The Supremacy of Peculiar Dolls

Chapter 11: Divulgence within Revelation

“You!” Stawarski roared in denial. His index finger pointed straight towards the wolf which was standing proudly on the dead creature, The Witch. “How can you kill The Witch?”

            “I was going to ask for the same question, Hideo,” Yeomso blinked in bewilderment. “My sword did scratch him, but it was useless. He never fell down on his knees. But you came and clawed him… and he fell and he died? How come?”

            The wolf leapt to Yeomso and nuzzled at his pants. It wanted Yeomso to pat its head, judging from his glittering eyes. Yeomso smiled at it and did pat its head as requested, then both of them faced towards Stawarski. The unnerved Stawarski stiffened on where he stood his two feet on, eyes glaring ferociously at those two and trembling limbs. The Witch was not supposed to die just because of an attack by a mere wolf.

            “You dumbass! How could you kill my slave?!” Stawarski bellowed and sent off death glare to Yeomso and Hideo. “You’ll get punishment for this!”

            “Why do we have to get the punishment?” Yeomso mockingly asked while pacing forward, enclosing his distance to Stawarski, “instead of you?”

            In split second, while Stawarski has just blinked once and readied himself to fight against Yeomso, the opponent has already moored right before his eyes with sparkling eyes. The detached horn which was transformed into a long sword was magically altered into a dagger – the same dagger Yeomso used to cut Stawarski last time. Stawarski has just gasped in disbelief when Yeomso put the tip of the dagger exactly beneath his jaw.

            “I guess Human’s blood flows the most here,” the expression foretold Stawarski that one careless move meant committing suicide. Yeomso jeered at the victim in his grasp. “Frankly, I don’t intend to get myself into the Earthlings’ business. But, you’ve The Witch, which probably related to my target. Instead of directly finishing you off, I would like to interrogate you first.”

            The wolf crawled slowly to Yeomso and Stawarski. It stayed meters behind Yeomso so that it could ready itself for attacking. Yeomso shoved Stawarski towards a nearest wall to them to lock him. Then he floated his dagger at Stawarski’s skin but it did not cut the victim, unless if Stawarski acted stupidly by grappling and it would naturally cut his neck.

            “What do you want to ask me?” Stawarski impatiently intrigued.

            “I just want to know who The Witch is,” Yeomso stepped backward to give some space for Stawarski, “Tell me everything.”

            The sight was quite nasty. Yeomso without one of his horns was a bad news, and it would be worse if there was no horn on his head. Stawarski was arranging his line imaginarily when he witnessed Yeomso pulled his other horn and wiped along it with his palm. It was stunningly altered into a spear which was much longer than the initial length of the horn.

            “Your ability is impressive, Yeomso,” Stawarski stated monotonously, “I never thought a pair of horns could assist your battle like that.”

            “Stop changing the topic!” Yeomso deepened the dagger’s tip into Stawarski’s skin, causing the latter to yelp in fright.

            Stawarski composed his breath. “All right, all right! I’ll tell you. Actually, The Witch was a nameless wandering creature in The Forest of Eve. My ancestors caught him when he was devouring a Human child, his staple food during that time. I don’t know why he only consumed children and babies instead of adults, but my ancestors have been providing him food from other villages since then.

            “The crisis worsened when the other villages have begun restricting their residents leaving the children and babies alone. They built a building to keep the children away from the villages. The building was located in the big city, hence The Witch could not afford to go there. As the result, he went eating our children then.”

            The wolf behind Yeomso grunted as they heard Stawarski’s divulgence together. Its eyes became red believably because of an overwhelming fury towards Stawarski. It must have longed for its little sister Stawarski has used as the sacrifice.

            “I had no choice but to let him going on rampage whenever he was hungry. The day when your sister was abducted was the last child he ate,” Stawarski shifted to the furious wolf. “Everything was a lie. I faked my concern since that incident because I don’t want to lose the villagers. But I don’t want to lose The Witch too. When I was told about the guards successfully capturing a stranger with two kids, I was on cloud nine. The longer I kept The Witch without food, the more anxious I became.”

            Yeomso ruffled his finger through the wolf’s fur in order to keep it calm. He could not afford to hold it if it decided to pounce at Stawarski. He still has not gotten used to Hideo in wolf form, but he believed the behaviour might imitate that carnivorous mammal. Even in the Human form, Hideo tended to assault Stawarski whenever the latter was vulnerably incompetent.

            “So that was why you ambushed the twins while they were asleep, huh?”

            Yeomso controlled the floating dagger to graze more on Stawarski’s skin. Stawarski panted in alarm as he realized he might really get killed in no time. The breaking sweat on his face depicted his fear, and his shivering legs might not be able to withstand his own weight.

            “Your information is incomplete, Stawarski,” Yeomso tilted his head on one side and poked his index finger into his cheek, acting cute and all sorts, “I still don’t know much about The Witch. Are you sure you’re telling me everything? Or did you purposely hide some knowledge from us?”

            The village head flinched as Yeomso controlled the dagger to graze along his neck horizontally without blood shedding. “I don’t know much about The Witch, I swear! If you want to know more, you should find some clues in my ancestors’ secret hideout!”

            “Eh? There’s more secrecy in your family?” Yeomso was frowning but his lips twinkled eerily, “I really can’t trust you, Stawarski. You’re so full of blarney. It feels like I’m a young woman who’s going to be tricked by you, a sweet talker.”

            “Please trust me, Yeomso!” Stawarski frantically pleaded, “I’m not lying! I really don’t know much about The Witch! But there’s another secret hideout built by my ancestors that I’ve never been there in my life. I bet the clues regarding The Witch is there because my father and my grandfather have been forbidding me from going there since I was young.”

            The Capricorn and the wolf exchanged look. The wolf’s shimmering eyes told Yeomso to try finding out the truth he has been seeking there. It was still considered as an effort – Much better than not doing anything. Deciding it was true or false depended on whatever founded there, and how Yeomso would take it in.

            “Then, do you mind showing us the way?”

            “Of course I will!” Stawarski’s lips parted to smile. “If you want to, now is good.”

            The wolf nuzzled at Yeomso’s thigh to remind him for extra precaution. Yeomso smiled at it and ruffled through its fur to ensure it nothing would happen to him – At least not the fatal ones. Yeomso crouched by the wolf and patted its body. “It’s my way of thanking you for saving my life just now, Hideo. You stay outside. Let me do this from this point onward.”

            The reluctance of the wolf was defined excellently. It kept on hindering Yeomso’s leg from marching forward. It might have sensed negativity from the stinking vibe by Stawarski, but he could not transform back to its Human form because it had no attire to wear on. Yeomso did wear his magic robe but it would be meaningless if The King of Capricorn retained it from joining – he would not provide it clothes.

            The dagger still hovered by Stawarski’s neck – It was Yeomso’s precaution taken. Yeomso and Hideo (and possibly just anyone) would not expect that there was a hidden door behind Stawarski’s book shelves in his study room. A button needed to be pressed firmly for the book shelves to slide and expose the door, and a password would open it. Both Yeomso and Stawarski were introduced to a descending staircase deeper into the ground floor. From the entrance itself has already verified its secrecy, therefore Yeomso had the instinct that there would be mishaps if he was careless.

            Stawarski led them into the underground room. The murkiness curbed Yeomso’s sight, but he did not dare to light up any light source. There would be ambushes from unknown direction, and bringing a torch in was like alluring the enemies to him. His eyes were fixated on the leading Stawarski in front of him, setting in his mind that this Stawarski must have no idea what this room could divulge to them.

            “Here’s the underground room,” Stawarski broke the silence between them. “I once accidentally entered this place when I was still a kid. My grandfather quickly brought me out. So I think there must be something in here.”

            The pungent smell lingering across the room nauseated Yeomso to the point he might puke in anytime. He skimmed around to figure where the source of smell came from, but to his surprise he discovered something else instead. In the midst of infinite darkness engulfing the entire room, he saw an enormous tank filled with water and ‘someone’ floating in it.

            The unsightly view was at first abandoned by Yeomso, however the opinion changed soon after Yeomso drew closer to the tank. The bluish fluid did not only withhold pressure within the tank – it also contained an unconscious thin Human. The physical of the Human somehow weirdly recognisable to Yeomso, and he has confirmed his recognition when his memory successfully recalling several Humans he has come across since he landed on The Earth.

            It was unfortunate to Yeomso as he was about to detach his one horn when an unknown force suddenly landed a hit exactly on his back. He cried in pain from the assault and turned around to see another Witch shoving at him a spear. The attacker was indeed a copy of the dead Witch but with shorter stature and mightier brawn, strong enough to erupt a battle with Yeomso.

            Even though the new Witch had better energy, his skill was an amateur’s. His attack was randomised and he could not even hold the spear properly. Once Yeomso manageably evaded the spear by pushing it aside, The Witch would just swing it back to Yeomso instead of retreating it and launched another dangerous attack. The cycle repeated until he incidentally released the spear, while Yeomso has proudly detached his horn and altered it into a long sword.

            “Well, well, I sympathy of the incomplete version of The Witch.”

            Only by a deep s***h, Yeomso successfully split The Witch into two. The upper and lower body lied dead on the dusty floor, and blood profusely flowed from the wound. It took lesser time to fight against this copied Witch in comparison to the original one.

            “Or are both of The Witches fake since day one, Stawarski?”

            He knew the entrapped Stawarski beamed in satisfaction when the new Witch ambushed him from behind. He acknowledged Stawarski has covertly guffawed while watching the brawl between him and The Witch. Therefore, he witnessed how pallid Stawarski was when he has defeated The Witch without the help of Hideo.

            “Judging from your complexion, I suppose you’ve forgotten about my special treatment right at your neck,” There was a smile pasted on Yeomso’s countenance, however the intonation contrasted the face. “I’m totally disappointed of you, Stawarski.”

            Stawarski has not had a chance to back himself up. He was just about to speak his fear out as Yeomso’s dagger slashed along his neck horizontally in a blink. His final view was the frustrated Yeomso who retreated the hovering dagger and interchanged it back into its original form – a horn of a Capricorn. Yeomso was looking down at him when his head dropped onto the floor. His eyes were grim and sorrowful that Stawarski could not afford to meet gazes with him longer.

            “You were lucky that I didn’t immediately kill you since the day you encaged me,” Yeomso plunged his sword tip into Stawarski’s gaping mouth. The sword penetrated through Stawarski’s nape and blood spurted out as the end result. “You were ungrateful after I’ve been nice to you.”

            The eyes were widened, yet Yeomso knew Stawarski has died. He was a normal Human after all – beheading him surely murdered him in no time. Yeomso transformed his long sword into his horn and reattached it back on his head. He paced to the tank earlier and observed the face of the Human in it.

            It was indeed painful. From the Human’s expression, he must have undergone hellish world down here. Neither cuts nor bruises spotted on his body, but he was literally a skeleton with bare skin to cover the frame. It felt as if there was no muscle underneath that skin, thus creeping anyone seeing him. Yeomso could not think much but Hideo at the outside of the resident.

            He never saw any of The Defender except the late Kai Stewart. When he saw the Human in the tank, he could not hope more than having at least one of The Defender there. He could not bring himself to call Hideo and demand for his opinion. It might torment him too much, like the twins Kouki and Hiroki mourning over the loss of Kai Stewart. Nevertheless, he has not gotten in touch with any of the other Defender besides Kai Stewart and the imaginary Valentin Bauer.

            Valentin Bauer, huh?

            The guards have left the resident after they heard grumble from the battle between The Witch and Yeomso earlier, therefore they did not notice a wolf slipping into the compound. It was not even aimed by anyone while waiting for Yeomso in the building. The wolf sat still on the ground, expecting Yeomso to return to the compound again with Stawarski. Half an hour later, it became restless and bad imagination gushed into its mind. It walked to the deceased Witch on the ground and seized his clothes.

            He had no choice. Entering the so-called secret room was not convenient to him if he stayed in his wolf form, thus he transfigured into his Human body. He did appear naked, but he has been well prepared with The Witch’s clothes. Despite the oversized attire, to him it was enough to at least clothe him rather than running everywhere naked.

            Hideo barged into every room available in the same floor as the one Stawarski specialized in keeping the twins. He found a study room with a widely opened door, believably the entrance to the secret room. Looking at the murky staircase leading deeper into underground, Hideo presumed it might cause difficulty to Yeomso to wander around. It could be one of the reason why Yeomso has not resurfaced yet.

            “Yeomso? Where are you?” Hideo kept on calling for Yeomso while moving forward. He solely relied on his smelling sense in such condition. He doubted if that Stawarski guy assisted Yeomso well in the darkness.

            He finally reach the end of the staircase. There was some light, possibly enough to aid his observation. He scanned around to detect where Stawarski and Yeomso were before he noticed a body lying lifelessly on the floor. Its beheaded head informed him that Stawarski has died. Walking further, another body mimicked The Witch on the ground floor startled him a little, but he ignored it.

            “Hi- Hideo?”

            The voice was stuttering. It was Hideo’s first time hearing Yeomso’s stammer, hence he hurriedly rushed to the scene sensing from Yeomso’s voice direction. In between two aisles, he could see the tank Yeomso has discovered. The reaction was analogous to Yeomso’s, from the initial prediction to the actual revelation.

            He could not hear Yeomso calling for him repeatedly. His deafened ear distanced himself from the realism, but his eyes were fixated on the founding. The pounding heart worsened his irrationality, however there was nothing he and Yeomso could repair. Together with Yeomso, they looked for a method to break the tank and topple it over to take the Human out of it.

            Due to the overpressure, the water splashed out horrendously and flooded the room.

            There was it. The unconscious, thin, and weak Valentin Bauer has finally been found.