?


    "Why are we doing this?" In utter disbelief that he was coerced into taking the Lamia''s deal, Haruki sat in the wagon with the Lamia''s tail crushing them all against the wooden walls.


    "Because we want that poison vial," Fay responded.


    Squeezing in with themia queen, Medusa, they were traveling to the hidden vige deeper into the forest. Upon following the riverbed along the woods, they reached an elevated hill with water fervently gushing down. Getting everyone out of the wagon, Medusa dipped her tail in the water and began moving towards the waterfall.


    "Follow me," she urged, ncing around at the demons apanying her.


    Although reluctant about the whole thing still, Haruki took charge and led his group behind themia. However, just in case she decided to pull something sneaky, he created a handful of spears that marched around him with the help of shadow hands.


    "Remember if you''re lying and this is an ambush, then I''m gonna kill you," giving her onest warning, Haruki saw her nervously looking at him from the very edge of her eye.


    "I know," she said, her throat patched from angst.


    Continuing down the path, they reached right under the waterfall, but even then as Medusa didn''t stop everyone kept following her into the downpouring water. Passing through it, they reached an empty expanse of darkness. However, while walking even deeper, they noticed red eyes blinking all around them, and the sounds of slithery hisses shing against the walls.


    "Snakes?" Asuka muttered, her eyes scanning through their surroundings.


    "They''re the guardians of our vige, but…" Looking at the countless carcasses of beheaded snakesying around all over, Medusa couldn''t bring herself to finish that sentence.


    ''The mongoose men got them.'' Despite that, it wasn''t hard for Haruki and the rest to figure out exactly what had happened.


    After following Medusa for a while longer, they all came to an expansive opening with shards of crystals glistening all over the walls. Shooting his gaze forward, Haruki noticed a cluster of y houses at a distance with one particrly tall building standing in its middle. Getting even closer, Medusa was shaken by the bloodied sight of numerousmiasying dead all around their vige. Yet, steeling her heart, she pushed forward and led Haruki and hispanions directly into the queen''s decorated abode.


    ''I''ll have to ask what happened here in case she does end up joining us or before letting her go.'' Walking into the tall building, Haruki notices a maze of passages burrowing into the ground. Taking them through one of them, Medusa brought them to an elevated tform with a council of stairs forming a pyramid. At the very top of the structure was a toppled gold chalice with blood-red liquid dripping down one drop after the other.


    "No!" Screamed Medusa at the sight of the drained poison.


    Climbing up the steps, she grabbed onto the chalice and peered into it as if hunting for a drop. To her misfortune, however, they had already witnessed thest drop from it dripping onto the ground.


    "They didn''t…" Her eyes wide open, she kept ring at the vial as if that would change something. "Those bastards, they ruined our heritage! How am I going to face my people in death now?!"


    Having no clue what was going on with themia, Haruki had had enough of her screaming. Directing his finger towards her, he made one of the shadow hands hurl one of the spears right by her tail to get her attention. Flinching at the spear smashing into the stairs, Medusa slipped to the other side of the pyramid by the instinct of preservation.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "This is a waste of time, Riley," Haruki said, readying the rest of the spears to be unleashed as well.


    "Please wait, I wasn''t lying! They must''ve plundered all the other artifacts as well!" Desperately trying to save her life, Medusa begged with hands joined together. "I''ll do anything please!"


    Having lost her people, she had no worth left in her life, however, being a coward who ran away during the attack, she didn''t want to submit herself to the same fate as her people just yet.


    "I have enough trouble haunting me everywhere, so letting you go would be too much of a risk," backed into a corner by his own choices, Haruki had to decide between killing her off or adding her to the collection of monsters back in the minotaur dungeon.


    "Master, we can use her, right? There must be some way," stepping in front of the spiraling spears, Riley still tried to defend themia queen.


    Given the state of her vige, Haruki had already deduced how trustable she could be, so adding her to his list ofpanions was a gamble he wasn''t too sure to take on.


    Noticing the unfazed look in Haruki''s eyes, Asuka moved beside him and took hold of his arm before hugging it tightly.


    "Master, please? I don''t want anyone if we don''t really need to," conflicted between his demonic side and his twopanions requesting him to stop, he lowered the spears just to think about the matter.


    ''I know I said we can''t do mindless killing, but…'' Wondering if the softness budding in their hearts was his fault, Haruki huffed out a sight and gave in.


    "Bring her to the camp. I''ll convert her into a demon so she can''t cross us even if she tried," turning around, he nced between Margarette, Moriyana, and the demi-cats to have them follow him out of the building. "Asuka, Riley, you two have her confess what happened here beforeing out, and if she appears to be lying, I want you to kill her yourself."


    Knowing full well about Haruki''s lie-detecting ability he''d gotten from Serena, both of them knew better than to try and cover for the Lamia if she attempted to tell them a lie.


    "Of course," Riley muttered while watching the rest of their group heading out from the chamber.


    ''This became a bigger mess than I wanted.'' At first, she only helped themia to escape from the voice yelling murder down the nape of her neck, but now as everything stood, she had to take total responsibility for themia in case she tried even to lift a finger against Haruki and herpanions.


    "Alright, then," reaching for her de, she turned to Medusa. "Master can always heal you, so you better tell me the truth or I have no qualms skinning that tanned red scales of yours."


    Staring at Riley from behind the pyramid, Medusa could see it in her eyes, a cold dead look, unlike anything Riley had shown so far.


    ''She''s not bluffing?'' And thankfully, Medusa realized that sooner thanter.