Two days later, the Potatoes were still trekking through Kalivana.

The mist thickened, again. Aru could feel the vapor actually pushing them back. Every step was harder than the last, like they were trudging uphill. They might have, since Aru couldn't even see her feet at this point. For all she knew, they were about to walk right off a cliff.

"It's like something's trying to stop us from reaching the Trishubed," Rudy said, which Aru thought extremely obvious.

But then she thought of the spirit she'd met mere days ago, then seen again at the Safeway. If she was on their side, why was the mist, which she had control over, be trying to stop them?

A growl was heard to the group's left. Everyone raised their weapons.

The mist lightened up, and the visibility improved massively.

Now the Potatoes could see the massive army surrounding them.

There were plenty of normal-looking demons (or, as normal as a demon could look), but there were also monsters that seemed to be made from the forest itself. They looked like they were made out of thick fog, with branches for horns, deer skulls for helmets, mossy bark for armor with thorny vines holding them together, and wooden clubs for weapons.

The demons stood in a circle around the Potatoes. In front of them loomed a tall hill. At the top stood a slender figure flanked by the two biggest nature demons.

Aru peered closer, recognizing the figure in the middle.

"Sanemi!" She shouted.

There was no doubt. This was the mist spirit girl she'd met less than a week ago.

Sanemi gazed down at them. Her face was filled with sorrow and regret.

"I'm sorry, Arundhati," the spirit said.

Brynne, Rudy, and Mini all turned to look at Aru.

"You know her?" Brynne demanded.

"I-I'll explain later," Aru said desperately.

Aiden, meanwhile, looked like someone had just punched him in the face.

It might have been her imagination, but Aru thought she heard him whisper, "Sanemi?"

"What are you doing?" Aru yelled again.

"I have been sent to stop you," Sanemi said, sounding glum, but she raised her arms. "You will not leave here alive."

At those words, all the demons surrounding them readied their various weapons. Rudy whimpered, pointing his dagger at the nearest monster like he could intimidate it away (it wasn't working). Mini's knuckles turned white from clutching Dee Dee. Brynne looked ready to beat some demons up with Gogo. And Aiden still looked shell-shocked, but he blinked it off and his scimitars slid into his hands. Aru electrified them with Vajra.

Sanemi brought her arms down in a dramatic sweeping motion.

And the demons attacked.

Aru wasted no time ripping through the army with Vajra, but for every one demon she defeated, it seemed as if ten more took its place. Her friends seemed to be doing fine so far, but eventually, they would tire out. And the demons just kept coming.

Rudy had taken on his true naga form, his tail whipping back and forth and sending their enemies flying backwards into their evil comrades.

Mini fought next to him, creating force fields and illusion-clones of herself, distracting the monsters after her.

Brynne whipped up a tornado and the asuras closing in on her were flung into the air. She roasted a few more alive with Agni's fire. Other times, she turned into a blue elephant or rhinoceros and trampled them.

Aiden gracefully slashed through the demons with his electrified swords, setting some of their bark armor alight from the sparks.

Still, as more monsters joined in the fight, the Potatoes were pushed back away from the center of Kalivana.

We need to strategize, Mini said over the mind link. Otherwise, we'll-

Die? guessed Aru and Brynne.

Get stomped on, speared, strangled, gutted, or decapitated. Yeah. Mini responded.

Aru remembered a cave in a cliff face that they had passed a little while back. If they could get there, they could hide and more easily fend off the monsters if they chased them. She relayed her plan to her sisters.

Go, Brynne said. I'll cover the retreat. Grab Aiden and Rudy on the way.

Mini ran to Aru as Brynne cranked the wind-and-firestorm up to eleven. The two girls linked hands and raced to where Aiden and Rudy were fighting.

"C'mon!" Aru yelled, pointing in the direction of the cave.

Rudy knocked aside another wave of tree demons with his tail before reverting back into human form and running in the direction of the cave. Aiden looked a bit confused, but he followed suit. The four raced back to the cave's entrance and ducked inside.

Brynne! Aru shouted over the mind link.

Coming, coming! Brynne responded.

Aru squinted and spotted a blue cheetah sprinting towards them, chased by a mob of demons.

"Mini!" She said. "Get ready!"

Mini nodded and hefted Dee Dee. As soon as Cheetah Brynne reached the mouth of the cave, a violet force field went up, stopping the monsters in their tracks.

Aru readied Vajra.

"Three, two, one-" she counted down.

On zero, Mini dissolved the field. The demons in the front of the mob fell on their faces, but before they could get back up, Aru aimed Vajra. 

BOOM!

Bye-bye, demons.

The blast- one of the most powerful Aru had ever seen Vajra deliver- annihilated the entire group.

Unfortunately, it might have been a little too powerful.

The earth shook.

"Get back!" Aiden shouted.

Like thunder, several huge boulders that must have been sitting at the top of the cliff fell down, blocking the cave entrance. The Potatoes dropped to the ground and covered their heads, bracing to be crushed.

One second passed.

Then two.

And three.

Four.

Five.

Aru opened her eyes. Miraculously, she hadn't been turned into an Aru pancake!

She stood up slowly. The falling boulders had completely covered up the entrance to the small cave.

"We're trapped," Mini whispered.

Aru raised Vajra up for some light in the newly-darkened space.

"On the bright side," Rudy said quietly. "Those rocks will keep out any more demons trying to kill us."

"Is there another exit?" Aiden asked, peering towards the back of the cave.

Rudy walked over and felt the back wall. "Nope. Totally solid rock."

"I can turn into an elephant and bust down those boulders," Brynne offered.

"Before we do that, we need a way to get past the demons guarding the Trishubed," Mini said.

"Can we even defeat them?" Aru asked. "You saw those guys. As soon as you kill one, lots more take its place."

"They've got us outnumbered one to fifty," Brynne murmured.

"Can we somehow distract them long enough to slip through?" Aiden asked.

Rudy scoffed. "How are you gonna do that? Point in the opposite direction, say 'whoa, what's that?' and then run?"

"Maybeeeee?" Aiden responded.

A tiny bit of an idea formed in Aru's mind. She snapped her fingers. "Rudy, that's it!"

Rudy looked dumbfounded. "What's it?"

"We're gonna distract them long enough for us to get to Sanemi, that mist-covered girl. I'll bet she's controlling those demons. If we can somehow knock her outta the game, maybe they'll go away."

"You still haven't told us how you know her," Brynne pointed out.

Aru took a deep breath. "Okay, so remember how I found the journal?"

"Yeah?" Aiden said.

"Well, I didn't actually find it. I woke up that morning before you were all awake, and there was an invisible person that led me to a room carved out of a hill. Sanemi appeared and gave me that journal. She made me promise not to tell anyone."

But I guess I broke that promise, Aru thought.

"Why would she do that?" Mini frowned. "And then try to kill us?"

"She told me that she was stuck in this forest, bound to some Mistress. She wanted her freedom, and so she gave me the book to help us."

Brynne snorted. "Why would you believe her? She probably lied to you."

Frustration bubbled you in Aru's chest. "She wasn't lying. I could tell."

"How?" Rudy asked.

Aru decided not to say takes one to know one as in, takes a liar to know a liar, but before she could speak, Aiden did.

"Because she's my cousin."

A/N: I prewrote this a while ago, so I dunno if it's that good. But also-

DUN DUN DUUUNNN! Cliffhanger!

You can never have too many cliffhangers.