"Where's it taking us?" Anna asked as soon as the beast walked past us and saw Aru and I begin to follow it, "More importantly, why aren't we going in the opposite direction?"
"Because it's friendly now." I smiled, "Well, I say friendly, but in reality we did just threaten to kill it if it doesn't take us to their leader."
"You did!?" Anna felt a bit scared of me, "Geez Ed, that isn't how you make friends, you know?"
"Look, we offered it a nicer way of doing things, but it didn't wanna play along, so we had to use force, okay?" I defended my way of doing things, "Besides, the faster we meet the lanky man and stop all this, the sooner I can look into doing things the right way with the animals and beasts."
"You and Adam are similar like that, I guess." Aru chuckled, "You do things violently for the sake of peace. What an ass-backwards ideology."
"You were the one that held it down with your water shackles until it chose to behave, y'know!?" I shot back immediately, "Now stop making me out to be the bad guy and keep moving. I don't wanna hear it - they swung first, so for now it's either us or them."
"I guess..." She slumped forward a bit before patting the molt's ass, "So, ya' damned burrowing freak of a beast, we there yet?"
"It can't understand Entropic, can it?" Anna tilted her head before the beast started speeding up.
"It can't, but it understood my intentions." Aru then joked with a wry giggle, "Regardless of race or context, a slap on the ass will always mean Speed up."
"I see." I sighed in a defeated tone as she proved herself right before jogging after the speeding molt, "Right then, don't wanna lose it now that we told it to pick up the pace. Come on, now!"
"Easy for you to say." Anna tried her best to follow behind us, "You aren't the ones lugging a giant slimy shield in front of you. Yuck..."
"Oh, quit whining." Aru then turned to throw a water jet at her shield, cleaning it up in an instant, "There, it's still wet and slippery, but it'll help you mentally accept holding it at least."
"That's incredible..." Anna almost stopped to admire the Water Goddess' powers, "You really are Allucius, huh? It's still hard to wrap my head around that..."
"Oi, of course I am!" She yelled, "The cutest of the Five Gods, that is I, Aru-err, Allucius!"
"The competition is rigged in your favor if you rank it based on cuteness." I glanced back to comment, "Though I still haven't seen this Ouroboras guy, so what you said might not be true, y'know."
"I AM THE CUTEST!" She got all angry, only for the molt to stop dead in its tracks in front of us as we reached a large room, "Oh, what's going on?"
"Looks like it reached its destination." Anna commented, "But this room's completely empty."
"Yeah, maybe the guy's outside overseeing the fight or something?" I thought, "But no, by now Adam should've completely mowed down the entire offensive. Ohhh, don't tell me they already left for the next big town?"
"No, there's no way." Aru turned to question the molt, "Heus, quid agitur?"
"Venit." The molt calmly explained, "Dux venit."
As soon as it ominously explained their leader is fast approaching, we saw what looked to be a golden light coming from one of the farther tunnels opposite to us. Anticipating someone big and scary, we were both surprised and kind of relieved to see who it truly was.
"Adam?" I chuckled, "Dude, don't scare us! We thought you were the lanky man for a sec there!"
"The lanky man?" He flexed his muscles despite wearing his golden chainmail, "I agree I'm tall, but would a lanky man have these bad boys? Never mind that though - who's this guy?"
"Oh shut it, you troglodyte." Aru looked around the room again, inspecting all of the other tunnels carefully, "Look, basically - we befriended this molt to take us to their leader, so here we are. Apparently their leader is coming to this very room as we speak, so be prepared."
"You think he'll listen to reason if we talk to him?" I asked, "I mean, if his goal is to find the shadowy man, then surely we can find a way to help him without causing trouble for the townsfolk."
"So wait, we're automatically siding with the bad guy here?" Adam sounded kind of disappointed in me.
"Well I mean, if he's looking for the shadowy man and still hasn't found him, then that probably means there's a high chance of him being stronger than the lanky man, meaning an even bigger threat." I assumed.
"Yeah, and besides, we haven't even met this lanky man." Anna added, "Whose to say he's a bad guy?"
"He attacked five of my cities and even badly bruised some of them as well." Adam crossed his hands looking miffed, "That makes him a bad guy in my book, no matter his justification. If I allow one guy to do that, then a hundred more will follow."
"Guess that's just how the king thinks." Aru shrugged before getting antsy over waiting forever for the lanky man, "Oh come on! Molt, where the hell is this guy!?"
"Guuuuh..." The molt made a scary bloaty sound before going into one of the tunnels alone.
"Oi! Follow after him!" I pointed as I began running there.
"Edward, stop." Anna discouraged me, "If he said their leader will come by here, then we just gotta be patient. We might miss each other if we follow this beast any longer."
"I agree with the big bosomed baddie." Aru stated, "Just sit down and save your breath for whoever comes by here next."
That's so... lazy, though! It's way too reactive, like what do you mean we might miss each other?! Seriously, we should instead be proactive and do our best to find this guy as quickly as possible! I mean, Adam's troops are out there risking their lives to fight this guys' army, and...!
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"Hold on." I furrowed my brows at Adam, "How come you're down here when the animals are up there?"
"Oh, we totally mopped the floor with them." Adam smiled proudly, "Once we got rid of the beasts, it basically turned into target practice for my men. Though you'll be happy to know most of the animals immediately ran back to the forest, so I had time to come by and see what's up on your side."
"Oh..." I then realized as we heard a bunch of paws and hooves making their way to this very room, "Wait, so if they're returning, doesn't that mean they're coming here!?"
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Filling the room up almost instantaneously, a large crowd of animals and beasts of all shapes and sizes somehow naturally sorted themselves by race, starting with the small critters of the forest coming from the same tunnel we came in, then going clockwise, we had the deers, the wolves, the bears, the... bjorns, stray wolves and snairs? A-Anyways, then from the opposite tunnel where Adam came through, we had the birds. In other words: The eagles, the pigeons, the swans, the... vultures? And wait, is that a motherfucking flamingo?
"We are so screwed." Anna thought out loud.
"Eh, worse comes to worst, I'll just drown them all with my powers." Aru shrugged, "I'm just waiting to see if there'll be any penguins. I always wanted to cuddle one, but surprisingly Mount Ivrys has none."
"Huh. Surprising, given its climate." Adam raised his eyebrows a bit.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't find any to recruit either." A tired voice walked into the scene, "Penguins are notoriously difficult to keep in zoos, unlike the other non-indigenous animals of this here army of mine, so I do hope you'll excuse their absence, Allucius."
"You...!" My Eyes shot open, "Selzion!? I thought I saw a golden glimmer back then!"
"So it was you pulling the strings on this whole operation the entire time?" Aru smirked, "Yeah, a lanky omnipotent man can only really fit one person in this world, I guess. Should've pieced it together sooner."
"Selzion? You mean the Knowledge God?" Anna turned to us, "Oh my gosh, I'm in the presence of two Gods! Exciting~!"
"So you were the ones who informed my furry friends of the attack ahead of time..." Selzion petted one of the eagles next to him, "Well, furry and feathery, to be more inclusive. Yes, t'is I who is searching for someone very annoying. I assume the reason you're here looking to put a stop to my search is precisely because you did not know of this fact, so now that you do, you can calmly go back to your everyday lives."
"Uhh, no, actually." Adam spoke up first, "You attacked a bunch of my cities. A bunch of YOUR cities, Selzion. If this is how you treat the people who worship you specifically, then I apologize, but I'll have to ask you to stop."
"And, hypothetically speaking, let's say I decline." Selzion furrowed his brows at him, "What happens then, king Adam of Cardina?"
"I know better than to go toe-to-toe with a God." He smirked, "So I'll even our heights and go toe-to-chest! In other words - I have a solution to every problem, this includes you, Selzion."
"Right, I get it." Selzion looked deep into Adam's soul with his omnipotence, "Right now, you're imagining a scenario where you outsmart me and somehow trap me in an inescapable trap of sorts, be it thousands of kilometers underwater or billions of lightyears away in space. Now, something as shallow as that might work with Allucius or Auros if you had luck and charisma to spare, however I'm afraid your efforts are wasted on me."
"Kgh!" Adam grit his teeth in frustration, "You speak from atop a pedestal as if you think I can't cut it down! You're forgetting a king's most important weapon - his companions!"
"Oi, I'm not about to fight this guy." Aru immediately foresaw what was coming and preemptively declined, "He's the damned God of Knowledge. He already knows every single one of my moves before I even make 'em just from past encounters, and I'm willing to bet he's used our time apart to think up counters for every single one as well."
"For even Aru to be afraid..." I then shook away my anxieties as I backpaddled a bit, "Okay, okay! We don't gotta fight, so let's at least talk things out! In the end, neither party wants to fight, nor do we have a reason to, really. Besides, we don't even know why you're doing this, so if you just told us, we might even be willing to offer our help to you!"
"Finally, the real brains of the group spoke up." Selzion praised(?) me, "I got so tired of waiting for you to say that, Edward Saint, even when I knew you were going to say it. Of course, I would definitely prefer having a few extra helping hands with this manhunt over just blowing your brains up with knowledge overload, but I am afraid no matter what I tell you, you will not choose to side with me until the very end."
"Is it that bad?" Anna asked, "But even still, we'd really prefer it if we could talk instead of fighting, so could you still tell us anyways?"
"That's what I was planning on doing regardless, yes." He shrugged, "Well then, would you prefer I be honest or amicable?"
"Does it matter, Selz?" Aru made dirt seats appear for everyone as she sat down on it, "You said it yourself - no matter what, we'll eventually become enemies, so just say what you wanna say and be done with it."
"Hm, as you wish." He sat down with a disinterested yet scary grin, "Then, I'll go with what I want - I'll take honest."