“Wendy~ Where are you?” Q called out in the dark forest. All around her were other witches also searching for the lost apprentice through various means. Some were flying high above the treetops to try and get a better view of things, while others were using skills like [Magic Perception] to see if they could find any trace of her. Everyone was gathered in groups of at least 5 or more, with each group having a wind mage to quickly relay messages. Q’s group had Pamerun’s other apprentice Lea travelling with them.
“I gotta say though, it’s pretty surprising to see that the entire village is searching for Wendy. She must be really loved huh?” Q said after 5 minutes of searching.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Lea spoke up. “She’s always friendly with the other witches, and helps out whoever she can when she’s not getting taught by Master. Oh Wendy… where are you?” Her face became clouded with sadness.
“Heh, for all the rivalry you two have for each other, it seems like you care for her very much.”
“Wha- no! I… I… please keep it a secret? She’ll get all uppity if she hears about this.”
“Heheheh… of course!” Q smiled while crossing her fingers behind her back.
The groups of witches went deeper and deeper into the forest as the night continued. The fog really began to roll in at this point as they had to activate a constant fire spell to keep it away. Even with that the fog was so thick that they couldn’t see any further than five metres in front of them. “Hmm…” Lea wore a pensive face.
“What’s up Lea?” Q asked.
“It’s this fog… normally it doesn’t get this thick but the times that it does…”
“Stop being mysterious. If it’s information that can help us, you should quickly say it.”
“Sorry. I heard that the fog only gets this dense when the Kindersnatch is preparing to eat what it’s hunted. It creates more fog so no one can disturb it…”
“Kindersnatch?” Q thought for a moment. “Oh, I remember Wendy mentioning that to us when we first came here. Wait… does this mean she’s been captured by the Kindersnatch?”
“Oh no!” Lea’s face paled. “If that’s true, we don’t have much time to save her! I’ll relay this to the other witches.” She concentrated for a moment and then began to send messages using her wind magic.
“Hmm… but where could she actually be?” Q closed her eyes in contemplation. Come on game! You can’t just send us on an investigation without any clues. It was at this exact moment that Q heard a faint chirp. She instantly locked onto that position and dashed towards the source of the sound. The rest of the girls were confused, but soon followed her.
Once Q reached the origin of the chirp, she looked down to find a small bird with dark blue wings sprawled on the ground. “Hold on a second, aren’t you Wendy’s familiar?” She asked as she created a healing rune and used it on the bird. The bird quickly regained its energy and then began flying circles around Q’s head. “Haha, you’re welcome.”
“Chirpy! Do you know where Wendy is?” Lea caught up with Q and quickly talked to the bird.
“*Chirp chirp*” The bird started flying away, then looked back and hovered in the air as it waited for the rest of the girls to follow.
“Clue found…” Q muttered under her breath as she created her flight circle and hopped onto her staff. Brie and Phanos jumped onto her staff, while Cinnamon began flapping her wings and Lea hopped onto Kukis’ broom saying, “I need to relay this to everyone else. Please be a bit cautious because I need to concentrate.”
Kukis nodded in understanding, and the group set off to follow the bird. Wendy’s familiar flew through the dense woods at high speed, not even checking to see if the girls were following it. Both Q and Kukis had some trouble navigating through the woods since they had to fly carefully due to their passengers, but they somehow managed to keep up with the bird. In no less than 3 minutes, they came up to a ridiculously thick fog wall.
The bird dived in without hesitation and disappeared into the wall. The girls exchanged glances and nodded, then flew in after it. Their visibility was instantly reduced to nothing and not even fire or wind spells were able to clear it away. As a result they slowed down a bit, but continued to fly straight. The longer they travelled through the fog wall the slower they went, until eventually they weren’t going any faster than if they were walking.
“Rrgh. Travelling through this fog is like swimming through water. How long does this go on?” Kukis complained as she struggled to force herself forward.
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“Most likely not much longer. I can feel a slight wind current up ahead.” Lea said. “Please, continue to push onward!”
“Leave that to me!” Q created four speed gates and placed two in front of Kukis and herself. The moment they went through the gates their speed increased (though not by much), and they continued to struggle to move forward. Strangely enough, the resistance suddenly stopped and they broke through the fog wall. As soon as they got through their speed returned to normal, but because they were also under the effects of the speed gates they sped up and weren’t able to react in time when they saw a rock which suddenly appeared in front of them.
The first one to move was Phanos who made a few gestures with her hand and muttered something under her breath. Once she finished Q noticed that everyone received a buff which increased their defense. The second to move was Brie who thrust out her sword and released a blast of wind from its tip. The wind hit the rock and created a crack in it, then pushed back the girls slightly. Finally Q and Kukis reacted by pulling back as hard as they could. Despite all of this they still crashed into the rock, but thanks to Brie and Phanos’ efforts the damage they took was minimized and they were able to float down to the ground.
“Sorry about that guys. Didn’t think there’d be a rock in front of us. Though I say that, it turns out to be part of an even larger wall.” Q gestured to the large rock they crashed into. Now that the fog wasn’t around them, they could clearly make out a long wall of stone that extended for almost a mile on both sides.
“This is… what is this?” Lea was incredibly confused to see such an object in the middle of the forest.
“Is that really so important?” Q asked. “Besides, Chirpy seems to have found an entrance. We should probably follow it.”
The blue bird kept flying circles around a small crack in the wall. The girls healed up and prepared themselves, then entered the crack one by one (which was a tight fit for Kukis and Cinnamon but the rest of them were able to slide through easily). After going through they found themselves facing a large courtyard with various ruined structures littering the ground. There were cracked cobblestone walkways and withered plants coming out from them. Most of the area was covered in dry dirt, and a heavy atmosphere hung over the place. The most striking thing was a large stone building in the center of the courtyard which was easily three stories high and had only a large metal gate on it.
“Hmm… I don’t like how this feels.” Q frowned as she felt a pressure on her mind which made her recall the first time she entered the forest of fog. A cursory glance showed that most of the other members were probably feeling something similar, though Phanos and Brie looked the same as ever.
“Wait… I remember now! This is an abandoned keep from a long time ago. It was written in books that it used to be used by the Church of Luxus but was deserted after the witches drove them away. That was a story from countless centuries ago though…” Lea looked around wide-eyed at the old decrepit structure.
“Everyone, the bird is trying to head into the building in the center.” Phanos returned everyone’s attention to the blue bird which was chirping loudly in front of the metal gate.
“Right! Just wait Wendy, we’re coming to save you!” Lea rushed to the gate and tried looking for a way to open it. The gate was rusted shut, and there wasn’t any obvious mechanism they could use to open it so Kukis threw a vial of green liquid which began to melt the gate upon making contact with it. After the gate was melted sufficiently Q blew it open with a rune and they headed inside.
The inside of the structure revealed a spiral stairway leading down into the earth. The bird flew down without hesitation, but the girls proceeded with a bit more caution as Q lit a small flame and kept it in front of her as they proceeded. Cinnamon took the lead and was followed by Q, Brie, Phanos, then Lea, with Kukis keeping the rear guard. They went down the stairs for what felt like half an hour, accompanied with nothing but the sounds of their footsteps ringing on the stone stairs.
Finally they got out of the stairway and entered a large dark room. Q and Kukis created a few orbs of light and spread them around the area, but soon regretted doing so as they saw what the room was. All around them were small metal cages and strange devices and tools made out of various materials, but they were able to recognize them due to their real world knowledge.
“...Those are torture devices… aren’t they?” Q said quietly upon seeing the ghastly sight.
“Yeah. If this place belonged to the Church then… ugh.” Kukis tried to hold down something that was welling up in her throat.
“Disgusting.” Brie gritted her teeth in anger once she saw what the objects were.
“Shall I destroy them, milady?” Phanos was also angered, but she hid it under a calm facade.
“I’m not sure if we have time for that.” Cinnamon seemed to be the least affected by the surroundings. “We should save Wendy as quickly as possible before anything else.”
With Cinnamon’s words the rest of the girls regained their senses and began looking for the bird. Q and Kukis spread out their light through the room to search for the bird, and as they moved through the room it revealed more and more of the terrible torture devices throughout. They tried to ignore the sight, but couldn’t help but be affected by it since it was their first time seeing such things up close. Not to mention the fact that there were even various markings which were probably dried blood all around them.
Half a minute later they finally found Wendy’s familiar sitting silently on top of a restraining device. Just underneath it was a human figure. The light orbs got closer and illuminated its body, revealing a familiar face.
“Wendy!” Lea rushed forward to help her friend out of the bindings, but was then stopped by Q who suddenly grabbed her robes collar. “W-what are you doing? I have to help her!” Lea struggled but couldn’t escape Q’s grasp.
“Lea, take a close look at her.” Q’s eyes didn’t stray from ‘Wendy’ at all. The rest of the girls also got into a fighting position, and the room temporarily froze as they stood in this deadlock for a few seconds.
“...Aww. I was hoping at least one of you would come over here.” ‘Wendy’ laughed a little. Her voice was no longer a bright happy tone, but was instead long and raspy. She moved her body and the bindings easily came off, then brushed off the dust on her shoulders and let out a smile. “What’s wrong Lea? Why don’t you come and give me a hug?” Lea gasped once she saw Wendy’s eyes. Her normally dark brown eyes were now a cloudy gray with strange white swirls occasionally moving through them.
The reason Q stopped Lea earlier was because there was a [???] above ‘Wendy’s’ head, but now that they could see her properly, a new name appeared above it.
[Kindersnatch] - Level 80
“Wendy… no…” Lea lost all strength in her body as she fell onto her knees.
“We’re too late.” Q felt a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Late? On the contrary you’re just in time!” The Kindersnatch made a high pitched laugh. “It’s time for dinner you see, and the preparations are finished.”
“You wanted an audience to see you eating Wendy? You’re sick.” Kukis was prepared to cast a spell, but was hesitating in firing it.
“No, you misunderstand. What I mean to say is, my meal has finally arrived.” The Kindersnatch let out a wide grin.
“...This was all a trap.” Phanos suddenly realized something. “The reason we suddenly went through the fog wall, the bird leading us down here... And now you’ve blocked off our escape route.” Phanos looked behind the group and saw a thick wall of fog blocking the area they came from.
“What a clever one you are.” The Kindersnatch made its high pitched laugh again. “This girl was just an appetizer. Now, it’s time for the main course!”