Randia traveled west under the pitch-black night. It's been a while since he was all alone by himself. If Viena was here with him, she would be sleeping in his arms as he carried her around until they found a good place to spend the night. The more Randia thinks about what could possibly happen to her, the more his heart feels flayed. He has to find her as soon as possible by any means necessary.
Fifteen minutes later, Randia arrived at a side of the main road where there was a small path leading to the forest to his left. The path is unnoticeable to those who aren't seeking it, especially at such late hours. According to the intel that was given by the guard, there's a high chance that the bandit camp lies inside the dense trees as it was the only area that the patrol units haven't searched yet.
"Ugh!"
Randia stumbled over a rock like a feeble old man, and his vision turned blurry as he roamed through the woods, desperate and wounded.
"My lord ...."
Suddenly he heard a whisper in his head. A female voice that he is not unfamiliar with.
"Please embrace it once more ... Your divinity ...."
".... No. Never," Randia replied.
His throat is sore and his consciousness is alternating. He tried to get up and he felt like his effort was working, but too bad, it was only inside his imagination. His body is at its limit, and it won't be long until he enters Stasis. A blessing of the gods and goddesses which Randia perceived as a curse, a defiance to death that tortures all those who wished to rest.
Suddenly, blue orbs are rising from the floor of the forest. They bundled up together into a single bright light. From within the light, came forth a shape of a white wolf. Her lustrous snow-like fur blinds everything as it pierces through the dark uncontested, and her eyes are identical to her master's, captivating blue that drowns all who stare.
"Stella ..."
"Have faith, my lord. I will make sure that She won't notice. Though, I can only do so for a minute. Her grasp over this continent is too strong as it has always been."
The wolf treads closer to Randia and licks his face.
"Please, my lord. Save the little girl. Save her so you can be saved."
Randia doesn't understand her words. Yet, he knows for sure that the bitter reality demands of him the power he once had. It takes strength to protect something and that fact never changed since the dawn of time.
Thus, Randia slowly places his hand on Stella's head, tapping once more into the power which he had despised and forsaken.
"We hear and obey your call. We cherish and share your heart. May evil be eradicated and justice reign supreme ...."
"... We honor and welcome you. Valdrin, Spouse of Lightning."
***
The sky breathes the greatest chilling wind. The dark clouds gather and swirl. The thunder roared with yearning and anguish. The surge of Anima and unnatural cataclysmic power awakens everyone in Rosmayne from their sleep. Everyone opened their windows and some even poured out to the streets to look up to the sky. Upon witnessing such a spectacle, only one thought crossed their mind - Something is not right.
Rain begins pouring down the land. Each droplet of water is heavy and loud, and they are coming like there's no tomorrow. In the midst of the sudden storm, the bandits are busy managing their merchandise.
They are human traffickers. They capture people to sell them. Be it men or women, elders or children, they took anyone of all races, either per request or just simply stocking. A quite large group also at that, consisting of almost a hundred personnel at their disposal.
Viena is among them, sitting in silence and full obedience. She had witnessed what happened to those who talked back or were being noisy. She just stayed in her cage, crying in fear as she held her sore arms and the cuts in her skin as she was treated roughly earlier.
"Papa ... help me ...."
Suddenly after she prayed for help, her cage is kicked hard until she's startled.
"GET UP AND MOVE, YOU BRAT!"
Viena obeyed. Never she had felt such fear before. It's even worse than that time when she got caught by some merchants on the first day she met Randia. She comes out of her cage as fast as she can despite his trembling legs. However, despite her efforts, she got a kick to her leg until she fell into a puddle of mud.
"I SAID MOVE, QUICKLY!" The man kicked Viena again on her right arm.
"Hey, stop. Don't vent your anger on the goods. You'll break them and they will sell for less."
"FUCK YOU!"
When the man wants to land another kick, the woman bandit pushes him back. She glared at him as she kept pushing the man back.
"Asshole! You want me to tell the boss about this?!"
"... Tsk!"
The man leaves, and the woman gets back to Viena. She pulls her up and helps her walk towards the shelter now that the little girl was hurt and become limp from the kick earlier.
"Sorry for that. That idiot lost a bet and acted childish for no reason ... Alright, let's move now. You don't want to get cold in this weird weather."
They are moving towards a cave to take shelter since the rain has soaked everything.
"T-Thank you, lady ...," said Viena as they were waiting for their turn to enter the cave.
"... Thank you? Haha! Why would you thank me? Haven't you noticed? I'm the one who took you from your father."
Viena turned silent again and followed her inside the cave where she and the others were gathered in one big cell. Viena doesn't have the courage to even look at them. However, only with a few glances that she notice how they have all lost their hopes.
She sits in the middle of the room and hugging herself, trying to ignore everything else. However, even that proves to be too difficult. With the hysterical cries of women dragged out one after another from the cell, she covered her ears and sobbed.
Viena's fear is justified. After some moments, her turn finally came. They are asking her to come out. She tried to run to the back of the cell, but they ended up beating her and taking her away. No one even tried to help her. Everyone is thinking only about their own selves, just as she did.
She was taken to a room where an old man was already sitting in a chair waiting for her. His smile is both perverted and sinister, and Viena immediately sensed danger when she saw him at first glance. She is banging on the door repeatedly, pleading to be let out.
The old man stood up and grabbed Viena's hair strongly. He brings his face closer to her, caressing her cheek in such a disgusting manner that Viena starts to cry. When Viena turns away and closes her eyes, the old man casts a spell on her that forces her to stare at him with her eyes wide open.
"Aah ...! As I thought!"
The old man casts a spell and waves his hand over Viena's face vertically. The spell that Randia casts to hide the color of her eyes subsides and the true crimson finally showed itself.
"A Mistari! How lucky!"
Viena remembered what Randia told her. Mistari is a term to refer to a cursed child like her. However, what it is that he wants to do with her remains unclear. Let alone to ask for his motive, Viena couldn't even move a single muscle, although it was not painful like that time when Randia showed her telepathy.
"Do you know how much people are willing to dig their pocket for an eye of a Mistari?"
When Viena saw the old man taking out a lot of scary tools from his drawer, she tried to move his body as hard as she could. Yet even with all her might, she can only do so much as to shake her wrists and ankles.
"Twenty thousand Rios is the minimum."
He is giddy and laughs a lot as he wipes his tool for enucleation. Viena is getting more scared with each passing second. Her eyes teared and his breathing was ragged. Seeing this, the old man turns even more excited instead.
"Don't worry, I'll put you to sleep. I can't have you dying from pain during the procedure after all."
The old man pulls out a syringe, and Viena turns even more hysteric.
"Oh? Are you afraid of this? It's okay, let's cover your eyes for a moment."
He wrapped a cloth around Viena's eyes until she could sense nothing but voices.
"It's more fun, isn't it? Knowing nothing about what is being done to you other than judging from the sound I make. It makes your fantasy run wild right?!"
"Can you hear it?! Can you guess what I'm holding right now?!"
The clanking sound of the steel tools is making Viena wet herself. The old man laughs and keeps brandishing the steel to scare her to death.
Until suddenly the sound is gone. Every existing sound is gone, be it the rain outside, or the clanking steels. The oddity continued as the whole place turned darker and darker as if light starting to cease to exist. It's not fog or smoke, it's just simply the vanishing of light from all around.
