Seth Chapter 64

“He… he was the one who killed everyone! The devil… who slaughtered my… family!!”

Maria said, her face pale and voice quivering with fury, her finger pointed at Noah.

“Maria, what are you saying?” Seth asked, putting his hand on her shoulder, but she jerked him off, putting distance between them.

“Don't touch me!” She lashed out. “He did it… I'm telling you!”

“Okay, okay, I won't touch you,” Seth said, trying to calm her down.

“He's the one… responsible for everyone dying… he burned them all. They all died… screaming and he… laughed at their deaths,” she hissed, her words filled with hatred and pain.

“Maria, that can't be. Noah is our friend. He would never do something like that. I believe it's a misunderstanding,” Rebecca said, looking at her and trying to calm her down.

“No! No! No! I remember it… clearly. I saw his face. He was the… one! He stripped everything away from me!” She shrieked, her voice cracking and she started crying.

Her whole body shook before she grabbed her head and screamed again.

The next moment, she picked up a wooden log that they had collected for the campfire and rushed towards Noah, trying to swing it at him.

Noah just stood there, looking at her.

Before she could reach him, Rebecca chanted a spell and a transparent barrier surrounded Maria. She hit it and dropped on the ground.

“Maria, stay there until you calm down,” Rebecca said, but it seemed like Maria wasn't in a state of mind to listen to sane words as she started violently punching and trashing the barrier around her.

She wasn't able to break it, but she still tried.

The barrier around her shook, but she was weak. Not even a crack appeared on it as she screamed.

“You all are… together with him! Release me now! That man killed… everyone! Mirina would curse you all. She would curse you all to suffering, you scums!”

She looked at Noah with scorn and cried. It looked like she was going to pass out again at any moment.

“Noah, do you know her?” Seth asked, turning his eyes away from Maria to look at Noah. “Why is she accusing you?”

“I don't know her,” he said, frowning and scratching his head. He had been silent the whole time and simply looked at the young woman who trashed around the barrier.

Suddenly, he blinked his eyes, “I think I know what is going on here and why is she accusing me.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I have seen it before and I should have guessed when the woman had passed out so many times. There's only two things that might explain why she thinks I'm the one who burnt everything and everyone in Nasper Town.”

“What two things?”

“Either, she's not human and is planted by someone to conspire against us or she's been cursed, planted with false memories in which I was the one burning the town.”

Noah walked towards the woman and she trashed around more, glaring daggers at him.

“False memories?” Seth asked.

“Seth, there are high level spells to plant those memories in someone's head. Most of the times, they are incredibly complex to pull through and would often leave the victim with brain damage.”

Rebecca explained and his gaze wandered to the girl.

She looked young and if that was really the case, then whoever had done something like that had ensured that she was going to suffer her whole life.

Though, who will do something like that? And why? That question rang in his mind.

“Rebecca, can you please remove the barrier? I want to inspect the girl,” Noah asked, reaching right in front of Maria who kept punching the barrier and crying.

Her knuckles had already turned red. She had bruised herself due to constantly punching the barrier.

“Okay,” Rebecca said, but the next second, the girl screamed again, her shrill voice making Seth and Rebecca clasp his hands on his ears.

“He killed everyone… took away my everything,” she hissed, turning around to look at Seth and Rebecca. “Why are you two… helping him? Why? He's… a murderer. You said… you are going to help me.”

Her eyes bore into Seth.

“Then, why… are you just standing there? Why don't you help me? Are you a liar? Or a murderer like him?” She shouted, her voice cracking. “Please believe me… he killed everyone!”

Seth was hesitant to trust her as he looked in between Maria and Noah. He recognised the agony and rage in her eyes. It was something familiar.

It was the same rage he felt when he had found out who had stripped him away from Sarah and his normal life.

He had killed Gideon in that rage. Maria had even suffered worse than him. He had seen the burnt town and the corpses lattered. Some of them might have been her family or friends.

She had lost everyone.

Her pain resonated with him, but she blamed Noah.

Noah had rubbed him the wrong way in the last two days, but still, he had saved his life before.

He didn't seem to care about the town's destruction, making Seth suspect something, but it was too far-fetched. He had been in the carriage most of the time in the last week.

He didn't know Noah for a long time, but he wasn't someone who moved without a plan and he had no purpose to destroy a whole town.

“No, I don't believe you,” he finally said. “Noah won't do something like that and if he did, then he would have never left you alive. You have it all wrong.”

He shook his head and looked at Maria who widened her eyes, and looked at him like he had betrayed her.

“Hey, your last part of the sentence makes it seem like I'm some bloodthirsty monster who would do that,” Noah said, looking at Seth.

“I never said you did it. I just said if you ever have to take on a whole town, you wouldn't let anyone be alive.”

“True, I don't believe in sloppy work.”

As they were bickering, Seth suddenly felt a wave of mana pass through the air.

He turned to look at Maria who gave a completely different energy than before.

Tears streamed down from her eyes as she looked at Seth and Noah, but this time, they were different. They were tears of blood. Her eyes changed the next moment, turning into a shade of purple.

Her blonde hair slowly rose in the air and she punched the barrier again. It broke this time, not able to withstand the force of her attack.

Her bones crunched as a loud voice resounded. Her body twisted as she shook like she was in the middle of a spasm.

Her skin wrapped and shifted before her fingers transformed into long nails and half of her face peeled away to showcase rotten flesh.

Guess it's not the case of false memories at least.

Seth frowned, checking up her status to find out who she really was.

Void Specter - ???

“A void specter?” he tilted his head in confusion.

“Why… Why didn't you believe me? Just why?!” Maria shrieked. “It could have gone well if only you had… you were supposed to fight him… help me… but you refused… why?”

More tears of blood dropped on the ground around her. Seth gulped as her body shifted even more, bones spurted out from her back.

He felt like he was in the middle of watching a horror movie, and Seth had never been a fan of those, especially one which was real and happening a few steps away from him.

The specter roared, her voice turning into a ghastly scream that assaulted his ear drums.

“You ruined… everything! You are all murderers! Same as Noah!” Her voice cracked. “You need to… die now… suffer for what you did!”

She controlled the mana around her and orbs hovered over her palm. She aimed one of them at Seth who dodged to the side.

“Die!”

“Not today,” he said, rolling on the ground as the orb hit a tree behind him, blasting it to shreds.

More orbs hovered around her and she launched them at all three of them this time.

Seth tried to get away from it, but he didn't know which way to go with three of them coming for him. Fortunately, dark flames rose from the ground and protected him.

The orbs struck it and a large shockwave shook the surroundings. Seth heard the yelp of the carriage driver as he rushed to hide behind the carriage.

“Thank you,” he said, looking at Noah who had spells forming on his hands. “Do you know what that is?”

Seth stared at Maria, the void specter, who looked completely different than before. Abyssal mana flowed in her veins and her face had transformed to resemble an undead alongside her nails that looked sharper than a sword.

“It's a monster known as void specter, a summoned creature like you might have guessed. If this monster here, then it means—”

Before Noah could continue, another noise occured. They heard rustling of leaves and out of nowhere, lesser abyssal horrors floated out from the trees around them.

Lesser Abyssal Horror - ???

Lesser Abyssal Horror - ???

Lesser Abyssal Horror - ???

The strange miasma filled the clearing as they looked at Seth and his companions. Their tendrils swung around and they squinted their pupils, looking at them with fury.

There were over a dozen of them and they stood right behind the void specter, assisting her.

“Where did they come from?” Rebecca asked, casting a barrier to protect herself from a tendril lashing at her. A crack appeared on it as the monster tried to break it.

“Someone had opened up a portal to the abyss to bring them out,” Noah shouted out, sending a blast of flames towards the scepter who dodged to the side. “Handle the lesser abyssal horrors. I will deal with the void specter.”

All of them got to their fighting stances and Seth took out his dagger.

“I was getting used to only seeing you guys in my nightmares,” he said and jumped at one of them.