The Monster and the Witch

⚜︎ Ep 52: Madness Over Logic ⚜︎

Carmine's heart seemed to run along with her feet. She could sense something bad was about to happen. The girl had just made three steps into the hall when Damian pulled her arm.

"Go back to your room and lock the door," he ordered.

"What?"

"I've tightened the security after Baltaz's incident, Carmine. So the fact these assassins can still break through our defenses means they're not ordinary assassins. It's dangerous. Lock your room and wait there." His face was knotted with conflict and fear.

"And you think I'll be safe in a locked room?

"What are you going to do when you meet those killers?" Damian raised his voice, "What can you do?"

Carmine opened her mouth. And when no word could come out, he dragged her body with force.

"Dam–"

He turned a deaf ear to her protests as he kept pulling her body and then pushed her into the room. Unable to resist Damian's power, Carmine almost fell to the floor. Damian quickly closed the door and with the multifunctional key that Ardan had bestowed on him, locked her in the room.

Carmine banged on the door, yelling at Damian, and asking him to open the door. "Damian! Open the door!" she shouted. "Damian!"

"Carmine, just stay there," he said softly through the door, "I'll make sure Darius is safe. Wait for us."

"Please," he begged her.

The next thing Carmine heard was Damian telling Ardan to follow him to the east wing. She called Damian again, demanding him to open the damn door, but no one answered her.

Bastard!

Carmine stepped back from the door and took a deep breath. Then she stretched out her hand, summoning her magic circle. The symbols that adorned the circle lit up. A crescent-shaped symbol with two stars at both ends lit up the brightest. A symbol for summoning a soul. It only worked on spirits and...

"Costro," she called.

...a teleporter.

Within seconds, a thin man dressed in all black appeared before her. Without wasting any second, she said, "Tell me what's going on!"

The man with yellow eyes wasted no time in answering her, "Seven assassins entered this residence."

"Their target?" she asked in impatience.

"Darius."

Carmine froze on the spot. Her whole body felt very cold.

"Then why are you still here?" she asked in a raised tone. She stared at Costro with a stern look. "Baltaz?"

"Baltaz is with Darius. Uh ... The situation is a bit ... complicated. You'd better see it in person."

"Complicated how? Have you and Baltaz handled the assassins?" she was trying to control her voice. "Take me there."

Costro took her hand. In an instant, her body seemed to float amid the air. Gravity seemed to no longer exist, and an itching feeling appeared deep in her belly. A second later, her soles landed on the floor again. But the sudden sense of gravity made her unprepared body stagger forward a little. Luckily, Costro, who was still holding her arm, helped her find her footing again.

Carmine looked at Darius's open room. Yet it was not a room with a bed, cabinets, and windows that she usually saw. Instead, all she could see was thick darkness centered on Darius's bed. The darkness crept further to each end of the room, drowning everyone it passed as if it was a dark sand trap.