"Alerya… what the hell happened here!" shouted Kael right after seeing the princess coming from the alley. She remained serious; it felt like her eyes were looking directly at everyone.
"We should not speak here… let's return to the quarters and I'll explain everything to you," said her after turning around. Everyone started to follow her silently.
"C'mon Snowy… let's go," said Darian as he got up from the ground and grabbed Snowy in his hand. He did not know what was happening, so he wanted to keep the small fox near him.
Alerya noticed everyone was scared and confused, but they could not speak outside; they might find them.
"Alerya… why the hell can't you tell us everything! We have to know what the hell is happening! Why are we going directly into the quarters? What happened to the city?" asked Kael, as you could tell he was getting really stressed. Vane positioned a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down, but it could barely work.
"We can't stop here right now… the seedlings may find us," said Alerya as she immediately put a hand up to stop everyone from walking. They heard some footsteps, but they weren't human.
In fact, it sounded like some roots were jumping up and down the street, and suddenly, at the end of the alley, in the middle of the street, they saw one of these creatures.
It wasn't really big; it was about the size of an apple. Its skin resembled a greenish-black plant peel. Inside of it, it was totally black; you could not tell what was inside its body. At the center of its small body, it had a sort of heart, it was semi-transparent and yellow-green. Darian thought that it felt like a battery. This creature had four small limbs that resembled those of an insect.
"What is that…" whispered Kael, but the creature heard them, and it turned towards the group. As they watched the face of the creature, it had three eyes, but there weren't any pupils; in fact, they were just three holes that had the shape of a triangle.
This creature was called a seedling, and the moment it noticed the group, it immediately rushed towards them, jumping. You could not tell what it was thinking, if the creature was happy to do that or not, it looked like this was its only purpose: to rush into people's bodies.
"Attention!" shouted Alerya as she pressed one of the buttons on top of her armor. One of the spikes inside of it pierced into her body. As blood dripped on her hand, she created a small blade. As she rushed towards the creature, she completely cut it down.
As the creature was pierced by the sword, it exploded. "Attention!" shouted her again. Allocen summoned his golem to defend everyone from the plants that could still move and were all over the golem.
"Everyone come here! Allocen, retrieve your golem!!" shouted her. Everyone immediately rushed towards her. Allocen stayed behind. Once he realized that everyone was far enough away, he called back his golem. As the creature retreated underground, the plants remained on the ground for about five more seconds before they actually withered and could not move anymore.
Everyone remained silent. They were scared of what they had just seen. 'What the hell was that creature… and was that a battery inside of it??' thought Darian, as he could not lose focus right now. He did not know what these creatures could actually do, so he couldn't stop focusing on them.
As the group reached the Veilguards' quarters, Alerya immediately opened the door. "Inside now!" shouted her. Only after everyone was inside the building did she close the door behind her.
"Alerya… are we really safe now?" asked Darian, breathing heavily and leaving Snowy on the ground.
"Yes, these creatures can't enter the building as long as the door is closed," said her as she started to lead the way towards the meeting room, where Lara was, extremely tired, in fact, she was lying on the sofa.
After she noticed everyone in the room, she got up, although she could barely stand. She was so tired that she could fall asleep at any moment.
"Alerya… please explain yourself, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" shouted Kael, going crazy. Liro, Darian, and Vane sat down on the sofa in front of Lara's, leaving her only that one. Allocen remained on his feet behind their sofa.
Kael was the only one who could not calm down. He wanted to know the truth about what was happening in the city, it all felt too surreal.
As Alerya sat down at the desk, she began to explain everything. "As you might have heard before, these creatures are called seedlings. They are the main reason most of the people turned into plants," Alerya began to explain. Suddenly, Lara noticed that she was slightly hurt, probably because of the use of her power.
"D-Do you need help, Princess? I-I can heal you…" said her as she could barely stand up. Alerya, noticing that she was getting up from the sofa, immediately stopped her. "Please rest, Lara… you can barely stand on your feet," said Alerya, stopping her. Lara thought that she was right and decided to lie down on the sofa.
"As I was saying, these creatures are called seedlings, and they started to wander inside the city around half a week ago," Alerya returned to explain. Everyone focused on what she was saying, Kael still on his feet, stressed.
"At first, they didn't do anything… but suddenly, they became too many," said her as she started to panic. "There were around 500…" Hearing this number, everyone felt surprised. 'This many? How is this even possible…' thought Darian, as he had too many questions and only a few answers.
"…Suddenly, each of these creatures entered into a person's body, and at first, their feet became plant-like; they couldn't move anymore. The more hours passed, the more their bodies turned into plants. Lara tried countless ways, but it wasn't working," said her as she gave a look towards Lara, who was lying on the sofa, collapsed from the work.
"Is she this tired because she kept healing them nonstop? How can her soul keep up?" asked Vane, remembering that the last time he, Darian, and Liro left the city, she could barely use magic.
"She hasn't fully recovered her soul yet, but it isn't the main problem," answered Alerya as she looked at the ground; her eyes were scared. "She tried to heal the people with her magic, but nothing changed. It is impossible to remove the curse," added Alerya.
"Vane and Kael tried to cut them… but they kept growing. How is this possible?" asked Darian. Alerya shook her head, not knowing how to remove the curse. "From what we knew, the curse is literally impossible to remove," said her as she got up from her desk and went for a moment near the closet next to it.
From there, she grabbed some papers and put them on the small table between the two sofas. Everyone looked at them carefully. The papers had the names of three people. Everyone recognized two of them — they were Octavia and Dane, the ones they fought before. The other name was Gyardibus; no one knew who it was.
"I grabbed these from the archives of the city… two of them are alterids, while the other one can use fire magic." Kael grabbed the paper of Octavia, Kael and Liro looked over the paper of Dane, while Darian, with Allocen still behind him, looked at the paper of Gyardibus.
"These are the three people who are working together. We still don't know their main purpose or why they are attacking Therya," said Alerya. She then went silent and gave time to the others to read the papers.
From what everyone noticed, what was written was really simple: the fact that they were born in Therya, Octavia 18 years ago, Dane 25 years ago, and Gyardibus 30 years ago. The other parts weren't really important; the most important thing was their powers.
Octavia had written "fire magic." She wasn't an alterid; she could freely use fire magic. Dane had the power called Devourer's Pact, not much was written, the only important thing being that he could summon a creature from a blue portal.
Gyardibus had the power called Biocharge. Also for him, not much was written, the only important thing being that he could create these small creatures, the seedlings, which could fuse with the body of a creature and start to eat it slowly until it became a statue entirely made of plants.
"Sadly, we don't usually write much in these… but at least we know who the enemies are, even if we don't know if they're working with other people…" said her. Everyone finished reading and left the papers on the small table.
"So? Should we try to investigate and destroy them? Do we know where they are hiding?" asked Kael. Alerya shook her head. "Sadly, no… but we know that their main objective is the statues," said her as she turned towards Lara, who had completely fallen asleep.
"As I told you, Lara was trying to heal them, but once she realized that her magic was useless, she decided to study and see how she could do it… but that's when it happened," said her, speaking with a sad tone.
"Dane was standing in front of the hospital. As he opened the portal, his creature totally destroyed the building, with the only purpose of grabbing the statue. Many doctors were gravely injured, and Lara has been completely drained in these last four days. She only focused on healing them and didn't even sleep," said her as she got next to the sofa where Lara was sleeping and sat down next to her, patting her head.
"Alright, tomorrow then we will start to explore, but have you obliged the people not to go out?" asked Kael. Alerya turned her eyes towards him. "Yes, as long as the people don't go out of their houses, the seedlings can't enter, but as you saw before…" answered her, referring to the fact that someone went out and got eaten by the seedlings. Everyone turned quiet.
"By the way, now you should all go back to your rooms. Tomorrow you should start your exploration to find their base," said her. Everyone nodded their heads and waved at them.
"I'm so tired, guys… I guess I'll go to sleep. I've missed my bed here so much," said Vane. It looked like he didn't feel the weight of what was happening; he was only glad to be back in Therya. Kael decided to stay in the room with Alerya, asking multiple questions and explaining how things went in the war — though he didn't mention that a war would happen in a month in Yalemba. It didn't seem the right moment.
"Guess I'll go to sleep too, Darian. This completely destroyed me. I need to rest," said Liro. Darian nodded and waved at him. Together with Snowy, he returned to his old bed. He completely collapsed on the bed, Snowy curling up beside him.
'I can't believe it… we just got back, and we already have to fight? We were all happy to be back. I have been away for so long… now that we have returned? Total chaos,' thought Darian as he lay on the bed. He didn't know what to think; it felt extremely sad.
'If I feel this way… I can't imagine the others. I mean, this isn't my city; I wasn't born here. While Liro and the others have… I can't imagine how they're feeling,' thought him again. He kept thinking about Kael and how stressed he looked.
'I hope we will arrive in time in Yalemba… or else we might lose this war and the other too…' thought Darian as he, lost in his thoughts, fell asleep.
Somewhere else, Octavia and Dane returned to their hidden base.
"Boss, we brought another of the statues!" said Octavia. As she got closer to the base, countless statues were at the front; they were all the people who had turned into plants before.
"Boss, they arrived… we must begin," said Dane as he noticed the boss coming out from the house. He had dark skin, and his shirt was black and purple. One of his eyes was green, the other yellow, each of them extremely similar to the color of the battery the seedlings had inside their bodies.
"Oh, perfect… finally my garden will be able to grow," said him as he couldn't hold back from excitement and grabbed the statue, thinking of a place to put it.