Chpt. 53) Gorgon Hunt

Master Haze carried Yuki and I all the way to the Hover taxi before putting me down in a seat, only waiting long enough for everyone to arrive and get into the taxi. As soon as everyone was in, she yelled at the driver, “DRIVE! NOW!!” the driver shot off, seeming to know exactly where to go.

I pushed myself up and wiped the sweat from my brow that accumulated after casting the absolutely massive spell. I still didn’t know what spell I had cast, but whatever it was, it worked. Now’s not the time to wonder what spell did what, though. Right now, I needed to know what poisoned people, what the fuck gorgon was, and how it’s going to heal people by killing the body? And there was only one person present who could answer the question.

“How are we going to cure everyone, Master Haze?” Cami asked my question for me before I could catch my breath and get the words out, let alone think of it.

“We are gathering the main ingredient to make the cure. That being the head of a gorgon, dead or alive,” Haze answered promptly.

As if on cue, the twins asked my next question, “Wha’s a gorgon?”

“Gorgon’s a humanoid monster. Lives in caves in volcanos near the sea or ocean,” Haze answered promptly again and banged her fist against her seat and yelled, “DAMN IT! DRIVE FASTER!!” And the driver sped up, zooming over the lanes of flying traffic.

Now, I just need someone to ask one of my last questions. I glanced around at everyone, waiting for someone to ask it. Nobody is going to ask the question, are they? “So,” Scarlet began nervously as she, for some reason, tentatively raised her hand, “How did everyone enjoy the party? Besides the poisoning.” Gods damn it, Scarlet.

“What—” I began to ask my question, but a dry cough assaulted me, cutting my very serious question off.

“I asked how everyone enjoyed the party! Besides the poisoning,” Scarlet said a bit louder.

“Wh—” I began to ask again, but another coughing attack struck me.

“I asked how everyone enjoyed the party!!” Scarlet said, starting to yell.

I shook my head again as the cough persisted, and once I got my cough under control, Yuki blew a small ice cube into existence. She picked it up with her mouth and presented it to me, looking both concerned and pleased with herself. I took it gratefully and popped it into my mouth, sucking on it and crushing it to make it melt faster. Once I swallowed, I could feel my throat moisten a little, and I could finally ask my question. “What poison was used on everyone?” my voice came out horse and scratchy, but I persisted with my following questions, “Who could’ve done this? Why would they?” then I coughed again.

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Haze hesitated momentarily as she considered my questions, “I don’t know,” She mumbled.

I gazed at her quizzically, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t know!” Haze snapped, sounding more angry with herself than me, “I don’t know.” We all stared at her for a moment longer before she took a deep breath and clasped her hands under her nose as she thought. Haze took another deep breath and looked at each of us, “I don’t know who did this or why, but I do have a theory.”

“A theory?” Xiao asked.

Haze nodded, “Do you remember the bandit attack at that village? Umm, Xiaoxe, I think, was it’s name?”

“I don’t remember the name, but yeah?” I hedged.

“When I fought the bandit leader, he used a level-ten spell that was tattooed on his body that made him magnitudes stronger. It drew its strength from the villagers in the center of town and kept preaching about a leader that guided them,” Haze continued.

I shrugged, “Okay?”

“Bandits are never that smart. Even the leader who used to be a cultivator with me couldn’t do that. His specialty was fighting, not spellcasting. He couldn’t even make a level-one spell. And then there’s the bandits you faced at that port town,” Haze said, turning to Scarlet, “They were trained at a school, you said, right?”

Scarlet nodded, “Yeah.”

“No one would willingly train cultivators if they knew they were bandits or any criminal, and the bandits just seemed to know that the town was about to be attacked by monsters. Then there’s the awakening of calamity class monsters around the world.”

“What are you getting at?” Jax asked, sounding nervous.

Haze rubbed her hands nervously as the hover taxi stopped before our hotel. As Haze got up to leave, she said, “I think someone is manipulating everything and setting things into motion by weakening the empires. I don’t know who, but whoever they are, they’re good at what they do.”

I pieced everything together as Haze explained and gasped as I remembered something important, “URIEL AND SCARA ORTHAN!” I exclaimed, my words flowing quickly out of my mouth and shooting out of the taxi with Yuki in my arms behind Haze. “They were arguing with Guru Shi’en like a week ago when we got back from Niflhiem. They said they wanted him to join their alliance. But he refused because he said the fate of the world depended on it.”

Haze shook her head, “I don’t think they could do all that. Not without other emperors getting in their way.”

“Emperors like Emperor Wong and Guru Shival Shinra?”

“And all the rest.”

“The rest that hadn’t been poisoned,” I pointed out, and Haze froze.

She shook her head again, “N-no, that can’t be. None of them could wake the monsters. They’ve been alive for centuries and fought them off themselves.”

I raised a finger and added, “Yes, but what if whoever they support could do that? Like, say, a certain person known as an esteemed guest by the emperors.”

Haze shook her head again, dismissing the idea. Then, she slowly put all the pieces together. “A goddess that is known as an esteemed guest by the emperors,” she repeated, “A goddess that nobody knew about till she showed up.”

“Zise Zhuhong,” I confirmed.

Haze turned to the rest of team Fiery Heart, who had gotten out of the hover taxi and were waiting on Haze and I to finish our epiphanies. Then another hover taxi landed next to ours, and Orrin and Granny Sheji sat in it. Orrin quickly got out and stated, “Lady Sheji and I will be joining you on this mission.”

Haze nodded, not protesting, and said, “Team Fiery Heart! Get changed and prepare yourselves for battle! We head for the docks in twenty minutes! Orrin, take Lady Sheji and get my sister! She’ll get us to wherever we’re going the fastest!”

“Heard!” Team Fiery Heart and I said in unison as we all ran into the hotel to prepare for battle.

***