Kaida was the first to rush forward in rapid flight, followed closely by a silent wolf sprinting through the wild grass.

Lia stayed together with Denki and Ipo as she wasn't sure what to do here— having a feeling she could easily join the two in battle, yet something was pulling her back.

Maybe it was the intense evil aura this thing had...

So this is what but a scattered fraction of Tylluan's old toxic magic can do? What a frightening sight.

So she stood there, holding her position at the sidelines, observing the fight from afar.

If she'd say the sight wasn't pretty, she'd be lying. It was a display of skilled marksmen downing a beast with swift lethal grace.

Lia followed Kaida's sharp movements in the air surrounding the beast of darkness and light, quick turns and sudden nosedives made to confuse and avoid any hits while slicing the spirit with whips made of shadows.

Ray was waiting to get a clean kill while his sister managed to keep the spirit-creature's attention.

It felt like it was over in mere seconds.

The wolf charged right at the core of the beast, still screeching in agony by the blight's doing before it stilled with a choked breath. Ray had hit true, the glowing pure core of the spirit beast was now in his snarling muzzle.

The black wolf pushed through the dissipating body of light and stars, landing on the ground in a rapid sprint– away from the blight's source.

The dragon mage was still in the air, having done her job she looked out on the remains of the blight. It was still alive– if you could call it that, it was swirling at the loss of it's catch.

Like boiling ink tainting the land in anger.

"Everyone okay?" Kaida shouted, Ray was slowly walking in circles, cooling down. Lia had stayed put with the denkyr and Ipo, but was now making her way over to the wolf.

Though Kaida's question didn't get answered, nobody shouted back that they weren't okay so she took the silence as a positive one.

When Kaida joined Ray and Lia in the grass she noticed Ray still gently holding the spirit-creature's core in his jaws.

The dragon mage held up both hands like a bowl underneath the wolf's mouth, "Can you hand that to me Ray?"

He held her gaze shortly before dropping the small bulb of light into her palms. It didn't have any weight to it, and it barely touched her skin as it was floating just above her hands.

Kaida looked down at the pure core, safe and untainted. "Well, it's still alive—" she blew a short strong puff of air at the white streak of hair that fell into her face.

"It's like the stars I saw..."

Both Kaida and Ray turned to Lia, who looked as if she hadn't even realized she'd said that out loud. "Sorry?" Kaida asked. Care to elaborate on that mystery girl?

"Oh– I said it looks like a little star."

Alright then, keep your secrets. She'd ignore it for now, though Ray gave a knowing look, even in his wolf form it was clear to see.

Before either could say anything the little spirit orb started glowing brighter.

Everyone squinted their eyes as the light of the fallen spirit grew even smaller, more concentrated– before two little blue dots blinked open.

"Hello there little one, I'm sorry about your former form needing to be neutralized, it was tainted by the blights," Kaida explained to the spirit light, "I hope you can forgive us for the necessary evil we had to commit, may you grow to be an even greater spirit beast with the time of our moons at your side." She bowed her head.

What a nice way of saying; hey sorry I just killed you, hope you get well soon!

So turns out Kaida could be respectful if given a reason to... Apparently these spirit-creatures were a bigger deal than Lia had thought.

The small spirit– looking a lot like the ones Lia encountered in the forest on the way to Capricorn's library– closed its eyes again and started floating off, drifting in the gentle breeze around them.

Ray shifted back into his human self, immediately stretching while some joints cracked. "We're all okay?" he asked, eyes drooping a little in exhaustion.

Kaida cracked her hands, "What do you take me for?" she mused, "Not even a scratch."

Maybe she'd worried over nothing, even if Jay's words may be true– these two seem pretty capable and scarily levelheaded in battle. "That was intense, but I wasn't even involved with the fight so I'm fine."

Kaida laughed and swatted her hand through the air as if to brush off Lia's words, "You did just right, we haven't ever trained together, let alone fight! Uffern–! We don't even know if you can fight or what your magic entails exactly." The girl huffs, putting a hand on Lia's shoulder, "If you butted in you could've gotten seriously hurt by either the spirit beast or Ray 'n I, so I'm glad you were out of the way."

That should be insulting to hear but somehow the sincerity Kaida put into her voice made it sound like a good thing– a compliment almost.

"Oh and better get used 'intense'," Kaida continued, "Blights have been around for a long time now. They're the work of Tylluan and still going strong, affecting a lot of land and all that lives there... even though he's been dead for ages," she spat.

Not according to Capricorns theory, "Supposedly," Lia chimed in.

"Apparently." Ray's voice sounded. "Let's get a move on, we got of track," he decided, pulling out the map Capricorn had given to them.

Ipo flew towards him, hovering near the map and pointing at random marks.

We're just moving on from that?

Kaida was already starting to walk in front of her brother, even though he had the directions. Lia began to follow when Denki let out a small and sad 'merp'.

She looked back to where his head was pointed to and saw the small ball of light floating higher and higher.

Lia hoped it'd grow into a healthy big creature like Kaida had wished for as well.

"It's okay Denki, it'll be fine now."

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"You're allowed not to be okay after what you just saw."

Lia turned to look at Ray, who had slowed down his pace to walk next to her. She couldn't find the words to respond. Did she look broken up about what happened? Lia didn't think she did...

She looked at the track ahead of them without answering, the taller grass making travel progressively harder.

Ray seemed to realize he'd probably been wrong to assume, "Sorry, I– yeah... Seeing how you were all happy with your new friend here–" he gave Denki a scratch under his chin– "and then suddenly this happens not even two uairs after, usually people don't witness a spirit-creature being blighted– let alone being killed." Ray sounded cautious and a bit hurt, he probably felt pretty bad about the situation himself.

"And reborn," Lia stated, looking up at the sky where the little light had disappeared to. "Bright and healthy, without a toxic curse tainting its being."

She looked back towards Ray– hoping to catch him smile at that thought, but he had this genuine and kind of pained expression she was confused to see on his face.

He saw her meet his gaze and quickly looked off to the other side, "Just because it ended up being alright doesn't mean you have to be fine with what happened."

Now he's just making her feel worse because he's acting all gloomy and broody. "Thanks for the concern but even if I did think it all happened too fast for me to fully catch up to— I have nothing much to be sad or angry about." She closed her eyes with a pleased smile, maybe even a bit cocky in the hopes she'd stunned Ray out of wallowing.

A few noises were made to her right, someone struggling to form a sentence, "Okay," Ray eventually settled on, to Lia's slight amusement. "Yeah, okay, just checking in." The poor guy scratched the back of his neck, probably in some minor embarrassment.

Still sweet of him though.

"Sure thing, thanks again," she smiled, watching Denki happily waddle through the grass in front of her.

The green was starting to get thicker as they got closer to their destination, the big forest could be seen in the near distance already.

"We're almost there, look— that massive tree is the heart of Sagittarius' forest," Ray said, pointing at a giant red willow tree, it stood taller than all the other treetops by a big margin, almost half as tall as the tallest trees.

Lia took in the beautiful sight, "Incredible," she muttered.

Walking over all the plants and uneven dirt paths took some focus if you didn't want to trip, which was why most of the last uair had been a silent endeavor. Though now that Ray had awkwardly started a conversation it felt weird not to talk.

And he looked kind of glum now that he wasn't walking in front of her and Lia could see his face.

"Are you okay?" she tried, Lia saw him school his expression before he looked up at the sky– to his sister soaring up high to keep a look out for blights or other dangers.

"I am," he started, giving her just a glance of eye contact before looking off to the forest ahead, "This sadly wasn't the first time Kaida and I downed a corrupted spirit beast."

He sighed dejectedly, "Not all of them turn out like this."

Not all of them get a second chance— and that hurt Ray to think about.

Lia believes trust must be earned and as she keeps learning more about Ray– so far without much negative or worrisome things to consider– she's starting to think about her prior distrust and how it may not be so warranted anymore.

"You two only tried to help them," she spoke, earning her a wide-eyed look, "I think even death may be more of a mercy than being blighted for the rest of its painful existence."

Ray didn't immediately know what to say to that and Ipo didn't like the mood the two had created one bit. So it decided to put leaves in Ray's fluffy tufts of hair.

Lia couldn't help the smile as she forced a laugh down, making Ray look up with a sad smile of his own, "That may be true, but killing a spirit-creature..." His smile dropped, "It makes your own spirit's magic cry out in anguish over the loss of a star."

Oh—

"That sounds awful."

Ray hummed in agreement, letting Ipo sit on his head as it patted him sadly.

Lia can't even feel or hear her spirit, she can't really imagine how that'd feel. Something inside you– something that's not you, but is very connected to you, screaming and mourning a star?

"Wait— a star?" she questioned, "They are the same as the falling stars that grant people their magical spirits?"

Ray looked a little dumbfounded at her revelation, "In a way, yes. The core of a magical creature— be it big or small, young or ancient– turns to the night sky when it dies. Then comes back down when it deems the time is right, in the form of a magical spirit for the people or to become a spirit-creature."

Then... should she be glad there's so many stars shining at night?

"So that little orb of light left..." she trailed off, Ray hummed in confirmation and finished her thought, "Was that same core of magic, able to start growing into a spirit-creature once again."

And Ophiuchus was a constellation... would that mean it'd have multiple cores as a spirit-creature? She had seen a body of light though, no little star other than the ones that turned into warped memories—

"Y'know, it's kind of weird talking about spirits with someone," Ray laughed, probably hoping to lift some of the tension, "I mean in the way that we are right now. It's normal to talk about your own magical abilities and such," he went on, "But actually discussing what basic understanding we have of spirits– it's something almost everyone knows, but usually doesn't really debate about."

Hah, she hadn't really thought about that. "Well, I imagine there's people like Capricorn who'd love to talk more in depth about spirits."

Now he actually smiled, glad to know grandpa Giles still had that effect on people, "Yeah, scholars or witches specialized in spirits I guess–"

Kaida's loud yelling boomed over whatever Ray wanted to say, "Hey small ground critters! We're here!"

He rolled his eyes, "You're the smallest critter out of everyone I know." Ray thought out loud, not enough volume for Kaida to pick up on, but it did earn an amused snort from Lia.

The dragon mage flew down towards the two, "There's good news that's also kinda bad news," she cringed.

"What did you see?" her brother asked, but it sounded like a demand.

"We won't have any problems passing though the treeline or their defenses," Kaida explained, still looking serious.

But that wasn't a bad thing... "Okay, that's no bad news right?" Lia wondered, Denki merping along on the ground next to her.

"Yeah, but no." Kaida helpfully answered, "The reason why it'll be no problem to get in– is because there's nobody there to keep us out."

Ray suddenly perked up, catching wind of what his sister meant. "Right—," Lia prompted, was she missing something?

"Wasn't this a clan of skilled hunters and warriors?" Kaida asked her and yes, that's what Capricorn told them so– oh.

Kaida looked back at the forest, "So where's their defenses at?"

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Lia feels like she's being watched even though there's nobody in sight.

They just passed the first dense line of trees, a pretty clearing full of flowers and rocks shaped to be flat as stools coming into view. Abandoned tools and instruments were thrown around on the varius dirt paths or patches of lush grass and ferns. Lia got the feeling there's usually a lot of people around here, welcoming anyone who arrives.

Before the three can look around much, an ear piercing roar sounds through the forest.

This one sounding like anger and danger instead of pain and desperation.

Ray was the first to speak, "That could be the monster that's been terrorizing the forest," he quickly shifted to his wolf form, ready for any threat to appear.

"And the reason there were no guardians when we arrived," Lia continued, pulling Denki close and keeping an eye on Ipo and Kaida.

"Well what are you two waiting for?" Said ravenette didn't wait for an answer, "Get a move on already!"

Kaida flew out towards the horrid sounds of destruction and battle. "Sagittarius needed help— let's see if we can grant some."

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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! 

Next chapter; The great Protector