Metamorphosis: Seven Sins VIX - Demanding Decisions

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Chapter 9 – Demanding Decisions

The meeting with Duruhos didn’t last much longer after Sanguis and Sera had been assigned to each other. The hybrids went their separate ways, except for Cindy, who stayed behind. Sanguis noticed that a lot of them gave Sera dark looks on their way out, but she didn’t seem to notice. Maybe she was used to it.

“Keep up please, Sanguis,” she called to him now, albeit quietly. He came out of his thoughts and saw her standing several meters in front of him. Quickly, he scampered forward on his new pair of legs to rejoin her.

“You’re adapting to your transformation well,” Sera commented, her face still retaining that neutral expression. “It was easy for me to learn how to walk, because my kind already walks on two legs… but it can’t have been the same way for you, because you’re a leviathan.”

“Sssss…” he replied.

“Am I bothering you?” she asked, ducking her head. “Sorry… I need to learn how to be a better caretaker.”

Truthfully, Sanguis didn’t mind her. Sure, she looked weak and kind of appetizing, but he figured that much stronger hybrids wouldn’t like it if he tried anything – and at least she wasn’t annoying, like the Winged Female from earlier, Melody.

“A-Anyway,” Sera continued, “I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I’m Sera, and it’s nice to meet you. I hope I can properly help you like Duruhos wants me to… he’s the only one that has faith in me. Everyone else thinks I’m just evil.”

Sanguis blinked. That was an odd assumption to make, in his opinion.

“I am an Unknown,” she explained, flicking her tail uncomfortably. The long red point on the end gleamed brightly in the sun. “We’re extraordinarily powerful monsters that have existed for many thousands of years. I’m not sure if that means anything to you or not… but because of our power… and our terrible rage… other monsters shun us. They say we’re not supposed to exist…”

He watched as the Unknown-girl self-consciously grabbed her wrist and flexed her wings as if she wanted nothing more than to wrap them around herself and hide away from the rest of the world. He said nothing. Even if he could eventually figure out how to speak to her – which he would not, because there was no way he was becoming any more like a Two-Legs than he already was – then what could he say? He had never heard of an Unknown, and he had never experienced such a level of despair as what she had sunk into, so making her feel better was out of the question.

Instead, he decided that staying still and not doing anything was a good solution.

“I’m sorry for bothering you with my problems,” Sera apologized to him. “I hope Duruhos was right when he said that taking care of you would help me find purpose in my life…”

Hesitantly, she extended her hand and reached out to touch Sanguis’ shoulder. He saw the black, claw-like nails coming for him and immediately reacted – fins up, tongue out, throat vibrating, the whole shebang.

“Okay, you’re not comfortable with being touched,” she sighed, grabbing her wrist again. “Just one more thing we have in common, I suppose…”

Sanguis calmed down and moved closer to her, a question in his burning orange eyes. Weren’t they going somewhere?

“I suppose we should get moving,” she told him. “I wanted to ask Sue about something. I always go to her when I need advice… have you met her?”

Yes, the name did seem familiar to Sanguis. She was the one he thought of as the Flower Head because of her frilly fins.

Sera continued to lead her new charge down the mostly abandoned streets of Loc Lac City, only crossing paths with another hybrids once or twice. After all, there were only so many of them, despite frequent scouting missions across the Great Continent. Whenever they did meet another hybrid, the passersby would always move out of Sera’s way and glare harshly at her. She walked with a sort of confidence that disguised her timid personality, as if she knew perfectly well that others would step aside for her. Her sad eyes always stared directly ahead, completely ignoring their harsh looks.

The walk lasted for about ten minutes. Sera slipped into a narrow, tunnel-like passageway that led downwards, beneath the ground. Sanguis followed her with renewed energy, eager to be back in the dark. He stumbled at first on the staircase, expecting a smooth incline instead of a series of steps, but adjusted rapidly and kept his keen night vision on the Unknown-girl’s tail and back. The farther down they walked, the cooler it got, until Sanguis was at last comfortable. The desert heat on the city streets had been almost overwhelming.

At last, they emerged in a large chamber dominated by the strange remnants of human habitation. Sanguis did not know this, but he was standing amongst the ruins of Loc Lac’s biggest smithy. In the days of the Human-Monster War, it would have been bright, hot, and busy here as a squad of Wyverians pounded metal and monster scales into weapons and armor for hunters. But now… now it was dark, cool, and deserted.

“Sue lives down here to get away from the dryness of the Great Desert,” Sera explained. Although her voice was as soft as always, it echoed in the vast empty space. “The climate here isn’t for her… she prefers the temperate weather of the Misty Peaks where she was born, or so she tells me. She talks about her homeland a lot… I wonder if she sometimes gets homesick.”

Greyish hair flopped atop Sanguis’ head as he shook it in disbelief. Although he understood the language, there were so many words that the hybrids used which he did not know the meaning of. ‘Homesick’ was one. He had a feeling it had to do with another emotion he did not understand.

A soft sound came from off to the left, and both of them turned to see its source emerge from behind a dusty shelf. Their keen eyes picked out the glint of pink silk, and the light reflected off of bubbles skating over the pavement – yes, it was without a doubt the Elite they were looking for.

“Ah, Sera,” Sue smiled, bowing. “I have been expecting you. The Pond told me that Duruhos recommended you as a caretaker, so I knew that you would be here soon with questions for me.”

“Sssss…” hissed Sanguis, flicking his tongue out. He could taste the flowery woman’s scent as well as he could see her in the near pitch-darkness. He didn’t know how to describe her odd smell, but he did know that it was very… clean.

The Tamamitsune-woman’s fins fluttered when she heard the sound. “So it was the newcomer,” she said, more to herself than Sera. “I must confess, I am most curious as to why Duruhos assigned this mysterious creature to one such as yourself.”

“He’s a Baruragaru,” she explained somewhat meekly. “A monster not native to the Great Continent. His name is Sanguis. And… and I’m still not entirely sure why Duruhos asked me first. He said I needed help as much as Sanguis did, but…”

A delicate finger with a claw sharper than a fishhook was placed on her lips, quieting her. “Hush, child,” Sue crooned. “I know you come to me when you have questions, and as always, the Pond will hold the answers. Now come, and bring your friend.”

She promptly vanished back behind the shelf, leaving nothing but bubbles in her place.

“Come with me, Sanguis,” Sera told him, starting forward. “If you have questions, too, then Sue will answer them for you. She’s wonderful…”

Her dark outfit blending in perfectly with the shadows, she followed in Sue’s footsteps, not reacting when the bubbles on the floor popped and splattered soap on her leggings. She slipped through the gap between the shelf and the wall, knowing the secret passage was there before she saw it. Sanguis darted after her, easily squeezing through the tight space.

The passageway was much narrower than the stairway they had taken to reach the smithy. Sanguis felt right at home, even though he wasn’t as good with small spaces as he used to be. His new human body wasn’t sinuous enough for the job, but he still managed to do so comfortably.

Eventually, the downwards-sloping tunnel opened up into a relatively cramped, circular chamber lit by a single lantern that dangled from a hook on the ceiling. Sue was sitting on the floor, with her knees in front and her feet underneath her, at the edge of the circle of light produced by the lantern above. In front of her was a small pool of clear water.

“Come, sit with me,” Sue said, looking up from her inspection of the pool.

Sera stepped forward and sat down on the opposite side of the pool without hesitation. After a second, Sanguis crept forward and crouched on his hands and knees, dipping his head close to the surface of the water and flicking his tongue out curiously.

“This is her Pond,” Sera whispered, prompting him to raise his head to stare blankly at her. “She can see things in it… things like the answers to troublesome questions, or glimpses of the uncertain future.”

“Indeed,” the Tamamitsune-woman replied, giving her a nod. “But have I ever told you why that is?”

Only silence was her answer.

“My kind has always had a special affinity for the water,” she elaborated, casting her eyes back down to the Pond. “We have always guarded the rivers and lakes in the mountainous forests of the Misty Peaks, my kin and I, protecting them from land-dwellers that might mean harm. When they came to drink or bathe, it was out of respect for us that they did so peacefully. And whenever that peace was broken, there was always one of us nearby to drive the troublemakers away.

“The humans that lived in the nearby village didn’t think of us as monsters,” Sue went on, “not even during the fiercest years of the Human-Monster War. They continued to respect us, believing us to be water spirits that kept the rivers pure and free of strife. And they were not entirely wrong. After generations of maintaining peace between the water and the land, we developed the ability to communicate with the water, more deeply than simply reading its currents and waves. That is partly why I can see such things in the Pond.”

It was difficult to see, but Sera’s eyes each carried a tiny spark of hope that shone past the dark, perpetual shroud of despair. Indeed, Sanguis did not catch it – but Sue, who knew what to look for, did.

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