Sparkle Night

"Are you sure we can leave?" Helena asked, "What about the white creature?"

"We did another quick survey with the victims." Kaguya nodded, "Only five of them seem to recall a white monster, the rest seemed to have been attacked by the black ones. And those attacked by this white monsters were earliest victims."

"Meaning that this white monster was either an expeditionary scout or it was killed in competition with the black monsters." Roko explained, "There has been no sighting of a white monster nor any victims claiming to have been attacked by a white monster so I don't think there's a need to start looking for it. We've confirmed there were no victims or sightings of any monsters in the aftermath of the party last night so it should be safe to leave."

"Mmm...if you say so." Helena shrugged.

"Uuuuu..." Corissa looked sad.

"What's wrong?" Momo asked.

"Vera never came and talked to me..." Corissa sniffed, "I feel so left out..."

"It's not that big a deal is it?" Momo shrugged.

"Uuuu...but..."

"If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one." Helena chuckled.

"Ooooooo..." Roland looked down, "Vera never came to talk to me either."

"What would you even have talked about?" Kaguya blinked, "Do you even have anything to talk about?"

"I have plenty!" Roland cried, "I've been on plenty of adventures! I have cool stuff! I could have told her about my swords!"

"We have like a dozen swords here." Momo said.

"Yeah but mine have names! How often do you see swords with a name?! And I have two of them!"

"Roland, no one cares." Helena scoffed.

"What?! Swords are cool! We wouldn't be here today without swords!"

"We don't hate swords, we just think you might like swords a little too much."

"Well maybe you guys don't like swords enough!" Roland snapped, "Maybe you all need to care a bit more! Do you know how long I've been waiting for one of you guys to ask me about my swords?!"

"Ever since you got them, I imagine." Helena rubbed her temple tiredly.

"Yeah and I'm kind of hurt nobody has asked yet! Well you know what, I'm just going to tell you! The names of my swords are-"

"Is this going to take long?"

Roland spun around as he realized Vera and her mother standing behind him.

"Cause it feels like it's going to take long." Vera said.

"Oh hey, Vera." Helena smiled, "Good thing you stopped by. First comes the name, then the etymology and before you know it, he's spun off into multiple tangents on what he thinks is cool. What's up? Here to say good bye?"

"And to express our gratitude." Vera's mom added, "You so graciously took our monsters problem as your own and then financed a big party at our inn to celebrate. Please, allow us to send you off with our gratitude."

Barbara bowed politely before turning to her daughter, "Vera?"

"Ummm..." Vera fidgeted nervously, "Ummm...Can...can you take me along with you on your adventures?!"

"Vera!" Barbara cried as the princesses just giggled to each other.

"Just kidding!" Vera grinned, "I know I'm not fit for big adventures like yours and I don't really want to leave my mom and dad all alone with the inn. But if you come back, can you tell me more stories?"

"We sure can." Momo smiled, "And when we do return, we'll have so much more stories to tell you."

"Thanks!" Vera cried, "And...um..." Corissa jolted a little as Vera turned towards her, "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I really wanted to talk to you but you were just so pretty, I ended up just staring."

"Oh, it's fine." Corissa replied, a tiny bit gleeful at finally having a conversation with the curious girl.

"If we ever see each other again, can we talk a little more? You look so pretty and graceful, you look like the perfect wife! I want to learn how to be a better wife from you!"

"That's what you want to learn?!" Corissa cried, unsure whenever to feel disappointed or happy.

"Yeah! You look like you can do a lot of really cool things! Like peeling an apple in one straight string!"

"That's what you want to learn?" Helena smirked, "That's hardly necessary. People peel apple in multiple pieces all the time. No one actually does stuff like that."

"Wait, can you guys not do that?" Corissa asked, surprised.

Helena, Momo and Kaguya all looked away, unwilling to look Corissa in the eyes.

"You too!" Vera turned to Roko, "I want to learn more about how to trap and trick people like you do!"

"Was there not a better way for you to say that?" Roko sighed.

"Come back anytime okay?!" Vera bowed, "We'll be happy to have you as our guests again!"

"Ahem." Roland tapped on Vera's shoulder, "What about me?"

"Dad said not to talk to you because you seem like trouble."

"What the hell?!"

"Right, we'll be leaving now!" Helena laughed as she pulled Roland away, "We have to get back on the road. All the luck for you, your inn and your town!"

"Bye!" Vera and her mother waved goodbye as the group finally began to leave the bounds of their small town.

The group waved back awkwardly as Roland continued yelling angrily.

In short time, the town returned to normal, the memory of their savior's grand party lingering as a sweet atmosphere around the town until night fell and much of the folks returned to their homes. A lot of them continued to return early, either out of habit or speculative concern. That said, the chronic drunkards were happy to return to their bars and stay late drinking until they were kicked out. These recurrent drunks restarting their inebriated lifestyles stumbled about under the moonlight, absent to the world around them. And in the corners of this lively night, black oil bubbled out from the shadows, first a dozen and then several groups of them stumbled out into the night with their unobservant prey. These creatures sneaked up to these lingerers and moved to stifle these wanderers mouths before starting to push them into their viscous bodies. In this quiet manner, the monsters went kidnapping across the town, searching for prey drunk not only from alcohol but from the confidence that Roko's groups had inspired in them. And from a rooftop, a strange, lone, robed man watched everything happen with a smirk.

"Well now, we're finally getting a good haul. And all it took was a bunch of would-be heroes to wander in and kill a few of my minions for these people to start coming out into the open again. Still, I've drawn too much attention. I'll probably have to move to another town soon."

"Are you sure you don't want to stick around a bit longer?"

"Nah, there's no reason for me to-WAIT A MINUTE-"

The robed man moved to turn around only for a knife to come around and press against his throat.

"Momo, go rescue those people."

"Righto!" Momo replied as Mikado tossed her his shield, "A little bit of Haste, a pinch of Rally and maybe..."

"Go ahead. Use amp."

"YES! Amp!"

A blur burst out from the behind the robed man's side and landed onto the road, running at blinding speeds into the oil monsters. As she passed them, the monster's oil bodies were suddenly burst apart from a powerful force, revealing the unconscious stragglers they had kidnapped and they were pulled out of the collapsing monster. This blur blasted around the town and in close to no time, the monsters that had come out were all destroyed and their hostage rescued. Momo soon stopped back in front of them, dropping a shield onto the ground and immediately vomited onto the ground.

"Oh god..." Momo moaned, "I feel...horrible...it's like jetlag mixed with a migraine and physical fatigue."

"Good work." Roko said as he stepped out from behind the robed man, "If you're not feeling too well, feel free to take a nap."

"Can I?" Momo slurred, her mind and body already starting to fail her, "I'm just going to sleep here."

"Is she okay?" Corissa said, worried, "Should I go move her somewhere else?"

"Go ahead." Helena grinned as she leaned an arm on the robed man's shoulder, "We've got things under control here."

"Helena, don't move him too much when I have a knife to his throat please." Kaguya said as Corissa and Varis climbed down from the roof to Momo's side.

"I got it, don't worry." Helena replied.

"Y-You guys." The robed man scowled, "I thought you left!"

"Yeah funny story about that." Helena smiled, "It was all a trap! Nathaniel. Nathan. Can I call you Nate?"

"How do you know my name?!" the robed man cried.

"We've dealt with this breed of monsters before, Nate."

"Please at least call me Nathan."

"No."

"The Blackwater Brink." Roko sighed, "I assume you know what that is?"

"I...noooooo…?"

"Cut the act Nate, we know all about your weird sex cult."

"It's not a sex cult!" Nate protested, "Okay sometimes we have sex with the hostages but we're a legit evil cult!"

"Uh huh. And why did you join this cult, Nate?"

"..."

"Point is, we've crossed swords with you people before. Does the name Bedlam ring a bell?"

"That's our old high priest." Nate gasped, "So the interlopers who defied us back at Aporia was you!"

"Well it was me, Roland and Roko to be specific but yeah." Helena smirked, "That was us."

"And that's why we knew that there must have been someone from your cult hiding around the moment we saw these monsters."

"So that party was to lure me out?!"

"All according to plan." Helena smiled triumphantly, "Right, Roko?"

"At any rate, we have some questions for you." Roko said, "Let's start with what you've been doing here."

"I'm just out here collecting."

"Humans?"

"Well when you put it like that, you make it sound like I'm a villain."

"You are." Kaguya said as she pressed the knife against Nate's throat again, "Don't try to be coy with us. Tell us what your cult is doing with these hostages!"

"We use them." Nate said, voice a touch more nervous, "As uh...material. For our monsters."

"Yeah we already knew that." Helena crossed her arms, "But your monsters are born using women as hosts. Why are you going after men?"

"Well there's not much of a choice is there?" Nate grimaced, "There's only so many people who are dumb enough to go out at night and they're not always women!"

"What do you do with the men then?" Roland asked.

"I don't know but the bosses take them anyway! I don't know what they do with them, I'm just an underling!"

"Hmmm..." Helena said, "Then how about this? Tell us where you guys are operating out of now."

"Huh? Well...I mean..."

"Not going to tell us?" Kaguya asked, drawing her knife close enough into the cultist's neck to draw a drop of blood.

"N-NO, NOT AT ALL!" Nate yelped, "It's just that ever since our old head priest was defeated, we basically only operate at home with the new head priest and his entourage traveling from town to town to give us important orders! We still get minor orders on phones and stuff but the real important stuff is told face to face!"

"So you don't have a real base and with the new leader moving from place to place, you don't actually know where he is."

"Y-Yes!"

"What an annoying system." Helena sighed, "Guess we won't be getting our hands on that grimoire any time soon."

"You're after our book?!" Nate cried.

"What's it matter to you?" Helena smirked, "Anybody have any remaining questions?"

"Where's your white monster?" Roko asked, "The one that attacked the first victims?"

"I would like to know what that monster was myself! Because of that thing, the townsfolk were already hiding every night by the time I got here! I could have gotten myself a big haul if not for that thing!"

"Wait, you're not the one responsible for the white creature?!" Helena gasped.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Everyone's heads spun around as they recognized the scream in the distance.

"Vera?!" Helena called out.

From the shadows of the inn, an oil creature slid out carrying the struggling young girl by the head.

"Oh no! I thought we beat them all!" Helena cried, "Well...I thought Momo did."

"Well they are made out of oil. You saw how Bedlam could reconstitute them."

"Oh no...I forgot..."

"Either way, we need to do something." Roko scowled, "Corissa, how's Momo?!"

"Is that Roko?!" Corissa called back, "We're getting attacked by some mini oil monsters right now! Varis is holding them off but they keep coming! Momo's still fine though. Still asleep!"

"Damn. Guess we have to deal with it ourselves then!" Roland smiled a bit as he drew his swords, "Mikado, back me up!"

"Can I get my shield back?" Mikado asked as he followed Roland towards the edge of the roof.

Before either of them could jump off, the roofing underneath Kaguya and Nate suddenly cracked and the two fell into the living room beneath them.

"Lady Kaguya!" Mikado cried as he rushed over to the hole.

"I'm fine." Kaguya grimaced, "Bastard landed on me though."

"Where is he now?!" Roland called.

The door to the house they were standing on opened and turning their gaze to the ground below them, they could see Nate exiting the house and towards a large motorcycle made from the eldritch oil.

"I'll be seeing you all!" Nate winked as he got on this motorcycle, "Remember this as the day you almost caught Nathaniel Irving!"

Before anyone could do anything, the cultist drove off.

"He's escaping on his automated bicycle!" Roland cried as Nate drove right past the village gates.

"Forget him, we need to focus on Vera!" Roland called.

"I got her." Helena said, her finger pointed at the monster with a spear of ice hovering in front of her. Carefully she took aim before she shouted, "Ice!"

The spear of ice shot out at blinding speeds, covering the nearly 40 meters between them and pierced the monster in the head. The ice crawled over its face and it dropped Vera onto the ground before turning back into a pile of sludge.

"Got em." Helena released the breath that she had been holding, "Someone go pick her up for me."

"Your sniper skills are getting better by the day." Roko said.

"Would you believe me when I say I haven't even been practicing?"

"Lady Kaguya!" Mikado cried as he jumped down to her side.

"I'm fine." Kaguya grimaced as her knight helped her up, "More importantly, we need to go after that cultist."

"Why?" Roko asked, "He's probably long gone now."

"Before he could escape, I nicked him with a bit of poison." Kaguya smiled as she held up Calcify, "He should become paralyzed once his adrenaline runs out."

"Nice job Kaguya." Roko smiled, "You two stay there and pick up Vera. We'll go after the cultist."

"Can we even catch up?" Roland asked as he walked over, "He was going pretty fast."

"Corissa!"

"Monsters are gone!" Corissa replied, "Need something, Roko?"

"Can you spot some horses?"

"Horses? I think there was a stable close to the town gates."

"Let's go then." Roko nodded as he jumped off the roof and back onto the ground, "We need to give chase."

"That includes me right?" Corissa said as she came out of the alleyway with Varis carrying Momo on his shoulder, "Can me and Varis come along?"

"Leave Momo and Vera to me, Corissa." Kaguya said as she stumbled out of the house, "I'll catch up once I'm feeling better."

"Don't push yourself, Kaguya." Corissa bit her lip, "I'm sure we can handle it ourselves."

"Me and Mikado are well enough to fight a bit more, don't worry. Now go and steal some horses."

"Ummm..."

"Appropriate. I meant to say appropriate."