"Urgh!" His body hurt all over. A ringing sound flared off like a siren in his mind while something hot seemed to be leaking out of his eyes.
’Where...am I?’ Inala thought as he tried to open his heavy eyelids. His vision was hazy, and the dampness of his surroundings only seemed to be worsening his fever...fever?
’Fever? Here, on Sumatra?’ He became alert in response, only then noticing that the ringing sound was coming from the grey tower in his mindspace. The glass-like structure forming it was constantly cracking and mending itself while the information cluster inside was banging on it with borderline insanity.
The information cluster wanted to break out and flood the mind space, but the grey tower barely managed to keep it in check. However, their conflict caused the ringing sound, plunging Inala into a state of fever.
"What’s...wait, this doesn’t make sense," He noticed that he was in a narrow cave, burrowed deep in what appeared to be a mountain. The air was hot and damp inside, with some glowing crystals embedded along the ceiling, peeking vertically downward.
The most puzzling detail of them all was his line of sight. It was short, significantly shorter as compared to what he got used to in recent years. He seemed tiny, annoyingly so, with a frail body to accompany the fact.
He tried to inspect himself further, but noticed that his body was wrapped from the neck below in what appeared to be a cocoon of mud. ’This doesn’t make sense, unless...!’
He turned to his left and noticed an unconscious Shuwrak Zahara stuck to the wall in a similar mud cocoon, with only the head peeking out. Stuck a fair distance away was the Knell Clansman, having yet to wake up.
Inala turned to the right and noticed an unfamiliar woman in a similar cocoon, also unconscious. She had curly green hair with shades of muddy grey around the roots. Her chubby face rippled faintly in response to her snores.
’Who is she?’ Inala wondered before he felt a familiar presence from her, ’Loya?’
"Whoever is behind this, reveal yourself!" Inala had a fair grasp on his situation as he shouted towards the entrance. A couple seconds later, a tall woman sauntered in, ’I knew it.’
"You don’t need to put on the act of a confused victim." It was Gannala, her voice extremely calm as she stopped before Inala and uttered, "I figured out the truth."
Inala made eye contact and then broke into a wry smile, "Not the situation I hoped for a reunion."
"Right?" Her face beamed as Gannala wrapped her hands around Inala’s head, clutching tight, "Welcome back, Dad. I missed you."
"I missed you too...Urgh!" Blood spurted out of him as the mud cocoon shattered, revealing Gannala’s right fight planted squarely in his stomach.
Boom!
Large fragments of the rock wall collapsed as Inala was burrowed in a crater a couple metres deep. Blood covered his being as he still reeled from the shock of the impact, "...Guh!"
"I dearly missed you, Dad. I truly did." Gannala said as she poured a High-Grade Elixir into Inala’s mouth, watching his wounds heal. And then, she slammed in a second punch, widening the crater further, "But damn you."
"If you had revived, you should have found me first!" She retracted her fist and observed the bloody figure of Inala in concern and waited until the Elixir did its thing. Then, she delivered the third punch, "This is for Harrala!"
"You...should have just sacrificed me in place of her!" She said and sent out a fourth punch, grunting as she used the other hand to swat away the crumbling rocks, the impact turning them into dust. "Just why? Are you saying you, with all your intellectual superiority, couldn’t find a solution that didn’t involve sacrificing her?"
"That...poor girl, could never enjoy happiness." She grumbled and punched the fifth time, stopping upon seeing that the Prana generated by the Elixir had been used up. She took out another High-Grade Elixir and poured it into Inala’s mouth, "If nothing else worked, then you’d have been better sacrificing me instead of her."
"You...know better," Inala groaned as he lay sprawled amidst the crater, weakly raising his hand to gently touch the teary face of Gannala, "I was desperate,"
"Desperate to create a future for you."
"Even if it meant sacrificing everything?" Gannala screamed as she grabbed Inala and shook him in fury, "Even if it meant creating that abomination in the Kalahatra Desert? That creature..."
"It can singlehandedly destroy Sumatra Continent."
"I regret the choices I’ve made, terribly so, especially sacrificing everyone who had faith in me." His lips trembled, throat choked, and his body in full pain, but his eyes held warmth as he stared gently, "But I don’t regret saving you."
"That was the only purpose that drove me forward, through everything."
"Really? Did I ask you to save me?" She cursed, "She...Harrala stood by my side when the rest of the Mammoth Clan fled like cowards! She truly was my sister! And do you know she looked upon the most?"
She glared at Inala, "You! It was you! She looked up to and trusted you. And in return, what did you do to her? You killed her! At least I grew angry when you became the Royal Zinger. No, I hated you back then."
"But she didn’t!"
"If anything, the one you should have saved is her, not me!" She roared, "I never wanted to be the only survivor! I never asked you to sacrifice everything and everyone for me!"
"You never asked to be saved?" Inala snorted, "A parent doesn’t need the child’s permission to protect them!"
"That’s what it means to have a family."
Gannala became silent in response to the answer, her face alternating between anger and sadness. It took her a few minutes to come to terms with her emotional state as she pulled up Inala, "So, what’s your intention now?"
"What do you plan to do now since you destroyed our enemy?"
"Have an adventure, look at what Sumatra has to offer." Inala expressed as he dusted himself, "My fight is over, Gannala."
"Do you truly believe so, Dad?" Gannala grumbled, "You know it’ll all end the moment that monster breaks free."
"Do you mean the Brood Mother?" Inala smiled wryly as he patted Gannala’s shoulder, "You needn’t worry. She will never threaten Sumatra."
"You know," Inala expressed in pain, "That child is innately kind. Or rather, she’s too kind to harm anyone. Despite the overwhelming power she wields, she doesn’t have the heart to harm a single creature."
"Tens of thousands of Pranic Beasts are being spawned daily at Kalahatra Desert!" Gannala argued, "And you’re telling me she’s kind? Can’t harm a single creature? That’s bullshit!"
"That’s because of us. Grehha is great with the details in such fields." Inala stated sadly, "We genetically engineered her to harbour hatred towards Brangara. It’s similar to what Brangara feels towards your predecessor."
"What...what the...heck are you talking about?" Gannala expressed in horror, "Are you trying to make history repeat itself?"
"No," Inala sighed as he said, "The hatred in the Brood Mother will vanish the moment she kills the Celestial Boar. After that, she’ll be free."
"Kill the Celestial Boar?" Gannala instinctively took a step back, "Didn’t you kill him?"
"No," Inala sighed as he slumped on the floor, winching in pain when a sharp piece of rock stabbed into his butt, "I couldn’t manage it, as I feared. That’s why I joined hands with Grehha to create the Brood Mother. She was our final contingency."
"Then..." Gannala asked, "If...If she fails, would the Celestial Boar return?"
"Unless a horde of Mystic Grade existences simultaneously target her with their State of Unity, it’s impossible to kill the Brood Mother." Inala shook his head, "By now, she has consumed enough of the Celestial Boar’s flesh to have grown tremendously powerful."
"As long as that cocoon in the Kalahatra Desert managed to remain intact for a decade, the Brood Mother would have reached a level where she couldn’t fail even if she wanted to." Inala said, "And that time has already passed. Even if the entirety of Sumatra Continent’s strength were to target her, she won’t fail in killing the Celestial Boar."
"Or rather, I already destroyed the Celestial Boar. Only the ridiculous energy being generated by his Astral World is left. And the Brood Mother is rapidly consuming through that." He concluded.
There was a long silence in the cave, after which Inala spoke, pointing at himself, "Why did you turn me into a human?"
He then eyed the three mud cocoons in the cave, "And why are they in that state?"
"It’s because of the mess you created, Dad." Gannala sighed as she pointed at a nearby cave that appeared, "Let’s talk while I make you some tea."
"Sure," Inala entered the cave and took a seat on a stone chair, watching Gannala serve a cup of tea in a couple of seconds. He sipped and commented, "Tastes great."
"Stole it from your recipe list," Gannala commented as she sipped her tea in silence. After a couple of minutes had passed and the two cups were empty, she refilled them and began to speak, "You’re now the most hated existence of the Quip Clan."
"What? Why?" Inala asked in a fluster.
"They found out your identity, at least Kenka did." Gannala sighed, "And that made the Quip Clan go ballistic."
"Since you..." She eyed Inala, "As long as you’re alive, their Deity won’t appear. So, to them,"
"You’re an absolute bother."