Ashuril and Lorraine

The first figure had a proportionate and curvaceous figure and she was kneeling right behind the second figure. She was holding a staff that had a yellow glowing orb on its tip, emitting a strong light that slightly covered the entire clearing. She seemed to be muttering something but Yuuta had no idea what it is. After all, he was too far to tell what was going on.

As for the second figure, he was also brandishing a sword that emitted yellow light. He was engaged in a fight against the moving skeleton while trying to defend against the rocks that flew at them.

Yuuta went nearer. He could finally understand the indistinct voices he was hearing just a moment ago.

"How long?" The man asked as he pushed the skeleton away.

"How long what?" The woman asked with a tad of gentleness in her voice. She was incredibly cal even though they were already badly cornered.

"Before you can finish the tracing, idiot."

"Ah, that. Sorry, I thought you were talking about something else since it's pretty obvious I'm nowhere near done."

"Just give me a number. Or else I won't last long at this rate."

"One hour. Is that fine?"

"How on Lucid is that fine?"

Before they knew it, a black fog suddenly appeared in front of them, covering them with some sort of miasma. Yuuta watched as the two figures began asphyxiating. It didn't even take long before they fell on the ground, clutching their chests as they desperately gasped for air. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't breathe. The man hopelessly swung his sword but the miasma wasn't getting cut. Obviously, the miasma was some sort of evil spirit since it cannot be affected by physical attacks.

"What the- " Yuuta stopped short as he rushed at the man and the woman.

In a flash, the miasma disappeared and a low growling sound could be heard emanating from the surroundings. As for the rocks and the skeleton, they too stopped moving. Yuuta realized that the objects were probably being affected by the unseen evil spirits in the Spirit Jungle.

Pause.

Upon closer look, Yuuta realized that the man and the woman weren't exactly old. In fact, they looked like they were in their late teens. "Are you all right?" Yuuta asked, extending her hand towards the two of them.

"Y-yeah, thanks." The girl responded, taking Yuuta's hand. But since her legs were still unstable, she fell forward. Before she knew it, she found herself leaning on Yuuta's chest. "Eh?!" She let out as her face reddened.

As for the young man, he didn't take Yuuta's hand. Instead, he stood by himself. He didn't know who the teenager in front of him was but he was still suspicious of his existence. "Lorainne, be careful. He might be another evil spirit."

"Evil Spirit? Me?" Yuuta asked, confused.

"But, I just touched h-him. You cannot touch a spirit right?" Lorraine questioned. Apparently, she was also baffled.

"Yeah right, so were the pebbles and that skeleton, we can touch them, right? Now get away from him." The young man continued, forcefully grabbing Lorraine's hand in an attempt to put some distance between her and Yuuta.

Grab!

Before the young man realized what was going on, his hand was grabbed by the person he accused of being possessed by an evil spirit. "Is that how you express gratefulness to your benefactor?" Yuuta asked a matter-of-factly. "I saved both of your lives, the least you could do is tell me what you're doing in here and why."

Yuuta didn't have to ask anything about the two since he already knew what they were doing. As soon as he saw both of them, his Clairvoyance Skill activated and he saw all the information regarding the two. The reason why he asked them for a reason was to prove that they wouldn't lie in his face. If they did, then Yuuta concluded that he would just leave the two alone.

"I'm sorry. I acted out of my own impulse. We express our utmost gratitude for saving our lives." the young man bowed. "My name is Ashuril and this is my sister, Lorraine. We've received a report that this Spirit Jungle is about to expand its territory soon so the Sacred Stones sent us to do some preliminary subjugation. As you've noticed, the Evil Spirits have gotten even more dangerous and that's due to the Aarkra, the S-rank Evil Spirit that took hold of this place. Since it is the strongest Evil Spirit in this Jungle, the other Evil Spirits acknowledged it as their leader."

"Mou~ big brother. You're going around in circles." Lorraine pouted as she covered Ashuril's mouth. "Right now, just reorganize our supplies while there are no Evil Spirits around. While you're doing that, I'll tell Yuuta of our situation."

"A- uh, okay. Sorry, my mind is still all over the place after that fight. I leave the rest to you, Lorraine."

Lorraine nodded. "Now where were we, ah that!"

Yuuta decided to sit down on a large boulder. He could tell that the story would take longer than expected.

"Just like what my big brother mentioned, the Spirit Jungle is on the verge of expanding and it has a high chance of swallowing Revalia City if we don't take action. But the root cause of all this was Aarkra, the S-rank Evil Spirit who recently became the leader of all the Evil Spirits residing in the Spirit Jungle."

"Three days ago Aarkra got lucky when a girl accidentally ventured into the Spirit Jungle. Now that Aarkra found a vessel for itself, it started a ritual that's currently making the other Evil Spirit become stronger. If we don't stop the ritual, it's not only Revalia City that will be in danger, but the neighboring cities are at risk as well. If Aarkra finishes the ritual, I think even the Sacred Stones won't stand a chance in defeating it."

"Uh, one question? You kept on mentioning this thing called the Sacred Stones, are you referring to a certain tactical RPG game that was released in the early 2000s? Or is this a different thing?"

"Tactical RPG game? What's that?" Lorraine cluelessly asked. "In any case, the Sacred Stones is an assembly of Lucid's strongest Holy Element users. They are always on the frontlines whenever or wherever an Evil Spirit appears."

"And, you're a part of that assembly? Then why are the two of you so weak?" Yuuta tactlessly asked.