...
After an hour of rest, I gathered the Merchants and had them stick close towards the center of our formation.
As we were going into combat, I had Wilhelm and his men stick close to the merchants. I also told Wilhelm to inform me of whenever our spy moved.
Ricardo and his mercenaries will be split between the front and the back as they currently have the most people out of all of them. I have Ricardo In front.
Julius and his group will take the back and watch over there. Julius however, will be with me. I've already informed him of the bewitching spell and illusions that will be cast.
I'm currently in between Julius and Wilhelm as Patrasche carries both me and Rem. And looking up, I make a relative Judgement of the time and how long we have traveled.
"We should be coming up on the village." I then said calmly to the three. "Prepare for anyth-"
But before I could finish, everyone vanished. In place of everyone, is a lonely and desolate road. Patrasche was also gone and I found myself standing alone in silence.
A light purple mist was also present and the trees had no leaves. Many of the trees also had their bark totally peeled off or where broken.
Noticing a dark shadow present over me, I looked up and saw that the sun was eclipsed. And the sky was a weird purple compared to its usual blue.
*crack*
Whipping my head towards the direction of the sound, I saw a man. The mans eyes were uncomfortable to look into and his breathing was heavy. He had tears rolling down his cheeks and his body was shaking due to working against his fatigue.
"Excuse me." I said loudly, "What are you doing out here?"
His eyes then darted towards me and locked his gaze with mine. His eyes showed deep fear and panic when he looked into mine. But I could tell it wasn't towards me.
"S-She, No, I-It is coming!" The man said to me while out of breath. "R-Run now!"
"What is comi-"
*swish*
But before I could ask what it was. The shadows inside the forest seemed to come alive and grab ahold of him.
The shadows then wrapped around his body before reaching towards his neck. And with a twist, an audible snap rang throughout the silent forest.
The mans neck was twisted and I could visibly see the flesh tear as his head turned a full one eighty.
Frozen in shock, my mind subconsciously tried to make sense of what just happened. But instinctively, I knew that it had indeed happened. A shadow had killed a man.
The shadow then dragged the man quickly into the forest making everything go silent.
*step*
But then a pair of quiet footsteps appeared.
*step*
And they audibly got louder.
*step*
And when the steps reached their peak, a hazy and black figure appeared.
The figure was in the shape of a female, but the features of its face could not be identified as the shadow around it constantly shifted and moved.
The figure had two white dots in replacement of its eyes and used them to drill their sights straight into me. But the gaze wasn't exactly at 'me'. The eyes felt as if they were trying to drill directly into my soul and figure out all the secrets inside me.
I already know who it is, and I already know it's a spell. But why hasn't Juli gotten me out yet? Why am I still here? Why is she here?
We just stood there in silence before it spoke out a sentence filled with only one emotion, and it was hate.
"Die you imposter."
And with those words, a foreboding sense of despair and coldness overtook me.
"What?"
*swish*
And in my confusion and fear, a black blur came from it before wrapping around my face. I could feel it grasp tightly onto my skull covering my mouth disabling my voice before slowly increasing its pressure as it madly started to yell.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
I could feel my skull slowly crack from the pressure as excruciating pain and audible creaks began to come from my head. I tired to scream, but they where only muffled.
"IMPOSTER! FAKE! THIEF! JUST DIE!"
And with every word, I could feel my skull slowly break apart and my hearing began to fade along with my conscious. And as my voice finally gave up, the final thing I heard from it was one word full of pain and sadness.
"Die....."
*pop*
*silence*
...
With a loud inhale I reached up and wrapped my hands around my head. I could feel pain pounding as it covered my whole entire skull.
It felt like I was taking a sledgehammer repeatedly to the skull. But besides the pain, I felt a uncomfortable sense of confusion. Was that an illusion? If not, then why now of all times?
Did she perhaps intercept the illusion? If so, what else can she use her powers to interfere with?
Even so, I've at least learned or can come to the conclusion that she is not at all on my side. That is of course if it was actually her and not the original illusion.
But before I could think of anything else, I felt an unbearable pain from the inside of my head causing me to scream quietly in pain.
It felt as if someone was slowly burning my brain and sticking countless needles inside it repeatedly. The pain made it to where I couldn't focus on anything at all, I couldn't even hear anything.
But then I felt a comfortable flow of energy slowly spread throughout my being. And as the feeling left, the pain was also dragged along with it.
And with the pain gone, I stopped screaming and sat in absolute silence for a long time before my hearing slowly returned to me. When I opened my eyes, I saw the ceiling of a carriage.
"Where are we?" I immediately asked while silently staring at the ceiling. "And what time is it?"
"We are currently at the village Nyatsuki." Felix's voice then informed me. "Ferris spent a bit of effort healing you."
"Julius or 'Juli' broke the first illusion, but you somehow got yourself trapped in a more powerful one."
"And it was powerful enough to physically harm you. You about died you nhyow?"
He then scooted himself closer to me and grabbed my chin before looking into my eyes and stuck his finger out.
"Follow."
He then went through some more standard medical procedures before scooting back to his original position.
"Do you feel any pain?"
Hearing his question I silently sat up and stared at him. "No, I'm fine.... thank you. Now Where is Wilhelm and Juli?"
Felix just sighed and shook his head in exasperation. "They have already caught the spy and grabbed a Metia from him. We are using it to hunt down all of the fingers."
"That girlfriend of yours was really worried about you but decided to go ahead and talk it out with the current lady in charge."
"She also has a pretty unique connection with those villagers too. They of course blew up at first but she managed to somehow bulls-"
*cough*
"Calm them down."
"The bomb inside the spy's carriage was also extracted and we fed all the mana Inside the stones into your necklace as requested."
Silently listening to the situation, I smiled a bit at the mention of Rem.
"I guess I her owe her even more now, don't I?"
Felix just gave me a small yet sad smile in return.
"Yes you do, I also owe someone a lot."
We then quietly sat together in thought. I was silently getting myself pieced together and wondering what adverse effects this may cause me in the future.
He was probably thinking about Crusch. Oh wait.... he's going to have to reattach her arm later. I mean I could have warned her, but if Regulus and Roy where to have a false reading in their gospel. I don't even want to think about the chaotic events that would inspire.
Plus, I have no reason to help her out. I only made a deal with her for the people who are currently killing the cultists for me. The things that happen to her have nothing to do with my deal with her.
And I can only hope Rem wasn't a central role in the reading for Roy's gospel. That would put the Archbishops of Gluttony on edge.
But At least Felix hasn't forgotten Crusch. That means she wasn't 'eaten' by Roy. So things are going relatively 'well' if I don't count the witch.
"Is he awake Ferris?" Julius's voice came before peeking his head into the carriage.
"Yes I'm awake." I say nonchalantly before questioning him. "Is everything done now?"
He only nods before looking at me with a serious expression. "What exactly happened? You where hit by an extremely strong bewitching spell."
"I had to use all 6 of the spirits power for a constant time period to even make a dent in that thing."
I just looked at him in silence before slowly getting up to my feet and dusting my pants and shirt clean of any dust and dirt that was present on the carriage floor.
"Nothing really, I just had a run in with a yandere."
"Yandere?" He asked. "What is a yandere?"
I then chuckled a bit before jumping out of the carriage. I then took a glance around and noticed that we where in the middle of town and all the villagers where being directed into separate carriages.
"It's nothing to worry yourself about. Now let's go and kill a Archbishop."
But as I started to walk towards the villages exit. He grasped my shoulder and turned me around to face him.
"Suburu, can you do it? You nearly just died. What you're doing currently isn't normal. Look at me and honestly tell me you're prepared."
My face then fell into an extremely neutral expression. I didn't feel anything to be honest, I just feel this question to be a waste of time and honestly a bit annoying.
"Julius, an Archbishop won't scare me If that's what you're implying. Don't assume that I would breakdown and quit from an illusion of that magnitude."
I then grasped his hand and used a bit of strengthening magic to pull it off with ease causing him to raise an eyebrow in surprise.
I then turned and calmly started to walk towards the exit of this village before calmly urging him to come with me.
"Now like I said before, now let's go and kill an Archbishop."
....