Chapter 232: Human voices.

Days passed, and during this time, Zyra trained as hard as she could to become stronger. Since there wasn’t much else to do anyway, she spent her days punching tree trunks and meditating until her legs went numb. Every now and then, a wave of worry would hit her chest. What had happened to the lost soul maidens? Tessi kept trying to reach out through her soul messaging, but so far, there was zero luck.

Zyra has also tried but there was no signal, no response. Beauty said she was not strong enough. All they could do was wait and hope.

Meanwhile, the great floods finally began to recede. But as the water dried up, a new nightmare took its place. The more the water went down, the more the ferocious beasts gained access to the land_ the king beasts were in different places causing havoc as they roamed around freely, strutting through the muddy fields as if they were the new masters of the dry land.

Far away, trapped inside the broken wreckage of their crashed flying plane, Etania and the other maidens had somehow managed to survive all these days.

However, they hit a serious problem: food was officially running out.

"What are we going to do?" Little Mai cried, "surviving is only going to get harder."

Claudia pulled out a small cloth bag and shook it. Three cans of beef fell out with a dull thud. She looked at the last rations left, then looked up at Etania with a sigh.

"This is it," Claudia said, holding up a tiny crumb. "This food can only last us today. After sunset, we’ll be chewing on leather boots."

Little Mai squeezed her eyes shut and let out a terrifying gasp.

Etania crossed her arms and frowned. "Then it means we hunt. There’s nothing else to do unless you want to eat dirt."

Before Claudia could reply, muffled voices drifted in through the cracked metal wall of the plane.

Etania’s eyes widened. She immediately placed a finger against her lips. "Shh!"

Everyone froze. The maidens sharpened their ears and listened intently. There were actual human voices outside. Etania crept toward a small hole in the hull and peeped through. Below the trees, a group of rough-looking people holding old model guns and rusty sabers were pulling the tail which had broken odd the plane.

They were from the Twigs Blue Crossing village. With the receding flood, survivors were already making their way back to their former homes, to see what had survived.

Cain, master Zoo’s teenage son gleefully bumped his shoulder into the man standing next to him. "See?! I told you I saw a huge plane fall from the sky a few days ago! Now do you believe me, Adrian?!"

Adrian, the leader of the hunting squad, grinned so hard that every single one of his yellow teeth showed. "Ha! I stand corrected! Let’s salvage that shiny metal and every treasure on board we can find before someone else gets here! There could be a lot that we can take home with us."

"If we find survivors, we can give them to the cannibals, if those bastards are still alive." Someone said.

The Soul maidens in the half-plane, hidden by the thicken canopy crouched in silence, their breaths shallow, their eyes darting to every sound below.

The search party below moved cautiously through the shallows, their boots sinking, their hands probing for anything available. A man shouted triumphantly as he pulled a sodden bag from the muck.

Cain shoved him aside and tore open the bag, revealing clothes, what remained of a notebook. some snacks, a handful of energy stones, a blade, a gun, and broken phone. The others crowded around, voices rising in greedy excitement.

"These are woman’s clothes." Cain said excitedly.

"Keep searching." Zoo bellowed. "If there are survivors, they can’t be far."

Further off, Zoo’s wife Gwenevia stumbled upon a twisted hunk of metal--part of the plane’s engine. She called out, her voice echoing against the canopy. The group gathered around her, their chatter carrying upward to the hidden girls. Fear tightened every chest in the half-plane. If the searchers climbed, if they looked closely, discovery was certain.

Then the unexpected came: a roar, deep and guttural, shaking the air. A beast’s cry rolled through the trees, primal and furious. The searcher stopped and froze, panic flashing across their faces. Cain dropped the bag back into the mud, another abandoned a human leg that once belonged to the pilot of the plane, and together the group bolted, splashing through the water in blind terror.

The girls exhaled as one, relief washing over them. Some clutched each other, trembling, while others pressed their foreheads against the cold metal walls. They had not been found. The danger had passed--for now.

Etania did not relax. She stood, her eyes sharp, and her voice stern, even though it was low. "We are Soul maidens that have been trained in combat and survival. Everyone on this plane knew that escaping to the Wild lands was dangerous. We cannot cower just because we heard the word cannibals. We can’t stay here," she said, her voice steady but urgent. "The beast’s roar saved us this time, but those people have marked this place. Sooner or later, they will be back. They could come with more men, and that King beast has long marked us as its prey. If we wait, we’ll be trapped."

She lifted a cube from the backpack at her feet. It was no ordinary box--its surface shimmered with Somnivore geometry, shifting lines that refused to stay still. The cube was called the Stasis Prism, a gift she had received after winning the Ultimate Soul Maiden Battle Of All Nations, last year. Inside, the half-life beasts of all the Soul maidens on the plane were held in static suspension--frozen mid-motion, yet alive. There were only three cubes like in existence. Each could carry up to one hundred beasts.

"I will release everyone’s half-life beasts when we are outside." Etania told them.

The younger girls whimpered, reluctant to leave the fragile safety of the canopy.

"Where will we go? The water is still everywhere." One asked.

Etania’s eyes swept over them, fierce and protective. "We follow the coordinates Tessi gave us. The energy has started stabilizing, in a day or two, I will be able to reach her. For now, we must figure out where we are. The plane was leading us to our destination before it crashed so I don’t think we are very far from our final destination."

Silence followed, heavy with fear and uncertainty. Then, slowly, the girls began to gather their few belongings. Etania and Claudia dismantled the barricade.

"Stay close," Etania commanded. "No sound, no hesitation. If we are attacked, nobody should run off on their own. The strongest should form a circle around the weakest. Little Mai should be in the middle. We survive together or not at all."