Following James's lead, Genia finally entered the borders of the "Black Valley." The place was like a terrifying, cursed nightmare.
As she delved deeper into the valley, the trees darkened. Their branches, leafless and twisted, seemed to have been tortured to death. The grass on the ground had turned to ash, and with every step, a dry, crackling sound echoed beneath Genia's feet, adding to the eerie silence.
Genia's entire body was exhausted. Her hands and feet were bleeding slightly from the thorny bushes, but she didn't stop. The green crystal of Gia still throbbing in her heart provided a faint warmth, energising her to continue.
Only one thought echoed through her mind—Rexon, Kevin, and Alex could attack James's palace at any moment. If he didn't find Nina's reflection and the traitor's real name in time, the four brothers would shed each other's blood tonight, and the White Tiger Clan's conspiracy would triumph forever.
After wading through the dense, suffocating darkness, Genia finally reached the place James had mentioned.
Blood Rock.
Right in the middle of the valley stood a huge, terrifying black rock. Its shape resembled a clot of frozen blood, with strange, terrifying cracks on its surface. This was the very place where James had last seen his mother.
Genia breathed a sigh of relief and quickly approached the rock.
" Mother Nina!" she called out in a trembling voice. There was no response. Her voice echoed back through the desolate valley. "Mother Nina! I am Genia... Mother Gia and Mother Mara have sent me! Please face me! I want your reflection! I want to know the name of that traitor!"
Genia shouted with all her might this time. But there was only a chilling silence. Near the rock, no spiritual light shone, no reflection emerged, nor was there any magical sound.
Genia circled the huge bloodstone. She tried to find any trace of Nina on the ground, in the cracks of the rock, everywhere. She even pressed the green crystal from her chest to the rock, hoping that Gia's energy might awaken Nina's reflection.
But all was in vain. The rock lay cold, like a lifeless stone.
As time passed, Genia's courage began to wane. She felt that the war must have started in James's palace. Was she too late? Was Nina's reflection not there at all?
"No... this can't be happening," Genia clutched her head in despair. Her knees buckled, and she sank beside the black rock. Exhaustion, fear, and a sense of defeat brought tears to her eyes.
"I can't give up... I can't let those four brothers die..." Genia was utterly distraught. The stifling air and the stench of the desolate valley made her dizzy. She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths. Just then, a loud flapping of wings pierced the eerie silence.
Genia opened her eyes with a start. In front of her, on the branches of four different dry, black trees surrounding the Blood Rock, four mysterious Beast Birds had settled.
She recognised them all too well. They were the same four magical and terrifying birds that had followed her like shadows ever since she arrived in the Beast World from the Other World. One was deep blue, another milky white, the third green, and the fourth a fiery red.
All four birds stared at Genia with their glowing, human-like, intelligent eyes.
"You guys?" Genia's tone now held more annoyance than surprise. She was tired and fed up with these birds' riddles. "How do you get everywhere? And why are you always watching me?"
All four birds flapped their wings. The red bird opened its beak, and a strange, echoing human voice echoed through the valley, "We are the keepers, Genia. Our eyes have never left you."
"If you are the keepers, why don't you help me?" Genia said angrily, standing up. "You come every time, tell me half-truths, riddle me, and then disappear! If you really want to help me, tell me where Mother Nina's reflection is? James last saw her here, so why isn't she here?"
The green bird craned its neck and said, "She's here, Genia. But your eyes are only seeing stones and mud."
The blue bird continued, "A reflection isn't a body you can find behind stones. The reflection of a high-level female beast merges with the original power of the element it controls."
The white bird folded its wings and threw the final riddle, "Recognise Nina's power, Genia. You will find her reflection in the element in which her power is embedded. Call upon the reflection by its power, not by stones."
With that, the four birds took flight together and vanished into the pitch darkness of the pitch-black valley, leaving Genia alone with her questions once again.
"The element in which her power lies...?" Genia muttered to herself. Her mind raced. She remembered her meetings with Mother Gia and Mother Mara.
"When I met Mother Gia's reflection... I met her in the densest part of the forest, surrounded by trees and greenery. Her element was 'earth' and 'nature'. And when I met Mara... her reflection appeared from within the water, near a magical waterfall. Her element was 'water'."
A gleam came to Genia's eyes. The four mothers of the clan possessed the powers of four different basic elements of nature—earth, water, air, and fire.
"Earth and water are gone," Genia said, calculating on her fingers. "This means that one of Mother Nina and Rexon's mother's powers was 'wind,' and the other's was 'fire.'"
Genia looked around to find Nina's power. She felt suffocated ever since she entered this dark valley. There wasn't a single breath of wind. The dry branches of the trees were completely still. The air inside the valley was so heavy and stagnant that Genia had to strain her chest to breathe.
"There's no sign of wind here," Genia gasped, placing a hand on her chest. "If Mother Nina's power were wind, there would be fierce storms here. But here, there's silence and stillness."
If not wind... then what? Fire. Genia's eyes suddenly turned back to that terrifying 'bloodstone'.
"Fire..."
Genia's hair stood on end. She noticed that the cracks in the bloodstone weren't just red, but glowed faintly from within, like the fire within a smouldering coal. This was no ordinary rock. It was a stone placed at the mouth of a volcano, lying dormant for years, waiting for someone to awaken it.
James had last seen his mother near this very rock, for it was here that Nina had preserved her fire power along with her reflection. Genia understood that Mother Nina's reflection existed not in the stones, but in the magical fire buried within this rock.
"Mother Nina..." Genia stepped forward resolutely and stood very close to the massive bloodstone. She held the green crystal tightly in her hands and closed her eyes.
"I know you are here," Genia called out with all her strength and conviction. "Your power is fire. And I call you through this power! Show me your truth! Tell me the name of the traitor who made your children thirst for each other's blood!"
As Genia uttered these words, the heavy silence of the dark valley was shattered with a deafening roar. The entire ground shook violently. Genia stumbled, but she held on tightly to the rock. A terrible, scorching heat began to emanate from within the bloodstone.
The red cracks in the massive rock suddenly widened rapidly, and blazing lava began to gush forth. In an instant, the entire bloodstone was transformed into a whirlpool of terrifying, magical fire. The flames reached the sky. A terrifying red and golden light spread across the desolate and dark valley. The heat of the fire was so intense that Genia could feel the skin on her face burning, but she didn't retreat.
Right in the centre of the flames, where the rock had once been, a whirlwind of fire now swirled. And then, from the midst of the whirlwind, a spiritual, glowing figure slowly took shape. It was the figure of a strikingly beautiful, yet sad and fierce female beast. Her eyes burned with a burning pain, and the mark of the Black Tiger clan shone on her forehead.
It was the reflection of James's mother, Nina.
Genia's breath stopped. Nina's mother's reflection floated through the flames, slowly moving toward Genia. Her burning, spiritual eyes looked at Genia, and a comforting smile formed on her lips.
"You've come, my child," Nina's reflection's voice echoed like the flames of a smouldering fire, laced with pain and a mother's love. "I knew one day you would come to rescue my sons from this fire of hatred."
Tears welled up in Genia's eyes. "I've come, Mother. Tell me the truth. Who was that traitor? Who joined you in supporting the White Tiger Clan?"
A terrifying agony suddenly erupted in Naina's figure. The flames began to rage, as if remembering the truth of that terrible night. "That traitor... none other than..."
Nina's voice echoed through the valley, "...he was the most wicked of our Black Tiger Clan—" But before Nina's reflection could name the traitor, a terrifying, ear-splitting scream echoed across the dark valley sky, and countless blue magical arrows began to rain down upon the ring of fire.
Genia looked up in shock. The traitor's agents, who had been eyeing this bloodstone for so many years, had seen Genia reach Mother Nina's reflection. And now, they had come to take Genia's life, determined to prevent the truth from escaping at any cost.
Blue magical arrows raining down from the sky had shattered the eerie silence of the Black Valley in an instant. Those arrows were no ordinary weapons; their sharp tips glowed with the blue poison of death.
As the arrows struck the ground and the Bloodstone, the valley floor began to crack, and a suffocating whirlwind of blue smoke rose from it.
Genia's eyes widened in terror. She was so close to hearing the traitor's name, so close to the truth that could change the fate of all four tribes, but this sudden, deadly attack turned everything upside down. She looked toward the high edges of the valley, where mysterious shadows shrouded in black cloaks stood.
These were the traitors' killers, who had been guarding the Bloodstone for years to prevent anyone from reaching Nina's reflection.
"Genia! Step back!" Nina's reflection cried out in agony from the flames. The blue arrows were trying to pierce the magical circle of fire. Nina's spiritual form was beginning to fade from the poison of those arrows. Her reflection groaned in pain, but her eyes were more concerned with saving Genia than her own life.
"Mother! Nothing will happen to you! Tell me the names; I won't spare those traitors!" Genia clutched tightly to Gia's green crystal on her chest. Green light emanated from the crystal, trying to block the blue arrows, but the attackers were too numerous.