A middle-aged man yawned stretching his stiff body, it was nice to work as a guard in the watchtower because he barely does anything, even though his job is easy, it's crucial.
Swoosh...
"Hhmm?"
He raised his eyebrow because the wind blows tonight is a little different than usual, his professionalism is preventing him to overlook this oddity.
Swoosh!
Swoosh!
Swoosh!
This wind feels like a bad omen as he hurriedly observes the sea with the huge magic tool placed in the watchtower to create light, he could see that some little boats of the fishermen are heading to the land in a rush.
At the coats, the large vessels are already using the barrier scroll that uses to create a temporary barrier to protect their vessels while the crews are running to the safer place.
It seems like he is not the only one who feels that something is coming, he grabs the ropes to the huge bell ready to ring it but suddenly the sea becomes deadly silent, the seawater began to recede drastically as he sees the fishes and the other life forms of the sea exposed to the air, sprawling at the coast.
Gasped!
Far from the mainland, he could see something big is coming.
Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding
Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding
Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding
As the sound of huge bell echoes through the port town, people started to come out of their houses with anxiety that's when they hear the guard in the watchtower is screaming.
"RUUUUUUUNNNNN"
"HUGE WAVES ARE COMIIIIING"
As if thrown in turmoil, the anxious crowd panic and stampede to the opposite direction of the sea, the whole town is in chaos.
On the other side, the culprit is still standing on the water in the middle of the ocean holding the wave to give the time for the townsfolk to escape as far as possible because her goal is only to empty the area around the fountain which is located near the coast.
Since no one is stupid enough to stay near the coast when the big waves are coming, this area is like a ghost town now.
"Dion's idea to create panic attacks through a disaster is really effective"
Grizel chirped in satisfaction, but Mammon who already heard the story of this legendary victim of his Lord doubts about that.
This legendary victim who works for the Prince is already occupied with Judas's kidnapping case, besides, the Empire needs to take care of the vacant Grand Counselor's work.
Moreover, Judas is the Lord of his territory, due to the disappearance of the territory's Lord, the empire obliged to step into the territorial affairs, but as long as there is no huge problem arises, the empire doesn't need to do the work directly because small matters can be solved by Judas's vassals in his territory, but...
Unfortunately, this port town is part of Judas's territory.
Mammon shivers with the thought of the work caused by his Lord, reparation, disaster relief, etc, somehow he feels blessed to not born as Dion.
Swoosh! Crash!
The series of the wave began to hit the land but no matter how big the waves are, strangely enough, the coastline is the only area that been damaged, it as if someone is controlling the water while trying to minimize the damage and preventing unnecessary casualties in case some people are late to run away.
"Let's go"
Grizel beckons to Mammon, he looks exhausted with the trains of shocking event tonight.
"Where are we heading to, Your Highness?"
As far as he knows, the Princess needs to take care of something near the fountain by tomorrow noon, hence why she emptied the area around it with this crazy idea, but now is not even dawn yet, there is still plenty of time before the main event.
"The town is empty, means no guards in Temples and the house of nobles or rich merchants"
Hearing it, the exhausted face of Mammon brightens up as both Grizel and Mammon look at each other grinning evilly.
"What a productive way to waste time while waiting for your main event, Your Highness"
"But is it alright to leave the waves?"
"It's alright, the wave train won't stop until I stepped out of this territory"
After choosing their targets, both of the thieves are heading to the first target, the wealthiest temple on this continent, it was equally big compared with the one in the capital.
Swoosh...
The wind brought them to the destination because they have no time to run, the list of targets to be looted is full thanks to the heavy taxation system in trading at this port town, corrupted nobles, priests and merchants have been storing their wealth for years here, it's the harvest time.
Thud!
They arrived at the empty grandiose temple and already disguised themselves as a priest with Grizel's illusion in case they were seen by someone.
They walk leisurely acting like the real priests who serve the Gods while being guided by the winds to the hidden treasury.
"It's here"
Grizel points out to the floor beneath the high priest's working desk, without any question, Mammon activates his ability and makes a hole big enough for the two of them to pass in.
"Woah look at this dirty mon-"
Before Mammon finishes his comment admiring the mountains of golds, jewelry, and the precious magic items, all of them are being sucked into her Lord's artifact ring.
"Let's go to the next target"
Mammon nodded, they looted the next and the other targets with extremely high pace before they arrived at the last prey tonight, it actually quite far from the sea and there are a lot of guards are patrolling around, considering the kidnapping case.
"Let the wind check it first"
Grizel and Mammon are standing on the branches of a huge tree at the back of a Castle, this is the house of the most prideful noble, the Cassius Family, also the home Judas de Cassius misses the most.
"The treasury is at that tower, but it sealed with magic"
The fact that he didn't put his treasure somewhere more hidden, he might have a strong faith in the seal, Grizel and Mammon jump on the roof to roof running towards the tower in silence since both of them are the Rogue-Class awakeners.
"I can't believe he put his treasure here"
Grizel mumbled, this tower located in quite a desolate area of the castle where people rarely come, when she was about to eat the seal she could hear 2 pairs of footsteps are approaching the tower.
"Brother, I have contacted a famous magician from the Western continent to help us open the tower's seal"
One of them is speaking, Grizel and Mammon are peeking from behind the tower, looking at their luxurious clothes, it seems like they are the offspring of this family.
"Great, we could make it as the deeds of thieves and put the blame on Eldest Brother"
"Hahaha, he might as well lose his position as the heir of our family and the next Grand Counselor"
"And I heard the servants were talking about a disaster occurs in the coastal areas, he won't be able to handle such a big thing hahaha"
The other one replied, as expected of Judas's children, they are as greedy as their father, seemingly this family is heading towards the downfall on their own even without her help, after gossiping about their other siblings, they leave the tower while laughing.
"Those 2 fools will be the ones who got surprised"
Grizel puts her hand on the seal as she mocking the fools who are trying to frame their eldest brother.
Swoosh...
The seal is eaten by Grizel's artifact ring and Mammon makes a hole on the wall of the tower.
"Hhmm?"
Mammon tilted his head in confusion, there are no gold nor jewels, only hundreds of row rings lining up on the beautiful shelf craved with the symbol of the Cassius duchy.
"These are storage rings"
Grizel grinned as her artifact ring sucks everything except for the shelf, she could feel that each ring has countless treasures, today was a good harvest, the South region's prosperity lives up to its name as the trade center.
"You may go back"
This is their last target on the list, Mammon should go back and proceed with his assignment given to him before.
"Take it and use it wisely, the negotiations with those merchants may be smoother"
She gives one storage ring full of gold to Mammon, she believes that he will use it well because the value of money will increase or decrease depends on the user.
"Your wish is my command, My Lord"
Mammon excuses himself before he ripped the teleportation scroll to go back, today he learned a precious thing, what's the use of common sense if he serves an uncommon Lord who defies logic? what is common sense to begin with? Who creates such a useless thing? Why did it become the world's standard for normality?
He comes back to Tartarus's temporary shelter with the most serious face in his life thinking about the origins of the useless thing called common sense.
Now, Grizel is heading back to the coast area after putting back the very same seal that covered the tower before, except for the emptied treasure, on the surface, it looks the same as if nothing happened.
-â¢-
Grizel had double-checked the surrounding area and feels no one, seems like everyone has been evacuated safely to the temporary shelter far from the coastal areas.
All alone with nothing to do, she is sitting on the edge of the fountain swinging her legs leisurely waiting for the artifact to make its appearance, behind her the ocean is going wild though not even a single drop of water gets to her, despite her angelic looks, the chaotic background made her appears to be a personification of calamity and the source of disaster.
Crack!
Grizel startled by the cracking sound that comes from above the fountain, the temperature suddenly dropped as the black clouds emerged at the surrounding area.
When she found the first artifact, she didn't know how the artifact makes its appearance because she was late thanks to the monsters that were chasing her, but...
"Woah..."
She mumbled as the small crack that appears in the air is getting bigger and bigger as if something that should never exist in this world is forcing a way out or in? Whatever it is, the cracks seem to come from a whole different dimension from this world called Midgard.
"Ugh..."
Huff!
Huff!
It's starting to get hard to breathe, she could see a black item emitting the same violent aura with her ring from behind the cracks.
Huff!
Huff!
Let alone the common people, it was quite suffocating even for her to stand before this negative aura though the hostility wasn't directed to her, instead, to this world, Grizel doesn't know the reason why but worse comes to worst, the defenseless common people might have an instant death here.
Crack!
Crack!
This time, the sound of the crack comes from the worn-out huge chains that were tying the artifact as if been sealing it for a very long time in that dimension, no matter how she looks at it, the origin of these artifacts appears to be more dangerous than what she thought they were.
Grizel could see the artifact is covered with a similar mysterious black mist, the very same black mist she talked to at the time in the cave.
"Hahaha"
"Finally, oooh finally, half of me is free"
A laugh that could make one goosebump echoed through the harbor between the sound of the wild waves, it came from the black mist that covered the artifact, she remembered this deep low eerie voice.
Half of it is finally free? Is it means 2 of 4 artifacts?
There are a lot of questions she wanted to ask including its origin but somehow she knows this thing has not that much time to answer all of her concerns.
The cracks started to disappear as the artifact went out of its dimension, is staying afloat above the fountain, before the black mist is fading away she wants to ask the root of all this insane second life.
"Are you the one who summoned my soul into this world?"
"Hahaha"
"Angela Samael thou art as amusing as ever, I am nothing but a silent witness of this foolish world..."
Grize loosened her clenching hands, this thing is not the one who summoned her to this world, but the black mist didn't finish its word yet.
"Yet I am the reason for your existence"
As expected, her summoning somehow related to these artifacts even though this thing is not the one who summoned her at least she gains the new information, she wanted to ask at least who it is but the black mist is getting thinner as the time of its disappearance is approaching.
"Angela Samael,
I shall bestow upon Thee this Artifact of Pestilence, Neither prayer nor wealth halted its power,
Thou shall be the one to play the symphony of woe"
The dark mist surrounded the artifact dispersed into the thin air, leaving the floating black necklace in front of her face, the appearance is quite similar to her ring except for the shape.
Click!
She bites her finger and dropped her blood on the necklace to form the soul contract, the ring glows with a pitch-black color as it set to her neck on its own.
Creak...
Creak...
Creak...
Grizel recalled the time when she obtained the first artifact, that time the whole cave collapse after the black mist disappeared.
"Don't tell me..."
Crack!
The ground beneath her feet started to crack.
Crack!
Crack!
The crack lines continue to widen passing through the entire coast in the area.
Bam!
Crash!
The chain of the wild waves make it worsened, the ground in this port seems to be no longer could maintain its own weight.
Booooooommmm!
A loud sound of the collapsing port echoed through the whole town, the port that built magnificently is sinking into the sea and swept by the violent big waves.
The culprit using the blessing of wind is floating above the port, silently witnessing the pride of the Southern region is falling apart beneath her feet.
"Oops..."
She said flatly, destroying Judas's main source of wealth and increasing Rex' works really wasn't part of her plan, it's truly accidental.
To be continued...
â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬Â à®Û©ÛÛ©à®Â â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬â¬
Author's Corner:
Even I as the creator of Grizel is getting a headache for all the trouble she causes...
I feel you Rex, Dion...
Really...
_('ཫ'* _)â)_
And dear Mammon...
I'm sorry, you lost something valuable as a normal human being called common sense, I...
Am really sorry I can't protect you
(;'à¼àº¶Ûà¼àº¶')