"Wake up." The captain said to Baltic, the recruit who was out cold after their furious battle.
"We're going back to the base for now, prepare yourself for self Descipiliniary and you're prohibition."
Baltic barely said "Yes" before slowly starting to sit up, still disoriented from his defeat. The captain didn't press him for answers right away, as he could see the recruit was still recovering.
Right now they were aboard a cart carrying them back to their base of operations, after having raided a town and destroyed a sacred altar that had been found there. The mission had been a success.
But after a while, something was slightly off, as the HQ wasn't responding to their communication attempts which was highly abnormal. The silence was deafening, and the longer it went on, the more eerie it felt. There was just a sense of something being wrong, like an undercurrent of unease and something being amiss.
"Did HQ respond to our report?" The captain asked one of the people in the front of the cart, growing increasingly concerned as the silence continued. They were supposed to receive confirmation from the higher ups, but there had been nothing so far.
"No.. Nothing sir, they still hasn't responded"
"Something wrong.. Our missions was being classified as code -02- and the moment we accomplished our mission the HQ supposed to respond immediately" The captain said with a concerned face.
The cart they were in, pulled by a horse golem, sped up for their base. The captain who couldn't help but feel like something was off, was hoping that they would reach their destination soon.
"The plan were perfect, we sabotage that wicked human magic and then destroy one of the altar towers, this covert missions was a succes, he shouldn't know which country destroy that town because he has a lot of enemies"
After a while, the carts that carrying 72 soldiers arrived at their base operations. The base was shrouded in high technology that made it extremely difficult to detect and penetrate without proper permissions, and also featured advanced magic interruption arrays. The area was extremely secure, and it would be extremely difficult for any outsiders to find this base.
Suddenly, an officer ran forwards from nearby with a terrible expression on his face. He shouted, "Captain!" as loudly as he could, his voice filled with a sense of urgency and terror.
" What's wrong!? " The captain ask.
"The towns!!! "
" Bergen, Bjarn, Hafrsfjord, Hedal, Hedmark Herjedalen , Horthaland, Leka, Oseber, Rogaland... "
"What's wrong!? Tell me what happened!!!??"
"Th-those town.. Were destroyed sir..." Said the officer with a horrified expressions and disbelief eyes as he said that.
"WHAT!?
"Because they weren't contacting us, we cast the clairvoyance magic 30 minutes ago," the officer continued. His tone was desperate and full of horror, his eyes wide with shock. "Sir... What are we going to do?"
"DO YOU CHECK IT SEVERAL TIMES!? "
"Y-yes... "
Hearing this, the captain was instantly on the move, his fury growing as he demanded to see the truth for himself. "MOVE.. I WANT TO SEE IT WITH MY OWN EYES," he shouted.
The captain's feelings were absolutely correct, it was clear that something was horribly wrong with the HQ. If the report from the officer was the truth, the situation was far more serious than he could have possibly imagined.
Of course, a few hours ago he also committed something unforgivable, but this is an entirely different matter.
When he arrived in the surveillance room, his worst fears were come true. The magical crystals were broadcasting several images of destroyed towns from the Darwin kingdom.
The level of destruction was unimaginable, the captain who saw these hideous images could only felt an overwhelming of sadness and angers toward this tragedy.
He know, it was something unnatural, he know this tragedy was caused by that wicked human magic. There's no ways a natural disasters could do something like this.
"Hey you, tell me.. Did we failed our missions? Did we get detected?" The captain asked quietly while clenching his fist.
"No sir.. We're already confirmed that we have zero error at this mission, we even using a magic arrays to detect life several times"
"Hedal… Our capital city. Is it completely destroyed?" The captain's voice was filled with a desperate sadness as he spoke, hoping against all odds that his beloved capital city had somehow survived. He'd who had been born there, grown up there, and the only places where his family life. The thought of it being destroyed and in ruins was unbearable, and he needed to know for sure what just happened.
"N-no sir.... It's 40% destroyed, but the amount of death was unknown" The officer replied giving the captain a small glimpse of. Hope.
"I see.. "
Suddenly, Baltic and the remaining soldiers who'd heard that their hometowns had been destroyed broke through the surveillance room, their faces filled with grief and rage After witnessing several image of their hometown.
"NOO!! CARLAAAaaAaaAaa!!" One of the soldiers shouted as he tried to get a clear image of the destroyed Bergen city, his horror growing as he saw the destruction.
"MY WIFEE!!! MY WIFEE!! She was in there!" Another shouted.
"My mother was in Leka..."Another said while having a disbelief eyes.
"My little brother was in that building!" And another "My grandmother!" It appeared that every single soldier of the group had someone they'd lost in this unthinkable tragedy.
"Hedal.. What happened to Hedal, captain? The capital city? " Baltic said trying to touch the crystal ball himself. He wanted to see the devastation that being occurred in one of the most important city within the Darwin kingdom. Where's his little sister was waiting for him.
"Its 40% destroyed" The captain replied with a solemn expression.
"It's my fault... Somehow we failed our missions"
"That Arthazia, the king of Solomon, that wicked human must known what we've been doing last night"
"And this is how he retaliate, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but he always paid it back 10x."
"We destroyed one city, he retaliate and destroyed 10 city in return"
The captain, who knew the culprit behind this, could only blame himself. He knew that wicked human would retaliate the moment he saw the one behind this. It was a heartbreaking truth to face, and the guilt and horror of it all was almost too much to bear.
The captain couldn't find the reason why he failed his Missions. His men had performed flawlessly in their last mission, and they hadn't left a single trail behind nor did they leave any witnesses. Everything had been done perfectly, and nothing should have caused the Arthazia the King of Solomon known what they've been doing, unless.
"Hey... You damn recruit..! " The captain shouted at Baltic who still has devastated expression.
"WHAT YOU BEEN DOING!? "
"TELL ME!!!!?? "
"WHERE DID YOU GO!? DO YOU SPARE ANYONE AT THAT TOWN!? "
"TELL ME!!!"
"I-i i.. " Baltic couldn't answered the captain questions.
Seeing Baltic who unable to answer his questions, the captain grew angry. With all his might the captain trying to choke Baltic who he thinks the reasons and the culprit why this is happening.
"WHERE YOUR CRYSTAL MANA? WHERE YOURE DAMN CRYSTAL MANA!? "
"WHERE IS IT!? "
The Crystal mana the Darwin kingdom forged from a dragon veins, it was an essential item for their infiltration missions, it has a magic disturbance arrays, psyhcal boosting, and many more boosting for their enhanced armor.
And yet, somehow this recruit's armor didn't have the crystal mana embedded within it, making things very clear who was responsible for the failure of their mission.
"YOU!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAVE YOU'VE DONE!?
"TELL ME!!! "
"I-I save those children, I save 4 kids with my crystal mana"
When the captain heard this, his eyes grew wide with shock. Not only had this recruit not followed the mission protocol, he had done something terrible and yet he didn't even realize it. The captain was stunned, how could the recruit not have realized the damage he caused.
"Baltic... Do you know why we must not anyone alive? Even a little kid?"
"Years ago, before Arthazia the king of Solomon was crowned as king, he cast a spell that connected his thoughts and his people's thoughts into his forbidden spellbook 'Lament', and you, spare some kids..." The captain's words was filled with a heavy weight into it.
Baltic's eyes widened with panic as those words sunk in, his body trembling with sorrow and guilt. The captain's question finally broke through his narrow mind.
For the very beginning, they had been told to leave no one alive, that the survival of their missions was the most important thing. But now, he knew that it wasn't the only reason they couldn't spare a single soul.
"What have I done...?"
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