The Forest of No Return

**"The Forest of No Return"** is the third episode of *Spriggan*. It premiered on June 18, 2022 on Netflix.

## Synopsis

*Yu must investigate a cursed forest and search for Soma, the mythical nectar of immortality. He teams up with unlikely allies to find a way out.*

## Plot

Agent Cooper and the rest of his platoon are in a mysterious forest, and on their comms, they are told that they have deviated from their assigned route. They are then told to return to grid point 590-550 immediately. One of the platoon members asks for confirmation that that they are sure about them returning. But the transmission begins to break, and soon one of them has tree roots begin to grow out of his mouth and eye lids. His body then begins to shoot aimlessly, and the other members of the platoon try to take cover. But unfortunately one of them gets caught in the crossfire and falls to the ground. Soon, they are all wiped out by malevolent spirit.

Meanwhile, Yu is another mission but quickly runs into Yoshino Somei, who took a small statue of the hero king's beautiful consort. But in doing so, caused several traps from inside the hidden temple to activate. She asks what Yu is doing in this location, as she doubts that he was after a statue. Eventually, he admits that he is on his way to the Forest of No Return, whose legend claims that it is haunted and that once you go in, you don't come out. Thus, he tells her that if she wants to live, she should go home now.

Earlier, Director Yamamoto tells Yu to be careful, and not to venture to deep into the forest. He then advises the Spriggan that there isn't a need to follow orders from headquarters on this mission. So what's important is to be careful. The Director then reveals that two days earlier, the ARCAM Corporation sent a platoon into the aforementioned fore and lost all contact with them. The director continues to explain that they had Agent Cooper leading the team, but now they are gone. Moreover, this was the third team that headquarters sent into the forest. But not a single soldier has come back alive. What makes matters worse is that they haven't even been able to search for their remains. Which shocks the Director that even after all that, Yu is being sent into the forest to hunt for Soma. Yu admits that in the end, orders are orders, and that an elixir of immortality is dangerous, and they can't let it fall into the wrong hands. Yamamoto then mentions how it seems that as of late, all the organization appear to be going after the remains of advanced ancient civilizations. But that this doesn't mean they need to get involved in this crazy Soma business.

In the present, Yoshino and Yu arrive at the forest, and immediately his compass stops working, and his sense of direction goes haywire. They are then attacked by what appears to be the Trident Attackers, only the malevolent spirit of the forest is simply using their bodies like puppets. The two of them make their way into the forest, unbeknownst to them that they are being watched by someone. Eventually they reach what appears to be Trident's base camp, which now appears to be deserted, but by the looks of it, they were using it up until a few days ago. Eventually, the two of them come across the malevolent demon, and Yu deduces that guns and explosives don't damage it. So to counter it, he had to use a psychic blow.

Later, Akatsuki offers a temporary alliance to Yu and Yoshino, which they both quickly turned down. Yu explains that he wouldn't trust him since Akatsuki left his team members to die in order to tail him and Yoshino. Thus, Akatsuki begins to fight Yu, but the fight is interrupted when the three of them get ambushed by ghouls. One of them takes away Yoshino's gun and is about to attack her, when Akatsuki saves her. Eventually the three of them begrudgingly decide to work together to get out of the forest alive. Some time later, they across the body of one of the corpses, who Yashino uses her medium abilities to find out how to get out of the forest. But unfortunately he tells them to abandon all hope, as they will die in the forest. Through Yashino, he explains how one day he unearthed an ancient tablet at the temple. Which had secret instructions for how to brew soma. The rulers who learnt of Soma's existence tore each other apart. The monks watched all of this happen, and after much debate, it was decided that the instructions would be hidden in the Forest of No Return. Even so, humans continued to enter the forest lusting after immortality. But instead they died in the forest unable to escape, and leaving behind their angry ghosts. Locked away, their hatred begot yet more hate. Little by little, the forest morphed into a single sentient being. Eventually, after Yu tells the spirit of the monk that he understand he will die someday, but wants to die on his own terms. The spirit of the monk warms him that getting out of the forest will be a living hell.

Yoshino double-crossed Yu and Akatsuki to try and get to the soma, but in doing so gets attacked by the ghouls. Elsewhere in the forest, Akatsuki tries to get Yu to leave him behind, so that he will make it out alive, and not die for nothing. In the end, Yu destroys the tablet and destroys the cursed tree, releasing all the souls of the many people who died in the forest for good. The tree goes back to normal, and now the king has his consort back and the curse is now broken. Akatsuki then points out that considering how many people ARCAM sacrificed for Soma, they may not have the same ideals and values as Yu. Which has Yu ponder that train of thought. He vows to Akatsuki that if the day comes when ARCAM can't be trusted, then he will crush them with his own hands. That's enough for the time being, and Akatsuki takes him at his word.

In the end, the pictures of the tablet that Yashino took are worthless since the main ingredient of soma is an ambrosia plant, which had gone extinct due to rapid climate change. As a result, soma is impossible to make in the modern day. Frustrated, Yashino deletes the picture.