Golden Fang could see it, the City of Razul, a jewel of trade and the target where he will deliver the captive and reap the rewards of lifetime.
He ran out of wind stones a while back, but he was thankful he had enough on his person to last him until the end of the mission.
Fang chuckled to himself as he thought 'At least Observer fulfilled his promise of allowing us safe passage through the border'
Moment the carriage exited the Ebon Forest everyone could notice a large shift in elevation, while forest was unnaturally flat anything outside it was surrounded by hills and uneven natural terrain which made the forest seem even more unnatural.
When viewed by flyers the forest would be described only as shallow crater.
He recalled on how weird the guards acted around him, it was like they weren't themselves once he spoke, the man was incredibly suspicious and yet they were here, just mere minutes before they enter the city and deliver the captive to the client.
'I know he plans on something, but I must not judge this early' Fang nodded in his mind.
At the moment they entered the city they were surrounded by marvellous large intricate buildings opposing both sides of the path, with carriages and various beasts of burden going their way, with pedestrian citizens walking on the sides.
All his Golden Rose had to no now was to deliver the captive to the underground lab that observer would lead them to.
City of Razul was never a large city, but even despite its relatively small size it was center of trade of Duchy of Razul, it was only established trade route connecting Ebon Forest with the Red Dawn, the city was lighted up by magical lamps as far as eye could see and everything surrounding the city itself knew no night.
But the trade was not what would be expected of a border city, this city trade was made mostly of slaves captured from other countries in large consisting of Elven and Dwarven kind with occasional Lizardman.
City of Razul is where all captured non humans were taken to be broken and trained for nobility and residents of blessed cities.
The captives were all processed in special facility located in western quarter of the city, a new slave would be sent to the imposing metallic gray building surrounded by a fence akin to the prisons where they would be trained ,educated and neutered unless they were selected as breeding stock.
It is said that the training was so effective that the slave would be under similar effect as mind control, and unlike the spell it could never be dispelled.
It wasn't know how it was done but all of their minds would only be repurposed as tools for their new masters, in a way they were similar to golems and automatons.
It was speculated that Inquisitor of Mind had something to do with the special training and processing of new slaves but it was far too absurd for most that one of inquisitors would bother with such menial tasks.
Each month a new batch would be processed and driven off to auction houses in other duchies, while defective goods would be discarded and turned into fertilizer so that they may serve God King in death.
City itself was surrounded by a thick stone wall, with layers of magical enchantments placed upon them which gave them bluish glow, the enchants which could deflect even ancient dragon's breath were placed by Inquisitor of Water long ago while it was sustained by the amazing sentient artifact held by the lord of Razul.
As a city blessed by one of Inquisitors themselves people living here were awarded many benefits, it was utopia as defined by the god king.
Each resident was granted a free elven slave of their preferred gender for less physically intense work and one dwarven slave to use for heavy manual labour while they could earn additional slaves by serving god king.
All that while being provided necessary living items by the kingdom treasury, it was truly a heaven for all humans.
City was divided in 4 by Wide crossway heading out in 4 cardinal directions with a large Bronze statue depicting God King with a spear in his hand and donning heavy armor decorating the centre of the city, the statues face showing the splendour of their king and savior.
Large amount of guards and automatons guarding every dark corner of the city made sure that no crime or run away slave outbreak would be possible.
Most of the houses were quite large with yards stretching in front of them with non human slaves working on them all day.
Due to the edicts of the god king all humans were given as good of life as possible, and yet it was only limited to the blessed cities of each duchy.
After all even Red Dawn did not have resources necessary to provide for its entire population.
Due to that all humans yearned to one day live in one of these cities, and yet only small amounts were given the right, it was unknown how the citizens were selected, but one thing was known, one needed to prove useful to the Red Dawn.
Only after years of service would the family be allowed to move into a blessed city, and even then they would need to provide their services to the kingdom.
After all entire kingdom was a meritocracy foremost, not even nobles held their positions if their performance was not up to the standards of the Red Dawn.
Not even inquisitors, the most loyal servants of the god king were irreplaceable, In history of Red Dawn there was an inquisitor that was replaced after all.
The Easten quarter of the city was dedicated to the Clergy and Priests in service of God King, Multiple smaller shrines with a large cathedral and its surrounding yard taking large part of the quarter.
Each building was constructed out of marble with gold platted roof decorating them, giving a sense of opulence over entire quarter.
Each 15th Day of month at noon most of the city population would move to the clerical quarter to do their service to the god king.
Every citizen of any blessed city was obligated to offer the prayer and sacrifice to the god king, sacrifice could be anything between minor artefacts, non human souls to gold in accordance to the ability of the devotee, all that mattered was that offering was made to their God.
While Last Two Quarters were commercial sectors where all citizens lived in spacious stone manors, everything from basic shopping to slave purchase would happen here.
Streets were spacious with various well dressed humans walking about while some had their slaves carrying the bags full of food, blacksmithing tools and various miscellaneous items.
Seeing these scenes did not fill Golden Fang with pride after all, these people did not need to work for anything in their life, just being a citizen in the blessed city would make sure you would never need to work again.
'These people don't train their own slaves and they don't earn gold for themselves, their lives are empty' He put his thoughts about the city aside as his carriage made turn into more sparse residential district.
They slowed down to a comfortable speed as they relaxed, not many people were around them and they were only moments away from drop off point.
In mere moments the captive will be in the hands of the client and Fang would be able to enjoy hard earned reward.
'I lost so much for this…' he thought to himself before dismissing the thought.
His Golden Rose was hurt with the attack of the blessed child, and it hurt his soul deeply no matter how much he tried to hide it, he tried to push it aside as he prayed for rest of his Golden Rose to arrive safely.
It was mere moments of riding on a quiet road before a strange old man appeared in the distance, he wore simple gray shirt and brown pants with thick glasses on his eyes, this was the man who hired him and his Rose to deliver the princess.
'Mission is done' Fang smiled in his mind as he celebrated his largest mission ever.
They approached the man as Fang stopped the carriage, Observer was the first person to hop off as he knelt before the man.
"Master, The mercenaries have delivered the princess" Observer spoke with reverence in his voice as the old man approached him.
"Excellent work, I knew I could put my trust in you" Man smiled as he praised his subordinate before turning to Golden Fang.
"You… you did what others could not" He slowly approached Fang as he coughed small bit of blood onto his hand.
Before Fang could react the old man continued "Do not worry about this, it is just condition I have to live with, until now that is" man smiled as he grabbed Fang's hand before shaking it.
Golden Fang could certainly feel the gratitude from this man, but he learned to not trust it fully, he kept up his strict poker face as he spoke with his hands down the sides of his body.
"Its an honour to complete this mission sir!"
Man cackled before answering "Relax, mission is done and with your results you can afford to talk casually with me, after all you have done me massive Favor"
Man slowly walked to the carriage, masked thorns letting the man pass as he pushed aside the cloth covering the cage.
He looked at the tear stained and chained unconscious elf princess, it was everything he wanted. 'A sample of holy blood, live sample!' he thought to himself with fervour of a child.
He wanted to take her to the lab as soon as he could and yet he couldn't, he had to appear dignified in front of the heroes that brought him what he wished for.
'Yes, This man and his men are heroes of mankind, there is no other ways to put it' he was barely containing his excitement as he put back the cloth over the cage before returning to the Fang "Ah yes, matter of compensation, It was already sent to your headquarters!" he said with happy tone as he coughed up more blood.
Man made a step before almost falling over before Observer appeared next to him and helping him stand up.
Observer whispered something to the old man before speaking "Thank you for your service, please follow me to the place where we want the cage to be placed"
Observer was quiet for a moment before helping his master up and leading him towards unassuming marble building.
Fang did not question the man as he ordered his thorns to slowly remove the cage from the carriage before carrying it closely to the pair of old men.
**********************************
Laura was afraid, no it could not even be said she was merely afraid, she was absolutely horrified.
The red haired elven girl that just grabbed her looked not like the beauty most people would expect but instead to Laura she looked like a monster.
What else could she look like when she was likely the blessed child that slaughtered most of strike team.
She felt herself being strangled before the blessed child dropped her on the ground, making her almost collapse on her knees due to her relative physical weakness.
She took a moment to get a breath before reaching into her pocket, attempting to find a specific item that would allow her to escape.
Her fingers searched every part of her pocket but she could not see the pale white gem she carried with her.
Instead she saw the red haired girl twirling the gem between her fingers as she looked at her with confused look on her face.
"Looking for this?" she said in mocking tone as she crushed the gem leaving nothing but dust.
This was a gem of teleportation, allowing user one time use of [Teleport] magical art, it was Laura's last ditch trump card that would ensure her survival and yet before she realized she lost it.
Laura looked at the gem with horrified expression as the dust of her lifeline was spread to the wind.
"You shouldn't be trying to run away now, teleportation wouldn't work with me anyway" she said with slight chuckle as the other girl took out her sword, ready to slash her in two if she made any moves.
"I will never betray my boss you arrogant bitch!" Laura shouted as she collected her strength and lunged at the girl in front of her with hopes to at least inconvenience her.
And yet it was the same, she felt like she hit an enchanted stone wall with full force while shattering her own fist in the process.
She grasped her arm for a moment trying to gather her bearing as the blessed child grabbed her by the neck, she felt her consciousness slip as the elf whispered something.
Elven girl turned her head towards other woman "I will read her mind, please watch my back, Azure!"
Other woman nodded as she took a defensive stance leaving Laura and Red haired elf alone.
She tried to flail and free herself but she felt intrusion inside her mental space.
Laura tried to resist as much as she could, playing tug of war for control of her mind.
She was proud of her mental fortitude and she knew she could resist most forms of mind control, and yet it felt like she couldn't even begin resist this intrusion.
And so she let the woman enter her mind, after all she knew this woman would easily overpower her resistance, even with her fortitude she knew her limits as the elf entered her mind and so she would be left with more damage if she tried to resist.
She relaxed herself as she let the elven girl have near free reign in her mind, which would make the elf drop her guard and let Laura construct fake memories for the girl to find.
Almost in the same instant her entire life flashed before her, all her memories laid bare before her as she fell into trance not allowing her to construct suitable false memory.
Laura desperately tried to keep her consciousness as she was read like an open book.
All her joy and sadness, all her embarrassing memories, her love for Fang it was all laid bare, even her orders and information about Golden Rose was being revealed as it was nothing but text upon parchment.
Just as she felt as she was about to reveal everything the sensation stopped, the intruder in her mind retreating as nothing happened, her blurry vision focusing once again.
But it did not matter, the invasion of her mind sapped her strength more than any fight ever could, but she noticed remaining Golden Rose Thorns gathering around the trio, their blades at ready.
'Why didn't you run you morons!' She screamed inside her mind as her comrades approached the two elven girls, caution visible on their now unmasked faces.
She was not sure how these two snuck into the camp and caught her alone so easily, and she knew better than to cause unnecessary deaths of her comrades.
Not many would be able to get past all of the members of Golden Rose. And those who could were to not be underestimated.
'A smart thing to do would be to run, I know they understand that they probably stand no chance, but they were here to save one of their officers even if it costs them their life.'' She couldn't help but smile with their display of loyalty.
Two elven women spoke something that she could not overhear before the red haired girl took three steps forwards towards the mob, leaving the other girl to guard Laura and to observe her partner's fight.
The red haired girl's form shimmered, Laura did not know what kind of trick she just used, but it required no incantation or the rune circle.
'How is that even possible, there are only 4 possible ways to use the magic known to humanity, and even blessed children should be bound by them!' She tried to understand how the elf casted the spell and yet it did not fit in any of the known methods of casting.
In all of human knowledge Laura was able to gather, there were 4 methods used by all of humanity and including primitive casting of lesser species.
Verbal and Somatic Casting, using their body movement and words a caster would be able to shape the mana in their environment to their whim, be it to take shape of ice, fire or anything else depending on the skill of the caster.
Second was casting by use of Catalysts, which would include Staves, Wands, various jewellery, Catalysts were used by casters that usually lacked skill to shape mana and thus needed a crutch to help them learn the control which would limit them to a set number of spells.
Third method are runic circles, by drawing runes in such a pattern that the flow of mana can be directed in specific way a caster would be able to create permanent magical effects but a drawback of this method was that it required constant source of mana otherwise the circle would fail and so for this end many kinds of Gems or living batteries were used, for example enslaved elven mages would generate mana for millennia when used as a battery for a divination circle in various facilities in the Red Dawn.
And the fourth method was divine prayer, Prayer to the god would allow caster to become a living catalyst for divine power, and a drawback was that it required long time to invoke the spell and it had high possibility of god not hearing your prayer.
'I couldn't hear anything or see any movement from her' She analysed the scene to try and find an explanation, if she could figure out which method of casting this elf used she could find a way to counter it and run away.
Laura calmed herself as she kept eliminating possible methods used 'I can safely discount prayer as the shimmer was instant without act of piety shown, and same can be said about verbal and runic'
She stood up slowly as to not look like a threat to the woman that was standing next to her 'Only thing I can think of is the catalyst, but I couldn't see anything of that sort on her, if we can find it and destroy it she will be powerless and we would be able to escape'
She tried to analyse the woman from the back, her hands had no wand, no jewellery and certainly no staff, perhaps she had a ring or perhaps…
She gazed at her back as she noticed a glint of the ruby gemstone on her forehead.
Laura dramatically fell on the ground as she pretended to not have any strength left.
'Unconventional but possible that she uses that gemstone in her circlet' She smiled as she covertly drew a [Message] Runic circle under her body.
She could draw this circle with her eyes closed with how many times she had to do it.
Her fingers glided through the dirt where she "Fell" outer circle was very simple, as it was meant to only transfer the sound, but the inner circle needed to convert her thought into voice that would be sent to everyone she designed as her allies.
The standoff between the thorns and the blessed child was intense, Laura felt like she could cut through tension with a knife at this point, at any second fighting will break out, and if she couldn't send the information about the weakness of the enemy they would be killed, after all most of their own casters were already either dead or gone with Fang himself.
Her hands shook as she finally finished her runic circle, she channelled small amount of mana, just enough for a message to be sent to entire Golden Rose.
"The Ruby on her circlet seems to be her catalyst, destroy it and we might have a chance to run to Razul, elves wont dare follow us there no matter how powerful!" She sighted with relief as she sent the message to her comrades.
Their faces showing that they understood the message.
****************************************
Aqua was impressed, the woman she just probed was already up and scheming against her and Azure, if she wasn't the enemy of her people she would even applaud her and yet.
'You are filth like all of the others that would harm my people!' she shouted inside her mind while keeping her composure as calm as possible.
She left Azure to guard the woman as she seemed to be more valuable than the rest of the trash, as she got closer to them she invoked [Temporal Barrier].
A bronze shimmer surrounding her for mere moments but barrier was indeed there, and it would act as most perfect armour, not letting anything past it.
'[Temporal Barrier] stops time just above user's skin, making any attack strike at something that can never move and could never pierce, I'm quite proud of this spell if I say so myself' Aqua smiled as she approached the mob of humans in front of her.
But instead of their fear growing they seemed to steel themselves, intently following her movement.
It caused a moment of confusion before she glanced back at the woman whose name was known to her as Golden Petal Laura.
'She tried to hide some kind of Aether Circuit under her body? She must have used it to inform her comrades of some kind of a plan' Aqua chuckled as she thought about it.
'What could she possibly think of to get out of my grasp' Aqua crossed her arms as she calmly approached the enemy mob.
In a moment, an enchanted arrow struck right into her head, trying to pierce her family ruby.
'What? Was this their plan?' Aqua was confused, what could these people possibly accomplish by targeting a gemstone instead of vital organs.
Arrow after arrow slid past her Barrier, as the barrage stopped 4 people charged at her with blades held high ready to slash and hammers to crush her.
As enemies kept attacking Aqua noticed Azure readying herself for battle before charging in front of her, cutting off heads of many of them.
"I am fine, Azure you should keep watch over the trickster over there" Aqua pointed back at the lying woman as she nonchalantly punched one of the melee attackers sending him into nearby tent.
"But, you just stood there taking attacks, I thought you needed support" Azure responded with worried tone as she slashed another enemy.
"These guys are small fries, you need to make sure our backs are covered, that one is more dangerous than them" Aqua pointed towards Laura.
Azure groaned before answering "Fine! I will do it but don't blame me if you get hurt!"
Azure stopped for a moment while looking over terrified enemy and then over her companion before softly asking her "If possible could you please not kill them unless necessary, they need to stand trial before our King and they seem to have lost most of their will already!"
Aqua really enjoyed seeing her companion worry about her, even if its only because she needed her help to rescue her princess friend and what intrigued her more than that is despite her rank she seemed so naive, like her in her youth before Supreme Deity destroyed everything.
"I promise this will be over quickly and we can rush to your friend" She smiled as she slowly uncrossed her arms, her presence almost setting surrounding air on fire.
How much she enjoyed their fear, it was delightful, she could feel their fear and the Laura's fear, none of them could hide it.
"How does it feel, to feel what your victims felt, every single one of you is a monster that deserves to burn!" She spoke with wrath adorning her youthful face.
With each of her steps, the heat rose, the enemy lost the grips on their weapons, their Armor singing their flesh and their cloth burning.
"Maybe, some of you think you are free of sin, but you are surrounded by sinners, in my eyes all of humanity is guilty!" She was mere step away from the mob before stopping.
"Look at you, not able to fight for your own pathetic life" She chuckled before temperature suddenly dropped to normal.
"Alas, my friend over there pleaded to not unnecessarily harm you, so your punishment will wait" She pointed towards Azure before turning her attention back.
"And so, you WILL lead us to your leader, or else your entire merry band will be burned" She shouted as for everyone to hear her voice.
"I have Gathered from your dear strategist's mind that Elves aren't exactly welcomed, and since your merry band is so well known you will provide us escort to the so called City of Razul,'' She spread her arms as she announced the plan.
"As far as the border guard is concerned we were always part of your little Golden Rose" She slowly turned her back towards now stunned mob before walking to Laura.
"You don't really have a choice, I have gotten everything I need to know from you anyway" She grasped Laura's arm before pulling her up.
'She still has her wits, even while exposed to my aura, her mental fortitude is on another level compared to others' Aqua was impressed, not many could withstand her aura even at this output level.
She turned to her companion to see her as shocked as others 'Ah, I never showed her my power did I'
Aqua wanted to slap herself for not explaining what she planned to do but alas it was too late, she turned her head to Azure.
"See, I didn't kill them" she said with a warm smile, contrasting her previous wrath.
"I guess you didn't, but what exactly is your plan, I heard entering Red Dawn as non human is almost impossible without permission of inquisitors and even then its too risky?" She asked with visible worry and unease adorning her face.
"We might not know each other for long, but please trust me, we will enter this damn kingdom and rescue your friend" she let go of Laura as she grabbed both of Azure's hands.
Laura took opportunity to clean up dirt from her clothes before asking the duo "Sorry for interrupting the moment but you have what remains Golden Rose in your clutches, what do you plan to do to us"
Before Aqua could respond, Azure took initiative and stood in front of Laura "You and your band will stand trial before our king, but if you help us reach the princess you kidnapped you might be allowed to keep your lives!"
Laura chuckled before answering "I guess we don't really have a choice, but I have to warn you even if you have seen my mind, Red Dawn is much more dangerous than you two could comprehend, especially to non humans."
"We are aware, but you forced us to take the risk" She said with anger in her voice.
Laura shook her head before pointing towards one of still standing tents.
"You can pick up some spare uniforms as disguises" Laura pointed two elven girls towards one of the tents letting them disguise themselves.
"I'm so going to lose my head over this, Fang please forgive me for this" Laura spoke to herself, after all trying to illegally sneak non humans into Red Dawn would make death best possible outcome, not only to her but entire Golden Rose.
Most of her men recovered from the intense heat, with most of them having statements and questions ranging from "Not even a blessed child should be that scary!" to more brave "What the fuck was that!?" Same question she asked herself many times, she deflected the question to best of her abilities while sending everyone to pack up and get ready to move to Razul.
'We couldn't destroy the catalyst, which means it is too high grade for our weapons' she shook her head, it was no use thinking about it now, she was about to put Golden Rose on the line.
'Perhaps she would get opportunity to get vengeance for death of her Golden Rose' she sighted as she gazed into the ruined tents.
'But for now I need to play along if I want to have even slight chance of salvaging your Life's work, Fang' She sighted heavily as she slumped down on nearby stump.
It was mere minutes before two women exited the tent, their elven features humanized, and wearing Golden Rose Uniforms.
'Even I would need a double take if I saw them' She looked over both women, their appearance pretty similar but their ears shortened, and hair colours changed to pitch black.
'They look like sisters' Laura was impressed, she couldn't even sense the illusion but she knew they had to be two elven girls.
"We should get going, faster we get to your princess the better chances for her to still be herself" Laura warned two women.
"I saw your memories, Slaves brainwashed to only become tools" Anger building up in Aqua's face as she spoke of this.
Aqua knew they needed to be careful, but she wasn't worried about herself, she was worried about the capability of the kingdom.
'I should always assume unknown is more powerful than me, isn't that right dear master' she thought to herself as she remembered her deceased teacher and friend.
"Lets get going before we give the disciples of mind time to brainwash your princess, the process usually takes whole week, but I guess you do not wish to take chances" Laura spoke with what appeared real concern
Azure gripped her sword tightly as she heard this, but she knew only thing she can do is to trust Aqua on this.