Chapter 125: 125-Done listening
"Samahita?"
Nytherael raised an eyebrow as he angled closer to her. Her presence was most unusual in the underwater palace.
Since they weren’t close. He had only grown close to Sheana in the time they were together. Mostly because they were similar in the way that they conduct themselves. As for Samahita, they had travelled together, fought side by side but never really spent a lot of times together to bond.
"What are you doing here? Is Sheana in trouble?"
Samahita stood still. Her mind racing a mile a minute. Nytherael’s immediate concern for her sister chilled her heart.
She forced a smile on her face. It looked more awkward than not and felt extremely suspicious.
Nytherael, whose mind was already running away with thoughts about Sheana being in trouble in the Zhen mansion, he didn’t notice the strange smile on her face. "I didn’t think she’d get in trouble there."
"N..no," Samahita denied. "Shea is fine... She’s fine," she stammered and repeated herself because she couldn’t quite face herself in that moment.
"Then..?"
"We all heard what happened with Sseraphis and found a way to help," she said, her voice low and a bit reluctant.
"We? Who are these we you are talking about?"
"All of us," she answered.
Just as she did, the others arrived. Nerezza, Zeyron and Theren. They stood side by side with one another and addressed Nytherael together.
"We came together and found a way to heal Sseraphis and return what he’s lost," Samahita continued.
Nytherael didn’t rush to trust them. It was strange because he and Aeltharion just learnt about it themselves and only because Aninma is always attentive, however, they seemed informed about Sseraphis’ condition and just ’happened’ to find a solution. He didn’t believe that for one second.
"Sheana wrote to me to inform me. She said that she learnt about it back at the Zhen family home," Samahita said, lying through her teeth as she saw that Nytherael was doubting her words. "She’s the one who gave us the first clue about the solution. She said it came from and elder there."
Nytherael listened without uttering a word. It plagued him if the elder in question was Aninma and if Sheana had indeed sent Samahita a letter.
However, he had no proof that Samahita was lying and there was no other way that he could think of that they would know about Sseraphis’ condition unless they learnt about it from the Zhen family home. Because Aninma was the only other person who knew the truth.
"And what is this solution?"
Theren stepped forward and presented a white vile. "The medicine will repair the wound and we used a thousand year old divine tree from Fairy Zarathia to mix with the medicine. It won’t just heal his wound but it will restore his lost head," he said.
Hearing Fairy Zarathia being mentioned and a thousand year old divine tree, he got convinced. Nytherael took the vile and rushed to room so that Jura can verify the contents of the vile before they give it to Sseraphis.
The others followed behind her.
"Jura, some medicine has popped up. Why don’t you check it and see if it’s good for Sseraphis," Nytherael called for Jura’s attention as soon as he entered the room.
Aeltharion looked up, his hand still holding Sseraphis’ hand, he kept pushing his energy into Sseraphis to soothe his aches.
"What medicine?"
"Apparently it was made with the aid of Fairy Zarathia," he said, Jura took the vile from him and opened it, he took a soft sniff of the contents before moving to his work table where his tools were.
"Fairy Zarathia is good at what she does. If she sent it, maybe it can help," Aeltharion remained hopeful. If they can save Sseraphis the pain of enduring losing his head, it was worth it. "What else did the fairy say?"
The fairy didn’t say much. Samahita and the others delivered the medicine on her behalf.
"Is that so? That is nice of her."
"Yes. It is," He jumped on the bed. "We should find a good gift and send it to her later so that we don’t appear ungrateful. He turned around and glanced at the group, "Infact, we should find a gift for everyone."
He flashed them a bright smile that lit up his face. The hope in his heart had reignited after a long night of worrying for his snake mate.
He returned his gaze to his lover and whispered full of promise, "The minute you get up, point at any direction to a city of your dreams and I’ll buy it for you. Let’s fulfil that wish of yours, alright?"
"Sorry," a soft apology sounded behind them.
"Sorry?" Nytherael couldn’t understand why any beast among the ones behind them would apologize to them.
"What are you doing?" Aeltharion asked, the four beats gathered their essence together in a technique that he had never seen before, and shot out towards them.
Blue lightning, fierce and murderous shot out from the center of the technique and lunged towards them.
"What?" Nytherael felt a shiver up his spin and forced his body backward, his reaction came a minute too late.
A flash of light appeared before the shot struck through to Sseraphis. It was fast, too fast that Nytherael barely caught it.
His eyes were frozen stiff. The scene before him had ripped his soul from his body and let it wonder.
"Noooo!" A scream tore from Nerezza’s throat as she launched forward to catch Rhysandor as his lifeless body fell downwards.
He dropped like a sack of maize with a hole blown at his chest. Life and colour faded from his body.
"No.. no.. no... Rhys... No.... Rhysandor... No," Nerezza cried, she didn’t know what to do with her hands.
"Ssese?" Aeltharion carried Sseraphis limp frame into his arms, shaking him. "Open your eyes...wake up. Please... Ssera..."
"Rhys..."
"Sseraphis..."
Different cries came from both ends of the room. Nytherael was left stunned, too stunned to move. He was lost on what direction to move in, towards his friend or his lover.
His mind replayed what happened in slow motion. When the lightning strike launched Rhysandor appeared with a flash of light and stood between Sseraphis and the attack. The shield he created was pierced through by the lightning before it hit his chest, burning through with a clean cut and then landed on Sseraphis’ side profile.
It went down in a blink of eye, before he could react or counter the attack, it was already over.
His mismatched eyes moistened with his grief his mind was yet to process. "You said you came to help..." That wasn’t helping, it was ruining everything.
The hole in his best friend’s chest, Sseraphis not responding to Aeltharion’s calls, it was all too much for him to bear.
His mind, for the first in his life, for the first since he woke up to the mess of things, his mind shattered into chaos and takes his form of a nine-tailed fox, and looked murderously at the beasts who launched the attack, Samahita, Theren, Zeyron and Nerezza.
The underwater palace descended into hell in Nytherael’s head. The moment Nytherael’s mind snapped, the sea itself reacted as if senses something was amiss.
A monstrous pressure exploded from his body with enough force to crack the crystal pillars lining the royal chamber.
Ancient runes embedded into the palace walls shattered apart one after another, unable to withstand the violent spiritual storm surging from the nine-tailed fox.
Water outside the palace roared in agitation, crashing like furious beasts against the barriers protecting the underwater kingdom.
His body expanded in a burst of crimson-gold flames. Nine enormous tails unfurled behind him like divine weapons forged from moonlight and wrath.
Each tail lashed violently through the air, tearing apart furniture, crushing marble floors and sending shockwaves across the room.
His fox form towered over them, enormous enough that his ears brushed the high ceiling of the chamber. The beasts panicked.
Aeltharion instantly created a shield on the bed and the area around it. Because gone was the teasing fox, the calm beast and the friend that took things lightly.
What stood before them now was an ancient calamity marked with sadness. His mismatched eyes glowed with murderous madness. The mismatched eyes burned with grief.
The crimson eye burned with slaughter. While the gold eye marked down his targets.
"You..." His voice echoed from the massive fox throat, distorted and trembling with rage powerful enough to shake the palace. "You lied to me?!"
Another wave of spiritual pressure exploded outward. Nerezza coughed blood instantly as the pressure slammed into her chest.
The four-tailed fox stumbled backward, fur erupting violently across her body as she was forced into her true form against her will. Four massive fox tails appeared, each one swaying in panic as nine blazing tails spread around her defensively.
"Nytherael listen..." She said, her voice shaking as she stared down at her dead husband.
The brother who listened was gone, a sonic boom erupted where he stood. One second he was across the room.
CRASH!
Nerezza’s enormous body smashed through three crystal pillars as Nytherael rammed into her with enough force to collapse an entire side of the chamber.
"I’m done listening!" Nytherael roared.
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