A Morning Filled With Fear

Frowning, he gazed at her and saw that her brain seemed nearly fine but didn't need any emergency treatment. Anyway, it would have been too late if his healing hadn't been enough. 'Well, at least I can be proud of myself. Let's check the rest of her body.'

After having muttered a blood spell which allowed its user to detect anomalies in its patient's body Jack saw that she simply had bruises and a few broken ribs but nothing life threatening. He could have seen it with his mana vision but using a spell was way faster, precise and efficient. Sighing, he thought that his body was in worse shape than her while gazing at the burnt marks on his shirt and hand.

Thankfully, the aftereffect of his Unleashed Onslaught was still active and its effect was similar to a healing potion, enhancing his own body's healing abilities.

"Well, I hope that she'll wake up soon. Let's make some... experiments in the meantime." Jack muttered while turning his gaze toward the cold body of the house's original occupant. Soon, broken bones' noises and bloodcurdling screeches could be heard coming from his place and fear slowly took over the slums.

-

During this time, Andrew and Moringar were frantically searching the whole city to find their companion after they noticed that she hadn't come back to their inn to seep the last night. The knight had, like usual, knocked on her door to wake her up in order to eat breakfast together but he soon noticed that something wasn't right when she didn't answer. At first, he simply thought that she was still sleeping and knocked harder, calling her louder too. Then the lack of reactions gave him a bad feeling so he went to find the innkeeper to get a double of her door's key.

He gave it to Andrew after double checking that he indeed was her teammate and returned to his activities afterward, ignoring the increasing panic of the two adventurers.

"Do you think something went south..?" Moringar asked while they climbed the stairs as quickly as possible. The old man knew that the room was empty and that his companion simply wanted to open it since he had a sliver of hope remaining.

Andrew's face fell when he thought about such scenarios and he shacked them off his mind before opening the door. His shacking hands struggled to put the key inside but he finally managed to do it and opened the lock with a loud creaking. Then, he took a deep breath an pushed the door with his shoulder, making way for his head to look inside.

His face took a white color when he saw the bed empty with its usual mess of items around it. Zoe's backpack was resting against a wardrobe, awaiting its owner to go with her on adventures again.

"She isn't there huh." The old archer announced with a grim look on his face. "She was supposed to go and talk to this elf wasn't she..."

"Yes, I stood up quite late to wait for her but I gave up after some time, I thought that she was just taking her time and eating with them..." The paladin replied with a saddened expression.

"Well, maybe she simply slept there because it was dark when she left." Moringar said while trying to give some hope to his companion. However, he felt the same worry as his friend deep inside.

'Did the Church knew about our plan and ambushed her? Or maybe she talked to them about our plan and got attacked? No, that isn't plausible. She wouldn't take such risks when we already talked and planned it out and furthermore, she's way too strong to be beaten this easily. But then, where is she? Zoe wouldn't disappear like this without telling us. Heck, that's the kind of things that I would do and get scolded for by her.'

"Yeah, you are right there's no need to panic." Andrew said while trying to raise a smile on his blemish face. In reality, he was starting to regret their choice to put their life on the line since this weird disappearance of his friend made him realize how dangerous their plan was. Putting his worries about their future on the side, he decided to focus on the present for now and quickly left the empty room.

"Do you remember where their inn is?" he asked his companion while going downstairs.

"Yeah, Richard told us that it was on the other side of the city and called Luna's inn." The old man grunted while grabbing his bow in his room.

"Let's go there then, maybe they know where she is." He announced while storming out of the building, his grip tightening around his sword's handle. Moringar simply nodded and followed him outside.

-

A similar situation had happened to Laena when she wanted to wake her teacher up and noticed that his room was empty since he hadn't locked the door. However, she didn't panic when she saw the open window and simply thought that it was one of Jack's shenanigans.

'I would just like that he told us he was leaving... But we we were with Leon so it makes sense.' She thought while wondering where he was and what kind of weird things was he doing again. Sighing, she decided to brush it off for now and giving him a piece of her mind when he would come back.

The young elf thus went downstairs to join her human friend after having closed the windows and simply sighed when Evelyn asked where their teacher was.

"He's gone?" The small girl said while panicking a little.

"Yeah but he will come back, don't worry." Laena smiled to reassure her companion. ""It's not like I could die, right?"" She grunted with an imitation of Jack.

They both laughed, lightening the mood around them when the door behind them nearly got blasted open. Everyone in the inn looked at the newcomers with curious looks, trying to find out who were the idiots trying to break the door like this. However,when their inquisitive gaze met the two entering men ones they quickly turned their heads as their felt that they shouldn't mess with those guys.

"Thanks god you're there Laena." Andrew said while walking quickly toward they table. All the stress he had accumulated on the way reached its peak when asked her with a serious look :

"Have you seen Zoe yesterday?"

"Uuuuh... No?" The elf replied with a questioning look on her face. When she saw their face darken after her answer she said worriedly :

"Did something happen to her?"

"No n-" Andrew stuttered while trying to lie.

"She didn't come back yesterday after having been here to talk to you guys." Moringar stated while staring at Laena. Evelyn didn't really enjoy the glare that this old man had so she replied quite angrily :

"She never came here and we never talked to her ! You can go and ask Leon if you don't believe us."

"Leon? Who is he?" The knight asked, standing next to their table and drawing everyone's attention. Soon, some whispers could be heard.

"Another disparition..."

"It's probably the Phantom Reaper again..."

"He's a paladin from the Church of the Glorious Radiance. Quite a nice guy actually." Laena explained after drinking some of her soup. She had hoped that this information would clear the misunderstanding between them. Yet, it only made them turn as white as a sheet.

"Oh fuck..." Moringar muttered.

"W-was he here alone?" Andrew stuttered while his hands started shaking.

"Yeah, why? Are you guys alright?" The elf asked after seeing their reactions.

"We are fine, don't worry. Come on Andrew we need to move and go search elsewhere." The old archer said while dragging his friend outside. The two girls simply looked at them, wondering what was happening. They wanted to help them but they didn't really knew how. Thus, they decided to wait for their teacher to come back and ask him his help. With his skills he would easily find her if she had truly disappeared.

"We need to go and tell Richard. The fact that the Church was here is more than fishy." Moringar announced with a grim look on his face.

"But.." Andrew muttered while clenching his fist.

"Even if it's nothing more than paranoia, we need to be prepared. It would be pitiful for our plans to be ruined right now without even getting a chance to fight." The old man said while frowning. 'Where the hell is she... Zoe, I hope that you're safe or that at least you died without selling out our plan.'

"Do you believe in this rumor of Phantom Reaper...? Maybe it's real and has caught her..."

"What are you? A child? How can you believe a stupid horror story like this ! Don't let panic get the better of you Andrew." Moringar scolded the poor knight.

-

The said girl was currently waking up while feeling her whole body had been hit with a club with a special attention for her head. Surprisingly, she didn't feel her arms but dismissed it as she remembered this weird dream where she had fought a surprisingly strong Jack. More and more pain came from her arms and she grunted while she tried to move them to disperse the weird feeling she had in them. Yet, her forearms and wrists didn't budge.

Sighing, she opened her eyes to see what was wrong and saw an unfamiliar wooden roof above her. The wood was covered by some mold and holes could be seen in the thatch which was supposed to stop the rain. Turning her head, she saw Jack looking at her with a huge smile while an abominable creature stood next to him. He was sitting on an half rotten wooden chair and the ground around it was covered in blood.

"What the he-" She started to say until her gaze ended on her two severed arms. They had been cut a little above the elbow and a crestfallen expression appeared on her face when she saw them. Her head shook a little when she lowered her eyes toward her stumps of arms.

"No..." She simply said before her voice died out and tears streamed out of her face.

"Good morning child, did you sleep well?" Jack said with a terrifying grin.

Zoe didn't reply and simply looked at him before studying the humanoid being which looked at her with ravenous eyes. The creature had a white, parchment like skin and a bald head. Its face had a nose, pointy ears and two pure black eyes which seemed to gaze into her soul. From what she could see this thing also had sharp fangs. It's stature was quite similar to an human being except its hands which had pointy claws replacing the last phalanx of each finger.

"Hoho~ You seems interested in my latest creation. This is a ghoul, an undead being. Don't worry, it's not dangerous though. With that said, will you answer my questions?" Jack asked while getting up and walking toward the ground where she was lying down.

Seeing him move and talk like this woke her up from her shocked trance and she slithered like a snake toward a wall to rest her back on it. She had tried to raise herself up with her abdominal muscles but her ribs hurt terribly so she did something else. Using her arms was also out of question since they were still horribly painful and surprisingly the wounds were still fresh.

"W-what a-are you exactly?" She asked while fear slowly took over her mind as she slowly remembered his inhuman performance in their fight.

"Some called me a fiend, some called me a monster, some called me a psychopath... But for now, I am Jack." The immortal shrugged. "I will ask you a few questions young girl, answer me faithfully and you will live on. If your answers satisfies me you may even get your arms back."

"And if I don't satisfy you...?" She sheepishly wondered out loud.

"I will feed my new pawn with fresh meat." Jack laughed while the ghoul looked at Zoe even more ravenously than before.

The poor magician didn't answer and simply swallowed her saliva loudly while her mouth suddenly got quite dry. 'How did things got like this...' She thought while despairing.

"Well then, first and most important question ! Are you with the Church of Radiance?" Jack asked while carmine fire danced in his eyes.

"Uh?" Zoe muttered dumbfounded.