Chapter fifty-eight – There's no time to explain!

Soon after Hanna told Locke about her prophetic dream, Locke left for the city, the Lizardkin wanted to accompany him but Locke made them stay behind and promise to protect his home. When the Lizardkins found out that Hanna and Tia were Locke's 'brides', they started to treat the two girls as if they were both princesses, they even swore on their own lives that they would keep they safe.

Locke then flew away, and soon he was able to see the state of the city, some people were fleeing the center in their vehicles while groups of monsters ran uncontrollably through the city. Locke stopped for a second, gliding in midair as he surveyed the city's situation, fires, overturned cars, destroyed stores and houses, it looked like a warzone, or something out of an apocalyptic movie.

"Did these guys lose their f*cking minds? Do they want that much makes the existence of the entire paranormal world known?" Locke spoked.

'Locke! Hanna just received important news! It's about Mamma Cop and Mustache!' Tia spoke through the mental link.

'What? What about them?' Locke replied mentally.

'Wait a minute! There's something I learned to do recently... Done! Hanna, are you listening?'

"Errr...Hello?" Hanna spoke, her voice sounding directly in Locke's mind, somehow Tia had "added" her to the mental link she had with Locke.

"Wow, Tia, I didn't know you could do that!" Locke replied cheerfully.

'I kind of learned to do this recently, with your powers increasing mine are also growing, now we can talk anytime! Welcome to the best chat on earth!' Tia joked. 'But enough kidding, you need to concentrate on fixing this situation and Hanna needs to tell you something important!'

'Yes! I just talked to Aliyah, she's fine and safe in a shelter, but my parents are heading back to town!' Hanna's worry leaked a little with her thoughts.

"Damn it," Locke cursed. 'Don't worry, Hanna! I will do my best to keep your parents safe! Any idea where they might be?

"Aliyah said that they would help people escape, but that my mother wanted to rescue the imprisoned cops, so if you get to the cops there's a big chance of finding them!" Hanna replied.

"I'm on my way!" Locke replied, he flapped his wings hard and shot off like a meteor, forming a sonic explosion with the movement.

Locke didn't even have to struggle to find the center of the pandemonium, the building emitted so much mana it was like a lighthouse, he soon found himself flying over the place, he could feel that the building was enveloped in a strange magic, the whole place gave him the same feeling as a rift, but darker and sinister, he also felt a strange energy emanating from the building, an energy that gave him a strange feeling of disgust and nausea.

Locke could see the police and BPD agents tied up near the entrance to the building, along with groups of people who were obviously civilians, adults and children, families who hadn't been quick enough to escape the city center before being captured by the monsters.

Seeing children crying as they buried their faces in their parent's bodies made a feeling of anger rise in Locke's heart, but he refrained from attacking because the people were surrounded, although his will was to descend with fury on those monsters he could not guarantee the safety of all prisoners in that situation.

Locke thought about how to proceed when he noticed the groups of monsters are going out again after a while, probably to capture more humans, he decided the best way to proceed was to eliminate all those groups, one by one.

The first group that moved away was a group of dog-like creatures, they were the size of an average adult and completely covered in fur, their faces were completely canine and they breathed like dogs with they tongues hanging out, Locke suspected, because their forms, that they had great olfactory abilities, so he continued to fly, following them from afar as he watched their actions.

The truth is that Locke was a little worried about attacking first, helping the lizards had taught him that not all tribes who fought for the cultists did it willingly, so he took a moment to decide whether or not this group deserved his fury.

It didn't take long for him to have his answer, the group of dogmen found a human child hiding in a building, they dragged her out violently, and one of them even kicked the girl, which caused an explosion of laughter among the others.

Locke then didn't think twice, he dove form the air at high speed, towards the dogman that was stepping on the girl, he hit it in the chest with both his feet, throwing the creature away, the force of the attack was incredible and the dogman bounced down the street like a test dummy, turning into a mass of blood in the process.

Locke knelt beside the injured girl and touched her forehead gently, the girl opened her eyes and saw a huge man with a black dragon mask covering his face, she shivered in fear, but the man smiled gently, she realized that they were surrounded by those canine creatures that had attacked her and they showed hostility towards the man.

"Are you okay?" Locke questioned.

The girl nodded in agreement.

The dogmen around them roared like rabid dogs, surrounding them as they barked angrily, Locke looked around quickly, he took the girl in his arms "I apologize for the next part, things are going to get a little messy... Close your eyes darling..."

The girl didn't quite understand what was going on, but this masked man was kind to her and seemed to want to protect her, she buried her face in Locke's chest, avoiding looking at the monsters surrounding them.

Locke smiled gently, he held the girl's neck lightly to prevent her from get hurting with his movements, he then looked at the monsters surrounding him and his eyes glowed in a golden light, and Locke vanished from his position.

The first of the dogs to be hit didn't even see the blow, a guillotine kick hit the back of his head and sank his head into the ground, turning it into a pulp, the dogmen around were confused and it wasn't long before Locke made a new victim, he spun in midair and planted a kick at the largest of the dogs, the force of the impact are so great that the animal's head went flying, his dead body falling backwards.

The number of Dogmen's was twelve, in less than five seconds Locke had finished three, and he didn't stop there, every time Locke moved it was a kick and a new dead dog, and it didn't take long for the creatures realize that they were no match for this man.

The surviving dogs started to run for their lives, Locke had already reduced their number to seven when they started running, Locke didn't chase them, with a thought he shot six tiny shadow arrows, which streaked through the air chasing the dogmen, passing through the heads of the fugitives.

The last of the dogs was running like crazy, He didn't even notice when Locke appeared in front of him, Locke's tail sprouted on his back and crossed the air, wrapping around the dogman's neck and knocking him to the ground, the impact deprived the dog from his senses.

"Okay dear, the monsters are gone," Locke said as he took his hand off the girl's neck, the girl withdrew her face smeared with tears and snot from his chest, getting a little embarrassed when realize she'd soiled her rescuer, but Locke smiled kindly and told her not to worry, he went to a store that had had its entrance destroyed and put the girl down. "Can you wait here just for a second? This brother needs to have a conversation with that puppy, it won't be long..."

The girl nodded in agreement, Locke took a blanket from his inventory and draped it over the girl's shoulders, covering her gently. "I'll be right back!"

Locke went to the dogman he had thrown to the ground, the dog was in a small crater and breathing with difficulty, Locke didn't bother with the monster's well being and held its head, using the Memory Seek magic, the The dogman, a Kobold, screamed in pain as his mind was violently invaded, all his memories observed and cataloged in order of usefulness, Locke showed no kindness during his research, and when he finished he drained all vitality from the dog using his spirit drain spell, restoring whatever mana he had used in that battle..

Those Kobolds were cannon fodder, although an alpha Kobold was as strong as a werewolf those he faced were just they tribe's rejected, deviants and criminals who found their way among the cultists, accepting to work for them for the pleasure of tormenting the other species.

Those Kobolds knew very little about the cultist's plans, the orders for them were simple, destroy whatever you want around the city, but avoid killing too many humans, capture as many as you can and bring them to the center, for every living human you bring you will be rewarded!

Locke sighed, he went back to the shop where the girl was waiting for him, she had wrapped herself in the blanket and was still shaking with fear. "See, I said it wouldn't take too long! Do you know where your parents are?"

The girl shook her head in denial, which made Locke raise an eyebrow, he could see she can't talking. "Are you hurt somewhere?" The girl again shook her head in denial. "Are you sure? that dog threw you hard on the ground!"

The girl hesitated a bit and showed her arms to Locke, he could see that she had bruise and scratch marks, Locke could also see that she had older wound marks which made him feel strange. He wanted time to get to the bottom of this story but the clock ran against him, he took a bottle of elixir from the inventory and gave it to the girl. "Here, drink this, it will heal your bruises..."

The girl hesitated for a second looking at the glass filled with golden liquid, she then looked into Locke's eyes for a minute, she turned the glass all over her throat. "Take it easy!" Locke joked.

"COF COF COF" the girl started coughing as soon as she had just swallowed, a warm and comfortable feeling crossed her entire body and she felt the wounds on her skin close up as if they never existed, even the old scars disappeared, but the biggest difference was her throat, the girl felt a strange sensation in her throat, she sucked in air with difficulty and pushed it out, coughing a few more times.

"What is this..." She said, realizing soon after what had happened, she held her own throat in surprise. "I can... I can talk?"

"It seems so!" Locke smiled.

The girl's eyes watered and she began to cry hard, Locke put his hand on her shoulder and the girl hugged him tightly, crying copiously into his chest and once again covering him with snot and tears.

"I can talk! I can talk!" She repeated it many times.

Locke waited until she calmed down with patience.

The girl said her name was River, she told him she had lost her voice years ago in a car accident, the same accident that deprived her of her parents. She has since lived with her aunt and uncle, the aunt had two children, she told Locke they made her sleep in the basement and gave her little and cold food, her aunt made her do all the housework, except cooking, and all the time her uncle drank he beat her.

Locke heard the girl's story angrily, he asked where her uncle an aunt were, he was seriously thinking about taking care of this uncle, but the girl said they died, they tried to run away as soon as the fuss started and got in the car leaving her back, but she watched as the car was tipped over and thrown away by a huge man with gray skin, the girl's lack of emotions as she told about her uncle's deaths filled Locke with sadness, he wonder what this girl, still so little, had passed to became that way...

'This world is really full of monsters…' he thought.

It was clear the girl had nowhere to go and he was seriously worried about what to do with her, there was no way to let her go or leave her behind, now that she had gotten into his eyes it was impossible for Locke not to help her, but he also had to help a lot of people in the city.

Locke then had an idea, he already had a magic that allowed him to jump between dimensions, a magic that he himself had created after analyzing a powerful artifact, the principle was quite complicated but it was already completely engraved in his mind, Locke set his mind to work and derived a new magic, instead of jumping through dimensions he just needed to jump through this space.

Creating this new spell was even easier than the first one, it took just a matter of seconds,t he principle was pretty much the same, but without the need for extra energy to cross the dimensions, all he needed was to create a tunnel in the current space and jump a few meters.

"Give me your hand, I'll take you to a place where they'll take care of you!" Locke spoke to the girl.

She didn't think twice before accepting the outstretched hand, Locke held it tightly and activated the magic, enveloping the two in black mana, the mana formed a sphere that collapsed in on itself, disappearing from the spot. A similar sphere formed in the garden in front of Locke's house, growing and splitting apart, revealing his shape and the shape of a girl.

The Lizardkins were dutifully guarding the house and had assumed a fighting stance, but relaxed the moment they saw the image of their hero, the girl shivered at the sight of the lizard men, but Locke comforted her with a pat on the head. River soon understood that the lizards offered her no danger, the man wore a dragon mask, maybe the lizards were his servants?

Locke ran into the house and met Hanna and Tia, River's eyes lit up when she saw the fairy.

"there's no time to explain! Please take care of her!" Locke said, he turned to River and lowered it to her eye level, he took off his mask and revealed his masculine face, it didn't make sense anymore to hide his own identity when he had taken the girl to his own house. "River, this is Hanna and Tia, they are my family! They will take care of you! I need to get back to town and get the other monsters!"

The girl nodded in agreement.

Locke turned to the two women whom he trusted more in the whole world, he could feel through their eyes that they would take care of everything, he ran back to the backyard and teleported back to town.

Hanna turned to the girl who was looking at them both with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension and smiled motherly.

"You are hungry?"