Chapter 157: Exploration Gone Wrong

Outside of the trial, around half a mile away, Yari, Jiaoying, and Giselle had gone exploring. A sparsely trodden path had led the three of them down a trail teaming with strange, glowing flowers and pixies that numbered by the dozens.

Their journey culminated with the three of them reaching a scenic overlook. From their spot underneath a tree, Jiaoying and Yari stared out into a woodland gorge teaming with life.

As the sun slowly rose, the couple admired the beautiful sight with the same reverence as a gift from the divine.

Or at least that was what they were supposed to be doing before Yari found something much more interesting to focus her attention on.

“Y-You can stop touching me, now…”

“I actually don’t believe I can, my dear… This transformation of yours is so utterly fascinating that I don’t know what to do with myself. It is marvelous.”

Jiaoying smiled bashfully, placing her hand over Yari’s as she cradled her cheek.

“All this talk of yours sounds so hopelessly scientific… Do you not have a less professional interest in the way I look…?”

Yari’s cheeks darkened. “I… thought I had expressed that quite well this morning.”

“I have a short memory.”

“But not a short libido it seems.”

“What can I say..? You and Bear make that very difficult.. I wake up with the taste of you both on my tongue and I still want more.”

Jiaoying started to lean in, and Yari closed her eyes in anticipation of the feeling of her lover’s soft lips against hers. But that was when she became painfully aware of a series of annoying snacking sounds.

Yari and Jiaoying begrudgingly opened their eyes, finding Giselle hanging from a tree branch between them, snacking on what appeared to be some freshly picked nuts.

“…You three are very cute, non? I find myself being slightly envious when I observe any of you for a long enough period.”

“I find myself irked when you observe us for any period.” Yari sneered.

Giselle shrugged as if her sister’s annoyance couldn’t possibly phase her.

“Well, you cannot blame me for being surprised. I have never known you to be affectionate with anyone who was not our parents or me. Nor have I known you to have an interest in romance.”

Yari started to speak when Jiaoying nuzzled her cheek. “What, you mean this little lovebug was the cold and indifferent type? My, I can hardly believe it…”

Yari did not miss the sarcasm in her lover’s voice, but the sweet kiss on her neck made it rather difficult for her to hold on to her anger.

“It did not seem to do much to inhibit the attention she received, though. Little Sunseed here had many would-be suitors, as I recall.”

A bitter chill snuffed out the embers of Yari’s warm moment. “Why do you have to go and mention something needless like that? Why did you even need to follow us??”

Giselle slowly swallowed the remainder of her nuts. “I cannot say for sure… I simply wanted to get to observe you as much as I can. Haven’t we already missed enough time together?”

“If you’re feeling guilty about abandoning me for twenty years, then you’re going to need to find another way to make up for it.”

“Well, can you tell me what that way is instead of hugging me one moment and barking at me the next?! I don’t understand where I am with you, right now!”

Jiaoying tried nervously to break up the warring sisters before things became too heated.

“H-Hey, girls, now really isn’t the time for… My dear, is there a reason your breast is glowing?”

Sure enough, once Yari looked down at her white dress, she found the source of some odd glow to be her binding stone.

She fished it out of her bra and gave it a single rub.

Nereid immediately rushed out of the stone. Yari expected her to at least say something, but the greater being immediately darted off.

She flew far, and fast, seemingly ignoring all of her master’s attempts to recall her.

“Nereid, what has gotten into you??”

Yari flew after her companion. Nereid was quick, but thanks to her enchantments, the elf was able to keep up with her well enough.

Jiaoying and Giselle were also not very far behind. Though they seemed to be infinitely more confused than Yari.

Nereid did not make following her easy. She cut through patches of brambles and dense leaves.

It wasn’t until she flew an entire mile away that she came to a stop.

Yari landed just behind the water spirit, with the others hot on her heels.

“Nereid, what… What is this?”

The water spirit was staring at a wall of stone and ivory fashioned into the underside of a mountain. She gave her contractor no answer.

If Yari had to guess, it was some sort of old ritual site. Though what exactly it was used for was something she could not say.

“I’m not one to complain about a little exercise, but I would at least like to know what the reason behind it was.” Giselle pushed her hair out of her face.

“I’m… hoping to uncover that myself.”

Yari turned to Jiaoying with a wry smile. “A little help, my dearest?”

“Always happy to be of service.”

With a simple thought, Jiaoying cut away the ivy lining the walls of the monument.

Once all of it was removed, the girls beheld a sprawling mural.

It was… beautiful. Flawless in everything from it’s conception, to it’s preservation, and even its application.

The figures it depicted were little winged beings made of some kind of glittery substance.

As Yari read the story, she could infer that it was a peaceful tale. But then around mid-way on the wall, something changed completely.

There was… some sort of creature depicted. It terrorized the winged population. Forced them into hiding.

“There seems to have been some sort of… communion right?” Yari etched closer to the mural with Giselle directing beside her.

“Indeed… it looks like these two stepped up first and then.. it just ends?”

“…I think not.”

Yari pulled away a formerly untrimmed mass of ivory. Etched into the wall were two handprints, with a pointed stone protrusion in the center of the palms.

She gently grazed both of her hands over the indentations.

No phenomena occurred, but she did become more assured in her belief that these were some kind of blood ritual sites.

“There were two in the mural, right?” Giselle checked once to make sure she wasn’t incorrect. “So then maybe…”

Gently, Giselle nudged her sister’s hand out of the way and replaced it with her own.

That was all it took for everything to go catastrophically wrong.

A cuff of circular prismatic light appeared around each of their wrists.

“Hey, wait..!”

“What did you do?!”

Every attempt the girls made to pull away was in vain. Their phenomenal strength could do nothing to protect them.

Jiaoying scrambled to try to help the girls break free of their bindings, but even she was of no help in the matter.

All the while, Nereid merely floated in place, staring dreamily at the mural before her.

Suddenly, Yari and Giselle were pulled forward.

The pointed stone pierced their palms deeply, causing them both to release agonizing screams.

Flustered, Jiaoying wasted no time drawing her weapon. Beautiful mural or not, she wasn’t so moved by it that she would allow it to finish whatever it was going.

She raised her blade high, roaring as she prepared to cleave the entire mountain in two.

But before her blade had even begun its descent, the paintings on the wall lit up with rainbow lights.

A hard wall of power struck Jiaoying directly in the nose, sending her flying back into an opposing wall.

The back of her head struck a tree so hard that she began to see stars.

The only thing that snapped her out of it was the moment she heard Yari and Giselle’s screams turn from agonized to something ear-splitting and excruciating…

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