Meanwhile, Beatrice, Marie, and Tamiko leave the mansion. As they pass through the broken gates, the party turns to see Mizuki coming up to the group.

  "Hey look. It's Mizuki." Marie pointed out.

  "Huh?" Tamiko sees her coming and asked. "Why is she by herself? Where's the rest of her group?"

  "Say, did you guys find anything?" Mizuki asked.

  "We did actually." Tamiko tells her. "No sightings of the book, but I found this."

  Tamiko shows Mizuki the map she found in the mansion. Taking a look at it, the map shows the marks that leads to a tower.

  "This map gives an idea to where we really need to go." Tamiko tells her. "I bet that the book is found inside that tower."

  "I see." Mizuki said, viewing the map. "Then all we have been searching for is nothing..."

  Beatrice looks up to see that the other party members are returning. Saeko, Obsidian, Ferron, Kichiro and Naoko have returned to the group. Everyone except for Shokei, Rei, Mariko, and Lei, in which they have yet to return.

  "What did you guys find?" Kichiro asked the party.

  "Tamiko found a map in the mansion." Mizuki tells him.

  "Really?" Kichiro asked.

  "Is there anything on that map? A clue perhaps?" Obsidian asked.

  "Yes, there is." Tamiko tells the party. "I found markings on this map that lead to a tower, which is away from this abandoned town."

  "Hmm..." Kichiro looks at the map.

  "But why is it that a tower is located from this deserted town?" Naoko asked.

  "Beats me." Marie said. "But this map could be the key we need to find what we are looking for."

  "Which reminds me..." Mizuki thought of one thing and asked. "Where is Shokei and the others?"

  "I don't know." Beatrice said. "Our group was exploring inside the mansion."

  "Maybe they went off somewhere in this town." Marie said. "I just hope they are all right."

  "Yes. I am curious about what they are up to." Tamiko said.

  "Hmm..." Mizuki noticed something. "Sadako did not came back to us."

  "Oh no." Naoko said, feeling concerned. "Did we forget about her too?"

  "She might be searching for that book." Mizuki said. "I've grown concern for her safely. She should not take that long to return back to us."

  "Let's go find her...and the rest of our friends." Marie said to the party.

  "I wouldn't think about that right now."

  The party became alert as they heard a voice out of nowhere. They all turn their attention to the sky and sees someone soaring in the air. The Necromutant, Hauntmystic, makes her appearance.

  "Oh no...it's that Necromutant again." Tamiko said, seeing the enemy soaring above.

  "I can tell that you are all concerned about your allies, including the Emissary." Hauntmystic said to the party.

  "What do you want?!" Marie shouted out to the enemy. "What's your purpose with us?"

  "It's not what I want from you people. It's about what I know what you are searching for." Hauntmystic said.

  "What do you mean by that?" Mizuki asked.

  "All of you are looking for something in particur." Hauntmystic said. "I know this because it's not found within this abandoned pce."

  "To be honest, we already knew in advance." Tamiko said to her, revealing the map in her hand. "You don't have to tell us."

  "Hmmph, so you know where it is, eh?" Hauntmystic asked. Then she said, "Well, it seems that you found your answers to what you seek. However, I will put you all to your grave as I have a toy for you all to py with."

  Hauntmystic takes a card out with a sigil on it. She tosses the card in the air and then extends her arm out to get ready to summon.

  "Spirits of the Dark Dreams Gaxy," Hauntmystic chanted. "Give this creature the strength and beyond thy power that will sy those that are a threat to our forces. I summon you, Amon!!"

  The sigil card gave off a glow and then the card transformed into an actual monster. Shokei's party looks to see that the figure is forming out from the summoning as the monster is making its appearance. The demon nds on the ground as soon as its form has been completed. The demon Amon appears out in a form of a wolf with a serpent's tail. The demon is equipped with two long-bded swords that are big in size. Amon roars in a warcry, which have the party on alert.

  "Uh our!" Saeko said. "Another demon in our presence!"

  "Looks like we'll have to fight our way with this one." Kichiro said, gripping his weapon.

  "Not only that, Shokei, Rei and the others are not aware of the situation..." Marie said.

  "Huh?! Everyone, look out!!"

  Saeko warns the others as she sees Amon charging towards the party with its giant twin bdes. The party moves out of the way as quickly as possible, leaping in the air. Avoiding the attack, Amon turns around and threw up fire out of its mouth, aiming his attack on the party. Everyone dodged the attack and Marie nearly got caught by the demon's fmes.

  "Woah! That was too close!!" Marie said with relief.

  Amon cried out in an uproar as the party can hear the demon screamed at their distance. The fiery fmes are burning up the ground as it left a mark. The party prepares themselves as they wait for another attack from the demon.

  Sadako is missing. Shokei and the others have not come back to us. Without them, this would make the situation even tougher for us...this demon isn't like the ones we fought days ago...all I know is that we're in a dangerous battle that we are in now.

  Marie thought about this as she was wondering about the other party members. Shokei's party gets their weapons out as they go head on into battle against the demon Amon.

  Far from where the fight is taking pce in the town of Amia, Mariko is still inside Corvida's mansion. She is looking for Shokei as she is calling out to her. The looks on the young witch's face seemed worriedas she has concerns for the leader of the group.

  "Shokei? Shokei?" Mariko called out to her. "Shokei, where are you?"

  Mariko searched for her as she rechecked each room on the top floor. Then she went inside the training room. Looking inside, Mariko can see that there is a dent mark on the wall with some debris. The wall has been encrypted with a figure on a person being smmed into the wall.

  "Strange...I wonder what happened here?"

  Mariko looks around inside the room. She looks to see that a closet has been already opened and a maid dress that lies on the ground.

  "Hmmm...I went through the rooms and there is no sign of that book..." Mariko said to herself. "There's got to be...oh right! If there's one area that I haven't checked..."

  Remembering an area that she has not explored; Mariko remembers a section she has not looked into. The basement!

  Mariko leaves the room and heads downstairs. Then, she looks to see a door near the kitchen that has been slightly opened. She went over to check and there she can see that there is a flight of stairs leading downward. Mariko heads down the long stairs and from there, she sees that there is a long passageway. From there, Mariko's ears pipe up to hear someone screaming for help.

  "That...sound..." Mariko said, recognizing the voice. ".... wait a sec, Sh-Shokei?!"

  "HELP!!! HELLLLLP!!!"

  Mariko gasped. Hearing Shokei's screaming out for help from a long passageway, Mariko quickly dashed her way to the location of the voice. She opens the door and finds Shokei being trapped in a gss casket, contained with various insects inside.

  "Ew, EWWWWW!!!" Mariko freaked out as she saw the bugs inside.

  "HEEELLLLLLP!!!" Shokei screamed out once again. Her throat felt rash as she felt herself hard to breathe as the panic is at wits end. "SOME-SOMEBODY HELLLLP MEEEE!!!"

  "Sh-SHOKEI!!!" Mariko called out to her, yelling.

  "MA-MARIKO!!!" Shokei yelled, coughing in between as she spits the bugs away from her mouth. "MARIKO!! HELP!!!"

  Mariko takes caution as she backs away to a wall.

  "MARIKO..." Shokei called out to her. "G-GET OVER HERE...AND UGH, GET ME OUT OF THIS THING!!"

  "Sh-Shokei!!" Mariko called out to her. "I, I, uh, I hate bugs!! They really creep me out!!"

  "I...I CAN'T YELL NO M-MORE...I'M L-LOSING MY MIND HERE...H-HELP M-ME..." Shokei screamed as she coughed and tries to breathe.

  "Shokei!! Hang in there! I'll save you!!"

  Mariko tries to think of what she can do to save Shokei from the big pile of bugs that are all over her. Shokei feels the bugs covering her face as she tries to shake them off, twisting her head rapidly. She even seals her lips when the bugs try to get into her mouth. Mariko thinks of what she can do to rescue Shokei from the pgue of insects. Her eyes caught the attention of a huge sledgehammer that is made out of silver.

  "That hammer...yeah, that looks strong to break a gss."

  Mariko takes the sledgehammer in her hand. The weight of the hammer is very heavy but feels strong enough to break through. Mariko takes the sledgehammer and approaches the casket with caution.

  "P-P-PLEASE!!! UGHHH, G-GET M-ME OUT OF H-HERE!!"" Shokei screamed.

  "Shokei!! Brace yourself!!"

  Mariko holds the sledgehammer high enough and gets ready to break the top surface of the gss. She then swings down the hammer at full force. The gss cabinet breaks through as it shatters and then the swarm of insects start to emerge out of the casket. Mariko quickly backs away as the critters scared her. The insects are escaping the casket in numbers as there was a lot of them. Mariko thinks of something else to stop the bugs from crawling over the floor and then she has an idea.

  "F-FROST BANE!!"

  Mariko cast out her magic as she puts her spell into action. A light blue mist surrounds the room as the temperatures drop rapidly to a freeze below thirty. The insects that crawled out are slowly succumbed to the freezing spell and then turned into ice. The insects are frozen to their deaths as Mariko focused her magic on the vile critters. Her spell did not affect Shokei as she remains stable. Mariko stopped putting her spell in effect and there she sees that the insects have been frozen solid. She crushed one of the bugs and she made sure that they have been fragile.

  "All right! That should do it!"

  With the room freezing inside, Mariko walks over to check on Shokei. She crushed the bugs while she was at it as they have been frozen to their deaths.

  "Shokei..." Mariko went over to the casket, which has been halfway shattered. "Are...are you all right..."

  Shokei looks very exhausted, tired, frightened, and emotionally fragile. She has her eyes closed and her body is still shaken. The bug situation is already over, but the result of the disaster mentally wore Shokei out. Mariko looks at Shokei as she quickly gets rid of the frozen insects that are on her body, easily brushing them off. There, she looks to see that Shokei is in chains. The chains are also frozen solid and look breakable.

  "Hang in there...let me get you out of there."

  Mariko pulled the chains easily with her hand. The chains have been broken from Shokei's arms and ankles. With the chains broken, Mariko helps Shokei get out of the casket. Carefully, Shokei escapes out of the casket as Mariko helps her to get on her feet. The young witch escorted Shokei as they make their way in exiting the room. Shokei did not speak as she felt drained of the torture that Hauntmystic has put her through. The torment of insects and feeling trapped inside the casket was too much for her to bear. Shokei felt her eyes going dim and then she fainted. She let her body fall down on the floor.

  "Oh no! Shokei!!" Mariko gasped. "SHOKEI!!"

  Shokei lies on the floor with her eyes closed. Mariko checks her out to be sure that she did not fall to her death. She checks on her by the pulse.

  "...whew..." Mariko said with a sigh of relief. "Her blood is still warm. Good sign, good sign..."

  Feeling gd that her ally is not deceased, Mariko takes Shokei by the arm and escorts her by walking her out on the back of her shoulder.

  "Hang in there..." Mariko said. "Let's get you to a bed."

  Mariko escorts Shokei as she leaves the room and make her way to the stairs.