Chapter 18
Yu-ze's composure remained centered, undeterred by the situation he had promptly grasped.
However, His expression turned serious, as Juno's wall collapsed and they exchanged distant glances.
'Fleur needs ninety more seconds to recharge. Damn it Juno, what happened to asserting our highest priority?' A small vein formed in Yu-ze's jaw as he pondered an alternative method to subdue the moths.
"They only need a minute to synthesize, which means it has already reached the final stages," Yu-ze discerned to himself.
"Normally it's the same each time, I should've prepared us for this…"
Yu-ze snaked his hand beneath his mantle, curling four fingers around a mostly smooth object with a few ridges.
"I suppose it's mostly my fault."
He secured his thumb over a portion of his index, and middle finger before levering it out in a soft grip.
"...Then I will assert my own improvisation as an act of salvation."
Yu-ze gazed sharply at the pure white flute in his hand.
Abel and Fleur would commonly mistake it for a wooden instrument, but he was familiar with the qualities that veered it from customary woodwinds.
Namely, each segment of bamboo retained meticulously carved patterns that resemble scribblings of a forgotten script.
Yu-ze's eyes softened as he admired the intricate texture under his fingertips.
Even the color was not plain white, its shade aligned more intimately with the frost he would regard in the Mantras stuck in the endless spirals of winter.
Yu-ze readjusted his grasp on the dizi flute, drawing it closer to his face.
He briefly hesitated and began calculating his heart rate to ensure that his composer had remained complacent.
'It is necessary for an elixir of this grade.'
His heart was beating quicker, fortunately, the beats were not rapid.
'It has been quite some time since we've needed to resort to my full ability.'
"Haa—I should make this quick."
"Everything alright?" Li yelled from a branch slightly below him.
"Just meditating." Yu-ze flagrantly responded.
"Couldn't you have done so in the nucleus, we were roaming for hours!"
"..."
Li gazed ahead at Juno's crumbling barrier.
'What is she doing?' Li pondered, suddenly feeling restless.
His own heart started to stray from ease when he realized what Yu-ze was implementing out of the oversight of Juno's method.
"No! Juno knows what she's doing, you don't need to trigger the fo—"
A shrill, yet ethereal tone emerges like a beacon of calm in a stormy sea.
As Yu-ze lifts the dizi flute and breathes life into it, a clear tune slices through the tumult.
The dizi's melody is like a silken thread weaving through the verbal confusion and sounds of monstrosity.
Yu-ze winces when a burning sensation begins to creep past his palms and onto his arms, eventually glazing over his back.
His pursed lips quiver over the hollow mouth of the flute, his fingers spread atop two of six finger holes.
Yu-ze's chest gradually heaved in as a result of his lungs straining, and a final rest was performed.
He takes a few breaths, allowing his aching figure to slump against the tree's sturdy trunk.
"Damn, it hurts…"
"We will handle the rest…" Li insists, picking up his sword.
Yu-ze remains quiet, as a soft smile rises from his expression.
Suddenly, a distant murmur stirs through the trees, a creeping shift approaching through the atmosphere.
From closely behind Yu-ze, a black fog unfurls like a living shroud.
Its edges curl back at a certain brink, fomenting a wall structure.
As it moved closer to the creature overlooking Hoku and Juno, the mist exhaled a chill that seeped into the marrow of the trees.
Within the deepening fog, hundreds of crimson eyes begin to materialize, their eerie glow piercing through the heavy shadow like malevolent stars.
Their unblinking gaze and unnervingly sentient aura make Hoku believe for a moment that he is witnessing a nightmare.
They shift before darting in a myriad of red pinpricks, initiating from the ground to the ones resting on the highest branches.
Their descent appears similar to drops of rain as clusters appear on the same level as Juno, Hoku, and the enormous monster.
"Yu-ze… I was too late." Hoku looked over to Juno, her bottom lip constrained under her teeth as she timidly inspected the fog.
Hoku's body tenses and he retracts his hand from Cheshire's ears, hugging him closer upon sensing the encompassing air tremble with an almost palpable vibration.
The enormous creature was no longer something that could be simply regarded as a creature, but more appropriately, a monster.
As it descends through the sky and emerges in a more immediate range to them, Juno reflexively flings open her fan.
White strings return, jolting toward the monster's vast membranous wings that were fringed with iridescent patterns like the one Li killed before them.
'Did it only grow larger?' Hoku pondered in panicked anticipation.
He quietly hoped that his assumption was the case, however as his eyes followed the light emitting from the fan's luminous threads, swiftly enveloping the creature lower, his eyes perceived a horrific mutation.
'H-human legs—and arms!?'
The monster's face matched that of its own species, occupying expansive black eyes that inhabited much of its broad and slightly convex facial structure.
Though it seemed to be covered in many more scales as opposed to the peculiar feathers adorning the Moth's wings.
Hoku backed away, taking a moment to scour the eyes that had surfaced in the fog.
They had come much closer as well and approached in a motion that bore a predatory intensity.
Hoku was confused as to why Juno hadn't so much as flinched or even stepped back from either sight.
As he peered back at the immense peril, petals were toppling from the restraints that were directly constraining its wings.
Juno gritted her teeth, pulling her fan as far away from her body as she could.
"It's… not going to hold for long!" She shouted clamorously.
Hoku's body jolted as the ominous plague of glowing eyes revealed itself at the end of the clearing black fog.
Their darkened scales that weren't quite pitch black were a convenient quality for blending seamlessly into their current surroundings.
Despite the abundance, they effortlessly weaved silently through dead petals and leaves like living shadows.
Their sleek, scaled bodies moved with hypnotic grace, each tasting the air as they flicked their tongues at the monster.
Hoku observed as the snakes slithered toward the monster's feet, and coiled around its limbs.
It hadn't appeared to notice the ambush until Juno's restraints completely wilted, and its stumbling became stable.
The creature countered by taking turns to balance on one leg and flinging the serpents with a violent kick.
As the monster attempted to approach the Hoku and Juno, its movement became noticeably lethargic.
The number of snakes was flourishing and targeting swiftly.
Those snakes are clearly after the monster, but I am unable to tell if they are restraining it with pressure, or repeatedly poisoning it.
The monster resorted to stomping on the ground, not daring to hesitate from drawing ahead.
The impact forced gentle gusts of wind in his and Juno's direction.
Hoku swallows nervously,
'Why can't I just book it and get away from here?'
In a few seconds, he recalled that he was the target.
If the monster were to catch him fleeing, he might steer it away from the group fending it off.
Suddenly, Hoku heard a nearly indescribable sound emit from around the monster.
A gentle, rustling sigh as if the air had parted itself to allow a fragile plume to slip through its grasp.
Hoku's pupils dilate when he detects where the sound came from.
The shape of the monster's wings diffuse into an abstract apparel of beauty, gracefully wafting through the wind like white streamers, whilst continuing to expand outward.
The frame of the creature's wings had transformed into an intricate tangle, expanding and tearing holes through the base of both hind wings.
Acknowledging the monster's new form, Hoku presumed that flying would no longer be a feasible task.
Though it had already been on the ground, he worried that the fully synthesized moth would have already caught up to him if the spontaneous appearance of snakes hadn't inhibited its path.
"Abel! Use your dowsing pendulum!"
Now that they temporarily precluded the monster from thrashing, they were met with the opportunity to pursue the remnants in their scheme of efforts.
The Memoir Chapter 14
Objective 8
This is a possible death point. Death points will refer to the point in your reoccurring journey when your sequel has ended due to unforeseen disasters.
Your confrontation with the Polyphemus Moth is the earliest occasion of your death.
Avoid it and continue further. I will do my best to notify you of each death point on the record list, but you must remember to follow the order of the instructions in this Memoir.
Otherwise, you'll risk avoiding the wrong threat.
Rule 19
Grades refer to the tiers of a specific aptitude that an elixir has control over and can manipulate. Here is an ongoing list of what Quadrant "White" has discovered as possible categories:
Venom Grade [One who poisons the air will be demanded to settle an immense price]
Gem Grade [Record Partially Extracted] [Obtained from combining a !!!:?#$; of the sequel and a fragment of the #*^! from an astrapie]
Floral Grade [Record extracted]
Light Grade [Record extracted]
Abnormality Grade [The extent of corruption can adjust to the individual's desire.]
Composition Grade [The altercation of a sealed fate can be altered through the means of art and writing.]
Mono-Specie Grade [The summoning of a physically unaffected species.]
Pleomorphic Grade [This is the counter reciprocal of a Mono-Specie Grade.]
Fallacy Grade [Real is not a permanent reality.]
Celtic [The restoration of life is perceived as patterns. Essentially utilizing nature against itself]
Artisan Grade [The absorption of other grades onto an expressionless pallet. The most alarming as it warrants zero limitations]
The artisan grade can only be authorized and used by the Sequels creator.
<Unless stolen and returned to the hands of another suitable holder>
-The Memoir Chapter 14 End-