When I was 'carried' out of the forest by Raven, I was in a good position to see the forest as it began to collapse. The great pines that were supposed to have been motionless for several decades began to fall as the ground beneath them began to give way and crack.
I already expected this forest to cease to exist the moment Raven decided to throw the church group inside the cult base, but I thought she would die because of the death element and not collapse because of the underground combat, and the speed. that the trees are falling I think more than half of the forest will be on the ground when the element of death starts to seep to the surface.
I was thrown to the ground the moment Raven got tired of carrying me.
"We're far enough, shit, the forest is going to disappear today. Can't you tell me from this distance what's going on there?"
"No, but I can say that the earth is collapsing, I doubt that will stop them from continuing to fight, but I doubt it will make things any easier but it doesn't have death element energy traveling to the surface."
"Wouldn't it, the light element down there is not only the target of the cultists but it will purify most of the death element that could spread to the surface."
"That doesn't matter so much to us, let's go to the mounts. But keep an eye on the forest, I want to know if the element of death comes out to the surface, when that happens it means that the camba-te is no longer contained underground and we will have to get out of here as soon as possible when that happens."
After we arrived at the camp which was completely dismantled, I kept watch expecting to see something on the horizon which is quite difficult since we are far from the forest, so it is more likely that I will see Volkan's group returning from their mission than see something involving the cultists or templars.
And that's what happened, crouching behind a rock that was created by Volkan to act as a good spot to keep watch I saw him, Mia and Melena running at full speed. It looks like the slaves have already finished their escape, so that's when our escape began.
With the group fully assembled, apart from the Little Flame, we started to flee. That's the best definition, aside from Volkan who was using his magic to erase our trail, the rest of the team is focused on getting out of this realm as quickly as possible.
Raven had no plans to stay here any longer, she didn't just do it to avoid being used as a channel of communication between our realm and Mathias. She did this so that the chances that the bishop would think something went wrong here would be very slim, if we stayed in this realm after all reasons for being here are gone, the bishop might think Raven is hiding something from him.
And that would suck, even if he doesn't think we're helping the rebel slaves led by Mathias, he's sure to find that something valuable in this realm that we know and he doesn't, has already been made very clear that he's a greedy man.
And someone like that wouldn't pass up an opportunity to profit, especially when his position allows him to 'recover' objects easily and with good justification. The less attention we bring to this man the easier it will be to keep communication with Mathias secret, which is extremely important as the Templars and priests who survive this combat will try to track him down.
Even using high-level magical tools that specialize in secretly sending and receiving massages, it's still good to be careful, I wouldn't be surprised if the church had some divine tool capable of intercepting massages or being able to track the direction of the person they are dealing with. getting them.
With so much motivation and focus our group found themselves close to the edge of the kingdom in such a short period of time, it took us only two and a half weeks to finally reach the final frontier of this slave kingdom that is now cleaner of cultists.
Seeing security so close to us, a different thought came to my mind. Since the beginning of this escape, we have not contacted anyone, nor has a message been sent by magic tool or messenger bird.
We also didn't receive a message as our location was completely hidden to avoid being located by the enemy that is on alert now, and it's quite unrealistic to think that the army or the slave royal family didn't notice the presence of the Goddess Helena church group fighting against a cult of necromancers.
I imagine the royal family was extremely angry and humiliated upon discovering the church's movements, as far as I know the bishop must have had no reason to involve the royal family in his operations. From the beginning this was a covert operation as the nobles of the cult-tainted realm were not to be seen as trustworthy.
Not that they were part of the cult, but many nobles are gossips and tend to use information like this as a resource in trades of all kinds. One well-disguised, hidden cultist in the circle of a gossipy noble and the quest would be over before it began.
It's normal for the church to leave the nobles in the dark in a situation like this, but the royal family tends to be warned but this time it wasn't. Knowing what I know now and it's easier to figure out the reason for it, I thought that one of the important factors was because sending a group of hunters from the neighboring kingdom, which is currently at war, might upset them and make them get the idea to get in the way. the mission.
But I believe the biggest reason was related to the clue that a damaged divine artifact was in the kingdom, probably in the hands of the cultists, if the royal family found out about this, they would be a strong contender for the bishop.
Unlike our group which has limited strength and mobility, the royal family could have dispatched a group with much more combat power than ours without fear of compromising the war.
Even if the disappearance of strong warriors and mages from this realm is noticed, it would be too late to take advantage of this information. As they would be hunting the artifact within their realm, they could easily move from one location to another or return to the war, while another group could continue the hunt for the artifact.
It would be a pretty unfair competition for the bishop, but it would be even more terrible for Mathias and considering he is safe and the bishop shouldn't be a person who gives up easily.
The royal family and nobles of the realm must still be in the dark about the damaged divine artifact that Mathias controls, the bishop must make up some story for them, but the problem is how he will still pursue Mathias.
He can't do this openly because the royal family isn't stupid, they'll realize that the church's behavior isn't just a little unusual or fanatical about destroying cultists, which is still relatively normal for them, but the royal family will eventually notice. who are being deceived by the bishop.
And when that happens will be the moment when the troubles will start, I hope it will only happen after Mathias is safe and his rebellious slaves have organized enough to really cause trouble for the kingdom. So far, the rebellion has only delayed the kingdom's logistics a little, they've managed to spread a lot of fear, but that kind of influence disappears the moment Mirue kingdom's army makes a public execution of several rebel slaves.
Only with the fear of the population and the slavers turning into panic will the kingdom of Mirue really be affected by the existence of the rebel slaves, but for that to happen they will need to be stronger and more organized. Here comes the funding that Raven promised Mathias, with a constant flow of resources to feed and strengthen the slaves, the weak and injured slaves will truly become freedom fighters.
Who can spread their ideas of freedom like a virus through slave-holding countries, well, until such time as they are eradicated as is usually the case. After that all the struggle they did for freedom and only remembered as a failure may still inspire some slave to want to rebel, but it ends up working better to remind the slavers that they have to kill any rebel slave before he can cause real damage to a realm.
Depending on the number of slavers killed by the rebels can make this event be marked as a historical event where the good slavers were victims of the evil slaves, I loved reading about the ancient uprisings before entering this damn kingdom.
But all this is no longer something directly linked to my unit, crossing the border our mission has come to an end. And no matter how much the bishop wants or distrusts us, he can't do anything about it now, we've officially left the realm without interfering with your treasure hunt.