“Ugh! Ryzen, I’m sick of walking!” Enancia complained.

Ryzen and Enancia were currently traversing a large plain in an attempt to reach the capital of Velica, Neminsburg. Truthfully, they had been walking nearly nonstop for the entire day and the sun was beginning to fall. Also, it was obvious that Enancia’s stamina was starting to dwindle and she was not afraid to make it known.

“Just a little farther and then we can rest,” Ryzen said while slightly dragging his own feet. He was also tired but he needed to get to Neminsburg as fast as possible, especially with the start of this demon war. Who knew what would happen if he took his sweet time?

“Look, I know you’re trying to get to Neminsburg as quickly as possible to get back to your family but we can’t do that if we collapse and die!” Enancia exaggerated.

“Fine! As soon as we find a suitable place, we can rest!” Ryzen groaned. He didn’t feel like he was doing enough to get back. Sure, he was having fun with Enancia but he was worried for his family.

“Finally! Thank you, Ryzen!” Enancia ran up and gave Ryzen a hug.

Soon, they found a small river and they decided to set up camp.

“Uh, Ryzen…” Enancia muttered.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t we bring anything to camp out with?” Enancia threw a little fit as she frowned at Ryzen.

“Uh, that’s a good point. Why didn’t we Enancia?” Ryzen said with a smirk.

“Shut up idiot! That wasn’t my job!” Enancia lightly pummeled her fists into Ryzen’s abdomen, causing him to further smile.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to make do with each other. It’s not like we haven’t managed that way before.”

“You just want to lay on my lap! I’ll have to prop myself up against a rock or something! In case you haven’t realized, there aren’t any trees in sight!” Enancia whined.

“No trees, but tons of grass. That should be plenty comfortable for an elite demon like you.”

“No! I refuse! It’s your turn! I want to be on your lap!” Enancia said with a frown.

Enancia tumbled into Ryzen, forcing them both to fall to the ground. They playfully fought for dominance over one another lap until Ryzen finally allowed Enancia to win.

“Yes! Your lap is mine!” she cried as she clutched his legs like it was gold.

Ryzen chuckled and soon laid back into the grass. It wasn’t comfortable at all but as long as Enancia was here with him, he would manage.

It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep in his lap, her chest gently rising with each breath. As she slept, Ryzen carefully ran his fingers through her white hair. Such a color was unnatural where he came from yet it looked enchanting on her.

He couldn’t really explain it but Enancia was just beautiful to him. Even with her demonic features, he just couldn’t imagine a world where she was ugly.

Unfortunately, the world did not want him to have his peace as a ear-piercing scream radiated throughout the air. Enancia popped out of his lap and gave him a worried look.

“What the fuck was that?” she asked.

Ryzen shook his head in confusion as another ear-shattering scream rang out.

“Ryzen I give you permission to leave my side to save them,” Enancia said with a nod.

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Ryzen sighed and left, knowing he didn’t really have a choice. If Enancia wanted him to save them then he couldn’t really tell her no. That would probably just piss her off.

Still, there were about a million different things that Ryzen felt could go wrong in doing this. In fact, if it wasn’t for his shadow step skill, he wouldn’t be.

Soon enough, Ryzen came across a small hole in the ground which led deeper inside. Just being near that shit felt dangerous, let alone going inside of it.

Yet, Ryzen refused to let Enancia down and so, he decided to move in. As with every other tunnel he went into, this one went deeper and deeper underground until it finally opened up into a small tunnel. Except this one looked to be unstable which didn’t make Ryzen feel much better about this whole thing.

He inwardly sighed as he once moved forward. What’s strange is that the tunnel seemed to be abandoned. Ryzen continued to move through the tunnel, occasionally stopping to observe the different rooms that connected to it. In nearly everyone, there were huge splatters of blood layering the walls and floor.

Although it was clearly dry, it was still extremely unnerving. Soon, Ryzen reached the end of the tunnel and found nothing. Something felt very wrong.

He slowly moved back towards the entrance, ensuring he didn’t miss anything but sure enough, he didn’t. There was no one here.

He quickly left the underground and rose back to the surface. He rushed back to Enancia who was clearly waiting for Ryzen’s return.

He appeared next to her and she jumped back only to sigh when she realized it was him.

“Ryzen! Finally, you’re back! Did you figure out who was screaming?”

“I…I found an underground tunnel, similar to the one in that village but smaller but… there was no one there.” Ryzen said.

“That… is certainly strange,” Enancia said with a look of disbelief on her face.

Ryzen had a feeling she knew but was hesitant to say it.

“What is it?” Ryzen asked, hoping she would just spit it out.

“Well, I really hope I’m wrong but that could have been a banshee… they are known to haunt abandoned places that have had… tragedies. Also, they lure people with their screams. They’re just really uncommon and usually only show up after extremely dark events.”

“The tunnel I found… it had blood stains all over the place. If I were to label any place as dark and creepy then the place certainly fits the bill.”

Enancia slowly nodded, “Ryzen, did you ever leave your shadow while you were in there?”

“No, something felt off about that area. I didn’t really feel safe doing so.”

“That’s a good thing. Hearing a banshees scream from far away is one thing but get too close and it can become fatal. We should take a detour around whatever tunnel you find. It’s best if we do not go anywhere near it.”

Ryzen nodded, agreeing with Enancia’s point. However, he was still worried.

“Can it follow us out of the tunnel? The last thing I need is to have some crazy ass banshee on our ass.”

Thankfully, Enancia shook her head. “Banshees shouldn’t be able to go much farther than the place they haunt. That being said, they can still roam around the location and if the tunnel branches out in any direction, they can appear near it as well.”

“I think the tunnel was pretty small so it shouldn’t be an issue,” Ryzen said, recalling the length of the dirt pathway.

“Hmmm, did you check for any secret passages? A lot of vampire tunnels have those in case of cave-ins or whatever else necessity may arise.”

“Uh, no, I wasn’t aware that vampires did those.”

“Ryzen! I thought you were more careful than that!” Enancia shouted.

“I usually am! I don’t know why I’ve been acting so strangely. I think it’s you.” Ryzen said.

It wasn’t like Ryzen was being controlled or anything. That wasn’t possible. He wondered if being happy made him lose some of his edge.

“That’s… you’re probably right… ever since I was cursed, I’ve been almost like a different person. I don’t think you would have liked war mistress Enancia.” she said with a frown.

Ryzen was about to respond with something to cheer her up but unfortunately, another ear-piercing scream did that for him. If that wasn’t enough, the scream was much closer than before proving Enancia’s theory on a secret passage. Now, Ryzen just felt like an idiot.

“Did the tunnel go out this far?” Enancia asked in a panic.

“No! You may have been right…” Ryzen muttered.

“Shit! This really isn’t good! Banshees are no joke Ryzen. They can kill you before you would even be able to jump into your shadow.

Now terrified, Ryzen quickly moved to grab Enancia and get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, a pale blue spectral image appeared between them.