As the three of them traveled, they ended up in the marshlands. There was nothing but swamps as far as the eye can see. Mosquitoes buzzed around. The air was salty enough to taste it. The ground was sticky and full of slime. The road turned into wood and felt more like a bridge or a very long pier. There were alligators swimming within the swamp lake. Only their heads popped out. They looked more like logs than anything else, but their reptillian eyes looked at both Syren and Tyra.

There was a deep fog, but even that couldn't stop the eclipse from being directly over the three of them. It pierced through the fog like it was nothing leaving only a constant and unwavering reminder.

The crows cawed from above. They passed by a tree filled with hanging bodies. None of them human. All of them lizardfolk - men and women who looked more like the gators than anything else. Their bodies hung there recently. The corpses were being picked clean by crows, but they weren't decomposed enough to be unrecognizable.

Whisper couldn't care at all for them. There was nothing special about dead things.

Tyra looked at it, but has seen plenty of bodies during her time as a knight of the Silver Order. Syren, however, looked at them with shock and disgust. He wondered what they could have possibly done wrong to deserve that kind of punishment. He paused for a moment, but there was nothing to be done. All of them were dead.

They passed by it towards a town in the distance. Lacernus Town was its name. It was walled off with some simple wooden barricades. But it was extremely loud even from where they stood. They could see smoke rising from within.

Whisper said, "The demon is close. It must be somewhere in there. We should be careful."

"An attack? Bandits?" Syren asked.

"I don't think so. This town isn't really a target for many bandits. The swamp is hostile and relentless to even get through," Tyra replied, "It wasn't a problem for us. It was only the two of us - three if you'd include your whisperer, but I doubt your 'friend' counts for anything."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Yeah. Just the two of us. The demon might have caused this. We should find out," Syren said before he walked forward.

The front entrance was guarded by four guards - all human. As soon as they approached, the guards immediately stopped them. They held pikes and blades.

"Sorry. Nobody is allowed to enter," one of the guards said.

"Kill them and let's find the demon," Whisper said as Syren ignored him. The inside of the city was even louder.

"We're just passing through," Syren said, "We just need to find a place to rest."

"Even so. It's too dangerous right now."

"What's going on?" Tyra asked.

"Sorry. Can't tell you that. You'll have to leave," the guard ordered as he pointed his pike at the two of them.

"Alright. Alright. We'll be leaving," Syren said as he slowly motioned Tyra to back away.

"This is strange," Tyra whispered, "They are definitely city guards. There must be something going on inside that city that they don't want others to find out. Perhaps, it's some kind of interal conflict."

"Whatever it is, I can certainly hear the chaos from here. We should circle around and see if there's any -," Syren whispered until he was interrupted by a loud scream from within the city. He charged straight at the guards.

"Alright. Now, we're killing," Whisper said in excitement.

"What are you doing?" Tyra exclaimed as Syren chanted a spell. His shadows turned into a bunch of hands. They grabbed at the guards as they prepared to stop him from entering. They threw them around and knocked them out.

"Let's go. We can't just wait!" Syren shouted as he stormed in to Lacernus Town.

Tyra ran through the gate with her sword out. "Alright. Let's get going then."

Whisper looked down at the unconscious guards and complained, "They're not dead."

The houses were made of wood. Smoke rose from all over the city. Whisper could sense the demon, but he wasn't exactly sure where it was. All he knew was the it was in this town somewhere. And if he could sense whatever demon was here, then that monster would definitely know the same.

It was strange. As Whisper was dragged into the city, he wasn't able to feel where the demon was. He only knew that it was near, but unsure exactly where. In one moment, he thought the demon was in one directiond, but in the next moment, he felt it was somewhere else. This feeling happened before, but now that feeling amplified. It was just strange.