37 Third Clue

"Yes, yes….This is it…kekeke.….Maybe this way…no, no, NO…master I will get it right…keke…" A tremulous voice drifted up the dark walkway that Sozoth, Ithha, Sald, and Eos dawdled closer to its source.

"STOP! Do you want to die?" A demanding voice seem to scream at the four ladies and Eos, causing them to stop dead their tracks.

"You should add these two like this." This time a matter-of-fact voice this time spoke from the depths of the tunnel.

"Are you trying to kill us you simple, uncultivated idiot?" A taunt voice snickered back.

The group eventually resumed their movements at an even slower pace after they realized that the voices were not talking to them. Eos took to the front of the pack since his cultivation is the highest.

"Typically, beasts aren't as intelligent when they are only in the three-star realm. They for sure should not be able to communicate telepathically until the fourth realm. I presume that his intelligence and telepathy ability relates to him being a griffin. One of the few things that they have a slightly higher intellectual ability and that they have a firm stance against evil. It's a shame that he doesn't have his wings." Sald tried to understand the mysteries behind Eos's strange advance intelligence.

"I thought you said that there is only one person down there?" Ithaa whispered in Sozoth's ear in the softest voice that she could do.

"He's a lunatic." Sozoth didn't look at Ithaa as she replied in her usual monotone voice.

"He might have a split soul or is possessed by one or two souls." Sald attempted to answer the question asked by Ithaa.

"What do you mean by that?" Ithaa responded.

"He could have been a twin, a triplet, quadruplet or so on when he was in the womb. By some phenomenon the bodies and souls could have merged into one. Thus, his several types of personalities. The other explanation is that a couple of resentful souls that didn't move on to the afterlife attempted to take over his body but were not able to. Also, it could be a mix of both." Sald calmly explained the differences.

Ithaa pondered for a moment before her eyes lit up. "Can't we use this to our advantage? What would happen if the different souls started to go against each other?"

Sald easily grasped the direction of Ithaa's idea and nodded her head. "We first need to figure out how many personalities are inside that body. Then, we need to understand each of them to the smallest detail and how they individually think. After that we need to figure out what their plan is and motivate each personality to proceed down the path that they think is correct. Lastly, when the time is right."

"I poison him." Sozoth interrupted Sald as a glimmer of light shone in her eyes as an evil smile appeared on her face.

"By poison do you mean kill or paralyze? There are some questions that he needs to answer." Sald sternly said.

"If that is what you want," Sozoth sighed, "I can oblige." She then went ahead to take out a small clear vile from the inside of her cloak. Inside the vile is a three-inch dart that has half of its tip died purple. "Against him I guess that he will be unable to move for a half hour. That is if he is underneath the Chikara realm."

"If he has that high of a cultivation he would already know that we are here and is only baiting us in." Eos communicated through telepathy to the three females following behind him.

The group arrived right outside the entrance to the hall that the mad-man is in an noticed the horrific scene in front of them. Countless lifeless bodies are piled up in seven different smaller crevasses that break off from the main one. Each of the smaller caves have piles various breeds of snakes, eagles, scorpions, lions, spiders, birds, and humans. Each body is missing one, two, or more limbs, a head, tail or anything from its body.

In the east section of this laboratory are creatures like those that the group fought against, except these ones are lifeless on the ground. A stone table looked to function as an operating table. Limbs from the six beasts and humans are placed accordingly to appropriately put the limbs together just like a puppet.

Located at the west side of the inner circle of this cavern is a shelf filled with books of different thickness. Next to the shelf is small transparent jar filled with a brown-yellow mucus. Floating inside the mucus is a fist sized black eye with a white iris and red pupil. Every so often the eye seemed to twitch as if it was scanning the surroundings.

At the south end, opposite of the entrance, is a couple of tables with vials of different shapes and sizes filled with liquids varying in color and consistency. Some of the vials are connected to another one with tubes, others are connected to a cauldron. Currently the mad man is mixing different vials together in preparation to pour them into the cauldron while adding herbs from the assortment of resources. The cauldron is in between the two tables. Beyond the tables and cauldron is another tunnel that has the same lantern with purple flame set up but is empty.

"Now I am certain that you want to die. We have already tried that combination." The same demanding voice spoke again, this time with a booming voice. This time the body of person stopped and smiled with only half of his face for just a jiffy. The hearts of the four trespassers skipped a beat this time. They unconsciously took a step back.

The group started to study the mastermind for the time being. After ten minutes they realized that there are at least three different personalities living inside the hosts body. One of them, is the main personality and seems to oversee concocting whatever pill or potion they are trying to create. Another one seems to think that it is the brains of the operation as it looks down on the other one's intellectual abilities. The third personality is the one that is the puppeteer and creator behind the Frankenstein beasts.

At this time the cauldron started to glow in with a dim golden color. After a minute, the liquid gradually receded from the top as a faint horrid smell started to permeate the air, soon reaching the spectators.

A horrendous evil laugh echoed though the hall before the mastermind voice spoke, "We finally did it! I guess this is thanks to those meddling kids who have been destroying your creations." The group became apprehensive after these words were spoken.

"All my hard work for nothing. I guess its only right that we finally succeeded." The puppet-master added on.

"We need to hurry up and finish this while we still have the chance." The self-proclaimed intellectual voice hurriedly said.

The man reached in and grabbed the sole pill that rests at the bottom of the cauldron before racing into the only empty tunnel. Eos followed suit as his animal instincts told him that the pill that was concocted was not something of good nature. Even at his full speed Eos was too slow for the man as by time he arrived the man was standing next to a large beast. It is the same one Arbor and Dax described in their stories. A demon creature that has the body of a spider, the head of lion, the wings of a phoenix, a serpent tail, the claws of an eagle as its fore feat, and the pincers of a scorpion.

Even though this demon beast is within an inch of its life, Eos can still feel the pressure emanating from it, so he does not dare to get too close.

"You're too late, too weak, and too dumb. If you all wouldn't have pretended that you were out for a stroll or waited just outside lairs entrance, you could have possibly stopped the destruction of this realm." The intellectual voice spoke.

The persons face distorted slightly before speaking, "Brother don't kill this beast. Its rare to find a griffin that doesn't have wings. He will be a great test subject."

Eos spoke to the people inside the body, "You people deserve to die for the way you have treated these poor animals bodies after they have died. You are…"

At this moment, the best standing behind the man started to twitch back to life. Its aura steadily climbed, causing Eos to retreat at a pace of a couple meters a second.

"THIS IS THE END OF YOUR LIVES FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS AND THE REST OF THE WORLTHESS SCUM IN THIS REALM AND THE NEXT. MY MASTER IS FINNALLY..." The face of the man changed again as he spoke in a rage.

Before the man could finish speaking the beast suddenly dropped to the floor as six separate red lights came out of the body and sped past the man, Eos and the three girls. Then they appeared at the bottom of the hole before racing up, passing Arbor and the rest before heading towards the outside of the massive cave dwelling and exiting into the forest. Each of the six different lights then separated before disappearing into different directions in the sky.

"What the fuck were those?" Arbor inquired. "Dax and…ugh sorry senior whats your name?" Arbor rubbed the back of his head.

Chen Hong quickly squinted his eyes before humbly saying, "I am Chen Hong, the current Elder of the Chen clan out of Eksu City."

Arbor bowed and greeted Chen Hong humbly, "This junior greats Senior Chen."

"I don't have much practice at this greeting thing, but I know people take face seriously for some reason. I just hope I did that right." Arbor thought to himself.

"No need for the formalities." Chen Hong waved his hands side to side, "You can just call me Brother Chen."

Arbor gave Chen Hong an odd look before speaking softly and slowly. "Suuure." Arbor tried to think of what his goal is to try and forcefully get close to him.

"I don't exactly know what those lights were, as they were too fast for my eyes, but it would be best if we check on the state of those down there. Can we go in now Tagas?" Leo urged.

"Yes, lets go." Arbor agreed before he jumped into the hole.