The Demon’s Bride

Elise turned her eyes to look at the man who had just spout the suggestive words. Her eyebrows drawn together but she looked away. The men who saw her looking away begin to titters over each other, "Where you are going, lady. Perfectly you will be with us for another two or three days. It would be to your advantage if you become our friends." The man added an emphasis to the word friend where his tongue licks his lips as if he was enjoying an imagination that entertains him. 

Elise pulled her brows tighter. The man's hand had almost reached out to touch her shoulders when someone in her stead had swatted the hand of the man. The new guest then took the other man who had rudely threw a remark over her and rounded his hands on both men's neck while being in the middle. 

"Nae! Nae! Nae! Gentlemen the last thing you should do to a woman is to rudely degrade them. Women are like roses; you have to take care of them, pour your attention, and tree them with care unless you wish to be pricked by their thorns." Elise widened her eyes. It was Ernest Lone, the younger brother of Dalton Lone, she thought. When their eyes met the man offered a wink.

"What the fuc-" the other man cursed and he snapped his eyes over his friends, "You all get him!"

A fight easily broke between Ernest and the other men. Unlike the rest of the men, Ernest appeared to be used to the fight, allowing him to move nimbly and faster to avoid the men's punches and kicks. Elise also noticed how he had a smile during the fight as if enjoying the play when all of a sudden the men stopped on their feet.

Elise at first thought it was something that Ernest had done but then she noticed it wasn't so, from below she saw the root of trees climbing from the ground to wrap over the four men's legs, stopping them there.

"It's an embarrassment to become a candidate while indulging yourself in acts with violence," said the man who appeared from the side. He crossed his arms and his bright yellowish eyes glistered upon seeing the four men, holding disgust on their behavior. 

"What are you doing?!" One of the four men yelled, "Is this your friend? You are not playing fair by suddenly bringing another person in between!"

"Says the people who attacked a single person with his three other friends," Ernest said with a roll of his eyes. "Thank you...uhm do I know you?" asked Ernest to the man who appeared. 

Elise also bowed politely toward the two men, "Thank you for helping me."

"I wasn't helping anyone," answered the man while his gaze looked at Elise for a long moment before he turned away upon noticing an appearance of a church member as if trying not to be involved with the fight.

"Thank you, Mr. Ernest, for your help," Elise thanked the man and saw him wave his hand.

"No, no, you don't have to thank me, Lady Elise. I barely did anything. Instead, I should be the one to thank you. I heard that during the time in the forest a week ago that you and the Lord have taken care of me from the dangers. I wouldn't lie about how embarrassing I was to faint during such important times from the beginning until the end." 

Elise remembered Ian's words that he had erased Ernest's memories about the loop forest and ghouls which explain his statement. 

"Ian was the one who helped, you should thank him instead, I merely followed him," she answered, being humble and the man nodded with a smile.

"If I have a chance, without doubt, I will thank the Lord for I can still stand here due to his help."

"Certainly you should," came Dalton's voice beside Ernest. When the brothers stood together, it became much clearer to Elise how different the two appeared as they weren't related. "We met again, Lady Elise," his eyes then moved to look at the four men who were still struggling to get off the tree roots. Dalton raised his hand and with his eyes closed, he muttered something incoherent which Elise believe to be a spell. 

The roots that circled around the men's legs begin to unwind and Elise looked at what happened with surprise, "My brother is a sorcerer."

"Not close to the Lord but yes I am one," Dalton added with a gentle smile and Elise didn't expected that as on their few meetings she didn't see the man using magic. "Lady Elise if you wish we can disqualify this men from participating."

"No," Elise answered, showing the man a smile after she gave it some thought, "I don't mind."

"With all due respect, I think you should disqualify them, Lady Elise," Ernest said, a concern on his face was something Elise thought others need to study from him as most people were too immersed in their greed and what they could do rather than what they couldn't do.

"That's not necessary," when Elise denied the offer again, both Ernest and Dalton looked at each other and nodded. At time when all the candidates had appeared on the open field, large wagons arrived on the place. 

"Please enter to the wagon without disturbance. The wagon will bring everyone to their designation place," said one of the church member. Riding the wagon with the company of Ernest who appeared to be worried about her safety, Elise also noted the man who had helped her earlier. Now that she managed to see the man from his profile, she noticed his sharp pointy ears of an elf. The man turned his face and his sharp eyes met her when she offered the man a polite smile, he didn't reply and quickly turned his eyes away.

He appeared to be a person who love his personal space, thought Elise. The wagon begin to move and she was then taken to a place which she didn't know where it is. From the time taken which was very less than thirty minutes, Elise guessed that the village wasn't very far from the border of Warine and Runalia.

By the time the wagon stopped, Elise took a step forward, feeling a chill running on her skin which she pegged as coldness. She then looked behind where the people gathered, most people were vampires who adapt well with the situations, elves, a little number of humans, and perhaps a mix of werecats like Austin as she could see the bright golden eyes of the few people who appeared like human.

One thing was odd though. There were more people than before. Elise didn't know about how many people was admitted after the first test but she thought there would be lesser people than now. If she wasn't wrong, it should be less than a hundred people. 

Dalton was speaking with Ernest beside her and she can't help but ask, "Mr. Dalton, is this everyone who will be taking the test?"

"Oh yes, everyone is here. Anything wrong?" The man questioned.

"I was wondering if the number of the people increase than before," Elise said and the man showed a tight smile.

"No, you are not wrong, Lady Elise. After the last three large attacks in Runalia that caused death of many of our members, we needed more people to the Church which why we allowed the people who scored close to our acceptance mark," Dalton explained and he looked away that caused Elise to also shift her gaze to the other church member who was a vampire standing in the middle of the candidates.

The vampire said, "Good afternoon, gentlemen. We do not have time to waste nor the will to drag the speech. Therefore I will explain everything once and proceed to the questions if anyone of you have. This will be the place where the test will be taken," Elise looked around the place; it was a very small village, smaller compared to Saltige where there was only a handful of houses, almost like a branch of another village that she guessed might be the case. 

The man spoke again, "We have took a case of seventy years ago where someone had notoriously killed four people on the village before taking their own life. We will need you all to find the killer and the reason why he killed all those people. Everything had been set including the dummies that would act as the bodies of the people you killed and the rest of evidence are in this village. Your time is under seventy-two hours. You are dismissed."

"Yessir!" yelled the people in unison, except for Elise as she was taken by surprise with the men's quick salute. Everyone immediately dispersed as if they had been handed a hot potato as the first who find, the first serve. It might sounds easy from the explanation the man said earlier, but Elise doubted it was so.

"There are around two hundreds people here, it would get halved by the time the test finish," said Ernest who still stood beside her. "If you don't mind to go together with me."

"I don't mind," Elise answered she was wary from people but she could tell Ernest was not a dark sorcerer in disguise. While others were focused with the case, Elise didn't forget of the possibilities that dark sorcerers, corrupted angels, or relics could be head and she proceed with caution. "Let's enter the village," she said and Ernest agreed, walking toward the village, she wasn't aware of her shadows that zapped beneath her feet.

Not far away from her, a woman pulled her hood with fears on her eyes as she stared at the village, "I-If that is all. I will go now..."

One of the people who were around her grabbed her shoulders and she gulped. "No, no, you should come with us; it's thanks to your help that we could find the person we have been searching for after all. I will help you to get rid of that burning anger in your heart, lady. As a woman I know how jealousy work."

"When will we enter, milady?" asked a person behind them, his eyes were golden, but there was something strange with the bright golden color as the color was clouded with black and redness. "The corrupted angels wil..." the man whispered the rest of his words.

"No problem. We can take care of them. I want you to bring her to me." The woman shifted his gaze to her followers, "That power is what I want. Bring her to me and I want her alive." She pressed her last words on alive, pressing her tone to tell how important it was. The other men bowed before dispersing in the darkness but the people in the village still hadn't known of the storm that about to hit them.