There were more changes to Hadrian's appearance.
His hair lost it's health, becoming dry and straw-like, his face turned a pale beige color, and he seemed to be losing weight in real time.
He reached for his lips in horror feeling rough string under his fingers.
He had become something resembling yet different from a boogeyman.
"Lieutenant?" Hadrian asked, the desperation in his voice coming through clearly despite the stitches on his lip.
Sylace slowly shook his head, an indicator that he didn't know how to fix this.
"H-Hadrian? Are you there?" Gairon asked, his blade still ready to strike.
"I think s-"
Hadrian didn't have the time to finish his sentence as from the woods one of the creatures drawn to the commotion emerged, lunging towards him.
He shot his hand out, more due to reflexes than anything else.
The creature, a stony mix between a gargoyle and a wolf, stopped in it's tracks and began whimpering and biting at the air erratically.
Through one eye, Hadrian could see what the creature was seeing.
Hangings, the horrors of the sea, it's own death, thousands of equally shocking scenes flashed before it's eyes, paralysing it.
"An illusion..." The stunned Hadrian mumbled, looking down at his mummy like hands.
"What?" Gairon approached his partner wearily.
Hadrian took a deep breath and did his best to gather his thoughts, resting his back against a tree.
"I put it under an illusion."
Gairon and company looked at him with both confusion and concern.
Though the people of Zegrow and the seven nations were a very superstitious people, they had no concept of magic. Only the revenants and sanguinis could wield some degree of supernatural powers outside the fortress'. Humans could not do such things.
"You don't believe me? I wouldn't either if I wasn't actively experiencing it as I speak to you." He waved his hand as if he has done it a million times and stitches appeared on the lips of his comrades, they were gone almost as suddenly with another wave.
Sylace was the first to speak up.
"Jayson, write down exactly what I tell you:
"After killing a mystery, a boogeyman, Hadrian Charming seems to have not only taken on a different appearance but now possess' the creature's abilities. This is absolutely unprecedented!"
"That's not all." Hadrian added, raising his hand so all attention would be on him.
"I instinctively know what abilities I've gained and how to use them. Also, when I killed the Boogeyman, I had a vision. I saw a giant half-ruined palace with pillars that seemed to be able to hold up the sky. There was a platform in one of the upper floors with a glowing red orb in the middle."
It perfectly matched the description of where the Red Eye was found.
"Could you find it?" Sylace asked, feeling much more comfortable now due to Hadrian's evident rationality.
The half-man nodded slowly. "The Red Eye had an aura that could only be described as suffocating, I could probably find it using that."
"Can you feel it now? Which way is it?" Sylace's tone slowly began to rise, his mistake was beginning to turn into a miracle. His subordinates had gained a strange power wielded by no human before and they were much closer to their goal then before.
Hadrian pointed north-east. "Somewhere over there."
Sylace nodded. "Alright. We'll rest for now, you must be pretty shaken after everything that's happened today. Everyone relax, I'll go look for Elis and take first watch. Gairon, you're incharge of Hadrian's mental state. That shouldn't be too hard, seeing as you even managed to make the Faceless King crack a smile."
Gairon nodded solemnly and began tending to his brother in arms.
The vice-lieutenant handed Daemon a calling horn before disappearing deeper in the fortress.
He returned not long later to the sound of laughter.
Daemon had once again lit a fire around which the four men were sharing stories, Gairon the loudest and most passionate of them all. He made faces and grimaces that filled the air with a light joy.
[It's frightening how good at that he is.] Sylace internally commented before joining his brothers around the fire. He allowed himself to feel happy for a little before revealing the news that he could not find Elis.
Without their carrier, they would have to end the exploration early as they didn't have any food besides what Elis had brought with him.
The five remained silent, Hadrian raising a small grave in honor of the young explorer.
"In the name of the First, may your spirit be forever safe at his side. Peace be onto you and we pray that you remain far from the clutches of the cruel Lunae."
"Peace be onto you."
They gave a prayer and left the fortress. Luckily, they didn't encounter any incidents on their way out.
"I'd say that was a pretty successful exploration" Hadrian said, a slightly unsettling calm had replaced his earlier panic. He had forsaken his armor and now only wore his brown tunic and pants, giving him the aura of a strange hermit.
"You should tell Sylace about the powers you got." Gairon suggested with a smile, now more excited than scared at his friend's transformation.
Hadrian nodded. "Gairon and I did some experimenting while you were gone and found out I have more powers than a boogeyman, that or it was toying with us.
"I have invisibility, the ability to silence people, the ability to create illusions, the ability to alter memories, the ability to command strings and straw as well as an augmented body."
He threw out a ball of yarn and made it float in demonstration.
"That's excellent, his Majesty will be pleased to have such a powerful soldier at his disposal." Sylace said with a serious tone.
"I can't wait to get back! They're going to throw such a huge party for us. 'Gairon, Hero of Zegrow' I can already picture it!" Gairon ducked under a branch and began to rant as they traversed the dead forest, nothing dared to approach them with Hadrian around.
"Shouldn't you have a cool title?" Daemon asked his transformed friend.
"It wouldn't be unpleasant."
"How about... Stitch mouth guy?" Gairon suggested half-jokingly.
"Ridiculous, Patch-face is obviously better!" Daemon exclaimed.
"I-I think Illusionist sounds pretty cool." The soft spoken Jayson suggested.
Hadrian shook his head at all the suggestions. "What about you, lieutenant? Any ideas?"
Sylace remained quiet for a moment, as if in thought.
"If you want to strike fear and awe into people, I think you need to be honest about what you are. You can't be considered a man anymore but you aren't quite a horror yet."
"Then what do suggest?"
"What do you think of Straw-Man Hadrian?"