When Emery first came to town and arrived at the harbor, he did not realize the dozen ships in front of him were all warships.
He saw more of them just arriving at the bay. Each was filled with warriors armed with a shield and an ax; they were all Danes warriors ready for war.
Before Emery could observe more, an unfamiliar man approached him from the side.
The man bowed and introduced himself with a polite smile, "Greetings, Sir. My name is Kanut. Please allow me to guide you to our ship." Emery simply responded with a nod and followed Kanut as they boarded one of the smaller ships.
It was a ship with oars attached to each side. Its crew began to move the oars, soon after, the ship began moving to the middle of the sea and the sail was released.
Feeling the breeze of the sea blow his way, Emery could feel the ship smoothly moving forward, as if it was completely unhindered by the fierce water and crashing waves below.
The bright sky turned dark and the dark night sky turned bright once again. Before he knew it, he could already see an island with three mountain peaks.
As he was admiring the view of the mountains getting closer, from behind him, he could hear footsteps nearing before stopping a close distance away.
"Sir, we have arrived at the island of three claws."
Diverting his eyes back to the mountains, he understood why they called it the island of the three claws. The position of the three mountains and with the peak of the central mountain being taller than the two other peaks indeed painted a picture akin to three massive claws.
Taking a look at the island itself, it was quite large. On one side of it, he could see a small village. It seemed peaceful from afar, but looking closer, it felt more deserted than peaceful.
The ship docked at the side of the village. From what he could see, the village had approximately 40 houses, all similar in size. But despite the number of houses, there was not a soul in sight. Instead of villagers going about, they could only see claw marks and what appeared to be dried blood. The place appeared to have been abandoned for at least a few months.
To confirm, Emery began using his spirit reading. Although he expected that there really were no living humans within the vicinity apart from themselves, what surprised him was that he could not get a clear read of the mountains.
Kanut was also perplexed by the state of the village.
"Although the island is not well-known, it is still unlikely for the villagers to completely abandon the village without any news," Kanut expressed his thoughts.
Emery found the situation to be extremely concerning. It was very likely that something happened to the people of the island. And whatever that something was it could not be good.
Half of the warriors who accompanied him here were asked to stay at the ship and wait, while Kanut and the rest were to followed Emery into the forest. After a round of selection on who had to stay and who had to follow, they began walking into the forest, heading toward the mountain with their guards up.
Saying the forest was just dense would be an understatement. It had only been a short while since they entered the forest, but they could feel it was a little cramped up due to their number and the surrounding trees.
After about an hour of walking straight, Emery could sense a living person near the foothill of the mountain. Unknowingly, his walking pace became faster the closer he got to the location.
When they finally reached the place, they could see an old woman sitting in front of a small house. She seemed to be around 60 to 70 years old; she remained calm when she realized there were visitors.
After a moment of hesitation, Kanut walked forward to ask the old woman about what happened to the village.
Hearing him mention the village, as if out of reflex, the old woman immediately exclaimed, "Demon!"
This confused them. At the same time, it did not give them a reason to believe the woman. They might believe it if the woman told them it was the act of a group of beasts, but a demon...
The group thought of the woman as senile and she began telling her story from 10 years ago, about a demonic wolf that terrorized the village.
"It was as big as a bear, fangs as large as a human arm and fur sharp like a sword… a demon!"
The old lady continued saying that many died due to it; not even the strong men of the village could survive. At that time, the villagers had already reported the situation and its severity to the jarl, but only a small group of warriors were sent and they were quickly killed by that demon.
Since then, nobody dared to challenge it. To appease it, the villagers began offering their sheep as sacrifices every week. It was enough to appease the wolf to stop massacring the villagers. That is, until someone came to kill the wolf last year."
"It's already dead!? Someone? Who was it?" Emery quickly asked.
The old woman thought for a while before slowly saying, "A sorcerer, a woman."
Emery was caught off-guard. He didn't know why, but he immediately thought of Meave, the witch of Britannia. This place could be reached within a week by boat, so it made sense. Not to mention, to be able to kill something even a group of strong and capable warriors were unable to.
"What happened after that?" Emery continued to ask. He had to know more.
A few months after that sorceress succeeded in killing that wolf and left, a second demon appeared. It rushed out of the forest and massacred everyone in the village, causing it to become what it is now.
"It seemed the demon cared nothing for an old hag like me… but... I can hear it... once a week it comes staring at me... until today… That's what's happening for this past year," she lamented.
Although it was an unfortunate incident for the old woman and the villagers, Emery was hoping the beast could have something to help his bloodline.
It was at this moment that the old woman suddenly asked, "You came here to kill the beast, didn't you?"
Although it was a question, he felt the old woman did not ask to confirm and that she already knew.
It was Kanut who affirmed it.
"Good, very good... because I think that sorceress needs help to kill that second one, this demon is bigger than the first one."
Hearing this Emery was surprised and quickly asked "Elder, are you saying the sorceress is here? Right now?!"
"Yes, she arrived a few days ago. Hmmm... Are you not with her?" The old woman affirmed and asked back as she thought that they were in the same group.
Emery was shocked, could it be that Meave was here all this time? Now that he had this information, Emery told Kanut and the warriors to stay and accompany the old woman and he himself immediately rushed toward the mountain.
Emery constantly used his spirit reading in hopes to find the witch as soon as he could. Not long after, he senses a figure, a woman running through the woods.
Realizing how slippery Meave was when they last fought, Emery felt he needed to be decisive, he cast [Spatial Storage], pulled out a sword, and quickly used [Blink] to tackle her.
He swung the sword into her neck when he suddenly realized something was wrong… the woman was not Maeve. instead, it was someone he know very well.
"Morgana!"