'Do you sense her yet?' Crocovile commented to Phoenix as the two looked down from the sky, trying to locate their superior. 'Skree...not yet...' She then noticed something purple standing on a mountain, overlooking 2 villages and a large castle in the distance in the night sky.
'There! There she is!' She descended towards the sorceress, and let go of Crocovile near the the ground.
'Ah, you two come at the right time.' She approached them. 'Mis—huh? We do?' Crocovile looked confused. 'For what?' She pointed towards the villages. 'Our allies are busy with something that ought to help our lord, but it has to be done during this night. I already managed to talk with someone one of them knew who's willing to help us, and I want you two to assist them in the villages over there.' She pointed towards the villages.
'Got it.' Phoenix agreed to it. 'But...didn't you want to say something, Crocovile?' The sorceress turned to him. He looked embarrassed towards her. 'O-Oh! Yeah, actually I do...we were busy in the lake area, but that woman from earlier today turned up there, and she wasn't alone. She was aided by a brown-haired girl and a few other oddballs who were native to the area, so we figured to better retreat against such odds.'
She gritted slightly in disgust. 'Bah, just like how that girl described how they would appear like. I can already sense that the seeds have been destroyed as well, so they're definitely not having a blind stroke of luck with flushing out the plants you two planted.' Phoenix gasped, and bowed down. 'Skreee! I'm sorry, mistress, we couldn—'
'Don't worry, I'm not angry at you two. If this plan succeeds, the losses of the plants at the lake will be of little concern. Now go, time is running short!'
'Right!" Crocovile and Phoenix hurried off towards a village on both sides, the sorceress vanishing in a puff of smoke. 'Better make sure we're on the same terms here with our ally...'
'Dang it...' Schezo grumbled as he cut away more bushes in his path, visibly annoyed by having no leads whatsoever despite having passed a few areas. 'This is preposterous!' He started talking loudly to himself as he looked around the wide open grassy plains. 'It can't just be that that sorceress vanished off the Earth like that. She has to be around here somewhere, I just know it...' He started thinking of other possibilities. 'Perhaps she went the other way, towards Arle's hometown...yes, that's it.' He took a turn towards the right, entering a thick forest, though the vast trees were obscuring his view among the darkness of the night even more, but he pressed on. 'This has to be a shortcut...hm?' He noticed a faint light in the distance, and hurried over there, curious what it was, and he was confused when he saw a person walking in front of a whole line of people, yet even more so when he saw the silhouette from the torch she was holding.
'What the—Arle?!'
'Ack! Who is over-' She looked towards where the voice was coming from, and looked suspicious when she saw who the figure coming closer really was. 'Huh?! Done so soon? I underestimated-' Schezo drew his blade in suspiciousness. 'What the hell are you talking about?! And what are you doing here with those people?' He looked at a few people standing behind her, just standing there motionless. She knew enough, and tried putting on an act. 'That's none of your business, but...' She smirked deviously, much to Schezo's surprise, and casted a weird spell towards him. 'Sleep powder!' Various odd spores emerged from her hand, hitting Schezo who tried avoiding it, and he felt his eyelids forcibly closing. 'D-Dang it...Arl...' Falling to the ground, she smirked, calling out for help.
The next morning...
'Ah, that was a good night's rest.' Arle stepped out of her room all dressed up with Carbuncle on her shoulder, seeing Rulue downstairs making sandwiches for the journey ahead. 'Hey Rulue.' She looked behind her, smiling at Arle. 'Oh, hi there. Did you sleep well?' She nodded. 'Mm-hm. Did you?'
'Well, sort of. ' Arle tilted her head slightly. 'Hm? What do you mean?'
'I'm too used to waking up in the night hearing Mino yell in his sleep that it has become sort of a habit.'
'Does he yell in his sleep?' Arle giggled slightly.
'Yeah, he keeps telling me that he's having some horrible nightmare over and over again, but I'm not sure about that...anyway, you ready to go back to Lilypad Lake again?'
She nodded. 'Yeah. I hope Harpy and the others are alright and that nothing has happened over there.' Packing a few sandwiches in a bag and eating a few on their way to the lake, and to their relief, they didn't notice any purple smoke anywhere near the lake or the forest near it from what they could see. 'Hmm, things look fine here so far. But we need to go to a large tree according to that big walking fish.' Rulue squinted her eyes and noticed a large tree sticking out from the others to the north. 'There.' She pointed towards it, and Arle followed suit, them soon arriving at small clearing in the forest where the giant tree towered, though their ears twitched from hearing familiar singing as well with Harpy standing near the tree.
'Lalalilalooo!" She was singing not too loudly, but quite enough to make Arle and Rulue cover their ears, approaching her. 'Hey! Could you please stop singing?!' Rulue shouted to her, it catching Harpy's attention. 'Oh! Hello blue-haired lady from yesterdaaay!' Rulue got agitated from the further singing, but she took a deep breath, and remained calm. 'It's Rulue, thank you! Could you please stop singing for a while?' Harpy nodded, and obliged since Rulue seemed to ask it politely and she helped her yesterday. 'Alriiight, sorry for irritating you.' She sighed from relief. 'Meh, I just had a poor night's rest, don't worry.' Arle only giggled slightly from this exchange. 'Harpy, did you get any word from Mr. Zombie yet as Rulue told me last night?'
'No, he hasn't come here yet, and Mr. Suketoudaraaaa needed to arrange something in a town to the north of here for our big debut toniiight.' Though Arle was curious about what Harpy meant by that, but before she could, she heard some noises coming close, and the group looked to the south, noticing an orange-colored slimy individual carrying a guitar, and she couldn't help but tap her foot to the rhythm. 'And that's when the stars truuuly shiiine...' The person stopped briefly singing along, noticing Harpy and a few others. 'Ah, theeere you aaare, miss Harpyyy.' He smiled despite his slow speech creeping Rulue out slightly. 'Mr. Zombie, how did it gooo?'
He strummed a guitar string, and smiled. 'Well, I thiiiink I finally naaailed the beat for toniiiight.' Rulue intervened. 'Not that! Mr. Zombie was it? Did you spot any weird activity from some weird creatures—no offense meant, around these area's like planting weird seeds or smelt any strange fog?'
Zombie scratched his cheek trying to recall the past night. 'Ugee...well, I didn't see anything the whole night I was out patrolliiing on request of miss Harpy, and I didn't smeeeell any strange fog...'
Rulue sighed from relief. 'That means they didn't return. Thanks for the information.'
Though Arle approached him soon after that. 'Um, Mr. Zombie? I heard Harpy and Suketoudara mention something about a band and planning to play somewhere yesterday, is that right?' They both nodded. 'You're right, miss Aaarle.' Harpy sang a bit excited about it. 'Thing is, we've been trying to organize our own little band and try to make a name for ourselveees!'
Zombie added in to it. 'And we've settleeeed on playing iiiin Westburrow Village to the noooorth tonight under the name of 'The Seafaring Starscreamers'. Arle giggled slightly at the name. 'D-Don't laaaugh...' Zombie mumbled. 'We're serious abooout this. Harpy and Seririiii are backup singers while Suketoudara dances and I proviiiide the music.' Rulue could already imagine how it would go, much to her dismay.
'Haa...haa...' They heard loud footsteps coming their way, and noticed Suketoudara coming their way. 'Oh, hi there, Mr. Suketoudara!' Arle shouted to him, but his expression was rather serious as he hurried to the group. 'Guys, terrible news!' They approached him, curious to know what he was talking about. 'What is it?'
'Westburrow Village's in trouble! I just visited that place, and all of the men and boys have suddenly vanished from the town, and all of the female inhabitants of the town are desperate, not knowing what to do!' They couldn't believe what they were hearing. 'Are you sure about thaaat?!' Harpy inquired, looking shocked. 'Yeah, and the strange thing is, they all disappeared last night! I'm worried about the villagers, but by the looks of it, our concert tonight won't be happening anytime soon tonight!' They all looked disappointed, but Arle remained confident. 'Suketoudara, this Westburrow Village is to the north, right? Rulue and I will head over there immediately and see if we can aid them somehow.' Suketoudara smiled faintly, but shrugged. 'Look missy, I dunno if you're familiar with the terrain around these parts, but there's a large ocean that seperates this place and Westburrow Village. If you're planning to head over there by foot, the only safe way is to head clockwise around the Nocturnal Ruins area, and from there you have to travel across a mountainous area and cross a bridge, and that will take at least 4 hours, as there's no traffic usually going there.'
Rulue looked determined. 'Bah, we don't care how long it will take us, we'll head over there as soon as we can!" Suketoudara suddenly shouted. 'Hey hey! There's another method to reach Westburrow village far sooner, though.' Arle got curious. 'How, exactly?' He stood proudly, flexing his muscles. 'I can carry ya ladies across the sea to the shore close to the village, that's how I got there earlier, and it's not too much of a hassle for me. It'll take around uh...30 minutes while carrying you two, I'll guarantee it!' Rulue widened her eyes and objected. 'WHAT?! And let my clothes get wet?! No way!'
Arle tried to reason with her. 'Rulue, think of the villagers there, the sooner we can get there, the better.' Harpy and Zombie added something as well. 'Look, if clooothes are an issue, you two can put on light white dresses I have at my house for the trip to get weeet, while I'll carefully carry your clothes across the sea, that a good ideaaa?'
'Ugeee, my sooon got a large traveling bag as well to put them intooo, don't worry.'
Rulue was less stressed hearing that. 'Hmm, sounds good. Very well, if you would be so kind to show us to your home, Harpy, we'll get changed and prepare for the trip. Though you better hold on to me tight, Suketoudara!' He took a deep breath, getting slightly nervous. 'O-Of course!'
And so after a few minutes, they departed from the beachside with Suketoudara holding both Arle and Rulue in his arms gently as he made his way across the seaside, with Harpy and Seriri following along with the latter holding Carbuncle in her arms, and Zombie and his child waving them goodbye. 'Goood luck!'
About roughly 30 minutes later, they arrived close to the shore of the northern landscape, with a small upwards beach area leading to a forest region in sight, and Suketoudara let go of Arle and Rulue for them to walk on the beach, and Seriri gently put Carbuncle on the beach. Harpy landed with the bag, placing it on the shore. 'Theeeere we aaaare!' She shouted excited, though Suketoudara was gasping for air desperately.' *Wheeze...wheeze* 'Wow...that was tougher than I expected it to be...' Rulue glared at him. 'Are you implying that I'm heavy?!' He glared back in return. 'Hey, that ain't what I'm implying... *wheeze* All I'm saying is that this took a lot outta me...*wheeze* And to think Harpy and me were going to help you out on yer silly quest as well...'
Arle and Rulue were surprised to hear that. 'Are you serious?!' Harpy nodded. 'Mm-hm! You helped us out yesterdaaay, and we discussed thiiiis in the forest last night. And if you're going to help the villagers so we can perform tonight, that solidifies our decisiooon.' Rulue flinched from her singing again. 'A-Alright, you can come along, on one condition!' Harpy came closer. 'Yeees?'
'That you won't do much singing around us, alright? We're not traveling around for fun, and we don't want to be distracted by your singing!' Harpy looked a bit disappointed. 'Oh, well...got iiit...'Arle tapped Harpy on the shoulder. 'H-hey, we could use some distraction during our travels, you can sing to us with your heart's content!' Trying to cheer her up, which Harpy was all too happy to hear.
'What about you, Suke-huh?' Arle noticed he collapsed, and ran over to him. 'Suketoudara! Is he...' Seriri shrugged her head. 'Of course not. He just fell asleep from this ferrying chore and needs to regain his stamina. I'm sorry, but it won't look like he'll be able to come along with you right now. I'll keep an eye on him and tell where you'll be going so he can catch up with you when he wakes up. That alright with you?' Arle nodded, patting him on his back. 'Tell Suketoudara that we truly appreciated his help.' Seriri nodded.
'Yeah, please tell him that.' Rulue grabbed the bag and pointed to the forest. 'Let's go in the forest and dress ourselves back up, Arle. This dress might feel comfy, but it's getting cold!' Harpy and Arle followed, and Harpy was courteous enough to pack a towel along for them to dry themselves before changing back in their own attire. 'Ah...much more comfortable...'Rulue sighed from relief. 'Hey, I actually liked that dress.' Arle commented, making Harpy blush. 'Heheee, thanks!' They waved Seriri goodbye as they departed leaving the bag with Seriri to carry back to the forest when Suketoudara would wake up.
'Hmm...ah! I can see the village in sight! Arle noticed a group of buildings coming in sight when they travelled through the plains, with Harpy singing to herself, Rulue keeping her fingers in her ears to not get distracted. Reading a sign, Arle was sure of it. 'Yes, this is it. ''Westburrow Village.'' Come on, let's see what the villagers can tell us what's going on...' Though as the group set foot inside the village borders, they noticed that the few villagers walking around and chatting amongst themselves were indeed all female as Suketoudara told them, though they felt uneasy when the villagers kept staring at them, and suddenly one of them shouted: 'It's her! She's that wench that took away all the men!' Her finger clearly pointing at Arle. 'W-What?!' Suddenly the remaining few villagers all came running out of their homes towards the town entrance with vegetabbles ready to toss towards her, and barraged her with it. 'Return the men to us, you foul wench!' Arle and the others didn't know what to make of it, but were too busy trying to avoid their projectiles. 'Ack! H-Harpy! Please sing as loudly as you can!' Rulue shouted to her, getting an idea. 'W-What?! But they are angryyyyy!'
'Just do it!' Harpy took a deep breath, and started singing as loudly as she could. 'HARAHIREHOREEE!'
'AAAARRGH!' All of the villagers stopped and covered their ears. 'P-PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!'
'HARAHOROHIREEEE!'
'ONLY IF YOU'LL PROMISE TO LISTEN TO WHAT I'LL HAVE TO SAY AND STOP ATTACKING US!'
'LALILALE!'
'YES! PLEASE! JUST MAKE HER STOP!'
Rulue shouted loudly in Harpy's ear. 'Alright! Stop! They'll listen!' Harpy stopped singing and rubbed her ear. 'H-hey, no need to shout so loudly...'
Everyone sighed of relief, and Arle approached them. 'Now what is it that you people were saying, that I'm the one responsible for what's going on here?' One of the villagers responded, the rest still looking coldly at her. 'Yes, we are! Last night you appeared in our fair town muttering some strange nonsense, and all of our boyfriends, husbands and sons just straight up walked out of here, and started following you to that tramp's mansion like obedient silent slaves!' Rulue overheard that last part, and shouted to the female villager. 'Tramp's mansion?!' How dare you?!' Another villager intervened. 'Hands off! She wasn't talking about you! We mean the mansion of that wily seducing witch Succubus! I carefully trailed the line and saw it with my own eyes!'
Arle tried to reason with them. 'Look, I understand that this is a horrible situation, but please listen to me. I've never been to this village before in my whole life, and I've just heard about it this morning, and I came here because I heard from a friend of mine what happened here, trying to help you people!' The woman all mumbled amongst themselves, a few approaching her, taking a good look at her. 'Hmm...strange, your eyes do seem...sincere. Very well, we'll believe you, for the time being...'
'Thanks, but...what were you all saying about someone called Succubus?' The villagers looked rather upset. 'She's a wily seducer who lives not far away from our town and frequently attempts to woo traveling men in that large estate of hers...heck she even has the audacity to try that on some of the male inhabitants of this village, including my boyfriend!' Another woman backed her up.
'Yeah, and when you, or rather someone looking alot like you, appeared and took them away and threatened us, walked towards her mansion with the men in tow, and the gate closed behind them, none of us being able to get inside thanks to some weird barrier that then popped up around the mansion!' Arle heard this was serious, and she asked in which direction the estate was, so she could see for herself.
'Hmph, it's to the north of here, past a thick forest. Look, we just want the other villagers returned safe and sound, and we dread what might happen to them under the hands of that she-devil. If you can somehow remove that barrier and allow us inside or rescue the male villagers, we'll truly believe you have nothing to do with this.'
'Got it. I think we should depart right away, Rulue and Harpy!" They nodded, and left the village with the women still looking mighty suspiciously at them, them sighing from relief when they entered the forest, following the main trail to the north.
'Hey Arle...' Harpy tapped her on the shoulder gently. 'Yes?'
'You really weren't here previouslyyyy?' Arle denied it. 'Of course I wasn't! I'm completely unfamiliar with this area, but it's odd...someone resembling me...' Harpy thought she saw Arle have some vague idea, but she shrugged it off. 'Let's just see what we can find out—'GRAAAGH!'
The loud yelling catching their attention, they turned towards the direction of where it came from, and saw a snake-like creature slithering across the bushes, trying to evade a large yellow bird trying to grab her. 'Someone help me!' She shouted in desperation. They ran towards them, and Arle summoned a shard of ice towards the bird, it only being distracted and turning it's menacing attention towards them, allowing the snake creature to hide in a hollow tree. 'Skreeee!' It's screech made them cover their ears as it tried reaching it's claws out to them, though Harpy began to sing in retaliation, purposely false and the bird screeched in agony, flapping away towards the far distant mountains as it had enough of it. They were relieved that it retreated, and they approached the hollow tree from where they spotted the snake creature retreating to.
'Um, are you okay? Ah!' Arle was surprised to see that the snake creature was a serpent-like woman with red hair and barely wearing anything to cover up her torso, save for a white bra. 'Ah, yes I am, much appreciated!' Harpy was surprised as well, though she tried to gain some information out of her. 'Just who aaare you?' She waved her hair in the open, and smiled seductively at them. 'My name's Lamia, and I got in a bit of a...nasty predicament thanks to an old friend of mine, whom I intend to get back at.'
'And who's that friend exactly?' Rulue curiously asked. 'Why, it's that snooty Succubusssss.' She hissed, revealing her sharp venom-filled teeth, sending chills up the girls' spines. 'Eek! Well...w-we actually were traveliiing towards that Succubus' estate for our own reasons...could you please assist us if we have the same goal in miiind?' Harpy looked at her kindly, Lamia rubbed her side with the tip of her tail. 'How can I deny the help of such a lovely innocent-looking creature and her colleagues who just saved me? Very well, I'll lead you to where she livesssss.' She slithered through the pathway, the rest just following her, with Harpy trying to shrug off the unpleasantness that this serpent woman emits.
Arriving at her estate, they saw from a distance that the building was indeed protected by a magical barrier, and Rulue put her hand against it, feeling like concrete stone. 'Hmph!' She tried to deliver a hard kick to it, but it didn't budge an inch. 'Dang it!' Lamia inspected it. 'Hmm...odd...she's never been this secretive about her usual antics to me. That sorceresssss must have something to do with it.'
'Sorceress?' Arle came close to Lamia. 'Yes, me and Succubus...well let's just say that we've been long-time friends for a good say, 100 years.' Harpy widened her eyes. '100?!' Lamia hissed slightly at her, to continued her story. 'Anyway, we usually like to prey on some nasty men and have some 'fun' with them, but last night some weird sorceress in a purple cloak appeared in her estate as we were just chatting between ourselves, and all of a sudden after some weird mumbo-jumbo that hag muttered, Succubus suddenly wanted every man from the local village near her all for herself, and she didn't intend to share anything with me, and demanded I leave.' She ten hissed a the building, looking very pissed off. 'That sorceress hag even appeared in front of me earlier this morning and sent that half-wit bird Garuda after me to keep me silent, and I've been running away from it since a few minutes ago...that's when you girls appeared and bailed me out.'
'I see. Rulue, didn't Schezo also mention a purple-cloaked sorceress to us at the Nocturnal Ruins?' Arle questioned Rulue, her nodding, though Lamia was reminded of something when they mentioned that name. 'Hold on...there was something else. Apparently you then came waltzing in her estate with all those lovely-looking men, and prior to me getting kicked out, you told Succubus to take real good care of someone called Schezo...if I recall correctly was a rather handsome-looking young man who I could easily sink my lips into.' She said, licking her teeth with her reptilian tongue.
'S-stop it, please.' Arle said to her, but was alarmed. 'So Schezo's captured in that building, and you say it was me who brought him in?' Lamia nodded, though she slithered close to Arle, and gazed in her eyes, Arle quivering. 'Hmm...but your eyes, they look too innocent and naive as I saw last night. You can't be the same person as that wench I saw briefly last night.' Arle didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or insult, but she took it as the former when she distanced herself from Arle.
'R-Right, looks like it's definitely someone impersonating me, but could be her?' Arle shrugged it off, and paid attention back to Lamia. 'Lamia, do you know of any possible way to get past that barrier and inside that mansion?' She nodded. 'Yes, I do, follow me.' The girls followed Lamia as she slithered to the edge of the forest close to Succubus' mansion and she opened up a tree stump with her tail, revealing a pathway to a underground lair, decorated as a home, and the girls looked around, being surprised how...tidy it looked for a underground lair. 'Here.' She shoved aside a bookcase, and it revealed a passageway for the girls to crawl through. 'This is a personal shortcut I made to her kitchen area in the days when I can't find anything to eat, and I have to eat her attempts at mortal cooking...bah...' They crawled after her through the passageway, Rulue helping Harpy since her wings were having trouble fitting in the passageway. 'Ah! C-Carefuuull...'
They followed her, the passageway now leading upwards, and Lamia opened up a plate from the kitchen floor, shoving it aside and slithered into the large kitchen, helping the girls up on their feet into the building. 'Wow...looks pretty luxurious for a kitchen!' Rulue commented, though she then sniffed something. 'Hmm...hold on...I smell something weird.' Rulue walked to the refrigerator, Arle following her. 'What is it?'
'I don't know, but it's a strong muff smell that smells like a eggplant...' She opened it up, and both her and a large eggplant with glasses on both shrieked. 'AAAIIEE!' The eggplant jumped out. 'Don't squash me-Nasu!' Rulue took a moment to regain her breath, and they approached him. 'Hey, don't worry, none of us are going to do that, but what are you doing in that refrigerator?' Arle questioned him, him panicking at Lamia's gaze at him. 'D-Don't get any idea's-Nasu!' I'm Nasu Grave, a guy turned into an eggplant by some freak alchemy-accident and I was just peacefully living in that village, until that Succubus captured me and I've been hiding in here, afraid that she'll steal my soul like all the other guys in here!-Nasu!'
'Stealing souls?!' Arle kneeled down to him. 'Are you sure?'
'Yes-Nasu!' I heard her mumbling about taking out the souls of all the men in here and delivering the hypnotized bodies somewhere else.-Nasu!' He started panicking with sweat emitting from his body. 'Then I saw her doing it with my own eyes to a guy, and I...I...NASU!' Arle put her hand to his mouth, trying to keep him silent. 'Sssh, calm down, we're going to free all the men and do something about her, but we don't need to alarm our presence to her. 'Nasu...' He nodded.
'Riiight, do you know where she iiiis?' Harpy politely asked.
'She's at her private quarters on the 3rd floor, but be careful! I smelled some weird foul smoke emitting from there before I hided myself in here.-Nasu!'
'Purple smoke, eh?' Rulue and Arle were convinced, and the group walked towards the kitchen door, not knowing what to expect...
