When Rex bound the possibly evil goddess's hands, her shadows weakened—slowly retreating and leaving barely enough room for Inso to breathe.
Inso panted and gasped, trying to escape the remaining shadows with all the grace of a fish flopping on land. Despite the woman being restrained, her powers were still strong enough that Inso remained trapped. The shadowed ropes had small spines that clutched onto Inso's skin, making him writhe uncomfortably.
It's not painful, he thought, but I can't move even a single centimeter. Fantastic. Just what I needed today.
Through his blurry vision, Inso witnessed something that made him question his sanity.
Rex was playing hero all of a sudden.
[Polarum: Watches with 5D glasses]
"What the hell is he doing?" Inso squinted, watching the showdown between his two enemies like it was some bizzare WWE match.
The woman broke free from Rex's clutch pretty quick.
"Whomever you are," she said with a raised eyebrow, "I believe you're here to steal one of my soon-to-be collections?" annoyed by Rex's interference.
Meanwhile, Inso was confused to his core, his brain working overtime to process the situation.
"What are they even speaking?" he muttered, unable to understand their language.
"They're probably having a bet on who gets the prey first.", Inso was quick-witted.
Back to the supernatural showdown of the century...
"What do you think?" Rex smirked—not just any smirk, but the kind of dangerous smirk that made his purplish aura peek out and raged around him.
The woman didn't back down. Instead, she summoned more shadow spirits that charged at Rex with rage, only to disappear into the wind when they came close to his aura.
By all logic, the woman should have been terrified. Instead, her eyes lit up like a kid discovering the toy section.
"I see there's another rare item over here? Haha!" With a playful smile, she absorbed all her shadows back and blew out black gas from her mouth.
The gas transformed into a massive 20-foot shadow monster covered in silicon spikes. It's eyes were white, dead white that didn't have pupils. Body like a frog that had a big belly it could make you twitch in disgust.
"Can you play with my baby for a while?" she asked with a dramatic pout that would put soap opera stars to shame. "She's so lonely."
Rex glared at the monster, completely unimpressed. "Of course. I'll gladly end its loneliness," he replied, his tone dryer.
Then he lunged at it with inhuman speed, transforming his aura into a spear and taking down the monster by piercing its eyes within seconds.
KO. Inso thought bitterly.
For Inso, this development was nothing short of terrifying. Because no matter who won this supernatural pissing contest, he was so dead either way.
Inso struggled to break free, but couldn't budge or use his abilities.
"Why can't I see their properties?"Did I really lose my ability? he pondered, trying to figure out his surroundings while having an existential crisis. Black masses floated around him, but they had no properties he could identify.
"Are they space ghosts or something?" Inso's started to think nonsense.
Then something unexpected happened—because apparently, this day hadn't been weird enough already.
The 20-foot monster that Rex had seemingly defeated seconds ago reformed. But this time, it shape-shifted into a human form—exactly like Rex.
But Rex was so unbothered.
"Tch... how bothersome," Rex muttered, lunging at his doppelgänger.
The clone lunged back with identical abilities. Their powers collided with a small impact, that created a heavy smoke around them, but neither took damage. Rex focused, quickly scanning for weak points, only to realize his clone had none—because it was exactly like him.
Inso's jaw dropped so hard it nearly disconnected. "I guess today's the day I'll meet my dad in the afterlife," he lamented. "I can't even deal with one Rex, but two? The universe really hates me, doesn't it?"
DING!
[Polaris: Hey human. Wake up and tell me what you see.]
"I see my dad waving at me from heaven," Inso replied, having completely lost his mind due to pressure.
[Polarum: ...]
[Lars: ...]
Meanwhile, the dangerously beautiful woman began walking toward Inso, swaying her hips like a predator approaching wounded prey.
[Polaris: Idiot. You might die at this rate.]
"Huh? I'm going to die either way. Why do you suddenly care now?" Inso slumped deeper into despair when another message arrived.
[Nexus: Rex won't harm you.]
"I guess this is the first time I've seen this person," Inso thought. "And why should I believe you?" he replied with a bombastic side-eye.
The effect was immediate. Despite fighting his clone, Rex somehow shot a purple string at the woman, blocking her path toward Inso like an overprotective bodyguard.
"Tch... he spotted me," the woman pouted.
[Nexus: Rex is the desperate one who wants you alive.]
Even though Inso didn't want to believe this stranger, his options were limited to "trust random voices" or "definitely die horribly."
Inso sighed, the sound of a man who had accepted his bizarre fate. "I can't seem to use my abilities somehow. Do you think I'll still be trapped if I could see how to defeat them?"
DING
[Ekkril: It looks similar to my form.]
[Ekkril: I'm silicon-based in human terms.]
Ekkril's message perked up Inso's thoughts like caffeine injected directly into his brain. "Silicon?" He looked up at the sky as if it held answers.
[Polaris: Then your weakness is.....]
"Water," Inso said with the confidence. "If I can use my ability, I can defeat it!" A last hint of hope made his eyes widen like he'd just discovered gold.
[Nexus: I guess Nythals are inhibiting your power. Try to get away from them.]
Inso thought hard, his brain cells working overtime until an idea popped up—perhaps his only good idea of the day.
"Hey, tell me. Are the ropes tying me right now also silicon-based?" he asked.
[Ekkril: I think so...]
Without hesitation—and with zero regard for hygiene—Inso licked the ropes, dampening them with his saliva.
[Polarum: Brotha Ewww...]
To his surprise and mild disgust, the shadows actually loosened, retracting their small spines as if suddenly shy.
Note to readers: Please don't lick strange supernatural whatever.
That slight loosening was enough for Inso. He wriggled through and escaped her clutches, running like his life depended on it—which it absolutely did.
But escaping wasn't going to be as easy as running away from a group project. The woman noticed his daring escape and made another batch of shadow ropes to chase him while Rex was distracted, fighting his clone.
Inso rolled and dodged most of them. So much for taking care of my exercise routine, he thought between gasps for air. This counts as cardio for the next five years.
"How much farther do I need to go for my ability to work again?" he tried to cluster the wind but couldn't.
"Guess I need to get even farther," he muttered, running on whatever ATP his body had left, which wasn't much.
But his brain malfunctioned completely when he heard a familiar voice call out, "Inso?"
It was Devi's voice. She was standing at a distance, wearing a worried expression rather than the panicked one any sane person would have in this situation.
"Noona?" Inso's panic level rose to red.
The woman chasing Inso immediately changed tactics, sending her shadows toward Devi instead—apparently deciding that threatening his friend was the fastest way to catch him.
Inso gasped, his heart racing like it was competing in the Olympics at the thought that something might happen to his only friend and lifeline.
"Noona!! Get away!" Inso screamed, running toward her with all his might. But Devi stood still, her expression remarkably calm for someone facing a sudden death flag.
Rex, who was fighting at a distance, noticed the situation and tried to teleport but couldn't—because his clone would have done the same. Instead, he sent his purple strings to break the shadow, but it was too late.
The ropes crystallized mid-air and shot straight toward Devi's heart with deadly precision.
"Noonaaaaa!!!" Inso's scream echoed through the area. He squeezed his eyes shut, his heart pounding like a war drum. He couldn't bear to watch his only ray of sunshine in his tragic life turn into a cold, lifeless body.
But his eyes betrayed him by opening anyway, forcing him to witness whatever horrible fate awaited his friend.
What he saw, however, was the complete opposite of what he'd expected.
To be continued...