Destroying My Own Novel

"Doesn't this feeling of déjà vu feel strange to you?" Lillith asked as she drew closer to Agnez.

"It should be me asking you that," Agnez replied. "What did you find?" Agnez asked, eyes filled with curiosity.

"Although this looks similar to what happened in the Tirth World, they're not possessed by demons. It was more like evil spirits that the shaman used from the souls of the dead that were killed during the ritual," Lillith answered. "These people aren't the bad guys here, and they appeared to recognize Manna in their memories," she continued.

"I see. Do you know where the shaman is?" Agnez asked as she stared at Manna and Rami, who seemed to recognize the faces of the tribal people they fought.

"Who knows, the last memories these guys had were they being captured by the others like them and got possessed by evil spirits," Lillith answered and shrugged her shoulders.

Jeanne and Edith came out of the temple from above since they had no idea how to get out. They made their own way out since the temple wasn't fully built, and then they both walked down the stairs to approach the others to tell them about what they found.

"I see, so you destroyed the totem that you found inside a tomb. But I don't think the air is safe now. We need to find the source of this black magic," Manna said.

"I found the source where the black magic is," Lillith said after she looked at the guy's memory. "It's coming from the temple. I think the guy that protected the totem is the one who did this,"

Agnez turned her head toward Jeanne, who was standing beside her. "Show us where the corpse is," Agnez said.

Jeanne nodded and briskly walked up the temple again, but this time everyone followed her. They slowly followed her down into the temple and found the tomb that Jeanne mentioned earlier. They were both surprised by how spacious it was, and they wondered who could have been buried there.

"What do we do now?" Gunnar asked as he looked down at the corpse.

"Let's burn it and see what happens," Agnez replied as she reached out and took the torch from Gunnar's hand.

Agnez threw the torch on top of the corpse, and when the cloth got burned, the fire slowly swallowed the body. At first, nothing happened while they were watching the body get burned, but then the body started making a rattling sound and started twitching like crazy.

They all took a few steps back slowly as they watched the corpse reach out its hands from the tomb. They didn't move a muscle and kept watching until the corpse stood up and tried to reach something in the air.

The corpse made an eerie rattling sound and seemed to be chattering about something, but there was no voice coming out of its mouth. The corpse immediately collapsed and broke into pieces, and the air felt lighter so suddenly. More light was able to seep into the room, and the smell of fresh air overwhelmed the pungent smell in the room.

"Hm?" Lillith hummed as she walked closer to the corpse. She sat down and stared at the corpse's torso and head closely, inspecting every inch of the unclothed body.

"What is it?" Agnez asked with her arms crossed.

"This is the shaman," Lillith answered as she turned her head and looked at Agnez with a surprised expression. "I recognize this necklace, and the bracelet," Lillith pointed at the necklace with small bronze triangles hanging from the corpse's neck.

"Any ideas why the shaman is ended up inside the tomb?" Agnez asked Manna who looked a bit confused.

"It's black magic, and it's either they sacrificed someone else or sacrificed themselves in exchange to gain something," Manna answered with her arms rested on her waist. "The real question is why he sacrificed himself before he could even conquer Minak's tribe?" Manna continued.

"Let's destroy the rest of this shaman's body first, we don't want this thing to come back to life again and make trouble later," Agnez said as she crushed the shaman's skull with her boots.

While they were busy destroying the shaman's body and thinking about why the Shaman had decided to sacrifice themselves, they heard a blood-curdling war cry from outside the temple and the sound of a drum.

"That war cry," Manna said as she looked at the hole. "It's the Ung tribe," Manna looked at Rami.

Manna hurriedly climbed up and left the temple with Rami following her from behind. The rest of them followed them after they took care of the shaman's corpse and left the temple, not having a clue as to what they were going to see.

Agnez looked at Manna and Rami and saw them walking down the stairs with their left arms up to greet the Ung tribe. There were at least a hundred of them surrounding the temple and they all wore the similar headband that Minak gave them.

A tall, thin man with a long feather headband and brown cape walked slowly toward Manna, looking at her with a confused and questioning look. Until he realized it was Manna, he looked at her with a shocked expression.

"Manna?!" The guy said with a smile on his face.

"I'm so glad that you're still alive, Citall," Manna said and smiled back at him with a warm smile.

"When did you come back?" Citall asked as he looked at Agnez and the others who stood on the stairs and stared at him with a straight face.

"Yesterday. I found out about what happened to your world from Minak. We are here right now to kill the shaman but turns out he sacrificed himself to set black magic around this temple," Manna answered as she pointed at the temple. "What are you doing here? You know this place is dangerous," Manna asked.

"We are here to kill the shaman, with the other tribes that managed to run away. We are all here to seek revenge. We tried to kill the shaman a few months ago, but we failed miserably, so many died and these people that you're looking at right now are the last of us," Citall answered and pointed at the other tribal people from different tribes.

"You don't have to worry about that anymore. We killed the shaman and everything is fine now," Manna said.

"No, it's not over yet. The shaman isn't just one, there are so many of them. The Puled tribe and the other tribe from beyond the mountain are suffering the same fate as ours," Citall said as he shook his head. "But we know their weakness, it's a totem that gives the shaman the power to control evil spirits!" Citall explained.

"Totem? You mean this?" Jeanne asked as she showed the broken totem in her hand.

"Evil! Destroy it!" Citall said as he pointed his spear at Jeanne, and then the other tribal people pointed their bows and spears at her as well.

"We already destroy it, the evil spirits already left," Jeanne answered as she showed how harmless the totem was by wiggling it in her hand.

"You don't understand! The totem itself is an embodiment of evil!" Citall said with a scowl on his face. He was clearly frustrated by the misunderstanding, and it showed in his deep-set eyes.

The moment Citall said that, the totem cracked and exploded. A cloud of black smoke appeared before Jeanne's eyes, and the smoke immediately entered her body from every hole in her face. She felt as if she were being stabbed in the face with hundreds of tiny needles.

Jeanne felt like her inside was being torn apart, she started to scream and fell to her knees. Asmond looked at her and ran toward her without hesitation, but then Agnez grabbed his armor from the back and threw him away.

"Don't approach her you moron!" Agnez said as she stared at Asmond.

Although Agnez said that, she approached Jeanne who was screaming in pain. Mazikeen guided her and told her to make Jeanne use her sword.

"Jeanne! Unsheath your sword!" Agnez shouted as she walked toward Jeanne.

Agnez didn't just stand there and do nothing as Jeanne was screaming in pain. She forcefully grabbed Jeanne's right hand and forced her to unsheath the sword, causing Jeanne even more pain.

The moment Jeanne unsheathed the sword, the evil spirits were seen floating above her and tried to enter her body. Thanks to Agnez's help, she snapped back to reality and the evil spirits that had entered her body were being sucked into the sword.

Jeanne gripped her sword so tightly and slashed her sword into the air and cut the evil spirits into the sword. She stabbed the sword on the ground as she tried to catch her breath while the tribal people were bewildered by what they just saw.

"Thanks, Agnez," Jeanne said and stared at Agnez from the corner of her eyes.

"You're stupid, you know that?" Agnez said with her arms crossed.

Jeanne chuckled as she leaned on the sword.