Sam and Nicolas stared at each other.
A demon? This far south?
They were only found in the Hell Grounds, in the North Spine. Why would one be here?
"You sure you guys weren't seeing things?" Nicolas said, confusion written on his face.
"Yeah," Sam chimed in. "Demons only appear up in the North Spine."
Henry shook his head slowly. "I didn't say a demon was here; I said a demonic creature was spotted roaming around in the forest… more specifically, a demonic child."
That caught their attention even more. Why would a child be classified as being demonic?
Sam crossed his arms and looked at Henry with a serious expression. "Why is the child considered demonic?"
Henry leaned in slightly as he spoke. "Because they suspected him and his family of being part of the Hazen Cult."
Both their eyes went wide.
The Hazen Cult was a group of unknown figures who appeared three months earlier. They declared their plan to eradicate the continent's most prominent religion and replace it with their own, claiming they had more members and would not stop until they succeeded.
Henry continued. "You know how three members of the Hazen Cult attacked the head of The Path Of Refinement faith?"
"Yeah, we do."
"Well, the members of the faith didn't like what they did, so they started chasing off anyone they suspected of being a part of the cult out of their communities."
The Path Of Refinement faith was the most famous religion on all three continents and the most worshipped on their continent. It also had the most members out of all the other religions that exist. The recent incident involving the Hazen Cult and their attack on the head of the POR faith—The Refiner— had caused people to become paranoid and afraid of the Hazen Cult. So they began accusing each other of being cultists and kicking members out of their communities.
Whether it was true or not didn't matter to the people as long as they felt safe.
"So the poor kid and his family got accused of being cultists and got kicked out of their town," Nicolas said sympathetically.
"Yeah," Henry affirmed. "His family died shortly after, probably killed by something in the forest. His mother, father, and sister, all gone. The people of Dunmere even put a bounty on his head for anyone who brings him in… dead or alive."
Now both men realised that the situation was escalating very quickly. It was a known fact that the members of the POR religion had become increasingly fanatical to the point that it caused every other faith and religion to hate its followers. They were known for being extremists who constantly harassed or forced other people into joining their religion.
This wasn't the case two years ago. The POR religion used to be a respected faith that believed human imperfection was a blessing from their god—Veythar—to help them live fulfilling lives, and that the act of bettering yourself and being a good person was a way of repaying their god's blessing.
But out of nowhere, the members began acting the way they do now.
"So do you believe that the kid is actually part of the Hazen Cult?" Sam asked.
Henry took a moment to think. A child was all alone in the forest, being accused of being a cultist. Currently being hunted down by people for something he might not even be a part of.
Henry looked at both men in front of him.
"Well, not enough evidence has been presented for me to believe it," he said. "But I can't exactly bring myself to side with the kid, given the potential danger."
He turned away and began walking. "Well, I'm off. I've done my good deed of the day." He waved them off as he left. "Do what you will with the information I just gave you. For now, I'm just going to let other people deal with it."
Nicolas just stared at his back as he watched him disappear into the distance. 'I wonder if the boys will be okay.'
He turned to Sam, who was already walking to the back of the shop. He sat down near an anvil and went back to hammering at a piece of metal.
He worked on the metal with a straight face. "Let's finish our work quickly so we can close up. I'm getting hungry."
Nicolas stared at him in disbelief. Not an ounce of concern on his face for his son, even though there was a potential threat roaming the forest.
But he quickly understood why he wasn't worried. They've both seen what those boys were capable of, and they knew that they could hold their own. They worked like a perfect unit and were very close. Nothing they'd encountered so far had been able to overwhelm them. As long as they stayed near the safer parts of the forest, they should be fine.
Nicolas smiled lightly before heading to his workstation. "Yeah, I'm getting hungry too."