"My lord, I've done as you asked."
"Good work, Reynor. I'll take it from here."
Caelum scanned the faces of the people that had gathered. Besides the team of five from Halo led by Reynor, there were three other Chosen gathered from each of the guilds based in London.
Two of them were female mages while the other seemed to be a male swordsman. They looked rather impatient which was only understandable considering the recent happenings. Caelum cleared his throat before addressing the three.
"My name is Caelum Grace. And this is my partner, Erta Ki'ana. We thank you for coming here tonight despite your busy schedules."
"Are you really the Angel of Slaughter?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"What are we doing here?"
The three Chosen immediately asked their questions, although one of them seemed rather inappropriate given the situation. Erta responded by hugging Caelum's body as though to claim him for herself, and glared at the mage.
Caelum sighed tiredly but let Erta do as she pleased. She was usually shy in front of strangers, but she had never once forgotten to shamelessly show her possessiveness in front of others.
Caelum, on the other hand, did not really know how react to it. He knew that it was not normal for two strangers to be so close so fast, but the Life Covenant was powerful.
So he in the end, he just continued to indulge her, especially since it was quite adorable of her. He answered the other questions seriously instead.
"I am the one that name refers to, but please do not call me that. It sounds awful. Now let me explain why we've called you here."
Caelum raised his hand and pointed in one direction. Everyone who gathered there, except Erta, looked to where he pointed. However, they only saw the ruins of the battle from two weeks ago as well as the river that separated them from it.
They looked back at Caelum with confused and questioning looks, evidently unable to understand what he was conveying. Only Caelum and Erta themselves seemed to have noticed the difference in this area from what it was the previous night.
It was very subtle and faint, but they could feel a buildup of a strange energy not quite unlike mana within the area. It seemed powerful and more intrinsic to nature, but far more elusive.
It was so difficult to find that if Caelum and Erta had not been scouring the area with their senses nonstop, they would perhaps not even have noticed it.
And yet, even as they grew weary of it, something within them felt a strange familiarity with this energy. It was as though they knew of it all along.
Seeing that the others could not sense its presence, Caelum decided that it would be a waste of time telling them about it. He would much rather focus on the original purpose of this gathering.
"Last night, we felt a wave of mana coming from that direction. It spread outwards for quite some distance. The problem was that we couldn't locate the source because the wave was so subtle that we immediately lost track of it."
"And that's why you wanted to gather those sensitive to mana, my lord?"
"Are you saying that the rumours are true? That there's a monster that survived the battle and is killing the Chosen one by one?!"
"No. You don't really believe that rumour, do you? I'll tell you this now and it's your choice whether to inform your guilds or not, but there were only two monsters that came out of the gate in Sylven.
Both of them were too powerful so the gate must have immediately closed the moment they appeared. After all, we scoured the whole district in search for the gate, but found none.
One of them is the one that destroyed the Clocktower. The other was the one that kept spawning the smaller monsters that destroyed the rest of the city. With those two coming out of a single gate, there would've been no room for another capable of creating such a delicate wave of mana to come out."
It seemed none of them were prepared to suddenly hear the truth about the battle of Sylven as all of them froze. Although the media had had been parading the 'Miracle of Sylven' as they called it, they had still not found much details about the exact situation happening back then.
This was mainly because the ones who truly knew what happened were the two most elusive people in the world currently. They were not trying to hide, but they did not particularly bother meeting other people to explain, especially not the press.
All everyone could rely on to understand what happened were the footages captured during the battles. And the Chosen gathered could not deny Caelum's words after seeing the final battle in the Sylven Cathedral that had been continuously replayed on television for several days.
And the unending horde of imps that they fought was so ridiculous that even they doubted whether they all came through a single gate alone. When Caelum thought they had calmed down a little, he dropped another bomb on them.
"What I meant to say is that we're dealing with a dungeon here. It's a dungeon that cannot be seen unless one is affected by the mana it releases. And that's where you guys come in."
"What...? No way, an invisible dungeon? Are you serious?"
"What a damn waste of time it was to come here. This guy let the attention get to his head and is talking nonsense."
"Such impudence! I will not tolerate any insult to my lord!"
"Reynor, stand down! And you three… You're free to do whatever you want. Walk away if you please, but know this. The lives of your friends will forever be lost if we don't find that dungeon."
They all went silent and did not move. Even the swordsman who was about to leave stopped, his face conflicted.
Caelum sighed thinking that he would have to make do with just Erta and himself and the team from Halo. But then the mage who looked the most serious out of the three stepped forward.
"I am Eleanor Adler, B-rank enchanter from the Bracer Guild. Even if there's only a small possibility of it being true, I can't ignore it. Please, let me help!"
"Thank you, Miss Adler. And the rest of you?"
"We are always at the service of the Pillar of Grace! Please use us, my lord!"
"I'll help out too! I'm Mary Winstead from Red Tower!"
"Tsk, fine. The guild master will have my head if he finds out I'm the only one who didn't help. I'm Kyle Langley from Knights of the Round."
"Good. Then everyone, move according to my instructions. We have no time to waste, so let's do this quickly."
The group spread out by pairs in a small area near the river. Erta was with the enchanter from the Bracer Guild while Caelum was with the magic swordsman from the Knights of the Round.
Caelum wondered if Kyle would be able to sense the mana well enough, but apparently his sensitivity to mana allowed him to wield it together with his swordsmanship.
They had nothing to do until the mana wave came so they all just waited patiently. Almost all of them were just chatting.
"Miss Ki'ana, may I ask a question?"
"Erta is fine. Go ahead."
"What exactly is your relationship with Lord Grace?"
"Well..., we're technically married. Right, Cal?"
[And who the hell is Cal?]
"That's your nickname I made just now. Your name is too long."
[It's literally just two letters more than yours.]
Eleanor just stared blankly at Erta wondering what stupid conversation she started. Everyone could hear their conversation through the earpiece comms devices they had.
They could also hear Mary complaining that she didn't even have a chance. But Erta was satisfied as she had managed to lighten the mood of the group. Meanwhile Kyle was looking at Caelum with a much calmer expression than before.
"So you guys are married after all. I did think that might be the case. I almost couldn't finish my coffee earlier while watching you two."
"What are you talking about?"
"Weren't you guys in a café earlier? I saw you talking with that guy from Halo. I guess you're his boss, huh."
"Ah, so you were there. Well, we're not officially married on paper, but yeah."
"Hey, man. In this day and age, it doesn't matter if it's on paper or not. We just have to live our lives the best way we know how. So that even if we die, we won't have any regrets."
"Wow. I didn't take you to be so sentimental. I've changed my opinion of you now."
"Okay, go ahead and laugh."
"No, I'm not laughing. Sentiment is what every person needs right now. Sometimes people forget about their hearts. They forget the motivations they have in the pursuit of power and glory... until they're lost all alone in the murky mire of it all."
Kyle scratched his cheek awkwardly. He did not think Caelum would take his words seriously, but seeing his forlorn face, Kyle realised that he had stepped on a landmine. He was fretting over what to say to change the mood, when someone spoke over the comms that went silent from their conversation.
[You're not alone anymore. I won't let you be alone anymore.]
"I know."
Caelum responded with a smile. It seemed Erta felt the change in his mood as she sent a wave of warmth to him through their connection.
He was once again in awe of the Life Covenant. It was this moment that made him accept that this was the greatest thing he had ever received. And it was Erta who gave it to him.