2: The Good, The Bad and Lassadia.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS TO ME, YOU BASTARD!!!" I yelled at Roy, all the while slashing my sword right and left. Two bandits down, and the town was still in turmoil. A lot of people had fled -granted, more than fifteen bandits had appeared, and almost all of them were focusing on me. Most of the arcane lamps were off, even if it was pretty late at night, since most of them were either destroyed or the magi didn't get the chance to lit them up.
SLASH!
Damn!
I had to strafe right rather fast: one of the bandits was already on my trail and slashed his sword at me.
"More fighting and less talking, Logan!" said Roy from his end of the street. The turmoil barely let us talk to each other less concentrate on fighting as a group. Fifteen bandits was a huge number, even for a mercenary as myself.
"Flare arrow!" yelled Roy while a group of three burning red arrows flew into the chest of one of the bandits, making him drop instantly dead. He turned right while murmuring some words and said "Balus rod!" and a flash of light appared from his hand. He closed his hand and directed the ray of light towards another bandit and he too dropped dead.
I couldn't stop much to watch how this was happening, since another bandit had already jumped in on me with his dagger ready to stab me. I strafed left this time, moved a little more to the left and raised my blade so I could cut him while he was falling.
"Why don't you use a bigger spell!?" I yelled while evading a third bandit, which this time tried to stab me on the side. I quickly kicked him in the guts, while he was lowered forced my elbow on his neck and slashed for good measure.
"It's too crowded, I'd get ourselves in it's effect! Flare arrow!" he said, and this time six flaming arrows appeared, all directed at six different targets. Most of them fell down to the floor probably dead or unconscious, but a few of them stayed on foot.
Indeed the street was way too crowded for us to keep fighting like this and not damage either ourselves or the very town. So I took a leap to a nearby fountain in the town's main street and climbed until I could reach a rooftop. From then, I started running while three bandits kept on my trail.
From what I could see and hear, Roy yelled "Bomb di wind" and a group of two bandits went flying to the other end of the street, where they crashed against a nearby house.
I smiled and turned to my back, where the three bandits were still following me. "You're gonna pay for what you did to Gino!", he said.
I shrugged, "It was an accident!".
"Accident or not, you still killed him!", the other bandit yelled "Good thing your friend brought us to you!"
So that was Roy's plan from the very beginning. It had nothing to do with striking a deal with the bandits, but to tell them I was in town so they would come and attack town just to get me...
DAMN these guys are hardcore! I'm gonna get Roy for this later...
But for the moment I had to keep fighting! One of the bandits charged at me and I strafed a little to the right, making him lose his balance and fall face flat to the floor, while the other growled at me, "You won't get away with this, you bastard!", and leaped right in front of me, with his knife right to my throat. I could glance to my back that four other mercenaries were coming from the rooftop of the next house.
Damn, please Roy... hurry up...
"I really wanna see this knife go through your throat, you prick" growled the bandit that held me while the other three grabbed my arms and pulled my head backwards.
Roy... please hurry up...
"You... wish..." I said, and the bandit that was holding the knife to my throat took off his 'mask' and spat on my face.
"You bastard...!" he said, pulled the knife from my neck and was about to stab it when a flash of yellow light surrounded all of us.
"What the hell is this!?" yelled the one that was about to kill me. This seemed all too familiar...
Roy! It has to be Roy!
But didn't he say he couldn't use a large spell because it would catch us too in the explosion?
"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" yelled one of the bandits. And soon after, all of them were grabbing their heads and eyes, and were slowly and painfully disintegrating before my very own eyes.
Again.
This definitely wasn't Roy. It was the same thing that had happened when I met Maria and saved her from those rapists. It seemed that someone really wanted to protect me or something. Suddenly, a male figure appeared right in front of me, with short black hair, probably 17, no older than that. He was wearing a black cape and a matching robe akin to a priest or... something.
"Who are you?" I asked instinctively.
"LOGAN! GET OUT OF THERE!!" yelled Roy from the floor. I had no idea what was his problem. This guy had just saved my life! And since he didn't charge me last time, I was sure he wasn't gonna charge me this time either!
"Come to Lassadia" said the man. I turned to Roy as if asking for an answer of who this guy was, but all I could see was his hands shining with lightning all the while he was murmuring some words.
"What?", I said turning my sight back to the man in black.
"Come to Lassadia in three days", was all he said. Lassadia was pretty close, a town a little off north of Ruvinagald.
"DYNAST BREATH!" I heard Roy yell, and a large magic circle, pentagram included appeared below the man in black. Bolts of lightning came hurling down towards him and all of a sudden, a large explosion ensued, and I had to cover my head and put all my might into standing on the rooftop of the house –or rather, what was left of it. When the smoke cleared, the man in black was still standing there, smiling. Roy looked shocked, and no words came from him.
"Who are you!" I said while the man started disappearing in a small tornado of dust.
"Come to Lassadia. You will understand then..." he said, and vanished completely.
Roy still didn't move, so I jumped down back to where he was standing and noticed all the bandits were gone.
Now that I remember, that light did engulf everything I could see...
Roy's sight was fixated where the man in black had stood. He was scared to death. "Roy? What the hell was that?", I said.
Roy slowly turned to me, "A mazoku..."
While we were resting in the inn after the intense fight, and deciding to spend one last night in town, Roy took out the bag with the reward we got from ridding the town of bandits -ten gold coins- and ordered some food for both of us. Now that I think about it, Maria did give me thirty coins... that's an awful lot of money. But she did say she gave me everything she had, so that's fine with me.
"What's a Mazoku?" I said while choking on some fried salmon.
"You really don't know?" said Roy while drinking some coffee after he had finished eating his pork. I shook my head. "I suppose you don't. They are pretty obscure beings. Mazoku are spiritual beings. Put it simply, they work towards a common goal of destroying everything in existence while feeding on negative human emotions"
"But that guy looked human enough to me..." I said, while finishing my salmon and proceeding to the steak.
"Mazoku can look human alright, but looks are deceiving. They are extremely powerful, and the more powerful the more human they will look to you."
"So why did your spell fail against that thing?"
"They don't really exist in the physical plane. As you may know, there's also the astral plane. Remember what I told you, mazoku were purely spiritual? Well, they reside in the astral plane and if they're powerful enough and wish to do so may manifest themselves in the physical plane. And they are HUGE" he said, with emphasis on huge, "in the astral plane. Let's say that Mazoku's astral body was the size of a mountain. If I cast Zelas Brid against a mountain, it would do little harm to it. And since Mazoku are astral beings, the effect the spell had on their physical body would have little to no effect against the astral body... you following me?" he said after a small pause, noticing I was still chunking down on some steak.
"Not really", I said with my full mouth "But I get the general idea. Mazoku are bad and magic can hardly do any damage to them"
Roy sighed and held his head with his right hand, "I guess that much would do..."
"Anyway, I wonder what's in Lassadia" I said still chunking on the steak. I would let the bandits deal pass now, granted we got money from it.
And now I can get rid of Roy! I can leave at any moment and he wouldn't have any way to pressure me!
"I have to wonder..." said Roy while looking at the door, where a group of people entered, between them Maria, "Oh look who's here". I had no idea why he changed the subject so suddenly, but I couldn't care less. Maria had entered the stage!
"Maria!!!!" I yelled with my mouth full, waving at her with my fork "Maria!! Come here!" I yelled. Roy must've felt ashamed of me since he hid his face in his hands, but I'm not one to take such a chance as this pass by!
"Oh! Mr. Logan! Mr. Roy!" she said. With that, Roy raised his head and looked at her.
"Ms. Maria, long time no see", he smiled at her while moving a chair to one side for her to sit. It was pretty late at night, but most of the villagers hadn't eaten at all since they had to flee.
"I heard what you two did for our town!" she said with a big smile, "I'd like to thank you for saving all of us!" she said, as lovingly as always.
"Yes, well, those bandits were piece of cake for the two of us, weren't they, Roy?" I said, stretching my arms behind my neck and smiling a bit nervously.
Maria smiled as adorably as humanly possible and even giggled a bit. I was thrilled by this reaction... she liked me!!
"I was actually looking for the two of you" said Maria, still smiling.
"Why would that be, Ms. Maria?" smiled Roy. There was something about his smile that didn't seem right, but once again, I couldn't care less!
"You two are mercenaries, right?" she said.
"Yup, and the best out there!" I said lifting my fork and my knife, striking any heroic pose I could think of as fast as possible.
"Not quite, we're not partners", said Roy, killing my moment. I gave a quick glare at him and he seemed as embarrassed as possible. Come on! We were working together! That I wanted to get rid of him had nothing to do with making as much money as possible! "We have... common interests at the moment" he said, giving me a dirty look.
You found a new way of coercing me into paying!? You slick bastard…
"Could I interest both of you in a job?" she said, in her ever cute attitude.
"Of course! If there's a job, we're into it!" I said still cheerful. A job for Maria! This was as good as it was gonna get!
"I need an escort to Lassadia, a few days walk up north"
...
WHAT!?
Roy should've looked as surprised as I did, but he didn't. What was with him? I mean, the mazoku had invited me to Lassadia earlier that night, and now Maria offered us a job to escort her to Lassadia.
"I need to depart tomorrow", she said, "are you interested?"
Of course I am, but this was way too suspicious...
"We are, indeed" smiled Roy before I could say anything, "How much are you willing to pay?"
"50 gold coins", she said.
This girl must've been RICH. 30 gold coins for saving her from rapists, 50 gold coins for escorting her to Lassadia which was a three day walk... and not THAT dangerous!
"Count us in", said Roy. Apparently, I had no decisive power in this 'society' of ours. How could Roy accept this job so easily? I liked Maria... I liked her a lot, but this was way too suspicious.
"Very well then", she got up, smiled and bowed... to hell with suspicious! She was so cute I couldn't care less! "See you tomorrow morning then. Have a good night's sleep" she said, and with a big smile left as cute as she entered.
"We better go upstairs, Logan", said Roy all of a sudden in a very serious voice. I don't understand this guy: first he accepts a job that looks suspicious out of the blue -never mind that it was Maria- and now he gets all serious on me!
Once we got upstairs, he closed the door and took of his robe and laid in a chair next to the window.
"What's with you?", I said.
"Nothing, I just got us a job that would ensure 25 gold coins less from your debt" he smiled again. Damn, his attitude was annoying me... he definitely was hiding something from me, but as soon as I took off my scabbard away from my belt, I knew I was way too tired to argue about whatever Roy was thinking. I just took his word and laid down on the bed, falling asleep.
Have you ever walked a long distance under a burning sun? It's like walking inside a steam bath without stopping for air. That's how it felt on our first day towards Lassadia. I could hardly talk, as my scale armor was suffocating me and not one cloud could be seen in the horizon.
"I'm gonna die at the tender age of 23..."
"Oh shut up, Logan. Stop complaining" said Roy with a big smile.
"How can you smile with the weather like this? I'd rather fight a hundred Mazoku all together than having to walk around with a gazillion degrees... IN THE FREAKING SHADE..." and with no shade whatsoever, I should add. Of course, I didn't say that.
Roy lifted his robe and showed me some silvery engravings it had. They were glowing, very nice looking, sorta rune-ish, but I could read runes and those were no ordinary runes at all.
"A mild weather control spell I had someone enchant my cloak with" he said while smiling slyly.
Why you sorcerous son of a...
I heard a mild giggle coming from behind. Maria was standing there, looking as cute as ever, without a care in the world other than looking directly at us acting like stupid buffoons.
"You two are quite a pair", she said.
Roy turned to her and smiled, "Thank you, miss Maria"
Maria smiled back at him, "No, I should be the one to thank you for helping me in this task"
"No need to thank us when you offered such a generous payment" half upfront, I should mention. I even paid Roy my share of the twelve gold and five silver coins "However," Roy said, "I feel I am entitled to ask... what business might you have in Lassadia?"
Maria's face suddenly changed to show a much serious and darker tone.
What's with her? More importantly, what's with ROY asking that all of a sudden!?
"That is... none of your business" she said.
Whoa, caught me off guard there...
Suddenly, she went back to her usual carefree, smiling face, "For fifty gold coins I would expect neither of you to ask about whatever it is we are doing" she smiled at me, and then back at Roy. I mean, she was cute, but all that suspicious behavior oughta put a doubt or two in anyone's mind.
Not in mine, of course. I was determined in helping Maria no matter what she wanted to do.
So we kept trekking for about three more hours until we reached a forest and decided to take a short rest before continuing halfway towards Lassadia and camp somewhere safe. Roy hadn't changed his carefree attitude ever since Maria hired us, and that bugged me more than anything.
The place we set up a fire to cook some fishes (which yours truly had provided, thankyouverymuch) was a rather calm looking clear a few minutes off the main road towards Lassadia. You see, forests in this area of the peninsula were usually pretty dense, and the trade road from Ruvinagald City to Lassadia (which is, I should add, a rather large city in the kingdom of Ruvinagald, one of the kingdom's main agricultural sources) was no exception. So while the road was very well defined as a trade route, it still ran in the middle of a forest, which made it a quite handsome spot for bandits and robbers waiting to assault their unexpecting preys. But we were three: one very skilled swordsman and a sorcerer with a dubious attitude. No worries there.
"I'll go get some fresh leaves and mushrooms to go with the fish", smiled Maria as she left.
"Fireball", said Roy in a very slow tone, casting a rather small yellow ball into his hands, and throwing it at the wood I had gathered previously in one spot. In a fraction of a second, all the wood was set ablaze and we had a cozy fire to go with the wonderfully hot temperature.
Good thing the trees are forming some kind of a shade...
"So, what do you make of her?", Roy said all of a sudden, startling me. I was focusing on the fish sticks I had planted on the ground, having them cook slowly to achieve a great taste. Yeah, I kinda tend to pride myself on my cooking skills: having lived all by myself for so long, I've honed my skills and learned to eat the best food at the best price in every stop. Back on track, I turned towards him and glared for a few seconds.
"Maria", he finally said.
"Ah..." I said, trying NOT to seem that excited. The fact that she was traveling with us had been on my mind for the whole day.
She's wonderful, she's a goddess, she...
"She seems alright", I smiled. BUZZ. Wrong.
However, without me noticing it, Roy had gone back to his previous dark self: "I don't know... she seems.. WAY too... alright..."
I made a weird face, but before he could continue, Maria came back with her dress full of fresh leaves to make a wonderful salad.
Wait, is she cooking!?
Two days of uncomfortable talking all the while walking ensued. Roy kept his charade of being a nice guy whenever Maria was close, and went all the way back to his insidious, sorcerous self whenever she left our side to gather mushrooms or whatever she wanted to make nice salads with. I have to say though, this has definitely been one of the most calm escort missions I've ever had. Seriously, no bandits, no assassination squads (not that we would ever catch the attention of any, except maybe for Roy, who could've made who knows how many enemies in his former travels), I just kept on polishing my sword whenever we had a rest because we had become that used to the calm of the forest.
"Just two more hours and we should be closing in on Lassadia," Roy announced "is there anything we should know once we get there, Ms. Maria?"
"No, do not worry. Once we reach Lassadia our contract will be over and I will pay you the other 25 promised gold coins" she smiled as sweetly as she could.
Roy's faced changed somewhat, giving her a slightly suspicious look.
What's up with you, mate? You're not thinking of assaulting her and keeping all her money! Because I bet you'd be willing to do it!
Apparently Maria never noticed and kept walking. So we kept moving on and after we reached the final part of the forest, after which laid the clear towards Lassadia, both Roy and I stopped on our tracks.
Great, right when we were about to get there...
Roy and I exchanged a quick glance at each other, knowing what we both meant.
"Something wrong?", said Maria. I turned around and quietly hushed her. She quickly retreated some distance between us while Roy was murmuring some words. I sensed the bloodlust coming from a group of bushes to the right of the road.
"Freeze arrow!" yelled Roy, while unleashing six clear looking ice arrows towards the bushes. The bushes were instantly frozen and all their surroundings too. It was a pretty impressive show.
That oughta take care of them...
SWOOSH. A creepy chill went down my spine and made me look upwards.
"Brass demons!?", said Roy. I had heard of them: hideous creatures that sported two wings... scratch that, four wings (for some reason, ever since last year, they started to appear with four wings instead of the regular two) and looked like a malformed human with horns and scaly armored skin. They weren't what you may call a common appearance, less a random encounter in a forest... and not one that you would like to find in your way protecting a defenseless little girl. See that scaly skin? A common sword could barely scratch it. And you know what's worse? There were FOUR of them.
"Maria, get some cover!" I yelled and leapt into the air, unsheathing my sword and slashing it against one of the demons in the air.
CLANK. It was no use... I knew it wouldn't be of any use whatsoever, but it could make at least one of them come down after me physically. I could see below that Roy was chanting some spell, but since my knowledge of magic was extremely limited (not to say null), I couldn't tell what was he casting. As I was landing, though, the group of demons instantly started shooting some sort of flare arrows towards us, but the sort that scorched the ground instantly.
Not good, if I get hit by just one of those...
But my plan worked and one of the brass demons followed me to the floor, where I clashed metal on scaly hands, only able to defend myself for the time being.
"RAY WING!" yelled Roy while getting closer to me and the demon, and a huge wind barrier surrounded us just in the moment the demons were casting down more of their special flare arrows. Of course, they crashed against the wind barrier and couldn't get through.
"Can't you do something about them?" I said, while still defending myself against the one I had managed to get on my grounds. It was still very hard, as he tried to lunge me with his scaly hands, which would have not been nice at all. Did I mention they had scaly nails too? And very long ones at that... "I don't know, cast a fireball or something!"
"I can't!", he said while maintaining the wind barrier in place, all the while the demons loomed ominously in the air "First of all, I let go off Ray Wing and we'll be easy prey to those bastards attacks, and second, one big attack spell and the whole forest'll be set ablaze! Besides, it'll do nothing against them!"
No good!
CLANK! I slashed again against the demon's skin, this time with all my might, but still not a single scratch showed up in his scaly skin. I wasn't doing as much good as defending myself and it was only a matter of time until the demon decided to stop playing with me and unleashed some uncanny magic against me and I was done for.
Roy then turned towards me, "I think I may have a plan!" he said.
Please, anything that can save us here is welcome...
"Get ready to take cover!" yelled Roy and he released the wind barrier. I instantly rolled to one side, at the same time the demons unleashed a new barrage of projectiles at us.
"Levitation!", yelled Roy and he was sent up in the air, moving out of the way of the barrage. The brass demon I had been fighting didn't notice everything happening so fast, and in an instant he was barraged by his comrades attack. Badly hurt, he was still standing though.
"Elmekia Lance!" Roy yelled after a few seconds, and a large light spear appeared in his hand, instantly impaling the brass demon that was too confused to care for Roy casting a spell against him. After the spear disappeared, the demon dropped dead in an instant.
"Way to go!", I yelled from the frozen bushes I had taken cover in. I rushed against one of the demons, slashing left and right to fend off their attacks and keep them occupied.
There was still one of the brass demons in the air, and he kept barraging against us, only this time it was a lot easier to evade, granted it was only one of them firing at us and not three.
Damn, if this keeps going on we'll...
I lunged against the demon, trying to at least scratch him, but it was impossible. As I had left an opening in my defenses, the other demon was getting ready to impale me with his scaly nails...
"Astral break!", yelled Roy and the demon was instantly pulverised. I gave Roy a quick thank you look, and went back to defending myself against the demon at hand. This time, he lunged against me, but I evaded him and blocked his attack with my sword.
I could only take a quick glance, but I noticed how Roy was soaring higher with his levitation spell, while the demon in the air kept firing his barrages at us. However I could easily avoid them, all the while concentrating on defending against the other demon.
"Elmekia Lance!" yelled Roy, and killed the third demon. He was beginning to come down to aid me, but then the demon hit me in the gut, impaling me with his right hand.
"GAHH!!!" I yelled, coughing up blood in the brass demon's face.
"Logan!!!!" said Roy as I could see him rushing towards me.
"GGAAAAHH!!!" I yelled once again, this time striking the demon with all my might and anger. I think I could heard a loud crackling noise in the air, but I lost consciousness shortly after that.
When I came to, I could only see Roy staring at me, murmuring some words. I must've been out for quite a while, since it was already dark and the stars could be clearly seen. Roy had set up a fire close to us, and in the meantime he had his hands pressed against my stomach.
"Stay still", he said, "I learned this from a priest a few months ago, it oughta heal you. You're lucky you didn't get killed..."
I tried to say something, but it hurt so much I couldn't possibly even try to move. Even moaning was painful.
"You had a hole in your stomach", Roy smiled, "you're lucky I know the resurrection spell..."
I had heard of that spell before, but I've never seen it into action. It doesn't technically resurrect the dead, but it does manage to heal serious wounds that have your life on the line. Roy was full of surprises alright, first casting off all kinds of offensive spells and now being able to use resurrection on me. I may not like the guy, but he was definitely something.
"Did you use Astral Vine or something?" he said, "No, don't answer", he said while noticing I was about to attempt to start speaking.
Astral Vine was a spell that could enhance one's weapon to strike targets on the astral plane: I have had my sword enchanted with it a few times, but since the duration is somewhat short (more or less for one battle and that's about it), I had had to pay a hefty amount to get it each time. Sadly, I didn't know the spell -nor could I cast it, mind you-, so I had no idea what was he talking about.
"Wh--where's..."
"Maria?" he said, still laying his hands in my stomach. The warmth coming from his hands felt good, and I was starting to feel better: at least I could talk. "I have no idea. I haven't been able to look for her and she hasn't answered any of my calls. Maybe she got caught up as collateral..."
I felt awful. She had paid us to get her safely to Lassadia and I couldn't protect her. If she had been near us, she might have gotten caught up in the battle by one of the demon's attack spells. She was most likely dead by now.
"Just a few more minutes, Logan, and we'll be through", he said tenderly.
Heh, maybe this guy isn't so bad after all...
When I started feeling better, enough so I could walk by myself and heal over my own body's healing powers in a matter of hours, everything started coming out very suspicious.
"I don't think this Lassadia business is good for our health, Logan..." said Roy with a sly look in his face.
"I know everything seems very suspicious, but if we don't go to Lassadia, what d'you reckon'll happen?", I inquired.
"Well, that Mazoku'll probably keep looking for you and at some point might even try to kill you. I doubt these brass demons appeared randomly... either someone must've summoned them -someone with A LOT of power, since common sorcerers can hardly command only one of them with a summoning spell...- or they were sent here by some high-ranking Mazoku..."
"So you're saying that they were sent here by that guy we met back in town?"
"Most likely..." he said, while getting up, "You can walk by yourself, right? I doubt we'll be attacked on our way to Lassadia: if that Mazoku wanted to kill us, he would've showed up by himself, or he would've stricken us down back when we were fighting those bandits..."
I nodded, and got up. Suddenly, we heard a loud BANG in the distance, and a large column of smoke was rising up from...
LASSADIA!
I started running, but Roy stopped me, grabbing me by my shirt, "You can't fight in that condition"
"I know I can't", I winked, "but surely a guy that can kill four brass demons without so much as sweating can take on whatever's on Lassadia right now..."
Roy smiled, "You're one of a kind, did you know that?" and let me go, all the while we were running.
The large city of Lassadia, once the center of agriculture in the kingdom of Ruvinagald, was set ablaze. Every single building was burning, and all the locals were running crazed out of fear. Most of the streets were covered in blood and the landscape was grim and disgusting. It seemed more like a slaughterhouse than a regular town, and anger built up in my soul. This was definitely that guy, this was his doing. But what did he want with me?
Somehow, I started feeling better all of a sudden, all my wounds seemed like a thing from the past and I couldn't feel so much as a scratch in my stomach.
"How're you feeling?", said Roy.
"Alright... I guess", I outright lied. I didn't feel anything from my wound earlier, but I did feel sick to my stomach when I saw the disgusting scenery before us.
Suddenly, the man in black materialized in front of us.
"Welcome to Lassadia," he said with a sickening smile in his face.
"YOU!", I yelled and charged after him. I felt something strange in my blade, it was definitely glowing, but I wasn't bothered by it, and just kept on. He easily dodged my attack by disappearing and appearing right next to me, punching me in the gut. I coughed up some blood; I hadn't healed completely apparently.
"Easy now, boy. Easy" he smiled.
"What do you want with us?", Roy said.
"With you not much," he turned his gaze to Roy. I was recovering and put my blade back in position to fend off any kind of attack that might come.
"Who are you? Who sent you?" demanded Roy, while I ran towards him and noticed he was preparing some sort of defensive spell of sorts.
"If you must know, my name and title is Norst, priest of Dynast"
Those names didn't mean anything to me, but Roy on the other hand seemed shocked and impressed. Norst stared at us, laughing.
"Dynast Grausherra!?", said Roy. The name sounded like it came from a creepy overlord in children's stories, but Roy spoke it with utmost care.
"Lord Dynast himself" he smiled, "And thank you for attending my small invitation. Please, make yourselves at home", he smiled and disappeared.
But then, I noticed someone else walking from where Norst had disappeared...
"No...", I said.
I saw Maria standing right before us, with bloodlust in her eyes and a clear wicked smile in her face.
This isn't happening...