Lucius was frozen in his spot, his eyes were unfocused and his sword fell to his side. Despite being in a battle, Lucius looked completely detached from reality. Cloaked men surrounded him, gradually closing in.
A double-layered wall was erected by several earth attributes, trapping Lucius inside a solid dome. Two of the wind attributes were casting spells, sucking the air out of the dome—creating a vacuum-like space.
*What the hell is he doing?!* I panicked at the sight. *He could've easily broke out of the trap, but why isn't he moving?!"
Before I could see the end of it, the vision changed. A large tent stood tall like a sore thumb, still in the same ground as the previous vision. A couple of their minions were dragging civilians inside, knocking out whoever that fought back. One of the victim was a child that got severely beaten up; brown hair covering a dead pair of golden eyes was seen.
"SHIT!" My eyes widened at the unexpected variable. "HOW DID THOSE FILTHS GOT THEIR HANDS ON HIM?!"
The vision ended.
Once I got back to my consciousness, I rushed to find the coachman. Since we were acquainted, the coachman allowed me to take one of the horses, leaving another three to pull the carriage back to the Leonhart's manor. He was a bit hesitant at first, but agreed after seeing the urgency in my act.
"That foresight skill is a jinx for sure," I huffed. "It always shows a bad future!"
After giving my gratitude, I bid farewell towards the coachman and left with the horse. I also told him that he had been dismissed and free to return by himself. Mounting onto the black horse, I firmly gripped onto its rein and began our journey.
"HIYAAH!"
*NEIGHHH!*
The horse galloped out of the Willowfield's ground, towards the Forsaken Woods. With the help of entity, we managed to take a short cut, albeit its rough terrain. The horse was a lot easier to control compared to Cassie. It might even be superior in speed and of course, attitude.
*Since 'Foresight' is a vision for near future, I suppose Lucius is still fine,* I tried to stay optimistic. *What's wrong with him in the vision, though? Is it a skill of the Dark Attribute?*
I remember a scene from the battle he had in the Northland. At the end of the arc, he had to go against the Malum Reliquiae; a possessed relic with a hallucination spell. Just like in the vision I saw, Lucius had the same reaction on.
"Probably a similar skill like that," I sighed at the unfortunate encounter. "That bastard doesn't have much tolerance on these mental attacks, does he?"
After a short trip, the village finally came to sight. It was terribly quiet, as if deserted from a recent calamity. The villagers were hiding in their respective houses, locking all the doors and windows in hope for their safety. Even the stalls and shops were closed and out of business. The only living thing I could see around was the occasionally passing crows, cawing on top of the roofs.
*They must've been terrified, huh?*
There's also dozens of posters being put up on the boards and pillars, showing numerous faces of missing people. Some even looked old enough that the ink got blurred or the paper had given up and fell on the ground.
While crossing through the village, I could feel some curious gazes trailing after me, but I decided to ignore it. They must be wondering on why there's still someone roaming around this area.
*I don't want to, either,* I sighed.
Soon enough, I reached the border of the Forsaken Woods. Keeping up to its name, the forest was thick and wild, one that couldn't be tamed. I could hear howls of the beasts far into the woods and rustling of the leaves caused by the critters. Thankfully, this black horse didn't get jumpy easily so steering it was pretty much effortless. While getting deeper into the eerie forest, the previous vision on Lucius came back to mind.
*Now that I think about it,* I pondered. *I don't know if I could withstand the hallucination skill, either.*
Not wishing to be afraid of the 'what ifs', I decided to brush it off of my mind.
"Oh, well," I shrugged. "I'll just avoid it then."
The hamlet is now getting closer, but I still kept a safe distance from it. It was quite easy to spot as it was built on a large clearing in such a packed woods. Not to mention the clouds of smoke rising towards the sky. Raging fire was already licking over half of the tents, hungrily spreading towards the other half
"I suppose he had arrived and is still well," I nodded in approval. "Now then, should I go there sneakily or just barge in?"
While I was lost in my schemes, I dismounted the horse and hitched it on a tree. Leaving it to graze on the grass, I moved even closer to the hamlet to get a better assess of the situation.
*Watch your left!* entity's voice urged me.
I instinctively used my wind attribute and jumped back. A dart barely passed in front of me, shooting straight to my right. It would've hit through my head had I reacted even a little bit later. Thank god that the side effect of 'Foresight' is still active.
Glaring at the direction it came, I detected a cloaked figure hiding up in the trees. Without wasting any time, I furiously lunged up in front of the thrower with my mana, choking his neck and dangled him up.
"YOU F—KER!" I yelled. "What gives you the ideas to throw darts at people's heads, huh?!" My hands tightened around his neck, shaking him out of frustration. "Is this a f—king casino?! Should I roll your head like a dice, then?" I threatened him.
Being terrified, the man fumbled to get another dart—only for it to get swatted away. The dart that I avoided earlier had accidentally hit a squirrel, causing it to morph into something hideous
"What the hell?"My eyes widened at the horrifying creature. "What's up with this dart? Oi, tell me, " I slapped him.
"KEUGHH…I-I WON'T TELL YOU!"
The guy struggled to free himself but to no avail, he wasn't strong enough. He even tried to spit on me, hence I spat back at him. Feeling that he's starting to get on my nerves, I suddenly got a malicious idea.
"Hm…you look young," my eyes scanned him from head to toe before grinning at my next sentence. "It's too bad that you'll be an eunuch at such a young age," I pointed a dagger down at his pants.
The man grimaced at the sight and tried to loosen my grip on his neck; only to fail the second time. "D-Don't! Please," he pleaded.
"I don't have much time and I don't really prefer killing people, either. However, this is a different story," I taunted him even more.
Being scared to death, or scared for his children, the skinny man finally relented,"I-it's tampered with dark magic," he said. "It can turn any living organism into a g-ghoul. However, it is still incomplete…s-so only small animals can be turned into one," he stammered his explanation, but still understandable.
Probably this is what hit Noah. Glad it's still incomplete or Noah would be…ah, forget that.
"What's your goal?" I interrogated, still pointing the dagger at the same place.
"W-we want to create another demon king."
"For real?" I stared at him in disbelief. "Have you guys gone senile? F—ing lunatic," I huffed, dropping him onto the ground
"H-hah," the man smirked, gasping for air. "Y-you…ha…won't understand….what the demon king is to us!" He said while his eyes gradually turning into that of a maniac. "He's a being we all covet! Our salvation!"
Not wanting to hear more of his nonsense, I clicked my tongue in annoyance. "….just take that squirrel and get out of my sight," I said, picking up the previously fallen dart before he had any other funny ideas with it.
In this kind of situation, I should've just killed him. However, I don't really want to. Maybe it's because of my modern mindset, but killing a human just doesn't sit well with me. When I threw another glance at him, he was already struggling with the ghoul squirrel.
*That would keep his hands full for a while,* I thought.
Once again, I got back to assessing the situation of the hamlet. The previously raging fire had gradually been diminished by the water attributes. However, Lucius' Holy Flame won't be extinguished so easily. It would take quite some time for it to be totally put out. Not wanting to be detected by the medieval firefighters, I used the skill 'Stealth' to approach the hamlet.
'Stealth' is a skill that I mastered back during the training. By dispersing my mana and match it with the air, I could hide my presence. Unless they saw me, they'd just think of me as a passing wind. All those meditation I did to gain this skill aren't for naught!
"Shoot, did they got to Lucius already?"
At the West of the clearing, I saw a crowd of people, surrounding a rampaging silver-haired man with a familiar handsome face. Fortunately, he's still of a sound mind.