"What the hell are you saying?! You tricked us! Why?! Why did you let us come in here? What does this man want from us?" Yoichi vented his anger in a liberating scream.

The dark hands holding the immobilized young tamer cracked slightly and Ogai turned his gaze towards him. "I was forced to do that! The necklace thing and that of my friend were lies, you're right... but the rest is all true! My wife Yako is dead and the noble Ogai promised me he knew a way to bring her back to life!" Hyobe cried. ​​

The man took off his cowboy hat with a pointed visor and revealed his receding hairline. The hair was dirty and sweaty, hanging from behind. His scruffy appearance and sorrowful face broke through the hearts of the three adventurers.

"The noble Ogai only asked me to bring him a young and strong warrior and promised me that he would not do him any harm! When I saw you fighting against Kato in Ambershire, I quickly realized you were the one," Hyobe explained. "You are a good and kind young man, I knew you would help me in my mission! I'm sure the noble Ogai would not..."

Before Hyobe could finish the speech, he turned to Ogai. Intending to argue with him about how to bring his wife back, a long arm sprang out of the mud.

The dark limb reached Hyobe's face and a large hand wrapped his head.

*splat* - In the next moment, the man's pieces of brain and skull splashed everywhere, even on the faces of Yoichi and Shioko, the closest to him. "Aaaargh! What the fuck!" Enatsu screamed in panic.

Hyobe's headless body fell to the ground under the young tamer's eyes, partially diving into the mud. What remained of his head was still hanging to his neck, the trachea of which was clearly visible under the remains of his skull, squeezed like a lemon by the dark hand.

"No! No!" Yoichi jumped in terror, unable to believe that the same man who offered him lunch that day in Ambershire had been able to lie to him and had died in a grisly manner in the last room of a dungeon.

Yoichi's gaze rose towards the hooded face of the Void Summoner. Behind him, even his companions looked at that evil man. He oozed terror and anguish and it was enough to be near him to feel a glacial cold.

"What the fuck did you do?! Why did you kill him?!" Yoichi exclaimed. The young tamer, from that moment, realized that if he did not find a way to free himself from those stone arms, he and his friends would be the next.

"Tsk! What an idiot. You people of Tentochus are so easy to persuade. Even a child would know that bringing someone to life requires an incredible knowledge of the ancient shamanic arts. Why did I kill him? Well, that seems pretty obvious to me. I let you look at his eyes and share his pain before making him disappear forever," Ogai affirmed coldly, starting again to walk slowly.

Step by step, the man in the black hood approached the sleeping beast. Meanwhile, poor Hyobe's corpse slowly sank into the mud, as if that substance was progressively consuming it.

He used the weaknesses of a desperate man to achieve his goals! In addition, he managed to perfectly control this stinking mud, giving it the shapes it pleased and using it as a deadly weapon! Yoichi suddenly realized. As his heart beat hard in his chest because of the acute anger, Kenji watched him from afar, waiting for orders.

From the way he keeps talking about us 'Tentochu people', his provenance seems pretty obvious to me. This son of a bitch comes from Kamakiri and must be stopped immediately. If we kill him, maybe the black mud will disappear and the people of Blackborough and those in the other southern countries will be saved.

"Now that that crippled man can no longer annoy me with his useless requests, let's get back to us. I've crossed half the world to get here. You and your archer friend are great candidates to continue the work I started," Ogai explained, crossing his hands behind his back.

"Oh, of course... free me and I will help you right away. I help you disappear from this world!" Shioko barked, waving her arms and legs without being able to move. If Nobu and the other demons had intervened to save their tamers, Ogai would have attacked them, killing them all.

The power of that ambiguous man with arcane presence was incredibly powerful. His dark and cold aura was so intense that it weighed down the surrounding air, leaving the three tamers in a state of deep anguish.

The Void Summoner named Ogai was much stronger than them. Perhaps his magic was comparable to that of a Goldhaven guild master. Yoichi did not stop for a moment to feel that negative energy and began to study every movement of the enemy, letting him speak to gain some time.

"I like you, girl. I will know how to exploit all that anger, you will be of great help" Ogai stated, raising his arm and pointing a finger at the helpless Shioko. "So... I'm here because I've been given a specific mission. I intend to make you an offer that will change your lives forever, devolving them to a greater power... in the service of the more powerful being of the known world of Lumya!"

Raising the tone of his voice and underlining his madness and lack of self-control, Ogai had everyone's eyes pointed at him.

"Lady Tamiko, the faithful counselor to the Supreme Emperor of Kamakiri, has instructed me to create a new army of loyal soldiers and spread the Blackblood throughout Tentochu! Your aura is very strong... you two will be the first candidates for the regeneration process!"

After those unexpected words, Yoichi and his companions turned their heads enough to look each other in the eye. Enatsu, again, was not part of Ogai's speech. Why? What did that evil man have in mind for the merchant tamer?

"Honorbly abandon your lives and give your soul and body to the Immortal Emperor of Kamakiri... or... die here and now!"