"What do we do now?" Ritsuka asked. They sat in the man-made cave, away from the harsh sunlight. Lee Seng shared the rough bed with Ritsuka while Calis and Evan shared the opposite one.
"Not sure… Did you get anything from the slime creature?" Evan asked Lee Seng. Lee Seng shook off his daze and looked at Evan, slowly registering what was said. "Did you get anything from the slime?"
"Oh." Lee Seng's face lit up for a second. "Now that Mother has a humanoid body, she's going to turn the rest of the Failed Ones into humanoid-like creatures and try to take over the world."
"Since one of them has the ability to create portals, this is going to be hard trying to pinpoint them." Calis added. The group nodded.
"Where do we start? Did the slime thing tell you where they were? What they were doing other than that?" Ritsuka asked Lee Seng. Lee Seng shook his head and shrugged.
"What I observed with Slime is the fact they seemed to lose their humanity. They didn't remember much about when they were human. They didn't remember their name. They were called by their number like an experiment. The worst part is Slime didn't know the Creator was the one who turned them into what they are now…" Lee Seng's eyes grew dark. He couldn't help but feel a bit sad for them. He shook it off and stood up. "I don't really know where to go next, but the lab is gone…"
Lee Seng paced around for quite some time, leaving the rest to conjure up some ideas on where they could go.
"What are some things we currently know about the Failed Ones?" Calis asked the others.
"They're experiments before the Biohuman serum actually was perfected." Ritsuka answered.
"They've been hiding underneath the lab for god knows how long." Evan added. "Their existence is only known by a select few people, right?"
"Yeah." Lee Seng nodded. "And they all seem to center around Mother… it's like Mother is their ring leader."
"If we kill Mother, we might kill them all?" Calis asked.
"I don't think so." Evan shook his head. "If we're assuming each one of them can be independent, I don't think Mother's death will impact them much…"
"Mother's death will scare them." Lee Seng said. He looked at his friends and nodded. "They'll be scared for sure. If there's a hierarchy established, in-fighting will start. Mother's Son will try to take her place and the others might fight him on that… Wait, Son!" Lee Seng's eyes widened. He snapped his fingers. "Son has all of my powers. We can assume he has access to all of my powers besides the Fox Spirit stuff. He's only ever used portal and gravity…"
"If we go by that logic, he has your mutation ability. If he figures out how to actually use it, he could literally turn the entire Failed Ones into an ever-changing force!" Ritsuka stood up. Lee Seng agreed with Ritsuka.
"What do we do then? Does that mean we have to… kill Son?" Evan asked, standing. Calis stood up, brushing the dirt and dust off his pants.
"Mother will probably play it safe and use Son as a pivotal piece in her plan. He can take them anywhere I've been, so…" Lee Seng trailed off. A realization popped up in Lee Seng's head. He knew places Son might've taken Mother. Places that would be of significance to her. Goosebumps grew and moved all around his body.
"So?" Evan tilted his head. Lee Seng gulped and looked at his companions.
"I think I know where they might be." Lee Seng moved towards the exit.
"Where?" Ritsuka asked, following. Evan and Calis followed after, hoping to get an answer. Lee Seng moved into an open area and began to scribble runes.
"What're you doing?" Calis asked.
"You always wanted to know about me, right?" Lee Seng looked at his friends. They all gave him odd faces. "Well, this is going to be great for you guys. You'll get to know where I grew up." The runes began to light up as Lee Seng pulled his finger away. It glowed bright gold and silver. He slashed it and the four men lifted up into the air, launching into the sky.
3 Hours from Captiol City
The cracked road was filled with weeds and overgrown grass on each of its sides. Lee Seng had taken the group far away from the city. The Soul world and the real world blended together. Lee Seng was finally making his way back home to the cape cod house.
The cape cod home came into view. It looked empty. Despite Lee Seng's father's opinion about the house, Lee Seng's mother had kept in and gave it to Lee Seng after she died. The home was too far to be taken care of and Lee Seng technically couldn't use the house until he was at least eighteen.
It felt different coming to the home, physically. It wouldn't be anything in his Soul world.
"We're going to a house…? Outside the city…?" Evan asked. "Aren't there monsters about?"
"I used to live here years ago. It's honestly not that bad with the monsters. People favored the city and moved away, leaving this place to rot. When I was old enough to come back, I would've fixed the home up and lived my days out here." Lee Seng answered, lowering the group a shot walk's distance away from the home.
"We're stopping here to be safe?" Ritsuka guessed. Lee Seng nodded. They looked around.
"This is what the old timers called 'country living'?" Evan asked.
"Yup." Lee Seng nodded. "Although, my house is the start of a small set of homes near a body of water. I used to go fishing and canoeing all the time here." Lee Seng led the way, reminiscing on the good days. He missed his Mom a bit more now that he was back.
"You sure they'll be here?" Calis asked, scanning their surroundings. It was empty. The roads were cracked and not maintained. Large fields that once held corn, were now overgrown with weeds that reached to the sky.
Lee Seng eventually came to a stop, short of the house. The road curved to the left and started towards the house. He took a breath before peeking. The curved road led to space for parking and even linked up to the attached garage. Here, Lee Seng carefully scanned the home.
A couple energy signatures picked up in the home. Most of the energy signatures were off in the back. He could hear quiet grunts and something hitting the ground. Lee Seng began to move forward when an arm grabbed Lee Seng and pulled him back. He turned to ask 'what' when Calis lifted his finger up to his lips. He silently told Lee Seng there was something watching the front yard.
Lee Seng's eyes narrowed and Calis pointed to exactly where it was. Through the overgrown weeds, Lee Seng focused and saw it for a split second. It was quadrupedal, sitting and watching.
'Damn it.' Lee Seng thought. 'My eyes aren't as great as Calis's. I almost alerted that mutt… Could it be that wolf I saw earlier?' A tap pulled his attention to his teammates.
"What's the game plan?" Ritsuka mouthed. Lee Seng stuck a finger up and pointed at their arms and motioned for them to give it to him. One by one, Lee Seng scrawled a temporary rune on them. It wasn't as effective, but at least they could telepathically talk to each other for a short amount of time.
'Eres.' Lee Seng thought. The runes lit up and he looked at everyone. 'Can you hear me?'
'How'd you do that?' Evan asked.
'It doesn't last long and it's only short distance communication.' Lee Seng told the group. 'There's an invisible wolf watching us, so we need to somehow get past it.'
'It's my turn to shine, then.' Ritsuka grinned. He summoned Obsidian Glass, drawing the wolf's attention. The wolf leapt forward, soaring through the overgrown grass and weeds and landing where it thought intruders were. The wolf looked around, unsure what was happening.
"I thought I sensed something here…" The wolf growled. Its fur was red and black and had a split tail. It sniffed the air, sensing something around them. "I smell you… I smell someone here…!"
Lee Seng and the group looked above, quietly watching. The wolf slowly scanned its surroundings. It wasn't leaving. Ritsuka stuck his katana into its place and began to move. The wolf followed. It's senses were sharp.
'We're going to have to do something about that.' Calis pointed. He summoned the trident. 'I'll distract it.'
'Are you sure? It might alert everyone else.' Evan asked.
'Don't worry. I swear on my clan name, I won't allow it to alert the others.' Calis looked at Evan and Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded and Calis looked to Ritsuka.
'Jump out anytime.' Ritsuka nodded at the small opening above them.
'You guys continue towards the house. I'll catch up.' Calis lowered himself and gave a small nod before leaping out of the dark hole.
Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.𝘤ℴ𝑚 for the best novel reading experience