บท 44: The Star-Spangled Boy with a Plan, Part 2

"I believe I may have a theory on this as well, mistress," Zen piped up.

The yeti in his too-small blue cloak had made his way to the lip of the passage alongside Liara and was now coming to my defense in the nick of time.

"If a 'royal' is truly involved in this quest then we now know why so many residents of Kells Falls have succumbed too quickly to the miasma encroaching on the land," he deduced.

"What do you mean?" Liara asked.

Zen hefted his staff over his broad shoulder. "While the curse born from this grove of maenads corrupts the residents of Kells Falls, the emotions born from the town's rising crime rate also feed the prime maenad's power in turn, which must be how it has evolved quickly into a queen-variant strong enough to even bamboozle the previous raid suppression force that had conquered this floor from discovering their existence."

"The so-called wheel of sin," I muttered.