long time. He didn't know what it was, he preferably didn't want to find out. But he could sense that they were drawing nearer to the trouble.
There were strangely no monsters that pounced to attack them, it was just a strange forest that didn't want visitors.
"I feel it too, I'm very scared for absolutely no viable reason." Hiro answered him.
When the two shared their feelings, the others stopped holding back. Previously afraid that they'd be judged and deemed weak. They also freely raised their concerns. Kiro was recording everything, including what they were feeling or what the forest made them feel.
They hadn't walked long after being sentimental when they were abruptly stopped by a giant cocoon, strung up on the trees. It was alive, the heart beat within it could be heard by all.
"What the f*ck?"