—–

As the moon shone brightly above the skies, in the middle of the night, where only bioluminescent plants and mushrooms illuminated the dark jungles surrounding the Great Oasis, a little spirit was flying around.

At this hour, mostly everyone had gone to sleep. Aquarina felt satisfied with today’s growth, and also felt slightly better after talking with Undine, and was now sleeping soundly, and so were the rest of her family and friends.

Even her little sister, Esmeralda, who was so hyperactive, was sleeping deeply after having a day full of new experiences as a newborn baby.

“Dammit, without Silvia this jungle feels way too big! I wish I could just sit around her shoulder while she moves… Doing things independently is quite hard.”

The spirit’s body, resembling a huge beetle with cute big eyes and a red colored mirror crown above her head, flew rapidly across the dark jungles. Her appearance easily made her stand out from the darkness, resembling a shiny star flying amidst the shadows.

Several nocturnal creatures, bugs, digging rats and even some types of nocturnal birds and predators noticed her light flying around, most ignored her, a few bugs passed through her body and began flying around her, however.

“Ugh, stop bothering me!”

She quickly shook off the annoying moths and flies, while slowly moving towards the lake, where she could feel the resting presence of a certain someone…

A certain someone so powerful their very presence exuded immense quantities of Spiritual Energies, feeding the entire Oasis and the surrounding jungle with life and magic.

Although the people that lived here couldn’t see her, because she was mostly undetectable to normal people, other spirits like her could easily tell when there were other spirits around and also could detect her presence.

While the people here, no matter how hard, could never find her, spirits were different, capable of easily seeing through the physical plane.

Spirits of her caliber were so strong they were able to warp space around them to an extent and move towards another plane.

The Spiritual Plane.

In there, depending on how strong they were, Spirits could manipulate this plane and create their own homes, small Domains, Inner Realms, or sometimes entire Worlds.

Such spaces, always hidden from beings of the physical plane, were only accessible to other spirits and of those chosen ones that were allowed to enter.

While floating in front of the huge lake, the Great Oasis which was mostly composed of salty water due to the changes produced from the underground and the Great Spirit herself, the little shiny spirit seemed slightly conflicted with herself.

“Hah, I’m really doing this…”

Khepri sighed while looking very nervous, or perhaps even more than just nervous, looking down at the clear blue water, sensing a spiritual aura coming from the depths of the Oasis.

She could quite clearly feel who that was, and that they were, in fact, not sleeping. They were awake. And since the moment she was summoned that she had not gone to sleep for a single second.

Despite how uninterested or high and mighty she asked, she was quite worried about the current happenings of the Oasis and its people…

But right now, she preferred to not interfere.

Of course, Khepri didn’t like that decision one bit!

Therefore…

“Hey! I know you already know I’m here…”

“…”

She decided to come here and talk with her, intervening without even caring about any consequences. Khepri looked at the water while talking.

“Can we talk, Great Oasis Spirit?”

Khepri’s voice echoed through the oasis, creating small ripples of light that spread like roots. This was a spiritual message carried by her powers.

She was stronger than she looked like at first glance, surprising the being beneath the Oasis, who had decided to ignore her at first hand.

SPLASH!

Suddenly, the water began trembling, as Khepri stepped back and looked at the scene in awe.

And out of nowhere, a small figure emerged, not as big and majestic as her previous appearance, but looking around twice the size of Khepri.

Roughly the size of a human child no older than five years of age, and with an equally young-looking appearance.

Her motherly, big and intimidating appearance was nowhere to be seen, as if that was all but a façade, an image she created of herself to be worshiped as.

“You…”

“Ah! You’re here! So you responded to my call! I’m so happy, we have to talk and-“

Khepri looked at her cute appearance in awe, swallowing saliva and slowly trying to fly towards her, happy that she actually responded and all.

RUMBLE!

However, the oasis waters trembled, creating a barrier that didn’t allow her to give another step forward, Khepri was pushed away by the waters.

“You’re strange, I don’t know you at all, yet your power is the real deal too… You acted like you knew me despite that never being the case, and you even talked with others, saying that I had lost my “memories”. I cannot trust you, even less let you come closer to me like before.”

The Great Oasis Spirit was wary of Khepri, perhaps too wary. Despite how harmless Khepri might look, she was still a very powerful spirit after her contract with Silvia and after gathering her three ornaments, powerful pieces of divine spiritual mechanical weapons and armor, which enhanced her strength beyond her previous limits.

“Uh, okay, okay, calm down. I didn’t come here to fight or something!” Khepri groaned, feeling slightly distressed. “I swear I only want to talk peacefully, Tethys!”

“Huh?” The Great Spirit of the Oasis fell silent for a moment, her adorable face changing expressions into utter disbelief, as her eyes widened for a moment.

She looked down at the water, grabbing her head with her hands.

“Ugh…! T-That name…! How… how do you know my true name?!”

SPLASH!

The water suddenly became more turbulent out of nowhere, trembling, and taking the shape of hundreds of long, sea serpents, hissing at Khepri angrily.

“SHYAAAAH!”

“Eek! C-Calm down! I know your true name because I know you! Maybe you lost your memories, but I haven’t! W-We…!”

The serpents only became more furious, approaching her!

“W-WE USED TO BE FRIENDS!”

“…”

Until suddenly, they stopped moving.

“…Friends?”

—–