As much as I wanted to go towards the source of the light, I understood it probably wasn't the brightest of ideas; whatever the light source was, it had the ability to nullify my only weapon, and if my hunch was correct, it would come for me next.

My first idea was to leave the city, so after going back to the inn and packing my belongings I headed to the northernmost gate, as far as possible from my foe. Some people would say it was a coward's choice to flee, my reply to those people will one day be my dagger in their backs; it's not the bravest warrior who wins the war, it is the one who survives for last.

The streets were mostly empty, the joyous festivities had been utterly ruined by my intervention. The stark contrast between the brightly coloured decorations left behind and the empty streets generated a gloomy post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

As I walked the empty streets the sound of hooves against the marble floor echoed in my ears. I turned around and a frightful scene presented itself to my eyes; four horsemen clad in white mail were riding towards me, their faces totally hiding under bucket helmets save for their eyes, burning light embers in a moonless night.

For a moment I dreaded the horsemen of apocalypse had come to this world, but such was not the case thankfully. One of them pointed at me, and for the first time in my life, I saw magic.

"CLEANSE!" The air around me fizzled and turned golden, I heard something in my backpack shattering however decided against my instincts to turn around. The templar looking horsemen didn't spare me another glance and rode away.

Finally, I could let go of the breath I didn't know I was holding; Avoiding the giant golden light was definitely the best choice I had taken all night long. I checked my bag and noticed the vial In which I had some cupid's bow left had totally shattered, whatever that spell did was targeted at this particular virus; seeing how the other viruses and bacteria were doing fine i realized a great weakness I could exploit to bring these idiots down, but testing would come later, first I need to leave the city.

I resumed my trip to the north gate noticing a few bodies on the sides of the road, most were alive, others not so much. In just one glance I could see that all of them had died of hemorrhagic stroke, the pink liquid flowing out of their nose proof that their blood vessels had ruptured inside the brain.

Thinking back to the effect that spell had on my crystal vial it wasn't hard to guess what had happened to them.

Finally, I reached the north gate, a crowd of people was here as well, probably trying to flee the city for a few days until things went back to normal. Unfortunately for them and me, the gate had been closed off, archers stood on top of it with their bows ready to pull and release a rain of arrows on the citizens; I'm loving this place more by the minute.

Amidst the rank of archers stood a bald man clad in chain mail, his hawk-like eyes surveyed the crowd below. "By order of her highness the high inquisitor Haley, the city of Marle is from now on under quarantine, no one will be allowed to enter or leave the city until the culprit of tonight happenings will be apprehended. If you want this situation to end soon and without further bloodshed, please assist us in our investigations, we are just trying to help you after all."

And like that, the crowd exploded in a chorus of angry voices demanding the soldiers to step aside and open the gate. Naturally, the city guards turned deaf ears to the pleas of the people and kept their positions. What was I to do in this situation if not take the chance!

Hiding between a fat person lashing out loudly picked up a rock and threw it against the archers on the wall; the rock drew a beautiful parable in the air, landing on a poor archer's nose. Seeing the blood drip down from the archer's nose sent the crowd into a frenzy and soon, everything that wasn't nailed down to the ground gained wings for a short period.

The templar guy tried to smoothen things over, but no one bothered to listen to his words, and when a bottle broke against his bald head leaving a cut by the side of his right eye, he ordered the archers to release arrows on the crowd.

Dry *fhwip* sounds of the bows releasing arrows were soon followed by the wet sound of those same arrows meeting flesh and spilling blood. The angry voices of the crowd turned terrified as they tried to escape the deadly rain; luckily for them, after the first volley, the archers stopped.

"I love this place so much," I thought with glee, " I feel like a sculptor receiving fresh clay to mould. Now, for my next move..." I pondered while walking back to the tavern, "Soviets would strike the children first to break the spirit of a nation, however, I needed this spirit to ignite and burn the templar looking guys." Suddenly the memory of the dead bodies on the streets came back to my mind. "Eureka!" I exclaimed with my most malicious smile.

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One week had passed since the orgy festival, the total count of deaths had reached slightly more than a hundred, a death rate of around twenty percent of the infected. People were slowly going back to their normal routines; blacksmiths would go back to their forges, merchants would reopen their stalls and children would go back to play on the streets.

The laughter of innocent voices playing catch echoed through the still half empty alleys as blurry little people ran amok, not intimidated in the slightest by what had happened a few days ago. And this steadfast attitude of theirs leads to the current situation.

In one of the deserted alleys, a little girl was hiding behind an abandoned crate while holding back her giggles, the other kids she was playing hide and seek with were scattered in the nearby alleys and stores, trying to escape the attentive gaze of the seekers.

As she had been waiting for some time there, her gaze naturally wandered around bored and suddenly caught a glance of a bright coloured piece of cloth hiding in the shadows. Throwing a look at the entrance to the alley she made sure no one was there and then got up, walking towards the cloth.

The piece of cloth revealed itself to be a red princess dress being worn by a small toy doll. Squeezing gently the doll she found it to be incredibly soft and so, without thinking twice, she picked it up and hugged it like a long-lost sister, rubbing her face against the soft doll.

"Found Chiara!" Came from her right, one of the seekers had discovered her hiding spot while she was hugging the doll; she tried to outrun him to "home", however, the boy was faster and soon Chiara was out of the games.

"I hate you, Clint!" said Chiara while brooding over her loss, the doll still tight in her arms. Clint just laughed her hate off while showing a toothy smile, as toothy as a smile missing 4 teeth could be. "What do you have there?" Finally noticing the doll in Chiara's hands his laugh stopped, he then inched closer trying to take a look, however, the new owner of the doll had other ideas, and turning around she shielded the doll from the boy's avaricious eyes.

"I just want to take a look!" Clint didn't back off, trying to take the doll with force; Chiara offered a fierce opposition, but suddenly, another pair of hands joined the fray snatching the doll from her arms.

"Franz!" Another boy was now holding the doll while guffawing, "What a nice doll you have here Chiara." Franz held the doll by one of her legs upside down while peeking below her skirt. "Give it back!" Chiara hurled herself at him trying to get her doll back, however, Franz was faster and he threw the doll at Clint who snatched it out of the air and swung it around mocking Chiara. "Help me, mommy! This dastardly handsome boy is holding me hostage, maybe if you gave him a kiss he would release me!" he said imitating a girly high pitch.

"Give it back." A cold voice cut the boy's fun with an air of authority; A older girl, around fifteen years old appeared with her arms crossed and an icy glare in her eyes. Clint relented offering the doll back to Chiara who immediately hugged her back. "Sorry big sis Anna." he apologized in a weak tone with his head bent down.

The peace was quickly restored upon the arrival of the older girl. As time passed more and more boys and girl of every age came to play under the watchful gaze of some overprotective parents, the event of the day was the doll found by Chiara, so all of the kids had a pass at holding it, even for just moment each.

Unbeknownst to them, similar dolls had been found around the city, in total around a dozen, with more still waiting for someone to pick them up.

A single man sat on a bed in his room, surrounding him dolls of various sizes; As he laughed madly he stared at 3 numbers made of light softly floating in the air, and to the growing digits of the middle one.