No conscious thought. No strategy. No hesitation.
Pure, primal terror consumed her tiny body, overriding every instinct, every learned behavior. The moment she had felt the weight of that thing's awareness—the Abyssal being slumbering inside the coffin—her mind had snapped. Not with reason, not with logic, but with the inescapable certainty of death.
Aura had encountered many powerful beings before. Nadia, a 7-star beast-tamer, the indigo-grade Abyssal creatures they'd seen in the other chamber, even the horrifying process of the breeding pit.
But this? She had never faced anything that made her feel so certain of her impending doom before.
It had barely done anything—hadn't moved, hadn't stirred, hadn't even acknowledged her.
Yet that presence had completely overwhelmed her mind with terror.
Her heart pounded, and her tiny paws blurred as she bolted from the chamber, retracing her path blindly down the center hallway, desperate to put distance between herself and that thing before it could open its eyes and see her.
Through the link, the others felt her terror.
"Aura!" Benji's voice snapped through the connection. "Calm down! You need to get the core! Don't forget the core!"
But she wasn't listening. She was mindless, reduced to nothing but a small creature trying to flee a terrifying predator.
"Shit—" Benji cursed as he felt the overwhelming panic surge from Aura. His bond with her meant that even he was struggling to think straight under the sheer weight of her fear.
"She's not responding!" Clara snapped. "Damn it! Just grab the core and go! You sent a split in there, Aura! It's not even your real body!"
Aura didn't hear her. Didn't care. She had to run.
But Kain, his mind whirling through the possibilities, refused to let this mission fail.
Aura was too far gone to listen to Benji. Too deep in panic to make rational decisions.
Thankfully, he'd unintentionally kept a backup security measure on her beforehand—Bea.
He immediately drained all of his spiritual power to provide the needed boost of energy and power to her so that she could momentarily control the blue-grade mouse.
For a split second, Aura's world froze.
A foreign presence slipped into her mind. Not in a violent, forceful way, but like a shadow curling around her thoughts. Gentle yet overpowering.
For an instant, Aura felt herself slipping—control of her limbs, her frantic breathing, the sheer animalistic urge to flee.
But unlike most other creatures Bea had influenced before, Aura fought back hard.
Aura's mental strength was stronger than the average blue-grade spiritual creature. Likely due to the unique attributes of her species.
She kicked and thrashed against the influence, her mind screaming in rebellion, refusing to be controlled.
Kain clenched his fists, sweat beading on his temple as he pushed everything he had into Bea, even using elixirs and his equipment to refill his spiritual power and provide additional boosts. Never had he done so before, and he could feel the painful strain of using the spiritual skill so frequently on the same target put on himself and Bea.
However, his efforts paid off. For a brief moment, Aura's body stilled.
Her paws stopped their desperate scrabbling. Her breathing slowed. The blind, mindless terror loosened its grip.
She was still afraid. Terrified beyond measure. But she was thinking again.
She wasn't being chased. Nothing had moved. The coffin hadn't opened.
She was slightly embarrassed to admit that she had panicked over the mere presence of the Abyssal being.
Aura reassured Benji of her well-being, still shaking but aware once more, and Bea's influence faded, retreating as soon as Kain felt her stabilizing.
Benji let out a breath of relief.
But Claudia wasn't nearly as understanding.
"Oh for fuck's sake, Benji," Claudia exhaled sharply. "Your contract nearly lost us everything because it got scared? The core, Aura! The one thing we've been searching for, for days! Stop being a scaredy mouse and grab the core before those tendrils finish corrupting it!"
Benji's entire demeanour snapped.
"Are you serious right now?" His voice was sharp, uncharacteristically angry. "You felt that thing, Claudia! That wasn't some regular monster! It likely had the strength of a Demigod! Do you think you could think clearly when faced with it?!"
"She sent a split," Claudia countered. "If it dies, she'll recover with time after a period of weakness. The mission is more important than a little fear."
Benji's jaw tightened, his fingers clenching into a fist, but didn't argue further. As the one with the closest connection with Aura, he'd more vividly felt the pressure emanating from that creature. He was also slightly embarrassed to admit, that he almost wanted to bolt from this area as well. He didn't normally react this way to creatures stronger than him, but it was almost as if this creature had the passive ability to drive people crazy from fear.
Kain, meanwhile, took a steadying breath. The argument didn't matter. Not right now.
Aura was calm. That was what mattered.
"Alright, focus," Nadia's voice cut through the air. "We need to figure out how to take the core without setting off any defences."
Aura turned, cautiously re-entering the central chamber and approaching the Relic Core once again.
The black tendrils twitched.
Not from awareness of her—no, they were still focused entirely on strangling the core itself. But that meant if she disturbed them, they might react.
"How do we even grab it?" Kain murmured. "If the tendrils detect movement, they'll tighten around it completely."
"Not if they're distracted," Benji said.
Nadia caught on quickly. "You mean force them to divide their energy?"
Benji nodded. "They're actively corrupting the core. If we feed it energy, the tendrils will be forced to counteract the purification. That could weaken their hold long enough for Aura to grab it."
Kain frowned. "Do we have anything that can purify it?"
"Ahem…remember that list of objects I gave you previously, about the must-have objects for Pathfinders in the event of an emergency," Benji began hopefully, "by any chance Kain, did you actually manage to purchase the items on the list…"
"Of course! You emphasized that those were the objects Pathfinders should keep on themselves at all times." Kain confirmed. Benji's words while passing that list had left quite the impression. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have used the credits he'd just gained from the mission in the Dragon Territory to purchase a bunch of things he didn't even know how to use. He would have spent it on weapons, evolutionary materials, or other stuff he actually could visualize how it could boost his strength.
Kain looked around at the lowered and embarrassed expressions of his teammates. Even their leader Nadia, looked as though she was chastising herself. "Don't tell me that you all didn't bring anything on that list?!"
'If they don't purchase that stuff, why the heck did they ask me to?!'