章 8: Miasma

Melissa was on her horse, sitting highly and watching Glenn being tied to a pole in the middle of the town square. A crowd had already formed around them with knights to cordon the people from entering.

"Everyone!" Melissa yelled. "This is going to be a fated day for us because we will show you why it's not a good idea to trust these Adventurers."

Glenn's eyes widened. It was a common knowledge in the game that the NPCs respected the Adventurers because they are sent from the heavens. But what was happening here and the events prior to this was saying two different things.

"No!" Cecil yelled from the crowd. "He didn't do anything wrong."

"It's okay," Glenn said to Cecil and smiled. "I'm fine, child."

"Now you show emotions?!" Melissa yelled. "After you poisoned a lot of people by running your Iron Blue Bug in the creek where the people get their water, now you show emotions?"

"It's a common knowledge that Iron Blue Bugs are poisonous!" a merchant yelled. This confused the Adventurers nearby because they were told that the meat of the beast was edible.

"But that's not what they told us!" one Adventurer tried to rebel, but Melissa narrowed her eyes at him and made the knights drag him forward.

"Who said such foul words?" Melissa growled.

"The vendor from the market," the Adventurer said. "They said it was sweet and savory, but spicy at the same time."

"Such blatant lie!" Melissa gasp. "This is unacceptable. Point this vendor and we shall punish them."

The Adventurer surveyed the crowd before pointing at a man from nearby. "It was you! You were the one who said that the meat is edible."

Melissa then walked over to the vendor. "Do you deny the said allegations?"

The Adventurer shook his head. "I'm telling you the truth. He's really–"

"Silence!" Melissa growled. "Only speak when you are spoken to, now merchant. Did you or do you not deny the said allegations?"

"I deny whatever it is that was blamed against me," the merchant said with a straight face.

"I can testify to this," anothe vendor said, and so did two more vendors.

"Well, we have four who are denying the allegations," Melissa pointed out. "And how many are you who claims that the vendors did indeed sabotaged this?"

The Adventurer raise his hand, but only two more of them raised their hands. This made Melissa chuckle. "But only less for you? How unfortunate."

"My friends are dead," the Adventurer said. "I couldn't save them from the poison."

"Well, then let's make this fun, shall we?" Melissa laughed and nodded at the knights. "You can see your friends soon. Don't worry."

The Adventurer who tried to defend Glenn was dragged and was tied to another pole beside Glenn's. Melissa stepped off of her horse and grinned as she walked past them.

"To hurt the citizens, is to hurt the kingdom itself," Melissa spoke. "The heavens apparently sent Adventurers to aid us in times of trouble, but these people are only money driven beasts. They will trick you, make you think something, steal something from you. These so-called heroes are nothing but frauds!"

"Get rid of those frauds!"

"Liars! Nothing but liars!"

"Kill them all. Just kill them all!"

…

As Glenn heard all of these people, he felt that something was odd. They were acting like this because it seems like they didn't want it, but are controlled to do so.

He wanted to investigate more, but there is only very little time left for them. He had to finish this quick or else every Adventurer in Galaron except for him and John would perish.

"We have lost a great deal of us because of your lies," Glenn whispered, catching Melissa's attention.

She leaned closer to Glenn and narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"Why do you do this?" Glenn asked. "You killed Adventurers. You killed us by telling us the poison was edible, but for what? Melissa, what is your motive?"

"Because the heavens does not wish for our help," Melissa said. "We did not wished to be aided, we wish for us to be free from all these mess in the world."

"The darkness has gotten in to you, hasn't it?" Glenn asked softly. "So, that's why."

Melissa tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean–"

"John, free me," Glenn said out of the blue and immediately, John appeared behind him. "I know what to do now."

"I also thought about this earlier," John said. "I just think that they were all acting differently, but never would've thought that it would get this worse."

Melissa growled and brandished her sword. She tried to attack the two, but they ran away from her.

"Knights!" Melissa yelled. "Get them!"

The knights broke the cordon and chased after Glenn and John. The town square immediately looked like it was from a scene in a zombie apocalypse that Glenn watched in movies.

"That's because everyone in here started at the same time," Glenn pointed out to John as they ran from the knights. "Map quest, the parasite. The parasite would leak out small amounts of dark miasma that would create dark thoughts of anyone who inhaled a large amount of it."

"And?" John asked as he cut the chains that Glenn was tied by. "What does that have to do with anything? Glenn, these people looked like zombies!"

"Think about how many Adventurers are in this town," Glenn said. "How many grandmothers are asking for help and only how many among those grandmothers were helped. The number of parasites had increased to the point that the miasma had became so dense."

"Wow," John formed an O with his mouth. "You are amazing. But how can we clean this mess up when it got this far?"

"Cover me," Glenn said. He leaped away and ran to the bell tower. The crowd did not split up in his presence. Instead, the normal people that were affected by miasma growled at him.

"Oh, this is not good," Glenn said to himself. The people ran towards him, causing him to avoid every single one of them. Their movements were slow and sloppy, so it wasn't hard for him to dodge."

"Bell tower," Glenn said. "Bell tower, bell tower."

As fast as he could, he ran towards the bell tower which was the highest peak in the town and climbed above it. "Tree of Life!"

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