As we entered the villa, we first saw a fancy hall. The walls had beautiful carvings that gave off an old and mysterious feeling. You could tell this place was built many years ago.
But there wasn't anyone around. To be cautious, Adrian put an invisibility spell on both of us.
At the end of the entrance hall was a dark corridor. We held our breath and walked in, but still couldn't hear anything. I started to worry a bit.
"Strange. Reider should be hiding somewhere, but it doesn't look like anyone's around! Could they have noticed something wrong and run away already?" Adrian whispered his doubts. Actually, we couldn't even sense Nicola's aura from ahead.
We knew Nicola arrived here before us. Of course, maybe there were too many rooms in the villa blocking the aura. Light elements aura can go through walls, but if it gets too weak along the way, we won't be able to sense it.
"Let's just go with it. Maybe they're all hiding in the deepest part!" Don't forget this villa was super big, and who knows what was waiting for us ahead! Plus, Nicola wouldn't just ignore such a valuable target and go somewhere else alone!
After walking in the corridor for a few minutes, we arrived at what looked like an open courtyard with a small garden.
Bright sunlight came through a hole in the ceiling and shone on the plants, covering everything in a misty glow. We were definitely deep inside the mountain now. Right then, we heard metal clashing sounds coming from another direction.
"Someone's fighting over there? Could it be Nicola fighting with Reider?"
Adrian got excited, but I still couldn't sense any light element aura. I could only shake my head and suggest we go check it out first.
As we kept going, we soon started seeing dead imperial soldiers lying on the ground. Just as we thought, this villa had already been attacked before we came. But if it wasn't Nicola, who could it be?
The sound of weapons clashing continued for a while, then slowly stopped.
Finally, we reached a huge area that could fit a whole basketball court.
The place looked like some kind of arena for dueling. There were lots of seats all around. About ten people were in the middle of the arena.
Since everything was indoors, there were only a few magic lamps for light. I and Adrian hid in the VIP area at the very top. With our invisibility spell, nobody would find us.
"You're not imperial guards! First, they don't fight like you do, and your clothes look nothing like what they're supposed to wear!"
After the fight, one group had clearly lost. The winning side only had three people.
The losers were crowded in one corner while one winner was questioning them: "So who are you? Why are you here? Don't tell me Reider hired you to protect him?"
From far away, we could see different kinds of weapons scattered on the ground, besides the dead bodies. You could even spot machine guns and sniper rifles. Of course the other two winners found these special weapons too.
"These weapons... the empire must got them when armies from other worlds invaded recently. No wonder they're so powerful. If we hadn't gotten the information beforehand, we might have lost even more people!"
"What other world armies? You dare ask when you're the invaders? Listen up, you better let us go. Otherwise when Reider gets here, he will show you what real power is!"
Surprisingly, some of the captives were tough. They weren't scared at all and even threatened back.
"Haha, Reider? What a joke! Have you forgotten about all those rebel lords surrounding Kyndrill? Plus our church reinforcements are on the way. Reider has already got his hands full, how would he care about small stuff like you? Otherwise he wouldn't be hiding here!"
The winners seemed sure the captives must be guards Reider found somewhere to make up numbers. They mocked back without holding back. But these words definitely revealed the speaker's identity, and right away another captive couldn't help asking:
"Church? You mean that True Church?"
"That's right. No need to hide it anymore. After all, this is exactly why we came here!"
The winner doing the questioning revealed their purpose and identity. "First of all, we don't mean any harm. You attacked us first and we had to fight back! We are from the Star Glory Knights Order under True Church. We came here secretly on Pope's orders to invite former Emperor Reider to the holy city Jethrobaines for a talk!"
"Star Glory Knights Order!"
Never mind how the captives reacted - me and Adrian were super surprised. Although we knew True Church decided to get involved in the empire's civil war, we didn't expect them to be so fast. So the knights had already sneaked into Reider's hiding place before us.
Mentioning the Star Glory Knights Order reminded me of two old friends. I think it was Mike of the first seat and Ron of the fifth seat, but sadly they didn't seem to be here.
"Since you're church people, what else is there to talk about?"
Since the church already announced support for the rebels, they were definitely enemies. But there was clearly something off about the knights' attitude, which made the captives feel worried and confused.
"The Pope told us to pass on this message: the Star is coming, and this is the rare time of chaos once every hundred years. He remembers his old connection with Reider, so he wants to give Reider a chance, and help him escape from this life-threatening situation!"
You could tell the knights really had a mission. After winning, they didn't kill everyone right away, but tried to reduce the hostility.
"What's this about a Star coming, and what does once-in-a-hundred-years chaos mean?"
I quietly asked Adrian beside me.
"Hmm... I think it's quite an old legend. They say there's a shooting star in the sky that appears about every hundred years. Whenever it shows up, the whole continent gets lots of earthquakes and tsunamis, even strange things happening. If these disasters hit small countries, they definitely cause troubles, that's why they call it a time of chaos..."
Adrian was really knowledgeable. You could see he knew quite a bit about legends and stories from the Eldoria Continent.
But to me, this stuff was disappointing because Earth has way too many stories about disaster stars. And most are completely made up.
"...some things probably only Reider and the Pope know about. Just take us to where Reider is hiding. Once he meets the Pope, you'll understand everything!"
The knight tried to convince them, urging the captives to show them the way quickly.
"Since when did Reider have any connection with your Pope? Even if we can't defend the city without his help, nothing will happen to us! And if your Pope wants to see him, why doesn't he come?"
Things didn't go as planned. The captives were quite smart - how could they easily believe what their enemies said? Finally one of the three knigths started losing patience:
"Meredith, we've wasted too much time here. The mission is urgent - if they won't help, let's just kill them! Even without anyone showing us the way, I don't believe we can't find where Reider is!"