After spending the rest of the time sitting on the edge of the river, drying themselves up and also cleaning their clothes, they stood up and went back to the village.
"How should we use these photos? I was thinking of putting them in one room. An art museum of a sort." Scarlett suggested out of nowhere.
Leislet thought about it and then shook her head in refusal. She seemed to have a better idea of these pictures.
"Let's just put them in the living room. As for the group photo, I want to turn it into a small necklace with a pendant. Of course, I will have to cut you out of the pic."
"What did you say?!" Scarlett glared at Leislet.
"What? Did you think I will carry your pic with me for the rest of my life? I might as well die right here and now rather than do that." Leislet clicked her tongue.
"I can send you to the grave if you desire death that much!" Scarlett was about to pull her sword and cut Leislet to pieces.
"I wanna see you try, bitch." Leislet also readied herself. But, before they could even pull out their weapons.
*Smack* *Smack*
"Argh! Fuck, that hurts every single time!"
"Ouch! My brain is damaged!"
They both grabbed their heads after getting smacked. Acht sighed and spoke calmly.
"Keep it quiet. There seems to be something wrong in the village." He said and pointed at the village entrance.
There, he could see many villagers standing with some of them seemingly intending to leave the village with weapons in their hands.
The trio approached them and asked about the situation.
"Mia! We can't find Mia!" The village chief said.
"Mia? Where did she go?" Achy asked confusedly.
She had followed them to the library this morning but then left shortly after because she had some matters to deal with.
"We don't know! She left this afternoon. I think she was searching for you but she didn't come back. Did she come to you?" He asked.
Acht shook his head with a serious look.
"We haven't seen each other since morning. Where is Sali?"
The village chief scratched his beard with a stressed look.
"When he heard that she didn't come back he decided to leave to search for her. I tried to stop him so that we could make a group of people and search the woods nearby but he refused and left quickly. He also didn't come back."
'This is worrying. The woods around here aren't safe at all. I saw many strong beasts there before when I went hunting. Mia and Sali can't fight them at all.' He thought and then looked at Leislet and Scarlett.
The two understood what he meant without him uttering a word and so they nodded correspondingly.
"We will go and search for the two. Rest assured. I will try my best to find them as quickly as possible." Acht said to assure the extremely worried villagers.
"If it's Cero then it should be fine." A man suddenly said.
"Yes, I am sure Cero can get them back safely."
"We rely on you, Cero."
The villagers said with hopeful looks filling their eyes. It showed how much trust they put in Acht and the other two. This was the result of years and years of living together with them. He was now basically a part of this big family.
Acht smiled slightly and nodded his head confidently.
Then, the three disappeared from there, running directly toward the woods. Acht had already grown accustomed to Mia's aura. Even though she wasn't an awakener she still had a faint aura that although was weak could be sensed if Acht was close enough to her.
The three reached the woods a few minutes later. Acht looked ahead of him. The sky had already turned dark and the woods looked even more menacing than usual.
Acht ignored that ominous feeling this place was generating and eyed his two companions.
"We will separate and go in different directions. That way we can cover a wider area of searching. Keep your senses alert for any small disturbance."
The two nodded and vanished. Acht also dashed toward the center of the woods.
"Mia! Sali! Can you hear me?" He shouted as he looked around.
He had extended his senses to the maximum. It covered a few kilometers around him easily.
However, he didn't feel anything remotely similar to a human aura. All he sensed was a bunch of animals and beasts.
'Damn it. Did she get caught by some kind of monster?' He stopped and pondered over the possibilities he had in hand.
'What kind of monster was the most dangerous in the woods?' He thought.
Then, he remembered a certain beast that he knew very well existed in the woods but it wasn't living on the ground but underground.
He instinctively looked down. This monster was called the golden-scaled snake. It was a giant snake that lived underground and liked to drag its victims to areas where most people can't sense their presence.
The only good thing he could deduct out of this situation was that the snake wouldn't immediately kill their prey but use their venom to slowly kill them and then eat them.
That takes around 10 hours for normal humans to die. So, if he was right, Mia and Sali should be alive in case they got caught by a golden-scaled snake.
So, with that in mind, he looked in a certain direction and ran there as fast as he could. He could recall where the entrance to this underground home of the snake was.
He had seen it before but didn't hunt it down because it was very quick and also didn't leave its den only once or twice a month to hunt and then go back inside.
A few moments later, he reached a big space in the woods where no trees were planted. There was only a desolate area with a huge hole in the middle.
"Leislet, Scarlett." He touched his ear and called them quickly.
"Yes?"
"Found anything?"
"No, but I'm gonna search the golden-scaled snake's den. Don't follow me."
"What? Why?" Leislet asked with clear worry in her voice.
"We need to work together," Scarlett added.
"Sigh, listen quietly. This is nothing but an assumption of mine. They could be just lost in the woods and not inside the snake's den. That's why you need to keep searching outside in case I was wrong. Get it."
"But…"
"We don't have much time, you two. Every minute is crucial. I will be fine, I promise." He added.
The two went silent for a moment before accepting. They made sure to remind him to be extremely careful before hanging up.
Then, without hesitation, Acht jumped inside the hole.
It was predictably quite deep. It took Acht almost 20 seconds to reach the bottom.
*Tap*
His feet landed silently on the ground. He made sure to not make a single sound while inside so the snake doesn't get alerted.
The inside was very dark…so dark. It was so dark in fact that even Acht with his amazingly strong eyes could barely see his hand there.
This was disadvantageous for him but he still didn't think much about it. This snake was simply no threat to him.
He then walked deeper and deeper into the tunnels created by the snake. It was very intricate and amazingly complex. Was it not for his senses, he could've easily got lost inside and he would take ages to find the way out…or maybe never even find it.
As he walked silently like that, he finally felt something slightly far away from him. He was sure it was an aura coming from a human.
Finally, he reached a dead end. There, two humans were hanging up from the wall, stuck in a weird substance like that of spider silk.
Acht identified the two as Mia and Sali who were clearly unconscious. He looked around him searching for the snake but he didn't find it so he moved closer to them and sliced the silk open.
The two fell down but Acht caught them before they landed on the ground.
"Oi, Mia, Sali. Are you ok? Can you hear me?" He spoke quietly to wake them up.
Luckily, Mia seemed to have heard him and opened her eyes quietly.
"...A-Acht?" Sbd muttered with her dry lips and weak voice.
"Yes, it's me."
"Did I…go to heaven?" She muttered with her hazy eyes, clearly still not fully awake.
"Nope, you are still alive. Is Sali ok?" He asked her.
"Father….? Father! Yes! Father! Acht, dad got bit by the snake. He is poisoned!" She finally regained her full consciousness and shouted.
But, Acht put his hand on her mouth and muffled her voice.
"Shhh, calm down and talk quietly. The snake isn't here." He said.
He then looked at Sali and finally sensed the abnormality in him. He was still alive…but he wasn't breathing.
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