Hadi: I've tried my best but couldn't get a definitive location! What could you hope from a crude map like that?! And why hadn't you contacted me sooner?!

The first sentence she got from her eldest brother, was a harsh scolding. Hana couldn't blame Hadi. He had tried to contact her for the longest time, but she didn't respond. After her ‘treatment’ session, she had only managed to contact her hubby and her own ailing mother. She did contact her other family members, but it was through a group chat, where she only left perfunctory general sentences once or twice, saying she was alright. 

Hadi had been subjected to a lot of pressure from their own family to help Hana, but it turned out the person who was in the middle of the predicament was being very unhelpful. It had made Hadi to be discontented, enraged and bitter. Who was the one who needed help here? Why was it like he was the only one who was working his butt off over here?!

Hana: But, it's real. I'm 100 % sure it is. No clue at all, Bro Hadi?

Hadi: Do you know how bad I was reprimanded by Mak before? She nearly got a bout of heart attack from getting too angry with me because I couldn't find you!

Hana: ....

Hana didn't know what to say. She knew she was guilty as charged. She and Arash had agreed not to disclose what actually happened during her MIA session. She just told everyone she was suddenly too sick to move and needed a long time to get better with no medication and all. She sighed and accepted whatever was thrown to her. It's a form of apology to her big brother who had done a lot for her. If she had told them she nearly died, the effect would be a lot worse.

Hadi: I've found the best experts to help us. We've worked really hard while you're sick before. The match was more than 3000 isolated forest-based locale! Can't you make the map a little more detail? Anyway, how far have you walked? I'm sure you wouldn't have walked the whole way to chart out the stream and went to the mountain, right? Did you get the map from an aborigine from your location? Can you get anything else from that person? Usually, aborigines would have a connection with a nearby ranger. They're not totally disconnected from the outside world.

The barrage of questions was only greeted with a lengthy five minutes of silence before an answer which had made Hadi’s eyes and mouth turned round arrived.

Hana: ...er.. it was from a bird friend of mine. Don’t worry, she quite intelligent and I believe her.

Hana decided to come clean. If there's really an aborigine around, she too, know how to ask for help. However, not even a shadow of a human was seen even after she had expanded her exploration range.

Hadi: ....  

Hadi fell from the swivel chair and nearly threw his smartphone in the dustbin. Some co-workers stopped to glance before returning back to their own work. He scrambled back up into his seat with a darker than black face after he fetched his phone on the floor. Hadi nearly blew his top off from feeling incredulous and anger at the same time.

Hadi: WHAT?!

Hana: .... 

Hadi: I'm gonna pull off the search now, Sis. I've wasted a lot of experts’ time for this. I nearly got roasted by my superior! You need to find me more tangible info first before I’m going to help you again. At least give me a map drawn by a human!!!

...

Hana wiped away the tears that were threatening to fall from the corner of her eyes. As usual, her big brother was very harsh with her. After a few minutes of silent crying, she took three deep breaths to calm herself and turned to her worrying pets with a determined resolution in her eyes.

"I have decided. Let's subjugate the Elemental Fiends’ Queen as soon as possible. I need them to chart out a good map this time."

...

Mommy, are you ready for today? A young male's voice entered her mind as the bright red star pulsated following the rhythm of Kuro's voice. 

This has become a routine in Hana life as she entered the empty dark space adorned with three multicolored stars inside her 'dream-world'. 

Hana had been cultivating diligently every day after the short outburst with her elder brother a few days ago. She had skipped going out for adventuring and only spent two hours to fulfill her daily needs, pushing out all distractions. The rest of the time, she would sink into a deep sleep to enter her dream-world and cultivate the strange cultivation technique. 

After ascertaining her unwavering will to subjugate the elemental fiends, Kuro had asked her to cultivate the Lightning Emperor's Divinity Soul cultivation technique more vigorously as one of the pre-requisites before planning the operation. The goal was for her to unlock the initial level of a skill within the cultivation technique, the Soul-link, when her soul cultivation progressed to reach the required level. 

According to Kuro, the Soul-link technique initial success will manifest when the soul-linkers were bestowed with the ability to sync with at least one of the five senses of linkers. Inevitably, when the skill was fully matured, full synchronization of all five senses will be possible. The skill will then further evolve into a new stronger form, which Kuro promised to tell her when the time comes in the future.

Kuro had divulged that the telepathic connection between their mommy and him was already strong enough; he had been able to share Hana's sight. By right, Hana should be able to do the same. With the sight-synchronization achieved, only Kuro needed to go out to scout for information without the need to bring Hana along. Hana could tap into Kuro's vision while being in the protection of Shiro, devising strategies, while being safe and sound in the cave.

However, after she had tried so many times, it just didn't work that way. So, the issue might be due to Hana's own deficiency; either her weak constitution as a whole or her weak soul power. That was why, the aunty needed to cultivate diligently while partaking nutritious spiritual herbs during every meal. She had skipped on seafood and only ate stewed mushrooms and bamboo shoots with a little salt alternately every day. Although she was unhappy becoming a temporary vegan, she didn’t complain as she herself didn’t want to waste so much time preparing food with low nutritional value extensively.

During each sleeping session, Kuro had asked her to hold the 'ruby' shard Kuro had given her on her left hand, and the beautiful greenish pearl Ara gave her on the right. At the moment, both Hana and Kuro viewed the aunty’s sleeping sessions with utmost importance, as they found that only during these times were Hana able to cultivate, just like when Kuro performed his own cultivation-hibernation session.    

In the dream-world, Hana made herself comfortable and sat in a lotus position just below the red pulsating star. She then took a deep breath to adjust her condition. Truthfully, she loved this cultivation technique, where she would be able to hear a most enchanting unique song sang by Kuro during their so-called 'cultivation session'. 

I'm ready, Ku-chan. Let's begin! Love the song! So new-age! (1) Come on, come on, sing for Mommy, you little superstar! Hana joked lightheartedly. 

She genuinely loved the 'song' Kuro was teaching her. They would hum together, and her heart will feel so light and full. She felt at peace listening to the unknown song. The song was not in words that she could understand. It was like the mashup sounds a snake makes at differing pitch mixed with a variation of other low-toned hum and layered droning. The song's style cleverly melded the sound of nature with the sounds of serpents. It would've been a big hit for new age fans like her worldwide. 

After a short pause (and a light exasperated cough), the song started, and Hana happily followed through as the song slowly nourished her soul while closing her eyes. Unknown to her, the red 'star' above her moved on its own and merged into her astral-body. Hana floated gently in a lotus position while emitting a bright red light as she succumbed into an ethereal state. Her long braided hair in real life, was untied and bellowed gently, as if thousands of snakes moved following a strange pattern around her. Her natural pastel-colored glow was suppressed by the red light emitted from her astral-body after it fused with the red star. At the same time, the spiritual herbs she had eaten daily nourished her outer body, tempering it gently while the ‘ruby’ shard and the greenish pearl in her hands slowly dimmed as the session progressed.

...

Unknown to Hana, during the short pause, Kuro had been so speechless with Hana’s jokes, he had lost the connection established with his mistress. After clearing his throat a little and returned to being serious, he reconnected into the shared consciousness within Hana's 'dream-world', her Soul Hall domain. In the center of the hall, laid his mistress' soul, suspended midair. He purposely neglected the other two partial souls hovering at the edges of the Soul-hall and approached Hana's soul for the second time. 

At this moment, he could physically see how Hana's soul looked like. The initial tiny bean-sized translucent bead had burgeoned into a quail's egg's. The size was still so small, he could've extinguished it just with a puff. Instead, he coiled his spectral body around it protectively. Within the translucent bead, the soul-pact ownership rune hovered within, while on the surface, the newly carved up artificial Lightning serpent's innate rune, bestowed to Hana from Kuro were glowing with a blinding white light. The rune swimming within Hana's soul was actually a soul-pact ownership rune for enslavement, an arcane innate art Kuro had as all other Lightning Serpents do. Kuro had given Hana the ownership rune, rather than the soul-slave rune, an unorthodox method that never been done before. He himself wasn't sure why he did that the first time when he drew Hana's blood. He just felt it right.

The truth about his ability in the soul department and the new soul-cultivation method had not been divulged cleanly by Kuro to Hana. In truth, the ability to perform a Soul-pact and Soul-link was an innate ability of Lightning Serpents. No other spiritual beasts could perform the arcane skills. However, since he had altered Hana's soul artificially to reflect a Lightning Serpent's soul, with enough time spent on cultivating the Lightning Emperor's Divinity Soul, she could tap into the soul-based innate ability of his species. Theoretically. 

A few days later, Hana had shown signs that a rudimentary soul-link was slowly manifesting! He now understood why Hana couldn’t consciously connect to him and use his sight previously; he had missed this point altogether. A proper soul-link would never be established if the main host of the soul enslavement blood-pact didn't have the required skill. All this while, all hosts would've been a Lightning Serpent rather than other creatures, hence, such problems had never arise.

Hana's soul emitted a soft mixture of pastel-colored light around it, which perplexed him the first time he saw it. He was too preoccupied before to save Hana's life, but once she was in a safe zone, Kuro had so much time to observe his mommy's soul intimately. He had noticed that the light strangely contracted and expended following a certain unknown rhythm, as if Hana's soul was breathing. Based on his knowledge, all souls were usually uni-colored, without emitting any kind of rays or light.

But his Mom’s... not just the beautiful color, it even emitted a kind of soft fragrance every time it 'beats'. The fragrance was what his soul was deeply attached to. So peculiar.

Now he knew the reason behind the premature exit of his hibernation-cultivation session. Hana's presence, or he could say her soul presence, was truly the reason behind it. Although he had not been able to realize it until now.

Though now, he finally knew the peculiarities of Hana's unique soul, he still could make heads or tails for what it entails. There were too many unexplainable things regarding his Mistress and himself. Kuro decided to push those thoughts to the back of his mind for the time being.

....

Time passed by slowly within the Soul-hall domain. Kuro could physically see the rapid growth of Hana's soul with every completed cycle of the soul-chant. Surprisingly, Hana was very compatible with the soul-cultivation method, especially after the artificial innate runes were carved on its surface. Although only a rudimentary level of Soul-link had manifested between them, the effect was astounding! Once his mistress was finally able to consciously link her soul to his willingly, her soul grew so fast. Even his own soul didn't grow that fast under the same chant! 

As the shimmering pastel-colored light bathed Kuro's spectral body, his soul felt being nourished at the same time. Being in the proximity of the light had a nourishing effect on his own soul! Hence, he had obtained twice the amount of progress from a single chanting session, though a lot lesser than his mistress herself.

Kuro carefully read the ancient chants as slow as he could so that Hana could follow the ancient words spoken properly without error. The words were difficult, especially for someone who couldn't speak ancient serpent language. A wrong word could result in a most horrifying backlash! He knew Hana wouldn't be able to withstand the injury to the soul! It will be a thousand times more painful than a physical injury, and even harder to recover from.

The loyal little snake threaded the waters as careful as he could be; knowing that this cultivation method should only be accessible to Lord-leveled lightning serpents; strong souls which have been tempered twice by the heavenly tribulation. He knew the both of them were playing with fire but this was the fastest way for her to get stronger. Moreover, he believed in his mistress' ability!

............

Author's Note:

(1) new-age = a music genre with aesthetically harmonious melodies encouraging on spiritual transcendence and physical healing. Enya, Yanni and Kitaro are Mrs. Mooncat's favorite new-age artiste. You can listen to a sample of a new-age song by googling the names above.