***A few hours later, after they had finished eating and cleaning up.
Aella stretched and then yawned "Well .... Let's go to sleep" Aella got up happily from the couch to go to her room, but before she could take a step forward Amari stopped her.
"Wait Aella, you can't go yet, you have to tell us about the poison".
Aella sighed in exasperation, "Well, it's true there are important things I have to explain, but first..." She went back to sit on the couch.
She looked at Tony. "Teacher, are you all right?"
Tony lifted his head and looked at her "hm, yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well, I saw that you had a bunch of documents to sign on the desk in your office. And they all seemed to have tomorrow's date on them".
".......OH MY.…I'm done for," Tony hurried to the exit. "Well guys, I'll see you tomorrow," and with that he was gone.
Aella rubbed her face, "I really can't believe these people. Even the Teacher is like this".
She turned to the others, "But... I have to say, you really are stupid!"
"Huhh?". The F's were all annoyed by what she had said.
' How dare you call us stupid, stupid Aella'. They said in their mind, but of course, they weren't going to say it out loud. So all they could do was roll their eyes.
" Well, aren't you? First of all, you totally believed that stupid story Darius told you about Ohyo. Instead of believing him, you should have suspected him. For example, how bad and heartless it was for Darius to ask Ohyo to quit his job the very next day". She explained calmly.
" It doesn't make sense, does it?" Aella raised a second finger
" Secondly, this is a school where the strong are highly respected and favored, while the weak are cast aside. You all had plenty of opportunities after awakening your powers with Ohyo's help. But you all chose to screw it up because of your stupidity. For example, why did you all believe Darius so easily when you already knew how much he hated you?"
" Why didn't any of you suspect anything when Aisha told you what she'd heard that night?"
"Well, Darius and Ohyo were like best friends, so we didn't think much of it s-".
"Oh yeah," Aella raised an eyebrow. "Then why didn't you think...: oh, if our coach Ohyo, who is supposed to be Darius' best friend, went so far as to quit school because of him, then he must have said or done something to him. She mimicked.
"And why didn't you also think: if everyone could cultivate and use their powers without any problems in the past, why did everything change only after you all started wearing the rings? Aella quietly bombarded them with questions, "And why did not only Darius' character, but all the students' characters change so suddenly after they found out that none of you could cultivate?
"As if they already knew and were waiting for it to happen".
"You need to use your heads properly. You trust people too easily."
"Like, come on, common sense guys. Kye, Kathleen, Nian and Junior, I expected more from you. You four are supposed to be the brains of the group".
The four of them were so embarrassed that they lowered their heads in shame, "We didn't think it would be like this. We never expected him to be so evil".
"There must be more to this story that we don't know." Sara commented.
Aella felt a headache, she leaned against the sofa's large pillow. "Right now we don't have time to look into it," Aella was really at a loss as to how gullible they could be.
"It's just that .... we hadn't really thought that far ahead," Adam replied. "And we certainly didn't think the rings were connected to all of this.
"Right, no matter how you look at it, it looks just like a normal ring".
"Ha, well then let me ask you something. Why did your powers automatically disappear, then you started having trouble cultivating, and all those health problems started right after you started wearing those rings..." Her voice sounded so calm and gentle as she spoke that the F's suddenly felt shivers run down their spines.
Aella sighed, "Look at that."
Aella pulled Kye's ring out of her pocket, walked over to where Yui was sitting and removed one of the pins in her hair.
"Huh" Yui looked up in surprise. "When did she get here?".
She used the pins to remove the stone from the ring. The second she removed the stone, a heavy and thick green mist emanated from the ring and immediately the strong smell of poison filled the whole place. Inside the small hole where the stone had been placed were dozens of small green seeds.
Aella calmly held out her hand.
WhOOosh!
'...!!!!!!' The F's watched the scene with shocked eyes.
A black energy erupted from Aella's palm. It was fast and strong, and then it spread out like a whirlwind, absorbing all the poisonous fog.
Everyone was stunned at the sight of her black power devouring the poison. And then, having swallowed up all the poison mist, the black energy returned to Aella's palm.
They stared at Aella.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?".
"Hey, Kye. Isn't that power .... the Dark Power Element?" Nian asked, still speechless.
Even the timid Yui couldn't help but yelp in amazement.
"The Black and White Elements are supposed to be very rare... and only those in the Underworld possess that kind of power. W-what the hell have I just seen? ..... I just witnessed something that shouldn't exist anywhere in the human world!"
Nara approached Aella worriedly, looking her over from head to toe.
"A-are you okay? The poison just e-expanded into your body!"
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT!!!? Adam shouted in astonishment.
Aella was starting to get a headache from all the noise.
"Shut up, ugh everyone is talking at the same time".
"Anyway," she put the little dried seeds on the table.
"This is the poison, it's called Suamiric. This poison can only be found in countries and kingdoms with very hot climates, or in the deserts. It was declared dangerous and banned worldwide. A warning was issued stating that if anyone was found in possession of the Suamiric poison, they would be arrested immediately".
"Wow... but where did you hear about this Aella?" Yui asked.
"Yeah, because I didn't know anything about the warning," Francois said too.
"'Are you living under a rock?' Kathleen looked at them, "It was a well-known story because that warning was sent to the authorities by SCAE and Otiz.
The F's were speechless again. "I didn't know," Yun cleared her throat.
"Me neither, I was busy being bullied". Sara rolled her eyes.
Aella glanced to the side and muttered. "Well, she made the decision, but Otiz was the one who went to the Nation's Palace and delivered the words".
"For this poison to be effective in a country with cold or normal temperatures, it must be confined in small spaces with no exposure to the air." Aella continued.
"Now, if you had worn this ring for at least two years or more...." Again, Aella glanced to the side. She couldn't look at them while she was saying these things.
"Well, your mana circuits would have been destroyed, the poison would have seeped into your bones and your veins. Which wouldn't be so bad, except that you'd be useless for the rest of your life. You would never be able to cultivate or practice ever again. You'd spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair or in bed. But at least you'd still be alive."
The F's listened to Aella's words in a state of fear.
Junior raised his left hand where the ring was and felt a wave of fear overtaking him as he looked at the ring.
"This is where it gets serious. If the poison enters your heart and core essence, it would automatically reduce your life force, which literally means death.
"My goodness," Yun put his hand to his face and bowed his head.
Junior, Kathleen, Nian Nara, and Kye were taken aback by Aella's words. They really weren't aware of Darius' conspiracies. All this time they thought he gave them the rings because he felt sorry for them.
Aisha frowned and slid down to the floor. Waah, hahahahahaha,' she laughed without emotion.
"This is a real eye-opener for us, ha! It looks like we really were idiots!"
Francois was also very caught off guard. Realising the gravity of the situation, he hastily asked, "What about our bodies? The poison has already entered our bodies. What are we going to do?".
Aella blinked at his nervousness, laughed and said.
"Fortunately, the poison has not penetrated too deeply into your bodies yet. It hasn't touched the most important place, the heart. It's a good thing you've only been using these rings for a short while."
Sara's body tensed at Aella's words, she felt her whole body collapse from the shock. She then looked at her friends Kye, Nian, Nara, Kathlyn, Adam, Francois, Yui, Yun, Shion, Junior and Aisha, they were all in the same state as her, they were even worse. She felt a lump in her throat and her heart was beating fast. Her whole body was shaking with fear and anger.
She bit his lips, trying to calm herself.
"It's okay," she tried to calm everyone down, "let's calm down, didn't Aella say she was going to help us, we're still safe.
"At least Amari doesn't have to deal with this" they were relieved to know that, but...
"I wouldn't say that" Aella scratched her face.
"WHAT!!! What do you mean?" Amari's mouth dropped.
"I can see it," Aella said, "I can see the poison in your body too. Remember the day Ohyo told you your result, you said there were some students there as well, among them were.....".
"T-tr-trinity and those guys... oh my gosh..."
"Amari and Trinity used to be in the same class, and T.tr.trinity knew that Amari was our friend since long ago".
"Oh, and I'm pretty sure that friend of yours has it too. What was his name again," Aella tried to recall. "The one who was in the same class with you guys, when you' all first started".
"WHAT!!…CAIN als-".
Junior sat down, his head pounding heavily. He clenched his fist, "Then if Aella hadn't come to Oasis, we'd be...."
"Dead? Yeahhh!" Aella blurted out coldly.
"EH! Can't you be a little more tactful?" scolded Adam.
"The truth always hurts, I don't know about you all, but I'm going to sleep."
"Ehhhhhh!" they all said in unison with a grimace on their faces.
"I'm sleepy, good night".
"Huh?" we were in a moment of emotion and she....Ahh forget it' they all gave up.
Kye stood up, staring at the F's gloomy faces, "Let's go to sleep guys, it won't do us any good thinking too much. Let's go get some rest. We'll talk tomorrow".
"All right!"
" Good night, everyone," they said to each other.