Lilith stood inside the bedroom of the Mayor's daughter and used her Divinity.
She frowned when she sensed the remnants of spiritual magic inside the room. If not for her strong Divinity, no one would be able to find these faint traces, which could help them find the culprit.
"No one entered the room," Lilith said as the frown on her head deepened. "The victim walked out of her own accord. If I have to make a guess, she might have been under a hypnosis spell, or something similar to it."
Lilith followed the traces and left the house along with her Party Members. Since this was a mission, she didn't plan to share her discovery with the other groups.
Professor Garen followed behind the group, and didn't interfere with their investigation. However, he was shocked that the Amazon Princess had this trick up her sleeve.
'It seems that the Headmaster's words are right,' Professor Garen thought. 'We might be able to solve this mysterious case with Lilith's help."
The traces led them a mile outside of the town into a nearby forest. What puzzled Lilith was that even though the Mayor's Daughter had snuck out of the house in the middle of the night, she had definitely exited the town through the main gate.
Due to the disappearances that had been happening, the mayor had organized people to patrol the town in shifts to intimidate whoever was causing the disappearances. The Main Gate was also sufficiently manned, so it was impossible for anyone to exit the town without being discovered.
If the Mayor's daughter, Elena, really left through the Main Gate, wouldn't that make the guards that were stationed there either blind or completely incompetent?
"The traces stop here," Lilith announced.
Everyone looked around their surroundings, but aside from trees, they didn't see anything unusual.
The trees were covered in vines, but there was nothing unusual about them. They were regular vines that could be seen anywhere in a forest.
All of the girls activated their unique skills meant for detection, but of them found anything unusual, except for Princess Aila.
As a Life Mage, she was able to detect life force. However what she saw almost took her breath away.
"Oh? So I've been found out?"
A playful almost teasing voice reached their ears.
Immediately, the forest around them became lively as the vines on the trees suddenly sprang to life.
Kenneth, Lilith, Pearl, and Professor Garen immediately took a defensive formation with Princess Eowyn and Aila at the center.
Conan hovered above Aila's head, holding his deathscythe and looking at his surroundings vigilantly.
"It's no use," Princess Aila said. Her voice contained traces of disbelief, fear, and despair in them. "We need to run!
"Run? Perish the thought, my dear. All of you will become great additions to my collection."
Several vines sprouted out of the ground and coiled themselves on everyone's legs and feet, preventing them from moving.
Flowers bloomed on the vines above the trees, unleashing a pink spray.
"Don't breathe it!" Princess Eowyn shouted as she used a powerful gust of wind to blow away the smog that had almost covered their bodies.
A chuckle erupted around them. Clearly, the one who was responsible for all of this was finding this scene quite entertaining.
A second later, Everyone felt a prickling pain in their legs.
The vine that had wrapped around their legs suddenly grew thorns, and injected some sort of substance in their bodies.
Everyone knew that this was not a good sign, so they hurriedly unleashed their strongest attacks in order to break free.
Lilith had used the artifact that she had taken from the Kraetor Empire and covered her body in red armor. Her battle prowess also jumped to the Saint Rank and she immediately turned the vines around them into crystals, which shattered into fine dust.
"Run! Our opponent is a Myriad Beast!" Princess Aila shouted. "We can't win!"
She had already detected the powerful life force hiding under the ground due to her ability, but it was already too late, and there was nothing she could do about it.
When they heard the Princess' words, everyone's expressions turned grim as they hurried towards the exit of the forest.
"Surely, you don't expect to leave this forest under my watch, right?"
A giant flower sprouted in front of them, and standing in its center was a beautiful lady with green hair and eyes.
"A Dryad!" Professor Garen exclaimed.
The Elves were no stranger to Dryads because they coexisted with these tree spirits in harmony. Since that was the case, Princess Eowyn decided to negotiate with her in order to get the beast to let them go.
"Your Excellency, My name is Eowyn, and I am a Princess of the Elves living in the Southern Continent," Princess Eowyn said with the dignified voice of the Royal Family. "I think there is a misunderstanding. We are here to–"
"I know why you're here," The Dryad interrupted Eowyn's words and smiled seductively. "An Elven Princess? Truly, this is a lucky day. I do not have an Elven Princess in my collection. The Gods must be giving me their blessings since they brought you to me."
The Dryad then glanced at Princess Aila with great interest. "I am very confident in my ability to hide. This is the first time that someone has seen through my hiding place. It seems that you're no ordinary girl. I'm feeling a very pleasant magical power coming from you. I'm guessing that you're highly attuned to spirits, or are blessed with a nature type ability. I will definitely not let you go."
Seeing that the Dryad had no intention of letting them go, Princess Aila finally found the courage to voice out her opinions.
"Why?" Princess Aila asked. "Why are you kidnapping people from the town? Aren't dryads supposed to be noble spirits? Why are you doing this?"
The Dryad giggled as if what she heard was the biggest joke she had heard in her lifetime.
"Noble spirits? Sweetheart, it seems that you know nothing about dryads," the Dryad replied. "It's in our nature to kidnap people. The men serve as fertilizer, and the women serve as seed beds. Don't worry. I will personally take care of you and love you for a long time."
Lilith was about to unleash her power in order to turn the Myriad Beast into an ice crystal when she suddenly collapsed on the ground.
Princess Eowyn, Princess Aila, Kenneth, and Garen followed suit as they also collapsed due to the toxin that had invaded their bodies. The Dryad smiled seductively because she knew that she had already won.
As she was about to wrap the ladies and take them underground, several shields materialized in the air and stopped the vines' advance.
"Oh, I missed a flying bug." The Dryad smiled sweetly. "You don't look tasty, so just die for me, okay?"
Conan ignored the Dryad's taunting and stood in front of everyone.
"Iron Fortress!" Conan shouted.
He knew that he couldn't possibly defeat the Myriad Beast, so he did the only thing that he could do and that was to defend!
Kenneth, Princess Aila, Princess Eowyn, Lilith, Kenneth, and Garen, were enclosed in a steel dome. After everyone had been safely stored inside his Iron Fortress, Conan flew towards the fortress and became one with it.
'This is the first time I'm going to do this,' Conan thought. 'I hope it works.'
The Dryad frowned and lashed at the Steel ball with a thorned whip, with the intention of breaking it apart, but the attacks only caused a deep dent to appear on its surface.
Suddenly, the steel dome shook and started to grow metallic spikes on its surface.
"I'm Rolling!"
Conan's mighty shout reverberated in the forest as the three-meter tall spiked ball started to roll away, destroying the trees in its path. The war cry was other than Kasogonaga's signature battle cry before it wreaked destruction.
The Devil Familiar knew that he wasn't good when it comes to offensive attacks, so it decided to imitate the rainbow-colored Anteater's move, in order to compensate for his lack of offensive prowess.
The Dryad sneered as she followed the speeding wreckingball that was spreading destruction in its wake.
As a Myriad Beast that had roamed the Central Continent for many years, it was confident that this pitiful attempt to escape her would be in vain.
