Chapter Eleven

I saw a cockroach as big as my two thumbs combined. It freaked me out at first until Nana accidentally stepped onto it, making a loud crunch noise. My face turned to a cringe by such disgusting sight.

"Do you my any chance have a fear of cockroaches, Sage?" giggled Chihiro, trying his best not to burst into laughing tears.

"No not at all," I covered my red face from embarrassment; I once had a terrible experience with cockroaches.

"You two hurry up. You both are two slow and are dragging our team's overall speed down! Now is not the time to discuss fears," snapped Nana, trying to change the topic. "We need to quickly assist Mao before the soldiers reach her cottage."

Looking up from the ground, Michael and Snowflake were already miles ahead of us.

Giving Chihiro a smirk, I dashed off and tagged along with Michael, Snowflake and Nana leaving Chihiro panting behind.

As we descended deeper into the forest, I felt myself become depressed in various ways. I am not used to this new environment since I often stay in the brightest light possible, and occasionally took short rests before catching up to the rest.

"You okay, Sage?" Nana asked worried.

I took another break to catch my breath. I inhaled and exhaled heavily before replying," I'm alright. Don't worry about me."

Shortly afterwards, an enormous forest demon ascended from the ground below us, and knocked me down onto the ground.

"What the heck!" Michael shouted, as shocked as everyone else that a creature came out of nowhere and attacked me.

Nana quickly took out her orb, absorbed as much of its power as she could within a small time limit, and formed a huge air bow and arrow with her bare hands. Pulling the air string back, she shot the demon driving it back several meters and it crashed its back into a tree, knocking it over.

Crash

The demon was still unharmed. It quickly got back up onto its feet, and charged at Nana, knocking her away as well. I cried as I watch this scene from where I lay lying almost lifeless. I felt useless in the current state I am.

Michael's eyes suddenly turned bright electric yellow, and electrons ran aimlessly around him. "I will not forgive you for harming my sisters!" roared Michael.

Chihiro quickly held Michael's hands tightly, and they both fused together, transforming into a gigantic thunder-earth god.

Nana crawled her way towards me and stayed by my side. The aura around the newly created thunder-earth god sent electric shock waves down into the earth, and up again, dragging the demon down to where he came from. It roared its heart out before being sealed away into the earth's core. It left a quiet yet eerie atmosphere behind, and shortly after the demon's disappearance, the trees around us began to change its bark into a deep dark blood red colour, and the winds died out.

"What's going on?" I asked Nana with my eyes fixed onto the thunder-earth god. "Are we just going to die here?"

Nana stroked my hair gently and said, "Of course we won't die so easily Sage. We are souls, and we still have hundreds of years more to live. What could possibly happen to us?"

I suddenly heard a deathly spine-chilling moaning sound coming from deep within the forest. Snowflake hopped over to us and nudged Nana's orb three times, and began glowing a bright green colour and transformed into her human combat form. It is really rare for Snowflake to ever need to transform into such state, in fact so rare that I cannot even remember the last time she even transformed to anything at all. The only time Snowflake will ever transform is when a dangerous enemy is approaching, and that time is now.

Seconds after Snowflake's transformation, a dozen forest demons, much bigger than the one which attacked us before, emerged from the ground and each of them exhaled an eardrum bursting roar. Saliva dribbled from their bloody mouths as they circled around us.

Moving as fast as both Nana and I could into the centre of Snowflake and the thunder-earth god, the forest demons, itching for a kill, charged at us. Snowflake and the thunder-earth god rapid punched each demon they could, however after eliminating one demon, three more spawned. It was clear to me now that this is going to be the day of our death. Snowflake and the thunder-earth god alone are not strong enough to ward off these monsters.

"Sage, if we all die here today," began Nana, tears pouring down from her dark brown eyes. "I'd just like to say that, I am sorry for hating you so much. I've learnt by now that you are truly a really nice soul. I really regret damaging your self esteem when I called you those names. It is until now that I realize how much of a terrible bitch I really am."

The words which left Nana's mouth really touched my heart. My eyes blurred with tears, and I felt myself cry even more as I recall all the enjoyable moments both Nana and I shared together, and I smiled at her for the first time in a hundred years.

"What is all this dear disciples?" spoke a familiar voice.

All the commotion stopped; Snowflake, the thunder-earth god and the demons put down their beaten fists, and looked up to Mao who sat cross-legged on panda's head.

"I only told you stupid demons to attack the evil trespassers not our dear siblings!" she scolded even more, before hopping off Panda and walked slowly to the thunder-earth god who broke back into its original form of just Michael and Chihiro.

"Mao, nice to see you again," said Chihiro. His face was solid like a rock. Michael wore the same facial expression.

"Chihiro," began Michael, "next time stop me before I fuse together with someone so powerful like you."

Chihiro just nodded his head, and snapped out of his stoned state. Snowflake turned back into a cute little bunny and stayed still.

"What happened to them?" asked Mao pointing in our direction. Chihiro and Michael turned their heads and faced us before running over to assist us.

Nana stood up from the ground, dusted her dress and said in a calm voice," Your demons caused all this mess Mao. I suggest you alter their brains a bit before they destroy the whole forest."

Mao sighed and hopped back onto Panda. She indicated for us to follow her back to her cottage for an apology treat.