And here I thought that my resurrection from that time was unbelievable but seeing this with my very own eyes, it may not be so.

Mine is probably caused by different means... Probably... But that's not important right now. What's important is how eerie this actually looks. Whether I did look like that before, don't want to find out.

"Wait... Guys, please wait for a moment. I sensed a malicious spirit around here..."

When Celidonia said that so suddenly, the three looked back and in doing so, they've noticed the creepy display by the shaman.

"Woah! That's hideous!"

"It can't be..."

"What the heck?"

"Well, I'll be. Bastard resurrected."

Starting with Sam, Rodan, Morgan, and then Rus, each of them made their own remarks on this to which Celidonia found suspicious and turned around herself.

"What the...? Did this goblin perhaps..."

The shaman then stood straight up. Its ornaments jingled with increasing intervals and as the last of the black mist enters its body, its body suddenly flops down to the ground.

"Celidonia, do you know about this?"

"Y-yes... We were told about this back when I was studying in the temple. The black mist that appeared... It could only be a [devil]."

"A [devil]?"

"Yes. A [devil] is a malicious spirit that grants it's contractors something that they wish in a certain degree but there's a catch but that varies from creature to creature. In this case, it might be that the devil will possess the body of its contractor upon death."

"Then—"

"It's not over yet."

As she said that, the whole group, including me, backed away from the seemingly motionless corpse. It hasn't done anything yet but this devil possessing a corpse, it's only natural to be on guard.

"What should we do now?"

Rodan then asked Celidonia again but this time in a more silent voice.

"I don't know... I haven't encountered a possession before but we were told that the possessed would have a degree of enhanced ability."

"Can't you purify it somehow?"

"No, I'm sorry... I haven't gone in that kind of training."

"Can't be helped. If it's in this state, is it okay to attack."

"Um... I think so...?"

With that, Rodan turned to the mage in the group.

"... Morgan."

"Already done."

As she said, she was already done chanting and as soon as Rodan gave go, Morgan released her magic. It's the air burst magic by the way.

Morgan's magic had hit the shaman directly with no interruption but strangely, it didn't do what we expected its body to do. If you're hit with great force, you'll, to a certain degree, be flown off or simply pushed backward.

But that didn't happen to the supposed corpse. There was no damage even.

"It's not effective...?"

"What a pitiful magic you have."

"!?"

Just then, the corpse suddenly spoke. And its voice sounded deep and condescending and it's every word somehow shook the insides of my ear.

The others also felt this.

"But that's only to be expected from a group that took that long to beat a slightly strengthened goblin. Really, how pitiful."

The corpse spoke once more and then its body rose up in such disturbing way that I don't think goblin limbs are capable of doing that.

Then the shaman walked unnaturally towards us while the staff that it's holding on to is getting dragged on the ground with every step.

"But no matter. I'll be ending your pitiful lives now and have your souls be my nutrition. Especially that small one there. Your soul seems to be the most delicious one!"

All of the sudden, the shaman pointed at me using its staf.

This devil, it eats souls?

"Damn... Frankly, I don't want my soul to be eaten... Let's go and retreat. For now... Yeah?"

Sam said to them there while he's backing slowly.

"No, if we leave this devil be, who knows what it'll do. We'll have to defeat it here and now."

Then Rodan said some disagreable words.

"What!? Celi, what do you think? Can we beat the thing?"

"I don't know..."

The shaman let out a sinister laugh and raised its branch to the air.

"Take this!"

Then, a circular mass of darkness suddenly appeared out of thin air and shot towards us. Reflexively, everyone moved away and as for me, I got pulled by Celidonia.

"Black magic..."

I then heard Celidonia mutter behind me.

Was she referring to what the shaman had just shot towards us? That's black magic? Well, it certainly looks like it.

The mass of darkness moved fairly fast but it certainly is slower than an arrow. When it hit the ground, it exploded, throwing dirt and such around and leaving a dent on the ground.

Without missing a beat, the shaman formed another black ball and shot it... Towards me?

Celidonia couldn't react fast enough so I had to push her aside to avoid it. And if I was just a few milliseconds late on that, we might have been hit. And no, I have no intention now or in the future to try getting hit by that.

"Agh...!"

But even when we avoided a direct hit, the explosion did it for us. Thankfully, I took most of the hit but it did hurt very much. The explosion tore my clothes from my back and I felt that I sustained a serious wound on my back as well.

"What did you—"

"Run!"

I shouted at the still shocked Celidonia because I saw that the shaman is preparing another magicical darkness ball.

From how it aimed it before, I'm sure I'm its target.

If so, it's better if no one is near me. I might have to display my speed in this situation but it couldn't be helped. I would rather expose myself as a vampire than die trying to hide it.

Like I told her, she immediately stood up, or at least half way through, and distanced herself as far away as possible from me.

When I saw that she's, from what I think, far away enough, I stood up myself and quickly glanced towards the shaman.

But fortunately, the others have broken away from their trance and is now starting to attack the shaman.

While Rodan and Sam distracted it, Rus, for some reason, ran towards us.

"Hey, priestess, go and get that kid back to the village as quickly as you can!"

"Huh? Why? I-I can't just leave you guys here..."

"Didn't you here what that devil just said!? It's after the kid! I don't know why that is but that's not important now, so go!"

"Event still, my—"

"We'll be fine without your healing and besides, you're still a junior priestess, right? It isn't still to the point that it's poisonous enough for a devil but it is better than any of ours so your soul is the second most delectable for a devil. Unless you want to play as bait, I suggest you start moving now!"

"W-wait, how did you know—"

"We'll be right behind you! You two just go first! We'll be going back anyway depending on the situation!"

Celidonia bit her lips in frustration and after which, she quickly rushed towards me, lifted me off of my feet and carried me with both her arms.

"Please hold on! We'll get you out of here as quickly as I can!"

Celidonia then runs off towards the direction of where the village is. I could sense an attack coming towards us but Celidonia quickly sidestepped out of its path.

The ball then hit the trunk of a tree, removing a good chunk out of it and resulting in the tree falling over.

As if not minding the destruction the befall upon that tree, Celidonia continued with her pace and after that attack, not one had reached us since then.

It looks like it gave up on me and focused on those four. But whether if they're okay or not, I don't know. I, of course, wish that they're fine on their own without Celidonia's strange magic.

But just to be sure, I asked the one carrying me.

"Um... Would they be fine?"

"Eh? Oh.. um, I'm sure they will! But more importantly, don't speak. It'll make it harder on you."

Harder on what aspect exactly?

Celidonia continued to run, not stopping nor even slowing down while she's carrying me. As expected, that didn't last long, however, I'm surprised that she was able to run this far and this long while carrying me.

Of course, I'm not heavy. I'm smaller than them after all. But still...

She glanced back for a second and proceeded to place me under the shade of a nearby tree, my back against the bottom half of the trunk. As for her, she sat on an overgrown root, breathing heavily.

Though in a few seconds after that, she stood up and approached me.

"Now, let's get you healed up. It must have hurt... huh? It's healed...?"

She then turned my body to look at my back but was then surprised to see no wounds on my back whatsoever, even though there's blood.

"Did it heal...? But... How?"

Celidonia then looked at me, as if asking for an explanation on this.

Ah... Have I been caught? Should I lie out of this? But I still haven't thought of an explanation yet.

"Is it something that you can't tell?"

Then all of the sudden, she said something like that. Since she offered me a way out of explaining myself then I'll gladly take it.

"... Yes."

"Alright. Even the fact that you know exactly were the goblin village is, it's a secret as well?"

"Yes."

"Then I won't ask anymore. I'm sure you have your reasons."

Celidonia smiled at me softly as she caresses my head gently. This action reminds me of the two who enjoys doing this to me.

The events earlier today is still lingering in my mind but I chose to ignore it in the whole way, but now that we're going back, I just couldn't ignore the thought any longer.

... I'm sure they'll be really upset if they found out what happened to me. Ugh... Just thinking about it makes me feel depressed...

Just thinking about the face that they're making right now, their faces filled with worry and grief, and even though I made a promise to myself that I would never make them feel something like this... As I thought, I'm a promise breaker. I couldn't keep a promise...

"Is something bothering you?"

"...No."

"C'mon, you can tell me."

Will this be alright? I can't have her worrying about this for me. Or rather, she wouldn't care anyway. It's just my stupid rebellious attitude that I made towards my two mothers. It will be really pointless to tell her about this.

But even though I said that I still ended up telling her.

I told her everything. At least excluding the parts where I killed a lot of goblins and simply hid it as doing a reckless thing and some parts.

I told them how worried my two mothers are from doing such things and how it made me feel incredibly bad and guilty about all of it. How I broke the promise I made with them when not even that much time had passed since I made that promise.

That's what I told her. I simply let it all out. And for some reason, I feel that my body became just a little bit lighter when I finished.

Celidonia listened to it attentively without saying anything and once I'm finished, she made a bitter smile at me.

"... Mothers are beings that simply wish what's best for their children... And from hearing how your, um... Mothers reacted when you did such a reckless thing, they really care for you and that you should do the same. And I know I don't have the right to say this but I'm sure the best thing that you should do is not to worry your mothers. That would be the best for you and your mothers after all."

As I thought, I really should have listened to them earlier. It was simply them caring for me, trying to protect me. And yet, I came here anyway, completely throwing away their concerns for me. That was such a horrible thing for me to do...

"Why did you say back then that you know the way?"

Suddenly, Celidonia changed the topic. I don't know why she asked this but I answered honestly anyway.

"... To help?"

"Why did you want to help?"

Right... Why did I want to help exactly? The answer to that is simply obvious.

"Because I thought, you can save my friend."

"Whose your friend exactly? What's her name?"

"It's Trish."

"I knew it..."

Knew what?

"So you helped us in order to save your friend, right? She's the one that was kidnapped?"

"Yes...?"

"Then, you shouldn't feel so guilty about it."

"...Why?"

"I think it's best to listen to your mother Snow, but it's not always like that. Sometimes there are things that you have to do that contradicts to what your mother tells you. Like when she said that you should be this but you really wanted to be that. But of course, there are simple actions that you shouldn't do even though you really wanted to do them. You'll have to think about these very thoroughly and weigh them accordingly.

Mothers are there to keep their children safe yet those very children have their own choices as well. You're feeling guilty because you broke your promise with them, which is only natural and I don't blame you for that but, in the end, the choice to break your promise with them and how this very choice will potentially save a life, If you weigh the choice of whether to stay at home or help to save your friend then I think it's the latter that's the best choice.

And rather than going out there to save your friend all by yourself, you came to us because you thought that it's the best option to save your friend, right? Then that just means that you have thought about it carefully, didn't you? And you did it with a great cause in mind so you shouldn't beat yourself over the fact that you've broken your promise with your mothers and that you didn't listen. I'd say that's really brave of you."

"But, I still broke my promise with them and I can't help but feel bad about it. And now, they're really worried about me..."

"When you did that, did you not care about them?"

"... I do. I care about them."

"Right? Even if you broke your promise with them, that doesn't mean that you care any less about them. The fact that your worrying over this just means that you care about them very much. But, as I said, you worry too much. You chose to come with us in order to help save your friend, or do you deeply regret that choice?"

"... I... Don't."

"Then that's that! And we'll promise to save your friend, alright?"

Celidonia said that with a bit of hesitation and nervousness but I chose to ignore that.

But why did I answer that I don't? I'm not too sure about that, even now, after all this thinking.

After all, even right now, I still feel that the feelings of Sun and Night are still more important than Trish's life.