---What welcomed the team was a scene that was completely out of their expectations.
All this time, the team was expecting a lot noise from constructions, many people running everywhere in the cave doing stuff while being observed by their supervisors and getting stuff done.
What they saw instead were the rest of the Black Curtain Guild"s men floating in the air like they were ascending or something.
Those that the team dealt with earlier are only a fraction of their force, they didn"t pa.s.s the 100 number count from Luna"s estimations. They already guessed that the rest were here but they weren"t expecting them to be in this state.
It appears that everyone from their group was in a similar state. All of them floated in the air with their eyes closed and had faces that showed myriad expressions.
Some appeared to be in pain while the rest appeared to be in bliss.
"What the f.u.c.k?" Paul exclaimed as what he saw finally sank in to his mind, "What"s going on here?"
"No idea." Mark commented, "For some reason, they are all suspended in the air. I don"t know what caused them to end up like that, I can"t feel anything from them either. How about you guys?"
"I can"t feel anything either." Anne replied, "Nor see anything for that matter."
Ellen didn"t speak since she didn"t know what was going on either. Raven was a.n.a.lyzing the scene before them when he noticed that Luna was acting rather strange.
She was absorbed in thought, so much so that she didn"t even notice that Raven was already waving his hands on her face and calling her out, trying to wake her up from her stupor. She only came back to reality when she felt someone shook her body, causing her consciousness to return to reality.
"Luna! What"s wrong!?"
"H-huh?" She replied, stuttering as she felt confused for a second. "Oh! Sorry about that, I didn"t know I became so engrossed on my thoughts."
Raven frowned and asked: "Can you feel anything from this?"
Luna wrinkled her brows and tried thinking, she replied by saying: "Barely. I can feel something in them, but it"s so faint that I can"t quite make it out."
Raven"s face became stern, he was about to say something when Luna added: "Strange. It feels…familiar? I don"t get it. I"m pretty sure I"ve never encountered anything like this before, but why do I get some sort of a familiarity with it? What"s going on here, Avi?"
Hearing that made Raven a bit surprised. He thought for a second and said: "I"m not sure. So far, only you could feel something from these people. Even I don"t know what"s going on. Why don"t we investigate first? Let"s see if we could find something else before making a.s.sumptions."
The team agreed with his plan and together, they resumed walking deeper into the cave while maintaining a close distance with each other. Raven made sure to remind them about alertness, no one had any idea when these people are going to wake up, and just in case they did, the team had to be alert.
As they got deeper into the cave, the more people they saw suspended in the air whilst unconscious. There is only one path inside the cave for them to follow which made their navigation easy.
Along the way, Luna would sometimes inform them that she could feel some wisps of energy distracting her. Whenever Raven consulted her about what that energy felt like to her, she could only reply that it was familiar and that it doesn"t have any malicious intent.
What"s even more stranger is that, Luna felt like this wisps of energies are telling them were to go even though there"s only one path available inside the cave.
Raven felt a little bit of apprehension. He didn"t understand why it was only Luna who could feel this "wisps of energies", he tried using everything in his a.r.s.enal just so that he could capture even the faintest feel of what Luna could feel but nothing worked. In the end, he could only suggest moving forward and remain on guard for an unexpected development.
Out of nowhere, Raven felt Luna froze. Nervousness crept up to his heart and when he tried to ask her what"s going on, she suddenly yelled: "Incoming!!!"
*Boom!*
An intense explosion nearly caught them off guard. Thank goodness that Paul was swift to react and immediately leapt up in front of the team to receive the blow. When the dust cloud settled down, everyone regained their vision and finally saw what happened.
They saw Paul almost kneeling on the ground while his s.h.i.+eld was raised. His face was pale, blood trickled down at the corners of his lips but he maintained his position.
Sounds of metals clas.h.i.+ng echoed inside the cave, when they looked at what hit Paul, they saw a nasty and bony scythe rebounding back from where it came from. Ellen immediately went beside Paul and glared at every direction, yelling:
"Who the h.e.l.l was that!? Show yourself!"
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
Instead of a reply, tapping sounds was app they heard. Every single one gripped their weapons tightly and stepped closer to each other.
"Well, well."
A chilling voice, obviously not coming from anyone in the team, echoed inside the cave walls. The tapping sounds came closer and everyone looked over towards where the sound was coming from.
"What do we have here? It looks like some lambs scampered away from the herd."
That voice became even more frightening as it came close. It sounded like two voices merged into one, a female and a male. It sounded so eerie and creepy, even a battle hardened warrior would get gooseb.u.mps just from listening to this.
When the tapping sound stopped, Raven and the team finally caught saw the one who threw the scythe at them.
This person was a female dressed in a male"s attire. Her clothes resembled an old traditional robes that only Royalties of the past wore. The robes were black in color but were surrounded by a curtain of red light. She was wearing a skull mask which covered most of her facial features except from her blood red eyes, her pale cheeks and her black lips.
She grasped a nine foot, nine inches long scythe which appeared to be made out of human bones. Some bones on the handle looked like it came from one"s limbs and it"s core, there appears to be a long spinal bone. There is a skull ornament placed where the blade of the scythe starts, from an angle it looked like the blade was coming off of the jaws of the skull. The blade was about four to five foot long, it was curved almost resembling a crescent moon. It shone with a fearsome glint as it reflected the faces of the team.
"Ah!" She uttered in that eerie voice once more, "Where are my manners?"
In front of the tensed team, she performed a curt bow and said: "My name is Lucy. The Right Hand Man-well, Woman I suppose, of the Black Curtain Guild"s Master."
The woman who introduced herself as Lucy got up from her bow and smiled at the team. At normal times, her smile would appear as a lovely sign, a welcoming gift for anyone who gazes at it. But with her holding that nasty scythe and tracing it"s blade using her fingers, this smile caused anyone to feel s.h.i.+vers on their spine.
"I suppose you feisty little lambs are not in the mood for introductions, hmm?" Lucy asked as she twirled her scythe like some baton.
Raven could feel the fearsome killing intent surrounding this woman. She was bad news, though he was already expecting such from someone whom the guild kept as a secret for a very long time.
"Not up for conversations either, hmm?" Lucy added as a chilling smile appeared on her lips yet again.
"It seems that you, people of the Black Curtain Guild, are getting rather bold nowadays." Ellen spoke as her brilliant vermilion fire illuminated the dark cave. A pulsing wings of fire sprouted on her back as she stared unflinchingly at Lucy. "Speak, you cross-dressing witch. What is your purpose for coming this close to our home?"
Lucy gasped at Ellen"s words. "My! What a foul-mouthed lamb you are! Cross-dressing Witch you say? You know nothing about fas.h.i.+on dear! You"re just envious that my bust is bigger than yours, hohohoho."
The team nearly lost it upon hearing that, they certainly weren"t expecting her to return the blow in that manner. Ellen was fuming, not because this woman insulted her modest bust but because she wasn"t taking them seriously. Her flames raged even further, making the temperature inside the cave rise up by a couple of notches.
Though the team was used to her spouting flames like this, it doesn"t mean that they"re not affected by the heat she was producing. If it weren"t for Raven placing a hand on her shoulders, she would"ve raised the temperature even further.
"I would advise you to take us seriously Lady Lucy, if that"s even your real name."
After saying this, Raven raised his hand and ripped out a piece of s.p.a.ce surrounding them. With a forceful tug, it appears that he broke some sort of an isolation s.p.a.ce surrounding them which caused Lucy"s expression to change.