Shoutout to Bruh_Vista and Equinoxes for beta-reading and providing extensive feedback for this chapter!
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Shuri drew closer to the hollowed tree with cautious steps. The target of her troublesome search was somewhere beneath the roots of the creepy-looking monolith that was also housing a newborn hybrid creature with the powers of apex insectoid magical beasts.
"Well, I guess that's it," Shuri declared with a shrug and turned to leave. Things had risen above her metaphorical "pay grade" and it was no longer worth the trouble to pursue her curiosity.
"Where are you going?" Marie yelped before grabbing Shuri's shoulder. "You're just giving up?"
"Well... Yeah," Shuri answered matter-of-factly. "What I'm looking for is under that tree, probably. Regardless, to test the hypothesis, we will need to dig under the tree which will inevitably disturb the Vespid Queen inside. I, for one, firmly believe in the saying to 'let sleeping dogs lie'."
Shuri raised her hand and pointed at the tree, "Sleeping dog!"
Marie chuckled and ignored Shuri's circumspection. Instead, she approached the hollow tree and knocked thrice. Shuri braced for retaliation, but all she saw was a pincered head peeking out and gazing curiously at Marie.
"We need to dig under the tree. Do you mind?" Marie inquired. The creature moved its antennae and receded into the trunk. Immediately after, the ground started to rumble and shake. Shuri went prone and hugged the ground to achieve stability. From the corner of her gaze, she saw the hollow tree rising steadily from the soil. Its snaking roots started to reveal themselves and moved like a clutch of vipers slithering over each other, adding to the monolith's eerie aesthetics. Nonetheless, the unnatural translation revealed a cave large enough for people to pass through.
"There!" Marie declared with a haughty bellow. "Problem solved!"
"You cannot have predicted that," Shuri blurted out in disbelief. "This is absurd!"
"Oh ye, of little faith!" Marie announced dramatically. She then turned to Shuri and met her gaze. "You are a curious one, and innovative to boot. But you are quick to give up at the first sign of trouble. I couldn't let that happen, especially since this was your first attempt to take initiative."
Shuri's expression warped with anger, "What do you even know about me?!"
"Only what you've told us since we met you," Marie responded calmly. "You aren't difficult to figure out, even though you are trying really hard to make it so. You try really hard to remain out of sight and out of mind. However, you cannot hide your genius in an environment where applying yourself is actively encouraged and rewarded."
Marie approached Shuri, who was cocked with vigilance like a cat ready to lash out at a suspicious individual, and pulled her in. Shuri tried to battle the action, but she was far too weak compared to the might of a Foundation Establishment mage.
Shuri was dragged in and enveloped by both arms into a warm hug. She struggled to escape, but a gentle palm rubbed her back and a warm voice resonated through her bones. "I'm sorry for whatever you've had to live through that made you like this. But it's okay. You are safe here. It's all going to be okay..."
"Let... me... go..." Shuri grunted. "Let-"
"It's all going to be okay," the voice repeated as the palm, once again, made its way from the top of her spine to the centre of her back.
Shuri pushed her hands aggressively, but the embrace was like a vice-grip... a vice-grip that drowned her with the warmth and softness of a hundred goose-down pillows.
Her struggle loosened, and the hug grew deeper. The hand that stroked her back slowed down and paused.
"Please, let me go," Shuri muttered. This time, Marie acquiesced. Shuri breathed audibly to reign in her wavering breath. An unknown heat was rising up her chest and throat and caused her eyes to itch. With a loud, hacking cough, she quelled the feeling and looked directly at the newly formed cavernous opening leading underneath the tree.
Shuri pushed out her chest and declared, "Let's go!"
With firm footsteps, she approached the perilous mouth that led into a steep decline leading into an unknown darkness. Shuri swallowed another mouthful of saliva. She instinctively took a step back but was stopped by Marie's robust and wall-like chest.
"What are you waiting for?" Marie probed with a smirk.
"Maybe- AAAAAAAAAAAA" Shuri could not voice out her concern as a sudden push had her plummetting then sliding down the incline to her uncertain future.
The terrible, twisting and turning transit totalled what felt like twenty minutes. Although that may just have been the creation of a tortured mind. Shuri finally reached the destination at the base of the slide and her excellent memory told her that it had, in fact, only been fifteen seconds since she last saw the sunlight. It was an embarrassing realisation, but one that she had to stop from showing on her face because her eyes (still acclimating to the darkness) noticed a person walking down the steep incline with nonchalant steps.
Beneath Marie's feet, Shuri noticed the formation of large spell circles. "Magic has many uses. The limit is your imagination," Marie explained. "Geckos climb walls with the help of Van der Waals forces between the large surface area on their setae dense feet, and the wall where they intend to walk on. It is possible to replicate this by creating artificial setae of minuscule mana tendrils."
Shuri bit back a witty retort for two reasons. The first was because the proposed concept was truly fascinating. It argued against her preconceived notion of magic and truly exemplified the True World Sect's approach towards the subject: that "magic should be thought of as a scalpel, where each spell and application has a specific and precise purpose, instead of a blunt instrument, that screws in a nail by hammering it."
The second reason was that just behind Marie, she noticed a warm light floating near the ceiling and approaching their location. Then, the singular light turned to two, then three, and so on as a veritable rainbow of colours illuminated the dark cavern.
"Oh. My. Word." Marie accented each exclamation in awe.
"Don't. Move. A. Muscle." Shuri whispered.
"What do-"
"Shhh!" Shuri interrupted. She nudged her head downwards, urging Marie to follow. As she did that, Marie was shocked to see the ground undulate like some kind of gel.
"Wha-" Marie stopped amidst Shuri's murderous gaze and restarted in a low whisper. "What are these things?"
"Slimes and Wisps. A lot of them!" Shuri answered. "Why did you push me in?! Now we're screwed! A single slime or wisp shouldn't be an issue, but this is a veritable horde of them! If the wisps don't zap us to dust, these slimes with definitely disintegrate us into mush."
"Umm..." Marie hummed in thought. "Let me-"
"Don't attack!" Shuri interjected, once again. "These creatures are extremely sensitive to changes in the ambient mana. If you so much as cause a ripple, it will send them all into a frenzy."
"Don't worry," Marie said assuringly before closing her eyes. Shuri held her breath and controlled every single muscle of her body in fear of triggering a feeding frenzy.
Seconds of silence turned into minutes that felt like an eternity, until eventually, Marie's eyes opened.
"I have a plan."
"Oh, I pray it is as good as the one from before that got us into this mess!" Shuri spat back with a raspy whisper.
Marie ignored the snipe and expounded her idea, "On the count of three, I want you to jump onto my back and hold on tight. I will get us out of here."
"What are you cooking up?"
"That isn't something you need to worry about. Just hold on tight and do not let go. No matter what happens. Do. Not. Let. Go."
"Oka-"
"1, 2, 3-"
Shuri barely had enough time to centre herself before her muscles moved by pure instinct and she found herself latched onto Marie's back. The lights in the ceiling of the vast cavern all grew brighter and started to hone in on her location. The ground started to undulate with greater intensity as a wave of viscous slime started to build and crash towards her.
But then, her body lurched. The acceleration was so great that Shuri was almost thrown off Marie's back. The stale wind started to collide against her face as she moved with unprecedented speed. Through a squint, she noticed that Marie was basically walking (running? sprinting? gliding?) on air. Well, spell circles were forming where her feet landed. And the girl was moving inhumanly fast. Even faster than her feet were moving.
Looking up, she was shocked to see that they were approaching a dead-end. Bracing herself for a collision, Shuri closed her eyes and grabbed on tighter. Instead, she found her body lurching sideways as gravity suddenly changed direction. To be more precise, they were now walking on the wall.
Marie started to walk perpendicular to the cavern wall's surface and moved in an upward spiral. Behind her, the horde of deathly rainbow lights and waves of acidic death changed direction and tried to keep up. Round and round they went as they climbed upwards until they were literally walking on the cavern's ceiling. At this point, only the wisps were a threat, as the slimes could not reach this altitude.
Suddenly, Marie halted, turned right and rushed even more quickly. Shuri noticed them approaching the same hole that brought them into this cave. Marie then lurched into a prone position and started to slither forward like an actual gecko as she moved through the narrow hole.
Up and up they went, and Shuri could hear the wisps crashing against each other as they tried to move through the tunnel.
Within seconds, Shuri noticed a bright light approaching. Marie grabbed the ledge and hoisted them up. Shuri rolled out and made some distance between the opening under the hollow tree. She raised her head and noticed Marie waiting poised with her wand drawn out.
"What are you-"
A wisp bolted out of the hole which was quickly closed with a wall of earth and Marie swished her wand upwards. She then followed up with a flick that sent a small |Fireball| towards the solo wisp, which died anticlimactically and left a plain ball in its wake that pulsed with a dimming light.
Marie walked up to the ball, picked it up and tossed it towards Shuri. And just as Shuri caught it, she heard a chuckle.
"Is that what you were looking for?"
