"I could hear my father's voice screaming from behind asking me not to look back as he tried to hold out for me." Cherry while hugging her lips with moist eyes.
Her eyes became moist and her voice quivered as he remembered the horrible scene.
"Running away without looking back, I found a small shabby shed and hid there trying to live the nightmare but soon drowsiness overcame me. I dreamt of some kind of slime enveloping my body and rushing into my mouth and I woke up immediately."
"When I woke up, I found myself lying in the pool of dark moss which had covered me from the head to the toe, and as I broke free, I found my left half being completely dark in colour and half of my pink hair had become black."
"Due to the man's bite, I wasn't able to speak properly and felt my vocal cords had been damaged but after waking up, I found out that most of my wounds had healed along with my cords."
The Knights who heard her story were bewildered and confused for a moment.
"I thought this was just a dream, a nightmare but it wasn't."
"As soon as I woke up, I decided to take a look outside but the world around the place doesn't seem to be a place for humans to live anymore."
"People had been twisted beyond repair and pounced on everyone they saw first, they killed people by biting and scratching them like beasts."
Alex and everyone raised their brows.
They could infer about the pieces of scattered flesh and all the limbs from Cherry's words.
"Everything around me was just crazy and soon a person attacked me and bit my hand and dug his nail into my chest. The pain was too much for me to bear and I screamed loudly and to my surprise, my scream became so loud that it blew him away."
Alex stared at her for a moment and asked"Did all the powers you used against fighting us gained after you woke from being covered with moss?"
Cherry bit her lips pondering for a moment. She was still a bit cautious and didn't know whether it was correct to speak about all her cards or not but after seeing Alex's sincere gaze, she decided to speak a little more.
"Are you asking about those blackish obscure figures?" Cherry asked with vigilance.
Alex nodded his head.
"I found out about it when I was battling an undead. This black hand of mine was injured and when blood started to pour out from it, a faint mist rose and took the shape of those."
"Later, I found that with a few drops of my blood, I can make those creatures."
Alex rubbed his chin and wanted to ask about the illusions and dream waver ability but he thought he would better stop for now as there are too many eyes and ears around him.
"Cherry, are those black marks extending, or did you have any bad or violent thoughts after getting in this state?"
"I just have nightmares and trouble sleeping at night," Cherry answered.
"Can you extend your hand a bit?"Alex squatted down and asked sincerely.
Cherry nodded and extended her hand.
Alex took it and started to examine the black hand. From the fingernails to the skin, it was entirely black as if it had been painted with black paint.
"Bring me a dagger."
Cherry's whole body trembled and she stared at Alex with a frightened gaze.
"I just want to take a drop of blood," Alex spoke and patted Cherry's head.
As Cherry calmed down, Alex pricked her finger and took a drop of blood.
The blood was similar to humans except it was black but as soon as it came into contact with air, black fumes slowly started to rise and soon it disappeared.
Alex felt the texture of the skin which was no different from normal humans.
Alex was confused by the sudden turn of events.
It could be guessed that the mutation had happened due to Cherry being in contact with the black miasma.
Alex examined Cherry to be a squire rank and she seemed to awake after this thing happened. The possibility of getting powers from contact with black miasma was quite high.
Since Alex couldn't use holy power he didn't know whether Cherry could be turned back to her previous shelf or not but if anyone knew about this event a huge catastrophe may occur.
'There are still 18 Kingdoms besides this and the chance of an event happening like this may be rare but not zero. If people found out about this, they may try to create an army using a similar method.'
'No, wait, this might be what Lamar and the creature of darkness wanted to make.'
Alex's back became cold as he thought about this possibility.
"Knights, what you have witnessed here is something confidential which cannot be divulged to no one."
"Yes Your Majesty!"
"I believe in you but still it may be difficult for Cherry to trust us all. So, you all take an oath that you wouldn't mention this to anyone."
"Do you understand?" Alex spoke while looking around with a solemn gaze.
The Knights all nodded and raised their sword to cut their hands a bit as a gesture of their trust and swear the oath.
"Cherry came with me. I will try to treat you if possible and if it's not I can at least give you a place where you can live like a human. Just remember one thing, you are neither a monster nor are you much different from a human." Alex spoke with a sincere tone.
...
The first thing Alex did was to bring Cherry back to the barracks and inform both of his wives about the current situation.
Cherry's case bewildered them and without wasting a single moment, Alex ordered his men to inspect the other two cities.
Fortunately, there was no case like that.
Alex gathered the dead bodies of the people and after performing the ritual and praying for their peace, they were the brunt down.
Athena and The Priests started to purify the hardened mass of black miasma.
The Knights lent them a hand by scrapping out those black moss but in this process, some weaker ones were a bit affected and felt sick.
After working hard and running around for two and a half days, things were finally cleared up and the plague that had suddenly appeared in Leonhart was gotten rid of from the roots.
All the things that happened here were noted and a report was sent back to Kinley containing the various events of the battle.
While Leonheart had finished its battle without the help of reinforcement, the other Kingdoms were still struggling.
The reinforcement certainly boosts other Kingdoms' morale and turn the tide but without any valuable knowledge about the situation, it didn't help significantly until the report from Leonheart came.
It caused a huge ripple in Kinley and various orders one after another passed in quick succession.
Two days later, Catherine accompanied by Riya, whom he had left to guard Catherine amid the turmoil, arrived at the barracks with an important message from Kinley.
As for Catherine, she didn't know that Alex had some other plans to discuss with her.
