𝒪𝑽𝗅xt.𝔠𝑶𝑀

The madman’s screams echoed all the way outside the town hall, and Kaizen’s group shuddered to hear them. The poor prisoner was in a state of uncontrollable agitation, his wide eyes fixed on something invisible, his fingers clenched around the bars of his cell. Alina, with a worried countenance, tried to use her skills to calm the man down, but it seemed that his mind was completely taken over by terror.

Kaizen and Andrew exchanged uneasy glances. The prisoner’s story was disturbing, and now they wondered if the creatures were more than a hallucination caused by fear.

Meanwhile, Jayaa stood with his arms crossed, watching the scene with a serious expression. In reality, he wasn’t expressionless, but paralyzed.

Alina continued to use her <Brain Organizer> spell on the prisoner, trying to bring him back to lucidity. Skillfully, she began to dispel the panic that was consuming him, and the man’s eyes gradually lost that blank look of terror.

“Breathe deeply,” Alina whispered. “You’re safe now. Tell us what happened next.”

The man hesitated for a moment, but finally began to speak, in a trembling voice. He described how the invisible creatures surrounded him in the cell. They were like shadows, but they seemed alive, sinister and hungry for something he couldn’t understand.

“They didn’t have faces,” the man muttered, “just voids where faces should have been. They whispered terrible things. I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t…”

He stopped abruptly, as if the memory was unbearable. Alina continued to calm him down, but this was becoming increasingly difficult.

At least now the team had a clearer glimpse of what they were up against. Faceless creatures, disturbing whispers, and a sudden disappearance of everyone in the village, just like with the players. However, as these men were in the basement, they weren’t taken.

Alina finally spoke up. “This resembles something I studied a long time ago, in ancient texts from ancient cultures. Dark creatures that feed on people’s life essence, leaving them empty, faceless. They are portrayed in different ways in various religions, accounts and legends, but they are always accompanied by…”

“Demons.” Kaizen and Andrew answered at the same time.

Everyone in the group knows that Og’tharoz is a demon, but they also know that they can’t expect all demons to be like OG.

“And what exactly are these things called?” Jayaa asked, a little uneasy.

“They’re called ‘Faceless’ in ancient legends,” Jayaa continued. “They’re believed to be ancient creatures, beings from the void, a place in hell, a lower kind of demon compared to… you know. They say that many demons feed on emotions, leave their victims empty and without identity, and the ‘Faceless’ are the ones who enjoy this the most, hence their name.”

The team took this seriously. It was a plausible explanation for what they were facing.

“In other words, all this could have been caused by demons or the demons could be a consequence, right? How can we protect ourselves from these creatures?” asked Andrew, worried.

Alina pondered for a moment before answering. “Legends say that light is their greatest enemy. They hide in the shadows, so bright light can keep them away… Wait, that…”

At that moment, everyone had the same insight at the same time. The Faceless’ aversion to light was newly familiar to them, because of the mysterious purple lichen.

“Don’t you think…” Jayaa asked, stepping forward.

Kaizen crossed his arms and took a deep breath. “It’s very likely that all this is connected. It doesn’t seem like some kind of unfortunate coincidence.”

“Does that mean we’ll need to use fire to protect ourselves not only from the Corruption, but also from these demons?” Andrew asked.

“First, we need to understand why these creatures are attacking this village. What brought them here?” Kaizen said. “It’s not possible that demons would come out of hell just to disturb a mere apple thief in a country village. I’m sorry to ask you this, Alina, but I want you to interrogate this man again with your magic.”

“But, Kaizen, it could be dangerous in the long run.” She tried to explain.

“Please, Alina.”

She nodded and wiggled her fingers again, causing them to be heard by a white light that turned into a sphere and she placed by the man’s ear.

So they continued to interrogate the prisoner, hoping to get more information. The man explained many things and was almost delirious several times, but Alina was a fantastic magician, and among many, he told one that finally caught the group’s attention. The thief said that he had heard about the village making a deal with a traveling merchant who offered them a good deal in exchange for a caravan of food. The mayor just needed to give a document to a certain traveling woman, giving her the title of low-level local nobility.

The man could remember the woman’s name with difficulty: Fryft.

Hardly anyone would recognize this name, but Kaizen did, because he had recently done a lot of research on the internet.

Fryft is the nickname of a player, an Evolved. However, Kaizen kept this information to himself for the time being.

And the worst thing is that this was the only subject the mayor had discussed before everything happened, three days earlier to be precise.

Finally, Alina releases the man from the spell. She is panting, yet she looks at Kaizen and asks:

“Is that enough?”

Kaizen agrees. “I don’t think we’ll find out any more from this man. Thank you, Alina.”

Before they left the gate, Kaizen broke the lock with <Psychokinesis>, but the man just kept muttering words, not knowing how to react. His mind was completely disturbed and everyone knew that there was nothing they could do to help him get out of that state permanently. In the village there was food and water in the abandoned houses, so he could manage if he got out of it on his own.

So they returned to the snowy, destroyed streets of the abandoned village, and for the first time Kaizen noticed the Mibothen sky. All the clouds were black, yet the snowflakes were slowly falling.