The Truth

The mages in the sky were fast and soon they were all gone. Some people died while retreating or were left behind because there was no way to save any of them.

Soon, everyone that has managed to reach the forest, dispersed and went to the location of their camp.

The adventurers were fast, and just some hours later, they started to reach the camp. Geoffrey was already there with his rogue squad, yet they also suffered losses, two rogues of rank A died trying to retreat from the camp after putting fire on their food storages. Geoffrey also succeeded in killing Thurius, but that costed his left arm.

'He is a rank S rogue in an assassination mission... That orc must have been strong as fuc*.'

"I can see that you took some damage too. How bad it was?" Geoffrey asked while coughing blood.

"Last time I checked, there was something like 3 hundred adventurers alive. We would probably be dead by now if the mages didn't show up." Gremory replied.

"I see... It was expected, but at least the reinforcements must be close to the city by now. The mages came flying, right? And about that, why do you keep mounted? Can't you fly too?"

'I wish, didn't even know that this was possible until now.'

"I didn't learn that, but Cerberus is good enough for me."

"Huh, you seem just like one of my warriors, not a mage."

"Yeah, I was taught to fight like a warrior when I was a child, Robert from the Belhemert Company taught me the way of the sword, maybe you have heard of him before?"

"If I heard of him? Of course, I tried multiple times to bring him into Virtus, he had a lot of potentials. I am sure that he could be at least a rank A warrior if he started the cultivation. But I think he never liked to fight."

They kept talking about the Belhemert Company for some hours and one by one, the adventurers were reaching the camp from all sides. Almost everyone was injured, this battle cost a lot for them. The mission was a success, but nobody was happy, they lost many allies and they were all angry.

Gremory could feel that anger, but they couldn't stay there anymore and he knew that.

"We need to leave now, everyone alive would have reached the camp already." He spoke calmly.

Geoffrey was worried that his great guild was now just a bunch of adventurers together trying to survive, but he couldn't do anything about it and then spoke worried.

"Yes, you right. Let's go."

They started to prepare to move the injured through the forest, after all, it would take at least four days running to reach the city. Fortunately, the merchant guild made an improvised road and they will move the injured with the few horses that were left behind by them.

Gremory got close to the members of the Hjmar guild, and different from his expectations. Danton was still scared, he knew how to treat people and how to act as a leader, but he was afraid of death. Gremory got close to him and spoke.

"Don't worry, the worse has passed, now everything will be fine."

"Everything will be fine? You don't know that, we are alive now but who knows next week. The payment is not that good to die here." Danton replied.

"Stop acting like a child, you know how war works. We turned the war to our favor with the last attack."

"Acting like a child? War is not a common thing to everyone and not everyone was born in the middle of a battlefield, you can be a child but just by looking at you I would say that war is in your veins, I saw you getting the scratch on your face by that goblin, but and the rest of all this? I don't have a clue about, could be even dragons because you just never tell anything about you, and yet here I am trusting a stranger and following to death." Danton was stressed, and accidentally said everything that was on his mind.

Danton was a good guy, but the most dangerous thing he faced so far was goblins and now he was following Gremory who was his friend but also a stranger for him, all he knew about him was the rumors that people talked in the city about the monster.

'So this is why he was so afraid... He probably has heard some of the adventurers talking about me, probably something about me leading them to their deaths.' Gremory has never seen a reason to explain anything to them until now. But the rumors were just half true and he couldn't let them believe in them.

Claire was calm even after all that happened, but she got agitated after hearing Danton and spoke.

"Stop with this Danton, you know he would not do anything against us."

"No, he is right, I am going to tell everything about me, but the choice to believe is yours." Gremory replied and then he spoke about everything that happened to him since he woke up on the battlefield.

It was hard to believe at first, but they soon realized that Gremory was not lying, everything about the abyss, the darkness, the undead, and the Oracle made them feel what he went through, and after hearing what happened to Tuska and he talking with Robert in the abyss. They finally understood his sudden changes in attitudes.

Unfortunately, time was short and they couldn't talk about that sort of thing with the rest of the adventurers. So they went back to Lathrium, hoping that everything would get better inside the city walls.

The trip that took 8 days, now was made in four with the road made by the merchant guild. But when they reached the city, there were no signals of any army or reinforcements.

(Please read the author's note at the end!)