'I was right!' Dhein cried internally. This was one of the few times he lamented his correct assumption.
The monster roared, the guards cowered under its terrifying lethality. No one was prepared to face it.
Dhein was totally expecting them to fight it, too!
'I'm dead... I'm actually going to die here.'
When the monster got on all fours and sprinted towards him at full speed, Dhein wasn't able to move. All of the muscles in his body froze and he braced himself for the intensely painful death.
And then suddenly, the monster skidded to a stop, tearing the once-elegant red carpet. It seemed to have flinched in fear after it sensed something no one else in the room did.
It instinctively pulled its head away from Dhein, as though getting any closer would mean inevitable death. It scrambled for a bit on the floor before taking off out of the castle like a scared dog.
'What the fuck was that?!'
He might have been imagining it, but it seemed to him that the monster got scared of his... thigh.
No, that's not it. It was looking at his right thigh when it trembled in fear, but what it was afraid of was the thing inside his pocket.
"Soldiers! After it!" the king commanded. His troops began operating like synchronized machines, cornering the monster.
Out of curiosity, Dhein walked outside to see how it would unfold. He wished he didn't.
The monster couldn't be held down by the king's foot soldiers. Before they could even get in range to stab it with the spear, they had already been slashed by the monster's deadly claws.
Several soldiers lay lifeless on the ground. Pieces of broken armor and shield scattered everywhere.
There was something about the human spirit that prevented the soldiers from backing down. Despite the gruesome deaths their comrades had met, more soldiers charged against the abomination.
Eventually, they were able to wound one of its lengthy limbs. Following up with a sword slash, the soldiers managed to sever that arm, getting rid of one of the monster's weapons.
'Yes! Go and beat it up!' he thought, delighted with the turn of the tides.
As a reaction, the monster thrashed around even more violently. The soldiers made a mistake with their formation, causing them their lives.
'Oh no...'
The crowd panicked. Each of them tried to run away from the scene as fast as they could.
Amidst the retreating crowd, one figure was walking the opposite way. Instead of running away, this person approached the monstrosity.
"That's Shadowblade!" one spectator exclaimed, pointing at the adventurer covered in dark cloak and a hood. The adventurer's face was covered with a mask.
Shadowblade accelerated towards the monster without any fear. Moving skillfully, the mysterious assassin dodged every strike while delivering precise attacks of their own.
While the assassin was fighting, Dhein couldn't help but notice:
The way they moved was sort of familiar. Like he had seen this combinations before.
Shadowblade used all of the weapons in their arsenal. The retracting blades, the throwing daggers, the crossbow and even the flamethrower from the mouth of their mask.
After a grueling battle, Shadowblade emerged victorious.
The assassin gazed in Dhein's direction, staring at him for a moment. And then, Shadowblade took off from the scene.
Not paying it any more mind, Dhein shifted his attention to the artifact inside his pocket. He pulled out the leather purse and then observed it. Why did the monster act as if there was a hidden danger inside this thing?
Curious, Dhein opened the purse for the first time. His heart almost stopped beating.
What he saw was perhaps the creepiest thing he'd ever seen in his life. A crimson eyeball looked at him from within the darkness of the artifact. There was something malicious about the way the eye looked at him that he couldn't explain.
And then suddenly, the eye vanished. No. It turned into something else. Dark smoke.
Dhein froze as the dark smoke suddenly rose up in the air. And then, it flew inside the castle, somewhere Dhein's eyes could no longer follow.
'What in the hell... was that...'
A sickening feeling was rising in Dhein's stomach. He might have created a new problem...
***
"Lady Wixorn! A monster has appeared inside the castle!" a guard warned after barging into the queen's chamber.
"Lord Dheinyrus is here, so there's no need to worry," she replied with a calm tone.
She didn't have the energy to worry about something like that at the moment, especially after discovering something far more terrifying.
'The queen is... possessed.'
After consulting the spirit of wisdom, Fiorelle found out that the queen was showing signs of possession. If it were a normal rogue soul possessing the queen, Fiorelle would have no problems using the great spirits of reason and fear to cast away the soul from the queen's body.
But no. What had entered her body was a god.
Something Fiorelle couldn't hope to control.
The god was desperately trying to replace her soul in order to completely take over, and the queen had been tirelessly fighting all this time. Fiorelle was no expert in this subject, but from what she knew, the only gods that found themselves trying to steal a human's body were the ones banished from the heavens and had nowhere to go. These gods had been on the losing side in the Great Celestial War.
'Why did this god choose Queen Garvill of all people?'
Using the spirit of peace, Fiorelle had been doing her best to relieve the queen of her anguish. She had been in this battle of attrition against a literal god without anyone knowing.
'Don't worry. I'm here now. I will definitely save you!' Fiorelle declared in her mind.
Maybe this was one reason why Dhein asked her to come to the Selense Kingdom.
But even though she thought that, she wasn't confident in her abilities on saving the queen at all. She had explored her options, everything she could use to cast this god away, but as expected, fighting a god was still too much of a challenge for her.
The only solution that she could think of to this problem was the Soul Liberator. It was an ancient spirit that forcefully separated two souls fighting for one vessel.
With the queen being the original owner of the vessel, the Soul Liberator would banish the god out.
'If only I knew where to find it...'
It had been a thousand years since this Soul Liberator was seen. It was said that it had taken the form of an all-seeing eye. Since it was an ancient spirit manifested physically, it could only hide itself in magical artifacts. But once it sensed two battling souls nearby, it would carry on its purpose once again.
Bullets of cold sweat rolled on Fiorelle's forehead. She could feel the pain and exhaustion the queen had been enduring all this time. With the two of them joining forces, the evil god seemed to grow irritated. It suddenly shifted its attention to Fiorelle. Using its supernatural powers, it pushed Fiorelle away, separating her with the queen.
Her back hit the wooden drawers in the queen's room. As she was getting up, she didn't see the black smoke that entered the queen's heart.