The moment the group realized that such a dangerous creature was in the rocket, they immediately put themselves in a defensive position. "Snowy, c'mon!" said Darian to the small fox on his shoulder, who, understanding the situation immediately, fused together with Darian.
As the transformation was happening, Vane took a step forward and was about to turn into an animal, while Lily remained next to Darian and Liro took a step back, scared, positioning himself behind his friend.
Poisudonom, noticing the faces of the humans, shook his head while smiling. Darian noticed that he had something in his hands, as he realized what it was, his rage could not be controlled. "LEAVE THAT THING OFF YOUR HANDS!" Everyone near him was surprised; they had never seen Darian this mad, and the others jumped in fright.
Poisudonom, after leaving the picture on the desk, turned towards the humans and put his hands up. "Phocylides told me that humans did this when they wouldn't want to fight, right?" he asked while going outside the rocket. 'Calm down, Darian… the picture is still there and it isn't ruined.' Darian was scared that the only picture he had remaining with his family could have been destroyed, but seeing Poisudonom going out of the rocket with his hands up in the sky so slowly made his heart return to a normal beat.
"It doesn't seem like we need to fight at all… but stay alert," whispered Darian to his friends nearby. Vane, who hadn't turned into an animal yet, shouted to Poisudonom, who had just stopped in front of the rocket with his hands up.
"What are you doing here!?" shouted Vane, extremely mad. All of the group was so surprised to see him there that they still couldn't believe their eyes.
"Exactly! We're more, you will not win this fight!" barked out Lily. Realizing that Poisudonom was one of the Krukins that had completely destroyed Yalemba, she couldn't control her rage; she might throw multiple roots toward him in anger.
"I know; that is why I'm not here to fight," said Poisudonom as he walked backward, still looking at the humans with his hands up. The group remained confused at the sight of the Krukin.
"Then what are you doing here?" asked Darian. His eyes weren't focused on the Krukin but on the rocket; even if he was scared to get closer, he decided to focus more on the rocket, hoping that everything was alright.
"You see… around two months ago, I saw this strange object falling from the sky, and I couldn't understand what it was," said Poisudonom while pointing at the rocket. "So you've seen me going out?" asked Darian as his eyes turned towards Poisudonom.
"Well, I never got closer to this thing during this time, if I had to be honest, I completely forgot about it. But once Archilochus told me your story… I felt like everything was connected."
"Right, we told him about your past too, Darian," said Liro from behind.
"And when I asked Phocylides about this object, I'm sure it is called a rocket, he remained extremely surprised," said Poisudonom while standing still and retrieving his hands, as he was feeling tired of keeping them up in the sky.
"We've already heard this name… who the hell is he?" asked Vane, shouting. It wasn't their first time hearing this Phocylides name; since today, it has been a total mystery as to who this human is, and everyone felt like they could get closer to explaining the mystery.
"It's the one that helps us… even if some of us think that he's just doing things for himself," answered Poisudonom.
"Help you? Is he the one opening the portals?" asked Lily. Her voice was full of anger, realizing that it was also the fault of the one who opens the portals that her city got destroyed.
Poisudonom shook his head. "He's another one, Phocylides is someone else entirely," answered the Krukin.
"Then who is he? Why does it feel like he knows so much stuff?" asked Darian, referring to when Poisudonom told them that Phocylides was surprised to know that a rocket was there.
"You're asking a lot of questions… let's not rush things, alright?" Poisudonom asked while smirking. The others felt angrier seeing his smirk.
Liro, behind the others, snorted in annoyance, and to the surprise of the group, he took a step forward, not scared. "So you will answer our questions, right?" Liro's voice wasn't scared as before; he was talking without any more fear or problems.
Poisudonom, knowing that Liro is one of the most scared of the group, smirked amusedly. "Exactly. But you know… if I tell you something, you need to answer some of my questions too," said Poisudonom. The others remained confused, wondering what type of questions he was referring to.
Liro glanced for a moment at his friends behind him. "We don't know which question he might ask… say that we agree," said Darian while whispering at Liro's head.
After hearing Darian's words, Liro nodded his head. "For us, it's alright, but we're starting with the questions," said Liro with a decisive tone. It felt like Poisudonom didn't have any complaint; in fact, he moved his hand forward. "Go ahead."
"First of all…" said Darian, still transformed, while he took a step forward, positioning himself next to Liro. "You've said that this Phocylides was surprised to hear about the word rocket, right? What does that even mean?" asked Darian without any fear.
"He was surprised, yeah; he never thought that you would come back." Hearing this answer, Darian's heart began to beat faster. 'What does it mean? How does he know about my expedition? We told this to Archilochus, yeah… but his words don't make any sense,' thought Darian. "And—" Darian tried to speak, but Poisudonom interrupted him brutally.
"Calm down, it's one question per side. Have you forgotten?" said Poisudonom with a funny smirk over his face.
"Go ahead," said Liro, while Darian was looking down, lost in his thoughts.
"Are you in contact with all three main human cities?" This was Poisudonom's first question, which surprised everyone a bit. Poisudonom, seeing the confused faces of the others, said something else: "Remember that Yalemba got destroyed, so there are only three of them right now." Poisudonom looked Lily directly in the eyes amusedly; the woman couldn't stand his gaze and became angrier.
"We're only in contact with two cities," answered Liro without any problem.
'So it must be Skar-Zhul and Therya…' thought Poisudonom for a moment before he invited the others to ask another question. "C'mon, I'm all ears for another question," said Poisudonom.
"How much does this Phocylides know about my travel with the rocket there?" This was Darian's second question. Poisudonom, before answering, thought about it for a moment.
"Definitely more than you might realize," answered Poisudonom. "Hey, that's not fair; you didn't answer properly," said Vane, annoyed, realizing it wasn't a proper answer.
"We've never decided how to answer each other's questions, by the way…" said Poisudonom, as he always had the same look on his face. It felt like he was trying to rage-bait them as much as he could.
"And now it's my turn again. Why did you suddenly become more powerful?" asked Poisudonom while pointing his finger at Darian. "In our fight, you suddenly became at least ten times more powerful. How did this happen?" asked the Krukin.
Darian remembered that when they fought for the first time, Snowy had created a projection of his two tails from the point where he fused with him. 'Damn, he remembers about it…' thought Darian as he started to think of how he should answer while remaining vague, mainly because he didn't want his other friends to know about Snowy's secret power.
"C'mon… I'm waiting," said Poisudonom, amused by Darian's thoughtful face. The group next to Darian wondered about the answer, too.
"It's because of the fox, it gave me some of its real power," said Darian as he tried to remain as vague as he could, even if it felt like Poisudonom could understand something. "What do you mean, Darian?" asked Liro next to him, confused. "I'll explain it better whenever we have time," whispered Darian to him.
"Well, this answer works for me… let's go with the last question," shouted Poisudonom as he held up one finger. "Because you started, I need to finish with the last question."
"Already the last one?" asked Liro in a provocative tone. Poisudonom didn't fall for the bait and remained calm.
"You've already discovered many things… and we need to discover ours too." Hearing the word "we," everyone remained confused. 'So he isn't asking questions only for himself, but for the other Krukins too, maybe?' thought Darian.
"Have you met all nine black defenders?" Hearing this question, everyone felt surprised. Why was he asking if they had met all of them? "We only met eight of them…" whispered Liro to his friends behind him. "Exactly… then why does he want to know if we have met all of them?" answered Darian, more confused.
"It isn't a hard answer, right, Darian Thorne?" said Poisudonom with a smirk over his face. Darian, feeling he had been called out, decided to answer. "We've only met eight of them…" Suddenly, Darian's face became twisted and confused.
'Did he just call me by my surname? I haven't told this to anyone…' he thought, having realized too late. Poisudonom, reading his expression, burst into a loud laugh.
"HAHAHAHA," he said as he couldn't stop laughing, while Darian looked at him with terror and the group next to him remained confused. "Thorne? What's that?" asked Vane, confused.
"How do you know about my surname…" said Darian, as he was going crazy.
"The questions have finished; sorry, humans," said Poisudonom as he turned away and started to walk toward the empty sea in front of him.
"Answer my fucking question!!" shouted Darian in complete rage, shooting a powerful shard towards the Krukin, who turned around and smashed the shard with only his fist. "I'm sorry… but the game has finished," he said while jumping into the water and disappearing into the ocean under him.
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD, COME HERE!!" shouted Darian, mad, as he rushed towards the spot where Poisudonom had jumped into the water, trying to look for him, but he couldn't find him; he had completely disappeared into the blue ocean.
"Darian…" said Liro, shaking, as he had never seen Darian like that. The moment Darian turned around, he saw his friends were scared, as he had never acted like this before.
Darian, realizing his error, put a hand over his forehead, and Snowy came out of his body and remained on his shoulder. "Sorry guys… it just took me by surprise," said Darian. He was sure that he had never told anyone about his surname in this world, so how did someone like him know it?
"By the way… you said something about a surname, right? What the hell is that?" asked Vane, confused. "Exactly, I've never heard such a word," said Lily.7"In the old world, people didn't have only a name, but also a surname, which, from what I've read, is a sort of second name, right?" asked Liro. Darian began to walk towards the rocket.
"Yeah… sort of." Darian's mind was full of questions that he couldn't answer.
"But you've never told us your surname… I'm sure that no one should know th—" The moment Vane asked, he was cut off by Darian's fist against the metal of the rocket. "This is what I'm trying to understand…" Darian was now looking down as he tried to find an answer, but nothing made sense.
"Let's just take the things in the rocket so we can head back," said Darian as his face became darker and it wasn't possible to read his expression anymore. He spoke with a totally different vocal tone that was impossible to read and tell what he was thinking.
Darian was the first one to enter the rocket, hoping that everything was still the same as it was and that Poisudonom really hadn't destroyed anything. He had only created some mess with the things in the rocket, but nothing more.
Darian silently grabbed the picture of his family in his hands. "Don't worry… you're safe now," said Darian as he looked at the picture.
The others entering the rocket remained surprised. "Woah, it's so big…" whispered Liro, surprised. None of them had ever been inside a rocket before; it all felt extremely grand.
"You can act as if it is your house, guys." Darian was finally able to calm down. The others began to explore the rocket curiously. Darian decided to sit down in his chair and looked at the ceiling. 'It all feels too surreal,' he thought. Darian tried to close his eyes when suddenly he felt a small vibration coming from his body; realizing it was the phone, he immediately picked it up.
There was a text from Rusty that said: "Master, you need to return immediately; something important happened."