That Night, I couldn’t sleep. I’m not sure what it was, but my body was overwhelmed by anxiety. I found it hard to catch a deep breath. My heart was pounding and I was sweating. I looked over at Emi, who was tucked in bed. Drool hung out her mouth, she was in a deep sleep.

‘She’ll be fine if I leave for a bit.’

I desperately need some fresh air. So, I put on my boots and threw on my cloak. In moments, I was dressed, ready to go. On the way out, I made sure to grab my sword. It’s good to always be prepared. At least, that was Katsu’s ideology. Guess it was rubbing off on me. I even had my chest plate on.

Before I left the room, I shot another glance at Emi, making sure she was asleep.

“Hopefully she doesn't wake up while I’m out.”

Emi terribly afraid of being alone at night. She’d likely start crying once she saw I wasn’t here. Speaking from experience. I shut the door behind me, using my key to lock it.

Before long, I was out and about, roaming the night streets. The only thing giving light was the moon. As far a slight-poles went, there weren't any. I nearly thought they didn’t exist in this world. But from what I heard, only cities have them.

Eventually, my steps brought me to the forest. I’m not sure why, but I was drawn to it. It’s like something in my soul was guiding me here. A gut-feeling that I had to be here.

Ping.

Somehow, I learned a new skill.

[New Skilled: Gut Feeling]

[Gut Feeling- Whenever you have a gut-feeling, it will be highly accurate. Your gut-feelings will do their best to point you in the direction of interest.]

I’ll be lead in the direction of interest? That’s a strange skill.

Anyway, I continued passed the trees. Inside the forest, it was even darker. Navigating was difficult. And there were shadows everywhere. I was a bit paranoid. Given the environment, I wouldn’t notice a monster unless I was face-to face with it. Just that thought was scary.

Bmp!

My foot got caught underneath a root that was sticking out of the ground. I feel face-first into the dirt, nearly catching a mouthful.

“Ugh...gross.”

The smell of rain trickled up my nose. Soft droplets fell from the sky, tapping on my head and shoulders. Suddenly the rain picked up in rhythm.

Tmp! Tmp! Tmp!

Thousands of raindrops came down on the forest. In seconds, my hair became drenched. And the dirt underneath me turned muddy.

“Awww great.” I sighed, rising up to my feet.

Thew wind blew aggressively as streaks of lightning filled the sky. I was in the center of a storm. This really sucked. I heard a crackling noise from overhead. Just in time, my eyes spotted a tree, moments away from smashing me.

Stolen story; please report.

I rolled out of the way as it came crashing down. Into the mud.

Smash! Splatter!

That was a close call. I avoided being squashed, but now I was covered in mud.

“Just my luck.” but I was thankful. Usually, worse things happened.

Ba-dump!

My heart thumped. My gut feeling became stronger than ever. I looked to my left. It was clear to me; this was the way I had to go.

I left off in that direction, walking through the storm as I tried not to slip on mud.

After walking at least 300 meters, I came to a stop and hid my presence behind a tree. There was a group of masked individuals, wearing cloaks. Each of them stood around a magic circle drawn in red-chalk. The voiced the masked people chanted simultaneously. But I couldn’t make out exactly what was being said. The rain was too loud.

I moved to a different spot behind a bush, but I was sure to stay in the shadows so they wouldn’t see me. Now, I could hear their words clearly.

The chanting stopped and one of the masked individuals spoke, uncertainty in their voice. The voice’s owner sounded to be a man.

“This isn't working. What’s the point of this?” He asked.

A second individual replied, removing their mask. It was a woman with long purple hair and crimson eyes. She didn’t have any sort of expression and her voice had no emotion in it.

“Per our orders, we are to summon a demon to our location. To be specific, the one that’s been roaming this forest. The point of the circle is to radiate magical energy, hopefully luring it here.”

“I know. However, we’ve been doing this for half an hour already. Nothing has happened.” The masked man replied.

“Hmm. You’re right. I wonder why.” The woman kneeled down, touching the magic circle. She investigated what the issue may have been, but she found nothing. So, her figure stood back up, “Seems like the chalk method isn’t working for this.” She placed her mask back on her face, “We’ll switch to something else.”

“Like what??” The masked man asked.

“A blood sacrifice.”

Fwsh!

There was a silver flash of light from a blade. At least, that’s what I was able to make out. The actual attack itself was almost unnoticeable. It was still hard to understand what had just happened, but that all became clear. A slit opened up on the masked man's throat, blood squirted everywhere. He held his wound in shock. He was trying to speak, but a gargling sound was the only thing that came out. His legs became too weak to hold his weight, and he fell against the mud, his life fading into nothing. His life was fully gone, blood still leaked from the slit on his throat.

“That will suffice.” said the masked woman.

She dragged his body and placed it in the center of the magic circle. The red chalk began glowing ever so greatly. The light was enough to give light to everything around. The other masked individuals stood calmly; they didn’t even care that one of them had died.

I was plenty shocked by the death. The sight of blood brought back bad memories.

Who exactly were these masked people? There was only one thing I knew for sure. They were trying to summon demon. That couldn’t be good no matter how you look at it.

The masked woman spoke for the others to hear.

“Remember. When we face a problem that halts us from completing orders, it must the dealt with. It doesn’t matter what needs to be sacrificed, even if it’s one of us. We will do whatever it takes to complete our goals. Remember who we are.”

She removed her mask. This time, her face wasn’t visible at all, it was engulfed by a shadow. Her eyes gave off a red glint, it was the only feature that was clear. “We are the cult belonging to ‘Him’ We are the Dark Mages.”

My heart was pounding uncontrollably, her eyes stuck some kind of fear into me. My hands trembled and sweat fell down my face. These people were crazy. They were psychopaths.

What had I stumbled onto?

[https://i.imgur.com/OcQYqt5.png]