TROUBLING TIMES

Evileye II

The three adamantite adventurers had been making good way towards their destination. Leading the group is a huge woman warrior wearing heavy crimson plate armor. Her large beefy hands threaten to crush the machete she uses to clear a path through the dense forest foliage. Strapped to her back is a bag of incredible size and a warpick of which she uses to fight all manner of beast. Behind the hulking warrior follows her comrades: the deadly assassin Tina, and the vampire sorcerer Evileye.

The woods were eerily silent, even for the enhanced senses of Evileye. Save for the hushed steps of skittering wildlife and the hacking of Gagaran's machete. The three trekked in heavy silence. Nobody was in the mood to talk. What Evileye had witnessed the night before is further proof that a new wave of beings of unimaginable power had started appearing.

Tina's body shifts. "Perhaps I should've checked it out? I know that it's all on everyone's minds" she laments, likely feeling left out of for being asleep during the night's events. "I can stay hidden for long periods of time, you know." Her hand hovers over a pouch of ninja tools she uses for stealth.

"We better not risk it. It's likely that the Sorcerous Kingdom has people to investigate or clean up their mess. If anything, I should be the one to investigate, I can always teleport away if there's any trouble." Evileye quickly replies, followed by a pause, remembering her first encounter with Jaldabaoth. She was lucky to be saved by the heroic Momon who made her heart start beating again… The same Momon who she was told by an old friend not to trust. She clicks her tongue in irritation.

Tsk.

Gagaran chimes in and enters the sudden conversation. "Forget it Tina, if it's enough to terrify our little shorty here. It's probably far too dangerous to risk alone." With a smile, Gagaran places a heavy muscular hand on Evileye's head.

"I'm not scared, you big muscle head!" Evileye's voice rose, slapping her companion's hand off her head. "It's only logical. We have a mission we must do. Lakyus is away working with Red Drop and it's a long way back to the Re-Estize. It's the only option to take!" She grits her pointed canines in annoyance and looks down, part of her ashamed as she realize that if she wasn't so distracted by Momon, she would've elected to scout out the battlefield.

What is wrong with me today?

"Oi, relax Evileye. I didn't mean anything by it." Gagaran backs off, raising her arms in surrender, not expecting Evileye to give such an emotional reply.

There was a moment of stunned silence. Ever since her conversation with Rigrit, Evileye hadn't been the same. Gagaran was just trying to keep things cheerful, but her attempts just made Evileye feel worse.

Evileye turns and starts to walk, "let's just get this over with and return quick- wooah". The corner of Evileye's cloak catches on to something behind her. Her senses sharpen as she was suddenly dragged by an unknown force but her instincts as an adventurer tell her she is in no danger. Whatever it is pulls her roughly into a moss covered bark. A moment later and she finds herself pinned by Tina to a tree. Her orange-red gaze is intent, a mix of stern and worry. Any half-heartened attempt to free herself is met with an unyielding push by the shoulder. With a quick sleight of hand, she removes Evileye's mask revealing a discontented glare.

Gagaran looks on with surprise, her mouth gaped in her comrade's sudden action.

"Evileye, you-" Tina hardened her glare, words alone will not be enough to reach her companion. If she backs off now, her friend's attitude will only get worst. Their contest of wills went on for a few more seconds before Evileye looks away, forfeiting the fight.

"What do you want, Tina?"

"This is about Momon, isn't it?" Tina interrogates Evileye, her tone is hard and unwavering.

"What!?" She suddenly exclaims. "Beings as powerful and mysterious as Jaldabaoth are suddenly all over the place, fighting each other like it's nobody's business. We know so little and now we are being forced to question who we can trust! Who these players are will determine the fate of all humanity. And yet you're asking me if I'm acting like this because of Momon-sa…" Evileye stops, any form of resistance from her crumbles into a surrender. She could not bring herself to deny her own feelings.

"So it is about Momon…" Tina concludes, stating what is obvious from the start. "You're getting your feelings too involved in this."

"I didn't… say that." Evileye weakly said then a sudden outburst. "For all we know, he could've been in league with the Sorcerer King from the start!" There was a brief and barely noticeable crack in her voice, trying to convince herself.

Tina lets go of Evileye, her robe now creased muddled with moss.

"Oh? Where's the Evileye who cursed the granny just for suggesting it? You looked ready to blast her for it," Gagaran comments teasingly from behind Tina, her large booming voice echo in the woods.

"I! I..." She pauses. "Curse you both! I'm trying to not get my feelings in the way, could you not bring that up?" She points an accusing finger at her companions, shouting like a child.

Tina smacks Evileye on the head. "You really are hopeless. Where's the cool and critical Evileye we know?" She makes an exaggerated sigh. "Don't worry about it, Evileye. If we find out he was lying about his battle with the vampire Honyopenyoko, then we don't trust him. If it's the truth, then consider a possible future relationship saved. Simple as that." She pauses. "You really don't have much experience with feelings, don't you? Besides, there could be other reasons for Momon to hide to truth about the battle." Tina winks at Evileye with a smile.

If it was possible for Evileye to blush, she would've. She turns away from the two, arms crossed. "I- I knew that."

"Our shorty is so inexperienced. Maybe you should be more straightforward like me." Gagaran proudly points a thumb to herself.

"I at least have some standards!" Evileye practically shouts and her two companions laugh at the exchange.

Tina returns the mask to Evileye and the trio continued their journey with renewed spirits and eventually arrived at their destination. It was the site of Momon's battle with Honyopenyoko, one of the vampires Momon allegedly chased down on E-Rantel.

Evileye's jaw fell as she saw the landscape, crushed under the implications. It was more than a year since she last investigated this place, but what once she saw in awe is now a grim mystery. "It hasn't changed… Nothing's changed."

The forest opened up into a large clearing. No, to call it as just a clearing would be understatement. It was a small desert with a crater in the middle of it. The air was stale. Not a single blade of grass could be found at the edge of the desiccated region. The roots and branches of the trees refused to grow into it. Horrifically, it was as if death itself forbade life to grow here.

Evileye shook under her mask. For someone well-versed with spells, she doubted that a holy or fire spell would be able to cause this, even if it was as powerful as 10th tier.

Everyone's eyes fixed on the desert before them. None dared to expose themselves and stuck to the edge.

"A 7th tier spell couldn't possibly be able to do this. I was a fool to think it's amazing that Momon-sama managed to pull this off."

"It could be vampire magic?" Tina suggested.

"Yeah, what are the odds of that?"

"It's not impossible… but I doubt it. I haven't heard of vampires possessing magic that can cause this before. What's more, the old hag told us that one of our former companions actually fought the vampire once. Honyopenyoko is an evil entity with blood red armor and a lance that drains life. I doubt any warrior could've done this..."

「Detect Magic」

Evileye scans the landscape. "Nothing."

How is this even possible?

The vampire takes the magic crystal into her hand and gives the crystal to Gagaran for her to use.

Gagaran motions the others to back away, she raises the crystal towards the desert and uses it.

A large blanket of light blasted from the gleaming chunk of material, bathing anything in front of it in pure white light. The three of them watched on, every one of them were certain that that level of magic would've incapacitated them, if not outright killed, should they be hit by the full brunt of it. Even their leader who is one of the best in faith based magic in the whole of Re-Estize would not be able to match the sheer might of the spell they had unleashed from the crystal.

However, despite the powerful magical power displayed, it could barely cover a quarter of the area damaged by Momon's fight with Honyopenyoko. It would've been anti-climactic if the outcome wasn't so obvious and expected.

It was pitifully weak in comparison.

One does not simply call the adventurers of Blue Rose superstitious. Their very own powers themselves can inspire the stories of heroes. Few words were spoken, despite more questions that needed to be answered. But with their mission completed, nobody wanted to stay any longer. Nobody wanted to deal with whatever power that may linger here. It is far too dangerous, it feels too dangerous. It was typical for adventurers to twist the stories of their accomplishments to make them sound more heroic. In Momon's case, his strength was so unreal he needed to downplay his strength just to be believable. But even then, this is just too much to keep secret. Whatever happened here, whatever link there is between Momon, the vampires he chased here, Jaldabaoth, the Sorcerer King, and the sorcerer who approached Rigrit is a question that needs to be answered.

Night came when they were a good distance away from the site. They set up camp and lay down their bedroll. Like a well-oiled machine, they gathered the materials required quickly. Evileye lit the fire with a basic kindling spell, something she had learned before she became a vampire.

Just as Gagaran finishes cooking up a meal for them to eat, the three decides to check on the site of the previous night's event the next day on the condition that they avoid any trouble with the Sorcerous Kingdom.

"Now with all of that out of the way, don't let that spoil a good meal." Gagaran states as she passes a serving of rabbit stew to her companion. The three adamantite adventurers settle down for dinner.

"How do you think Tia and Lakyus are doing on their end?" Tina asks as she takes a spoonful of stew in delight.

"A group of gold ranked adventurers got wiped out fending off a goblin raid. Except it wasn't just goblins, it's as if someone's trying to band demi-humans and heteromorphs together. It was the talk of town. Honestly, it would've sound fun if the demihuman invasion in the holy kingdom never happened." Gagaran raised a bowl to her face and chugged a mouthful of food into her mouth.

"The forest is a lot smaller than the Abelion Hills, not to mention its inhabitants are wilder, more primitive, and less threatening. There are giants who live northwest of the forest have friendly relations with Argland Council State. But as someone who has friends in Argland, I can safely say that they aren't responsible for this one." Evileye takes a spoonful of stew in front of the fire. "Whoever it is organizing in the forest there is a really in the worst place to make an army. Re-Estize may have been severely weakened from the previous war, but it's just asking for trouble to build something near Argland. If the person behind it is really powerful, there's just no reason to bother supporting the weaker races there."

"Basically you're saying sending in both Red Drop and Blue Rose is overkill, aren't you?" Gagaran concludes as she wipes stew residue from her mouth.

"Actually, there are other reasons the leader wants to see this one for herself." Tina interjects.

"And that is?"

"One of the survivors, a priest who the fled the village during the raid had reported something strange. Whoever was behind it is suspected of using a spell like control cloud to keep obscure the view of something, probably a tower. All the raiders were buffed, or more accurately blessed by something similar to faith magic but the type used by nature spirits."

"Could the Fey be involved in this?" Evileye raised an eyebrow. It'd been a long time since she had to deal with nature spirits. "Nature spirits are generally harmless unless you threaten them. They can be fickle and self-serving but it's the first time I've heard one supporting an interspecies alliance, much less actively support races that tend raid on humans."

"No matter, we'll just see what Tia and the leader has to say about it once we meet up." Gagaran concludes.

The party finished their meals and retire for the night.

As an undead, Evileye didn't need sleep so she always took the first rotation of night time guard duty. Despite staying up all night, everyone in Blue Rose still insisted on taking turns staying watch. At first Evileye thought that it was illogical and a waste of energy, but she learned to bond with everyone that way. Nobody admits it, but the sentiment was to keep Evileye company through the night.

To a vampire like her, the night is clear as day. Her enhanced senses are more than enough to pick up on most dangers that may approach during the night.

There is just too little to do.

She would often read tomes or books on night watch to pass the time. But she just doesn't feel like it. There's too many things going on in her head right now. Her beloved Momon-sama, the vampire Honyopenyoko, the magic on their battleground, the sorcerer king, the fey, and the human sorcerer who approached Rigrit.

"Ooh, I wish I can just sleep this all off!" Evileye scowls as she ruffle her golden hair, trying to keep her head from overthinking. She collapses sideways willingly, her face lands facing the campfire.

The fire flickered through the night, crackling. Dancing.

So long as there is wood for it to burn, it will not die. If one were to stop feeding it wood, or pour a bucket of water on it, then it will die. If it burns too strongly it will turn to nothing but ash. Humans are like that. Frail. The fires of their life are very easily snuffed out. Those that desire power more than they can handle will leave nothing but a husk of their former selves. All it takes is one moment of foolishness, and the fires that burn would consume you, leaving nothing but ash. Isn't that right, Keenu Fasris Inberun?

Despite a vampire's natural aversion to fire, she removes a glove and touches the fire.

It's nowhere near as bad as she felt it should have been. The fire glazed her hand, threatening to burn her light undead skin, but it's nothing her innate vampiric regeneration can't fix.

She looks on, not realizing she entered into a mesmerized trance.

Elsewhere…

The sound of moving branches and leaves echo through the air. An exodus of the anguished is motion. An old willow creaks. His old branches sway with each passing step, his stumpy, tired legs finally reach their destination.

"My lady. Arisa. To where does. The undead. Take you? Oh please. My lady. I pray. That you. Be safe."

His large feet sink deeper into the ground, taking root. His body wriggles into place. Branches creak and leaves shake in the wind with each wood creaking shuffle.

"My friends. Speak. And I. Shall. Listen. May the. Blessings of. Lady Arisa. Be upon. Us all."

AN: Sorry for the late update. In between grad school, work, and a newfound addiction to dark souls, it's hard to find some time to work on this. I'll try to keep to a month and a half per update. Also, a very special thanks to Pterodactyl for beta-reading my work. I hope you guys find this chapter enjoyable.