Chapter Eighteen[XVIII]: Training, That's the Plan (IX)

Xenos Waters leaned against the wall of the cabin, wincing at the pressure put onto his bruises. His left side was virtually untouched, but the same couldn't be said for his right. Since Mr. Balanius couldn't attack his scales properly, his right side got the brunt of the damage. Felix, who woke up just in time to see his last three matches, nods sympathetically, grimacing. "Yeah, not fun at all."

"Understatement of the century," Xenos grumbles, thanking Mr. Balanius as he takes the healing potion from him, chugging it down immediately. The effect is near-immediate, the pain subsiding to nothing more than a small ache as his bruises heal up. He begins to feel very drowsy, like all the strength from his body left all at once.

"Hey, Xenos?" Felix asks, making Xenos tiredly look at him.

"Yeah?" Xenos' voice was already thick with sleep.

"Are you growing a horn?"

Xenos shrugs, yawning. "I guess."

Felix smirks mischievously. "It looks kind of cute."

"Say that after--" he yawned again, eyes closing firmly this time, "--I shove it up your ass."

Felix's laugh was all he heard before the world went dark.

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Xenos opens his eyes to a scene unfamiliar but familiar to him at the same time. It's of an immense chasm filled with a dark, void-like fog that hovered a few hundred meters in like an impenetrable wall that would swallow up everything in its path. It's eerie, it's clear nothing good will come of approaching it.

But what's even more horrifying are the countless amounts of beasts ( creatures? ) entering and exiting the fog, most of them black in colour but all of them nightmares in their own rights. It's at that moment that Xenos realizes what this chasm is, not from some prior knowledge, but from instinct. This is Inanis Nebula Chasm, the place that Mr. Balanaius isn't allowed to tell them about.

Chills run up his spine as he sees a dhabeho crawl out of the void-like fog and heads straight toward him at a speed unbefitting of its large frame. He can finally see the single horn protruding out of the left side of its forehead, it's long and curved slightly backwards, not dissimilar to that of a mountain goat.

Xenos tries to run away but his body, which feels much too large all of a sudden, doesn't do as he wishes, staying firmly in place like a tree rooted in the ground. He struggles even more desperately as the dhabeho closes in the distance between them but fails, not even managing to move a single millimetre.

The dhabeho reaches out a clawed hand and Xenos can almost see his life flash before his eyes. That is until his head suddenly looks down at the things in his arms, and Xenos realizes what's wrong. This wasn't his body, at least, not yet it wasn't. Because his entire body was covered in black scales, his arms incredibly long and his height easily reaching two and a half meters.

Somehow, he's in the body of a dhabeho.

Stunned by this development, Xenos watches in a daze as he, the dhabeho, hands over an armful of various coloured, shaped, and sized crystals to the other dhabeho. It takes the crystals easily, turning around and carefully running back towards the chasm, disappearing into the fog moments later.

The dhabeho he was in suddenly turns around, about to march off in the direction of a thick forest filled with trees that have blood-coloured bark, it stops. It's at that moment that Xenos feels the non-existent hairs on his neck rise, a sense of impending doom filling his mind until he finds it hard to breathe.

His vision flickers between the forest and that of a man shrouded in shadow, sitting on top of a throne made of obsidian. Though he can't see it, Xenos has the impression that the man is smiling despite his words, "This won't do, not at all." Each syllable slams into Xenos' mind like a sledgehammer, pain erupting from what feels like his very essence. "Here, let me help you." Agony incomparable to the scales fills him for a brief moment before everything stops.

Then, only oblivion.

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Xenos Waters wakes up with an aching head and the vague feeling that something is out of place, though he can't put a finger on what changed. He recalls the dream he had and frowns, opening his eyes to find himself hugging a sleeping Inari to his chest. As cute as that is, something more pressing draws his attention: the fact that he's being carried by Felix like a bride.

"Finally awake, Xenos?" Felix asks, grinning as he looks down at Xenos.

Xenos feels like he'll die from embarrassment, only managing to mumble a meek, "Yeah." He doesn't need to look at his face to know it's beet red. "Could you. . . put me down?" Felix laughs but does as he asks, carefully putting Xenos down so as to not hurt himself or wake Inari. He mutters out his thanks, glancing in front of them to see that they're on a rather desolate path deep in some forest, Mr. Balanius nowhere to be seen. ". . .Are you planning on murdering me or something?"

Felix snickers, shaking his head slowly so he doesn't shake off Igneel. "Nah, you and I got enough to worry about in terms of dying." Xenos grimaces.

"Then why are we in a forest? And what happened to Mr. Balanius?"

Shrugging, Felix points toward the road. "He said he had something to do and told me the way to our temporary home, since we can't exactly stay in those white rooms for three months."

That makes sense, since other people may need those rooms other than them. Plus, the hospital seems a bit busy, so there's no way that Xenos wants to cause an inconvenience to the healers. "How long was I out?"

"About three, maybe four hours, anyway, let's head to our new home." Felix enthusiastically continues forward, Xenos following behind quietly. He glances up at the sky to see that the sun isn't there, probably covered by the thick trees. It can't be too late, however, since there's still plenty of light coming down from above.

Still, Xenos can't help but feel a little uncomfortable when he looks toward the path in front of them. It has less to do with the fact that he's in a new place and more to do with instinct, something inside of him is telling him that there's a thing at the end of the path to be wary of. Despite this, Xenos keeps on walking quietly, staring intently at the path

He can only hope he's wrong.