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Before Alois could pursue the topic further, Sovereign had already taken his leave. Their long draped clothes made it seem that they were almost floating above the ground as they swiftly made their way out. Going in a single file out the way they came, they would have bumped right into Alois if he hadn't have moved, who just gawked at the abrupt departure without a word. 

He got what he wanted, so was he expecting Sovereign to put up more of a fight?

After they left the building, the two walked side by side with hands behind their back, and chins held up proudly. Without stopping to look, they would both speak to each other. 

"You got it?" One asked, catching sight of a few people leaving their homes. 

"Yes." Said the other, both smiling equally as scary as each other. 

What they were talking about exactly was a small fragment of gold and white metal, which stood out amongst the rest of the gloomy tools and materials in that building. If anything, it looked like a broken shard of something, perhaps belonging to the woman who attacked this settlement. Sovereign wasn't going to just drop this, since there were powerful people and artefacts involved, he had to see this through. 

As the real Sovereign stayed back a little bit as he grew closer to the red building, the other would quickly dash forwards with his hand on the mace, ready to defend if need be. But as he grew closer, it started to come into fruition that the story of a stranger attacking really was indeed true. If the scorch marks hadn't already confirmed it, the burning hole in the side of the building would definitely. It had wiped out an entire wall, the edges still sizzling and metal dripping onto the ground from the heat.

"Well, it looks like we found it."

Both Sovereigns stood side by side, and began to make there way into the larger building. It was more like a warehouse, but as they passed through various rooms they spotted things that looked like kitchens and bedrooms. When they got to the back, they found something similar to a workshop with various tools and materials like bones and wooden poles. Was this where the effigies were made? Or stored?

"What really happened here?" They asked one another as they looked around even further, rummaging through boxes and picking up debris.

"Look at this. Think this is Alois?"

Laying in a bloodied heap was the corpse of a man with a round pot belly. His hand lay limp by his side, and flecks of gold light seemed to cling to him like a bad smell. After pulling away a plank of wood that had fallen on him, they found that his head had been blasted clean off, leaving only a fleshy stump which had been cauterised from the heat of whatever had struck him. 

"Probably, but it doesn't matter now." Sovereign gave the man a hefty kick, as if to check that he was in fact dead. The other one looked up at him with a disappointed shake of the head. "What?!"



 

"I'm sorry but... I find it hard to believe that nobody here could have stopped her, one woman against a whole town?" Sovereign tutted, "I don't know whether to be impressed by her power or just accept it's a lie."

Stopping in his tracks, he spun sharply on the heel of his boot and faced the woman, his wicked grin sharp and white. It was a hard pill to swallow, this little story of hers. But it would make sense somewhat, he wasn't sure if this was just some kind of stupid story to get out of paying him, or maybe they really were going to string him up on one of those cursed totem poles. But to believe any of this story, he'd have to see it for himself. Wanting physical evidence, he turned to where he came in. 

"Open it." He boldly ordered, his mace swinging gently at his hip. "I'm going to find Alois. Which house is his?"

Confused at the sudden change of attitude from the man, the woman nervously pushed herself up from the ground and stood there for a moment. Shakily lifting a hand, she waved her fingers and a glowing white line began to glow on the wall of scrap materials. It ran along the splits and cracks, forming some kind of rectangular shape before it finally pushed itself open.

"Near the back of the town. It's got lots of rusted metal on it, almost reddish in colour. You'll know the one."

Sovereign took his first steps out, and the rubble and metal closed shut behind him, sealing the woman back within her nest of filth. 


 

Looking hard through the odd cracks and holes in this makeshift wall, he eventually spotted a single beady eyeball looking up at him from inside. From the voice, he assumed it was a younger woman who for some reason sounded rather scared. Sovereign's smiled turned into a frown, his eyebrows furrowing beneath the mask as he now displayed signs of concern for the people and this town. Something was wrong. 

"Is... Everything okay? I'm looking for Alois to collect an effigy of some description." He paused, not wanting to go into any further detail or confuse the woman. 

There was an uncomfortable silence between them, the eye suddenly vanishing as she hurried back into the house. Sovereign leaned in closer, listening to see if she was talking to someone else or perhaps just not coming back to answer him. Sighing, he assumed that nobody wanted to talk to him, and he began to turn to walk away. 

"This way." Her voice called out again, she had appeared from around the side of the house, probably where the actual door was. Sovereign was right in guessing that she was young, with ashy blonde hair, black skirt and top, with a brown leather jacket over the top. She wore thick boots with steel caps at the end, and her face and hands were muddy. Definitely an odd combination of clothes, and certainly not something Sovereign would ever be caught wearing. 

Suddenly forgetting the potential danger the townspeople were said to possess, he quickly hurried towards her and ducked down through a small archway into the cramped hut. She closed the door behind him, and it bound itself together with magic as if there was no exit. 

'Lovely.' He thought, 'I don't even have a way out now.'

Rushing back inside, the woman headed to a lacrima crystal and gave it a tap, causing it to shine orange for a moment before giving out a comforting heat. "You're late." She said bitterly, sitting down on a wooden stool. 

"Late? I was not aware I had to be here at a certain time of the day. I've had to travel quite far you know." Protested Sov, folding his arms across his chest and tilting his head to one side. 


 

"A simple safety precaution, I suppose." Sovereign whispered to himself, trying to hide the annoyance that he really felt from having his magic dispelled. He could try and recast it, but if it was put there for a reason, he'd rather respect the people's wishes and continue on through without causing trouble. 

What instantly caught his eye were the buildings here. He was expecting witch or mud huts, but everything here seemed very 'junky'. Just like outside, most buildings here were made of scrap metal, chunks of rubble and a few rubber tires. Obviously there were some wooden planks, but mostly everything just seemed like it was going to collapse at any minute. What he also found odd was the lack of people, in fact, he couldn't see anyone. "Hmm." He carried on walking in, hands behind his back and posture straight as he looked around beneath the mask of his. 

It was still day, or so he assumed from the light. Surely there would be people tending to their daily activities. He'd sigh, it was not in his right to judge a town and its people on his first visit there. Lives differed vastly from place to place, and people had to adapt. 

Taking a piece of paper from his pocket, he unrolled it to reveal a roughly drawn map of the town. It was meant to show him which house he was collecting the effigy from, but even with the map in his hand, he still wasn't sure which way to go. "For heavens sake." He spat, rolling the paper back up and shoving it in his pocket. He'd simply just have to ask around, that's if he could find someone anyway.

"This place gives me the creeps." Sovereign muttered, heading through the decrepit woodland that consisted of nothing but dead trees and skeletons of small creatures that littered the grey soil. Everything about this place was bleak and empty, there was no life here, even with the sun shining down. The sky was also a shade of grey, and although there were clouds present, there wasn't enough to completely block out the sun. 

"So why is it so dark?" Questioned another Sovereign, his body doubles trudging through the forest along with him. There were 5 in total, a little larger than normal but he felt it necessary to cover a wider area in case of attack. If something was following them, one of his duplicates would spot it. Or he hoped anyway. 

"I think we're almost there. There seems to be a few beaten pathways, likely leading to the town itself." One stated, glancing down at a dead rabbit which had been partially eaten, the blood was still fresh. 

"Well let's hurry, the quicker we're inside its grounds the safer we'll be."

One scoffed, "Yeah, that's if the townspeople don't try and sacrifice us first." The others all shook their heads at him, but were also thinking the same thing. They were after all, one person, but with so many clones, certain thoughts got split and it was better to verbalise everything to maintain a strong connection between their senses.