7.04 The Silent Forest
December 2025
The green dress felt oddly nostalgic to Seika as she put it on and inspected herself in the mirror. She last wore this one more than a year ago, transformed into Minerva, with hair that she dyed black to not stand out in Madame Bille’s world. It all felt so distant now, and so silly, all things considered. The way Miyu and Momo pretended to be backstabbing, evil idols who would stoop to blackmail to get Seika to do their bidding, the way Nicola led her around the mountain on the way to the castle.
She couldn’t help but notice that she was smiling while remembering that little adventure. Ayame stood next to her and admired the outfit.
“I’ve never seen you wear this one before! A shame. You would do well dressing up a little, you know?”
“I’ve already been wearing new coats and date outfits… what more do you want, Ayame?” Seika chuckled quietly, reaching out a hand and resting it on her wife’s cheek.
“Well, you could dress even flashier! Show yourself off a little, so I can have bragging rights!” Ayame said with a little wink, then she let out a long sigh. Seika remained as she was, with her hand on Ayame’s cheek, letting the quiet moment pass before Seika voiced what they both were thinking.
“I hope Miori is safe.”
Ayame nodded, closing her hand around Seika’s for a moment before she leaned closer and gave her a kiss.
“Alright, my hero. Go out there and save the world, hm?”
Seika gave Ayame a determined nod, walking out of the bedroom into their living room. Arisu sat on the couch, turning her head towards Seika as she heard her enter.
“Ah, mama! Good morning,” she greeted her and hopped off the couch, turning off the TV. From what Seika could gather, there were still reports of strange lights, and now more people reported concrete sightings of pointy-eared ghosts that wandered between the people of Tokyo, while not appearing to recognize them.
“Good morning. I’m sorry that I won’t stay for breakfast, Arisu, but I really need to get going,” she spoke quietly to her daughter, running her fingers through her hair.
“It’s alright, mama. I’m going to head to Mana and Marisa’s place in a moment, and we’ll visit Uncle Janus, anyway,” Arisu reassured her, and Seika smiled. She leaned a little down and wrapped her arms around her daughter, giving her a tight hug.
“Watch over your mama while I’m gone, hm?”
“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” Ayame asked with a raised brow, though she couldn’t hide a little smile.
“Ah, of course! You take care of our daughter as well, hm?” Seika said, giving Ayame a wink while she still held her daughter in an embrace. Ayame gave her a little smile in return before she stepped closer, gently putting her hands on Arisu’s shoulders.
“I will. You take care of yourself now,” Ayame spoke softly and Seika nodded, getting up and walking towards the entrance, where she put on the matching boots of her green outfit.
Mio and Momo were waiting for her one floor below, dressed in similar outfits, which Seika assumed they grabbed at some point for their visits to Romystedt to trade wood and magic items.
“Ready to, like, save the world, Paisen?” Momo asked and patted Seika’s shoulder. Seika nodded, and looked towards Miyu, who walked ahead.
“We’ll use our keys and go to Nicola’s castle. From there we will pick up our… ‘guide’, and then we’ll be off in enemy territory for all we know. You did rest, right?”
“Come on, I’m not a little kid. Of course I rested up,” Seika replied bashfully, and Miyu looked over her shoulder.
“Hmm… yes, you look like you got some sleep. I’m sorry, Paisen, but you know your own past better than anyone else. You never really got much sleep back in the day, even when we told you to.”
“Now that you mention it, the memories of it come back to me.”
“Still aftereffects from Lethe?”
“No, I think it just went in one ear and out the other back then,” Seika grinned, and Momo started laughing, patting her back.
They arrived at the front door, and Seika produced the key she got from Janus; it slid right into the lock, and as Seika opened the door, the white void full of doors was right behind it. She raised a brow and took one step aside, facing one of the windows that still pointed to the outside world of Tokyo.
“I’ll never get used to this,” she commented dryly, but soon walked through, accompanied by the two idols. The guardian of this space was not far from their point of entry, sitting on the ground and mumbling to himself as he inspected a key he held in his hands, turning it from one side to the other. He put it down, pointed one of his hands at it, and for a moment Seika could see magical energies passing from his hand to the object, yet the giant man appeared dissatisfied. So much, in fact, that he didn’t notice his visitors until Seika approached and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hm? Ah, oh dear. Forgive me, my honored guests,” he said as he quickly rose to his feet, stowing the key in his robes.
“Trouble?” Momo asked, and Janus turned his face her way. One of the two, anyway.
“The key to the world in which Miori and Bellona are at this very moment… I am having slight trouble forging it,” the tall man admitted, and Seika exchanged a worried look with Miyu and Momo.
“But do not worry! She is not totally lost to that world. I will merely have to… put more effort into it. And I might need to recruit the help of your daughter, my darling niece, as well as the Witch Queen.”
“I think they’ll be happy to not be left out entirely while we go and save the world,” Seika commented with a sigh before she shook her head and focused on the task at hand.
“Anyway… we need to get to Romystedt to pick up the Dream Empress,” Seika said, while presenting her key to Janus.
“Of course. Follow me.”
***
“What exactly do you mean when you say you have trouble forging the key?” Seika asked to pass some time while they walked.
“There is interference. It is very reminiscent of the barrier the High Enchantress set up around her world after the failed assassination attempts, and bears marks of my dark relatives’ magic. I fear these wards are the work of Nox.”
“Wait, that one’s, like, involved, too? The night?” Momo spoke up, and Janus turned his head.
“It was only a matter of time. She is Scotus’ beloved and betrothed, after all,” Janus said with a sigh.
“Not to mention that you have severely beaten some of her children already. Now the night shrouds places where her children are active and will make it vastly more difficult to produce keys or open regular portals, such as the young Witch Queen’s.”
“They’re buying time to do whatever it is they wanted to do. How come we were able to access that world without issue before?” Seika asked curiously, and Janus rubbed one of his chins, contemplating the possibilities.
“Nox’s seal goes both ways. Nothing comes in or out without tremendous effort, so I assume that she was unable to veil the world these projections you call ‘players’ came from as long as they needed to go elsewhere. Once Miori destroyed their means to send them, however, the world got sealed.”
“I do hate that the Dream Empresses’ scythe seems to be the only object capable of piercing through this barrier,” Miyu mumbled, and Janus turned his head her way.
“Not the only one, but regrettably my doors will take time and effort to open.”
After a short walk, they arrived in front of a decorated door from Nicola’s castle, and Janus gestured for Seika to use her key. With a click, the door opened, and the trio found themselves inside one of the rooms of Nicola’s castle in which she mingled with guests – as she did now. Maria stood by her side, and a young-looking elf in a maid dress besides. The girl fidgeted a little next to Maria, letting her eyes dart towards the woman from time to time before she bowed to the visitors, while Maria kept staring at Seika with an inscrutable expression.
“Thank you, Janus,” Nicola spoke to the giant, who gave the others a short nod before he vanished behind the closing door, presumably to continue his work on the key.
“You all are ready, then?” Nicola asked, before Maria stepped forward. Seika was wary, as the villainess wasn’t restrained anymore, and armed besides.
“Relax, Hitoishi. I’m on your… ‘side’. For the moment at least, as long as it takes for me to get my revenge,” Maria spoke in a cold tone, earning murderous glances from the two idols next to Seika.
“Well, then, like, prove it, or I’ll kick your ass again right now!” Momo barked, and the villainess shook her head, turning around and readying her scythe. Seika caught from the corner of her eye how the young elf maid appeared to make intensive eye contact with Maria, who gave her a short nod in return before she cleaved the air with her obsidian blade.
A wound in the very fabric of reality opened in the middle of the room, and Nicola looked a little uneasy as she watched it. Maria turned around, almost looking childishly proud of her feat.
“After me, then. And stay close to me.”
“Oh, I’m not gonna leave you out of my sight,” Momo mumbled, and as the villainess stepped into the strange, purple glowing portal, she was the first to follow her to make good on her promise.
Seika followed soon after, and she immediately felt nauseous. The space before them was a rift between worlds like Janus’, but this felt like a bleeding wound in comparison to the gentle white void.
Colors bled into each other in a chaotic mixture that always returned to a purple hue, and Seika lost all sense of space and time as the entrance closed behind Miyu. Nausea overwhelmed her, and as far as she could tell, it did the same thing to Miyu and Momo. Maria on the other hand, with her superhuman physiology granted to her by the dark Deogemma, regarded them with an amused glance before she spoke, or at least Seika assumed that her face showed amusement. It was getting elongated and distorted by the strange dimension swallowing them.
“This scythe wasn’t really meant to travel between worlds, you see,” Maria commented, and Seika had trouble focusing on her voice, which shifted in pitch with every syllable.
“However, something that can cut the very fabric of a ‘god’ to castrate him, can also rip holes into the barriers surrounding creation.”
Another swing, and the sickening sights made way for a tear of normality in the impossible space. The quartet hurried to the other side, and once they were outside, Seika fell to her knees and fought back the overwhelming urge to vomit. Miyu was less successful than her and threw up on the root and leaf-covered, frozen ground.
“Should we transform? You can’t let your guard down around Maria, and my resilience will help you recover!” Minerva spoke with an alarmed voice, but a short flash of light from the side told Seika that this wouldn’t be necessary. Momo transformed and aimed an arrow at Maria, while taking deep breaths to fight back her own nausea.
“What are you doing?” Maria asked with narrowed eyes, while Momo, now as Luna, stood shaky on her legs.
“Just makin’ sure that you’re, like, not holdin’ that scythe to our necks the first opportunity you get while we’re weakened!” Momo pushed those words out, doing her utmost to ensure that only words would leave her mouth.
“Oh, please. Aren’t we friends, now?” the villainess scoffed and Momo looked about ready to fly into a fit of rage before Miyu’s voice made everyone’s heads turn.
“Where are we, anyway?”
Seika had a look around, agreeing that getting their bearings would be the most important thing to do right now. After the overwhelming nausea receded, she could focus on taking in their surroundings: they were in the middle of a forest, and an ancient one at that. Trees as tall as some of the higher buildings in Tokyo rose up into the air, with only sparse sunlight reaching them from beyond the canopy, despite the lack of leaves above.
“The Silent Forest, as the locals call it. It swallows every sound made inside. You never know what might lurk only ten meters away, behind the nearest tree. And besides that…”
She nodded towards one of the nearby trees, making every head turn its way. At first, what the villainess pointed to looked like a knot, the remains of an old, now obsolete branch, but upon further inspection, the shape was overly familiar. It was a humanoid face, with long, pointy ears that fused into the tree’s bark. As far as Seika could tell, the wooden face was a woman’s, with her eyes closed, as if in peaceful slumber.
“It’s also a graveyard.”
Father Winter’s Embrace, 6310
“Why the hell did ya take us here? Shouldn’t we be, like, at the Enchantresses’ place, smashing her engine to bits?” Luna complained loudly as Maria walked ahead, unbothered. Miyu had transformed into Sol as well by now, keeping her spear pointed at the villainesses’ back to make sure that she wasn’t up to any funny business.
“Be patient, singing girl. I’m leading you there. Or would you rather emerge in the middle of a city garrisoned by mindless soldiers with powers similar to yours, while you can’t even stand straight?” the villainess replied with venom in her voice, and Luna almost looked like she wanted to strangle her.
“And be quiet – the dead don’t appreciate it if visitors are too loud.”
Seika kept looking around at the marvelous forest around them while they walked towards their unknown destination. Every other tree had a face on it, eyes closed, and each and every one of them was unmistakably of individual people. Some looked related to each other, especially those who stood close together. And despite the fact that this forest was actively used as a graveyard, it looked entirely untouched by people. There was no path trampled into the ground between the trees, causing the quartet to stumble over some exposed roots on the way.
Momo in particular let out a frustrated groan as she stumbled over a root and landed face-first in the leaves covering the ground.
“Gah! How much further?!” she complained. Sol and Maria kept walking ahead, giving no response, so Seika remained with Luna, helping the idol in black on her feet.
“Is she ignoring me?!” Luna grumbled, and Seika turned her head towards the pair.
“Hey! Wait up!” Seika shouted, but there was no response. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought that she saw one of the faces on the trees flinch and frown in response to her loud shout, but as she looked, it was the same, peacefully sleeping expression as ever.
“Damn it, is it this forest?” Luna grumbled, looking around.
“It’s freaky that we can, like, see them, but our voices won’t reach.”
“That it is. Come on, let’s catch up to them,” Seika urged Luna on, and she nodded, jumping on her feet and walking ahead, with Seika right behind her. After they gained some ground and shortened the distance to the villainess and Sol again, Seika had a strange, foreboding feeling, and Pallas spoke up to confirm her suspicions.
“Something is watching us.”
***
Sol kept her spear pointed at Maria’s back as she followed her, never taking her eyes off the woman, save for quick glances from side to side, to check for any surrounding threats once in a while. This was hostile territory, and only hours ago, Maria fought on the side of the inhabitants of this world, even if she was controlled by the same venom that created the Enraged.
In a way, this is the opportunity Sol had always wanted. She wanted to confront the High Enchantress directly, to ask her why she used her and Luna all these years, only to toss them aside like garbage once her goals were achieved. She was now aware of the famine plaguing this world, but it still didn’t explain why the supposedly benevolent ruler of these lands stooped to such a level.
Her ruminations were interrupted as the villainess stopped and turned her head around to look over her shoulder.
“What is it? Forgot the way?” Sol asked sarcastically, though she made a poking gesture with the spear to suggest that Maria should get a move on.
“The annoying one hasn’t complained about me for about five minutes now. I think that’s highly suspicious,” Maria commented dryly.
Sol hesitated. There was a good chance that the villainess tried to trick her, but it was true that she hadn’t heard from Luna in a while.
“Momo, are you there?” she spoke without looking away from the villainess.
There was no answer, and a cold sweat broke out all over Sol’s body. Her hands tightened around her spear, and she stared at Maria for what felt like an eternity. The villainess gave no indication that she was going to move anytime soon, so Sol steeled her nerves and turned around. As she did, the blood froze in her veins.
Right in front of her stood the High Enchantress in all her golden glory. Her cold eyes stared through Sol’s soul as she extended her hand towards her, and Sol felt the familiar tug on her ear as her earring tried to return to its true mistress.
“No! No, Nicola said you don’t have power over them anymore!” Sol shouted, rushing the elf in front of her, who didn’t even deign to answer her. She thrust her spear forward, right through the elf’s chest. Sol took a few deep, panicked breaths, then she stumbled backwards as the figure of the elf disappeared like a cloud blown away by the wind.
Sol fell on her back and grimaced as she hit the back of her head on a root. She stared up at the canopy above her, and it was only now that she realized she had been dreaming her entire encounter with the High Enchantress.
Damn it! She must have touched me the moment I turned around!
She shot up into an upright position and looked around in a panic. She was just in time – the Dream Empress was using her wings and flying away in the direction where the group just came from, and only a second later, Sol would have lost sight of the villainess. The idol lost no time and took flight herself, chasing after her.
Minerva was struggling against blue, shimmering threads that bound her to one of the trees. Said tree’s dead face was right next to her head, with its eyes opened wide and staring at the trapped Magical Girl.
It happened incredibly fast: She sensed that something was pouncing on her and she immediately transformed, but as she turned around, she couldn’t see her opponent. It was only pure instinct that allowed her to deflect whatever limb or weapon was used to attack her, but her assailant remained invisible, only making its presence known whenever it kicked up the leaves on the ground. Given those circumstances, it was of little surprise that Minerva couldn’t see the binding attack of shimmering strings coming.
Thankfully, while she struggled to break free, Luna distracted whatever that creature was, shooting arrows in the vague direction of wherever it disturbed the leaves on the ground, cursing the entire time as she kept a careful distance. Whatever the invisible thing was, it let out a lot of strange clicking noises, helping Luna to keep out of harm’s way in the meantime.
Minerva struggled against the blue strings keeping her trapped. She could move her arm a little and then grimaced as she found out that the shimmering strings were sticky as well as strong.
“It might be a spider,” Pallas commented in her mind, and Minerva nodded, summoning her cane sword into her hand. Her hand was at too awkward an angle, with her arms pressed flat against her sides, and as she turned the blade towards herself, she grimaced.
Maybe I should use fire?
“You’d just burn us, Seika,” Minerva proper commented in her mind, and she let out a long sigh afterwards, continuing her struggle. Luna could see what she was attempting to do, and after flying through the air to assist her, summoning a short sword into her hand, she landed in front of Seika – before she was hit in the side by something and let out a ‘hurk’ before hitting a nearby tree. All of the faces on the trees had woken up by now, bearing silent witness to their struggle, and Minerva finally brought the blade of her sword to her strings, struggling to cut them.
Her blood froze in her veins as she felt cold obsidian pressed against her throat. Luna was too busy dodging the follow-up attacks of their invisible adversary to notice what was going on as Maria stepped into view, eyeing Minerva with cold eyes.
A moment passed that felt like an eternity, and Minerva gathered energy to transform into Pallas Athena instead, to maybe use her animal companions to buy herself some time, but the villainess quickly pulled the scythe away and cut through the strings with a swift strike.
“Any other day I would have gladly taken the opportunity, but I need you for my revenge,” the woman commented, turning away from Minerva to face Luna and her struggle.
“You just had to go ahead and be a loud, obnoxious nuisance, didn’t you? You woke the dead and they called on the guardian so they can go back to sleep,” the villainess chastised the idol as Minerva walked up beside her, sheathing her cane sword and pointing the gemstone pommel at the invisible foe. Thick mist shot out of a magic circle she summoned a second later, and it filled the area as a fog, finally revealing the shape of their adversary.
Just as Minerva suspected, their foe was a large spider, two meters tall and eight long. Its legs moved with sickening grace while its mandibles moved erratically, stirring the vapor around.
Luna let out a loud sound of disgust, immediately aiming one of her arrows at the creature. She let loose, and even though the spider had the uncanny ability to dodge the attack, she could now track it and shoot one of her arrows into the creature’s flank. It let out a high-pitched shriek before it rushed Luna, intending to bite and possibly poison her with its venom, but instead it tripped as it suddenly found itself without one of its legs.
The limb, now detached from the rest of its enchanted body, turned visible. A long, hairy and pitch-black thing, with green blood flowing out of the stump, while black flames licked at the open wound.
Maria held her scythe ready, and Minerva took the next shot as the spider turned their way, mandibles clicking with agitation.
Instead of biting down on someone’s flesh, the spider got to feed on a fireball hitting its head. More shrill screams filled the area, and the spider flailed around in a panic as its insides boiled. Luna took the opportunity and shot a few more arrows into its thorax, and, finally, right through one of its eyes as it turned towards the newest source of pain. The spider shrieked and violently flailed, until it fell over and its spasming legs curled together, raised to the sky.
With its life gone, the magic was also gone. The black beast became visible, leaking its copper blood from the wounds Luna and Maria inflicted on it, while a vile stench filled the air, coming from its burned head.
“Did ya, like, lead us here to get us killed by that thing?!” Luna shouted, stepping closer towards Maria and grabbing her by the collar of her jacket. The villainess scoffed in return, meeting Luna’s angry gaze head-on.
“And why would I step in to save you, then?”
“I don’t know! Maybe tryin’ to make yerself look good, and then you’ll, like, stab us in our sleep or something!”
“Oh, please. Minerva here can attest that I have much more creative methods for stabbing people.”
“Don’t you dare make fun of her, you-”
Minerva wanted to step in and separate the two, but she almost got blown aside as someone flying at breakneck speed came in and tackled the villainess to the ground. It was Sol, and she held her spear’s tip right against Maria’s throat.
“She used her powers to escape me! I looked away for one second and she made me dream!” she informed the others, staring at the villainess with hateful eyes.
“We can’t trust her! We’d be better off to just kill her and find our own way to wherever they have the machine!”
Minerva gritted her teeth and raised her voice – slightly, to not call another ‘guardian’ down on them. The tired-looking faces of dead elves observed the exchange in their midst emotionlessly.
“Everyone just calm down! We’re not going to kill each other right after fighting off a threat, understood?!”
All heads turned her way, and the two idols looked conflicted.
“But-” Sol started but stopped as Minerva shook her head. Maria turned her head as well, looking Minerva in the eyes, so she gestured for the villainess to speak.
“So, why did you use your powers on Sol?”
“Do you think she would have believed me if I told her that I had to rush back for you because you were likely to have triggered one of the guardians? In a timely enough manner to cut you free?” Maria spoke, scoffing. “I am your guide in this world, so that’s what I’m going to give you: guidance.”
“It was my fault, so let her go,” Minerva admitted now, and Luna looked like she wanted to protest, but Minerva wouldn’t have it.
“I shouted for you two to stop because our voices were drowned out by the silence. I agitated the guardian.”
“Well, there you have it!” the villainess announced and moved to stand up. Sol wanted to push her back to the ground, but she suddenly froze, staring off into the distance before she took a step back and looked around.
Minerva followed her eyes and saw elves emerging from the woods. Two dozen, and they all had their bows drawn, aiming at the idols and Minerva. They wore green and brown tunics that made them blend into their surroundings and covered the lower half of their faces with masks in the same colors. One of them stepped out of the shadow of a tree, gently caressing the bark next to the face on it. Its eyes wandered to the male figure and Minerva thought she could see a little smile on the dead elf’s face before it went back to its sleeping expression.
“The dead disturbed… the ghost spider responsible for guarding this part of the woods slain… you have much explaining to do, outsiders,” the man spoke and pulled his mask down. His features were gaunt, reminiscent of the malnourished elves Minerva saw in Romystedt sometimes, before Nicola’s hospitality saw them nursed and fed back to health.
He had a thin grey goatee and deep crow’s feet flanking his eyes, so Minerva assumed that he was ancient even by the standards of his people. His eyes wandered down towards Maria, who was slowly getting up from the ground, and he scoffed.
“Dream shaper. We thought we saw the last of you after your training with Taenya in our village concluded. Why have you come?”
The villainess took her time dusting herself off before she had a look around. The situation with Minerva and the idols being held at arrowpoint appeared to amuse her. After she was done basking in the situation for a moment, she spoke to the leader of the group.
“I have two reasons for coming: First, I am guiding these fools to the capital,” she spoke with a little smirk, and the man raised a brow.
“You’re going in the wrong direction, then. You know that, dream shaper.”
That appeared to enrage Luna. She immediately stepped towards the villainess and looked full ready to throw a punch at her, but a warning arrow landed right in front of her feet, forcing her to stop dead in her tracks.
“What the hell?! Are ya, like, betraying us after all?! Don’t you care that the world’s gonna end?!”
“Silence!” Maria commanded Luna with surprising intensity, enough that the idol flinched, after which she only kept staring at the villainess with fuming anger. Said villainess picked up her scythe and slashed the air, opening a wound in reality.
“The second reason why I have come here… is on behest of a girl called Laenna. She wanted me to tell you that she is alright, and living a good life in another world, where she currently works as a maid. And…”
The villainess vanished through the portal she created, reappearing a little later while holding the body of the female elf who died in Tokyo.
“I have also come to bring you Taenya, your daughter. Laenna told me that she should be buried here, as is the custom of her people.”