The door to a small house like any other had been left wide open, no one had been capable of finding the resolve to get close enough to close it again, letting all who walked by witness the utter scene of horror that was the inside of this home.
The bodies had lost all colors and turned grey, the flesh and skin had turned so fragile that the weight of their organs was enough to break through it, their fingernails and teeth had fallen after turning black.
Their eyes hung by a single thread at best as they dangled in the soft breeze that sometime entered the house, their bodies had yet to start rotting but already smelled like it, the floor and furnitures were covered with puke and blood as well as all the other wonders of the body.
One could only wonder what had happened to this normal family, no signs were to be seen on their bodies and no other traces had been left suggesting the intervention of a third party.
It was yet to even be thought of as the culprit's existence was still a mystery but this had been the first act of the lesser sin known as Abuse, his sheer presence had resulted in that scene of horror.
Most would be lucky to only be grazed by the bodyless sin's presence or to only hear his voice for a short moment from far away, only feeling a bit dizzy for a moment, maybe some tingles in their flesh or somewhat drunk for a second.
Abuse ability was always activated, he unconsciously used it all of the time, mumbling his wants for he was now unable to engage in anything now that his physical form had been lost.
Thankfully for the population, he also wandered around randomly and had went toward an area without any people, leaving behind bodies of animals as he moved by.
Only willfully changing his course upon noticing that the place where he was headed did not feel good, even the drug-filled soul of Abuse was able to take notice of it.
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Meanwhile the trio of unwanteds was back at the place Aiden had had the displeasure of meeting OTA-ZS, it would more accurate to say that they were back to the whole area in general.
Jake had managed to remember the fact that Willia, the scientist that dwelled around this parts fit the description Laura had given, the three of them were the ones going in since it wasn't exactly weird for them to be around.
The idea was simply to find the scientist and ask her about the mastermind in a non-suspicious way, nothing much, all that was needed was to speak.
They didn't run into Mylhart, which was a plus considering that he would no doubt inquire on their presence here, they did have an excuse ready but the general of the interior wasn't someone they wanted to try and lie to.
They arrived at the entrance of the laboratory, the halls were, as per usual, completely empty, it seemed like even the general wasn't around today, a relief but also a bit intimidating considering the fact that OTA-ZS had been able to infiltrate this place easily, the halls may not be as empty as they appeared.
Jake had informed them that there was at least one other scientist around but Willia was known to spend her time mostly working alone so it was likely they wouldn't have to deal with anyone other than her.
The scientist was always around here, it was almost certain that she would be here and yet, when they entered the lab, it was completely empty, utterly desert.
The sight of this fantasy world's science was quite breathtaking but the fact that the holed up scientist wasn't around when they were looking for her was suspicious and unlikely to be a coincidence.
Especially when Laura had seemed positive that Willia would be around here.
Grayson didn't say anything and simply signed his two friends to look around in more details.
The three men searched every nook and cranny of the place and apart from a locked door, it didn't seem like the scientist could be hiding here.
Aiden put his palm on the door and feeling like his hand was freezing, he pulled it away.
"That's way too cold for anyone to be in here, she probably left before we got here" he said, Grayson opened up what appeared to be a closet and noticed that the lab coats were placed in a weird way, squeezed apart as if someone had wanted to make some space in the center of it.
"Aiden, could you inspect that closet?" Grayson had a sneaking suspicion and once his skinny friend inspected it, it was revealed that the closet was actually also a secret passage.
After some probing around the whole closet, they found some sort of small lever hidden on one side, blending in perfectly and the inside of the closet opened up.
A staircase was revealed, leading to well outside of the perimeter, even then, the scientist had been gone for a while and no sign of her was to be seen around the whole passage way or at the place it led.
It might have seemed like a loss but the fact that she ran away before they could even ask her anything clearly showed that she was aware that they were coming and that she didn't want to answer anything they had to ask.
The three of them went back to their two new partners and explained the situation, Laura attempted another divination on the scientist and while something did come out of it, no distinctive signs could tell them were she was exactly.
"Let's just move on to the next one, trying to pursue her is sure to waste our time, not all of them will have a secret passageway to slither away" remarked Molarine as she pulled out another picture made by Laura's divination from her long coat.
The one she pulled was that of a ship or at least a part of it, not many details were to be seen other than part of the deck and what seemed like a volcano in the background, other than that, it was nothing but the vast expanse of the ocean.
"The volcanic island in the picture is the island of Hepha, named after that one god of smithing, it's north of here" explained Laura, as the three men started to realise they would have to go in the ocean, the ocean they had know back in their world had been terrifying by itself but this one was that of a world filled with actual monsters.
The ocean of this world was way more dangerous than the land, if one got a bit too far from the coast and a gigantic abomination could show up out of nowhere to specifically drag them to the depth without any reason other than to drown them, it might not even eat the body afterwards.
Sometimes, even being somewhat close to the ocean could spell your end, as such, going into the ocean in a boat was risky and necessitated a special ship and lots of repellant against monsters to be a bit safer.
The boats tended to have a peculiar shape from below to discourage any monsters, as wicked as they might be, they weren't morons and wouldn't go after something wildly unfamilar to them, unless it encroached on their territory and knowing the territories of monsters underwater wasn't something many people could know.