It took a few minutes for all three of them to flush out their tears.
Once Enbi Arin calmed down from her turbulent emotions, she noticed that Prakash was still hugging her which pissed her off a little as she felt that he conveniently took advantage of her in this situation.
Enbi Arin kicked him away with a "humph" and turned her head sideways due to which she failed to notice a faint blush which crept onto his face and a tinge of regret that was still present in his eyes.
In the meantime, Li Qiu had been wiping his tears and kneading his nonexistent beard acting like an old man who had just watched his grandkids acting cute with each other.
Once they were done with their little drama, Li Qiu repeated everything about his innate abilities to Prakash who in turn also expressed his curiosity about Li Qiu's Essence Sense innate ability.
"Hey big bro, can you use your essence sense on me and tell me whatever else that you can observe?"
"Absolutely" Nodding his head in response, Li Qiu used his essence sense and was once again greeted with a world of black and 3 different Aria circuits, respectively belonging to the three of them.
The Aria lines of Prakash were twice as thick as his own which gave quite a major shock to Li Qiu. He further got an even greater shock when he saw 9 coilings that were wrapped around by the pale golden egg's tentacles around a white coloured soul flame.
Both Enbi Arin and Prakash became anxious when they saw Li Qiu's sudden shift in his expression.
When they further inquired about it in their anxiousness, primarily Prakash, since he was the affected party. Li Qiu began recounting his past experiences with the parasitic entity which called itself as 'Android A072', his experiments with the marble and the true identity of the internet, the existence of the pale golden egg, its tentacles and the number of coils made by the tentacle on their respective soul flames.
"Does that mean we may become marionettes for whatever entity that's posing under the guise of the internet?" Prakash exclaimed in fear.
"Actually, that's just our everyday internet that we once used to use which got upgraded into what we see when whichever the server which formed the internet became a container of Ari. And by my experiments and observation, it seems that the internet server's Aria quality far exceeds the value '1' that we currently possess, otherwise, my flames would have been capable of burning them completely, not just the tentacles extending from it," Explained Li Qiu based on the conclusion that he came to after his repeated observations.
"Hold on for a second, when did you become so observative? Just a few minutes ago, you weren't even able to figure out some basic stuff until I informed you about them" Said Enbi Arin who felt curious about the inconsistency that had been repeatedly displayed by Li Qiu.
"That's what you're worried about?" Exclaimed both Li Qiu and Prakash simultaneously.
"Ahem, let me clarify about that" Li Qiu cleared his throat and began with his little narrative.
"Actually, just a day before this entire doomsday scenario occurred, I was actually quite a renowned person in the translation industry known for my exceptional observational and communicational skills and the slick manner in which I handled those various international dignitaries" As he said this, Li Qiu couldn't help but put up a proud look on his face which disgusted Enbi Arin a little.
Ignoring her disgusted look, Li Qiu continued with his little narrative, "But it seems that the situation in which I gained my innate ability and the way in which I overdrafted my Aria against that parasite without even knowing about its existence made my emotions and thought process a bit unstable, though it seems that my emotions would probably become stable within a week. Well, it's just my guess. I can't predict the exact time period for my recovery but my condition is a bit better than yesterday".
"This guy, he's dangerous" This was the thought that simultaneously rang through the heads of both Enbi Arin and Prakash as they gazed at Li Qiu.
Their thoughts were suddenly interrupted by some loud animalistic sounds.
'thud' 'thud' 'thud' 'thud'
"Kkokrokokurr"
"What was that?" Exclaimed Li Qiu in shock and surprise even though he had a vague guess as to what might have caused those sounds.
"Quick, follow me and break a couple of those curtain rods," Said Li Qiu.
But, surprising him, both Enbi Arin and Prakash immediately sprang up from their spots and ran towards the nearby trial rooms and started to break the rods on which the curtains were usually slid onto from their sockets.
"Leave those metal ones, they are just decorative pieces which are hollow inside and have low strength. Take the wooden ones, they are made from teak wood and are quite sturdy against any external impacts," Warned Li Qiu with a sense of urgency.
Enbi Arin and Prakash both hurried up and equipped themselves with a wooden rod and kept another two on the floor beside them just in case the ones used by them broke or slipped away from their hold.
They saw a few clothing stands a couple dozen metres ahead of them shake and fall down followed by loud sounds which were like the sounds produced when a bird unruffled its wings.
There were a little over 5 metres of open space between the trio and the nearest clothing stand.
The trio watched with bated breath as they saw each clothing stand successively fall down in their direction and when it was the turn of the final clothing stand to topple over, they saw 4 huge hen that were over a metre tall that come rushing at them.
Their mad rush terrified the trio a little bit due to the momentum they displayed but not much because, at the end of the day, they were just bigger sized poultry which were later followed by a regular sized rooster.
"Enbi Arin, keep an eye on that rooster, the both of us will take care of the four hens. Prakash, take care of the two in the left and just be wary of their beaks" Li Qiu gave rapid commands to the other two before he swung his wooden rod with all his might at one of the incoming hen's head.
'Squelch'
Its head burst apart into a mixture of blood and brain matter due to the mighty impact dealt by Li Qiu as its body immediately collapsed a metre before him.
Not batting an eye to the sight of gore displayed in from of him, Li Qiu spun his body a little and used the momentum from his spin to lunge a vertical slash on the head of the other hen bringing its life too to an end.
In the meantime, Prakash, who successfully took care of a hen in a single hit and was about to lunge a thrust at the other hen was suddenly interrupted when Enbi Arin slammed into him.
The slam made them both roll a couple metres away from Prakash's initial position and not wasting any time delaying their reaction, the two of them immediately propped themselves up.
"What happened" Questioned Prakash as he took hold of his weapon, but, before Enbi Arin could answer him, they heard Li Qiu's shout from afar.
"Holy grandma, that rooster can shoot sword beams. I'll try to distract it and in the meantime, the both of you kill the remaining hen"
Saying thus, Li Qiu threw his wooden rod towards the rooster which barely dodged it and picked up another wooden rod that was lying on the ground beside his leg and started to run towards the cloth stands.
The rooster, furious at the wretched creatures that killed its kind, flapped its wings furiously as it ran a few feet and then flew to a height of three metres when its wings started to glow grey.
The wings of the rooster started to hold a significant amount of Aria within them after which, the energy emerged out in the form of a sword beam from each wing that travelled towards the running Li Qiu in an 'X' formation.
Though the beams were powerful and lethal, but, they lacked quite dearly in terms of speed (they only travelled at the speed of 4 metres/second) due to which even Li Qiu with his pitiful reflex could dodge them easily by rolling sideways.
On seeing its sword beams miss their target, the rooster, though on the verge of running out of its Aria started charging for another volley when a wooden rod flew through the air and collided squarely onto one of the rooster's wings.
"Kko-kko-k-o"
The rooster was wailing in pain on the floor due to having one of its wings crippled and was unable to even properly balance itself because of it.
"Bull's-eye" Enbi Arin posed triumphantly.
"Phew, I saw my great-grandmother for a moment there," Li Qiu walked over as he continued to console his poor heard that was still thumping audibly for the other two to hear.
"Let's hurry up and kill the damn poultry" Said Li Qiu as he lifted his wooden rod preparing for another mighty swing.
"Wait, wait, wait, don't kill it, I still have some uses for it" Enbi Arin interrupted Li Qiu in hurry as she saw his actions.
"What are you gonna do with it, barbeque it alive?" Prakash watched her actions with childlike curiosity in his eyes.
"Just shut up and watch. And make sure you stand a couple of metres away from me" Said Enbi Arin to which they both nodded and moved a few steps away from her.
Enbi Arin bent over the struggling rooster in a calm and gentle manner, brought her hands slowly over the rooster's head, clutched its neck between her delicate hands and kept mumbling something to the latter.
In response to her mumbling, the rooster first shook its head sideways vigorously in resistance and denial but eventually drooped its head down after witnessing its futile attempts as it accepted its miserable fate and tiny sent a grey coloured seed towards Enbi Arin.
The moment she saw the emergence of the grey coloured seed from within the body of the rooster, Enbi Arin's eyes immediately lit up with joy as she instantly absorbed the grey coloured seed into her body, after which, she slowly gazed with smiling eyes at the unfortunate rooster which lay subservient in front of her and nonchalantly snapped its neck.