Isher Notra

Gentō's tale of loneliness, unfulfilled expectations, and grandiose delusions was finally exposed to the young Human, alongside the end goal of his scheme.

"Recreate your home and family in a dream?" Stella questioned, her eyes squinting with concern. "Damn, dude. I had no idea you were this desperate..."

The dream stealer recoiled, averting his gaze in shame. The Human held the urge to bash her face on the floor for being so inconsiderate.

"I'm so sorry, that came out terrible," she apologized, grasping her face with both hands, considering ripping it off from self-hatred. "What I meant was..." She sighed, mustering the courage to face him again. "Do you think that's best for you? Is a fake reality enough?"

Gentō silently denied with his head. "It's not. But I don't see what else I can do. I've ruined my reputation so thoroughly that no one thinks of me as anything other than a screw-up and a scammer."

Stella anxiously rubbed her own arm, unsure of how to proceed. Thankfully, the Oni intervened for her aid like Heaven's most beastly yet surprisingly insightful angel.

"That's just not true at all!" Hanaken smiled genuinely. "Kreef and I know you're more than what they told you! You've proven that so many times throughout this month!"

Stella quickly clung to that opening, eagerly nodding. "Exactly! I mean, you almost duped an entire pack of guards! You managed to kidnap me a few hours later, for fucks' sake! If that's what being a screw-up means, then what am I?!"

Gentō scoffed. "And here's the other issue. I only have my brilliant mind without your dreams to power me up! I don't have the muscle or the abundant Saniya to be TRULY respected!"

"Damn you, Gentō!" Stella would've rolled her eyes at the dream stealer's crushingly low self-esteem if it wasn't so damn relatable. Even Hanaken wasn't sure how to respond.

Oh, but it wasn't a lost cause just yet, as Stella's mind lit up with an idea to conjure an ingenious retort to crush the rotund Monoke's self-loathing!

"Ah, but that isn't totally true, is it?" Stella's grin contorted with suggestiveness. "Didn't Hōkō teach you how to expand your Saniya without my help?"

Baku's eyes regained their usual gleam before sinking back into pessimism. "Can you grasp the years before I can hold my own in combat?!"

"It's better than nothing," Hanaken retorted. Stella gestured at her in support while staring directly at Gentō.

The dream stealer groaned in crushing defeat, rolling his eyes to a cartoonish degree. "Fine! I suppose there are other avenues to actualize my greatness!"

Stella loudly clapped, excitement coursing through each nerve. "Hell yeah, there is! Ignore the haters and shove their words up their a-"

A storm of clinks assaulted everyone's hearing, visibly affecting Hanaken, who recoiled and growled from a splitting headache while covering her ears, and waking Lien, who bolted a couple of meters away.

Why did that sound familiar?

Stella's mind connected the dots once the source of the commotion came into view - a chicken-ostrich hybrid wearing black and gold armor, albeit whitened by the frost of winter. The golden antlers that once adorned his helmet were cut into tiny stubs.

The Basan silently stared at them for a few seconds before Lien's sniffing broke the quiet.

"Mr. Venghaan?!" The pup leaped back close to Stella. "Have you seen my mom?!"

The general ignored her question, scowling at them with a burning gaze. "This day only becomes more and more ludicrous! First, an unnatural winter sweeps us off our perches! Then, an army of ice clones who all look exactly like our most wanted terrorist swarm OUR city and keep OUR RADIANCE hostage!" He paced left and right, his pronounced crest swaying with each abrupt turn. "The DRAGON'S GUARD appeared in our territory uninvited to help, for as much as that was worth - they were all USELESS!" He poked a frozen Wolf guard. "And now!" He halted, spinning on a hallux to face them again. "The forsaken Human is here, alongside the three stooges who sowed chaos in our dear city!"

"And me!" Lien lifted her paw.

"And my cousin's boisterous offspring," Venghaan corrected. "Can SOMEONE here help me comprehend what mess has transpired just before we could sleep!?" His chest heaved after the end of his rant while a few more Gunka Army soldiers stepped out of the shadows, each looking more beaten and exhausted than the last. One even had one of his wings entirely encased in ice.

And yet, despite all that information dump... only one question popped into the Human's mind.

"You're Captain Tash's COUSIN?! HOW?!"

"I am not in the mood to explain the Minasi ritual to YOU," the general bawked, removing his helmet and skimming his crest with his wing.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

A few more minutes of information you already know later...

"Oh, so we all have YOU to blame, Baku?!" Venghaan cackled, looking at his subordinates for validation, to which they weakly complied. "I wouldn't EVER have seen that coming!" He dramatically gasped, narrowing his eyes, oozing venom at the Baku. "Oh, wait. I did see that coming a HUNDRED miles away when I told my cousin's band of nitwits that you three should've been locked away on our playground so your eyeballs could've been poked off by our young!"

Kreef recoiled behind his massive comrade to withstand the verbal barrage raining upon them while Gentō surprisingly stood firm.

Hanaken? She was as pleased by it as you can expect. It was shocking she hadn't started breaking chicken necks yet.

"Give him some slack, okay?!" Stella frowned, standing up in front of the armored flock. "Yelling and moaning won't solve anything! Why don't you put on your big chicken pants and think of a way to end this, you drama queen!?"

Venghaan gasped. "You got a lot of spunk, you insolent pipsqueak! In fact, what are you-"

"I'm here in case y'all can't beat that cold bitch!" Stella interrupted, poking the Basan's chest armor. "I'm putting my life on the line for you, too, asshole. No matter how much I want to see YOU as a popsicle!"

The Basan general swatted her hand away with his wing. "Watch your tone, Human..." His threatening glare only fueled Stella's resolve to defy his pompous ass. "Now that you mentioned, we should just offer you to the Yūrei, and she will leave us alone, won't she?"

Immediately, Lien and the Trouble Troop charged at Venghaan, forming a protective barrier around Stella, including the cowardly Kreef, who hovered and circled around her.

"Back. Off." Hanaken growled.

"You don't mess with the mighty Gentō's dream battery, you feathery nincompoop!" the Baku proudly shouted.

"My mom's cousin or not, I won't let you touch a talon on Stella!" Lien asserted. "You can't stand up to all of us. Most of you guys have little to no Saniya left."

Stella could hear the constant, disorganized steps the Basan's talons were making when scraping against the cold rock floor, which lasted for half a minute before silence settled in.

"I-I yield," Venghaan muttered, almost imperceptible. "It was merely a fault in my judgment, that's all!" And there it was, his bravado once again. "My troops and I are not only battered and on the verge of hypothermia but incredibly sleep deprived as well..."

Slowly, the Trouble Troop and Lien, never leaving Stella's side, allowed the remnants of the Gunka Army to sluggishly take their place around the fire. That way, the girl could properly witness their decrepit numbers: a measly ten, tattered, barely hanging together, Basan soldiers.

"That Yuki-onna lady did a number on you, huh?" Stella teased, not making an effort to hide her mischievous smirk.

Venghaan closed his eyes, huffing. "As a matter of fact, we had halved the sorceress's forces before we were overwhelmed by those clones. We intend to return to our beloved city and melt the other half of those hellions!"

"Yes, because one percent of your army will be enough to wipe out half of theirs..." The Baku chortled. "You Basan always held your heads high, claiming you were the backbone of the Monoke army since the war, yet you are severely demolished by the hands of a single Yūrei!"

"You want to talk about arrogance, Baku!?" the general snapped. "You are the poster child of boasting greatness, carried by your dead ancestors!"

Gentō jumped forward, puffing his chest. "You want to put my claims to the test?! Let me assure you, I have achieved greater power than your pitiful army combined!"

The Basan cackled uncontrollably. "Really?! You can accomplish more than US?!"

"Absolutely! I'll prove to your pathetic excuses for soldiers that I can actually live up to my people's past glory!"

Venghaan looked at his subordinates, who were too broken and tired to care about the clash of egos. Still, his chuckle remained unwavering. "Can you free our city from the Yūrei's puppets, oh mighty Baku?!"

Gentō snapped his hooves immediately. "Consider it done!"

Stella was too engrossed by the shouting match to compute his claim until a few seconds had passed, joining everyone else in staring at the Baku with a perplexed expression.

"Excuse me?" Hanaken whispered.

"You heard me, my robust cohort!" He dramatically touched his own chest. "Through these hours of strife, I have been conserving my true powers, knowing the time to prove my worth would come!" He closed his hoof and pointed at the ceiling, its shadow casting over what remained of the Gunka Army. "Together, my friends, we shall deliver the swift hammer of karma over their heads!"

Silence ensued.

...

......

.........

"We're your friends?!" asked Kreef.

"Huh?" Gentō turned to him, his eyes confused. "I've never said that to you?"

"Not to me!" Kreef's yellow eyes sparkled while his pincers snapped like a hummingbird's wings.

"Uh..." Lien raised her paw. "Am I your friend?"

Before the Baku could respond, Stella raised her hand, her eyes squinting with bewilderment. "Who cares? We should ask how we will stop a whole city of clones!"

Lien tilted her head, conceding.

"What's the plan, genius?" Stella pressed.

Gentō grinned. "Ha! It's simple yet effective! I shall spearhead the siege while you cover me against any pesky puppet I miss!" He turned to the general. "Of course, you're invited to collaborate with my glorious victory, as my benevolence is only surpassed by Tizohi himself!"

Venghaan rolled his visible eye. "I don't believe in the power you claim for a SECOND, you lousy fibber!"

Rather than continuing in his escalating pomposity, the Baku closed his eyes and steadied himself. Soon after, a faint pink aura radiated from each tip in his shallow fur. Stella's attention quickly pivoted to the one Monoke she could count to measure one's Saniya, whose tail slowly swished in expectation.

At once, Gentō uttered a guttural cry, conjuring a potent eruption of Saniya as a purple coloration joined and mingled with the pink! His sheer might emitted a powerful shockwave. Tremors reverberated throughout the cavern. Even the Gunka Army recoiled and closed their eyelids from the excess light!

Lien's tail froze, her fur spiking as if she put her finger in an outlet. Namadi's light...

It all lasted a few seconds, yet it was enough to shut the Basan's beaks for a solid minute. The pure, unadulterated shock in the general's face was priceless...

"Y-You..." Venghaan stuttered. "H-How...?"

"I rest my case." Gentō sat down, his smug smirk unchallenged. "Any more doubts to be sated?"

No answer.

"Outstanding." He pointed at Stella without turning his eyes. "Human! Time to pull your weight!"

The girl was about to question, but a wave of realization settled in, slowly forming a frown on her features.

"Sleepytime?" she asked with a monotone voice.

He nodded. "Sleepytime."

Stella groaned loudly.

"Just puff that gas already."

If only the stuff could get her high...