"Rain? How co?" Tencent exclaid, curious about the sudden changes in the weather.
"And these bubbles?" He added, examining each of the thin spheres of liquid floating up in the air; they differed in sizes and were moving across the swamp with no specific direction.
"Try poking one and see it for yourself," Zeno said while shuffling the black dice around his palm.
Out of curiosity, Tencent listened to the demon’s hint and stuck his tongue out to prick the bubble.
He searched for the smallest one around him, thinking that the bigger it got, the worse it would be.
"I won’t die just by touching it, right?" He asked with his other head looking at Zeno.
Then the demon nodded, but the smile on his face made Tencent think twice. He retracted his tongue, but as he moved a little backward to dodge the gobs of bubbles, he accidentally bumped his behind into one.
And as soon as it burst, a huge explosion of water blasted Tencent away, but it didn’t stop right there; the destructive shattering continued like a chain reaction from one bubble to another. It only stopped after destroying half of the swamp’s terrain.
After tumbling several ters away, Tencent felt imnse pain coming from his back, and the mont he took a second to look at it, he saw chains made of water wrapping around his body.
Then he tried to move his back, but his eyes widened upon noticing that he couldn’t even make it budge.
’I’m stuck,’ he thought before searching for where the demon was to ask what happened to him.
"Your scales are pretty good for them to endure that explosion," Zeno said from afar while still fidgeting with the black dice.
"What is this thing? It prevents from moving!" Tencent yelled, asking for his condition.
"Oh! It’s a chain!" Zeno replied, which made the snake sighed.
"I know, but why does it stick into ?" Tencent shouted, and his other head tried to bite the chain, but his snout just passed through it.
’I can’t even hold it; it has the sa properties as running water!’ He thought.
"There’s no way to free yourself from those shackles. With plenty of source material to maintain this domain, it can hold you right there for several days at most," Zeno explained.
Then he tapped his head out of nowhere as if he forgot sothing, and this action of his captured Tencent’s attention.
"What is it now?" He asked.
"It’s still not over, but don’t worry! I know you’re going to survive a few more explosions," Zeno replied.
Tencent looked behind him right away upon hearing the demon, and then he gulped after seeing several bubbles wiggling while slowly coming towards him in a consecutive manner.
Afterward, upon reaching a certain distance, the spheres of liquid burst their way into the chain as if a force attracted and pulled them closer.
A series of explosions followed, and Tencent cried in pain. The splashes of water that ca out of the bubbles enveloped the giant monster before they beca another set of chains wrapping around his entire body.
Tencent’s head rang, spinning in circles. He lost his strength and even the ability to complain to the demon. There were no visible wounds on his body, yet every part of him was aching deep within.
anwhile, Zeno shook his head and directed his gaze towards the hundreds of rats watching the scenes unfold from afar.
"Now then, shall we start?" He uttered.
The rats began to run in a certain direction upon noticing that the demon was now staring at them. They moved so fast while keeping an eye out not to pop any of the bubbles scattered across the place.
. . . . .
The rain was still pouring hard when the duke and his group arrived at the center of the swamp.
Jez activated his Legacy, and two giant palms appeared above them, protecting themselves from the heavy rainfall.
"Weird, after staying here for so long, yet it’s my first ti experiencing so kind of rain," Heaire uttered while observing the raging droplets of liquid.
Then she looked below and noticed that the water level had dropped lower than she rembered.
"This is... It’s a Legacy, we’re inside a domain!" Jez exclaid, notifying his companions about the unusual type of energy surrounding them.
"Who’s the owner?" The man with the machete asked all of a sudden, his eyes sparkling upon the ntion of domain.
"Maybe that silver-haired demon?" Royle shared his thoughts, but the duke rejected the idea.
"Impossible! The black lightning from earlier is also a Legacy, so that won’t do," he uttered.
"Hmnn, that explains why I can’t sense any lightning elent from him like Allesanah told us," the Ruby-class rcenary blurted out while nodding.
With the exclusion of the psychopomp, the group debated with themselves about the demon’s real Legacy. anwhile, Heaire looked at them with a curious expression.
’What a bunch of fools,’ she thought.
Afterward, they moved a little deeper inside the swamp, and hundreds of bubbles greeted them. The Ruby class wanted to poke the bubbles, but Jez warned them not to.
"We’re inside an unknown domain; don’t touch anything you see without knowing what it is first!" He said.
Then they heard the unusual sounds of a weapon clashing against so kind of hard material. They started to look around but found nothing, so they used their other senses to locate where the fight was currently ongoing.
Afterward, Royle couldn’t help but shake his head as he stared at the destruction in front of them. The heavy rain gave them a hard ti seeing around, yet they were certain that a large portion of the swamp was destroyed beyond recognition, and they still had no idea what really happened there.
"It’s that demon’s doing, I presu," said the man with the machete.
No one comnted from their group, then the next second, Jez ran to his left side without saying a thing; he deactivated his Legacy, and the rest of the group chose to follow him except for Heaire. She remained standing there while staring above. The falling droplets of water ran down her cheeks, and the dried blood from the wounds on her arms slowly lted and dripped on the ground.
She was deep in thought when Jez yelled, signaling for her to co.
"Over here!" He said.
Then she dashed towards the group of humans while evading the bubbles, and upon coming closer, she noticed the huge lump of a black thing beside them.
"Tencent?" She murmured.
With just his black scales alone, she imdiately recognized the monster, even from afar.
"What happened to you?" She asked after arriving right behind the snake; however, she received no reply.
"He’s unconscious," Royle uttered upon checking the snake’s eyes.
She laid her eyes on the monster and saw the chains made of water wrapping around his body. It was not that visible and was hard to see due to the constant rainfall.
The next second, they heard a loud shriek not far from the place, and all of them went where the noise ca from.
Afterward, they saw two individuals fighting, aiming for each other’s heads despite the bad weather.
"T-That’s him, that demon!" The man with the machete exclaid while pointing one of his fingers to Zeno.
"Is that a rat? That’s disgusting!" He added, while the three people showed no reaction.
. . . . .
Zeno watched as the hundreds of monsters in front of him turned into just one entity with a creepy-looking appearance.
"Now I understand why I couldn’t sense life in any of the rats here. They all belong to one body," Zeno said as he waited for the monster’s transformation to finish.
And after a few seconds, the colony of rats completely vanished, and a creature with several eyes protruding from its socket stepped out of the swamp.
The monster had a thick, powerful tail that had several thorns lining both of its sides and was whipping up in the air.
"Sorry for the late introduction! I am the sole ruler of this place! Ratniss," the monster spoke as he stepped forward and smiled, revealing his razor-sharp teeth.
"Ruler? Even if you’re a deity’s child or sothing, I don’t care," Zeno said, teasing the creature.
Then he raised his hand and flicked his finger in the monster’s direction, and a single bubble was hurled at Ratniss’ body.
The sphere of liquid exploded as soon as it touched the monster’s fur, and like a domino effect, the rest of the bubbles still surrounding him burst, and another series of explosions occurred. Yet, the monster didn’t even move from his position and still had the courage to mock the demon after enduring the attack.
"That tickles," he said, grinning in satisfaction.
Then he looked at the chains wrapping around him. He tried to move his arms, and upon finding it difficult, he laughed.
The next second, the whole of his body reverted into hundreds of rats like earlier, which shattered the chains of water during the process.
. . . . .
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