The door didn't budge. It was locked!
'Of course, it's locked! What was I even thinking.' Wand mentally face-palmed.
Wand then crouched to look through the keyhole. He could see a bed and the Village Leader—Warren— snoring comfortably.
'Alright! This is going to be a bit hard.'
Wand disappeared as he reappeared inside the room and quickly charged his fist with Unie and punched the Village leader in the head.
"Alright! This should be enough! But just for safety!" Wand looked at a bundle of rope wrapped over his shoulders and started trying the hands, feet, and knees of Warren.
He then looked around the room and stood up in a clear area.
"This should be the place he came to the ground floor from. If my senses are right!" Wand crouched as he kept his spatial sense active and searched the floor.
After a bit of searching, he found a small crack on the floor and he pulled it off. He found dirt stairs leading below the surface.
'Hah! My senses never betray me! Time to find out the secret of this basement!' Wand went down the stairs.
'Now that I think about it. The basement sure is quite deep below.'
When Wand finally reached the end. He saw a Throne made out of stone as soon as he entered the basement.
'This place is huge. It's more like an underground hall.'
Wand was checking out the basement that looked like it was dug after the house was made. What surprised him was the fact that there were multiple pathways about 7 feet tall spreading out from there.
There was also a table and a chair in one corner of the huge basement.
'What does Warren even do here? Although, it is dark the bioluminescent eyes of the sea monsters do give this place some light!'
The basement was huge spanning a surface area three times more than that of the Warren's house.
At one point in the basement, Wand could see the previous 11 feet of ceiling being lowered to about six feet. Looking inside the area, Wand could see bat-like figures draped in black clothing hanging from the ceiling.
'What is that…'
Wand approached the nearest figure.
'My spatial sense can't sense them. So, these things mustn't be anything living.'
Wand thought as he pulled the black cloth from the figure.
Wand stood still.
Words couldn't escape his mouth.
The black figure was a human. More specifically, a dead human whose all bodily hair had been pulled out and whose body had been preserved like… animal meat.
Wand hurriedly ran near other black figures.
'Please, don't be here.'
Every black cloth wand removed revealed a human.
Some still had hair. Some were already skinned. Some lacked a leg or two.
But they all had one in common — They were all dead.
After unveiling five out of 12 such figures, Wand's hands approached the sixth one.
His hands shook a bit as the hanging figure's height looked familiar.
But with the remaining resolution he had, he pulled the black cloth.
Wand froze.
His fists were shaking. His eyes turned moist and red.
He sharp cracking sound could be heard as he clenched his teeth.
He sharply ran towards the stairs and climbed them.
The village leader was still tied up in his bed.
Wand walked near the leader's head. His fist glowed blue as it was coated by a sturdy-looking blue color.
Then he punched Warren's head.
It only took one punch to shatter the old man's head as a mixture of blood, bones, and brain matter splattered all over the room and the mattress.
But Wand didn't stop.
He kept punching the man's torso and his whole body until it was unrecognizable from the minced meat of an animal.
Wand's heavy breathing echoed throughout the room as he sat on the bloodied bed and screamed and cried.
After taking a while to stabilize his emotions, Wand wiped his tears with his sleeves.
'I will at least give Skyler a funeral…" Wand's voice was weak.
He then slowly walked to the basement and then approached Skyler's corpse.
The copse was hairless, missing an arm and a leg. Its intestines and stomach had been gutted out.
Looking at the corpse, Wand even felt a tinge of anger towards the villagers.
'The old man has already died. There is no point in blaming the villagers now…' Wand took a deep breath.
'Most of these people are probably from this village. I can't believe that old man was eating his own people…'
"Hello Stranger, What business might you have in my castle?" A cold and raspy voice said.
Wand's eyes widened.
'I didn't sense him.'
Wand slowly turned around to see a jester.
It was wearing a dirty-looking jester's clothing but the weird thing about it was the mask it was wearing.
It had a smooth white mask with two slits representing eyes and one long upwards curved clit representing its mouth. One drop of tear was drawn on its eyes.
Its hands didn't look human. They were dark and looked rotten. Its nails looked as hard as metal. Its right hand was holding a dead child by the neck.
"Who are you? Why do you look like a Jester? Identify yourself." Wand couldn't see it or the body in its hand clearly.
"Jester, huh? That's what you humans call me, right?...." Its slit-like mouth curved backward.
"But why don't you introduce yourself first? Isn't it rude to break into someone's home and ask them to introduce themself?" The Jester moved a little closer.
Wand got on guard as he saw the child the Jester was holding— it was the child he talked with during the day!
'Is this bastard behind all this?' Wand thought.
"What's your relation with the village leader? Are you his servant or his master? and… are you even human." Wand was buying time and checking his unie reserves while asking this question.
"Kukuku. You humans sure are rude…" the jester said playfully.
"Of course! I am that guy's master!... What a shame that you killed him. It would have been easier to penetrate your barrier ability that way."
Wand's eyes darkened.
"If you are his master, does that mean you were the one that killed and ate Skyler?" Wand glared at the jester.
It simply laughed in response. "What do you think?"
Wand dashed towards the jester, materializing a barrier in his hand and punching towards its face.