Chapter 276: The eye of the storm
"Whoa, what happened here?" Barry looked around and only saw destruction. There was once a city where they were standing, but it was all gone. The ground was purple, and the soil was contaminated.
All signs of life were non-existent in this area. No trees, plants, grass, animals, or even bugs were alive. Everything was just dead. The bodies of people who weren’t fortunate enough to make it out were also rotting away in various places.
"Really? You see that giant demonic storm in the sky, and you ask, "What happened here?" Is there a brain in your head or is it just air?" Kai asked because he genuinely wanted to know.
"Probably both," Barry responded, not trying to be smart at all.
Kai was about to speak again, but he stopped himself. "That was funny, so I’ll allow it."
"Kai, take a look at this." Sasha pulled something out of the dirt. It was a round disk with a purple gemstone in the middle. It didn’t look that important, but there was some writing on it that they didn’t understand.
"What’s that?" Amaya looked at the disk like a piece os treasure.
"How should I know?" Sasha handed the disk to Kai so he could examine it.
He tried to read the writing, but he wasn’t having any luck, so he bought a translator for the demon tongue, hoping that the writing was the language of the demons if they had one in the first place.
"Sweet, it works!" He started reading the writing.
"What works?" Gwen asked
"Maybe he asked his father to translate the writing," Kyana said that as a joke at first, but then she remembered that his dad could probably do that. She was still coming to terms with his father being a superme being.
"No, Leo didn’t tell me what this writing says. I got a skill that will allow me to read the text."
"What does it say?" Nadya wrapped her arms around Kai’s neck and shoulders, her legs dangling in the air as she looked over his shoulder.
"It says that Amaya needs to stop eating up all of our food in the sub-space."
Everyone turned to Amaya and saw her pull out one of the burritos Kai had made the other day.
"What? I get hungry! Sasha always drinks the wine and beer!"
"H-Hey! Why are you bringing me into this?"
"Because if I’m going down, you’re coming with me!"
Sasha pulled out her hammer. "Over my dead body!"
"Oh, I’ll gladly rip you to shreds!" Amaya’s hands morphed into claws, and she started hissing.
This was not what Kai expected would happen, but he enjoyed the discourse. It was funny seeing them at each other’s throats.
Unfortunately, Gwen, acting like a mom, calmed the two of them down as if they were children. "Knock it off, you two! We’re trying to figure out what that disk says. No fighting!"
"Fine!" Sasha put her hammer away.
"I’m watching you." Amaya pointed at her eyes, then at Sasha.
Kai cleared his throat and actually said what was written on the disk. "When the thunder roars, the sky shakes. When lightning strikes, the land quakes. If you want to know how this place was born, you need to enter the Eye of the Storm."
"Hmm. I don’t really do poetry." Kai admitted.
"It’s an idiom." Amaya pointed out.
"I’m pretty sure it’s not an idiom." Nadya took a closer look at the disk, then the sky. "I’m pretty sure it’s a message."
"Really? I thought it was just some fancy writing."
Gwen popped Kai in the back of the head.
"Ow."
"Look at the color of the disk." Kyana pointed. "It’s grey."
Kai had no idea where she was going with this. "And?"
"Look up, the clouds are gray as well."
Now, Kai really had no idea where she was going with this. "Kyana, do you know what a storm cloud is?"
"Ugh, yes! Just listen. The disk is grey, just like the clouds, but the gemstone is purple, just like the raging storm up there. The gemstone represents the storm, while the grey disk represents the clouds."
"And how did you put that together?" Cornelia asked
"Dunno, but it said if we want to learn how this storm came to be, we need to go into its eye. So it wants us to fly into the center of the storm. Maybe this disk is a key."
Sasha couldn’t help but laugh. "That’s a bold assumption. You could be sending us to our doom."
"Why don’t you try to decode this riddle then, hmm?"
"Pass, I like fighting, eating, drinking, fucking, and sleeping. Decoding riddles is not in my résumé."
Barry was getting pumped up. He liked the idea of flying headfirst into the demonic storm. "I’d say we jump into the storm."
"Shut up, Barry."
"Sorry."
Kai thought about their next move before speaking. "We need to have a vote. Team, group huddle."
The six of them gathered around, forming a huddle while Cornelia, Barry, Iris, and Patty just watched from the side.
Barry wondered why Cornelia didn’t join the group huddle.
"I’m new, so I have no idea what’s going on." She admitted.
"Okay, listen up. I’m fine with jumping into the eye of the storm, might be fun." Kai was all for the adventure, after all, this was what he was here for.
"Yeah, and it might tear us to shreds!" Gwen was all for following Kai, but only if it was safe.
Amaya wanted to know what was behind the eye of the storm, so she matched Kai’s energy. "With Kai here, what could go wrong? Besides, our carriage is fully protected. I’d say we enter the storm! It could be fun!"
"I’m with Amaya," Sasha spoke up. "Imagine all the treasures we could find there. Not to mention the experience. This is probably a once in a life time event!"
"Yeah, once and you die. Listen, I’m all for following you, babe, but I like grass, okay? Just keep that in mind. Not the air, not water, grass. Ground. Dirt. Land. Rock." Kyana had had enough with the adventures that weren’t on dry land.
Now Kai was confused. "But you were just trying to crack the riddle!"
"Just because I was trying to solve it doesn’t mean I want to go there."
"Fair point. What about you, Kyana?"
"You’ll protect us, right?"
"Always."
"Then let’s do it."