In the forest of Anima Perduta, Luna and Kyle were making their ways through the thick and enchanted forest with time forever not in their favor. It had been two hours at least since they set foot into the forest, however, they had found nothing but screams and haunting echoes through the forest.

“This is hopeless, we don’t even know what we are looking for,” Luna said. It was painfully true, they had been going in blind all this time, the forest did not make any sense either, both Kyle and Luna found it extremely difficult to navigate their way through. They were litterately going nowhere. But then Kyle stopped, he just sat down, closed his eyes and seemingly did nothing. Luna was of course confused about the situation, time was running out and although they made little progress, it was definitely better than doing nothing. A few minutes later, still nothing, Luna started to lose her patience and spoke up.

“What are you doing Kyle ? Please can you explain to me at least that much because I know that you are not wasting our damn time right about now” Luna spoke.

“I’m listening to the forest,” Kyle replied.

“What can they tell you?” Luna asked.

“Where to go.” Kyle replied. The forest had no sound, no wind, no animal, shut screams and echoes of crying child and mother as it seemed.

“Luna, come close to me for a second” Kyle said, Luna followed,

“Now aim your bow at 2 o’clock then shoot it at 10. Do you understand ?”. Luna nodded her head and she used Power shot (Skill C) drawing her bow back and charging more power into this arrow. She aimed in the 2 o’clock direction but then before she released the arrow, she quickly went to the 10 o’clock direction. This time a scream of someone/something in pain could be heard.

Kyle quickly followed up and chased to the direction of the scream with Luna running after him. The scream got louder and louder before the source of it was finally revealed, in front of them was a humanoid ghost-like creature. Kyle AWA stat +1.

“A ghost ?” Luna said.

“No, a banshee.” Kyle replied as they now could read the creature's details.

“Can we actually kill a ghost ?” She asked. Kyle then stepped forward to the wounded banshee then kicked it in the wound, the banshee screamed in pain then counter Kyle but before it could, Kyle pulled his sword and attacked it multiple times.

“Now we can,” Kyle said.

After slaying the banshee, Kyle told Luna what he thought was going on here. “The banshees are the one that are making this noise, they are trying to lead us away, trying to scare us,” he said.

“So what you are saying is rather than head away from the haunting noise, we head toward it.” Luna replied.

“I know, that is the worst decision to make in a horror movie, but in our case, we want to get to the monster. Besides, the only reason why they would do that, giving out obstacles, is because we are heading closer to what they are hiding.” Kyle answered.

Now knowing what to do, the two waste no time and head straight to the echoes and screams of the banshee, using the same technique, they make quick work of those monsters. Until finally there was noise left in the forest and there was only silence surrounding them, that and an old wooden house appeared right in front of them. Luna and Kyle brace themself and slowly make their way to the house. But then the silence was broken. From the house, a woman's voice can be heard, she was singing some kind of a lullaby. Her voice was clear and enchanting, making you want to close your eyes and just take a break for a moment. But there was no time for such a thing, Luna and Kyle remained ever focused on what was about to come, the witch of the forest, that must be her. Kyle signaled Luna to go around the house and check for more intelligence first but before that could do it, the front door opened and a beautiful woman walked out of the house.

“Hello my poor lost souls, come to me and I can set you free from this place.” She spoke.

“Sorry lady, we ain’t no souls and we ain't lost either, you should really get your eyes checked out” Luna responded.

“Oh naughty little girl, it seems like you have taken care of my banshee.” the woman spoke calmly. But she quickly deteriorated and slowly turned into this deformed human looking creature, her skin turned dark gray like a decaying body, her nails lengthened and turned dirty dark and then she spoke in a much more demonic voice “Now you will have to become one of them”.

“Well fuck, I guess the Temple was right, there really are witches wandering around in this land” Kyle spoke.

*******

Morning had come once again in the city of Notre Dame, however, not everyone was a morning person. Someone like Maria, who had been sleepless and mentally torture for example, would certainly be not a morning person. Although only hours had gone by, for her, it was like a week, imagine a whole week only being brutally torture and seeing yourself getting kill again and again inside a time loop that might as well last for forever. Maria was at the moment broken in both her spirit and her body. Gabriel came back with the High Priestess to check in on their prisoner.

“You have out done yourself once again Gabriel, the Goddess will be pleased with this” the High Priestess said. Gabriel just said a simple thank you and bowed his head down toward the High Priestess. “Just on time I suppose, this evening trial shall be the one to be remembered, make sure she is ready.” she laughed and then walked out. The poor Maria was still being mentally tortured, she could not tell what was real and what was fake anymore, her eyes had lost any signs of life and she had stopped screaming in pain for hours by then, they would keep her that way until moments before the trial for maximum effect.

The stage was set once again, another witch trial. Everyone in Notre Dame was going to attend it, whether or not they believed in Maria not being a witch or not, it was truly a once in a lifetime witch trial. Liam and Allan however, had a very different feeling, they did not want the trial to go on this quickly. They still had no plan to save Maria from the hand of the Temple and Kyle and Luna were still nowhere to be seen. But they were not going to give up, “I don’t have to asked you to do something wildly stupid with me, do I?” Liam asked.

Allan did not answer but rather picked up his own weapon and headed to the Temple. Liam smiled for just a brief second before shifting back to serious mode. They were going to save Maria one way or the other, even if it meant taking on every single person in this city.

********

“HOLLY FUCK, that one ugly witch” Luna said. “Hope the others aren’t in such a fuck up situation as we are” she continued.

“They are probably chillin 'in the city. Maria is a smart girl and I always tell Liam safety first, so yeah, I would really like to switch places with them now” Kyle replied.

******** In Notre Dame.

“The first sign of shit going downhill, you will cast Ice Wall and I will run straight at them, save Maria and then we will make a blood passage and break through the gate” Liam spoke.

“I like that idea,” Allan replied. They planned ahead as people from the Temple were setting up the big witch trial stage.

******** In the forest of Anima Perduta

“So do we have a plan of attack?” Luna said. Kyle looked at the time they had left, 13 hours before everything they had done would go to waste. “Yes” Kyle replied “Attack”, that was all of his plan. Kyle then rushed to the witch with sword in hand. Luna kept her distance away from close combat and fired arrows at the witch. However, they soon realized that this was no ordinary monster but a mini boss fight. The witch dodge Luna arrows completely with a simple til of her head. And before Kyle could get close enough to reach her, she cast her magic, suddenly, tree roots from under the ground binded Kyle legs, disable his movement, then she casted another spell, charging up her dark magic then burst them out in Kyle direction. He took that blast head on, and more than half of his HP bar was gone in an instant and when Luna and Kyle looked at her HP bar, they could only see ???. It was unknown, for all they knew, they were facing a brick wall. Luna instinctively looked for an opening to retreat after seeing such power.

“Too late little girl, you can’t escape my forest now,” the witch laughed. Luna and Kyle share a look at each other, Luna might not be afraid to face a normal opponent like when she killed those Leon guide members, but this time, it was something else and she was scared. However, Kyle did not show any fear once again. “That’s where you’re wrong bitch. We are not stuck in here with you but you’re stuck in here with us”. He stood up and acted as though nothing had happened before, although his health bar said otherwise. Seeing how Kyle responded, Luna found her compuser once again, her eyes stopped wondering and focused back to the witch. Kyle walked back toward Luna and said. “No matter what happens, just keep on attacking her ok, I will draw her attention and keep you safe.”

“Are you crazy, you took one shot and half of your HP is now gone” Luna said.

“Then I just won't let her shoot at me again.” Kyle spoke as he walked straight toward the witch again.

“Another dumb brut, how unentertainning” the witch said as she perpared to cast another combo. Kyle gained his speed and rushed toward her once again, but this time rather than run straight at her like a mad man, just before she could finish casting her spell, he switched direction, just like when he told Luna to aim one way than shoot at the other. The rooting spell failed, the tree root still came up but he was not there. Kyle smiled and said “So you can’t target me, you have to aim and predict my movement, the game ends here”. Luna arrows then fired toward the witch once again, this time she was too focusing on Kyle to notice the arrows, however, it seemed to do little damage.

“Like I said a dumb brut indeed” She then casted a totally different spell from before, this time her magic blast was smaller but she casted it much faster and it speed increased as well, Kyle narrowly dodged it however, a second one came right after. It seemed like this spell of hers did not have any cool down at all, Kyle tried his best to dodge all of her attacks, while Luna from the distance, fired her arrows like crazy. The witch showed little concern for Luna's attack however. Luna arrows did get to her but once again, they could not know how much did the witch HP actually drop. And then Kyle could only dodge them for so long, one of them got to him and he was pushed away hard from the power of the blast.

“Kyle !!!” Luna yelled. He was lying face down on the ground. The witch then quickly shifted her attention to Luna, she tried to dodge the witch attack however, Luna stepped right into her trap. She was binded by the tree's roots just like Kyle from earlier, the witch charged up her attack and Luna HP bar dropped below half. Pain rushed through Luna's entire body, “So this is what it’s like for Kyle”, although Luna did receive damage before, she had never lost so much HP as she was always on the back line.

“Get up Luna, get up, always be on your feet while facing an opponent” Kyle spoke up. When Luna looked up, once again a similar sight caught her, Kyle was already standing up tall, facing the monster on his own again. “Not this time” She whispered to herself as she got back on her feet “This time I’ll stand tall too”.