Mary frowned and turned her head from side to side. The path to the left was dark and ominous, filled with lurking dangers that would eat her since she didn’t have her sword. The path to the right was also dark and ominous. Ahead of her, there was a giant tree. Behind her was the way she came from, but even that looked scary as well. Did she really come from that way? The moon and stars weren’t out, and the only source of light came from … nowhere. Mary shivered and hugged her shoulders. She wanted to go back, but her stomach growled at her, and she swallowed down her unease. Even without a sword, she was strong. At least, she wouldn’t die if—

Snap.

Mary shrieked and dropped to all fours. The rune on her head flashed, and an aura rose up around her body, wrapping it up and creating a turtle-like shape. A snake slithered out from her lower back and tasted the air with its tongue.

“Mary?”

Mary opened her eyes and raised her head, turning around to look behind herself past the aura. Tafel was standing there, holding a fireball in her left hand, her staff in her right. Mary blinked twice, and the aura dispersed as the rune on her head faded away. “T-Tafel,” Mary said and nodded. “Were you hungry too?”

“What were you doing?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow. She walked up to Mary and offered her a hand, helping the empress to her feet. “You seemed, uh, very—”

Mary cleared her throat, drowning out Tafel’s voice. “I was hunting,” she said. “The snake part of my aura can see in the dark. It’s like I can see the hot things inside a cold forest.”

Tafel’s expression didn’t change, and Mary’s face flushed as she looked away. It was a good thing her face was already tinged with red thanks to the bloody color of Tafel’s flames. Mary’s stomach growled again, and she wet her lips with her tongue. Right when she was about to say something, a shiver ran down her spine, and she whirled around.

“Mary?” Tafel asked.

Mary furrowed her brow. “Tafel,” she said and stood in front of the demon like a mother bear standing in front of its cubs. “This might be very rude of me to ask, but can I borrow your sword?”

“You want to borrow Chi’Rururp?” Tafel reached into her portal and pulled out her one-eyed sword with a single wing on its handle. She passed it handle first to Mary. “I don’t think he’ll improve your strength if you cut yourself with him, just saying.”

Chi’Rururp blinked at Mary, but the empress wasn’t looking at it. Mary clenched Chi’Rururp with both hands and shouted, “Come out!”

There was no response. Mary narrowed her eyes and took a step forward while sweeping her sword in a wide arc. It sliced through the trunk of the massive tree ahead of her, but it remained standing as if nothing had happened. Mary placed the sole of her boot against the trunk and nudged. There was a groaning sound as the top half of the tree shifted forward. Then, it toppled over, speeding up as the top neared the ground.

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Screams filled the air, and stomping sounds rang throughout the forest, heading away from Mary and Tafel. Tafel frowned and raised her hand, throwing the fireball in her palm into the air. It hovered above the treetops and grew in size like a miniature sun, lighting up the surroundings in a blood-red glow. The backs of people running away came into view. They were equipped with shoddy weapons: one had a hoe, another had a sickle used for harvesting wheat, and a third tossed away the branch it was holding to run away faster.

Mary sprinted forward and grabbed the man who had thrown away the branch. He shrieked and shouted, “Mercy! Please, mercy! Don’t kill me, please, please, please.”

Mary stared at the man. There was nothing special about him. He was wearing dirty clothes, and his hair was matted as if it hadn’t been washed in a few weeks. A layer of dirt covered his arms and legs, and the man wasn’t even wearing shoes. Mary tilted her head. She had heard about people like these. They hid in lawless places and robbed anyone who came through. “Are you a bandit?”

“N-no!” the man shouted and shook his head back and forth.

“But your actions were very similar to a bandit’s, you know?” Tafel asked, narrowing her eyes at the man, stepping towards him. “What were you doing in these woods with weapons, hmm?”

“W-we’re villagers,” the man said and shrank back. “We, we, we were hiding from the sheep devil.”

“The what?” Tafel asked.

The man swallowed. “W-where are you from? Are you from the Scathir Empire?”

Tafel turned towards Mary. “Are you?”

Mary nodded. “That’s my last name.”

“We, we made it?” the man asked. “Thank the heavens! I’m from the Ruiniert Empire! Our emperor conducted a wicked ritual that involved the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of men. But, while I was waiting in line for my turn to die, a miracle descended from the sky! The guards who were keeping us in check had turned into sheep! So, all the people who were being sacrificed rioted and threw those guards into the ritual pit instead. We thought everything was over, but then they started coming out. Devilish sheep.” The man swallowed and stared into Mary’s and Tafel’s disbelieving eyes. “You have to believe me. I swear on my mother’s grave. There are devils in the shape of sheep that are going to end the world.”

Mary frowned. Back at the banquet, one of her Shadows had said something about the other empires conducting a ritual before sending soldiers to invade her lands. Could that be it? “What happened to the emperor of Ruiniert?”

“He was, um.” The man wet his lips with his tongue. “He was thrown into the ritual pit too.”

Tafel sighed. “Such is the fate of an evil emperor,” she said and shook her head. “Someone’s bound to kill you, like my father.”

Mary looked at Tafel. “What do you think? Is he lying?”

“Probably not,” Tafel said. “Besides, anyone who can come up with that kind of story while a sword is pointed at their neck is valuable in his own right. Even if he’s lying, you can keep him as a bard or something.”

Mary nodded and sheathed her sword. Or she tried to, but Chi’Rururp melted the belt on her waist with its caustic spittle leaking from its edge. Mary stared at the green liquid traveling down her thigh with wide eyes.

Tafel cleared her throat. “Oh, yeah. He does that sometimes.”