No one had a clue how such a walled blanket had come about around the castle.
Miss Ruth was shocked as well.

"I shall be back in some time after checking if Miss Sarza, Doctor Fitz and countess Wilczek are alright". 

She traced her steps towards the residential towers, half-sprinting over the moist dew-smeared castle courtyard spread out with stone steps amid grass.

Meanwhile Zani was quite engrossed in understanding what sort of a magical barrier had come into effect around the castle.

He broke a branch from a chrysanthemum tree in the castle courtyard.
Moving  away a respectable distance from the castle gate, he tried to throw the branch over the walls away from himself.

However, as soon as the branch had a speck of itself reach where the wall stood its ground, it collided with the same invisible barrier Farhan had faced.

Something surprising happened this time. 

Rather than flying off in the distance straight from the base of the wall, it projected itself towards Zani himself. It flew at a swift speed aimed straight for Zani's face.

Zani was however, prepared for something quirky of this sort.

Just before the branch could hit his face, he ducked himself, in a cowering posture, towards the courtyard.

He could hear the branch fly through, where his face was just a fraction of a second ago with a snoosh!

It could have easily resulted in very serious face or eye injury with the speed and force it had, had he not gone for the dodge.

The others of the group, who were all busy attending to Farhan, now turned towards Zani with a puzzled gaze.

Zani let out a short sigh of relief, and then gave a brisk smile to let them know he was fine.

He proceeded to pull himself over, and then with quick slick strides made his way towards the place where others were standing, circled around Farhan.

Farhan was in his senses. His head, somewhat hurt from the sudden impact with the grassy porch.

He has been lucky to not his one of the stone steps, or pillars that adorned this place.

It would surely have resulted in grave injuries making their situation even more dire.

Farhan, took to his feet gradually, throwing his hands over the shoulder of Amelia and Zani.

His knees were grasping for balance, the body still in a state of mild shock.

"What should we do now?" Amelia enquired, her face glinting like steel.

Far from those fearful, dim eyes that searched for dangers at every corner, Amelia's eyes were now burning with the fire to conquer in them.

She knew they were trapped.
This place was a whole rainforest filled with giant plantations of dangers and evil forces.

To escape, they will need to put everything, including their lives on line.

But for now, they needed to get a hint at what was so very wrong with this castle after all.

☯︎

It had got progressively colder inside this never ending abyss for Professor Sean.

He was feeling like a living scarecrow on ice.

The shrivelling icy breath that came from around him made it difficult to keep moving.
The stone floor, felt like sharp nails piercing his shoe, at every step he took.

He knew, he could not make the mistake of keeping the holy cross down.

That was perhaps the only thing giving him some strength in this evil world of the demoness.

The distant sobs of the girl, he had been using as his direction compass has slowly died out, leaving him confused.

"I am a human, I can help you!" Professor Sean blasted his throat, out in the air, trying to gauge if he recieves any response.

"I can help you!" He called out again, hoping to be met with a reply as he dragged his feet over the cold floor somehow.

Minutes pass. Suddenly his ears catch a voice, very faint.
The voice keeps flowing out before him, very faint but steady.

With gaping eyes he fumbles as he looks all over around him, hands fixed ahead holding the cross, trying to understand which direction it was coming from.

"Speak louder, whoever you are" he blasted his throat out like a mic, repeating himself again and again.

This technique finally worked, as he could hear and understand those very first syllables coming from somewhere in the void.

"Who is this?"

The tone and ambiance of the voice told professor it must be from the same girl he had heard the broken sobs originate from.

Professor Sean stammers and fumbles with his reply.

"I...I am a human...I have been kept here against my will by the demoness" he shouts out, betting on the hope that these utterings reach the girl.

Again, everything fell silent for a while.
Then again the girl spoke.

"Are you talking of the demoness who used to appear my dreams?"

What does this girl mean?
Is this all just a dream? Why can he not break or snap out of it then?

For a few seconds he hesitated, before replying back.

"Yes...Yes, the same demoness of your dreams" he blurted out loudly.

His voice crackled like duck in its high pitch showing volume of anxious grappling inside professor Sean.

Again, professor waited with baited breath, counting the seconds in the veins thumping inside his head.

Who is this strange girl? How is he able to communicate with her in this abyss?

The questions kept circling him like a relentless pack of wolves.

☯︎

"How long shall we wait for her?" Rexi asked with impaitent eyes as they all stood waiting for Miss Ruth.

It has been more than an hour since Miss Ruth went to make sure the other residents inside the castle were alright.

"We need to go to the castle library urgently, I want to look through everything regarding the past of this place to even get a vague idea what kind of evil force we are up against"

There was a few moments of silence, before Farhan spoke out in a steady tone.

"I think we should seperate out, I and Rexi would go and find Miss Ruth while Zani and Amelia take their time in the library"

Later we can all link up at the library itself, and think of a way of spending the night in a safe way.

"But..." Amelia raised her finger up in doubt.

"But....we are all toghether now, should we again divide ourselves into groups?" She rubbed her hands as she spoke.

"All of us toghether, we are strong, what if divided, we become easy targets for the demoness."

Zani thought for a few seconds before speaking out, trying to balance out the argument Amelia had put out before them all.

"We as four simple humans, are no match for the demoness anyways, unless we find a way to oppose her power"

"For that to happen, we must explore the castle library for anything we find, at the same time we don't want to lose track of Miss Ruth and other residents of the castle, so I think what Farhan suggests will be the best in this situation"

Amelia was ready in attire to present her side and argue for them to stay toghether, but she felt Zani must be seeing it from a very practical viewpoint.

So she took a pause, and then nodded somewhat reluctantly.

"Ok then" Zani spoke out again.

"Let us not waste a single second further, and be on our ways.

Remember to carry your holy crosses with you always.

In case of any danger, hold them close to yourself, they always offer some protection agains devious forces."

A minute or two later, Zani and Amelia left for the Main castle compound while Farhan and Rexi began treading their steps to over to the other side, the residential quarters across the castle courtyard.

Little did they know, it was just their first bloom towards the tsunami of disaster that was going to unfold at the castle soon.