After a grueling and desperate effort, the trio of Kane, Sunny, and Nephis finally managed to drag their makeshift vessel to the edge of the ashen island. The boat, a grotesque amalgamation of bone and sinew from a long-dead demon, scraped against the desolate ground, leaving a furrow in the gray dust. Its hull, crafted from a massive, curved rib, seemed to shudder with a morbid kind of life, a grim testament to its origin. All that was left was to bring Cassie to the boat and wait for the dark, abyssal sea to rise and meet them.
Sunny, ever the swift shadow, volunteered to fetch Cassie. He melted into the gloom, leaving Kane and Nephis alone beside the ghastly vessel. The air grew thick with unspoken tension, a silence that felt heavier and more suffocating than the physical exertion they had just endured.
"Are you guys alright?" Nephis asked, her voice a low murmur that seemed to carry a faint, but genuine, concern. Her silver eyes, usually so sharp and unwavering, held a flicker of something Kane couldn't quite decipher.
Kane ran a hand through his hair, letting out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, we're alright," he replied, but the words felt hollow even to him. He knew they weren't. The exhaustion was a physical ache that permeated every muscle, and the psychic strain of the Soul Tree's insidious influence lingered like a toxic haze. Nephis's subtle frown told him she wasn't convinced. He knew she deserved an explanation—a full, detailed accounting of the bizarre truths they had uncovered—but there was no time. Not now. The oppressive calm felt like a trap, a temporary reprieve before the real danger began.
Suddenly, a cry of terror, sharp and piercing, shattered the tense silence. It was Cassie, her voice thin with panic, shouting Kane's and Nephis's names. The sound was a jarring disruption, a call to action that jolted them both. They were about to sprint toward her, their instincts screaming at them to help, when they saw him.
Sunny appeared from the dense undergrowth, moving with a speed that belied the heavy burden he carried. He had Cassie slung over his shoulder, a desperate, struggling weight. His hand was clamped tightly over her mouth, muffling her desperate screams and frantic pleas. Kane's mind, a whirlwind of adrenaline and shock, immediately pieced together the situation. Cassie, a victim of the Soul Tree's subtle, mind-bending influence, was resisting their escape, believing their perilous journey was a betrayal, a leap into a far greater danger.
"Neph! Kane! Help! Sunny has gone crazy!" Cassie shrieked, her voice a muffled, raw sound of desperation that sent a cold shiver down Kane's spine.
In a flash, Nephis summoned her sword. The blade materialized in her hand, gleaming with an ethereal, icy light. She held it with the point aimed at the ground, a clear and immediate sign of her readiness for battle. The air crackled with her dormant power, a tangible threat. At the same moment, Kane's own weapon, the blade of his Aspect, formed in his grip, its familiar weight a comfort in the rising storm.
"Explain yourself," Nephis demanded, her voice cutting and laced with a hint of menace that was unlike her usual calm composure. It was the voice of a huntress cornering her prey. The tree had truly sunk its hooks deep into her.
Sunny licked his lips nervously, his eyes darting between Kane's hardened expression and Nephis's unyielding gaze. He gently lowered the struggling Cassie to the ground, taking a moment to steady himself. "It's not... not as you think, Neph. We've been caught in a trap by the Soul Tree. It's not benevolent... it's not protecting us. It's doing the opposite, a dark and terrible kind of nurturing." His voice was a frantic plea for understanding. "If we don't leave this island, we'll become its slaves, forever bound to its will. Or until it finds someone stronger and devours us! It will consume our minds, our bodies, our very souls!"
Nephis simply tilted her head, her expression unreadable. The silence stretched between them, thick with the weight of Sunny's words, and the insidious influence of the tree.
"Come on, Nephis! Remember! We've talked about this already! This whole thing was your idea to begin with!" Sunny pleaded, his voice full of a desperate frustration. For a brief, hopeful moment, he thought his words had finally pierced the haze of her mind, that the memories they had shared would surface and shatter the tree's hold. But her response crushed that hope in an instant.
"Leave... the great tree? You have really lost your mind," she said, her voice flat and dismissive, as if speaking to a raving lunatic.
A cold dread seeped into Kane's gut. "Crap!" he thought, the word echoing with a sharp, undeniable urgency. "We need to leave this island as soon as possible." The danger was now more apparent than ever, not just from the terrifying tree, but from within their own group.
Changing Star raised her sword, the tip now pointing directly at Sunny's throat. Her tone was so menacing that it made him tremble. "Let Cassie go. Now."
Sunny hesitated, contemplating his next move. The options were few and all of them terrible. He knew he couldn't fight her. He could only try to appeal to what little remained of her true self. He carefully placed the blind girl on the ground, his movements deliberate and slow. "Alright. I did. See?" he said, his voice softer, more reasonable. "Now, listen to me. I have something very important to tell you…"
Before he could finish, Nephis disappeared from his view. She made a move to attack, moving with a speed that blurred the line between reality and a phantom image. He braced himself for the blow, a cold resignation settling in his chest, but the sound of clashing steel rang out instead. Nephis's blade had been stopped, met by a defender she hadn't anticipated. She took a full glance at the person who stood between them: it was Kane.
"Kane, move," she commanded, her voice still cold and laced with a threatening undertone.
Instead of moving, Kane pushed her backward with a sudden, powerful shove. Nephis stumbled, caught completely off guard by his action. Her eyes widened in surprise for the briefest of moments, a crack in her resolve. In that brief, fleeting window, Kane and Sunny exchanged a knowing glance, their shared understanding a silent, powerful link.
"Aster! Song! Vale!" they spoke in unison, the three names a desperate incantation meant to break the spell.
Nephis's hand trembled, her stance faltering. Her eyes, so recently full of cold resolve, widened, full of shock and surprise. Then, a dark, dangerous expression replaced it, a look of utter madness and ferocity. "How... how do both of you know these names? Who are you?" she snarled, the words a guttural whisper that carried a palpable weight of violence.
Kane replied, his voice calm and steady despite the chaos. "We have no idea. You told us these words would bring you to your senses."
"I didn't even know that these were names," Sunny added, his words a desperate stream as he tried to fill in the blanks, to make her understand. "It's just what you told us to tell you in case you forget what had to be done. You said if we tell you this, you'll listen to me."
Nephis stared at them, a shadow of doubt flickering on her face for a split second before it was replaced by grim determination. Gritting her teeth, she snarled again, her mind clearly wrestling with the new information. "Which Domain do you belong to?!"
Sunny looked genuinely confused. "What's a domain?" he asked, the innocence in his question a stark contrast to the ferocity in her eyes.
Kane, having never heard the term either, simply shrugged. "Nope. No idea what a domain is."
A maniacal glimmer appeared in Nephis's eyes, a look Kane had never seen before. This was not the calm, composed Nephis they knew, the one who planned with meticulous detail and spoke with quiet authority. If Kane didn't know better, he would think a completely different, much more unpredictable and dangerous person was standing in front of him. "Don't pretend to... to..." Nephis's voice trailed off, her concentration breaking.
"Get a grip, Blowtorch!" Kane commanded, his voice sharp and commanding, the familiar nickname a last-ditch effort to reach the person he knew. "We're not pretending. But if you want a fight, then bring your damn blade."
Suddenly, she stumbled, a deep frown furrowing her brow. Sunny's and Kane's questions had clearly touched something in her mind, causing a chain reaction, a ripple effect of remembered truths colliding with the tree's powerful lies. A few seconds passed, each turning her frown deeper. Slowly, agonizingly, the familiar poised calmness returned to her eyes. It didn't seem as though she had remembered everything, but, just as she had promised, it was enough to make her listen. She finally removed the tip of her sword from Sunny's throat and, with a silent, graceful movement, even helped him to his feet.
Looking at them with a strange, contemplative expression, she asked, "I really told you those words?" Nephis looked down, closing her eyes for a moment, as if in silent deliberation. When she opened them again, they were full of resolve, the last vestiges of the tree's madness seemingly purged. "What do I need to do?"
Kane wanted to ask his own questions, to demand an explanation for the bizarre display and the mysterious names, but he shelved them for a later time. The immediate threat was still the Soul Tree. "Convince Cass to summon the staff and leave with us on this boat."
Dismissing her sword with a silent gesture, Changing Star glanced at him one last time, a look of profound trust and strange humility in her eyes. Then, she walked toward her friend. Somehow, through a gentle and patient conversation that the boys couldn't hear, Nephis managed to talk Cassie into following her and boarding the ghastly vessel.
Once the girls were safely inside the boat, Kane, with Sunny wrapped in his shadow, pushed the boat's hull with all his might. The hull was a gruesome piece of craftsmanship, carved from a single, massive bone that gave off an eerie, pale glow. As the last light of dusk disappeared, submerging the world into absolute darkness, the boat built from the bones of a demon slipped from the ashen sand into the cold embrace of the dark sea.
Following Sunny's precise instructions, Cassie aimed her staff and activated its enchantment, causing a strong gale to fill their modest sail. At first, the boat moved slowly, the mast creaking under the pressure of the wind, a sound like a tortured moan. But Changing Star's craftsmanship was meticulous and reliable. The demon's spine held fast, and little by little, the small vessel began to gain speed. Behind them, the terrifying Soul Devouring Tree was slowly growing smaller, its shadowy mass receding into the gloom.
Kane looked back at the tree, his heart pounding a steady, rhythmic beat against his ribs. "You better not see me again," he thought, the silent promise a stone cold vow. "Or else, that would be your last day." He then switched to his Aspect vision, the world shifting to a black-and-white landscape of soul threads and auras. He checked on his companions. They were all free from the tree's clinging, insidious threads. A long, shuddering sigh of relief escaped his lips. Cassie,who was holding her staff, hearing the sound, moved her head toward him, and Kane, remembering how close she had come to death's door, felt a wave of relief so profound it nearly buckled his knees. He went directly to her and hugged her tightly, the simple human contact a grounding force in the storm of their escape.
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Hi Guys,I am Back.From now on there will regular updates
Fanfic Ideas:
1.Naruto:King Grey is reincarnated(TBATE MC)
2.Shadow slave:Third son of Anvil
3.Naruto:Reborn as Kenpachi in uchiha
4.Shadow Slave: I am Azik Eggers
5.Naruto:Uchiha Raikage