When Chase finally awoke, he was in one of the tents that the guard wasn't using. Before he layed down, he checked his system yesterday, but he decided to pull it back up, just to see if he was being deceived.
The red screen appeared once more
[Quest]: Find the reasoning behind the disappearances happening in barktown.
[reward]:300 attribute points.
[Character Information]
[Age:18]
[Rank:1]
[Bloodline 1]: Vantriel
[Bloodline 2]: Locked
[Spirit Weapon]: Jasmine(locked)
[Abilities]:(demon claws) (minor shapeshifting)
[Unlockable abilities] (Mind tricks lvl 1) (Hellfire lvl 1) cost: 150 Evolution points.
[Evolution points:500/1000]
"No fucking way."
Chase was shocked. Didn't the system just say it was going to dial it back with the evolution points?
This was easily going to be his most rewarding quest.
Buy his excitement quickly faded. 'This also means it'll be the most dangerous' Turning to look at his comerads at different spots in the giant tent, he saw Damian who can now sleep in fullplate armor, His axes on the floor next to his bed.
Turning to see Donny, who was already awake, reading a book called "with the grace of a butterfly"
With the one eye he had left.
Andrew was asleep but judging by the incantations still glowing on his arm, one can assume he was practicing magic before he fell asleep.
Looking to Donnie, he had a grave expression.
"Whats up now?" Donnie was an assassin, he could always pick up on the intentions of someone based on the intensity of their glare, he picked up that an issue was arriving.
"Were at the place, and the guard is becoming less patronizing, but this is my Biggest quest"
Donnies eye grew wide. They all remembered the thing that brought them together. A demon was controlling a forest and its inhabitants, almost killing them all. Said demon fused with chase and tried to take over his body, almost succeeded.
Surviving that is how they decided to stick together.
That and the fact that 3 of them looked like demons without something covering their faces.
"Even bigger than that?"
The whisper hung in the air like the acrid scent of burnt ozone still clinging to Andrew's fingertips. Chase rolled his shoulders, feeling the familiar prickle of demon claws threatening to breach his skin—his tell when shit was about to get real. Outside the tent, the rhythmic clank of armor suggested Barktown's perimeter guard was changing shifts, but there was a new tension in their footsteps. Too quick. Uneven.
Chase quickly got up, "Im going to ask Miss Shiva if i can do some more looking around, Harold may be petty, but now im plenty confident a dangerous creature is able to hide in plain sight and kill unnoticed"
"So he was right about something huh?" Donnie said. "Wait for me. If this creature is that powerful, no doubt hell be stronger than any of us alone"
Chase nodded, watching as Donnie slipped on his dark cloak, its fabric whispering against the tent floor like a serpent sliding through dead leaves. The assassin adjusted his twin daggers—honed steel glinting dully in the lantern light—before pulling up his hood. His single visible eye gleamed with predatory focus.
"In between the manh small tents, a large one stood tallest. This was where miss shiva resided.
As they were walking together, chase made sure to keep his forehead covered. As he got closer and closer to evolving, it became harder to hide his demonic features.
Finally reaching the tent flap, chase took a deep breath before lifting the flap.
Inside, he saw shiva doing paperwork. Looking annoyed. A lady came in behind her, reminding her of the death toll increasing. "A young man and woman went missing last night, young couple."
Shiva sighed, rubbing her temples. The tent smelled of old parchment and the sharp bite of medicinal herbs—someone had been treating wounds here recently. Chase noticed the way Shiva's fingers trembled slightly as she set down her quill. Fear, or exhaustion? Maybe both.
"Yes, you may go." She said in an annoyed tone. Surprisingly, she was talking to Chase. She needed as many men on the field as possible, she didn't understand how this thing was slipping past them.
Chase nodded. "Yes ma'am." He said as he turned to leave. Donnie followed closely behind.
"Well, that was easy." Chase said, sighing.
Donnie was not so optimistic.
"We should focus though. If we dont get this thing soon, civil unrest will ruin this town and everybody will fight for only themselves. Then that creature has easy pickings for anything it comes across"
Chase nodded. "What are you thinking?"
"Lets wake everyone up, we can still patrol in the day, but—
Chase had seen a few men pass them just now, and that was normal and all, but something was odd. He looked closely at them. They seemed normal at first, but their eyes, their irises looked grey. And the one in the middle, he felt kinship towards
But not the good kind. Chase was now unwillingly part demon, so he could feel the vile malice inside of him, stemming from having Vantriel in his consciousness. Why did he fell something similar in this supposed member of the guard?
Snapping him out of his trance Donny continued. "Hey, are you hearing me?"
Chase didn't respond, his gaze locked onto the retreating figures—their movements too fluid, joints bending just slightly wrong, like puppets with tangled strings. The one in the middle turned his head a fraction too far, revealing a grin stretching ear-to-ear with teeth sharpened to points. Chase's stomach lurched; the thing *smelled* him back, nostrils flaring as it inhaled the scent of demon blood humming beneath his skin.
Donnie's hand clamped onto his wrist, dagger already drawn. "*Eyes.*" he hissed. Around them, the camp continued oblivious—merchants bartered, children laughed chasing a scrap of cloth in the wind—but Chase saw it now. The guards weren't just *changed*. They were *wearing* people, skinsuit-taut over something slithering beneath. One flicked a tongue out to catch a fly midair, too fast, too *long*.
This was fantastic. Not only were civilians being killed, even members of the guard were being killed, used as puppets to hide something worse beneath their skin. Certainly not human anymore.
"We have to get to Shiva Right now."
Donnie was in agreement. "Ill wake Damian and andrew up, you get Miss Shiva"
Chase nodded, and booked it to her tent. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he passed more guards, their eyes glazed and grey as if covered in a film of smoke. Their movements were *off*—too synchronized, like marionettes controlled by the same invisible hand. One turned its head to track him as he ran, lips peeling back in a smile that showed too many teeth. Chase's stomach churned.
It wasn't all of them, but around one in every 7 guards had these same hollow eyes. They had only seen a few so far, so it took a while to notice.
'Thats still far too many!'