It had been a few days since Haruki and his light army set up camp near the demi-tigers and demi-wolf clans, and in that time, Maria had managed to capture quite a handful of both clans with the help from the provided army.
Setting up traps, and ambushes everywhere she could, she was for once feeling confident that her head would remain where it belonged for at least a while longer. Aiding her in creating reports, Riley on the other end was having some seriously insidious problems that she could not reveal to anyone.
"Hey, are you okay?" Noticing the swiftwind spy's breath growing heavier, Maria rose from her seat and grabbed onto her hand. The moment her skin made contact, however, she was forced to draw away as her skin was burned by Riley's raging fever. "What the?!"
"Sit down!" Her teeth gritted in rage, Riley pushed the strategist back into her seat. "Don't you dare touch me you piece of shit garbage!"
With a mix of fear and shock, Maria just sat there in the chair with her eyes wide in confusion as to what she'd done wrong. Still grunting, Riley kept glaring at her until her mind slowly began to calm down again.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Forget it," Riley blurted out before Maria could finish her apology. "Just keep your mouth shut about this incident."
Glancing around the tent, Riley was glad that nobody else had seen her freak out just now. Turning back to Maria, she looked into her eyes again and saw fear paralleling the time she was cannibalized by Greta.
'That incident seems to have affected her to the core, I shouldn't push her too much or who knows what she'll end up doing to herself?' Fearing a potential risk of insanity or suicide, Riley decided to dismiss herself from the camp for the moment.
"I need some air, you can work on the report alone for me, right?" She asked, Maria fervently nodded in response.
Making her way out of the tent without dragging things any further. Riley started walking towards the forest, far away from the sight of everyone else. From what she remembered, a river was supposed to be nearby, and taking a dip in it might help her body simmer down a little. While making her way there, however, her vision turned to two and a stabbing headache took hold of her entire skull.
"Wh-what's happening?" She muttered, slowly bringing herself down to her knees so she could get some rest.
With the stress on her body getting worse and worse, Riley was forced to let herself lie down on the dirty forest ground, completely vulnerable to enemies. Thankfully, the tribes didn't venture where she was, but it wasn't the tribe that she had to worry about, but something a lot more sinister.
'Status loss: Benevolent actor's blessing!' The moment that announcement rang in her head, a sharp jolting pain paralyzed every inch of her body. As if poisoned and electrocuted at the same time, she lay there with her eyes wide open, looking through the air as if her mind had turned to mush.
The next thing she knew, she wasn't there, no longer present in her own body. Drifting off somewhere, somewhere far, somewhere desolate, somewhere cold, and somewhere scorching and somewhere with the hint of lingering death. Edging so close to her own demise, she was clinging to life as the parasitic creature began rewiring her brain.
'Status changed: Servant of the Prince of Hell!' And then she awoke again, her eyes blazing a crimson red.
***
"Where the fuck did you take my patients?!" Storming into the labs, Serena slapped a vial of extract out of the goblin queen's hands.
Shocked gasps echo through the room as everyone witnessed the rowdy behavior. The queen, having no idea what was happening, glared at Serena in rage, especially since she was being accosted in front of plenty of her own people.
"What the hell are you talking about, priestess?" She asked, baring her fangs to make Serena back away.
Not afraid of the queen in the least, the priestess conjured her staff of truth and slammed it against the ground. The bells hanging by its top echoed through the room for a while, silencing everyone else who'd been whispering and gossiping.
"Uh…I don't know what's happening between you two, but maybe we should calm down first?" Moving between the two, Medusa tried to separate them.
"Yeah, how about you take a seat first Serena?" Merciella advised, moving closer to the action as well.
"Don't!" Directing her staff towards the mistress of greed, Serena shifted her attention from the goblin queen to her. "Don't you dare call me by my name you monster!"
Appearing behind the priestess's shoulder, the pair of wax dolls glared at Merciella as well. Their eyes spiraling in the image of the skies at dusk and dawn felt hypnotizing to the trio opposing Serena, but even then they managed to keep their minds without submitting to their spell.
'Mistress Merciella, we have a problem.' Relayed the clone to the real Merciella who was still working back at Deus's lab with Klaus.
'Fuck!' Was all the clone heard before having to cut the link short upon noticing the arrival of yet another uninvited visitor.
"Azalea, where the fuck did you take her?!" Marching out from the bright teleportation light, Deus rushed towards the queen of goblins with a pair of transparent pistols gripped tightly in his hands. With no regard for anything at all, he zoomed forward like the wind and grabbed the queen right by the throat. "What the hell are you planning to do to her?! Where is she?! TELL ME NOW!"
"What are you two talking about?!" Tired of playing nice, the goblin queen tried to slash away at Deus's throat, but her hands phased right through the demon lord's body.
Moving even closer, Serena held her staff firm and asked a question to clear things up a little.
"You're hiding my patients, including that Azalea girl, aren't you?"
"For fuck's sake, I have no idea what you two are talking about!" Surprisingly, Serena's staff didn't tip off a lie as the queen had no recollection of ever taking those patients away.
Left utterly confused by what was happening, Serena didn't know whether to believe the queen and lower her staff or keep questioning her. Looking at her staff, she jerked it around wondering if it had stopped working since it was being used after so long. But when that didn't seem to be the case, she turned to the queen and helped her get Deus's gun off of her neck.
"Deus, she's not lying," lowering his gun with the edge of her staff, Serena grabbed the enraged demon lord by his shoulder. "I can detect lies with my staff, but the bells on its top couldn't detect any kind of deception from her just now."
Still refusing to let go of his hand from the queen's neck, Deus squeezed it tighter as if to torture her some more. To his misfortune, however, having been through much more invasive torture before, the queen of goblins didn't seem fazed at all.
"Fuck!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and turned to look at Serena. "Then where the hell is Azalea? And why did those guards back in the village lie?!"
'So he talked to the guards as well…I was fearing that would happen.' Gulping down her own rage, Serena tried to keep a level head and think.
"A doppelganger, or someone masking as the queen, that's the only explanation," she muttered, opening her eyes once again.
Still having no clue as to what was going on, the queen grabbed the two by her claws and growled at them angrily.
"You two fuckers aren't just going to get away with insulting me, apologize now!" Her eyes glowing crimson, the queen of goblins was ready to slash away at the two if needed be. Even her people were slowly surrounding the duo who'd laid their hands on their queen.
"Until I'm certain it wasn't you, I'm not apologizing for shit," Deus replied.
"Look, how about we start looking for the real culprit instead of threatening each other," glancing through the crowd of goblins slowly closing in on her, Serena knew she couldn't show any weaknesses. "Besides, lay a finger on me and my followers will chase you even after their deaths."
Growling again and sinking her nails deep into the arms of them both, the queen of goblins slowly retreated her hands back to herself.
"Get the fuck out if you're just gonna waste our time, unlike you two, we actually have a job to do," she whispered with deep contempt.
"I will, but before that…" Closing her eyes, Serena wanted to first relay what she'd found to Hawthorn.
'You didn't tell Haruki yet, did you? That could cause a lot of trouble now.' She told him.
'I-I can't contact him and the battalions he took with him, it's almost like someone is blocking his presence with magic.' Hawthorn replied, dropping yet another bomb into the giant conundrum.
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