"I will annihilate that entire Duskborn tribe! Bloody monsters!" the duke yelled as he walked out of his room.

"Annihilating a tribe is not a solution, duke." Prince Simon said.

The duke turned to him and yelled, "Then what do you want me to do! You saw my daughter in there, she has become all skin and bones, at this rate she will die, do you want me to wait till that happens?!"

I sighed, "Can you tell me more about this tribe?"

The duke huffed, "The Duskborn tribe is a mysterious tribe that worships nature,they are basically witches, they are famous for black magic, that tribe worships goddess Duat and lives in extreme conditions, they perform penance and are also said to eat human meat and do extreme rituals in order to get more powerful, however they have never harmed anyone before. That's why no one was ever scared of them."

"I see." I spoke, "Do you know where this tribe lives in the forest?"

"I don't know, I have never encountered that tribe before."

Prince Simon said, "Maybe we can ask your daughter again, when she drank General Xiao's blood she seemed to have gained her senses for a short amount, this time we can ask where exactly she met that man. And also that man's name."

I agreed, "We will help you, duke, we will go to that tribe and find a cure for your daughter."

The duke looked at us before he nodded.

~~

"Where are we going?" Ayla asked.

Prince Simon replied, "To the Ravenroot Forest."

The entire Ashvald duchy was surrounded by a huge forest called the Ravenroot Forest, this forest was so huge that people often got lost in there.

"And why are we going there?" Azarael asked, Prince Simon told them about Arielle and her curse.

"So," Ayla spoke, "if we manage to save Arielle then we will have his support?"

"Yes." Prince Simon said.

As we walked deeper and deeper into the forest, the surroundings became dark and the sunlight stopped reaching the ground, the trees grew taller and taller and the air grew thick, Haoxuan stuck close to me as we looked around.

Suddenly white fog surrounded us, and we all became alert.

"Everyone stick close." Prince Simon spoke.

As I walked deeper and deeper into the fog, I called out Haoxuan's name, "Haoxuan." When I did not get an answer I stopped and looked back and found all my teammates passed out on the ground.

I quickly rushed to them and checked their pulses, fortunately they were all alive, just passed out, before I could give them my blood, I suddenly felt a presence behind me.

I immediately stood up and saw a woman standing right behind me, "Who are you?" she asked.

The woman  had extremely long hair, her skin was brown and her eyes were like that of a snake, she had tattoos on her face, and she was wearing a skirt and a blouse, "I should ask you that, what have you done to my teammates and are you from the Duskborn tribe?"

She stared at me and I spoke again, "Look we mean no harm, we have come here to seek your help, Duke Ashvald's daughter was cursed by a member of your clan named Eros and we are here to ask you to lift that curse."

She stared at me for some time, before she asked again, "Who are you?"

"My name is Xiao Zhan, I am the son of Marquis Xiao."

"You are not a normal human..." she said, "How come you are not affected by this fog."

I blinked when I heard that, "That is not important, what's important is that can you please help us?"

She looked at me up and down before she finally whistled and more of her comrades came out, "Take all of their weapons and let's take them before the chief."

Her comrades took my weapons, tied my hands and carried the others on their shoulders, a blindfold was tied around my eyes before they made me walk.

After walking for what felt like hours, we finally stopped, the blindfold was removed from my face and I found myself standing in the middle of a small civilization, the kids ran around and some people gave us looks, I looked for my teammates who were still unconscious.

"They are fine." the woman said, "They will be awake soon, the chief will meet you guys soon."

"Thank you, may I ask what is your name?"

"Ziyi."

I nodded at her, "Can you untie my hands?" I asked. But she did not reply to me. I sighed, and glanced at my teammates again, and thankfully they were slowly waking up.

"She is coming." Ziyi said to me and kicked me on my legs, "Bow before her." I listened to her and looked down, I could feel a presence standing in front of me, before I heard the deep voice of a woman, "Look up, son."

I looked up and saw a very old woman, whose face was adorned with wrinkles and she had too many tattoos, on her face, on her neck, everywhere, she looked fierce but her eyes were kind, "I was informed about your visit and also about the reason.

I apologize on behalf of my tribe, our tribe never hurts innocent people. Eros was an unruly child since he was little, and as he grew older his mischief only increased until he went rogue."

"So Eros is not here?" I asked and the elderly woman shook her head, "He misused his powers and killed innocent people, the only punishment for that crime is death, however before we could kill him he managed to escape."

"Then can you help us to remove that curse?"

"Yes, I can." she said. A faint smile tugged at my lips as I looked back at Prince Simon, who gave me a nod as well, "However I have one condition."

Of course she does.

"What is it?"

"I want you to look for Eros and kill him. And also bring back something he stole from us."

"But why me?" I asked and the elder smiled at me kindly, she sat in front of me and said slowly, "From all the information I have gathered, I know that Eros wants to attack our tribe.

The book he stole contains some ancient knowledge, that he wanted to learn, but I denied and because of that he got angry and stole that book, however he cannot decipher the text, that is why he is going to come back here and attack our tribe.

Eros knows the weaknesses of everyone here, he is extremely powerful now, I have sent people after him before but none of them came back, I cannot lose more of my people. I am asking you to help us because I know that curses and magic will not work on you.

After all, who can harm a child protected by Ankh herself."

I was shocked when I heard that, but that only lasted for a moment, in the end I gave her a nod, "Alright, I will find Eros and kill him, but you have to help the duke's daughter."

"Deal."