Several Dangerous things

The world around them turned to darkness.

It wasn't just any darkness. This was the deepest darkness inside Liam. This would take over when his soul was targeted and harmed.

This manifestation was something none of them had seen before. At first, it took an unknown shape, and once it did, it attacked its attacker mercilessly.

The huge creature had no chance against it. It knew the moment it saw the manifestation and tried running. She tried getting out of the boy's consciousness but found herself locked in.

This had never happened before. Nor had she ever been in a situation where she was stuck in another's consciousness or would quickly find her way safely out, even if it did happen.

This made her panic and shout out the only thing she would regret, just before its life was ended.

"I'm sorry, my daughter! I couldn't save you!"

Haru was the only female being inside the consciousness. She blinked rapidly, not believing what she was seeing or hearing.

The dark creature that had attacked was looking at her. And saying .... daughter?

She reacted just in time and shouted the only thing she knew.

"LIAM!"

Everything stopped like someone switching off an autopilot.

The dark manifestation started changing color and soon condensed into Liam's form.

Liam soon opened his eyes and looked at the scene before him.

He sighed, relieved that he didn't kill the creature. He hadn't heard anything except the desperate voice of Haru. It was making him understand that this creature was something important.

He could feel that his consciousness world was locked down. No one could come in or leave by themselves. He wanted to sit down and understand it. But there seemed to have been more pressing matters at the moment.

"Who are you?" He asked the creature, who was deeply wounded. It was leaking something that didn't look like blood or flesh.

"I'm Irma, a demon beast of the Dark Shadow Panther race." she wouldn't delay and told the truth.

"A demon beast?"

"Yes," someone else interrupted, "The tree guardians are demon beasts, dropped along with a demon tree seed."

"They were nine trees, and nine beasts dropped here just after the tower collapsed," Pollen said.

"Nine is the last single digit, meaning wisdom and faith, both portray maturity." He said to himself.

"Two, no! Three of those are currently traveling with you."

"Are you telling me that Haru is also a demon beast?"

"Yes, she is my daughter," the wounded beast says, trying to get up.

Liam sees something in the beast and focuses on his conscious world. Gathering up all the parts that have seeped out of the creature and pulling them all toward himself.

They form into the shape of an orb floating above Liam's hand.

The creature stares at the ball. She can not force her control over it, even though it is her energy.

"Sigh, Haru is a friend. I have never even thought to hurt her, so here," Liam suddenly shoved the ball into the beast's wounds, making her heal rapidly.

"Keuk!" She grunted in pain and pleasure at the same time. It was sudden and painful when the ball hit, but it was a pleasure when all of her returned to herself.

"I apologize for my rash actions," she had put her head, well nose, against the ground as she said that.

"Apology accepted. Now, let's see what Haru will say about all of that."

"Ha-Haru? She named herself already?" disbelief could be heard in her voice.

"Well, no. I didn't want to call her a Black Fluff Ball anymore, so I gave it to her, and she seemed to have accepted it at the time. I haven't had a chance to speak to her properly, so I haven't had a chance to ask anything else," Liam explained awkwardly as he sensed that it was supposed to be Haru who named herself.

"Black … Fluff … Ball?" She asked in a daze. She had never heard of someone who called them like that. Of course, she didn't have any clear memory of her previous life either. But all her memories were of them being hunted and despised by everyone.

"Yes, she is the softest, and I mean her fur. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a good picture of her character yet." Liam had yet to see or understand that something seemed to be strange with the bigger Black Menace.

"Uhh, by the way, how did you enter my consciousness, or better yet, how did you find out that Haru wasn't in her mind anymore?" Liam was very curious about that, as he needs to protect this area as well, so he needs to know what had happened.

"I live on a small island on a tree. There isn't much to do. I meditated a lot and discovered my consciousness. After I had managed that, I started to expand outward. I was looking for my daughter. I was hoping she had survived and had been awakened, but it seems that her awakening was later like mine. I located her about a decade ago."

"So her mental age is about ten," Liam said in conclusion.

"That should be correct. I followed her consciousness all the time. Recently her consciousness has started to change color and brightened up a lot. So I carefully observed all her movements. I noticed that she had slowed down her traveling a lot."

"That was strange to me, but the color of her consciousness was so bright that I wasn't worried at all, but when it suddenly disappeared, I had to see what happened."

"At that moment, I discovered that she was in another consciousness, which could turn out bad. She is young and inexperienced. She wouldn't know what to do, so I rushed over without thinking. There was no barrier to break through. I just basically stepped inside."

"Seeing that you were all over her, I panicked. But when I cut you and smelled your deepest essence, I knew I had done wrong, but I couldn't take back my actions anymore. The … thing appeared, and I wanted to leave... that thing was ... terrifying." she recalled the feeling and even shuddered in response.

"Yes, it was certainly that, even I felt … I was glad that I wasn't its target." Pollen interjected.

"So, my dark side is that terrifying," Liam was stunned by what they were saying.

"Liam, that wasn't just your dark side. It was the anger of the whole planet. Even mine was in there," Pollen pulled the brakes on Liam. Not that he would need it anyway.

"What?" He stopped walking, "How could it use you like that?" Pollen shook his head, though.

"It felt more like I wanted to be used for that purpose," Pollen recalled. He cleared his head and continued, "But that was only in the case of your soul. If your body is in danger, then we made a promise. We would only warn you. Or, in today's case, warn the others around you," he added, making Liam's skin crawl.

"Wait! Is my body and the kids in danger?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, It would arrive with the girl with a natural-born core," Pollen gave him more than he asked, but that wasn't important at the moment.

"What?"

"A pack of Purple Runners is hunting them."

"A pack?"

"Well, it hasn't happened yet. But before coming here, I took a look at their current patterns and speed that led me to this conclusion. They will pass by the first group. If they are lucky, they will also pass by the second group, but I doubt that they will pass by the third one.

"Why are there so many Purple Runners around?"

"Because of you and your companions, of course. They had to look for food elsewhere as they can't be too close to the demon beast by your side."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yes."

"So, in that case, I really should help them."