The Crisis World XX

Chap. 16: Continuing Mission

"Iraya, come!" herlin.

I then stood up and left the little boy for a while. I don't feel any wild animals here, so I'm sure that nothing will happen to him if he stays here.

We entered the village even deeper. Although it is still daytime, the state of this village is very quiet and sad. The houses were destroyed by the Inuijin attack, the scratches were scattered everywhere, and the smell of blood was very thick. Only one word is appropriate to describe the atmosphere in this village. Horrifically.

"We're checking out the houses here."

We split up to look for information or a sign of whether there are still people alive other than the child.

But as far as my search goes, I found nothing around here. Only the houses were destroyed by the attack. We regrouped at the previous place and it seems Herlin also got the same thing as me.

"How's it?" ask Herlin.

"No sign of life."

"What a weird thing, I didn't find any human or animal bodies around here. If they were attacked, of course there would be traces of blood even if the corpse had been eaten."

Herlin then muttered to himself and began to think. But suddenly, a knife shot towards Herlin's head at a fairly speedy pace.

Shush…

But he quickly caught the darting knife without even looking at it. He then looked at the knife and looked around it, trying to find the culprit who threw the knife at him.

Sruukk…

From behind the thickets and trees of the forest came a man who seemed to be the one who threw the knife.

"Who are you?" ask the guy.

"We are from Black Rain," Herlin replied briefly.

"Oh! So you're the one?"

His expression was delighted when he heard that we were from Black Rain. The man then raised his hand then waved a little. At once a crowd of people was seen approaching us from behind the bushes and groves of forest trees. They number about five people.

"Did you call us?" ask Herlin.

"Yes right, I am Mizumo Akita, the leader of this village."

A man who was about 25 years old, had long black hair to the chest, and a fairly stocky body made him look authoritative and fit the title of leader, I guess.

"I am Ririsaka Herlin and she is Satou Iraya."

Herlin answered while pointing at me.

"Greetings."

"Ririsaka-san, Satou-san, please follow us."

We walked towards the village hall which was at the very end of the village along with the group of people earlier. And when I got there, I saw the state of the village hall. The place looked sad, the front door of the village hall which was only made of wood was almost collapsed and clearly visible traces of large scratches from wild animals.

"Are there any villagers who survived?" ask Herlin.

"There are, the survivors all fled to this place."

Kriyet…

Mizumo-san opened the door of the village hall, in which there were about 30 people consisting of elderly until the baby sat on the floor of the village hall carelessly. Faces of despair emanated from their faces, it seemed like they were already resigned to dying in this place. I saw some wounded people lying here full of bandages.

"Is everyone here?" ask Herlin.

"Yes, there are about 50 people in this village. Some of us are already dead."

"Ah.. You may not know, but there is one of your people who is still alive and left in his house now."

"That's impossible, everyone in this village has been evacuated here and—"

"… He's a little boy."

After I said that, the expressions of all the villagers in the village hall drastically changed to restless and worried. The village leader called one of the adult men and was seen whispering to him about something. When he finished, he asked me.

"Can you please take us there?"

"All right," said Herlin.

My hunch is not good. I feel like something is wrong with this village. What the hell is going on here? I don't know either.

The two of us finally returned to the first house we visited in this village. After opening the door the condition of this house is still the same, there are still two bodies, namely a man and a woman mature—but there are no bodies of small children.

"Try all of you to look" said Mizumo-san.

We continued to search all over the house, but still could not find it. After a while we searched and didn't get a result, we all gave up and decided to get out of the house.

"Are you sure there's still survivors in that house?" ask Mizumo-san.

"When I first came here, all I found were two dead bodies and that little boy."

I don't doubt my vision, there's no way I've seen it wrong back then. In a place some distance away from the house, Herlin was looking around the state of this almost collapsed village. Until he suddenly heard something.

Krusuk…

As he was sympathizing with the nearly destroyed houses, suddenly there was a noise coming from behind the trees. Herlin who realized that then approached her.

The voice grew weaker as Herlin tried to approach him. Herlin was still searching for the source of the voice and when he found it, he saw a little girl who was not familiar—the first little child we met. The little boy looked extremely agitated and then gestured for Herlin to shut up while shrieking in restraining cries.

"Hey, is there something there?!" One of the villagers shouted at Herlin.

Herlin did not reply, he simply closed the bushes back and went to approach the villagers who questioned him. Without telling me what he found just now.

"I found nothing. By the way, you called us here because of Inuijin's attack, right? Where are they really now?" ask Herlin.

The resident pointed towards a cliff that was not far from here. Herlin then looked towards the cliff that was pointed at earlier and then walked towards me.

"Iraya, let's check out that cliff, it's possible that Inuijin's group is there."

"Ah... would you like to check out that cliff? If so, it is better at night. We checked it at noon yesterday, but we found nothing" Mizumo-san said.

"That's it, huh? All right, then."

We finally waited for the night at the village hall. While waiting, Mizuno-san told me and Herlin that in this village there was a ritual that required the villagers to sacrifice a seven-year-old daughter to the mountain god. So that the villagers are given safety and also a bountiful harvest. If not given, then they will soon be hit by bad luck and bad luck.

After hearing the story, Herlin looked at Mizuno-san with a different look. This time he looked at her with a suspicious look.

**

*Night of Day*

Night has arrived and now we are preparing to go to the cliff which is thought to be the nest of the Inuijin. We are not alone, Mizuno-san and five others came with us and said they would help us as much as possible. Although Herlin said it was not necessary, but they were forced so there was no choice for us.

The residents here carry a type of cleaver and sickle to harvest vegetables and arrows as their weapons. We climbed the cliff slowly and when we reached the top we walked quietly and noticed what was there.

"There's nothing" said Mizuno-san.

"Raya, it's your turn."

"Eh? Me?"

"Yes, you're an electric Elemental, right? Point your power up and lure them out" said Herlin.

"You're using me as bait?"

"That's the best way I can think of right now."

"Hah.my first day at work and my role was as bait beast. How apes."

I came out of the bushes and stood on a large piece of land. I then raised my hand up and tried to channel my aura there.

"This is an abuse of the power of his name" I lamented.

Bzzz.. Bzzztt…

A stream of blue-colored electricity shot out from my palm and pointed towards the sky, causing an extremely loud sound. Until Herlin and the citizens covered his ears.

Kruusuk…

"Hn? They're coming too."

Suddenly from behind the other bushes, out a bunch of Inuijin that was the size of a human—, some even bigger. One of them then shot towards me. But without doing anything, the Inuijin was hit by an arrow from the direction of the bushes.

"Come on!"

Mizuno-san and the other citizens came out from the bushes and attacked the Inuijin, except for Herlin. He was still silent inside the bushes unmoving. I saw him and asked him.

"Oi! What are you doing?!"

"You and the others can take care of what's here. I want to check something else first."

"Huh?"

"But before that…"

Shushh…

Half of the Inuijin had been decapitated like something invisible had decapitated him. He did it alone and then went somewhere. God fucking.

"Basic! Hey, Cecilia!"

"Wait for what else?! Quickly form a sword with my aura!" shout Cecilia.

Swuush.. Klank..

I gathered the aura in my right hand and then a green long sword appeared. The Ten Inuijins are now in front of us, rather risky if we face everything without a plan. But with what we have now, it looks like we can still win.

"Satou-san, where is your friend?" ask Mizumo-san.

"He went to check on something, we were told to hold it for as long as we could."

"alright. The other citizens! Let's hold them as we can!"

"Good!" said the villagers simultaneously.

**

*A Somewhat Inner Place in the Forest*

Herlin walked with a hand that was inside his Hoodie pouch towards somewhere within the forest with a strong aura pressure. He walked slowly until suddenly there was a creature waiting in front of him and talking to him.

"Who are you?" ask the creature.

The creature then stood up and walked over to Herlin. A wolf that was about 3 meters tall, with white fur patterned in black. Herlin even had to look up to look at his face. Herlin then muttered as if his estimation all along was correct.

"I thought so."

"What?"

"There must be other creatures besides the Inuijin. I right? The Unseen, Inugami."

Seriate