Bab 97: Bring it on!

The pitch-black Elemental Fiend King instantly changed his target to Shiro as it lunged forward while it snarled ferociously.

As Hana squinted her eyes hard to observe the fight between the Elemental Fiend King and Shiro, her mouth didn't stop humming the soul cultivation chant due to feeling stressed. She was afraid if she stopped, she'll hyperventilate from a severe case of panic attack. True to Arash's speculation, she started to feel that she was losing her composure from being pincered by large groups of Elemental Fiends from both sides. The dark and musty environment added to her dread while the sudden attack by three Elemental Fiends was too much for her to handle. She realized that only the abstruse chant helped stabilize the state of her mind from crumbling. No matter what, she was just a little housewife who was scared of insects, especially cockroaches. She was forcing herself for the sake of going home! If the men from her family couldn't help her, she needed to help herself. She needed to chart out an accurate map, period. At least, they won't need to blindly look for her.

Her mind reflected back the heart-to-heart conversation she had with her two beloved pets once she affirmed her conviction to ask help from them to subjugate these gigantic termites.

[Mommy, please just let us bring back a few Elemental Fiends for you. No need to endanger yourself.] Kuro exhorted for the n-th time.

"No, I need them. I need a lot of leg work to help us chart a true map. You two are strong but are not enough to cover kilometers of areas around here. Two fists couldn't contend with two arms and legs. We need more people to work for us. If we do it ourselves, it might take months or even years! I'm not even good with geography!"

Kuro looked at Shiro with a struggling look for a moment. Shiro then nodded hesitantly. [Mommy, I think, by now, you must have noticed something.]

"What is it?" Hana focused her gaze on her beloved pets, as she noticed the sudden solemn atmosphere. She didn't understand why Kuro suddenly changed the subject.

[As you know, after all of us partake in your blood, we could communicate with each other, correct? Have you ever wondered why?]

Hana nodded inquisitively. She did wonder the mechanism behind their abilities to communicate with different kinds of species. Although it was very peculiar, she had believed that all animals in this magical rainforest must have telepathic abilities, which will be linked to each other by blood-sharing.

Reading Hana's mind, Kuro took a deep breath and answered. [Wrong. It is because you own us all. Own us. That is how a telepathic link manifested. Because your ownership over us is so deep, you own half of our souls. It means that, if you die, we will die together with you. Our souls you possessed will be extinguished along with you, and our main bodies with the remaining of our incomplete soul will receive a massive backlash, scattering together at the same time. Kuro explained matter-of-factly.]

Hana blanked for a few seconds. Once she digested the meaning behind Kuro's words, she was horrified with the truth!

"A lie! How come?! I didn't do anything! I.. I.. How did this happen?!" Tears fall down like rain as she hugged both of her pets tightly; her heart was full of guilty conscience and remorse. She remembered how she nonchalantly dragged the little fish in due to ignorance. She finally understood why the elders from Ara's clan were fuming with her.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I'm so sorry." Hana was so sad as she was reminded of all the occasions where she had been so reckless and nearly lose her life. Her two boys had always stood by her and save her so many times. She had not thought the connection between her and her pets was as severe as this. She had permanently deprived of any sense of freedom from her doted pets. She knew how weak she was. The longer she stayed here, the higher the probability for her to die in this unknown forest. However, she felt that it won't be so bad as long as she had tried hard enough. She had thought that it didn't matter if anything happened to her. At the end of the day, after some time had passed, her beloved family could move on, similar to her loving new family members over here.

Looking at how sad their mommy was, both boys refrained from saying the "S" word. If the aunty knew they were mainly slaves to her, she might lose herself in severe depression.

[It's my fault, Mommy. I bestowed that ability on you. A lot of different beasts have similar skills, but us Lightning Serpents were a little too overbearing so that we could control our minions wholly without the slightest bit of rebellion.] Kuro sighed defeatedly.

[I've once heard that our first ancestor was once cast down from the heavens, heavily injured. He had created this divine art to protect himself from his enemies by using countless spiritual beasts at his beck and call. I am sorry I made you upset. Don't be sad anymore, pretty please? I also was not sure why I did it the first time we met.]

Kuro's black beady eyes shone bright with water glistening on the surface. It looked like the little black snake was crying too. However, deep inside, the Oscar-leveled actor wasn't sorry. Since before until now, he felt that he had made the best decision for both of them. Their mommy's soul had been progressing rapidly while he himself was gaining twice with half the efforts. He didn't even need to act tyrannically like before for the sake of resources, and yet he could feel the energy needed rapidly accumulated faster than before. If he had not made the soul-pact with Mommy, he believed that she'll die within a few days' time. Now, under his protection, Mommy will grow into a powerful expert to survive this place, despite how many years it will take for her to find her way home. Also, if one day he was forced to leave her, he had the confidence that she will live well and even thrive in this wilderness.

[Mom, please don't be sad.] Shiro nuzzled Hana's face within Hana's embrace. He stared deep into Hana's now-teary faced eyes. [We knew, and this is what we choose. To us, you are our parent, our master, our most important being. Believe that this is our own free will. You have been so good to us, it is natural for us to want to be with you for eternity. Our bonds are stronger than an ordinary family bond. It is our honor to relinquish half of our soul to you. We told you this because we wanted you to know that others won't easily submit to you since even their lives will be deprived of themselves. It will be extremely difficult to subjugate the Queen into submission.]

"I thought that I could talk reason with the Queen, you know, and make a deal with her. A few months of working for us in exchange for something. Just like a short term work-contract." Hana sniffed. As long as they could directly meet the Queen, she hoped that she could entice the Queen with the notion of advancement in exchange for working for her for a while.

Kuro and Shiro were so speechless, they turned to each other and sighed simultaneously. Their mommy was very naive, extremely naive to a fault.

"Mommy, what we need to do is storm their nest, annihilate any who fight back, beat up the Queen until she submits, then you can force a soul-pact on her by giving your blood. She must be willing to ingest it and let half of her soul to be transferred to you without retaliating." Kuro explained after a coughing fit. "Are you up to it? If you do, then we can proceed for the preparation. If not, let's find another method."

Hana was at a loss as she blinked back the tears from her eyes. After a full five minutes, she took three deep breaths to calm herself and slapped her face with both hands.

"Bring it on!"

Kuro nodded with satisfaction as he observed the timid light vanishing from their mommy's eyes, replaced by determination.

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Shiro's movement was very swift; he maneuvered away from the blue lightning ball spat by the Elemental Fiend King, just missing it by a hair's breadth. He could even feel his luxuriant white fur puffed up from the charges in the atmosphere, making him extra bushy. He adopted a defensive stance to tire the Elemental Fiend King out without truly hurting it. Once the Elemental Fiend King showed an opening, Shiro immediately released a frigid breath from his mouth. All of the remaining limbs of the Elemental Fiend King were frozen on the spot. Ice crept up and encased half of its body, stopping it from moving. The Elemental Fiend King roared and struggled hard in retaliation but to no avail.

"What a hardy fellow! Surprisingly this fellow is a dual element Elemental Fiend too!" Shiro remarked. The other colorful Elemental Fiends he encountered were all single-element apart from the purple ones. However, this puny fellow had to face him of all beasts. If not for Hana's request to preserve its life, Shiro would have frozen the fellow so well until it became an ice sculpture and shatter it on the spot.

Feeling relieved, Hana started walking towards Shiro. She knew, if the pitch-black Elemental Fiend King dies, the colony will have a problem since it was widely known that a termite Queen mates with the same King for life. Although she wasn't sure whether the Elemental Fiends possessed the exact same trait or not, she still felt the need to be more prudent when handling the Elemental Fiend King. She knew that the Elemental Fiend King was way out of its league when compared to her Shiro. As such, she was quite worried that Shiro might inadvertently kill it on the spot.

The snakehead fish was hiding behind Hana at the moment. He obediently followed behind Hana while feeling a deep sense of shame. He had just been fed with his Young Miss' poison pellet by Hana. Miraculously, he felt fine afterward; it seemed that the pellet successfully suppressed the poison to the bare minimum. At the critical moment, he had shown his cowardliness in front of the kind goddess! He didn't know where to hide his face. To make things worse, the goddess didn't blame him and even gave him a kindly pat on the head while giving him a relieved look.

"Is it over?" Hana asked while looking at the struggling Elemental Fiend King from afar. The feature of the Elemental Fiend King didn't look like a termite at all. It looked more like an alien insect from a game Arash loved to play. Hana felt quite squeamish deep within.

[Mommy! Watch out!] Kuro shouted within Hana's consciousness.

Two purple-colored Elemental Fiends pounced at Hana from her blind spot when she heard Kuro's telepathic call! They had stealthily made a move on Hana via the Elemental Fiend Queen's command.

In panic, Chomper had reflexively turned and jumped towards one of the Elemental Fiend with a do-or-die attitude! He managed to push one off-course as he desperately chomped down on its head to kill it. However, the other one managed to come a few inches from Hana with its sharp mandibles laid bare.

Hana was in great peril!!!