The Hunt Begins

"Quickly, bring the Shadow Star!" Marcus yelled to the 4 Inquisition Assistants coming out of the second carriage.

"Yes sir!" the assistants yelled in unison. Two of them walked to the back of their carriage, unlocked the metal strongbox and pulled out what looked like a crystal orb filled with white smoke and a ball of white light that flickered to life as soon as it came in to contact with the sun's rays. They handled it extremely carefully, as if it would disintegrate at the lightest bump.

Ellen and the captain both peered curiously at the orb. Ellen was the first to speak up and asked Allen, "What is the Shadow Star?"

"A small pearl is injected with holy power, that's the bright light you see. The smoke is the remains of demons and other evil creatures. The smoke will absorb ambient demonic energy and then force the small pearl away from the energy." Allen stated plainly.

"So in other words, we follow the way the light points and follow the demon?" Ellen said while looking at the Shadow Star orb even more curiously.

Allen chuckled softly and said, "No no, the exact opposite! The smoke will force the pearl away from the demonic energy. Don't walk towards the light, walk away from it."

Ellen tilted her head and said softly, "That... that sounds counter-intuitive..."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Allen replied, "Yes, but..."

Gillian jabbed Allen in the ribs slightly and said, "Allen, she'll understand why when she sees it."

Allen winced, glared at Gillian, then said "Fair point, Ellen, you will understand shortly."

Marcus finished his preliminary observations of the scene and was satisfied that none of the locals had disturbed the scene. He returned to the captain of local guard and said positively "Good, looks like the scene was left undisturbed. Please have the farmer and his wife as well as all of your men available for questioning since we must act while the trail is fresh!"

The captain sighed and nodded, he felt it was unnecessary but he couldn't exactly argue against it with his rank against a Senior Inquisition agent. The captain returned to his men and said that they are under orders to stay until they are released after questioning.

One of the guards under the captain whispered to the captain, "Forgive my ignorance captain, but our Lord is nobility, how can this group or whatever it is detain us?"

The captain opened his eyes wide and smacked the guard that was foolish enough to question the order and said angrily, "Fool! Were you born yesterday?!? The Inquisition is ordained by the church to purge all evil beings. They are not the largest military force, but they are the strongest thanks to several divine artifacts that Heaven bestowed to them. Going against them is like going against Heaven!"

Both the captain and the guard that was questioning the order earlier each felt a hand slam down on their shoulders that felt like an entire mountain was weighing down upon them.

From behind them, Marcus spoke with confidence and said, "Going against the Inquisition IS going against Heaven! We are the Heaven's wardens protecting humanity against evil!" Marcus squeezed both of their shoulders harder and added, "So I REALLY appreciate your cooperation captain, we'll be back with good news! The hunt begins!"

Both the captain and the guard fell to their knees, the guard said meekly "Sir, requesting permission to commandeer a clean set of underwear from the locals."

The captain sniffed once, nodded, and added, "Get two pairs..."

__________

Count Agist was out in the training area, after reading most of the Divine Blade Arts he felt like he had to try out some of the techniques described in it.

Around the field were many slashes where Count Agist had swung his ax with more strength than usual as he was getting frustrated by not understanding the techniques described in the Divine Blade Arts book.

Feeling like he was getting nowhere, Count Agist finally said to out loud to himself, "I consider myself to be well-educated, but I'll be damned if I can't figure out how to use even these basic techniques. It tells me to draw out divine power and manifest it against the blade of my weapon, but it uses a sword in the drawings, not an ax!"

At the side, Lady Sylvia and Alice watched Count Agist practice, Lady Sylvia had already sheathed her sword and was watching somewhat mesmerized at Count Agist's strength.

"Look at how deep those cuts are Alice, I would need a shovel to leave marks that deep!"

"Yes, but it seems like he's frustrated, maybe we should hide and see what he does since he might be holding back due to our presence!"

Lady Sylvia blinked twice at Alice in surprise. "Alice, I am a grown woman, not a girl! I do not need to hide from him and can ask him directly if he is having issues."

Alice shrugged and watched Lady Sylvia approach Count Agist.

Lady Sylvia called out to Count Agist and waited for him to turn and motion towards her that it was fine to approach. "Count Agist, you seem troubled about something. Anything I can do to help?"

Count Agist smiled and said, "Maybe, I've been trying these techniques I've re–"

Chloe interrupted Count Agist's thought and said, "Keep the book and it's techniques a secret."

Count Agist pretended to cough then continued, "I've really put some thought in to but I can't seem to get it right. I feel like I'm missing something."

"What are you trying to do? You certainly do not seem to be lacking in power..." Lady Sylvia said with a smile as she tapped one of the deep slashes in the ground with her foot.

"Well, I'm trying to..." Count Agist paused mid sentence and was unsure how to answer that since he realized he wasn't sure what he was trying to do aside from mimicking what he saw in the book. "Actually, never mind. I think you made me realize that my problem is I don't know what I'm trying to do."

Sylvia was a little surprised, Count Agist seemed so confident most of the time and now he seemed a little aimless to her. "Well, if you would like help figuring it out, let me know. I would be glad to help!"

Count Agist nodded in thanks to Lady Sylvia and watched her walk away.

Lady Sylvia saw Isadora standing in the doorway holding a basket with a fresh set of clothes, some towels, and soap. Lady Sylvia turned to Alice and said playfully, "Alice, you should learn from Isadora. She is ready and waiting for her master to finish training!"

Alice bowed politely to Isadora then said apologetically to Lady Sylvia, "I apologize milady, I shall try and follow Miss Isadora's example to serve you better."

When Isadora turned back to look at Count Agist, Alice then whispered to Lady Sylvia "I was going to wash you personally, but I see you'd rather do it yourself."

"I never said get a towel and clothes for only me..." Lady Sylvia smiled then winked at Alice.

"That's what I was hoping for milady." Alice said with a seductive smile as she playfully spanked Lady Sylvia after making sure nobody could see them.

__________

Isadora continued to watch Count Agist practice alone after Lady Sylvia left. Normally she would leave his clothes, a towel, and some soap for him and then go finish some of her other tasks since he tended to take quite a long time to train. Strangely though, she found herself wanting to watch him more and more. Lorraina was right, Isadora realized she did have feelings for Count Agist.

"I... I wanted to be his first..." Isadora said to herself sadly as she looked down in to her basket. She started remembering the destruction left behind of where Count Agist and Lorraina made love and realized it really may have been for the best that she wasn't his first as she might've died from that amount of rough sex and still was in awe that Lorraina was unhurt.

While lost in her own thoughts, Lillica's figure was approaching Count Agist softly.

Isadora came back to reality and couldn't figure out where Lillica had come from. She figured Lillica might have been there the entire time and was just watching Count Agist, but he didn't seem to be aware of her presence as he didn't greet her at all and was still practicing with his training ax.

Isadora started to panic as she realized Lillica had just stepped within striking distance as Count Agist swung his ax with most of his strength again. She called out to Lillica to warn her but ended up dropping the basket after watching Lillica catch Count Agist's ax by the blade with her bare hand. What surprised her more was that Count Agist's expression made it seem like this was perfectly normal.

Isadora's eyes went wide and she could barely muster her voice to say "Wha... what was that!?"

Lillica smiled warmly at Count Agist and said sweetly "Agi, I'm back... but we may have a bit of a problem..."

Isadora's face was now as white as the shirt she brought for Count Agist and all she could do was tremble fearfully from what she had seen.