"Ruvva," Orakha arrived at Gannala's stomach biome and approached Ruvva, "Is there anything you want?"
"What I want…?" Ruvva fell deep in thought, "Well, I want to play freely. There isn't anything else that I desire."
"I can grant you that." Orakha said without hesitation, "If you create a Mystic Human for Gannala, she'll be able to use it in our war against the Wean Clan. As long as you do it, I'll bring you to a safe location immediately after."
"You don't have to care about the war or anything else. Instead, you are free to do whatever you want." He patted his chest, "And if you ever were to get in trouble, I'll come to your rescue ASAP."
He pointed at her chest, "I have my Minor Treasure in you. So, the moment you feel threatened by something, I'll be able to sense it and spontaneously revive beside you."
"Uncle…" Ruvva hesitated, "Is there…no other way? I don't want to leave behind a Mystic Human's power in the hands of a Pranic Beast."
"Honestly, there are plenty of ways, but all of them will involve you fighting against a lot of people needlessly." Orakha sighed, "I've seen you grow up for the past three years. I know what you want very well."
"Virala will be creating plenty of Mystic Humans anyway. It's not an issue to steal one of them. I feel like you're well aware of Gannala's power of Weaponisation." Orakha consoled her, "The reason Gannala wants you to make a Mystic Human is to give the Mammoth Clan a legitimate reason to free you from our custody."
"She also promised to kill your Mammoth Clansman father to ensure the experiences filling the Violet Mystic Path are purely from the Mystic Human Virala." Orakha said, "And from my side, I'll fund the Brimgan Empire so that you can use the Golden Giant's influence to strengthen yourself as much as you want."
"I wish to genuinely reveal everything to you," Orakha said and crouched to be on the same eye level as Ruvva, "Are my terms alright with you?"
"I don't care about Virala." Ruvva harrumphed, "Both of them can disappear for all I care. I'm not concerned about the Mystic Path either. Instead,"
She stared at Orakha with a pitiful expression, "Promise me that you'll play with me daily. The first face that I can remember is yours, Uncle. You're more of a father figure to me than Virala."
"So, promise me that you'll visit me daily." She said, eyes moist.
A glance at her expression and Orakha melted, pulling her into a hug, "Alright! I'll play with you until you're fed up with me."
"Hehe!" Ruvva broke into parlous laughter, her expression bright, "I don't need anything else, then."
"I'll still make sure that you're able to cultivate in the Golden Giant." Orakha said, "Only that way can you truly harness the entirety of your power, especially that of an Empyrean Tusk."
"Eh? Do I really have to?" Ruvva pouted, "I'm already strong, Uncle. If I gave it my all, I could defeat more than half of Gannala's Settlement. And I'm only three years old."
"When I become an adult, I can wipe the floor with Gannala and make it squeaky clean." Ruvva purposefully exclaimed aloud, making an exaggerated face of being on the verge of puking upon seeing gravity fields fluctuate in the stomach biome, "See, Uncle. This fatty cannot handle the truth."
"She's so heavy that the earth rumbles when she walks."
'Shit!' Orakha wanted to hurriedly cover Ruvva's mouth, realising that he was a tad late, sensing a vast sea of Prana churn within the stomach biome, cranking up the power of Internal Inertial Gravity to beat up Ruvva.
"Uncle, save me!" Ruvva let out a chirpy laugh, spun like a beyblade, and snuggled into Orakha's clothes after transforming into a tiny Apogee Bludder, which looked the same as a hatchling Bludder.
"Ehhh…!" Orakha sweated upon seeing a bone layer cover his body, realising that Gannala intended to bring him out and probably vent on him and Ruvva a little.
"The old lady got angry!" Safely tucked in his clothes, Ruvva shouted, further antagonising Gannala.
"Idiot, why are you angering her further?" Orakha shouted in a fluster.
"Uncle, she probably read your memories and is pissed since you also accept my claim of Gannala being an Earth-rumbling fatty." Ruvva laughed nonstop upon seeing the usually calm Uncle of her break into a fluster, 'Oh, this is fun! I should have done this first!'
"Hehe!" A dozen Eddy Blades flashed suddenly and diced the bone layer forming on Orakha. A tiny head popped out of his collar and stared at the ceiling, "I fell asleep for a few years and you still haven't managed to bring us out, Gannala. I'm sorry to have called you an old lady."
"You're ancient!"
"He…hehe…hehehe!" Outside, seated in a room, Gannala fumed, wishing for the day to come when she would bring Ruvva outside. 'I'll give you a full course of an older sister's love!'
Veins popped on her forehead the more she heard Ruvva's taunts, 'This brat wants to purposefully frustrate me.'
Ruvva accepted the deal, ready to give her all to create a Mystic Human that Gannala could use Weaponisation upon for her plans. But, that didn't mean Ruvva didn't feel salty towards her, which is why she continued to taunt her.
'Can you afford to tie me up like in the past? If you do it, your plan is the one getting delayed!' That was Ruvva's thoughts. And even without being able to read her mind, Gannala knew exactly what the three-year-old spinning critter was up to.
'I should calm down!' Gannala pulled out a pen and paper, intending to draw something in an effort to calm down, 'I'll focus on this and ignore Ruvva for the time being.'
"Fatty!"
"Mega Fatty!"
"Giga Fatty!"
"Empyrean Fatty!"
A series of unrelenting taunts resounded in her stomach biome. As Orakha was right beside Ruvva, Gannala heard her taunts loud and clear by reading his memories. And of course, to increase the taunting experience, Ruvva whispered in Orakha's ears, beginning to sing a song.
"Once there was a bumbling tusky…"
"Argh!" Gannala slapped her cheeks and used the singeing pain to distract herself, using Mystic Bone Art to avoid accessing Orakha's mind. She focused on drawing to continue calming down, seeing that it was working.
"T-This is…?" Ten minutes later, she noticed the fruits of her labour, a series of scribble marks more horrible than a baby's first attempt at drawing. Somehow, staring at it offended her more than Ruvva's taunts, "Argh! I give up!"
Gannala leaped to the bed on the side, closed her eyes upon the fall, and fell asleep, "When I wake up tomorrow, it'll be like this hadn't happened. Yeah, I'll think like that. It's better for my sanity."
In her stomach biome, Ruvva peeked out of Orakha's clothes upon seeing the chaos in the stomach biome had subsided, "She…fell asleep?"
"Oh, thank goodness." Orakha slumped to the ground and exhaled in relief. He then saw Ruvva reverting to human form and bonked her on the head, "Idiot! If Gannala tried anything serious, she would have been placed in a precarious situation."
"She's currently in enemy territory."
"Oh…" Ruvva's eyes lit up, "Then, does that mean my mother is nearby?"
"You want to meet her?" Orakha asked, "I thought you didn't like her."
"She married a Pranic Beast, so of course I don't like her." Ruvva snorted, "But I want to see and talk to her. I only have an inheritance of her techniques. I don't even know what she looks like."
"I want to know more about her." She said and stared at Orakha with anticipation, "Uncle, don't you know a lot? You've visited all sorts of places. Tell me more about her, please?"
"I can give you an Information Slip with the details…" Orakha said, pausing upon being glared at by Ruvva, apologising immediately, "Alright, no Information Slips. I'll talk, I'll talk."
"Good!" Crossing her arms before her, Ruvva sat arrogantly, but her faint humming betrayed her emotion of excitement.
"I'll talk about the time she negotiated with the King of a Human Kingdom and received the entire Kingdom's support," Orakha recalled a portion from Sumatra Chronicles and began to speak about it, slightly embellishing some details to make the story less serious and more fun.
The Indigo Mystic Path inheritor was asleep, the Violet Mystic Path inheritor was listening to a story, and finally, the Yellow Mystic Path was conveying a story.
In the Zahara Kingdom palace, situated in one of the underground laboratories was Yennda, his expression unwell. He was situated in a room adjacent to Yarsha Zahara, well within her Spirit Weapon range.
Since he promised to help develop Decodus Trees for the Varahan Empire as long as his name was publicised as the creator, Yennda was busy with work and didn't give Yarsha Zahara too much trouble.
But that didn't last long as he was gripped with inner conflict. In his mind space, a cluster of words leapt out of a cup and formed into a sentence.
[I was training today, Dad. The Chief wants all Empyrean Tusks to grow stronger, so we were practicing a new shooting technique.]
'Ignore her! This is a trap!' Yennda thought, trying to hypnotise himself in an effort to avoid touching the messages popping up in his mind space, 'This must be the Mammoth Clan Chief's scheme or even Gannala's. They're capable of it!'
[I was shocked when Vhalla wanted to compete with me. She's the best of us, so I was nervous…]
It seemed that the more she used it, the greater Harrala became familiar with the technique that allowed her to use the Yellow Mystic Path's connection to communicate with Yennda. She was able to send more lines of information, with shorter intervals between each.
Hence, with every passing day, the number of messages continued to increase. They were simple things related to her day-to-day life, sharing the mundane events with her sole family member. It was a one-way channel as Yennda didn't have the same technique as Harrala. So, he was unable to reply to her, 'Please, stop talking to me. I'm not worthy!'
He clutched his head, unable to maintain a poker face once he was alone. He took a seat in the corner and breathed in and out, 'Don't be fooled, Yennda. They'll approach you lovingly, but once they come to know about your disgusting personality, they'll despise you.'
"Don't hope for anything nice you sick bastard." He grumbled, continuing to admonish himself both mentally and verbally. But suddenly, he felt a jolt when a larger volume of data jumped out of the cup, 'There's so much this time!'
The data condensed into a piece, like a puzzle, depicting a picture. It was of a scene of Harrala staring at a small pond, observing her reflection. She was a grown woman, in her twenties. There were faint wrinkles towards the rear end of her eye, a sign that she had never been happy.
It was a simple picture, but the moment he stared at it, Yennda realised he was unable to break his gaze free, feeling an ache as he stared into her eyes, "Why…do you look so old? You're sad…
why?"
A string of words appeared under the photo, spontaneously causing a stream of tears to flood down his eyes, "Keuk!"
[I miss you, Dad. Am I…that detestable? Do I…not have the privilege to see you ever again?]