How unusual.
How dare he destroy her favorite place in such a way? He might not know it, but it took Seng a whole week to open that hole. One day hanging his own shadow, four of them covered in dirt and a couple more to make sure he had a nice, comfortable spot where each corner felt like a soft cushion; impossible task, yes, stupid.
He didn't move at all, not to wait for them to fall, but his small, disfigured heart didn't let him act in mourning. He clenched his fists, his teeth, and constricted his soul in agony.
"You better let us go if you want her alive!" Layd demanded with that tone of authority he used when he conversed with Dominus.
"Shut up!" Seng roared. "That's seven! What kind of person destroys someone's hiding place to look for his little brother?! I don't fucking have him kidnapped!"
Seng frowned, wiped the tears from his eyes before they sprouted and lifted his shadow behind him like a portal to hell. Layd and the others could see misshapen snouts, claws, and arms peek through the portal.
"What does that matter? I have Airys on my hands!" Layd emphasized, apparently quite underestimating the situation.
Layd's resonance allows him to manipulate and perceive a portion of the earth that increases the deeper it is buried. He assumed they were in the hole he felt down from Airys' strange fixation on the cliff, however, he did not believe that the reason why Natsume was sitting was that side effect.
His mistake, imagining that Natsume would be able to flee with them or give him an opening to expand his control on the ground and win the battle. The good news is that with Airys as a hostage he could surely strike a deal.
"And what?! I don't give a fuck!" Seng sputtered in anger.
Or not really.
"Go ahead! Kill that Brat! After you do, I'll make sure to break you in every way I can imagine!"
Airys let out a sigh, it was obvious that he would react like that, that cave was his favorite toy.
"S-seng please /!"
"Silence Echsos!" Seng lunged. "I'm going to kill this bastard!"
"Wait, wait! I let her go!" Layd asserted nervously fulfilling his word on the spot.
"Dumb" Airys muttered as soon as he weakened his grip and as she had planned she smashed his big toe with her heel.
"Arrgh!"
She wasn't angry —at all —however, in order to save his life, she was going to enjoy a little bit of revenge. After the stomp she proceeded to dig her elbow into the boy's stomach and decided to end the act by embedding her fist in Layd's face and thus knocking him down between the pile of dirt that used to be the ceiling.
"There you go, you don't have to kill him anymore."
"Huh?! Do you think that's enough?!"
"If you kill him, you won't be able to use him to create the hiding place of your dreams" she explained, pointing to the mess above.
Seng took a deep breath; he knew Layd's power from Echsos' previous explanation of his siblings. Even so, he wanted to give him at least a delicious beating, so he continued with the gestures of the shadow trying to calm himself.
"Eh?! Arrgh!" Seng snorted. "Just so you know, I'm going to kill the next one who ruins one of my hideouts… you understand?!" he cried out grooming his hair.
———————————————————————————————————
"I found them" Erena said.
Around the time Airys came out of the hole with Layd's help, a young lady was watching them from the neighboring mountain. Her eyes were a strange amber hue, her seemingly long brown hair was oily and gritty from the tedious climbing and she wore leather clothing to protect important places that gave the impression that she was expecting a fight. Her skin was quite light compared to that of her companions and she was definitely the short one, measuring just 148 centimeters. Her face carried that expression of annoyance that women who stay small have on top.
"It was about time, right?" Andra commented.
She was a young brunette about 184 centimeters tall, unlike the dwarf on top of her, her clothes seemed somewhat more casual than any village girl would wear with the difference of having an iron bib. Her brown hair was the same as Erena's, however, due to her height difference, it only reached below her shoulders while covering a good part of Erena's back. And unlike what anyone would think about Andra, she was barely sixteen years old and she enjoyed it to the fullest with her lopsided smile.
Erena was mounted only on the shoulders of the brunette, on the tip of the mountain closest to that biological disaster that hid the Temple of the Archmages.
"Oh my, you're so lucky" Maryon joked.
Erena turned demonically and imagined with so much power of will a blaze consuming that boy that Maryon had no choice but to lower his head and start murmuring excuses:
"What is my fault that he moves so fast?"
Maryon was the one who chronologically could be the brother in the middle of both if they shared a blood relationship. Just four inches shorter than Andra, his skin was ridiculously fair with black spots scattered across his body and a large brown patch around his eyes that mimicked tribal war paintings, an unwanted product of his birth disease that also prevented him from having any hair away from his head — and luckily his eyebrows and eyelashes—. Of the three, he was the one who was least protected but most equipped with light clothes made up of brown leather boots, dark pants, a brown shirt, a bag where he carried all the girls' things and his trusty belt in which he carried his trusty boomerang and other instruments.
"Don't be like that to him, it was also my fault, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!" Erena anticipated Andra's words and pulled her hair back. "Sorry... can you let me see?" She recovered as if that hadn't really hurt her at all.
Erena let out part of her youth in a sigh, kept her hands on Andra's head and activated her resonance.
Andra's black eyes were covered with an amber glow, she was staggered by the sudden change of vision of her and she let out sounds of astonishment as usual.
"There they are! Maryon use your boomerang to follow them!"
"Are you crazy?! I just helped you tow get here!" Maryon claimed. "I'm not going to take to the skies and then go blank."
"Oh right, hehe, sorry" she gave a short and sincere laugh. "Who is the girl, Erena?"
"I suppose someone else with a goal like ours, or a resident," Erena concluded.
"I think they value the resonance of that boy too much," Maryon walked over to the girls and leaned on Andra's elbow. "I mean, I am the ultimate mode of transportation and I only have one dwarf on top of me."
"Repeat that when you stop complaining about being blank" Erena said with a murderous look that would include mistreatment if she could remove her hands from Andra.
"You don't understa/" he stopped to think about it. "Well yeah but no, it's… argh…" he ruffled his hair with his hands. "I'm going to use it to get off the mountain fast, but I don't promise we won't fall to certain death!" he replied like a troublesome teenager, even though he's twenty.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it" Andra guaranteed.
Maryon stretched his left hand out in front of them. Erena stopped using her power and they both held his hand as Maryon prepared the launch.
"Here I go" he warned.
He expertly threw the boomerang, covered his face from the sunlight to get a better look, and with a quick "now" the three of them disappeared from the top.
———————————————————————————————————
"Are you sure it's around here, Master?" Eheron said upon reaching the foot of the mountain where Seng and the others were.
"According to your information, yes."
"But if I only had a little hint, sir…"
"Don't worry, my instinct tells me it's true, also look" he pointed up, Eheron could not distinguish what his Master was referring to from the distance, however, he had pointed to the exact location of Erena, Andra and Maryon.
That pair was in search of Echsos when they heard the news, and it may be that under the same general intention as that group; the real difference was experience and fame.
His eyes were dark as night and reflected a brightness similar to that of the stars. His body was shaped to the degree that it was impossible for him to hide his muscles with his clothes, he had few golden hairs on his head and his yellowish skin was full of scars. But the most conspicuous feature was the long chain he wore coiled around him.
That was Eheron, the rookie of the two.
The master, he was a Seng-sized lord with a beard and unkempt white hair in every possible way.
His name, Garyon.
One of the five most wanted and feared men on the continent.
The reason?
Genocide.
"Come on boy, let's find our new comrade" he said looking at the mountain in front of him with an exorbitant smile and a hint of nostalgia.