Chapter 9: Cursed Water

Chapter 9: Cursed Water

Zeth and Emily have gathered everyone to explain what is going on.

Having all changed into their day clothes, the five heroes stand around in Zeth’s hotel room. Sasha has new clothes, now wearing a gray button-up shirt with two vertical red lines running down it, and black pants.

Joe raises an eyebrow. “A monster?”

Zeth nods. “Yeah, it shocked me. I’m not sure what I would have done if Emily had not shown up.”

“Show us the water problem you mentioned,” Kurt states.

***

A few minutes later. Outside by the river.

Sure enough, the water is covered in black mist.

Sasha frowns. “It looks awful.”

“It’s even worse than before,” Zeth says, clenching his teeth. “That imp went back into the water and swam upstream.”

Joe crouches to get a closer look. “What is this black mist?”

He puts his finger in the water and immediately pulls it back out in pain. “This stuff stings really bad, and the best description I could give it is cursed water.”

Emily stares upstream and furrows her eyebrows. “Enough standing around, let’s follow the river and see what we can find out.”

Kurt clenches his fists tightly. “I have a bad feeling about what’s going on.”

They start running along the riverside, a mixture of determination and anxiousness on their faces.

“I have to guess that the origin of this cursed water starts at the beginning of the river!” Kurt urgently suggests.

“And how will we know when we've gotten there?” Joe asks.

“I've been to this river before. It starts at the bottom of a waterfall.” Kurt replies.

“Alright, then that's where we're going!” Zeth says with determination.

***

The heroes run along the side of the river for about 10 minutes. By this point, they have exited the town.

As they continue to run, Sasha looks around and sees nothing so far, just the thin line of trees to their right.

“How far does this go?” Sasha asks. “How much longer until the waterfall?”

“Who knows but we can’t stop now!” Zeth replies with a loud tone.

“We should be almost there!” Kurt adds, also with a loud tone.

Unknown to them, a monster’s head pops out of the water from behind and is grinning. Its head is large and round, with scaly, dark gray skin.

***

A little bit farther ahead.

Suddenly, the water in a small section of the river to their left begins to bubble. A bulky monster launches out of it. The bulky monster grabs hold of Kurt, both flying into the distance, through the thin line of trees, and finally landing in a rocky area. The area is full of barren dirt with large rocks and boulders scattered about.

Joe’s eyes widen completely, and his teeth clench tightly before screaming, “KURT!!!”

“Don’t worry about me! Keep going! I will handle this!” Kurt yells back.

The others stop with hesitancy for a moment but reluctantly continue running.

Kurt faces the demon, each staring intensely into the other’s eyes. The demon stands at 7 feet tall, and his bulky frame seems as wide as a boulder. His dark gray skin is scaly, almost like a reptile, but in no way shaped like one.

Demon of Hell – Smog.

Smog chuckles, amused by Kurt’s surprising determination. “Hehe. You have a lot of confidence for a human who is about to die.” He speaks with a very deep voice.

Kurt stands firm, a drop of sweat dripping down from his forehead. “If either of us is going to die, I can assure you it won’t be me. I didn't think I'd ever find myself facing a literal monster until this night. Just what are you?”

“Well, I suppose it’s more amusing to kill a foolish human,” Smog says, rubbing his chin while grinning. “To reward you, I will tell you my name. Call me Smog. I am one of the poison demons and come from Hell as a servant of the Dark Goddess.”

Kurt’s eyes widen, his mouth slightly agape. “Servant of the Dark Goddess?”

“Yes, we do as she wishes, and we see a future where she one day brings ruin to this world and brings it back in her image.”

“That’s insane!”

“But it’s not. Doubt the Dark Goddess if you wish. It won’t matter. Your life ends here.”

***

Meanwhile, with the other heroes.

The other four heroes finally reach the beginning of the river and find a great waterfall.

Looking up toward the top, Emily says, “I believe this waterfall is known as the Great Falls.”

Zeth clenches his fists. “Well, the black mist continues up the waterfall, so we'd better start climbing.”

“Hopefully, we will find the source of this black mist,” Sasha says.

The monsters responsible for the cursed water are demons that serve the Dark Goddess. Will the heroes be able to defeat them?

Chapter 9 END

To Be Continued in Chapter 10: Kurt vs Smog