CHAPTER 73: THE HOMUNBIS

Raguel and Luke jumped back immediately and evaded the fireball by an inch. A small pit appeared on the spot where the fireball fell, the ground turned red as smoke rose from it.

They were shocked seeing such a potent magic, comparable to a fourth circle magic. As the smoke dispersed, they could see two figures, and the one that casted the magic.

Luke and Raguel’s eyes opened wide in shock. They expected two heretic wizards of the endless night to have intercepted them, but the two figures in front of them were neither human nor beast. it was a mix of both, something they had never seen before.

The one who had casted the fireball had the upper body of a human female and the lower body was that of a snake. Green scales covered her whole body and her jaw had elongated out with a split tongue slithering out. Her eyes were yellow with vertical pupils.

Smoke was coming out of her mouth as she was the one to had fired the spell.

The other one was the mix of a human and a matillo. She had the body of a human with a hard leathery skin behind her back and a thick tail behind, along with an elongated and pointy jaw, and both of them had a small black stone fitted on their forehead, so small that one would brush it off as just a small dot.

They were the Homunbis created by Jekyll.

"What the hell are these things?" Luke was shocked seeing those two homunbis.

"I don’t know. But I sense dark energy from them. These beings have...more than one soul in their body...they are in pain and...are being controlled by something evil." Raguel’s eyes were glowing white as he inspected the two homunbis.

Just then the Matillo homunbis ran and jumped in the air, it curled into a ball and started rolling towards the two of them.

A runic circle formed in front of the snake homunbis as mana started gathering in front of it and started forming a ball of fire.

"I’ll hold this matillo back, you deal with that snake." Luke said.

Raguel nodded and instantly casted a shield in front of him. The matillo homunbis struck the shield and deflected sideways, now rolling towards Luke.

Amber prana covered Luke’s fist and he was about to punch the homunbis, when Raguel’s voice came.

"Don’t kill her! There’s something wrong here. We need to subjugate them."

Hearing him, Luke unclenched his fist and brought both his palm forward as the homunbis struck hard. Sparks flew from the friction between his gauntlets and the spinning hard leathery skin of the homunbis.

He slid back along the ground from the force. Prana rushed to his feet as he finally stopped and while holding back a bit, he punched her. She flew away, struck the wall and stopped spinning.

On the other hand, the fireball struck the mana shield and blasted with a boom, pushing Raguel back. Immediately the tail struck the shield hard and formed a crack. Raguel was about to strengthen the shield when another strike came and the shiel broke into pieces.

Mana rushed to his ring and it morphed into his sword. He moved his sword forward immediately, stopping the fangs of the homunbis, about to bite his neck. Immediately the tail came swinging towards him again, but he evaded it and moved back.

The matillo homunbis came rushing towards Luke again. But this time it was covered in mana, and slowly a flame started rising on her body surface, she had transformed into a ball of fire.

Luke moved his palms forwards and held the spinning ball of fire again.

"Too bad for you. Fire loves me." With a smirk he tightened his grip, and she started slowing down. More prana rushed to his fingers and he gripped tighter, sparks flying from his finger.

"ARRGGHHH!!" Finally, his grip was strong enough that he lifted the spinning homunbis, did a rotation along with it and threw her.

"Duck!" Luke yelled at Raguel.

When Luke’s warning came, he immediately moved down. A spinning ball of fire hit the snake homunbis squarely on the face as both of them flew back and hit the tunnel wall.

The matillo kept spinning, grinding the snake homunbis’s face on the wall continuously, burning her skin from the fire.

Slowly the spinning slowed down and the fire started dousing. Just then the diamond shaped mark on Raguel’s head glowed and his made a few hand signs when two rays of light zoomed out of his mark and broke the small mana stones on the two of the Homunbis’s forehead.

Their pupils dilated and they immediately lost consciousness, as they slid down the wall and laid on the ground, not moving.

"What was that?" Luke asked, surprised.

"There are two souls clashing inside their mind, trying to take control. So those small stones are acting as a superior control system and making them obey orders."

"But what are they? I’ve never seen anything like this?" Luke asked, confused.

"I am only taking a guess, but I think they are created with dark magic...using the souls and body of the abducted females fused with a beast." Raguel said in a serious tone.

"If it’s true, then..."

"This has turned out to be far more dangerous than some simple abductions."

******

In the lab, numerous tubular pipes were coming out from below the glass column with the silver backed Kong. Inside the tube, along with the Kong, was an Imoogi’s body and a pregnant woman floating together in the murky liquid.

The pipes were injected in the chest of about more than twenty women around the column. Some of them were in their twenties, some were small children of less than ten years of age and some of them were pregnant women.

The pipe were sucking out all the blood from their bodies and transporting it to the column. The murky liquid inside had started turning red as the blood started infusing with the liquid.

The bodies of the two beast and the women were engraved with numerous runes, and at the lower belly of the woman was a big runic circle engraved, covering her whole belly.

A huge runic circle was also drawn with blood on the floor surrounding the tube. Various dark wizards in black robes were chanting, supplying mana to the circle on the floor, forming a circle around the tube.

Jekyll was standing in front of the tube. His palm touching the glass as mana was passing from his hands to the liquid inside and was being sucked in by the runes engraved on the bodies.

Slowly the bodies of the women started drying up and the chanting intensified as more and more mana was getting inside the tube and the circle.

Just then the silver backed Kong’s body started twitching and a faint heartbeat could be heard.

A smile crept into Jekyll’s face. "Rise now. Bring along destruction."

"Hail the endless night!" Jekyll roared out.

"HAIL THE ENDLESS NIGHT!!" all the other’s roared in unison.