Lusya still did not know what this anomaly was, but its nature had become slightly clearer over the last couple days. The strange sensation that had signaled the phenomenon had only grown stronger as they had moved toward Frostwood, the next town on their route. Beldo had not offered any additional details on what it was, only assured her that it would not be harmful to them or to Ariya.

Now, Lusya was beginning to see what the issue was. Quite literally. Malice was unnaturally thick in the air. So thick that it had become visible as a violet haze enveloping the entire town. Normally, something like this would only happen preceding a demon’s birth. But this still felt different, and the Malice was not coalescing at all. It was just hanging in the air in its unnatural density, inert.

Inert, perhaps, but not inactive. The state of the village—or the villagers, rather—spoke to that quite clearly. There were few of them out, but they were all in about the same state, with pallid skin and dark bags under their eyes. Their movements were languid as they walked, their eyes half-lidded as if they were falling asleep standing up. They coughed quite frequently, a wet, choking sound. One stopped as he passed by Lusya and the others and turned to look at them with bleary eyes.

“Travelers?” he said

“Indeed,” Lusya replied.

“Well, you’d best move on quickly. I don’t know what this weird fog is, but it gives me the creeps, and now we’ve got a plague going around too. Not a good idea to stick around, especially with the little one.”

“I’m not that little,” Ariya said.

The man ignored her. “We’d love to offer you some hospitality and all, but it’s just not smart for anyone right now.

“Don’t worry,” Beldo said. “We know what we’re doing, and we can take care of ourselves.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” the man replied with a shrug.

Beldo smiled. “We appreciate it.”

The man nodded and moved on, a series of coughs wracking his body.

Lusya doubted the villagers’ condition was a coincidence. A plague could have been responsible for a surge of Malice, but not for this unnatural behavior of it. Although she had never seen a phenomenon like this before, it was far more likely that the Malice in the air was making them sick. Which itself raised another question.

“Did you not say this would not be harmful?” Lusya asked, cocking her head slightly.

“It won’t be, as long as we don’t linger,” Beldo said. “If this is what I think it is, it’s been like this for weeks, maybe longer. We’re fine, and it would take days of exposure before Ariya even started feeling it.”

Lusya looked down at Ariya. She did not seem to be displaying any signs of illness. Her brow was furrowed in concern as she observed the Malice and the villagers, but she seemed fine physically.

“Are you well, Ariya?” Lusya asked.

Ariya nodded. “Yeah. I don’t feel any different at all.”

“Then I suppose we do not need to leave immediately,” Lusya replied. She returned her attention to Beldo. “You have seen this before?”

He nodded. “Yeah. It was a few years ago…How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“Then it was a little more than twenty years ago.”

“I see.”

It must have been around when he encountered her parents, if that was his point of reference. Though it was too soon to say if they had been involved, Lusya suspected they had.

“There should be a device nearby that’s causing this,” Beldo said. He cupped his hands in a circle. “It’s kind of like a little…thing with a glass ball on top.”

“That description is of dubious use,” she replied.

“That was awful,” Ariya said.

Beldo sighed. “I’ll know it when I see it, okay? So, let’s just look together. I doubt it’s in town, so let’s look in those woods to the north.”

“I take it destroying the device will resolve the situation?” Lusya said.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Beldo nodded. “As far as this village is concerned, at least.”

“Then we gotta do it,” Ariya said. “Being sick is the worst. We can’t let these people stay like this.”

“Very well,” Lusya replied, earning a grin from Ariya.

There was no point in arguing. Though Lusya did not wish to cause suffering, she had little issue with leaving these people as she found them. But she knew what it took to keep Ariya happy by now, and that meant helping the village. At least they wouldn’t lose any time in the process, since Lusya had planned to spend the night anyway.

“Then it’s decided,” Beldo said. “Let’s go find ourselves that device.”

#

The odd behavior of the Malice continued well outside the village. In fact, how far it extended to the north as opposed to the east where they had come from made it clear the phenomenon was not centered on the village. More than likely, this device Beldo had mentioned was the center of it.

And so, they set off into the forest in search of it. Although they were moving toward the center of the phenomenon, the density of Malice did not seem to change much, nor did any of them experience any additional adverse effects. Interesting. Lusya had to admit that she was quite curious about what was happening. The mechanics of making Malice behave this way were a mystery begging to be solved, along with who had done so. A device had to have been constructed by someone, after all.

With little indication of where to search aside from to the north, they simply began systematically combing the forest once they arrived. It was possible the device was even farther to the north, but the forest seemed to be the best hiding place near the village. The wooded area was rather small, barely worthy of being called a forest. That was fortunate. This method of searching could have taken days with a larger area.

As it stood, it was still quite slow. But, after a few hours, they found what they were looking for. The voices were the first thing they heard.

“Man, how long do we need to guard this stupid cup?” a plaintive voice asked.

“As long as the boss is paying,” a gruff voice replied. “We’re making what we’d be lucky to pull in in a month in one day. Don’t complain.”

“I get what you’re saying. But we can’t really spend it if we’re stuck out here in the sticks. Can’t even go into town, or they’d get suspicious. What’s the point of all this coin if we can’t spend it on anything?”

“Don’t be dramatic,” a third, nasally voice chimed in. “Sure, it’s been a while, but the job’s not going to go on forever. Once it’s done, you’ll have a heavy purse and you can splurge all you want.”

“I guess…Wait, someone’s coming!”

Lusya and the others had made little effort to disguise their approach, so it was not surprising they had been heard. They walked out of the woods into the clearing the three men were in, as the men turned to face them.

There were no others lying in wait. People felt different enough from the ambient Malice that Lusya had no problem sensing them. It was just these three. Clad in simple roughspun clothes and hardened leather armor, the men had the look of bandits, though they were actually mercenaries judging by what they had said. The two groups did tend to look and act quite similar, and one could easily become the other.

“What do you three want?” the gruff voiced one said. He was actually the most put together of the three, clean-shaven with well-groomed black hair. “You lost or something?”

The words were neither mocking nor sarcastic. He seemed to be entertaining the notion that they were lost travelers drawn in by voices in earnest. From what they had said, they had been hired to protect the device, so there was no reason for immediate hostility. At least they were professional. That was more than could be said for many mercenaries.

“We can give you directions to town, if you want,” the plaintive voiced one said. Even when not complaining, his voice had a distinctive whine to it. Bald and with a thick, tangled beard, his voice, too, did not match his appearance. “You can’t stay here. Area’s restricted.”

The three were gathered around what must have been the device in question. About three feet tall, it resembled a tall, thin silver chalice with a glass ball resting within. It was only the glint of the light off the glass that made it clear that was what it was. Filled entirely with thick Malice, it almost looked like a roiling orb of violet mist, most of the glass all but invisible.

“Is that the device?” Lusya asked Beldo.

He nodded. “That’s the one.”

“Then we have come to destroy it.”

“What?” the gruff one exclaimed.

“Can’t let you do that, little lady,” the nasal-voiced one said. He had a stout-build and shaggy red hair. “Just turn around and no one has to get hurt.”

“Do either of you mind if I kill them?” Lusya asked.

Ariya scowled. “They’re bad guys.”

“They’re kind of just doing a job,” Beldo said, scowling. “I’d rather you didn’t. But I won’t lose any sleep over it.”

“Now you’re ignoring us?” the plaintive-voiced one said. “I’ll show you what—”

All three of them were dead before he finished his sentence, their broken bodies scattered around the clearing. Lusya approached the device and looked it over.

“Is there anything special I need to do with this?” she asked.

Beldo shook his head. “There shouldn’t be. Just break it and we’re good.”

Lusya smashed the orb with her fists, then summoned Lunera and cut the remainder of the machine in half to be sure. The Malice within the orb dissipated into the surrounding mist, and the rest of the machine fell apart with little fanfare. Cutting it in half had revealed a rather intricate interior containing gears, axles, and wires, but nothing that offered a hint as to how it worked. At least, no hint that Lusya could discern.

The pervasive mist of Malice itself began to grow thinner almost immediately. It was a gradual process, but at this rate, it would be done before sunrise tomorrow. That was probably a good thing, but it only added to the unnatural feeling of the phenomenon. It couldn’t sustain itself at all without that device.

“That should help out the village,” Beldo said. “Although I doubt the situation is really over.”

“You seem to know what is happening,” Lusya said. “Did you know this was here?”

“Oh, no, not specifically,” Beldo said. “Like I said, this has happened before, and I heard some rumors about it happening again, but I didn’t know this village was having problems until we got close. Now, what do you say we go back to town and ask about it? I only have a very broad idea about what’s going on. If we ask around, we might learn more.”

Lusya could not deny that she was curious, and they were going to spend the night anyway. “Very well. Let us return.”