On an unknown Island, Devil Sea.
A muscular figure sat meditatively on the sandy beach and appeared to be in deep meditation. Behind that person was full of greenery and looked beautiful.
A few seconds later, he frowned and slowly opened his hooded brown eyes. He looked at the singing waves and soon zeroed his gaze on the deep sea.
After that, he again closed his eyes and started reciting a strange incantation.
From time to time, he would frown while uttering the incantation and appeared to concentrate on something serious.
At that moment, he also moved his hand from time to time, created strange runic characters in thin air using his spirit power, and sent them towards the head-sized blue crystal placed on his lap.
After a few minutes, the crystal trembled a little and started emitting dim oceanic light.
'Success!' Just as he was about to smile, his face suddenly stiffened.
'The 'Airweb' trap picked up something?'
"Girl, get ready. We are going to another island. She is coming." Ulzez stood up with a tensed face and spoke.
"So soon? Didn't we change the location yesterday? How come she could track us without any difficulty?" Aliza walked out of the tent that was built nearby and asked in anxiety.
"Syreni must be using my blood to track our location. She will not stop until she gets back what she wants." Ulzez said with a helpless sign.
"What does she want from you? If we give that thing back to her, she will not chase us, right?" Aliza shifted her gaze towards the topless Ulzez and asked.
"I can't give it back. It is very precious to me." Ulzez said with a stubborn tone.
"What is that?" She asked curiously.
"My heart. That blood child needs to devour four Legendary-tier chaos beings' hearts to complete an important ritual." His solemn words caused Aliza's eyes to widen in shock.
"I now understand your situation. Hmm, why shouldn't we get back to the Mainland and directly lead her to the Light Church members?" She slowly calmed down and asked.
"That's what I'm also thinking. But we will do it two months later. I have a premonition that if we go now, we will lose. Maybe one of us will die for sure." Ulzez said with a grim tone.
His words caused Aliza's face to turn gloomy.
"Wait for a minute; I will go and get ready." Once she said those words, she quickly returned to the tent and stored her belongings in her spatial ring.
She walked out of the tent a minute later and nodded at Ulzez. Then, Ulzez and Aliza started to float up in the air and flew in a particular direction while a giant Sanguis shark followed them in the sea.
…
Housemaid's Inn, 12 Border Street, Commoner's Area, Roguedale Town.
April 28th morning, It was around 4 A.M.,
At that moment, Umi placed her head on her mother's arm and started mumbling in her dream.
Suddenly, a scream came from the nearby room and caused both of them to wake up in alarm.
"W-What was that?" Fennelis sat up with a tensed face and muttered loudly in a startling tone. Meanwhile, Umi also woke up from sleep and stared at her mother's face in nervousness.
"Don't worry, Umi. I will go and take a look." Fennelis kissed Umi's forehead and hurriedly walked out of her room. At that moment, Roysia also walked out of her room with a startled look and breathed a sigh of relief once she noticed Fennelis was okay.
"What happened?" Fennelis asked while furrowing her eyebrows.
"No idea. I think the sound came from this room." Roysia said while pointing her finger towards her right side room.
Meanwhile, Fennelis glanced at the gloomy corridor and noticed all the remaining guests were walking out of their rooms.
"What happened?" At that moment, a tall guy stepped forward and asked both of them. He had short wavy black hair and brown eyes and wore a normal red nightgown. With a simple look, she realized this person was a veteran adventurer and felt relieved.
"We also have no idea, Mr. adventurer. But we feel the guest in this room might be in trouble." Fennelis said solemnly, pointing her finger towards her nearby room.
"Right. Nadine, go inform the Inn receptionist about the situation and get the spare room key from her." The black-haired adventurer said as he walked near to the door and tried to search for any clue.
Meanwhile, two of his female companions turned around and ran towards the first floor through the nearby staircase, leaving others in the corridor.
Fennelis and Roysia also moved carefully towards the room entrance and frowned. Both instantly sensed a blood scent from inside and covered their noses.
'Something is wrong!' Fennelis imbued ice elemental energy into her hand and was about to burst open the door but stopped.
At that moment, an anxious shout from the right side staircase.
"W-What happened? Here is the key." A young receptionist girl with blonde hair ran in their direction from the stairs and soon gave a bunch of keys to the black-haired adventurer.
Meanwhile, the adventurer picked up the right room key and opened the door with a click.
A second later, everyone shouted out loud in panic.
Inside the room, they saw a female's body lying motionlessly on the wooden floor. Her body was wholly cleaved in half, and both of her eyes were pulled out from the sockets. The enemy seemed to have already drawn some mysterious ritual circle on the floor and placed her cleaved body at the center.
"My holy lord of light!" "So cruel!"
All of them muttered in shock while the Inn receptionist girl had fallen unconscious, leaving a thudding sound behind.
Meanwhile, Fennelis noticed the bed was painted entirely red and appeared dreadful.
'A sacrificial ritual?' She furrowed her eyebrows and turned her attention toward the deceased body.
Then, she and the others slowly walked inside and checked for anomalies.
While checking, Fennelis noticed a few strange words were engraved on the corpse's forehead and widened her eyes. The simple sight gave her chills to the spine!
Before she could check more details, clattering sounds came from the Inn's entrance and caused everyone to tense up.
At that moment, well-armored guards ran towards the Inn from the street and entered the Inn's yard.
'Soon? Who informed them?' Fennelis was startled as she saw them through the nearby window opening and waited for their arrival.
They arrived on the second floor within a few seconds and entered the suspect's room.
"What happened?" Unlike the last time, a leather-armored guard with a shiny silver helmet walked forward and asked loudly. A heartbeat later, he frowned as he looked at the gruesome scene and gave a questionable gaze to others. Before Fennelis could say anything, the tall, muscular adventurer took the initiative and said without showing any anxiety.
"We are also clueless about the situation, sir. We heard a scream a while ago, and we came here to check about the situation. But by the time we enter this room to check, the criminal was long gone."
"Hmm? Who are you? Do you have any identification?" That guard didn't seem to believe his words and looked at him coldly.
"Here." That muscular adventurer took out his identification card from his spatial ring and presented it to him.
Meanwhile, the leather-armored soldier took his identification card and gave it back to him after a simple glance.
"Alright."
He didn't dare to act arrogantly in front of an adventurer and started checking others' identification cards. After that, he told others to return to their room and signaled his squad members to clean the room.
Fennelis, Roysia, and Umi moved to Roysia's room and fell into deep thoughts.
"Lady Roysia, what do you think about this case?" Fennelis asked while sitting on the soft cotton bed.
"It almost looks like a cult organization's doing," Roysia said without putting much thought into it.
"Don't you notice something off about those soldiers? They came so quickly. It was like they planned this whole murder scene." Fennelis said with a worried tone.
"You are right! Due to the ruckus, I didn't notice that earlier. But the soldiers all were well uniformed and appeared more energetic. There was no fatigue on their faces." Roysia widened her eyes in realization.
"We should get out of this town as soon as possible," Fennelis said solemnly. Meanwhile, Roysia thought for a moment and soon nodded in approval.
The following day, at 8 A.M.
After packing their belongings, the trio quickly walked out of their rooms and went to the ground floor through the spiral staircase.
"Are you planning to move to the next town?" As they reached the reception hall, they heard a male voice from the left side. Fennelis, Umi, and Roysia stopped their footsteps and noticed that the black-haired adventurer from last night was sitting beside a square table.
"Yes, mister. We feel that it is not safer to stay in this town." Roysia replied with a nod.
Meanwhile, the black-haired showed a wry smile and spoke solemnly.
"It seems you haven't heard the news yet. City lord had ordered the guards to shut down the gates, ma'am. Till next Sunday, no one will be allowed to go in and out of this town."
Upon hearing those words, Fennelis and Roysia became stunned inside.
"Why? I think this strict action is still too much for a single murder." Fennelis said while raising her eyebrows upward in suspicion.
"16, Ma'am," The black-haired adventurer corrected her solemnly.
"What do you mean by 16?" This time, it was Roysia who asked this question.
"Yesterday, there were a total of 16 murders happened at the same time, ma'am. The culprits cut their bodies in half and robbed the victims' eyes and even wrote some unknown letters on their foreheads." The black-haired adventurer answered grimly.
Meanwhile, Fennelis's and Roysia's expressions turned ugly. At that moment, they understood why the city lord had ordered the security members to lock down the whole town.
'Who are these guys?' Fennelis frowned deeply.