I accidentally inhaled the air that reeked of death, which nearly made me throw up. I bent over and made a step backwards before glancing at Faust in search of an answer for why we were seeing this scene. Alas, there was nothing but horror lingering in his eyes that were devoid of his cheerful demeanour. His reaction was not quite as expressive, he only put a hand up his nose and mouth.
Upon further examination of the house, I noticed more and more dead bodies within the room, some were lying on the floor, while some remains were put on the shelves and cabinets, as if the author of this terrifying art piece was unfamiliar with the concept of burial.
"What in the world…" finally whispered Faust, then he shook his head and made a step further. Since I did not come along, he quickly stopped and looked over at me with his brows narrowed, "Dusk, I am sorry, but could you illuminate this room a little more?"
His voice was not demanding, but rather calm and collective, albeit serious. I nodded and stepped forward with rotten wood squealing under my foot. With my motion also came the light into the room, once again engraving this slaughter into my mind. As soon as light hit the darkest spots, some kind of quiet rustling spread through the room, as if rats were fleeing from our gazes. And soon enough, among the sea of deceased, we found someone lying on the floor. The woman with slight wrinkles on her face was dressed in a business suit, her limbs were tied with a rope and her body slammed in the corner of the room. Faust immediately rushed towards her and squeezed her neck with two of his fingers. After a moment of motionless silence, he exhaled and said, "She is still alive."
It was not quite the time to fret over an unfamiliar woman, after all, I was more concerned about the dead this place was covered in. Just how many people did local residents kill? The disappearances were treated as a rumour rather than serious occurrence, yet there we were, standing beside an ungodly amount of the dead. Moreover, there were only skeletons present, no sign of new victim insight, aside from that woman. The puzzle just did not connect in my head, I felt like this was way too bizarre to be true, perhaps, I was daydreaming?
As soon as my thoughts swirled into the realm of delirium, Faust snapped me out of it with a light tap on my shoulder. My whole body twitched, and I raised my eyes at his face that was devoid of uncertainty, he forced a smile and said, "You are keeping it up well, Dusk. We should go now, let's inform Nila and Riaz, then decide what we will be doing together."
I looked around yet again and my eyes stopped at the woman lying on the floor, "What about her?"
"She…" Faust's face suddenly tensed up, but soon he sighed and continued, "We will leave her here for now. I believe this would be the safest bet for her until we deal with whatever caused this purgatory… she is unconscious anyway, hopefully she won't suffer from the weight of being locked in such a place."
I complied and we soon left the house. Naturally, he closed the door, but refused to lock it. His eyes carefully scanned the surroundings, but since it was a moonless night, the efficiency of human eyes was lacking.
"If the whole village is on it, then we definitely were surveillance, but I just can't understand how…" he mumbled under his nose, as we were jogging towards our shelter for the night. The lights were still on and once we noticed Riaz sitting in the same position, a light sigh escaped our lips. We ran inside the house and immediately closed the door before facing our lazy companions.
Riaz glanced over at us with a smile, but his cheeks quickly tensed up. He asked, "What happened to you two? You are awfully pale."
Upon hearing his question, Nila's ears twitched, and she raised her eyes from the book, although her nonchalant expression was impenetrable. Faust came forward, and I tagged along. After he carefully observed the room, his eyes closed, and he began speaking, "We are in deep trouble, as our fears were justified. Riaz, prepare your wand and teachings of Farhen, you too Nila, we might need to fight."
Faust's clear words were enough to lunge Riaz upwards from his chair, and he began fishing for his battle gear or whatever he had from his bedside table. Faust also straightened up his gauntlets and took the polearm from his back, his eyes were concentrated and mouth shut with a slight smile. He did not look like someone who wanted to fight, yet he armed himself, thus I followed by taking the rapier into my leading hand and the wand into my offhand. The only one who did not yet understand the seriousness of the situation was Nila. She was still lying in bed and held her book, but at least looked at us in curiosity. Once we prepared for the battle with the unknown, she finally tilted her head and said, "Who are we going to fight against?"
But as soon as Nila finished her line, she frowned and jumped up from her bed and summoned her staff before graciously landing on her feet. She was facing the back window, but soon enough turned to us and said, "Whatever I heard outside moved towards that merchant's house."
"Roger that!" exclaimed Faust and ran into the window that was facing the neighbouring house. To my and Nila's shock, as well as Riaz's condemnation, Faust tackled the window and broke it, while shielding himself with the cape. Then, he fell outside, rolled through the grass and jumped into the window of the merchant's house. We stood dumbfounded for a short while, before Riaz called out to us by saying, "Goodness, Faust, why are you always like that? Let's move!"
The three of us soon reunited with Faust, who was standing in the middle of the room with the merchant behind his back. The middle-aged man was shaking, not from Faust's action, but from the presence, that made Riaz take a step back and Nila pointed her staff at. It was a dark figure, a head taller than Faust, with disproportionally large limbs. It was of humanoid form, however, I could hardly call that a human. Furthermore, it was carefully observing us, but did not rush into combat or fled. Faust was also starring it down with his polearm pointed at it, all I could see was his back, but judging by his posture, there was no intention of retreating. Fighting this monster was inevitable.
"J-just what the hell is this thing!?" suddenly cried out the merchant, to which Riaz, Faust and I did not say a word, however, Nila spoke in a calm tone, "What morphs are destined to become once they gain enough sustenance. Such is the being you were pitying, Faust."
The man scoffed at her comment, but did not turn to us, instead he said with a hint of amusement, "You really found a perfect time to rub it in."