บท 31: Chapter – 31 - Buy 1 Get 1 Free?!

"Crash!"

Rihanna jumped, startled by the sudden loud sound reverberating through the stones of the chamber. Her breath contracted at the thought of being caught by the clan members in such a red-handed manner! Feeling almost petrified, very slowly she raised her head over the stone counter.

And almost coughed out blood in anger - The pink glob at some point had run off, and somehow the black blob and the pink glob had partnered together and managed to bring down an entire row of tiny stone shelves stacked in a row at the other corner!

Muttering curses and profanities under her breath, Rihanna barged out from behind the counter, anger propelling her momentum as she headed towards the two culprits still caught underneath the pile of shelves. The Pink Hog caught sight of the incoming missile and shuddered with fear - this woman really looked like she was going to strip away their hairless skin and roast them alive! Oh, what a miserable death!

Fluffy was still as ignorant as a blind bat, struggling with his paws in the air, which only made the stone shelves settle down more comfortably onto his stomach and chest. Rihanna wanted to leave him here...oh, if only they were not 'Soul-bound'! Holding the back of his neck with one hand, she pushed and pulled the fallen shelves off with the other hand, then promptly marked his buttocks with a few hand-marks. Fluffy growled threateningly and whined pathetically alternatively, shaking his body with all his might to get release from this vicious punishment. Rihanna gave a final whack and threw him to one side.

Tsk.....now everyone who came would know she had been here! Crouching down to take a look at the damage done, she wondered if she should appease her feeling of guilt and stow them properly, or just get the heck out.

'What the hell are you trying to do? If the opening closes, there'll be no way for you to get out anyway!'

Rihanna was trying to push up one of the fallen shelves, when Little Purple burst her eardrums with a loud shout.....Ahhh!....could she say she had forgotten about that?! Rihanna tried to pull back her hands, wanting to stand up and leave...but her hands refused to budge!

'What the fluff!'

Crouching down lower and squinting her eyes, Rihanna looked around where her hand was stuck. There seemed to be some sort of a contraption beneath the lowest shelf.....some type of hidden compartment? There was a weird beast face carving on the outside, and two of her fingers were caught in the beasts mouth. Unsurprisingly, two sharp fangs had pierced through the skin of her fingers, and were currently sucking on her blood....again! What was wrong with all the artifacts and traps of this world? Why was sucking on blood one of their pre-requisites for operating?!

Since she could not pull out her fingers, she remained crouched to see what would follow. As she thought she would lose all her blood to this stone chamber in the pyramid tower, the eyes of the beast gleamed blood red. The fangs slowly retracted, then the entire face of the beast cracked from the center, and shifted to both sides.

A small green silk pouch fell down from the opening. Something was wriggling inside it. Rihanna looked at it with her eyebrows twisted, her lips twitching in wariness and disgust.

'Well.....you do keep falling into potholes all on your own.....no help needed! Now what are you waiting for. You have already sacrificed your blood, might as well open the sack and check what it is!'

'Are you sure it is safe? What if that thing attacks me once I release it from the sack?'

'I don't sense any threat from whatever it is. Go ahead....'

Rihanna sucked in a deep breath, then gingerly picked up the silk pouch. It was tied tightly at the mouth with tiny golden tassels. Slipping off the knot, she opened the mouth, then turned it upside-down to drop whatever was shaking inside.

A tiny brown and shiny stone dropped and rolled on the ground. What in the world was this? How could a stone wriggle around?! Rihanna used two of her fingers to pick up the stone, and turned it all around, her mouth puckered in disgust and curiosity.

The brown stone thingy suddenly jumped out of her clutch, twisting and wriggling in the air. A tiny golden light came out of it, merging with the tiny fang-pricks on her fingers...and then the entire thing turned into a ball of golden light.....and was absorbed right into her body!

What the heck!! Seriously...what was with all these weird artifacts treating her like a dumpster, sucking her blood and clinging onto her without permission?!

"He-he-he-he! Hmph! You don't even know what it is.....yet you allowed it to enter your soul? Are you foolish....or are you overly courageous? But....why did it select you? What is so special about you?"

Rihanna opened her eyes wide in shock, as she felt a deep chill running down her spine. Trying to gulp down her fear, she slowly turned towards her back.

A figure had at some point emerged from the dark shadows in the corner.

"Clan Leader?!"

"You already know that I am not the Clan Leader.....just as I also know that you are neither an 'Old Man' nor a 'Commoner'. Little girl....you sure are very interesting. Let me guess....you entered the clan to get the Trans-mutating Jade. But your luck seems to defy the heavens....you got the Ancient Seed of Spirit Space as bonus! Very lucky indeed....but do you know just how many people in this world are wanting this seed to acknowledge them as their master? And yet you snatched it from all of them right beneath their noses! Tell me....if they all come to know of what you have done....do you think they would allow you to exist?"

As he spoke, his voice deep and seductive, like honeyed milk cream, swirling all around and over her consciousness, he walked slowly towards her.....till their noses were almost touching! Rihanna felt a great sense of discomfort and threat from this sudden and intentional invasion of her personal space.

She tried to talk to Little Purple, but somehow this fellow in front of her had cut off their connection! Feeling panicked, she tried to move....of course, she could no longer control any part of her body!! Her mind was flying all over the universe.....unfortunately her body refused to budge!

She had clearly seen this guy leaving before she ventured inside. Did that mean he had already sensed her hiding outside, and had followed her back in? Was this a trap of some kind? But he was so powerful....what could he possibly want? Or was he one of the many who wanted her dead because of that stupid brown stone? Hey....she didn't even want that piece of junk!!

"What to do....it has already made a connection with your soul. Even if I kill you right now, it would just attach itself to your soul and disappear along with it.....Hmmm.....you have just made this so much more difficult....and interesting!"

By now his mouth was just beside her ears, the warmth of every word blowing goose-bumps over her ears.....Did he really think this was seductive?! If you are only planning to threaten me, can't you just stay at a polite distance and do that.

This action was not only made him look like a creepy pervert....it was also tickling her ears, making them feel extremely itchy. And unfortunately she couldn't even raise a finger to scratch! Rihanna was blowing steam inside, but tried hard to keep her face neutral. Won't do her any good if he got angry at this point!

Suddenly the man shifted his face back to stare into her eyes. Lifting a pale finger he pointed at her glabella, and a dark black light shot into her between her eyes.

Rihanna felt a pain engulf her very being, like her soul itself was on fire. The pain made her mindless, all her senses distorting. She wanted to scream, but not a sound could come out of her mouth. Her body was heaving and shuddering and twisting and wreathing....but none of it was visible on the outside!

The last she saw a burst of darkness hitting her mind, corroding and eating away at all the light within her inner mind, and then she collapsed, unaware, unconscious. The figure stood at its spot for a moment, looking on as the 'little-girl-alias-old-man' slowly fell onto the ground.

"You seem to have so many things stuck to your soul....can your soul even carry so much weight.....truly foolish.....Hmph!"

The 'Clan Leader' turned and disappeared, leaving behind a pile of unconscious people and beasts.

A little while later, a dark purple light slowly emerged out of the girl's body. A thin stream of light shot out, travelling to every corner of the pyramid, making sure that the dangerous man had truly left. This time, he was at fault. He should have been more cautious before letting Rihanna enter the tower. True, he had been blinded by his own greed, for he needed the Trans-mutating Jade more than her. But in his rush he had almost gotten her killed.

Slowly the light returned back to its source, encompassing the entire body, trying to heal the pain of her invaded soul. This girl was still very, very weak. He had to keep pushing her every-day. Hopefully the events of this day would also serve as a lesson to her.