"Should we report this to the guards?" Liliyana asked, her face tinged with angst.
Having slipped out of her cell along with the others, she, just like the rest, was confused about the body of flesh and metal lying before their eyes. The abominations, they'd taken care of without a problem, but the dead girl underneath was bound to be more trouble.
"She was sitting with the king in the hall, and given that bastard's hostility towards us, he might just blame us for her death," Raven explained, his hand reaching for a sparking finger. Straightening it a little, he pinched a jade ring that was oozing immense mana.
"A magic item?" Liliyana whispered, seeing the same flames of magic burning out from the ring.
"Seems like it," taking the ring completely off Aurora's body, Raven was about to take a closer look, but then the corpse in front began burning a blue flame. Withering like an undead, her flesh was the first to go, then her bones, and lastly the iron prosthetic around her face, chest, and legs.
Turning into dust in a matter of moments, Aurora's body was gone and all traces of her existence ceased to exist. The party watched it happen in front of their eyes, but as if feeling a pull on their memories, their thoughts about Aurora were being stripped away. However, with a spell from Erika, the effect was quickly washed away.
"What the hell was that?" Mel whispered, her fingers jittering with a strange cold crawling up her spine.
"Y-yeah…" Feeling much the same, Aria squeezed her hand against her chest with her eyes glued to the ashes left behind by the enchantress.
Nobody had an answer, and the only thing left from Aurora was the ring in Raven's hand. Taking a closer look at it, he noticed a minute engraving on the jade which was lined with gold. A rune, that's what it was, but what did it do exactly? None of them had any clue.
'Darius or Linkle, one of them would know.' Getting to his feet, Raven made everyone leave the cell and return to their own. Since there were no signs of Aurora being there left behind, he wanted to at least buy some time before making their next move. Settling inside their cell and locking it back with a key of darkness, Raven sat down on the ground, acting as if nothing at all had happened.
The others, however, weren't as carefree, and the anxiety in their hearts was clearly reflected in their worried faces. From the strange metal prosthetics to the cloaked person who carried her in that rag over their shoulders, what exactly was happening? And where did they fit into that mess?
None of them had a clue, but one thing was certain, that as long as they stayed inside that cell and there was no proof of Aurora's death left behind, they could easily remain passive in this murderous ordeal.
"We have to do something though, waiting around isn't exactly going how we wanted," Aria suggested, her eyes locked with Raven.
Staring into her eyes, a thought crossed the mage's mind.
"Your clones, can they turn into anyone or just you?" A bit puzzled by the sudden question, it took a moment for Aria to wrap her head around what he was insinuating. But when she finally understood, she quickly summoned a clone of herself and tried to make it take another person's form for the very first time.
Concentrating for a while, the clone morphed into differently shaped objects due to the fleeting nature of Aria's thoughts. She tried to focus and keep herself constrained and eventually, when her mind was finally calm, she managed to turn her clone into a somewhat identical version of Raven.
There were still imperfections like the difference in eye color, more fingers than what was human, and a strange mix of gentle deformities that were best hidden behind the cloned clothes.
"Fantastic, this should do,'' Getting to his feet, Raven clasped his hands and looked around everyone's faces, wondering whom to take with him to Athenia. Both the elves seemed a bit disturbed so neither was the best candidate, which left Erika, Amedith, as well as Liliyana. However, already knowing that separating Amedith from the devil child would cause trouble, he stretched his hand toward Erika.
"Create a clone of her as well, I'll be back once we figure out what kind of ring this is."
'Ideally, I would've liked to avoid all this mess, but if we escape now and the king finds out that one of the councilwomen is dead, we'd turn into the prime suspects.' Although slightly frustrated at this point, Raven did his best to keep his calm. And with Erika's hand in his, he handed the teleportation ring to Mel before activating the teleportation necklace.
"Be back quick, okay?" Mel requested, her fingers intertwined in prayer.
Though much more shy about her affection, the dark elf glanced sideways with a blush and nodded at Raven as a quick goodbye.
"I'll keep us safe while you're gone, just don't take too long," Amedith suggested, surprisingly cooperative since last night.
"Alrighty, an hour and I'll be back, we'll see what we wanna do then," with a final flash from the necklace, both Raven and Erika disappeared into thin air.
As the light around them disappeared on their arrival spot, the duo were standing in front of Linkle soaking herself in a bath. Her legs were thrown on both sides, and her body was under a pool of soapy water–hiding away those curves that made her peachy-bottom heavy body.
"Again?" She complained, scoffing.
Staring at the duo, her eyes squinted further.
"What's next? Dropping in on me when I'm taking a crap?" Rolling her eyes, she held her left hand directed towards the bathroom's exit. "Wait for me outside, and you better not tell anyone about this or my actual body!"
Although interested in seeing her nude, Raven chuckled to himself and made his way towards the exit with Erika following right behind him.
'One day I'll get you for all those experiments and extortion you'd been doing.' He thought, hoping that day would come soon, so he could finally shut down Linkle's bitchy behavior. But for now, it was time to figure out a murder and return to the dungeon as quickly as possible.