“... The real problem is that we lost sight of Darkness Rainbow because of this forest
Kiriha joined in the conversation and shrugged. As she said, Crimson and Green had dived into this forest during their escape. As a result, Sanae had lost sight of the two once they entered the forest. Crimson and Green concealed their auras, and their spiritual energy blended in with that of the forests, making it impossible to sense them from afar.
“But it will be okay! A forest won't be enough to deceive our eyes!”
”You can't deceive friendship Ho-!”
”We only need to carefully examine things Ho-!”
However, losing sight of the two only applied when chasing after them from above, there were no problems with carefully advancing from the ground. Sanae had merged back into one, and heightened her abilities. Moreover the haniwas were attached to her head from each side, enhancing her abilities even further. This made pursuing Crimson and Green possible.
“Sanae, how does it look?”
“Uhm, I think we'll catch up to them soon. Their auras are getting thicker, little by little”
”Your Highness, Dark Crimson was injured, so she might be slower than us”
“This is our chance. Let's get close enough so we can catch a glimpse of them”
Theia believed that Crimson and Green had a reason to entered this forest other than to just to escape the eyes of their pursuers. She figured that this forest was part of the escape plan and that some preparations had been left there to aid them in their escape. The difficulty of following their aura was more than enough proof of that.
If things were as Theia suspected, she wanted to get them in view before something happened. If she did, chances were Crimson and Green wouldn't be able to shake off her pursuit. She wanted to hurry so that they could find Darkness Rainbow's base.
Koutarou and the others hurriedly walked through the forest. After a couple of minutes, Shizuka suddenly stopped. She then raised her right hand and pointed straight forward.
“I see them... they're over there”
“Are you sure?”
Koutarou looked in the direction Shizuka pointed, but sadly he couldn't see anything. It was too far away for any human other than Shizuka.
“Yeah. I can see that poor taste of a mantle”
Shizuka had good sight to begin with, on top of that with the Fire Dragon Emperor's power within her, she could see better than a hawk. Ruth and Clan used their equipment to find Crimson after Shizuka pointed it out.
“I've confirmed it here too. I'm displaying the image”
Ruth gave an order to the computer and showed a hologram in the air. In that hologram a red something could be seen.
“You can't tell very clearly by this... instead try this”
Clan fiddled with her bracelet and replaced with image with an analyzed CG model. What was displayed was a CG model of Dark Crimson wearing a dark red mantle.
“Good work. Don't lose sight of them, Ruth”
”I'll try”
”Pardomshiha, I just found it by analyzing the footage, but there seems to be a specific pattern in the thermal radiation. This might be because of a spell”
”Thank you, Clan-sama!”
Ruth checked the thermal radiation after Clan pointed it out, and there was indeed a pattern. There seemed to be an irregularity because of camouflage or obstruction magic. Ruth inputted that pattern into her computer and began her pursuit in order to not lose sight of Crimson.
An irregularity with Green's camouflage when she's specialized in information type magic...?
However, Maki had her doubts. Dark Green was skilled at future forecast, which was part of information type magic which she specialized in. As such she was skilled at all types of information type spells. In other words, illusions, obstructions and camouflage were her forte. That's why, while the effect may have been weaker for some reason, but the effect should be stable and without irregularity. Because if that, if there were any irregularities in her information type spells, then― having thought that far, Maki hurriedly warned everyone.
“They're attacking! The Crimson you see over there is showing herself on purpose!”
There was at the very least, some reason for Crimson's appearance being seen. Maki's theory was that Green had purposefully cast an imperfect spell, or Crimson, who was bad at those kinds of spells, was acting on her own. Either way, considering that they were being pursued, it was likely that they would launch an attack here.