Riot

After getting a good night's sleep in real beds, everyone became energetic during the morning. The inn was noisy with the chatter of the knights while they waited for their breakfasts to arrive. "Did you see the corpse of the beast?" A knight was speaking with his companions. "Yeah... It looked more human than beast." The knight sitting across from him spoke next.

Every table had the same type of conversation going, which filled the inn with chatter. Meanwhile, Thorn and the others were at the back of the inn with the innkeeper. They were looking at the corpse of the hunter, half transformed into a beast.

"So you want to take the corpse with you?" The innkeeper turned towards Thorn. Nodding his head, Thorn met the innkeeper's gaze. "Yes, we have to examine this corpse in greater detail and determine what happened to him."

With a heavy sigh, the innkeeper agreed to hand the corpse over. "Although he became like this and harmed the town, he was still a person of our town." He spoke while looking at the corpse. "He'd help the townsfolk when they didn't have anything by hunting the animals from the forest." He recalled. "I would've liked to bury him here, but if you lot require the body, you can have it."

The innkeeper looked at Thorn with pleading eyes. "Please make sure nothing like this happens to anyone other." Thorn gazed at the innkeepers eyes with resolution and nodded. "Please rest assured. We'll make sure this doesn't happen again."

They loaded the corpse on the wagon before heading inside and having their breakfast. After everyone had their breakfasts, they got ready and headed out from the inn. Gathering their horses and wagons, the knights finally started heading towards Arcturus again.

Their travel went smoothly. The knights would talk with each other from their horses while the commanders were inside the carriage and the leaders were watching over everything. The rogue seekers were also lively after their breakfasts, they talked with each other and occasional laughter would ring out from the wagon.

After traveling for some time, they finally reached a town while the sun hanged right above their heads. They took a brief rest there and after having their lunch, they took off again. But while the path from Helmfirth to this town was smooth, the rest of the journey was not so due to the rocky path and cliffs.

They were moving cautiously as they had reached a steep cliff with a lake to their right. While the knights and leaders were cautious, the seekers were chatting happily. "Haha travelling with the Sacred Order sure is relaxing." A rogue seeker spoke out from the back of the wagon, relaxing while crossing his arms behind his head. "Yeah! We didn't even have to pay for anything in the inn and for the lunch!" Victor replied from the side.

"Enjoy it while you can.." A calm voice came from their side. Turning their heads, they could see a seeker with his arms crossed and eyes closed. When he felt the gazes of others, he opened his eyes and turned towards them. "When we reach Arcturus, it's the chopping block for us." he claimed. "Isn't that right Miss?" his thistle colored eyes gazed upon Edana while his black long hair fluttered due to the wind.

Edana looked at Kael, the thistle-eyed seeker who just spoke and shook her head. "The Union will decide your fate. It's not up to us."

Hearing that, another seekers who was leaning back fixed his posture and stared at Edana. "Hah!" He scoffed. "The Union deciding our fate? What a joke!" He exclaimed. "Nobody has ever heard any rogue seeker returning alive once the Union gets their hands on them." He looked around the wagon and looked at his fellow seekers. "What about you? Do you all want to head straight to your deaths!?"

The rogue seekers began looking at each other, murmuring amongst themselves. "Please calm down everyone." Edana tried to control the situation, but no matter what she said, it was in vain. The murmurs of the seekers slowly turned to chatter, and the chatter slowly turned to shouting.

"What's going on?" Lonz and Roe arrived from the front and asked Edana. "They suddenly started talking about how we're taking them to execute them." She explained. "They won't listen to anything I say!" She showed her frustration to the two leaders.

While this was happening, Kael subtly turned his gaze towards Zane and gave him a smile. Zane smiled back and turned to his side, looking at Sheils who was also busy shouting with the other seekers. Zane nudged Sheils and nodded his head when he turned towards him. Nodding back, Sheils turned towards the seekers again. "BREAK FREE!"

The seekers also began started shouting out loud after Sheils. "BREAK FREE!" Roe looked at the seekers and contorted his face. "They're about to riot!" He shouted. "Ready yourselves!"

Right after Roe shouted out, Edgar began hurling blades made out of wind towards the three leaders. Roe blocked the attack with his glowing hand while Edana and Lonz blocked the attack with their sword and spear. While they were busy blocking the attacks, Sheils shouted out to the seekers. "Hold on!"

Kael looked towards Zane with his thistle eyes which was now glowing in a faint white light. Zane nodded back and used his shadow to pierce through the right wheel of the wagon. When his shadow pierced the wheel of the wagon, it came to a sudden stop and the whole wagon tilted to the right.

Zane quickly grabbed Slem who was sitting on his left and jumped out of the wagon, which fell down the cliff. Around the wagon, a spherical water barrier formed and while it was falling down in mid-air, the spherical water barrier disappeared, like it never existed.

*Splash*

Even though nothing could be seen falling, a faint sound of splash could be heard from the lake. Hearing the commotion, the commanders had also appeared from inside their carriage. The knights, commanders and leaders all walked towards the edge of the cliff and looked down at the rippling lake.

From behind them, Zane was also looking towards the rippling lake with Slem by his side.

"Tch!" Vine clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. "We were too easy going on them!" he exclaimed. Looking at the reaction of the Sacred Order, a small grin crept up on Zane's face.

---

The night before.

After Zane finally fell asleep comfortably while the slug spread it's essence in his body, he was woken up by the sudden noise of his room's door opening. Opening his eyes, Zane stopped focusing his essence on the slug and jerked up, coming to an alert state.

"Relax brother.. It's just us." It was Sheils who visited him dead in the night, with Kael behind him.