Sure enough, the lass who had stormed off on her own to investigate came back with a tight lip and a rude attitude. Rather than simply asking for my name politely, she turned to her armored companion and asked “what” I was. Said companion took me at my word - which I appreciated - and tried to convince the mistrustful one that I was no threat to her or the village; but clearly I had to speak up lest she waste her energy trying to attack an illusion or, worse, ruin my show.

“The name is Natsumi and I’m a person, thank you very much. If you must use another term, I suppose the closest you’ll get in Revaliir’s nomenclature is ‘witch.’ ‘Phantom’ will also work.” Turning on my back in the tree branches, I tilted my head backwards and looked down at the people below with a lukewarm reception. “I’ve been asleep since shortly after Azhizheth’s invasion, but I’ve grown bored of my dreams in the time since then and it’s not the moment for me to awaken just yet. This projection is my method of quenching that thirst for entertainment that I have: the same that doesn’t go away simply because I’m sleeping. It allows me to spy on the world’s events without physically being present. And, if I heard right, this village’s problems started 2 months ago, making it quite improbable for me to be the primary cause of the stress its inhabitants have endured. So as I said, I’m just an observer and nothing more.”

The armored boyo with voice altering magic had already started outlining his deal with Kumao then. In exchange for two potent barrels of alcohol, he would subdue the beast by any means necessary.

“Going to get the beast drunk or set it on fire are you,” I asked him thinking of the most obvious ways I would use alcohol in a situation like that? “Can’t say that’s a bad idea. Best of luck.”

Who knew if the impatient one would go along with said plan, but it was starting to look like the horror masque was turning into a heroic tale or a tragedy. Which way the coin fell on that spectrum would be up to how prepared the two individuals in front of me made themselves; and lucky for them I was feeling generous.

“If you’re already headed north, I’ll pass on some information free of charge as a courtesy to the potential ‘heroes’ in this play,” I told them while turning right-side-up again. “It’s quite possible that you’re dealing with two beasts instead of one. I have seen grizzly sites from up here in these trees the past several moons and one is a makeshift bone graveyard to the northeast. You’ll know it from the small bones snapped and scattered clean across the landscape there. But the bones are too small for adult humans, so, unless there’s been some mass disappearances of children that I’ve been missing lately, they’re probably badger bones. To the northwest there’s something similar, but that place is full of corpses that even carrion eaters won’t touch. The bodies belong to all manner of local fauna and people; but they’ve been mutilated in sadistic, perhaps ritualistic, ways. And whatever’s doing that does so at night while under the cloak of invisibility or some chameleon-like camouflage. The force is also capable of breathing life back into the corpses so they scream while the mutilation is ongoing. To me, these two things do not belong to the same beasts. The bone graveyard belongs to a wild creature hunting food while the other is the den of… something else.”

Looking to the Masked Woman in disbelief as Lixue could not believe that a deity took everything thing at face value from something that was clearly not a child or was even capable of truly crossing the line between sentience and sapience as it only seemed to care for its own entertainment, let alone it's enjoyment in the death and suffering of others. As the apparition spoke again designating itself as Natsume though more importantly, it's referral to itself as a phantom was aptly named as it was truly outside of their world.

Keeping an eye on the Phantom, Lixue pondered on the being above. The Undead knew of many realms and how Gates taps into a space in between the world and another to close the distance, however, she has only heard of the beings that roam the space never encountering one face to face. I don't know what this thing is and that is what bothers me. While it seems to be passive for now who knows what it may do if it grows bored of simply watching. Deciding against acting against the creature for the moment as the Priestess already had a task in front of her, diverting her attention would only lead to a less than desirable outcome when face to face with what threatens the village.

Listening to the Deity share Kumao and the villagers' accounts told the Undead nothing she did not already know. Not sharing her information in kind as not only was the shared information useless and provided less than she already knew the Outsider was still looming over them as if the two Women were actors in a play. In fact, the Undead was still pondering on whether or not it would be beneficial for the two of them to work together at all as they were already at odds about how to investigate. Couple that with no knowledge of how each of the parties fights and that they have never fought together shows that the cons would outweigh the pros. With the combat disadvantage already enough to convince Lixue to deal with the matter alone, the Masked Woman's request for payment from the village sealed her decision to set off alone. Quickly glancing to Kumao as he held the contract in his hand as she found it funny that the Yokai sided with the one who placed their needs first over one who offered their help willing without asking for information unrelated to the village or goods when said village was at it's worst.

With no reason to waste any more time Lixue turned her back on the group and proceeded to the northeast overhearing the Outsider's comments. "Sounds like something is trying to corrupt an area or gather negative energy for a ritual. That spirit is better off used to sanctify the area halting its plans and ability to use the dead to its advantage". Since Natsume offered some wisdom the Priestess decided to return the favour as the being had proven her hypnosis correct. While she would take the Outsider's words with a grain of salt the evidence fell in line with its words.

There was a reason why Shiloh had been rather open-minded when it came to what the fox kid said. And once she introduced herself that nagging sense of familiarity finally had a face. Natsumi, or 'Greed', as Azhizheth had referred her as–had been someone who had always managed to cross paths with Shiloh at specific, opportune times. Each time they had met it had been for important reasons; either it was Natsumi lending her help and information, or she was requesting it from Shiloh. Despite her belated shock and panic at the knowledge of the 'phantom' being another class of World Eater, Natsumi had never done anything to intentionally throw the world off the rails–and had been a literal life-saver more than once.

It was good to see an old acquaintance again after the train wreck that had been the build up to the inevitable Void Invasion. But she kept this tidbit of information to herself, as it wasn't the time and place for a reunion. Als,o because that sort of information wouldn't do any good in revealing to the other people here. At least the exorcist didn't try attacking the projection. Shiloh predicted that there would be a high possibility that the exorcist girl wouldn't want to work with her, but she never had the chance to ask. The girl made the decision for them–deciding to go off and tackle the two-headed problem by herself. Maybe this was for the best, as they just didn't seem to get along. However Shiloh had a feeling that they might run into each other again sooner than they'd like, especially since her rotten luck had ways in making a bad situation worse.

Once the girl was out of earshot, Shiloh turned to the badgers and Natsumi. "Well, looks like it's just us now. I'm not sure which one of the two the girl will find first, but I really hope it's not the invisible one." As for her, she'd head towards the bone graveyard. A graveyard sounded like a more open area, which meant more routes of escape if she had to run. Sometimes it was a small comfort knowing you could see what was trying to kill you–except for a few cases. When it came down to the wire, strength wasn't her forte and she was no priest. For people like her, there were other ways to eliminate threats…and they involved a liberal use of force. Waving to the old badger, she left towards the northeastern edge of the village. Soon she passed the abandoned houses and was at the fringe of Menomori. 

She'd passed through the Forest of Eyes many times to reach the Spirit Realm, but this was something else. The silence felt more ominous, the trees and bamboo thickets making shapes that she swore would move when she caught them out of the corner of her eye. Putting on her force gauntlets and running a quick mental inventory of her current layers of armor, Shiloh took a deep breath behind her clay mask. To hunt a beast, one must know how to think like a beast. Even if the creature in question was more of a deranged monster fueled by rage instead of an animal. Monstrous or not, animals were driven by single-minded reasons. Once you figure out what those reasons are–the rest falls into place. The mist seemed to shift and billow the deeper she ventured in, dimming the skies like a grey haze. Though it was harder to do with a mask on, she focused her senses to track down the abandoned boneyard hidden beneath the trees. Mud. Moss. A stale, humid air. With slow and quiet steps, she saw the rows of uncarved chunks of rocks serving as makeshift headstones. There was no grass around them, only dank moist earth and scattered piles of stained bones. 

Creeping closer, she strained her eyes to see if there were any signs of the exorcist's tracks. The girl should have arrived before her, and the former had a very distinctive type of clothing… Suddenly a chill ran down her spine at the sound of a branch snapping. An acrid, putrid stench began to fill the air as she could very clearly smell dried blood. A terrible, lumbering shadow shook the earth as it landed, sickly yellow lights glaring straight at her. A scream seized in her throat as the first of the two mentioned beasts let out a deafening roar! Smashing one of its forelimbs through a tree, the trunk splintered into pieces and that was when she started to run. She could feel her body go stiff with fear and a terrible ringing in her ears, but there was no time to lose as right out of the gate this thing was practically burning with an insatiable bloodlust!

[OOC: You guys can skip me in the order now and I’ll show up again after a certain amount of time.]

The heroines took this information with varying degrees of faith, but the two of them still chose the worst course of action in the end.

“Tragedy it is,” I said when the both of them had departed, effectively splitting apart their group out of pride. The exorcist of the two seemed to disapprove of everyone present, exhibiting a sort of disdain even for the people she was supposedly trying to save. Her armored companion seemed glad to see her go as well, making no efforts to stop her and only hoping she would not make the situation worse. Neither of them seemed willing to work with the other; each believing they had the best course of action. I believed, however, that they were wrong; and with that belief I called out to Kumao before he could turn in.

“Before you go, Kumao, I will tell you what the others did not,” I said to him. “If it turns out that this exorcist is wrong, her attempts at purification might only serve to anger the threat that has thus far taken its sweet time in poaching your people. Because of that, you should be prepared to leave with everyone else as soon as possible.”

Still frightened from his circumstances, the elderly Mujina jumped in his skin from the address. He sheepishly turned back around toward me as if he had forgotten I existed, then responded in a quiet voice.

“But the human I signed a contract with-,” he began only for me to interrupt him.

“Could be wrong. They seem dependable, but there’s little way of knowing for sure. And, unfortunately, the two people who came here to help you chose to split up in spite of the fact that there’s strength in numbers. That’s why I said it’s a tragedy and no longer a heroic tale. Better to be prepared than die of hope in vain.”

It was then that I heard something behind me. Some twigs were crunching on the ground a ways back, staggered in such a fashion that whatever was doing it was clearly not human or even bipedal for that matter. Kumao heard it too, but he didn’t seem to recognize what the sound was coming from or even be aware of what he should be doing until I told him.

“Kumao, on second thought, you might want to start running.”

“Huh?”

“Now!”

Just then the ground where Kumao had been standing was crushed by an invisible, three-toed beast. If nothing else, the old badger was fast, so he managed to flee before he ended up as a Mujina pancake on the outskirts of his village; but the evidence of the invisible beast’s arrival was plain to see. My first thought upon witnessing it was that the village was doomed, that even if those stubborn women did succeed it would all be for naught as far as the badgers were concerned. Yet then I noticed something peculiar: the beast had begun attacking the dogwood I was seated on. Even though a very loud Kumao was still running for his life while screaming in the open air of the village; even though I had no scent to be noticed by; somehow the creature spotted me and immediately began chasing me to the exclusion of everything else in the area. It was like I was a piece of red fabric to the bullish monster, and I took advantage of that to lead it away from the village just as the other monster’s roars echoed from the north.

Leaving the village behind and entering the forest proper Lixue cast not only a cloak of invisibility but a spell to muffle and lighten her step as the Undead was going to give the beasts a taste of their own medicine.

Even if the monsters could move on the city at any time Lixue carefully made her way through the forest as to not only keep an eye out for her targets but for the forest's quirks. Doing her best to stay on a single path as the mist and the spirits that resided in the woods did their best to try and divert the Priestess from her path. Whispers and optical illusions gathered around the Undead as the spirits of those lost to the forest did their best to add another. Anytime the Priestess felt unsure she would look to a compass or sense for magic to dispel the simple trickery.

Approaching a break in the forest that felt wholly different from the rest of the mist covered woods Lixue halted her advance and moved to an area with more cover to approach. The Undead's sensitivity from magic and life gave the Priestess an idea of what she may be faced with as the opening felt twisted and spiteful far more so than the lost spirits of the woods. Keeping low as she reached the edge of the forest she looked around to see the boneyard filled with what one would expect through the odd stones surrounding the boneyard interested the Priestess far more even though they seemed inert for the moment.

While Lixue wished to investigate more, stifled sounds of a bipedal creature and the feeling of a divine presence singled the arrival of the Deity much to the Undead's displeasure. Slipping through the woods Lixue stalked the Masked Woman as she approached the boneyard. Many things about the Deity were surprising and disappointing to the Undead as the 'God' seemed to be unaware of her presence even though she only hid herself from one's eyes and ears and that for some reason the Woman seemed to still be wearing the mask hindering her vision more.

Counting to watch the Deity only caused the Priestess to lose more faith in the current pantheon as the God seemed to have been followed by the beast as it landed with its focus directly on the Masked Woman. Biting at her lip Lixue cursed the Deity as she wanted to cleanse the boneyard before she came into contact with the beasts. Her anger towards the Woman's incompetence would have to wait as the beast seemed wholly focused on tearing the God into bits leaving the Undead with the option to either assist or use the Woman as a distraction to be able to cleanse the boneyard. As the beast let out a deafening roar and splintered a tree Lixue did not expect the Deity's next actions as the Priestess stood dumbfounded for a moment as the Masked Woman began to run.

Considering the situation and that the beast's focus was on the Deity, Lixue decided to use this opportunity to set up an ambush for the beast while also possibly punishing the god for its cowardice. Following the two she would gauge the distance and speed of the two and set up an ice mine behind the Masked Woman while also preparing to follow up to entrap the beast if the icey explosion was not enough to kill the beast.

She never did get the chance to use aura sight to see if anything or anyone else was around, not with what looked like a gargantuan bloodthirsty ape making a fully concentrated effort in turning her into a pile of mush. The roar's initial blast had nearly caused her limbs to lock up, but Shiloh didn't stop and kept running. It was a frantic mad dash to avoid the incoming blows while keeping herself balanced. The last thing she wanted was to trip and stumble. She had dealt with her share of beasts back before she was a deity, and that experience didn't take off any of the edge of her current situation. It was fight or flight–and picking the wrong option meant a swift and gruesome death. Even if the Voice did keep its end of the bargain to bring her back to life should she unexpectedly die, dying was painful. There was absolutely no reason to take unnecessary hits when they were preventable. Zigzagging back and forth through clear spots between the soon to be leveled trees, she noticed the ice trap a moment too late. With eyes wide, she kicked hard and tried to put more distance between herself and incoming release of magic. The numbness was on its last legs of wearing off, but Shiloh wasn't able to get completely out of the blast radius. Sensing the incoming increase in magical energy, she grit her teeth and cast protection. The spell took most of the brunt of the ice, but it didn't dull the pain. Though the explosion did give her that extra boost to gain a few meters more of clearance from the monster.

The monster on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. It took the blast head-on, however due to it's immense size, only the parts of it closest to the ice spell were noticeably affected. It's right fist which it had used to swipe at Shiloh before the mine went off was encased in a layer of ice, but this only made it angrier. It whipped its head around, snarling and sniffing until it caught wind of a new scent that was similar to the magic that had gone off. In the blink of an eye the beast swung it's frozen fist at a nearby oak, breaking the trunk and sending the shattered tree hurtling towards where the scent drifted from. Then it went on a rampage, charging and smashing in that direction in an attempt to pulverize the pesky thing that had made the attack. While it was momentarily distracted, Shiloh took the chance to heal herself and reactivate aura sight. Beyond the overwhelming malicious aura of the ape was the magical signature of the exorcist who had left first. After reapplying another spell of protection, it was time to play her hand. Conjuring a lacriamium-coated axe into one hand and a skyshard boomerang into the other, she cast skyfire blade on the boomerang before throwing it as hard as she could towards the back of the monster's head.

Once again she was on the move, not waiting for the boomerang to signal it had hit its mark. Despite her personal priority of self-preservation, she wasn't going to lead the thing back to the mujina village. Skirting around she attempted to double back towards the boneyard, hoping to lure it back to a more open area. An explosion went off the moment the boomerang and the beast made contact, aggravating it more than dealing serious damage. It was possible that she and the exorcist could keep the bloody ape occupied long enough to wear it down or until it died. But there was a nagging voice in the back of her head that warned her this was wishful thinking, however. 

While the plan had worked for the most part Lixue unconsciously held back the power of the mine for the Deity's sake. Even though she was aware that the Woman cannot die the very attempt of taking the Deity's life affected the power of the blast. However, with an oddly large Ape still living, the Priestess did not have time to ruminate on her thoughts.

Even though it took the blast head on it seemed to be fairly unharmed or simply too angry to notice it's pain and suffering. Its dense muscle structure could have reduced the damage or it's just too stupid to feel pain. Disappointed by the lack of overall results from the ambush, but it was not for nothing as ice encased the Ape's right arm had been encased in ice ripe for the picking. Though the Undead would have to hold back on capitalizing further as the beast seemed to be able to sense magic similar to her own magical sensitivity. Somehow the world seemed to be working against her as the Ape seemed to have come across one of the few trees that were not bamboo within the forest of eyes to the Undead's misfortune as no other oaks stood between her and the now dislodge oak barreling its way towards her tearing through the bamboo with little resistance.

Moving towards the danger the Oak flew just barely over Lixue's head as the hardwood crashed to the group kicking up dust and plant life. With the threat of being crushed now avoided, the enraged building sized Ape with a club of ice for a hand that wanted nothing more but to grind the one who ambushed them into a paste was charging towards her just as the oak had done before. As the Beast charged towards her the Undead had more than enough time to capitalize on the remaining ice on its arm as it seemed to be smashing its way through the general area as it did not seem to know her exact area giving her yet another idea. Sending more magic into the existing ice cold would run through the Ape's body in an attempt to slow and peel away at its flesh while she reinforced the snapped sharpened bamboo with ice to make its destructive tendencies more painful on the beast.

Deciding on death by a thousand cuts instead of an all in approach an explosion went off At the back of the Ape's head singling to the Priestess that the Deity was still in the fight after her surprise. Following the Masked Woman's movements for a moment she looked to be heading for the boneyard to fight in the open with slightly better terrain as the bones and flesh strewn about the yard did not make for the best footing. While Lixue had hoped that the Deity stayed away or found the other creature, she was not about to not put the God to work now that she is here and besides she had to move as well as the beast was getting too close for comfort.

Leaving the beast to the frozen bamboo spike Lixue would hold her cloak and fleet foot for a moment longer to create some distance before lowering the spells and making sure to make as much noise as possible to get the Ape to follow after.

One of the strange things about this raging beast was that regardless of what they threw at it–it's only response seemed to be more anger. Even a rabid wolf would have enough sense to halt before an obstacle, but the oversized ape proceeded to plow through. There were shallow cuts all about it's body, but not enough to slow it down. Shiloh was considering her next move to immobilize the monster when she felt the shaking of the ground no too far behind. Expecting another earsplitting roar, she braced her ears only to turn and see the gargantuan ape raise its fists high. With an ungodly screech, the enraged primate began swinging, pounding the ground of the boneyard as if it were wielding two hammers. With each smash of its fists, powerful shock waves rippled through the earth, making the damp and darkened packed dirt shift every which way like a small-scale tremor. Bleached bones and headstones flew while Shiloh was jolted about as she tried to maintain her footing. Even with the best agility and reflexes, she ended up tumbling into a roll. She only had her armor to thank for softening the impact, but not before the beast rushed at her with eyes full of hate. 

Panic gripped her again as the monster made a swipe, and she quickly transmuted herself into one of her myrmidons before its uninjured fist snatched her up. The ice on its other fist had shattered in its metronomic mashing, revealing raw flesh exposed by severe frostbite. With a flick of its wrist, it threw her into the ground, creating a skid trail where her thrown body scraped the earth. Then it did this again, and again, and again. The only reason why Shiloh wasn't dead from the pain was due to her emergency polymorph and a healing brooch she had obtained from completing the mazes of Love and Death years ago. While her myrmidon form dulled her senses and was more resilient to damage, just before she reached her breaking point–the brooch had her fully recover. She would have tried to save its use if she could, but the alarming speed and ferocity of the ape gave her almost no time to react. But as she was tossed about defenselessly, she had one more trick up her sleeve. When the beast tried to grab her one last time, it missed. In that split second of confusion, Shiloh latched onto its forearm and called down lightning. "FULGUR!!" Moments after her shout, a snaking bolt of electricity struck from the heavens. It hit Shiloh directly, and with her now metallic body as a conduit–it transferred that voltage right into the oversized ape's nervous system.

That near-miss by the monster was hardly a stroke of luck. In fact, it was due to Shiloh deploying her Gestalt spell at the right moment. Right before it grabbed her, she had caused a slight interference with its visual processing, making it believe she was a tad closer than she really was. A minute and very subtle form of illusion, but one that bought her the time she needed to stop this thing from moving for a few seconds to take a direct hit. And the bigger the creature, the more blood and fluid it had in its body, making a lightning strike that more effective. With its nerves thrown out of order, the beast was now open to an attack.