Chapter 11: Chapter 10. Corruption

Chapter 10: Corruption

It was the day after their meeting with the two frenzied Beasts.

Rhea fell on her back, the familiar burn after abusing Prana was hateful. It was even more painful since they were out of recovery pills, so she was deprived of that small comfort. Now, she actually missed those smelly things.

Her gaze went upwards. Past Greenvine's branches and leaves was a pure blue sky, and hanging on a rope from the giant tree's lower branch was the bisected remains of the Desert Carp.

It was a pain to get it up there, but Rhea was able to collect as much blood as she wanted, so she felt it was worth it. As if only now remembering it, she glanced to the side where the viscous, black blood was stored in numerous gauntlets, bent chest armour, shields and helmets.

As she had thought, those things had some sort effect put on them to resist the acid in the blood. Warriors wouldn't live very long if they died each time they were splashed with Beast blood. However, the effect was weak, and the pieces of armour were slowly being corroded.

Rhea was still admiring the strength of that blood when she heard the sound of the door opening. There was no radiating warmth so she knew who it was in the next second.

"What are you trying to do with all that?"

The thought of ignoring her was tempting, but Rhea knew enough about this girl to spare herself the trouble. From her actions untill now, Greenvine was a mature child, smart but still a child.

"Didn't you see how potent this thing is?" Rhea asked, consciously implying it could be used for combat. "Not using it would be stupid."

Greenvine was unconvinced. "It didn't seem that great."

The sky was so clear and blue, it was a shame to waste it. Rhea sighed and finally sat up. She glanced at the open door to the treehouse, and frowned. "That's because you didn't see it at its best."

She nodded towards her blood containers. Greenvine had a confused look on her face, but still came closer and looked at the inside of a shiny helmet. The blood was bubbling, slowly, very slowly eating away at the metal.

"Remember, it's blood from a 3rd Rank Beast that we only defeated through luck and an overpowered weapon," said Rhea. She paused for a moment, contemplating her own words, she glared at Greenvine. "You stored those spines, right?"

"What?" Greenvine asked, completely caught off guard by the sudden topic change. Then, her eyes widened, Rhea's heart thumped at the look on the girl's face. She pursed her lips. "Oh. Oh! Of course! Of course I picked them all up. Wh-who do you take me for?"

Rhea stared. "Then," she said, "give me one for a bit." She stood up, and went to grab a blood-filled gauntlet. "It's for an experiment, you see?"

Throughout all her actions, standing up, dusting herself, and the short walk, Rhea's stare on Greenvine never wavered. Greenvine 'secretly' trembled, and did her best to hide it, but her acting was awful. She snorted obnoxiously and crossed her arms. "Well, w-wait for it. I'll get you one."

There was some noise from behind the tree and Rhea heard the sound of something sinking into the earth from behind her. Her stare flattened even more, especially when some of Greenvine's roots suddenly burst out of the ground. Each one holding a bunch of black spikes. She had been quick and 'stealthy', however...

"There are fifty of them at most," Rhea said quietly. The air grew cold. "That's not even half."

"W-well." Greenvine stuttered, before quickly changing gear when she felt she was losing the argument. "And what about you? You were out here for the whole night, right? Shouldn't you be the one taking care of it? Huh? Huh?"

Rhea stared some more, trying to drive shame into this uselessly stubborn girl. When it was clear she wouldn't fold, Rhea silently went back to ignoring her. She took three spikes from a root's grasp, added a gauntlet from the ground to the pile, and went away from Greenvine's avatar and tree body. She had more important things to do than continuing this discussion.

"Hey!" Greenvine shouted, she hurried to walk beside Rhea. "Where are you going so suddenly?"

"As I said," Rhea said without looking down to the aggravating girl, knowing she was trying to make her forget about her mistake. "Experimenting."

"Shouldn't you tell Aria first?" Greenvine was skipping happily on her feet, Rhea guessed she thought she had been forgiven.

Rhea finally glanced down towards the girl for an instant, her pace unchanged. "Isn't she still reading those rulebooks right now? And I'll not take long."

Also Rhea didn't want Aria there for what she was about to do.

"Oh." Greenvine's face loosened. What a stupid face you could make, Rhea thought. "Then it's fine? Maybe? But wait, what about the rest of that Beast's spines? You're not angry anymore?"

"Look at the storage room down the stairs," was all Rhea said, exasperated. This girl's antics had sapped all her strength. She spotted a big boulder in the distance and decided it was far enough.

"Downstairs?" Greenvine said, confused. Moments later, "They're all there! You dirty liar! What's with all the crap you said then?"

Rhea shook her head. "Learn your lesson." She smiled as Greenvine yelled and insulted her in her childish voice. She didn't stop until they arrived near the boulder.

She threw the spikes on the ground and carefully put the gauntlet down. Then she sat down before said gauntlet, observing the dangerous liquid within. Greenvine silently sat herself down on the other side of the gauntlet, facing her, the girl's leaf clothes glittered unnaturally in the sun.

"So," Greenvine finally spoke. "What's this all for exactly?"

Rhea took a spike from the side, she didn't want to explain anything. "Do you have some kind of way to see Aether?" Rhea asked.

Greenvine nodded. "Yes, I'm Aria's child too," she said, her white eyes glowing. Rhea suddenly remembered that their eyes weren't normal, she took it for granted that everyone's eyes would be the same as theirs.

She carefully looked at Greenvine's appearance for the first time. She was pale, even more so because of her transparency, but no doubt the same natural tint as Aria and her if the both of them didn't spend so much time in the sun. Her hair was black, again the same as Rhea's and what Aria's used to be.

The only thing that differed was her height, she was considerably smaller than Rhea had expected from someone with their genes. All in all, though, it was clear the three of them were related.

"Stop looking at me like that," said Greenvine. Her flickered, and Rhea frowned. Already out of Aether? Greenvine held up her slightly see-through hand. "And did you see my body? Hurry up and Awaken already."

"What does that have to do with you?" Rhea's frown stayed and deepened, but then shook her head. This girl appeared just when Aria Awakened and Rhea produced Aether for the first time. "You also received some of my 'essence' that night."

"It's disgusting when you put it like that," Greenvine said, a sneer at the ready. "And stop guessing everything like it's obvious with that frigid face."

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This little- "It must be nice," Rhea couldn't help saying, "to grow stronger without having to do anything."

"And it must be nice," Greenvine replied very scornfully, "to not have to rely on anyone to become a proper living being."

Rhea pursed her lips, but didn't respond anymore. She took the spike and plunged the tip into the black blood. "As I said earlier," Rhea said sharply. Before you got us off track. "If you look at this blood and this spike carefully, you'll see the Aether flowing through it."

Greenvine didn't speak more, her eyes just glowed with her blue-green Aether. Rhea also sent Prana into her eyes, and saw the shadow of the corrupted Aether raging all throughout the blood, while it was condensed and immobile inside the spike.

"I can't form a core," Rhea said, "since my 'soul' is too vast to compress. So, I can't Awaken with the normal methods."

Greenvine nodded as if she already knew. "That's why I could borrow some Aether from you, yesterday. Your soul couldn't contain it anyway. Ha? No way, you-"

"... yes," Rhea said, with a small smile. "You're smarter than you let on. I already have a way to do it."

Rhea griped the spike and sent her excess Prana inside, it sank in scarily easily. "Aether and Prana are not the same thing." With their eyes, they could see the stubborn and sickly Aether in the spike moving away from where her hand was. "This is how I could scratch the Lion Hedgehog's back."

"I don't understand."

"Just look for now," Rhea said. "This'll be a success if I can manage to extract even a bit of the Aether from these spikes into the blood."

Saying so, Rhea didn't bother with her anymore, and focused on her task. Aether and Prana, 'Soulheat' and 'Heat', were incompatible, and even repulsed each other. With a bit of effort, it became possible for a Prana user to injure creatures that relied on Aether. Of course, it also worked the other way around.

The Prana from her hand pushed the Aether in the spike down into the viscous blood below, making the bubbling liquid calm down a bit as the stiff Aether from the spike didn't lose its properties. Well, it was still corrupted, just less corrosive.

"It calmed down," Greenvine commented in a wondering tone, "but it's more potent. I see, anything but those spines would melt near instantly in this."

Rhea threw the useless spike away and took another from her side. She repeated the process two more times with her remaining spikes before the blood in the gauntlet entirely stopped gurgling.

"Ohhh!"

"Greenvine," Rhea said. "Get me one more spike. There was more Aether in the blood than the spikes. It needs to be balanced, a bit stiff even."

"Ok." Greenvine didn't move. However, in the distance, Rhea could see something moving. A tree root, probably. The wind whistled. A moment later, there was a crash and a spike half embedded into the boulder behind them.

Rhea stood up and pulled it out. She immediately plunged it into the blood again. "Your body will be completed earlier than you think," she said, chuckling.

A glimmer of light seemed to shine in Greenvine's eyes. "You mean you could Awaken right now?" Her hands curled into fists. "Why didn't you tell Aria? You know she's concerned about it too."

"Because it's dangerous," Rhea said, "because she wouldn't approve, or maybe it's a surprise? Take your pick."

Before Greenvine had a chance to make a comeback, Rhea got a dagger out of the necklace on her neck and slashed into her own palm. Greenvine made a startled sound and even stood up, but Rhea couldn't care.

"Since you can speak, know our names and all," Rhea said, "you must've been a bit conscious all this time or have some memories as a normal tree."

Greenvine was still frozen, her face full of confused anxiety. Seeing her like that, Rhea's heart was moved a tiny bit. Maybe she went too far?

No no no.

... But she'll make it up to her later.

"Then," Rhea continued in a gentler tone, she decided to stop being so petty and end her cryptic explanations. Greenvine's eyes that was still stuck on her bleeding hand properly focused on her, "you must know how Beasts are born."

The girl nodded. Slowly. Rhea smiled and, just as slowly, she put her injured hand into the gauntlet. Which was full of black blood. Which was black because it was corrupted.

This time Greenvine couldn't stay still, perhaps the girl knew her avatar couldn't stop her, so she didn't try. Instead, her roots rumbled like thunder, she looked so panicked she didn't even care about collateral damage anymore.

But they were too far, maybe her roots could reach, however, they were slow. Even if Amazon Aria herself heard the noise and went out, she would be too confused to stop her in time. Greenvine seemed to understand her limits, Rhea readied herself, but, to her surprise, the girl's body shined and disappeared.

"... she went back?" Rhea frowned. In that case, Aria will be here in two seconds or less.

However, it was too late. The corrupted Aether was already in her veins. She sat down and closed her eyes, she had a hunch that she could control the transformation, but she should still give it her all and Awaken as safely as possible.

... She thought about it, and hardened her resolve, ready for her blood to turn into lava, her nerves to burn, or something, but it was unexpectedly gentle for something said to be so nasty.

Well, it was only humans who called it cursed and corrupted, but she was the Earth personified, no matter how dangerous corrupted Aether was for humans, for her it was a body part like any other.

There was a breeze. A warm aura enveloped her, making her feel safe. She thought Aria would try to stop her, but she didn't.

Rhea knew she would understand, or at least trust her enough to not interfere. Aria's new abilities were mysterious, Rhea couldn't know if she had some way to drive the cursed Aether out of her blood.

But even if she could, she wouldn't do it.

Rhea smiled, and broke through the 1st Barrier.