“I mean…” Liam trailed off. “I mean… she loves you. More than anything in the world. You’re lucky to have a girl like that.”
“Right…” James could tell when Liam was dodging something, and Liam knew it. They were twins. They knew one another’s tells better than anyone else ever could.
They resumed their path in silence. Liam debated whether keeping Alyssa’s secret like that was the right choice or not. Perhaps she wanted to be the one to break the news to James.
Alternatively, there was the chance that spoiling that surprise for James would change nothing.
I don’t think I want to know what James would choose if given the choice.
At the end of the long corridor, a beautiful, green conservatory opened before them.
The source of the wailing awaited them at the heart of the chamber, presented to them upon a bed of clovers and tiny, white wildflowers.
“The hell is this…?” James regarded the wailing beast with disgust.
Crystalline vines with heavy thorns tangled around a large humanoid mob. Each diamond-like thorn was as big as Liam’s forearm, and most of them dug deep into the mob’s pallid flesh.
The mob curled and writhed against its binds. Ceaseless efforts to escape the painful state had created a large, shallow pool of dark blood beneath it. Crushed greens and flowers drowned under coagulated blood.
Liam felt an uncomfortable twinge of something in his chest. He had watched plenty of mobs die, and he had slain and hunted more than he could count. However, Liam had never seen one bound like this and left to suffer slowly.
When he idly glanced back to the entrance from which they came, he noticed writing on the wall in glistening white paint: “Remember why you’re here.”
Liam squinted at the hurried penmanship.
Had… she written this? What does she intend by it? Remember that exalts kill beasts? Then why present one on a platter to the hunters?
“James,” Liam began, warily.
James summoned an ice lance and made his way toward the creature.
“Looks like an easy target,” James said of the withering beast. “Let’s not leave our darling Chevalier waiting—”
A thorny vine lashed out from the mob and cut his words short. James hit the ground with a curse and then conjured ice pillars around himself to grab hold of. The vines dragged him toward the wailing beast, who thrashed against its binds in a violent surge of adrenaline.
Before James could make his own attempt at cutting his way free, thick thorns jutted out from the thick vines and began digging into James’s suit. Veins of earthy red and copper spread across his armor. The thorns dug into his sentisuit, threatening to puncture his body.
“Wh-what the hell is this?!” James struggled against the thorny binds.
Liam rushed after his brother, conjuring a metal blade. He attempted to sever the vines. Upon contact, however, the blade rusted over and flaked apart into dust.
Rust? Why is it rusting?
A possible answer flit through his mind. Liam grabbed the tactical knife stored within his suit and made another attempt to cut the vines. No luck. However, the tactical knife didn’t rust over and disintegrate on contact.
Lucidium-transmuted metal breaks down when in contact with these vines… but real metal has no reaction to it.
What does this to lucidium—seilliancrist…!
“James, don’t move! The more friction you give it, the faster it’ll rip through your suit,” Liam called. “Redirect your lucidium reserves into repairs and damage mitigation!”
“This… bitch!” James grit his teeth in frustration as a flurry of spiked ice formed around him—he was livid and it was coming out in his element. James was deathly claustrophobic, and this trap preyed upon his panic.
“James, I’m not playing! Those thorns are made of seilliancrist—seilliancrist rapidly breaks down lucidium on contact.”
“The hell are you trying to tell me here!?”
“Our suits are made with polymerized lucidium, James! Those thorns are going to keep digging into your suit if you don’t hold still and mitigate the damage. Friction will only corrode your suit faster.”
“Damn it…!” James conceded, his breaths hastened with anxiety. The UI in his visor lit up with alerts and warnings of suit damage. James exhaled. “I… I’ve got a minute and thirty-seven seconds worth of LCR before my suit’s punctured in like, sixty places. These things are digging in fast. Whatever bright idea you’ve got, Professor, you better make it quick.”
A minute and thirty-seven seconds provided you don’t have another outburst with the ice and drain your LCR.
Keep your head on your damn shoulders.
Liam turned back to the beast and approached with caution. As he neared, he could make out the shape of an of orb glowing deep beneath the flesh of the creature’s breast. A faint, scarlet pulse ghosted through translucent skin.
So, she wants me to cut that orb from this thing and place it in the statue…
Liam searched for any hint of a trap. It felt too easy to just drive a knife into the thing and cut the orb out.
Following the vines between the creature and his brother, Liam spotted the source of each thorny tendril. They slithered out through the floor beneath the pool of blood, masked by all the other scarlet-stained flora that blossomed around the wilting beast.
The mob was just as much a victim to those vines as James was.
You’re not here because you want to be, are you?
Liam inched closer. The mob’s cries rattled through the chamber and a dull headache swelled in his skull. The closer he got, the tighter the vines crushed James, digging each thorn even deeper.
As his knife hovered over the beast’s translucent flesh, Liam paused.
One bloody, crystalline thorn pressed into its side caught his eye. It was different from the countless others in the diamond vine bramble. Darker, less moonstone-hued like the rest of the vines. More like a thorn carved of obsidian.
Several of the thorns puncturing the beast stood out in that very same way. Perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps there was a reason.
Regardless, the obsidian thorn was close enough for Liam to grab. The temptation to see what would
