Chapter 19: A Tragic Discovery
They quickly made their way out of the narrow canyon, fanning their faces to flick away the straggling particles of sand clogging their sight.
The farther they walked, the easier their clothes snarled onto their dampening flesh.
Trudging by various rock mounds whose jagged tips pierced the calescent sky, and caves failing to meet the merman's seemingly impossible standards, the young woman attention was drawn by another elaborate illusion abutting a nigh-mountainous grotto.
But this one was slightly different, though.
Not only it had double the amount of letter runes around its corners, they were intricately connected to a rotating master rune pulsing with power.
Such master rune—shoddily made by her standards, but a masterwork for everyone else—directly gathered heaven and earth energy and converted it into letter energy, rendering it self-sufficient without any external intervention.
Surely, that begged many questions.
Why was it here?
What secrets did it hold?
She was curious, and furthermore, she had enough of her partner's refusals for now.
She just wanted to find a decent rock to take care of.
It's not like she was looking for Bamongo's pure diamond…
She shouldn't dig her head any deeper in this country's secrets, but since she already whetted her beak in her sect affairs, why not offend another organization for luck's sake? "Kame, let's stop here, there's another illusion over there, and I wanna check it out," she said.
Kame's hair almost managed to sharpen even deeper than she ever thought when he replied, "Your Royal Highness, could we not involve ourselves in another potential-no definitely illicit business?'
'You know I think this cave just a bit further away will give you the ihuako with an absolute purity, I am sure of it! I swear it on the shallow seas and the deep abyss! So please let's get to it, OK?"
However, she gave him a toothy grin under the gleam of her dark eyes. "You don't have to follow me if you want, my friend. I'm just gonna take a look. Besides, you and I know that the next cave won't satisfy my needs, as you said before. And I know your standards are better than this puny cave, since our elevation is still a bit high, don't you think?" she said.
The mermen face twitched, then paled. "Well, I think that—"
"Suit yourself, buddy. I'm still gonna go. And when my curiosity will be satisfied, will I endure your pedantic geological expectations for another hour or two farther down the desert. Besides, I'm wilting like a dried hibiscus, so I wouldn't mind a bit of shadow now, OK?" she said as her legendary avian evanesced in a flash of dazzling light around her.
Without waiting for his reply, she nearly coursed her way towards her impromptu destination, although she heard a few curses from her water-faring friend before he followed her anyway.
When she faced the illusion upfront, her mind raced about breaching solutions.
Less than two minutes elapsed when her fingers wriggled about, each throbbing with distinct opaque runes.
Spreading her digits overhead, the runes she made flew towards the master rotating rune and disappeared inside the illusion. Seconds later, her runes seemingly bloomed back to life and stacked themselves on the runes forming the master formation like glue.
On the surface, Lyshisha actions seemed fruitless, as nothing changed on the surface. But a smug smile spread across her face as she then opened a crack like she did before, revealing an exquisite gilded four-plated pristine gray double gate, a contrast against the dirt and the desolation outdoors.
Motioning the tigers to follow her wake, she carefully opened one of the large doors, its width enough to allow her imposing pets by her side with room to spare.
Clearly, a bunch of massive merchandises could be carried through these openings…
A sizable brown hallway stood before her, its emerald lightbulbs hanging above casting their colored lights upon the stones making an ivory floor. A faint scent of mud pervaded the stale air she inhaled. On the other end stood a gate like the one behind her.
When she reached beyond that door, a sanitizing scent tingled her nostrils as she found herself inside an immaculate hallway this time, having a few double gates on its left and right walls.
But as she drew closer to the nearest door on her left side, a gaggle of muffled moans traveled like field bindweed to her ears.
Moans implying … pain.
The queen set her jaw.
What kind of crazy shit happened on that other side?
She had to know.
Her senses alert, her fingers thrumming with letter matter, she carefully opened the door when she was assailed with eerie wails and pitiful shrieks of pain.
She almost balked at such appalling and horrifying sight.
The screams came from humanoid beings trapped inside a bevy of glassy pods, where a pile of ebony rocks or whatever they were where embedded upon their chest and shoulder blades.
But what made Lyshisha recoil in fright was the hideous green substances coursing like bright snakes across their emaciated bodies, injected by seven-inch long pink needles holding a mysterious lime-colored liquid.
Suddenly, like the swivel of a screwdriver, the needles mechanically swapped the now empty vials with orange ones, then injected the viscous and hideous contents inside their captives, restoring their seemingly dry and lifeless flesh!