In a dark place, deep underground, a middle-aged man was sitting in a chair in front of a clear orb. The orb radiated light that glistened off of the man's black hair.
"How's the plan coming along?" In the orb, a person wearing a black cloak with a hood that had red outlines spoke. His face was covered by a hood and a mask that had two horns protruding from the forehead area.
"It failed! Some mercenaries came strolling into the village and ruined everything. Some kid had the ability to cleanse every one of the Infernal energy. I could only sit there and watch as the village chief got on his knees and begged for help." The middle-aged man slammed his fist on the table.
"He cleansed infernal energy? Was he a saint? No, a saint can't can't that. Only divine energy can cleanse infernal energy. Was he an Avatar?" The hooded man's deminer turned serious and his energy surged. Even though they were just communicating through a crystal ball, Bill could still feel the enormous amount of energy the hooded man gave off.
"N-No s-sir. The b-boy didn't have d-divine energy. I didn't even see a c-crest on his hand." It was hard to speak through the suffocating energy the hooded man was giving off. Bill could barely breathe.
"I see. It seems he used some way to get rid of the infernal energy without using divine energy. Interesting. Do you know when those mercenaries are going to leave?" The hooded man asked
"They should be leaving soon. I overheard that they were working and they couldn't stay for long."
"Prepare another batch of the infernal energy powder, once they leave, I want you to contaminate the area once more. The location of the village is a key factor for our success. Our experiments cannot be halted any further. My master shall reward you well if you succeed. But if you fail again, it will be your end."
"Y-Yes sir!" After Bill responded, the call cut off.
"Those fucking outsiders! Ruining everything I've worked on for the past eight years! No matter, I can wait a bit longer. Soon, immortality will be in my grasp." He got up and walked over to a chest. Opening it, he took out the same robe and a similar mask to the person he was talking to. After putting it on, he then took a ring that was in the chest and put the crystal ball inside the ring which just so happened to be a storage ring.
"I can't fail this time." He turned and exited the underground room.
...
Back at the town hall, Joren had finished analyzing the powder. He had asked Derry to make a water ball, and he put some of the power in it. The water turned purple and he drank it. Infernal energy coursed through his body, not enough to harm him, but enough to make him sick. Thanks to the divine energy in the crest, the effects were nullified.
"Chief, I'm going to borrow this. Uncle, Pantera, follow me, Lenny, Arnold, and Derry, you all stay here. Something is giving me a bad feeling and I want to get to the bottom of it." 'My protagonist senses are going off. Sigh, I can't wait for this to be over. I want to go back to my unpredictable adventure.'
"What's going on?" The Chief asked
"This 'medicine' your friend Bill made is the cause of the curse. This doesn't slow down the curse, it amplifies its effects. While small doses won't cause noticeable harm, continuous consumption will."
"Th-That's impossible! Bill would never-"
"Shut up! I don't have the time or energy to argue with you. Keep everyone here in the building. Let's go, guys, we need to find Bill." Without waiting for a response, Joren left the hall with Pantera and Glenn following behind.
"How do you know Bill is the one behind this?" Glenn asked curiously.
"The Goddess told me that someone was behind this outbreak. Everyone in the village was tainted with infernal energy no matter how small it is, so I was going to pick out the people who had higher concentrations of it. But that didn't work because the longer someone is around infernal energy, the higher the concentration will be in their body, so I had everyone meet at the town hall."
"But cleansing everyone would have defeated that purpose," Pantera spoke
"True, but that was the point. If someone wanted that village to rot like it is right now, then they would stick around until it's finished, but since we interfered with that plan, the mastermind will try and find a way to undo what we did and guess who didn't return after telling everyone to gather at the town hall."
"Bill."
"Ding Ding Ding! One point to Uncle Glenn!"
Although Pantera understood Joren's thought process, she still didn't understand why Joren would leave the Hall where everyone was gathered. "Joren wouldn't he just go back to the hall to infect everyone again? Why are we looking for Bill?"
"Since everyone is cured, most of the traces of Infernal energy are gone. But Bill still has infernal energy in him, and I can sense where he is, or where he was. It's like I can smell him." As he finished speaking, they arrived at a moderately sized building.
"Must be his home. Let's go!" Glenn drew his sword and busted down the door, his mana glowing radiantly in the dark building.
Joren and Pantera also drew their weapons and strode cautiously into the house. Looking around, they saw nothing out of the ordinary. Simple furniture, decorations, and accessories were around the house. There wasn't anything fancy nor was there anything that stood out of place.
"Check the rooms," Joren commanded.
They all checked the rooms one by one, dismantling everything they could but again, nothing stood out.
"I still couldn't find anything."
"Neither could I."
'What the hell! I can sense infernal energy around here meaning there was definitely something going on in his home. Maybe a secret room? But we couldn't find anything.' Joren continued to ponder different possibilities which made him get impatient.
"Fuck it!" Channeling a large amount of mana into his leg, Joren stomped the floor as hard as he could. A huge crack formed underneath his feet before spreading through the entire house.
"Boom" At the sound of his voice, the whole house came crashing down while simultaneously destroying the floor they were standing on. Luckily for them, Joren had made a barrier around them so they weren't caught in the destruction.
*COUGH COUGH* "What the hell did you do that for?" Pantera was waving the dust out of her face as she coughed it out of her lungs.
"Ha! That!" Joren pointed at an opening in the ground that had stairs leading underground, the thing that he was looking for, a secret room.
"A secret entrance! Let's go!" Without waiting for them, Joren ran down the stone stairs into the darkness.
The secret room wasn't what he imagined it to be. No dungeon with people begging to be saved. No room that was used to experiment on people. No door that led to dead bodies. And most importantly, there were no traps.
'What the fuck! Where's all the cool shit? This is literally just a hallway with a door at the end.'
"Seems like this is a hallway with a door at the end of the path," Glenn spoke
'Yeah, no fucking shit.' Joren disappointedly reached the end of the hall and kicked the door down in frustration.
'Well, at least this is promising, sort of.' Inside, a bunch of glass bottles were on shelves filled with the greyish-purple powder. Next to them were herbs and leaves of the same color and a few purple-looking walnuts. A desk was at the far end of the room facing away from them and a bookshelf was behind said desk.
"Let's look around, there must be something here to give us some answers." Joren turned to study the herbs and plants, Glenn went to the desk and Pantera looked through the books.
'Seems like he made the powder using these herbs and leaves. I can feel the infernal energy radiating off them. However, I have no clue what these walnut-looking things are.'
"Joren, come take a look at this." Glenn waved Joren over without looking away from the piece of paper that was on the desk.
"What is it?" Joren asked
"It's a map of the village, you can tell by these points of interest." He pointed to specific marks on the map. "Over here is where the farm is located, and Bill used an ink pen to mark in this empty space adjacent to the farm. But there are also three other marks around the map."
Joren looked at the map and saw an X-shaped mark around the farm area. The other three areas had circle marks.
"The chief said Bill went into the forest next to the farm and came back with herbs to help with the 'curse' Maybe that's why he marked there?" Joren pondered
"Hey guys, check this out!" Pantera held out a book that had many diagrams on it. One of them looked like the walnut across the room
"This book says that planting this seed will sprout a tree that feeds off mana. Once the tree is fully grown, its roots will suck all the mana from the area. But that's not all. After the tree is fully grown, it will produce a fruit, this fruit can increase a person's strength." She read
"So that walnut-looking thing is a seed. Bill planted this seed close to the village which made it turn out this way. Wait! The spot with the X marked on the map, that's probably where he planted the tree!" Coming to that conclusion, Glenn and Pantera's eyes widened in horror.
"That means if he's there, he's trying to get the fruit. We need to stop him right now!" They all dashed out of the room and headed to the location marked on the map.