The thing is that now the body had rejoined and was getting back on its feet. It was still quite damaged. It was bleeding.
“Analysis?” Misaki suddenly asked Mónica.
“Eh? Well... Yes, it’s human, but...”
“But what?” Erin asked.
“It has a somewhat strange aura...” she replied.
“Well, it doesn’t seem complicated...” Misaki said, turning to the soldiers. “Do your thing.”
They nodded, but only one loaded his weapon and shot a kind of ring at that... human?
The thing is, it was an aura ring. It was of the Emission type, and its condition was that it only activated if fired from a firearm and if it touched something; it would then enclose it. This was meant to give it more power. The thing is, none of the soldiers were Makt users.
And yes, the creature was trapped by the ring.
“Wow...” Andrew said.
“Oh...” the shadows said.
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“Well, let’s keep investigating the area,” Misaki said. “You guys take it away.”
And they did. They called the Containment Team, who gave them a meeting place. Two of the soldiers took it away, leaving three behind.
They continued exploring the area.
“Oh, wow...” James said.
“This is strange,” Mónica said.
After exploring the area for almost an hour without anything strange happening, they still couldn’t find the missing person, but what they did find were stakes and blood on the trees in a circular pattern in the area they investigated, and at that moment, they found one of these.
“So this then...” Erin said.
“It must be some kind of ritual,” Misaki said. “And it seems something is happening at the center of this.”
In the center was part of some mountains, and there was a huge lake nearby as well.
“Yes, now that you mention it...” Mónica said. “There’s movement in that area. I thought they were animals, but apparently, they are people.”
“Then let’s go there.”
And they went.
When they arrived, they came across the entrance to a cave.
“Hey... Is it okay if we go in there?” Erin said.
“It’s true. It looks dangerous,” James said.
“Eh? Are you scared?” Mónica asked.
“Of course... Yes, a little,” James said.
“We have Makt,” Andrew said. “If we get trapped, we can get out like that. Plus, Misaki-san is here.”
“Yes, but...” James said.
“No, it’s fine,” Misaki said. “Let’s go in. We need to finish this already; it’s getting late.”
“Okay.” everyone replied.
And they entered the cave. Everyone did, including the soldiers. Mónica gave flashlights to everyone except Andrew, because he said he could use Specter and his fireball to illuminate things, according to him. Because of this, and since the flame shone quite brightly, they decided not to use flashlights.
After entering, they walked for twenty minutes and noticed that the place had been visited recently, so they continued exploring.
“Up ahead, the path splits in two,” Mónica said. “And I can’t quite detect which is the right one... I can only sense that there are life forms ahead and nothing more, sorry...”
“Don’t worry,” Misaki told her. “So... What do you say? Should we split into three groups?”
“I’m fine with that,” James said.
“Same,” Erin said.
“Yes,” Andrew added.
The soldiers also said it was fine, and in the end, they split into three groups:
- Erin and Misaki.
- James and Andrew.
- Mónica.
Each one with a soldier. They split this way so that two groups could advance while Mónica warned them if there was anything ahead or not, as she could sense life forms better than other things, although she could know what shape the cave had, but... she couldn’t detect the cave in its entirety; it was too big...
And so, the two groups continued exploring the cave, which became increasingly difficult to navigate.