When Nanate and Kunwa woke up, they found Beibei missing from the cave. looking out through the small entrance, they watched speechlessly as she kept going around the same space of a dozen meters in circles. She would speed up, stop, sit down and touch the ground or rocks, make some weird gestures with her hands and fingers, pick up some of the soil and then throw it out into the air, then start walking around again. They watched her going round and round till both started feeling dizzy.
"Have you found something?"
Nanate finally couldn't take it anymore. Beibei didn't answer at first, too absorbed with digging up the ground where she had hunched down. Then she turned her head with sparkling eyes.
"The geoparticles of this area is different from the other areas."
Nanate looked confused, whereas Kunwa rushed forth, looking excited.
"You found the array? Do you know what kind of array it is?"
"Not yet. But this does not seem like a normal array. Help me. We need to make some calculations. Perhaps we can figure out what it is."
Nanate went around to patrol the area in case more of those shadow creatures lurked around. They couldn't light up any elemental lamps since it would only aid in feeding the gray mist. So Beibei had released a few Desert Light Mites. These insects were round in shape, growing to a size on a large plate, with twelve tiny stubby legs and a tiny head with claws in waving around.
They basically lived off the rocks and stones. The shell above their body was almost as hard as Starmite, and very glossy, like highly polished metal. This shell could reflect off the tiniest amount of light, brightening the area around them. Now, reflecting off the hazy light of the gray mist, the surroundings suddenly felt much more brighter.
Kunwa and Beibei spent more than half a day studying the particles of soil and rock around the area which was different, making different calculations, trying to figure out the elements used in the array and derive the core point of the formation. Finally both of them sprawled out on the ground shamelessly, too tired to care about etiquette.
"Hey, are you both planning on falling asleep again! Have you found out anything."
Beibei didn't even raise her head nor opened her eyes. Unfortunately Kunwa was much too quickly provoked.
"Well, why don't you sit and do the calculations, and I'll do the patrolling!"
"Hmph! You seem to have forgotten the thrashing you received from the shadow beasts yesterday. Shall I go and pull in a few here to refresh your memory? You are calculating because that is your field. I am patrolling because that is mine. Now you say you are not even qualified in your own field? Tsk!"
"You....!"
"Silence!......If you both want to continue go far away! I can barely hear myself think with the two of your's non-ending bickering!"
The last words were half murmured as Beibei turned to the side to continue sleeping. Kunwa felt his lips twitching as he stared at her backside, feeling dejected at being scolded without a cause. But before he could change his emotion, Beibei suddenly sat up, her eyes wide open and shining with a sharp light.
"Light.....there is a fifth element. And it must be Light!"
Kunwa frowned, immediately dragging his mind back to their previous calculations. Nanate sat down at one side, crossing his legs, becoming a silent spectator.
"Why would there be light? There is no light in this path. Why would they use light?"
"Of course this path has light. The gray mist itself has light. But more importantly, if they are using Shadow, then what is shadow?"
".....Ummm....Darkness?"
"Shadow is the lack of light...or when light is low."
Both Kunwa and Nanate answered at the same time. Beibei looked at Kunwa in disdain, then gave Nanate an appreciative look to Nanate.
"Maybe you should change your specialization! Darkness is the lack of light. So if an array uses Shadow or Darkness, then it will have to balance the equation with the elemental power of Light."
"Then that means there are five elements in this Array - Wind, Earth, Rocks, Shadow, Light. But this does not seem like a five sided array....oh! Wait....I have read of this...What was it?!....Ah, yes! Dadare Rombic Formation!"
Beibei frowned, trying to recall the information about this formation from her stack of memories.
"Dadare Rombic Formation. An ancient Array pattern. Derived from the Rombaba Leaf pattern. A five sided pentagon array pattern, where four sides have equal length, and the fifth side is half the length of the other four sides."
"Hmmm....yes, yes! Also, unlike most other formations, the core of this array is not at the center of the formation. Instead it is at the mid-point of the shortest side! Also it is mostly in the form of a normal element of the surrounding. So now we need to figure out the lay of the formation on this ground. Once we know the shortest side, we can find out the core point!"
The two of them jumped back up, all their discomfort and exhaustion having washed away, and sat back to continue with their calculations. Nanate looked at them speechlessly. It was not as if he didn't understand what they were saying, but it still made him a bit confused. He shook his head, letting out a sigh as he stood up to continue with patrolling the area.
After a long while, when he returned, he found the two of them busy digging up rocks and stones in the vicinity of the smooth mountain wall they had come across previously. Their clothes were now stained with black soil and dust, and streaks of it ran down their fair faces and hands. But nothing else seemed to exist for this pair of crazy researchers! Nanate wondered for the umpteenth time if he could still unfriend them!
"Found it!"
Kunwa tugged, pulled and twisted at a strange shaped rock, and finally managed to drag it out of the ground. Immediately a dense black mist started pouring out of the empty space below the ground. Kunwa froze for a few seconds, then rushed to push back the stone into its original place. However, it was easier to uncork a bottle than put the cork back on. The stone just wouldn't sit back on its original position, and the black mist kept seeping out through the cracks around the rock.
"What the hell kind of core is this? Why is it filled with such dense black mist? Isn't removing the core of the array supposed to remove the array formation?"
Beibei frowned deeply, then immediately dragged Kunwa back. Nanate too followed. Both seemed to have senses something behind the cause of the mist.
"Is the core of the array the mist?"
"Hmmm.....looks like we have a boss battle at hand."
"But the mist is not gray in color anymore!"
"Hmmm....it looks like we will be facing creatures of the dark now. Keep all light elemental tools ready."
Kunwa looked at them puzzled, before it turned to shock.
Be careful. Unlike the gray mist, this mist is much more denser and also completely black. The shadow creatures of this mist will be far more stronger. Do not fight head on. Use all the tools and tricks you have. Remember to stick to the triangular fan formation. Do not move too far from your formation point. And keep your head cool. It's okay. We can do it."
As the black mist thickened, the stone sitting on the hole started trembling violently, and then shot up high in the air like the cork on a geyser. Dense mist poured out from the hole at an alarmingly high rate, and soon the entire surrounding was covered in pitch blackness. Kunwa was guarding the rear, throwing out large handfuls of Suction-Balls all around. But the tiny vortexes could not keep up with the speed of the flowing dark mist. Visibility soon reduced to zero as the mist kept increasing, thickening and becoming more and more dense.
Beibei took a deep breath, then took out a handful of golden bells. These were specialised tools she had sought from the sect at some point. These bells had an extensive amount of light energy stored inside. But they could not be used for any attack or defense technique. Instead, Beibei was going to use it create a Binding Array. She had learned this array formation from one of the ancient scriptures. But since she had never gotten around to trying it before, she could only hope it would work.
"Activate the Spirit Trackers now."
Both Kunwa and Nanate could only hear her faint words through the dense fog which had completely cut off their sight of each other. Hastily pulling out the tiny seed shaped Alatali Jade Crystal, they inserted their spiritual power, then bit their fingers and dropped blood on the crystal to activate it. Then they put the jade inside their mouth and swallowed it.
A fiery burning sensation hit their mind. For a few moments, everything became fuzzy and nausea swept through their body. Then a bright light erupted in their mind, clearing up their sensory passages, and instantly they felt a strong connection with each other. The map Nanate and Kunwa had mapped also became prominent in their mind, and they could sense exactly where the other was and in which part of the map.