Estefan was walking towards the enemies, the Zuriti village consists of three total villages placed in a proper horizontal line. In front of each village to form three total metaphorical walls before entering the City region.
Each village was headed by a chief given the name Zuriti and they were all obsessed with the Demon. They would experiment with themselves to turn them into Demons or Demonic creatures making them formidable for any enemies but Estefan didn't care about it because he must destroy them in order to recapture the City.
He was willing to kill anyone and destroy anything for the sake of his revenge.
Estefan reached the first village, it was empty which was weird because the other one did have people although no longer human since they betrayed their humanity by siding with the demons. "A ghost town." He pondered seeing how desolate the place was but he didn't stop, he continued walking forward until he saw smoke at the outskirts of the village.
Following the smoke he entered the forest outside the village. "It is farther than I thought..." He sighed because this was unnecessary until he finally reached it and the smoke was from a campfire.
A man wearing an old teared robe sat in front of the fire, the man did not speak or even bother to look at Estefan. It was like if this person was in a trance while staring at the fire but when Estefan stepped on a stick the man twitched. The man changed his gaze from the fire to Estefan with a blank emotionless face.
Estafan sat on a tree log placed on the opposite side of the man near the fire. "So, you must be one of the guys who got power from the demon." Estefan asked, with a rather emotionless tone. There was no response, Estafan just waited because he knew that the response would come in the form of words or something else.
"You must be a challenger." Zuriti spoke, scratching his dry white beard making dandrum fall down. "How did you know I was a challenger?" Estefan asked. "Wasn't it obvious? Only a challenger can reach this far. That's how this place was designed by him." Zuriti responded while keeping his gaze fixated towards the fire. "So the demon designed this place in ways to ensure that only strong ones capable of fighting could reach the City." But those words were met with rather a weird reaction because Zuriti would twitch a bit when he heard the word 'demon'.
Zuriti began to scratch his beard again but this time a bit more harshly. "You are a funny one, it was the Duke who designed it. To ensure the weak and strong will be divided by the time anyone can reach the City but alas none has passed me," Zuriti scoffed, "Weak, humans are weak."
"Says the person who betrayed humanity and licked the feet of a demon." Estafan mocked Zuriti before throwing a rock into the fire. "Betrayal? No no no no, you are wrong. It was your master the Duke betrayed us... He was to protect us but he was the first to run, his men who were meant to protect us were killing those who were running as they damned us to be fodder for the Demon." Zuriti responded with an annoyed tone as he explained his situation since he didn't believe that he betrayed anyone.
But Estefan didn't stop, "Sure you didn't, but the way you are now is proof of how you betrayed humanity. You may have rage towards the Duke but still you could have just killed yourself rather than becoming a cannibalistic bastard." Zuriti refused to accept it, "You won't understand, you are nothing but a slave to the Duke. A filthy dog which doesn't know its place." Estefan laughed a bit hearing that. "I am the eldest son of the Duke you hate, betrayed and thrown away. They treated me badly, yet here I am. Not with the strength of any demon but with the strength of a human and I will kill the Duke with my own two human hands."
Those words made Zuriti laugh as well. "So he betrayed his own blood as well. As expected of that bastard but his death shall be done by me." Estefan rejected those words, "No, he is fated to die after I rip him apart." But Zuriti explained how that is wrong, "That is if you managed to go past this place, reach my master and kill him which won't happen anyways." Estefan smirked a bit, "let's make a wager then, the winner will get to kill the Duke."
Zuriti laughed hearing that, "That is the obvious result of this battle but you are unlucky because you have already lost the moment you sat in front of the fire." Estefan was confused for a bit hearing it but he smelled something weird from the smoke of the first but it was too late as he heard fingers snap and suddenly the world turned dark.
The enemy was already playing their cards while he didn't realise it. Estefan opened his eyes and he was sitting on his knees on top of a field of grass, "This place!" He suddenly heard a familiar voice, "Estefan, come the tea is ready." Estefan turned around and saw his mother but only her back as she was sitting on a chair facing the opposite direction.
Estefan saw it, his mother who was dead was now alive and sat a few hundred feet away from him. The place was the estate where he and his mother lived. They used to drink tea outside the palace since it was windy and nice. He looked at his hands and it was tiny, "How is this possible?" He asked himself.
But he decided to walk forward, to see his mother once more. Each step he took was faster than before and he heard her again, calling him and those words, that voice broke him as he teared up while running and crying for his mother.
He ran, he was getting closer but he felt it, he stopped and held his heart, "She died." He said with pain, "She was killed." He continued, "You are not her." He brushed his tears away using his forearms, "The demon's trick won't work."
Suddenly the world glitched a bit, the sky was a bit distorted and the mother began to twitch and shake, "Why are you not coming to your mother?" The soft voice changed into an eerie cry which was monstrous. The body of his mother began to change, the sound of bone breaking, twisting and crushing. Arms elongating in a disgustingly forceful manner, the next twisted and broke before elongating.
The skin ripped, blood dripping everywhere as the face stretched especially the mouth and there were no eyes but only darkness there as the creature spoke once more, "Come to your mother, Estefan." The distorted eerie voice.