Hidden Evils

Lives being taken. Injustice causing rage and hatred. Seeing that home burn was worse than seeing her entire kingdom crumble in ruin. It pained her, that feeling of valued people being tortured and tormented until death. But more than that, it awakened fury. At that point nothing mattered to her more than ending that threat of losing someone treasured.

Cas and Evan followed Greyhart into the castle of Obselok. Cas had only been to the castle of Prismont to see his mother when he was really young. He was stuck reminiscing and admiring the castle, that he failed to realize he was starting to fall behind Evan and quickly caught up to him.

They got in through the front entrance of the castle, and it was truly a sight to behold. Everything was perfectly neat and organized, much like the rest of the kingdom. All of the rooms were significantly more vibrant than the exterior. Places like the kitchens or the guest lodgings were all multiple bright colors that certainly would catch any visitor's eye. It was a paradise hidden by gloom and gray. The interior of the castle felt super warm, in contrast to the outside which had a colder climate and clouds everywhere. Cas was truly memorized by all the colors in sight. So much so that he suddenly stopped walking, and Greyhart had to pull him along with him.

The three had reached a huge spiral staircase and Greyhart once again looked back at Cas and Evan and said: "The negotiation room is 48 floors higher, let's not keep the ruler waiting any longer."

"That's a lot of floors…" Evan mumbled.

"Don't worry, it'll be no sweat!" Cas exclaimed as he began running up the stairs.

"Yeah for you it won't! Knights sure are on another level aren't they?" Evan sighed.

Several minutes had passed, and Cas had become very sluggish and tired. On the other hand, Greyhart went up the many stairs with no issue whatsoever. And Evan was just barely able to make it up there without falling behind.

"This is… the 49th floor right?" Cas said desperately trying to catch his breath.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead and caught a glimpse of a table and chairs, to which he then rushed over and sat down at the nearest seat.

"Act civilized Cas, remember where you are." Greyhart sternly spoke.

Suddenly, a green flash of light illuminated the far right corner of the room and three men appeared. These men were the king of Obselok and his royal guards.

"Why if it isn't the king of Prismont's greatest ally, Greyhart, was it? What business have you here?" The king proceeded to take a seat. He was quite old, he had no hair other than a long gray beard. He carried around a scepter which looked to be the same material as those black stones Greyhart had given out as he was explaining the operation. His back was hunched and his guards stood near him making sure he was able to move carefully without injuring his fragile body.

"Well to put it bluntly, King Nearfeather, my subordinates and I are here to discuss your attitudes towards Prismont. Recently, an incident occurred where the town of Narrowind was attacked by a mysterious fireball spell."

"That so? That is quite a pity, I must say. Prismont is a fair land, so I wouldn't wish any harm upon it." King Nearfeather said with sympathy.

"Well according to those who witnessed the attack, the spell came from Southwest, the same direction your kingdom rests on. Any thoughts regarding that claim?" Greyhart further interrogated.

"No, this is my first time-" he coughed in an odd manner, the noise he made wasn't one of hoarseness. "-hearing about it, it couldn't be us. That being said, however, I don't have any concrete ideas of who initiated the attack."

"...I see" Greyhart had an incredibly stern expression, almost as though he were squinting his eyes to peer into the true intentions of Obselok.

Evan paid close attention to the movements and gestures of the guards. Being commonly told his behavior when he gets nervous, he can easily detect signs of unease in a person. He noticed the right guard's left eyebrow twitched, and he quickly wiped his forehead. The guard on the left remained completely still and calm. Implying that the right guard knew something that no one else in the room did. Still, he couldn't jump to conclusions, even he was beginning to break into a sweat by the sheer intensity that filled the room.

Cas, meanwhile, was once again fixated on all the strange and unique items displayed in the room. They looked like gemstones that were carved and cut into unique shapes. The light they reflected made the whole room slightly less dim.

"You may have already stated what you think about our kingdom. But I'll ask again to be sure: what do you think of Prismont?" Greyhart said with a certain fierceness.

King Nearfeather quickly understood the seriousness of the situation and responded in a less carefree tone. "Prismont is… a wonderful kingdom, I have the utmost respect for both the king and queen. Their armies are strong as well, something we here in Obselok are admittedly lacking…"

"Your words are an immense help to us. Thank you, king Nearfeather. We will continue to find clues of the attacker elsewhere." Greyhart said genuinely. Cas and Evan didn't understand yet, but apparently the king's response was sufficient enough to Greyhart.

"Get up you two, it's time we take our leave." He stood up and exited the room and went back down the multiple stairs.

"We really have to go down all those stairs?" Evan said, worried for the sake of his legs.

"I'll race you down there!" Cas said before bolting towards the door.

"Yeah, as if I'm racing you!" Evan said irritated. "I don't have a death wish…" He said to himself. King Nearfeather chuckled and politely waved as the boys exited.

After what seemed like an eternity for Evan, and a few minutes for Cas and Greyhart, the three reached the first floor and left the castle.

"So where are we supposed to go now, Greyhart?" Cas asked while looking around.

"We must find the others. Diane, Clement, and Arianne should be looking through the kingdom in search of anything that can be evidence of the attack." Greyhart said just loud enough so only Cas and Evan could hear.

Evan and Cas were just as confused as they already were. "You said the king gave enough useful information," Evan said, "but didn't he seem a little off to you? He could be hiding somethin-"

"Wrong. King Nearfeather's cluelessness has given us a clear hint that he doesn't know everything. Thus, it would be safe to assume that someone else is pulling the strings."

"But, there are thousands of people living in this kingdom, how could we possibly tell who's responsible?" Cas asked.

"By further investigating of course." Greyhart said with a smirk on his face. He turned to face the two of them while outstretching his arms. "It's a huge world we live in, a huge world full of many secrets. We need to use everything at our disposal to uncover the truth!" He said with glee.

Unexpectedly, Greyhart hears a loud whistling noise from afar.

"That's the…"

"What is it, Greyhart?" Evan wondered, not being able to hear the noise.

"It's an emergency, the others are in danger!" He bolted towards the direction of the noise as soon as he finished explaining.

"What!?" Cas exclaimed. "C-Clement! Hang in there, wait for me!" Cas sprinted as he followed Greyhart and soon outran him.

"Hey! You're supposed to stay behind me! I'm the only one who knows where it's from!" Greyhart yelled at Cas only for him to continue running ahead. "Tch, that kid can't stay calm for a second, can he?"

"S-sir we should hurry right?" Evan asked as he tried catching up to him. "We don't want anymore of our team in danger-"

"Then start running if you want to catch up!"

A few minutes have passed. Cas still had plenty of energy to run but came to a stop when he reached the end of the straight path. He looked around the area and saw lots of pure destruction. He turned to his left and froze as he saw someone or something huge. A colossal man, it could even be confused with a beast. Its back was facing him, and in the distance he noticed Clement standing in a defensive position. This was clearly the enemy that was threatening them, and Cas needed to defeat it. He charged over at the thing, ready to dig his sword through its chest, only to hear Clement shout in an alarming tone.

"Brother stop!"

Before Cas could even reach it, in a fraction of a second the thing turned around and used its left arm to slam him into the wall next to them.

"Gah!" Cas grunted from the impact. "How did that beast notice me and retaliate before I could even react?" He thought.

"You're such a fool!" Yelled Arianne.

"Arianne, don't talk!" Said Diane, trying to treat her wounds.

"That beast isn't any regular creature, it becomes stronger and faster after every blow. There isn't any way of stopping it-" Arianne said before coughing repeatedly.

"There's no way… it's… impossible?.." said Cas while getting up. He quickly reached for his blade and unsheathed it, keeping his guard up while thinking of another way to stop that beast. He felt his head get lighter, as if he was about to lose consciousness again, but he quickly shook himself awake.

"Think, Cas." He thought. "There must be some way to, at the very least, hold this thing off until Greyhart gets here." Cas purposefully hindered his breathing, slow but deep inhales and exhales to relax his mind.

"I may not stand a chance against it, but as long as I can focus, I should be able to detect and parry its attacks. Just for a while." Right after this thought, Cas felt a slight change of the wind. Moving as swiftly as he possibly could, he dodged the incoming attack by the monster. With it being just as fast, if not faster, than him, the monster attempted to strike once more, only for it to hit nothing but air. Without any hesitation, it tried punching again, and again, and again.

The rest of the team watched as Cas weaved and avoided all of the monster's attacks with perfectly fluid movement. Neither Greyhart nor Evan had arrived yet to put an end to this, so all they could do was watch and wait. This was Cas' intention, if he couldn't make an attack, he can at least make enough time for the others to show up.

Arianne then realized something, about the town they were in, She remembered the first thing Greyhart said when he mentioned Obselok

"Kingdom of merchants, eh?" She looked around, crates, barrels, and various other ways of storing goods surrounded the area. Even at this part of the kingdom, finding something useful against a curse like this wasn't completely out of the question.

"Hey, idiot! Move so that thing will hit the crates next to you!" She yelled over at Cas with the energy she had left.

"You mean over there?-" Cas ducked as the curse threw another punch towards his face. He then ran over to his left, close by to a wall as well as some crates. Cas jumped on top of the crates and goaded the monster before it tried slamming its fist downward like an axe. Cas dodged while the monster's fist crushed the crates, causing several gemstones to spill out.

"Huh? How are these supposed to help me win against this thing?" Cas said as he climbed up the building, while reading all of the movements of his powerful adversary, he leaped across two buildings and heard a familiar voice.

"Glad to see you're still fighting with that spirit in ya'."

Cas looked over to his right "Greyhart!" He then lost his focus. The monster grabbed his ankle and threw him to the ground with immense force that shattered the stone tiles on the ground.

"Hah! Glad I wasn't late to the party, You're still havin' fun, eh?"

"Greyhart, this is no time for jokes, our team members are injured!" Mumbled Evan in his usual place diagonally behind Greyhart.

Greyhart turned his head to face Evan. "I thought healing the injured was YOUR job, cleric." He said with an snarky tone.

"Oh, er… you're right. Sorry…" Evan quickly made his way over to the rest of the team, replenishing their energy as well as restoring their wounds.

Greyhart began warming up, he was clearly ready to deal with the monster easily.

"Wait!" Said Arianne, running up to the center of the action. "This is a curse that's more powerful than you think. It gets stronger with every attack!"

"That so, hm? How do you think we should stop it then?"

"I… I'm not sure… wait." she said while surveying the fallen gemstones. Among the many rubies and emeralds, she spotted something hidden in plain sight. She rushed up to the pile and looked closely.

"Sure enough, this is it." She said while she held it up above her, a clear but pointy crystal in between her index finger and thumb. This crystal then began glowing after being hit by sunlight, shooting a bright, narrow beam through the curse's chest. The monster stood completely still after getting pierced by the beam, before it could hurt Cas any further. Then the beam became dark and the crystal became corrupted with an ominous dark energy.

"D-did you just-?"

"This thing's just given us the advantage, we've won." Arianne said while grinning, excited by the fact that the crystal had ended the ravaging madness of the curse. "This fine weapon is what's known as a vessel stone. Capable of sealing all kinds of evil spirits and curses, and the best part is that they will give you answers once contained here." She peered deeply into the vessel stone. "Now, tell me, just what the hell are you?"

Within the vessel stone could be seen a pair of thin, curved, red eyes that stared back at Arianne from the darkness. "I am called a fiend, an evil spirit meant to bring havoc and ruin. My true name is Vulok, curse of the fox."

"Great to know," she said in a condescending manner. "How can we stop you?"

"So long as my spirit lingers in that magic body, my power cannot be stopped. Even if you destroy the vessel stone containing me, my spirit will find its way to another vessel, this shall continue until the end of time, bringing a never ending cycle of chaos to the world-"

Arianne paid no regard to what Vulok was saying, she threw it on the ground and crushed the vessel stone with her heel. Releasing the evil spirit into the air. "There. Greyhart, you're free to do with its body as you like."

Greyhart was visibly shocked about her decision. "Arianne, you know it said crushing the stone won't fully end it. You were listening, right?"

"Well it should end its uproar for about a few days, the next person who stumbles upon it will be their problem, not ours." Said Arianne nonchalantly.

Greyhart then shrugged and walked over to the empty body, which was still standing somehow. Suddenly, it began to move its arm again, ready to fight. However, it wasn't nearly as fast as it was before.

"This is easy." He said after laughing at the thing. He then summoned a broadsword in his left hand, just with a snap of his fingers. Cas had a shocked expression on his face as this was the first time he saw Greyhart in combat. Greyhart had an almost menacing grin on his face as he quickly tossed the sword to his right hand and ran towards the giant body without a soul. He charged right through it, slicing the body in half. But before the upper part of the body fell to the ground, it let out a ghastly groan as its fake skin disintegrated and exploded into a blue light that destroyed the side of a building it was near.

"Oops. I got too careless…" Greyhart said after him and the team were done bracing themselves.

Cas and Greyhart slowly walked up to investigate the damage, soon followed by a now fully healed Arianne and the rest. They looked down to see that it was no ordinary building.

"This is…" Cas muttered in disbelief.

"An entrance to an underground dungeon." Said Greyhart, finishing Cas' sentence. "Well isn't that a stroke of luck! We found what we were looking for."

"No one speak another word," Demanded Diane. "I hear something."

The six went down the staircase, pursuing the mysterious noise Diane claimed to hear. Greyhart could soon hear it too while concentrating. It was the sound of chains rattling, coming from a deep part of the dungeon. Over and over again, about every five seconds, the clinking sound of chain links were becoming more distinct.

As they reached the bottom of the staircase, Greyhart peered around the corner. It was then he discovered the room was full of steel cages with strange looking creatures in them.

"Chimeras." Greyhart whispered to the others behind him. "Some of the mages here must have used magic spells to modify their biology, combining certain attributes with others. However, many kingdoms including Obselok and Prismont are said to have banned this practice."

"Is there anything we can do?" Clement muttered after seeing many vicious looking chimeras.

"Our best option is to make our exit, this is valuable information that we must inform our kingdom about, they could be planning another attack." Evan said with a certain mindfulness.

"But we still don't know who's responsible for the initial attack." Cas remarked, sounding restless and antsy but trying his best not to yell.

Greyhart put his hand on Cas' shoulder. "Patience, things like this are bound to reveal themselves sooner or later."

As the six made their way back up the stairs, the rattling became much louder. One of the chimeras struggled with breaking free, vigorously trying to charge after them. Before the narrowind team could disappear from its sight, the chains shackling the chimera broke, allowing it to chase after Cas.

Cas, still only starting to ascend the stairs looks over at his teammates with an uncertain look. He wasn't aware of the Chimera escaping, until…