Faceless and Noseless waited patiently after Eyeless had left. A few minutes later, they saw a bright flash of red coming from the city square accompanied by flying people and debris.

"I guess that's our signal." The two of them stood up and walked forward to an empty space.

After stopping, Faceless placed his hands on the ground. Black oil oozed from his palms and formed a magic circle filed with complex lines of glyphs around both himself and Noseless.

Whoosh.

Noseless felt the temperature drop as the surrounding mana was sucked in to power the spell. The magic circle started glowing and started emitting smoky clouds of fog which covered their bodies.

Noseless experienced a tugging sensation and briefly lost his balance. After stabilising himself, he noticed that asides from Faceless and himself, everything else had turned monochromatic and noticeably slower. Even the distant screams and sounds from Eyeless scuffle sounded bassy and elongated.

"Quickly," Faceless gritted. Unlike his normal featureless face, noticed there were now black lines on his skin forming the outlines of Faceless' facial features.

At Faceless urging, Noseless focused and circulated the mana inside of his body. The mana started congealing in front of him to gradually form a crimson nose on his face. After testing the nose to ensure it was working, Noseless calmed himself and started to breathing deeply.

As Noseless inhaled and exhaled deeply, he started detecting and distinguishing not just general smells, but also the mana and emotions in the entire village. Faceless' mana was funky and oily. Meanwhile, Eyeless and the guardsmen battle in the village square emanated a strong acrid smell mixed with a metallic tang. There was also an unsettling bitterness in the air hinting of the general fear in the village.

Noseless mentally parsed through the smells and started sniffing more earnestly. Moments later, he smelled a faint scent reminiscent of old books and freshly blooming daffodils with a hint of rot.

"I've got her," Noseless said. "She's ri..."

Boom!

Faceless and Noseless turned towards the square. The two of them were dumbfounded when they saw the bronze statue attacking Eyeless.

"Oh what the f.." Faceless and Noseless cussed at the same time.

Faceless sighed. "There's a change of plans. I'll go help Eyeless, you continue looking for the fortune teller. Be quick."

Noseless nodded and left while Faceless started rushing towards the village square.

* * *

Noseless weaved and ducked through the panicking crowd. Thanks to Faceless' spell, he could easily sidestep and dodge any obstacles or people in his way.

The fortune teller's scent eventually led Noseless to a dark purple tent. After looking around, he carefully lifted the tent flap and stepped inside. Despite the chaos inside, the inside of the tent was oppressively quiet and dark.

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"Hello there."

Noseless stiffened at the greeting. To his alarm, he noticed that he was no longer concealed as Faceless' spell was dispelled.

Noseless turned to look at the greeter. To his surprise, an attractive looking young woman was sitting across him whilst sipping from the teacup elegantly. However, his eyes seemed to be playing tricks on him as the lady suddenly turned into an old granny, but quickly morphed back into her youthful state.

"I rarely get visits from the Organisation." Madam Schroon spoke calmly. "However, please understand I won't be offering you anything to drink given the nature of your... well, organisation."

"You don't seem very surprised."

"Oh, not really. I regularly check my own fortunes, and unfortunately I was informed today to expect some unwelcome guests." Madam Schroon tutted as she placed the teacup on the table.

"I was not expecting the mess outside, though," Madam Schroon nodded towards the square. "Your friends seem to be having a merry fling with the village guardian."

Noseless frowned in annoyance. He knew that he had lost the initiative in this conversation.

"If you know we are coming, you should know why we're looking for you then." Noseless leaned forward on the table threateningly.

"Of course, but there's no reason for me to tell you, is there?" Madam Schroon smiled.

Noseless' frown deepened. The tent turned deadly silent.

Thwuck!

Without any warning, Noseless pinned Schroon's right hand with a dagger. Blood sprayed all over the wooden table.

"Urghmph....." Schroon bit her lips to stop herself from screaming.

"I don't play games, unlike my colleagues outside." Noseless took out another dagger and twirled it around his hand. "If you don't tell me where the Immortal is, the next place I will stab your neck."

Madam Schroon laughed mockingly in anger. She spat on Noseless face and licked her lips.

"Curse you," she said as she gritted through her teeth. Noseless simply stood up and wiped the saliva off his cheek.

Thwumph!

* * *

Eyeless shot up and wheezed at the pain. He laid back down in a daze and laughed at the sheer joy of being alive.

"Oh good, he's mad." Noseless said while Faceless grunted in assent.

Eyeless winced and tried slowly sitting up again. After finding himself lying in a tent, he crawled out and saw Faceless and Noseless warming themselves by a bonfire. Asides from the crackling of the wood, the forest was perfectly silent.

"How long was I out?" Eyeless asked as he limped towards them.

"Two days." Noseless threw a stick into the fire. "Thank Faceless, you wouldn't have made it out if he didn't drag you out from that mess."

"Speaking of, how did you evade that last attack from the statue? Even I felt the heat and I was not even close." Noseless asked.

"I didn't." Eyeless grinned. "I just made it think I was hit." He tried to materialise his magic eyes again but coughed out blood instead.

"Don't force yourself. Good eye technique though, excellent work." Faceless nodded in praise. Eyeless beamed but groaned at his sore body.

"Thanks, but I don't feel like I accomplished much, to be honest." Eyeless said.

"Well, it's not like Noseless had much luck on his end." Faceless glanced at Noseless who casually shrugged.

"What can I do? The lady won't say anything." Noseless retorted.

"You could have at least burned down the tent. By now, someone would have found her corpse and start piecing things together." Faceless insisted in frustration.

"Anyway," Faceless sighed, "we seem to have run into a dead end. Unless you guys have any ideas?"

None of them spoke anything for a few minutes and just gazed into the fire.

"I'm not sure if it's possible," Noseless spoke slowly. "But if he is using the statue to monitor the village, can we try tracking where the spell is directed to?"

Faceless rubbed his chin in thought. "That's... doable. But we'll need to enter the village again, and much more discreetly this time."

"Can we continue this, tomorrow?" Eyeless asked and yawned.

Faceless nodded and gestured for Noseless to put out the fire. After the three of them returned to their tents, the sounds of rusting leaves and chirping insects was heard again in the forest.