The six scouts marched into the city; they had their orders.
Witches were going into a forest near the city of Cagile, and they weren't coming out.
"You think it's a demon?" Apple asked as they marched to the entrance.
"If it were, demon hunters would have gotten it by now, I think it's wild witches," the captain responded.
"They could have been transported somewhere," Artichoke mused.
"No one knows," Lettuce commented.
"And that's why we're here!" Grape said, "Let's scare them out," she said proudly.
As they walked up to the main gate of the city, the captain quickly noticed something.
There were witches who were working on some kind of house right outside the gate.
"Aren't those a few of the witches we're looking for?" the captain asked pointing at the working witches.
"Yes captain," Lettuce replied looking at the working witches.
"Hey!" Apple called out to the witches, "Aren't you supposed to be missing?" they asked.
"Missing?" a girl on the left replied, "No, we have been found," she replied slamming a hammer into a piece of wood, though Axel couldn't see a nail.
'Isn't there magic for that?'
"Menti is here!" a boy said happily, "That one crystal ball star! Don't you remember?" he asked.
"Who?" Apple responded.
"Don't make me cry," a voice said walking over, "Of course you remember me, you remember the peace you felt when times got hard? The days you got a lucky break? Those times where bad things happened to those you didn't like? Then you remember me," the voice said.
The group turned to the voice, and they remembered. Oh, they remembered.
They remembered the friend that was always there for them on the crystal ball, the friend that was always there when times get rough.
Even Axel remembered watching the demon on the family room crystal ball.
He was a large demon with big arms and fluffy white fir covering his body. Two beady eyes poked out from under the fur, and his mouth was covered in by the fir. Every time the demon spoke the fir around his face shook slightly.
"Of course we remember you!" Apple said quickly.
"Yeah! That action hero, what are you doing here?" Grape asked looking at Menti.
"Well, I was hoping to build up some nice place, that's when these witches came by and offered to help," Menti explained.
"You need some extra help?" the captain said, "I can offer my scouts to help," he offered.
"Why I would be most grateful," Minti said with a wide smile, "But I don't want to inconvenience you from what you were doing, what is the Emperor's Coven doing here?" he then asked.
"Nothing!" Apple blurted out, "We were looking for wild witches, and we stumbled into you, and so we would be glad to help you," they told Minti.
"I thank you very much," Minti thanked, now the first thing that I need you to do is help build the main compound," he explained.
As so they did, abandoning their jobs to help their good friend Minti.
There were other witches who passed out from working, but the scouts worked harder due to their harder jobs.
And of course, the witch's payment was getting to help the amazing Minti.
Axel was having the hardest time out of the scouts, being the weakest physically. But every time he thought about giving up, he remembered watching Minti on the family crystal ball.
He remembered snuggling up to his mom and dad as they watched the Minti do his thing, before switching to the TV?
No that doesn't make sense, why would he switch from the crystal ball to the TV?
He then remembered that he never watched anything else other than Minti.
Still, that doesn't make sense, why would a human be watching demon realm entertainment, how would he get a crystal ball in the first place?
Axel put his hand on his head.
'What is happening?'
He remembered.
'Who is Minti?'
He remembered.
'These aren't my memories!'
Axel realized that his best friend Minti might not be who he remembers him as.
Looking around Axel noticed that it was already night, he wasn't sure how much time passed, but he knew it was still the same day due to him not going to sleep yet.
He also noticed that he couldn't see the other scouts, he was surrounded by other working witches that he didn't know.
All of them with a smile on their faces.
Axel realized that Minti had gone into the heads of everyone here and added a few memories.
There was nothing more than Axel wanted to do was go up to this Minti and set him on fire for putting false memories in his head, but he couldn't.
Witches who would gladly die for Minti's sake were everywhere. Axel wasn't too sure he could win in a fight with all of his glyphs, however Minti would absolutely use the witches he had under his command to fight, turning Axel's slight chance of winning to nothing.
He needed to undo whatever spell Minti had placed on the witches and get a few of those witches to help fight Minti.
"Do you know where some food might be?" Axel asked another witch.
"That would be at the tallest building," the witch responded pointing their tool at the building, "It was something that Minti wanted very badly, isn't he nice?" the witch said.
"Totally," Axel said before leaving to where the food was.
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The cafeteria was a large wooden building that stretched higher than all the others. Mostly because the other buildings were still being built.
Walking into the cafeteria, Axel saw a large pot that Minti,
Of course, Minti was manning the cafeteria, he was the kindest and nicest that Axel had ever known!
'Dang it!'
Axel slightly winced and looked away; it looked like getting food wasn't something that was happening anytime soon.
Looking at the wooden tables that didn't look like they could hold five people, Axel saw Apple sitting down alone. Without any food.
"Tired?" Axel said sitting in front of Apple.
"You know it," Apple replied.
"Why don't you have any food?" Axel asked while staring at Apple.
"Why don't you?" Apple asked in return.
"I'm hoping for the same reason as you," Axel replied.
"So, you know it too," Apple said, going into a whisper.
"Yeah, what is up with-"
"There's nothing there," Apple interrupted, "No one is serving food, no one is doing anything," Apple whispered.
"What?" Axel whispered back.
"If there was someone doing something, they could get into your head, but someone can't because nothing is there," Apple explained.
'I get it'
"Ok then, how are we going to deal with nothing?" Axel then asked.
"Meet me at the back of the sleeping quarter," Apple said getting up.
"Where is that?" Axel asked.
"We'll find out when they take us there," Apple replied.
————————————————————————
Not too long after Axle left the cafeteria, some of the witches began heading to one of the few completed buildings.
As the other witches went to bed, Axel went around to the back and saw Apple there waiting for him.
"Ok so what is happening," Axel asked walking up to Apple, "I know that Mi-"
"Nothing is there," Apple corrected.
"Yes, nothing is putting memories in our head when we refer nothing, but why?" Axel asked.
"This isn't what's happening, but there is a demon who can put memories in witches' heads if you acknowledge its existence," Apple explained.
"And would this demons grip on memories loosen if they're knocked out in some way?" Axel asked.
"Yes, when knocked out its magic gets cut, and the witches entangled can remember the truth, along with forgetting what happened," Apple explained, "As well, a witch can shake off the memories if they notice a flaw in the memories," they continued to explain.
"But it's hard to do that considering that you can't acknowledge it," Axel pointed out.
"Yeah, that's the problem," Apple responded, "Luckly they can't cast magic like witches," they then said.
"If you don't mind me asking, what was, hold on," Axel began to say before stopping himself, "If you were caught up by the demon, what would be the flaw you noticed?" Axel asked.
He hoped that Apple understood what he was saying, it was very annoying to ask things in a roundabout fashion.
'At least I don't have to change how I think'
"If I were to get caught up by the demon," Apple began to say, "It wouldn't work due to me already knowing how its odd magic works," they said.
"Interesting, and how do you know about them?" Axel then asked.
"The Emperor tried to capture them due to their danger, didn't go well though," Apple answered.
"Guess they're pretty rare," Axel murmured.
"Not really, there's plenty of them. Problem is the smarter ones are never caught; good news is if a witch found one and could talk about it, the demon would be pretty stupid," Apple said.
"I'll trust you on that," Axel replied.
"How about you?" Apple asked, "How would you escape from the false memories?" they continued.
"In a, personal way," Axel hesitantly said.
"If you have your own way, it could be used to help others that are under the demons spell," Apple pointed out.
"I live an anormal life, the demon would get somethings wrong," Axel then explained.
'Well, anormal to witches'
"I see," Apple murmured.
"Let's sleep, and tomorrow come up with a plan," Axel said.
'As long as I don't say why there's a plan, I should be safe'
"Or we act now!" Apple said in a loud tone.
"Keep your voice down!" Axel reminded, "We've been working all day, if we need sleep to act rationally," he said.
"Fine," Apple said, "Goodnight," they said.
"Goodnight," Axel replied.