Chapter 37: Waiting Patiently

“They let him follow them?!” Admiral Hamumni exclaimed.

“So the apparition originated in New Earth...” General Beking mused, guessing what transpired for Zax to end up coming after Horn Kikon and the rest.

“You let him come!” Admiral Hamumni greeted the four in contempt.

“We could not shake him off”. Archbishop Silternjan explained guilelessly. “You can drive him away, if you think you can”.

“I would like to see any of you try”. The black blur that was Zax, who maintained a constant speed in his pursuit after Horn Kikon, General Logan, Archbishop Silternjan and Cardinal Northstar, appeared moment after the four.

He scanned the first arrivals, but none dared make eye contact with him, for one reason or another. Be that as it may, the stage was no longer New Earth and if need be, before throwing punches, it will not be a problem to drag whoever among them to the mesosphere.

‘We can’t fight him’. General Logan sent the others without getting into the oath he gave Zax. ‘Refrain from using Sublime Soul Sense. Rely on the communicators to converse’.

‘What happened here, Beking?’ Cardinal Northstar asked the question on everybody’s mind.

‘Don’t play around’. Horn Kikon warned, peeved by Zax, but with his attention on the matter at hand.

‘All the Spirits in the Heavy Water Pools had gained sentience and in the process of awakening’. Since they were here before she could assess the situation in the Down Ocean in its entirety, the truth was something not within her power to conceal by the devising a meaningful plan in the short timespan she had.

‘Hamumni, did you really sense it?’ Shaken, General Logan inquired.

‘Elder sister Beking said it, so do you think I’ll contradict her?’ Admiral Hamumni sneered. ‘If you don’t believe us, dive and check of yourself. At this point there is no need to get close to the Heavy Water Pool to probe them. The undulation they discharge spread far and wide’.

‘The state of affairs has gone beyond what Peak Martial Mortals can handle. We must inform the Immortals’. Cardinal Northstar coveted a private session with the Godly Law Template, but he did not sign on this perilous of a risk. Moreover, he could not afford endangering Stelero Mars and Sister Iaura.

‘Not yet’. General Beking hastened to placate the tension before one of the others will rashly sabotage this mission they all, in a way, share. ‘Why do you think Hamumni and me dawdling above the western coastline? If the Spirits remain docile in the Down Ocean, would there be a need for us to abort our tasks?’

‘That’s a hell of a gamble’. Horn Kikon remarked. ‘I desire it’.

‘I don’t’. Cardinal Northstar retorted.

‘I do’. Archbishop Silternjan cut his transmission and then sent privately. ‘You sought to partake in my mission since you realized you cannot return to the Holy Palace, Northstar. You schemed and cooperated diligently with me up till now; were you secretly so faithless to begin with?’

‘I’m aware of my limits’. Cardinal Northstar angrily responded. ‘Of course I’m willing to do whatever it takes to expand my horizon with the Godly Law Template. But, have you forgotten why I was sent here? To safeguard His Young Eminence and Sister Iaura. I was picked because on this Star I can keep them from any harm. The presence of the Spirits was already a stretch past the red line. With them awakening and possibly leaving the Heavy Water Pools ... Remember, you have the consequences of failure to your mission but so do I to mine!’

‘All I’m asking of you is not to prematurely quit’. Archbishop Silternjan implored. ‘Wait a while longer. To avoid an unfavorable scenario, I’ve sent Bishops to accompany back Sister Iaura and ordered for the Grand Abode to be at a standby for takeoff; it’s faster than the spacecraft you brought’.

‘This is not enough assurance’.

‘Then, we can rig the Core of your spacecraft’s engine. It may result in a timely explosion that can deter Sacred Immortals, certainly newborn Spirits’.

Archbishop Silternjan and Cardinal Northstar argued, while also listened to the debate among the other four.

General Logan weighed the pros and cons for everyone. Due to his recent breakthrough, he felt less reliant on the Godly Law Template, and so he too was in the apprehensive side.

Admiral Hamumni was in the same wary group. She would do and did as General Beking because she valued her as closest kin, but she had an opinion of her own and quelling it while facing General Logan’s cons was a struggle in and of itself.

‘I changed my mind’. Cardinal Northstar informed the rest after getting into an agreement with Archbishop Silternjan. ‘The greatest thing you have to lose is your lives and currently the probability it will happen is rather high. I’m, conversely, playing with greater stakes and like any of you, for only the chance to have a divided prize. Nonetheless, this chance and that divided prize are still worth it and you all know it even better than I do’.

‘Then it is settled’. General Logan concluded the deliberation. ‘Order your subordinates in their excavation’s sites to stay put. Reconnaissance could agitate the Spirits’.

The silence that ensued post his arrival was short, not even the space between words in non cultivators’ conversation. To Zax, however, it was sufficiently long to determine that the six will not let him in on the situation, at least if he will not force them...

“Halt!” Admiral Hamumni barked at Zax as he floated down for the surface water of the Down Ocean.

“Why?” It was not an ignorant inquiry, but a blunt showing of how easily he can goad them to speak.

‘Let me’. General Logan sent the group. “Because there were dormant thing in the water that now are awake and should not be tempted to come out ... The phenomenon in the Savage Caves and a decade ago in the Earthly Crater had spawned Beings called Spirits...”

General Logan correlated the emergence of the Godly Law Template’s aura apparition to the creation of the Spirits, rather than ascribing it to the Heavy Water Pools formation, without elaborating much on the former. Otherwise, Zax received a thorough explanation of what exactly Spirits are.