The calm before the storm

As I said goodbye to Gwan outside the church, I used my powers to detach a small piece of flesh from my palm, which had attached itself to his sleeve. It was like a live tracker.

Actually, I would like to track all my companions, but I wasn't sure if my trackers would be able to live on them before the mission began. Even about Gwan, I was initially not sure and was going to update the tracker sometime in the evening, but everything turned out like this.

By activating the 'gift' I switched all my senses to it. I opened my small eyes and looked around. I was still attached to Gwan's sleeve.

I adjusted my ears, listening to the conversations of others. Apart from that, I also distinctly heard the sound of the forest and fast footsteps.

"So you're saying that it was all a lie?" said an unidentified voice.

I intensified my hearing, concentrating on the words.

"Not exactly," Skell replied, "the part about the reward and the commissioning baroness were true."

"And what do we need to do in the end?" Max asked.

"Baronial Intelligence has recently discovered where these heretics are hiding," muttered Skell, "they recently carried out a series of attacks on the villages adjacent to the southern part of the forest, which has put them on their trail."

I already guessed who he was talking about, but I still wanted to hear confirmation.

"Hmm, is there any information why they suddenly became active? Do they have new powers or are we weakened?" asked the leader of the Red Roses team.

"Intelligence has reported unnatural animal behavior in the forest, as well as the attacks themselves were quite strange," Skell replied thoughtfully.

That was more than enough for me to confirm that Noctua's group was behind everything.

"For example, the village of Karo, which had more than a hundred inhabitants, was completely depopulated overnight without visible signs of violence. And there are many such examples. You've already figured out who our enemy might be, haven't you?"

I might be surprised at the mention of this particular village, but since it's just one of those, I don't really care. Otherwise, I might have thought about the influence of another entity.

"Noctua," Max confirmed. "Where did you get all this information?"

"From the Baronial intelligence," Skell said with an obvious smile. "But I understand that you all want specifics. Max, what do you think makes us different from the rest of the Defenders teams?"

"Huh?" the guy was taken aback. "Are we the best of the best?"

"No, not just because of that. We are closer to Her Grace than to His Holiness, and that is why she decided to turn to us, relying on our ability to keep secrets: we will destroy the remnants of the cult with one powerful blow, before it was found out in the church, so that all the laurels of the winner go to the Baroness."

"And afterwards we'll come out as heroes to the whole town, become honorary citizens and we'll be shoved onto the town council to lobby for the Baroness' interests in Flir, happy ending," Maximilian replied with a chuckle. "Anyway, what's the plan?"

"A combined full-scale assault," Skell replied. "We will be supported by the Baroness's Guards and Magic corps. Intelligence, too, by itself. Starting today, the meeting is scheduled in a part of the forest near Arisland."

"What about their base? Where is it located and is there anything unusual about it?" Max asked seriously.

"It is located deep in the forest, closer to the village of lumberjacks than to the southern villages. Their base has recently been a bear den with real big bears as guards. The bears were probably attracted to her too," Skell replied.

"Veronica, what kind of Cult is this?" I heard a quiet girlish voice. A bronze-skinned slave, apparently.

"They call themselves the Black Dragon Cult, but even to me they are heretics," the girl with the unusual ears replied.

"Do you believe in the Black Dragon? I thought the Nycteris believed in the God-Emperor," the girl replied.

"Yes, the vast majority of the Light Nycteris believe in the Emperor, but I am one of the few who have accepted the True Path on a par with the Dark Nycteris."

"The Black Dragon is one of the Angels left by the Great Ones, isn't it?"

"Not just one of them, He is the very first and only one who did not leave the land of Plancet for the Light World."

"A Light World?"

"The world that the Angels created after the departure of the Great Ones. Frispan's Holy Scriptures rarely mention this event, as well as the Angels after Leaving in general."

I listened attentively to the conversation between the two girls, even though it was quiet. It was very useful information.

Very soon they reached their destination. I could tell by the sound of the crowd.

"Greetings," an unfamiliar voice suddenly said. "My name is Shindler Karnem, I am the captain of the magic corps of Her Grace Baroness Tura Karendrit, nice to meet you

"My name is Skell, I am the leader of the Deathbringers, these are my mates Vector and Gwanrom, we are surnameless."

The moment Gwan heard his name, he folded his hands behind his back. I, who had already assumed the color of his clothes, crawled out of the sleeve and climbed higher.

As it turned out, Gwan was standing behind everyone, and Captain Shindler was not paying attention to him, so I crawled to the top of his head and fixed myself on his hood, remaining unnoticed. I was smaller than a human soul, so it wasn't a problem for me.

"I am Maximilian, the leader of the Red Roses team, these are my partners Veronica and Anji, we are also surnameless."

"Okay, tell me about your powers," Shindler asked.

He was wearing a white robe with a hood and a white non-expressive mask on his face. Behind him was a large group of heavily armed warriors, several archers and crossbowmen in green camouflage, as well as magicians in the same outfits as Shin. All of them were preparing their ammunition for the upcoming battle.

"I am a level four bone mage, a level three flesh and blood mage," Skell replied.

"I am a fourth-level artefactor, a second-level general-purpose mage," Vector replied.

So gradually they all introduced themselves. Gwan turned out to be a fifth-level telekinetic mage, but without special abilities in other paths. Max was a fifth-level fire mage and a fourth-level lava mage. Veronica just said that she was an archer and a third-level artefactor. Anji admitted that she is a third-level combat mage and knows various spells from different paths for defense and melee attacks.

"I get you, I'm a fifth-level flesh, blood and bone mage," Shindler said. "It will be a pleasure to deal with you."

After that, he introduced his people, who possessed all kinds of magic paths and spells, but I didn't need to focus too much on this. After all, I'm not going to participate in the battle directly. But I've memorized this information in case I or the church needs it.

"We are planning to attack right now, our spies have already discovered that the enemy is preparing to storm. We can't delay anymore," Shin said. "Our teleportation mage won't be able to transport everyone at once. The best solution would be to send a distraction group that will put the enemy into battle while the main forces pull up and surround them."

The implication that it would be the two Defender teams that would fulfill that role was abundantly clear.

"Do you want us to become cannon fodder?" asked Max with a very angry expression on his face. The others didn't look too pleased either.

"Hm? I don't consider myself cannon fodder," the captain of the magic corps replied with a clear smile in his voice.

"Do you want to come with us?" Skell asked.

"Exactly, although we don't know exactly how many people they have, but together with me, we can hold them off long enough for my little army to help us in time."

The two team captains exchanged glances with each other, then glanced at their mates. No one objected.

"Wonderful," Shindler nodded.

After that, he and two teams approached the already presented mage and stood around him.

Each of them grabbed him, after which he cast a spell and I temporarily lost control of the tracker. When control returned, we found ourselves in a completely different part of the forest.

With my sensitive hearing, I caught a distant noise.

"They have prepared protection against teleportation, this is the minimum distance from them that I was able to achieve. They should be hundreds of meters away from us."

"Okay, your cooldown is 20 seconds. Get some rest, and then go back. You have to teleport our people so that we can encircle the enemy, get started."

"Yes, sir," the mage replied, after which he teleported back. 20 seconds have passed.

***

I've used too much of my powers over the past couple days, which is making it very difficult to assimilate Alec's soul. Usually, when a soul is absorbed, it can seem like all of its memories and the core itself have become part of the other soul, but they're actually still fighting. This can go on for a really long time.

In my case, the boy's soul is trying to disconnect from mine because of the constant work to perform the upcoming ritual. Sometimes thoughts and memories that aren't mine involuntarily pop up in my head, sometimes I act differently than usual, and only my subordinates notice it.

I need to finish as soon as possible before I have a split personality.

The animals that I am currently commanding are now patrolling the area around our shelter. And the people from the villages are just a ritual sacrifice.

Almost everything is ready. The victims are drained of blood, the ritual circle of summoning is ready. When the spell reading part begins, we will summon a very strong entity from the spiritual world, with which we will be able to give our last fight and escape to start missionary work in other cities of the country again.

People think that our God is just an Angel, but they will soon understand the truth.

Suddenly I heard a bear roar, and then trees, boulders, and dead carcasses of large animals flew in our direction.

We were attacked!