At the sunset, Amawas and Aatish returned to the most successful entrepreneurs of the entire thoroughfare that had the crowds throwing money at them literally for just another bowl of the steaming honey soup.
Khadija and Isra had earned so much that they had five full drawers filled with kibblers and there were some kibblers stashed away in the duffelbags too, both the girls sat with their hands behind their backs, on the inner floor of the stall.
They had deep satisfied expressions at their faces and all around them were unclean bowls of drippy honeysoup.
Amawas and Aatish, both stayed in the air, their tiny eyes completely struck with disbelief, they took their sweet time in absorbing the amounts of money the girls had accumulated, then turned into the objects and hid themselves upon the girls.
Amawas cleared her throat and whispered into their ear after a few seconds.
"Good job.."
Their faces lit up at that.
"Alright listen up" Amawas spoke, her voice sounding like a slither.
"Clear the display and unhinge the door first" she said
Khadija got up and cleared the display, settling the empty jars on the floor beside them, then she locked the stall by unhinging the wooden door and dragging it down.
It got completely dark inside.
Amawas summoned a pool of darkness and swallowed both the duffel bags completely filled with the kibblers inside, but she kept some out.
Isra wanted to protest but it seemed inappropriate somehow, she knew Amawas was just trying to safekeep them.
"We have two minutes before the guards notice the doors shut, so i'll explain the plan, you two will go out and buy a thing called behroopiya, but make sure its not any object bigger than a ring, After you've bought the ring, you'll meet us in the same alleyway making sure noone is suspecting you in anyway, bring the behroopiya along with you."
The doors of the stall voilently shook,
"Open it and tell them you were assembling your earnings,"
Khadija opened the door and two of the ugly rat creatures stood outside, holding maces in their hands,
"What the hell do you think you're doing" one of them said, it voice extremely stingy.
"We were just counting our earnings sir," Khadija replied.
"oohh i see, counting your earnings huh." The ugly guard said, spit finding its way into his mouth.
"How much is there?" He tried looking around behind them at the duffel bags,
"There must be alot of kibblers, these two were famous today" the other one said, his voice extremely goofy and dumb.
Khadija walked back and took a handful of kibblers out, and handed the marbel balls to the guard, without saying much.
"That's more like it, now if i see this door closed again, i'll break both of yer legs" He said, spatting on the floor and then left.
Few seconds after the guards left, Amawas and Aatish flew out aswell.
Isra and Khadija were left standing silently, then they moved out too carrying the remaining of the kibblers, into the buslting thoroughfare, the evening had come and the entire bazaar looked even more majestic now. There were scores of glowing birds and tiny creatures engaged in hectic negotiations with the shopkeepers for illuminating their stalls.
******
After searching for almost an hour and asking around, stopping by the stalls and oggling at merchandise of all kinds, the girls finally found a stall that was selling the behroopiyas.
The seller was a round toad like creature with extra small hands and arms, basically it looked like an inflated slimy balloon, but he held a huge variety of only behroopiyas, apparently they were extremely expensive.
Isra negotiated the price while Khadija examined them, trying to look interested and uninterested at the same time, but eventually the convinced the fat toad to give them a good looking small behroopiya in a fair price.
They took the behroopiya to the same alley, and waited for a bit, looking around them, before entering it.
Some moments later Amawas appeared, and summoned twelve tiny creatures no more than a few inches taller from the ground, she then summoned a needle with a thin thread of liquid darkness and pushed it through all of them, as they convlused and turned inky black.
Amawas then raised her finger and asked the girls to place the behroopiya on the floor.
They did so.
The creatures formed a tiny line and the first one walked through the tiny ring only to appear as the guardian of the first gate but a minified version of it. It looked like an exact replica, copied to the most subtle detail.
Amawas then pushed the rest of the tiny creatures into the pool of darkness.
The time for action had finally come as she looked at the girls, with her tiny yellow glowing eyes. And they looked back.
She then pushed their weapons out, an Ishaar's scythe ready made for battle and an elegant black bow and arrows.
******
Khadija crouched beneath the cover of a massive dome of darkness, positioned several hundred meters away from the ominous silhouette of the first guardian. Her steady hands gripped a bow, an arrow notched and aimed directly at the towering abomination.
Perched delicately on the arrowhead was Aatish, clutching it tightly between her miniature arms. She braced herself for the imminent launch, aimed to strike the corrupted giant's eye directly.
"Easy, steady..." Amawas, hovering beside Khadija, tried to soothe her nerves. Despite the abomination's colossal size making it an easy target, the weight of taking her first shot at a real enemy left Khadija trembling.
They remained perfectly concealed in the dome of darkness, completely invisible from any prying eyes.
"Steady..." Amawas maintained her focus on the group of ten guards marching in the proximity of the guardian.
Meanwhile, Isra kept a vigilant watch, hidden in her own cocoon of darkness a few meters away, scouting the team's back.
"Wait..."
A bead of sweat trickled down Khadija's forehead, splashing onto the ground. Just as all the guards diverted their attention away from the guardian, Amawas hissed, "Now!"
Khadija released the arrow, with Aatish clinging to its tip.
'We only have one shot at this, Aatish,' Amawas thought to herself.
The darkened arrow sliced through the air, skimming just above the ground, hurtling towards the colossal abomination. Before it could react, the arrow found its mark, embedding itself in the creature's eye.
In a split second, Aatish ignited the creature's inner fire from within, immolating it. As the guardian collapsed, Amawas conjured a vast pool of darkness. The creature descended into the abyss, and in a swift motion, Amawas raised another identical creature, a darkened mirage that mirrored the fallen abomination. It all unfolded in the blink of an eye, a ballet of shadows and flames playing out in mere seconds.
Amawas called Isra as they hurled together and conjured another pool and in the next moment, they were deep inside the body of the dark mirage. It was time to move in.
******************
The towering creature shook the earth as it walked forward, accompanied by guards of all kinds, noone suspected a thing, it walked forward carrying the whole team inside it, until it reached the second guardian.
It was a small scorpion like creature with three heads and thick carapace that ended in abnormal spikes covering its entire body. They moved past it and entered the third gate, to their extreme luck, noone suspected anything at all, yet.
The third level had fewer than before soldiers on it, that meant the guardian would be more furious and powerful than the others and they rarely visited the gate, knowing that it was already well protected and well scouted.
Hence the stone giant kept walking forward on plain road of black stones, until it reached the third gate and that is where the environment shifted dramatically. Another creature alongside the guardian awaited emanating an aura of pure dread and power.
It had sickly humanoid figure to it with bent spine and protruding sickles from its back like wings made of pure bone, Its penetrating gaze exposed the illusion shrouding the stone giant. Reacting swiftly, Amawas summoned her chain scythe, dismantling the mirage in an instant.
The ominous sickles of the sovereign's enforcer narrowly missed the space where the giant's head had been.
That pushed the team into a state of adrenaline, Aatish quickly unfurled herself from Isra's wrist and appeared in her trueform, drenching the entire stage with immolating heat, she then summoned her long spear.
Both Amawas and Aatish glanced at each other for bare seconds, gripping their weapons in their hands, and then all hell broke lose.