With each step, Michael closed in on his prey. It scrambled among the trees as darkness partially hid it from view. This only drew out the inevitable as he stalked after. A patient hunter focused on one thing.

Once more the forest around them shifted. In the shadowed night, it was difficult to tell exactly how the world had moved. Not even the monsters were immune to it.

This shift worked to his advantage though as the beast, which had been some distances ahead, now rustled behind him. Quickly he took cover in the shadow of a tree and waited.

The snap of a twig told him the direction as it raced past him. Blind to his presence, Michael felt a bolt of excitement rush through him. He shouldn’t play. He should just wrap up this hunt and find his way back to Giselle. There were many things he should do, needed to do. But he didn’t.

Finally, the beast slipped into a thicket built from fallen logs and decaying branches. The moonlight could not pierce through as Michael stood on the outskirts. The earth was soft beneath his feet, saturated by the summer rains that turned the region into a near marshlands. A part of him yelled at the danger. Turn around and leave. But this voice grew smaller as he smiled.

Even with their gruesome appearances, these creatures were flesh and bone. A far cry from the Boggart who couldn’t even bleed or the Ogre who just leaked puss. His splattered jacket was testament to that. Stained with the blood of those greyhound creatures, it had been a while since he had seen blood not his own.

The shadows of the trees stretched out as they creeped into the black alcove. He knew it was in there. It hadn’t left. That ever-present buzzing grew louder, melding with his heartbeat as he stepped into the darkness.

His human eyes were blind, but that didn’t stop him. Recklessly he reached out. At first there was only air as he groped around following an instinct long forgotten. Step by step he went deeper into the thicket. Branches and thorns scrapped against him in a crackling laughter as he drew his knife. At last when deep within the murky thicket his hand touched scaly flesh.

Everything happened in a flash. He wrapped an arm around the monster’s neck and pulled it tight against him before he sank his knife into its chest. At the same time the monster’s claws dug into his forearm and left long ragged cuts of flesh. It couldn’t break free though as he dragged it back and pulled the knife farther across its chest. His hand trembled a bit as he cut through bone and muscle in hopes of finding the heart.

Every part of him was focused on his prey. The pound of his heart filled his ears as adrenaline pushed him to move harder, faster. The world melted away in the blissful ecstasy of a kill. In this exhilaration he made a fatal mistake.

Suddenly the ground was gone from beneath him as he was yanked upwards. In the shock, he loosened his grip and the monster slipped free. With a crash, Michael broke through the roof of the thicket.

Suspended midair, the stars blinded him as he hung helplessly upside down. He blinked away the bright specks to gaze upon a grand display. Around him, soaked in the light of the moon, were hundreds, if not thousands, of glittering threads. Thinner than a hair, they wrapped into an intricate pattern he had not been able to see from the ground.

In that moment he realized he was the fool. This had never been his hunt.

Without his blade he could only struggle against his ankle bind. However, his attention was dragged away by the wobble of a knife. Well, it was more the wobble of his knife’s hilt. Though burnt and stabbed, the creature refused to drop its invisibility as it crawled out towards him along the network of wires.

A bit panic jumped in his heart as he tried to grab for his shotgun, but the moment he made the move the creature lunged.

Bang!

Blood splattered across Michael’s face as the monster’s lifeless corpse crashed through the underbrush.

“What the fuck are you doing kid?” A woman’s voice cut through the air as he turned to look at his savoir.

Was this what luck felt like? Beneath him, in her signature braid and form fitting tank top, Ellen stood.

“Just hanging around.” The tension that had controlled him quickly melted as he gave a grin.

The witch was hardly amused as she flicked her wrist and sent a blade of wind magic through the spider’s trap. He would have said thank you, except that was a 15-foot drop. Try as he may, there was no way to land gracefully as he hit the ground hard. A dull crack reverberated once more through his body. He barely held back a violent cough as he tried to get his bearings.

Oh, that was definitely not good.

Ellen watched him for a few moments before she helped him up with a gloved hand.

“Seriously, you shouldn’t be here.”

“Didn’t exactly chose it.” Michael coughed a little bit as he suppressed the pain that ran through his chest. Between his prey being dead and the probability of several broken ribs, his head felt a lot clearer as he looked around for the corpse. His knife was in that. It was something he needed.

He found the body under the crushed remains of the thicket. With the creature dead, the patch of darkness had been reduced to a pathetic gathering of twigs. He pulled the knife out with a dull pop before taking a glance at the bullet hole. It was pleasantly accurate, right through the monster’s spidery reptilian head. “How did you get in here?”

“Secret.” Ellen watched as Michael pulled out a hunter’s tag. Like the ogre and boggart before, he cut a small slash in the flesh before roping his dark green tag through. All the while he observed the now visible abomination. It was similar to the skinned greyhounds and other bloody beings they had seen in this realm. All soft reddish muscle laid bare without any skin. The body was more human shaped through without the strange elongated limbs that were a signature of the hounds. However, its head was not spared as a fleshy wet cursed mix of chameleon and spider made up its features.

“We need to move.” The entire realm made Ellen antsy, if she hadn’t owed Director Cora a favor she would have never entered.

“Giselle Ortega is here too.” Michael gathered his fallen gear and nodded towards the direction he thought the banyan was in. “We got separated by the creatures. We are supposed to meet at the Banyan Tree in the center of town.”

He didn’t need to say more as Ellen sighed and offered her hand. Though he had only been the world for a little while, he had investigated Ellen’s skills. She was a rare Planeswalker, but he didn’t know if that would count as magic. Ellen noticed his hesitation and just grabbed his hand.

What had once been miles was reduced to a few steps before Ellen. This also answered Michael’s question as he was pulled along. Once they had reached a street in town, she released his hand.

“We’re going to have to walk the rest of the way.” It became too tight without a full understanding of the town layout. Michael simply nodded and followed behind her. They only had a few scrimmages on their way to the tree. It was nothing Michael needed to worry about as Ellen easily handled the small fry with a wave of her hand.

Her elemental magic was nearly as strong as her plane walking as Michael happily followed behind with a handful of tags. Each corpse got its own in the hope that once this realm was gone the bodies would be sent to HQ. It got so obnoxious that Ellen finally turned to glare at him.

“Stop tagging.” Her demand fell on deaf ears as Michael ran another ribbon through a deer skulled monster. She couldn’t understand him, they were in a dangerous, unpredictable situation but he was acting like it was Christmas.

“Don’t you want the bounties on these?”

“It’s not worth the time.” Survival above all as they closed in on the Banyan Tree.

“R&D would probably say it was worth the time.” Michael smirked. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. They are sure as hell not fae.” They were not even monsters recorded in the hunters’ archive. It would be one thing if they reacted normally to anti-fae weaponry, but the only thing that got a minor reaction was salt. Almost any evil or other worldly creature reacted poorly to salt.

“R&D can get the samples themselves.” Ellen bit back. “Right now, we need to get out alive.” Begrudgingly Michael agreed and followed in step. Soon the Banyan loomed over them.

Even in this distorted world, it was massive and with each approaching step it grew bigger. The canopy spread out like ever reaching hands into the night sky as dense foliage crowded and obscured the heart of the tree.  

After entering the radius of the canopy, the entire night changed. A soothing peacefulness radiated from the trunk as a light shimmer filled the air. The agitation and itch that had haunted him since he entered the town of Banyan’s Hallow was gone. Replaced with a freshness that reminded him of the empathy lessons he had taken at the Agency. In this peace, the rush of adrenaline that had been unknowingly sustaining him drained out and left him barely standing.

Ellen caught him and offered a bit of stability as he let out a shaky sigh. This could be better.

“Giselle?” He half breathed the words, afraid that any loud sound would disturb the tranquility of the canopy. At his call, a raven popped out of the branches and stared down at him then Ellen.

As if satisfied it hopped back in to be replaced by the messy figure of Giselle.

She was haggard. Her tank top soaked through with stains of various colors as her legs were scraped and scabbed over. Her short hair had escaped from its normal ponytail and hit against her slightly grimy jaw line as she double checked them. A bit of relief reflected in her eyes as she looked at Hunter, but it quickly turned to annoyance when she saw Ellen.

“What’s she doing here?”

Michael wanted to kick the rival setting out of her as he let out a deep sigh and had Ellen help him up into the tree. “She saved my ass.”

“Shocking I know.” Ellen’s tone wasn’t helping as she refused to back down from the glares the Giselle sent her way. Michael would kill to know what got these two on each other’s asses as he gave a polite cough that accidently turned into a serious of violent hacks.

“Look, whatever you two have, can you deal with it after we get out of here?” Michael caught his breath as Giselle looked on a few more seconds before waving them in.

“You were right.” The words were welcome praise from Giselle as Michael began to patch himself up. “The monsters don’t go near this tree. I had a whole pack on me, but they stopped right on the canopy line once I entered.”

“See, I’m not useless.” Michael teased.

“Don’t know how long it will last though.” As if she couldn’t let him enjoy his little bit of success, Giselle threw a wet blanket on it. “They might not be able to enter now, but we still have Mr. O’Mara and that other guy running around. They are probably tied to this realm business. Might be mages or demons.”

“I doubt demons.” If Mr. O’Mara was a demon, then he was a boggart. “But I agree, we can’t stay much longer.” He turned to look at Ellen who seemed more focused on the view outside the tree.

“Ellen,” He drew her attention back to them, “you managed to get in. Any idea on how to get out?”

For a moment, she was reluctant to speak. This was after all supposed to be a special assignment handled quietly. These two hunters were an unexpected wrench that made the task of quietly investigating the realm impossible. “If it was just me, I could easily get out.”

“Well not all of us are Planeswalkers like you.” Giselle interrupted with her normal venom. Michael wanted to smack her, but at the moment his hands were preoccupied with picking debris from his side wounds.

“Giselle.” He warned but it didn’t have much power behind it. Since the spider trap, he had been carefully in how much he exerted his personal energy.

However, Giselle got the message and begrudgingly muted herself as Ellen continued. “As I said, if I was alone, I would be able to get out. But with you two, we’ll have to close the realm I believe.”

“Do you know what kind of realm it is?” Michael doubted it was fae, but if there was still a chance, he’d rather fight a fae lord than any weird eldritch flesh demon.

“I haven’t seen a lot of it. But my guess would be the personal realm of a witch or a demon.” She shrugged. “They can be hard to tell apart without meeting the owner or finding the cornerstone.”

At the word demon, Michael frowned. Maybe he was a boggart and didn’t know it. But it did give him some hope. Hunter was supposed to die to a fae while working with these two women. If this was not a fae realm there was a high chance this wasn’t where his character was set to die. Then again though, he didn’t know how on track the story was either. Ah, he was going to take it as good news still.

“Why not both?” Giselle chimed in as she fiddled with her knife. “Make us extra fucked.”

“Don’t curse us.” Michael shot her a look as he finished his field wrapping and pulled back on his shredded leather jacket. Even with gashes, it was better than nothing.

“Either way, this place is unstable.” Shaking her head, Ellen sighed. “I noticed it when I first entered. At first, I thought it was two forces fighting for control of the realm. But now that we’re here,” She gestured to the tree, “I think I know why. This is a Protector Tree. It’s weak, but there’s no other explanation for it.” While most of her knowledge focused on aggressive supernaturals, she was not ignorant of the peaceful awe-inspiring beings that also existed in this world.

The name brought back memories of his conversation with Alexander while in the park. The Pack Lands also had one too. Two World Roots, that was certainly interesting for a fragmented world.

“I can only guess the Realm owner has been trying to feed off the tree’s energy to sustain this massive place. But it’s not cooperating. So that’s why everything folds in on itself easily. And it’s also the reason we can sit up here and chat without any danger.” Ellen finished her explanation and looked at Michael. “However, whether it can help you two leave or not, I don’t know.”

“Well shit then.” Giselle hissed as she checked her remaining ammo. They had brought a decent amount, but after the chase it had become seriously depleted along with her mana.

“The best solution is still to find the cornerstone. With that destroyed the realm will naturally close. I don’t even know what might happen if the tree wins in the struggle and collapses the realm. It might just kill all of us instead.” Ellen added.

“Fantastic. Anymore great news?” This farther solidified Giselle’s hate of planar fuckery as they bickered back and forth for a bit.

Michael didn’t have the energy to interrupt as he thought about the tree and laid a dirty palm on it. O’Mara had mentioned the town’s founding myth involved a tree spirit. A Bayan Maiden. As fairy tale as it sounded, this was a world with magical creatures and he, himself, worked with a pair of triplets that came out of a tree, so he would be foolish to ignore it. On top of that, this was a World Root, forming a spirit was far from the strangest thing.

Carefully he drew out his personal energy, it was only a trickle, something easy to control in his current state, as he feed it into the tree. Even though his true alignment clashed with the nature of a World Root, the tree was starved and greedily absorbed it. After a few moments, the bark under his hand grew hot and black, a sign that it had enough. He pulled back and tried fleetingly to contact Overworld. Even a small Exception would be helpful right now. Instead of one of the Triplets, a different figure appeared.

Well, he found the Maiden.

She floated down effortlessly from the tangle of branches. A delicate young woman with wild brown hair that curled and weaved around her like the canopy of her tree. A gentle nature showed brightly on her youthful face as she gave the trio a half smile. Unfortunately, while half of her body was a picture of blossoming youth, the other was burnt black as thick scars twisted into charred bark. A simple light green dress floated around her and turned her presence into that of an ethereal being.

Giselle and Ellen quickly raised their weapons, but Michael stopped them. “Hold it, I think this is the Banyan Maiden.”

They looked at him skeptically. With all the things that had seen here and on other hunts, how could he easily excuse a random woman floating out of a tree?

“Come on you two. She’s not skinned and hasn’t even attacked us.”

“Yet.” Giselle added, not lowering her gun.

Ok, it was not the best excuse, but Michael couldn’t come out and say it was because he knew she was cool.

Truth be told, he was quite familiar with World Roots. They were the thing that held all the realms together and even fragmented worlds could have them. Most did not form spirits on their own, but it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. What was unusual was that such a weak fragmented root had formed a spirit as the Banyan Maiden focused on him and floated over.

While she did not say a word, he knew her intent as he nodded and smile. He now had a little leafy friend as she thanked him with a small curtsy. The other two still didn’t trust her as Michael finally thought up an explanation.

“She’s been dormant for the last decade because of her injury. This plane was set up during that time. When it began to be used, she tried to stop it but was overwhelmed and trapped.” He quickly conveyed her story as he guessed it. But the Maiden nodded along. It was quite simple. Without the strength to fight it, her abilities as a protector tree were limited to her canopy and trunk.

“Why is she appearing now?” Giselle never trusted pretty maidens in trees. Too many dryads and elves that had tried to kill her in the past with their beautiful looks and sharp teeth.

Michael didn’t want to tell them it was because he had purposely feed her, so instead he came up with something else. “Ellen’s entrance into the realm weakened the holds on her.” He tapped his chin. “Since we entered normally, we didn’t cause a problem. But I’m guessing you ripped a hole into the realm to enter.”

Ellen nodded.

“That was just enough for her to gain the strength to form.” He hoped they wouldn’t ask how he knew what she was thinking.  Luckily, they seemed more interested in other things.

“Does she know a way out?” This was the important question as Giselle watched her.

The maiden thought for a moment before she pointed into the distance. Suddenly the buildings in the distance enlarged until the town hall became clear before them. She gave a slight nod and Michael understood.

“She says that the center of this realm is in this building. She doesn’t know how it is set up. But the strongest energy is coming from there.” After giving them the view, the image faded back into the normal vision of town.

The maiden’s form began to waver. Michael knew she had overextended herself to form in front of them. She was quite weak and while Michael was grateful, she couldn’t hold it much longer as she faded into a scattering of lights that lingered for a moment before they faded.

“Well, it looks like we found our exit.” Giselle let out a sigh of relief.

“The cornerstone must be hidden there. If we can get it out and destroy it, we’ll be able to leave.” With a lead, Ellen felt confident in her ability to break the cornerstone. She only needed to get her hands on it. Michael was also confident in her skills as he loaded his shotgun.

“The only thing is the place will probably be crawling with those things.” Giselle threw a wet blanket on their renewed vigor.

“As long as the monsters don’t see us, they can’t notice us. We’ll just hold hands and sneak over. Anything that looks at us, just kill it.” Michael offered.

“Huh?” Ellen was a bit confused as she looked between them.

“He’s anti-magic.” Giselle clarified, but it still did nothing answer her complaints.

“As long as the spell isn’t top tier, it won’t work on me.” At least that’s what Michael guessed. This whole special constitution was in a constant state of flux due to the unstable nature of a fragment world. He wasn’t sure of the hard or soft limits, just that most forms of magic did not work, and the realm did. Since the moment they had entered the realm, he had been struggling against it and it was only under the Banyan that his head finally began to clear.

“Nice.” Ellen nodded. “Though holding hands won’t be practical.” She pulled out an ash kit from her pack. “There is something I can do to reduce our presence as well.” She opened the little box and took out some of the pale grey powder before she mixed it with spit and water to form a paste. “It’s a temporary stealth seal. Scents and sounds are reduced.”

Giselle scowled but still let her draw the sigil on the back of her neck.

“I can give us vision.” Her raven hopped down from the high branch it had been watching on. While she had put away the rest of her companions to conserve mana, her raven was easy to sustain.

Michael smiled at the scene. While the tension wasn’t completely gone, they were at least willing to work together. This was the best Michael could ask for. Open hostility wouldn’t help any of them.

“It is also possible for me to reduce the distance if you stay close.” While it had been hard when she first entered, after spending some time in the realm and getting a general lay out of the town from their tree view, she was confident in her skipping skills.

After Ellen put the mark on her own neck, Michael stiffly scooted over. He had already taken a fast-acting pain relief pill, but it wasn’t fast enough in his opinion as Ellen went to mark him but stopped. His neck at first looked like it was covered in more than a dozen mosquito bites. Except they were bigger and rounder. It took her a second to realize those weren’t bug bites as Michael noticed her hesitation.

He couldn’t stop his laugh as he explained. “I have a very enthusiastic lover.”

“Since when?” Giselle nearly choked. She knew for a fact a man with Hunter’s disposition couldn’t keep a secret girlfriend. He had barely any charming features. He would obviously want to show her off at every moment.

“Longer than you’d think.” He teased back and let Ellen finish her job. He wasn’t sure if it would work on him, but any extra help was appreciated as they finalized their plan.

Back on solid ground, Giselle and Michael clung close to Ellen as she lined up her skill and took off.

The very ground beneath feet seemed to fold and bend, compressing yards into mere footsteps as Michael held onto the both of them

With Ellen’s speed boost, it barely took five minutes to get town hall.

 

A/N

Another chapter I needed to split into two. I planned for this arc to be around 26 chapters long and for a little bit it looked like it was going to be shorter. But we’re back on track for it to be between 26-27 chapters long. The rough chapters for the entire arc are almost done and the scene/chapter outline for arc two (vampers!) is also almost finished. The next section of this arc has more fluff/ interpersonal content than action horror because Michael needs a vacation. Also, my favorite character of the arc gets to show up soon~