Familiar Faces

After defeating the ogre that had seemed somehow too strange to call a mere variant,

I watched Huey pick up the red horn left where the ogre’s corpse had been.

“…For now, other than this uneasy feeling, nothing seems unusual.”

“We can look into the details later.”

“There are no other concerning presences nearby, so let’s hurry over.”

Perhaps still uneasy, he pulled several talismans from his robes, attached them to the horn, and chanted a spell.

Only then did Huey, seemingly reassured, put the forearm-sized horn into the backpack Lucy was holding.

“It seems the ogre from earlier and the aura I saw are connected somehow.”

We followed Huey for a while as he explained that the aura shooting into the sky had noticeably weakened after the ogre fell.

“It’s up ahead.”...