The group flew toward the original heading and searched while the compass was pointing away. At the very minimum, they could know when he was on the returning, giving them at least a few moments to prepare. The intersection point of their paths was several hours flight.
Along the way, the noticed several rabbit like Beastkin running around in the woods, Wu Hai immediately recognized them as the tribes men of the Sakai.
They landed.
Wu Hai's appearance was enough to frighten them but he wasn't a Qilin, the Dragonkin standing next to him was proof enough of that. Dragon's and Qilin rarely got along and would never party or submit to the other.
The presumed leader of the group spoke up, "What business does a Demon have with my people, are you what drives the Qilin to hunt us?"
"Hah-Hah.. No. Nothing like that. Furthermore, Why are the Qilin hunting you?" Mike was curious, as the neutral party, he was free of suspicion and asked.
"Bi'tig, My name." he bowed with respect, it tickled Mike to the bone. "My tribesmen and I are all abducted in various missions and dropped in this region as prey. We've been fleeing for several years but the region is vast and whenever we go to sea, we end up back here without memories of how we arrived."
"{This is odd.}" Vira walked over to the leader and strut around him, staring at his body and then the bodies of the others. A black light lit in her fingertips and she pressed it to his neck. A small collar, it appeared and then snapped off. It clang against the armor of the Sakai fighter and his aura rose slightly. "{They were taken as slaves}"
"Ahh, so that's it." Mike pound his fists together and told them all to line up. He gestured for Vira's approval and with a quirky smile, she waved her hand.
Small black dots accumulated at her fingertips and sank into the necks of each of the tribesmen.
"There" Vira knew a few words but sentences in common were still something she had to work on, she walked over to Wu Hai and clung to his arm for approving words.
He said nothing, only stared at her cleavage that was now bouncing on his arm. Shaking his head and snapping out of it, he regained his composure and Kuzunoha's deadly stare quieted down.
"Which way to the Abyss?" Kuzunoha asked.
They looked around in confusion at each other.
"Its a big hole." Mike reiterated.
"Ahh. That place. Running, we can reach the edge in a few hours." One of the older Sakai spoke up and got the attentions of everyone present. "I chanced by it two years ago after I was first abducted and brought to this place. Its so deep that I cannot see the bottom."
"Edge?" Wu Hai asked and looked at the amount of people, they were far too many to carry. "Its decided. Show us to this place, pick your strongest ally. The others, I will send you away, choose your lives from there."
"Excuse me, great demon." he coughed and tried to imply a pecking order but soon realized it wasn't necessary. "How do you plan to do that? We cannot escape this place."
"You all had collars on, its far more likely that a spell formation was put on them that retrieved you if you fled. Its really not a bad design, I'll give them credit for that." Wu Hai picked up the collars that had fallen and stored them all away. 'and I'll give these to Mr. Munju, that should make him happy.' He stared that the Tribesmen and got them to get closer together. The spell circle surrounded all of the Sakai except Bi'tig and his warrior.
Wu Hai vanished in that instant, surprising them both.
When the tribesmen opened their eyes, they were standing before the Gates of Zao City. "You can choose to enter, or leave. No one will hunt you here so indiscriminately."
As quickly as they had arrived, he had left. Unsure if what had just happened, had actually happened, several of the tribesmen poked each other in disbelief. When they were sure it wasn't some complex illusion, they cheered and ran to the City Gates.
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Mike and Wu Hai were the only ones that were willing to carry the tribesmen on their flight which only lasted about an hour once they had their heading. Wu Hai checked the compass and it hadn't moved in some time, he presumed that Darkwing was meeting with a contact or laying in wait.
As the group flew closer, Vira yelled out for everyone to stop. Her hand drew a circle and encompassed them all, then she threw out a fine powder and performed several rituals while they hung in the sky within the bubble.
"Vira, what's going on?" Alarmed, Wu Hai checked his own body. 'There's nothing wrong.' he checked the Sakai Leader in his hands and finally understood. "Hell Mouth" The feelings he received were the same as the Espers who had initially followed him to battle the hordes of Hell. After a while, all the Espers besides himself and the Empress had received massive doses of hell Radiation, changing them and cultivating their blood lust. It wasn't until a few of the soldiers had gone berserk that anyone knew about the affects that just being there was causing.
Wu Hai had seen the other side of several of these dimensional tears, but never on Shiyan. Initially, he hoped that the portals were going to other worlds but at present, there could be multiple Hellmouthes on Shiyan. He grimaced and wondered if Darkwing had been hiding in hell, and to what end, Darkwing was intensely afraid of dark, enclosed spaces. One thing that remained a wholehearted truth about Hell in every religion, was that there was a top and a bottom, the deepest of recesses, hidden in the depths of hell. The dimension was one like purgatory, drawing spirits and evils, desire and temptations to culminate into energies that eventually grew to be Devils.
Wu Hai didn't chance anything, he had prepared a method to spread the mines throughout the engagement zone long before they arrived, the fact that it was a hole only made the area that much easier to blanket. However, this wasn't a hole. This was hell.
"We're running out of time." Wu Hai was angry, Ibuwere should have known about this and warned him but now Ibuwere was holding the frontlines, none of the Espers from Tower City would come to this place. None had, if they had, Darkwing would have been discovered long ago, along with the Hell Mouth. "If this is open.. That .." The Emperor clenched his fists in agitation. "If this is open, that means that the Qilin territory is probably overrun and we've just been lucky enough to avoid them. Devils are much more powerful than a Qilin, they may even possess their bodies if a demon wanted."
Looks went over the group and they chose to land near the edge.
"You two, I'll take you join the others. It is no longer safe for you to remain and I can't be concerned with your safety." Wu Hai disappeared with the two remaining Sakai Tribesmen and then reappeared just afterward. "Okay. So, here's the plan. We destroy this tear, or seal it. Any thoughts on how we can do this?" His voice got a bit pitchy at the end as if to ask a question.
"Do you even know how to seal a dimensional tear?" Kuzunoha's face twitched.
"Nope, not even a little, but Ibuwere does. I doubt he's willing to give out the technique without a payment." The Emperor's face began to follow the Empress' lead, a strange smirk appeared on his face. "AHH! I don't want to bring them here. Fine. We go after Darkwing and continue the original mission."
"You're still going to have to pay Ibuwere for guarding the City in your absence." The Empress reminded him and like a cruel pike, it stabbed at his emotional fabric. "I know.. he's overbearing but at least he comes through, usually."
"You're right but we're still running out of time. If the Devils notice our forces lack either of us, they will undoubtedly take the opportunity to overwhelm the City's defenses." Wu Hai spoke confidently but with a strong worry in his heart, the group only had a few days before the forces of Hell would realize that the Emperor was missing or too busy to interfere. "In any case, the mines themselves are basically worthless. The radiation of Hell consumes normal magics over time, if we laid them now, within a few hours they would all be inert. We can only wait and try to intercept him."
Mike understood and masked his aura. The rest of the group did the same. Wu Hai took the gray stone from his robes and put it away, its aura couldn't be masked easily but at least within a storage ring its presence was diminished greatly. Thinking about it some more, Wu Hai wondered if the stone itself was the reason they had not seen devils in their path but dismissed it out of importance. No matter the cause, it was probably for the best.
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Back at the blood pools with the patriarch, Hana was absorbing the blood energy and elemental essences that were continually circulating in the Bloodfalls. The crystal had begun to reseal but it would take some time for it to refill the concentrated material that lay at its center. Patriarch Ooran was helping Hana understand her powers better, but unfortunately she was somewhat oblivious. "When all of this matter is behind us, I must get you to meet your Cousin, Marcus."
He felt like she hadn't heard him at all and changed the subject. "Don't you know what you can do that comes effortlessly, I can form ice particles, well.. I use to be able to. This body is different, honestly I have no idea what it does either. Anyway, the source of your power is what comes naturally to you and Blood wasn't always your power, its just a thing, however lets not completely dismiss its impact on the external formation and manifestation of your spell force, what else can you do without thinking too hard?"
"I once teleported back to this place." Hana gave a quick reply but even she was confused about the circumstances that surrounded that time. The ability had triggered without her help, giving her cause for concern at the time but she hadn't thought about it much until just now. She held her chin in thought and then shrugged.
"Teleported? You mean that you can do the same as your father?" Ooran was genuinely trying to understand her powers but the moment it came to teleporting he was at a loss. In the past, Wu Hai's coming and going had always amazed the Patriarch but prying for details on the how.. gave him a headache.
"No. I wasn't doing anything and the next moment I was here, effortlessly. I had just gotten out of a fight and was concentrating on my training, it was a shock to open my eyes with more than a week's distance separating my last position." Hana sighed, thinking about it gave her more than enough annoyance to drop the subject. Had she not teleported away, things may have happened differently.
"That's a very unusual innate ability. I wouldn't know how to start training it." As the Head of Zao Sect, he was very familiar with most training abilities but teleportation was a well kept secret, not that he didn't ask on occasion but all of that left his head ringing.
Hana wondered herself and instinctively rose her aura.
"Don't try it now, the Egg isn't hatched." Ooran threw out words of caution.
Hana calmed down and agreed. "Sorry, it just sounded so fascinating. I had to try and I will remember." The Egg was gathering energy, intercepting the energy that was heading for Hana and hogging the ambient energy in the blood falls. 'It shouldn't be too much longer, this thing is very greedy.'