Chapter 19

From afar a subtle ring, presumably belonging to a small bell rushes across a margin of the forest with inexplicable clarity.

It returns in transient intervals, resembling a shimmer of notes that an orchestra would perform for effect.

"Are those bells?" Hoku's repressed tone becomes easily lost in the cacophony of shrieks and gentle chimes.

He avoids gazing at the black serpents that were slowly starting to pile over his feet.

Hoku squints in an attempt to see beyond the ominous fog and detect the source, but it is in vain because for a moment he merely catches the pairs of crimson eyes.

The world beyond was swallowed in darkness, and even the faintest sound seemed to be devoured by the void.

His heart pounded in his chest as he dared to lean forward out of desperation that someone was approaching to assist them.

Something—anything—beyond the impenetrable veil.

Suddenly, a flicker of light pierced the gloom.

His breath caught in his throat as a glint emerged from the palls, sharp and vivid against the darkness.

It was a sword, its blade gleaming like a shard of moonlight in the night.

His eyes hitched onto the familiar handle that was carved from jade.

Smooth and cool, glowing faintly as if holding an ancient power within.

At the end of the hilt, he noticed a detail he initially missed.

A star-shaped pommel, radiating a dull light that seemed to push back the encroaching fog.

Hoku's eyes widened in awe and fear as the sword hovered before him.

His trance quickly ended when the hand grasping it briskly jerked back into the shadows, reminding him of the person wielding it.

"Li—"

Although Hoku found it rather difficult to see beyond the monster's figure, half of his vision was reliable enough to focus on the vigorous movement that was expelling narrow areas of the fog.

A vast margin of it was suddenly dispersed upon the impact of Li's sword pinning the beast's longtail onto the ground.

The method of attack only strayed the moth further from sonance as the pointed end of its tail began to squirm helplessly.

Although Hoku had just realized that there was such a thing attached to the moth's grisly anatomy, he felt more troubled with Li's choice of where to strike it.

Thus, he was unable to hold himself from interjecting Li's concentration on the monster.

"Why not kill it like you had the other one!? You could've saved yourself some time!" Hoku yelled over the screams, pulling Cheshire even tighter to his chest to avoid directly shouting in his ears.

Instead of explaining, however, Li deflected his question with a rhetorical one, and a few spite-driven remarks.

"Why do you care? You've done nothing but cower with that cat in your arms. Focus on yourself, you've already handed us this pain in the ass, we don't need… another."

Li grunted as he asserted his strength on the hilt, drawing it deeper into the ground.

Hoku frowned before reluctantly observing the tail, guaranteeing for himself that it would stay in place until Abel had pursued Juno's stark demand.

The erratic motion hadn't ceased, rather gaining more force as it distressedly sought a way out.

'Even when tethered to an inescapable situation it still rejects defeat,' Hoku thought as he stared at the monster that was not even capable of lifting its feet off the ground.

Hoku's body tilted slightly.

The sensation of someone pressing on below his shoulder seized him from thought and he sharply shifted toward its direction.

He suppressed the urge to slap himself between his temples after finding Juno's gaze.

'Right—who the hell else would be standing beside me?'

"Li's elixir is still a raw sword, that's why it doesn't function like mine, and the others."

I see, so essentially he can't do much. Hoku quietly confirmed, responding to Juno with a nod.

'However, it still doesn't explain why he can kill one and not the other. It's effective.'

"As for why he doesn't repeat a tactic equivalent to what you witnessed…we can't kill a creature that has repeatedly morphed. The form it inhabits now is inherently a vessel. If anyone during this phase were to slice into it, they'd be tearing its shell and releasing twice the amount that synthesized from the swarm, " Juno exclaims after her voice fades to a momentary lull.

Li adds, "The most we can do is move it out of sight."

Hoku feels as though he ingested a lump of stones when he speaks, "How—?"

"Among the other estranged objects that we've relied on, this one will be a pendulum," replied Li expressionlessly.

The intrusion in the unforeseen flurry of actions that had procured Hoku's impermanent attention span returned the clamor of the bell, now insistent and urgent.

The bell's resonance, which rippled through the chaotic atmosphere, ceased quite soon after, leaving behind a profound quiet that felt almost tangible.

Hoku's heart skipped a beat as he turned his gaze back to the forest's arcane depths.

Before him, a breathtaking transformation had begun to unfold.

From three distinct points in the shadowed undergrowth, streams of bioluminescent liquid began to unfurl, weaving through the covered atmosphere.

Hoku was unable to even manage a gasp as the black fog had begun to slowly withdraw into the trees.

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It nearly appeared as an exchange when hues of azure and indigo spread closer to the leaves and petals in the wake of its retreat.

The fresh substance swirled and congregated into a mesmerizing blue smoke that seemed to glow with an inner light, casting an otherworldly radiance across the scene.

Li and Juno followed Hoku's reflexes as he slowly walked backward, now paying less attention to the monster's crackling noises.

Their eyes followed the travel as each stream converged, forming a grand, luminous circle on the forest floor—directly underneath the deformed moth.

At the heart of this cerulean halo, Hoku's eyes widened in awe as yet another magnificent sight materialized.

He took a second to peer down at the creature in his arm who he had felt shift off his should.

Cheshire watched curiously, his emerald eyes blending with the reflection of blue.

'This… did this come from the pendulum they speak of?' Hoku silently wondered based on the words that had left Li's tongue before the phenomena appeared.

The monster's immense wings frantically flapped, merely creating a temperate breeze due to the ineffective state of the hindwings and frame.

The impotent impact of motion sent ripples through the glowing blue circle beneath it.

"Nowhere to move you damn nuisance!" Hoku's concentration was abruptly shattered by Abel's voice.

He briefly diverted his gaze in Abel's direction but was unintentionally spared the greeting when the monster seemed to be slightly tugged downward in the corner of his eye.

His lips parted, leaving his mouth ajar as his limbs shivered from shock.

He heard Juno chuckle at his side before she noted in a mellow tone, "Relax, it can't bite you. It's a bit too late for that opportunity."

Hoku frowned as he oriented Cheshire's muzzle back over his shoulder, holding the cat closer to his face.

Nearly, concealing his facial presence out of shame.

Cheshire was indeed a strange animal, as he had not depicted the desire to escape from

Hoku as one might expect from a creature with an inherent quality of vigilance.

He was simply a calm spectator toward nature's extremities.

Though it was the preferred behavior—consequently, Hoku's arms were aching much worse from frequently straining his muscles.

The cat he had been holding was just beyond the threshold of being deemed lightweight.

'At least he has a responsible caretaker,' Hoku thought as he tried his utmost to disregard the discomfort.

No one spoke for a while and apprehensively monitored the substance undergoing its change.

The formerly dense streams gradually thinned, their luminescence growing ever more light as they wove together.

The liquid's azure trails coalesced, expanding the circle's diameter until it encompassed an even grander area beneath the feather-winged beast.

Hoku had become enthralled as the blue light grew more intense, casting a fascinating glow that illuminated the surrounding forest with an otherworldly brilliance.

Around the edges of the now-enlarged circle, the blue smoke began to stir, rising in gentle waves that undulated like liquid mist, flowing outward in intricate patterns.

Hoku watched, oblivious to the reasons behind what was unfolding.

In the very heart of the circle, the surface of the glowing puddle began to ripple as if responding to an unseen force.

The ripples spread outward, creating concentric waves that distorted the light and color of the circle.

From this blue center, two strange, transparent creatures emerged, their forms delicate and fluid.

They floated upwards, their bodies undulating harmoniously like the tendrils of a sea anemone, their translucent skin catching and refracting the light.

"Are those…" Hoku mumbled reluctant to say what he thought had embellished from the substance.

Cheshire squirmed in Hoku's arms trying to shift toward the scenery.

Hoku loosened the arm restricting him after glancing down for a second to find out why Chesire was exerting pressure.

The figures were a vision of ghostly resplendence, their bodies trailing long tails that seemed to blend seamlessly with the bioluminescent liquid below.

As they ascended, their tails left a trail, extending endlessly as they began spiraling while swimming higher and encompassing the monster.

It seemed momentarily subdued, its vast, feathered wings folding slightly as two spectacles built an aura of strange energy.

Hoku ignored his preceding uncertainty about what they may have been and asked Abel who had joined them holding a strange mechanism with a thin chain and a tiny sphere at one end.

"Are those… fish?"

"Uh-huh." He said, smiling.

"Do you see its wings?"

Abel asks but bombards Hoku's chance to answer to elaborate on his rhetorical inquiry.

"Its wings are like a vital organ, normally you'd have to squash their body to kill them, but luckily this lifeform has an efficient weakness."

Hoku nods his head without glimpsing in his direction.

"...So? Why are we doing all of this then?"

Abel stares ahead, the monster has progressively quieted down after Abel released the peculiar synchronized liquid.

"Every living thing is conditioned upon the instinct of its own species. Each one has a response toward discovering prey and encountering danger. Hoku, are you acquainted with the term, artificial?"

The wings on the monster reveal indications of worsening deterioration, persuading Hoku that contrary to Li's words, perhaps they had actually planned to kill it.

"What does this have to do with anything? Be straight with me!"

"Hahaha," Abel laughed, pressing Hoku's nerves further.

"Settle down, I am just trying to explain it in the easiest possible manner, otherwise you might not understand and I'd have wasted my breath," Abel responded, waving his hand in front of his face.

Hoku respired and said, "Go on…" as he rubbed his forehead.

"Right, supposing that you know what artificial insinuates, the creatures in this Mantra are artificial. It means that their instinct is a code that was replicated based on the first creation with the most accurate depictions of the original. They all inherited the same intelligence and are confined to only one method of protecting themselves," Abel's voice got deeper as he explained.

Due to a momentary lapse in Hoku's aptitude for handling such random information, he had been left speechless—until placing together keywords of what he heard.

Hoku swallowed and asked, "They were made by humans?"

Abel closed his eyes and nodded.

"Precisely. That goes nearly everything we'll encounter, aside from ourselves. We retained insight from a few sources that certain Mantras may have integrated experiments. Fortunately, those that fall into that category have foreseen defects that we can take advantage of."

Hoku bowed his head in disbelief, overlooking the benefits as he interpreted the moral reality of Abel's suggestions.

'How is it that even researchers are stupid? What do they gain from implementing things like this? Was their goal to wipe out humanity?' Hoku's mind was spinning with questions and agitation.

'Now I've been trapped in a universe with laws that resemble some sort of video game or fantasy novel!'

Abel conciliated him with a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Juno expands on Abel's statements, her voice much clearer than before. "Which is that they are limited to certain defense tactics…and anyone who has battled them more than once will derive reliable exposure towards how they utilize them."

Hoku's expression changed as he realized what this meant.

"You guys already knew what this thing would do—"

"But we made a mistake," Juno interjects.

Li adds, "And Yu-Ze compensated for it."

"His elixir is a venom grade, the only one that has acquired a grade from enough enhancements," Abel casually includes.

"A what?" It had seemed whenever Hoku had begun to narrowly comprehend slivers of the time stream imbalance, he would be left with more terms that contradicted his ease.

Juno sighed and tried to quickly explain, "His weapon has forged a contract with his fate because each 'grade' has a certain way of bonding to its holder. When he uses his Dizi his poison is released into his body… making him sick, but unable to die sooner because of this universe. Thus, he only suffers the sensation of dying because time doesn't move forward."

She was evidently bothered about Yu-ze's condition and with greater reason due to having refrained from observing his condition.

Hoku thought for a moment, then said "The snakes and fog were… his doing."

He peered down at the monster's legs.

They had strangely started to shed their skin, as layers were peeling from below the knee and leaving patches atop various parts.

Hoku squeezed his eyebrows, contorting his forehead as he discerned yet another lapse in their method.

"Then why use your own elixir if Yu-Ze handles it," he asked.

"He only fixed my sister's mistake. Regardless, I am responsible for hoarding the moths into an enclosure when the mutation kills the vessel that it compiled around of itself."

The Memoir Chapter 15

Rule 20

The perceptively boundless capacity of power that the elixirs possess, does indeed have a limit. Similar to how an ecosystem requires compatibility with designated groups of organisms, the elixir insists on two factors to synthesize. Much like the creatures within the timestream that can mutate, the elixir embodies that comparable essence as well. These two 'exceptions' are the following:

i. Another elixir of the same grade.

ii. Another elixer constructed from a holder's sentient connection toward you.

To Be Continued. . .