Urgent message

The group was only the first of many. On the first day of observation, Zemin's squad saw twenty-three individual demons coming and going, mostly at night. Those who came from outside of the Glass Fields often brought with them more captives, the sight of which made Zemin's finger twitch on the trigger of his gun.

The base, like a poisoned sting, injected the demons' venom into the entire 4th Sector of the Holy Dominion.

From the distance, it was impossible to tell more about the base, and Jagger didn't risk approaching the entrance to the dimensional pocket.

Spending so much time motionless, afraid to give out their presence even with a glint of sunlight on metal, was exhausting for body and mind. Jagger bore everything with stoicism that grew from experience; Narcisa spent a lot of time either asleep or meditating.

Zemin grew more and more restless every hour. He wanted nothing more but for the Exemplar Commander to finally deem their mission finished, but so far, there were no such orders. And orders were above all—but on the third day of the watch, Zemin couldn't be silent any longer.

Over their cold lunch of nutrition bars (which tasted much better than they sounded, thanks to all the sugar) washed down with water, Zemin spoke:

"This place is crawling with demons. They could probably even launch a mass attack from here… No, that's exactly what they are planning on doing. They will capture enough slaves to feed their army and then attack. Why doesn't our army attack them already? Every day… More people are kidnapped."

Jagger gave him a sad look. "These people… They will be accepted as martyrs in Heaven. We can't save them without ruining everything—the demons are already alarmed that we killed Uprise and his group. And if the army attacks now—who knows what waits them inside? The dimensional pocket might hide deadly traps or a legion of demons."

Narcisa nodded.

"Yeah, you can even say we are helping them out. I heard martyrs are having much better time up above than us normal folks. Anyway." She pulled a pair of pills out of her belt bag. "Here. Take them and cool down figuratively before your body will start cooling down literally, because a demon blew a hole in it."

Zemin recognized the pills and hurriedly shook his head. "Thank you, Narcisa, but they won't work. They only make me feel worse."

Jagger chuckled and shook his head in exasperation.

"You are terrible at raising morale, Narcisa. Next time, try better. Now focus, Zemin! The next shift is yours. You've been great at observing and noting down demons' movements, so just keep that, and don't do anything rash."

***

The sudden message came at Jagger's radio receiver on the fourth day of the observation. It was in a code that Zemin didn't know, but just from Jagger's darkening face, it was easy to say it was nothing good.

"Squad, we have been given urgent orders. We will abandon our post here and move as quickly as we can to assist Exemplar Squad 7."

Zemin began to pack their things even before he opened his mouth to ask questions. "What happened to them? Where?"

"It's not far. They had a mission connected to ours—they were sent to reinforce several local village garrisons. Then, an attack happened… The details are unclear because of lack of witnesses, but now five out of six members of the squad are missing, and the last one is confirmed dead by local Soldiers. There's certainly a kidnapping involved."

"I guess we are the closest. And we are in a great position for an ambush," Narcisa said thoughtfully. "I don't understand the kidnapping, though. Demons rarely keep Psionics prisoner, and for a good reason—it's like carrying around a grenade without a pin."

Zemin finished attaching his bedroll to the bottom of his backpack and then remembered something.

He wasn't intimately familiar with every other squad out of 15 that were attached to the 4th Exemplar Division and lived on the same base, but 7th…

'Void System, Adia is on 7th Exemplar Squad, right?'

<Yes, Master.>

'Oh, no.'

"Zemin? Esquire, stop staring into space! Are you done with packing?"

Zemin blinked and returned to reality. Everybody was ready to go—how many seconds did he just stand still?

He felt detached—like his body was merely a mecha he was piloting.

"I'm ready, sir. Sorry, I was… distracted."

'It shouldn't matter if Adia was killed or kidnapped or… anything. Everybody is someone's child,' Zemin told himself.

It didn't make him feel normal, but he had no issue following Jagger and Narcisa.

They took a brisk pace, trying to intercept the escaping demons in time. The harsh mid-day sun made Zemin sweat buckets in all his gear, but he barely noted the discomfort.

He heard gunshots in a distance long before he felt flaring auras and saw flashes of light and fire in the distance between trees. Zemin wasn't the only one.

"They are fighting! Squad, get your weapons and start running!"

Jagger was the first one to do his own command, but a second later, Zemin charged ahead.

He was helping himself with a bit of telekinesis, too eager to go there and see for himself that Adia was alive—and the others, of course, but Adia…

Zemin saw something blue-red hanging from the tree branch in the distance and narrowed his eyes—then stumbled and almost fed.

There, near to the place where all the gunshots came from, was a wound-covered man in an Esquire uniform. The hook he was hanging from protruded from between his ribs, but Zemin still sensed his aura—the man was alive. For now.

When Zemin recovered from his shock, he ran faster.

"Zemin?! Wait, what's—Oh, merciful God in Heavens!" Jagger swore behind him. "Narcisa, get the guy down and help him—Zemin, be careful, don't get too far from me!"

The order came on deaf ears. After running for ten more meters, Zemin saw another person hanging from a tree—and underneath that tree, two people were fighting for their lives.