...The 5 go out...
The pool was quiet, not a sound heard other than the sound of Kaori descending into the tunnel and eventually stopping right before Hebisha, before taking a meditative position on the smooth stone, damp and cold. The urn's incense had the scent of a calming sea breeze as it hovers and floats away from the joysticks. The cave was quiet. A drip in the water. The ceiling had one single stalagmite, hanging as a dew of water hanged of its tip. Another drip follows as the dew falls into the water, the ripples clean and circular. The shadows seemed to moved quietly around them. Hebisha shifted slightly.
"Miss Kaori... I guess I should explain what this place is," Hebisha stretches as droplets of water form on her skin.
"This was the temple of Nu Wa back in the days of Midi long gone. The history of this area was never recorded in history due to the location of this mountain. It was nicknamed 'Peril's Peak' back then. However a human man, the man who rests in the grave in the main room, he gave the temple love and his dedication. The man was given a reward by the goddess this temple is dedicated to, and you may be familiar with the name. After all you are Miss Samira's closest friend," Hebisha's tail shifted, small waves in the pool rise and descend before they crash into the surrounding stone. "However, Nu Wa gave him a task that fell on me. Nu Wa granted him immortality, as she knew that the techniques taught will be lost to time, and who knows when evil strikes, and when she slumbers. The task changed for him, it was to teach. I became his pupil after leaving the lamia village that took me under their wing after my amnesia. Sensei Senju taught me things no human has ever did, with a kindness few of your kind display Miss Kaori. However... Look at me now. I could set whole jungles on fire with a single strike, and bring life back to it just as fast. I am a shadow, a shell of my former self..."
The shadows moved. Hebisha sighed before suddenly going beneath the water, too fast for Kaori to react to. The shadows would grab Kaori, distract Kaori from Hebisha as the lamia went beneath the surface as she fought. The urn's glow went out, and the air grew evil. The water drain into a hole, a deep abyss that was dark and bottomless. A strand of pink hair showed it was clearly where Hebisha went down if it was not obvious enough. The shadows dispel themselves and flow down into the hole, as if attracted to the lamia. A call for help came from the bottom, before it became silent. The hole descended deep, and it was all dark. One would eventually reach the floor, a thin layer of water.
The pool glows with brilliance, revealing a woman standing in the middle, with a physique similar to Hebisha's, just without the snake bottom half. The pool loses its light before the gems on the walls glower bright, illuminating the room in a toxic green. The woman was clear to see now as the light coated her black armor. Everything about this woman screamed Hebisha. The tied up hair, with the red ribbon, the fair skin tone and red eyes, well one red eye and one black eye with veins disgustingly contouring her face. The veins disappear and the black eye turns red right before Kaori. The woman spoke in a tongue no longer recognize, but before she continued, she realized Kaori would not have understood, and then switch the language.
"So you are the woman who accompanied her here, foolish really..." The woman's words felt like poison, she spoke with Hebisha's voice, however lack the gentle and calm tone the lamia would give anyone. Instead she gave Kaori venomous language. "Humans with magical powers are pitiful, only to be blown up like bugs some day or another. Kaori is it? A beautiful name I shall admit, but it lacks any charm to be remembered. You shall die today, and feed my power. It took a long time for this curse to work you know." The woman pointed two fingers and threw something to the ground which made a ripple. A fly met its demise.
"But I shall grant you a hearing, after all you must be thinking, Guardian of Twelve Sages, Protector of 4 Heavenly Kings, Shield of the... Oh wait, you never call her that now did you? Hebisha was it? Stupid name really. Typical Midian tongue, this body, now my vessel, has a past vastly different," The woman laughed, the sound echoing of the walls before she continued. "You mortals pale in comparison to what this vessel truly was, and she never knew the truth of what happened to Master Senju. I, killed him. Hebisha thought it was merely his immortality leaving him, I altered that memory, it was a punch through his heart. I altered her ability to remember, I removed her sight. It was so emotional seeing how Hebisha made a grave, she did not even realize she betrayed her own master when I activated the curse for a test run. However that old man was much... much wiser. The man used his death to seal me here, beneath the purifying waters of the Brine Urn. However when this vessel took the dip, her tail went into the hole, and I snatched her back into her hands."
Any assault on the woman would seem to be impossible, a green barrier beginning to block every attack no matter how they tried. "But I doubt you can do anything about this, killing me just means killing Hebisha too. Do you wish to kill your own friend? Oh I wanted to learn more about you Hebisha, you always seem so distant! PATHETIC." The woman laughed. "I was never able to reach Nu Wa's powers, the stones were too far away from me. After all the chamber which the Mother lies is protected by the one, twelve and four. Nothing you can do will affect me, so I shall grant you anything you wish to say before you die."
The roof seals and the world seems voided now, as if no longer attached to the plains of existence. A gas begins to pour in, vile and putrid. It turned the pure waters to poison, bubbling with the same gas. It was dense, but it was filling quickly. The woman sat down, her barrier protecting her against the gas, with a smile of amusement on her face, or rather Hebisha's rare smile of joy and glee, now being used like a toy.