CHAPTER FOUR

The God's mouth was a floating apparition amidst the darkness. Anyone who had met the Supreme Chief of the Mythos knew that the Hinirang always had an obscure smile that was the only thing visible on his face. Not to mention he was always wearing a coat — a fun fact she could bet on despite the absence of light.

"Put down your weapons, children," his coarse voice echoed as every movement of those white teeth was the only thing they could focus on.

But no one followed his order. Chen Li Sha's hand tightened on the trigger guard of her gun. Electric shocks coursed through her veins. It was the sign of power flowing through her fingers. Particles of dust collected in an instant, forming the shape of a bullet inside the barrel.

"Obstinate like any other..." His words drawled out before an invisible force took away her gun.

"Hey!"

"What the fvck!"

"The hell?"

"Damn, give it back!"

Curses overlapped followed by the sound of metal meeting the carpeted floors. Chen Li Sha tried to look for her gun but it was all black. She can't even see her own hands. Nevertheless, her fingers drew a magic array in the air, summoning light into the room but there was nothing.

'Weird.' She could use magic earlier but couldn't even perform a basic spell now. She tried again. this time sensing her surroundings. With a meter away from the closed door and nothing but the Hinirang leering at them, her body was on high alert.

"Come on. Have a seat, children," his voice rang again.

"Can you get rid of your magic first?" Chen Li Sha blurted out. "I can't even see my body, what more, a chair?"

She didn't know his lips could stretch wider as soon as she said that.

"So you noticed... As expected of the daughter of Xi Wang Mu." A trace of mischief entwined his tone.

"What's that got to do with her godparent? This is a child's play. Any demigod could tell this is not an ordinary darkness." Guo Feng's annoying voice was right next to Chen Li Sha and she instinctively got away.

The Hinirang chuckled. "Are you certain about that? You might want to ask your comrades."

"Yang-ge, can't you feel it?" Chen Li Sha probed first.

"Feel what?" came Zhu Mu Yang's reply.

"How about you, Liu Hui?" she asked again.

"Nothing."

"Really?" A frown appeared on her face as the sense of being trapped enveloped her.

Without her gun, vigilance rose to her chest. Dank air had filled the room the moment they entered earlier.  It's as if the atmosphere and darkness combined froze her in her place.

This darkness was similar to the stories of the underworld. It reeked of death and doom. Stuck in this room with an enigma of a god was not something she had imagined.

The Hinirang was not a malevolent god, but that did not mean he could be compared to Buddha. Just like his identity, it was harder to know what side he stood for.

Something prickled her skin, making her jump.

"What the hell is that?"

"It hates getting recognized, you know," the Hinirang said.

Her eyes widened when his words dawned. "It's alive?"

"Yes. So get on your seat before either one of us gets irked or the consequence is not what you can handle."

The sudden sternness raised goosebumps on all four of them. Together with the clammy sensation around her, sweat formed on her forehead.

The oppression from his presence only proved the difference between a real god and those who only had half the blood.

A snap brought their mind back. Another invisible force pushed them on what seemed like a sofa.

Before any of them could react, a scene played in front of them. The hazy images were simply carnage in the truest form of the word. It was all blood everywhere.

Heads flew while the rest of the bodies were dismembered. No one could differentiate their race as red, gold, and black mixed as they splattered from the air to the ground.

Chen Li Sha's face turned green but she could not take away her eyes from it even as it disappeared already.

She had been on countless missions since she was twelve, ten years later and she could say that nothing had disgusted her more than this one-minute holographic video.

"Riveting, isn't it?"

She had heard the Hinirang always had a peculiar taste and he just proved it with that sentence.

"What the fvck was that?" Guo Feng said with utter disbelief.

"Real hell, I suppose," she replied.

"Or some shit," Liu Hui added.

"Guys." Zhu Mu Yang's tone held a warning. She could feel the glare even with all the blackness.

The Hinirang let out a small laugh when there was not a thing she found funny. Perceiving that no one got his humor, he cleared his throat. 

"So you see... I have a special mission for the China branch. I heard you were chosen through roulette. That was a wonderful idea, I might add. More thrill. More drama. I heard Sheng-er was heartbroken when all his top fighters were chosen?" Another throaty laugh escaped his lips before he continued. "Anyhow, the MHAF will be needing your help."

"What particular help is it?" Zhu Mu Yang inquired.

They had all seen the letter of request but there were no specifics. No one would think it was from the main headquarters and the Hinirang himself with the lack of information.

"It's simple. You just have to defeat all the Desastres and Levianises here in the region."

It did sound simple coming from his mouth but the four of them knew it was not. Levianises were mythical creatures from all kinds of pantheons that escaped the realm of monsters. It was always a struggle fighting them. As for the Desastres, any sane demigod would choose the former over them.

Those monsters were trickier. Unlike Levianises, once the weakness was exposed, it was a piece of cake but Desastres was as different as the other. They were built like cockroaches that were stubborn to die.

"Easy, correct?"

'Easy for him to say...' As reckless as Chen Li Sha was, there was no such thing as weak monsters. Underestimating an enemy was a marking of a newbie bound to free dive at the arms of death.

Regardless of her opinion in her mind, she was not stupid to say such thoughts out loud. Seeing their team captain agreeing, she did too.

"Perfect." The Hinirang clapped with glee. "Let's get you started, shall we?"

With just a snap, the five of them disappeared from the room. The next moment Chen Li Sha blinked, the pungent stench already overwhelmed her senses.

"Ah, shit!" 

"Hell!" 

Liu's grumble overlapped with hers. Sometimes, having heightened perceptions had its downside, especially during this time.

"Fvck! What nasty shit is this?" Guo Feng said as he pinched his nose.

"A Desastre, apparently," Zhu Mu Yang pointed out.

"And they clearly breed it differently here," Liu Hui added with pure disgust on his face.

"Right? That smell is enough to knock anyone out," she agreed.

The revolting stink was a combination of rotting bodies and the nasty odor of an opened septic tank. Not only that, the muddy lump inflated like a balloon as it accumulated all the trash around it.

Just witnessing how large it became showed how worse the environment of the place was. After all, Desastres originated due to men's abuse of nature.

With the mortals' almost nonexistent wariness of their surroundings, these monsters existed to seek their own justice. Unfortunately, humans were always favored by gods, and in this battle, the Desastres were the 'enemies' to be purged — a mindset rooted in the demigods.

"I'll leave this all up to you, children," the Hinirang said, disappearing right away without waiting for their replies.

"Gather, everyone," Zhu Mu Yang ordered. "Listen carefully. This is a Desastre made of pollution and its main body is water. It is still growing and we can't do anything until it solidifies."

"Uhuh. My guns won't affect it but I can create wooden prisons and stakes then you can freeze it?" Chen Li Sha suggested.

"Yeah. Liu Hui can use some of his spells to help you trap it and Guo Feng can use his staff to help you pierce it. The rest?" Zhu Mu Yang grinned. "Just do everything to stay alive."

The same smile appeared on Chen Li Sha's lips. That was what she was good at — surviving and killing monsters.

The four of them separated, taking their positions. Chen Li Sha ignored the smell as she observed the moment the Desastre's body became firm. Water-based pollution monsters were practically immortal in their forming stage. It was as if waiting for the last boss's final transformation.

The huge scale of its body could compare to a three-story building but due to the mist covering the anomalies of the magic world, no one would even notice the monster, only its effects.

The ground shook as it roared. Violet glow shone on Liu Hui's side, hitting the monster. Small blobs flew to the ground but they did not melt, instead, they moved on their own.

"Damn it! It's propagating!" she informed.

Picking up a rock, she transformed it into cages. She used her mind to control it, lifting toward the newborn monsters. As they got stuck, those mini-monsters were stabbed in a single swift move. 

Warmth traveled in her veins despite the gloves on her hands. The sign of qi flowing inside her body confirmed their deaths. The more she killed, the more vitalized her magic was as if she fed on the monsters' residual energy. 

"Guo Feng!"

With her shout, several metal rods appeared and impaled the small Desastres.  Their ink blood was barely visible after it soaked the ground but they never ended.

Guo Feng continued his attack that defied the philosophy of Wuxing where metal's weakness was water. It was owed to the fact that his metal staff was a gift from his father. It could pierce anything even with such a blunt shape. However, it was his own magic that could make it multiply and change his weapon's size.

Chen Li Sha and Guo Feng did not let any of the small Desastres free, attacking every single one of them with no signs of exhaustion. Despite being sworn enemies, no one could deny they were ironically the best teammates. It's as if they could predict each other's move, syncing their abilities and maximizing their efficiency.

On the other hand, Zhu Mu Yang was casting an array while Liu Hui already managed to poison the Desastre's main body. It had decreased in size and already stopped creating small blobs, still, it continued swallowing all the things it slid past.

"Everyone, it's time!" Zhu Mu Yang's voice alerted everyone. A bright circle formation emerged on top of the monster.

Chen Li Sha gathered as many stones as she could with her left hand. She threw it in the Desastre's direction and with her ability of creation through exchange, those stones morphed into hardened wood.

As soon as it closed over the frozen Desastre, Guo Feng's metal rod enlarged to almost the same height as the monster. It speared directly at the center. The Desatre's groan reverberated through the night before it became a puddle, resuming the world back to its silence.

"Good job, guys!" Zhu Mu Yang said.

"Argh. I'm spent! They did not even let us rest."

"Lazyass," Chen Li Sha mumbled.

"Just to be clear, I was doing the most work," Guo Feng retorted.

"Uhuh. Do you think you could kill them off easily without my help?"

Guo Feng scoffed. "As if those those stupid cages could kill them."

"How do we even go back?" Li Hui interrupted before Chen Li Sha could rebut. 

The four of them exchanged glances but when her eyes roamed further, her jaw dropped.

Chen Li Sha rubbed her eyes but the figure was still there. Only the full moon lit their surroundings but she could see how the woman bared her teeth as her lips curved.

"What's wrong?" Guo Feng questioned, but before his sight could drift in the same direction as hers, a snap resounded in their ears and the intensely lit lobby welcomed their view.

Chen Li Sha remained quiet as Carlos approached them.

She recalled the last scene. There was quite a distance between them, but it was not hard for her to recognize the face that she had been familiar with ever since she entered Mythos.

There was no way she could forget her roommate, especially one that was supposed to be dead.

'Shu Xin.'

U n S c e n e s

Chen Li Sha: Am I going crazy?

Guo Feng: Huh? Since when are you not?

Translation:
Wu Xing ‧ five phases or five agents

Pronunciation:
Wu Xing ‧ ooh-sing

Note:
The first time I did not put the 'or not' on the note, I wasn't able to update lol This was initially 2 chapters but as I edit this, it makes much more sense to combine it. Then again, does this count as a double update after missing for two weeks? xD

See you next week.

Or not :p