Outside of Liberia city,
5 figures drapped in black were racing in thicket of trees after the battle. " Captain. We won't be able to catch them, the scent and trail are barely noticeable. Are you sure this guy is one of the Aargaths?"Hawk 4 asked as she led the way.
"He was in the city and adventure's guild. With the level 6 special detection spell there is no way he would have gone unnoticed." Hawk 2 supported her view.
"I know." Hawk 3 replied. " It's just that for anyone to be worth pursuit by the Blackwing hunters then they either must know something or have something of critical value." Hawk 3 said grimly.
" What is this Blackwing organization?" Hawk 1 spoke trudging along the trees. " Hmmn, it's troubling. Why would that organization be after such a nobody? " Hawk 3 pondered pensively. "The Blackwing was the highest caliber of the art of assassination, espionage and sabotage. They are basically the standard of the underworld. They alone could have made the Belford kingdom an empire."
"Could? What happened?" "Hawk 4." He shot a stern look but she looked back unperturbed. With a sigh, "Alright, though they were not an empire, the Belford kingdom was still the centre of the Aries continent. Of course with prosperity come along greed, some people sought to claim the era as their own. 2 of those were the church and the magicians.Often called the calamities of humanity.
The first calamity was the origin, the birth of humanity's magic and their near extinction by the elves. After that civilization rapidly grew, expanding all areas that could give humanity rapid and unfathomable power."
" They were scared." Hawk 2 said while running. "Of course they were." Hawk 4 replied, " Its like having a blade held against your neck. Except you don't know when the blade will slice, how long it will be held to your neck or how much time you have left to live. A threat constantly looming." She said.
"Indeed. However, humanity didn't account for it's greed, lack of self-consciousness and control. This gave birth to the second calamity which was the magus Era. Magic was blooming and power fell into dark places and that brought even greater darkness. This era set the foundation for each of the 10 towers, now 8. Magicians ran rampant like gods among men slaughtering who ever they wished and taking whatever they wanted.This brought about the birth of Millennium Twilight, the Eraser he was often called. Rising from Blackwing, he deterred the magus and set a platform for the rise of a small Belford kingdom to a military and an economic powerhouse. His power was unique and unmatched, the power to negate mana itself. This of course sparked even more greed. How much powerful? How much wealthier? Nations scoured the Vlaris domain looking for him, mages overconfident in their power. They were the exception they thought but none of them never returned. Hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands. Until they learned it didn't matter the number of foes the outcome was the same. A second blade existed in the shadows." Hawk 3 stopped as they reached the end of the trail. The 3 gulped silently digesting the information, almost finding it unbelievable.
" Eventually the magus retreated into their towers.The world entered in a calm state. People returned to normalcy and kingdoms began expansion and lineages passed on.
After about 2 millennia, a 3rd calamity arose. This was the church of Minthes. They preached equality for all and inherent worth in every individual. Actions carried by those beliefs are fine but when you want to remake reality according to your beliefs there is nothing but destruction in your wake. Not all kingdoms were believers and thus were condemned under crusades. The church was worse, far worse than the magus because although they were ruthless they were also solitary by nature so their ways did not threaten extinction of humanity.
The church pulled in the masses under the lure of riches and equality but they were just farming for foot soldiers. Yeah, ridiculous as it sounds they succeed.
The church had imbedded itself in politics and held sway over the kingdoms. The war had a 2 fold purpose, to unify all people and establish a holy kingdom.
But what they didn't account for was millennium twilight. He was alive to the shock of many. Two fucking millennia later and the bastard was still alive. Most people couldn't believe it and refused to accept it, especially the church. Once again his power was sought out, it was incredible, someone immortal existed and the temptation was too great to resist. Like a snake Millenium lured them in and once again he butchered them then he became the spear that crushed the church's ambitions. But by then it was already too late. Humanity had fractured, with the church ousted revolutions ran amok. It took 200 years for things to settle. And then there is now."
"Now?" Hawk 2 tilted his head questioningly.
"Linneus of course. Let's stop here and head back, we will report events as is and leave it to the higher-ups." With that they dispersed into the trees and left. Where they just stood was a massive tree 3 meters wide.
After thy had left a pair of eyes closed dissipating into the air as calmness settled into the thicket.
The following day,
Things continued as normal yesterday's disturbances known by few and even then considered less important as everyone geared up for war. The shift was subtle and uneasiness spread slowly among the populace.
Back in the underground hideout, 10 figures sat seated waiting for Kaizen to start the meeting.
Opposite to Nathaniel, Kate was already giving him dagger eyes, " Let's begin." Kaizen shifted his gaze to a cloaked spectral figure.
" Once again my name is Kaizen. I was the commander of the Lawrence plain battlefield. I am a recently advanced grandmaster warrior. Now, I know most of you don't see the point of this little group but which one of you is capable of surviving out there or even returning to your worlds by themselves? None. Therefore the sole purpose of this group is for us to return to our homes. And achieve it before Linnaeus burns this world to ash. Are we in agreement?" Kaizen zoned in any rise in disgruntlement.
"Yes. There is no need to deny the obvious. This world is not long for this universe there leaving is the obvious choice." A banshee spoke her voiced lacking in any empathy. Ezra, the banshee floated while rest remained seated. Her sight was a surprise for Nathaniel he had never seen a banshee before but her voice was grating he thought. " I am Ezra. One of the four generals under her majesty Nylore."
'Nylore?' Nathaniel like most of them didn't know anyone named Nylore and of course they wouldn't. Nylore was ears and limbs of Linnaeus, only those of high rank had the pleasure or misfortune of meeting her.
Killing your enemy doesn't necessarily win you the war, you might win the battle but not the war. Within the battles that took place, a war of information also raged on. Soldiers captured by either side were interrogated if not outright dissected. Some if worthy would have their control broken only to be immediately placed under new force's control.
Ezra was one such individual, she was captured while on recon while no information was extracted given her spectral form she was placed under control of the Rynberg army. During the spatial shift her soul mark had weakened enough for her to break it and set herself free. But she didn't immediately return but thought of another way to accomplish both her liege's and majesty's objective. Gathering this wastes and using them to bring down the alliance of the kingdoms while extracting information from them about their worlds. Her liege needed more worlds to conquer.
While those at the table didn't know much about Ezra, they were grateful she got rid of the remnants of the soul marks within them with the exception of Nathaniel.
With that, " Nathaniel is it? Can we trust you? Have you solved the soul mark or do you need my help?" Ezra asked.
The cat was out of the bag, while trusting Nathaniel wasn't an issue as they didn't trust anyone to begin with, him being a beacon luring danger to the group was not okay.
" I'm fine and as for trust is there any need? I have been in Liberia both city hall and the adventure's guild no one found out anything." As to how that came to be he didn't elaborate and no one questioned further.
" Currently, there are 9 cities in the Belford kingdom. Too many to explore as a group so we need to split up. Each with two objectives; one find out about the spell that brought us into this world whether it can take us back or we need to alter it. Two, the site and materials needed for such a ritual. It will no doubt require immense magic power so we want to in a position to do the ritual as soon as possible and escape. Are we all agreed?"