25 Lance As My Enemy

-Charm's POV-

Lucas is the well-known puppet master all throughout Belmont City.

Johanne and Lance are now in great danger!

One foot of mine voluntarily took a step forward upon seeing the scenario right in front of our eyes, but Baal stopped me from entering the scene yet.

"No Charm. We need to stay put until we see Lucas walking towards where he's bringing his victims. In that way, we'll know where the other missing residents of Belmont City." he instructed.

I looked at him in disbelief. "What if he'll kill both of them right this instant? We can look for the other residents as soon as we defeat him."

Without waiting for Baal's response, I chose to step into the scene, with Aurora right behind me. At this point, the effect of the invisibility spell had already faded, which will make us visible to Lucas right now.

"Stop right there Lucas!" I sternly said, with my right index finger pointing towards his direction.

That immediately caught his attention. The lad jerked his head to look at us, and I can see a smirk formed on the corner of his lips even if he is wearing his hood right now.

"Ohhh... look who's here." he said in a mocking tone as he removes his hood. His almond round eyes glistened through the gas lamp he's still carrying on his right hand.

"Deities to the rescue, perhaps?"

My eyes almost widened at what I've just heard. How come he knows of our true identities without us telling it to him?

Lucas saw the confused expressions on our faces that made his smirk widened, if that's even possible.

"I bet you're confused as to why I have an idea of your true identities. Let me tell you how..." He placed the gas lamp first on the ground before proceeding.

"Earlier this morning, I tried to control you with my magic, and since I've seen that you weren't affected with it, then I'm pretty sure that both of you were deities."

Tch... that must be the reason as to why he suddenly stared at me back there at his house during our first encounter.

"C-Charm, w-what are you doing over here?"

My attention was immediately diverted to the lad who called out my name. Lance's eyes went round the moment he saw my presence. Then I noticed Lucas being amused at what he had just witnessed.

"So you know these guys huh? I bet this would be fun!" he said wickedly. This lad is so different now compared to the Lucas that we've seen earlier on our first encounter.

"Lucas, whatever you're planning to do, just please.., stop! Every time you use dark magic, it slowly controls you more than you're controlling it yourself."

I tried to warn him but he only disregarded it and instead started to move his hands upwards.

Upon doing so, I saw Lance and Johanne drew their swords out of their sheaths placed beneath their waists, and swiftly aimed it towards me.

"Let's play, shall we?"

With a wicked grin plastered on his face, he started controlling both Johanne and Lance by making them swing their swords right at me. Luckily though, I was able to dodge it quickly.

But as soon as I ducked my head, Lance started attacking me again with his sword, making me jump to my right to avoid his upcoming attack.

"Bite Cicero!"

When Lucas seems to be busy manipulating these two, Aurora took this chance to cast a freezing spell towards him. Unfortunately though, things didn't work out according to her plan since Lucas was able to avoid her upcoming attack by using Johanne as his human shield.

That made Johanne's body frozen in an instant.

"Oops, sorry!" Aurora uttered and gave Johanne an apologetic look.

"I-I'm okay." he reassured her while trying his best to fight off the cold.

Meanwhile, on the corner of my eye... I saw Lance charging at me again with his sword raised towards me. Before its tip was able to reach me, I move to my left to avoid its attack.

"I-I'm sorry Charm! I don't know what's gotten into me and why I'm suddenly attacking you!" he said as he continues to swing his sword in my direction in which I continue to dodge.

"I'm fine! I promise... I'll find a way... to get you out of this." I responded in between my breaths.

Suddenly, an idea dawned upon me. With my wand raised towards Lance, I chanted a sleep spell towards the lad in order for him to stop attacking me.

However...

Lucas was so quick in manipulating him that Lance was able to dodge my upcoming attack in an instant. With Lance out of the way, my spell hit my friend Aurora instead of him, which made her fall in a deep slumber in a blink of an eye.

"Hmmm... chocolates..." she murmured before she started snoring.

Oops. Sorry Aurora!

With Aurora sleeping, I saw the guardian animal charged towards Lucas' location while gritting his teeth. The talking tiger, who was earlier turned into a puppy, caught Lucas' attention when he suddenly bit the tip of his robe and clung to it.

Lucas got annoyed and raised one foot to kick the poor animal, which sent him flying several meters away from him. Baal's back unfortunately hit a tree, causing him to lose his consciousness.

Darn! That's it! I've had enough of your games, Lucas!

Before I could even go near him, I suddenly felt something sharp tore the skin on my right arm, causing it to bleed all of a sudden. I bite my lip to suppress the pain that I felt in that instance. My attention was so focused on Baal earlier that I almost forgot Lance's existence for a bit!

"Charm!" Lance called out my name once more with a hint of genuine concern visible on his tone.

"I'm fine." I said, trying to ignore the pain that I'm feeling right now.

My attention went back to Lucas once again when I heard him chuckled.

"What's the matter? Too afraid of hurting your friend?" Lucas said in his mocking tone.

"Sooner or later, you'll have to fight him. Or else... he might kill you."

Damn! This guy is starting to get on my nerves right now!

I better fabricate a plan on how to defeat this puppet master as soon as possible... before it's too late!