"There are 17 wielders here" Mane mumbled as he tried as much as he could to blend with the dark corners of the room.
"How do you know that?" Selina wondered. She could only see 3 people patrolling the area.
"I can feel them" Mane answered. "I'd explain everything later" Mane quickly added before she could ask any more questions. He started wishing he had the twins rather. At least the twins knew not to ask so many questions during missions. They knew how to be quiet when they needed to. But Abe needed backup with his mission so even if he wanted the twins he wouldn't have had them.
Frederick nudged Selina with his elbow and shook his head. He had never done anything of this nature before. He had never been on 'missions' before. But he at least had the common knowledge that he had to be quiet when there were enemies patrolling the area.
"Stay here" Mane ordered. He couldn't use Una Cum Natura. It was a technique that was ineffective with manmade objects so he couldn't use it within these walls. But he had other means.
"Digitos lentiescit" he used the lease that allowed him to stick to the surfaces of walls and quickly disappeared.
Mane was gone for about ten minutes. "This isn't the real throne room" he whispered once he was back. He had his hands on their mouths to prevent them from doing so much as squeaking and giving their position away.
"You startled me" Selina put her hand on her ample chest and whispered. Her ample bosom heaved up and down as she tried to calm down. Mane still had his hand on Frederick's mouth. But it wasn't because he wanted to keep him quiet. That effect had already been achieved. It was because he was going to do something to him that would make the older boy scream.
*Smack*
"Mmm" Frederick groaned in pain and held his head. "Stop ogling her and listen to me" Mane whispered and rolled his eyes. Frederick was more concerned with Selina's chest movements rather than he was in listening to what Mane had to say.
"This throne room isn't really the throne room. The throne room is just ahead. This room is the only route to the throne room" Mane told the others what he found out.
"What a sneaky man" Mane thought. If someone tried to infiltrate the throne room they would be in for a big surprise. Unless they were scholars like Mane and able to tell that there were several other wielders in hiding, and that the three who were patrolling the room were just distractions, they would be in big trouble.
"It was a good thing we were extra careful" Normally throne rooms were only used by the ruling monarchy. So usually as long as the emperor or king wasn't around, once one infiltrates a throne room there would be no security inside. If one went by that logic and carelessly let their guard down after entering the room they would be in big trouble. They were behind enemy lines and surrounded on all sides – literally. It would be bad to be found out so deep in enemy territory.
"With the way the others who are hidden are stationed, we wouldn't be able to get in without drawing their attention." Mane furrowed his brows in contemplation.
"Let me do it then" Selina offered.
"Are you insane?" Frederick quickly objected.
"What do you have in mind?" Mane asked. Selina drew close to Mane and whispered her idea in his ear.
"That's new" Mane's eyes lit up after listening to her explanation. Her idea wasn't bad; it could actually work.
"What is?" Frederick asked. He didn't hear Selina because she had only told Mane. Selina drew close to him and informed him of her plan.
"Are you even listening?" Selina withdrew from Frederick's ear and asked.
"To what?" Frederick wondered. However, immediately he spoke he knew he had been silly. A hand quickly covered his mouth and Selina smacked his head.
"Mmm" he groaned in pain once again. "You thinking properly now?" Selina asked with a raised eyebrow. Frederick nodded vehemently with a fake teary expression which Selina and Mane easily saw through. Selina ignored him and drew closer to the teen to narrate her plan.
"It's risky" Fred said after listening to her plan in detail. "But it's our best shot" Selina argued. "Unfortunately it is" Frederick acknowledged. If it wasn't because they were here with Mane, the young boy would have been able to sneak in all on his own. But it was impossible for him to sneak in with them by his side.
"But once we draw them out then what? You cannot be thinking of engaging them" Frederick advised Mane.
"That was exactly what I was thinking." Mane ignored Frederick's advice. The older boy calmly regarded Mane, waiting for an explanation. In a hushed tone Mane explained, "They have a way of recognizing the death of any of their men".
When Mane and Abe fought against the Knights of the Eastern Sun, they killed almost all of them. They only captured one knight whom they 'escorted' to the Western Empire. After his father interrogated the man, they learnt a few things; one of these things was how they were able to tell if they had lost a wielder. According to his father, god clans had their own methods of knowing when their people are killed. Powerful races and strong ascenders also had their own methods. But it was unknown how the Eastern Empire attained this ability. Sure the Dark God was their backer, but even he couldn't develop such a method on his own. And the Dark Sword wouldn't be able to help him there. The Dark Sword identified its men by marking their souls. It was an artefact so it didn't need any method. So how did the Eastern Empire do it?
The answer was simple – they were lucky. By some fortunate coincidence they had stumbled upon a device which could record the auras of several hundreds of thousands of people. It was accidentally created by one of their research divisions when they were trying to come up with a tracker. So in order to stay under the radar in their mission, Abe was tasked with locating this device and destroying it. The prince would have to kill those in charge of the machine and the machine itself so that Mane could kill freely without raising the alarm.
"So we cannot take them out one by one, otherwise they would be informed by those in charge" Mane explained the situation to them. It wasn't wise to be conversing so freely in the enemy camp but they had nowhere else to be. Besides, Mane had created a small barrier around them to cloak their voices and presence. He didn't tell the other two this though.
"I see. But we have already killed so many people on our way here" Frederick stated. Mane had taken out at least 15 wielders to create markers for Abe to be able to track them. So didn't that mean that they were already found out?
Mane smiled brightly and said with confidence, "That isn't a problem. They are already occupied".