The forest turned into a blurr as the team of students ran through the forest.
They were headed east, where Emma had spotted the castle in the distance.
An empty area open up once they got there.
A giant meadow appeared with what was a white gleaming castle.
Aiden marveled at the sight.
"Beautiful.."
"We should head inside. Oh and look for the people living in there."
They walked through the meadows, the grass dancing from the wind and flower petals floating around.
Stepping to the gate, it was open and they passed the guards to meet with the noble here.
Lucas asked some of the guards where to find them and they pointed the way.
Seems like this noble was quite free.
Entering the office of the noble, one could easily see just how rich they are.
The office was of white marble, gold, and other valuable metals.
It was a bit blinding.
The noble was sat at the desk, writing away at some documents.
Once the noble looked up and saw them, Lucas and him chatted for a bit before the noble allowed them to look around the castle.
With that done, they went out of the office and walked around the castle.
"Demon.. where would a demon appear? Gods, I wish the base had taught us that. I only know how to deal with ShadowFallen." Lelia sigh.
Emma was ahead of the group and looked around quickly, seeing a cathedral and entering it.
"Over here."
Inside the cathedral, many different plants and flowers were placed around.
The feeling of holiness spread everywhere.
The altar of the cathedral was a Gheasis worship statue.
A bowl on the altar had fruit and wheat inside it.
"Hmmm, seems like a normal altar. I don't think there's anything here."
Emma continued to look at the altar after Lucas said that before turning away and Seattle rest of the castle.
They found nothing.
Because of how fruitless the exploration of the castle was, they decided to return to the village.
But once they had gotten to where the village should have been, they only saw fire.
"Wait what happened?!"
Lelia and the others were shocked that such a change could happen in just a few hours.
They ran into the fire to search for the chief, or any survivors that is.
Getting to the chief's house, they saw Bob stumbling out of the building, clearly in horrible condition.
Lelia went you to him to help him up while Lucas asked some questions.
"Chief Bob! Just what happened? Why is the village up in flames?"
Bob coughed from the ash in the air getting into his lungs before speaking.
"V-vira…. Get vira p-please."
"Vira is still in there?"
Lucas looked at Emma and she understood what he meant by his look, running into the house to find Vira.
Lelia saw the wounds and spoke. "You need medical attention."
The Bob was like a dead man, only saying Vira and to find her.
Lelia dragged him to the town square where the statue of Gheasis had suddenly burst into flames.
The eyes of the statue were gone and the statue was melting from the heat like wax.
*****
….
….
….
While Roseline looked through the ruin village, a spark started and caught her attention.
'Fire?'
But as she was going to get closer to it, bats from before surrounded the spark and circled it like pray.
The spark was gone like that.
The bats went to the sky and continued to go around the village in a circular motion.
Some of the bats went down straight to Roseline.
Roseline immediately got ready to be attacked and put on her Dark Terror.
But the bats disappeared when they got close to her.
Roseline was confused when she felt some tugging her down.
Her shadow started to wrap itself around her legs.
Roseline used all of her strength to move and tripped slightly.
'Shoot, my shadow is now a danger to me?'
She threw a Blood Swipe to one of the bats and it exploded in midair.
'Uh is that supposed to happen? Well, at least Blood Swipe is effective against them.'
Some more bats came down to Roseline and she took them out accordingly.
The rest of the bats left and the village went back to the silence of a ruin.
'That wasn't so hard…'
Her physical body was having an easy time, but her mental mind not so much.
She hadn't realized yet but she was incredibly tired.
Sparks started to appear around the village and soon enough the village was going up in flames.
Roseline had noticed it before hand and was able to get out.
From afar, she heard the screams of a young girl in agony.
*****
….
….
….
Emma covered herself in water and ice while she looked for Vira.
The silence of the place was eerie, it wasn't giving her hope on Vira being alive.
Bursting down the door to the chief's bedroom, Emma found Vira spread out on the floor.
She tried to get near her but the flames appeared to stop her in her tracks.
"VIRA! Your father is worried for you!"
"…"
No response came back.
Beside Vira was a corpse that was in pieces.
Emma recognize the body being one of the villagers.
"Vira!"
"My father isn't that… that monster."
"Father isn't a Cannibal.."
Hearing those words come out of Vira's mouth, Emma put her hand on her mouth to stop her from throwing up.
She looked closer to the corpse and saw bite marks around it.
She took a step back from fear that they had just helped a Cannibal.
'I have to tell them..'
Vira suddenly got up and prayed to the Gheasis statue.
Emma couldn't hear what Vira was saying as she was mumbling.
But once she was done, the flames around her all went towards her and turned into a cocoon.
Emma ran out of the house as her danger sense went haywire.
She ran all the way to the group.
Seeing Bob, Emma took out her sword and swung towards him.