Pov Nix:
I was flying above the clouds while two Fairies were sitting in my head enjoying the trip.
"Are you sure this is the right direction this time?" (I)
"I am sure." (Dora)
"You said the same thing the other two times and we still went in the wrong direction both times." (Layla)
Dora seems to have trouble remembering the correct direction without being able to see the landmarks she knows on the ground.
"We're too high, I've never flown that high." (Dora)
"Things look different from this height." (Dora)
"Just try checking to be sure of the direction this time." (I)
"This time I'm sure, we're in the right direction." (Dora)
"I just hope no more birds attack again." (Layla)
Two hours ago we were attacked by a couple of big bluebirds, they were bigger monsters than me and they knew how to use wind magic, so they were fast.
But their strength didn't compare to mine, I used them to practice some combat on the advice of the master who was watching the combat through Layla's eyes.
The two birds' attacks were too weak to hurt my body, but the master is talking in my head for me to dodge as a form of training, with my flexible body it was easy to dodge while approaching enemies.
I wanted to bite them, but the master asked me to use only my claws and tail, he knows that the damage caused by my Bite will be much greater than that of my claws, he thought the birds would be able to resist my attack, but This did not happen.
One of the birds missed its wind blade and decided to try to use its claws to cut me, I thought it was a little slow and I dodged its attack or I thought I dodged it, but suddenly its wings flashed and it shot right in front of me, in fright I decided to headbutt him and ended up killing him.
My scales are very hard, so when he hit me at that speed and I was trying to head-butt him, it was like an egg hitting meat on a rock, half of this bird's body turned to paste and covered me with blood.
When I looked at the other bird I saw him trying to run to the other side, but before he got very far his head fell off, soon after the body lost momentum and started to fall too, while I was angry and trying to clean the blood from me, I see the bodies of the two birds float towards me.
Layla used magic to grab the two bodies before reaching the ground, then I hear the master's voice for me to eat the two birds sending them to the Dungeon, he said he would ask Layla to cut them for me to eat, but I said that I didn't need to, I just asked to let them float in front of me.
I can control the size of the Dungeon gate up to a certain limit within me, so I put the gate right in my mouth and open it while activating an ability, I feel my head getting stiffer and harder to move at the same time I feel my mouth open more and more.
I feel the element of darkness covering my head and I know it now feels like my head must be three or four times the size it used to be, so I go over to the two bodies that were bigger than me before and swallow them both in a row, then go back to the normal after the bodies passed through the Dungeon gate in my mouth.
I could see Layla's mouth open in surprise as Dora looked at me as if she couldn't believe what she saw, even the master stopped talking in my head, I must have surprised him too.
I sent both bodies into the Dungeon, what I used to make my head bigger was an Elemental Incarnation, besides a Spirit I'm still a Dragon, we are the incarnation of power and the strongest race for a reason because we can use our power far beyond the imaginable limit.
This skill costs me a lot of energy so it's not very useful in combat yet, once I'm used to my body and have a lot more energy then it will be easier to use this skill, just using it on my head for a few seconds took almost all of my energy though.
I had to incarnate the element of Darkness, transforming my body into the element of Darkness itself, this is an incarnation, something that only True Dragons can do.
After that was when Dora realized we were on the wrong path for the third time, we're wasting a lot of time on this, I still had to find a lake to take my bath before continuing, I had to get that blood out of me.
We are now flying for a few hours with no surprises, but when I saw the position of the moons, I knew it was going to be dawn soon, so I looked for a secluded place to land and wait until dark.
I see a cliff where there are some caves at the top and I go in there, there were some bird type monsters, but this time I don't kill them, instead of hiding my presence like I did all the way here, I release a little what they do get scared and run leaving this place to me.
"Dora, take advantage of the fact that we're on the ground now and check the surroundings to make sure we're heading in the right direction." (I)
"I said we're heading in the right direction, but if you're going to feel better then I'll check it out, wait a minute." (Dora)
Dora flies out of the cave, so I revert to my human form.
"I'm glad to find a good place to hide, we were lucky to only have weak monsters here, thanks to that your presence was enough to scare them away." (Layla)
"Yeah, I wish I'd done that sooner when we found those two bluebirds too." (I)
"We can't, we have to hide, we don't know how many Farus troops are around the mountain range or where they are, they can sense you and warn Farus, so it's better to hide the way we've been doing so far." (Layla)
"I think you're right, but I really don't want to be covered in blood again if we're going to fight monsters." (I)
"This happened because you lost your cool and tried to use your head to hit the monster, the result was that." (Layla)
"Even if you didn't have time to dodge, you could have at least used your claws instead of your head." (Layla)
"I know, panicked by that bird's sudden change in speed, I won't make that mistake again." (I)
While talking to Layla, Dora enters the cave flying with a strange face, she tries to say something while looking awkwardly away.
"We're… we're on the wrong track." (Dora)
"…" (I)
"…" (Layla)
———-
People Carlos:
It's been a week since Zenos and his group disappeared, the Duke was shocked when the mansion illusion ended and everyone could see that the mansion had disappeared.
The Duke asked me to look for clues about what happened, but I refused, so he asked for a formal request in the Guild with a big reward, but I know they won't find anything, Zenos was very thorough when he fled, the only clue is the letter he left for me and Mari, but even that letter doesn't help to find them and I already burned the letter.
I even tried asking Lucas about it, but he just said he knows how they got out of town, it looks like they used one of the Black Market smuggling passes, but after that Lucas doesn't know which direction they went.
The disappearance of the mansion made the old stories about the curse of the mansion and the death of Ivan Trigan with his family come back up again, now they say that Zenos and his group are dead because of this curse, they say they were taken to the world of the dead together with every mansion.
Rumors are always too fanciful, but the truth is also too crazy to believe, so far I'm trying to understand how Zenos managed to move not only the mansion but all the land around it, I've never heard anything like this before.
I was in my office eating a snack with a bottle of beer by my side until a Guild employee rushes in with some papers in his hand.
"Guild Master, something big has happened!" (Guild employee)
"Stay calm, say slowly what happened." (I)
"Inquisitors from the Church of Light arrived in the city today and they are spreading it around." (Guild employee)
"…" (I)
He gives me one of the papers he was carrying, as soon as I take it I'm surprised, this paper is a wanted poster worth 100 crystal coins, the highest value I've ever seen in a bounty, the problem is the target.
"Why is the Church of Light after Zenos?" (I)
"They are spreading that he is a Heretic, they are also saying that he is a Servant of Evil who must be hunted down and exterminated." (Guild employee)
"Do they have any proof or are they just causing trouble?" (I)
"One of the Inquisitors came to the Guild to put the reward on the four of quests, but when asked about the target's crimes he didn't say anything concrete, just a bunch of bullshit about Zenos being an evil creature, they didn't even have anything to use as proof." (Guild employee)
"They won't get anything here, no adventurers from this city will help them and without proof of crimes they can't ask a guild quest about this reward." (I)
"During the wave of monsters, Zenos' group stayed on the front lines and even helped to rescue several adventurers injured during the battle." (I)
"Also, Diana who is at his side is famous throughout town for how she fought the Undead during the special mission a few months ago, as well as being a respected and veteran adventurer." (I)
"Cast out these Inquisitors, spread the word that the Church of Light is after a highly talented adventurer and is spreading slander about him." (I)
"That won't work, the townspeople may know Diana well who is a veteran adventurer in the town, but they don't know about Zenos and how he helped the town until now." (Mari)
While talking to the employee who brought me the news about the Inquisitors, Mari enters intruding on the conversation.
"Those bastards from the Church of Light, if I could I would kill all these Inquisitors." (I)
"I still haven't forgotten who's to blame for that wave of monsters." (I)
"We can't do that, we can't even talk about it since we don't have proof, just let them do what they want, Zenos isn't here and I doubt anyone in this town knows where he is." (Mari)