Dean looked around him, and not seeing anybody in the vicinity, he finally knocked on the door of the small house before him.
"Yes?"
The voice of an old man sounded from within.
A few seconds later, the door was opened as a young boy of about twelve to thirteen years old and a middle-aged man covered in a black robe appeared before the old man.
The old man flashed a gentle and harmless smile as he voiced out…
"How may I help you?"
What he got in reply was Dean's small hand landing on his chest and before he could react, a cloud of evil energy engulfed him.
In less than five seconds, the atmosphere around the old man changed, as he knelt down and spoke in veneration…
"My Lord!"
Dean didn't reply and instead entered the house, with Rock following behind him.
After entering the house, Rock closed the door before Dean's voice resounded…
"I need refreshments."
"Yes!"
After leaving the city, Dean and Rock rode for four hours before encountering a small village.
He sent the skeleton horses back into the death space, while Rock removed his treasure armor before they entered the village.
He decided to make his preparations in this village.
Three hours later.
Dean sat in the room.
He had already refreshed himself and was now dressed in a black robe.
This robe was given to him by Rock, as he seemed to have some stock of clothes in his spatial ring.
Looking at his hand, Dean's eyebrows creased into a frown.
On his palm was a pea-sized pitch-black seed that seemed to pulse like a beating heart.
It had taken a full hour to compress his evil energy into this seed.
The entire process consumed about ten percent of his mana.
After thinking about it, he realized that if he ditched his sleep, he could only create twenty devil seeds in a day.
Like this, a day passed.
In a tent within the village.
*Cough* *cough*
A middle-aged woman lay on a bed with a kingdom-toppling young girl by her side, holding her hand.
"Mother…" the girl whispered.
*Cough*
After coughing for a while, the middle-aged woman flashed a weak smile.
"It's okay, Dora." She whispered weakly as she tried to comfort the little girl.
It seemed just talking had used up her remaining energy, as she closed her eyes and drifted into a sleep.
Looking at the pale face of her mother, Dora felt pained but mostly conflicted.
In reality, this wasn't her biological mother.
Four years ago, her mother and she were chased around.
The people called them witches and claimed that they had to be killed as the heavens had no place for them.
Unfortunately, even though they were able to survive for a little while, they were still caught.
Her mother had forcibly blocked the ways of their attackers, as she made sure her daughter safely made it out.
Dora didn't remember how long she ran, neither did she remember how far she ran.
Eventually, she arrived at this village.
While the villagers shunned the dirty and smelly her, one person did otherwise.
She approached her, gave her food, and then took her to her house.
After she was well cleaned, the woman asked her for her parents.
When she informed her that she was an orphan, the woman had taken pity on her.
Especially after seeing how beautiful she was when she freshened up, she knew that her life would be far too difficult if left alone and abandoned.
So, she had taken her as her daughter since she didn't have one.
Dora felt uncomfortable at first, but after living together for two years, she started opening up to her.
Eventually, after four years, she started referring to her as 'mother', which made the woman greatly happy.
Unfortunately, three months ago, the woman fell ill.
And no matter the medicine she took, or the physician that came to heal her, her condition didn't improve.
Instead, it seemed to deteriorate.
Throughout these four years, Dora didn't dare to do anything that would tie her to being a witch.
However, as he looked at this pale face of her new mother, her pained and childish heart overcame her reasoning.
Running out of the tent, she quickly looked for any live animal she could find.
She didn't need to search for too long as she saw a live chicken that seemed to be chasing after something.
Not caring for what the chicken was looking for, she grabbed the chicken and ran back to her mother's tent.
The villagers who saw her were perplexed about what she was doing with a chicken, but they were not bothered about it.
After all, it was general knowledge that Dora was the most well-behaved and respectful girl in the village.
This garnered the love of most of the villagers, especially the adults.
Entering the tent, Dora found a small knife before she brought the chicken beside the bed where her mother was lying.
She didn't hesitate to plunge the knife into the chicken, and with a masterful turn of her small hand, the chicken was instantly killed.
She wasn't through though, as she gutted the chicken.
The metallic smell of blood permeated the tent.
As a pool of blood was gathering beside the bed, Dora removed the entrails of the chicken.
Using its blood to draw a ritual circle, she placed the entrails on strategic points on the circle before she chanted thrice…
"With this live sacrifice, I call upon the witch doctor to grace her daughter."
"With this live sacrifice, I call upon the witch doctor to grace her daughter."
"With this live sacrifice, I call upon the witch doctor to grace her daughter."
The light in the tent dimmed greatly before the tall figure of a hunched-back old woman appeared behind Dora.
Her flesh was sunken, and a strap of skulls was wrapped around her neck.
Her fingers were long and curved.
Dora quickly turned and bowed before her.
"Please, heal my mother!"
The purple eyes of the witch doctor looked at her shortly, before she looked at the middle-aged woman that lay on the bed.
Opening her mouth, she blew out a strange dark gas that immediately covered Dora's mother.
The gas entered into her body, and almost instantly her pale face grew healthy as she even seemed to have grown younger.
Her eyelashes trembled before her eyes opened slowly.
"Mother!" Dora called out happily as she quickly approached her.
But…
When her mother's eyes opened, her eyes immediately became fixed on the tall and lofty figure of the witch doctors.
"AH!" she screamed out in horror.
Raising a trembling finger, she pointed at the witch doctor and started screaming at the top of her lungs.
"A-a witch!"
"Mother, please wait. Let me explain."
Dora tried to placate her but no matter how much she tried, it all ended up in vain.
Flashing a pitiful glance at the pleading Dora, the body of the witch doctor faded away slowly until she disappeared completely.
As if she had been granted an amnesty, the middle-aged woman stood up before running out of her tent as she screamed…
"Witch!"
"There is a witch in my tent!"