Meanwhile…
"What is taking her so long?" Rei who had been anxiously waiting outside the casern, asked. He had been walking to and fro while waiting for Atropa to get out.
The grass he had been walking on was trampled down which suggested that he had been waiting for a long time.
It had been a few hours since the witch had gone inside and the fox was quite worried for her.
Anxiously, he moved a bit closer to the edifice. But he had to step back since he could not take the barrier of darkness which had been swirling around the place.
"This barrier is really troublesome!" he glared at the swirling darkness which had stopped him from getting inside.
As a member of the nine-tailed fox clan, Rei has the blood of the guardian of Ardour.
Although, nine-tailed foxes were not considered as one of the major guardians of the kingdoms, they still have partial divinity and authority on certain territories.
Since he was contracted to a witch, he stayed far from their domain hence, he could not utilize some of his powers.
The darkness was thick and with the way he was, he would be corrupted by such impurity.
"I can break the seal to counter these impurities." He muttered. "but I am afraid of the backlash."
All of the sudden he froze.
"What the?!" he cursed as he could no longer feel the witch's presence. It was as if his connection with his mistress was suddenly severed.
"It can't be…" he hissed, as he tried to trace his contractor's existence. "She couldn't be dead."
Refusing to believe that his witch died, Rei took a great risk and decided to follow.
"She must have been in danger." He gritted his teeth as he advanced towards the garrison.
"Damn this darkness!" he flinched as the darkness began to entwine around him as if holding him in place.
Left with no choice, Rei had to break his seal. His physique turned into his nine-tailed fox form in order to infiltrate the casern.
As he went deep into the chambers, he could feel that the darkness had latch on his body. It was as if the darkness was alive and was trying to devour him.
It took him a few minutes to locate his mistress, but unfortunately, he could no longer trace her.
"Where are you, Lilian?" his roar reverberated throughout the empty halls of the casern.
Since he could no longer take the darkness clinging around his body, he finally gave up.
Feeling that the corruption was eroding both his mind and body, he gave up finding the witch and decided to escape from the garrison.
But as he tried to break out from the casern, ribbons of darkness extended like hands that were trying to grab him.
Rei had to produce his hottest flame to get rid of them but some were not fully obliterated.
After a few minutes of struggling against the darkness, he was able to leave Formosa.
Unfortunately, it took around a week before he could finally get back to Marjoram. Since Rei was infected with impurities, he had to stop inside the Ardour to purify himself.
Battling the darkness that was corrupting him while fleeing, he was weakened and exhausted. Hence, he could not go directly to Marjoram.
He had to get rid of the darkness first. He barely made it to the orchard.
"Rei!" His elder sister, Reina greeted him.
She gasped upon seeing the ugly splotches of darkness on his fur. The older fox had to use vines to bring him to the spring.
"My goodness! Those darkness!" his sister had to cast a stronger spell to purify those that latched on his body.
"It had been a long time since you had visited and now you are this injured." Reina said as she removed some of the darkness from her brother.
"We were caught off guard. My mistress has been taken away." He grimaced as the light from the moon and the water from the spring melted the impurities on his body.
"So, the princess had failed." Reina commented as she continued purifying her sibling. "You should have convinced her to stop her revenge."
"I did, but she never listens." He grumbled, before getting out from the water. "I think this is enough. I have to go to Zeke for help."
"We are not yet done with purification." Reina pointed out the remaining splotches on his fur.
"I can manage." But before he could move, vines shot out and wrapped around his body to hold him in place.
"Stubborn as always." A familiar female voice resounded. "You and that witch have similar personalities. No wonder you became her familiar."
"Mother." Both the siblings greeted.
"You, young one. You are in no condition to move about." Rizza admonished her son.
Rei would have argued but since the matriarch was far stronger, he was left with no choice but to obey.
After a week of recovering, Rei had managed to journey to Marjoram.
But for some odd reasons, he could not simply get inside Marjoram castle like he used to.
"What the?!" He cursed as he hit some invisible force. He landed and tried to hide his presence while surveying the area.
There were several layers of barrier surrounding the castle which was not there before. "What is with these defenses?"
He knew that if he tried to break any of those layers, the caster will know that someone or something is trying to infiltrate the castle.
Thus, he decided to simply disguise himself as Atropa's brother. It took awhile before he can enter the castle due to some protocols to be observed by nobles.
"I am quite in a hurry but these rules are really getting in the way." He irritably cussed as he finally got inside the gates.
"I have to find Zeke." He murmured as he navigated through the halls of the palace until he had spotted the mage.
"Zeke! What is going on?" he asked when he noticed the how the mage had been working nonstop.
"We strengthen the defenses in the castle." Zeke answered. "There was an influx of darkness engulfing the forest of silence. So, we were trying to fortify the barriers."
"I see…"
"A lot of people were mysteriously dying last week." The mage said while looking at the fox with suspicion. "You are not involved in this, are you?"
"No… I had been away for a week." Rei denied. Then, he remembered the reason why he had sought the mage. "I need your help. Atropa is in danger."
As soon as those words were said, the mage froze before he fired questions while grabbing Rei's collar. "What happened? Where is Lilian?"
Rei struggled to break from his grasp. "She got caught."