Oblivious to what was going on inside, Gregory and Aliara just stood next to each other, having since long searched the whole plain without finding anything, a sad state of affair it was.
The thing they were searching for was just beyond the parameter they had set for themselves and had been made by someone capable of hiding it from their senses, there truly was nothing to do for them, other than just sit around and painfully wait for things to progress on their own.
Feeling bold today, Gregory attempted to strike a conversation with the dark elf.
"So huh, where did you get that compass?" he asked with minimal difficulties, a few steps away, Iustus just looked at him perplexed.
The otherworlder had seemed like a proper adult, a manly man as the virtuous hero's father would have put it, a strong and experienced warrior but seeing him being so nervous around a girl made him rethink that vision.
Iustus couldn't see what the problem was, his mother had always told him that he needed to be strong around girls, although she had never elaborated on why exactly, he felt like what he had been told wasn't universal after all.
"The compass? Some shady guy dressed in all black and wearing a mask gave it to me" responded Aliara and this made Gregory raise an eyebrow.
"Hum, was he wearing a hat and was did his mask have red lines on it?" he asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, how do you know?"
Gregory stayed silent for a few moments, he could remember meeting someone who fit that exact description shortly after getting out of the lake Lust had thrown him into, a little while after he had started devouring everything he got his hand onto.
He had heard a sound and had been met with the man in question, he had certainly been weird but Gregory hadn't been in the right state of mind to notice such a fact.
The peculiar man had given him something too but nothing was to be found on his person that he hadn't acquired himself.
"I met someone that looked just like that too" he muttered under his breath.
Molarine heard that conversation but didn't say anything as she simply thought back to the guy they had bought Laura's wheelchair from, he also fit that description perfectly.
Maybe it was just some weird merchant society where everyone dressed the same, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing she had ever seen but that seemed unlikely.
Before anyone could say or think anything else, the two heroes finally came back but from the nearby woods instead of the entrance they gotten in from.
They explained that people had gotten ahead of them and that their target had most likely managed to escape even if their survival was dubious.
'They aren't making much progress huh?'
________________
The bag headed individual that had swiftly robbed the guts of the mutant killed by Milleral searched through an old, devastated building, picking books after books and throwing those that weren't of use to his mission into a dark portal, the same kind used by the black knights.
Even pushing the furnitures in once he was done searching them, the truth was that he wasn't looking for anything in particular, he was only supposed to move along with the newly formed hero group and was just taking the occasions to gather some things for his creator.
Turning his head with a sloshing sound, he had since long noticed that someone with decent power was not so far but he hadn't been expecting them to go toward him.
"Are you perhaps looking for something?" asked the bag head before the person in question even showed themselves.
"You're pretty good to have detected me" spoke the man as he showed himself, making the bag head turn his head unnaturaly to the side, with another fleshy sound.
"You didn't give the impression to be hiding though and..." he turned his attention to the large symbol on the man's white tunic, not caring about the fact that he was drawing his sword.
"...What is someone from Heilig doing here? Fairly certain that is against the law buddy, people don't agree on a lot of thing but the movement of armed troops through other countries is one of those things, no matter if it is only a single one" remarked the bag head as he didn't even try to dodge the downward slash aimed at his shoulder.
The blade sunk into his shoulder or rather, pushed his shoulder down as if the bag head was made of jelly.
The one that had just been hit seemed much less panicked than the one that had just tried to kill him.
"That is a diplomatic crisis here, what are you trying to do? You are not sent by the crown, are you?" he continued speaking as if nothing had happened as he stepped closer to the other man, looking down on him.
"The lack of actions toward the devilish sins is a clear betrayal of the king! We-"
"I see, so you want to force his hand and make him intervene by getting killed on Laparadisian ground? That could work if enough of you do it for sure but wouldn't it be more sensical to be killed by a sin or sin sympathiser at least?"
"I am not under their orders in any way, I only serve the Godfather, only the Godfather has any right to command me"
"I am BH-I and I can make sure that you disappear well enough for no one to be able to prove you even died but BH-O would nag me if I were to engage in fighting without him, why don't you go find someone else to gut you like the animal that you are?" casually recommended BH-I, only making the man's eyes twitch.
"I saw how you absorbed that thing's guts into your own body! You are an abomination and I refuse to believe you aren't affiliated with those devils!" the spouted before trying to hack away at what was in front of him, his blade infused with the holy magic Heilig was so proud of.
Each hit had no effect just as the first one did but blinded by his rage, the man paid it no need even with the various notifications that told him that he wasn't inflicting any damage at all.
Tired of this, the bag head simply caught the holy infused sword, showing remarkable toughness for someone who had been so squishy up until now.
"Alright, as you wish, I at least hope your guts are worth something" he spoke as he pushed his fingers into the man's stomach, grabbing the intestines before they were suddenly vacuumed just like before, all the while the man was still alive and perfectly capable of feeling and realising what was happening to him.
"That's what I thought, absolutely worthless quality wise..." he complained before opening his coat, envelopping the man's whole body into what seemed to be an oversized stomach, dissolving everything in an instant.
'Will the Heiligian champions be involved after all? I'll have to report this to the Godfather'