PH1RE'S P.O.V
"Are you sure about this, kid?" the butcher asked, crouching in front of one of the sparkhogs with a knife in hand. The creature thrashed wildly in fear, but it wasn't nearly as frenzied as when we first caught them. The chains holding it didn't rattle like metal; instead, they constricted tighter with every rough movement, reacting unnaturally to the hog's struggles.
"Definitely," I responded, giving him a thumbs-up.
The butcher gave me a skeptical look but didn't argue. "If you say so," he muttered before bringing the knife down.
The moment the blade touched the hog's flesh, its squealing escalated into a deafening shriek. The sound was so overwhelming that we had to cover our ears, even as the butcher's apprentice struggled to clamp the creature's mouth shut with the chains.
But something was wrong. It wasn't just loud—it was unnaturally loud.
"Wait! There's something here!" the butcher shouted over the piercing noise. His eyes widened as he inspected the exposed flesh. "It looks like... a music note?"
That got our attention.
"Which note?" I asked, only to be met with a puzzled look from Maya.
"Don't look at me like that—it might actually be important," I defended.
The butcher squinted, about to respond, but before he could—
A new sound erupted.
Unlike the previous squeals, this was worse. It wasn't just loud; it was sharp, an unbearable high-pitched screech that sent searing pain through my skull. My body tensed involuntarily as I pressed my hands against my ears, but it didn't help. The sound wasn't coming from the hogs anymore.
It was attacking them.
Blood seeped from their eyes, ears, and mouths, staining their fur in crimson rivulets. But they weren't alone. The butcher and his apprentice were suffering the same fate, their noses and ears bleeding as they staggered, their mouths open in silent screams.
I wanted to rush in, to pull them away, but the moment I took a step forward—
The noise peaked.
And then—
They burst.
The sparkhogs, the butcher, his apprentice—every last one of them—exploded into a fine, red mist. One second, they were there. The next, only blood remained, painting the walls and floor in grotesque splatters.
I stood frozen. The scent of iron filled the air. My breathing hitched. My mind struggled to process what had just happened.
They were gone. All of them.
Just like that.
Maya let out a sharp gasp beside me, stumbling backward, her face pale. "W-what the hell just—?"
I barely heard her. My hands were shaking. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, drowning out everything else. The silence that followed was almost as deafening as the screech that had preceded it.
Then, the chains.
The chains that once held the sparkhogs twitched, vibrating as if some unseen force still lingered. They curled and twisted, like serpents writhing in pain, before falling still and then dissipating.
"This wasn't normal," I muttered, my voice hoarse.
"No shit," Maya snapped, though there was no real bite to her words. She was just as shaken as I was.
I forced myself to step forward, despite every fiber of my being screaming at me to run. The blood pooled thickly, seeping into the cracks of the cold room floor. There were no bodies left. No remains. Just… liquid.
Magic. It had to be magic. Some kind of trap?
"The music note," I whispered, my mind racing.
Maya turned to me, eyes wide. "What?"
"The butcher… before he—" I swallowed hard, trying to suppress the bile rising in my throat. "He said he saw a music note."
Maya's expression flickered between horror and confusion. "You're saying… that thing—whatever it was—was some kind of magical trigger? A curse?"
I didn't answer immediately. My thoughts were a tangled mess, but one thing was clear: whoever was behind this knew we would come here. Knew we'd investigate. And they'd left this as a message. Or worse—a warning.
I clenched my fists. The warmth of the blood still clung to my skin, refusing to fade.
"Maya," I said, forcing my voice to steady. "We need to find Bryn and Ethan. Now."
She nodded, no arguments, no sarcasm—just urgency.
We turned and bolted from the cold room, leaving the carnage behind. But as we did, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were already too late.
-------------------------------------------------------
After leaving the butcher's shop we left to inform the appropriate authorities before leaving to find Bryn and Ethan, the death of two residents was however not something that could just be overlooked simply due to being adventurer's so we would still have to be detained while our alibies were scrutinized.
Unfortunately, we couldn't exactly prove anything due to our only evidence currently being pools of blood but I'm sure a quick talk with the mayor should sort this out. And so, we were currently waiting outside the mayor's office waiting for Ethan to get here; there was something else on my mind though.
"Are you okay?" I asked Maya while shaking myself out of my thoughts.
After leaving the butcher's shop, we immediately informed the appropriate authorities. The death of two residents wasn't something that could simply be overlooked, even as adventurers. The guards were quick to detain us, citing the need to scrutinize our alibis.
Unfortunately, we had no tangible proof of what had happened—only pools of blood and the lingering echoes of that unnatural screech. A quick conversation with the mayor should clear this up, but until then, we were stuck waiting outside his office.
I shifted in my seat, trying to push down the unease curling in my gut. The image of the butcher and his apprentice—one second alive, the next just… gone—kept replaying in my mind.
Maya sat beside me, arms crossed, her foot tapping impatiently against the floor. She was quiet. Too quiet.
I shook myself out of my thoughts and turned to her. "Are you okay?"
She didn't answer immediately. Her fingers tightened around her sleeve, knuckles going pale. Then, after a moment, she exhaled sharply.
"No," she admitted, her voice quieter than usual.
"I'm not okay, Loid. We just watched two people explode,"
"I know," I said, leaning back against the wall. "But you've been in worse situations, right?"
Maya shot me a sharp look. "No. I have not seen people explode into a fine red mist before, Loid. This is a whole new level of messed up."
Fair point.
Before I could respond, the office doors creaked open, and a guard stepped out. "The mayor will see you now."
We exchanged a glance, then stood up.
Walking into the office, I immediately spotted Ethan, lounging against the mayor's desk like he had all the time in the world.
"Took you long enough," Ethan said with a grin. "So… you guys traumatized yet?"
Maya scowled. "Screw you, Ethan."
"Fair," he replied with a chuckle before his expression turned serious. "But really—what happened?"
I took a deep breath and started explaining. Every detail. The butcher's suspicions, the sparkhogs, the sound that wasn't really a sound, and the way everything—everyone—had just ceased to exist in an instant.
By the time I finished, the room had gone dead silent.
Ethan was the first to speak. "A music-based spell?"
"It's the only explanation," I said. "Something triggered it when the butcher started cutting open the sparkhogs. And it was designed to leave no evidence."
Ethan hummed in thought, his fingers drumming against the desk. "Then that means someone went through the trouble of implanting a magic sigil inside those animals. And they knew you'd find it."
"Which means they're watching us," Maya added, her voice grim.
"It's worse than that," Ethan corrected. "If the spell is sound-based, that means they're listening."
I stiffened. "How is that worse?"
Ethan's jaw tightened. "It means they've been hearing everything. Every plan we've made. Including the [Seek] spell."
A heavy weight settled in my stomach.
"This wasn't just a warning," Ethan continued, voice tense. "They're telling us they don't care if we track them. Because the moment we get close, they'll just make Leo self-destruct."
A shiver ran down my spine. I hadn't even thought about Leo. If what Ethan was saying was true, we weren't just back to square one—Leo was in even greater danger than we realized.
"Ha!" Ethan let out a humorless laugh, rubbing a hand down his face. "Gwyn is gonna kill me."
Silence.
The mayor, who had been quietly listening the whole time, finally cleared his throat. "If what you say is true, then this is far more than just a rogue adventurer or a bandit causing trouble. This is premeditated. Calculated."
I met Ethan's gaze. "So what do we do?"
With a sigh, he responded, "Right now? I don't know."
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We walked out into the late afternoon light, our moods sour and dejected from our new realization. The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows over the quiet streets, but instead of warmth, all I felt was the cold weight of helplessness settling in. Every step felt heavier, every thought clouded by the grim truth—we weren't just being hunted.
We were being watched. And we had no idea how to stop it.