Holding her chest in the pool, Hana couldn't help but let out a long blood curdling howl. It strained her voice and her mental strength to the limit and she struggled tirelessly to remain awake. The forces colliding in her body, into her body, were the thin tendrils of the Black Spot. It was altering the way her body conducted energy and formatting it to suit a more peaceful coexistence, having accepted her as its host.
Very quickly afterward, the sensation of pain could be conveyed to the Black Spot, having entered Hana's nervous system. There was a pause between the bouts of pain, sometimes the Spot was willing to continue and others, it shirked slightly before making the alteration.
To Hana, it was just pain.
She screamed and flopped around in the pool like a madman. Dissait couldn't help but watch but the Kentao and Veltin were calm as a slow breeze. 'Should I call the Patriarch back?' It was a momentary thought but his ultimate course of action. Dissait pulled a communication stone and contacted the Emperor directly.
On the other end, Wu Hai was completely caught off guard by the call. He had presumed it to take several more weeks to gestate the Egg, its early arrival made him worry and before he could tend to the meeting between family, he disappeared, teleporting to the Blood Theater.
The whole place shook when he arrived, there was a staleness to the energy in the pools and Bloodfalls. Wu Hai could sense the drop in elemental particulates in the air. "What is going on?" He asked.
Dissait stood next to the pool and gestured his hand toward Hana. "She's been in throes for almost ten minutes and it doesn't look good. I don't know what the specifics are but this doesn't look right. So, I called you immediately as you asked." He bowed respectfully and backed away.
"I'm glad you did.. you notice it too? The drop in particles is tremendous, this place was building momentum but now its collapsing." Emperor Zao gave question to the situation and the Young stealth corp member took some time to think it over. "Don't think about it too hard."
It wasn't meant as a means to antagonize Dissait but the sentence sent him into a remissive thought process. He recounted everything in painstaking detail and finally came up with an answer. "The Egg was devouring energy rapidly." He knew that the Egg was suppose to feed on the energy but to the full extent, he was clueless. Throwing up his hands afterward, Dissait began to pace in worry.
"Stop pacing!" The Emperor chided him and pointed to the Table. Go get me some of the elemental essence on the table, in fact.. just go clean the table. I'll do it myself." He took out a communication stone and contacted Kuzunoha to explain his sudden departure. When he was done, he passed Dissait near the table and grabbed a third of the elemental essence bottles. Afterward, he emptied the Bloodpool with a storage ring and poured more elemental essence into the formation of the collection tubs, reigniting the process from before.
After Hana had described the process once, Wu Hai knew how to complete the task again. Soon, a shower of blood came from the blood theater's environment, soaking the pocket space in the rift once again. The Bloodpool gradually began to fill once more and a great flow of streams rose toward the Nexus.
"Okay." That's settled. Wu Hai was prepared to get back to business but Hana had yet to recover, the draw on energy from the Black Spot Demon and its tendrils were causing Hana a significant amount of pain and her regeneration abilities should have been enough. He though to himself, 'Why is she not recovering, the Bloodpools been restarted. Surveying the area, he checked for outsider interference.
There was nothing and it puzzled him a bit. 'Maybe its because the Egg was nurtured and strengthened?' Questioning the reasons, he came up with the only reasonable assumption and blurted it out. "The Egg must have been strengthened, I'm afraid all we can do is to let her face the battle alone. I will come back with help in a moment."
There was no fear in the Emperor's voice, he truly believed that the reinforcements would buy him enough time to find help. Dissait always had confidence in the Esper Emperor but the Man in front of him wasn't an Esper. He choked down his suspicion, there was no grounds for it. "....." He opened his mouth to speak but he was already alone.
Hana was still writhing in the pool but the shower of blood seemed to mask the screams.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
At the Red Guards Palace in the Ying Demon Clan's private gardens, Kuzunoha and Vira were chatting with Qingchi.
Mike had chosen to walk with the Patriarch and shoot the breeze.
Everyone had noticed Wu Hai's exit, but his sudden return marked trouble.
"Hana's having some trouble, When Ho arrives, have him contact me with a communication stone and I'll explain the rest... actually. Qingchi, you can help soothe the soul right?" Before she could say anything, Wu Hai had grabbed his niece's wrist gently and pulled her closer. "Tell Ho to call me when he arrives, I'll come right back with his wife." The Emperor Channeled and they both disappeared.
When Qingchi arrived in the Blood Theater, she shivered for a moment and blood was raining down. It was too late, her clothes were soaked and even her hair began to mat down almost immediately. A light roar of patters from the rain muffled some of Hana's screaming but it could be heard from a distance.
"She's in a lot of pain. I can feel it from here." Qingchi winced and flew to the Bloodpool. She hovered overhead and projected her senses into Hana's body. She searched for a while and turned back to speak to the Emperor. "There is a Demon, a very strong infant demon, in her body." She made sure to mention 'strong' and it confirmed Wu Hai's suspicions about the happenings.
"We cannot stop the process without harming Hana. But, I was hoping maybe you could help ease her physical pain, giving her mind some time to catch up." Wu Hai asked while feeling a bit humbled.
"I can disconnect her pain centers, that is to say, I can sever them. If I sever them, I won't be severing just pain, she won't feel much of anything anymore. I simply won't do it. I can try to lessen the pain some but that means I may bare the pain myself." Qingchi's chest tightened, she didn't expect to be put in such a situation when the day started and now a life might hang on her decision. "You've tried the good stuff?"
"The Good stuff?" Wu Hai was a bit angry when she was vague but he tried to suppress the look on his face.
"Soul Essence." Qingchi slapped Wu Hai gently.
"Seven bottles, I paid a heavy price for them too." he held the side of his face, a bit stunned that Qingchi would go so far but she had been living with a demon as her lover for some time. 'Perhaps this is how she treats Ho at home too?' The Emperor thought and then shrugged it off.
"Seven bottles? That's much too low." Qingchi sighed and began to pour elemental essence out of her body, to be more specific, she began to channel her energy into the palm of her hand and a slow, steady stream of soul essence began to enter the Bloodpool. It mixed like coloring into the large vessel, once it hit the essence gathering tubs, they began to accelerate. "I can keep this up for a while but its better if you go get more truthers here, they can all pitch in. If you can get about a dozen of them quickly, we can fill this tub in a matter of hours."
"Are you sure you can keep this up while I go get them?" Wu Hai was thrilled for the help, moreover a solution but he didn't want to risk Qingchi's health either.
"She's my cousin, she's family and given the state she's in, I'm sure she would do the same for me if given the chance. Now, quit waddling or wallowing, whatever it is and go." She turned to the blood and elemental essence that was mixing and shook her head. 'This place is really just too much, it's got so much energy but its all being drained by the Demon. If he's not back soon, the Demon will only get stronger.' She cast another heavy sigh and looked over at a pitiful looking man off to the side. "Who are you?" Qingchi asked.
Before he could speak, all of his secrets had been revealed. She probed his mind forcibly and Dissait shook for a moment like a caught chicken.
"Stop struggling Dissait, rank 2 stealth Corp Guard. Mother, Janice Forester, Earth, Alabama...." She began giving off details that no one should have and it frightened Dissait to the core, he directly passed out from the probing and Qingchi tossed him into the Bloodpool. "Fool, just take what's given." She chided him, even if he was unable to hear. She used her abilities and sat him upright with his face to where he could breathe then went back to focusing entirely on the Soul Essence. 'Brats, always getting the good stuff.'
There was a time in her life when she was that Brat but now as she had gotten older, it was her turn to do the giving. Qingchi pulled a potion out of her bag and drank it, her vital energy had begun to recover, adding another hour of essence conjuring.
An hour passed and Qingchi was forced to repeat the process. 'I wonder what's taking so long?' She didn't speak but as if she had defamed the gods of patience enough to make him cave, a black sphere arrived.
Several dozen figures emerged, including Ho.
Most of them were looking around in amazement or confusion but with a thought from the Chief Truther, they all snapped to attention and got directly to work.
Ho came up to Wu Hai and directly punched him in the face. "Next time call first."
Wu Hai swung up and clipped Ho's jaw slightly making him float backward a bit. "I will, Thank you for Coming."
It was all a bit awkward but the Emperor and his family always had a strange relationship. "Why didn't you just come talk to me sooner, this could have all been resolved without this crazy demon possession stuff. I can't believe you never pulled it from your chest and tried to evolve it." Ho led onto a stray thought that the Emperor had in passing long ago but had dismissed.
"You're right, I could. But, This little guy has already evolved a few times.. I'd hate to make it feel unwelcome, alienating my relationship with it." Wu Hai understood that the problems he faced in the past, would be amplified because of the nature of the Egg. It being stronger meant that it would, no doubt, consume much more energy.
"Its been with you your whole life, I understand.. but, its also feeding on you." Ho spoke more fiercely, he somewhat disagreed with the methods in use.
"The process has begun, it is up to fate to decide." Wu Hai stood his ground with talk of fate.
Ho shook his head, "I cannot leave such matters to fate and chance, to have the power to change things with your own hands is the ultimate way to go. Anything short of that is just begging for scraps."
The 36 truthers had come from a class that was being taught, they understood the situation but decided to wait for the rest of their team captains to make the transition into the Blood Theater with the Emperor. With all 37 of them standing in a circle, they each produced as much soul essence as they could. Though they had all come on their choices, the Emperor did his best to support them.
Wu Hai walked around and passed a bottle of restorative potion to one of the girls each minute, circling around them several times like a clock. It was all rather efficient, which made Wu Hai feel like he had something to contribute. In truth, he was at a loss. The energy consumption from the Egg was just too great, it defied his calculations.
He paced.
When he came back over to the table, he saw the Crystal Box. The lid was partly open, it too was absorbing everything in the air. He shut it, and like a great weight had been lifted from the area, all things began to grow louder, more intensified. 'So it was the Hunter Demon's Soul and the other Egg?'
He picked up the box and paced some more.
A bright light, tinted red rose into the sky behind him and the Emperor almost dropped the Box.
Hana was emitting a bright red light, like a beacon, also, not unlike the Crystal at the Nexus, the blood in the dimension began to draw toward her with ever increasing speed.
The flow continued until all the blood from the air and rain had been collected into a massive ball that compressed like water balloon around Hanahaksu.
It compressed again.
Spinning sideways, the current within began to distort its shape. A great torrent of energy was building inside the blood ball.
It compressed again.
Bright Red lights began to break through the concentrated areas of the swirl.
"Don't stop sending out essence." Qingchi was tired but she could go further, some of the others began to wane and sway with their pulses. She whistled, grabbing everyone's attention but before she could speak, a great explosion happened above her.
Blood scattered down like a Tsunami, it wrecked everything in its path and scattered the essence gathering tubs, breaking the sides of the Bloodpool.
Hana hung there in the air, mostly motionless, she bobbed a little from her breathing rhythm.