The crystal covered by the palms of Pallnem shone intensely more than before, to the point that the green light made the bones of his hands visible in the dark.
Nate tried to look away without blinding himself, while the man blocked the rays of light with his other hand.
Then there was the sound, not just what Nate saw, but there was also something he heard.
The green crystal emitted something like broken chimes, trying to piece together a simple tune, only for it to become incomprehensible to the naked ear.
Pallnem gazed upon the crystal, despite him being momentarily shocked from the green crystal's changed state a few seconds ago.
"What the hell! There's even more that can be wrung out of this thing?"
"Wait!" Nate blurted out in terror. "What do you mean by that?! Are you saying that it happened before to you?!"
"I can't believe this happened to me again. First at the Volanten River, and then at the entrance of this forest. I think that this means I am someone like a superhero!"
"That happened recently before?!"
"Yes, on the same night!" Pallnem boomed as he pointed towards the green crystal, like he wanted to somehow draw more power to his body or soul.
Nate glanced at the crystal one last time, now knowing what he must do before it was too late. He would lunge at Pallnem and remove the thing from his hand, or else another explosion like before will happen, and maybe this time his memories will get taken like the rest of Quad Four.
"Hurry, get it away or else it will blow us up!" Nate shouted while running up to Pallnem.
Pallnem stared at Nate's attempt to get the crystal before shoving him away while cowering with the green crystal. Nate is forced to the ground, his right arm and upper back aching when he falls to the ground.
"Urrghh, no..."
Nate could only groggily see Pallnem lurking over him to check on what he did.
"This green crystal is mine, and mine alone. I won't let you take it like you all took everything else, not anymore, I won't."
Pallnem stuffed the green crystal deep within his clothes before slowly taking off in the opposite direction where Nate was trying to get up on his feet.
Nate needed to get up. He has to get up before that opportunity gets away, and potentially never comes back.
The green crystal must be related to something more, maybe the Green Catastrophe.
Strange things and events never even happened in Standart City, not even when the Green Catastrophe caused large objects to fall and hit many of the lands of Green Country. It only hit the outer parts of Standart City; not a single meteor crashed into the main part of it.
It may be selfish for him to wish for something to experience an out-of-this-world event, but Nate is determined to make use of a good event to prevent another event like the Green Catastrophe, possibly.
So, he got up on his feet, steadied his breath, and looked around the area of the forest, trying to see what had changed. Pallnem's forceful push was much harder on him than Nate had anticipated; he should have tried to move out of the way or even attempted to block the incoming attack. Pallnem is definitely even crazier than before when he was around that green crystal, not to mention the freakishly strong shove he gave to Nate before running away.
It may mean that, like Nate Elfirm, Pallnem is developing his own powers with the sword he had; although he thought it wasn't really confirmed that it was actually like that.
Nate then walked in the direction he thought the homeless man went. The only indicator was that some leaves looked like they were crunched up on the bottom of the floor, while it was thankfully lit up from the sky, almost reaching morning time.
He hoped that nothing bad would happen to Pallnem and the crystal. Having this in mind as he walked, he looked on with uncertainty towards the path.
The night was still here, with daylight still yet to reach the horizons of the skies. The trees grew more widespread, and the leaves were seen crumpled on the floor, causing piles to reach a meter above the ground.
"Wuuuhhhh... wuuhhh...!"
Pallnem paused his rush to get away from Nate Elfirm for a chance to catch his breath. He still gripped the green crystal hard enough to feel pain in his palms from the rough edges of it reaching through his hand.
His sweat dampened his clothes despite only running for a short while.
"Wait... I just... I just need a... a minute to catch my breath..." Pallnem told himself.
He held his body together with his hands on his knees, then sat on the comfy grassbeds with leaves on top, before finally lying down on his back with his backbones cracking from the relief of stretching.
Pallnem glanced at the green crystal, and it seemed to have lost its shine by just a few shades darker than before. Although the light was still bright enough that it illuminated the surroundings more than the stars above the night sky.
The area he was in was open with a lot of leaves on the ground, with practically no trees in the middle, and it was enough for a vehicle to fit in without any trouble at all. Then there was something in the middle of the leaf-covered middle, some type of black stick in the middle, with the exterior covered in arrow-like projections.
As soon as Pallnem took a look at the black projection, he slowly arrived at it.
He poked at the projection on the ground, noted its rough texture similar to a salamander's skin, but only more pointier than usual.
"Huh? What is" Pallnem mentioned to himself, "this supposed to be? A crappy-looking plant with sticks on it?"
After trying to analyze it for something to happen, he got up and walked away, muttering to himself.
"Prolly nothing here, I'm gonna go somewhere else where kids like him are not really around at all."
Pallnem checked his green crystal inside his clothes next to his body, and he saw that the crystal had dimmed its shine slightly more. Whatever was happening was probably nothing serious.
A sharp sound echoed throughout the empty open area of the forest, causing Pallnem to stop dead in his tracks. The sound in particular was instant, almost like a snap, and it was near the homeless man. Pallnem eyed his surroundings, frantically trying to look in every direction he could, like an attentive owl looking for the nearest sound, not like he was more attentive than an animal.
Pallnem hollered to whatever made that noise, still keeping the green crystal in his possession.
"Wh-who's there?! What do you want, huh?! You'd better show yerself before someone gets hurt, cuz I gotta weapon here, and I'm not afraid to use it!"
He glanced at the crystal, a part of the dark only remained in the material, only a wisp of sweet light remained inside, not knowing when it would be under total darkness and void of anything worth light.
"If you are there, then..." Pallnem cautiously worded, "...then you are after my prized possessions too, you dumbass! Just like that Standart High School kid, you're going after my things, too, huh?"
At first, the only sounds from that moment were the homeless man speaking and the wind rustling the leaves of Vivid Forest. It can be considered unbelievable for there to be no life, not even critters or insects, to be chirping at this time.
But then, something guttural came from the darkness where the black projection-like thing from the middle of the open grounds. The leaves moved violently but swiftly, like a storm before the peak causes mass destruction.
Then the black object shifted violently on the ground, almost shaking the ground entirely, and Pallnem was barely standing up straight. It grew taller with more of its branches appearing on its stem.
But Pallnem then saw it wasn't just some plant in the ground, it was actually large enough to be a healthy cow. The creature finally arose from the ground, now flailing its limbs in all directions and showing its darkly green body.
Its limbs were crudely crooked, to the point of being mistaken for beartraps stitched to its body. Its face is incredibly jagged, along with its teeth sharp enough to cut through pure iron.
Just looking at it is enough for Pallnem to know that he stood no chance against this thing, an abomination against the very nature of the pure natural world. He breathed heavily in fear while trying to mitigate how much he breathed so as not to somehow aggravate the monster and lead it to position.
"Oh, my god..." Pallnem whispered in a dreaded tone. "What the hell is that thing...?"
The monster looked around itself before finally setting its eyes upon the homeless man. It growled at him with its claw-like appendages ready for a slaughter, with the clicking noises coming from the chomping of the limbs hitting themselves together again and again, in a pattern of terror benefiting for a monster like this.
It rushed with a brisk pace towards Pallnem, intending to harm him grievously or even eat him alive.
"NO! Get away from me! Aaaahhhhh!"
Pallnem shouted so loudly his throat hurt, and began to run away from the monster chasing after him. He could see that it was giving pursuit as soon as he looked back to see the distance between the two.
Just what would happen to Pallnem if he were to stumble and fall?
The thought of that made him even more determined to outrun it at any cost, not even caring that his whole body was aching from not getting enough rest from running away from Nate, but not because Pallnem was weak or anything, but really dislikes the high school kid that much.
Pallnem kept the green crystal within his chest as he ran, with the monster with the claw traps all over its body chasing him hotly.
The forest remained filled with an atmospheric pallor and darkness cast by the night skies. Vivid Forest had something wrong with it, and that Nate was going to experience what would really happen on this night.
Nate had walked around for some time and was trying to ease the pain from where he was hurt after the shoving action from Pallnem after he took the crystal with him. He had to find him before it was too late.
He checked his phone from his backpack to see the time.
5:45 A.M.
That's the time that he was in right now, probably somewhere near the middle of Vivid Forest, in danger of being killed by the Volanten River Faden that might live here, or something even worse, like getting a cold just before school starts in a short while.
There was then a scream echoing from the distance in front of Nate. He jumped and pointed towards the source of the scream while shaking the flashlight in his hand.
"That was Pallnem! What is going on in there? Don't tell me, did the green crystal already explode while he was running away from me? Oh god, please don't be the case. I have to find him if there is still a chance."
Nate rushed forward, the path of broken natural material now becoming more apparent to him.
He swatted away the overhead branches and stepped over anything on the ground that might make him trip, until he could finally see an opening out of the thickness of the forest trees.
There was an open area with the surrounding trees. However, what lay in the middle of the piles of leaves made Nate feel he was mere prey to a predator of pure hunting instinct.
A large creature of dark green fur and limbs protruding like jaws, with its patterns of razor-sharp teeth in an unorganized array.
Just looking at it made Nate's head a swivelling whirlpool, a headache that would soon follow because of the paralyzing fear that invaded his body.
Nate then eyed another individual from the other side, who was only a blur rushing away, but he could only assume that it was the man who was trying to run away from this creature.
He looked at it again with his heart pounding like a drum in his chest, like beats were echoing the song of fear to nature's audience.
"Aaaahhh... aaahh..." A fearful noise could only escape from the confines of his barely shut mouth, with his terribly fast beating heart not being helpful enough.
That animal... is no ordinary animal. Is it really a Faden, like the one we experienced back at the Volanten River? But this one looks different, with those mouths on its arms. The one from before had the appearance of a fish monster, not to mention it looked slightly more deadlier.
And the green crystal, of course! It was with Pallnem, but... does he still have it? There wasn't any green light when I saw him.
What happened to it? Did he break it, or somehow lose it, when the light was completely dimmed?
Nate walked away slowly without getting the attention of the Faden. He walked backwards, then he went around the opening of the area. There was also the handling of his backpack, not having to hit the branches or leaves that would give away his location to the Faden. Nate's phone was turned off and on silent.
He prayed with his hands on his shoulders as he crept with his head down.
"Krauggghh! Kraaughh!" The monster roared as it swiped its hand at the bush next to Nate.
If it actually hit him, he would have been a goner.
Nate held his breath, wanting not to let a single audible sound escape from whatever body part it might. His safety is dependent on what he must do.
Should he run and hope he would outrun the beast? No, that's such a stupid idea. There's no way he could, even though Nate doesn't know if he was slower, but that was not a chance he could take at the moment.
Nate then lay on his stomach and crawled in the opposite direction of the Faden while he was halfway through the other side of the outside circle of the opened area.
The Faden roared again, possibly one full of anger that it didn't manage to find the prey it could snatch and feast upon alive, while it listened to its screams of pain.
However, Nate crawled for some time, then walked when he felt it was safe to do so.
He stopped and let out a big sigh of relief. And that is where he saw a familiar face in the distance from where he was resting. Pallnem was looking really out of breath from doing something, potentially having to run away from the same creature Nate almost encountered.
He went up to him as he tidied his backpack, putting his flashlight back inside, its batteries now completely depleted after leaving it on inside the backpack.
As he walked up to Pallnem, he thought about the Faden he had seen.
Monsters... These things called Fadens are here in Standart City. He encountered these creatures back-to-back, and they aren't something that can be considered peaceful by many individuals.
But now Nate knows what the chaotic state of Vivid Forest was really. And it's not going to be pretty in the meantime.