A Trail of Darkness (Part 4)

…

Marco and his friends returned back to the village in a hurry. As they arrive, Marco told his friends to question several villagers in their proximity, asking them anything even the smallest and trivial questions that should relate to them.

"Let us scramble guys! Seek whoever person you may find and ask them anything. We must assure this one more time."

"Roger!"

Marco asked simple questions like "how are you?" and "where do you live?" and the answers he gets are always hazy and sometimes not correlating with the questions given.

Scias asked them basic things that even a child would know like "how much is this?" while pointing his fingers. Meanwhile, the answers he got varied yet most of them didn't answer correctly.

Nina, Aily, and Pio questioned the same way as Marco. And of course, they received the same type of answers: hazy, unclear, incomprehensible, and irrelevant.

The idea of asking the villagers was to assure them that the villagers were truly mind-controlled. Marco thought as well that they might find some suspicious looking fellow blending together with the villagers. Though, Scias commented that the mind-controller would've pretended to be dumb to assure their own safety. Even so, Marco insisted on doing it.

…

Fifteen minutes earlier…

"Mind control, you say?" Marco asked.

The fire dragonian, Ognist nodded while crossing his arms together. "It is the one and only possible thing to pick up. It is also the only explanation I can find to determine what's causing those villagers to be hateful towards us all of sudden. If that's the case, then we ought to prepare for the worst."

Ognist moved a bit away from the dead tree, closing to Marco and his friends. "In the world of Gaia, mind control ability can be cancelled through two ways: killing the user or take down the affected. This alone makes it tough as we cannot kill any villagers in the vicinity."

Marco then asked, "I knew mind control existed, but would there be any possibilities that the ability itself was different than the ones from our world, Ognist?"

"…That, I do not know. Mind controlled people are bound forever by the user, unless the user's dead, or the mind-controlled ones. It's hard to find the difference between mind control abilities, if there is one."

"That alone was not necessary to know, Marco…" Scias stated. "We just simply need to find and destroy the user."

"Yup, I know that, dude. But if knowing their ability better, then we might find it useful for later!" Marco replied.

"Well… that's true, though…" Scias closed his thoughts.

Ognist let out a desperate breath, "…Aside from that, however, I can only conclude that the user themselves is located in the village. We dragonians are incapable of going in there because we would only cause deaths to them unnecessarily. And that's why you humans will do the work and find them from the inside!"

…

Back to present time, Marco and his friends are still asking them one-by-one. Until in some point Marco says enough.

"I see those dragonians were being hasty to deal with this matter," thought Marco. "But if we don't find out whether the mind control was different or not, it would be a fatal mistake later on!"

After several minutes of searching, Marco and the others gathered into the village square. Each of them found out that the villagers have different answers even though asked the same question. That alone solidified the fact that the villagers are mind-controlled. Additionally, another fact rose: the mind control itself was actually different than the ones Marco and Scias had learnt back in their world of Gaia.

In the world of Gaia, mass mind-controlled people would answer one same thing over and over, even though the question was given differently. But in this case, it was the other way around: one same question, but varied answers though didn't correlate with the question.

Deep in Marco's mind, he wondered how he would find the user amidst of those misfits around him. Asking one by one would take forever, considering the amount of villagers in there. Not to mention there would be aggressive ones, which will cause unwanted trouble to them.

Marco affirmed one thing, "Scias was right about one thing. It is nigh impossible to find the user amidst of this chaos. The user might be blending in with these people. It could be any one of them. It could be one of those we've asked."

Meanwhile, Scias thoughts, "Marco was right about one thing. It is true we must find out the characteristics of the mind control ability, to determine whether the same or not as the ones in our world. One big trait was that if the mass mind control decided to capture another victim, then the mass control would obliterate instantly, letting go all of the victims previously. But so far… there's no clue to that one big trait!"

…

Nina finds it hard to believe the dragonians. She recalls their discussion earlier with the dragonians.

Ognist turned at the party, continuing his words previously, "Anyway, since we couldn't kill the villagers, then the only possible option is to hunt down the user and slay them. And to do this, we must work together, Marco!"

A short pause happened.

Within the next minute, Nina raised her hand a bit, "I'm sorry, if I may ask?"

"Sure, go ahead, young lady," Ognist gently allowed.

"Why are you dragonians were avoiding kill them?" she asked.

Taizun snapped out and charged in while saying "That again you ask?!"

Ognist quickly halted him and shook his head which stopped Taizun from going onwards.

Thus, Nina continued, "Lately, you guys were talking about how you don't want them dead, or how you couldn't kill them by any means. I understand that killing innocent people is absolutely wrong, but some dragonians we've met would resort to kill anyway."

Ognist let out a short breath, "Humph… young lady, there are more than some unscrupulous dragonians in this merged world. Their presence is absolutely disturbing. One of our ethic codes was that we are absolutely against killing innocent humans."

Marco recognized that line from Zeugen when he fought against him. "So it was true, huh?" he thought quietly.

"We, the actual dragonians will never do something as cruel. If that is to happen, then the world of Gaia will never be at peace. We are not a bad dragon. We embrace that to its fullest."

Ognist clenched his right fist and laid it on his chest, "To be honest, though, we don't deserve your trust in this situation. But I beg you people to trust us in this dire situation. I believe we have one same objective, and that is to save those people!"

"Hold on a second, you said that we will do the work for you guys, right? Are you guys throwing away your responsibilities to us?" Aily asked.

"Oh dear me, don't misunderstood us already, kid. While you people are searching from the inside, we will encircle the village to locate the user ourselves. Besides, we dragonians couldn't enter the village. That's why, we must work together."

"Aye! We shouldst be working together, ja?" Zeugen commented.

Shortly, Taizun nudged Zeugen. He then whispered to his ears, "Are you sure to let them do that?"

Ognist nodded, "Hm, I'm fully assured."

Not long, Marco stretched his hand, reaching out the dragonians to shake their hand, "Okay then. I agree with you guys. We have the same intention, after all."

Nina approached them and stood beside Marco. "It was my first intention to save the village. If severing the cords of the curse was not enough, then my mission was not completely fulfilled. My friends and I will work together with you, for now."

Aily approached behind Nina followed by Pio, "If it was sister's will then me and Pio will do the same as well. Be thankful, you dragons!" she stated while pointing the dragonians from behind Nina.

"Yeah, I am grateful to receive thy help," Ognist smiled widely.

"Let us begin, immediately!"

…

…

"Those dragonians were never like the ones I've seen. They were noble-hearted, willing to save everyone. Perhaps our view of the dragonians was wrong all this time."

Nina caresses her wrists tightly. Remembering the tragic event one year ago made her unease. Aily realized her sister's conundrum.

It turns out that every one of Marco's party except Pio had a history with the dragonians.

…

..

.

Meanwhile, Ognist, Taizun, and Zeugen are encircling the village.

Taizun comments coldly, "Hey, barbecue head, you knew that it was impossible to find the user from the inside, then why propose them to do the bidding?"

"It was necessary," Ognist replied. "If they were to go along with us, I believe 100% that they will never accept this plan of mine. I can tell from their eyes and their way of speaking, Taizun."

"Yeah, but if you asked us, too… I might as well disagree with you."

"But here you are standing with Zeugen to follow me,"

"It's because Zeugen and I fully entrust you, Ognist."

Ognist smiles while letting out a short breath, and then turns around, "How thrilling," he said shortly.

"This plan of mine might kill someone if we're not careful," Ognist stated. "That's why, let's do this correctly."

"You're the boss," Taizun nodded.

"Ayyo!" Zeugen stated excitedly.

From sky view, the legion of 1.000 Imperial soldiers is encircling the village from a safe distance. They move slowly, walking step by step in clockwise around the village with their halberds and swords ready.

Ognist thoughts of his plan, "This plan is a risky one. But it could prove effective if done correctly. By surrounding the village, the mind-controller will have no choice but to move the villagers to attack. That's when Marco and his friends will detect a fluctuation of mana energy from the user and slay the user. …Or if the user was stupid, the user would mind control our guys, instead, letting go all of the villagers."

Ognist commanded to them that if anyone tried to approach them, do not attack and let them come to them. If considered too dangerous, then the soldiers would report to any of the dragonians. The dragonians will relay orders to avoid the villagers at all costs while Taizun will capture them one by one. Ognist stated that they must perform quickly, or else the soldiers would be harmed or even worse, the villagers would die because the soldiers were provoked.

Ognist also has the ability to sense danger. He will use it to the maximum rate to detect any slight of danger to ensure no one dies tonight.

To be simplified… Ognist final plan is to bait the mind-controller and rescue everyone else.

On the other hand, Ognist also considered Marco's thoughts about the mind control ability. If the traits were different, then there should've been one visible to their eyes.

…

Shortly, as he and his forces encircling the village, someone walks out of the vicinity.

Ognist's plan was successful. He baited someone out. He relayed orders to avoid conflict and keep encircling the village. Somehow, that figure walks confidently, more like arrogant. Ognist noticed something was off with that person and decided to close himself to the person unnoticed.

Suddenly… that person stretched both of their hands to one of the soldiers' head. The other soldiers were unmoved to prevent that person's actions. It was at this moment Ognist recognized that the person was that very boy from before!

Ognist quickly stances as he put his hand to his sword handle. He lowers his body. The ground beneath him breaks apart, revealing his foot engulfed in massive fire. He chants shortly, whereas three fire magic circles emerge in front of him in a row. He then casts.

"Fire Sword Art – Scorching Bones!"

With full might, Ognist thrusts forward in spectacular speed. Firewalls emerged from his afterimage which engulfs any vegetation in its path. His speed is fast enough to make him afloat in midair. As he closes in, he draws his sword lit with raging fire. With every power, he magnificently lands a blow to the boy!

But in a split second, the boy notices. In a panicked move, he jumped away from the dragonians fire attack. Alas, the boy was a second late. Ognist successfully cut his arms off, burning them down to their bones!

The boy meticulously avoided the firewall emerged from the ground, but Ognist suddenly changed move. He slided sideways and back kicked the boy. Not just till there, Ognist presses his metal boots deep into the boy's stomach as hard as possible until the boy bleeds hardly. As a result, the boy got flung away far into one of the houses, carving a large hole in it.

Ognist stared down at his stained metal boots. The blood coming from the boy was not human's. It was all blue. He realized that he must not end his move there. He must pursue him into the village.