Mouse watched as Drummen and the strange troliath started to fight each other with staffs. "Don't worry about him... He'll be fine. We need to keep going." He looked at the firewarrior nodding, and followed them up the short stairs to another door. "It seems they're wanting to split us up..." He looked at Harnio as he studied the door, and watched as Star drew her bow ready. "Lets go through..." He drew his blades and entered through the door and stood in amazement at the sight that he saw.
"This place looks like we're in the volcano..." He nodded at Harnio, signing at him. "He said this place seems to be using the volcano to its fullest." He looked over the path they were on, and just saw darkness below. He pointed to the firewarrior. "What is it?" He stood back as he watched the firewarrior look over and curse. "That's a big drop... Hope no one is in here waiting for us."
Mouse frowned and pushed the firewarrior to the side as he rolled out of the way.
"Thud..."
"Missed... Next... No miss." He looked up the sides of the volcano in the darkness and prepared to jump. "No need Mouse... I'll be looking after this one... All I need is my bow... The volcano walls, fit to my home perfectly." He nodded and rolled out of the way as another arrow landed where he was.
"He's not your target... You shouldn't of done that. I know where you're hiding." He watched as the priestess started to fire her bow in a direction in the darkness. "You all keep going... I'll join you soon... I'll cover you as you leave." He nodded, watching her fire an arrow into the volcano and jumped into the darkness above them. He strained his eyes trying to see them, and shook his head.
"Thud... Thud... Thud..."
"Nice try... I'll get you, and pin you to the wall with my own arrows... Just you wait." He smiled as he heard the priestess's words.
"Hahahahahaha..."
He heard laughter echo off the walls around them.
"We'll see... Come at me... See who's aim's better."
"Lets go... If we keep standing here, they'll target us instead." He nodded and moved with Harnio and the firewarrior towards another door. He stood at the strange door in confusion and looked at the firewarrior. "It seems this one is mine... Allow me to open the door of fire." He stood back as the firewarrior opened the door. He covered his eyes from the bright light. "I thought this volcano was no longer erupting... This must be why." He nodded at Harnio, as he stared over the giant lakes of lava and fire. He saw the firewarrior's scar open up, as it swallowed a large amount of heat around them. Mouse watched and waited, until the scar closed again, signing at the firewarrior. "My hands do the same thing..."
"Ahh, sorry about that... I just haven't had a good meal for a while, and this place has a lot of it... I feel very full now." He nodded at the firewarrior, and stopped as a pillar of lava fell on the path in front of them. He looked up and saw another strange looking trolaith walking out of the lava pillar. He took a step forwards, and was pushed backwards by the firewarrior. "This ones mine... Mouse take care of Harnio..." Hew nodded at Harnio and pointed at the door. "Agree. Lets go to the next door... I hope its the final one." Mouse nodded and jumped on the path, over sections and small rivers of lava until he stood looking at Harnio who had his hands behind his back. He signed at him. "Nice moves there Harnio."
"I'm more interested in what happened to you... It seems the tree growths have increased over your body." He smiled and nodded, pulling up his sleeves revealing his arms were now starting to show signs of roots, leaves and bark growing on them.
"Won't that eventually turn you into a tree someday?" Mouse shook his head, signing at him. "Not for a long time... A cost I have to pay, to protect this place... I gladly accept it." He watched Harnio nod in agreement. "To pay whatever to see this place is safe... I agree with you... Shall we?" Mouse nodded and pushed the door open, as they walked through it. He stood and turned in amazement.
"This is incredible... So much knowledge is in this one place... It has to be their master's research... I'm going to stay here, and see if I can find a way to reverse what he has done to make the trolaiths." Mouse nodded and pointed to a figure staring at them. He watched as Harnio raised a hand, creating a wall of wind, that stopped a knife in mid air. "That's an interesting dagger you have there... It seems similar to the one that I made in the past... I should return it to you." He watched in silence as Harnio grabbed the dagger and slashed back at the figure in the shadow.
"You can fight... Nice... Come for me... I'll pull you apart and learn all there is to learn about you, and give my results to my master." Mouse frowned and took a step forward. "No, Mouse. I should stay and learn all of this knowledge... You need to go, and find their master... That's what you said your mission was." Mouse nodded and jumped as a blast landed in their direction.
"BOOOMMM!"
He looked at the crater and at Harnio who was floating above it. "As I said. I'll be fine... To much research in here that I have to learn... I'll be as quick as possible with this trolaith, and join you to fight the master." Mouse nodded and ran through the mass of writings and markings on the walls until he stopped at another door. He looked at the door smiling.
"Come in... Come in... I've been waiting for you... sssservant." Mouse pushed the gold door open with all the engravings on it and looked at the man sitting behind a large desk smiling at him.
"I see you're still alive, even after I took those legs of yours... I also guess, by the scar on your throat your voice is also gone." Mouse nodded and closed the door behind him, ignoring the large amount of papers strewn around the room. "Ignore the mess... It seemsss my ssservant left me too suddenly." He looked into Borgis's strange yellow eyes.
"Ahh my eyes, don't worry about that... Just a completed experiment... You see, I helped these trolaiths grow, and become something special... They're like my children, and here is the place where I can gather them, without prying eyes... However, it seems you and those fighting outside found out... I wonder how?"
He threw a dagger at Borgis and watched as it passed through him and hit the chair. "Not bad reflexes if I do say so myself... This body is quite comfortable, after I made changes to it." Mouse looked at Borgis in confusion. "You still don't understand... I wonder how they failed, if you can't figure that part out yet."
Mouse waved his hand at Borgis. "No matter... By the way the name isn't Borgis anymore... That was a failure of a person... You can call me Marcule... Hahaha... What am I saying you can't talk anyway."
Mouse threw several more daggers at Marcule, and watched in silent frustration as Marcule was able to doge them all, while his hands were behind his back. "Mouse... If I remember correctly that was the name of my sservant, with the blood I needed... Pity I don't need it anymore, as I still had some left from another who had your same blood."
"He's the one... Mouse... He's the one who took each insect I had out of my body one by one, and drained my body... He tortured me Mouse... He needs to die..." Mouse nodded and drew his swords. "Nice weapons you have there... This body of mine is special now... To be honest, I'm not much of a fighter, but as an alpha of the trolaiths, I do get nice privileges... Watch..."
Mouse watched as Marcule took off his robe and revealed his body to him. Mouse felt sick at the sight of the skin graphs, scars and green batterys implanted all over his body. "With my beautiful masterpiece as myself, I can be a one man army..."
Mouse watched as Marcule opened his mouth and a strange looking troliath came out of it, and stood between Mouse and Marcule. "See here... This is just one of my many friends I can make... I'm sure you'll have fun playing with this one... He's made especially just for those who fight like you..." Mouse felt sickened as Marcule patted the troliath on its head. "Go kill the ssservant now... Daddy wants his body."
He ran towards Marcule and blocked a strike from the troliath standing in front of him. He smiled and moved again jumping and slicing back at the troliath. "See I told you, that you'll have some fun with this one..."
He shook his head, ignoring Marcule, and closed his eyes fading into the shadows in the room. "Ahh... A nice little trick... As I said, this one is created specially for fighting against the unseen... As you might of not noticed... It doesn't have eyes... It has other means of finding you, my soon to be dead ssservant."
Mouse smiled as he watched the strange eyeless trolaith approach him. He slipped into the shadow on the floor and watched from the shadow of Marcule. He rose up and stabbed into the back of Marcule.
"AHHH... Ouch... How did you do that? Never mind, I'll learn all about it as soon as I have your body." Mouse rose a finger at him, and waved it in front of him while shaking. He turned and snapped his fingers as another shadow rose from beneath the trolaith and cut it in half.
"Not bad... It seems I have miscalculated... Need more than just smell and taste... I'll figure it out. Mouse shook his head and took a step towards Marcule. "I'm sorry, but it seems my time has come to an end here, since the force outside has been decimated. "I'll be waiting for you later." Mouse ran and jumped at him using his short swords to cut his head off. "As I told you Mouse... You can't hit me, especially when I have other pets in this perfect body of mine... They warn me of every strike you do." Mouse smiled and put his hand on the floor.
"BOOMMMM!"
"What's this?" Mouse jumped on the roots that formed, and tied themselves around Marcule. "Hahaha... Nice trick... I like it... It makes me want to add your body to my collection." He looked down at the naked Marcule and threw his short sword at him.
"Hsssssssssssss."
"See, I told you... You can't touch me... Even if you have all these roots here to help you... I'm untouchable."
Mouse looked at the puddle that Marcule had become on the ground and watched as it escaped through the gaps of the stone wall. He sent the roots after the strange liquid. "Hahaha... No chance... I'll be waiting for you. Hahaha... You may have stopped this little war, but you haven't stopped the plan..."
He looked outside the window as he watched Marcule stare at him with large wings. His body no longer in a liquid form. "See, my dead ssservant... I'll be taking that body of yours... Its just all about time... Next time we meet, will be our last." Mouse nodded and cut his finger across his scarred neck, pointing at Marcule. "Hahaha... Last time for me, I doubt it... What would all my beautiful creations do, without me?" Mouse shook his head, and raised his hand pushing the roots through the wall and to grab Marcule.
"Hahaha... Nice try... It seems you became deaf as well... I told you, I see all your attacks already."
"How about mine?"
"SLLLASSH!"
Mouse lowered his hand and stood staring at the old shadow sipping from a cup of tea, and staring at the body of Marcule after being cut in half.
"Hahaha... Not bad... As you can see. I'm not dead, even if you chop me into tiny pieces... I'm coming for his body... Just you wait." Mouse jumped onto the roots as Marcule started to fly away.
"Stop apprentice... He's trying to get you to follow him... He's changed into something more than human... You saw I cut him cleanly in half..." Mouse nodded, starting to sign. "No buts, you can't beat him yet, but he's injured, and this battle has been won... That's the goal... Now come and sit with this old shadow and have a cup of tea with me." Mouse frowned and pointed back into the building. "Don't worry about them... They'll be fine, Others are watching them... Relax and drink with me... We have reason to celebrate."
Mouse nodded, and sheathed his blades accepting a cup from the old shadow. "That's a good apprentice... Now tell me how is Tofana... I miss her voice... At times..."