In the Goldcrests' temporary tent, Kharzan suddenly sat up from his resting bed. His body had not yet fully recovered from the effort of the abyssal manifestation, but his senses remained sharpened, especially for detecting fluctuations in the surrounding mana.
"Do you feel it?" he asked the guard at his side.
"The Starweaver and Ashenway leaders?"
Kharzan nodded, his face contracting with a grimace of disgust. "Selphira and Sirius are manifesting their beasts again." His eyes narrowed, the purple tinge in them becoming more pronounced. "But there's sothing else... sothing strange... Perhaps the third ring was with the old woman after all?"
He extended his perception, trying to identify that unknown presence that intertwined with the familiar energies. It was small, incredibly strange, and also... disagreeable in so way. The sensation made him nauseous.
"It's unpleasant," he murmured, bringing a hand to his chest where the abyssal corruption pulsed rhythmically. "As if sothing were... threatening my energy."
The guard frowned, unable to perceive what his leader detected. "Should we be concerned?"
Kharzan considered the question for a mont before making a decision.
"Send Nieth," he ordered, referring to one of Yino's best spies who had accompanied his entourage. "Have him observe from a distance and report what he sees."
The guard nodded, silently disappearing to fulfill the order.
Kharzan remained motionless, contemplating the implications of this new variable in an already complex equation. What were the old guardians plotting now?
♢♢♢♢
The small fungus could not contain its excitent. The second ring was there, just centiters away, glowing with an energy that only it could fully appreciate. Its small mouth opened and closed involuntarily, a thread of luminescent drool dripping from its lower lip while its eyes remained fixed on its objective.
Mine! Mine! Mine!
With a tenacity that would have been comical in any other circumstance, the fungus tensed its tiny limbs and jumped from Luna's hands, tracing a perfect arc toward Sirius's hand. Its entire being focused on that singular purpose, every receptor aligned with the goal of reaching the ring.
Ti seed to slow as it soared through the air… Yet everything happened in fractions of a second.
An almost invisible thread cut through the air, tangling around the small body of the fungus in mid-flight. With an almost expert pull, the trajectory was abruptly interrupted, sending the fungus backward like a yo-yo at the end of its string.
Simultaneously, a figure partially materialized in the hallway, his hand extended to catch the small fugitive.
"Got you!" exclaid Ren, capturing the fungus in mid-air and firmly squeezing it between his fingers.
The fungus writhed, trying to free itself, but the pressure was too much for its small body. With one last gesture of rebellion, it looked toward the ring with longing before being forced to rge again with its tar.
Inside his body, the small beast tried to escape again, but Ren was no longer distracted like the first ti. He forced it to stay inside with the help of the hydra and pure willpower.
'Calm down, you mischievous little demon, you're going to start a war.'
Ren felt the wave of knowledge and perception returning to his mind like a flood, along with the enhancents the fungus had acquired. His understanding of the surrounding energies instantly sharpened, allowing him to perceive details that had remained hidden during their brief separation.
The small fungus also connected with the new information that Ren had from Han and seed to calm down a bit, though still reluctant.
Ren was also surprised by the improvents, but... He had no ti to process this new information.
Sirius, recovering from the trance into which the fungus's presence had plunged him, reacted instinctively. A flash of light emanated from his body, an expansive wave to reveal any hidden presence.
The invisibility covering Ren and Han dissipated like fog under the sun, leaving them completely exposed. The amphibian on Ren's shoulder retreated scared into his tar.
Luna, finally processing what had just happened, blushed intensely upon realizing the situation. Her gaze briefly crossed Ren's before she averted it, mortified by her role in this entire debacle.
Sirius narrowed his eyes, his gaze passing from Luna to the newly revealed Ren with an expression that oscillated between surprise and clear aversion. His face hardened upon noticing the blush on his daughter's cheeks. An almost palpable tension emanated from him as his power subtly increased.
"You," he pronounced, his voice cold as ice. "I should have imagined you would be involved in all this."
His attention briefly diverted to Han, whom he didn't imdiately recognize, before returning to Ren. Understanding illuminated his features as he connected the dots.
"The creature is yours," he stated, not a question but a confirmation. "And we just..."
Selphira, who had remained observing the situation with her usual calmness, nodded slightly.
"I suspected as much," she murmured, her gaze evaluating Ren with a stronger interest.
But then… from the corner of her eye, Selphira detected movent in the shadows farther down the hallway. A presence watching them, motionless but attentive. Yino's spy was already in position.
With a deliberately slow movent, Selphira placed her hand on Sirius's shoulder.
"Rember where we are, we have visitors," she murmured, her voice barely audible. "They're just small, mischievous children. Let deal with them."
Her eyes subtly shifted toward the shadows where the observer was hiding. The ssage was clear: they were being watched, and caution was essential.
Sirius caught the ssage instantly. His expression softened marginally, though the tension in his jaw revealed the effort it cost him to contain himself. The shadow at his feet montarily lengthened, his Black Snake disappearing from it as if his shadow were breaking in two.
"I'll take care of the Goldcrest boys as well, then," he declared in a perfectly controlled voice. "Take them to their rooms."
Selphira nodded, turning to the three young people with a severe but not hostile expression.
"Luna, Ren, and... Han, correct?" she said, pointing to the opposite hallway with an elegant gesture. "Please accompany . We have matters to discuss in private."
Her tone left no room for discussion, though the slight inclination of her head suggested that she wasn't as angry as her official attitude wanted her to appear.
As they followed Selphira down the corridor, moving away from Sirius, Luna remained flushed, avoiding looking directly at Ren. Han maintained a neutral expression, though the tension in his shoulders revealed his concern about the possible consequences of having been discovered.
Ren, for his part, was too busy processing the avalanche of information that his fungus was transmitting: not only the new capability enhancents, but sothing much more significant related to the ring it had just tried to steal and its connection to the ancient powers that seed to be gradually awakening within him.
From the shadows of the hallway, Nieth, Yino's spy, observed the scene carefully, morizing every detail for his subsequent report. There was sothing about the mushroom boy that he found... disturbing.
But he hadn't noticed the shadow behind him.
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