Mistwoven Healer

As it turns out, you can't just double the number of incursions sentinels need to be sent to, as Nightsong did. There are a certain number of occurrences every day, and that number can't be altered — at least, not by us. What can be altered, however, is the radius at which sentinels are sent to handle incursions. Which is how we end up flying for two hours in a transport to arrive at our incursion in the middle of nowhere.

Unlike my first incursion zone, that formed in the slums of Shinara, this one sits in the center of an empty field in between bits of near abandoned farmland.

Climbing out of the transport with soldiers spilling out around me, I look around at the scene with a smile. The field is covered in knee length grass that gently sways in the warm breeze that also tugs at my hair. Birds chirp and flit about in the trees nearby, and the entire place has a pleasant, earthy scent that reminds me of Silver Ridge. Although, there, the scent was artificial.

Looking around, a part of me just wants to go hiking and explore the wilderness here. Maybe even see if I can find any farmers still working the land that we passed over. Sadly, the ominous black portal that sits menacingly at the center of the field does much to dissuade me from that notion. This will need to be dealt with before anything else.

However, looking at the portal, I cock my head with confusion. Then, I grab Akari's arm as she makes her way past me out of the transport.

"Uh… guys," I start, loud enough to make myself heard by the majority of the soldiers rushing out of the transport to set up a perimeter. "Is it just me… or is that aperture already open?"

At my words, a good number of the soldiers shift to aim their weapons at the swirling black portal rather than scanning the perimeter. Which… yeah, good instincts there.

Not wanting to get caught off guard myself, I shift, smiling at the feeling of electric power crackling through my veins. The wind around me immediately shifts, swirling lovingly around my body and pulling at both my hair and the grass at my feet.

Immediately, Akari shifts as well, moving to step in between me and the entrance to the incursion zone.

Baylee, having joined us in our assault states, immediately turns to the leader of the GDF soldiers. "Captain Blake, have you seen anything like this before? Has another sentinel team beaten us here?"

The captain, a tall, muscular man with close-cropped dark hair, narrows his eyes at the incursion zone aperture. "I have not, Miss Whitlock. We should have been the first team on the scene after the aperture was detected."

"Well…" Claire says, walking around the aperture in a slow circle, seemingly not caring about the dozen soldiers whose line of fire she's blocking. "It seems we're late to the party, everyone."

Stepping around Akari with a reassuring pat on her shoulder, I move up to the aperture alongside Claire. As I move around it, I do my best to remember the one time I opened one myself.

"So far as I'm aware, only a sentinel can open an aperture," I say, staring into its black depths. "Are we absolutely certain that no other sentinels from the GDF did this?"

"As certain as we can be, Miss Solace," Captain Blake says, looking troubled.

"So," Akari starts, glaring at the aperture as if it owes her money, "either this is some rogue sentinel looking to get some rank ups… or we may have found where some of the missing soul gems went."

This statement gives me pause and makes me give the open aperture a second look. There's been a lot of discussion around what the Reavers have been doing with the stolen soul gems that they are so diligently hiding. Theories range from them trying to corrupt the soul gems in twisted experiments, putting Volcora within them rather than Centurions, or just creating their own group of normal sentinels.

Personally, I think the most unlikely thing is that they are just using the gems to make normal sentinels. The centurions within the soul gems won't just accept any person to become their bonded partner, and the normal process of letting them range around and choose their own partner won't work for the Reavers. When a bond is made, the soul gem will be teleported within the new sentinel and out of wherever the Reavers are keeping them, most likely leading to the new sentinel heading to the GDF like all others.

If whoever opened this aperture really is the product of one of the stolen gems, I find it far more likely that they either found a way to corrupt and force the centurion within to choose someone they otherwise wouldn't or that they did in fact manage to get a volcora in the in the gem somehow. How either of those things could be done, though, is beyond me. So far as I'm aware, once a volcora crosses to our reality, it's no longer a spiritual being but a physical one. It can't go within a soul gem any more than a normal human or animal could.

Eventually, after a long moment of silence, Baylee speaks up. "Captain Blake, I believe that we should report this development and see if the preliminary response is to proceed or not. If we are still going to be proceeding into this incursion zone, then we need to get going. We have a time limit here, and I want the anchor dealt with before the zone starts to break down."

Captain Blake nods before turning away to talk with the willowy young man who seems to be filling the same role Margret did in our first incursion. His name tag reads Thomas Cowl, and I hope he ends up with a better fate than Margret's. This time, I'm determined to get everyone out of this place very much not dead.

After the captain spends a few minutes speaking with Thomas, and then a few more minute's speaking into a mic as he communicates with the GDF Command Center at the top of headquarters. Eventually, he returns the mic to Thomas and makes his way back over to us.

Addressing our formed-up team, Captain Blake reports. "Our orders are to proceed, but our primary objective has changed. We are to investigate how the aperture was opened and find any potential sentinels within. If they are hostile, we are to engage and attempt to take prisoners. Due to our sentinel team being higher ranked than a potential brand-new team made by the stolen soul gems — and our military complement — it's believed that we can take these other sentinels in hand."

I frown, "Keeping a sentinel prisoner is near impossible unless they're half-dead or mana-starved. How do they expect us to capture them?"

"We are equipped with mana dispersing cuffs for that very reason, Miss Solace," Captain Blake says. "They will only prevent the mana regeneration of the very weakest of sentinels — E Rank only — and the sentinel needs to be drained of mana first. However, it is effective at both restraining them and disallowing the use of their abilities. Back at Headquarters, we have cells capable of containing up to C Rank sentinels."

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From beside me, Akari narrows her eyes. "Care to inform us on the reason why you are equipped with cuffs used to imprison sentinels? We are allies in this incursion, no?"

At this, Captain Blake's spine goes ramrod straight. "I apologize, Miss Kimura. But that information is confidential."

Claire lets out a manic laugh before her body briefly flickers with violent red lightning. Suddenly, she's standing right behind the captain with an arm casually around his shoulder. The other thirty-some-odd soldiers tense, but no one makes a move.

"I'll bet it's confidential," she says with a giggle. "How about you let us in on the secret?"

Baylee frowns as she watches Claire actively threaten the captain of our military escort, but none of us stop her. If Captain Blake does have any intention to betray us… Well, that's something that we need to find out right here and now.

The man narrows his eyes and lets out a sigh. "Miss Sharp, mana dispersal cuffs are a standard issue for all teams entering incursion zones. They aren't often used, but we have had to deal with rogue sentinels before. Both those within and without the GDF command structure. Sentinels are, in general, not to be made aware of this fact as it tends to make you… uncomfortable."

"Regardless. These cuffs are too weak to function on any but one of you. We do not bring them to threaten our allies, we bring them in order to bring bad actors to heel."

"Great," Baylee murmurs at the obviously pre-practiced speech, however true it might be. After a moment, she waves a subtle hand towards Claire, who immediately detaches herself from the captain, looking like the cat who got the cream.

Then, giving Captain Blake a final look, she says, "My team and I will enter the incursion and see if there's anything troublesome immediately inside. Wait two minutes, then follow with your men."

Captain Blake nods, although he looks slightly peeved.

Unlike in my previous incursion, I understand where sentinels land in the GDF command structure a little better now, and why the captain might not love taking orders from Baylee. Sentinels are a strange balance of having a lot of authority while also not being officially above anyone in the command structure. The core reason for that is that, most of the time, sentinels don't go through the same type of training that someone like Captain Blake would have gone through. We don't know as much about military tactics or anything like that, but what we do have are superpowers. So, while we might not technically be in charge, when a girl who can wipe out entire swaths of volcora in seconds gives you an order, it's usually best to just follow it.

If that sounds like a recipe for disaster when big egos on the sentinel side and the military side clash, you're absolutely correct. That's how you end up with sentinels like Kayne that butted heads with the military so often that he stopped getting any military support on his missions years ago to stop the clashing. That might just be about Kayne having almost no regard for the lives of non-sentinels, though…

I blink, realizing that the others — starting with Haruto — have already started stepping through the incursion zone aperture, and force myself to pay attention.

I'm at the back of the group entering the aperture, standing beside Hayley, who looks at the swirling black portal with an expression of dread and determination.

Looking at Hayley, I pause to actually glance over her assault state outfit for the first time. Knowing how she was before, I expected to see a very conservative outfit, a bit more like mine. However, I guess I should have known better after seeing that her powers seem to revolve around water.

Hayley's pink outfit is a strange mix between swimwear and practical for combat. It mostly looks like a kind of pink sundress that clings tightly to her upper body and one arm, before flaring into a short skirt around her legs, which are left mostly bare. The arm of her outfit stretches down, affording her one gloved hand for holding the string of her bow, which she holds in her off hand.

Honestly, I was a touch surprised when Hayley decided to opt for a bow instead of something like a staff or wand like Baylee has. I feel like a wand would likely work better for her powerset than a bow, but if she wants to use something she's already practiced with, her magic will adapt to it.

As a pink sentinel, she should be gaining all kinds of offensive spells, which will likely make her stronger than me as soon as mine continue straying in the healing and utility direction. Not to say that I don't pack a punch, it's just that, as our ranks grow, I'll become less and less able to match my team members in sheer offensive might.

Once it's our turn to step through the portal, I move to step inside but pause as Hayley freezes up beside me. Gently, I take her hand in mine and give it a squeeze. "It's a lot, I know. But you're with us. We've got you."

Hayley nods, and together, we step into a different world.

The first thing I notice upon joining my teammates in the incursion zone are the volcora corpses scattered all around the aperture. There are at least twenty of them, all appearing to be ape variants and a few that look something like large jungle cats… if jungle cats had four fangs, an elongated neck, and a tail covered in what looks like serrated knives.

I raise my bow on instinct, looking to help out in the fight, but quickly realize that no fight is taking place. The others just stand around, looking confused as to where all these bodies came from.

Realizing what must have happened, I take a moment to evaluate the incursion zone around us instead.

The immediate conclusion I draw upon looking around is that we're in some kind of forest. Although, unlike the forests generally found in Japan, the trees in this one are absolutely massive. Like, as big as your standard Shinara skyscraper, massive. In all directions, trees the size of skyscrapers stretch up into the sky, and the sun falls in shimmering waves down from a canopy of leaves far overhead. That's not to say that there aren't regular-sized plants around as well, but they are mostly grass and bits of underbrush.

Beside us, a small creek gently burbles along, offering the only sound in this forest of giants, the lack of bird song or insects lending the forest an eerie cast.

Stepping over the body of a volcora ape, I move up beside Baylee while trying to ignore the stench of corpses left out in the sun. "The other sentinels were definitely here, then," I comment upon reaching her side. I feel weirdly as if I need to keep my voice low, like the silence of the forest is triggering some instinctual response to keep quiet myself.

Baylee nods, "Yes, and it looks like they weren't quite ready for a zone like this," she replies softly before pointing.

Following her gaze, I gasp as I see that not all the corpses around the clearing are volcora. Lying underneath the body of one of those horrifying panther-looking volcora is the corpse of a young woman.

Stepping forward, I carefully pull the panther corpse off of her and scan her chest for any hint of remaining life force. Sadly, she's already dead, my title nullifying the need to check for a pulse. Not that I would even need to, given the massive hole in her chest.

As soldiers start to spill into the space behind us, my teammates and I move to stand around the body of the dead sentinel, more to look at her in confusion than anything else.

Her assault state outfit is almost completely black, although it has hints of violet that tells me what color she should have been. However, it's clear that she's been corrupted somehow, as I can feel the dense Stygian Mana within her just by standing nearby.

"I guess they really have managed to make some kind of dark sentinels," I say sadly, looking at the body. I wonder what that means for the centurions within the gems. Have they done this to all of them, or are there any uncorrupted gems left to find?

From the hole in the chest of this body, the group this sentinel was with wasn't willing to leave her soul gem behind. But is that out of greed or camaraderie? Do these dark sentinels actually care about one another like a normal sentinel team would?

After evaluating the body for a few more minutes, Captain Blake has one of his men begin photographing the body and the scene to bring back to GDF Headquarters when we're finished here.

Once that's done, though, Baylee speaks up. "If these dark sentinels are here, they're probably after the same thing we originally were, the anchor of this space. If we're going to catch them, we should get moving. Everyone get in formation and let's move out!"