I was the one in the front leading the way to our salvation. The invader were currently at the village square. The distance between them and us was longer than the distance between us and the forest. I had to be cautious for the ones that might have been near us like the guy from before. Considering that all of the roads which we were passing were empty, I finally concluded that all of them were in the southern part only. Still I had no answer to how that guy managed to got to our house that fast and all by himself given that he had no magic.
I ignored thinking about it that much since I did not want to bring myself to agree that there was a possibility that the invaders were already at the forest waiting for anyone who was going to try escaping and that guy I fought must have got impatient and went out to catch his own prey.
I heard a loud sound coming from behind me, apart from the screams of the people I had to lead to salvation. The sound was so loud that it almost masked the screams, It was a sound that was coming from a gun which it's large bullet had pierced beside my heart and fall to the ground Infront of me. My body was becoming numb as I slowly lost consciousnesses. The damage that the bullet had done was minor compared to it's size and the speed that those kind of bullets had, it was like it had passed through someone else first. I turned around slowly as to verify if it really had pierced through someone first and to see who was my killer.
There she was, facing in the direction of the killer, with a blown heart, she was already on the ground and was not breathing at all. The invader had appeared out of thin air behind me and tried to shoot me from my blind spot. My mom jumped to caught the bullet for me that's how we both ended up with holes on our chests only that I was still breathing and she was not.
It all begun to make sense as to how that guy managed to get to our house faster and to how I noticed that their was an invader behind us after getting shot. The enemies had an UMBRAMANCER with a spatial magic ability which he was using to teleport his allies around the village. The presence of such a person in the village was a dangerous thing to us since our barriers only blocked physical entrance. Spatial magic abilities only worked if the person had been to that place before. That said, one or all of the guests were the ones behind the attack. We had let our guard down by letting the greedy people of the outside world who wanted Essentium for themselves into the village.
My brain had yet to believe the information the eyes were providing. I got my mother killed as well as failed to bring the others their salvation with my lack of critical thinking. I wanted to scream but I couldn't, only tears were able to come out. I followed the light that was flashing before my eyes to the roof of one of the houses to where the upright skinny athletic silhouette of the Umbramancer was standing.
I was still holding on to the gun, in my measley it's weight was getting heavy pulling my body to the ground reminding me of my defeat. My breathing rate was reducing every second so did my heart beat. I was not the right person to lead the people to their salvation since I had not assessed the whole situation carefully. My last thought was that " Someone will eventually come to the rescue of the people of the village and punish the murderous beasts". My eyes closed, it was finally the time I had to face karma.
I opened my eyes, I was in a strange place that was surrounded with flowing lava, not the hot kind though. It was a dark place with only the dim light that was emitted by the lava. I thought that I was in hell for commiting the worse sin in my last moments of life without having a chance to confess. I was so emersed in thoughts that I did not notice that the room had changed. The gloomy place became vibrant and there was a large field of flowers. In the far distance a man was standing who I could only see the silhouette of his backside. It was hard to tell who was he. I assumed that it was my dad welcoming me in the afterlife. I became relieved and also pissed off at the same time seeing that he kept his distance.
" Who are thee" I asked
He did not give me a verbal response; instead he started to walk towards me. I was able to see his facial features. He was not a human, he only had a mouth and two weird organs in the positions of the ears. The lower body parts were still hiding in the dark and I wondered how was that possible given that their was a lot of light. He was not coming at me friendly, It was as if he was the " hell punisher " if that was a thing. He had amplified the remains of the fear that I had.
" Where is this? "
I asked a second question which made me more nervous. I was not expecting an answer, given that my first one was not answered but I was nervous that I only thought about asking questions. He reduced his walking speed.
"We are in the Nexis, a spiritual realm that enables a physical like communication between different souls."
I did not really understand what he meant by that. I was only relieved that he answered my question, so it looked like I understood. The dense atmosphere that was between us begun to fade away and I poped the first question again.
"Who are thee?"
" I am OBLIGATUS, an AFFECTIS PURIFEX DULCIMORTIS"
I had heard that the Affectis were one of the three Purifex Dulcimortis which purified souls. The Affectis purified the emotions of a soul. The other ones where the CLEANSORIA who purified the memories of a soul and the AESTHETIS who purified the appearance of the soul.
His whole body came into my view, it was purple coloured and the rest of it was not that different from that of a human. That might have been the day which believes and superstitions had decided to team up against me. First it was the frog bringing bad luck to me and then the prophesied Tranquilis was standing Infront of me.
I was backing away as he was getting closer even though I did not know how was that helpful given that he was capable of altering the surrounding. If he was doing that who knew what else he was capable of, he could have thrown chains to bind me and I was not sure what to expect next so the best I could think of was to avoid getting close to him.