At the end of the cave.
The young lizards along with the two adult lizards hid in a corner, camouflaged. Their presence was fully concealed as they witnessed the scene in the most important location of the cave, the herb garden.
In the garden, Mina opened a silver box. The box was capable of ensuring a herb inside it doesn’t decay or lose its vitality in the slightest.
She placed the box beside Rock Essence Herb. Monroe was carefully removing the soil around the herb so that he could pluck the herb without any damage.
Ruby and Alexia stood behind Monroe, waiting for him to collect this treasured herb. Alexia was excited but Ruby just wanted to get over this as soon as possible.
She knew the herb was precious but when she thought of the herbs Kiba wanted to collect, she felt Rock Essence Herb was just some road-side cabbage.
"When would he start to find those herbs?" Ruby wondered in her heart.
"The roots are strange," Monroe said all of a sudden, awakening Ruby from her thoughts. "They are extended inside the walls of the cave."
"Oh?" Alexia was startled as she heard more details.
"It doesn’t matter," Mina said in a cold tone. "Just pluck it out and let’s leave this place as soon as possible."
Mina or others wouldn’t obviously care about the damage. They were sure by the time the cave collapses, they would be outside.
As for the loss of lizards, they didn’t think a bit about it. After all, the forest followed the law of the jungle.
The strong prey on the weak.
As humans, why should they care about the lives of some insignificant lizards?
"I’m taking it out then," Monroe said as he brought a knife to cut the roots.
RUMBLEEEE
Just then, the cave started shaking. A horrifying force enveloped everything and everyone within.
"Wh-what?!" Monroe and others were rooted on spot, unable to make a single movement. They couldn’t believe the sudden attack of such a powerful force without any warning.
Some distance away from them, Kiba opened his eyes. In his half-blue and half-gold eyes, a hint of gray appeared.
"For future..." Kiba muttered, his voice confused and distant.
The gray particle in his brain seethed with excitement. The golden lightning has confined it once again for good, but the gray particle’s exhilaration showed no signs of stopping.
If anything, the gray particle was anticipating the consequences of its action.
For the last few weeks, it has stayed dormant due to the golden lightning and the safety measures taken by Claudia, but now it has finally succeeded by using Kiba’s memories at a time when he least expected it.
Unlike past times, this time it didn’t make Kiba desire to kill annoying humans and other inferior species.
No, this time it only made him feel compassion and sympathetic to lower species!
An extreme positive emotion.
From the perspective of others, people with positive emotions & feelings are a boon to the world. They can change the society for better and fight for the upliftment of weaker sections.
Alas, what most don’t understand is how positive emotions are just as dangerous as negative ones.
Everything in this world is balanced. Fair trade is applicable to everything including emotions.
Rich resources for one section means poor resources for another. Security for one is often at the cost of danger for another...
Mina and others were trembling, their bodies sweating. The pressure made them feel like a mountain was placed on their shoulders.
Kiba lifted his right air in the air and curled his index finger.
"AHHH!" Monroe who was near the herb released a heart-wrenching scream.
The others beside him were terrified at his condition. His entire body was caving inside, like the mass of a book suppressed into a paper.
In just a moment, his body was as thin as a piece of frail glass.
"What’s going on?" Ruby was shaking.
Just looking at Monroe’s body made her feel sick. He no longer resembled a human at all.
Thud.
The next moment, Monroe fell on the ground in an ’X’ shape, his body no longer able to adapt to the changes.
Under the disbelief gazes of everyone, he shattered into fragments just like glass. ’
But unlike glass, the pieces were made of blood and gore.
"No!" Alexia cried out, still rooted in her position. She dreaded what was about to come to her.
"Is this some safety measure left by the ancestor beast who planted this herb?" Mina thought, her heart filled with regret.
In the corner, the lizards were bewildered by the developments. Mina and others could not see or sense what was truly going on due to their location and the pressure, but the lizards could.
They observed how a terrifying surge of energy came out of the golden-haired man and enveloped the cave. They knew who killed the human without making the least bit of efforts.
Such frightening power shocked them out of their wits.
It was especially true for adult lizards. They felt Kiba was like a sun in the midst of fireflies.
There was no comparison between others and Kiba.
"Why is he killing his team members?" One of the adult lizards asked.
"No idea," The other lizard answered.
If it was another human, the lizard would have thought it was a conspiracy to steal resources, but the lizard didn’t dare make such a guess with Kiba.
For such a strong man who can exterminate others with just a movement of his finger, why would he go to such extent? This wouldn’t make a sense.
Kiba turned his head and his vision passed right through the cave wall.
Outside, Amir and others were facing around ten adult lizards.
Joel aimed a gun at a lizard and from the barrel, a stream of red laser light flew past. Amir covered a lizard with his rubber-like body.
Nellie covered his body with spikes and attacked a lizard head-on, unafraid of its defensive capabilities.
Ashlyn was surrounded by three lizards. She flicked her wrist and the discs from far away flew back in her hands.
She jumped high in the air as a lizard whipped its tail towards her. The blades in her hands started rotating and she threw them out.
The discs rushed ahead, leaving behind a trail of the blue blaze, but just then the air ahead suddenly twisted.
Ashyln’s expression changed for the first time. She landed on the ground, her eyes containing some surprise.
The lizards, who thought they would die from the sharp discs, were stunned. The air around them has compressed into an invisible wall.
The discs struck the wall, creating a loud screeching sound.
Ashlyn made a grasping motion. The discs curved up and flew back towards her.
"Urgh!"
Ashyln’s attention wavered for a second as she heard a sound. She looked towards her right and saw Joel on the ground, his stomach with a hole.
Based on the size of the hole and his burnt clothing, she determined it was done by a laser shot.
"The laser bounced back on him?" Ashlyn said, her voice the same as ever. She brought her eyes to a further distance and noticed Amir struck on the ground.
"Ahhhh!" Amir cried in pain. His limbs were stretching to the furthest corner. While his body could stretch freely, it has a limit. Now, his limbs were being stretched by a formless force.
Nellie, on the other hand, flew past like a kite with its strings cut and collided against a tree.
Swoosh.
"Hmm?" Ashlyn raised her head.
In the sky, a blood-red blade appeared from out of nowhere. The blade was hundreds of meters in size, its edges sharp like a true blade.
As soon as the blade appeared, Amir, Joel, and Nellie felt their blood flow turning chaotic. Blood dripped out of their orifices, turning into beads of blood and flowing towards the blade.
If Ruby was here, she would instantly identify it as the blade which killed the two Iron-scaled Fish a few days ago. The scene of how the corpses turned dry like a rotten mummy was still fresh in Ruby’s mind.
Even the slum dwellers in Delta City would remember this blade. It was the same blade which killed thousands of slum overlord and their subordinates.
Ashlyn’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the blade and then her own body.
She was clad in a tight black suit, the fabric of her suit covering every part of her body from neck to feet. In the suit, thin lines of glowing blue passed through.
(Reference image for Ashlyn: http://coolvibe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Sci-Fi-Art-crow-god-Chaos-Drive-992x1322.jpg )
She didn’t feel anything strange in her blood flow but she sensed a devouring force from the blade. The force tried to enter her body but dissipated before it could even touch her skin.
Shua.
The blood-red blade swept downwards at Ashyln like the scythe of a grim reaper.
Ashlyn opened her hands and the discs moved to her side on their own. She ignored the incoming blade and focused on her left palm.
Sss
Seven runic seals materialized on her palm, each seal pertaining to a color of the rainbow. Out of the seven seals, the blue seal has a slight crack in between.
Ashlyn closed her eyes before letting out a soft sigh from her lips.
"Unseal."
The crack in the blue seal started expanding. In less than a second, it stretched from the top to the bottom.
Like a gate being opened up, the seal split into two, emitting streams of blue light which enveloped her body...