Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

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[After having rescued Arafunn from sure death, the team of researchers took care of him through the night, until they were finally called by the Elders of the city once the morning arrived.]

[In there, they had to explain what had happened, and everything regarding Arafunn. They testified that he didn't seem well in his head, even though he had yet to wake up.]

[The Elders, decided to leave the responsibility of Arafunn's wellbeing to Cecilia, his sister, until he could fully recover and wake up.]

[However, although this brought to them the origin of the Darkness that was left behind, and the existence of demons plotting to end them, there were still many questions.]

"If what happened to Arafunn is the truth, then could this mean that there is someone else, with enough power to not only control demons, but imbue them into people?" Wondered one of the elder divine dragons.

"First of all, I would recommend you investigating the area where Arafunn was working." Said the Elder Elven woman. "Also, a few of you should also move to the ruins left behind by your research center and look for more clues. So we can track down whoever destroyed the seal."

"You have yet to solve any of the problems and have only brought us more questions than answers." Sighed the Elder Majin. "Nonetheless, these materials, the ashes of the demon. They will be useful to track down whatever origins they might be. Use them with the relic you used to track the man, you might find something as well."

"T-Thank you…" Mercedes sighed, as the group of four walked back to their house. This time, Arafunn had finally woken up.

"Arafunn?!"

"S-Sister?"

Cecilia quickly went to hug him tightly, feeling really happy that he had finally woken up. The demonic powers he had were now completely gone as well, after numerous checks from the rest of the researchers.

"Just what happened there, can you remember?" Asked Cecilia. "And who did this to you?!"

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"Ugh… Too many questions, sis…" Arafunn sighed. "I-I only know that… Someone. It was back… some days ago? Someone came, I can't remember their face. They were covering it with a black mask. They came and told me that… I was a good potential vessel."

"Potential vessel?!" Mercedes asked. "W-What…?! Was this person a man or a woman?"

"Their voice was disrupted with magic, I couldn't tell." Arafunn said. "But they were wearing the same clothes as us…"

"What haopened after that?!" Hermes asked him desperately. "What did they do to you?"

"They… Stabbed me in the chest. With a weird knife, one made of… black metal, with a red jewel on top." Said Arafunn. "Ugh… That's all I can remember. After that I passed out, and I've been having fevers and hallucinations…"

"Do you remember what happened? That you attacked us?" Asked Mercedes.

"I-I…" Arafunn started breathing heavily. "I'm so sorry… I-I wasn't right in the head. A voice kept talking to me, it was driving me insane… It forced me to leave some weird dark dust, and I couldn't stop obeying it either… I was… I'm so sorry…" He kept crying, as Cecilia hugged him and patted his back.

"It's fine… Don't worry, we are here for you now." Sighed the elf girl.

"The lie detection divine relic says he's saying the truth." Elbedo sighed. "It seems this… Is indeed what he knows."

"Dammit! With just this we can't figure out anything either! For fuck's sake! Do we really need to track everything again?!" Hermes was losing his temper.

"Why are you getting so heated up out of nowhere?! Calm the fuck down, Hermes!" Cecilia cried. "What's wrong with you? You seem way too agitated out of nowhere…"

"I-It's just that… If this keeps going on forever, then things are only going to get worse! I am worried, you know? Worried about everything…" Hermes sighed. "I have a bad hunch, that something terrible is going to happen. We have to stop it, before it just takes everything we love away from us."

"Hermes…" Mercedes sighed. "I suppose you're not wrong, but we are all worried here. Calm down, take it easy." She tried to comfort him.

"I can't take it easy Mercedes! Elbedo, accompany me to look for the things left behind in the ruins of our former research center." Said Hermes. "You three should quickly start tracking where the demon ashes could lead you to. We'll get back quickly."

"Wait, Hermes! We haven't even eaten breakfast yet!" Elbedo protested.

"HAH?! Do we need to- Ugh, fine." Hermes sighed.

"See? Maybe you're just really hungry, let's eat something." Cecilia smiled gently. "Brother, do you feel like you can eat?"

"I-I think so? I feel completely relieved now, anything I had inside of me is gone completely." Arafunn sighed in relief.

"Then let's go." Mercedes smiled. "I invited our friends to come help us today as well, they're on their way here by now."

"Bleh, again them? why are you relying on them so much?" Hermes sighed.

"Why not? They're so helpful!" Cecilia protested. "And Planta saved Arafunn too!"

"Yeah, yeah, I guess!" Hermes walked downstairs, terrible grumpy.

As the scenarios slowly changed and shifted from scene to scene, our group was constantly commenting about the scenes we were looking at. Honestly, it was a bit fun to see everything unfold, it was like an interactive movie in a way.

"That guy Hermes, he's really sus, mom." Elena crossed her arms. "It feels like he's angry his plans aren't going right…"

"I bet he's the bad guy, right?" Anna wondered. "We just have to dig deeper and find some evidence…"

"Come on, we shouldn't just blame him yet." I sighed. "We need to investigate more for now. And even Hermes is not the only suspicious one, what about Elbedo too? He had acted strange when I saved Arafunn as well, and he's supposed to be a wise old dragon…"

"Right… Not a bad deduction either." Said Mark while nodding. "But what if those two are just red herrings though? We always have to consider the least likely candidate."

"The least likely candidate?" Asked Rita.

"Cecilia, isn't it?" I asked Mark.

"Bingo." Mark nodded.

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