Quirenyun's Imprinted: Heaven's Auxiliary

I need to ask

Why does evil hide behind that familiar smile?

Why does war go on?

Why do the trees around me have hanging human fruit?

I need to ask,

Will fate answer my questions?

Or turn another dear thing against me?

Wealth is a fickle game changer. ​

Chapter One: The Rules of Nature

Spoiler

If it weren’t for the narrow pathway of trees, one of the two may have gone insane with the lack of breathing room to function.

Humidity stuck around still air upon which Raiden and Lucea’s face glittered with droplets of sweat. They trecked on down thick foliage with the only light aiding them coming from an intricate network of glowing blue vines. All of the vines and trees glowed spectacularly with mana and provided a sense of security for Lucea and Raiden in the Forest of Tears. Though its calm atmosphere seemed appealing, the two carcuses of freshly killed soldiers the young Diclonius had taken out was a chilling reminder of the conflict they had been thrown into. This was their battle ground. Various moments of silence shrouded the two operatives that showed how little they knew about properly communicating beyond their line of work. Both Raiden and Lucea had their attentions fixed at the road ahead from time to time. The only moments where they would engage in a conversation would be to inquire more about the plane crash. With great care during their travels down the narrow pathway,  Lucea stomped forward through each root trying to trip her over while her fingers tinkered around with the silver surface of the sickle blade. Intense. Interesting. Intent on trying to unlock its secrets while Raiden muttered on about Xanadu’s whereabouts and the situation they lived just more than an hour ago. One of various moons, often nicknamed Georion after their god of reincarnation, rose to it’s highest point in the sky just enough to penetrate the blanket of leaves. Raiden slashed one vector out in front of him rather harshly to cut through the vines and with a growing annoyance he was nursing for the ridiculous amount of crap he had to walk over. He stopped.

“These turns of events are like a nightmare…”

Lucea hummed to herself momentarily but then caught Raiden’s words for a brief second. It all processed. “Raiden--” He had just finished explaining the situation to her and when the pieces of the puzzles fell in line, the Photoimperist puckered her lips and took a deep inhale when realizing the actual gravity of losing Paperblack. “A nightmare doesn’t come close to what I see right now.” She looked annoyed as she spoke to herself. “A plane of ours was sabotaged and utterly destroyed. Ms.Paperblack is suddenly missing-- Now.  How do you suppose we go about this problem?”

“I--”

“On top of this growing problem involving our vampire loose in this forsaken forest, we have a timed mission to complete. “ Raiden shuttered and weighed in the possibilities. She was right, they were under a limited amount of time. A life depended on how quickly they were to complete the mission. Yet a sensation in Raiden’s stomach churned whatever he had inside and gave him an ill feeling. Xanadu Paperblack was out there. She was out there. Blood was her goal when coming with them. All the reminder of that led his eyes towards his shoulder where the blood continued to flow in a steady pace. Raiden winced while Lucea looked up to observe the boy from a closer angle. “Three things to worry about.” Lucea whispered by herself to which Raiden responded with a grunt and the intention of moving on regardless of his injury. “Ignore it. My best bet to where the prison camp might be is inland over there--” He points east. “-- If we locate the camp soon, we might find Ms. Paperblack around there.”

Lucea gave a nod, shoving a long branch away from her face. “Hiding among the masses for blood?” “Predictable action for the unpredictable...its convoluted thinking but it makes sense.”  

After all, Raiden felt her intentions mirrored his own in an uncanny way. Though he was in control..who was to say that Raiden’s thoughts never wandered off into a territory where his only goal was carnage. A long walk with sweat dripping down was no place for a Diclonius to get lost in deep thought and neither was it for Lucea. Their walking came to a halt and a realization that the night felt never ending. “So..” Raiden’s hand swept up his face to pull back some strands of moist hair obstructing his view. “I’ve never been in these types of situations. How long do these missions typically take?”

“On average 48 hours depending on the severity of the situation.”

The diclonius rose a brow. “Oh?” Lucea stopped to place a hand on a tree trunk for leverage. Her entire body felt unusually drained from all the effort she put into walking alone. There was so much sweat dropping down her face. A mere reminder to herself that hydration was something she soon had to address.

“How are you holding up?” Lucea casually asked.

“I can still keep walking. I’m just a little tired.”

Lucea narrowed her eyes. “I was talking about the wound. But good for you. Your determination is a nice trait.”

There was a stinging and utterly loud conscious voice yelling at her to stop and take a break. She sighs “There was only one other time I was sent out of the country, though it wasn’t exactly serene as Kyuwan forest.”  

“Where was that?” Inquired Raiden. Lucea narrowed her eyes when remembering the land she set foot on. “The arctic regions. There was a uranium smuggling ring carrying out transactions there. Heaven knows why. The Icelands were barren and a typical place for an evil to hide.”

Lucea pulled out a canteen of water and took a small sip of water from it. Delicate white fingers made sure to wipe away any stray water drops to not make such a mess. She thrusted out her arm to offer the diclonius a sip, something that he refused by pulling up a hand to block the canteen. Lucea turned her head at Raiden and observed him for a moment. Raiden seemed new and confused for his first mission but was obviously trying to mask it with a hard and controlled attitude. He couldn’t fool her. Lucea could recall when she was sent off for the first time. Not being vocal about insecurities was her escape back then. There was an ounce of sympathy she gave in the form of biting her lips a little. Though she couldn’t just allow that to become a reason to coach him through absolutely everything. The diclonius had to learn all the rules of the field on his own like she did. It was a hard, painful series of lessons all operatives had to learn.

She turned away and looked up at the canopy of mana vines flowing above her.  “I just don’t get it..why would anybody build a base in here? The nature contrasts the deathly intentions these terrorists hold.”



“...Its an unlikely place for an evil. I can see why someone would..” Raiden muttered. “The networks of mana here are amazing for a power source if they run by tha--”

Lucea pushed herself off the tree trunk and continued her way forward. “Shh. That is something we should further discuss after we cover more ground” Lucea asserted as she suddenly heard footsteps from afar. Raiden quickly turned his head to the west and acknowledged the out of place noise Lucea heard. His lone vector tensed up. Lucea reduces her voice to a whisper “Now, should we continue inland like you said?”

“Mhmm.” Raiden tilted his head but gave a nod soon after, slightly intrigued by Lucea’s focus. Raiden moved right ahead and released two more vectors in shape of fine blades to hack and chop whats left of the vines. “If those footsteps get closer, let me handle it..” he said with a lingering whisper, dripping with an emotionless request and a venom that did not seem right. Raiden’s thoughts unwillingly shifted to the sensation of crushing a man to death or twisting a man’s neck until the sweet crack manifested. His eyes widened upon his thoughts with legitimate surprise. What was he thinking? Why?

Did Raiden regain some of his desire for violence?

-----------------------------------------

“I think we could rest here,” Raiden puffed out in exhaustion. The diclonius collapsed against a large boulder brimming with glowing red moss and strange vines. The duo looked around in what seemed to be a decent clearing with towering trees surrounding a particular giant oak. Lucea flinged her hand up to solidify what little light that was availible into a dagger and began making her way to the oak tree. “You see that..? I see some Delflowers.”

Raiden looked up to see what Lucea was pointing at. Red flower petals as big as a table wrapped around by a glowing vine by the bottom end to keep it together. The aroma wafting in the open air from the Delflower was sweet enough to remind Lucea and Raiden of honey. Lucea walked closer to where the Delflowers were located at with her dagger gleaming with blue light. Meanwhile, Raiden had to ask. “Delflowers are good for protein and sugar, right?”

“Wrong. A Delflower’s nectar provides a great antibacterial serum to stop infections.” She looks back at Raiden. “I’ve never seen one up close before…anyway”


“We can’t have that wound stay fresh any longer. Who knows what kind of sick things have entered there.” The thought of maggots and other disgusting things momentarily made Lucea feel sick, but she moved forward to graze the surface of the Delflower’s scarlet and silky-soft petal with her fingers. “Thats an important rule to learn when out in the battlefield. You cannot leave wounds unattended.”

She could feel it right on her fingers. A syrup-like substance stuck onto her like glue as the honey aroma intensified significantly. A little too much, to be exact. Lucea rose a brow and inched her dagger closer to proceed cutting at the petal, but then something unexpected jolted the woman into yelling out in pain. “Lucea?!” he yelled out and jumped right up with a vector darting out from his back. The Delflower’s honey syrup had solidified along with the flower completely closing on Lucea’s hand, clamping onto it harshly. Lucea felt what seemed to be sharp needles pierce through her very uniform and into her arm. The fear that she soon expressed by widening her eyes intensified ten fold with the sensation of something icy cold seeping into her bloodstream, but Lucea no longer wanted to feel that sensation. On reflex, the woman sliced through the stem to detach herself from it and tripped back.  The flower began to excrete what seemed to be blood from both the severed flower and the stem.


Lucea stabbed the dagger into the flower over and over to remove it from her arm. Her voice shook “G-GET AWAY F-FROM HERE!”

“LUCEA!” A vector dashed right past Lucea’s form and the ground shook. Everything was happening so quickly until time slowed down to reveal a reptilian beast emerging from the forest’s ground.