Destroyer

EPISODE 29- THE SMILING FACE

It was noon the scorching heat of the sun was something that people hated, maybe it's due to it being the summer. Even with this heat, a wagon traveling a dirt road was continuing its journey. This wagon is carrying the Camilla Party who has continued on their journey towards a village.

The coachman who was even shaded by the canopy of the wagon was dripping with sweat, which he tried wiping using a cloth. The coachman looked behind him and saw the adventurer party were also having trouble with the heat.

“We might actually arrive at the town earlier than I thought, miss Bella.” Spoke the coachman as he wiped his forehead for the eight-time.

“Really! That would be great especially in this heat. But why the sudden change in the time of arrival?”

“Well miss, I haven't been back here for months right, I just noticed that the road has just been recently maintained, by looking at the grass and the potholes.”

“No wonder your wagon wasn't shaking too much like last time.”

The coachman laughed and spoke, “Haha! You noticed that miss, you truly have a set of good senses.”

“Bella can't we get there any faster, I'm starting to get dizzy from the heat alone.” Spoke David who was bathing in sweat.

Bella looked at David, who was wearing his armor, “Why don't you just remove that armor of yours, i***t! Look at Karl he removed his armor so his not suffering too much from the heat.”

“I can't do that, if we get attacked I have to go to the trouble of re-equipping my armor which might get me off guard.”

Karl then joined in the conversation, “We wouldn't be attacked that easily David, the forest is a few miles away from this road. So if there is an ambush we could easily see it coming a mile away.” S

“It's better to be safe Karl than sorry, ” replied David as he drank his leather canteen. Which he had already emptied out, “Eh? I have no more water, Karl can you share some?”

“No, you should have saved your water, you know you are really thirsty just from the heat. Your mind is only thinking that you could relieve yourself from the heat from drinking water, even though it doesn't work. I'm also pretty sure that you will be called out by nature anytime soon, especially with the amount of water you drank.”

“Called out by nature?” asked Marcia.

“Wait for it, Marcia,” answered Karl.

After that David suddenly felt something tingly in his groin, due to this he immediately stood up and yelled at the coachman. “Mister, please stop!”

“Why David?” asked the coachman.

“I need to go relieved myself,” answered David with a straight face.

“Sure!” The coachman then stopped the wagon, David immediately climb down the wagon and rushed forward to the nearest shrubs.

The girls looked at David with annoyed faces, Bella even spoke, “Why do we have to suffer longer in this heat because of David.”

After three minutes, David got back to the wagon and thus the group continued on their journey. After three hours of nonstop traveling, the group managed to arrive at the village.

The village was encircled by a tall fence made from sturdy logs. The entrance was opened and was guarded by two guards. The coachman approached the village with his wagon, as they got close to the entrance the guards standing near suddenly block the way.

One of the guards then asked as he walked towards the wagon, “Who are you… ” the guard suddenly had a change in tone upon seeing the coachman, “old man Cyrus!”

“Yep, I'm back, also I have brought some adventurers taking up a quest here.”

“Adventurers, you say are they from the town Leora?”

“Yes, they are from that town.”

The guard then walked to the wagon and took a peek inside. Bella then waved her hand to the guard upon seeing him.

“Oh, you must be the ones who accepted the chief's request?”

“Yep, that's us,” some David.

“Thank God, oh, you can get you of this wagon as the chief has instructed us to bring you guys to his house.” The guard then called one of his workmates, while the party got out of the wagon along with their stuff which was pretty light.

After that, they followed a guard which led them to the biggest house they saw in the village. It was made logs and stones and had two floors, but the house can not be considered a mansion even with its size.

The Camilla adventurer party was then brought to a room inside the house. The room's floor was made of stone, the ceiling had was made of planks but the walls which were made of logs had the nice decor of the heads of animals. In the room, a single mahogany table facing the door, and two benches facing each other was laid out in front of the mahogany table.

Between the benches was a coffee table still made from mahogany. The vanilla adventurer party took a seat on the benches as tea put above the coffee table.

A man somewhere in his forties, with black hair, black eyes, and wore the normal long sleeve shirt and trousers, was seating behind the mahogany table.

The man then spoke, “I am Caleb, the village chief here. ”

“I'm Bella the leader of this party, here's Karl a heavy knight, Marcia a priestess, David our warrior, and Lucy our assassin.”

The village chief then locked his eyes to Marcia, before speaking, “A priestess eh, well you guy are really gonna need her in this quest.”

“Then it's a demon or an enraged spirit that has been taking the maidens?”

“I'm afraid I also don't know but based on how the girls disappeared it clearly fits the two.”

Bella then held her chin and started to think, after a few seconds she spoke. “Chief can we see the room of the last victim?”

“Yes that would be no problem, I will personally take you there.” The village chief then stood up and walked out of the room, the party also followed him.

The group was brought to a house just two blocks away from the village chief's house. They were now inside the room of the last victim, the group was investigating the room and looked at every nook and cranny.

The village chief was looking at the group silently observing them with the parents of the victim. After three hours of checking the room and the entire house, the group finally stopped.

It was already night time, the group was allowed to stay in the village chief's house. The group was now back at the chief's house where they had a meeting. “This is very strange, there are no traces of force entry in the windows and doors. So how could a girl disappear into thin air like that.” Spoke Bella as she took a sip of tea.

Karl immediately added, “What's more confusing is the doors, windows remained locked. Except for the door which was destroyed by the girl's parents. ”

“How about you David? Have any luck in finding clues?”

“I have,” answered David.

“What!?!” spoke Bella and Karl.

“Actually it's me and Marcia who found it.”

David then put something on the table, Bella and Karl immediately took a close look at it. “Hey, where do you find this?” asked Bella.

“Under the bed of the victim, I also found it more of those when Marcia and I went to investigate the other houses.” David then put more of the things they found on the table.

“What the hell are these cards, David?.”

“I told you, Karl, we found it in every victim's houses all of them were hidden under the bed.”

Karl then grabbed one of the cards, the card had demonic-looking jester in front of it, and behind the card was a purple-colored with some unknown language written on it.

Lucy grabbed one and inspected it, after a few seconds Lucy spoke, “This language I think I've seen this before.”

“Really Lucy!”

“Hmm, I think this language is what they call the sacrificial phrases. This is mostly written to the people who's relative will be sacrificed.”

“Hey don't tell me there's some sort of crazy cult in this village. ”

The village chief who was with the group suddenly spoke, “We already investigated the possibility of a cult behind this. However, there's no evidence of an existing cult here, not only that the number of people in this village is quite a few, another one is the religious belief of the people here, which is solely given to the goddess of the forest.”

“That does prevent the existence of a cult, but what if there's just one person in the village.”

“We already investigated everyone here, miss Bella, even me, I had been interrogated by the guards along with everyone else.”

Lucy then looked at the other cards, but what was written was the same. Lucy scratches her head in confusion and frustration.

“What should we do then?” asked Marcia.

But as the group was discussing a knock on the door suddenly disputed them. “Chief! Chief! Open up!”

Caleb opened the door and saw one of the guards sweating and breathing heavily. “What is it?” asked the chief Caleb.

“There's another disappearance chief, at Loco residence.”

The village chief then dashed after hearing the guard. The Camilla adventurer party also follows after him. The group along with the village chief entered the house and went straight to the room of the maiden.

When the group entered the house they suddenly felt the presence of a powerful evil inside the room. The temperature lowered from warm to almost cold, the feeling of the party started to become heavy.

Marcia saw the situation of her comrades so she cast a buff spell, “Brave Heart!” the entire people in the house suddenly became engulfed with a light green glow for a second. Suddenly the heavy feeling they felt disappeared.

The group then arrived at the room of the new victim, the door was already broken down by the guards. But like the other crime scene, there was no forced entry or traces of the suspect.

David immediately looked under the bed to check if there was the same card left behind. But what he saw was something that sent chills down his spine, in the never-ending darkness under the bed, he saw two eyes staring directly at him, a huge smile suddenly appeared under the eyes seeming to tell that it can sense David's fear. David felt the eyes of the unknown creature looked directly at his soul.

This caused David to be horrified leaving him speechless. Until he was joined in by Karl looking under the bed, causing David to snap out of the eyes he saw.

“There's another card!” yelled Karl he immediately reached his hand and grabbed it.

He then stood up, David also did the same. But as David walk, he suddenly felt his feet being unable to move, like something grabbed his foot.

When he looked down David saw, was an oily hairy black arm grabbing his foot. David suddenly pulled his sword and slashes the hand that grabbed him, causing the floor to be destroyed by David's sword who was now breathing heavily from nervousness.

“David what are you doing!?!” yelled Bella.

“There's a hand grabbing my foot,” answered David as he pointed towards the floor.

“What hand? I only see is the floor you broke, which will probably be taken out of your reward in this quest.”

“But there's really a hand I saw it!”

“David you must still be tired from our travel, so let's go back to the chief's house to take some rest.”

“I guess you might be right, but how about..”

“The guards will take it from here,” spoke the village chief. “I have prepared a bedroom for you five, the boys are separated from the girls of course.”

The group then headed back to the chief's house, where they immediately took a rest for the night.

David who was fast asleep suddenly experienced a hypnagogic jerk, causing him to wake up.

But what David saw above the ceiling as he opened his eyes was the same eyes with a smile looking above him, creepily. David immediately closed his eyes upon seeing the thing, but now he was unable to sleep.

David then opened his right eye, to see if the eyes with a creepy smile were still there, David became relaxed after seeing that it already disappeared. However, he was now unable to sleep due to the fear he suddenly has now.

David then went to a sitting position and stood up, but as he turned to face the window he then saw pure black, oily and hairy body sticking in the glass window, the body had the creepy eyes and smile he saw before.

This caused David to jump back to his bed and hide in his blanket. However, David smelled and felt something hairy and oily beside him, he slowly turned around to see what it is, he saw the smiling face just a few inches near him.

This made David scream and jump out of his bed, waking Karl who was sleeping in the bed next to his bed.

“Shut up David! People are trying to sleep here!”