[b]“More details?”[/b]

Sarasa tilted her head to the side slightly, as if there didn’t need to be more detail than what she had just shared. It was a simple matter of territory within this particular cavern in the Blasphemed Tunnels, after all, and since when did Immortals question anyone when it came to a simple request to kill things? Ames’s follow-up question clarified things though, and the frown that the buxom lady had on her face was the perfect combination of empathetic but helpless.

[b]“Ah, we don’t receive much news of the surface from down below,”[/b] she said, shaking her head. [b]“It’s certainly terrible news though, this matter with abducted children. And as for the details you’ve wished us to elaborate upon, Master One-Armed, I must confess that there isn’t all too much to it. Surely you have seen the depraved acts of the gyunin on your way here? We’ve done what we could to hold our own, but unfortunately, their numbers exceed ours, and so does their lust for brutality. Even the undead fake their deaths when those savages are in the proximity.”[/b]

She let out a dry chuckle.

[b]“It’s doubtlessly ironic, that my den has fled the surface to avoid the warlike oni, only to find below their inbred brethren. Alas, such a plague of monstrosities ought to be uprooted entirely, and,”[/b] her eyes flickered towards the musclebound Klein, who was already itching for some real action, [b]“I’m sure your party is wholly capable of that.”[/b]

Raime’s quick scan of the room didn’t manage to uncover any further details about the presence of children, other than what looked to be the remnants of a footprint near the entrance where he was at. It wasn’t the party’s and couldn’t have belonged to Lugh or the snake-people either, who were either barefoot, had no feet, or wore sandals. A quick comparison would indicate that the footprint must have belonged to an adult male…but what did it mean?
[sub][@Shovel][@Searat][@Psyker Landshark][@OwO][@Yankee][/sub][hr]
As her vision blackened, then sharpened to supernatural sensitivity, Ari found her suspicions proven correct. With the glimpses of the cart that she could catch while swivelling her head from right to left, she could easily see the outlines of several blue-tinted forms within the space beneath the floor. They had to be small, smaller than a normal adult, in order to fit into such spaces, but why they didn’t move at all was something that she couldn’t answer immediately. Within fifty meters of her as well, there was only the thick yellow brilliance of flora, while right before her, glowing the crimson of the monsters, was the form of Man-Joji.

No real revelations were had, certainly, but it confirmed her suspicions and elucidate her prior observations. All the answers were essentially in her hands now. The only question was what she could do with them.

That wasn’t right.

Before any plans could be made, Ari saw it within the aurascape offered by Xu Fu. The hand of the shapeshifter reaching up and rising slowly towards her face. The precursor to an attack? Or a test to determine whether she had lied or not about her Nuclei’s power? Another crossroads, another choice.

And her mana continued to burn away.
[sub][@GreenGoat][/sub]