I was going to work on something else, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I'll get one that other thing when this is done. Unfortunately, I can't use my Grammarly account anymore on the account of the fact they don't take any other currency than the US dollar, which makes NO sense to me as if you're offering a service to the international market, then you should have some sort of localisation system. So right now I'm just cycling through whatever other writing services I can find till I find one I'm both comfortable with, and I feel does the job.

Chapter 11: Trouble in Elenydd

'You wished to see us, Mayor Williams?' C.C. asked as it led them into the modest office of the town mayor, the man turning in his seat to greet them.

'Yes, I appreciate that you answered my request so quickly.' Mayor Williams shook both her and Lelouch's hands, noting that they looked just as strange as his people told them as Cassandra's gaze reminded him of his grandmother, eyes that had seen far too much. Her boyfriend was just as strange as the lad was near as pale as a corpse, with eyes that seemed to have no life in them to match.

'It would be remiss if we didn't. We are citizens after all.' Cassandra replied as she sat down, Henry following suit but staying silent as he observed him like a hawk. 'And more than that, it's part of efforts to thank the town for all they've done for us.' In the month that had passed since the three had discussed their shared dreams, they had been out and about, helping around with simple tasks and serving as trustworthy 3rd parties.

'Perish the thought! We've never cared for English rule, so a minor rebellion against that bastard Schneizel might as well be a tradition.' Mayor Williams waved off, a little chuckle in his tone despite the situation.

'Still, it was strange that you summoned us? Your assistant was rather vague on the details, but I'm guessing this is outside what we normally do.' Cassandra noted.

'I wouldn't say that not if when I'm heard about your activities with old mad Thomas is anything to go by.' Mayor Williams' words got them more invested as both leaned forward in their seats, something he expected given what he had heard.

'And what have you heard? We deal with artefacts and old weapons.' Cassandra asked, her eyes focused on him, searching for any sign of deceit, which made his comparison of her gaze to his grandmother's all the more accurate as he hadn't felt like this since she could catch him stealing from the cookie jar.

'I've heard enough. You'll be surprised what a small town like ours hears and sees. A tight-knit community isn't the best place to keep secrets.' He told them, granted those rumours were never clear, but they did paint a tale of strange happenings at old man Thomas' place, which only grew in strength when some local kids went out there on a dare and swear they saw one of the weapons glowing. It wasn't as if people believed them, but their secretive nature and the fact that their group lived on the outskirts of town did give them an air of mystery.

'So, should we expect a visit from the local priest then?' Cassandra asked him, her frown forming on her lips before he spoke up.

'He's agreed to ignore it, and the townsfolk are of similar mind. It's not like you're hurting anybody, are you?' When both shook their heads, he went on, happy that he wasn't dealing with some cultists or something. 'But that leads us back to my topic at hand. You would consider yourselves…acquainted with the strange and abnormal?' Here, they shared a glance, confirming that there was more to them than they let on before Cassandra turned back to him.

'We're more than acquainted.' He nodded at her response, reaching for the cup of coffee that was now lukewarm.

'Then you might be able to do what the local sheriff can't. There have been some strange happenings in the elenydd in the general area.' He told them, wondering about the situation for what felt like the 100th time.

'Strange how?'

'It started a few months back, right around mid-summer. At first, farmers tending to their animals or people just walking about were reporting stuff they couldn't explain, sights and smells that didn't fit but nothing more than that.' He started to explain, hindsight making it clear that they should have moved then, but no one thought anything of it, farmers saw strange things all the time, mainly it was just animals and objects that they couldn't make out clearly and assumed it was something else.

'What changed?' Henry spoke up, the middle-aged mayor turning to him in mild surprise, having suspected that the boy would remain silent for the entire conversation.

'3 months ago, it got deadly as people would vanish in the morning mists, even when in groups, and when they were eventually found, they only recovered brutally mutilated corpses.' He opened his drawer, pulled out both the autopsy and police reports of the incidents, and passed them off to the two, who thanked him for them and started to read through them, the photos of the remains and the crime scenes painting a grisly sight.

'Wouldn't this be some kind of scare tactic? Argus and the World Police aren't shy about kidnapping and murdering anyone deemed a threat.' Cassandra asked, while they remained out of world affairs, Sayoko's remaining family that could find and relocate to their new home were still shinobi, and because of that they had their ears close to the ground and knew more about how Schneizel's regime was maintaining order than what the news was allowed to report.

'It wouldn't be the first time they butchered my countrymen like dogs on the whims of some Englishmen.' The man's gaze turned to Henry, who didn't even react as he looked over the reports, once more silent. 'But no, none of the victims had any history that would make them targets, and they aren't related to anyone who is.' The Mayor had also suspected that, as it was a long-used scare tactic, but it was much rarer to target innocent people with no ties to your real target.

'The only thing linking them would be the fact they were all tending to their animals at the time.'

Sometime later, the two had returned home and were working through the files the mayor had given them, a fire keeping their living room warm as the two sat in large sweaters. 'I will say this, I can't imagine a person being capable of this.' Lelouch muttered, putting down a coroner's report which had the picture of the victim's torn to shreds heart still in the chest cavity.

'You think Schneizel's enforcers don't have it in them?' C.C. asked him, her brow rising as she took a sip of tea.

'It's more that they shouldn't be physically capable of it than anything relating to morality.' Lelouch replied, his brow creasing as he had seen more than his fair share of bodies, people killed in all kinds of ways from stabbings, shootings, beatings, bombings, and fire. He knew death, knew it well, but none of this was familiar to him. 'According to the reports, the best guess the coroners could come up with would be that they were all attacked by a pack of wild dogs, but when he compared the bite marks to dogs-it came back negative.' That was a favoured tactic of the knight police on elevens, literally sending in the hounds and not caring if they even found their target. It was part of the reason he had been so gleeful to target them when he first started as Zero.

'More than that, everybody shares the same thing. Wherever they have a bite mark, the flesh shows signs of decay and poisoning.' He took out three photos of three different people to show her, each having the same purple and brown flesh at the sight of their bite marks.

'Decay could be explained if the bodies had been there a while, but it takes at least 3 days for organs to start to decompose, average 5 if you want to get these kinds of images,' C.C. stated, looking them over with a frown. 'But they were all found within a day.'

'And that still leaves the poison, even if this is the work of Argus or Suzaku, why go through the effort to kidnap random people, poison them, then have them torn to shreds by some animal? How would they even do it? The longest any of them had been missing was only 6 hours.' He asked the big question, one that neither could answer at the moment.

'It's not likely, but it's still something he would do if the news about him is to be believed.' C.C. turned to the tv, which was talking about how Suzaku had personally led an assault on a terrorist cell in India, Ahmedabad. They were framing it as a noble and righteous act, but they had already learned of it thanks to black market informants. It was because of that they knew this was old news, having occurred last week, only being reported now after they presumably eliminated any evidence to the contrary. That evidence would have told the story of how Suzaku's precise and quick strike against terrorists had been a bloody massacre that saw over 2,000 killed, many of which were not even their targets.

Lelouch turned to the TV as well, seeing a still image of the Lancelot as it stood to watch as prisoners were loading up for transport, the man sighing as he saw what his old friend had allowed himself to become before he turned away from it; he had other things to worry about. 'Regardless, there hasn't been any reason for him to even turn his gaze to the aisles, never mind this corner of Wales. If he or Kanon were behind this, it would have been targeted at us.' He was under no delusion that his brother would just let him live, he even made it easier for him by living in a small community so if he were to try to wipe him off the earth with a F.L.E.I.J.A., the damage would be limited.

'And considering the lack of knightmares and airships overhead, it's safe to say that they don't know we're here.' If nothing else, Schneizel painting himself as a man of the world, and not a Britannian ruler, meant that the British isles received no special attention from him. Sure they were Argus agents stationed there, as well as a garrison of Suzaku's world police, but they mainly stayed in the major cities t maintain order and ensure that people didn't try to flee to the countryside rather than remain bunched up together-easy targets for retribution.

'Still, the bite marks. They seem familiar.' He thought aloud, trying to recall where he had seen something like this before. 'Why don't you head down to the coroner's office and ask them for more details. Maybe get a first-hand view of whatever bodies haven't been sent to the funeral homes.'

'Sending the lady to observe death, how knightly of you.' C.C. replied as she nevertheless finished her tear and got up to go change. Winter may be ending soon as it was still unforgiving cold out.

Much was their new arrangement. Lelouch didn't react to the bait, his gaze remaining on the reports as he pulled out a notebook to write down notes. 'I'll remain here, and go over the reports, if there is a link-I'll find it.' Seeing this, C.C. just signed as she turned to head up to her room to get changed, wishing she had some pizza to snack on to calm her nerves.

'Ms Springfield, we were told you would be coming to see the bodies of the victims.' The door closed behind her as Ms Springfield walked into the local morgue, the assistant waiting for her in a clean lab coat.

'Yes, I would like to inspect them myself. You'll find that often the real deal is better than any picture.' Ms Springfield walked right on past him, with the man quickly moving to catch up and lead her to where they needed to go.

'Well, if that's the case, you would have found the crime scene to be a goldmine.' He joked, though his smile didn't reach his eyes.

'You were there.' She didn't ask, merely stating a fact as he nodded.

'Assistant to the head of this place though I have to admit, we don't get any too serious here, nothing like what you see in a big-time city, but this…you would think they stepped into a horror movie and it spat them out.' He shivered. He had liked to think he wasn't squeamish, it did take a lot in medical school to get a reaction out of him but there was a vast difference between just seeing the lungs of a heavy smoker in comparison to a set of healthy and those shredded remains.

'The report didn't paint a portrait of anything pleasant, that much is clear.' Ms Springfield shared in his distaste for his, if not his revulsion as if his reports were to be believed, more than a few of the victims had been alive for most of the attacks with only a few lucky ones being suspected of dying quickly. They entered the cold storage area and on one of the flatbeds that were out of its fridge lay a body covered in a tarp. 'Who's the first one?' She asked as the assistant removed it, showing only their upper torso as his lower half had been nearly destroyed.

'Terwyn Duncan. Age 56. Local farmer, no living relatives.' The assistant told her, having read the file before she arrived. Ms Springfield took the offered gloves and placed them on, walking around the body to inspect the damage for herself and it was just as bad as the report as while his upper half had been spared from the worst of it, it still looked like he had been mauled by an enraged dog or something.

'He was with his employee when this happened, right?' She asked him, raising the tarp to see what was left of his legs, noting that below his right knee, it was nearly only bone, the muscle, and skin having been bitten or torn off. Whereas his left leg past the thigh was a mangled mess. She would guess he had been kicking at his attacker, which only meant whatever did this to him focused more on them.

'That's what the police report said. Poor bastard said it lost the guy in the fog, and around an hour later he found him, or what's left of him.' The assistant sighed, feeling bad for the boy, only 15 who found him.

'These look worse than they did in the reports.' She noted, as in the images they had seen, for a lack of a better word, the rot had only been around the bite marks, but as she looked over the body, she had seen that they had spread, nearly affecting the entire body.

'We noticed it after the first couple of days, but I did write that up.' The assistant replied, mumbling angrily under his breath about someone fucking up and not passing on the updated reports. 'Regardless, this isn't normal.'

'Really?'

'Diseases and viruses, no matter how potent-die with the host. If this was that, the spread wouldn't have been as severe.' He directed her gaze back to the body, and how the rot seemed to be spreading through the veins like any normal pathogen, but considering there was no blood flow, with much of the remaining blood long since expired, it didn't take a medical degree to know something was off.

'Yet it only grows as time passes. Is it some kind of poison as the report claimed?' Ms Springfield asked him, getting a frustrated shake of the head.

'Lab results would refute that. While it's true, that something infected Mr Duncan and the others, we're already concluded that it was biological, not chemical though as to what, we have no clue,' He told her.

'And the bites? Is there any animal that could have done this?' Ms Springfield asked him, covering most of the body bar the head, which had a massive bite wound across it as if whatever killed him had tried to crush his skull in its jaws, and with the report noting how the skull nearly collapsed, it near very well had the power to do just that.

'As we first thought, a dog would be the best suspect, but there are details about the jaw and bite force that also disqualify any dog species. Whatever, this had significantly larger canines and broader incisors. Whatever attacked them also had over twice the bite force of a rottweiler.' He had seen dog attacks, many being people who just ran into a wild one, or took play a set too far, but he had never seen anything close to this.

'So not a dog, but close to a dog?' The man chuckled at the insanity of it, his gaze meeting Ms Springfield's unimpressed eyes.

'Trust me, it's more confusing than it sounds.' He told her as she signed, moving to closely look over the head, she wondered what was going on. As first her warlock started hearing things, then herself and after they found those strange weapons, Anya. It was as she was thinking about this that her hand grazed across the bite mark on the man's head, as soon as her gloved finger touched it, she felt a weight of revulsion come down on her, the breath leaving her body as she nearly collapsed to the floor if not for the coroner's assistant.

'Ms Springfield!' The man asked her, worried for her as she developed a cold sweat near instantly, her breathing heavy as she looked towards her hand and then towards where she had touched the man.

'I...I'm fine.' She stammered out a lie, her code still creating whatever she felt from that body. It was like nothing she had ever experienced, it felt…evil.

'I'm back.' C.C. called out as she walked into their home, removing her coat along the way and hanging it by the door, but she received no answer despite the fact it was close to 6 pm. 'Where did he run off to now?' She asked herself, walking by the kitchen and seeing it was empty, the same as the living room. As she walked up the stairs, she noted the bathroom was empty and was about to check his bedroom when she saw that the study door was open, the light on.

Inside, she found Lelouch pouring over some books. But they weren't the ones they had recovered from the lost library of Carreg Cennon, as they were calling it, but they were more regular books on local Welsh folklore. 'Why are you looking through those books?'

'Because I had a hunch and wanted to confirm it for myself.' He told her, smiling as he finally found what he was looking for and compared it to the notes he had written earlier, seeing that they matched up.

'Did you?' She asked him as he turned to her.

'See for yourself?' With his invite, she stepped closer and looked over his shoulder at where he was pointing. As she read through her, her scepticism rose.

'You're kidding.' She asked him, but he merely shook his head. The orange contacts were gone, displaying his glowing vacant crimson and violet eyes to her.

'After everything that's happened, I'm not about to rule out the strange. Besides, these descriptions fit our mystery killer into a tee. Down to the fact they were known to have a bite that quote "carries the evils of the world"' His finger tapped the illustration of their suspect, the large black animal looking as terrifying as whoever first drew it in the 16th century wanted it to be.

'It also says that it was most effective against mages, would depend on interpretation could be either you or me.' She frowned at him. As these were things neither had experience in and heading in without a plan would come back to bite them, in this case, literally.

'Which is why we won't be going alone. Jeremiah would accompany us as he's both the most physically capable but as a cyborg, he's not at as much risk as everyone else whose fully flesh and blood.' He told her.

'Fine, I'll start packing. Since we don't have a real idea of how its hunting pattern is, we're going to be gone for a while.' She turned to leave, already dreading going in while the winter's snow and winds still dominated the area, but it wouldn't do if they waited till spring if the chances of more people dying were still possible.

A few days later, the three were wandering in the general area of the attacks, all dressed up like local herdsmen who, from their reports, seem to be the favoured target. However, they didn't come unprepared to fight, as C.C. had brought with her daggers and an SMG was hidden underneath her cloak. Jeremiah had chosen to rely on his arm blades and a pistol was hidden in a back holster. It was Lelouch that was the odd one out, as he had brought with him nothing. When Lelouch had proposed the plan, there was strong push-back from the rest as he could admit that it was extremely dangerous, but they couldn't bring a larger group considering the monster seemed to favour smaller ones, if not picking people off one at a time in silent take-downs.

Their first night had been uneventful. They set up camp and took shifts watching. It was their second night where they seemed to have progressed as while he and Jeremiah slept, C.C. saw something in the distance, a set of glowing red eyes. When she had seen that, she promptly woke them up, and they searched around, but except for strange tracks in the snow, they couldn't find anything else. It was their third day that they finally found what they were looking for.

'Stop.' Lelouch said, getting the other two to pause as they stood alone on a small rural path while the mists covered the place, making visibility limited. 'Hear that?' He asked them, getting them to focus on their surroundings, but it was as silent as a grave.

'I don't hear anything, my lord.' Jeremiah replied, getting C.C. to realise what he meant.

'That's the point. There's no sound, no birds, no breeze.' They were in the countryside. There should have been dozens if not hundreds of birds and small animals milling about, even if it were still winter they should hear something, yet it was silent.

'We're right where it wants us, then.' Jeremiah summarised as the three got closer together to cover each one back.

'Just like we want.' Lelouch added, his geass shining like a beacon, having removed his contacts as he found that they irritated his eyes more and more than the days went by. He had an idea of what was causing, sparring a glance at his right hand, but he had other concerns at the moment. Without his contacts, he noted that his vision was clearer, especially in a darker setting, and it seems that it applied to fog-like conditions as it was because of this that he managed to see a large mass heading right for him, its own crimson eyes giving nothing of a soul away-only death. As it broke through the worst of the fog and caught C.C. and Jeremiah's attention, he was already moving as he willed his bracelet to act, the artefact responding to his will as it burst into bright flames.

'My lord!' Jeremiah moved to protect his master from the beast but saw it would be unneeded as the physical training and activities they have done for the past 7 months paid off as Lelouch dodged the lunge, giving him the space he needed with swing his newly formed bident, the sharpened, shining bronze edge cutting through the creature's thick hide to its flesh, drawing out a surprised, pained growl from the creature as it landed, keeping itself low to the ground as he glared at with nothing but hate for what he managed to do.

'Believed that I was unarmed, did you not?' Lelouch asked, twirling the spear before he flicked its head to the side, sending most of the creature's yellow blood off the duel spearhead, his own crimson and violent starring down the creature. 'These eyes will see your death, monster.' Hearing this, and seeing that its prey wouldn't be as easy kills as the previous ones, the creature backed off into the thick fog, waiting for another moment to strike but what it didn't know was that Lelouch was keeping a good eye on it, he couldn't make out features, but he could track its massive mass well enough.

'It's just as you thought, a Gwyllgi.' C.C. mentioned, her SMG and ready to fire while Jeremiah had his blades drawn, at least she now knew why the reports were so contradictory as the monster was similar to a dog in form, but it was easily twice the size of any dog she had seen.

'Down to the putrid yellow blood.' Lelouch spared his spearhead a momentary glance, seeing how the tainted sickly yellow blood continued to drip off his weapon, the stuff reeking as if the beast it came from was nothing more than a decaying corpse. 'Remember not to breathe in its breath.' There was silence once more, but one they all knew to be a falsehood. When Lelouch picked up its movement, getting closer, he gave Jeremiah a quiet warning, tapping his back. This was all the man needed for when the Gwyllgi rushed them once more, both Lelouch and C.C. jumped back from it, leaving a smiling Jeremiah to meet the beast's head as he rose an arm to defend himself from its baleful bite. Once more, to the surprise of the demonic creature, then the sound of torn flesh and bones cracking it was expecting, it was meant with a dull thud of its powerful teeth biting into false flesh and metal.

'Not what you were expecting, beast? You'll find Jeremiah Gottwald far beyond you!' Jeremiah cried as he pulled his pistol out, and fired 4 rounds into the Gwyllgi's unprotected underbelly, forcing it to let go of him and jump back with a whimper of pain, a whimper that turned into a howl as Lelouch closed the distance between them and rammed his spear right into its side, the flesh and bone giving way t the bronze spear which dug deep into the creature. The monster tried to use its larger frame to throw Lelouch off, but he barely managed to keep the beast from doing so, his arms straining under the weight of the task.

'C.C.!' With that prompt, C.C. fired on the beast, her shoots drawing further roars of pain that were quickly silenced when her bullets penetrated its large skull, the beast falling limp soon after.

'Never thought I would slay a mythical monster.' C.C. noted as she changed out her clip for a fresh one.

'It was easier than I-!' Lelouch started as he withdrew his spear, only to stab the thing again to ensure that it was dead, and with no movement from that second thrust, he pulled his blade free, inspecting the thick amounts of rotten blood he'll have to clean off. 'Imagined, too easy.' As he looked around, he eyed something approaching Jeremiah from the rear, it being even larger than the Gwyllgi they'd already killed.

'Jeremiah!' His warning saved the man's life as he dodged out of the way, but was clipped by the second, even larger Gwyllgi's lunge as Jeremiah quickly worked to right himself, turning to face the second threat as he crashed into Lelouch, throwing the two to the ground where his spear's shaft was the only thing keeping the damn thing from biting his head off, but it was a losing battle as 7 months of exercise or not, this beast was closer to a damned lion.

'Of course, there's two of you…!' Lelouch struggled, even as C.C. fired on the beast. Its larger size and thicker hide made her rounds as useful as they would be on big game. The beast's spittle flew all over his face, making his eyes water from just how vile it was, the sight of the beast's open jaws not helping as it was like looking into an inferno, its breath dry and hot on his skin as it got closer to its kick, only for a strike from Jeremiah to drive it back as he punched it in the side, the blade shooting out on impact, skewering it through its side. The Gwyllgi's barked out in anger and pain, but Jeremiah used the surprise of the attack, and his momentum to send it off Lelouch, giving him much-needed breathing room as the creature tumbled on its side, with Jeremiah pinning there as he pulled out his pistol.

'Stay away from him!' The cyborg yelled as he rammed the barrel into the monster's eye, nearly bursting its eyeball before he pulled the trigger, emptying the clip into the Gwyllgi's head, once he was done, his barrel was a yellow mess, but so was the skull of the monster. With that done, he tossed his empty gun aside and rushed back to his lord's aide, with C.C. already present.

'Your majesty!' Lelouch already looked ill, his breath growing more laboured as C.C. helped him to his feet.

'Dammit…I must have…breathed some of its breath…' Lelouch cursed himself for his carelessness. He tried to steady himself only to start to violently cough, his two compatriots sharing concerned looks before they made a decision.

'We need to get back to camp, and get you to a doctor before it spreads.' C.C. wasn't asking for permission as she started to lead him away from the place, they could worry about the clean-up later but as they walked by the smaller of the dead beasts, Lelouch's issues only grew as he got hit with a mind-splitting headache, getting him to groan harder.

'You're too close.' That voice, the one he had heard in so many of his dreams, told him. He wasn't given any time to question this, none of them was as the surrounding area started to shift, as if the fog was being altered as it become clear away as if they were now in the eye of a storm, the hairs on the back of their necks stood on end as some primal part of them screamed they should run, but they couldn't see where to run to.

This shifted once more than their powers reacted to this strange occurrence, Lelouch's geass shining brighter than it ever had before, it was like he had two torches in his head and with it, not just in how bright they were, but in how hot his eyeballs felt, it was like someone was pouring the smelted metal into his sockets. His pained scream of agony was joined by the others as Jeremiah's geass canceller seemed to be reacting similarly, the cover that normally kept it sealed shutting open without any input from the teal-haired man as he grits his teeth, trying and failing to keep on his feet fell over. C.C.'s code was the same as the rest as she reached for her head, pain shooting through her skull like a rusty nail.

As they happened, the surrounding area started to glow as well, with the air itself starting to crack as if reality was being twisted, or more accurately, it was finally giving way to some unknown force. The two carcasses behind them started to glow, their forms becoming dust that was slowly pulled closer to them, as they stood at the centre of it all. The fog picked up, the eye of the storm passing and just like that, where they once were, was empty, leaving only Jeremiah's blood-stained pistol behind.

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