Alex reached the very bottom of the cliff where Genia had supposedly fallen. Some dry branches were broken, and the ground was slightly abraded, indicating that Genia's body had fallen somewhere in this area. But the strange thing was that there was no body there.
"Alex! She's not here!" Kevin gasped, his face turning pale again. "I've searched this entire area. She's nowhere near here. If she fell unconscious, she couldn't have walked anywhere on her own. Then where did she go?"
Alex looked closely at the ground. There was no sign of Genia. Neither a piece of her clothing was found, nor her mysterious blue feather. There was only silence in the entire trench. Genia was nowhere to be seen in the trench, as if she had vanished into thin air. A deep doubt arose in Alex's mind. He stood and looked at the darkness all around. "This is impossible. If she had fallen from this height, her body should either be here, or..." he interrupted.
"Or what, Alex?" Kevin asked nervously, clutching at her clothes.
Alex's eyes grew serious. "Or maybe the people of that dark shadow tribe, or some other magical force living beneath this chasm, have already taken her away before us."
Kevin's heart sank upon hearing this. Genia's disappearance signalled a new and greater danger.
Kevin's remaining hope was shattered upon hearing Alex's words. He fell to his knees like a madman and began to feel the wet soil there with both his palms.
Alex brought his eyes very close to the ground. Both of their eyes were searching for any clue that could lead them to Genia.
"Alex, look here!" Kevin said suddenly, stopping near a large black stone. His finger pointed towards some strange marks on the ground.
Alex looked towards that spot. Dark shapes were visible on the wet and rocky soil. The marks weren't from a single beast, but from many different ones. Alex examined the marks carefully, his eyebrows raised.
"These are... marks from different tribes," Alex said in a serious and concerned voice. "Look here, this deep line and drag mark suggest it's from a giant snake-like beast. And right next to it, these sharp claw marks... look like those of a bird-like beast. I think they resemble the claws of the Eagle Clan."
Alex looked at the marks carefully and continued, "That means whoever was here must have had some connection to the Snake Clan and the Eagle Clan. Not only that, there are some other claw marks on the stones that seem to me to be from the Wolf Clan."
Kevin asked nervously, "What does this mean, Alex? The Snake Clan? The Eagle Clan? And the Wolf Clan? What were they all doing together in this dark abyss? And where is Genia?"
Alex took a deep breath and, standing up straight, looked at the darkness all around. "It means it's very clear, Kevin. There wasn't just one enemy here. When that dark shadow attacked Genia, and she fell, a whole group was already lying in wait below. They were people from different tribes, perhaps in collusion or acting at the behest of a higher-up. They took Genia with them as soon as she fell. There were three or four people here who carried out this task very efficiently."
"But why did they take her? And where did they take her?" Kevin's patience was running out. He screamed and pounded the stones, saying, "We have to find her. We can't just sit idle like this!"
They didn't give up. Alex and Kevin tried to follow the claw marks and the snake's tracks. They followed them into deeper, narrower passages within the ravine. They passed through many hidden caves, rocky labyrinths, and dry streams. They searched every inch of that muddy and dangerous ravine until the last hour of the night, until the first rays of dawn appeared.
But beyond those initial traces, they found no trace of Genia. Not a single thread of her clothing, not a single footprint, not even that magical blue feather. She had completely vanished into some unknown corner of this magical world. By the time the cool morning sunlight began to filter down through the mouth of the ravine, Kevin and Alex were completely physically and mentally shattered. Their clothes were caked with mud, their bodies bore scratches from the bushes, and instead of sleep, their eyes held a deep emptiness.
Alex placed a hand on Kevin's trembling shoulder and said, "Kevin... there's no point in staying here now. Staying here in broad daylight could be even more dangerous. Our torches have gone out, and both of us are losing our strength. We must return to the palace. From there, we'll formulate a grand plan and send our spies to all the tribal territories. Wandering like this, we'll never find Genia."
Kevin nodded with a heavy heart. He knew Alex was right. With tired, worn steps, they climbed the same narrow, secret staircase and crossed the dense forest, returning to Alex's palace.
As they entered the palace, a strange sadness and silence descended upon them, for they had left behind the one they had accompanied. Meanwhile, far from all this activity, a different commotion was taking place in the Black Tiger Clan's vast and fearsome stronghold.
In the clan's main vaulted chamber, their eldest brother, Rexon, sat on a large throne.
Rexon was a ruthless, powerful, and strategic warrior and chief whose very name made all the clans of the Beast World tremble. He wore tiger skin armour on his broad chest, and his eyes always held a cold, murderous glint.
Just then, the heavy door of the chamber opened, and the same dark shadow—the magical assassin who had attacked Genia at the mouth of the chasm—limped into the chamber. Two more spies followed. They all knelt before Rexon's throne. "Chief!"
The dark shadow said in a heavy, trembling voice. "The task is done. But the situation is more complicated than we anticipated."
Rexon asked in his deep, hoarse voice, "Did you catch the girl the cowards from the Rabbit Clan had promised to send to me? The girl who ran away from the forest?"
Ever since James had informed Rexon that Kevin had brought a girl with him to the Black Tiger Clan, who might be the same girl he had ordered from the Rabbit Clan, He had sent his men to Kevin's territory to keep a close watch on Kevin and the girl's movements. But instead of using his own soldiers, he had sent his spies from the Snake, Eagle, and Wolf clans to keep an eye on them.
These spies had been prowling around Kevin and Alex's territory ever since the three of them were having dinner together. To avoid suspicion from Alex and Kevin, Rexon had even called them for a special consultation to check if an intruder had entered the clan. But Rexon had to hide all this not only from Kevin and Alex but also to ensure that Shantanu did not get a whiff of it. Rexon knew full well that James wanted to defeat all the brothers and become the leader of the Black Tiger Clan. Therefore, he kept the girl with him, hiding her from the three of them, and through her he intended to sire an heir.
James, on the other hand, has no clue about this, and Kevin and Alex continue searching for Genia in the Snake, Eagle, and Wolf clans. The dark shadow bowed its head and said, "Chief, that girl wasn't just the runaway from the Rabbit clan. In fact, she lied to your younger brother, claiming she was from the Monkey clan, and kept her face hidden, so no one knew about her. She was currently under the protection of your younger brother, Kevin. Furthermore, from what I've heard, your younger brothers, Alex and Kevin, fought over that girl because they both wanted to be her mate."
Rexon's eyes burned with anger. He clenched the handle of his throne so hard that the wood cracked. "What? Kevin and Alex? They both want to be the mates of the girl I've been searching for all over the area? So the girl Kevin kept with him, claiming she belonged to the Monkey Clan, was my target!"
"Yes, Chief," the spy continued. "The girl Third Prince Kevin thought was from the Monkey Clan is actually from the Rabbit Clan. We've learned that she concealed her identity from Kevin to escape your clutches. And last night, when Kevin discovered her lie, they had a huge fight. Kevin ran to the deep ravine, the dark well. The girl and Alex came forward to stop Kevin, but they got into an argument, and in the process, the girl accidentally fell into the ravine. When we attacked her with the magic mace, she fell straight into it."
Rexon smiled a cold, cruel smile. He had sensed that the girl, whom he had only considered a simple gift from Rabbit Clan, had become the cause of the rift between his two brothers. He understood all the details of the incident—how the girl had escaped after knocking the soldiers unconscious, how Kevin had saved her, and how she had staged the Monkey Clan's false pretence.
But neither the dark shadow nor Rexon himself had the slightest idea that the spirit of Guardian Andromeda resided within the girl. They were completely unaware that she came from another world and possessed magical powers capable of changing the fate of this entire world. To Rexon, she was still just a cunning girl from the Rabbit Clan who dared to challenge the authority of the leader of the Black Tiger Clan.
Rexon stood up from his throne. His massive shadow spread across the room. He looked at his commander and commanded in a thunderous voice, "Kevin and Alex have betrayed my clan by concealing my clan's estate from me. That girl who fell into the ditch is not dead, because there's something strange about that girl from the Rabbit Clan that allowed her to elude the soldiers. Immediately activate our spies from the Snake Clan and Eagle Clan. I need that girl, dead or alive, at all costs. And keep a close eye on my two brothers. The game is about to get even more interesting."
The entire room echoed with Rexon's cruel laughter, while far away in the palace, Kevin and Alex were completely unaware that their eldest brother had now woven a terrible trap against them.
The dim light of a torch flickered in a dark and damp cave hidden behind the black stones at the bottom of the moat. Four men stood around Genia, lying unconscious on the ground.
Two wore the dark-green robes of the Snake Clan and had bandages carved like snake scales on their faces, while the other two wore the wings of giant beast birds and gilded armour of the Eagle Clan. The four appeared to be loyal soldiers and spies of Rexon, but their conversations told a different story.
"Quick! Tie her hands and feet and take her to that secret basement off the main road," whispered a tall man disguised as an Eagle Clan member. His voice betrayed no loyalty to Rexon, but rather a strange whiff of intrigue.