“Are you okay, ma’am?” I called out to her desperately, crouching down to put my hand on her shoulder, but there was no reply.
Seeing Maria’s mother—who had always greeted me so warmly—passed out on the floor, I felt the blood drain from my face.
Cezar then took my hand and pulled me back, before holding his own hand against her mouth and throat.
“Don’t worry. She’s still breathing, and she has a pulse. But she may have hit her head or something, in which case it’d be dangerous to move her,” he said calmly.
When I heard this, I felt just a little bit calmer myself.
“How could this have happened to Maria’s mother? And just look at the room...”
Taking a good look around, I noticed that not only had the chairs been knocked over, but the floor was covered in dirt, and some plates had been knocked off the table and smashed on the floor. It was worse than I’d thought. I started to feel angry, wondering who would do such a thing, which was followed by an unfamiliar feeling of coldness deep in my heart.
Then we heard a loud bang from deeper inside the house. I knew instantly that it was made by the door to Maria’s room.
I immediately stood up and headed to Maria’s room, but Cezar was quicker than I was, and had pressed his ear against the door before I got there. He then gestured for me to stand back, placed one hand on the hilt of the sword he wore at his waist, and threw the door open with his other hand.
Having visited Maria’s room several times before, I’d always found it modest, yet warm—like Maria herself. But now we found it in a state similar to the kitchen and dining area, with her desk and chair knocked over.
And there were some rough-looking men standing inside—looking much like the underlings I’d seen the evil lieutenant Katarina commanding in my dream. The only thing that was different was the fact that it wasn’t Katarina standing in front of the men, but rather a woman with black hair—Sarah.
And Maria—who in the game would have been standing safely behind Cezar—was enveloped in darkness. To put it more accurately, she had been constricted by something that looked like an enormous black snake, until she had gone completely limp. Even from where I was standing, I could see her face was pale.
“Maria?!”
What a horrible thing to do! I felt a powerful rage rising inside me once again, while at the same time the icy feeling deep in my chest became colder still.
Without delay, Cezar entered the room and knocked the nearest man to the floor with the sheath of his sword.
While looking at Maria’s seemingly lifeless body, I formed my skull-topped staff in a state of dreamlike detachment. I had always managed to rapidly absorb any darkness that I’d produced myself. And in the past—with help from Jeord and Keith—I was able to absorb Sarah’s darkness, even as it kept me confined. This giant snake-looking thing had to be made of darkness too. So my magic, which could absorb darkness, should work here. Or so I believed, as I desperately pictured myself absorbing the darkness, directing my magic at the black snake.
With a slurping sound, the snake’s tail was sucked into my staff. Great! It’s working! I tried even harder to picture my goal. Suck up that snake! With an even louder slurping sound, the snake was absorbed entirely into my staff.
Sarah and the men with her regarded Cezar and me with stunned faces. Perhaps they were struggling to keep up with this sudden turn of events.
While they were still stunned, Cezar took down another man with his sword.
After the snake of darkness had entirely vanished inside my staff, nothing was holding Maria up anymore, and she nearly fell to the floor. But Cezar quickly caught her.
Sarah’s men finally seemed to come to their senses, tightened their grips on their own swords, and swung them at Cezar while he was still holding Maria. Their attack was so sudden, I was unable to respond—though I still had my staff held at the ready—and Cezar, who had his hands full with Maria, couldn’t counter with his sword either.
With Maria still in his arms, Cezar dodged the men’s swords and hit the floor. But, perhaps partly because he was holding Maria, he didn’t manage to dodge them completely, and I saw red gush from his arm—his clothes quickly became bloodstained.
The atrocious state of the room, Maria’s mother unconscious on the floor, and now Maria, pale and lifeless—my rage had reached its peak. When blood sprayed from Cezar’s arm before my very eyes, I felt like I heard something snap inside me.
They’ll pay for this...
As this thought passed through my mind, it brought with it a strange sensation I’d never felt before. It was as if the iciness that had taken root deep inside me had overflowed, rushing throughout my body. This sensation made me feel sick to my stomach.
My hand—which I had dropped to my side, still holding my staff—now rose swiftly as if controlled by an outside force. I just looked on as if this was all happening to someone else. Then my hand swept down slowly, and a deep darkness gushed forth from the end of my staff. I’d never produced that much darkness myself, but it just kept on flowing and flowing, until there was a huge black mass.
Then the shapeless cloud of darkness seemed to assume a form all by itself. It turned into the very same snake that had been constricting Maria moments earlier. But now it was a couple of sizes bigger. This giant snake slithered across the floor, headed for Sarah’s men. Their faces contorted with fear, and even Sarah’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Then, after reaching the men, the snake wrapped its immense body around them, as they tried desperately to flee.
“Urk.”
“Spare us.”
“Stop, I beg you.”