The nightmares soon turned into night terrors as the vivid pictures of a young Kiyoshi being bullied by young boys by the river grew sharper and sharper inside Kiyoshi's head. Suddenly creepy hands appear out of the depths of the river but unlike the past nightmares, the identities of the entities behind the hands were finally revealed. Pure black humanoid creatures emerged out of the water. The creatures resemble Kivuli as they were faceless and pure black in color. But unlike Kivulo who was made out of shadows, these creatures were made of a thick black fluid that dripped off of them.
They also had three horns on their heads and bat-like wings on their bats and a pair of smaller wings on their heels as well as a long dragon-like tail. Before too long there were at least one hundred of them as they quickly emerged out of the water. The creatures turned to Kiyoshi before turning to the boys that were bullying him, who were now frozen in fear by the monsters in front of them. Before either Kiyoshi or the other boys could react the creature began making crackling sounds before opening their mouths revealing rows and rows of shark-like teeth that were so large that it was out worldly that they fit within the creatures' mouths. Soon after the crackling sounds the entities began releasing blood-curdling roars before launching themselves at the young boys. With mere inches away from the boys Kiyoshi awoke from his nightmare before the creatures could finish their assault. The night terrors left Kiyoshi terrified and covered in sweat. His heart was beating fast as he held his chest in an effort to calm himself down as Deliah sleep soundly on his lap.
"You had that dream again didn't you?", Remarked Tyrook who sat opposite to Kiyoshi on a rock.
"You don't have to say anything I could tell from all the mourning and movement you made in your sleep" Tyrook continued "Am surprised she didn't get up at all" Tyrook added.
Emerging out of her slumber, Tyrook quickly returned to the sword as Kiyoshi greeted the little girl with a bright smile on his face as if nothing was wrong.
"You're awake!", Kiyoshi remarked in a cheerful and gently tone of voice as Deliah arose from her sleep stretching her furry hands and feet as she did so which was an adorable sight to be held by both Kiyoshi and Lilly who observed from the depths of the sword.
"Good morning Mister", Deliah remarked as she let out an adorable yawn which caused her to fall over as she lean her body backward. As Deliah dusted herself off Kiyoshi laughed as he prepared breakfast. The two sat down and ate by the riverside. Fish, potato, and beet soup with beard filled their bellies as enjoyed their breakfast neither saying a word till they were finished eating.
"It's time to go child, we still don't know if anyone is following us thus we must hurry and leave this place," Kiyoshi remarked as he packed away the campsite, and off they went. For hours the two traversed through forest swamps and wastelands with Kiyoshi carrying Deliah most of the time to the adoration of Lilly who found it extremely adorable as sometimes Deliah would yawn and fall asleep in Kiyoshi's arms. After thirteen hours of continuous walking, they stumbled upon a small town and Kiyoshi decided to spend the night there as Deliah was exhausted from the long journey and the town was only a few hours' walk from the enchanted forest.
The town is known as moduga hwan-yeongbadneun gos town. It was small and had an even smaller population of around two to three hundred people that all knew each other like family. Before Kiyoshi and Deliah entered the town, Deliah clapped her hands together and mumbled what sounded like a prayer which removed all her fox-like features making her look like an actual human girl.
The town's people welcome the two strangers as tourism was a big part of their economy. As they walked through the town, street food vendors called out to them to taste their craft. Kiyoshi ushered the little girl to try as many street foods as she like. After about an hour and a half of Deliah pigging out on various street food to the horror of Kiyoshi's wallet, the two thank the street vendors for their food and headed to a nearby hotel to rest for the night. When they arrived an old lady booked them in. She patted Deliah on her head and gave her a lollipop remarked to Kiyoshi that his daughter was the most adorable thing in the world squeezing her cheeks as she did so but not to the enjoyment of Deliah.
Kiyoshi thanked the old woman and Deliah up to their room as she became tired and sluggish due to all the food she ate early. As Kiyoshi entered the room she could hear the small sounds of snoring as Deliah was fast asleep in his arms. He gently lay her on the bed before preparing himself for sleep as he wanted to leave early to get her to the enchanted forest so she will be safe.
At nightfall, Kiyoshi was fast asleep the nightmares didn't come for him tonight but some time was wrong he had an unsettling feeling in his soul that was unknown yet felt extremely dangerous. He quickly awoke and began looking for Deliah who was fast asleep at the foot of his bed. Suddenly the unsettling feeling disappeared and Kiyoshi fell back to sleep.
Early the next morning both Kiyoshi and Deliah gathered their stuff and headed out of the hotel but as they left they weren't greeted by the old lady. Kiyoshi didn't pay it any mind as they were leaving earlier than most guests would thus the old must still be still. As they left the hotel Kiyoshi could see a large gathering of people in front of them upon seeing that the unsettling feeling return within him. He quickly grab Deliah and ran towards the crowd to see what had happened. Upon reaching the group of people Kiyoshi was shocked to see in the center of the crowd were several corpses that were mutilated including the old lady that booked them in yesterday. The several bodies seem to have been attacked by some sort of beast and crawl and bite marks could be seen all over the victims' bodies.
As Kiyoshi watched the dead bodies he noticed that most likely the creature that attacked them was small but powerful as the crawl and bite marks were small but dealt a lot of damage to the victims' bodies. Kiyoshi kneeled to the ground and gave a prayer to the falling people before grabbing Deliah and leaving town.
Three hours later they arrived in front of the enchanted forest only a meadow separated them from the forest. As they walked through the meadow Deliah led the way as she was excited to get away from the huntsman hurting her down.
Suddenly Kiyoshi stopped Deliah surprised as she asked him what was wrong in an adorable and innocent voice to which Kiyoshi replied why did you kill those people