The capital of Londria, a massive city born from the remains of a great wyrm. It was said the curiosity of a great witch was the spark that led the land to freeze over with the invasion of the demon army.
Many rulers came and went with the passage of time, until but recently, Londria was governed by a king named Tristan, he was known for being benevolent with his subjects and open minded as many of the laws he passed was to ensure traders of other kingdoms would visit and enrich his people's knowledge with faraway wisdom.
Inside a room inside the tower in the middle of the city, an old elf wearing a washed white overcoat with a few red stains around the stomach was holding what seemed to be a newspaper. His sitting posture was unorthodox at best as his back was bent backwards as he read the paper looming over his own face.
"Bring back the wise king's days? Pah!" He threw the newspaper on the cold moist floor. "Insolent fools! Did Tristan save their lives from the agonizing cold?! Or better yet, developed transportation or weapons to defend ourselves?! Bah!"
He hit his closed fist on the low wooden table in front of him out of frustration. A few beads of sweat fell from his forehead down on the wood.
"I should've known, there are bad apples amongst our populace…" He was grinding his teeth in anger but before he could unleash his anger at the nearby furniture, a few knocks on the door interrupted him. "Who is there?"
"Father, I brought the subject's friend."
A young man's voice came from behind the locked door.
"Finally. Bring it to the lab. I'll be there in a few minutes."
He took a deep breath before wiping the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. After unlocking and opening the door, he began to climb up the wide spiral staircase on his right and on the way up he fixed the crumpled overcoat.
"Put him there." The young man's voice came from behind a reinforced iron door which was halfway open to the staircase. "Not there, the other one."
The old elf opened the door, revealing a wide room of cut stone. There were light sources in the corners as stone pedestals that housed floating orbs of light, but most of the interior was hard to see due the dark color of the room, as if the pigmentation was made to absorb light however on closer inspection said color wasn't natural to the stone, but instead excess of dried blood. The whole room was repurposed from an arms storage room to a rudimentary laboratory to run a myriad of inhumane tests. There were bloodied instruments on a top of a wooden table near the corner along with few other pieces of equipment, though the excess of belts and latches made it look more like torture devices if anything else.
Some of the soldiers carrying the large covered body were unsettled to be in such a place, but none of them dared to say anything in front of the minister. The old elf went around the table and removed the cloth covering the large body, revealing the person to be no other than an unconscious Krieg.
"So you were able to get him." His golden eye seemed to glow in the low lit environment. "Are you certain this man is related to that double elemental mage?"
"Yes, there's no doubt about it."
"Good, I have a few experiments in mind for him-" He was interrupted by a loud banging on another reinforced door on the other side of the room. The sudden noise startled the soldiers with one of them readying his rifle. "Calm down, it's just another test subject. Now since you've done your job, I'd like you all to quit this place, having too many bodies in an enclosed space is distracting."
"Y-yes sir!"
Without waiting for more orders, the soldiers began to hurriedly go through the half open reinforced door until it was just the young elf man and the minister in the room. The old scientist turned around to the table that had all manners of tools, but before he picked any of them, he asked.
"Are you not going to leave?"
Instead he just stood there looking at his father.
"Father, you do not have interest in the young lady Kaiser, do you?"
"As a test subject?"
"No I meant as a key figure in the weapon production in our country."
"No, her father's invention was enough to bring most of the other members of the council to my side. I have no further use for her."
"Very well. Then you don't mind whatever happens to her or her brother, correct?"
"Yes, yes, begone from this room, I must concentrate."
Oliver bowed left before closing the door behind him. Though after doing so he could be seen climbing down the staircase with both fists tightly closed.
'Just a bit more… you must endure until the time is right.'
Inside the testing room, the old elf held an extremely sharp dagger in his left hand.
"I suppose I should check for mana circuits, although the chances of this one being the one I seek is quite slim." He placed his hand on Krieg's left wrist but before he could pour mana through it, the scientist was met with a painful shock that made him recoil his hand. "Wait… this is-"
He did it again but this time he was prepared for the recoil of mana and endured the pain as he poured his own mana throughout the knight's wrist.
"Ha… haha… hahahaha! I cannot believe it! That idiot of my son actually brought someone useful this time!" He let go and threw the dagger back on the table full of tools. "And here I was about to gut you open for mere observation of the lung system. Very well, very well… where is that tome again?"
He looked around the other corner of the room which was mostly clean of dried blood, there was an armchair with a small bookcase with a few empty spaces in between each book. Despite his age, he dashed to the armchair and grabbed a tome with a golden ornamental cover.
"There we go… dragons… dragons… ah, there it is." He glanced at the unconscious knight on the table as if he was the most precious test subject he had in a while. "I shall take good care of you."
A few kilometers away from the capital city, Leona and Athena were making their way back with the stolen pod. The tactician felt a chill down her spine as if something terrible was about to happen.
"What's wrong Leo?" Athena took a glance at her. "You seem pale."
"I felt like someone was watching me."
"It's probably those two in the back, don't worry about them though, I made sure they wouldn't be able to cut the ropes." She stopped talking for a second as she squinted her eyes, but no matter what she did, it didn't make it easier to see through the coming storm. "We might have to take this a bit slower with this storm… I wouldn't want to crash the pod."
Leona fixed her posture on her seat and without anything else to do other than look towards the seemingly endless white scenery, she began to rack her brain to find an explanation for everything they just went through.
But nothing was adding up, regardless how she approached the situation there was no reason whatsoever for those soldiers to wait until there were only the two of them. If the purpose was to apprehend them, it would've been easier to do it in the city where there were more soldiers.
Leona looked behind her seat to gauge a feeling from the soldier's faces, but neither of them seemed to be the sort of person to do it for personal gains, yet…
"Athena." The tactician began to ask. "What do you think these two were thinking trying to apprehend us with only the two of them?"
"Because they got rifles and we are not heavily armed?"
"No I don't mean when they tried, but why they tried after bringing us outside the city where there are less of them?"
"Ah, I didn't tell you now did I?" She scratched the side of her head. "Oliver's an esper. He can sort of communicate with people through his mind, I don't know how it works exactly but he can exchange a few words at the cost of mana or something."
Leona's expression darkened a bit upon hearing that word, it made her remember painful memories from the time they tried to attack the Crossford mansion.
"I see… wouldn't he be able to find us with that ability then?"
"Possibly. That could be the reason why he asked these two to apprehend us. But we should be fine as long as we sneak into the city. I doubt he's able to pinpoint our location with precision, despite how bleak the streets look, there are a lot of citizens around the inn area and it should be enough to cover our position."
Having heard that, it made Leona wonder about things that happened back in Arcadia.
'Then that ambush… could've been because we were in the middle of the Great Forest?' She slightly shook her head and dispersed those stray thoughts. 'Nothing good will come out of thinking about it now.'
"So, we need to sneak into the city without being noticed by soldiers patrolling the entirety of a wall which lacks any sort of visual cover." The tactician was already seeing how many things could go wrong with said attempt. "And how do you propose that we do that?"
"All in due time, I know a way in, but it'll take time to get there. In the meantime, I think it would be a good idea to arrange the supplies we are able to carry. There are some bags as well as satchels in the back."
Leona nodded.
"I'll work on that."
She stood up and went to the back where the two soldiers were bound by hands, legs and feet on the left side seats. Their mouths were also covered with thick pieces of cloth so even if they wanted to talk, they wouldn't be able to.
Leona ignored their scornful gaze and grabbed the nearby satchel filled with rations and water, another bag hanging on the wall was filled with other necessities such as firestarters, spare clothes and more food.
"Do you think we need ammunition?"
The tactician asked.
"No, but we'll take the rifles though."
"Right, I packed food, water, firestarters and a few pieces of clothing which probably don't fit either of us."
"That should be enough. It won't take more than half a day to get to Londria on foot."
"I just hope we don't get caught in the storm."
"Don't worry I have a plan."
Leona finished dividing the supplies and after buttoning the bag and satchel she returned to the passenger seat beside Athena. Her hands were starting to hurt due to the cold but there were no more hot drinks for her so she would have to deal with the pain by rubbing both hands together. She didn't know at the time what her friend's plan was, but seeing there was no other way to get back to the city, she had no choice but to follow it through.
Though the more time it passed her thoughts would stray about Phoebe and Krieg. She couldn't help but feel responsible if anything happened to either of them.
'I just hope they are okay… Krieg if anything were to happen to you I…'
"Leo." Athena called her attention and pointed forward with her chin. "It may be storming outside but we're here."
Distracted, she first looked at the inventor before following her motion to the front of the vehicle.
"What in the world is that?"