Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 178: Waking Up

Hearing the conversation between Malene, Vivi and Kennedy was the last straw for Renee as she broke down. She wasn't sure if she should cry, be angry, seek revenge, or what. Seeing Vivi just sitting there and drinking coffee with the one who was suppose to be there leader and mentor, Renee now understood that when Vivi made those comments earlier, she was being totally serious.

And Kennedy just accepted the outcome without so much as blinking.

Seeing this, Renee just blanked, her entire face devoid of emotion while her eyes clouded over. Malene, who had been observing her the entire time, couldn't help but sigh.

"Looks like she broke."

"Seems like it," Kennedy agreed.

"She's got about two minutes left though. I'm curious as to what her decision will be..." Vivi said, a bit cryptically. Although both Malene and Kennedy raised an eyebrow at what Vivi said, they didn't comment on it or do anything other than continue drinking their coffee in silence.

Just as the two minutes were about to come to a close though, Renee had finally come back to herself. Reaching out, she grabbed one of the fallen sword like weapons that had been dropped and gritting her teeth, she suddenly vanished on the spot as she charged towards where Vivi was seated. Aiming the weapon at the back of Vivi's exposed head, it was obvious that she was attempting to get revenge for her fallen team. Just before the weapon were to pierce Vivi's skull, a white barrier of light popped up, blocking the attack and sending Renee flying backwards. She had invested everything in this attack, knowing that her vine ability would have been useless. But even still, she was blocked.

Looking over, she noticed that Malene was lowering her hand and figured out that she had been the one to use some sort of power to block the attack. Staring at the three who looked totally detached from what she was feeling, Renee now understood that she and her team mattered nothing to any of them and to top it all off, she would never be able to over power them either.

She would not be able to get her revenge.

Finally understanding this point, Renee once again grabbed the sword like weapon, but this time she brought it to her own throat. No matter what, she was going to atone for her mistake.

"FUCK ALL OF YOU AND BURN IN HELL," she screamed and closed her eyes as she jammed the blade towards her throat.

Just as it barely pierced the skin, she felt like a vice had grabbed her hand and she wasn't able to move it any further. She struggled for a minute before opening up her eyes and seeing Kennedy standing in front of her, holding the hand that she was trying to stab herself with. Her eyes had taken on a fox like shape while fine, smooth white fur had covered most of her body. Had one been looking close enough, they might have even seen that Kennedy now had a beautiful and fluffy white tail as well.

"Well, not really what I wanted to see, but I guess this counts as a pass. Oh little sister, would you mind?"

Vivi raised her unused hand and just snapped her fingers, letting off a spark of purple light. Ironically, nothing happened for a few moments but before anyone could say anything, a loud noise like the sound of glass shattering rang out and all of the nearly two dozen ice sculptures exploded simultaneously, releasing the people trapped inside.

As they were suddenly free from their prison, most of them fell to the ground as the tank like members of the group who had been frozen first were gasping for air while grabbing their heads. Even the ones who had been frozen later were stuck on the floor with wicked headaches and unable to stand.

Seeing all of her team members alive and mostly well, Renee dropped the sword and broke down, crying as though the world was ending. Kennedy didn't say anything, but grabbed her around the back and brought her in close, hugging her while supporting her. Seeing what was happening, the other team members of Blood Moon didn't say anything, but they were able to get a general idea of what had happened. They had lost, and they had lost badly.

They had no way to beat that wolf monster and had it wanted to kill them, it would have. Since they had been frozen in the ice, all of their senses had been sealed and it was almost like time had stopped for them. Because of that, Renee was the only one who knew that Vivi was actually the wolf that attacked them. But she was in no condition to explain that to anyone.

Due to everyone involved being an infected, it didn't take long before their bodies recovered from the effects of being frozen. It actually took longer for Renee calm herself down after everything. But when she finally did, she stood up and walked over to Vivi before bowing and saying, "I'm sorry."

"You will only have this one chance so you'd better treasure it. And just be glad I'd gotten this idea from someone, otherwise I would have just been content to kill half of you and let the other half live. Luckily, I'd gotten some good advice in the past."

Renee didn't say anything else, nor did she try to understand what Vivi was talking about. Instead, she just rejoined her team and they began going through drills again, everyone being focused on working even harder.

While they didn't know what she was talking about, Malene and Kennedy did..

"How did he come up with an idea like this? In fact, why would something like this even come up?" Malene asked as Kennedy returned to the table.

"Well, he has always thought about forming a team. Or, at least he started thinking about it a while ago. And once that happened, he started talking to me about different ways he would train them. As for where he got the ideas? I don't know. Movies or video games would be my guess. Even though he doesn't really play stuff like that anymore, that was a big part of his life in the past," Vivi explained to the best of her ability.

After they had finished their coffee and snacks, it was time for Vivi to get going. Standing outside the entrance, Malene first hugged Vivi before Kennedy did the same.

"Take care of yourself, ok?" Malene told Vivi.

"Of course," she replied back.

"And take care of that idiot too," Kennedy added on.

"Are you sure you both don't want to see him yet?" Vivi asked before stepping into the car.

"Yeah. It's better like this for now. He can't get distracted with something like a relationship right now. He needs to keep growing," Kennedy responded.

"If you say so."

"Besides, it's not like we can't feel him. Although the connection is faint, this marking is like a pulse that allows me to feel him and know where he is. Even if we are far away. He might not feel it, but we do. And that's enough. At least for now..." Kennedy said back, moving her hand over he chest in the place the mark was.

"Alright. Well, then I am off. We'll chat again soon?"

"Sure thing!"

"Love you little sis."

As the car drove away, Malene and Kennedy both let out a sigh at the same time. Hearing each other, their eyes met and they both started laughing.

"It's hard, isn't it?" Malene asked.

"I don't know why either. Why did this happen? Why are we connected to him? After all, it was just a thing that happened a while ago now. These types of things happen all the time to other people. So why did we become this closely connected just like that?" Kennedy voiced the questions both girls had. It wasn't that they didn't care about Laz or worry about him. But they did wonder why it was that they felt so connected to him, even after having gone their separate ways over the years. In any other normal person, time would make their hearts drift apart and it wasn't as though they had fallen madly in love with him during those few months they were together. As such, these types of feelings felt strange. Good, but strange.

"What's done is done I guess," Kennedy just sighed and turned around, draping an arm over Malene's shoulders as the girls headed back inside.

In the sky, unknown to them, a beautiful pair of eyes had been watching their every movement, seemingly surprised as they had focused on the blood moon symbol on their bodies. After they disappeared from sight, the eyes disappeared as well, simply closing and vanishing.

...

The rune fire had all gone out a while ago, leaving the cave with a simple glow from the various crystals that lined the walls and ceilings. A gentle drip sound was heard as condensed vapor from the pool hit the strange lamp and filtered out, causing the energy rich air to continue to spread throughout the cavern.

On a few laid out sleeping bags on the ground of the cavern, three bodies laid intermingled as the two outside bodies snuggled in close to the slightly larger pale one in the middle. Strangely, on top of the pale, while figure was a tiny spider who had crawled over at some point and fallen asleep on top of it.

Suddenly, the pale white figured opened it's eyes and looked towards the ceiling for no real reason. Having just experienced A'ruya's anger, Laz couldn't help but laugh a little on the inside as he checked his surroundings. Sure enough, the girls, Ruby and Leona had snuggled in close to him. Although the cave wasn't too cold and their bodies were quite a bit stronger than others, they still felt the need to get in and be close to Laz.

He wondered if this was just a strange instinct with women. Either way, he didn't mind in the least.

Moving his head, he gave each girl a gentle kiss on their foreheads before struggling to get his captured arms freed without waking them. Just as he succeeded and was about to get up, he noticed that the small spider was still sitting there while looking at him.

"What is it little guy?" Laz asked, having been used to just talking to these types of creatures since he was used to dealing with Vivi. Although he wasn't expecting an answer, he noticed that the spider shook it's head as though saying nothing but getting up when it saw Laz wanted to. As Laz sat up, the spider move from the middle of of his chest and up to his shoulder where it once again got comfortable, using it's little hairs to cling on to Laz with Laz barely being able to feel it.

"So what's this? You want to come with me now?" Laz asked, seeing it's actions. Once again, the little spider responded and shook it's head, this time indicating yes.

"Well, that's interesting," Laz commented out loud before reaching for his storage bag and pulling out a blanket which he then covered Leona and Ruby in before getting up all of the way.

As he stood up, Laz couldn't help but stretch his body, loosing up the stiff joints that came from not stretching enough before the hard exercise from the previous day. He could feel the amazing amounts of power within his body do to the various power sharing he had done with Leona and Ruby. He wasn't sure exactly, but he felt like that perk was something related to the Infinity technique he was using. To know for sure though, he would have to try it out more and practice it. He was looking forward to that.

Looking over his body, he could couldn't help but trace around the tattoo like marking on his chest. Although it was hard to see and mostly looked like it had gone back to normal, he could tell that the branches of the blackened, dead tree were now longer than they were before, as though they had spread out further and possibly gotten stronger. He had no idea how though.

Sniffing himself, Laz couldn't help but smell the remnants of Ruby and Leona all over himself and although he wasn't opposed to smelling this way, he decided to get some soap from his bag and clean himself off in the pool.

To other people, this might be some sort of treasure with which to strengthen their bodies, but to Laz right now... it was his bath.