On the outskirts of the cranial peaks amid a storm that had started two hours ago, a group of fifty people arrived at the camp that the four endur servants had prepared for the expedition. This party consisted of Helvella and his most trusted men. Elite warriors who belonged to the different species of Lhimkio. They had flown from Vorpiax in Quetzal snakes, large feathered reptiles capable of flying at great speed for short distances.
Seeing the large group, the servants at first felt fear, but when they were able to identify the baron they immediately knelt.
“We salute our lord!” They all exclaimed aloud, bowing until their foreheads touched the ground.
“Where?” asked Helvella without lowering from his mount.
His voice was as cold as his gaze. Had they raised their heads, the endur servants would have noticed the wounds on their master's face.
“Over there!” The leader of the four replied, pointing as fast as he could to the place where Lutza had disappeared into the forest.
Helvella looked where the servant pointed and without saying anything, giving a small caress to his mount, he rose into the air. The fifty quetzal serpents flew at full speed in that direction.
“Fuuush!”
After several stressful minutes, the servants dared to look up. Again there were only four of them. The leader wiping sweat from the branches of his head ordered the other three to resume their tasks. The present situation was beyond the reach of any of them.
Having flown for two minutes, they arrived at the place where Lutza's trail faded until it disappeared. The torrential storm had erased all traces of where she had run. Cursing his bad luck Helvella closed his eyes and generating a pulsation with his energy he was able to detect a nearby cave with signs of combat. As soon as he opened his eyes, he headed in that direction as fast as he could.
When Helvella landed he could smell the blood emanating from inside the cavern.
“Moissanite bears.” He said relieved to confirm that all the blood in the place was from animals.
Several of his men jumped to the ground and entered the bear's den to examine the site. A few seconds later one of them came out of the cave and knelt in the middle of a puddle in front of Helvella. Completely ignoring how the mud dirtied his armor.
“The marks on the walls and the floor indicate that it was made by Voidmaws. We found nothing to indicate that the children passed through here.”
Helvella sighed. He wanted to analyze the situation more closely, but they were running against time. Just the storm was enough to make children get into an accident.
At that moment another of the men who had entered the cave came out and kneeling as the other said:
“The cave gives access to a tunnel. The place is protected by a white barrier that prevents signals from entering or leaving.”
" That would explain why we can't contact Albella, " Helvella commented, thinking for a few moments.
“mmm!” The soldier doubted if he should say what he was thinking.
“Speak up!” ordered Helvella. “This is not the time to save anything to yourself.”
“Yes sir!” The man answered organizing how he was going to say what he had thought.
“In my free time, I go hunting with a group of friends in this zone. I've never seen that white formation before. It should have appeared recently.”
“That’s obvious. There is no way that this place had not been found before being so close to Vorpiax.” Helvella paused for a moment contemplating what he had just said.
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“That barrier and the tunnel must be due to the energy waves they told me about in the castle.”
At that moment, a great clash of priorities was taking place inside Helvella. The mysterious item contained so much power that he couldn't let it end up in the hands of his enemies. In the great vision of things, this matter would take priority over the lives of some children, but of the five children, two were his children, his blood.
“Fuuu!” Helvella, let out an annoyed sigh.
He didn't like it at all being in the middle of a situation with so many elements out of his control. He couldn't waste time rambling. It wouldn't do him any good to save his children if one of the other barons took the powerful item. But it could be the case that this object did not exist or it was something unexpected that would not bring benefits.
Making a quick decision Helvella looked at the most powerful of his companions.
“Veigar, choose 14 men and continue searching for my children. I'm going to enter the cave and kill the damned people who dared threaten my daughter.”
“Got it!” Veigar replied, starting to call those who would accompany him.
"You can get up, " said Helvella, remembering that the two men who had spoken to him were still on their knees in the rain.
“Start exploring the place without being detected.”
The two men got up and after making another bow they returned to the cave.
“Everything is ready," Veigar commented.
“I entrust you with the safety of my children.” Helvella looked into Veigar's eyes.
“I swear on my life that I will do everything possible to find them,” said Veigar beating his chest.
“With you in charge, I can be assured that they will be found. Now I have to guarantee that what belongs to Vorpiax does not leave Lhimkio.”
With those words, the two groups said parted ways. Thirty-five heavily armed people entered the tunnel, while fifteen remained outside searching the children.
Meanwhile, deep in the earth, the fight between Albella and the other survivors against the sanc flowers had stalled. The appearance of the flower’s leader caused the seven creatures that were still alive to retreat.
Albella, Arum, and the two Quinoids took advantage of this little intermission to take a breather.
The leader of the sanc flowers began to move one of his arms slowly, still focusing on Albella. The leaves that made up his hand were closed, but when he reached a position, where his hand was between him and Albella, the creature opened its fist, dropping Enokitake's crushed body.
“Plop!”
Arum immediately turned to see his young mistress, worried about the reaction she might have to the horrible provocation.
Right now her interior was on fire, if she could kill with her eyes she would have killed these creatures more than a hundred times, but in life and death combats being calm was the key.
“I’m going to make a beautiful dress with you. I will use it at his funeral and that of all my men.”
Albella's words sounded calm. They did not have the energy that was generally used to generate pressure on the counterpart.
And they didn't need it.
Albella was not threatening the leader of the sanc flowers. She was saying out loud what she was going to do. She was stating a fact.
The huge creature was enraged at the condescension with which Albella began to observe him. His mouth split into eight parts, spitting out a huge ball of acid at the four survivors.
“Splat!”
The four of them barely managed to jump. The huge pool of acid began to corrode the place where it fell, raising green gases.
The other sanc flowers took advantage of this moment to launch themselves over them. One of the multrows was hit in the chest with such force that his body flew up and crashed into one of the cavern walls. His condition was unknown.
The other multrow, the one with the glaucus appearance, managed to make a somersault dodging the attacks of two of the creatures. Responding immediately with his counterattack, his blade cut one of these in half and seriously injured the other in what appeared to be his abdomen.
Arum took advantage of the jump he used to doge the saliva of the leader of the sanc flowers to bury his sword in the throat of one of the three creatures that had pounced on him. Jumping between these he began to cut the other two until the three sanc flowers fell dead.
Albella was not attacked by any of the remaining seven sanc flowers. When she got up after dodging the acid attack, she was greeted by the leader's dash. Jumping to the right she narrowly avoided this new attack.
As soon as she got up, she used her fire petal technique to counter the dozens of attacks that the enormous creature launched at her with its more than ten arms.
The moment Arum finished with the three sanc flowers, he set out to help Albella, but the two creatures that had sent one of the multrows flying; instead of running towards it, ended up intercepting Arum.
The fight between Albella and the leader of the sanc flowers began to drag on. Albella was constantly backing away, while the leader of the sanc flowers used all his arms as whips, managing to scratch her on more than one occasion.
“Boom!”
Finally, in one of his attacks, he hit her in the side. Throwing her against a huge crystal rock. The impact was such that despite the bio-exoskeleton and the armor that protected her, her internal organs were seriously injured.
Trying to lift herself with the help of her sword, Albella looked towards the huge creature that was once again trying to crush her with a dash.
“You are only an animal after all.” She said snapping her fingers.
“Waaarrrrgg!”
The huge creature screamed as it burst into flames.