The trail of destruction and death left by the attack scars my landscape, the trees around the camps and a black field where the battle took place. The destruction capacity that this light has is ridiculously great, while the account of the battle and passed on to Raven I can clearly imagine what the combat was like looking at the marks left behind.
Light is an element that spreads easily and that is the reason why the field where the battle was held is completely black as if a dragon had passed through it pouring out a ridiculous number of flames.
The wood, grass and earth scorched to the point of turning completely black is a side effect to a minimal amount of light from the destruction, but it just makes me think there's something missing. It makes no sense for the cultists to advertise their ability to use the light of destruction, it will only make the army focus their resources here and not the slave revolt in the region which was a perfect distraction for them.
They threw away almost all of the anonymity of their operation with this move, only an idiot wouldn't realize that something was wrong with the swordsman leading this attack. The power of his element is proof that he has ties to an evil god and he doesn't mind announcing his presence to everyone.
"Repeat this."
"The swordsman who led the attack not only killed the soldiers but made a point of killing many merchants who were delivering some supplies. They were short on some items and had to buy them directly from merchants and not from army logistics."
"Not that part, what color did you say."
"Red, the swordsman's attacks were made of a very reddish light. Everything that touched that light was charred, we couldn't get close to look for more information, but the destructive effect of this cultist is pretty clear."
Looks like something is wrong.
"What's the matter with the color red?"
"The light of destruction is not red, descriptions of it vary between a golden light and a white light with black outlines that are the remnants of the destruction caused by the light of destruction. This is the first time she has been described as a red light."
Is there something wrong with the light of destruction?
"Little Flame, you're right. The light of destruction is not red, but its effects are as clear as it should be. That field was clearly burned when the light of destruction illuminated it."
"Maybe this happened after the divine artifact was modified, or maybe the change comes from another magical tool used to disguise the light of destruction."
"It doesn't work like that, Wolf, the divine artifact's light of destruction wouldn't change after it was modified and a magic tool doesn't have the ability to modify the light of destruction, the mana or elemental energy of the magic tool wouldn't be strong enough to interfere with the divine power that has such a destructive property, I can't remember even one account where the light of destruction was used in conjunction with another type of energy."
"I am also not aware of any event where the light of destruction was not used in the conventional way, this malevolent energy is so destructive that any other element is incompatible with it."
"But if you're both right, the only other source that could be responsible for this change is the swordsman who wields the divine artifact. And this is even more unusual, how can a mortal be able to modify the artifact's divine power or the light of destruction after it is generated?"
"I don't know, but I'll find out when I face him directly, and it's pretty obvious now that he doesn't intend to stay hidden and that made our mission all the more urgent. We have to directly attack the cultists before the kingdom's army is able to mobilize its forces to attack the rebellious slaves or pursue the cultists."
A moment of silence awaiting the decision of our fearless leader who is now determined to end the mission immediately.
"We are going to kidnap the two suspects we have so far and loot all the documents they have at their place of work, we have no more time for a calm investigation."
"With the current situation in the city most of the attention of the guards and army will be outside the walls and not inside them, with this last opportunity we have to do everything we need to do inside the city tonight will be fine hectic for all of us."
"We will split into four groups as the two targets are quite weak and can be overpowered easily while the other two groups will loot the two offices, before they are able to flee or just hide, we will overpower them and loot all the information. possible from them. Before dawn I want to be on the road heading towards the cultists base, this is the last day we have in this city before it goes into an active state of war."
"So, the period of subtlety is over?"
"Yes, you all have half an hour to prepare for the operation and leave the city, the interrogations will be carried out inside the city by Mia and I, when we finish the interrogations, we will leave the city immediately."
"Any questions?"
"Nothing? Okay, let's start all the preparations. Lobo and Terra both must go immediately to guard the targets. It would be horrible for them to escape before we attack for the night, when everything is ready the rest of the team will join you for the attack."
Volkan and I immediately headed to our quarters to pack our bags which isn't too complicated basically and all our combat gear makes no sense to bring any other kind of luggage. Leaving most of my possessions already stowed away on my mount I went to watch over Faustos to make sure he didn't flee the city to try to save his life.
My target is in my army building pretending to work, I doubt he's the only one in this situation the whole city goes into chaos and basically everyone who works inside that building doesn't know what they have to do. Army officers, but they don't have the power or authority to do anything, so they can only wait for a superior to arrive to start giving orders and they won't even go back to their normal work.
A bunch of bureaucrats who don't have the ability to think straight, I wonder what they would do if the city was being attacked by an army of rebel slaves. Unlike an attack from a different realm this is an attack that has a high chance of happening, the slaves just need a few more slaves on their side they would have attacked the city directly.
It would be a pretty stupid move, but desperate slaves try to win any kind of victory no matter how elusive and momentary it is. Any attempt to do something like that would be met with the kingdom's army decimating the entire slaves and washing the city in blood, no one would be spared.
It's hard not to be sad in a situation like this, but like them I don't have the power to change the current reality so I better focus on my target.
I wonder what is going through his head right now, is he waiting for an opportunity to run away and disappear into the chaos or is he just like his colleagues waiting for orders from some superior. Does he not even have the authority to flee the city? Do you have to wait for permission to relinquish your current identity?
But if that's the case he unfortunately won't have the time to get in touch with another cultist, before nightfall Milena joins me. With that my team was formed with the two of us and Little Flame who technically can't help but seeing how excited she is I believe she wants to hit the poor cultists a few times before he's completely captured.
When it got dark and the city seems to have caught up a bit the workers in the logistics office started to leave, but unlike other days there is no change of shifts. The guards closed and began to activate the security of the almost entirely empty building, it seems that they opted to cancel the night shift in the office.
This will make it a lot easier for whoever is responsible for breaking into the office tonight, Faustos comes out normally what today is basically described as nervous and scaring, this is the most common reaction among his colleagues to just a few of him who are extremely angry with the slaves. who has the audacity to cause trouble.
When Faustos was passing through a dark alley where the only other living being was a common guard more than fifteen meters away from him, we attacked each other, although I was not stronger than him, I still participated in the direct attack, but obviously I was not. the main attacker.
Milena may be an archer, but she was really quick and skilled with that knife, she leapt on Faustos like an alpha wolf, swift and silent the only sound was the air being cut by the blade which was coated in a fast-acting paralyzing drug. Before Faustos' shadow element emerged, Milena's blade pierced her back while a cloth covered her face.
Me and the priestess who should be on guard, but really wants to beat the cultist we entered the fight, our target was Faustos' arms, even injured and taken by surprise he tried to use his elemental energy to attack Milena who was focused on not letting that he didn't even make a sound.
Breaking his arm wasn't that hard and by the time he finished he was on the ground partially bound, gagged, bleeding and with some broken bones. It was quick and brutal; I just hope Little Flame didn't break even one of his ribs when he punched him with considerable force having an organ pierced by bone would be a pretty boring thing to fix.
I would probably have cracked a few bones from taking that punch. With our target captured and passed out we fled towards the meeting point through the dark streets of the town of Canos where many slavers and soldiers are taking their anger out on the slaves who scream for mercy, not that it would work.