"Are you sure this is the place?" Atropa asked as she surveyed the area.
She frowned as she noticed the lack of residents and mobility. The eerie silence in the vicinity was unsettling.
"Is that person really living here?" she asked with wariness. "A former king would actually settled in this village?"
Formosa looked like a ghost village. The only things that she could note of were dilapidated houses. The witch and her fox only met two people so far and they were not welcoming.
So, for Atropa, it was unthinkable that Bulrush would take refuge in Formosa.
"Geez, thank you for doubting me." Rei sarcastically said.
Rei did spend a few months looking for the former king of Azalea and the clues led him here. He felt kind of bad that his mistress doubted him.
"The former king was quite good in hiding his tracks, so I had a hard time tracking him down." He grumbled.
"Don't you think Formosa is a perfect hiding place?" he asked the witch. "No one would think that someone as prideful as the former king would simply settle in this village?"
The girl thought for a moment before she nodded. "Now that you pointed it out…since Formosa had been abandoned after the plague a few years ago, then yes. It makes sense that he would hide himself here."
"Look over there." Rei pointed at the casern isolated in the outskirt. "You can see Azalean banners fluttering about, right? Some of the remaining loyalist are hiding the former king in that place."
"The security seemed to be not tight." Atropa muttered as she observed. There were only two guards on the front gate and no one else.
But for some odd reasons, she could sense something sinister from the casern.
"It felt so much like a trap." She mused.
"You felt it too." Rei cringed.
"Why don't we just abandon this mission and go back home?" he suggested.
But Rei's suggestions fell on deaf ears. The fact that it may be a trap did not stop her.
"when did you become so spineless?" she frowned at her familiar.
Then they made their way towards the casern, both Atropa and Rei stopped short when they slammed against a wall of mist-like darkness.
The two stepped back and observed the mist-like entity, which seemed to surround the casern. The darkness is swirled as if disturb then it turned invisible as if it settled.
Rei stepped back even further. "This is much worse than the last time I have been here."
Since he was a spirit, he was more sensitive against the dark energy. Though he was in human form, the energy still seemed to affect him.
"Are you sure that you want to do this? This place is really sinister…"
"This is my only chance to exact revenge." She said as she advanced. "I can do it alone, you can simply stay here."
Rei grabbed her hand and tried to stop her. "I know that you do not want to miss this chance, but can't you at least postpone it until we got a clear plan. We do not know what is going on inside that place."
"It is just mostly traps." She said as she got free from his grip. "I can deactivate them."
He sighed before revealing his hunch. "With the stench and darkness around this place, I bet all my nine tails that they had been conducting human sacrifices."
Rei looked at her with grim. "The last time I have been here, there still residents in the village but now only a handful remained."
"You mean those people were used as sacrifice. The former king is committing taboo?" she stopped short with that information.
However, she did not back down. "It is not the first time I have handled a taboo. I can do it."
Though Rei reeked of disapproval, he could not help but give up. "Alright, be careful. I could not rescue you so you need to take care of yourself."
"Geez… since when did you get so overprotective?"
"Since when I got mate and had children?" he simply answered.
"This doting father." She protested. "I am your master but you treat me like a child."
"If you act more mature than your age…" he stopped short and sighed. "Anyway, just be careful."
Atropa then crossed the darkness. It seemed to engulf her as if welcoming her but it avoided her wrist where Lumina is worn.
"This darkness is not that uncomfortable." She mumbled as she allowed the mist to surround her. "It was almost the same as that entity that I have dreamt before."
Though she was being wrapped by the dark mist, she was not worried. "Lumina, please protect me for awhile." She asked the relic.
As she neared the casern, she released a small shot of mana bullet and knocked the guards down.
Swiftly, she slipped inside. At first, she was astonished by the pentagrams drawn on the walls.
"Why are these so similar to those marks in Hopley?" she asked while trying to decipher some of the words. "What the hell?! This is a spell to bring people back to life, in exchange of soul sacrifices."
"Are the ones in Hopley and the people here related?" she pondered. "Formosa and Hopley are quite close."
"If you think about it, only the forest of silence separates the two villages. It would take only two hours ride from here to Hopley I think."
But since she was here for a different purpose, she decided to drop the case. Afterall, there were not that many evidences.
As she navigated inside the edifice, she noticed that there were only a few handful of guards.
"Something is quite off." She muttered to herself. "I felt eyes on me but there is no one aside from these people I have already brought down."
She then tried to locate the former king through a spell. Atropa's heart thumped in anticipation as her revenge is at hand.
The spell she cast lead her deeper into the casern. As she took a step down the stairs leading to the dungeon area, Atropa could feel the darkness getting heavier.
"It is getting a bit harder to breathe." She gasped out, but she did not stop.
When the spell stopped on one of the doors, Atropa got her knife ready. She quietly slipped inside the room which looked like a study.
A silhouette of a man had been sitting on a chair and judging from the dark hair, Atropa could tell that it was King Bulrush.
'At long last, my revenge is at hand!'. She thought as she cast a restraining spell on the person.
But it seemed that the former king was not even resisting.
Atropa came near raising the knife in hand. 'This is how you killed my father, this time, I will return the favor."