Questions Lurking In The Darkness

Seeing the creature he had been paying attention to most of the time finally doing something Xilo was instantly on guard.

"Get Back."

"What?"

A little startled and confused with what was happening suddenly Xelfia stuttered before she felt a hand grab her and drag her away before she could say anything else.

"Just get back."

With some harshness in his voice he continued to pull her away without giving himself a chance to explain the situation. He didn't know what was about to happen either but he had no time to take guesses as he backed off to a safer distance and turned to watch it. Keeping Vigilant they both watched as the Shadow in the corner started to inflate itself as it started growing bigger with every second passing. Tensing himself he spoke to Xelfia.

"Can you tell how strong that thing is?"

"Give me a second."

Looking at the Shadow she hadn't seen before she used her Astral Energy and watched as it washed over the Shadow. But something was weird when her energy finished traveling over it. "Why can't I sense anything?" Confused she tried again as she sent another wave but was more attentive this time as they both watched it grow bigger. Her Energy ran over it and even entered inside of it easily with no resistance which took her by surprise however she continued but everything she felt was seemingly empty except it's core which she couldn't penetrate in the slightest.

"Weird...."

"Weird, what is?"

"I can't seem to get a read on that thing almost like it's seemingly empty except for one spot."

"Really?"

Trying himself Xilo searched throughout the Shadow's body until he got to the core. Seeing that core his energy circled it trying to barge in it but he was met with the same result as Xelfia. "Nothing I do works, Though it seems a bit familiar somehow." He felt like he had seen or read about something similar to its core before but he couldn't quite remember. "What is it exactly?" Looking at the Shadow he tried to remember. Each second it continued to get bigger without an end it sight seemingly as they sat there in a stalemate but nothing had happened yet.

"You're right it's a little strange... Wait, Fuck!"

Remembering what it was, Xilo tightened his grip on Xelfia's hand even more than before as he began to run towards where they came from.

"Hey! what's going on? Why so jumpy all of a sudden?"

Seeing XIlo dragging her again so abruptly Xelfia wondered what was wrong. Running in between Breaths Xilo finally had realization dawn on him as he spoke out his thoughts.

"That thing is going to explode, it's self destructing."

"Explode?"

"Yes, now run!"

Running they both safely got behind cover in the next couple of seconds and waited.

"The reason it felt like it didn't have Astral Energy in its body anymore is because that's technically true at the moment. It took it all into the impenetrable ball in the middle and let it run rampage causing an explosion."

"But why would it choose that option instead of something else."

"I don't know but whatever the reason was we won't find out. It's dead already at this point. No one can easily stop or save someone from such an action."

Panting a little from all the fighting he had done Xilo finally rested a little bit as he and Xelfia waited for the explosion. Thankfully there wasn't anything to worry about for a little bit now that this had happened. "But what the heck is that thing." He never saw it do anything and then when the Rock Beasts had finally died it just self destructed. "Maybe there will be more?" There was probably more lingering in this cavern to find but at least he had an idea of what they would do the next time he saw them. If it had chosen to do that in the middle of the battle instead of after Xilo was sure he would have died hundreds of times over.

*Boom*

Hearing and feeling the slight rumbles in the distance Xilo breathed a sigh of relief as tension left his body. Feeling Xilo's hand relax it's grip on her Xelfia squeezed it softly and held on. She hadn't said anything before but she could feel Xilo's worry when she felt how hard he was gripping her hand. If she wasn't as strong as she was he might have even broken it. Remembering what had happened in the forest she stared at him from the Side with her heart in pain. Even she was feeling hurt from that experience and she had seen it plenty of times before which also contributed a lot to her self hate. She should have seen it before but however she thought about it she had never seen Tearia as that kind of girl. But it seems she had guessed wrong and almost paid for it and if she was already feeling this hurt about it herself, she couldn't imagine what Xilo must be going through at the moment especially with how emotional he could be.

Thankfully though this whole stuck in the cavern place was probably occupying his mind for the most part at the moment and while she knew it was a form of escape for him probably she knew he needed it. "Xilo...How can I help?." Holding his hand she whispered those words in her mind as she watched Xilo start heading back out into the open area that was now a lot more dark then before. Following behind she silently watched. Unfortunately her and Xilo's thoughts would have to wait.

The cavern was a little more dim then the last time as XIlo looked around for any signs of explosions but no matter where he looked he couldn't see any damage done to the ground and walls. "Weird." He figured it would at least leave a couple holes somewhere but there was nothing. It seemed the cavern walls were a lot tougher then he had first thought. Walking over to the Rock beasts corpse he noticed the faintly shining light coming from their pieces.

"So what was that thing anyway, I've never seen anything like it."

"No clue, when I was fighting it hadn't done a single thing the whole time but like you saw after the four rock beasts died it chose that."

"Do you think they were connected somehow?"

"Maybe, but you can never be too sure. Maybe it gave up seeing you show up...Understanding what others think is hard.."

"...."

Watching him bend over and pick up a chunk of the rock Beasts she didn't say anything else after hearing that and left him be. Picking up a piece of the Rock piece XIlo inspected it as it shined a little bit but as more time passed it was losing more of its glow. There was no blood or bones anywhere in sight and it hadn't been damaged by the explosion either from what he could see but maybe it was just lucky not to be damaged. "What weird creatures." He hadn't heard or seen either of them and now he found out one was entirely made of stone and could move around like it was alive. If he could he wanted to study them a lot more but he didn't have time. Instead he could only do a quick search with his Astral Energy. Sending it in the rock he tried to figure something out but found nothing no matter how hard he looked.

"Hey, look."

"What?"

Hearing Xelfia's voice interrupt him, XIlo opened his eyes only to be blinded by the bright light suddenly. Covering his eyes he waited a couple of seconds to adjust to the new sight. In his the same shard of rock that he was holding before was now shining brightly like never before.

"Interesting..."

It seems this beast's body lit up because of all the Astral Energy running through it and now even though it was dead it still reacted to Astral Energy regardless. He was a little worried about not having a light source while they explored down here but now this was just perfect for them to use now and even in the future. Turning to Xelfia with a smile he held out the rock and gave her one as he picked up another.

"Looks like we have some light now."

"Is it safe?"

A little worried since it came from a dead beast that they didn't know much about, Xelfia voiced her worries but Xilo wasn't too worried. Even if something did happen they were able to defeat it once so it shouldn't be hard to beat it again.

"It should be fine, don't worry. For now let's start exploring after some rest."

"Alright..."

Listening to Xilo they both moved towards one of the walls in the room and sat side by side against it as they rested up and waited to regain their energy again before they started to explore again.