Everything started when We had seen a huge explosion in the horizon, it was to the east of the town we were staying in, by we i mean me Riya a humble girl with a gift in healing magic, Torfick our hunky swordsman slash chief (he is an amazing cooker), madd our heavy weight champion fighter, who makes our quality of life on the road the more so easier by carrying our luggage, he is a bit more handsome than Torfick if i must say too. And last but not least our sexy mage (as Torfick always refers to her) Diana.

Our humble group of adventurers always were together.. i've known Diana my whole life since she was in the same village as me. Torfick and madd we met them when we started adventuring five years ago.

Now back to what i was saying! Ah yes .. that huge explosion.. that is how our most horrific adventure ever have started.

We were having our late breakfast like we always do, you can call it brunch if you want to. Well just when i was about to drink my lovely morning hot herbal tea; the earth shook so violently that my tea was flying from the cup i was holding into my other two cups i was wearing.. I jumped out of my chair with my hand on my chest chanting a healing magic as fast as i could.

"Damn it, that burns"

"Are you okay?" Diana asked concerned and i shook my head stating it was fine.

"What is that?" We looked where Torfick was pointing to see a huge pillar of light, that was followed by a huge bang and we saw the earth itself explode upwards and dirt was flying making a huge cloud of dust in it's place.

"That's a way far to the east, near the mining village of Stonsa" Torfick explained while watching with a frown in his face.

The people who were setting with us in the dining hall in the inn where we were staying at; were all standing looking through the windows, I heard one panicking and screaming about his family being in that village.

"What the hell happened? What was that" diana said looking at Torfick who shook his head in denial that he himself doesn't even know what that could be.

"Should we go check it out?" Madd suggested with a look of curiosity in his eyes. He was handsome but sometimes i questions the sanity of his mind!

"Are you insane?" as does Diana often too.

"Actually we might have to go, it's our job after all, we have a capable people in our group and there might be people in need of help." Torfick said that while picking his stuff from the floor after they scattered from the shaking we just had.

Looking around; people were getting ready or actually had left in the direction of that explosion..

Thinking through this, i'm a healer, there is no two ways to think about this, if there is people in need then I should go help them, that is how mother have always taught me and that is what i should do.

"Let's go" i said while picking my staff from the floor after it was knocked down.

"Riya! wait!" I looked back at Diana who called to me " you don't have to go, it could be dangerous, what if there was another explosion?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm the only healer in 5 days walk from here, what if there was people in need of healing there?"

I know that because i've been seeked out by adventurers ever since we got into this town a month ago, i make a bit of money from that since healers are scarce, not that healers are rare to begin with, it's just that the learning curve is so long most of the healers are old people who don't go adventuring, i was blessed by my genius mother and by me being that smart to be able to pick it up faster than other people i guess.

Either way, i have to go. Seeing my determination Diana sighed and went on picking her stuff, knowing her she would never let me go alone.

Jumping on our horse drawn carriage that we bought by our hard earned money and led by Torfick we arrived at the scene. It smelled horrible and looked even more horrifying.

There were corpses everywhere piles and piles of human parts minced and burned scattered as far as the eye can see.

What the hell has happened, No?! This IS hell here.

I couldn't stand looking and turned around headed to our carriage running away from that scene while seeing people around me who were running towards it looking for their loved ones. Just moments ago there was a peaceful village here.. it all blew up and this is all that is left behind.. charred land with piles of human parts. It was sickening.

"That doesn't make any sense!" I stopped hearing Torfick say that.

"The village here never had this many people!?"

I looked back and took another glance, he is right! This doesn't make any sense .. there were more bodies than i can count.. definitely a city scale of population not a small village.. this was 10 times more than a normal village would normally have or even more. I looked down never daring to stare at it for too long, feeling the presence of people looking for their family and friends between the piles.

I heard crying and shouting and a weird silence.

"What are those?"

A man picked up a weird rectangular thing the seize of his palm.

Another man shouted "these people are not from the village!"

"What kind of clothes are these!"

"Hey, look at this!" Another man picked up a leather pouch like thing, we approached him looking at the thing he picked up, it was brown and when he opened it some stuff fell on the ground.

Madd picked them up, they looked like some kind of money that had so much details and some letters non of us could read. The man took some papers and some hard rectangular and thin stuff from that poach.

"What are these? I have never seen anything like them!"

"Hey guys, there is someone who is alive here, healer come quick"

I ran to the voice trying to ignore the sights around me.. and there i arrived.

A girl setting on her knees with a horrified look on her face and blood all over her.

I sat beside her and started chanting my healing spells but she wasn't injured physically, she was however and badly mentally.

"Hey, can you hear me?" I asked after lowering my hands knowing that she wasn't in need of healing.

She flinched and looked down at her hands then back at me, she wasn't injured nor burned as the rest of the bodies around us but she was covered in blood and soots, she was also wearing some weird cloths that i have never seen before!

Her top had a weird drawing on it and some letters that i have never seen, she was wearing pants like men usually wear. She had something around her neck hanging with two big round things on either ends.

"Are you alright? What happened here?" I asked again and was waiting for an answer when she suddenly put her hands on her face and started crying and screaming like she was in a panic attack.

"Please .... s.. stop! No ... more! Stop! Stop! Stop" she kept saying the same thing over and over again.

[sleep]

I chanted a spell and put her into sleep knowing this is not the time or place to get any information out of her. Just knowing that she speaks the same language as i do is more than enough now.

I called for Madd and asked him to carry her into our carriage to take her back to the town with us.

Torfick agreed and started getting the horse ready to get back.

As soon as we put the girl in our carriage Diana approached us from her hiding place since she didn't want to get anywhere near that village.

"What happened? What did you find?"

She asked looking at the girl and wondering.

"I don't know.. nothing makes any sense there, we just found her in shock in the middle of the piles of corpses over there" Torfick answered while taking his place on the carriage holding the lead of the horse.

Diana jumped on and sat beside me while madd laid the girl on the carriage floor over some blankets we had.

[scan]

Diana chanted her spell and started scanning the girl and in few seconds she gasped.

"What?" I asked her looking at her worried face.

"There is something in her chest area.. or rather there is something missing.. wait!"

"What do you mean something missing?" I tried inquiring her when she shushed me.

I rolled my eyes and waited for her to finish.

You know, it's kind of unfair, why does she have the scan spell while I don't? Yeah sure she scans the enemies to find their strengths and weaknesses so she can utilize her spells more efficiently but i also could use it to find out where people need healing the most or what is wrong with them with a glance. Currently i only manage to heal them by feeling, it would be more efficient if i can actually use scan to heal.

Well feeling is good enough to know, but imagine having scan on top of that. That would actually be really cool, but alas I don't have it. As much as i tried using the damn spell I don't seem to have the eye for it.. it just doesn't work with me, even though healers can actually use that spell.. just not me i guess.

"Madd please turn her on her side for me for a second", on her request madd leaned beside the girl and turned her gently to the side, i looked at diana who kept scanning the girl for a few seconds longer before sighing and leaning back at the carriage.

"It's not missing, it's there" she commented and continued "I thought her heart was missing when I first scanned her, it wasn't. It's just that there is actually an object inside of her just around that area that was blocking my scanning spell" she finished her report on the matter and went silent thinking.

"What do you mean an object?" Torfick asked looking back at us.

"Well! I'm not sure! It's definitely a dark object, but I don't know what kind it is exactly, they are kind of rare and i've never heard of one of them being inside a human being! It's just so odd!" She paused for few seconds and continued "i will have to look it up in the library to be able to make sure."

Well, this is definitely odd! A dark object? I've heard of them from my mother before. They are the remnants of the ancient war of the demons. They are so rare that there is only one of them that does actually exist in this country. Which is held in the protection of the monastery. And no one knows where is it being held exactly or how it looks like.

If this thing is indeed a dark object why is it inside her body! No, no, no! How the Hell it is actually inside her body.

And what do you mean it's blocking your scan spell!

I hope this is nothing that is actually dangerous.