Frontiers Unexplored

26) Severed Light

The night that followed the group's arrival on the Continent of Darkness was restless and seemed to stretch on forever. However, it also flew by too quickly, and each person's slumber began and ended in the blink of an eye. Sleeping the night away hadn't done anything to ease the perpetual exhaustion left behind by the previous battle, and Izumi could feel the weight in the air before she even opened her eyes. When she sat up and glanced at the rest of the group, she tasted copper upon seeing how realizing how upset they all looked. She couldn't blame them for being crestfallen after the disaster of the previous battle, but she still hated to see them all suffering to such an extensive degree. She wished she could do something, but no immediate ideas sprang to mind. 

Provisions were distributed once again, and Izumi focused as much as she possibly could on eating. Each bite was taken carefully, and she feared being sick if she went too quickly. The knowledge that they were on the verge of being destroyed by Duskmon weighed heavily on her mind, and she was terrified out of her mind for their next encounter against him. The Continent of Darkness was only going to make him stronger, and there would be no way for them to escape his power as soon as he pushed himself to his true potential. No matter how much she tried, she wasn't able to fully push down the fear that rose at her core. 

Izumi didn't say anything until Junpei spoke. As far as Izumi was aware, he was the first one to say anything since the group had woken up. Some others had been awake longer than she had, yes, but she still got the feeling that nobody could bring themselves to speak unless they absolutely had to. Izumi knew that she personally felt as if parting her lips to say something was far too much effort for her exhausted body to take. She wanted to roll over and return to sleep, but her body was starting to ache too much for that to happen. The pain was deep, sinking into her bones and leaving her struggling for even a sliver of relief. Perhaps she had pushed herself further in the last battle than she thought. 

"What are we supposed to do?" Junpei asked. He was sitting against the wall with his eyes closed, and he leaned backwards with his head propped against the crumbling concrete. "We have to do something to get rid of the Fallen Warriors, but we don't have a plan at all."

"I think we should keep running," Izumi suggested. She hadn't realized that she had the power to speak until after the words had already left her lips. "We still don't have the strength to stand against them, and we're only going to get hurt if we push ourselves too far so soon after that last battle. We deserve a break, even if it's a brief one, so maybe we should keep moving. We aren't going to be able to defeat them at this point anyways."

"The closest we came to hurting them was when Bolgmon caught Lyramon by surprise, but we saw how that ended," Bokomon sighed. "They lashed out with every piece of power they had, and we were helpless to defend ourselves against it. They didn't have to let us go, but they did for some reason. We can't take this chance for granted."

"Until we can find a few more Beast Spirits, we're screwed," Koji frowned. "We're going to need to corner each of the remaining three Warriors alone, and all of us are going to need to put in our full strength if we want to have a chance of purifying them. If we don't do that, we aren't going to stand a chance."

"But we still don't know where your Beast Spirit is. On top of that, Mayumi doesn't have hers," Tomoki remarked. He looked over to Haroi, seeing that the Warrior of Energy was flicking through the pink book that had been taken from Abraxas. "Are you coming closer to figuring out where the Spirits are located?"

Haroi hesitated before shaking his head. "Not yet... I'm going to need some time before I can find the clues about Koji's Beast Spirit, and I get the feeling that Bokomon is in the same boat regarding Mayumi's Beast Spirit. We've got a long road ahead of us, and we have to tread carefully," he said slowly.