The Earth After Rebirth

Their attention was completely captured by what the cocoon was doing. The sound was horrible to say the least. Tiny cracks began to show all over it, a gold liquid came dripping out.

They were almost right above it, at the drip they quickly moved out of the way. Afraid that the liquid would be toxic to them.

But when it touched the ground, there was no acidic effect to the grass or the soil. They still didn't trust it, though a beautiful aroma hit their noses.

"Is that honey?"

Nobody wanted to get close to find that out. It could be possible that the liquid wouldn't be harmful to the nature around here while it could give them great damage. They didn't want to stupidly do something that would cost them, that and well the fact that they were scared.

"Just, don't touch it." Kiro commanded a very curious Lyle.

He gave him a stupid apologetic smile, appearing as if he was curious enough to do it. Jorge didn't have the words, he simply shook his head.

The cocoon was now opening, it bloomed a beautiful colour of indigo, like a flower everybody refuses to pick. This happened from the top of the cocoon.

"Sh*t, it's coming to life, what to do, what to do?" Jorge was panicking at the sight of the thing.

Nobody had answers, so his question was met with silence. They could only watch their doom manifest right in front of them.

Kiro threw his staff right at it, hoping it could do something better. Now that it was coming out of its shell, they found that they could move better. He followed up with whirlwind when Ryu bounced right back to his hand.

That didn't work either. Nikolai threw his poison daggers, at the same time Felix was throwing his weapon. They all failed to even dent the cocoon.

Kiro wasn't just going to give up though, he summoned lightning, at the same time Nikolai used his deadly ballad. At first it was hurting his comrades, but he tuned it just right and focused on the enemy ahead.

They knew it wasn't working, but they kept it up, pushing the boundaries, hoping they could at least hurt it before it finished its transformation. But their hopes fell on deaf ears, the monster in front of them was growing stronger instead.

"This is just a waste of mana, don't you think?" Hiro told them.

But they were stubborn, they didn't want to hear that all was hopeless. They had potions, they had a healer to ensure their mana didn't deplete, or kaos in Kiro's case.

The monster didn't seem like a monster, its energy was serene. The body inside started blossoming into a solid form they could see. Its head peeked out of the broken top of the cocoon.

It stretched until it was as tall as the trees there. It looked like a humanoid wasp. Its face had vague human features, but you could tell it wasn't entirely human.

Instead of falling to the ground, the cocoon brightened and turned into a loose robe for the being that it helped birth.

Nobody was breathing now, they didn't know it but they held their breaths in anticipation. A few seconds passed with neither of the two sides moving.

Then slowly, it opened its eyes. They were bright red, there were no irises they could spot. The whole eye was just a ball of bleeding red.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my home?" It asked with an impressive thunderous voice, that threatened to shutter their sense of hearing.

"Uh, we're here to kill you, I guess?" Lyle answered dumbly.

It had a confused and angry expression when it first laid its eyes on them. Then a sound they hadn't expected came from its persed mouth. They assumed it was laughing, even its laughter was not an appealing sound.

It was hoarse and groggy, like it had never made the sound in its life. Like it was imitating something it had heard previously.

"You? Kill me?" Its expression changed just as fast, it asked with a disgusted voice. "You couldn't even penetrate my robe—"

It didn't finish its sentence, its eyes fell on Kiro. It regarded him quietly, a smirk appeared on its monstrous face.

"You, where did you get that robe?" Kiro had piqued its curiosity.

Kiro didn't know what to say, so he told the truth. "It was a gift from my ancestor." He thought that answer would be enough, he didn't want to give much away.

"Who might that be?"

"I wouldn't like to say." Kiro was feeling a little defiant now. He knew their fate, there was no point in trying to butter up to this thing.

"Is that right? Then you can die along with your little pride." It said mockingly.

"Then die, we shall." He stood in a fighting stance, clutching at Ryu.

Lyle and Jorge were still surprised that it could talk. They'd never met a monster in this game that could, their shock was much more than the others. So they stood dumbly, not ready to fight at all.

"So, this is a harbinger." Lyle nodded as he said.

It appeared right in front of him, clutching at his throat. "I'm not just a harbinger, I'm a general, you impertinent lower being."

Lyle knew it was over, his spit flew from his mouth to the monster's eye. It didn't retaliate, it burned with anger. It snapped his neck effortlessly.

This all happened within a millisecond, Kiro had already turned and used blink. Nikolai jumped into action, using the shadows to travel there faster.

Ishaan left Felix inside his shield, he was bit on the slower side so he couldn't get there as fast as others. Hiro decided to stand between it and Felix with his shield and axe.

Jorge wasn't out of his shock. He couldn't process how fast everything was happening around them. So they locked him up with Felix.

After Dark stood defiantly, knowing that they would get killed for sure but they wouldn't wait for that to come to them, they'd go and find it themselves.

Kiro bent space with his kick, and the general easily blocked it with its forearm.

"Okay, I felt that one." It commented lightly and punched Kiro so hard that he broke the first few trees he made contact with.

When he got up, Nikolai was gone. So was Ishaan.