A gentle breeze swayed the dark hair of Selon as he lay unconscious beside Agius who also pain down quite unaware of what happening around them. The powerful energy which came out of the statue that have corroded away into the murky mist, had struck them down making them unconscious for a while. The energy had entered each one of them and made them fall into a deep slumber. As he lay there peacefully with his eyes shut tight, a soft voice suddenly gentle woke him up from his deep sleep echoing softly as he regain his half of his senses which was made utterly dull by the powerful surge of energy which instilled more powers to his inner energy as well as the others.
"Selon! Wake up! We gotta resume our journey", Sermia softly called out as she gently tap his body with her right hand. She was the first among the others to recover from the blow which had knocked them unconscious and had woken two of the others who were busy reviving the others from hibernation while Agius layed beside Selon in deep slumber with his arm resting on the upper region of Selon's shoulder.
"Who.....is.. that?", Selon asked half asleep as he tried to regain his senses as he slowly raise the upper part of his body and sat upright on the ground, in order to become fully aware of his environment which he loosely felt has left him completely. For a while, he couldn't recall what was happening around him as everything seems to move in slow motion as if someone was talking to him under the ocean depths. His mind traced back to the moment they started the journey to find the sword of Zoa as fragments of it gathered little by little in his mind which he seems to have forgotten. He felt as if he was hallucinating while he watched Sermia trying to check whether he's fully awake and her mouth moved slowly in his eyes, enabling him to peer at her green tongue surrounded by set of green teeth including her inner molars which hid inside at the end at opposite angles. Her canine were quite longer than usual which protruded upwards from the lower jaw and downwards from the upper jaw which guarded four set of incisors at the front. She slowly said something which he didn't comprehend at first sight but was able to understand what she was saying after she made a gesture using her right thumb and index finger to form an imperfect circle while her other phalanges remained upright. All the others except Agius who had woken up and stood beside her, couldn't comprehend the meaning of the gesture but Selon recognized it which made him recalled some memories of his while he was on earth. He was perplexed that she knew how to make a gesture which was conventionally done by humans on earth and apart from Zari including himself, he knew no one else entered into this realm, so a question conjured into his mind,
"How did she make exactly the same gesture that was frequently used by many humans especially students in the human realm", He thought as he stood up on his feet and wanted to ask her but he changed his mind.
"What happened to the statue and the vines", Selon inquired now fully aware of what had transpired as he gazed around the murky mist which continued its tidal movement oblivious to their presence.
"I don't know what happened because it was gone when I woke up. I guess maybe it completely disappeared into the mist after losing its powers", Sermia replied as she tried to revive Agius who didn't respond to her incessant prodding.
"What do you mean that it's lost its power?", Damus questioned looking transfixed at her,
"I mean that it might have been corroded away into the mist together with the vines after its life force that enabled it to withstand the toxic effect of the mist, have been removed which left vulnerable", Sermia explained as Agius instantly responded, choking fervently when he tried to get up from the coarse ground.
"Are you feeling alright? How many fingers do I have?", Sermia asked showing him three fingers in order to ascertain his full recovery from his deep slumber while the others peered at her completely spellbound by her queer actions which they found to be weird except for Selon who thought differently. To him, she was acting like a lifeguard trying to revive a victim after rescue by applying some mental check-up.
"I'm..... fine. I'm just a bit dizzy ", Agius stammered trying to regain his senses as he moved her fingers away from his face which he found enigmatic.
"We have to move forward since we can pass through the dark mist since we're now immune to the toxic poison", Selon said after they all have fully recovered from the powerful surge of energy which knocked out their senses. Then he beckoned on them to accompany him to the mid-point of the fog which they did as they plodded towards the middle in front of the fog. Selon and the others promptly observe the mist that continued swaying downwards and upwards simultaneously where it plumes down again descending upon itself. Selon quickly unsheath his sword from the scabbard which he had tied around his girdle while the others did exactly the same thing.
"Why are we pulling out our sword?", Salmas asked totally perplexed about what he just did.
"We're about to enter this thick fog but we can't see what it has already shrouded and there might be any danger we aren't aware of lurking inside the fog", Selon replied and continued, "And there's might be a trench where the toxic poison might be coming from which I would like us to seal before we resume our journey. I think we should enter in a straight line while holding each other at the cloth from the behind in order for us not to get lost",
"But how do we seal the trench?", Salmas asked again which irritated the others.
"You will know once we get there. Besides, if you are afraid, you can return back to Wintera where you maybe sent to join the warriors at Ataxia", Agius replied sternly which instilled fright in Salmas.
"Alright now let's go inside!", Selon ordered after they had arranged themselves in a queue with each of them holding their backs. They all entered the murky mist, with Selon in front, which felt like a sandy storm inside which blows dust incessantly making it difficult for them to see any objects that might ahead of them. They held each other in order not to get lost inside the thick mist which swallowed them whole and came across four similar statues which they had encountered way back before entering the fog. The mega statues were also covered in dry vines which were protected from the toxic poison. They met two statues which was a sculpture of a warrior that was exquisitely crafted but it's appearance was difficult for them to recognized combine with the opaque fog brewing incessantly across their sight. The other two was a replica of a mega Trynasus that had each of its stony wings broken down into rubbles while it's head lain across each other and was also covered with dry vines which they hardly make out as they bypass it plodding through without looking back. Then they arrived at the edge of a deep trench which slopped downwards to the bottom darkness where a chasm of fog filled the hollow trench that descended way down beneath the surface area.
"Here it is, my suspicion was correct. The toxic effect seems to be emitted from this trench below into the mist", Selon said as they all stood at the trench where they could barely see through the dark fog below the surface. As they peered down trying to figure out how to go down into the trench, fumes of toxic greenish gas which had long diffuse into the mist, rose up in large quantity spreading out into the mist.
"I don't think the trench is deep enough to eject that large quantity of gas. The trench might just be a little deep. Something else must have emitted that amount of gas", Selon said as he looked upwards as the gas slowly diffuse into the thick fog and suddenly flung himself into the trench where he landed on a slimy ground while the others descended into the trench consecutively. There were numerous large holes which were round that were dug at different angles of the trench that ran farther away all through the trench.
"I think I now know where the toxic gas is coming from. It's coming from all this holes dug by something else inside the trench", Selon said looking transfixed at the numerous wide holes scattered throughout the trench while the others also gazed overwhelmed with fear at the large number let's holes in the ground. A hollow sound resounded far inside one of the large holes at their right side which scared the wits out of them especially Salmas who shrieked in fear when they deduced that they must be inside the domain of an unknown beast.
"Get me out of here, right now! I don't want to eaten by a beast!", Salmas screamed loudly.
"Okay I gotta a plan so we should act fast before we get eaten by the creature. Here's the plan, the rest of you except Agius should return above to seal the trench while Agius and I will act as a decoy in order to distract the creature which will enable you seal up the trench. So quickly return back now", Selon ordered which they swiftly carried out by casting a spell which took them upwards quickly except for Agius who stayed behind. The hollow sound drew closer since the creature now became aware that an intruder is present in its domicile and quickly eject itself from the hole which shook the ground. The red-eyed beast came charging ferociously at Agius and Selon who ran along the lengthen burrows of the trench trying to get away from the beast while the others led by Sermia began to seal the trench above closing up the ground from the farthest part of the deep trench.