Syraviel continued to write on Jack's hand.

'It's time we get serious about this. No more playtime.' she wrote.

A blue pane appeared in front of the boy.

Forward Strike Group Mission Objective Protocol Activated. Battle Link not established. No objectives set.

Blessing Granted: Battle Link(Syraviel)

Blessing Granted: Deferred Exhaustion (Lisaseron)

Objective Set- Troop Movement.

Proceed alongside Divinity Escort.

Jack felt the fatigue of marching through the night fade. Alicia frowned, while the boy conveyed what Syraviel told him.

'Alright. This is your last brief. No fighting. If you have to fight, absolutely don't kill anything unless your life depends on it. Don't use magic. Don't Observe any of the monsters unless we say you can. Don't get caught. Don't die.' Syraviel wrote.

Once Jack finished relaying the message, Alicia's frown deepened. They started walking again.

“Something feels up with them,” Alicia thought.

“Definitely. What do you want to do about it?” Jack thought.

“For now? Let's play along. I don't want to test our pledge while we're under pressure like this.”

The girl walked quietly, thinking over what the Goddess said.

“Out with it. I can hear you brewing something in there.” Jack thought.

“The blessings are bothering me. Why was my blessing Osmotic Body Respiration? Alicia thought.

“It was so you could have oxygen while they stopped your heart.”

“Interesting. What blessing did you have instead of that?”

“Tempered Terror. I think it was supposed to make us less afraid.” Jack thought.

“Got it... do you remember ever receiving these blessings? We got the pop-up now... but what about before?”

Jack rubbed his chin.

“No... you think they did it in our sleep?”

“We should've seen it even if they blessed us in our sleep. Those blue boxes don't go away until you acknowledge them. It's interesting. They secretly took away our sense of fear and then what happens next? You go wild risking your life getting hit by those worms over and over until you Ranked up. Just like they wanted you too. And after that? I ruin my soul getting insights into Sundering not just once but twice. Sure, the insights were interesting but it was like I totally forgot my self preservation instincts for a moment.” She thought.

“They were pretty happy with that. What with all the damage done to the planet.”

“Exactly. They turn off our fear, steering us towards doing whatever benefits them. How deep in our heads are they? How many other hidden 'blessings' do they have?”

Jack nodded.

“I didn't even think about it like that. All I saw was upside for the blessings. As expected of a proven, veteran manipulator. That's why you're Ms. President. ”

Alicia sniffed.

“I thought we were being nice?”

“That was a compliment. What? Do you have a preferred nickname? Do you want me to call you good girl again?”

Tingles went down Alicia's spine. She shook her head.

“No? Should I pat your head instead?” He thought.

Alicia blushed, quickly moving her head away from Jack's slowly moving hand.

“Jack!”

The boy smoothly pulled his hand back to sweep his hair. Alicia looked at his hand with a slight longing before she put a stern face on. Jack held his hands up, his face the picture of innnocence.

“Jokes aside, we can't let ourselves get carried away by a lack of fear. We may have accepted their pledge but we're nobody's pawn.” Jack thought.

“That's right-”

Syraviel snapped her fingers softly, drawing their attention back. The pair was lagging behind Diana and the Goddesses. They broke into a half jog to catch up with the rest of the party.

Jack noticed Syraviel had an odd expression on her face. The smaller Goddess looked back and forth from the forest floor to the canopy, squinting her eyes. Syraviel shared a puzzled look with Lisaseron and shrugged. Jack walked in between them.

“What's up?” Jack mouthed.

'Odd choice. Don't worry. Just stay close.' Syraviel wrote.

Jack watched the faces of the Goddesses cycle from confusion to concern to resolve. Jack tried to query the Goddess again but Syraviel just shook her head.

“You'll see,” Syraviel mouthed.

An uneasy breeze passed through the trees, one with too little moving air and too much rustling grass and leaves. The sounds grew louder but Jack didn't feel any wind on his face. Alicia's head movements started mimicking the Goddesses, looking back and forth from the ground to the trees. Jack saw a flicker of movement fly from one branch to another.

Sweat dripped down the boy's back as he saw the forest around him shake.

As the boy looked closer, he could see black and green scales glimmering through the withered tree leaves in the soft glow of dawn, Jack's face tightened as understanding dawned on him. "Snakes? In the trees?" He thought.

"Better than on a plane," Alicia thought.

Jack's eye twitched. The boy slowly turned to look at the quietly giggling Alicia.

The forest around them swelled with the sound of rustling grass, wobbling branches and scales sliding against peeling bark. Just over their heads, Jack saw a ten foot long snake with a large stone bracer wrapped around it , shoot over to the next tree.

The boy's fingers in his gauntlet itched. Unlike the massive Void worms, the Golems or the Goddesses, this was a monster he could fight. His heart pumped faster, his fingers constantly clenching and unclenching. The last bit of exhaustion from the night had seemingly vanished.

"Hey, we're not fighting them, remember?" Alicia thought.

"Yeah yeah, I heard the lady. Can't a man look?”

The girl gave the boy a dubious look. Jack cleared his throat.

“I mean, doesn't the armor part look weird? It's the same material as the golems.” He thought.

“A little, yeah. Wait. Didn't the Goddesses say the golems were tied to the planet's detection systems? This can't be good.”

Jack nodded, tracing the rim of his shield with his gauntlet.

“Robo-snakes, huh?”

“Down boy. Just how bad do you bad do you want to fight them?” She thought.

“The Weaver promised salvation for your soul, not mine. All she promised me was monsters to fight.”

Alicia mulled over his statement, nodding.

“And that was enough for you? Really? Just that?” She thought.

“Mostly. Maybe there was a little bit of sentiment in there, too. There's not too many people left to look back on old memories with anymore.” He thought.

“So you're Mr. Sentiment now, huh? Really fits.”

“Alright, you were more of an afterthought. I couldn't help it, you know. It's not like my life was terrible. Selling drugs and stealing away girls from guys was good fun. But I've always been looking for something more.”

Alicia felt a pulse of darker emotion seize the boy and quickly vanish. Uneasiness fluttered through the girl's stomach. She mentally reached out, trying to dig deeper into the foreboding feeling.

Jack matched her probing with a soft deflection in the bond. He smiled at the girl.

“No need to be so intimate. We haven't even fucked yet. ” He thought.

Alicia winced. She held back a retort and lowered her head.

“Sorry. Even after all I said about the Goddesses being in our heads I just-”

“It's fine. Some things you just can't help. Like your nosiness.”

Alicia puffed out her cheeks. Jack chuckled, letting the girl's righteous indignation and tirades sweep over him like a gentle summer breeze.

As his replies grew more perfunctory, Alicia tried getting the boy's attention but found his focus drifting back to the snakes around them. She sighed, letting the matter drop for the time being.

By now, dozens of snakes had passed over them, none the wiser of their presence. However, a following wave of snakes rushing through grass drew closer. Alicia used her perception to try and figure out a way to avoid them but couldn't see a clear path through the serpentine swarm. She gave the Goddesses an anxious look.

Syraviel noticed Alicia's concern and formed multiple shadow branches on a tree. The Goddess climbed up and patted the branch she sat on, giving the humans a smile.

Everyone climbed up after her, while the Goddess increased the leaf coverage on the occupied branches. Syraviel formed branches over them, shielding them from the jumping snakes above landing on them and infused more mana into the branches the humans were sitting on, giving it a few pats and pinches before she nodded in satisfaction.

After she finished, Jack reached out to have Syraviel write on him but she waved him off.

Jack shook his head in confusion but Syraviel just smiled in response. The Goddess gave them a mini-salute before dropping off the branch, Lisaseron following right after her. The body of the smaller Goddess melted into pure darkness, vanishing into Lisaseron's shadow. Deep black stripes formed on the cloak of the taller Goddess as she looked back up at the stunned humans.

Lisaseron waved goodbye to the humans and took a single step towards the snakes. She vanished before her foot hit the ground. In her absence a blue pane appeared in front of the humans.

Objective Updated- Troop Movement.

Detach in place from Divinity escort with Squad Leader Diana Fairbanks. Standby until area is secure.

Objective Set- Sabotage

Assist Formations Specialist Diana Fairbanks with damaging the Unceasing's detection formation.

Jack and Alicia immediately scrambled over to her branch. Jack held out his hand to her, an expectant look on his face. Diana stiffened, feeling the heavy gazes of Jack and Alicia on her.

Diana put her hands together in a timeout 'T'. Jack watched Diana swipe her finger over an invisible box and continue reading.

“Did you know the boxes come with scroll bars?” Jack thought.

“I'm more concerned with the contents of her box and why the Goddesses chose not to share anymore than the bare minimum with us.”

“Same. But give Diana a chance. She's always been a solid gal.”

After ten minutes of scrolling, Diana let out a sigh.

'Sorry. That was a whole ass dissertation.' Diana wrote on Jack's hand.

'What's the plan?' Jack wrote.

Diana thought for a moment and fiddled around with a box in front of her.

Battle Chat Activated.

Specialist Diana Fairbanks: Holy smokes, they weren't kidding when they said this thing was a mana pit. Ahem. Right. Plan. It's... kinda hard to explain since you guys don't really know much about formation magic. Pretend this formation we're trying to sabotage is a really heavy, dangerous and unwieldy object we have to pick up. The Goddesses are the ones who'll do 99% of the lifting. My job is just to give them a little more... leverage to help them lift.

Diana sighed, fanning her face.

Specialist Diana Fairbanks: I think this thing runs on faith too, I'm getting a headache. Alright, ask away. Ask away.

Alicia tapped her finger against her arm, sizing up the bespectacled goth.

Recruit Alicia Vasquez: So what about us? They basically told us nothing.

Diana nodded.

Specialist Diana Fairbanks: Yeah, not much fit then to say.  I mean you two are just supposed to help me. For now, you'll function as scouts, lookouts and mana batteries. Nothing too crazy.

Jack's eyes popped open.

Recruit Jack Cassidy: Excuse me, mana batteries?