As Morgana walked through the main street of Kartan, plenty of eyes were set on the silver-haired beauty walking alone. However, she paid them no mind as something else bothered her.
The fact that she couldn't instantly cleanse Selene of her curse annoyed her more by the minute.
She didn't want the poor girl to keep suffering, but now she had to clean the city's trash, which would only delay Selene's healing even more.
She raised her head and noticed two men staring at her while licking their lips deviously.
The trickster approached the two men, who first got excited when they saw the beautiful woman walking toward them, but suddenly found themselves with their faces pinned on the ground.
"I'm looking for the 'Roaches.' Where is their base?" Morgana asked with an intimidating tone.
The men didn't try to fight back, as the trickster's body felt like a bear was lying on top of them, and they desperately told her everything they knew.
"I-it's to the south. A couple of streets from here!" one of them said.
"They have a blue shield with a roach on their door, and, and… they all wear blue cloaks, so it's easy to recognize them!" said the other, just as desperate.
Morgana's hand slowly lifted from the men's heads. "Thanks, boys. As payment, how about I don't kill you today?" she said with a soft smile that somehow only intimidated them more.
The men, with their faces covered in dirt and their expressions showing nothing but fear, nodded in silence and distress while Morgana kept going on her way, this time running at full speed to not waste any more time.
__________
At the base of the Roaches, two men wearing blue cloaks with the symbol of the bug stood outside guarding the place.
The bandits seemed bored as they leaned on their weapons with disinterest when one of them spotted a silver-haired woman walking towards them.
"Oi, brother. Is that a neonite?" said one of the men as he rubbed his eyes, thinking he was falling asleep.
The second man looked up momentarily and widened his eyes at the sight of the beautiful lady staring at them intently from afar, slowly approaching them.
"She is!" he exclaimed.
"She is coming here. What'd you wanna do?" the other asked with a devious smile.
The second man sneered. "Let's see what she has to say, but a beauty like that would sell for hundreds of thousands of gold, no doubt."
The two bandits kept scheming a plan to trap and kidnap the woman, giggling and whispering between themselves, not knowing that it wasn't a simple neonite that approached them.
Before they knew it, the trickster was standing only a few feet apart from them.
One of the men opened his mouth, ready to ask her what she was doing there, but his words were cut short before they could even come out, as the atmosphere around felt intense and heavy.
Struggling to look at the woman's face, the men managed to raise their heads only to see the dark aura emanating from the silver-haired woman.
"I'm really not in the mood today. I'll ask one time, are you from the Roaches clan?" said Morgana with a severe tone of voice that made the bandits kneel on the ground.
"Y-yes…" one of them said, barely able to articulate his words.
However, no response came from the woman. Instead, they felt a sharp pain as they found their bodies encased in black flames that charred their skin at a rapid pace, making them scream and squeal in agony.
Unbothered by the sight, the trickster opened the double doors to the clan's base, where she found different hallways and stairs.
Morgana sighed. "You keep annoying me like this. It's just going to be worse for you…" she said, realizing that she would have to check all the paths.
__________
At the basement of the Roaches building of operations, a group of seven children found themselves locked in a cage along with a young woman who seemed to try and soothe them.
All of the kids were around five to seven years old, except for the oldest, who was twelve and acted as the older sister for the other kids.
"Vivi, what's going to happen to us?" asked one of the youngest kids as he clenched on the woman's dress.
"You will all be alright. I promise I won't let them hurt you…" said Vivi with a tinge of sadness, knowing it wasn't something she could guarantee.
Reinforcing the words of her caretaker, the oldest girl reassured them while trembling with fear herself.
A few moments later, the leader of the Roaches visited their cell.
The man was tall with long dark hair and a robust body. His face and arms were filled with scars, and his expression was disgruntled and intimidating.
He opened the cell while gazing at the captives, making them retreat to the corner in fear as Vivi stood in the front, raising her arms to the side to protect the kids.
The kidnappers' leader fixed his eyes on the oldest child and grabbed her by the arm, startling the others, who began crying as he tugged her towards him.
However, Vivi jumped and clung to the man's arm, which was as big as her entire body, and pleaded to let her go as the little girl was frozen in fear.
The man waved his hand violently to the side and pushed Vivi against the cell's iron bars, hitting her head and back before tumbling to the ground.
As he returned his gaze to the little girl, the caretaker jumped back again on the man's back and began scratching his face desperately like a wild cat, hitting him in the eye.
The man let out a gruntle as he flinched, letting go of the little girl's arm and reaching to his back to grab Vivi before throwing her on the ground like a sack of potatoes, breaking a few of her ribs.
"You wanna play with me that much, you bitch!?" said the man with a deep and raspy voice that echoed throughout the basement dungeon.
Vivi couldn't move an inch from the impact she had received as the man sat on top of her stomach and punched her in the face three times, each punch drawing a gush of blood that splattered against the walls behind them.
While some children cried and screamed, others stood frozen in fear as they watched the scene unfold before them.
The man, standing up once again, gave a clear view to the children of their caretaker's messed up face, as her nose had been shattered, most of her teeth were knocked out, and a large bruise on her right eye blinded her from that side.
However, Vivi was still conscious, making the man smile creepily as he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the cell, taking her to another room while the children begged him to stop.
Less than two minutes later, they heard a loud boom coming from outside, making the oldest of the kids perk up in anticipation.