Chapter 282: Preposition

Aside from Queen Sas Koron, there were four beasts and a pair of humans that tend to Katolin: goblin shamans, and the two humans: Otik and Ower con Arkable the IV.

Ower was the third son of a noble, nothing much was known about him to either Otik and the rest of the humans inside the Hive. All they know was that he was cast aside by his family. Surprisingly, Otik was his right hand as he nurses Katolin.

The chamber Katolin was in was fixed with different kinds of stones, ranging from equal-sided bluish stones, with jade green smooth stones plastered above the clay ceiling. Each stone emits a different kind of mana. The blue emits warm mana while the other one shines refreshing green.

But no matter how they tend Katolin, even with the sparkling stones above, it seemed that all their efforts weren't enough.

Aside from her torso, she was barely recognizable with her brown and dark burned skin. Nearly all her skin was gushing white and greasy liquid. Half of her scalp was covered with her remaining golden hair, while her face was barely recognizable.

Ned lowered his head, trying to remember the events after Katolin sunk in the lava together with the dead Evolved Kruthik.

He remembered how Lady Darcey gave him the black-to-black cloak. The magic item made of different reptilian scales saved Katolin from being burned to crisp. But it was only half of her body was saved. To live, Katolin coated her body with her scales. She used her remaining mana to block the thousand-degree lava while her limbs climbed her up toward the cave.

'Am I cool?' She had said to Ned after emerging out of the lava with her scales melting and a smile brimming. While the black-to-black was charred to a strip of black ribbon that covered her chest, it was the remains of the cloak.

The cave they were in was locked with an iron door overlayed with mud and mineral crystallization. Ned had to use his remaining mana to break the materials blocking them while the lava was filling the cave.

Ned had to punch, kick, ram, and chip the edges between the iron door until it bulged and a push from Ned was enough to grate its hinges. The iron door made Ned's muscles twitched as he pushed it. But Ned never stopped, thinking that Katolin's effort to save him would go to waste, Ned had to force all his energy and mana and whatever will he had left to open the iron door.

After opening the door, they entered a series of iron hallways marked with ancient engravings along the wall. After another series of spiral staircases, crumbling and dusty walls. Ned eventually reached an end where a glimpse of light was seeping through a wall.

After locking the iron door, Ned knew the lava couldn't get in this enormous iron hallway. From the inside, everything was locked, and the only way for the lava to get in was through the iron door.

But even though it was locked, the rumbling, and screaming, and banging of S'vokalt from her captivity were able to reach the iron hallway.

With Katolin on his back, and barely hanging on, Ned proceeds to the end where a glimpse of light passes through and then marched as he entered another passage of mud and rocks. The stepping was steep but Ned doesn't mind the extra weight on his back.

After a series of these rocky tunnels, countless forks, and buckets of sweat and blood. Ned reached a chamber of blinding blue light.

This cave of blinding blue light was a node of mana crystals in its raw and untouched form. There, dozens of gnolls and goblins mined the node.

Ned stood by the wooden door as he watched the attending shaman goblins with Otik and Ower nurses Katolin. The silk from Sas Koron wrapped her body, looking like a fresh cocoon.

They were enemies on the surface. But now, the goblin shamans were doing their best to aid Katolin's recovery by washing her body of Water spells and drying it with Fire spells before the water sipped through her burned skin. The silk did help a lot since Katolin's breathing was calmer from the day they arrived two weeks ago.

"We need to talk about her," Roy said behind Ned.

Roy and Ned entered the throne room of Queen Sas Koron. Ned already knew what they were to talk about, but will the Queen allow Katolin to leave the Hive?

Her spider-like abdomen rested on the stone tablet. Along with the shadows cast by the steady lights of the stones, she was in an illusion as though she was sitting.

The moment Ned entered the room, he felt that the Queen was trying to suppress her mana.

And the moment they reached the center of the throne room, Sas Koron stretched her massive body toward Ned.

"How dare you!" Kon Sas Koron screamed. The tip of her Dark elf ears was tainted red. She tried to suppress more of her emotions as she gritted her teeth looking down at Ned. "How dare you turned my child against me!"

"Queen," Roy said after he walked between Ned and the Queen. "This is not what we have discussed."

A good minute or two was enough for the awkward silence to linger in the air.

Queen Sas Koron bowed her head, looking disappointed.

"Gohino nin. My apologies, human child."

Queen Sas Koron was different from other beings in power Ned encountered, so far. She was ready to accept her faults, even to a human like Ned.

"To think that you have the power to turn a beast into a human."

"That is something unheard of." Roy butted in as Sas Koron crawled back to the stone tablet. "Unforgiven, and dangerous for both beast and humans alike. If humans found out that you could turn beasts into humans... I wonder what will they do to you."

"Well," Ned said. "She wasn't a complete human. She can still turn to her beast form if she wanted to. But I don't know what fuels her transformation."

Ned presumed that Katolin was using her mana to transform. If that's the case, then, Katolin's mana was also transformed into something different, perhaps, something that could change her body to a new form. But she also gained new powers: Lighting spells, Wind, and Fire.

But it's also possible that it was Ned's blood that transforms her into her human form.

But what if his blood could transform the beast into humans. What about Coco?

Ned shook his head. Coco was a Mythical Beast to start, he wasn't in humanoid form but a feline. Then, perhaps, only magical creatures in humanoid form, or sentient enough were to transform to humans.

If Katolin was human? Then what was she to Ned? Ned held his chin—thinking. Then Katolin was half of Ned.

So, was she my half-sister?

"No. No," he muttered. "Impossible."

"What impossible?" Sas Koron said diverting her dark eyes away from Ned. "She was there—my child—was there, lying—looking like a human—and dying. You killed her twice: First was when you turned her away from me. Then, now. Poor child."

She paused, this time she got the will to look at Ned. Was it his blue eyes, or his silver hair that looking imposing?

Perhaps I have the wrong idea, he thought.

"For days, I've has been thinking."

As Queen Sas Koron spoke, her mana exudes her body that made her leather armor, and the sword on her waist glowed with light. Roy took a step back as the pressure from her was almost crushing him.

"Now that she was a human... "

"I told you she wasn't a human," Ned said.

Queen Sas Koron paused, looked at Ned, and burst her mana. The throne room shook and the stones affixed on the ceiling flickered.

"Now that she was a human," she said once again. Her dark hair floated along with her mana. "I won't take responsibility. She belongs to you now, you must take care of her."

"But... " Ned took a step forward only to be pushed back by the heavy pressure. "She was still a beast, half and half."

"You mocking my intelligence, human cub?"

The mana around her swirled and tried to attack Ned, but stopped before it reaches him.

"But I have a proposition for you."

She retracted all her mana and walked past Roy and Ned. Her limbs cranking against the floor. She then stopped behind Ned.

"Roy," she said but her eyes boring Ned. " How was his training?"

"He is ready to leave the Hive, my Queen," Roy said in a low bow.

"Good. Good," she said with a voice full of skims. "I will save your human companion. In return... Roy. When was the human's Hunter Exam?"

"Two weeks from now, my Queen."

"In two weeks," she said. "You will have to pass the exam and bring me Gogmurch."

"What?"

Both Ned and Roy exclaimed in unison.

Ned thought things through.

If I won't, Katolin will die. But... if Katolin dies, that would also work to my advantage as it will hide how I turned her into a human... and some of my memories... Ned thought but then shook his head. No, no, I must not do it. Thinking of her death was like me and any other immoral people out there. I must save her. She was... full of smiles after all.