Shadowbane

Ten minutes have passed since we discovered the hole. In that time the three of us have been sitting down trying to decide what to do next.

Cid looks up at both of us. "Hmm, the more I think about this, the less I'm convinced this has anything to do with what happened to the village."

Tyra shakes her head. "At first glance it does seem like a stretch. First off, this tunnel couldn't even fit two of us side by side, so anything coming through here would need to be smaller than anything I'd expect to be strong enough to incinerate the entire village while also preventing any light from leaking out. Whether it's alone or with others, obviously a caster is necessary to accomplish that, and magic users are normally on the smaller side of things, but I've never once heard of the underground having casters?"

"I've been down there before, but it was below Xelba. We never ran into anything that could cast magic that powerful. The most we saw was a small green creature with pointy ears casting fireballs at us, and it was also the only thing we ran into that could speak. Generally everything down there was a monster with their own race-based abilities. It wasn't a long trip though so it's not much of a reference."

"Why would the cultists go underground? Wasn't pillaging their number one priority?" Tyra asked.

"Our unit was paired up with several others for the purposes of 'clearing a path' to a certain area underground. Honestly I completely forgot about it till now... All I remember is how excited the higher ups were concerning the whole operation. This happened soon before the nation fell. Actually, I think it might have been my last mission?"

"Out of curiosity, what was the 'certain area' that they wanted clear?" Cid asked.

"A cavern twenty times larger than your village filled to the brim with Crystals and several Omni-veins nobody had tapped yet. There was also several prismatic crystals lying about. At the time I saw that scene and immediately understood why the higher ups were so happy, but now that I think back on it, monetary gains were not something those people cared all that much about."

Cid whistles. "Are you sure that's not cause for celebration? You could create an entire nation off a find like that. Although it's a little strange that they knew exactly where to find it..."

"What they truly cared about was the creature they worshiped, correct?" Tyra asked.

"The princess told you I take it? Also yes, that's all that really mattered to them. How their love for the Broodling Xerath ties into a room full of crystals and moon-blood is a mystery to me. Viktor said it only needed meat and souls, but it wouldn't be the first time he lied."

"Broodling?"

"Oh uh, once a Xerathian appears, it's in its 'broodling' stage, and people need to feed it for it to fully evolve past that stage. If the people under its influence can't find others to kidnap, they'll willingly throw themselves into its mouth. I saw a few evolve in the other realm, they're far worse than any Eldritch or Demon I've dealt with. At least with Eldritch their corruption can be removed and there are ways to know if it's influencing someone."

"Wait, are you certain that Xerathian creature is dead? If they moved it to that cavern, then Xelba falling would mean nothing to it." Tyra said.

"I know it's not dead, Viktor took its core out before he fled Urza. I assume he evolved it into a full-fledged god somewhere else. I don't know what kind of god it evolved into, but I'm sure by this point he already dominated another moon or planet out there somewhere. Unless a miracle happened and somebody stopped him, which I severely doubt."

Tyra sighed with obvious relief. "Okay... That had me worried it was still here, but at the same time that means there is an even more dangerous threat out there somewhere. One problem at a time though. I suggest we take the skeleton back and discuss with the others what our next move should be. Master Seifer will have some thoughts on this I'm sure."

"Works for me, that's about all we can do at this point."

I was considering going underground alone, but it's nowhere near as dark as one would expect. The amount of light crystals protruding from the walls are endless. They're all naturally powered by the moon too, so they never turn off.

"Oh, what's this?" Tyra said as she picks up the skeleton.

Bending down further, she picks something up and brings it back towards us, placing it down onto my hands.

"A notebook...?"

"It fell out of his cloak. You ever seen a cover that fancy before?" Tyra said.

Yes, it's rather normal where I come from, but I'm far more interested in the contents of this notepad than telling her about Aetheria right now.

I put my thumb in the middle of the notepad and flip it open to a random page.

'탈출구가 없습니다. 우리는 다른 대륙으로 도망쳤습니다. 그것이 우리를 따라왔습니다.'

"The hell are these runes? This can't possibly be a language... It must be in code." Cid said.

"I don't know what I'm looking at either..."

"No point in trying to decipher it here, we'll figure that out back at the manor, so let us be off." Tyra said, running over to the cellar opening and jumping outside.

Me and Cid followed after her. Once outside we made a mad dash back the way we came, going quite a bit faster now that we were more confident about the path in front of us. Plus, if we keep this up, Cid might make it in time for his date.

Cid sprinted through the front door, clearly in a hurry to prepare for his date. Fei chuckled and walked up to us.

"I'm surprised! I didn't think you guys would be back in time." Fei took on a more serious face. "Ahem, Master Seifer knew you three were approaching, he's waiting for you in the war room."

Fei glances at the skeleton slung over Tyra's shoulder before turning back around towards the front door. She walks inside, leading us through several hallways before taking us to a large set of double-doors. She steps off to the side as Tyra grabs the handle. A few seconds later a loud clicking sound could be heard.

"Interesting... It only unlocks for certain people? I don't see what the point is though. I could easily destroy this door if I wanted inside."

"Very true, but that would also be a mistake." Tyra looks back at me and grins as she opens the door.

Hmm, assuming she's not bluffing, then there must be some sort of defensive measures that would activate if someone were to blow this door down.

When Tyra's hulking figure moves out of the way I'm able to get a good look at the 'war room', and what I see is impressive, but it's also kind of...

"What do you think? I rarely have a reason to use this room, so I'm kind of excited right now." Euphemia asked.

"Honestly, this just looks like a much bigger version of the living room. Which by itself is still amazing."

{You think so as well? Not that there is anything wrong with that Euphie!}

They must have bonded more if she's already calling her 'Euphie'. I've only heard Tyra say that so far.

Euphemia chuckles. "Of course it looks like the living room! That's what I asked for. Except there are a few major differences. One probably won't surprise you, but I bet the other will blow you away."

"Oh? What are they then?"

"You'll understand soon enough. For now, please explain what the three of you found." Seifer said as he watched Tyra lay the skeleton down on a table in the middle of the room.

I walk over to the table and hop up on one of the bar stools surrounding it. Tyra walks over to a section of the wall that looks like it's fitted with a bunch of coat hangers. As she reaches them lights flare up around her armor for a few seconds before the armor appears to remove itself from Tyra, placing itself in pieces up on the 'hangers'.

"Well that was definitely surprising..."

"Oh no no, that wasn't even the part I wanted to surprise you with. Have you truly never seen that before? I thought it was normal in Viseux, I heard the entire military uses armor equippers... Oh wait, never mind me. Obviously you would not know of them Rei, they were only invented about twenty years ago I think?" Euphemia said.

"Seventeen years to be exact." Tyra said, choosing to sit down on a large chair instead of a stool.

Seems convenient on paper. However, is it really a good idea to have warriors depend on such a thing? I can understand in case of an emergency, but what would a bunch of pampered fighters do if they needed to put their armor on in a hurry in a foreign area where they won't have access to this magical conduit?

Tyra points to the skeleton. "We found him inside of a tunnel leading underground. To be exact, it was behind a cellar wall. Rei had somehow seen part of the fabric on his robe poking through part of the wall. There must be a way to open the wall without destroying it, but we didn't have the time nor need to look for such a thing."

"Underground..." Seifer said, lifting his glasses up and rubbing his eyes.

"Is it normal for our people to have tunnels like that under their home? I've never heard of such a thing." Euphemia said.

Seifer sighed. "Of course not. I do remember reading that during the wars half a decade ago, both Crotia and units from Xelba would suddenly appear past the fortress, or even inside of it. The only obvious conclusion was that they came from underground, but the king back then neither confirmed nor denied any of it." Seifer looked at Tyra. "Anything else?"

"A book, or a 'notepad' as Reimia called it." Tyra said as I handed the notepad over to Seifer.

He began flipping through the pages with a clear sign of confusion written on his face.

"Never seen this language before. The only option is to pass it over to the scholars, however, I wouldn't expect much from them in this regard. There's no reference to what any of these symbols could mean."

{Can I see it?}

"Of course Lady Aresa." Seifer said, passing the notepad over to her.

Aresa stares at the first page for longer than I expected before holding her board up.

{I've seen this before.}

"You've seen these runes before...? Where?"

{Your family of course, it's one of the books they sold me. They told me that lots of people from all over(including other planets) go to your continent, although I didn't know it was because of the ruins till you told me. I guess they didn't want to destroy the image of their home I had built up inside my head. Admittedly, I glorified it as some kind of utopia, not a frozen landscape full of robots trying to kill everyone. There were signs in some of the books they sold me that none of it was as I believed it to be, but I dismissed them till I had proof.}

"Now this is a nice surprise that I did not expect. What was the book that had these runes in it?" Seifer asked.

{Book of languages from another world. There are several languages that use weird symbols like this, I don't remember which one it is. I'm gonna go to my wagon and have my attendants back at the chateau find the book and then send the information to an attendant here, they'll transcribe it for us. It will probably take a day at the minimum.}

"Thank you very much Lady Aresa." Seifer bows, then looks at Tyra. "Anything else?"

"Negative sir, this was it. We decided not to go down into the tunnels before talking with everyone here."

"That was the correct choice. Finding something on the first day is already impressive. Although, I'm not entirely certain what that actually tells us regarding the fate of the village."

{Even I know very little about the underground. Mother said to never go there and keep the tunnels under Viseux sealed. Whether Rai'ga actually agreed to that principle or not, I have no idea.}

"You hear about it from time to time. A city or even a small village decides they want to roll the dice. After all, if you find a small crystal cavern, you're set for life. Even a single Omni-vein would give you everything you ever wanted. However, as you would expect, none of those stories have happy endings." Seifer said, shaking his head.

... I can't put this off anymore, I need to ask them.

"Seifer, does this nation check for Eldritch influence?"

I felt I needed to be careful about how I asked this, so I've put it off for far too long. It's important though so I can't keep skipping over it. If we get attacked, so be it. The princess is within reaching distance, I'll just grab her by the throat and use her as a hostage if I have to.

"Yes? Obviously it does or we'd no longer exist. Why do you ask?"

"Because there is obviously something here influencing the area, and yet none of you have mentioned it even once. To call this 'suspicious' would be an understatement."

Everyone but Aresa looked surprised after hearing this. They began looking at each other to see if the others were also confused by what I was saying.

{I was wondering when you were going to bring that up. I thought it'd be last night.}

"This isn't something that you can easily broach. If it goes badly..."

"We'd attack you?" Seifer sighed. "I can say with all confidence that there have been zero reports suggesting that the land or our souls are being tampered with. Well, the land is a little difficult to observe at the moment, but we'd know if a domain had extended over us."

True, that's not something you could miss if you're actively scanning for such things. Tampering with people's souls could take a little while to detect, but a domain? The Eldritch might as well shoot up a thousand flares.

"How certain are you of this Reimia? Can you be more specific on what led you to believe there is an Eldritch here that is somehow influencing the nation without any of us knowing? This is a little hard to believe, I'm sure you understand?" Tyra said.

{You know what I am Tyra. I can feel it, there is something strange in the air here. It feels a little different from what I'm used to though... I can't quite explain it.}

"And you?" Tyra said, looking at me.

"I felt it soon after we entered your lands. It's a familiar feeling to me that I can't quite place, and I've had this nagging suspicion of what it might be. However, I wasn't really sure since none of you are exhibiting the signs I'm used to."

"What does that mean exactly?" Seifer asked.

Off to the side I can see Tyra turning pale. Apparently she knows where I'm going with this.

"A Xerath, one of the faceless ones I told you about. It's been a long time since I've been in the other realm so I'm not positive, but it feels the same. The one in Xelba gave off no aura or corruption because of something Viktor or the Demons did, so that's why it's been many years since the last time I felt this. However, you should all be... Changing. So honestly I'm really not sure what to think."

"T-This is becoming quite a frightening discussion, but I have to ask... Um, changing how exactly?" Euphemia asked.

I can see her hands shaking a little as she holds them in front of her chest. Can't really blame her after everything I told her last night regarding the Xerath.

"You would know. People always know when a Xerathian god is being born in their area. It makes them know, and it makes them excited. You would have already bragged to me about how happy you are that one is being born here."

"Could it be possible that this only happens in the other world?" Tyra asked.

"Influencing people you mean? Hmm... I suppose that would explain why the one in Xelba didn't infect the area and it barely affected the psyche of the people there. All the citizens there willingly worshiped it... If that's the case though, then I really wouldn't know how to tell if a Xerath is being born here."

Tyra looked down and rubbed her eyes, "The 'broodling' you explained before, where does it appear? Is it a random location?"

"I'm not sure. It could have just appeared in the city centers but I really doubt it. By time I saw the creatures, they were already placed in buildings where people would come to worship and feed it. They always looked different too. The one in Xelba was quite literally just a fleshy tube filled with teeth that dug deep underground, slowly creating a bigger chasm over time. Meanwhile the one I fought in the other realm had looked like a coffin in its broodling stage. It evolved into a Xerath that had bright white slits for eyes on the side of its head, while also having two arms and feet like a person would. Sometime they evolve to not become so 'faceless', but not by much. Only the gods though, none of the creatures it created ever had more than a mouth and teeth. It was also obsessed with candles, the whole city was filled with them."

"Candles? Not quite what I expected from such frightening sounding abominations." Seifer said.

"Yeah I don't know what that was about, but regardless of any other extra curiosities they have, they are not to be underestimated. I really hope one isn't being born here. An Eldritch would be far easier to deal with, we could at least trace the corruption back to it. I'd say we try anyways, but considering the fact that none of you can even sense the corruption at all, it must have dulled your senses to it since you live here. Only outsiders appear to be sensing it."

"Do you have anyone who can find it? I didn't see any bishops with you." Tyra asked.

{I might be able to.}

"Whoa hang on, can you give us a second?" I said, pulling Aresa far away from the others.

"You out of your mind? Tracing the corruption leads you outside, and do you know what is waiting for you outside?"

{The Tengu, what of it? That's why everyone is here... Right? You'll all just have to protect me. The Tengu won't risk killing me, so having me there limits the amount of power he can put out.}

"Are you certain? I've still never received an explanation for why everyone's soul wasn't eaten by Meizha'thul after Janet killed everyone in the tent. I'm thinking this sky is preventing her from taking peoples souls, and if the Tengu understands that then he won't hesitate to blast you into nothing."

{The reset locks everyone's souls down to that location, she can't override Arkaios, that's why they stayed there. Although... I suppose I can't exclude the idea that the sky could also be preventing her from interfering.}

"We need to test it. I wonder if they have anyone in the prisons here they'll let me kill?"

{You can try asking? It doesn't sound like something you should be asking though...}

I walked back to the table with Aresa. Off to the side Tyra was looking through the dead mans robe for anything we might have missed.

"All good?" Seifer asked.

"Yes and no. This may seem like an odd question, but do you have anyone on death's row?"

Seifer quirked an eyebrow at that while Tyra immediately stopped shuffling through the robe.

"... We do. It's not often a problem in our lands, but as soon as the blackout occurred, one of our residents saw it as a prime opportunity to..." Seifer trailed off, glancing at Euphemia.

"It's okay Seifer, please continue. I may be sheltered but I am not a child."

"... He killed the head of the family next door and 'assumed his place'. He was jealous of the family his neighbor had created, so he decided to just take it for himself. The wife and children weren't pleased with their new 'father', which as you can imagine did not sit well with him. They all died in the end. He's scheduled to be decapitated next week, why do you ask?"

"I need to kill him sooner, as in tomorrow. If Aresa dies tracing this corruption, we may lose her soul forever to the Eldritch queen, however, if Meizha'thul can't interfere in lands covered by those pitch black clouds, then I can save her soul and bring it back to the chateau where she will be reborn. So I need to kill that man and see if his soul is taken."

"Couldn't you just go to a place where someone passed away recently?" Euphemia asked.

"I could, but maybe there are other ways souls disappear, it's not like we have extensive knowledge on this front since the queen bitch takes them all for herself."

"I hate when this subject comes up... The idea that I'll be forever trapped inside of an Eldritch fills me with absolute dread. Especially now that I'm getting up there in age." Tyra said.

"Do the Elves have a way of saving souls, or is this something that only you can do?" Seifer said.

"Only me. The Elves might also have a way?" I said, looking over at Aresa.

{Nope. When anyone dies in the cities they incinerate them and dump their ashes along with everyone else's. I don't know what happens to those who die outside the city. I assume they're just left there.}

"You can see souls and touch them? What do they look like?" Euphemia asked.

"All souls are spread throughout the entire core of every living being, but after they die they form into a sphere. Human, Kitsune, Crotia, all of our souls are the most beautiful. Radiant white with the entire color spectrum glistening inside of them. Eldritch are almost ethereal with a sick purple haze swirling around inside of them. Demons are what you would expect, burning red hot and they explode about fifteen seconds after they die."

"Wait, that's why dead Demons explode? This whole time we thought it was because of something in their bodies... Well I guess it still is, but we never thought it was their damned souls." Tyra said.

"Yeah, they really don't like it when anything tries to take the bodies of their dead. I managed to rip the soul out of an imp once and threw it away before it exploded. Spears of fire began descending on top of me as I was carrying the body away. They were scarily accurate too despite coming from miles away, almost as if the body itself was a beacon, so I had to drop it."

Seifer continues writing everything I say into the book he always carries with him.

I have nothing against that. The more people who know about this the better, which includes my backstory. Aresa asked me on the wagon ride here why I tell everyone about my life story, and while there are many reasons, the main one is that I see no reason to hide it. If there's even a one-in-a-billion chance that someone will know why I changed into this invisible zombie, then I might as well spread the tale far and wide. Eventually someone has to know the reason why... That's the hope anyway.

Seifer put his pencil down and closed the book. "Alright, I think we're done here. Shall we have dinner with everyone and tell them what happened? Also, you should know that Keith's group has already moved to the village near the forest, as per the arrangement."

"What about the guy on death row?"

"Oh right, that shall be arranged. When Tyra and Cid are ready to join you in the morning, that scum will also be waiting for you. The king will be displeased with me for doing that, but it is also my job to assist your group in any way I can."

So that's why he's still here? I expected him to leave in the morning, returning to his usual duties. I guess he's been assigned to us indefinitely until we finish up here huh?

Tyra picked the notepad up. "Are we taking this to your wagon, or can your attendants come inside?"

{Wagon please.}

Everyone walked out of the room with me behind Aresa and Euphemia.

... Jeez, they smell way too good. It's not a scent I'm used to being around. The only things I smelled for most of my life have generally been dirt, blood, guts, and other horrific smells that I eventually got used to. There are a few scents in my families home that I still remember. The garage was full of different odors I'll obviously never find here. The smell I remember the most though was in the house, but I'm not sure what it was... That's the one I miss more than anything.

"Find anything girl?" Ishar asked immediately as I sat down.

Looking around I see he's the only one at the table. It's me, him, Seifer, and Euphemia right now, which feels a little strange.

"A tunnel underground and a skeleton corpse with a notepad full of weird symbols. Aresa says it's an actual language, she's off to translate it now."

"Underground huh? Nothing good down there on any of Mother's moons or planets. You think that's related? My initial reaction is no by the way."

"Yeah we've been over all the reasons that we think it could be unrelated. Oh hang on, you're actually someone who would know the answer to another question I had. Do the Xerath 'grow' differently here in this realm? Do they still force nearby human-like creatures to love and obey them?"

"They do, but it is more subtle and takes far more time. That question alone has me worried though. Are we dealing with a Xerathian here? Because even if it does take awhile, we have no idea of how long the damn thing has been gestating. These people could turn on us any second now."

Seifer stepped forward. "Hold on a minute there sir Ishar, are you suggesting I will suddenly become hostile with your group when I saw you all as allies mere moments ago? I thought you said it was subtle?"

"It is. People may be feeding it without even remembering that they fed it. The Lizardmen believe they try to hide their presence in this realm until they become a god. As a broodling they can barely defend themselves, so they feel the need to be more clever in this hostile environment." Ishar stared at me. "Hmm... You may actually be perfect for this. When the broodling feels threatened it may try to turn all these people against us, but if someone who can turn invisible takes it out before it realizes we are onto it..."

"I..." Euphemia trails off. She heavily breathes in and exhales, attempting to calm herself down as she looks at Ishar. "How long do we need to be exposed to the being before it can control us?"

"It's hard to say, but at least half a year before it can do it safely without exposing itself or risking the subject rejecting it. Were there any reports of missing people in the area? It will have those in power erase all traces of those who go missing, but at the start when it desperately needs food, it won't have enough power to control people to that degree. So you should see a large influx of missing people in any area that was recently infested by a new Xerathian broodling."

"It can force people to feed themselves to it, but it also can't control people for awhile? Did you skip something important in there? Because that makes no sense."

"That's because it doesn't make sense. The Lizardmen told me many times that right after a broodling comes into existence it will command five to ten living beings to feed themselves to it, and if nobody stops them, they won't wake up from the trance. For some reason only then is it able to command people without exposing itself or risking a backfire. After that is when it needs a large amount of time to worm its way into peoples souls. The biggest issue is that there are people who are very susceptible to its influence, and it will obviously target those individuals first. Such people are extremely rare, but in a nation this size I'd expect at least one to four people to be pawns of the broodling in the first two months of it appearing."

Seifer stands up and practically runs out of the room.

Off to gather data on missing people I'm sure. A shame he'll miss dinner, but I can understand why he'd be in a hurry after hearing he might be a puppet to an abomination he didn't even know existed till last night.

Another door opens as the 'Tengu' crew all files into the room, with Shana sitting next to me again.

Shana sighed, "Boring."

"What is?"

"Everything. Nothing to do till the asshole shows up."

"The Tengu? When do you think he'll show up?"

Shana shook her head, "I don't know. It might not even appear... I think I'm going to send a clone with you. I need something to do."

"Please don't do that Shana, you know we'll need every advantage possible to win." Cera sighed. "Splitting yourself off for 'entertainment'... You should know better."

Shana glared at Cera. "Not only for fun. These two had a very scary conversation just now that I was eavesdropping on while waiting for the rest of you. I've decided that it's best Rei has a direct line of communication to us."

"It's true, she had her ear pressed up against the side of the door when we arrived." Alicia said.

"No shit, we heard her bang her head against the door. Now get to the part where you'll explain how communication works with you. Can you see and hear everything through your clones?" Ishar asked.

Shana nodded, "Yes. Distance won't be a problem so long as she stays within the nation."

"So none of you can feel something messing with your soul? Especially you Ishar, this should be a situation you're used to. How do the Crotia normally find a newborn Xerath?"

"There are traveling soul searchers who spend their entire lives patrolling around our planet checking for new influences on peoples souls in every place they visit. Those from the outside haven't been there long enough for the Xerath to be able to muddle their senses. The problem is that such patrols need a lot of power to be able to force people into compliance, which sometimes breeds some very nasty groups of people. However, they are limited in number, as we hammer such groups high into the air on wooden stakes. One look at them and the other groups generally avoid misusing their power." Ishar continued. "As for why I can't sense a disturbance on my soul, it's because my level of soul magic is far below what a broodling has access to. You need true experts, or those gifted in soul abilities."

Well that does explain why only me, Aresa, and Nisha sensed something was off.

Ishar looks at Alicia. "And what about you? Are you ready?"

"Ready as I can be. I was in my soul realm for about a month so it feels weird adjusting back to this life-threatening scenario we're in."

"Does time stop completely in your realm...? I can only slow it down." Cera said.

"Almost completely." Alicia said, then looked over at Euphemia. "Thanks again for letting me attune the room I'm borrowing to my soul realm."

"I'll admit it was a strange request, but you're very welcome Alicia. Can you turn a room into your soul realm, is that how it works?"

"No, it lets me move between temples, including mine which is in my soul realm on another planet. Oh, that reminds me, I went to see the Lizardmen back on Terra'kas' world."

"Oh? What's the news from the battle over there?" Ishar said.

"About what we expected. The Demons portal was purged but a bunch of Demons were able to escape, including a type of Demon that they had never seen before. They're currently in a losing battle with Viseux and the Legion."

"I thought you said you were going to win Ishar?"

"We will. Even if the fools surround the portal completely and shut us out, it means nothing. They can't survive without us. Do you know why the Lizardmen are the only Eldritch beings invading right now despite the thousands of Eldritch who now have access to this moon? Most want nothing to do with a moon or planet past the point of no return on the corruption scale, but the others are avoiding us. Putting a portal down where Terra'ka is, is the same as giving us free access to their location. The Demons will keep coming, and now that the Xerath are beginning to pop up, it's absolutely impossible for this moon to survive without us. The fools will need to understand this, or we will merely colonize a moon devoid of its original occupants."

Euphemia stared at Ishar. "Are things truly that bad out there...? The 'blackout' was scary enough by itself, but all the things I've learned the past few days have shown me that all of my worst fears are in fact lesser than what actually exists out there... I love my home, but this makes me want to flee far far away."

"If a broodling has been here for over a month, then it's already too late. Even if you manage to make it to the border, you'll suddenly have a change of heart and decide to stay. It'll make sure of that." Ishar said, which made Euphemia's eyes widen even more.

The poor girl looks like she's about to have a heart attack. I forget way too often just how scary all of this must be to the average person. I've been living in this nightmare since I was a young girl, so it's all very normal to me at this point.

Seifer returned while we were eating, informing us that a large amount of people did in fact go missing weeks before the current crisis occurred that led to them calling for us.

"That's it then, there must be a broodling here." Ishar said.

"Is it related to why we are here? Two of the villagers were cleared out completely after all." Cera said.

"No, it wouldn't be so brazen and it definitely wouldn't have let them call for help. Although I doubt it's strong enough to have prevented them from calling for us, it would have at least tried, and there would be clear signs of tampering that even these people could identify if it overexerted its current influence. Whatever happened to the villages is something else entirely."

"Wow. This place is having a really bad month huh?" Shana said, making Seifer put his head into his hands.

{Part of the translation is already done. Apparently something was chasing the skeleton you found. He's from another planet, and no matter how far he ran, it always found him and his friend. Maybe that's it? I don't know when he died though.}

"Hmm... It could be? Either way, I have a lot of work to do that's for sure. If I don't find anything in the empty village tomorrow, then I have no choice but to go underground. I can't say I'm looking forward to that..."

"I still feel it's unrelated, but it can't be helped. It doesn't sound like there is a whole lot to go on." Ishar said.

There really isn't, so hopefully I get lucky tomorrow.