Season 2, chapter 10, Part 2.
Frozen Forest.
Millie walks in after the group as they step inside.
"It is really dark in here," Finral mentions, and the two flame mages, Magna and Sebastian, make a small flame next to their shoulders.
"Thanks, you two," Lydia utters as they walk through the eerie house. "Maybe this place has some clues about the dungeon," Sebastian suggests.
"Good thinking," Asta says as the group keeps going into what looks like a library at one end of the big long house.
Millie looks in the opposite direction and puts up a white flame next to her shoulder. She walks to a book lying open against the floor in front of a couple of chairs with a small coffee table between them with a tipped-over mug on the table.
She picks up the book and turns it around, keeping the page that it is open on, open.
She sees a picture of a huge skull hovering over the village on the small hand-drawn picture. The village on the drawing resembles the village that they are in.
Millie begins to read the book's page in her mind. ("World reaper, if this is ever released, your best bet is to run, run as far away as possible, and beg for it to never find you, as this thing is an affront to anything living," Millie reads the lines and sees a note sticking up from some of the pages. And on one note is a drawn picture of a tiny chest with a purple pommel on top with intricate details of thorns on it, and then she looks at the note next to it.
"Ancient sealing," she reads. ("We managed to seal the creature away at a great cost, but its influence may be leaking through somehow, as the forest has gone colder than ever before. I am not sure if I will be able to live to the next full moon to escape this forsaken land.") she reads in her head and is connecting the dots. "I wonder if this has anything to do with the Forest feeling sad?" she wonders, and her eyes shoot up, hearing something fall to the floor in the other room.
"Eww, what is that?" Noelle exclaims, and Millie puts the book into her bell and walks over to the group at the other end.
On the floor, she sees a mug with black tar in it, and some of it has spilled on the floor. "Not sure," Magna tells her.
"We'd best leave it alone then," Lydia says and looks to Sebastian, who looks through the shelves of books.
Haze sighs and tries to look as well, and Lydia looks at him for a second and starts to look too.
"Do you guys find anything?" Asta asks. "Not really," Sebastian and Finral reply.
"Uh, do you guys hear that?" Lydia asks. "Huh, you are right," Noelle says. "It comes from over there," Lydia points to a house.
The guys look at each other and follow the girls, and the girls run into a house, and they start to look around.
And in the middle of the kitchen lies a baby.
Millie narrows her eyes and follows behind the girls and sees Lydia pick up the child. "What is a baby doing here all alone?" Noelle asks, concerned.
"Miss Lydia and Miss Noelle, that is not a baby; I advise you two to end it," Millie tells them.
"What are you talking about? It is clearly a living baby, meaning its mother must be around somewhere," Noelle defends.
"Right, which means there must be someone living here," Lydia continues.
"There is a thick layer of dust and ice on everything, and no previous prints in the snow," Millie tells her. "So?" Lydia says.
"Meaning no one is here, Miss," Millie utters.
"But there must be; a baby can't live alone out here," Sebastian says, adjusting his glasses.
"Sir, the child is actually a Tiyanak," she explains, but she looks at everyone who clearly do not believe her.
"Stop it; it is clearly a child," Laura says, getting defensive.
And Haze looks at Millie.
"Apologies," Millie says with a bow and decides to keep an eye on the creature in Lydia's arms. ("It will be best to show them while the creature is feeding as it will show its true form when it does") Millie thinks to herself.
"I kind of agree with Millie; this seems odd," Haze says. "You are always negative to anything so that means nothing," Lydia defends.
"What is that supposed to mean?" He asks.
"You know what it means," Lydia tells him. "Fine be naive, but don't come crying to me when you are wrong," he replies and leaves the empty house.
Lydia yawns as she stands up. "I feel tired all of a sudden; maybe we should rest?" she asks. "Well, we have been up all day and all night; a couple of hours of rest shouldn't hurt," Noelle says.
"I agree," Finral says and yawns, and everyone aside from Asta yawns.
"Wow, really, everyone is feeling that tired?" Asta asks looking at everyone's tired eyes, and Millie looks at them all and the baby.
Moments later, they all gather in the long house and fire up the fireplace, and they all bring out their sleeping gear and go to sleep.
Millie transforms while she watches everyone and keeps an eye on the baby, who narrows its eyes at her as she sits in her cat form, staring at it.
"You really don't like that child," Asta asks. "Do you not sense anything weird about it, Master Asta?" she asks softly, keeping her eyes peeled on it.
"I don't know," he says. ("This thing about everyone feeling tired all of a sudden must be a spell from the child, but why is Asta not affected? Could it be because he does not have any mana?") she wonders inside herself.
Asta looks at Millie as she watches over the child like a hawk. ("Something sure has her on edge; is there really something wrong with the baby?") he thinks to himself, and Liebe narrows his eyes at Millie's change in behavior.
"You can rest, sir; I can keep watch," she softly utters, keeping her eyes on the child.
"It is fine; I don't really feel tired; besides, someone should be up in case those wendigo things show up again," he says and gets up and starts to look around the library for books about the dungeon.
"Aren't you tired?" he asks, and Millie remains silent for a moment, and he turns to her.
"I can handle low amounts of sleep, sir," she replies simply, and Asta looks at Liebe on his shoulder who shrugs, and Asta goes back to the bookshelves.
He moves further in where there is little light. "I can't see a thing in here," he mutters, and Millie hears him well and immediately creates white flames that she sends into the room and lets them hover around Asta.
"Thanks," he tells her, and she keeps her eyes peeled on the baby that frowns at her as they are in a staring competition at the moment. The child shows its red, pupil-less, dark eyes and silently growls toward her.
("You must be hungry; if this makes you this angry") she thinks to herself as she shows her teeth in her cat form, showing that she is not afraid.
The baby hisses with a wide grin, showing its sharp tiny teeth.
The baby snarls a little louder than intended, and Asta walks over to them, and he sees Millie's aggressive expression, and his eyes shift to the baby as it quickly reverts back to its innocent form.
Asta barely caught it and is unsure what he saw.
"Millie, take it easy, would ya?" he says, blaming what he saw on a lack of sleep.
"Right, sir," she utters softly and senses that he still looks at her, urging her to break her gaze on the child and so she looks at Asta.
"Maybe you should rest," he says, and Millie lays down in her cat form like a loaf while looking at her master who turns around and keeps searching.
She is about to turn her gaze to the baby, but Asta turns to her, and she looks to him and tries to relax.
Lydia, who lays with the baby in her arms, lays still, and she feels a sharp stinging right underneath her collarbone.
Millie looks to Asta, who still keeps an eye on her in his peripheral vision, and Millie begins to hear a silent gnawing. She turns her gaze to the child, and Lydia is jolted awake by the pain and picks the baby into her arms and holds it out. Noelle wakes up from the commotion, looks at the child as its skin melts showing a pale hue and blood-red eyes as blood drips from its mouth among its sharp teeth.
"Hya!" the girls yell, and Lydia tosses the baby away, and Asta runs over. "What is wrong?" he asks.
"That thing," Lydia utters, and Asta looks at the baby, who now has long, thin, bony arms. "What the heck is that thing?" he yells.
"It is a Tiyanak," Millie explains again as she has already gotten in a fighting stance in her cat form. "And a really hungry one," she mentions, and the baby jumps around at the walls at high speeds.
"What the, Millie, wake the others," Asta orders. "Right, sir," she replies and using her mana, she sends it to her nose as she pokes the guys' chins with her nose, sending a soft jolt of energy through them enough to wake them, and confused, they look around.
"What is going on?" Magna asks and sees things move as the baby jumps with rapid speed.
Asta swings his blade and whacks the child into a wall, and it growls as it lands on the floor and turns towards the group and Millie locks eyes with the creature.
Millie quickly pounces on it, and the Tiyanak leaps at her. In her cat form, she bites the Tiyanak's neck forcing it on its back on the floor. It screams and hisses, its sharp claws digging into Millie. She kicks with her clawed paws and scratches the Tiyanak, causing it to wheel out in a high-pitched scream. She keeps biting harder and harder until the Tiyanak stops moving. She waits a moment before letting go and with her paw she touches the Tiyanak's belly, causing white flames to spread and burn away the remaining body.
Using white flames, she cleans away the blood on her face and paws.
"Okay, that was terrifying," Sebastian says, adjusting his glasses, and Millie looks at the group.
"You were right; there was something wrong with that thing," Magna remarks.
"I am no longer tired," Finral utters.
''You are right; it is like my body just got woken up'' Magna mentions.
''What seriously?'' Asta asks.
''Same here. Let us keep looking for the dungeon then'' Lydia suggests, and the others nod.
Suddenly, the ground around them shakes, making them nervous.
"What now?" Finral shouts worriedly.
"I don't know; we should probably go out and check," Noelle suggests. They run outside and look around.
"Look over there!" Sebastian exclaims, and they see a tower rising in the distance over the forest, shrouded in frosty mist, with the moon shining through the thick misty sky above it.
"Well, maybe that is it," Lydia says.
"This is almost too convenient," Haze points out.
"I agree; let us be cautious," Finral chimes in.
"I agree," Noelle utters.
"Right," Asta says, and the teens get on their means of transport to head over to the tower.
Millie gets into her human form and takes to her wings and flies after the group and her gaze looks up at the cloudy sky. (''What is this feeling?, like we are being watched, from something that is there but not at the same time?'') Millie ponders to herself as unease creeps even further into her.
The group lands in the snow in front of the entrance to the big crystal-like tower.
"Look, footsteps in the snow; someone has definitely been here," Lydia says, dismounting her broom.
"You are right, but who could it possibly be out here now? Only us know about this expedition," Noelle mentions.
"Not sure, but this could be bad," Sebastian mentions as the teens go inside. They come to a big room made of smooth, frost-covered stone. In the ceiling is a big blue crystal illuminating the otherwise dark room.
There are two doors on the inner part of the room on each side of an altar with a few offerings and a small silver chest with a purple pommel on top with details of thorns going along side the small chest's edges. As the teens step closer, they see a human skeleton lying on the floor, its arm stretched out as if it was reaching for the altar before it died.
"Baah, I was not expecting this when we arrived," Noelle says nervously, with a concerned expression on her face.
"This place," Sebastian says, noticing gold wares and such on small pedestals which are dotted around the room.
Millie looks around in her human form and gazes at the small chest on the altar that Asta goes up to, and Millie recognizes the small chest from the notes in the book from before.
"What even is this for?" he asks, and Millie's eyes widen. She rushes over to him. "No, do not touch it," she says as he opens the chest, and black ooze comes out along with a spherical energy that pulsates, and the room shakes.
"Asta!" Noelle shouts, and they all wear looks of shock as their teammates disappear.
Noelle is about to rush over when Haze grabs her wrist. "What are you doing? We need to help them!" She tells him, and Haze points to the floor. "Look," he says, and the skeleton melts a little from the black ooze that leaks out of the chest now.
Then the room shakes more, and the crystals on the roof begin to fall towards the teens.
"You guys, we better get a move on!" Magna shouts, and they all rush into the next room as the crystal crashes into the floor and the door to the hallway they are in is forced shut.
''There is no way to get to them now, no'' Noelle utters...
