Heroes

Chapter 37: An Unlikely Ally

I had come face-to-face with Viridia, a naga, who from what Blythe and Suzume said, has a relation to Kage Kuragari. I knew about her past and I was immensely sorry for her, but at the same time, I knew she wasn't one I should trifle with. "For what reason do you trespass here?" Viridia's ice-cold voice interrogated, her piercing green eyes stabbing my soul like a blade of emerald.

I gulped as I answered, "Well, for one, I didn't know you lived here, and two, I'm searching for the Love Gem."

    Viridia's eyes narrowed even more and her face grew enraged as she slammed me into the ground. My clothes became drenched in sewer water. Yes, it was gross. I had a bruise on my leg and a small gash on my forehead. I was dizzy yet I stood up and faced Viridia. "You nuisance!" Viridia yelled. "I'll never let you do anything to defy my savior Kuragari!"

    I should've known. I shifted behind her and set off an explosion, only big enough to create enough smoke to obscure Viridia's vision. Viridia let out an exasperated and angry grumble as I started to run away. I ran down one pathway after the other. I was almost to another of the sewer's endless intersections when the sewers shook like the earthquake that the Limbo creature that poisoned Ari created. "Get back here! I won't let you displeasure Lord Kuragari, you hellion!" Viridia roared.

    I picked up the pace, trying to hold myself steady as I continued the search for the Love Gem. I made it to the opening of another intersection when I felt it. I felt a sharp, searing pain in my back. My back throbbed as I fell to the floor. I tried to get up, but I couldn't move a muscle. I broke out into a cold sweat and I could see my hand had started to turn a type of deep indigo color. Viridia must've used some type of paralytic venom to stop me from getting any further. I groaned in discomfort. Viridia stood behind me, just as imposing as when I crossed her path a few minutes earlier. I felt lethargic and Viridia picked me up by my ankles again, holding me upside down. Her gaze was cold and emotionless. She stood up straight, her shoulders bunched, and the rest of her tail coiled neatly, like a reptilian cinnamon roll as she shook me and asked with aggression, "Why did you come for that gem? I didn't want to have to hurt anyone else ever again since that day over 1,500 years ago, but here you come, tearing everything apart like the pest you are!"

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice genuine and weakening from the effects of the venom. "I know I can never relate to what you went through, even though I know it must've been horrifying to go through. It must've been terrible going through that only to end up getting impaled. I understand your loyalty to Kuragari after he saved you, but I need to keep that gem away from him. If he gets it, he'll steal the souls of everything on the planet. That includes yours."

Viridia's face morphed into shock and denial. "No, you lie! Lord Kuragari would never do that!" she yelled.

      I just kept looking at her, my expression soft and pity-ridden as I told her, "He would. I know he would. He slaughtered millions of people just to try to conquer the world and now that he is back, he'll stop at nothing to fulfill his goal. Believe me. I have to get that gem before he does."

      Viridia's eyes glimmered with fright, but her tail wrapped around me tightly. My bones felt like they were going to be crushed as her grip on me tightened like a trash compactor. I groaned in pain. Was she doing this out of a fearful or shocked reaction or out of denial? Either way, I had to get away, but, I was still paralyzed. I could've set off an explosion or blinded her with smoke from my flames but my eyes were drooping shut as the venom made me even more enervated. Viridia seemed to watch as I grew closer and closer to going unconscious. Her fearful expression then merged with a look of guilt. "My goodness," she whispered, almost in a realization of what she was about to do. "What I am doing?"