Chapter 20: Mind Control

"ENOUGH!" Hydro barked.

Bùtóng and the stranger immediately silent themselves, along with everyone else inside the inn.

"Stop fighting..." Hydro gulped nervously.

"Ok," said both Bùtóng and the stranger in unison.

Hydro gazed at Bùtóng eyes and he noticed that the light within them was nowhere to be seen. Hydro turned to the stranger and noticed her eyes were exactly the same as Bùtóng.

Hydro left his seat and checked the people surrounding him, all their eyes were blank.

"What going on?" Hydro pushed one person and they fell down without resistance.

"What is this?" Hydro stuttered as he started to feel his body shaking.

Everyone around him was like lifeless zombies, they didn't look alive.

"Goldie?" spoke a gentle yet concerned voice.

Hydro turned himself around to see Iris along with a woman wearing a bright yellow dress and a tall man covered with a large dark brown cloak.

"Iris! Help! Something is wrong with everyone!" Hydro pleaded desperately.

"Calm down, just explain what happened," Iris said with a soothing voice.

"Well... if you ask me, this all seems to be the similar cause of mind control," spoke the woman in the yellow dress.

"A mind control blessing? In the Greece Terra? Of all places..." Iris said as she gaze intensely at the soulless looking people.

The man in the brown cloak said nothing, he only walked up to the table where the stranger woman was sitting. He rose his arm above his head, before swinging it down towards the stranger's head. The stranger immediately reacted and ducked her head just before the tall man could hit her.

"I'm up! I'm up! I'm up! I swear--" the stranger gazed upwards and she once stressed features were suddenly relaxed, "Oh! Hey Bob, when did you get here?"

The tall man had a blank expression, he stare at the stranger woman glaring before speaking. "I've arrived approximately thirty point three eight seconds ago,"

When Hydro heard the tall man's voice. It sounded cold and blunt. To Hydro, the man didn't sound like he had any emotions. Hydro couldn't understand why, but he couldn't replace the feeling that the man's voice sounded so... dead.

"How did you break free?" said the woman in the yellow dress, showing an expression of clear confusion.

"Huh? Oh! Are you asking how I broke from the mind control?" the stranger said teasingly.

"Yes, how did you break free from the trance?" Iris asked with a polite voice.

"Oh! It was simple. This isn't the first time I got mind controlled after all," the stranger, using her hat to cover half of her face.

The stranger then got up from her seat and walked up to Bùtóng before punching him in the face. Bùtóng's lifeless body was knocked onto the floor.

"Ow!" Bùtóng cried as he cupped his wounded face.

"Couldn't you just slap me instead?!" Bùtóng growled.

"I could've of! But that wouldn't much fun," the stranger chuckled.

Bùtóng glare at the woman as he stood back up on his feet.

"Bùtóng! Are you okay?!" Hydro said as he ran to Bùtóng's side.

Bùtóng turned his gaze at Hydro and his expression immediately softened.

"I'm fine, Goldie," Bùtóng said kindly.

"That's how you snapped a person out of mind control! You have hit them, to the point they feel pain," the stranger said joyfully as she started to hit all the mind-controlled people with a wooden spoon.

"Wakey-wakey~," she said before hitting the last person with the wooden spoon.

The once lifeless people were finally moving normally again. However, none of the people seemed to remember being mind-controlled. So the six people who did know, said they'll keep this event between themselves while quietly giggling about the event that happened to them on that day.