After a rough 5 minutes of coping with what she just did, Hirune managed to regain most of her composure as the others arrived. By the time the others arrived 5 separate buildings were on fire, but Kala and Tundra had that covered. Meanwhile Clint went inside to check if the pyromaniac was still there or not. Which it's safe to say he saw a horrifying sight of brain mesh where it was yet to burn, and a corpse burnt to a crisp with clear damage to the skull. Ellen checked on Hirune, worried as to what she might've witnessed or had to do.
"Oh my god! Hirune what happened? You look like a sick mess!" She exclaimed exasperated while grabbing her shoulders and squeezing them gently as some sort of comfort. Hirune just stared at her, this random girl that she was stuck with actually worried about her? Maybe she should've been a bit more trusting, but she decided to just shake her head, "I'm fine... I promise." Ellen just starred at her, how could she be fine. Her eyes look like she just saw a genocide happen. Even though she stopped one. Then she noticed her hand was heavily burned to the point where muscle and a little bone was showing, "Holy-What happened in there to have your hand be in such horrible shape?!"
She just starred at her, 'What does she mean my hand is in horri-' her thoughts were cut off as she stared at her mangled hand. How didn't she feel the pain from this? Was it just the pure and raw amount of adrenaline that built up from being in a situation like that? Was she too distracted trying to convince herself she wasn't guilty to notice? Also, how did she burn her hand? She devoured the fire with her newfound powers! Or did that just limit the damage to one area? She could feel the pain slowly appearing the more attention she paid to it. How it happened didn't matter right now though, what mattered was somehow treating it, so it didn't get infected. "Can I get something to cover-" Ellen was already applying burn cream, and a bandage to cover it.
"Listen, your hand will be okay. I'll get it fixed in no time after this. But you're clearly not fi-" She got cut off but Clint screaming as his brain caught up with what happened at the scene of the crime. Ellen stopped and stared for a moment, ready to bolt in if any more signs of some sort of danger arising from within the now collapsing building.
Clint walked out, then stared at the now clearly traumatized and worried Hirune in terror. She was so new to this, how could she have caused such severe damage to someone? And to add to all of that, she was just a 15. She was still a kid how is she dealing with this? Either way, he had to inform Ellen about this, she was the brains she'd know how to deal with it. "Hey, uh... Ellen, you mind coming with me. It's serious." She looked at him, then looked back at Hirune, "Listen, after I check out what he's trying to show me, you'll tell me all about what happened in there piece by piece, alright?" They stared at each other for a moment, "I think it might be better if I come with you." Hirune said as she stood up and followed behind Ellen and Clint.
When Ellen saw the scene, she turned to Hirune looking as if she just found herself trapped in the same room as a serial killer. Sure, she wasn't blaming Hirune, she probably had her reasons, but this was still quite the shock for anyone. She walked up to her and awkwardly hugged her because she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with them. "Listen Hirune, I know this is going to be a burden on you for a while, but if you need anyone to talk to, we're all here for you."
She just stood there for a moment, not sure how to react. For as long as she could remember everyone has hated her, then all of a sudden, she was accepted. Sure, she wasn't complaining. But this feeling was weird. Like a weird resonating feeling in her heart, but it wasn't happiness. She's been happy plenty, but it was kind of like that combined with a weird, yet calming, somber feeling of relief. She couldn't help but break down into tears and hug her back. Someway, somehow, this random girl that she wanted to get away from, became the first person she felt genuinely comfortable with. Somehow, she was finally at ease in this warm embrace.
***
Later, after a long car ride back to the base, Hirune found herself in the basement with the others after telling them about her opening the weird black gates. She was sent down with Kala and Tundra. They had some taut white hazmat suits on to avoid what Ellen called Apathy Corruption. Even Hirune, but Hirune wasn't given a mask, she was left to have the hood of the hazmat suit down with a pair of purple star-shaped glasses. As they walked down the eerie and gloomy dark hallway towards the gates, their footsteps got heavier and heavier as the air around them got thicker and thicker. Besides Hirune, now that she'd already seen what was in there once, she didn't mind. She casually walked down the hallway fearlessly forcing the other 2 to put a little pep in their step. She then opened the gate, "Boo! Short time no see you shadow people!" She exclaimed as all of the shadowy figures turned their heads to her. Her prideful smirk instantly changed into a soft worrisome grimace, "I shouldn't have done that huh?"
Luckily for her, they all ignored her, but not so luckily, they stood up and started charging at Kala and Tundra. She was unsure for a moment, but she was considering using her powers in order to stop them. Then she suddenly got the bright idea that maybe these shadows would listen to her with a threat, "Stop or I'll devour you!" She exclaimed as she focused as much strength as she could muster into her already disheveled left hand to use the jaws that she used against the pyromaniac again. She smirked as the shadow figures stopped, not only did her theory work, but she figured out how to use the jaws separately from how she uses the claws. She looked at Kala and Tundra, who both expressed different levels of being dumbfounded. Kala was visually shocked, and Tundra seemed more relieved than anything.
"Who goes there," a malevolent voice exclaimed from the throne in the room. Hirune recognized it though, "Namulenza?!" She turned around and saw a shadowy figure that looked like Namulenza sitting on the throne. "Who are you? How dare you attempt to tarnish my castle!" She stared at her, "Well actually, no." There was a moment of silence. Everyone but Hirune seemed dumbfounded. Hirune seemed confident in her abilities as she made the jaws come out again. After all this was a shadow Namulenza, it wasn't the real deal, and she was too sweet to fight ba- She got cut off by the jaws disappearing as this fake Namulenza swished her pointer finger, "Trying to use the Devourers Jaws? How cute, but sorry sweetheart, those belong to me." She said in a sadistic voice.
What type of twisted copy was this? She wasn't all sweet and compassionate, she was sadistic and malevolent. "Hiru! we have to leave these suits are almost at maximum capacity!" She turned to see Tundra waiting for her at the entrance as Kala was already running. She didn't have time to pay attention to what he called her, but she didn't want to leave either. She didn't want this clone of Namulenza make her seem like a twisted witch that would laugh while ripping someone's guts out! But she has to for Tundra and Kala's safety. She turned to the faker, "I will come back, and when I do, I'm going to make sure you regret spitting all over her name." The faker laughed, "You shouldn't be concerned about me. You should be concerned about my sister Demonia." Hirune looked at her for a moment, then turned around and left with Tundra and Kala. Who was Demonia?
They went back upstairs, and Hirune instantly went to Ellen with some questions in mind. "Oh? Back so soon?" She said as put down a book she was reading, "Yeah, and I have a lot of questions about that gate, Namulenza, and someone named Demonia." Ellen stared at her for a moment with mild concern, she was expecting Hirune to find out about this eventually, but not so soon. She sighed, "Well, for the gate, it's sort of like a mirror dimension. There's multiple down there, the one you opened was the worst gate we have. It leads back to the 1st epoch, when Namulenza was a queen in ancient times. We don't have numbers too accurate though, so we go off of a rough estimate of an epoch's lifetime." Hirune nodded.
That made sense, but wouldn't that mean that the shadowy Namulenza she saw in there was the actual her? So, what happened to her that she suddenly became such a nice person? Or was that just an act? Maybe a bias due to her having consumed her artifact?
"Well, what about Demonia?" Ellen looked at her for a moment. She was expecting her to ask more about Namulenza after the information she just gave her, "Well, I don't know much about Demonia. All I know is that she's the reason we go on all of these commissions and the reason we've lost so many friends. A hundred years ago she escaped her seal, and she's been causing chaos across random areas in the layers of this world." Hirune nodded, as she realized that if she wanted genuine information, she'd have to search for it because Ellen only gave her rough overviews. Sure, the overviews helped her with understanding certain things, but she wanted all of the nitty gritty details. Now she was left with more questions than answers that she wants to know the answers to.
"So... I have a request," she said. "What is it? More about Namulenza?" She shook her head with a chuckle, "No you don't need to worry about Namulenza related questions. But I thought that maybe we should try to find more answers for the gates, Demonia, any Wichuza, you know that sort of stuff? These mysteries are quite interesting, and they've caught my eye," She paused for a moment.
Thinking of how persuasive Namulenza can be sometimes, she chuckled and mimicked her to try and add a bit more weight to her side of the scale. "Just think about it. You've got multiple questions yourself, don't you? We should search for the answers. Not only that but you also seem like a rational person. The more information about things we find, the safer we could make this world for everyone in it. So, what do you say? It's up to you~" she said with a fake friendly and reassuring smile. She could already tell from Ellen's expression, that Namulenza truly is a sick, sick woman. But that she was truly wicked for taking a page out of her book. She couldn't help but feel a little pity, she liked Ellen a lot, yet she still pulled her strings to get her way.