The three moons hung up high in the night sky, barely illuminating the darkness of the town below. In one of the many narrow alleys in the town a small cloaked group made their journey in silence.
Their ever vigilant eyes took note of every single detail around them as they continued their journey. They stuck to the shadows, making sure that none of the people roaming the streets took note of them. Their journey came to an end at the warehouse districts where not a soul was present.
The group stood still allowing for one figure to step out, the figure took out a card which had an array etched on to it. She proceeded to hold out the card with one hand before pulling out her lighter, a small scarlet red thing which had a lotus engraved onto it, to produce a small flame under the card.
Immediately the flames made contact with the card, the array engraved on it came alive, forming a fog cloud which flew out in all directions. A minute or so passed before the fog flew back on to the card and formed a symbol, once she laid eyes on the symbol she turned to motion it was safe.
"Thank you sister Nevaeh" The leader spoke up as he and the group walked pass her and into one the warehouses were a few horses and a carriage was awaiting them. Once they arrived at the warehouse, their subsequent actions were brought to a halt.
Three people walked out of the shadows with their eyes giving off faint glows, a tell sign of what they are. Lewis let out a growl as he gave Nevaeh a side glance, "I thought you said there was no one here."
"That's what the array said".
"Someone must have interfered," the leader cut in with his calm tone. "With the looks of the fools before us, there are most certainly more. We need to leave now", The leader gave his orders as the ones before were completely unaware of the contents of the conversation. They readied their abilities, their minds full of thoughts of the wealth they would receive once this was all over.
Their thoughts however, would remain just that... thought. *Bang* a wave of intense fire engulfed the warehouse in a flash, reducing the bounty hunters to charred corpses. The members of the scarlet church however had their cloaks burnt of revealing their scarlet robes underneath.
With the rise of smoke and fire, the game of stealth had come to an end. Enforcers rushed out in droves with their weapons at hand. Their show of force however was met with pure disdain from the members of the scarlet church. The leader soon focused on one individual as she made her way towards them in her green dress.
"The Dreamweaver, Matilda of the tower" His eyes narrowed with a grimace as he recognized the alchemist before him. In her hands was a device made of mercury which had some alchemic symbols etched on to it. He was immediately able to determine the device was the reason for Nevaeh's array failing.
With a Distortive Aether Prism at hand large scale alchemic arrays, transmutations as well as rituals were now rendered ineffective. "Ezra Blackthorn" Matilda spoke in a strict tone that resounded in the ears of everyone present, as though she was right next to them.
"Return the child, or face our wrath" Matilda gave an ultimatum as a few more tower alchemist and official mancers made their presence known. The addition of these people made the members of the scarlet church tense up in preparation for the inevitable battle. "Tell me Matilda. Do you know what the boy represents?" Ezra suddenly broke out in laughter before questioning Matilda with a wide grin on his face.
"This boy represents the change in an era, he represents the truth foretold by the founder. You heretics shall not have him" Ezra pulled out a knife from his robe once he was done speaking. Its blade was a black as the night sky and rife with inscriptions written in Hermes, with a spark from his lighter, the blade elongated to much the length of sword before turning aflame.
With the meaning of his actions clear, all present charged at him. Seeing the ensuing charge Ezra gave orders to Ethan, "Brother Ethan, I entrust you to get the oblation out of here. We will join you once this heretic filth are dealt with."
"As you wish Brother Ezra", Ethan gave a nod before hoisting the child over his shoulders and sprinting out of there. A tightly bound figure stuck close to him taking care of any all enforcers who got close. With the card given to him by Nevaeh, the barrage of spells from the official mancers did little to no damage to him.
And thus in the ensuing chaos Ethan managed to escape. The warehouse district however was reduced to burning rubble as the smoke burnt the eyes and lungs of all who were unlucky to come under its grasp.
With his Alchemic artifacts, Ezra proceeded to mow through the enforcers and even killed a mancer who had control over the earth. His rampage was brought to an end however when Matilda appeared before him, no words were exchanged between the two as the began their dance.
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Distortive Aether Prism- This is a device created by the alchemist of the tower. It possesses the ability to interfere and disrupt large scale alchemic arrays, transmutations as well as rituals. Drastically reducing the combat effectiveness of most Alchemist.
This device is a restricted artifact however, and requires a certain level of clearance to use.
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