Chapter 381: Hellhound
Coop guided Lyriel back toward the tower, hoping to continue their journey and find a way to use the Ark to their advantage. It seemed like Lyriel only needed a bit of encouragement before she was locked back in on her idea of success. Whether the Ark was actually on her side or not didn’t matter, so long as it provided the connection with mana necessary to enact her plan.
The laser focus she had on achieving her goal was a bit alarming to Coop. He appreciated the determination, but it was just a bit scary to have a singular objective rise so far above any other. It seemed like she had readily abandoned her position as Avatar of the System and maybe even discarded her association with the Exiles in favor of her own designs.
As they turned away from the ring of compartments and returned to the central tower, rededicated to the search for the core, a challenging howl was issued from behind them. The sound caused both Lyriel in particular to jump in surprise.
“Huh? Are you kidding?” Coop mumbled as he also spun around to face the opposite end of the narrow bridge, the howl still resonating in his ears.
The first thing he noticed was that a small patch of compartments around the border of the landing had been drained of the color while he and Lyriel tried wrapping their heads around the situation. The viscous, honey-like mana spilled from the transparent borders before disappearing from the hexagonal tiles. The seed pods contained within the liquid had hatched fully-formed alien creatures.
It was only two compartments, but as his eyes were drawn to the change of color, another was added to the total. The invisible membrane barrier that sealed the altered compartment slowly retracted while the deep red substrate gradually lost its color. The gap created by the retreat of the membrane let the liquified mana dribble out onto the other compartment landings with a bit less grace than he would have expected from a standard procedure. It evaporated quickly, but it still created a temporary oozing mess.
The pod held within broke its seal once the mana receded from its upper surface, hissing with pressure before the top fell to the side and sank into the evaporating pool of fluid. A bulky monster grabbed the edge with chunky stone digits and unfurled itself, climbing out, and taking a moment to stretch its earthen body while still in its cell, waiting for the last of the liquid to fade away.
The way it moved gave Coop the impression that it had been asleep for a long, long time rather than just being birthed from the container. When it was ready, it leapt down to where the bridge connected to the landing and joined the others.
“What did we do?” He wondered out loud. “And with that timing?”
Lyriel almost seemed resigned to die, but she had an answer. “I shouldn’t have come.” She concluded. “Neither of us should have.” She added, referring to herself and Palisteon rather than including Coop.
She gestured toward her alien companion. “We are branded enemies of the forces of mana. If they have a home here, then of course we would be detected and targeted for execution. Your paranoia was justified all along.”
Coop grunted back, somehow unsatisfied by her conclusion just as the first of the demons, the one who had howled, bounded toward them with an explosion of fire that sent a wave of energy crashing against the hardened legs of the other two. It seemed determined to confirm her words, though Coop was not exempted from its fixation.