Hitting the ground, Sydra rolls a few feet before coming to a stop and looking back at the orphanage, which was now half the size it was before.
"What the heck! The guy just sacrificed himself before I could figure anything out," Sydra says, picking himself up and hopping back over the fence. Bending down, Sydra picks up one of the items that had been sent flying when the room exploded. It had been part of the golden chair Sydra had been sitting in, but now it was encased inside a crystalized green casing.
About to toss the item to the side, Sydra froze when he noticed that the golden chair had started to break into multiple tiny shards inside its green casing. 'If that stuff had gotten on me..' Sydra shudders as the thought crosses his mind.
"What happened to the orphanage?!" Someone yells as people begin to make their way out of their homes. Not wanting to be seen, Sydra fades into the shadows, watching the people from the side.
"Oh no, it looks like Richard was caught in that explosion," Someone else says, noticing the room that had exploded was the one used by the man.
'So his name was Richard, and he was supposed to be the one taking care of the children,' thinking back, Sydra figures out why he felt that something was off about the man. 'Unlike everyone else on this island, that man was fully human,'
Deciding that staying near the orphanage any longer would be dangerous, Sydra returns to the ship. Entering his room, Sydra lays down on his bed and thinks back to right before the man offed himself. The man seemed startled to see Sydra, but when Sydra began to push about the disappearance behind the children, the man activated his power and killed himself.
"It seems there is more than what meets the eye when it comes to the Evowave group," Sydra says, his eyes becoming heavy, before finally shutting and sending Sydra off into the world of dreams.
Waking up the next morning, Sydra calls out the others to begin their search for the Divine CLoud Sheep. Leaving the ship, Sydra hears people discussing the odd occurrence of the orphanage exploding.
"They say that other than the room where Richard lived, the rest of the orphanage was barely hanging together," a woman says, discussing the previous night's events with her two friends over breakfast.
"I know, it makes me wonder what he was doing with all the money we were giving him, and how no one ever knew about it," another woman replies, before taking a bit out of her biscuit.
Frowning, Erich turns to look at Sydra. "Hey, do you know what they are talking about?" he asks.
Looking the opposite direction, Sydra pretends not to have heard the question, causing Cidre to step up. "So you do know something? Come on, you have let us know,"
"I'll tell you later, it's not the right time," Sydra says, glancing towards a man who has two beagle ears hanging from his head.
Pulling out his map, Sydra leads the group to the edge of the town, where a lush forest is growing. Parting the foliage, the group enters the forest, heading in the direction of the valley marked on the map. It takes them an hour to reach the valley because of the dense plants on all sides.
Leaving the forest, the group looks down into the valley, which is full of bouncing golden fluff balls. As the sheep rub against each other, golden lightning arcs through the air, causing the valley to give off an electrical aura.
"So those are the Divine Cloud Sheep? It seems the friction of them rubbing against each other creates static, but they aren't harmed by it," Cidre says, using his Void Eyes to get a better look at the sheep.
Pulling out his spyglass, Sydra looks at the sheep below. Other than their golden fleece, the sheep also have golden hoves that absorb the static the sheep create by moving. Handing the spyglass to Robert, Sydra looks back at the map in his hands.
"We should check out the Chaos Swan, and then come back here and try to capture one of the sheep," Sydra says, glancing up from the map in the direction of a large mountain a few hundred meters to the left of them.
"I agree, that way we can be closer to the town when it starts to get dark, in case there are any unforeseen occurrences when catching the sheep," Robert says, handing the spyglass to Erich, who peers through it for a second before giving it back to Sydra.
Putting the spyglass away, Sydra begins walking in the direction of the mountain, the others following close behind him. Approaching the mountain, the group comes across a large pathway that intersects with the way they are going. The pathway seemed to have been made recently, and multiple trees were knocked down, heading in the direction of the mountain.
Stepping onto the path, Erich looks down it in both directions. "Do you think it was the swan that made this path?" he asks as the rest of the group looks at it in awe.
"If it was, that means the swan is massive. It took me ten steps just to get to the other side," Cidre says, bending over to look at something on the ground.
"Did you find something?" Sydra asks, walking over to take a look. Cidre stands up and points towards a large footprint on the ground.
"Yeah, I think the people in the town were confused when they said it was a swan, this footprint looks like it came from something at the top of the food chain," Cidre says as Sydra looks at the footprint. Unlike a normal swan that would have three webbed toes, the footprint in front of them had nine toes, and at the end of each one was a five-inch hole in the ground.
"It looks like the Chaos Swan is going to be different than we imagined," Robert says, walking in the direction of the mountain. Following behind him, the group heads down the pathway towards the mountain, making much better progress than before.
Reaching the edge of the mountain, the group came to a stop. The path continued up the mountain, but to get there, the group had to cross over a large ravine.
"I guess I'll carry Erich, and you carry Robert," Cidre says, putting on the pendant.
"Actually, I wanted to try something new," Robert says, activating his fire aura. Spreading the aura over his back, two red wings made from flickering flames sprouted behind him.
"That's impressive," Sydra says, admiring the wings, "When did you come up with this idea?"
Looking proudly at the others faces, Robert flaps the wings and takes off into the sky. "I figured it out during our training session in the colisium," Robert says, hovering in the sky, "Seeing your bone wings made me wonder if I could do something similar, and it came out a susccess,"
Watching Robert fly through the air, Erich felt a bit jealous, 'Great, everyone's got wings, and new powers. I really need to step up my game,' he thinks.
"I guess that means only Erixh needs a lift over, then," Cidre says, grabbing Erich and flying him over the ravine.
Flying over the ravine, Sydra notices a hole halfway up it. Landing in the other side, Sydra points the hole out to the others. "I think that's the hole that the Chaos Swan lives in," he says.
The others turn to see the hole Sydra is talking about, noticing that it is also at the end of the path. Making their way to the hole, the group hesitantly peers in.
"Do you think the Chaos Swan will notice our prescence if we go in?" Cidre asks, taking a few steps inside the cave.
"I'm not sure, but I think we can go a little farther down this tunnel at least," Sydra says, wanting to take a look at the Chaos Swan as well.
Heading down the tunnel, the group notices that the further they go, the wider it becomes. Eventually, the tunnel comes to an end, and the group finds themselves in front of a large cavern. The cavern is pocketed with holes that allow sunlight to bounce off the gems inlaid in the walls, creating a waterfall of colors.
"Whoah, look at the nest," Cidre says, bringing everyone's attention to the humongous nest in the middle of the cave.
The nest is made from trees laid upon one another, and held together by hardened obsidian. In the center of the nest lays an egg, glittering with the shades of a rainbow.
"If that's the egg, then where is the mother?" Robert asks, noticing the lack of the Chaos Swan. Startled by his words, the group turns around to quickly leave the cave, but their path is blocked by a massive bird, its feathers shining more beautifully than the egg.
"I dont think its happy to see us," Cidre says, pointing at the swans eyes that have become a deep black.
'Scree!' The swan shrieks, opening its mouth to show rows of jagged teeth, and a black sphere forming within.