[Operation retrieve Himeko]


    Alright girls and wolf boy, I should have transported you to the deep end of a cave that is close to where Himeko is located. Once you make it out of the cave, you will be met with the hellishndscape of the demonnds, but don''t worry the beasts are just experience-bags so make sure to kill them.


    Now once you are out, you will follow the rough path through a weathered valley. If there is no path just stick to the right and follow the side of the mountain. You will reach this valley between the mountains and that will lead you to Ado''s door.


    You will find a medallion in the tube which is the key to unlock the door. You will know when you see it, it''s a massive gate with a hole in the middle for the key. Now make sure your presence is known and shout my name since she may have suffered some memory loss.


    After that is done, you can ask her to tag along or not, but once that is all sorted you will head towards the capital.


    Buuut wait until after you get Himeko to read any further, so now move your asses.


    From your dear Freja


    Shaman read out loud the first part of the mission details and packed it back in the tube once she was done. She then threw it in her inventory for safekeeping since losing it would ruin the whole mission.


    "This feels very unofficial, but it is Freja." Shaman felt like things should have been more proper than just a personalised letter.


    "Let''s get this over with." ra had been silent about the fact they will be meeting Himeko, but deep down she wasn''t looking forward to it. She had somewhat made peace with it, but she was far from forgiving Himeko for sealing her memories. If anything she would rather not go at all, but seeing as Himeko is the only one with answers she couldn''t let go of this chance.


    They were also in her homnd, so she may be able to find some more information from the current queen. However, there was no guarantee that the queen would be cooperative.


    "Wait, who is this person?" nor had no idea who they were going to meet and would have liked to get some context.


    "Oh right, nor has no clue." Elysia felt bad since everyone knew what was going on except nor so it must have been very confusing.


    The group then exined the situation to nor and told her about their time in Ebonscale.


    *


    "So are we sure that Himeko purposefully sealed your memories? It sounded like she didn''t have much control over it." nor with her outsider''s point of view came to the conclusion that Himeko didn''t try to seal ra''s past. Especially with Shaman and Elysia''s ounts, it was more likely the artifact was passively suppressing all negative thoughts and memories regarding its owner.


    "Even then, the fact she never tried to undo the seal hurt more than the fact they were sealed. I can forgive it being idental, but I still feel betrayed." ra understood the possibility of it not being intentional which was part of the reason why she was okay with seeing her again. But the real issue was why didn''t Himeko do anything about it and that''s what made ra resent Himeko so much.


    "I guess that''s fair, but isn''t it a bit petty? She looked after you for quite a while. Without knowing what your parents said back then, I feel like you are refusing to face the reality of the situation. You will be losing your second mother who only wanted the best for you. Although I can''t say much about mine, I know my dad tried his best and I bet Himeko did as well." nor knew how much family meant, especially after just having reconnected with them. Himeko was basically a second mother to ra, so nor didn''t want her to lose what''s left of her family.


    "..." What nor said stumped ra as she made a really good point. At any rate, Himeko is still the same person who looked after her all these years, so why is she being so wishy-washy about it now?


    "I think you hit it spot on nor." Silver whispered in her ear as for the first time ra seemed to listen. Shaman and Elysia tried getting ra to understand, but never really got through to her.


    "Well with that said, let''s go face Himeko, I''m sure she is waiting for someone toe." Shaman had enough of the subject and, seeing ra stumped, figured she just needed time to think.


    Elysia took the lead since she was the human torch and they made their way to the exit. ra stayed in the back behind everyone since she wanted some time for herself. With all the changes in her life, especially since joining Shaman and Elysia, she had enough distractions to avoid this subject. However, now when she thought about the situation from nor''s point of view, it really did seem like Himeko didn''t mean any harm.


    ''Ah whatever, I''ll have to see what Himeko has to say.'' At this point, ra needed to hear what Himeko will say before she makes a decision. She already nned to let Himeko talk, but now ra was ready to actually listen.


    *<novelnext></novelnext>


    Reaching the exit to the cave, they were met with apletely dryndscape. Most things were dead, but there were some trees with red leaves present at the foot of the mountain.


    "We are in the dry season so expect things to look boring." While they were walking along the mountain side ra recognised the season the demonnds were in.


    "How do the seasons even work here?" Elysia was rather curious as from what she heard the sun never broke through the ash clouds which so far stood true.


    "They are quicker than your normal seasons and onlyst 2 months. We go through Bloom, Dead, Dry and Ash and they go in a cycle. Bloom is when the trees grow back, Dead is just another way of saying summer, but 10 times worse, Dry is like fall and that''s where we are at, thenes Ash which is when the clouds get so thick we are in pure darkness for 2 months. The borders don''t suffer as much, but when you live more towards the center, you get the worst of every season." ra exined how the demonnds work which sounded like a whole different.


    "I''m guessing we are here at a good time?" Shaman hoped that dry was an ideal season since Dead and Ash didn''t sound too appealing.


    "Yes, it is probably the best since Bloom is when the beasts emerge out of their nests. However, we will be entering ash soon, but it isn''t as bad as you probably think."


    "So other than the ce being dried up is there anything we should be aware of?" nor felt like there were more than just dead trees all over the ce.


    "Well the monsters that didn''t hide during the Dead season should have turned into skeleton monsters by now, but they are not hard to kill since the core that keeps them alive is easy to hit. Since we are in an uninhabited zone we will probably see a few wandering around." ra wasn''t worried at all as the skeletons were the weakest of beings in the demonnds.


    "That''s reassuring." Shaman remembered that Freja wanted them to be tier 7 beforeing here, so she wondered if it was even safe.


    As they made their way around the cliffside, suddenly the ground began to tremble. At first they thought it was an earthquake, but then rocks shot out from the cliff below them.


    What emerged was a gigantic skeletal serpent thatunched itself out of the cliff wall and charged down the slope. As soon as its full body came into full view everyone saw the glowing red core which they assumed was its weak spot.


    Elysia took the initiative, taking out her bow while running towards the cliff''s edge. Aiming down the cliff she saw the snake burrowing back into the ground so she fired at the spot it was entering trying to hit the core as it rushed towards the hole.


    However, her fire arrow wasn''t able to pierce the bone and so the mes brushed past the snake without even leaving a mark.


    "Damn it, I should also mention the bones are tough so you need to hit in between them. But more importantly, run!" ra didn''t expect them to run into a skeleton beast so soon but seeing as they got the attention of one and Elysia missed her shot. They needed to move before the serpent burrowed back up destroying their path.


    The group ran along the mountainside while the sound of the serpent burrowing was slowly getting louder. Eventually, it made its move and jumped out from the ground going for Silver who was in the back.  However before the serpent could eat him, he disappeared into the shadows leaving the serpent to crash into the ground.


    Because it was expecting to eat something, it was not ready to borrow, ending up scraping its head along the ground.


    nor mmed one of the fans down on the ground, calling grey tree roots to rise and restrain the serpent. Although they looked dead to the untrained eye, nor''s element could only interact with living nts, meaning that this was simply how the roots normally looked.


    ra then wrapped her whips around the part of the snake''s body that was exposed and pulled on it to reveal the core that prior to this was still under the ground.


    The serpent tried to wriggle out of it, but Shaman jumped into the air andnded on the serpent''s back while stabbing in between the bones right into the core.


    The core shattered and the bone serpent''s body went limp signifying it was dead.


    "Alright, that wasn''t too bad." Shaman didn''t find the fight all too taxing and with such a predictable target it made killing easy. Everyone felt the same way, but the size of the bone beast was quite abnormal.


    With their first beast defeated, they continued walking towards where Himeko was hiding, hoping to run into more.