In a forest in Mississippi, United States, during the night, a camp was set up. The cabins had their lights on, and there were police in the area. The whole place was secured. It was cold.

  Aside from them, there were also people dressed in black suits. One of them, a girl who was, well, Asian, was talking to a detective. It seemed that in this camp, which a group of college students had rented for a few days, a tragedy had occurred: a horrible murder and several disappearances, but... Something didn’t add up.

  Because of this, “they” had been called to the scene. There were also heavily armed soldiers and a truck in the area. Those were from YGGDRASYL.

  “So... This is going to be our first important mission,” Erin said, wearing a black suit.

  “It seems so,” James replied, also dressed in black.

  “...” Andrew said nothing. He was dressed the same way.

  ||||||

  “And this?” Eliah asked.

  “And the others?” Alaya inquired. “Mathias, Samantha...”

  “I’ll be back with them. I just need to tell you this for more context,” I said.

  “Oh... Okay, I understand,” Eliah replied.

  ||||||

  There was also a girl with brown hair among them. She was also wearing the black suit.

  *Giggle* “You’re nervous, aren’t you?” she said to them.

  “Gorrión, isn’t it obvious?” Erin replied. “It’s our first real job.”

  “And besides, we don’t know what happened here,” James added.

  “But it’s an E-rank mission; it’s not that difficult,” Gorrión answered them.

  “...Still, anything can happen,” Andrew finally spoke.

  “I suppose. But I’ll let you know if anything goes wrong,” she said. “After all, I’m the ‘navigator.’”

  Ah, yes. This girl’s name was Mónica Martínez, 21 years old. She was Argentine. A navigator was someone whose Heim was quite extensive (and had telepathic abilities), but because of that, most could not use it for combat. They were mainly useful for analyzing areas.

  Although... Mónica could fight, she couldn’t use as much aura as the others, so she was practically like an ordinary human with a little more endurance, strength, and agility.

  *Illustration of Mónica.*

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  In addition, navigators were not very common, but that wasn’t much of a problem since they only served in specific cases like the one I’m narrating, which was exploratory. For this reason, there were no navigators during the attack on the base where Mat, James, and Nicole were.

  At that moment, Mónica was carrying a backpack and a kind of device on the left side of her head, which was connected to the backpack. This was to enhance her analytical skills and increase her Heim range from 500 meters to 1.5 kilometers. Oh, yes, she could also communicate telepathically with others.

  Now, back to the story:

  “Oh, here she comes,” James said, noticing the other girl approaching.

  The one coming was named Misaki Sakai (order: first name and last name. 深先坂井), 25 years old. She was the leader of the group to which Andrew, Erin, and James belonged.

  *Illustration of Misaki.*

  ...

  Half an hour passed. Our group had started investigating the area. What had happened was that in this camp, one of those nights, a murder occurred, along with several disappearances, as I mentioned earlier.

  Regarding the disappearances, it was because a group of young people snuck into the forest at night. This was recounted by one of the witnesses.

  And so, the young people who found the body discovered it deep in the woods. They had gone in the morning to search for the others who had gone out at night.

  Upon seeing this, they fled the scene because it was something horrible, and they felt something... malevolent, not without first taking a photo. What they had seen was that a girl, one of those who had gone out at night, had been mutilated and pinned in pieces to the trees, arranged in a way that resembled a decoration or warning. But... while they fled, one of those young people disappeared without a trace...

  When they called the authorities, they began investigating, but... When they returned, only the blood that had been spilled on the trees and some nails remained.

  They thought someone had taken her, but the reality was that after searching the area, they stumbled upon the girl, and part of her head was torn off and mangled at the top.

  The thing was that, although it was still a corpse, it wasn’t as mangled as before and, indeed, it was the same girl. Although she had severe burn marks on her body, a deep cut on her chest, she was somewhat crystallized for some reason, and... she was smiling.

  Moreover, all along the way, they had found human footprints and blood marks on the trees, as if the girl had walked to the place where she now lay.

  Upon seeing this, the detective, noticing a bite mark on her neck, decided to call members of YGGDRASYL since they dealt with this kind of case, and he knew people there.

  At this moment, the group was now looking at the corpse... Well, not everyone, just Mónica, Misaki, and Erin, because she wanted to see.

  “So...” Misaki said.

  “Yes, there are traces of aura,” Mónica replied.

  “I see,” she responded.

  “That means...”

  “That it could be a monster doing this to people, or it could be a deranged individual who turned out to be a rather powerful Makt user,” Misaki told Erin. Monster or astral creature, by the way. It’s the same.

  “...”

  “If it’s the latter... Ugh, we just need to wrap this up quickly,” she said. “Gorrión, try to find traces of aura in the area.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Mónica replied.

  “Let’s go.”

  |||||

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Eliah said to me. “Makt user?”

  “Makt,” I replied.

  “Uncle, what is that? Is it like magic or blessings?” Alaya asked.

  “Well, it’s quite similar,” I told them. “It’s a ‘power system’ where one can create their own abilities, although they ultimately depend on elemental affinities and the types of powers with which you were born.”

  “...What?” Eliah was confused.

  It reminds me of something, at least the first part... Eliah thought.

  “I’m going to explain it to you in Mathias’s story,” I said.

  “But why, uncle?” Alaya asked.

  “You’ll see. Well, let’s continue with them.”

  I resumed the story.

  |||||||

  “An-another one?” Mónica said.

  The group had been exploring the forest with some soldiers and had now come across another mutilated and hanging corpse, this time of a middle-aged man. It was somewhat dark in that area.

  “How horrible...” Misaki said, her expression showing disgust.

  “Uff...” James remarked.

  “Wow...” Andrew said.

  “Ah...” Erin said. “So... should we take him with us? They said the girl changed or moved, so...”

  “You’re right,” Misaki told her. “We need to see what’s going to happen to him if anything happens. To know if what happened to the girl was an isolated case. Spectral .”

  “Yes, yes...” Andrew replied. “Specter, General!”

  Two shadowy figures appeared behind him, who was at the back of the group. One was the ghost that wasn’t a ghost, and the other looked like an empty suit of armor, wielding a sword. He was tall. Everyone turned to look at them.

  “Yes, what do you want, young man?” Specter asked.

  “Tell us, young Andrew,” General said.

  “I’m sorry to ask this, but it’s part of the mission. Please collect that corpse.”

  “...”

  “...What?” Specter said. “No, that’s disgusting.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” General replied.

  “Spectral , hurry up,” Misaki urged. “We don’t have all day.”

  “Okay, okay... Ugh...” Andrew said. “Come on, do it. It’s not like you’re going to get dirty or anything.”

  “That’s not it,” General told him. “It’s disrespectful to manipulate a person’s corpse like that... Oh, wait.”

  “Hey...” one of the soldiers said. “Look.”

  “Huh?” Erin, James, and Mónica responded.

  “Oh...” Misaki said.

  “Ah...”

  The corpse of the man was regaining color, and tentacles were emerging from its amputated parts, as if trying to join together again.