They went back to the cavern of puddles
It was empty all the glowfangs scattered in the tunnels.
They stood beside the puddle they slept in last time.
"Poison huh.." Lana said wandering as she crossed one arm and rested her chin on the other.
Zai : the question is do the glowfangs even
know they are consuming it everyday?
Lana : they probably don't
Or perhaps they know and they don't have a choice but to do so..
Zai stared at the puddle narrowing his eyes "I don't sense any dark essence from the liquid either… strange it's supposed to have fragments of the creature that poured it"
Lana turned to zai "how come we're not affected?" She asked narrowing her gaze.
"We were" zai replied in a firm tone
Remember back then in the tunnel, I saw an entity attached to you.
The corners of Lana's mouth twitched thinking of the entities attaching to her,
Her body shivered (gee I went crazy back there) she thought to herself.
Lana: "so you mean since it's supposed to carry fragments of dark essence, it got washed when we spent the night and it made it easier for it to attach.
Zai : precisely
"Let's take look at the others" he said as he walked towards another puddle, he also couldn't sense any essence on it.
"Nope, still nothing" he said in a disappointed tone.
Lana came over to to where he was standing
They stood there brainstorming and thinking for a while sharing ideas to each other
Lana snapped her finger and broke the silence as the thought struck her.
Zai flinched " you figured something?"
Lana : what if the shadows used illusion magic on these puddles.
Zai tilted his head "but illusion magic needs
—Ooh" he paused figuring out what she meant
📖 illusion magic for example the illusion feather harvests the wielders belief,conviction, and delusions until it draws illusion in the eyes of others and themselves as well.
So Lana and zai were referring that the shadows may had plotted something that made the glowfangs believe that this liquid is safe and rather healing until the illusion magic coloured the dark essence into one that is beautiful and tempting hiding it's truth.
Meanwhile the glowfangs bodies consume it willingly perhaps with addiction slowly withering and weakening their mental state without them realising that.
Zai shook his head
"for a start let me tell you what I have in mind"
Lana : go ahead
Zai : I can heal the glowfangs bodies
Lana : and how many days do you need to heal all of them?
Zai shrugged " even with your power's help im going to need 8 days"
"At the least" he added
Lana squinted her eyes in frustration " but after 8 days the creature shows up"
She kept tapping her foot worried, then she snapped her fingers and her eyes widened.
"swan specifically mentioned (creature with a physical body) why did she focus on physical?" She asked with excitement as if she's expecting him to answer
Zai : " because if it belongs to the shadow forces it probably has an entity attached to it!" He said also with excitement with his eyes blooming.
"precisely!" She said with a smug look.
"And if we manage to drive it away from the creature that can help a lot in defeating it!"
Then she chuckled with a grin " and so I can burn that filthy entity hehehehe" her grin getting bigger like she can't wait to fight.
Zai : "alright alright calm down red" he said in a slightly worried tone and like (chill girl) because her expression instantly switched within second.
She twisted her head like an owl, squinting her eyes in annoyance "what did you just call me"
He starting sweating from nervousness
"I.. I just thought" he stuttered
Lana : " you thought what..?" She said threateningly
" your color palette it's quite—red? So I just thought it would be a nice nickname?" He said stuttering in hesitation
" but I … probably should have asked you if your okay with it first"
Lana : " yeah you should have asked first!" She raised her voice slightly with her eyes narrow and tone somehow unserious yet firm?
it seemed like she's just trying to state a boundary but she's not too mad about it.
Then she chuckled
Zai scrunched his brows in confusion
" you look really scared" she crossed her arms and smirked.
Zai let out a sigh of relief
" you don't know even know"
Lana : " It's alright I like it, anyways
returning to the topic, getting rid of the attached entity can help however we still need to observe the creature first. We need to find out where in its body is the entity settling,
see it's nature, moves and abilities…. Let's not expect to defeat it just yet"
Zai : " sounds good, once we're done analysing it we can form an appropriate plan to take it down"
"However… are you sure you want to fight looking like" he paused "this"
Lana : " aah you mean my real form… it can't be helped my illusion feather expired anyways" she shrugged
" i can give you mine" zai said hesitant with his eyes guilty.
Lana looked at him from the corner of her eyes with her lips flat and eyelids rested as if she's judging him
" yeah… I'm pretty sure you yanked it off when we fought that beast"
Zai scratched his head in guilt because an illusion feather like that one is not easy to come across.
"Well.. we can go get it?"
"Never mind it" Lana shook her head
" I need all my essence anyways if I'm going to fight a strong enemy, besides an illusion feather can only have one owner"
Zai looked at Lana in a way as if he wants to say something important but he's not sure if he should
She's thinking of fighting but he wants to remind her that he needs her healing abilities in the plan too.
"so… are you ready to use your healing abilities, it seemed to me like you didn't even know you could do it"
Lana gave a wry smile and tilted her head"actually this is the first time for me using healing… I only used annihilation before"
📖some flames have multiple abilities their powers core is vibration and energy
For example Lana uses her dagger that emits intimidating energy
Once it touches its opponent
It instils strong and extreme emotions of fear in them making them lose their balance
And that gives her an opening to phycally attack them.
Meanwhile flames also have the ability of making creatures feel calm or at peace and etc….
Zai : why didn't swan teach it to you?
Lana : she tried but I kinda…
"Couldn't do it" she blurted
"It's alright… you did it now" he said in an assuring soft tone
"We figure things out in life eventually, the universe will put you in situations that force you to to step out of the comfort zone and improve yourself"
Then all of a sudden
they heard loud footsteps of glowfangs returning.
" what do you think they were doing?" Lana whispered to zai
"No idea…" he replied
They came back looking discouraged and tired Even the pups were too exhausted to walk.
" you know I wonder why the shadows are so fixed on recruiting them.." Lana said to Zai wandering.
"I mean…look at their size not just that but I'm pretty sure the shadows like to corrupt creatures for fun" he replied
Lana : "Ho ho no…"she narrowed her eyes
"they don't corrupt for fun, they choose their target for a reason."
her eyes so sharp like memories resurfacing with wrath
Zai felt his body stiffening with his eyes dimming.
(Meanwhile at the quarters of the shadows)
Deep low roaring~
Gulveth entity : come here my precious.
your hungry right?
Your patience is wearing thin?
It whispered to a creature
Looks like a gigantic cockroach
That had multiple sharp legs that were hard as metal
With two spindled eyes that were constantly bleeding red.
Teeth sharp as knives
And a belly so fat like it was bloating with gases yet it was leaking
it's body had tiny holes all around it that leaked poison that currupts any thing it touches.
It screamed and screeched in pain
From a void that never got filled
Like it was in a haze
It listened and did everything it was being told
Without judgement or thought
" then why don't we speed things up a little ehehehe" jokã suggested to gulveth
" you know let's send 005 earlier than usual"
Gulveth crawled in the ceiling so swiftly and hanged above jokã creeping.
Staring straight into her eyes
With a flat expressionless face
Then-
It grinned so hard
And fell to the ground with a thud behind jokã
" you can proceed without third rivers knowledge?" It asked
Jokã's eyes dimmed although she had also been entrusted an important mission and promoted heigher than first river.
When it comes to ranking third river takes the lead
" she is still my superior who is in charge of this operation" she sighed
Gulveth came closer to her ears, slightly brushing her ponytails
" what if you were her superior…I'm pretty sure you would do a better job"
Jokã's eyes widened and her breath clenched
"You know your so much better than her, she's inferior to you , you deserve what she has the status the beauty the respect
The attention , the reputation
, the benefits and so much more
You are soo much more compitent.
They just don't see it!
Your family has been serving us for far too long!!! It's time you guys get what you deserve
So you have to show them! Prove yourself! "
It came even closer and ran its clwas on her shoulders
As it gradually raised its hand to her neck as if it's choking her.
" you want it—you want it—you want what she has…take it from her" it whispered back and forth
"Is everything alright" third river barged in and interrupted as usual.
Then Gulveth scattered and crawled back to the walls lurking around.
Jokã let out a breath
And looked at third river with such envy and hatred like she has taken everything from her.
"Whats matter gulveth got your tongue?"
Jokã clenched her jaw
"She belittles me! She doesn't even respect me" she thought to herself
Third river : look we need to speed up the arrival of the creature to the cavern of puddles… by two days.
Jokã clenched her palms in anger
"This was my idea first" she thought to herself
"And why is that may I ask?" Jokã asked condescendingly
Third river : the illusion seal is getting weak faster this time.
So they will start to see the opening earlier. We need the creature to arrive beforehand to push them back in and spread its poison.
We can't stop harvesting their energy just yet.
Jokã grinned and crossed her arms "… I wouldn't mind getting some of their pups earlier for experiments"
"How about… I accompany 005 myself?"
She suggested with a smug yet hesitant look knowing third river will probably refuse.
Then first river walked from behind towards them
The sound of her footsteps loud
And firm
Everyone around easily gets intimidated by her.
Even if she is of lower rank
recently she has been climbing the ladders of ranks.
Behind her a lot of guards and creatures
Third river crossed her arms and looked at first river from the corner of her eyes
"Tch..show off" jokã blurted
She stood beside them her head held high and her blindfold deep as night and oceans.
A shadow echoed "I hereby announce first river promoted to a superior member of black jade"
Jokã and third river opened their jaws wide with surprise.
How can she rank high so fast?
📖 in this faction there are
- families : families refer to a group of creature of same species and heritage that serve the shadows for generations
They get ranked as one
like rivers , jokãss , nutcrackers etc…
- clubs : in clubs it doesn't matter what species they are, it consits of members with specific talents and skills and value
The more corrupted and devoted the better.
They have their seperate ranking
Each member superior to the other and Each club superior to the other.
Jokã recently got promoted to black jade the second ranking club thats why she told first river she got promoted to a heigher rank than her
But now first river also got into black jade not just that but as a higher ranking member than jokã.
"WHAT?! No! That's unfair!" Jokã shouted with anger.
"Jokã" first river called her name
as she raised her spear high and landed it at her throat
" I give you the honor of accompanying
005 in its way to harvesting the glow of glowfangs"
Jokã open her mouth and her eyes wide
This is what she wanted to do.
And this order that first river is giving her actually serves her own motives.
Even though she hates her she is benefiting her.
"The honor is mine" she bended down with her hands in her chest
she took a peek and looked at third river with a hard grin and a chuckle.
Third river tried to stay composed but her lips twitched and her Body almost as if it wants to burst.
Then jokã went on her way.
First river waved her hands signaling her army to leave
Until it was only third and first river there
First just stared at third for a second and walked away….
Just like that…
Then Third grabbed her wrist swiftly and tightly.
"Sister… what are doing!?"
She said her voice cracking with surprise and pain.
" a favoure" she replied with such a cold demeanour