Chapter 564 The Cave Plays Tricks

Aliza led the way while Keng stayed by Cayi's side. He found it hard to navigate through the waters with a tail. Cayi and Aliza had given him some tips and with some small practice, he could at least go at a "jog" speed.

"Hold up." Aliza's voice went over the conch. Cayi grabbed his and lifted it between him and Keng.

"What's wrong?" Cayi asked.

"Well…" Aliza's voice slightly trailed off. She didn't respond for quite awhile and Cayi looked at Keng for an answer. "The path gets confusing. Come to me, but be careful." Keng and Cayi continued forward, slowly making their way towards Aliza. It took them awhile, but when they finally saw Aliza, they saw what she was talking about.

Dead Ferals floated around, creating strange paths with the paths. Aliza turned and noticed them and looked back at the problem in front of them.

"I don't think I've ever seen something like this before." Aliza commented. Keng and Cayi stood next to the small mermaid as she looked around. "The paths intertwine with each other but when they started heading different places, I kinda stopped looking and came back."

"Are there bodies in any of the paths?" Keng asked.

"They all intertwine, so I'm not sure where they went." Aliza replied.

"How long do they intertwine with each other before they separate?"

"Mmm… Almost a mile?" Aliza guesstimated.

"That means we'd be wasting time going through all of the paths individually…" Keng whispered. He began to fiddle with Hydrosphere when he remembered about the conchs. He fiddled for the conch, pulling it off his belt.

"What're you gonna do with that?" Cayi asked.

"Everything has an energy source." Keng began. He lifted the conch up to see it, slowly spinning it around. "If all the conchs match each other through magical means, that must mean they have similar sources."

"Wouldn't that be hard to trace?" Aliza asked. "Even well trained masters would take days, maybe even weeks to trace a single source from many. If there are conchs back at the Village, you'd have to block those out."

"Well, there's a couple things that make this easier." Keng told them. His energy began to spin around the conch, lifting it up into the air. "They got cut off from here, so it'll be hard to get a ping from the Village… So that means we can just ping every single conch with a similar magical wavelength and follow it."

"Woah…! You're right." Aliza's eyes lit up. "Why didn't I think of it like that?"

"There's a couple of things that's useful about being shapeshifted into a Merman, though." Keng looked at Cayi and Aliza. "My Energy Senses aren't messed up while I'm in this form."

"So that means you could spot them from here?" Cayi asked.

"If they're within my range… But if I boost my range with Resonance…" Keng's form began to flicker as Starry Sun grew around him. His fish tail turned to pure stars as heat exuded from him. The earth tone conch slowly went faster and faster, emitting a strange sound.

"Resonance." Keng whispered. His form exploded with stars licking off of him like flames. The conch came to an abrupt stop, a hum echoing throughout the caverns as Keng began to look around. Traces of energy appeared in his sight. His ruby and sapphire eyes glowed.

"Do you see or hear anything?" Cayi asked. Keng moved forward, ushering his teammates along.

"There's traces of their conch energies. We'll follow that." Keng told them. They weaved through the paths until they reached the split off. Keng took a moment to focus on the conch hovering in his hand. His eyes looked down each path. He shook his head a little bit each time when the path gave him nothing. He eventually didn't find anytthing and grew confused.

'Was there another path we weren't seeing?' Keng asked himself. He began to slowly look up and down. The energy they were following definitely stropped here. 'Why would it stop here? They couldn't have just vanished…' Keng stopped and looked down. The energy was collecting near the bottom.

"Don't tell me…" Keng lowered himself to the ground and swiped his hand at the ground. The illusion shook in front of the group.

"Woah!" Aliza gasped.

"An illusion?" Cayi asked.

"What's an illusion doing down here?" Aliza followed up with the important question.

"Why couldn't you see through it, Aliza?" Cayi asked. Aliza swam towards the ground and moved her hand through it a couple times. Her mind wheels moved as she tried to think of an explanation.

"This is foreign magic. I'm not familiar with it, but I've read it in some books." Aliza replied. "They say some caverns hold so much pent up magic that it starts to create illusions and traps of its own."

"So that means…?" Cayi tilted his head.

"We be careful." Aliza replied. "Remember how to deal with traps and illusion magic?" Cayi nodded. They all learned about this when they were in school. Cayi had learned it even more when Rya told him to get out of an illusionary cave.

"Don't let your senses be the only thing you use. Feel everything with the help of Energy." Cayi quoted.

"Exactly." Aliza nodded. She moved her hand in and out of the illusion and looked at Keng. "Don't let your senses fool you. Illusions like this may take your sense of sight, but can be easily disarmed with the help of other senses. If it becomes strong enough, it can mask itself like this illusion did. Our senses can lie to us, but Energy can't. Energy can be manipulated but it can't lie."

"Got it." Keng nodded.

"I'll go first just to make sure its safe below then you two come after I give an okay."

Cayi and Keng nodded. Aliza plunged underneath the illusionary floor, tail pushing as the illusion swallowed her. Keng and Cayi waited with bated breath for Aliza's okay. Keng stared at the floating conch, watching the cosmic energy swirl around it as Resonance continued to course through it veins.

"Pssh!" The conch went off. Cayi plucked his conch out and raised it to his ear.

"You can… PSSSH!" Aliza's voice cut off.

"What's that? You cut off?" Cayi asked.

"You… PSSSH! Come." Aliza responded.

"You think that's an okay to go?" Cayi asked.

"I guess." Keng shrugged. "We'll go together. Be careful."

"PSSSH!" The conch went off, again.

"I… PSSSH! Something strange. PSSSH PSSSH PSSH!" Aliza's voice went in and out. The conch grew quiet.

"Go." Keng nodded. Cayi plunged under with Keng following after him.

"I hope she's okay." Cayi's anxiety was spiking, again. "Please be okay." Keng followed after Cayi, watching as the conch's energy showed the way. The pathway was a narrow hole that went downwards for awhile. Keng wondered how Lily and the others could even go this far. The path got tough at some spaces and Keng's large body got stuck.

"Cayi." Keng called out. Cayi spun around and noticed Keng was stuck. Keng grunted as he tried to remove himself from the spot.

"Keng." Cayi called out. "Are you—"

"Cayi! Keng!" Aliza's voice went off. She sounded panicked. "Don't come! It's a trap! A Trap!" Cayi's eyes grew wide.

"What do we do?!?" Cayi asked. Keng gritted his teeth together and moved the earth tone conch between him and Cayi.

"Hold on." Keng grunted. HJis form began to shift. The rocks seemingly pushing on him as he tried to shapeshift.

"Ahhh!" Aliza shrieked.

"Aliza!" Cayi shouted. He spun around and started forward. "I'm coming!"

"Cayi!" Keng shouted. "Don't go alone!" It was too late. The anxiety-ridden Cayi had already left him behind. Keng finished shifting into a smaller version of his Merman form and darted forward. The form was easier to navigate through the rigid hole. The conch's energy had told him where to go with Cayi's and Aliza's energy drifting everywhere, too.

Keng eventually heard them. Cayi was screaming Aliza's name as Aliza grunted.

"Get away from her!" Cayi shouted. He swung his staff at the creatures in front of them.

'Ferals.' Keng thought. He slipped out, noticing the conch's energy was pooling behind the Ferals.

"Get away!" Cayi smacked a Feral in the head. The Feral shrieked and launched itself forward.

"No!" Aliza shouted. She threw herself in front of Cayi, tentacles wrapping around her and pulling her away from Cayi.

"Aliza!" Cayi moved forward, only to be stopped by more Ferals. Tentacles shot out, slamming Cayi into a wall as Keng's body cracked. His form shifted back into his regular form. His tails spread behind him as the leather armor hugged him.

"Ahh!" Aliza shouted.

'Mark three.' Keng glanced around, quickly marking three spots. 'Displacement 2.' Keng blinked in front of the group of Ferals, pulling Hydrosphere out. The dagger slashed in front of him, burning the Ferals in an instant as he blinked to Mark 3.

"Aliza!" Keng shouted, pushing himself against the wall. "I'm coming!"