ML C8, P1- "A Hero's Return"

"A Hero's Return" is the first Part of "Miracula Luxia" 's eighth Chapter- "For Whom The Bell Tolls". It was released on 22.03.2020.
== Plot ==
Our hero Jared Kaos returns to his hometown- the majestic city of Paris, expecting to find a safe refuge for his family and friends from the forces of Farrar, with guards walking on the streets all the time.
Instead, he finds an abandoned town, seemingly left behind by looters and bandits- an absolute heaven for them.
How will he deal with this new change? And, most importantly, will he survive a trip around his hometown without getting slain?
== Story ==
Jared is instantly teleported to hometown. Seconds after that happens, his head still feels a little bit dizzy.
"Oh my."- He mumbles- "Where... am I?"
He blinks a few times and looks up. It seems like he is in a room and the door that leads outside is locked.
Jared remembers what his father told him a few years ago about locked doors: 
"When you find a locked door, don't panic. Stay calm and try to find a way to get it to open for you- whether by using brute force or simply by using something to unlock it, by using a key or maybe even a lockpick... "
"Lockpick... "
"Lockpick... "
Jared gasps.
"That's right!"- He says- "A lockpick!"
His instincts immediately tell him that there is something inside a nearby crate. A closer inspections reveals that there are 10 Lockpicks inside of it.
"Jackpot!"- Jared exclaims and grabs all of them.
He uses one of the lockpicks to unlock the door. Unfortunately, the lockpick is very flimsy and breaks once the door is open.
"Well, it still did the job."- Jared says, opens the door and goes outside.
Outside, he sees what has become of his hometown while he was gone.
Well, the city has not changed a lot visually. The buildings are intact, and so are the streets.
However, there is something strange about the atmosphere around the city. Although the streets are intact, they are also empty. There are no cars on the streets, no people on the sidewalks. Even the animals seem to have gone somewhere else.
The city of Paris is no longer lively as it was before he left it.
Jared wipes a tear from his eye and looks around. He is both excited to be here and shocked to see what has happened to the city.
"I am home, at last."- He says quietly as he walks around the streets.
However, he stops as a strange creature walks near him. He knows better than calling out to it and decides to hide behind a corner instead.
He freezes as he realizes what the creature really is.
An Ogre. Here, in his hometown. walking around the street without being bothered by anyone. Or anything, in this matter.
He also sees other, smaller figures in the distance. He realizes that they aren't humans either and that they are humanoids as well.
Smaller humanoids. Green. Possibly Goblins, or maybe Gremlins.
Jared stares at them as they look around for humans to kill.
Unable to do anything outside, he goes into a back alley and tries to find a safe way around the humanoids without alerting them to his location.
Fortunately, it seems like the humanoids are distracted by something outside, making it easy for our hero to go below them quietly.
Unfortunately, though the humanoids above are distracted, Jared hears a few humanoids ahead of him.
The humanoids are alerted to his location and charge towards him.
Jared realizes that his weapon and shield remained in Avernum. He tries to find a weapon and realizes that one of the pipes is loose. He breaks a piece of it and realizes that water doesn't flow through the rest of the pipe. In other words, it is malfunctioning- a good thing for our hero.
He attacks the creatures with the pipe and manages to kill a few of them before he sees what they really are.
Gremlins. Dangerous little beasts that are able to charm or terrify their enemies with powerful spells. However, some of them are as pathetic as the regular goblins- unable to cast spells, don't hit very hard and are easy to kill by even the most inexperienced adventurers.
"Let's do this."- Jared says and approches the rest of the Gremlins without fearing an encounter with them.
One of the gremlins tries to charm Jared, but fails and dies when our hero bashes his head with the pipe.
Two of the gremlins try to pounce on him. However, Jared turns around just in time, managing to instantly bash one of the gremlins's head in.
The other gremlin tries to take his weapon, but doesn't realize the fact that Jared knows spells. The humanoid grabs Jared's weapon, laughs and charges at him.
Jared doesn't try to run away. Instead, he simply steps back a bit and prepares to cast a spell at the approaching gremlin.
In a few moments of time, he casts the intended spell- a huge fireball. Using its immense power, he manages to direct it towards the gremlin.
The small humanoid tries to run away, but the fireball finishes it off before it could even make the first step away from it.
Jared stares at the corpses of the gremlins and picks up his weapon, satisfied with his recent kills.
"Now this is a job that I can call "well done"."- He congratulates himself- "Now I shall go outside and see what I can do."
He goes up the stairs and realizes that he is surrounded. Somehow, the humanoids heard him battle the gremlins down in the sewers and waited for him outside.
Two of the ogres try to capture him. However, before they could even get close to him, two arrows fly towards them and strike them in the back of the head.
The other ogres turn around to see who did this, but get shot down as well by the mysterious attackers.
One of the attackers approaches Jared and grabs his arm.
"Come with us if you want to live."- He whispers to him.
The people take Jared to a secluded home. Once he is in there, they leave him alone. A man approaches him afterwards.
Jared smiles as he realizes that the man is a familiar person.
"Mr. Jones!"- He says.
Yes. Exactly. The person who is standing in front of Jared... is Gareth Jones. The former commander of Fort Duvno, the fort that got destroyed by members of the late Order of the Black Fist one year ago.
Gareth smiles back.
"Welcome, Jared. We've been expecting you."
" "We" ?"
Gareth nods.
"Yes. We. Me and someone you really care about."
It is at this moment that Jared realizes that someone is coming down the stairs.
He recognizes the person as a member of his family.
"Mom."- He says as his mother slowly approaches him.
== Trivia ==
* This is possibly one of the shortest Parts in the whole "Miracula Luxia" series overall.