Destroying My Own Novel

“Let’s go! Move!” Agnez said as she jumped from one platform to another since the ground was crumbling thanks to Gunnar.

Gunnar and the others followed Agnez from behind, even Asmond followed her. It made Enma look at him in disbelief because he just left his team behind even though one of his men was dying from the poison from the needle. Rozan stayed behind since he had to protect them from the invisible smoke with Mykel and Edith.

“Don’t show that kind of expression in front of them, Enma. You’re the vice leader now and you should fill the hole that Asmond can’t fill,” Mykel said as he stared at her. “You don’t want some rumors to go around in Fraternity, right?” Mykel continued, and then he looked at Rozan sitting on the ground and making sure the ground they were sitting on was safe.

Enma closed her eyes as she exhaled deeply and nodded her head.

Mykel walked toward the guy with his mouth foaming. He removed his right glove and put his hand on the guy’s chest. He healed the guy completely and it made everyone look at him in awe.

“Let’s just stay here because it’s dangerous out there,” Mykel said as he looked at them.

They all nodded their heads with understanding. They looked at Mykel and thought he would be better to be the one to lead them rather than follow Asmond.

Mykel grabbed something under his blazer, it was a throwing knife and then he offered it to Edith. Edith looked at it for quite a while and then she looked at Mykel with a puzzled look.

“Why don’t you join them? You have trained for months and I believe you should be fine if you go and become a part of the team since you have been observing them all this time,” Mykel said. “Don’t forget about the thing I said last night, find it and destroy it,”

Edith nodded her head as she took the knife from Mykel’s hand.

Enma looked at both of them with a surprised look because she had no idea that Edith could fight. She thought Edith was only Mykel’s assistant and couldn’t fight, but then she was mistaken when she saw Edith move so swiftly and pass the obstacles so easily.

“Oh, you finally let her go for some action?” Rozan asked as he watched Edith jump from tree to tree.

“We will see. If she met my expectation, then she will be joining you guys from now on,” Mykel said with his hands in his pocket. “I think she will be a good addition if I pair her with Nagy, Lillith, and Gerrard,”

“Yeah, true, I was thinking about it since she always spends her time with them,” Rozan said as he nodded in agreement.

Agnez and Lillith already immersed themselves in slaughtering the tribal people that they forgot about the task Mykel gave them. Jeanne on the other hand was looking for the totem around the temple on her own until Edith joined her.

“Miss Edith? Are you here to help?” Jeanne asked when she looked at Edith inside the temple.

“Yes, Mister Mykel said it’s time for me to join the team,” Edith answered as she looked around the narrow hallway. “Have you found the totem, Jeanne?”

“No, this temple is like a maze. I think it will take us a while to find it,” Jeanne looked at the dark hallway in front of her with only torches that light the way. “Also, there are traps here, so please be careful, Miss Edith,”

Edith nodded her head and followed Jeanne deeper into the temple.

“You’re not seeing any vision, Miss Edith? Maybe it will show you where the totem is,” Jeanne asked as she walked carefully in the dark with a torch in her left hand.

“No, and why don’t you use your sword to see if the spirit can guide you to where the totem is?” Edith asked back with her eyebrows raised.

“Oh, you’re right…” Jeanne replied as she covered her face in embarrassment.

Jeanne unsheathed her sword and put it behind the torch to reflect the light. The first thing they both saw was a flying head that flew toward them with its mouth wide open. They both were startled as the head flew past them and didn’t even bother with their presence at all.

Jeanne and Edith kept moving forward until they stumbled upon a man with broken arms and legs with his head open. The man tilted his head and glared at both of them as he floated in the hallway. The man kept glaring at them and decided to fly toward them.

“Show me where the totem is!” Jeanne shouted.

The man ignored Jeanne’s word, she then slashed the man in half and he disappeared. Jeanne encountered a few spirits after that, but she couldn’t get an answer from them.

“I’m not sure if this is going to help. All the spirits are hostile and don’t seem to want to cooperate,” Jeanne said and looked at the two paths in front of her.

“We should keep trying because we can’t find it on our own,” Edith replied.

“Yeah, I will keep trying,” Jeanne said as she took the right path. “Anyway, you need to stay close because I’m the only one who can kill these spirits. I don’t want you to get possessed by them,”

After half an hour of exploring the inside of the temple, they still couldn’t find the totem. They were stuck inside a maze and had no idea how to leave, they also encountered dozens of spirits that haunted the temple and none of them were any help to them.

“This is impossible and now we are lost in this maze,” Jeanne said as she took a different torch from the wall.

“We have been hugging the left wall, and it feels like we are going in a circle,” Edith said as she looked at the dark path they took. “I have been paying attention that the spirits came from behind this wall. Do you think there’s a secret room over here?”

“Secret room? Like the secret rooms that we have been in before?” Jeanne asked.

“It’s just a guess though. But, maybe there’s something behind this wall if we break it,” Edith answered as she rubbed the wall next to her.

“Let’s try it. We are out of options anyway,” Jeanne said as she stood next to Edith. “You can destroy it if you want, Miss Edith. I will protect you when something try to attack you,”

Edith clenched her right fist and punched the wall without hesitation. It crumbled, and as Jeanne expected, there were dozens of spirits that decided to come out of the hole. She pulled Edith back and started slashing the spirits and caught their souls into the sword.

“You’re a genius, Miss Edith,” Jeanne said with a smile.

“It’s just a lucky guess,” Edith replied while chuckling softly. “Let’s go and check what’s inside,” Edith continued as she stood behind Jeanne.

They entered the dark spacious room, and Jeanne pointed the torch and her sword forward. They were surprised when they saw black shadows flying around and blocking their visions of whatever lay behind those shadows.

“Stay close, Miss Edith,” Jeanne said as she tightly gripped her sword.

It took Jeanne a while to clear out the spirits, and Edith almost got possessed by one of them. The spirits were different from the others. Those were demon spirits and they were protecting the tomb in the middle of the room.

“That’s a tomb, right? Why it’s so small?” Edith asked as she stared at the square tomb made of stone.

“Well, let’s find out. Stay back, Miss Edith,” Jeanne said as she carefully walked toward the tomb.

Jeanne carefully pushed the top of the tomb, and immediately a pungent smell struck her nose. She covered her mouth and nose with her left forearm with her eyes squinted.

There was a body wrapped in brown cloth. The body was curled up, which was weird enough to look at. Jeanne carefully stabbed the cloth and ripped it open, and she was surprised when she saw a skinny man with his whole body eaten by maggots. His eyes and mouth were wide open, but then she saw the totem behind the man’s arms and knees.

“I found the totem! I will destroy it now!” Jeanne said as she kept covering her mouth.

Jeanne stabbed the totem and the man who was protecting it.

A cloud of black smoke came out of the totem and struck Jeanne’s face. She got thrown away and landed next to Edith. They both saw the black smoke fly away so fast with a faint scream that followed the smoke.

Agnez and the others were busy killing tribal people until suddenly they all screamed in agony. The smoke came out of their mouths, noses, and ears as if it was being sucked out, which made Agnez and the others look surprised.

All the tribal people collapsed and lost consciousness.

Mykel and the others were chilling in the forest when suddenly they heard a high-pitched scream from the sky. Everyone was startled and terrified when they heard it.

“One down, two more to go,” Mykel said.