Imran placed a holographic projection stick on the ground, and it shot out a green plate along its length, reaching the height of the stone tablet near it.
Taking a few steps back to get the full view of the holographic board he had just created, Imran wiped the sweat that had gathered over his forehead. 'I hope this works.'
As soon as he thought that, a tunnel of red light suddenly shot out from beneath his feet, as what looked to be a magic circle appeared on the ground, at the center of the tunnel.
Imran quickly removed his body from the spot the circle showed up and placed his finger on the watch on his wrist.
"Alya! Get out of there!" As two figures appeared on the circle Imran yelled, as Alya jumped away.
Imran tapped his watch, making a large red cube surround the black slime. #A wall? Do you think this can stop me?!#
Hearing its voice in person for the first time, Imran spat out blood just from the weird aura it emitted. As he fell on the ground paralyzed, he thanked the stars that he had placed the red barrier around Sorbo before it spoke.
Sorbo banged on the red cube, just to find out that it strangely kept him in, but to be specific, what he felt was something else than it keeping him in.
"That..." Imran tried to speak as he sat, resting his body on the tab behind him. "... That's an energy capturing device... One that was made to specifically hold in your crystal's energy, Sorbo. So if you try to escape it... only your slime side would be able to come out, while, the gem stays in."
"Oh." Alya spat out blood from her mouth. "Is that the thing you got from the tablet?"
Imran however, shook his head. "No. I've been working on that for a while now, and had just finished it... I... Wasn't a hundred percent sure that it would even work."
Alya turned to look at him, a little surprised. "So you decided to take a risk, huh?" She turned her head back to the red cube in front of her as Sorbo kept trying to break it open. However, its body seemed to be moving through the barrier, pushing the red energy of his crystal in, making only weak and tiny slop of slime pour out. And because it was intangible, it couldn't be broken by physical attacks.
"But you brought me here because you've figured out the ancient language right?" Alya narrowed her eyes, waiting for Imran's answer. Because, she didn't see any other reason why the boy would ask them to come down here where the citizens of Ogmore were close by, instead of bringing the cube up to meet her.
"Imran nodded in affirmative. He then pointed to the stone tablet and tapped his watch, making the cube the slime was in, transparent. As the slime looked up and saw the tablet, it stopped playing with the cube and stared at its content.
Before Alya could ask what was written on the tab herself, the green holographic board showed the English text of stone tablet and she was soon able to read it.
But the more Alya moved her eyes along the lines of the text, the less she understood it. "What is this?" She thought out loud.
"Umm... Senior, I don't think you'll understand that upper part, just read the foot note instea—"
Before he could complete his sentence, Alya banged her fist on his head. "Are you saying I'm dumb, ya piss head?"
"N– No! I said that because the text is vague. I wouldn't dare to underestimate you."
"Tch!" Alya scoffed but went to read the footnotes put under the text anyway.
"Ha!" Alya laughed as she finished reading a part she could actually understand. "You hear that no pants man? Give it up."
Clenching the palms that he had placed on the wall of the red cube, Sorbo retorted. #Who does he think he is?! He doesn't know me at all. I'll kill all of you.#
Alya smirked provokingly. "Oh yeah? And how do you plan on doing that from inside your little cage?"
#Hmm? How?#
Alya could sense a hint of mocking in its voice. She took on a serious expression, wondering what sly move the slime man was planning on pulling.
'This is not an ideal place for fighting. The people are just on the other side of that—"
AH!!!
"!!!" A shrill cry suddenly sounded from behind the large stone door. Soon, many followed as Alya could hear the citizens burst into disorder.
"What the?" Alya's folded arms loosened as the slime man suddenly began to laugh.
#That friend of mine said I'd only be able to escape this place a mere slime, but tell me, do you think your regular civilians could do anything to that 'mere' slime?#
Without listening for a second more, Alya bolted out of the room. As she got to where the citizens stayed, which looked like a mini-city in a cave, she found people scampering around in fear.
"Where is it? That thing cut out a part of its body, didn't it?" Alya said, looking around as she figured out what Sorbo had done.
She bolted over to a man who was running all over the place and held his shoulders. "What's wrong?"
The man stuttered as he answered, "There's something in this place, it's... It's making people disappear!"
"Hm." Alya nodded, but soon slapped the man's face.
PA!
"Get a grip, man ." Throwing him on the floor, she started speeding around the base, dashing from place to place. But Alya had a problem with finding the piece that had been cut off from the slime,
'I can't use that sensing thing like Ancy can. Geez. In times like these, maybe its not as useless as I thought.' Although she couldn't find its location easily, her speed made up for that weakness as she soon found the slow moving slime squirming towards a young child.
'This monster... It's eating my people!' With anger rising in her chest, she blasted over to the slime and lifted it up. "Dammit!" She didn't know how to save the people who had been swallowed into the slime's body.
#Don't bother.# A voice that boomed like the trumpets of Armageddon itself echoed within the wide underground base.
From the large stone door, a gigantic hand came out as Sorbo crawled into the underground base, increasing its size at a rapid speed.
It stumped on a bunch of the terrified people as it started to walk around, absorbing more and more.
Alya's eyes flashed with a deadly murderous intent as she shot towards Sorbo. "You!!!"
But as soon as she got close to him, an energy pulse suddenly blasted out of its body, making her stumble to the ground, weakening further.
#Physical attacks make me tougher, but what do you think all the energy attacks you've fed me do?# Sorbo continued to swallow more innocent victims into its body as it asked.
#Hahaha. I told you you were going to lose, human. Now...
Your pesky brethren aren't as strong as that girl, so at most, they have only fifteen more seconds...#
Sorbo's body started to rise through the ceiling of the underground base, shaking the place that was now filled with black blobs in the place of the humans and destroying the buildings.
#... Your people have fifteen more seconds to live.#
———
"Grr... Rah!" Asher, still wearing the black dress the Old Man had created yelled into the sky in frustration. He had been running around the place he saw Alya and that strange beast disappear from, but he couldn't find a single clue as to how they did.
'Is this like that strange teleporter in Coity? If so, then another one those creeps might pop out anytime soon. Gah!' He ruffled his hair, referring to the undine he had fought as, 'creep'.
'What is wrong with this damned place?!'
As there were nothing else left to try anyway, Asher turned his head around, wanting to ask Buster to just blast a hole in the ground and see where it led. But when he found Buster, Asher realised that the red haired boy was already doing what Asher had wanted him to, albeit, in a very different spot.
"RAAAA!!!!!! GIMME BACK MY VICE—CAPTAIN... GROUND!!!" Buster continued to yell as a large tunnel of yellow beam continue to shoot deeper into the ground from his palms.
"Hey." Asher called. "It's over here isn't it? The place they disappeared."
Buster stopped for a second. "Yeah but, doesn't the teleporting thing work at random? Like in that giant lake place?"
Asher shrugged. "I'm just trying to play it safe. I mean, what if it's different?"
Hearing that, Buster scratched his chin as he thought out loud. "Yeah you're right... This is such dil-mama."
"It's dilemma." Asher shook his head at Buster's inability to pronounce that much of a long word.
"Sorry. I'm like that when I'm nervous." He chuckled embarrassingly.
However, before Buster could walk over to where Asher was standing, the ground beneath their feet suddenly started to rumble.
Looking down, Asher's eyes flashed silver and somehow, he knew what was heading for surface from beneath the earth.
As Sorbo's now large head shot out of the ground, it suddenly realised that there was someone on it, pointing a weirdly shaped staff at his head.
"Wow. Just when I was wondering about finding resources too." Asher smirked with a sniper pointing directly at Sorbo's head.