Chapter 8

The group rode into the town and at this point, the mushrooms were the least of their worries. The townspeople glared at the group and kept their distance. The whole town stunk off the smell of the mushrooms, and it was decorated with food stalls and clothes stalls sprinkled around like any other town. There was another weird characteristic of this town; It had emblems and souvenirs of monsters, like the statue in the middle of the town. It was a statue of the Demon King's right-hand man, Diablo. He was an arrogant, violent militant leader. It was like the townspeople were worshipping monsters. Raine took out some cloth, ripped it into five pieces, and gave a piece to each person in their group as she put her piece over her face. "Here, cover your face. There is a really bad smell and I think it might affect you guys again." Raine said, covering her nose. "T-Thanks. Guess I can put this on..." Hanna said though she seemed pained while saying it. She didn't want to put it on, but she forced herself to after what happened the night before. The rest of the group declined and carried on through the town. "Let's go to the town's leader," Joana said. They all got off of their horses and walked to the town hall where they were met by a monster. It was a dog-like monster with the eyes of a frog and mushrooms growing out of it. The group was surprised by this, grabbing their weapons.

"Wait! Wait, you fools! This is my dog, biscuit! Why would you want to hurt a cutie like him?! Are you monsters?!" A man said, rushing in front of the monster. The man had eyes like a frog as well. "Oh, are you their leader?" Joana said, going up to the man. "Yes, I am! How could I help you?" The man said, his freakishly long tongue hanging out of his mouth a bit. "We were sent here to help get rid of some monsters plaguing the village," Joana said. Raine looked at the leader of the village and then at Joana in disbelief. Joana wasn't reacting at all to his non-human characteristics. It was like she didn't see them at all. She couldn't tell Joana to snap out of it right then and there so she nudged Hanna instead. "Hey, are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?" Raine whispered. "Whenever I look at him, he just looks fuzzy. It's like he's only half there or something…" Hanna said, trying to look at the leader. The leader saw this convo and said "Hey you, girl in the hood, do you have something against me? You've been glaring daggers at me this whole time! What, do I look weird to you? Well, how about you show yourself and we can all see how you measure up!" The leader said, a smile on his face. Raine frowned, not liking the man's tone.

"... Sorry, I must be a bit nervous," Raine said, annoyed. "Well, we should be moving. I'll go with Carlos and Lucy to get our lodging, so you three need to get some information on the monsters that we're dealing with." Joana said as the group parted ways. Tina wasn't wearing her mask, so Raine inched closer to Tina to try to convince her. "Hey, Tina, you trust me, right?" Raine said, gently hugging Tina's arm as they walked to the town's tavern. "Yeah, I do. What's up?"

Tina asked, smiling. "Well, I still have your cloth, plus I think it would be good to double up," Raine said, giving another piece to Hanna. She wrapped that one like a scarf around her face like she did with the first one. "It's kinda hard to breathe…" Hanna said, laughing a bit. "Oh, sorry. Just one, then." Raine said, handing a piece of cloth to Tina. "... I'd love to, but…" Tina said, looking at the fabric as she searched for a reason to say no. "I know it seems weird, but I swear it'll help you. I don't know what's happening, but something's not right with the people here." Raine said. "She's right, Tina. Just try it out for a little bit, okay?" Hanna said, putting her hand on Tina's shoulder. Tina put it on, though she looked almost scared to do so. Raine looked down, feeling like this was a hollow victory and that she purposefully pressured her friend to do something she didn't want to do. "We're at the tavern. Let's get some information!" Raine said, stepping into the tavern.

It was abnormally lively. People were singing in one corner and there was a bar fight in the other. It was almost like a normal tavern on a holiday, bustling with happy patrons who went out with their friends to get a drink. All the people there seemed to be from different backgrounds, except for one thing that Raine noticed. They all had a weird-looking drink in their hand. It was colorful and looked almost whimsical, adorned with a little mushroom. The smell was also the thickest that it's ever been, and Raine immediately noticed that the effects of the mushroom were extremely strong in there. Her mana was draining fast and both Hanna and Tina were already under the spell of the mushroom, standing there like statues and staring blankly at the bar. Raine was also almost immediately affected, feeling sluggish and using a wall to support her. This time though, after a short time where they were motionless, they started moving again. "Hey guys, I think having some of that stuff that they're having over there would be so good!" Tina said, dragging Raine and Hanna to the bar.

"Tina, wait! We shouldn't be drinking right now, i-it's bad for your health! Let's go somewhere else!" Raine said, turning around and dragging both Tina and Hanna away. In her demon form, Raine is taller than them and also usually pretty strong, but she was quite tired so it was a bit of a struggle pulling both of them. "Come on, why?" Tina whined as Raine dragged them away from the Tavern. "It looked so good…" Hanna said, also sad. "... Guys, snap out of it. I would've lost you both if drank that gross stuff." Raine said, hugging them once they were a good distance away from the tavern. "Come back to me, guys. You guys know that this is just the effect of the mushrooms…" Raine said, still hugging them. At first, they were straining to get back to the tavern and drink some of the juice, but then after a while, they both passed out. After they sat there for a few seconds, both of them snapped awake and looked around, still very confused about what was happening. "Woah, where was I? Why am I on the ground?" Tina said, confused. "In the tavern," Raine said, helping them to their feet. "Those mushrooms sure are strong… I couldn't even tell that anything was happening to me…" Hanna said, looking at her hands. All of them were silent for a moment, looking at each other and then back at the tavern.

"How are we going to get any information?" Hanna asked, a bit worried about the mission. "Wow, I didn't expect a serious question from you of all people," Tina said, smiling a bit and nudging Hanna. "Yeah, yeah. Well, do you have any idea how to solve this?" Hanna asked, putting her hand on Raine's shoulder. "Hm… Maybe we should see what we're up against ourselves. We can't ask the people here, obviously. We should see how the people here are affected by those mushrooms." Raine said. "That's a pretty good idea! We just need a few townspeople." Hanna said, grabbing Raine and Tina and racing into town. They went to a clothing store because it had a less condensed smell and it didn't have any mushrooms in it that were accessible. Raine did most of the work still, going up to the register and chatting with the cashier. "Hey there! I'm wondering if you would like to come with us to participate in a study? There seems to be a fungal infection here and we'd like to help get rid of it." Raine said, smiling at the worker.

She did this on purpose to see what the person would do, and she made sure that she kept Tina and Hanna conscious to help her defend herself just in case. At this question, the cashier and everyone in the store stopped moving and looked at Raine. They were expressionless; Not surprised, not angry, not anything, just expressionless. Then, the cashier moved quickly, grabbing Raine's arm from across the counter and ripping off her hood. This revealed her demon form to all around her and after this, it was like the whole town stopped for a moment. Just a moment of silence, then everything resumed and everyone went back to their shopping, walking around, sleeping, and talking. It was like a machine. After this, the cashier's face lit up and he led Raine outside with a big grin on their face. "Hey guys, we've finally been blessed with their presence! Finally! Hurray!" The cashier shouted at the top of his lungs while presenting Raine in front of the rest of the townspeople.

Raine just looked at Tina and Hanna, confused and bewildered at the complete switch in personality that the cashier just had. Before Tina or Hanna could get to Raine to ask her about what just happened, Raine got swarmed by townspeople. She couldn't see five feet in front of her with how many people were around her. "W-What's going on here?" Raine asked, really confused. "We've never been blessed with your kind before, Ms. Demon! I am Ishmael. It's a pleasure to meet you." The mayor of the town said, rushing up to Raine and bowing to her. "No need to bow! I-It's fine? I'm fine!" Raine stammered, still confused. The mayor sprung up, grabbing Raine's hand. "It's so nice to meet you! We've been told you hold ultimate power! The power we could only dream of!" He said a maniacal grin on his face. "N-Nothing like that-" Raine said, backing up. She ran into the rest of her party; Joana, Carlos, and Lucy. They were all looking at her like a god, and she physically cringed at that. She had her back up against the statue of Diablo at this point, and she decided that enough was enough. She grabbed all of her party members and used a metamorphosis spell that she learned from her father to give her wings and she fled, frantically looking for a place to help her friends.