Chapter 215: Kon Sas Koron

The smell of mud—dampen and heavy—coiled at the edges of the gate, and followed by a whiff of burnt bricks that came with freshly cut grass. The smell alone made Ned think that he was somewhere in a field of grasses and a stream nearby.

This thought, however, was agitated by the tiny teeth that kept on leeching behind Ned. The parasite was keeping him to understand the beast, and in return, sucked his mana. But the increase of his mana was greater than the parasite's leeching. Ned could feel the warm sensation running his veins.

As they walked towards the gate, Ned made a glance at his mana bar that went from below ten to the current 133 and increasing. If Ned focused, he could feel the thick mana blanketing the space, then his body. He grinned as his eyes went to the chambers around them, trying to think of a plan. Now, he needed energy—food, perhaps water might be enough. Anything he could shove down his throat to increase his energy.

Ned needed to find an exit if Moloatiss was lying about Roy. But his hope of escaping was crashed as his eyes went above the wall. Holes opened and spiders and spiderlings exited the cavern. There were hundreds of them, perhaps near a thousand crawling against the wall, and around the chamber, and above as the spiders vanished under the dark.

Giving up, his eyes went to Cotilis. It seemed that whatever happened to him before—as a human—cannot be fixed by the Core Moloatiss had offered him. He walked with his right foot limping. The horns over his shoulders were ashen as his forehead.

[Ned.]

ICE chimed before he could have the time to survey the wall to his right.

[The mana here is too thick that if you maintained the absorption rate, you could fill your body in four days.]

[I recommend staying here.]

Not so fast, Ned's internal voice spoke. Let's not forget, they killed most of the Quickfall team, and I'll find answers to that. Also, I'm not leaving until I f—

The massive gate from behind closed, leaving a loud boom as the two iron panel grated each other. Sealing them from the outside.

Ned was potentially trapped, alone in the dark, with the two beasts, and the circular room in a tiled floor decorated with squares, and circles, and mana stones? Each shape was glued with mana stones in the center. As they stepped, each mana stone blazed blue, lighting their way towards the end, towards a figure with her back facing them.

"Queen," Moloatiss and Cotilis said in the same beat, as well as the parasite behind Ned, it wiggled. They didn't bother to bow.

"Khiccaal is missing, My Queen," Moloatiss started, the gurgling of liquid inside the cylindrical glasses calmed. "We can't still find a way to release Gogmurch." He paused and looked at Ned, then back to the Queen—whose back was obscured of darkness from the three. "Humans are becoming wary of our existence, My Queen."

Ned was having a hard time figuring the queen's demeanor, under the gloomy presence of shadows, shading her. The chamber was a dome with hollow spaces curved at the wall facing the queen. Eight skulls were fitted at the holes and appeared to be of beasts, the same sizes with jaws and horns. The queen they spoke of seemed to be fidgeting of something. But one thing Ned had seen so far, her hair was black, rough, and hanging down under her waist. Underneath her, a shadow formed as if it was her dress.

Her reply was silence, and silence was understandable as the two continued.

"And without Gogmurch." Cotilis broke the eerie silence. "Mining of stones was slower. Goblins are slacking without their leader." The burned beasts gazed at Moloatiss.

It was Moloatiss's expedition that Gogmurch was captured by the hunters, and now, Khiccaal was missing as well, and Ned hoped that Twali did what the beast deserved.

Moloatiss's body turned to Ned. "Well," he said, "this human here might have an answer."

Kon Sas Koron paused for a moment. Uncaring, she continued with her fidgeting.

Cotilis turned to Ned, and he waited for him. "Speak," he said, "human."

Ned remained silent for a moment. He was fixated with the thought of his team. Their whereabouts, and their current situation. They must be looking for me, he thought.

"Moloatiss," Cotilis said, the remains of his human eyes gazed at the beast beside him. "Your control over him is weak. What happened to this one?"

"Ned," Moloatiss said, "speak if you want to find him. Cooperate and I'll tell you where he is."

Cotilis frowned, although no eyebrows, and only skin, his forehead formed lines.

"Gogmurch, you say," Ned said and added. "Well, he was captured by the hunters."

Again, the silence was the only response of the queen. She then stopped whatever she was doing, still her back against the three, yet she seemed interested as Ned started to speak. She turned her head half-way. Eyes over her shoulder.

"I did it," Ned said, "I sent him there. The last thing I knew, he was inside the Hunter Association's headquarter."

"Wow," Cotilis said, "this one is obedient enough. The only surprise I had was that you? You maimed Gogmurch. You thin-looking human. But we already knew that—Moloatiss, what is the meaning of this? Why is he here inside the Queen's chamber?"

Cotilis's voice was hinted of irritation. For a moment, under the shadows, the tip of his horns lit red, as if burning, and dimmed to normal as he gazed back at the queen. His hands moved restlessly.

"Well... " Moloatiss said, "this human here—"

"Queen's chamber," Ned said, cutting Moloatiss in between his words. "Or was it the Third Sanctum?"

Whatever the queen's doing, she stopped. Even her breathing—her shoulder, stopped moving. The chamber then trembled. Dust and some peebles poured from the crack above. The chamber roared as if afraid, and moved away from something. Then the floor shook. The event made the two beasts retreated a short distance away from the queen.

As the ground trembled, the mana stones, that itched above the chamber, and on the tiled floor, flickered, then dimmed, then cracked. For a quick second, the mana around them thinned, and swirled, and collected in the middle of the chamber, and sucked in toward the queen. Ned felt that even his skin was trying to crawl towards her.

But Ned remained on his spot and fought the menacing aura the queen has been exuding.

This made the two beasts threw a glance at Ned as they kept on backing away from the queen. They only stopped as coldness increased and enveloped the chamber.

The shadows around them, encircling the chamber, moved to go towards the queen. Creeping as if the shadow itself was afraid of the queen and was only forced to join her.

Then the queen stood, and spun, and hovered toward Ned. As she hovered midair, the shadows collected under her waist.

The shadows then formed a globe and attached to the queen. Then it became her abdomen as the shadow coated and formed as her skin. Her waist stretched and sprouted of legs, keeping her human body off the ground at a towering height. She stood like a two-story building and expanded nearly fitting the chamber.

She was the biggest magical beast Ned had seen, so far. Bigger than Rassus by five times.

The queen closed the gap between herself and Ned, the latter then felt something inside him. Excitement, and eagerness, and coldness running his very body. That wasn't Ned, the feeling that he was being mocked wasn't him. The feeling that he wanted to challenge the beast in front of him just to justify himself if who among them was the strongest—wasn't him.

"Human," Kon Sas Koron said. Her voice… soft, like strings of a violin played by a prodigy. It deserved an accolade. "You never flinched seeing me. Who are you? Or perhaps." She leaned closer to Ned and sniffed. "What are you?"

Ned had to look up to maintain eye contact with the beast, the Lord, that govern the magical beast the Du'kki possessed.

The Core inside Ned shook violently and excitedly.

Beautiful was a mockery to describe her. Her skin was amber (deep, and coppery brown). Hair wavered like shadows barren of light. Her eyes were sharp as her eyebrows. Lips were dark, and thin, and racy. She wore leather clothing, hiding her soft skin. To her waist was a sword. A damascus blade with shadows coiling around it. The hilt was thin as was the body.

But Ned wasn't concern by her massive body, nor the shadows that she emits, or the orb that waltzing over her left hand. She was concerned by her ears. The other was cleanly flat, like cut. The other was elongated, whereas the tip was pointed like a dagger.

"Why would I?" Ned said, cold air wrapping his body. The parasite on his back trembled and was trying to pull itself away from Ned's skin, away from the Queen. "I've seen plenty of your kind... elf."