Duke Lynel, I'm writing this letter to you about the amount of Chasers that have been disappearing from Tenna the past three days. There used to be a large number of them, but now I can barely count the ones remaining on my hand…
Are you sending them somewhere else? Is this an order that I've not heard of? Please tell me what's happening so I may at least inform the townfolk, Lynel.
-Grant, of Tenna
…
I keep waking up with a dreadful feeling that something's going to happen. I woke up with it yesterday, and I'm waking up with it now.
It began ever since my little chat with Hale the night before last.
As if confirming my dreadful feeling, the sun isn't quite shining through my window like usual.
I take a peek through my curtains and see that it's quite cloudy.
'It's probably going to rain soon…'
I stand up out of my bed and change clothes, sliding into a white blouse, and my usual pants and somewhat oversized boots.
Stepping out of my room, a majority of the other kids are already downstairs, I hear only one voice talking.
"Elder Grant's orders…"
Kain's.
I quickly head downstairs, everyone turning their head up to me with varying expressions. Some blank, some a bit aloof. None are too friendly, except Hale, who keeps his usual bright eyes.
"Ah, Fault." Kain calls from the center, the rest of the kids sitting in different positions and chairs around him, Hale standing next to him. "Come down, come down." He beckons me with his hand.
I raise my eyebrow and reach the bottom of the stairs, and stand next to the wall.
He nods and continues.
"We've been told to just stay within our homes and keep safe, together."
I blink, "For what…?"
Kain turns to me with a worried look, Hale speaks up for him, "Almost every chaser in town is gone."
I crane my head to Hale as I feel my eyes widen.
'So that's…'
Kain nods and continues, "And no, they haven't just left, we have reason to believe they've been kidnapped or…"
"...killed." I mutter, my brows furrowing.
Kain stays silent, so does everyone else, still processing our words. "The reason we've been told to stay within our homes is because of their disappearances, almost every single chaser that vanished was without a trace… no sign of struggle, not a drop of blood, nothing."
I swallow, my throat constricting as I feel my breathing getting a bit heavier.
"H-how…?" A kid with short, brown hair speaks up, Garret.
Kain only sighs and shakes his head, "I'm not sure, but what I am sure of… is that we'll all be fine. Just keep a headcount of everyone, and ask me before thinking about heading outside. We still can, but in groups no less than three at a time."
The others and I all nod in understanding.
"Hale, Fault, I'm leaving you two in charge of these young'ins."
I blink, "What?"
Hale seems a bit caught off guard too, but slowly nods.
Everyone else… not so much.
"Why Fault? He barely interacts with anyone."
"Yeah, why him?"
"A majority of the customers don't like it when he waits their tables, that's why he cooks all the time."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he's also just plain looking, except for his weird hair."
I stand by the wall, only taking their comments about me.
Kain says, "What I said is final, if you wish to go outside, you need to have mine, Hale's, or Fault's permission, or take one of them with you."
The groans and reluctant agreements echo through the dining hall.
I frown a bit. I thought my standing with them all was neutral, but not so… negative, I guess.
Kain nods, "I won't be returning to my actual home during this time, so I'll be living here with the rest of you all at the tavern."
Everyone sends a nod back.
…
I return back to my room, since I don't have to work or go to school while we're under this sort of lockdown.
'I wonder if the rest of Tenna is under the same order.'
Before I arrived downstairs earlier, I heard Kain mention that Elder Grant had ordered everyone to stay home for now. He's probably going to face a lot of backlash for this…
I sit down on the side of my bed.
A total of eighteen kids live here at The Den, including Hale and I. Though, nineteen now, including Kain.
I sigh as I look up at the ceiling, falling down onto the softness of the sheets. I lift my arm and cover my eyes, burying them in the crest of my elbow.
Then…
Tak tak.
I hear a careful knock at my door, causing me to lean up, "Hello?"
A soft voice calls back, "U-uhm, Fault? Can I come in?"
I stand up and head to the door, slowly opening it.
A little girl with brown hair, long enough to reach down to her shoulders, her eyes are a soft green.
"Lily…?"
She grins a bit, "That's me!"
She puts up her hands, showing me her fingers, seven of them.
"Uhm…?"
She only pushes them further in my face, "You're the only one who hasn't said happy birthday to me. I turned seven today!"
I stare down at her, utterly confused, "O-oh… Happy birthday, Lily." I give her a nervous little smile and wave as she walks back away.
I sigh and close my door quickly.
'Good thing she didn't expect a present…'
Stepping back in my room, I give a quick glance at the small mirror sitting on the side of my desk.
I pick it up and stare at my face.
'I don't look… that bad, do I?'
A small frown, light green eyes. Long, messy hair of different colors like black, white, and grey, resembling ash. Then my infusion, the glaring void at the left side of my face.
I sigh and set the mirror down.
"Maybe I do."
*****
Cronus had more or less finished its plan of action for the week.
It had discovered the cause of that new, strange feeling.
A young, tall boy with golden blonde hair, and sharp, deep blue eyes.
Cronus couldn't quite shape its thoughts around it, but it knew that the cause was the blonde child.
So, it decided to have a little fun. After all, it's not a game if there's no fun for both parties…
Within the past three days in Tenna, the beast had been collecting Infusions. Finding each chaser in town, slaughtering them, and removing the pulsing mark of mana from their corpse.
It sent the bodies into a voidspace that just recalled them back into its original cave, leaving nothing left, not even blood.
It glances at its left claw, covered in what looks like pitch black ink from the forearm down, eyes blinking rapidly and darting around no matter where the beast went.
It was e̶̡̬͖̻͋r̸̛̙͎͚͛̈́̔r̴͔̙̓̾͗͝ǫ̶͈̈́r̴͓͕̅͒̈'s way of watching its progression. Cronus had no doubt that its dealer had also come to the same conclusion as it.
Cronus turns to an eye that was watching it from the corner of the cellar it resided in. A transmissional eye that was provided to the beast to keep tabs on who it believed was the root.
Looking into the eye, it sees the tavern, the kids hanging out within the dining hall, the others in their rooms, and the far back rooms past the kitchen, the storage and cellar.
It grinned as it honed in on one specific child there, the same boy with the golden blonde hair.
Hale.
One week, that was all the beast needed to not harm him at all, but the deal never said anything about the people around the boy.
The eye changes images to another, a boy with ash-like hair, lying in his bed and simply doing nothing within his room.
Fault.
From the past half a day, Cronus had come to the conclusion that Hale was closest with Fault and Kain out of anyone else within their building. He acted nice to everyone else, sure, but Cronus could tell…
Cronus could tell that Hale did see Fault as a sort of older brother, and of course the boy loved his grandfather.
It had jumped to that conclusion, but it would make good on it.
So, looking away from the transmission eye, the beast lie back within the grotesque den it had created within Tenna.
The cellar of a large, unknown home. Pieces of corpses and infusions lay scattered inside the cellar, soon to be given purpose by Cronus.
It hadn't bothered to eat them, though it was thinking about it. It was saving the best to begin. Devouring that boy after this week passes will serve as its catalyst.
A catalyst to evolve to a monster, its true form that it so craved all these centuries, and also a catalyst for the feasting upon of this large town.
Another human settlement to fall to it, after all…
…it hadn't earned the title of the Devourer for nothing.