Deep within the Great Forest, towering ancient trees blotted out the sun. Only a few shafts of light occasionally slipped through gaps in the canopy, casting mottled patterns across the darkened woods.
The air reeked of rotting leaves and damp earth, mingled with something far older and more dangerous. Magic power was leaking from the weakening seal, carrying an ancient pressure that made it difficult to breathe.
Artemis stood at the front of the party, her blue hair gleaming silver beneath the faint light.
A longbow rested in her hands.
Behind her, more than a dozen members of her Familia had assumed a combat formation. Archers stood in the rear while close-range fighters guarded the front. Every one of them looked tense, their wary eyes searching the surrounding darkness.
They had been traveling through the Great Forest for three days.
The Guild's commission had warned them that the seal was weakening, but Artemis hadn't expected the situation to be this severe.
The deeper they traveled, the stronger the fluctuations of magic power became, and the heavier the pressure in the air grew.
The weaker monsters had fled long ago. Not even an ordinary animal could be seen.
This forest had become a land of death.
"Lady Artemis, there's something ahead."
An elf scout returned from the front, speaking urgently.
"There's a massive ruin about five hundred meters ahead. The center of the seal is inside, but there's something there."
Artemis frowned slightly.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
The elf's voice trembled.
"It's enormous, and it's powerful. Its presence alone nearly stopped me from breathing. Lady Artemis, I don't think we should go any farther."
Artemis fell silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"This is our mission and our responsibility. I was the one who sealed Antares all those years ago. Now that its seal is weakening, it falls to me to deal with it."
She raised a hand, signaling the party to advance.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves. Whatever is waiting ahead, we will face it."
The members of her Familia exchanged glances. No one spoke. They merely tightened their grips on their weapons.
They trusted Artemis.
They trusted her judgment and her strength.
As long as she was with them, there was nothing to fear.
The ruins soon came into view.
It was a vast complex surrounded by crumbling walls and broken stone. Ancient pillars stood at crooked angles, covered in vines and moss.
Artemis opened the seal protecting the ruins and led her Familia inside.
Deep within the ruins, a gigantic scorpion sensed the disturbance in the surrounding magic power and opened its eyes.
Its body was more than ten meters long and covered in dark red armor. Its enormous pincers spread wide while its stinger arched high above its back, radiating suffocating pressure.
Its eyes were blood-red, shining ominously within the darkness.
It stared at Artemis with naked greed and madness.
"That's it."
Artemis raised her longbow and aimed at Antares.
"Everyone, prepare for battle."
The fighting erupted instantly.
Antares thrust its stinger forward with such speed that its path was almost impossible to follow.
Artemis twisted aside, drew her bowstring to its limit, and released an arrow that struck Antares directly in the head.
The arrow exploded against its armor, leaving only a shallow crack. Antares merely shook its head before charging at her with even greater fury.
The members of the Familia attacked together. Arrows, magic, swords, and every other weapon they possessed rained down upon Antares.
But to the ancient monster, their attacks were little more than an annoyance. They failed to inflict any meaningful damage.
Antares swept its stinger across the battlefield. Three close-range fighters were struck and hurled dozens of meters through the air. They slammed into a stone pillar as blood sprayed from their bodies, killing them instantly.
"No!"
Artemis's voice trembled, but she had no time to grieve. Antares was already lunging at her.
The battle lasted less than half an hour.
The Artemis Familia was annihilated.
Those children who had followed her for years, who trusted and depended on her, and who had been willing to die for her, fell one after another into pools of their own blood.
Their bodies lay scattered across the ruins, their blood staining the ancient stone floor crimson.
Artemis knelt on the ground, her entire body covered in wounds. Her blue hair was soaked with blood and clung to her face.
Her longbow had snapped, and she had no arrows left.
She watched Antares approach step by step, mockery filling its blood-red eyes.
Artemis raised her head and glared at the monster, her silver eyes burning with fury and defiance.
She couldn't die here.
She couldn't allow Antares to devour her power. She couldn't let this monster use her strength to bring disaster upon the Lower World.
She had to do something, even if it only bought a little time or left behind the faintest glimmer of hope.
Calling upon the last of her divine power, she began creating a spiritual projection.
It contained a fragment of her soul, an extension of her consciousness, and her final act of resistance before she was completely sealed away.
Divine power surged through her like a river on the verge of running dry, flowing with painful difficulty.
She could feel Antares's sealing power invading her body. Her consciousness was fading, and her soul was being stripped away piece by piece.
At that moment, a dark tendril silently emerged from the shadows and wrapped itself around Antares's stinger.
It was so thin and faint that it was nearly invisible, but it was undeniably there.
Antares's movements abruptly stopped. The dark tendril restrained its stinger, preventing it from piercing Artemis.
The shadow didn't attack.
It merely restrained Antares, delaying the monster long enough to buy Artemis one precious moment.
Artemis never noticed it.
All her attention was focused on creating her spiritual projection.
Her divine power finally broke through the suppression of the seal and condensed into an ethereal figure before her. It looked exactly like her, but was far more transparent and indistinct.
It was her spiritual projection, a fragment of her soul and the last hope she would leave behind in the Lower World.
"Go."
Artemis spoke softly.
"Find help."
The projection nodded, transformed into a streak of silver light, and vanished into the sky.
At the same time, a beam of golden light descended from the heavens.
It was the Arrow of Orion, the divine weapon Artemis had kept in the Upper World. With the last of her divine power, she had summoned it into the Lower World.
The arrow embedded itself in the ground, its shaft trembling slightly as it radiated a warm glow.
Antares finally broke free from the shadow's restraints.
It roared furiously and drove its stinger into Artemis's body.
Her body instantly went rigid.
She could feel Antares's sealing power devouring her divinity while her consciousness rapidly faded. Her body began to crystallize, turning into dark red crystal from the soles of her feet upward.
"No..."
Her voice was faint and filled with unwillingness, but there was nothing she could do.
The crystal spread past her knees, her waist, and her chest before finally reaching her face.
Her eyes remained open, the silver depths reflecting the glow of the Arrow of Orion.
Then the crystal covered her eyes, freezing her expression in its final moment.
There was no fear or despair on her face.
There was only determination.
She believed the Arrow of Orion would find its destined wielder.
She believed hope still remained.
Genichi's shadow stood silently within the darkness of the ruins, watching everything unfold.
Its mission was complete.
It had ensured that Artemis would be sealed, that she would successfully create her spiritual projection, and that the Arrow of Orion would be summoned into the Lower World.
As for the dead members of the Artemis Familia, it didn't care.
They had merely been necessary sacrifices, stepping stones on the path to Genichi's objective.
The dark figure silently retreated into the shadows and disappeared.
Near the outskirts of the Great Forest, the Hermes Familia's party encountered Artemis's spiritual projection.
Her voice was faint and weak, but every word could still be clearly understood.
(End of Chapter)
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