Red dotted the horizon, the blood channels in the blood theater had been growing in size since Hana's return and the Egg was making movements. To her, it felt like the time was coming for the Egg to hatch. Her Father had told her about his experiences and that it had only taken him a month or so to hatch. The Few days seemed rather short which left her worried.
The Patriarch, on the other hand, had his own expressions. "The power here is tremendous, its maturing the egg much faster than anticipated. You should remember to feed it often. The one with your father ate precious materials at inopportune times, and, though you have many pets, this one can eat your very soul." His seriousness took a turn and Hana seemed to understand something.
"Grandfather. What is going on with the Demon Queen?" Hana wasn't able to make heads or tails of the situation with her parents and the arrangement with Demon Queen Vira, her own instincts told her something strange was definitely going on. Her brow furrowed when he chose to ignore the question.
A rumble started in the blood theater pocket dimension, it was the precursor to a Teleporter arriving the in the vicinity. The energy patterns were a match for the Emperor, having a much better sense for these sorts of things, Ooran naturally had the best response for Hana. 'Tsk.' He waved his hand for a second. "These things, your parents will discuss them when they return. I'm sure." He pat her head and rang some of the blood from her hair, braiding it out of the way. "You look absolutely terrifying."
"Aww.. Come on, gimme a break. I'm gone for a few seconds and you're already telling my daughter how to groom herself?" Kuzunoha chuckled afterwards, she hadn't been in this position before and it made her happy.
Ooran saw everyone's arrival, he smiled, which, in the demon hunter's body, seemed rather peculiar and sinister. "What brings you all back so fast?"
It was true, they had only been gone a few days. The longest things were the gathering of the group and then waiting for Darkwing's arrival. Wu Hai turned to his father, "Zhan has had his revenge. Darkwing is no more. Xi and Xue, all the others. .. we can assume the worst. There were strange medical devices, not too much different than these tanks." He knocked on the tank that Hana had been in. "It was like they took the girls for parts. They were treated like animals, skinned, gutted and drained of blood. All of their body parts were separated and stockpiled. Whatever they were doing, they looked like it hadn't been completed."
"So you've located them after all." Patriarch Ooran kicked a rock, it sailed into the void, got caught be the gravitational effects and lost momentum after a point. "Those poor girls." His fists tightened and bled. "You're sure that Darkwing is dead?"
Wu Hai produced the remains. The mushy pile plopped against the floor, a mixture of feathers and flesh, some scales and most noticeably, a part of his beak. "He exploded."
"Exploded. Why?" Hana couldn't help but ask as she laid in the pool.
"His body was used by a Devil as a sacrifice to summon five others. They've all been defeated. We didn't obtain any useful information either, which is a huge let down. These bastards are always so chatty but this time around they held their tongues, all except for the Toukei fellow that blew himself up." Emperor Zao gathered the remains and put them away. "Zhan is currently laying waste to the Qilin Territory, there will be a dramatic change in the power structure of the beast kingdoms as well because of this. Anything that affects the Beast Kingdoms will surely impact the rest of the World. From what we can tell, the Qilin have either been possessed or are in cooperation with the Devils."
It was a lot to swallow, Ooran stood patiently and listened. Hana was at a loss for words, to her, politics was a foreign concept, one she rarely considered and now she was hearing about the fallout of a victory. To have fallout happen from a situation where they had been victorious, she never saw it coming. "So, are the Qilin are enemies?"
"No. At least, Not all Qilin. Espers with Qilin Bloodlines are not involved, we cannot expect every Qilin to be involved, otherwise the sect and every kingdom in the world would have been overrun already. Qilin are very quick and can become quite powerful." Kuzunoha tried explaining.
Vira watched them all discussing among themselves and looked down to see an Armored snake sleeping beside Hana in the Bloodpool. "{What a wonderful familiar, its quite strong.}" Her praise went unnoticed and she went to pick it up. The Kentao bit at her and she was only able to withdraw due to her unique speed. "Quick too."
"Vira, are you done playing with the snake?" Wu Hai chided her a bit and Vira seemed rather playful as she rubbed her foot into the ground. The Emperor saw this and turned his gaze back to the Patriarch. "We have matters to take care of. Do not leave this dimensional space until she has hatched the Egg and bonded with it. Father, you will return with us to the Sect, Mother must be worried and aggrieved, we have to explain the situation to her. Plus, I hope that I can convince you to keep that body."
Ooran glanced at his body, "You want me to wear this hell spawns' skin? To what end?"
"Its a long story. Short version, is that I want you to become the sitting leader of the Demon Region." Wu Hai grabbed his shoulders and stared him in the face.
"{Demon Region? I like the sound of that.}" Vira smiled and commented from the back.
Emperor Zao let go of his father and turned to face her. "I thought you would, but like I keep saying, you've given yourself to me. You're now my second wife, an Empress of the Empire.. The Demon Region is just a part of the pie.. or will you really be satisfied with only tasting?"
He pushed some buttons that Vira tried to hide, she didn't open her mouth again for a moment, unwilling to give up potential. "Wife?" She could say the word, even understand its meaning but for Vira, it was a concept she didn't want to understand. In the Demon culture, marriage didn't exist, usually even the idea of demons pairing off and fornicating was rare enough. "I will not be tamed so easily."
"I got you to learn Common again didn't I?" Wu Hai laughed and spun a teleportation circle in his hands, he was ready to go. "Come on, lets all go. Dissait, you're free to return to the Sect only After she's bonded with the Egg."
Kuzunoha turned to Hana. "We'll see you soon, I love you-u-u-u." Wu Hai clicked his finger and connected with the darkflame ring in his hands. The jolt of energy stimulated the teleportation, sending them off.
"Do you think they'll be gone for long?" Dissait stared at Hana and asked politely, ever since she had been identified as the Emperor's Daughter, he had been on edge.
"Stop being so.. whatever this is." Hana gestured toward him and slipped back into the pool by accident, her head was covered in blood again and it fell down over her face. She wiped it away and looked to Dissait. "I got myself into this mess and.. it really is a mess. You did really good to bring me back to the Sect. I suppose I owe you my life." Hana stood up at the edge of the pool and hugged Dissait.
Hana was still in a loose fitting robe but it was clinging to her body. Dissait called out for mercy. "Princess!"
She backed away and dove into the pool, there were several items laying in the bottom still. The tubs and essence seemed to be drying up, Hana could feel the change in energy accumulation. "Something's wrong." She came up from the bottom, cresting her head and spoke to Dissait.
"What do you mean?" Dissait looked around.
"The energy, its disappearing." Hana lifted the Egg out of the Bloodpool and saw the egg absorbing it directly like a sponge. "Its the Egg. I think its about to hatch, its feeding rapidly." Hana kicked one of the tubs as she was walking to the center of the pool and stumbled, falling back into the blood once more with the egg in her hands.
The Dunking action calmed her mood and humbled her for a moment. "I'm good." Hana stood up with the egg over her head and in the center of the blood pool. With her body floating in the pool and facing the sky, she held the egg on her chest, waiting.