Bloodbath

--Lia's Perspective--

Everybody was finally asleep. I must've been staring at the ceiling with nothing in my mind for about an hour now, but once I felt it was safe to move, I got up and quickly ran into the forest once. I left Shiro there in the room and searched the trees for Dante. Before I knew it, I heard a voice above me, and then Dante landed behind me.

"There you are! So, you infiltrated enemy lines pretty efficiently. Well done. The only thing left is killing the white stone, so tell me where he is and we'll do it together." I paused in my tracks.

"We should… or I can… gather together wolves for tomorrow afternoon. They talk about plans to split up and go hunting in the east, so if we just stay patient, we could section them off, kill the white stone, and there won't be any resistance." Dante looked at me with an unconvinced look.

"Why can't we just kill him while he sleeps and then walk back?"

"Because he felt my intent to kill. I fear that if there's two of us and we sneak up on him to kill him, he'd wake up because he'd feel it at that point." This was the most I voiced my opinion to Dante because of his pattern of abuse, but this time he was actually listening to me.

"Good thinking. I'll gather wolves tonight and tomorrow, when the sun strikes the middle of the sky, you'll lead them in with a piece of meat from that deer back there. Then, the wolves get to eat more, and we get to kill our white stone. It's a win-win for the environment." Dante clarified.

But was this really the right thing to do? I couldn't help but think I was making the wrong choice.

"I'll sleep in the base, so they don't get suspicious. Will you be okay gathering wolves?" I asked.

"If I didn't think you were being sincere, I would've punched you in the face right there. But yes, I'll be okay." He said, turning around.

…

…

-Meanwhile on the Scorched Isle-

--Xian's Perspective--

"Oi! Zeal!" I ran over to the transporter just as he arrived and smiled.

"It's so good to see your ugly face again! Look, it's about Elo." II began, but Zeal held his hand up and stepped out of the transportation room, looking all around the isle, then due east.

"Yeah, right over there, but the thing with Elo is much more important," I called Elo and Demos over.

"Why does Elo have a blindfold on? His Flaw should've turned off by now, shouldn't it have?" He said.

"That's the thing. Whenever the blindfold is off, he loses those Strand-things you have. When he has it on, he can see strands." Zeal's eyes widened.

"Aha! So, another White Stone has finally unlocked the strands?!" I looked off to the left, pouting. So what if he had the strands?

"They're white, right?" Elo nodded.

"Yes, it's like they outline everything in front of me. Like I can see you with the strands making up your face. And, when I imagine a knife, this happens." Elo held out his hand like it was grabbing something, and out of nowhere, white, hair-like strings started to compose into a small knife. After the composition process was done, it appeared to be just like a regular knife.

"Weapon summoning… impressive, Elo. If you were the Nomad Stone here, I would've let you come to Earth so we could train. I'll come to visit you more often for training." Both Demos and I were starting to get irritated.

"What are those things even? And how can we get them if they're so cool to you?" I asked him.

"Well, they're Strands. It's hard to explain what they exactly are, but they're natural. Once a White Stone gets a feel for them, it's impossible to let go of. They can do a multitude of things, mine can summon weapons and grab things from far away. Elo's ability looks to be able to summon weapons. I don't know much about them myself, but I do know that close calls with corruption unlock them. I was just discussing that back home with my associate."

"So, we'll corrupt our system too, or whatever." Zeal used his strands to grab my neck and pull me in close to him.

"Don't get that wrong. You will NOT corrupt your system. You might as well be killing us all if you do that. I can help you get the strands, but don't even joke about that." I shook his hair-strand-things off of my neck and turned towards the east side of the isle.

"Anyways, on top of those strands, we also have that Isle as our problem." Zeal stepped right beside me.

"That's Orion and Talion's Isle there. I'm sure you all got the notification, right?" I nodded.

"That other White Stone. Is the third Isle finally being repopulated again?" Demos shook his head.

"That's been out of commission since the twenty-second century, no way." Elo sat down perfectly in the chair beside the table to our left and drank his wine, while Demos leaned against one of the pillars on the patio. For an atmosphere so relaxing, it was like we weren't even talking about the Seventh White Stone.

"That White Stone is on the Isle, right across from us. If we all assemble, it could be a six versus one. Should we?" I asked everybody but was almost instantly shut down by them.

"Let Talion do it. He can kill him because his Flaw is turned off, he's the only one who can kill the White Stone efficiently." I turned to Zeal.

"Couldn't somebody random kill him? I mean, what's the point in White Stone's hunting down other White Stones when somebody else can do it?" Zeal got his own glass of wine, sipped it, then answered.

"It's about preventing that White Stone from coming back. To keep the Isle's in check, all three of them, four white stones are placed on each." He said.

I stopped him, "But there are only three on the Isle and Scorched Isle, why are we killing the Seventh?" I asked.

"I guess it's about time I explain it then… it's less about the number of White Stone's, and more about the one I think it is. I haven't been able to confirm, but I think that White Stone is the worst possible candidate." Zeal took a large swig this time.

"The worst? What's so bad about him? Don't we all awaken at fourteen? He's just a kid." Demos chipped in, but Zeal shut him down.

"Think about how fierce we all were at fourteen. Now we're all above twenty, we've gotten older, but doesn't the people we were at fourteen frighten you?" I shrugged.

"Speak for yourself gramps, I'm only nineteen. But yes, that does frighten me." Zeal tipped his glass towards me.

"Then need I say anymore? He's dangerous to my knowledge, so I'm having Talion handle it." Zeal set his empty glass down on the counter and turned towards the Isle again.

There was something... sinister from over there. What was that? It was sending shivers down my spine.

"Xian, Elo, Demos, do you sense it from that Isle too?" I gulped. "Y-Yeah… what is that…?"