"Chief, these are Wittral's demands." Taltal kneeled before Geugeu and presented forth a list, "He has expressed confidence in recovering his power through this."
Geugeu stared at the list and noticed a problematic line. But all he did was sigh and give an order, "Tally a list of the most useless Clansmen from our Clan. They might die useless deaths to the Phells anyway. Might as well use their lives for something worthwhile."
"I'll follow your orders." Taltal bowed in relief, 'There's hope for you, Witral.'
"I want you to keep track of Wittral's condition," Geugeu said suddenly.
"What…do you mean by that?" Taltal frowned, immediately able to predict a couple of answers to his sudden command. "Chief, please tell me you're joking."
"Is Wittral still a Deity?" Geugeu exhaled softly, speaking as he observed Taltal's expression become more and more twisted in response, "When he lost his Spirit Container, he was unable to become an Empyrean Snapper. I fear he'll never be able to become one in the future, even if he recovers his Spirit Container. To the Clan, he'll no longer be a perfect Deity but a crippled Deity."
"I only hope things don't become as I fear." Geugeu sighed, "If that happens, Wittral's life will become horrifying. He'll be used to birth strong Cooter Clansmen, a life of breeding no different from livestock."
"Chief…please, stop talking." Her face trembled as Taltal was unable to control her rage, "Are you hearing what you're saying?"
"This is Wittral we're talking about. He's the most respected individual in our Clan. And you think he'll be subjected to such a future?" She growled.
"You're young, Taltal." Geugeu shook his head, "So you don't know, neither does the younger generation."
His eyes turned cold as he spoke without an ounce of emotion, "The older generation is currently living in recluse. But they'll subject Wittral to such a life without hesitation. To them, an Empyrean Snapper isn't a sacred existence. They are either sons and daughters of Empyrean Snappers or parents to one."
"They think and live like Empyrean Snappers. Reaching the Mystic Grade is their obsession. And since Wittral failed to take on the beacon, he'll be used for all his worth to birth Cooter Clansmen on par with his Clansmen, those with the Buoyant Disease that could reach the 10-Life Stage and birth perfect Empyrean Snappers." He concluded, seeing Taltal tremble in response.
"A-Aren't we all one big family?" Taltal expressed her disbelief, "This isn't the Cooter Clan I know."
"You have no idea." Geugeu snorted, "The only difference between us and the Mammoth Clan is the fact that their mistake birthed the Boar King. On the other hand, we have always been careful, even while wiping out entire races for our benefit."
"Chief!" Taltal raised her voice when she felt the air around her turn still, stifling her in response. She stared at the figure of Geugeu, who for some reason resembled a ginormous mountain in her vision, unscalable, a peak existence with limitless strength.
"The Cooter Clan didn't grow this big by being gentle pariahs of peace." Geugeu stated coldly as he looked down on Taltal, "You'll go and give your everything to help Wittral. If he recovers his powers and becomes the old Wittral, then that's well and good. Our Clan will have two perfect Empyrean Snappers then."
"Otherwise, do what needs to be done." He said, "Since he's close with Amita, start with her. Drug her so that when they copulate, she absorbs as much of an Empyrean Snapper's essence from Wittral as possible and condenses them into the child she rears."
"The formula for the drug will be arriving in a month." He waved his hand, motioning for Taltal to leave, "Wittral's parents are sending all necessary data in regards to that."
"…Yes, Chief." Her vision was dull as Taltal got up, her figure wobbly as she walked out of the meeting room and descended the mountain covered by Spirit Pools.
"Gua?" The figure of a baby Wittral, extremely cute, cuddly in her possession. Taltal recalled the scene from her past, as she was there when he was born.
Wittral's sole relative other than his parents was his uncle, Zakzak. And back then, she was pursuing him with romantic interest. It didn't go well for her, but it was during those times when she took charge of nursing Wittral, for Nurnur wasn't helpful in that regard.
Seeing him as a baby, a motherly instinct enveloped her, causing her to pamper Wittral. And now, hearing the Cooter Clan Chief's words, disgust welled up in her. There was anger, fear, helplessness, and despair, 'Please Wittral, I was you to succeed. But if you were to fail, run away from this place.'
"Hic!" Tears streamed out of her eyes as Taltal cursed Wittral's sordid fate. 'We burdened him and kicked him down at his worst.'
Taltal cried for the next ten minutes. She then washed her face, reapplied her mascara, and entered Wittral's house, her expression deadpan, sporting a mildly gentle gaze as usual. She split her body into two and approached Inala and Wittral respectively.
"The Chief accepted your demands, Wittral." She said upon approaching Wittral, "You needn't worry too much."
"I'll give my everything to help you succeed."
"Thank you, Madam Taltal." Wittral expressed his gratitude, "This would have been impossible without you."
"You'll…succeed, right?" Taltal asked, paranoid, "You're confident for a reason, right?"
"Yes," Wittral nodded.
"I wanted to make sure," Taltal stared at a vial before her in a daze, "Because through my knowledge alone, I don't see any way this can work."
"It'll work. Please trust me." Wittral let out a pained smile, "Can you do that?"
"Of course," She gently patted him on the head, "I will trust your capability. You've always been good at every field you ever attempted."
The evening that day, once Taltal left, the Boar King arrived and received a scroll from Inala, opening it to see the image of Virala painted on it in detail, "This is Loot's actual appearance?"
"This is what he looked like when I first saw him." Inala said, "As to whether or not that's his actual appearance, I can't say for sure."
'This is a clue.' The Boar King frowned as he stared at the image, 'I've seen this bastard somewhere.'
He stared at Wittral, "Does your Clan have medicines that boost memory power?"
"We do, plenty of them in fact." Wittral asked, "If you have an idea of the memories you wish to recall, that'll be useful. If it's an event that happened in the past year, we can use a mildly potent medicine. If you want to recall an emotion on the same level as in the past when you first felt it, we have one for that too. The medicine's potency has to be increased the farther into your past it is."
"I want to recall the faces of the people I met in the past decade." The Boar King said.
"Oh, we have the medicine for that in our house itself." Wittral then stared at Inala, "He needs a decadal Face Recognition medicine. We have a few on the second shelf on the topmost row."
"On it," Inala set up a ladder, took out a vial of the medicine, and threw it to the Boar King.
The Boar King swallowed it and experienced its effects, feeling that he was able to recall the faces of everyone he glanced at in the past decade. As he went through his memories, he was stunned to see that when he was fighting against the Empyrean Tusks six plus years ago, watching him from far away with a weasel-like expression was the same individual from the portrait Inala had drawn.
'He was watching me from back then?' The Boar King became serious, feeling creeped out, 'Fucking bastard was getting a feel for my abilities. No wonder he's able to lure me to a place and escape on time. He has a full grasp on my movement capabilities.'
