Lee Seng was burning with energy by the time Evan and Ritsuka found him. Calis was on the ground with an arm around his stomach. Evan and Ritsuka split, checking on both of their friends.
"Are you okay?" Ritsuka asked Calis. Calis weakly nodded and pointed at Lee Seng.
"S-something's wrong." Calis informed Ritsuka. "He flew in here like he knew exactly where I was and then… he took something from me…" Ritsuka looked over his shoulder at Evan and the burning Lee Seng.
"Ah, what do I do…? Lee Seng? Lee Seng, wake up." Evan panicked. Ritsuka turned his attention back to Calis, who was trying to push himself up. He helped Calis, noticing the Merman's arm never left his stomach.
"You look like you need a potion." Ritsuka said. "We should try to get outta here as fast as possible." Calis nodded and Ritsuka slowly stood up and helped Calis up.
"What're we going to do with this guy?" Evan asked, pointing at Lee Seng. "He's literal fire." Ritsuka bit his lip as he supported Calis. The flames danced off Lee Seng's body, dwindling into nothingness. "Lee Seng, wake up! Lee Seng…"
[Devouring Twelve has successfully binded the energy cores together.]
A red, black, green and purple core floated in front of Lee Seng when he awoke in the Soul world. The only light in this place came from the Failed Ones' fused core. He moved towards it.
"Take the core." The System spoke. It was a rare occasion for the System to do such a thing. Lee Seng stopped in front of the core and stared at it. He slowly lifted his hand and felt the energy. Memories flooded into his head. Bits and pieces of strange people appeared.
"You're doing mankind a wonderful deed by taking this serum." Dr. Chang spoke to a scrawny man with glasses. He held the needle in one hand as he looked at the man's arm. Dr. Chang's eyes went up to the nervous man and a soft smile grew on Dr. Chang's face. "Everything will be fine, Mr. Anderson. You can trust me." Mr. Anderson anxiously hung onto Dr. Chang's word for a moment before nodding.
Dr. Chang injected the serum and the single memory fractured. Two men and a woman. They were all in different spaces when it happened. Their bodies morphed and changed. The anxious man turned into a literal slime. The woman had blades sticking out of her before she turned into the hound and a blind man started to sprout eyes all over before his form melted into a mess.
Three people who succumbed to the horrible side effects of the serum's early days. Lee Seng gasped and took a step back. He could feel their pain. He could feel their anxiety. He could feel their desperation as they changed.
'No wonder he couldn't go through with killing them.' Lee Seng thought. He steadied himself and stared into the multi-colored orb of energy. He felt anger. He felt sadness, but he felt relieved for these three people. 'They can rest now.' He stepped forward and raised his hand to the orb. Black flames ignited, eating the orb.
"Eyes, Slime, and Hound…" Lee Seng whispered. "Rest easy." He pulled away from the orb, watching the energy flood his system.
"Lee Seng…" Evan's voice weakly called. Lee Seng turned and watched the sky open up into oranges, golds and yellows. "Lee Seng… wake up…!"
"Failed Ones' Fused Cores have been absorbed!" The System announced. Lee Seng looked at his hand and balled it into a fist. He felt the energy burning off him.
"Time to go back." Lee Seng sighed. He turned and started to walk. The darkness faded, colors filling the space again. A breeze greeted him as he climbed the hill. The large tree greeted him as he climbed to stand beside it. "Never gets old…" The view was breathtaking. The tree pulsed and Lee Seng nodded, turning towards it. "I know. It's time." He pushed himself into the tree, feeling his consciousness go back to his body.
"Lee!" Evan and Ritsuka called out to him. Lee Seng's eyes flickered open and the flames died down. He could see three people staring at him. Lee Seng groaned and let out a fiery burp. He slowly sat up and yawned.
"Ew." Ritsuka and Evan stepped away.
"At least he's up now…" Calis weakly spoke. Evan and Ritsuka nodded in agreement.
"We can leave now." Evan moved over to Lee Seng, giving him a hand.
"Why did you leave like that?" Ritsuka asked.
"It wasn't me who did that." Lee Seng answered, turning. "The System did it."
"You've never talked about this 'system' before. Now you're saying you didn't do it? There isn't Keng or another strange thing in you you can blame so you blame it on this new thing?"
"I'm not lying." Lee Seng smiled. He stretched and sighed in relief. "I've always had the System from day one. I don't know if it's a Fox Spirit thing or a Biohuman thing."
"Or both." Evan added.
"Or both." Lee Seng nodded. "Anyways, they took me here and I took the Failed One from Calis."
"How'd it even know where I was?" Calis asked. Lee Seng shrugged and turned to Calis.
"You need some help?" Lee Seng asked.
"I'm fine… Just sore…" Calis shook his head. Lee Seng nodded and turned his attention to the exit.
"Let's get outta here, yeah?" Evan asked. They all nodded and Lee Seng and Evan led the way. Dead Deimons sprawled throughout the tunnels without heads. Lee Seng didn't question how they died. He had an idea of what happened. Evan directed Lee Seng in the opposite direction of where they came. "We should go the opposite way."
"What about the cargo crew?" Calis asked.
"Do you want to go through a chasm just for them?" Evan asked. "I think we have bigger problems."
"We found Calis. We just have to find Chrono and reunite with the cargo crew and then get out." Lee Seng summarized the plan.
"Easy as that?"
"Easy peasy, lemon squeezy." Lee Seng nodded. He led the group back the way they came. The large hole soon appeared and Calis wondered what had happened. Lee Seng drew the wind and flying runes and slashed them. Wind moved around the group and he pushed out.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm "I don't like this part." Evan squeezed his eyes shut. He grabbed onto Lee Seng a bit too tight. Lee Seng kept Evan and the others close, moving through the dark abyss for a while.
"I'm surprised you did well during the fight." Ritsuka commented to Evan. "No hesitation. You helped Lee Seng out in the last fight. I thought you would be a wreck."
"I was!" Evan shouted. "Y-you two are convincing! That's all! Never let me do something like that ever again!"
"If I don't have to, I won't." Lee Seng patted Evan's head. Lee Seng finally saw land and slowly dropped them onto it. They walked fifteen feet in before he dismissed the runes and shook his arm with the sloth grip Evan on it. "We're safe. You can open your eyes and loosen your death grip." Evan peeked and looked around. He let go of Lee Seng and let out a sigh of relief.
They eventually came back to the six-path tunnel. Lee Seng ignored the right side and turned his attention to the five remaining paths.
"Which one did they go in, again?" Ritsuka asked. Calis's eyes moved to the tunnel next to the one they came out of. There was a strange metal embedded in the wall. He slowly looked at the other tunnels and noticed only one other tunnel had the same exact strange metal in the wall.
"They went through the second from the left and fourth one." Calis pointed.
"They really went down the paths they suggested." Lee Seng whispered. He turned to the second tunnel and pointed at it. "I think we should go that way then. Maybe I'll see the defensive Observer barrier lady again." He smiled at that thought. She was rightfully scared of him, so hopefully 'luck' like that would reunite them with the crew.
"I don't know if I should be worried if you want to find someone with those descriptors…" Ritsuka whispered.
"C'mon, let's go." Lee Seng motioned. They wandered down the tunnel, listening for any noises or movement. Calis continued to see the small metal pieces inserted into the wall. They walked for quite awhile until the tunnel snaked into a room full of dead hounds.
"What the hell happened here?" Evan whispered. The stench of sulfur filled the air, mixing with the rotting smell of blood.
"Augh!" Lee Seng pinched his nose. "These dogs aren't like the Failed One… What are these…?" He slowly inched over to a dead hound and kicked it. It was rotted with its rib cages exposed. "They're dead… They aren't hounds like that Failed One…"
"These are all dead." Ritsuka observed. "There's no Biohumans around so it's safe to assume they're alive?"
"Let's … keep going before I puke." Lee Seng motioned.
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