Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 78: (Zoe) Unseen Enemy

Zoe felt numb. She felt detached from the world. Famina was crying out, looking at the corpses inside the hut with shock, but to Zoe it seemed like her cries came from far, far away.

Apocalypse

Zoltran

It all reminded her of that dream. The corpses inside this hut had been brutalized, cut and splayed across the huts, and so disfigured that it was impossible to tell even the gender of the people who lay dead. Not just that, Zoe couldn’t even determine how many corpses there were within that hut.

It was Famina who hastily closed the door, unable to bear the sight any longer. This time she did puke, her chest and back heaving as she vomited behind the hut.

"What the fuck happened here?" She said, looking up with tears in her eyes.

"I don’t know." Zoe said, still in a state of shellshock.

Almost mechanically, she moved to the next hut, and opened the door. The same sight greeted her. A bunch of corpses brutalized. She closed the door, and looked up and down the street. There were around thirty huts in the village, but there was no need to check any more of them. Zoe was sure she would find the same sight in those huts as well.

"AD." She said raising up her Spear.

"Yes, Champion?"

"Do you have any information about what could have happened here?"

There was a slight whirring from inside the Spear, which Zoe had come to learn meant that AD was searching through public databases for her answer. Eventually the whirring stopped.

"There are several records of monsters, as well as other humans, killing humans as brutally as this. However none of them seem relevant to this particular time period or this particular region."

"What is the closest?"

"Apologies, I didn’t understand?"

"What is the closest human or monster who could have done this, either in time period or in location?"

"In terms of time period, as per my records, there are no current human groups in the nearest thousand miles who would do this. The closest here are the remote tribes of the Northern Mountains.

In terms of location, about five hundred years ago, there was an infamous local warlord who lived close to this region. According to several sources, this warlord was a secessionist who fought against the Crown, and those same sources also classify him as a cannibal who brutalized the local populace. This is why his movement never got much popular support."

Zoe felt even more nauseous after hearing this. She knew that humans, even back on her home planet, were capable of deplorable actions it still shocked her to the core how far some people were willing to sink.

"What...what about monsters?" She stuttered out, hopefully to change the subject but also because the human angle wasn’t really promising. Whoever was responsible for this, Zoe was sure it wasn’t some remote mountainous tribe or a dead warlord.

"There are several monsters who are capable of such brutality, but most monsters eat their victims, which doesn’t seem to be the case here. In that case the suitable candidates drop considerably.

In terms of time period, the closest per my records are wildebrests. Wildebrests don’t have an apetite as such, but they are still responsible for killing a lot of other animals as well as humans just because they can. However Wildebrests are found closer to the Capital.

In terms of location, the closest are mermaids. However mermaids are widely thought to have been extinct."

"Wait what, did you say mermaids?" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Affirmative."

Zoe looked slack-jawed at the Spear for a moment. She had never thought that mermaids would exist in a world like this, but evidently they did. Or they had.

"And what do these mermaids look like?"

"Mermaids used to take on the appearance of the top half of a human woman, and the bottom half of a fish."

So just like they were depicted back home.

"Surely then mermaids couldn’t survive outside water? Especially I doubt they would be able to perpetuate such a massacre on land."

"Affirmative. Mermaids are simply the closest monsters who could do this, it is unlikely for this incident to have been caused by them."

Back to square one.

Famina stumbled out from behind the hut, wiping her mouth. She still seemed extremely pale and shaken from the incident.

"Are you alright?" Zoe asked.

Famina nodded resolutely, even though her expression was grim.

"I think we should leave here. As soon as possible."

Zoe was about to agree when another piercing scream tore through the air. Both of them simultaneously whipped their heads around. They could see nothing again.

"It’s a trap. It’s a trap." Famina repeated, more to herself than to Zoe.

At this point, Zoe was indeed much more susceptible to that idea. After all it didn’t look like whatever had attacked this village was the type to take prisoners.

A sudden image of Zoltran and Sophie’s bodies flashed through Zoe’s mind.

"It may not be." She said quietly. Never will I allow that to happen again. "And even if it is, I want to destroy the monster who did this by my own hands."

Famina was quiet for some time, but then she nodded. "Ok, let’s go then."

"AD, what’s the lo-"

Both of them saw her at the same time. One moment there was nothing, and the next there was a sudden figure of a girl dangling in midair. She was screaming her lungs out, or at least she appeared to be screaming with her mouth wide open and her head shaking rapidly from side to side. But there was no noise coming out. The girl was very young, barely in her teens, and she was clearly trembling as she cried out.

Zoe stepped forward, raising her hands. A column of sand shot out towards the girl, enveloping her. But whatever bonds were keeping the girl suspended in midair were not only invisible, but also ethereal. Zoe tried to use minute threads of sand to find how she was being held up, what magik was being used on her, but to no avail.

"Reveal yourself coward." She roared in frustration.

As if in response to her challenge, the girl’s screams gained sound again, tearing through the sky. It was the same bloodcurdling scream Zoe and Famina had heard in the forest and just now in the village.

Zoe immediately released her sand magik surrounding the girl and ran towards her, Famina right behind. When she got right in front of her, she looked up. The girl was still screaming and shaking uncontrollably as if trying to escape from some invisible chains.

"How can we help you?" Zoe shouted upwards, but the girl didn’t seem to hear as she didn’t answer but kept on screaming her head off.

"Please let us help you. Who is doing this? Tell us. Who killed your village?" Famina asked this time, her voice tinged with emotion.

Still there was no response from the dangling girl except for more screaming.

"AD, can you sense any magik?" Zoe asked the Spear pointing it towards the girl.

"Negative. A strong anti detection cloud is present over the girl."

"So that at least confirms that magik is being used?"

"Affirmative. But I am unable to determine who is using the magik or where they are or what kind of magik is being used."

"What about how to dispell it?"

"Negative. Unable to determine."

"Damn it!" Zoe strained her hands again, the sand whirling around. This time she raised her Spear, but she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t throw it towards the girl, the root problem remained that they were unable to see or feel the magik binding the girl.

With a abrupt suddenness the screaming stopped. Or rather the sound of the screaming stopped. The girl’s mouth remained stretched open in agony, and she kept writhing about but the sound of these actions had been abruptly shut off, as if she was in a forcefield restricting all sound from escaping.

A forcefield?

Zoe looked up at the girl again. What if the magik wasn’t anything ethereal but rather a forcefield? A force being applied on the girl which held her in place, and a different force that shut off all sound. That meant that the force would also trigger for Zoe herself if she entered the field.

Zoe looked towards Famina, and nodded. Famina looked confused but she reciprocated the nod. She had learned to trust Zoe over the past few days, however outlandish her thoughts seemed at first.

Then Zoe began running towards the girl. She had been held in midair in front of her, so the forcefield was not horizontal, thus it had to be vertical.

Before Zoe could get below the girl though, the sound suddenly came back, and the girl suspended in midair began moving backwards rapidly as if she had been pulled hard by a cord tied around her waist.

Only two forcefields at a time huh

Zoe grunted, looked back and signalled Famina to follow her and then started running as fast as she could towards the now almost flying girl.