Chapter 88: Sibling Affairs

Nathan and company stared confused at the person before them, no matter how much he looked similar, the person standing before them was not, Vexx. Saying she didn’t look like Vexx was the contrary. Except the feminine assets, she was the spitting-image of Vexx. The major difference’s besides the gender was the blank expressionless face, the smile and whimsical nature Vexx had had before, she seemed to be the exact opposite.

Anais: “Nathan, what part of that looks like a boy to you?”

Nathan: “She isn’t Vexx, right Iris?”

Iris: “It is as you say, the person we met before was indeed a man.”

Anais: “Then who the hell this?”

Overhearing their conversation, the girl cocked her head to the side in confusion.

?????: “Pardon me, but is it my understanding that Vexx, said nothing of our circumstances?”

Nathan: “Forget your circumstances, he barely told us his name.”

The girl side with exasperation, holding her hand to her fore head to hold it up.

??????: “That……… Fucking Idiot!”

Nathan: “Whoa there, you okay?”

?????: “We don’t have time for this shit and yet he keeps on with these stupid customs.”

Nathan, Anais and Iris listened on as a surplus of profanity left the girls mouth, all about how she felt about Vexx. When she finally calmed down, the girl turned back to Nathan and bowed.

??????: “I apologize for the misunderstanding, let me introduce myself, I’m Irkia Vexx’s little sister.

Iris and Anais: “Sister?”

*Boing*

Nathan: “Little?”

*Smack*

Anais: “Where are you looking?”

Nathan: “I wasn’t talking about that, (Although I wasn’t not talking about that either).”

Nathan rubbed is head, after being smacked. Compared to her brother, Irkia seemed like the older sister. Her maturity both physically and mentally, out scaled Vexx’s child-like looks and mentality. Anyone would assume she was the eldest, if not told otherwise.

Irkia: “Vexx, left me to believe that everything about our situation had been previously explained. I should have known better then to trust stupid idiot.

Nathan: “Ugh, Irkia.”

Irkia: “What is it?”

Nathan: “Ugh, where is Vexx if you don’t mind me asking?”

Irkia: “He is currently sleeping. It’s a good thing. I rather him not speak with you again or at all, if possible.”

Nathan: “Sleeping?”

Irkia: “He is only awake when I’m asleep, and vice versa. This body can’t support both of us being conscious at once.”

Nathan: “Wait, your sharing a body?”

Irkia: “Even this was not explained!? Why make it so difficult for the ones that were asking for help? There is no other choice.”

Irkia had a cold look on her face, a face of complete contempt. She was growing increasingly frustrated at her elder brothers’ whimsical nature, even in dire straits.

Irkia: “Currently, because of circumstances, both my brother and I are sharing the same body.”

Nathan: “Sharing the same body?”

Irkia: “A certain group of people had stolen a ‘jewel’ from me. A jewel that contains the soul of a ‘Cheshire’, in other words: my body.”

Nathan: “But…your right here, and front of us.”

Irkia: “To save me, my brother allowed me to share his body with his. However, the gems are not meant to hold more than one soul. Eventually I will have to vacate his body or risk hurting him. At that point of time; I will inevitably die.”

Nathan went wide eyed for a moment, as did Anais and Iris. She was rather nonchalant on the subject of her possible death. To them, it didn’t even seem like she cared.

Nathan: “That seems extremely serious, are you afraid?”

Irkia: “I’m am I afraid, if at all possible, I would like to return to my body as soon as possible.

Anais: “And should you just be telling people this, it seems like a easy way for someone to take advantage of?”

Irkia: Its fine, I know that the ‘Hero’ and the members of his party are not such unscrupulous individuals. More importantly, this matter is actually the reason we need your help and my idiot brother should have told you this before. There is a group of people that want us to find something for them, but we are ill-equipped to obtain it.”

Nathan: “You can’t go inside the dungeon yourself?”

Irkia: “Ah, so you know already?”

Nathan: “No, not what you need, just where you want me to go.”

Irkia: “Then let me enlighten you. The item we need is known as ‘Twinkle Sand’.”

Nathan: “Twinkle Sand?”

Irkia: “Yes it can be found in and around beach-like areas located in the Northeast area on the fifth floor of ‘Viridi Wilds’.”

Nathan: “Wait, the fifth floor?”

Irkia: “Is there a problem?”

Nathan: “Well, I had no intentions of journeying that far down.”

Irkia: “Oh?”

Nathan: “I mean, I’m not against helping you, but from what I heard, no-one’s even made it to the second floor, let alone the fifth floor. Sorry about I’m gonna have to turn you down.”

Irkia: “That’s okay.”

Nathan: “Really? Don’t you need the sand?”

Irkia: “I do, so if by any chance you end up there, could you fulfill my request?”

Nathan: “I just said I not going.”

Nathan wasn’t going to change his mind about this; he was definitely not going past the first floor. Though he did find it suspicious that she would ask him even after knowing what he’d planned to do.

Nathan: “Hey, how about instead of going to the fifth floor, we go after the group that took the jewel away from you?”

Irkia: “What?”

Iris: “That does seem to be the more rational decision.”

Anais: “Catching thieves seems easier than going that far into the dungeon.”

Irkia: “Impossible, please do not attempt something so dangerous.”

The tone in Irkia’s voice had changed dramatically, the melancholy, replaced with fear. The oh so stoic character they had just met, was now shivering in fear, the color draining from her face almost instantly.

Iris: “You’re asking us to travel down into a monster-ridden dungeon, is that any safer?”

Irkia: “Absolutely, the group who stole my precious jewel, are far more dangerous than anything the dungeons could possibly spawn.”

Nathan: “Who are they?”

Irkia: “What they are; I do not know, but the moment they showed themselves to us, we understood we had no chance against them. They call themselves ‘Nephilim’.”

_

_

Deep in the jungles of Suvari, deep in a cave untouched by the sun warmth, three figures stalked around in the dark. With hoods obscuring their features, the garments they wore looked to have a will of their own. Even without any light source, the three navigated the caves’ corridors with relative ease. The damp humid cave had become their pseudo-home as of late, at least until they had fulfilled their objective. An objective that had kept them in the caves depths for month’s on-end.

?????: “Just how much longer do have to stay in this fucking cave?”

?????: “Hecca, why must you complain every second?”

Hecca: “You’re not the one rotting away Scias, look what the humid air done to my torso.”

Unbuttoning her shirt and flashing her companions, amongst the pale purple skin, a giant black spot was above her left breast. An unknown fungus was protruding from the rotting flesh, that wasn’t there earlier, which she immediately pulled out. Pulling it out caused a black ooze to spill out onto the floor as well drip down her body, but she ignored it.

Hecca: “Scias, you think this is poisonous?”

Scias: “Who cares, just rip it all out and be done with it, nothing can be done about your condition until we return home.”

Scias didn’t even turn around; he simply dismissed the situation all-together.

Hecca: “And just when will that be? We’ve been walking around these stupid ass caves for months. I’m tired of this shit?”

?????: “*snicker*

Hecca: “Haah, you think something’s funny, Ansiel?”

The smallest hooded figure snapped his head side-to-side, denying the accusation, surprised upon hearing his name being called.

Ansiel: “N-no nothing at all, I just sneezed.”

Hecca: “A sneeze huh?...whatever.”

Ansiel breathed sigh of relief, believing that he had fooled her, at least until Hecca grabbed him.

Hecca: “As if I believed that idioooooooot, how dare you laugh at your big sister?”

*Thump*

Ansiel: “Ow, stop hitting me.”

Ansiel broke away and ran, but Hecca quickly caught up to him.

Hecca: “No escaaaaaaaaape!”

*Splush**Splat*

Ansiel: “Hecca, don’t throw that at me, gross.”

Hecca pulled out her rotting flesh and threw it at her younger brother playfully, taking delight in his attempts to dodge. Scias was eyeing some of the caves fungi. Taking out a scroll, he looked at the drawing, then quickly dismissed the fungi, it wasn’t the one they were looking for. Just as he went to put the scroll away, a piece of rotting flesh soared by, hitting the scroll out of his hands and smearing a part of it with its foul ooze.”

Hecca: “What? You call your lovable older sister gross…Blasphemy.”

Scias: “Will you two cut it out? Why did I have to get stuck with these children.”

Ansiel: “Sorry, brother Scias.”

Hecca: “Don’t act all mature mister…you’re only two days older.”

Scias: “That’s two days more mature than you Hecca.”

Hecca: “Phhbpt.’

Hecca stuck out her tongue, pissing Scias off in the process.

*Growl*

In the darkness, a low wet growling could be heard.

Hecca: “Did you hear that? We must have missed some of them, I was sure we killed everything here already.”

Scias: “They could have entered from outside or there could have been just more, further inside.”

Hecca: “Whatever… just hurry and find what we’re looking for, big brother~”

Scias: “If you two would help me, we could be done already.”

Hecca shrugged her shoulders, letting Ansiel go for him to wipe and spit out the flesh from his face and mouth respectively.

Hecca: “We should have tried to break into the ‘Garden’ again, this new plan suuuuuuccckkkksssss.”

Scias: “Our plan was compromised; we had no other choice but to abort.”

Hecca: “And after we went through all that trouble to obtain that gaudy golden eyeball-monster thingy. Though I got to say, hearing that vampire girl screaming her brains out after she found it missing was incredibly funny. But it died so all that effort for nothing.”

Scias: “The Hero showing up was not a part of the plan, but it can’t be helped. With the increased security the elves have displayed, we have no choice, but to find an alternate solution.”

Hecca: “And now we’re looking for a stupid mushroom in this stupid cave, on this stupid hot and humid continent. How the hell do the beast-men stand it with all that damn fur?”

Hecca picked up the mushroom that was growing on her chest and threw it at the wall in frustration, which ricocheted and smacked Scias right in the face.

Hecca: “Whoops.”

Ansiel: “Pffffftttt!”

Scias: “DAMMIT HECCA, YOU LITTLE…………….wait.”

Scias pulled out the scroll, looking back in forth between the mushroom and the scroll.

Scias: “Idiot, this is what we’ve been looking for. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Hecca: “How was I supposed to know what it looks like mister ‘I’ll hold onto the scroll because I’m so much older and more mature then you two’ bleh, bleh, bleh snarky remark, bleh, bleh, bleh superior tone?”

Ansiel banged on the ground, attempting to hold in his laughter, cause by his sibling’s comedy routine.

Hecca: “Well, since we have what we came for let’s get out of here.”

Scias: “We need way more than just this, where did you get it?”

Hecca: “I don’t know, it was growing in my chest. Weren’t you listening at all? Now who’s the idiot? You put those glasses on your face to shame. Tsk, Tsk.”

Scias became pissed, Ansiel, noticing the change took a few steps away from Hecca.

*Grab*

Hecca: “W-What are you doing, let me go.”

Scias: “If you don’t know where you contracted the fungus, then I guess you’ll just need to incubate it.”

Hecca went pale, as Scias attempted to shove the fungus back into her chest.

Hecca: “NOOOOOOOO, STOOOOP IIIIIIITTTTTTTTT, I JUST CLEARED IT OUT!”

Scias: “You were the one who wanted to leave so badly, take one for the team. Consider this a contribution to our efforts, you don’t want brother to find out that you weren’t any help?”

Hecca: “ANSIEL HELP ME, DAMMIT.”

Ansiel: “Y-Yes.”

Scias: “If you do, you’ll be the next incubator.”

Ansiel: “H-Huh!?”

Hecca: “DAMMIT, YOU BETTER HELP ME OR I SWEAR I MAKE YOU REGRET IT.”

Ansiel was stuck between a rock and a hard place, the way it was going; he would get punished either way. It all depended what he was more afraid of…becoming an incubator or Hecca’s wrath, it was a no-brainer.

Ansiel: “G-Good luck big sis.”

Scias: “Good boy, now go deal with those pests who’ve been stalking us for a while now.”

Ansiel: “R-Right.”

Hecca: “DAMMIT ANSIEL, I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS YOU TRAITOR!”

Ansiel turned and left the cavern, leaving his siblings to themselves. Hecca cursed Ansiel’s name, thus leaving her to her fate.

He entered the next room, quickly shuffling away from his siblings, baiting the creatures hiding in the dark. Just as he thought the moment he’d moved away from his siblings; the distant growling drew closer. Several giant lizard creatures lurked in out of the darkness. Crawling in from every direction, their bodies, being able to compress, allowed them to slip through the thinness of cracks in the cave walls. So they appeared from everywhere, along the floor ceilings and walls of the cave.

Ansiel didn’t flinch or cower, after seeing this sight and ever since they had entered the caves with having to keep killing off these creatures and since had got used to them appearing out of thin-air. The creatures slowly surrounded Ansiel to which he just simply raised his hand and a small black mass gathering in his palm.

*Swoosh**Sloosh*

Ansiel: “Ah!?”

Ansiel made a surprise yelp, as his arm that was gathering the black mass, suddenly appeared on the ground. The biggest of the lizard-creatures had whipped out its razor-sharp tongue out of its mouth and slashed off Ansiel’s arm, before retrieving it and swallowing it in one gulp.

Ansiel: “H-Hey give that back, I need it for grabbing.”

Ansiel looked at the spot where his arm used to be, no blood was spraying out, but instead a mass of black smog.

Ansiel: “Now you’ve done it. I can’t stop it from spreading anymore, but I guess I don’t need too, I’m supposed to kill all of you anyways.”

The other smaller lizards were readying to rip Ansiel apart, when they heard a pain-writhing scream. The other lizards turned to see their boss, suddenly writhing in pain, throwing up the contents of his stomach along with vast amount of blood and organs. The biggest lizard’s skin started to turn black and soon, all-together, it stopped moving as its eyes fogged up and its life left its body.

Ansiel hurriedly retrieved his arm, wiping off as much of the lizard’s innards before putting it back in its place. Testing it a few times, he moved his arm back and forth. It was a little sluggish, but that was to be expected with all the blood he’d just lost.

The other lizards looked on with stunned faces at their now dead leader, completely unaware of how he had died.

Ansiel: “Um, do you all really have time to worry about him? It’s had plenty of time to enter your body by now.”

Just as he finished, black spots begin to appear on the lizard’s bodies, as the lizard’s cried out in pain. Soon, like their leader, they curled over lifeless. Ansiel looked at his handy-work, it wasn’t as clean as his elder siblings, but he’d finished his task. He smiled and nodded, seeing all the corpses.

Ansiel: “I should ask sister to clean this up or maybe not…she must be still mad. Ah, but if we will soon be leaving, then this is fine. Still, I’ll will have to seal this cave off, wouldn’t want it to spread outside. We still have need of this continent.”

Ansiel turned to leave, heading back to his siblings thus leaving the corpses to nature and the disease, he’d passed to the lizards, free to spread throughout the cave-system.