The Windrider - Pt. 8

Kumi, Alsansa, and Seren quickly made their way over to the other mansion. So far, they hadn't seen any guards. The second building appeared to be as forsaken as the whole town.
"I can sense weak magic", Aslansa muttered, after the three pirates had entered the "bad man"'s mansion the same way they had gained access to the previous one. But aside from the faint presence of magic, there was nothing else the half-blood demon could sense. Still, the trio moved with great care as he lead them towards the source of the magic.
Suddenly, he froze.
"Someone's here", he hissed, but in the next moment, there was a blade at his throat.
"Make it three", a voice hissed.
"Aisuru?", Seren asked carefully. The blade sunk.
"What are you doing here?", Latte whispered, now leaving her hiding spot.
"We found a hint that the people of the village might have been brought in here.", Kumi replied.
"There are scents, but I can't locate them", the lycan spy said.
"Where's Alana?", Seren wondered and not much later, a giant spider crawled through the window and transformed back into the shape-shiter. But before any of the gathered pirates could suggest how to go on, the echo of an explosion reached their ears. Seren quickly flew outside and returned shortly after.
"The Sangue- Padre's close by and the Windrider fired", the fairy reported.
"We need to hurry. What exactly did you find out?"
In few words, Kumi told him about the boy and the "scary room", while Latte showed them the place, where the scents suddenly disappeared. She had already checked for secrets doors, but found none.
Alsansa quickly cut the tip of his finger and wrote some runes on the ground.
"It's a really powerful hiding spell", he muttered and wrote some more runes on random places of the room they were in. The blood began to flow over the walls, ceiling and ground to a certain pace where it formed the outline of a door. Carefully the demon pushed it open.

The deadly silence ended and muffled voices could be heard. Aslansa's face darkened, but he remained silent. Alana changed into a cat and followed by Seren and Latte, she scouted the corridor behind the opening. Aisuru slipped into the shadows and disappeared. Alsansa followed the other pirates, but Kumi hesitated. She was not scared, but she didn't like how it all went so far. It was almost too smooth. Before she followed the pirates, she ensured the secret door would not snap shut. Luckily, there was enough trinkets nearby for this purpose. Those things seemed to be mandatory for any mansion.
The corridor was a dark tunnel leading downwards. After a while, a weak red glow appeared and became brighter with every step. The voices were louder now and now it was obvious that people were chanting.
The tunnel ended in a large cave, illuminated by torches. The villagers were sitting on the ground, singing and swaying. They looked as poor as the houses had implied and all of them wore thick iron bracelets around the wrist, so they could easily be chained up, if necessary. It was striking that the majority of the adult people were women.
On the other side of the crowd, the light was brighter and someone was standing in a magic circle. A human body laid on the ground before the person, blood streaming out of several cut wounds.
"That bastard", Aslansa hissed. If Aisuru wasn't hiding him back, he would surely started an attack at the "bad man".
"We need to inform Riddle about his", Seren whispered.
"We need to stop the ritual", the demon insisted.
Without a word, Aisuru vanished and returned only moments later.
"Riddle agrees with you", he simply said.
"Is he protected?", Latte wondered, nodding at the ritual.
"We'll find out", Alsansa growled. Before anyone could stop him, Jackal appeared, laughed loudly and started the attack. Quickly, Aslansa followed him.

The person in the center of the circle looked up. The "bad man" was an old human, various tattoos running over his body, including the face and shaved head. He grinned at the demons and exposed sharpened teeth.
"It took you long enough", he said, his voice echoing throughout the cave.
"I knew it", Kumi murmured. She moved through the crown, trying to get in the back of the evil mage. She knocked over a woman, but she didn't even try to catch herself. Even with her face on the ground, she continued to chant and sway.
"Release them!", the assassin demanded, even though doing so was giving away her presence.
The mage ignored her. Instead, he started to use the blood from the body at his feet to attack Aslansa and Jackal.
Aisuru appeared behind the mage and stabbed him, but his target ignored the attack. Instead, the body on the ground began to whimper and two more cuts formed on the skin.
"Get the people out of here!", he shouted out.
Aslansa nodded, called forth stone and let Jackal continue to attack the mage. But he had still enough time to make the entrance disappear.
"You have no chance against me. As long as there is one living soul left with me, you cannot defeat any of us", he laughed.
As an answer, stone appeared and began to smash at the door, until the wall gave in and revealed the corridor. Jackal still continued to distract the mage, while Aslansa tired not keep the victim of the mage alive.
The other pirates helped one of the villagers getting up and led the old man outside. Kumi felt a bit proud when the other door could be opened easily. Still, the villager was still chanting and swaying. But when he set foot on the ground outside the mansion, he changed. He screamed in pain, shuddered and look around, bewilderment in his eyes. it took him a moment to realisze where he was. Without looking back at the large house or at the strangers, he ran away.
"So much for a 'thank you'", Kumi remarked.
"Who knows what horrors he'd been through", Seren pointed out and the assassin had to admit, the fairy was right. One by one, they, Latte, Aslansa and Stone brought the villagers out of the mansion, where they all displayed the same behaviour they had witnessed before.

In the cave, The mage's attacks were still not weakened and every damage he received was suffered by the bleeding person lying on the ground. Despite his best efforts, Aslansa could not cut the connection or heal the victim. He knew the young woman before him would die soon if the fight kept going on.

On the Sangue-Padre, The pirates noticed something strange about the Windrider. Some of the ghosts flickered and faded away. Whatever was going on on the island, it was working. unless of course, this was only a new devilry by Rangur. But when Lady Riddle heard him cursing about losing parts of the crew, she relaxed a bit.
"Hold on, we almost made it!", she shouted out.
"Finally!", Sparky sighed.
"Incoming!", Xenxi shouted out. A real cannon ball hit the deck of the Sangue-Padre and smashed into supply barrels, as surprised pirates quickly jumped aside.
"Answer him!", the captain ordered and not much time later, the roar of the cannons of the Sangue-Padre echoed over the water.