Chapter One: Nightstone, Part Five

The party left the bar and headed towards the mansion on foot. It was north on their map. As they approached the bridge, Phil told them about his theory of what is going on.

"Here's one of my theories. The first one seems logical. Goblins invaded the town and made it their home. We've seen goblins everywhere, in the church, the house, and in the town in general." He pointed where they saw the goblins. Everyone nodded in agreement, since they didn't have a better idea. "But, that doesn't explain how and why the town became so… distraught, so destroyed by huge boulders."

They arrived at the destroyed bridge and saw what he meant. A huge boulder laid at the bottom of the crater. Obsidian shards were scattered everywhere. With close inspection, they could see a huge mark of a hand on the stone.

"And here's my second theory, giants invaded this land for an unknown reason. Who knows, maybe it was to expand their territory or just for fun." He looked down at the crater. The huge boulder was still smoking. This attack on the town was very recent.

A yelp of pain came from the dragonborn in the back. He stepped on an obsidian shard and started to hop around on one foot, stepping on even more shards and finally falling on his bum.

"Oh yeah," Phil began with a smirk, "be careful, obsidian shards are sharp." Sorvex started to pick some up. And put them in his pocket. He went over to the dragonborn and pulled the shards out of his feet as Slayer screamed in pain.

"Sush! You don't want to awaken another horde of goblins, do you?" Sorvex told Slayer jokingly. Slayer took it very seriously and shut his jaw.

"Okay, let's start building." Phil said. They unloaded the building supplies out of their bags and started to build.

Back at the motel, Riley watched over Ledias. She was sleeping peacefully. She's hot, Riley lustfully said in his mind. "Why do Paladins have to be so hot?" he mumbled. His hands reached forward slowly, wondering if what Ace said about her being flat was really true. He's never touched a female's breast before. It will be the time of his life, or so he thought.

Ledias opened her eyes to see Riley's hand hovering over her. "What are you doing?" she asked. Riley's face turned red as he fumbled for a towel to put over her head.

"N-nothing! I was just checking your temperature! H-here's a cold towel for your head."

She smiled softly. "Thanks, Riley," She said. She closed her eyes and whispered a prayer. Her body glowed slightly and she winced a little in pain. Ledias opened her eyes and stared at Riley with cold eyes. "Why do you want to steal them?" She asked with a serious tone.

"What do you mean?" Riley raised his hands and gave a fake smile. His hands twitched towards his dagger. He would get those hands no matter what.

A while back when Riley wondered on his own through the deserted town, he encountered an old lady wearing black clothes, holding a staff that was as red as the blood in his veins. He reached for his dagger but the old lady raised her palm, signaling him to wait.

The moment Riley hesitated, the demon named Legion entered him unexpectedly. His arms became limp and he dropped his daggers. To Riley, it was like watching someone take control of his own body, like he was watching in the back tied up with chains.

"You know what to do…" the old lady said. Her body disappeared into the shadows, as the demon known as Legion possessed Riley and headed towards the bar.

Legion is the name of the demon who held seven of his kind in one soul and body. Each demon was an "expert" at a different sin. The demon savored his freedom to do whatever he pleased.

"You don't need them anymore," Legion said. "I could just take them… and sell them…" he started to reach towards the hands, but Ledias stood and smacked his hand out of the way. Legion dropped his fake smile and revealed a horrible frown, something only a demon could do. "He's dead anyways. Shouldn't you move on?"

Legion was getting restless. He wanted those hands so that he could make a potion to raise more demons from the graves. His hands reached for his dagger. He wanted to end this quickly.

Ledias saw through him and kicked the knife out of his grasp. With the momentum of her leg, Legion grabbed her and slammed his elbow into her knee; a loud crack filled the room with a scream right after. Her leg was twisted in a weird way and bone was exposed. She quickly mumbled something through the pain.

Legion, seeing the opportunity, raised his fist, preparing to knock her out and probably snap her neck. As his fist flew through the air towards her face, she raised up her arm to reveal a glowing glove. The moment Legion touched it, Divine Smith was cast and he was launched through the wall, knocking him out of Riley's body and sent into a pig outside the motel. It tried to drown itself in a puddle of water, but it was too shallow, so the demon was forever stuck in that pig until it found a way to free itself.

Ledias fell on the ground, still groaning in pain. She quickly grabbed a belt that was on the counter next to the hands and a part of the wooden wall that flew her way and made a splint. She used healing magic on herself and the wound slowly reverted back to how it was, but it would take a few weeks for her to fully recover. Her head was light headed and she wanted to sleep, but she saw Riley back in his human state with a dislocated arm and a couple of broken ribs. She crawled towards him and used her final strength to heal him and then fainted along side to Riley.

The makeshift bridge was finally constructed. Cyprus was left at the entrance to their bridge to guard it, but it was also for safety since she was still drunk and may fall and hurt herself. Wall Slayer accompanied her along with Ace and Sorvex. Phil and Midnight were the only ones who investigated it. The mansion's front side was completely devastated by a boulder. What once used to be a beautiful garden was now just rubble and dead grass laying everywhere.

It was now midnight as the moon flew to the middle of the sky, boasting its beauty. Midnight looked up at the starry night, for he was named after this beautiful sky. His magic was at peak strength at this time. His body gave a faint aura of light as he activated a spell that would let them see in the dark. As they stepped through the "entrance" of the mansion, a beautiful, shining piano greeted them. It was untouched by the destruction, and the only flaw it had was the thin line of dust on its keys.

To the left of the lobby, a large golden stairway went up to the second floor with red carpet following the pathway up. In the middle of the stairs was a gaping hole, most likely destroyed by the fragments of the boulder. The silver chandelier on the ceiling was left hanging with one chain, ready to fall at any moment. Straight ahead was a hallway filled with famous art from the past and from today. Some of the portraits littered the ground, some of them were shattered, but most of them were intact. Phil took note that he should probably take some with him to sell at the Seven Snake's head quarters.

When they got to the end of the hallway, they were greeted by a fireplace, still lit, and a body sitting in a chair. It was a young lady, maybe at the young age of 20, and she sat there in the chair, bleeding with a huge slim stone piercing her gut. She was still breathing and holding a baby, who was sound asleep. Phil quickly ran up to her and shook the lady awake.

"Hey, are you alive?" Phil asked. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a handsome blond man in front of her.

"A-are you an angel…?" She asked. Her eyes widened to the beautiful figure in front of her. She mistook Phil as death and Midnight as an angel. Her eyes softened as she got the idea of what was going on. "It's my time, isn't it?" she said in a sad voice. She looked down at the baby that she cradled and gave a sad smile.

"It's not your time to go, we'll get you to safety and patch you up and-" Phil was trying to grab on to some hope, not even answering her questions. Midnight grabbed his shoulder. He shook his head and pointed at her wound. The stone went completely through her, her vitals completely destroyed. If they pulled it out, she'll bleed to death. Even if she survived that, she wouldn't last long without a stomach. Phil slowly looked down, defeated.

The lady patted his head like a child. "It's okay, it was unavoidable."

Phil looked up with anger, pity, and sadness in his eyes. "How could you say that!" he yelled. She just kept smiling. She offered the baby to him; the baby started to cry.

"Take care of him for me. Raise him to be a good boy. Raise him as if he was your child."

Phil took the baby from her arms softly and cradled her so that the baby would stop crying. Phil looked up one last time and looked her in the eye with sincerity. "Don't worry, I'll guarantee that she will grow up to be a strong girl. I swear on my pride of being a Rogue." The baby stopped crying. The lady smiled as she closed her eyes.

"Thank you…" Those were her final words. Her body turned cold and limp. Midnight picked up a document from the floor that was covered in blood. He showed it to Phil.

"She was the landlady of this town? But she's so young…" he looked back at the corpse. He looked back at the paper and kept reading. There were notes about what happened recently. Apparently, giants attacked the town looking for a certain object. When they found out that it wasn't there, they left and headed towards another direction.

"We should head back Midnight, we got what we needed." Phil looked at the child. He didn't know whether he should raise him as his own or give him to someone else. He would decide about that later.