The Whispering Mist

-Guo-

Guo had meditate for most of the night, as the others mourned the death of their companion in silence, mostly in pairs. Their mood was understandable gloomy at first, until Yunlan came to remind them that the journey must continue, even if most of them were to be killed and only one remeined. It sounded cruel at first, but Yunlan show them some images of the source of the evil working in the Dark Lands, a huge red stone that came down from the sky to poison and change the world bit by bit, eventually reaching the Clans and beyond, if they don't destroy it.

Thinking about future generations, about the future of their children's and grand-children's to be, they needed to keep up their pace. Besides, if they do nothing but mourn, Xue's death will become nothing but the trigger to the Clan's doom, something that Xue Song would had never wanted, because he had volunteer to go to their quest with the desire to protect those he loved from the coming evil. The others agree with that too, after some thinking. They should honor Xue's death, finishing their mission so his death will not be in vain.

Thus, Zhao Yunlan's small speech sink inside the minds of his companions, giving them renewed determination to keep on walking their current path and Guo was glad, that the despair that the death of Xue Song left behind was turned into strength of the heart, because the next territory, although looked less dangerous, it was in fact more so than the last one. This time it was not the body who was in danger to be consumed, but their very souls, which was no less than become a living dead.

"Guo, we will under your care in the next territory. Are you willing to take the responsibility for our lives?" Yunlan had asked him, just before they were ready to leave the stone.

"Yes, but before that..." He came closer to their leader and put his index finger over Zhao's forehead, then close his eyes, as his long hair shined deep white and a bluish light glow over the Water Prince forehead.

"This is a protection for your mind, because the mist hides more than Shadows and also, it will be best if you are blindfolded. The mist will affect your senses in a short period of time after been expose to it, so it will be best if you only listen to mi voice, which will resonate inside your mind. Everything else, you need to ignore it with as much force of will as you have." Guo said and after he repeated the process with each member, Chu tide them together as he did the last time, so none will stray from the path Guo chose from them and they head out.

Guo heightened all his senses, mentally tracing the safest path to their next destination. His shield was already active and increased in the numbers tenfold, with hundreds of swords that moved around the single line in which they walked to protect them, in case they were physically attacked.

After fifteen minutes of walking, all members of the Clans could hear whispers in the cold wind. The sound was mild at first, but as they walked deeper inside the territory it begin to increase to pure yells, resembling tormented souls straight from hell. It was only thanks to Guo's mental protection that they could keep the pace. The voices had a kind of dark magic on their own that try to allure them to the most dangerous parts of the land.

Still, Guo keep them calm and gently chanted some mantras inside their minds to keep the group focus only in his words. Several hours passed and the Sage Prince keep them walking through the labyrinth of mist and screaming. However, halfway to the next destination, things changed drastically.

Shadows begin to appear, ready to strike them, but Guo's swords got into motion, slicing anything that came close to their group. Nonetheless, hearing the swords moving and striking, sometimes too close, make a few members of the Clans nervous, because they could not see anything while blindfolded and only relaying in the Sage protection. Almost at the end of the territory, the screaming along with the sound of the swords striking something they could not see, was really getting into them.

Sang begin to fear for his life and try to break the formation, but Chu's strings keep him in place, even when he struggle to get away. Wang, who was behind him try to calm him down with her words and it was beginning to work, when they all hear an unexpected voice coming from someplace close in the mist, making them all freeze from the inside out in horror.

"You let me die... You all let me die!!!" It was unmistakably, Xue Song's voice that disturbed even Guo's concentration on the road and the Shadows close by.

"You traitors! You let me die and leave me behind!" Zhu couldn't resist the coming tears, even when blindfolded, as the voice of the dead keep shouting accusations to their already overwhelmed minds. Da Qing, which had a special connection to her, try to calm her down, but there was some guilt left behind the death that was still too fresh and hard to suppress.

As they move forwards, the voice of Xue Song keep resonating, disturbing the thoughts of the livings and allowing their minds to open to the Shadows. Chu had to keep a few of them, from straying away, while Guo prayed harder to keep them from going insane at the hard accusations of the voice resembling that of the earth healer. However, seen the effect on their minds, the thing controlling the Shadows increased the voices, all of them resembling the voice of their lost companion.

He yelled and yelled some more and more, cursing and playing with their guilt. Wang screamed her heart out for the voice to stop, but Xue's voice only laughed evilly. Yunlan was tempted to use his star magic to free them from the mental hell, but he needed to remain strong. He worry for his gentle lover, who had been taken aback the most before and he fear it will overwhelm him completely now.

"Shen Wei... I curse you! It was you who let me die by fire! By FIRE! Curse you! Why didn't you save me? You are a master of fire! Curse you! You murder me, you are no different from that beast!" This make Shen Wei stop in this track, making Zhao, behind him bump into him. Zhao wasted no time to hug him, taking the opportunity to infuse him with his warm embrace to let him know he was there.

It was hard enough to hear Zhu and Wang crying, almost to the border of despair, not to mention Sang and even Lin struggling to get away from their formation, already affected by the magic of the mist and Shadows, but a crumbling Shen Wei was too much for Yunlan to allow it.

"That's not the real Xue, Shen Wei... close your mind to the Shadows taking advantage of our weakness. You were not responsible for his death, don't fall into their mental traps..." Zhao whisper to his ear and feel Shen sigh.

"I know Yunlan, don't worry about me... I will keep my mind strong, but I had enough of this screams. Guo, how far are the Shadows from us right now?" Shen asked and Guo turned to look at the blinded Fire Prince.

"About thirteen meters all around us. I had keep that distance between us since we begin walking." Guo responded.

"How many are there?" Shen asked again.

"Too many... they are feeding on despair, but when they feed enough, they will come at us in waves, but we are not too far the border to the next territory." Guo said.

"Chu, is anyone still tied to the net?" Shen asked to the unperturbed man behind Guo.

"Of course." Was his answer.

"Shen Wei, what are you..." But in that instant, Zhao felt Shen's inner fire spike, as the Fire Prince clap his hands, then open them wide, summoning a huge wall of fire that was sent in all directions at once moving to dispel the mist and consume the Shadows hidden in it. As they burned, they hear even more penetrating screeches that pierced inside their heads.

"Something big is coming!" Da Qing yelled, taking off his blindfold. He could feel the thing coming at high speed. It had follow them almost for the beginning and he try to block it, putting walls on its path, but it was a useless attempt, because an obsidian corps-like creature still broke everything in its path, fearing not the white swords that came to intercepts it, nor Shen Wei's still burning fire.

The thing skin was half rotten, the limps extremely long and deformed, the belly swollen like that of a pregnant woman, yet it didn't have visible sexual organ, even when it was completely naked. The head was big, yet it didn't had eyes or even a nose, it only had a big mouth, more like that of dogs but with no fangs, because it only had a forked tongue.

The whole body was cover with holes, from legs to arms and when it open it mouth in full, some kind of black smoke came out of it. Guo recognize the dark magic and set a spiritual shield over them, then took out a yellow talisman that dispelled dark energy before it could reach them.

"What the hell is that? Another kind of Shadow?" Da Qing asked and the rest took out their blindfold as well. The huge corps creature crawled on its hands and legs and black mist begin to get out from all the holes of its body, creating several Shadows. Shen was going to burn them again, but Guo stop him before he could summon his fire.

"These are not living creatures, they will come back again and again until they drain us completely. I will handle this." Guo said as he took out several talismans.

"But you alone can't take that thing!" Lin begin protesting.

"Don't argue, just do as he said!" Chu yelled, giving no room to arguments. Guo threw the talismans to the air and infuse them with his energy.

"Close your eyes!" The Sage yelled, and the others did as he told them, knowing his spiritual energy was too blinding for them to watch it and after a few seconds, Gou sent his talismans forward, controlling them with his fingers. The Shadows in which the talismans stick to, disintegrate in the instant the blinding white light go through them.

The thing screeched so loudly, that most of the group cover their ears with their hands. Guo directed the final talismans toward the creature, but the thing spitted a denser cloud of dark energy, stopping the talismans advance halfway. The two strong forces collide against each other, creating a choking wave and strong wind that make the earth tremble and rocks to be destroyed while some red lightings sparked between the opposite energies, they all could feel even with Guo's shield protecting them.

Still, Guo held his ground pushing his talismans against the dark energy from which all Shadows born, infusing the special made yellow papers until they broke through the dark energy and stick to the creature skin. Then, Guo transfer more energy that shinned even brighter, making the others cover their closed eyes and then, with an explosion of energy, the thing became nothing more than ashes in the cold wind.

Once out of the Shadows territory and safely within the stone hidden between two rocks, as the other rested their tired minds, Chu came to hug Guo and gently kiss him in the mouth. Being the only witness to his heroic fight, he wanted to prize him with the only things he could truly gift him with. His heart, body and soul.

AN: I wanted it to give Guo some credit in this one, because he is awesome too, so I hope you don't mind not to read much Weilan in here. Thanks for reading, my dears. The next one will have the romance of the lovers you looking for. Take care until next time. 😙🌹💝💜💚❤💖