Finally, she sighed after a while, for once letting her emotions show itself to others. "Very well," she said, though she would have helped without him asking anyway. The fact that he did made her feel pleased, however. Even if she would have helped, it wasn't without a price. This way, she was able to see his true colours, as well as get something out of it. Two birds with one stone. Let it never be said that Nine wasn't efficient.
"Loyalty should be rewarded. It is not loyalty to me, but for your people. People like you, who are so selfless, are quite rare in this world," Nine explained, feeling approval for his actions so far.
Even if Matthew had been a more hardened man, the years had taken its toll on him. Constantly being suppressed, constantly suppressing himself and watching his every word had broken him in some way that he did not realize until this very moment. It was when he looked at Nine, who had a soft glow of light shine over himself, that he felt the stirrings of loyalty for this man before him. How could a person be so…
"Let's go," Nine said, not wanting to waste time. Another moment gone was another person that was under risk. Every day, the tribesmen crept closer and closer to death without ever realizing it. "Judging from the state of their bodies, it's not likely that they will last much longer. Most likely, some of the weaker elderly as well as children have already fallen prey to the darkness elements corrupting their body."
Justin and Matthew looked suitably alarmed at this, mentally steadying themselves most admirably.
Without needing to touch any of the four, Nine blindly warped them to the place where she could sense the concentration of darkness gathering along with the water elements. The High Water Elemental's Blessing was rather handy at times like this. What the System didn't state was that those who had the blessing would be more sensitive to water elements in general, which was what allowed the proficiency and damage increase.
Not to mention, Nine contained the High Water Elemental's Exclusive Trait, which boosted her already high perceptivity of water elements to a whole different level. It was to the extent where should anyone ever send a wave of water spells at her, she would be able to stand there without doing anything and escape without an iota of damage.
The two Vampires and two Weres hovered above the reservoir, which was a sight to behold. The vast expanse of water stretched out for so long that it almost surprised her how the relatively small tribe of Wererabbits had built this solely for their use.
The key word was almost. With an application of magic in this world, a lot of the problems that were eminent on Earth were easily solved.
The moment they appeared above the water, Nine was already in the motions of casting spells over the rest of them, not wanting to give it away with just parting the waters.
The four plunged into the water, not a ripple out of place. Not even the numerous guards hovered and hidden near the reservoir discovered anything out of place. These were the tribe's elite warriors, with the finest and most honed battle instincts that had saved them from saboteurs over again, but none could see past Nine's spells.
The water didn't even cause a chill to envelop them. Instead, their skin was covered by a layer of Nine's magic, stuck closely to the skin. It felt more like a warm summer day instead of chilly waters. Their skin was completely dry, and Nine did not use a spell on herself, due to her trait of breathing underwater.
At the bottom of the reservoir was a small, round pebble that looked like it could have been dropped in by a passing bird. It was so inconspicuous and unobtrusive that unless one was staring right at it, their eyes would have just glided past it.
Not to mention from up close, if one wanted to find it above the water, unless that person was Nine, you could forget about it.
"Is that it?" Matthew asked via voice transmission.
Nine nodded, making a come-hither gesture at the pebble. It flew towards them, unhindered. Nine caught the pebble and started studying it. She let out a cold laugh as she brought them out of the water.
Having taken care of their business in the reservoir, she teleported them back to the tribe, crushing the pebble between her fingers. It was instantly ground to dust in the face of Nine's Vampiric strength. Nine blew on her palm, and the remaining dust flew away with the wind.
Matthew hesitated, but held himself back. Justin had no such compulsions. "Will doing that alert that Elven woman to us being here?"
Nocturne resisted the urge to roll his eyes, having full trust in his husband. "Relax. Do you think after all that effort my husband would then alert that woman to what we're doing? Most likely, the pebble only has the ability to release darkness elements periodically, nothing else. That's because such a small piece of stone can only hold up to one function. It isn't possible for it to have more than one function because there isn't enough space to inscribe the runes."
Justin nodded, matching relieved looks with his Master. He was glad he asked, because he could see that his Master didn't want to doubt their saviour but wasn't really at ease just having it end like that without explanation.
"Mm," agreed Nine. "Take us to your tribe elders. We must explain the situation to them. Not only that, the people here still need to be purged of the darkness elements tinting them, otherwise when the Elves attack, it's likely that they will become some form of undead, which is what I assume that Elven woman aimed for when she came to this tribe. Two birds with one stone, you might say."
Matthew's face was ashen. Truly, he was a fool for ever believing that a person who had threatened him with the wellbeing of his family would not contain some sort of ulterior motives.
Luckily, they had met the right person at the right time. For this, he was grateful that he had sent his disciple out on a mission by himself. Luckily, he had failed, otherwise the consequences would have been devastating.
Silently, Matthew reaffirmed his loyalty in his heart, and vowed that he would follow Nine for the rest of his days.
The older assassin attempted to shoo his disciple away, but Justin glared at his Master, crossing his arms. He silently stated his stance, and his Master sighed, giving up. This disciple of his was sometimes too stubborn for his own good.
Matthew led them to a building in the middle of the tribe, where various elders came and went throughout the day. Standing at the entrance, he knocked on the side of the 'door' so to speak and waited.