Tainted Target

Inside this one yet quite large room of warehouse-like space which used to store harvested crops, mainly grains and seeds. The food supplies these inhabitants could depend on, unfortunately as for now, were nowhere to be found within the barren room, only a handful of small grains that remained to be scattered on the earthen floor… showing the difficult days Kasala Village's inhabitants must have gone through for the past months. Their only means of survival that only depended on their own crops which recently threatened by the unwanted and uninvited advent of a rapacious self-proclaimed lord… coupled with the sudden barren soil that reigned over their farmland despite the location being close to the abundantly flowing river.

When their problems seemed about to approach somewhat a twisted yet happy resolution with yet another arrival of the savior they would never even pray for, the delayed problems found their liking to surface inside this empty warehouse located on the corner of the village. Well not empty in an actual fact, for it was the said delayed problems which filled the superfluous space. Thankfully though, it filled quite much of the superfluous space because the amount was thirty—thirty lifeless bodies of the marauders, leaning against the wooden wall.

The horror, however, was less intensive than one predicted. The thirty steel-covered cadavers lined up tidily above the earthen and cold floor, still tied in glowing ropes that were supposed to prevent them from moving freely, let alone escaping since the glowing ropes in truth have the magical capability. How it worked was simply to absorb the vigor of any entity who happened to get snared… not completely however, only partially so that the entity in question was in a state of a deep sleep and would be unable to move a single muscle… meaning, even to lift an eyelid would be one hell of an effort.

Yet there were a few exceptions with someone born with distinctive talent with a remarkable recovery both in vitality and vigor. Those who were capable of recovering even from the most severe injury in a very short period of time. And that where those glowing tendril-like ropes came in handy,

Erynew not only cast her spell to fertilize the soul by devouring the source that was causing barren to the surrounding environment and then tied the marauders with the glowing tendril-like ropes, but they also played a role as magically-imbued agents of natural selection. The ability of her glowing tendril-like ropes was quite effective against ordinary humans, to the point those who got snared by it, would likely never open their eyes ever again if the caster wouldn't bother to cancel the spell. Except with the particular humans born with their extraordinary recovery. It may take them a while to wake up from the effect, even though they were still unable to move then to wake up in an exhausted state because the type of the spell cast by her was the strong one which usually being used for sealing middle to high level creatures.

In short, her initial plan was to let her glowing tendrils do their job as a natural selection which would then eventually show the strong one amongst the marauders by itself for someone with such an inborn ability, naturally became the leader in the group and filled the strongest position. Because she knew the thirty marauders were simply following Lord Redo because of coins, gold, and equipment. In other words, he hired a group of marauders to help him secure his agenda,

Lord Redo wasn't even their literal boss, and their literal boss was the only human who was capable of opening his eyes under such a circumstance, and only then she might be able to question him many things, especially about this group of interests called themselves Autocrats Five Ways, and what exactly Lord Redo's plan with this village which practically in the middle of nowhere. All of those big questions were still full of mystery for Erynew,

If only the spell of deep-sleep cast by her didn't turn into a spell of sleep-forever done by a third party, the mystery only piled up tight in her head,

"We thought they were still just unconscious moments ago." 

"But then we became suspicious when we ain't seein' breaths dewin' out of 'em."

Along with Erynew… the village chief, Chief Jovier, insisted on looking at the occurrence with his own eyes despite his current physical condition, right then the two village youths began explaining all they knew. And it all made sense since the temperature in this warehouse was set to be in a cool to cold temperature in order to keep the crops fresh. Such a low temperature was thanks to its open ventilation on every corner of the ceiling of the warehouse by letting the chilling breeze come in and out while the earthen floor came in handy to balance the outcome temperature, resulting in an ideal condition to store the crops. And by that fact, the two youths who were responsible for watching the marauders, should be able to see the cloudy breath they produced in and out of their moving chests.

"What do you think about this, Miss Erynew?" approaching with his wooden crutch to help him walking around, Chief Jovier spoke up towards the kneeled Erynew who had been since observing the lifeless thirty bodies of the marauders.

"Well, what I can tell for now is that they're telling the truth."

Answering hesitantly as she still was carefully inspecting the lifeless marauders before her lemon-yellow eyes. No pulse, no moving chests, and no sign of life… in all of them. The thirty marauders were all dead already just recently since their skins were still beaming with warmth and yet pale and no sign of stiffness in their joints yet—no sign of rigor mortis yet—and no horror whatsoever as well,

It was less than she expected when she heard about the hapless news. No blood and no sign of violence on their bodies as well as their faces showed no dread, as if the thirty marauders were dead the painless death and just merely fall asleep but an eternal one. Using some sort of inductive reasoning, she seemed starting to be aware of what she should've been looking for – the sole reason why their skin looked so pale, and why there was no indication of pain in their psyche. All of those led her to one conclusion that they died simply from blood loss. It was a bit tricky to notice indeed, but when she noticed a hole the size of a small needle was formed on every single of the marauders' left chest in which their hearts should be. She could claim the enigma for now had been solved.

"Who's done this, Miss Erynew? I doubt my people can do such a thing. This could be one of them doing, isn't it? For there were all Lord Redo's men?" curiosity took over his mouth as Chief Jovier continually threw many questions at her right after she stood up.

Erynew shook her head once, "Unfortunately, I've no idea, Chief Jovier," a white lie was the only thing she could say for now, concerning the conclusion wrapped up secretly inside her head. Looking at Chief Jovier who slowly took a silent step back after knowing that nothing had been solved yet, she finally had free room to move to her next plan of action while monologuing to herself, 'It's better this way. I don't want to burden him with the fact that the culprit is always been part of the village. If my theory's correct, it would explain the explosion and the scroll. More specifically though, I still have no idea who the sham is.'

Didn't want to waste her time by trying her hardest to bait this malefactor to reveal themselves, Erynew then snapped her fingers but not without purpose though. Right after a swift loud noise created by the momentum of a tension between her thumb and her middle finger which then being broken in a sudden manner utilizing a rapid velocity. The result was this particular frequency. This snapping sound of finger frequency sounded normal in humans' eardrums, yet able to shatter the glowing tendrils tied around the marauder's dead bodies like a thin glass. Now their soulless bodies should be able to rest easy, without any outer interference curbing them… it was her way of respecting the dead, regardless of the bad things they had done, moreover her past experience also convinced her that there were still crueler creatures she knew.

And one of them was the one who did this,

"So what we're gonna do with the bodies, chief?"

"Should we dig a mass burial for 'em?"

Unintentionally overhearing the concern of the two youths, a scream of realization abruptly detonated inside Erynew's rowdy mind, 'Oh that's it! The reason why they bothered to return the chief's daughter's body, and the purpose of that scroll. I finally found the way to bait the filthy creature out.'

"No, we can't. We should bury them in a proper way – for each of them. We still have a lot of space, though it may take us a while." 

Slowly but surely taking a step closer to the perturbed and perplexed chief, Eryenw proposed her thought which likely surprised not only the chief but also the rest of his people later down the line, "Wait Chief Jovier… after what happened to the village, I doubt anyone in the village already been fully recovered. So I might suggest that we just burn the bodies – saving us time and energy. I'm able to help, so don't worry. Though with my spell, think I might accidentally disintegrate them. But given their past unredeemable deeds, I think that's what they deserved in the end, don't they?"

Not just shocked, the village chief and the two youths who just heard Erynew's idea also expressed faces full of questions and a bit of… disheartened. Because they also had their own way… their own tradition which they applied as the last respect for the dead, no matter who were they might be.

Before a why question being thrown at her face, Erynew at once began to repeat her idea… in overly formal speaking, "Altruistically, I shall convey my selfish favor for the sake of many… I mean no respect for those dead bodies for the horrid things they've done in the past. Mass burials only waste of good men's energy, while proper ones only waste of time for the dead bodies will rot first before being buried. More so the dead bodies will taint the air, water, and soil. So I suggest a complete disintegration."

Chief Jovier with the other two village youths gasped their mouths over the statement being told by someone whom they called a savior. Especially from the choice of words said by her…

…disintegration, instead of cremation…

…defiantly epiphany, instead of deferential ceremony,

It wasn't the cremation approach they were against to, but it was the dissociation of body and soul they tried to elude. Having such a tradition which dictating Kasala residents how to behave toward the dead. Because the soul of the dead still connected with its defunct body, they still experienced pain as the living did. Once the dead had been buried six feet under the ground however, the soul will later absorbed by root of the nature… coming home to the Parent before being lifted from the mortal agony.

Truth be told, such belief wasn't only being held tightly inside the very soul of Kasala folks, but already became part of Jaderural faith towards the Parent of Nature. And as part of society who was born in the region, and grew up with its tradition and culture… cremation, let alone disintegration, was seen as a taboo. Not only turning one body and soul into ashes, this disintegration may be turning every one of them into nothing but a black void.

An urge to defy slowly began to surface, yet Chief Jovier couldn't, more like he didn't want to. He of course hadn't forgotten her nature of origin that known for its cruelty, barbarism, savagery, or anything sin-related. However after witnessing and becoming a victim of humanity… he forced himself to put a little faith in that one-horned devil. She had been saving his village after all, and not everything she had said was wrong. So he chose to hold his tongue and waited until the end where yet another shock would greet him.

Turning to the two youths so that her lemon-yellow eyes could catch their figures, Erynew asked one simple question, "Do anyone know about this?"

"No. Apart from us, nobody else knows." 

One of them answered right away, before being continued by his partner,

"We ain't like to create another panic."

Oddly enough, Erynew then smirked in a bit chilling way, "Good. Then go tell them about it. Tell them we're going to have a… public execution. After that we can move the bodies to the middle of the village where everybody can enjoy."

A lot of confusion struck their mind simultaneously, yet they had no time to overthink this and instead walked out of the warehouse right away, leaving the chief with the one-horned devil alone.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Erynew." Chief Jovier's concern became denser at last, and ventured himself to ask the one-horned devil what her actual plan was, "To be honest, I have no problem with burn them into ashes… but doing such a thing in front of the rest… I fear it may hurt their morale."

Not long after throwing his thought, he was then greeted by a pair of lemon-yellow eyes, staring gently at his browny eyes, "No worries, Chief Jovier. Many of your people will actually enjoy watching their nightmares burn into ashes that will also become fertilizer for your land."

"I… I don't know, Miss Erynew." Chief Jovier looked even more confused, mixed with agitated feeling.

"It is I who will do the ritual. It may look cruel by your moral standard, since I'm not bonded by human culture, tradition nor faith…"

A small snide gradually formed on her pale snow face, showing Chief Jovier that there was so much yet for him to know about this unpredictable savior of his,

"…I am the Devil after all."