"What the fuck happened..."
Tim asked and everyone around them seemed to have the same reaction.
The nearby people were staring at the faint marks left on the pavement. There was nobody there anymore, but that wasn’t what had everyone’s attention.
It was the fact that they had just witnessed magic, right in the middle of a Safe Zone.
And slowly, those eyes began turning toward them.
"We need to go." Leila grabbed Tim’s hand and pulled him. "Tim, let’s go!"
He didn’t even have time to think. He didn’t have time to figure out what the fuck had just happened to Rafael... they ran just fucking ran pushing through the crowded Bazaar as fast as they could toward the teleporation fountain.
As fast as they reached it Leila activated it and in no time, they were back inside the bungalow.
"Shit..."
Leila wheezed as she dropped onto the floor, still trying to catch her breath, but she couldn’t get the image of Rafael out of her head.
"Those tears running down Rafael’s face... that was blood. And not just that, but his eyes were completely red, like some fucking demon." She looked at Tim. "What the fuck was that?"
"I don’t know but, cast the tracking spell." Tim said as he tried to catch his breath. "Find out where the fuck that woman took him."
Leila listened and immediately raised her hand.
A faint magical circle formed above her palm as she activated the tracking spell... the same spell that Rafel had no idea about.
They had placed it on him just in case... like if he disappears suddenly and now it came handy.
Tim, meanwhile, had already opened his own System, looking for any answers.
"There is nothing..."
"What?" Leila asked, as she used the tracking spell.
"Look at the spell."
Leila opened her own System with her free hand, looking at the same Forbidden Spell that she had learned from Tim before the synchronization.
[Heart of the Forsaken]
[Forbidden Greater Magic — Level VI]
[Target: Single Living Being]
[Description:]
Invokes the Heart of the Forsaken upon the chosen target, suppressing emotions that hinder survival.
[Fear of Death: Reduced]
[Fear of Killing: Reduced]
[Guilt: Reduced]
[Remorse: Reduced]
[Hesitation to Kill: Reduced]
[Death-Related Trauma: Reduced]
[Each life taken by the affected target further suppresses these emotions.]
[Duration: Permanent]
Nothing in the description could explain what had happened to Rafael... but something caught Leila’s attention.
Something that had meant absolutely nothing back when Eldoria was just a game, but now, it could be the answer.
"Forsaken..." she whispered as she slowly looked at her brother. "Where did you get this spell?"
Tim’s eyes remained fixed straight ahead, almost as if he hadn’t heard her.
"Tim!"
"I-I helped the Guild clear a boss, and I got the spell as one of the rewards."
"Which boss was it?"
"It was the Seventh Lord, but it shouldn’t—
[Tracking Complete.]
The notification appeared in front of Tim’s eyes as well.
[Target: SuckieMyDickieDevs.]
[Current Location: Blocked — Safe Zone.]
"Safe Zone...?" Leila whispered before looking at Tim.
"But a Safe Zone shouldn’t block the tracking spell... it should tell us which one he’s in."
The whole situation had somehow become even stranger, but to Leila, it only pointed to one thing.
"Maybe that woman was an NPC," Leila began, "Could it be a quest connected to the forbidden spell?"
The moment Leila asked it, all of this bullshit suddenly started to make sense to Tim.
Back when Eldoria was still just a game, NPCs normally couldn’t teleport players or freely use magic inside Safe Zones.
There were exceptions, though.
Certain NPCs connected to quests could bypass those restrictions.
"That actually makes a lot of sense." Tim let out a long breath. "He wasn’t kidnapped at all."
He shook his head, a small smile finally appearing on his face as the tension slowly left his body.
"This guy... he seriously can’t catch a break, huh?"
Leila smiled as she began to relax as well.
"No, but this one is kind of our fault... or yours." She glanced at her brother. "But at least he’s in a Safe Zone, which means Rafael himself is safe."
"Yeah..." Tim nodded. "He’s safe."
Though in reality... he was in a weird situation.
"...am I being sacrificed?
His arms were chained above his head, his wrists tightly bound as he hung from the ceiling... butt-ass naked.
"Oh... hell nah."
He immediately tried to move.
Nothing.
Not his arms. Not his legs. He couldn’t even move his fingers. His entire body was completely frozen, with only his head and eyes still under his control.
And as he his eyes dropped toward the floor he noticed it.
Runes.
Dozens of them arranged in a circle around his hanging body.
"You are not being sacrificed."
Rafael’s eyes shot up and there she was... the woman.
At least, he assumed it was a woman from the voice. Her entire body was covered in black clothing, while her face was hidden behind a completely plain white mask.
There weren’t even holes for the eyes.
"Then let me go."
"No." The answer came immediately.
"Then are you a pervert?"
"Pervert?" she repeated.
"You undressed me, my dick is hanging out, and you somehow found the time and effort to chain me naked to a fucking ceiling. If you—"
"You need to be naked," she cut him off. "And awake."
"Awake? For what?"
"To torture you."
The silence after she said it was surreal for two completely different reasons.
One was that she had said it in the most boring way possible, without even a single hint of emotion behind her voice, and the second was that... Rafael felt nothing about it.
He was just hanging from the ceiling with his dick out.
"Uh... but you helped me, didn’t you?"
"I did." Her same distant, lifeless voice came from behind the mask. "I saved you so I could torture you."
"Really?"
"Yes." There wasn’t even a pause before her answer. "But don’t worry. The Forbidden Spell will help you. You’ll feel no fear, no terror... only the pain."
"Ah... pain?"
"I’m going to cut your balls out."