Once TayDrigin had sliced down, blood spewed out from the space in front of MorDrigin so it looked like an invisible tap was in front of him, spraying out blood instead of water.
*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
A sound broke into the air, startling everyone and making sure Mor was more frightened than before.
As the sound settled, everyone's eyes widened when they saw a creature forming out of thin air. Standing at three meters tall, the creature looked like a spider made of wood. But more than that, in a very uncanny way, it also looked like a human.
At the top of the spider's body was a figure of a woman from the waist up, though she was made of wood as well, looking at her instilled a deep fear within all the children's hearts. And even TayDrigin to a degree.
Reeling back, the creature held its arm which TayDrigin had dismembered. Mor had initially thought it was a claw that was pointed at him. But in actuality, the tapered long stick Mor had mistaken for a long claw was the bulk of the creature's right arm. It had a spear for its right hand, and a normal hand with fingers on its left arm. Albeit with very pointy fingers.
Turning his sights away from the creature as it lamented its lost arm, Mor placed his sights on his mother, and was stunned when he saw her frozen in place.
Why wasn't she taking action?
Just as Mor thought, the creature regained itself and pounced. Its attack had happened so fast Mor could barely make out what had happened. But that was the least surprising thing that happened, because in the blink of an eye, the creature fell into a pile of lumps, with blood pouring onto the floor.
With a gasp, Mor found the creature dead beyond feasible comprehension. Looking up, Mor found his mother on the other side of the pile of wooden bloody lumps. She stared at the creature with a sunken gaze, like she was still dazed about what had happened.
Her sword was hanging from her right hand, with blood dripping from it. And her hair was blowing in the wind. Looking at her hair, Mor saw that it had changed color from blonde, to a deep red and it had a strange lighter red hue surrounding each strand so she looked otherworldly.
Gathering around, the children all came to see the creature with their own two eyes. Mor was so fixated by what had just happened that he didn't even remember SaiDrigin was still by his side, holding his hand.
Turning his gaze to his sister, he found she was stiff and frightened.
"Is that...an Enthos?" LoriHaden had said, for the first time, the vibrancy in her voice was absent, so that what was left was a timid shaken voice.
Returning his gaze to the creature, Mor tried to fathom what had happened. This was an Enthos, there was no doubt about it. It was an Ethos that had formed without bonding, and had soaked up the corruption of this world to become a monster.
Though everyone knew this, what had them baffled and frightened, was the fact that Enthoses had never made it this close to the city. Not with the measures put in place.
SaiDrigin squeezed Mor's hand tighter, as everyone waited in anticipation for what TayDrigin had to say.
"This was unexpected," TayDrigin had finally spoken up. Her shrouded demeanor was now gone, so she dawned her cheerful and lively disposition.
Looking up from the creature, TayDrigin smiled.
"This was just a Gray Aura, must have been an Ethos that formed recently." TayDrigin had said. Then, she held her chest and at once her red hair had began to change back to blonde so the lighter red hue also began to fade. When she removed her hand from her chest, a red light seeped from that point and flew like floating water onto the ground in front of her, forming into her Ethos Helai.
Helai at once pointed his gaze to the dead creature and began to growl. Acting on his growl, she bent low and began to pet him.
"But Lady Drigin, Unformed Ethoses don't take form until at least three days after their birth," CalisVon had said, staring at the corpse. "And today is just the first day."
"There, have been reports. Few and far between, but it does happen." TayDrigin had said with a confidence and light demeanor that made everyone feel a little more at ease.
But somehow, Mor couldn't shake the feeling that she was lying. Looking at the creature, there was something undoubtedly familiar about it.
Mor remembered a novel he read. It was called "Heralds of the Lost Dawn", and it was one of MorDrigin's favourite books. In this book, Mor had followed the exploits of a crusade sent into the deepest parts of Eden to uncover an ancient relic that would save their people. Along the way, they encountered many Enthoses. And one of them was described exactly how this Enthos looked.
Thinking on this, Mor felt a sudden pit in his stomach. This uneasy feeling was brought about by the rank of the creature in his novel.
'It's just a book.' Mor thought, as he stared at the face of the Enthos. Looking at it, MorDrigin discovered that it had affected him in a strange way. It's face looked eerily human, and once more, it looked like it was crying for help.
Not wanting to keep his gaze on it any longer, he rose his head, then he cleaned out the blood on his face with his free arm before placing his sights on his mother, who was making her way to the center of the Enthos. Seeing how his mother was stepping over its butchered corpse did not sit right with Mor. So he removed his gaze from his mother and placed it on the sun above.
He saw the blue circle around the sun, and remembered they were on a time limit. How long had they been walking? How much time had they wasted already? They needed to take shelter, now.
Returning his sights to his mother, he wanted to speak up, but froze when he saw something that captivated him.
Above a certain part of the Enthos' corpse, sparkles of light were coming of the corpse like fireflies of different colors.
They converged to a point above the corpse and slowly began to build up. Within the second, the lights had melded into one another, so a white capsule of some sort had formed in thin air.
It was glowing white, and had a halo around its center. Also, it was levitating above the corpse with a purity that made everyone's senses come alive. Almost immediately everyone knew what this was.
It was called a Radiant, and it was the source of an Ethos and Enthos' life. In a sense, it was the creature's spirit, manifested in a mystical capsule.
Seeing this capsule, TayDrigin had exhaled, as though relieved. Then she took the Radiant and it disappeared into a puff of smoke. She had placed it in her inventory. After which she stood and smiled once more.
"Let's go inside, the Eclipse will be here soon." TayDrigin had said, and just as she was about to turn around, something caught her eye.
Turning to the direction she was looking at, Mor found movement in the forest. Becoming defensive, Mor held onto SaiDrigin tight, then he placed her behind him and prepared himself for anything.
Getting in front of everyone, TayDrigin summoned her sword from a spark of light. Then Helai ran up to her side, growling.
Everyone held their breath as the rustling increased. But within the second, they all had calmed down when they saw Watchers, their Ethoses and Seedlings approaching. There were about three Watchers, which meant there would be fifteen Seedlings present.
Looking at TayDrigin, the Watchers at once fell their gaze and greeted her with a bow.
"Greetings Lady Drigin." They all said at the same time, like an orchestrated musical number.
Now certain they weren't in danger, TayDrigin dismissed her sword into smoke and smiled.
"Greetings Watchers," she said, then turned her sights to the smaller children behind the Watchers. "And Seedlings."
Upon hearing this, the Seedlings smiled, but did not approach her. They stayed behind their Watchers because the corpse behind her made them uneasy.
"Mom." MorDrigin had called out, cautious of the Sun. The Eclipse was coming.
"Right." TayDrigin responded. She turned around and made her way toward the entrance of the massive structure. "Follow."
At once her Seedlings did as told, so the other Watchers and their Seedlings followed behind.
"Let's go." Mor said to Sai, who had not said a single word since the incident. She just kept her gaze on the Enthos, with a look on her face that was reminiscent of someone who had just seen a ghost.
"Sai?" MorDrigin had called out, pulling her attention.
"Yeah?" She had said, almost startled.
"Are you okay?" Mor had asked, and at once she nodded.
"Let's go inside already, I like my skin on my body thank you very much." She said with a feigned smile, then she pulled Mor along, while making sure to avoid the corpse of the Enthos entirely.
Making their way forward, Mor became distracted when he heard someone call out to CalisVon.
Searching for him, Mor found he had frozen in place. Then he turned his sights to the Watchers, searching for who had called Calis.
At once he took notice of a boy, a Watcher. The Watcher had an Ethos that looked like a bat on his shoulder. And as for the Watcher himself, he had a mean face, a lean figure and he had blue hair...just like Calis.
'Maybe they're brothers?' Mor wondered. He turned his sights to Calis and found him frozen in place. He looked scared, beyond comprehension. Upon seeing this, Mor felt an uneasiness about Calis' presumable sibling. There was a chance this sibling used to abuse him, or something to that degree.
Thinking on this, Mor felt anger within him.
Not wanting to intervene, he slowed his steps and made his way closer to Calis.
Keeping his gaze to the back, Mor found the Watcher grab Calis by the arm and shoved him forward.
"What the hell are you doing? You want to turn into human barbecue?" The blue haired Watcher said.
Mor wanted to react upon seeing this, but held himself back. He wanted to see if his "Brother" would go further than this.
"I see you haven't defeated an Unformed yet." The Watcher said to Calis.
"No brother." Calis said, confirming MorDrigin's suspicions.
"And somehow two girls a year younger than you managed to do so."
Mor rose a brow as he heard this.
'A year younger? Calis is eleven?' Mor wondered, while thinking to himself if he had failed his Venture last year.
"You better not bring disgrace to our family name. You were given an extra year to train, so don't waste it. Else I don't want to know what father will do to you."
Hearing these words, Mor found himself slow his pace to the degree that he might as well have stopped walking all together. He thought on what they had just said, and like a sledgehammer to the head, a memory rammed into Mor's brain, making him lurch over.
"Brother?" SaiDrigin had called out.
She didn't know what was wrong with Mor, but the sight behind him all but enveloped her in fear.
Behind Mor, a couple of meters away, a blue shade of light was rushing in like the dawn of light chasing away the dark of night. And the blue light was coming in fast.
Once she saw this light, SaiDrigin's heart skipped several beats. She turned her sights to MorDrigin, who was bent over, heaving.
She then turned to the structure, they were already there, just three more steps.
"Brother!" Sai yelled, pulling everyone's attention, apart from Mor's. Right now, he was consumed by a memory that made to tear him apart.
Looking behind him, the blue light was fast approaching.
Not waiting for Mor to respond, SaiDrigin pulled him. She dragged him into the structure. But just before they could get in all the way, the light had reached them, and it touched Mor's left hand.
"Ah!" Mor screamed once the blue light fell on his skin. He fell onto the ground, snapping out of his daze and enveloped by pain.
He held his hand, trying to quell the sensations coursing through him. He felt his hand burning, and by the way his skin looked burnt, one wouldn't say what happened was far from it.