Volume 3 Chapter 9 Girl of Heresy

Chapter 9 Girl of Heresy

I

Cheius was chasing them, his tentacles wiggling rapidly.

Stasha and Yanni ran to the second floor.

A surge of chills were crawling through their veins and neuros. Cheius was giving off some sort of aura which made the air in the second floor become moisture and cold.

Gradually, the ground of the second floor became sticky and slimy. Their feet were stuck by some sort of viscous liquid summoned by Cheius. The viscous liquid was spreading. At first, it just covered the floor but soon it crawled onto the surface of the wall.

Some tentacles were growing like plants out from the soil of the black liquid conjured by Cheius … He was approaching them …

“Leave me alone!” yelled Stasha.

Cheius made a gesture and two of the tentacles entwined Yanni and Stasha’s wrist.

“That’s disgusting,” complaint Yanni.

Now, Cheius walked to the front of them, and finally, Stasha and Yanni could see his face under his hood clearly. To be honest, that was not much of a face, but a ball composed of slime, protein and some organs-like structures.

It was really hard to imagine that Cheius used to be a human before the mutation.

“Who are you two? How dare you come into my academy? Who sends you here? Are you two and that red-haired girl working together?” Cheius asked a series of questions in Reauneish.

“Where is her? Where is that red-haired girl?” questioned Yanni.

“It’s none of your business,” sneezed Cheius.

Growling in wrath, Yanni wanted to run up to Cheius and punched his nauseating mutant face, but his feet had been entangled by the tentacles that Cheius summoned.

“Answer my question first, and then I will tell you where that red-haired girl is. Are you spies from Normania?” demanded Cheius.

“No, we’re not spies. We’re wanted criminals and we’re enemies of Normanian government. We’re here to take Cuore Celeste back. I’ve give you the answer you want. Now you tell me where that red-haired is right now!” replied Yanni.

“I don’t know. I encountered her once and she ran away. She is smarter than you two … So you want Cuore Celeste, right? I’m sorry. I cannot return it to you. Cuore Celeste is dangerous because there is something that can ruin the world inside it,” answered Cheius.

“So what are you going to do with us? Are you going to kill us?” demanded Stasha.

“For sure. I’ve gotten the answer I want. Now you can die. Since you’re criminals in Normania, Normanian government won’t mind whether you’re alive or not. Since Normanians are not considered humans in Reauneia, I can kill you like killing an ant, right?” revealed Cheius.

“You bastard …” cursed Yanni.

“Here we go,” muttered Cheius.

Like snakes, the tentacles were crawling upwards from the legs of Yanni and Stasha, and those suction cups stuck to their skin tight. This feeling was hellishly disgusting.

When they were about to be killed by Cheius, an arrow shot from nowhere towards Cheius’ chest. Distracted by the arrow, Cheius stopped controlling those tentacles, from which Stasha and Yanni broke free finally.

It was Floria.

“You again!” growled Cheius.

“Surprise!” Floria smiled.

“Floria!” called Stasha and Yanni excitedly.

“Look out, friends! I will kick the ass of this octopus-man now!” announced Floria.

Floria shot a stream of arrow towards Cheius.

Moaning in pain, Cheius’ power that dominated this building faded slightly. Those sticky liquid under Stasha and Yanni’s feet evaporated into harmless black steam.

Other students came up to the second floor too.

“ꡂꡨ’ꡃꡞꡧ! ꡂꡨ’ꡃꡞꡧ!” they began to cheer on their professor Cheius.

Obviously, Cheius had been completely irritated by Floria. He stared at her ferociously. Waving his hands, darkness began to spread again. Mist began to fill the air in the corridor.

Now Cheius had connected himself to the greater realm of elementalics. The three were not facing a human now. They were fighting the twisted power of water.

Water was the essence of all matters. Lives came from water and the earliest creatures lived in the sea. Humans were mostly composed of water as well … Because water, everything in this world functioned in harmony.

Through elementium, humans could conquer and manipulate the power of water, in a twisted way.

Cold sweat was coming out from the glands of Floria, Yanni and Stasha. It was a kind of pure fear. They had been wrapped by an aura of darkness, coldness and corruption while Cheius was the focus of all those obscene things. Floria wanted to shoot arrows, but her hands were trembling in irresistible fear.

She could feel the depth, the power from the depth of this world. Humans hadn’t explored the world of deep oceans yet, where the greatest horror lurked quietly.

“Run!” commanded Floria. Stasha and Yanni nodded. They knew that they were no match for this berserk version of Cheius. He could be even stronger than Hoemuo.

The three ran away and Cheius didn’t chase them. What he must do right now was returning to his secret chamber and guarding the gemstone.

Panting in horror, the three ran into a door that led to another corridor.

After running for nearly two minutes, they realized that Cheius wasn’t following them.

“Are we save now?” asked Stasha.

“Yeah, I think we’re,” Floria nodded.

Yanni stepped forwards and hugged his sister.

“I’m really worrying about you! Cheius said that he had met you,” muttered Yanni.

“That’s true. That Cheius nearly kill me, but luckily, I escaped successfully,” Floria smiled.

“He is in possession of Cuore Celeste,” revealed Stasha.

“I know … We must retake it from him,” Floria pointed out.

“Can we three beat him if we fight together?” queried Yanni.

“It will be difficult. Anyway, we’re not here to fight Cheius or beat the elementalists. We’re here to rescue Aisling. I think we just need to sneak into Cheius’ office or personal laboratory, find Cuore Celeste and steal it. Then we come to a safe place to find a way to purify the gemstone and save Aisling,” answered Floria.

“Purify?” pursued Yanni.

“There’s something wrong with that gemstone after it was robbed by Hoemuo. It seems to have been corrupted by Hoemuo and Cheius. Without doubt, elementalical power can contaminate Cuore Celeste, and Aisling may have been trapped inside it because of the contamination. I guess that if we can purify the gemstone, Aisling may be able to come out,” guessed Floria.

“So, what shall we do now?” questioned Stasha.

“We must hide from the students and find Hoemuo’s office,” replied Floria.

“Maybe we can catch a student here and force him or her to tell us where the office of Hoemuo is,” proposed Stasha.

“But we cannot understand Reauneish and vice versa. I guess that only the elites need to learn Normanish. Hoemuo and Cheius who need to learn Normanish for negotiation and diplomacy,” sighed Floria.

“Language problems were troubling,” complaint Stasha.

Last year, they travelled to Desertia but Stasha could translate Desertish for them since Desertish was one of her two mother languages. But now, no one in the team could speak or read Reauneish. They were like illiterates in this country.

II

Cheius went back to his office.

He walked into the secret chamber behind his bookshelf, where lied the Engine of Antilife.

The engine kept giving off surges of unutterable twisted energy and injecting the energy into Cuore Celeste.

Soon, Cuore Celeste would be destroyed, and so would the Sanctum of Life.

After the destruction of the Sanctum of Life, nothing would be able to stop the awakening of great Trigon anymore.

III

Stasha, Floria and Yanni were searching for the office of Cheius all over the academy. When they were searching in the fifth floor, they heard a screaming voice.

They walked to the source of the voice. It was a young student girl being bullied by a group of her schoolmates. Those bullies were hitting her hard. She was crying and begging.

Her nose had been broken by one of the bullies and blood was streaming out from her nostrils. Tears was flowing down from her cheeks, and merging into her blood finally.

The three looked at each other. They had been trying their best to hide themselves and if they went to save that girl, they would be exposed. However, this girl was so pitiful that they couldn’t stand idly by.

“Leave her alone!” yelled Yanni.

All those bullies looked at Yanni. Though they couldn’t understand what Yanni was saying, they knew that he was speaking Normanians.

They hated Normanians. Those bullies charged towards Yanni in an attempt to hit him, but Yanni dodged all their punches and knocked all those bullies to the ground.

Cursing with dirty words, the bullies ran away after witnessing Yanni’s power.

“Thank you,” said the girl he saved in accented Normanish. The three noticed that she had a book in her hand. The title of the book seemed to be written in Normanish alphabet instead of Reauneish abugida.

“Wow, you can speak Normanish?” questioned Floria.

“I can speak a little Normanish. Are you spies from Normania?” asked the girl.

“No, we’re not. Cheius has caught our friend, and we’re here now to save her,” answered Yanni.

“I know,” muttered the girl, covering some blue-purple parts of her body with her hands shyly. Seemingly she hadn’t mutated much and there were no disgusting scales on her skin yet. However, some parts of her skin had become blue-purple.

Clearly, elementalists thought that this kind of mutations were cool and beautiful since they were a sign of social status. However, this girl seemed to consider her mutations ugly.

“Do you know where Cheius’ office is?” queried Floria.

“Yes, I know. Follow me, I’ll take you to his office,” agreed the girl.

To be honest, this girl looked freaky. She was not like other students at all. She was as quiet as a ghost.

In the lead of that mysterious girl, the three walked upstairs. They were observing this girl quietly, noting which, the girl flushed slightly.

To make the atmosphere among them less embarrassing, Stasha decided to chat with this girl.

“What is your name, girl?” asked Stasha.

“My name is Mouiguia. What is the name of you three?” replied the girl.

“My name is Stasha. This girl and this boy are siblings. Their names are Floria and Yanni,” Stasha introduced the siblings and herself.

“Hello, Stasha, Floria, Yanni,” greeted Mouiguia, the girl.

“Hi … You speak Normanish well. How long have you been learning it,” queried Yanni.

“For four years,” answered Mouiguia.

“Why did you learn our language? Do you want to be a diplomat?” queried Floria.

“No, I just want to be different. Though being different means that I will be picked on by them, I still want to be different. I am not like them. I want to speak the language of the enemies,” explained Mouiguia.

“What is that book?” inquired Yanni, pointing to the book that Mouiguia carried with her.

“It is the Poem of Ancient Normania,” responded Mouiguia.

“Are you reading it to practice Normanish?” pursued Yanni.

“No, I read it to perceive your world,” Mouiguia shook her head.

“My world?” Yanni was confused.

“Not your world. I want to perceive the world of … All Normanians. I know that Normanians are the enemies of Reauneians, but I don’t care. I want to be different,” drawled Mouiguia.

“In fact, … We Normanians are no different … I’ve once see a bloody house in Normanian, in which villagers torture Reauneian scouts that they’ve caught … ” sighed Floria.

“Really?” Mouiguia raised her eyebrows.

“That’s truth. All humans are the same, including Normanians, Reauneians and Desertians …” muttered Stasha.

“But the Ancient Poems of Normania is beautiful … I thought that you Normanians had rich inner lives. In the poems, I can see beautiful forests, mountains and stars … I thought …” Mouiguia lowered her head.

“Every kingdom is composed of cureless bestial people and people who are still kind …” guessed Floria.

“I … I used to want to run to Normania, but since Normania is not different from here at all, I don’t know where I can belong to. Maybe the future of this earth is hopeless,” murmured Mouiguia.

“No, it’s not …” neglected Yanni.

“The arrival of a new era is inevitable. Necrology will pollute the earth; mechanics will replace the souls of us; elementalics will make us mutate into something inhumane … I can do nothing but wait for the coming of the new era,” argued Mouiguia.

Mouiguia was still covering the mutant part of her skin with her hands. Obviously, most elementalists considered mutations as honour. Aesthetics could be manipulated and disciplined by the rulers to, just like worldview and religious belief.

However, Mouiguia wasn’t corrupted by the teachings of elementalists. She was still pure.

Hiding from the patrols, Mouiguia led the three to the top floor of this pagoda. The top floor of the pagoda was composed of several laboratories. Involuntarily, the three peeked into one of the laboratories through its window.

Inside the laboratory, there were several students and one professor. They were researching a purplish glowing stone-like thing. That thing was organic, composed of some sort of protein. That thing seemed to be giving off radiation.

Mouiguia was scratching her mutant parts.

“Sorry, I’m a little itchy. Water elementium is radioactive,” apologized Mouiguia.

That organic stone-like thing was the so-called water elementium. It was giving off a cold aura.

In fact, all those professors and students only had some scales and they still looked like humans generally. However, Cheius had become something inhumane. But why?

Soon, Mouiguia and the three arrived in front of the door of the office of Cheius.

“This is Cheius’ office as well as his personal laboratory. Wish you save your friend successfully,” whispered Mouiguia.

“Thank you, Mouiguia,” expressed Floria thankfully.

“You’re welcome,” returned Mouiguia.

The three pushed the door of the office of Cheius open.

No one was in the office.

“Please end this,” begged Mouiguia.

“End what?” asked Yanni in confusion.

“End everything! Children in this world now are spending their whole childhood reading and reciting their textbooks to prepare for the tests. However, what we learn are the values of hatred and knowledge that will finally destroy this world. End this, please!” pleaded Mouiguia.

“We will,” promised Floria.

“Thank you … You’re real heroes,” Mouiguia nodded her head and walked away.

Without doubt, though Mouiguia seemed to be introvert, shy and only living in her own world, her soul was extrovert and combative. She wanted to fight everything but she didn’t have the power …

Fortunately, the three had the power and thus they had the responsibility to do something …