An eeriness-instilling, chilling wind slithered its way through the desolate, dilapidated and overgrown cityscape; the echoes of skyscrapers slowly cracking and crumbling from decades of built-up erosion. Kannachi (a short girl miruku that has bronze gold scruffy spikey hair, dark gold eyes with dark bronze pupils, tanned and five golden bronze plated miruku head tendrils; she’s wearing a scruffy beige cloak, a lightly tattered dark beige scarf, brown blacksmith gloves, a pair of blacksmith goggle (with zoom capabilities), an oversized dark brown hoddie with four pockets, a light brown shirt with dark brown suspenders, light beige hiking shorts with extra pockets, darksteel tights and dark brown hiking boots with metal toe tips) stood at the edge of a destroyed wall and stared down at the dark blue blur that filled the streets far below.
"That was a close one; if we had been any slower, those freaks would have got us," Kannachi remarked as Crystal and Merrybel finished collecting the rainbow-coloured mushrooms into their backpacks.
Crystal (a short girl half-demon that has long purple hair tied up into two hair buns with black stylized rope, black eyes with purple pupils, light skin and a slightly short thin purple tail with a club (like on a card) shaped end; she’s wearing a sun straw hat, black hoodie with dawnite shoulder pads, dawnite gauntlets, green shirt, black cargo hiking trousers and green hiking boots) asked Kannachi if she was going to help with collecting the lumoshrooms.
Merrybel (a super short girl sharkling (a human with shark features) that has super long light rose tied into two long braided ponytails, pink eyes, light skin, sharp shark-like teeth and a light pink shark tail; she’s wearing a pair of pink scuba goggles, white hoodie with a pink inside, a dawnite ring necklace with a red gem, pink shirt, red cargo hiking trousers and red hiking boots) reminded Crystal about the last time Kannachi tried to pick up a lumoshroom.
"Hey, you said you wouldn't-!" Kannachi shouted before instantly halting her speech when a loud creek and faint rumbling tremors emanated from the hallway; the trio stood in silence and cautiously turned their heads to the room's entrance as the multitude of heavy scuttling footsteps from outside the room abruptly seized.
One of the double doors to the room slowly etched open; Seven large sharp dark blue bone-like fingers slithered their way through the gap between the double door and followed by them wrapping around the entirety of the door. The door was pushed ever so slightly more open and a large glowing blue beady dot glared into the seemingly uninhabited room. The dot methodically surveyed the room, intently inspected every inch of it and only glanced away when it heard the faint sound of explosions off in the distance; the fingers ripped through the door, leaving large claw-like marks, as the creature they belonged to stormed off after the sounds of the explosions.
The unseen creature's movements shook the very frame of the skyscraper as the sound of it smashing through the concrete walls and floors, along with the sound of marble tiles smashing against the ground, blasted throughout the skyscraper. Kannachi and co peeked their heads out from behind a knocked-over, table and barely managed to catch a glimpse of a dark blue tail racing past the slightly opened door. Once the trio confirmed that the monster was gone, they hid back behind the table; the girls slumped their backs against it and relievedly sighed while heavily breathing.
"That was... a freaky one," Merrybel timidly said as she huddled up next to Kannachi.
"Yeah, that was too close for comfort; if Kannachi's boyfriend wasn't such a bombastic hunter we-," Crystal remarked; she stopped herself when she felt Kannachi staring her down.
"Sorry... I mean destined lover...," Crystal muttered half-heartedly, which appeared to satisfy Kannachi. Crystal quietly groaned in annoyance and asked Kannachi why's so insistent on calling a guy she's only known for five days her lover. Kannachi smugly placed a finger over her mouth and stated it was a secret. Crystal defeatedly slumped her head and rhetorically asked why she had to have such a weird sister.
Crystal's glooming was cut short however when the room's double doors were violently forced open, with one of the doors even breaking off its hinges and slamming into the ground with a loud thud. Hard footsteps stomped their way into the room and an ear-piercing blackboard scratching sound screeched through the panic-stricken sisters. The sound of the footsteps paused and Kannachi signalled she was going to check to see what it was.
Kannachi coated her body in dark bronze mana before her body became invisible and before either of her sisters could protest; however, they wouldn't out of fear of giving away their position and Knnachi popped her head over the flipped-over table. Kannachi froze on the spot as her face was mere inches away from the barebone and denatured-looking face of a slightly deformed dark-blue-skinned humanoid. A nerve-racked Kannachi blankly stared into the completely black eyes, save for the glow blue dot, of the creature that was seemingly unaware of Kannachi's or her sisters' presence.
The humanoid eventually staggered off, dragging its lanky arms and abnormally long claw-like fingers against the ground; the creature meandered its way to the other side of the room as it was drawn to the buzzing TV static from the broken wall-mounted TV. Kannachi slowly crouched back behind the table and dispelled her invisibility as Merrybel tightly grasped the TV remote in her tiny hands. Kannachi quickly took one last look, through a hole in the table, at the distracted humanoid creature; she then looked over at her sisters and signalled towards the destroyed wall that led outside.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The three rose to their feet and, while remaining crouched, slowly snuck over to the edge of the room. Kanachi's sisters followed her onto the edge of the skyscraper and she picked them up with her miruku tendrils before she began to manoeuvre across the ledge of the skyscraper. Kannachi slowly shuffled across the ledge until she was next to a large window frame; she peered into the room and saw that it was an abandoned laboratory. Kannachi teleported into the laboratory and carefully set her sisters on the ground. The sisters let out quiet relieved exhales and pessimistically looked at each other.
"I can't believe we were almost caught by two separate aether beasts," Crystal whispered as she rubbed her face. Merrybel sombrely nodded her head in agreement with Crystal.
"I know... I wish big bro Temtem, would hurry back," Merrybel meekly muttered before a loud explosion sent tremors through the building; the explosion startled Merrybel and she panically flailed her tail around and it slammed into a table. Merrybel collapsed to the ground and painedly wrapped her arms around her tail as she struggled to stop herself from crying out in pain, from the piece of glass that had punctured her tail; however, despite her best efforts, she was incapable of doing so and, as tears ran down her face, she let out a painfully strained yelp. Before she could scream any further, Crystal covered Merrybel's mouth as the loud sound of concrete breaking and sporadic thrashing emanated from the room they had just escaped from.
The sisters worriedly listened as they heard the thrashing get closer and closer to them before a loud thud slammed against the wall dividing the two rooms. Crystal picked up Merrybel before she and Kannachi were about to run away. However, they paused when they saw the humanoid aether beast being flung out of the skyscraper and splatting into the side of the adjacent skyscraper like a bug would against a moving car.
A blade of dark green wind mana pierced through the wall, followed by a storm of mini wind slashes slashing through the wall that effortlessly shredded the wall into dust and left a perfectly spherical hole in the wall, shrouded by a cloud of dust.
“I was only gone for five minutes; it’s a miracle you three were able to survive on your own before you met me,” Temperance jokingly snarked with a hint of callousness in his voice. The sound of Temperance’s voice excited Kannachi and she became even more excited when she saw a faint glimmer in the cloud of dust.
Temperance (a tall young male fallen angel that has sparkily long silver hair with glowing golden tips, sparkling silver eyes and pale white skin; he’s wearing a cloak made from sparkly silver feathery wings with black feather tips, darksteel wrist gauntlets, sleeveless black shirt, darksteel thread cotton gi, darksteel thread silk socks and silverwood getas) emerged from the dust cloud whilst Kannachi whimsically danced over to him; Kannachi cheerfully climbed onto Temperances back.
Temperance noticed the shard of glass in Merrybel's tail and asked her if she'd like him to heal her. Merrybel embarrassedly shook her head and stated she'll be fine since most aquatic demi-humans have faster regen as she pulled the glass shard out of her tail; shortly followed by her falling onto her side in a fit of pain as she grabbed her tail. Temperance amusedly exhaled in disbelief at Merrybel's oddly endearing attempt to act tough as he crouched down and channelled some of his mana into Merrybel's wound to make it heal faster.
"Didja find it? Didja find it?" Kannachi asked enthusiastically as she sat on Temperance's shoulders and rested her chin on his forehead. Temperance rolled his eyes and stood up as Merrybel thanked him for healing her.
"Yeah I found you the stupid blue rock," Temperance remarked as he handed the empty azure gem frame to Kannachi, who seemed slightly offended by Temperance calling the azure gem frame a stupid blue rock.
"It's not just some stupid rock it's an azure gem frame; you know the thing you should be able to make," Kannachi condescendingly said with a slightly offended-sounding voice; she shoved the azure gem frame in Temperance's face while extensively pointing out how the frame is more of a glass-like material that was mixed with crystals and various minerals. Temperance unamusedly rolled his eyes and lightly moved the azure gem frame away from his face while itching the back of his right hand.
"Yeah-yeah, I hear you it's not just some rock," Temperance muttered as he itched the back of his left hand.
"Well..., at least you understand," Kannachi stated; she quickly stored the azure frame core in her backpack as Temperance glanced upwards, when a few small concrete chunks fell past his face, and glared at the ceiling, with Kannachi confusedly looking down at Temperance. Temperance continued his staredown with the ceiling before noticing the cracks forming on it; he quickly lunged forwards and picked up Merrybel and Crystal, right before the ceiling above where Temperance was previously standing collapsed.
Temperance front flipped mid-air to narrowly avoid hitting a table and landed behind it; he glanced over at the thing that caused the ceiling to collapse and confidently smirked when he heard the distorted breathing-like sounds of multiple humanoid aether beasts. The dust cleared and a handful of humanoid aether beasts rose to their feet as multiple large reflective glowing blue dots stared down at the group from the pitch-black room above.
"I guess the whole being sneaky thing's over now," Temperance remarked with Merrybel mentioning he wasn't really doing a good job at being sneaky, which made Temperance flinch. Temperance rhetorically thanked Merrybel for her comment before placing Merrybel and Crystal on his back, followed by him getting into a combat-ready stance as the aether beasts sprinted at him.