Roseline shot her eyes open, cover in the blood from the bowl that had spilled over.
The red moon stared back at her, encompassing all that she could see.
From the shadows, thousands of black bats flew out of the shadows and started circling of top of the cathedral.
She tried to get up but the shadows from before were tied tightly around her.
But as she struggled more, the shadows became looser and soon let go of her.
Roseline got back up and looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened.
She had now just gotten control over her body again.
Looking up at the bats, they continued while making squeaking noises.
The sound of squeaking from them was dizzying, there was far too many.
But the bats soon left through the stained glass window that had been cracked opened at some point.
Last time she checked, the cathedral was in tip-top condition.
**Ba-Bump**
**Ba-Bump**
Her heart was racing more then ever.
She didn't know what had happened nor if she had completed some goal of the trial.
She put her hand on her chest while trying to calm down.
'Stay calm Roseline. Stay calm.'
After a minute, Roseline looked in the direction of the bats and chose to follow them.
The feeling from before, the calling, was trying to tell her something.
She jumped over the stained glass window and followed the bats.
The bats passed through the meadows at incredible speeds, reaching the forest of black and white trees.
Roseline jumped on the trees and tried to follow them as best as she could.
By now she was far from the castle and gray meadow, deep into the forest that seemed endless.
But at some point, an open area where trees should have been appeared and the bats scattered.
Roseline landed in front of the area.
What she saw was interesting, a village that was obviously run-downed and abandoned.
Death spread through the air.
'What happened here?'
Like everything else, all color was washed away.
The only thing of color was the red moon now high up in the night sky.
"Guess I should explore.."
She walked around the ruin village and came across a building that was still somewhat intact.
When Roseline entered it she saw what was a living room worn out from years of no use.
The kitchen was empty with dead insect corpses around.
One of the bedrooms had a desk and guess what?? Another altar.
But the altar was worshiping a god that humans do on earth now.
The god of the earth and the harvest, Gheasis.
'Gheasis? Is this a clue?'
Stepping out of the house, Roseline went to what would be the town square.
It was in horrible condition, the fountain was smashed and the place had definitely seen some kind of fight.
The fountain's statue was the figure of Gheasis.
'Her' body was plum and round, long hair flowed down to her legs, she was a bit on the shorter side, and in her arms she was carrying a small stack of wheat.
The eyes of the statue were hollowed out, originally holding what would have been emeralds in her eyes.
*****
….
….
….
Lucas understood what the chief had wanted them to do after talking with him.
Over to the south, their live-stock had been going missing or dying in broad daylight with seemingly no reason if the villagers looked away for a few minutes.
Because of this, they hadn't been able to take a break on watching them.
This gave the small village quite the amount of stress.
What they were to do was to go and find the monster or reason why they had been dying out and to put a stop to it.
To Lucas it sounded quite easy, but he remembered that this was the place a a trial unknown to anyone.
Who knows what the trial would do.
"This is definitely an easy issue to deal with… just that me and my group need somewhere to stay tonight."
"Oh that's alright! Hey Vira, get some rooms prepared for our helpers!"
"Alright alright!"
His daughter, Vira, went to go to one of the empty houses they have for the adventurers.
They had already eaten the food that had been given to them while they waited for Vira to come back and lead them to the home of their stay.
After getting to the house they were staying at, the group all chose a room to sleep in and went to bed.
The next morning, the group had gotten up and had alright gone off to the farm down south.
Aiden brought up a question he had on his mind.
"That village had a statue of Gheasis right?"
"Right, that's probably why they care so much about their farms."
They arrived to the farm, it was peaceful and the sun was gently shining down on the world.
Emma looked around the farm for any clues and Lucas went to find who was in charge.
An old man, with short gray hair and a stubby body was on a rocking chair swinging back and forth.
Lucas got in front of him and asked him.
"Are you in change of this farm?"
"Uh what?" The old man squinted his eyes and spoke with an Western American accent.
"Chief Bob asked me to do something for you, your issue with a beas- I mean monster."
"Oh yeah, that. Well I ought to tell you something. You'll just be a goner if you try to find that thing."
Lucas frowned and asked why.
"Well that's cause it ain't a monster, it's a damn demon!"
"Don't bother tryin this little mission chief Bob gave ya."
With that, the old man shoo'ed him away.
"Did you find out anything from him?" Lelia went to his side.
"No, other then the monster might be a demon."
"You noticed too right? They haven't use any kind of magic and they don't exude any mana off their bodies."
Lucas nodded in response.
Getting back to the rest of the group, Lucas suggested that they try to find said demon.
Emma then said something before they headed off into the forest.
"There's a castle out there. Quite big too."