Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Stranger Thought

Alone, undisturbed by the urgency of life and her sisters, Iris had been thinking about various topics. She sauntered through the darkness, seeing with night vision, listening with her magical hearing. The winds ground against the damped soils and whispered lullabies beside her ears, grazing her body with their soft touch, reminding her that she wasn't alone. The great unknown being was always there, watching, waiting.

Not knowing if it was her imagination, Iris turned around and stared deeply into the darkness. For a moment, she heard someone breathed. The chill seeped into her body and permeated her bouncy skin, which shivered and contracted. She should be alone, but fear kept rising.

"Anyone there?" she asked. "Sisters, I know you're there."

She tensed until she got startled by a drop of water dripping on the ground. Her eyesight penetrated through all cracks and rifts and found nothing but darkness and occasional insects. The lack of sound was driving her mad. At this point, she prayed for something to happen.

Sister Lenmia spoke of the mystical journey she experienced, but Iris found nothing, just an endless descend towards the darkness. The cave gradually sank into the ground, forming a slow slope, which broke into multiple looping tunnels. Due to the increasingly complex route, the whisper of the wind got louder. The echo lasted longer, and the feeling of someone watching got more intense.

For the sake of her mental health, Iris decided to reach inside her body and pulled out Vilia's Soul Gem, caressing its glowing surface. The soft radiance scattered the darkness and formed a small safe zone where she could stare at and be relieved. She should have learnt how to use a basic illumination spell from Varda.

"Better than nothing, right, Sis Vilia?" she said. "I shouldn't have come here alone."

While complaining to herself, Iris still went on, going down the darkness, which gradually got darker and darker, dimming even in her enhanced perception. The slope tilted steeper, but the tunnels became wider and smoother, lacking the winding paths. Somewhere along the line, the winds suddenly ceased, but everything had turned cold, freezing the breath and the moisture.

Iris had to slow her pace as she stepped on the thin layer of ice. The freezing atmosphere prevented her from seeing far. The air was akin to countless curtains blocking her advance. When she raised her hand forward, her fingers slid through the viscous air, feeling like she was swimming in a sea of jelly.

She reckoned that if she had to breathe, she would choke and died miserably. Even then, she had to harden her slime membrane as she advanced onward, fighting against the crushing air pressure of the ice-cold environment.

The brown dirt and grey rocks froze into blue ices and translucent crystals, reflecting Iris as she trotted past them, creating countless distorted views of an endless maze with an endless number of Irises, each going in her own direction, never to meet the others.

With nothing but darkness and thick air and her reflections, Iris began to doubt her sanity. But the glowing purple Soul Gem in her hand reminded her of the warmth of her family, and so she held it close to her chest, clenching tightly. Because the air around her was so blurry, she stopped looking forward and just stared at the Soul Gem, at her own reflection.

Maybe it was because of the cold, or the intense concentration, Iris's silhouette changed once more. Her slimy membrane, once simple and dripping, compressed and crystallized, refining its texture into soft, moist skin. Her slender fingers felt fleshy, emitting soft warmth from her diffused consciousness.

Through the reflection, Iris almost mistook herself for another human. If she could change her slime colour, she would be able to pass off as a human. With her even more alluring figure, with more defined body mass and curves, she could easily play with her targets' feeling, puppet them under her mood, and leave within them an unforgettable experience, one that dragged them into the darkness and made them stayed willingly.

As a pleasure-inducing scene filled her mind, Iris blushed but didn't stop thinking. She pressed her hands on her breasts and massaged them, reaching the other hand downwards, grinding her fingertips across her abdomen, grazing her own thighs, then pulling in on her crotch.

Despite biting her lips, tensing, Iris still moaned. Her lewd voice echoed outward but failed to reach far, coming back to haunt her as it bounced the walls. In the thick coldness, her heating body clashed with the air, producing foggy streams. Her pleasure leaked from her mouth as she breathed in and out, circulating the temperature inside her slimy body.

The hot air momentarily evaporated the thick cold air, revealing the path in the front. While Iris was playing with her mind and body, a purple silhouette watched her from afar, giggling. When Iris heard the familiar voice and looked out, Vilia had already slithered into the darkness, her twisting purple tail emerged from the thick air for a moment before vanishing.

Iris froze and repeatedly blinked. After she realised what she had done, she dropped the soaked Soul Gem and planted her face on her hands. Her body instantly burnt in shame, though the lingering pleasure still ached her body and warmed her fingers. What had gone into her? Where had moral and discipline gone?

"Sis Vilia?" Iris said as she suddenly perked up. "Is that you? Please wait. I can explain!"

Embarrassed yet excited, Iris rushed forward without thinking. She forced her way through the thick air and failed to see the sudden slope. Her feet sank deeper than expected, and then she tumbled, falling from a great height into the abyss. As she rapidly descended, the air became increasingly muggier until she could hardly feel anything except herself.

Her body instinctively quivered. Sweating heavily, Iris jumped up from her bed, pushing her blanket to the ground, messing up her pyjamas. She sat still, breathing in and out multiple times before she could calm down and survey the surrounding.

She was in her bedroom, dressing in her thin pink pyjamas, staring at the clock which had just struck two o'clock.

"What?" she said, her voice now innocent and pure like before she became a Monster Girl.

Taken back, Iris looked down. Her body had reverted to her human appearance. Her skin was fair, but not bouncy and translucent. She couldn't feel the magic and the diffused consciousness in her slime body anymore.

"What is happening?" She shivered, feeling empty as if she had just lost something important.

...

In the middle of the meteor site, Pallorn knelt and glided her fingertip across the soil, brushing against the unknown design which separated and merged into a complex formation. Despite not knowing its function, the intricate symbols alone indicated that a powerful force designed and created it.

When she sent a wisp of her magical power into the formation, it greedily devoured the fuel but revealed no further reaction. She had a feeling that the power needed to activate it would drain her soul dry.

After a few minutes of deciphering the formation, she came back with nothing. Hopeless, she turned to the most knowledgable mage, who stood slightly to her side, intensely staring at the edge of the formation. Senan was scribbling the symbols on the ground in his notebook, dividing them into multiple patterns, trying to guess what they could do.

Seeing him eagerly working, Pallorn harboured minimal hope and silently waited. Her continuous stare attracted his attention. He glanced at her and sighed, closing the notebook, shaking his head in disappointment.

"So, what is it?" she asked. "Anything?"

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"Definitely not any known language," he said, pausing to compose his thought. "It should be a summoning formation, but the composition is way too sophisticated for an ordinary one. It's likely an extradimensional calling."

"Someone tried to summon a demon?"

"Possibly, or they tried to contact something. I can't be sure, but the intricacy of the design suggests something of that level."

Pallorn nodded. Given that the investigation team from the Church of the Seven Goddess was annihilated, the formation must have been activated, bringing whatever that destroyed them. A grave crisis. She must find and identify the anomaly and, if possible, eliminate or capture them.

"Can you trace their trail?" Pallorn turned to Senan and asked. "Don't worry about the magic consumption. I'll gift you all the recovery potions needed."

"It's hard, but not impossible. Though I can only track a general direction. And the stronger the enemy, the less accurate my prediction."

"Do you think we fear the demons?" Pallorn laughed, half-serious-half-joking. "We the Redeemers are the demon's worst nightmare."

"I know, but what I fear isn't the demon. What if it's a Foreign Existence?"

"Then we'll retreat. Our task is to ensure the Crusade goes smoothly, not to deal with an overarching matter. Safety first."

"Keep your words. Don't be reckless."

"What can make me reckless?"

Senan knew what could tick her off, but he just shook his head. Instead of bickering with her, he reached inside his grey cloak and pulled out a large blank paper. Using his trusty quill, he casually painted a few strokes, creating an abstract design which slowly cumulated into a strange formation.

As Senan prepared his formation, Pallorn stepped away and called for other holy paladins, instructing them to fetch a few recovery potions. Senan's exotic spell required intensive preparation and an exhausting amount of magical power. He would spend many recovery potions in one ritual, though the effect was worth the cost.

"I'll say this first. There is no guarantee that this will work," Senan said. "That formation is simply too complicated."

"We won't know if we won't try. Here, take the potions."

Pallorn threw a few recovery potions at Senan, who caught them without turning from the scroll. After he finished drawing, he placed the page on the ground and laid the recovery potions around the circumference. Standing up, he put back the quill and took out a small dagger. Carefully, he cut his fingertip and let the blood oozed out, dripping onto the centre of the page.

As the blood fell, Senan chanted under his breath. Though incomprehensible, his voice rose and fell like an opera, echoing and resonating with the surrounding, quivering the page with magical power. The recovery potions trembled and cracked, leaking out the recovery liquid, which soaked the paper and transferred magic into the tracking formation.

Once the blood hit the page, it diffused into the drawn black lines, tainting the formation crimson. It mixed with the magical power, glowing darkly. From the design, a puff of translucent smoke emerged and twirled in the air, moving in all directions. It was the purified power, the symbol of the Pure Races.

Though the surrounding was devoided of magical power, there was a hint of Corruption Power. When the purified power clashed with it, it immediately repelled and glowed in bright radiance, rejecting the sinister aura. As the thin fog spread, a trail of lingering Corruption Power emerged.

Senan exhaled and took the last recovery potion and drank it, feeling proud of his success. Though the Corruption Power had already diffused to multiple paths, the thickest route was still discernable from the smaller ones. If they carefully followed the general direction, they would surely find the place where the Monster Girls resided.

"It's that way," he said and pointed in a particular direction. "The Corruption Power isn't too intense. I think that they are either injured or trying to conceal their track."

"It means they're afraid," Pallorn said, smiling. "This is our chance."

"If there are multiple Monster Girls, I'd like one."

"I can't understand why you can stay with them without feeling disgusted."

"If you think of them as a specimen, it's less bothersome."

Pallorn looked at Senan and sighed. She knew the mages were the weird types, experimenting with forbidden topics, making Monster Girls their slaves, their assistants, their toys. Though she couldn't stand it, she knew better than to create tension during a mission.

"I fundamentally disagree with your thought. Our goddess has told us to forgive all that had fallen," she said. "No matter what they are now, we'll purify them back to their grace."

With that, she turned to her followers and commanded them to advance, slowly making their way towards the cave where Iris and her family hid.

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