"I'm not sure if I can pull the poison out, but I will try," Cidre said as he placed his hands over Silf's shoulder and activated his power. A few seconds later and some black most could be seen leaving Silf's and collecting in the air underneath Cidre's hand. "It's working, but now that I have begun to move the poison around her body if I stop it could kill her,"
"I see, in that case, I will leave the straw golems here to protect you. Keep up removing the poison until it is all out, I have to get back to the others," Sydra said as he pulled a few straw golems out of his Arbor Sanctum and ordered them to protect this area against anything that was hostile. Once this was done, Sydra bid Cidre good luck before becoming activating his lightning aura and racing towards Robert and Erich.
"Haha, so you have come to join us? Sorry, but we already took out most of the enemies," Robert said as he swung his war hammer into another Red Coat, before glancing at Sydra who had just landed next him.
"How is Silf doing? We're you able to get her to Cidre in time?" Erich asked as he sent more enemies flying. By now there were only a few remaining, and it looked like they had stopped coming out of the palace that was nearby.
"Yeah, he is extracting the poison as we speak. I left a few straw golems around him, so if he is attacked he should be fine. Let's hurry up and finish up these guys," Sydra said as he controlled the roots in the ground to slither out of the ground and entangle the Red Coats. While they were busy trying to break free of the roots, Sydra ran up to the first one and sent a large lightning bolt through it's body. As the lightning bolt left the Red Coats body, Sydra controlled it to follow the roots and kill off the other Red Coats that were trapped.
"Hmm, he best my record of fifteen with one attack..." Robert mumbled as watched Sydra kill the last seventeen Red Coats that had been attacking them.
"Are either of you hurt?" Sydra asked as he looked at the other two carefully for any injuries.
"Of course not, we couldn't allow ourselves to be poisoned with one of those needles. But was that really the last of them?" Erich said, looking around warily for any more that could still be hiding. Seeing none he lowered his weapon and began rest.
"Man, that battle was intense, I used a lot of my aura up," Robert said as he fell to the ground and began recollection his strength.
"Well I'm glad the two of you are fine, but we should probably head back up and see how Cidre is doing," Sydra said as he looked back up towards the top of the stairs.
"Yeah, that makes sense," Robert said as he forced himself back up, to make the arduous trip up those stairs. "Dang, I wish these stairs were enchanted to move like yours do,"
"Well, I could always put the two of you in my Arbor Sanctum and make the journey up myself," Sydra said jokingly.
"Great! Let's do that then," Erich said as he stopped next to Sydra and looked at him expectantly. Robert also stopped and smiled at the thought that he didn't have to make the trip up.
"Wow, you guys are lazy... Was your battle against those Red Coats really that strenuous, so much so that you B-ranks can't even walk up stairs?" Sydra teased before sending the two of them away. Once they were both gone, Sydra activated his lightning aura and ran up the remaining stairs.
At the top of the stairs, Sydra brought Erich and Robert back out onto the ground. In front of the three of them was Cidre sitting slumped in front of the lifeless body of Silf. Sydra began to feel tears well up in his eyes as he slowly walked over to to Cidre's side and squatted down.
"You did your best..." Sydra said patting Cidre on the back, who let out a deep sigh.
"You better believe I did, saving this girl took a lot out of me," Cidre said as he sat up straight and looked at Sydra with bright eyes.
"Wait... Did you say you saved her? Then why isn't she moving, or.. or breathing?' Erich said while standing behind Cidre. It wasn't like him to make a sick joke like that at this time, but it seemed obvious that Silf was dead.
"Yeah, I saved her, but I can understand your confusion. Silf is currently in a deep trance, as she inspects her body. She has the power to send her astral form out of her body and into others, or into herself in this case, to check on their condition, and that is what she is doing right now. She explained it to me, after I removed all the poison inside her. Whenever she does this her body slows down to incredible degree, and it gives off the impression of a dead person," Cidre explained as he watched Silf closely. He was pretty sure he had removed all the poison inside her, but she wanted to make sure and that is why she was doing this right now.
"That... That's amazing, with that kind of power she could be a great doctor, and if she hones her power to a greater degree she could do all sorts of things with it," Robert said, getting excited that Silf wasn't dead.
'Huff,' Silf's eyes slowly flickered open and she looked around. "Oh, you guys are back. Cidre explained to me what happened, but I'm still confused on why the Hive Queens guards attacked me..." she said as she sat up and looked at the others with wide eyes. It seemed that this girl was much wiser beyond her years to be able to be calm over almost dying.
"We aren't sure either, but we plan on asking her when we see her. By the way, how do you feel, is there anymore poison inside you?" Cidre asked as helped her sit up, and gave her some water. Luckily the black needles that the red Coats had been using were incredibly thin, so she didn't lose much blood.
"There isn't anymore poison inside of me, but I did notice that my body has changed slightly from before. It seems that I have gained an increase in my physique, and my mental state has matured faster than normal children my age. This is most likely the reason for my calm demeanor at the moment, and also the reason I was able to resist the poison long enough for Cidre to pull it back out," Silf explained to the others, making them think back to the place where they had found her.
"I believe that may be because of the experiments done to your body. When we found you, you were hooked up to tubes and wires that connected to some type of creature. There were a few others rooms with the same scenario, but those children were already dead by the time we got there," Sydra said, explaining things to Silf.
"I see... By the way, where is the Angelic Phantom that was following Erich around?" Silf asked, noticing that the creature was missing from Erich side.
"Huh, I'm actually not sure, but I noticed it float off earlier when we reached this place. I didn't think to much about it because I was busy fighting the Red Coats," Erich said as he began to look around for the creature.
'Rumble,' As everyone was busy looking around for the Angelic Phantom a deep vibration shook the ground beneath their feet. Shocked, everyone turned to look at the palace as it began to split down the middle and a long leg emerged from the ground beneath.
"What the hell is that?!" Sydra asked as he watched another leg emerge. Each leg was completely black, and the body that was following it was longer than the palace itself. Slowly a large scorpion head rose into the air and the black eyes scanned the area around it. As the eyes spotted Sydra and the group, a long tail slithered out from the ground and approached the group. The tail was flat and at the end of it was an incredible sharp golden needle.
"Well, I think we found the Hive Queen... Please don't tell me we have to fight that thing," Erich said, watching the tail come ever closer. Even if they wanted to fight the thing, there was no way for them to win.
"Wait, I see the Angelic Phantom, and its on the tail!" Cidre said as he looked at the approaching tail closely. On top of it was the Angelic Phantom, swimming in the air happily as it approached the group.
"Was it on the Scorpedes side this entire time, and now it is coming over to watch us die?" Erich asked, feeling slightly betrayed as he had taken a liking to the cute thing.
"Hello, my friends!" A smooth and velvety voice emitted from the Angelic Phantom, shocking the group.
"It can talk? And it called us friend? I am so confused..." Robert said, still unsure if he should be getting ready for battle, but holding on to his war hammer just in case.