Salem picked up the yawning Frosch. The duo had a really fun time in Joya. It was a shame that it was almost time for them to go. Between the parties, drinking, and staying up late even Salem was feeling the fatigue. It was almost sad that the times had to end. Well only a little bit. Salem was sure he could find better parties in other places. Joya was not bad but they were a sexually repressed group of people, except in the areas that most of the other countries would have a problem with. Like the fact that they could sell used women’s panties but no men’s. It was the blatant discrimination that bothered him. Still the went to their room.

The red moon started to rise in the sky. Salem made sure to tuck in Frosch gently before doing some last minute checks, and a bit of meditation. Meditation became a habit for him in terms of training. It helps build up his mana reserves and allows him to feel his mana better. Salem was pretty into it when a scream rippled through the air. It was enough for him to know that he was not going to be sleeping well tonight. The fae had to make his way to the lobby to see what the problem was.

When Salem reached the lobby in question things looked bad. There was blood everywhere as an injured man started to pool it. Salem checked to make sure the man was alive before using his magic to heal him. They were grievous so it actually took Salem three minutes to heal them all.It was a testament to his healing abilities. Anyone else would have probably just called a coroner. Salem needed to know what was going on so he made his way into the town to see if he could find someone coherent.

[314]

The Quest Giver wrote:Objective: Uncover the origin of the Yoki curse afflicting the village, defeat the corrupt spirits and powerful Yokis within the castle, and restore peace to the mountain.

Elder Takumi wrote:- Subdue the possessed boy without killing him.
- Ensure the safety of nearby villagers.

The sound of boots crushing orange and yellow leaves could be heard from outside the window, a sudden shriek of a woman blurted out amongst the confusion, so loud that Salem would no doubt hear it from inside the lobby, the lobby of a recently ravaged tavern setting. The smell of blood and corpse wafting through the midnight air. There were not many lights, only those over different paintings of Sakura trees and samurai that lined the walls, the brown and gold carpets stained in hemoglobin and occasional intestines that had been ripped from the underbelly of something, possibly other guests.

As Salem healed the man, this man’s eyes began to open. He stared forth into the iris of the kind mage, a blue haired man from another country. Instantly he coughed a glob of his own blood, grabbed the healer at the chest, gripped his shirt or coat with everything in his old bones and pulled himself in close. Against the ear of Salem, the words escaped him in short breaths. His voice was shaky, sulking, and anxious. He seemed as though he’d seen a monster, perhaps a dead person, or a poltergeist.

“It has taken them… The children.” whispered the old man, Takumi. Into the ears of the mage. “Please find my grandson, he told me they were speaking to him. I could not bring myself to the belief in it. Now I know that it’s all true.” He said with tears streaming, his missing front tooth busted and lying next to his hip. At his leg, one was twisted, sticking as if it were backwards and had been ripped by something huge.

Suddenly the light began to flicker out over the lobby desk, before the bulb popped roughly. At the front door, two doors that were easy to push open, flew open as screws danced against the floor unhinging one of the gates at this doorframe, the same sound of crunching leaves from beyond the window; at the backside of the desk, started again. As it passed by every window, the shade of a figure seemed to drift against the building until it was right there before the open door. Entering as if he himself were a mysterious omen in a forsaken place.

The form of black shadow in the darkness, it carefully inspected the room. Moving silently as if to hover across the floor, and bend down at the mess. He then stood up after carefully peeling away the sight, and traced his fingers against the rips and tears of the wall liner.

[420]

Salem took the speech with stride. The issue was the fact that he was not fluent in Joyan. The last time he was in the country they had no problem speaking to him. He was on vacation and they all spoke Fiorian to him. Since he was not fluent all he could make out was something about taken. Salem wanted to think that it was about someone taking a dinner order but he was not slow. He pieced together that someone was taken. Who? He did not know.

Things started to get creepy with the lights flickering and such. Salem took out a piece of gum and popped it in his mouth. His eyes started to glow in swirls of gold and blue colors. That was when he saw the dude enter. Well he assumed it was a guy. Salem did not hear a sound but his eyes started to give him a lot of information to deal with. What was revealed was that this was not a dude he would have fun messing with. Since he looked to be searching around Salem reached the conclusion that this was most likely not his doing, unless he was admiring his handiwork.

“Sooo…. Erebus. Watcha doing?” Salem had his standard issue smile on his face. Calling out to the guy as if he was a familiar face. He made sure to keep the awkwardness off his face and out of his voice.”First time I am meeting someone from Phantom Lord. Would you mind double checking for anything dangerous?” Salem pretended to look back down at the man that passed out. In all honesty he was very nervous. He did not doubt his ability to defend himself from the man but from the others reputation, even before using his World’s eye. This man was top level dangerous and a pain in the butt for most to deal with. Not to mention that if he recalled correctly. Salem’s own guild may have been behind the others' incarceration. Not that Salem was going to be the one to bring that information up.

The man that had acted as a doctor would check up on the man to the best of his abilities while watching his back. Salem could swear that the man traveled with his own personal air cooler. It was like when the guy first approached and the light blew out that there was a chill in the air that grew. One that made it feel like if he started to sweat he could use the frozen sweat peas to chill a drink.


[430][744]

There was evidence all around of a terrible beast, yet for Salem. The fairy that seemed to be in this place, Erebus' identity was already made aware of before light had even befallen his shadowy mass that moved in the shadows. Erebus looked in his direction as he mentioned Phantom Lord. "Affiliated is the better word for it." Erebus said, standing on his feet. "I heard the man's words when they hit your ear, the spirits of this place spoke them back to me." The somber words of the Dead were known to speak to Erebus as long as he wore his cape, the Courpsemourn. A legendary artifact that linked two separate planes together. Limbo, and reality.

"... On my way here, I saw fire catching the next building over.. Your magic fairs better against the flame. Care to lend a hand? I've become invested in this creature." Erebus decided. He didn't exactly know much about Salem, but the Apex he donned over his face was a helmet that told him unique trivia about others, so long as he didn't share it with anyone else. He could see where their abilities stacked to his own, their mana, and their elemental magic.

Erebus could see through the lens in his optics that Salem was a Water mage, making him the perfect pick to help uncover this Yokai he'd heard tale of, from across the ocean.

|238|
Total: 658

Salem tried not to flinch when the man mentioned the spirits guiding him. He did not see any of his relatives around at the time. Judging by the visions his eyes showed him the man did not deal with the celestial spirits. It really made him want to file a complaint. The fact that the humans co-opted the word for spirits with pretty much everything they could think. It was an annoying habit. It was not like Salem was going around claiming he was guided by humans when he met a harpy or something. It honestly felt kind of prejudiced to him.

“Sure. It would be best for us to take care of the magic at work. I put my buddy down to sleep and if they wake him. I am gonna be annoyed.” Salem was weirded out but it was in his nature to be fun loving. Awkwardness was fine but he had a new job to do. Let his buddy get a good night's sleep, that would be hard to do with people screaming. “Let’s get going.”

Salem would head outside while still trying to keep an eye on his new acquaintance. When he got outside he would see the fire that was referred to. It was blazing and giving off a strange heat. Salem lifted his staff and pointed it above the fire. His spell circle appeared above it and started to rain down on the building.

It took him a moment to notice as he was focused on what he was doing. The duo was being encircled by various kids. They were holding implements in their hands and looked creepy. More menacing and blood thirsty than how kids normally looked. Salem was busy with the fire that he was 99.9% sure was cursed at this point. He would not be able to fight that back as well as the children.

Turning his head Salem looked at his buddy. “Would you mind taking them out? You don’t have to kill them. Just leave them half dead if you need to.” Salem requested the favor as if he was talking about the weather.

[356][744]

Erebus had already turned on the heels of his boots and began walking, he was outside and rounding the building while Salem caught up to him, and Erebus watched the blue circle take dimensions and begin to pour water along the buildings next door.

In the alley, Erebus watched as young children swarmed in from over the fence, from sides of the fires, and even one child fell from a second story balcony, it's head caught aflame as it drug itself to it's feet. The eyes of the children were black, like no life could possibly be left in those little husks. Yet, even so; Salem pitched the objective out without running any due haste. "I can either discipline these ugly children." the shadowy mass negotiated, "Or you can fight them instead?" He said, lightly chortling to himself.

In his hands, he called for his hooked blade, and his gauntlet. He would step up into the fray, and as one child flew through the air to superman punch him, his metallic glove, backhanded the child from the air. He was sent spiralling until he broke through a window across the street.

"Half-dead? Half-dead it is."

The rest of the children began to pile in, flying as if they were all superhuman or mutated by the power of magic. They would even start attacking Salem, who was focusing his rain cloud.

|233|
Total: 891

Salem was watching the darkened flame with a rare look of anger on his face. He could stand for a lot of things in his life. Dark magic, death, and the slaughter of many would not make him flinch. The fact that he lost the battle of his life to a similar sickening dark magic did not please him. Salem hoped it was not the magic of those blasted demons.

A couple of the kids got close to him. Salem was slightly disappointed in his protection detail. He stomped his feet, creating a bubble around him. The only reason he held back on attacking was so he could make sure the damage did not spread. Salem was pretty sure magic was involved. Seeing as how children managed to take down the barrier he put up with his own hands. Even then Salem had most managed to contain the fire with the extra seconds he brought. When one of the kids lunged at him. Salem brought his staff directly down as if to split the kid in two, He held back to make sure the little lady only got a good bash instead.

“Geez. Here I thought you would do a better protection job.” Salem teased the other with a light smile that lacked malice. Happier since he could focus on other things a bit long as he had the fire under control.


[232][1,332]