Not Natural

"Be a little careful if you can."

Walking up through trees Xilo avoided some debris while warning the other two behind him. "Not many beasts yet." They had been climbing the mountain for a couple minutes now with no signs of anything, leaving Xilo disappointed. "Well we'll be at the top soon." Leaving it at that he kept double checking behind him every few minutes to check up on Relia mostly. Walking behind him Xelfia stared at the icicles lodged into Xilo's hand as a question came to her mind.

"Hey Xilo....."

"Hmm...? What's the matter?"

Hearing Xelfia trail off he didn't turn around as he listened to her voice. Struggling to get her words out Xelfia didn't know what to say exactly as she let the silence continue on. "What am I doing." Scolding herself in her mind she organized her thoughts as she tried to control her emotions. However as soon as she tried to speak again she felt her throat choke up as the words refused to leave her mouth. "Ha....Well I guess I can ask another time, besides Xilo wouldn't go back on his words." She knew he would eventually return there to fulfill his promise to her.

"It's nothing, never mind."

Saying that she stayed quiet as pain filled her chest and walked to the top. Thankfully Xilo couldn't push the question as the top started entering their vision giving her an excuse.

"Look."

"It's the snow we saw from before, Careful, Flying Astral Beasts should be somewhere."

Stopping them his feet halted as his energy spread out looking for any Astral Beasts before they spotted them. "One....Two....five. there's about ten all together." Locking on to the ten flying birds in the sky Xilo informed Xelfia and Relia as he crouched behind a bush and watched from a distance. "That snow isn't natural." Looking at the small area he noticed small specks in the air slowly generating then falling to the ground as time went on. "Is it even snow at this point...or more importantly what's causing this." Making sure they haven't been spotted he generated small blades of ice filled darkness in his hands as he locked on to each one before throwing out a blade each.

Within seconds ten separate Ice daggers flew out into the air and pierced straight through each Astral Bird without stopping causing each to drop dead in an instant. "Well, that was unexpected." Slightly surprised with the speed and damage those daggers did Xilo was left a little speechless as he looked at the corpses that now littered the ground. "They weren't that weak either." They were all around the second stage so it was quite a blow to be able to kill them in one hit like that.

"Impressive."

"Let's get a closer look."

With the threat out of the way Xilo created a few extra ice blades as they walked towards the snow just in case. Arriving in front of the snow pile that covered the ground Xilo watched as it continued to slowly grow while Xelfia ripped off a piece of the Birds wings before handing it to Xilo. Looking at the small blue birds covered in feathers Xilo felt a little bad. "Mutated Beasts." They weren't any different from normal birds yet and that stung at Xilo a little bit but he ignored it as he took the wing and shoved it into his bag while Relia watched their exchange in puzzlement.

"So what is this stuff, It doesn't look like snow to me."

"You're right...But I don't know what else it is."

Crouching down Xilo put his hand on it to see if he could get any information from it but it didn't even feel like liquid. Rubbing his hand through it he felt his hand sting as the snow stuck to him without letting go as he quickly pulled back while freezing it on his hand before destroying the ice.

"You okay?"

"Yeah...It's just a lot more aggressive than I thought it was."

"....Bad..."

"Relia, Back up now and stay away from that stuff." "Why?" "I don't quite remember yet but all I know is that it's dangerous." "fine, butcan you try and remember what it is?" "I will.." Sinking into silence Azalu stared at the white liquid on the ground as she flickered through her memories trying to see where she had seen such a before but everything was coming up blank. "I know I've seen this stuff before but where." Grumbling in her mind, whatever it was, was rare for her to see if she still didn't remember it. While she did that Relia tried to warn Xilo and Xelifa to be safe the best she could.

"....Don't be...near...Dangerous."

Hearing Relia's words a small part of him agreed with her but besides the initial sting taking him by surprise it didn't seem that dangerous to him. "maybe if we check the others something will come to mind." But that was only a vague guess.

"Got any Idea's Xelfia?"

"No, I've never seen this stuff myself either."

"Alright then let's check the other locations and see what's happening there."

Saying that he tried to remember the other location he saw from the ground as he tossed the ice chunks into the liquid and left in the direction he thought it was in with Xelfia and relia. In the silence of the forest with no more birds circling the area around the liquid, small ice chunks slowly sank deeper and deeper into the pond with no end in sight as it went underground endlessly never to be seen again. Meanwhile the three of them visited another three locations and scouted them out after dealing with the Astral Birds circling around them with nothing new changing or coming to mind. It wasn't until the fifth puddle of liquid did something finally click for someone.

"Wait, I remember now!" Shouting in Relia's head Azalu finally remembered where she had seen this stuff before and why it was probably here. "Then what is it?" Holding her head after such a sudden yell Relia managed to get that out.