574 Troublesome child

Priscilla "It's beautiful... Is this the sky?" she asks as they all stare upwards.

Reima is momentarily confused by her question and proceeds to focus on the stars, eventually realising that it's not the sky. Instead, it's the ceiling of a large cave they're currently inside, the stars being only numerous glowing stones lodged in the roof. "We're underground..."

Priscilla "Underground? But that would mean that the previous town is the same, tree's can't grow without sunlight right?"

Reima nods, "And blizzards don't just appear underground for no reason... Must be those mages or something...

The group continues onwards despite the shocking revelation, the path leads to some sort of wooden platform that sits just above the water level. It travels past a wall that has some sort of glowing inscriptions on it, though it looks like someone had attempted, and succeeded in destroying them. Only a few letters remain while the rest are obscured by cut marks.

Passed that the group encounter glowing blue water, possibly from some sort of algae, though the lack of sunlight create doubts to the plausibility to that theory. They also encounter more "Wish Flowers", each telling their own grim story. Some weren't disturbed by the throws of death that tainted the others, but none gave concrete information apart from the residents wishing to be free of "this place". Reima assumes that they mean this Underground place, but he could be wrong.

Eventually, they reach a pitch-black room only illuminated by "Wish Flowers", they walk inside and start listening to the flowers, though all of these ones seem to have gone silent...

Priscilla goes to the last remaining one that they haven't checked, the flower giving off a chilling childish giggle as she approaches.

Suddenly out of nowhere a small figure leaps out from behind the flower and tries to stab at Priscilla with a knife, the Half-breed is so shocked by this that she's only able to dodge backwards towards Reima as her pressure relentlessly follows.

Reima notices the commotion and rushes over, spotting the figure trying to attack Priscilla. He telekinetically drags the Half-breed back and tosses a Chaos Fireball at the figure, causing them to jump away from the subsequent explosion.

The lava spread by the fireball illuminates the figure, revealing it to be a child, slightly younger than Nerissa and wearing a blue and purple striped jumper. They have a menacing smile on their face along with red eyes as they point the knife at him...

Reima "I'm gonna gut you, you little cunt." he growls, thinking that a regular child wouldn't attempt to murder someone.,

Priscilla "Reima! They're young, you must show mercy, something must be wrong."

Reima shakes his head but decides to humour her, "You better start explaining yourself or I'm gonna give you the spanking of a lifetime!" he shouts at the kid.

They don't say anything, and begin approaching again, the creepy smile everpresent on their face.

Reima scowls at them and steps in-front of Priscilla, "You better stop now or you won't like the consequences." he states.

The child leaps at him while attempting to slash at his face, though he simply grabs the knife and headbutts the child, causing them to fall to the ground with a thud.

Reima begins to examine the knife but finds nothing special about it, ruling out some sort of "Lich King" situation. The child gets up and punches him in the stomach, accomplishing literally nothing.

Priscilla "Please stop, whatever is bothering you is not worth this violence." she pleads gently.

Her words don't seem to even affect the child though as they jump at her instead, getting caught by the back of their jumper by Reima.

Reima "Cilla, I think this is a lost cause..." he says as the child in his grasp rapidly tries to escape, even going as far to try and bite his arm.

Priscilla "There must be something we can do..."

Reima shrugs, "I'll just tie them up and take them with us... Maybe someone in the cave will know something?" he says as he conjures ropes and binds the child. "Let's get mov-" he begins but is disoriented when he finds himself and the other teleported out of the room containing the Wish Flowers...

Reima rubs his head, "What the fuck just happened." he asks with a groan.

Priscilla "Is something wrong?" she asks as if everything is normal.

Reima "Huh? You don't remember that little punk kid trying to stab you?"

Priscilla has a confused expression as she shakes her head, "No... Not that I remember?"

...

Reima "Wait here." he says as he reenters the room, walking straight for the Wish Flower the kid was previously hiding behind. He throws a fireball at it. instantly reducing it to ash as the child leaps out of the way, he then telekinetically lifts the child into the air, dragging them towards him where he glares dagger at them.

Reima "What did you do?"

...

Reima growls at their silence, "I said, what. Did. You. Do?"

The child's smile only grows wider at their begin to giggle, as if he'd just said the funniest thing in the world.

Reima frowns and again, conjures ropes and attempts to bind the child... Only to be teleported back outside of the room... "For fuck sake!"

Priscilla "Is something wrong?" she asks, again.

Reima nods, "Yeah, there's something wrong! There's a kid in there that's able to teleport me and remove your memories." he quickly says.

Nerissa shakes her head, giving Reima a weird look as if he'd gone crazy.

Priscilla "Perhaps it's an illusion that only effects you Reima? One by those Mages?"

Reima shakes his head, "Most illusions don't work on me, they'd have to be like Dumbledore times a thousand while casting their most powerful illusion to even affect me in the slightest."