Poison City

With Marcus getting into a meditative state, Gloria took a deep breath before stretching her arms and legs. She felt much less lousy with most of the poisons from those shadows’ weapons out of her body. And should anything happen, she would not need to rely solely on Marcus - this would not be ideal. Even if she could, she should not.

She stretched one more round, this time with her Qi running faster through her meridians. The soreness and numbness lingering in her muscles, joints and tendons lessened even more. She jumped up, and was able to touch the top of the wall to the side.

She was ready. Even without the other things in her backpack, she was in a good state to fight. The wounds on her legs stopped bleeding, with the help of her Qi, they would not be a source of concern soon. 

She turned to look at Marcus. He endured less injuries from the fight, but seemed to have expended more Qi than her, so there was no telling how long he would need.

But he was not there. There was no one in the corner where he was. Not even a shadow, or a mark indicating a grown man was sitting there.

Qi accelerated in her meridians, and a lot of which concentrated on her eyes and her ears. Her senses were tuned, and her visions changed.

Creeping cold came from behind her, she swung her right arm behind her as she turned and backed off, with her hand completing a horizontal chopping slash. Her chop released an energy lade, but did not hit anything. Yet there it was, she saw a person hiding in the shadows, a man.

“Gloria, you need to listen to me.” The man walked out of the shadows, wearing a full suit of white robe.

It was none other than Gyuu Park.

Gloria paused for a moment, before suppressing the roaring sorrow from the memories and narrowing her eyes: “How dare you!? Who are you!?”

“You need to listen to me.” “Gyuu Park” raised both his hands: “I don’t have long…” Before he could continue, Gloria’s claw attack already went through his body. There was no blood, no spilled energy, as if his presence here was only a projection or a hologram.

Gloria’s body went through the man taking the appearance of Gyuu Park and landed on the ground. Only the feeling of cold air remained on her fingertips.

“Okay, say what you want to say. Or I’m gonna leave.” Gloria took a moment to collect herself.

“You need to move forward. This place - ” This man had the same tone and mannerisms as Gyuu Park: “This place is - it’s not the same as last time I was here. Everything’s fading, including the power that’s been keeping this place the way it was. You need to move forward, or else danger would be coming for you.”

“Why? What do you mean?” Gloria looked around, frowning: “What danger? What kind of danger? And -  how are you here?”

“Corruption, shadows, and foul energy that we’ve been looking into.” “Gyuu Park” shook his head and answered in a stern tone: “And when you are here, there’s no way you can easily leave. You’ve already paid the price. And this is why I’m here. ”

“... alright go on. What else do you have for me?” Gloria sighed after thinking for a moment.

“The only thing I can tell you right now, is I’ve been here.” Gyuu Park groaned as his shadow blurred and flashed, seemingly enduring some pressure from an invisible force: “I came here not on my own accord, but by accident. I did not appreciate my time and opportunity here. Don’t make that mistake.”

Gloria’s eyes opened wide: “Wait - you’ve been here? Are you really - ”

“That’s all I can tell you. Good to see you, Gloria - ” Gyuu Park smiled, before his shadow completely disappeared in front of her. “And take care.”

Everything flashed in front of her eyes. Just after a few seconds, she heard the coughs of Marcus, who was standing by the wall with one hand supporting himself.

“Oh - you’re here.” Marcus turned around, with his eyes slightly red: “Sorry - did you - did you see it as well?”

“Well, yeah, I saw it.” Gloria took a deep breath: “I saw a - a friend of mine. Who’d you see?”

“My mother.” Marcus also took a deep breath: “She told me to move forward. But - ”

“My friend said the same. But I’m not sure where we should - ” Gloria shook her head and was just about to blame herself for not letting Gyuu Park speak, when the shadow of a woman with long black hair and in a glowing silky white dress appeared at the end of the passageway.

Marcus turned his head at the shadow following Gloria’s gaze. He saw it as well. 

The woman turned right and started walking away. Gloria and Marcus exchanged looks, before following her.

Just when they turned, a couple of clay pots at the feet of the walls cracked and burst open. Black tar flowed outside. Puffs of black smoke arose, gradually taking the shapes of humans with weapons.

Gloria lunged forward with her Qi concentrated on her hands and released a flurry of finger strikes at the smoke figures on her side in rapid succession. High speed streams of Qi shot from the tips of her fingers and tore the figures up like rags caught in strong wind.

Marcus launched two claw attacks at the smoke figures on his side, shredding them and burning them up.

The woman in white stood on the end of this passageway, and when they got past the smoke figures, she turned again and walked away again.