After the sun rose. Me, Volkan and Milena were eating dry rations as the rest of the team approached. During the night Volkan and Milena were supposed to take turns watching, but as Volkan was busy digging tunes at dawn and would need a good rest before dawn.
It ended up being left to Milena and I to watch over the forest, I was still lucky enough to sleep a few hours before sunrise, but I still feel a little tired despite having my energy reversals almost complete.
It's hard to maintain my peak state during such a long and tiring trip, I really miss a bed, but I think this mission is finally coming to an end.
I wonder how the war is going, since we met the bishop, we haven't had a chance to hear about the conflict, but I doubt that anything great has happened other than many deaths.
As the rest of the group approached, I got a good look at Little Flame, it looks like she had just as bad a night or even worse than I did. Her face is hidden by her mask, but her slow flow of aura tells me she couldn't rest well, but I doubt that was because she was so excited to find the divine artifact today.
"Okay, let's start reconnaissance. Earth, tunnel really deep unless those cretins have laid too many underground traps. Wolf, beware."
It seems that Raven has no interest in staying here any longer. Volkan started to tunnel and I followed right behind him focusing my vision forward, activating any alarms now would be really detrimental to the plan.
We slip past the cult's first layer of security, but that's not shocking since we're so many feet underground that it would be fucking weird to be noticed by the lookouts above the pine trees.
As I pass the edge of the forest and start to navigate under the deep roots of the pine trees, I don't see even a type of mana beyond the natural of this environment, it seems that the cult doesn't even put a defense under the ground, maybe they don't have a mage good enough to do this without disturbing the forest environment.
Our underground walk was as slow as ever, but right behind us the rest of the team was lining up a good distance apart in case anything happens to the narrow tunnel Volkan is creating. It's nice to have a space for everyone to be able to protect themselves if the tunnel is destroyed.
The cultists' base became visible once we got close enough and taking into account the time it took to get here, the base's location and deep into the forest. It's not the center of it, but it's pretty close and the number of cultists in it is really high.
This is without a doubt the biggest cult base in this realm, it is almost three times the size of the others and a fortified structure of high level and in different ways.
The shape of the base is very clear to me, even if it is quite far away, but the entire base is very difficult to analyze. I don't know what kind of material was used but the mana and elemental energy inside the base and very restricted by it, I think that's how they keep the forest alive up there, because even with this layer or layers of insulation I can see a lot of energy black inside that base.
This really is a cult managed and led by necromancers or death elemental mages, but this is nothing new, if it were another type of cultists, they wouldn't be interested in stealing slaves or staying close to the battlefield which is basically a huge cemetery that It will only expand over time.
I don't know what these walls are clad or made of, but I doubt it's a cheap or common material. The cult must have invested a great deal of money and resources in this base, it's almost a shame that the templars will find their base.
Unlike the rest of the forest, the land around the base was littered with defensive runic arrangements and a few alarm clocks. Invading the base by land is impossible, but the biggest problem is that the lit location on the surface is also completely covered in runic arrangements that form a huge rune matrix.
The defense on this base is complete, I don't see any area that isn't covered with some kind of rune. The cultists must have taken months to engrave that many runes or have a small army of rune craftsmen, the only other option would be for a rune grandmaster to have worked for the cult, but this is highly unlikely even if the cult created a rune grandmaster.
They wouldn't risk using such an important resource on a realm in such a chaotic situation, the identity and importance of a great runemaster is so great that it's not worth risking him in an operation of this size.
In the current situation I only let Volkan continue his tunnel to be a few meters from the first layer of impenetrable security of the cultists' base, but that would be risky to alert the cultists and it would be less complicated to say that I was able to 'track' so well a place where material of this type was used.
I don't know what the normal reaction is, but try to play in the safest scenario. I found the problem, but it was pretty close to giving shit.
Nodding to Raven, she approached me and Volkan.
"What is the problem?"
"We can't go around ahead."
"No way around, the land from now on has an abnormal amount of mana and elemental energy. It doesn't look as big as it should anymore and obviously more than usual."
"Wolf?"
"I think it's some insulating material, Earth is completely right about the abnormality in front of us, but the biggest problem is that it should cover the next few meters of earth up to the base structure."
"I see, position the tunnel directly into a large room at the base of the cult. We are not going to invade, but it would be nice to have a tunnel ready to invade the base, it will make life easier for the templars."
"OK."
"Okay."
As we compressed Raven's order, I took advantage of looking at the cult base from different angles to see if it would affect my field of vision. And reality proved in my favor, as I looked at it from different angles, I could see more features from within the base of the cult.
Despite still not being able to clearly see the entirety of the base I was still able to see some interesting things, one more than a deposit full of elemental death energy and one of them is obviously the lair of a very powerful necromancer.
Not only is his red core in the middle stage, it has a massive amount of death elemental energy concentrated in his core and his body. Obviously, he modified his body a lot, facing this aberration will be a good challenge for the templars.
When Volkan finished the tunnel, I approached Raven to whisper something very important.
"I found the target; the isolation is good more and irregular. I could see the existence of the powerful and unusual element of light inside. It's the first time I've felt this kind of elemental energy, but obviously it's not common or has a non-offensive quality."
"Um, Earth will help you move around the land around the base. Try to confirm your suspicions, unfortunately we don't have much time so I can only give you an hour for this, the rest of the team will stay in this room so it's good that her size is expanded, Earth."
With the new orders the stage for the show was complete, a room large enough for the templars to be transported, the existence of the target, cultists and the anxiety and nervousness that dominate the Little Flame's mind.
During the time I did the 'reconnaissance' she was ready to activate the beacon, but surprisingly she kept it under control, but after we finished getting everything ready and started making our way out of the base, Little Flame arrived at her limit.
Standing at the tail end of the team, Little Flame apologized and ran off to the large room that had been set up to have enough space to transport the templars. Obviously, no one followed her, but I can't help but think a little better of her because of that.
I was ready to interrupt the beacon signal in case she tried to do so while the team was still in the newly built room, it would have been a disaster if that had happened at that moment.
Too many people and too little space combined with space magic, that's a recipe for tragedy, but Little Flame still waited long enough for us to stand several feet away from the room. Maybe a part of her thinks our safety is worth considering, I was touched.
But that didn't stop us from running like our lives depended on it, I might be the first to die getting close to the battle that started here, but that doesn't mean the rest of the team is interested in staying here anymore than I am.
Even looking back for the impulse of curiosity to see how the mana and energy of the space element behaves in a teleport of this type. But apart from the fact that the mana inside that room seemed to be being clipped and replaced with different mana, I could only see a small amount of energy from the space element.
But that happened before we were out of the tunes, there are still several meters of tunnel to go to the exit, unfortunately the moment after the templars showed up with a bunch of priests in the center the cult base lit up like a Christmas tree.
It appears they had some sort of runic arrangement capable of tracking the fluctuation of space when a group of priests and templars appear near their base. Like a few meters.
The scenario that the swordsman who wields the sword of destruction escapes and keeps his identity secret has become more plausible, I doubt that a good part of the cultists is not trying to escape or destroy evidence inside that base.