Somewhere in an underground facility in the Southern Continent...

"How are the preparations coming along?" A man seated on a throne made from blackstone asked.

​​

"My Lord, the Anaesha and the Zelan Dynasties are making preparations for war," a man wearing a black robe reported. "The soonest they will make their move is in three months, the longest is five. Our members are laying the groundwork of the siege even as we speak."

The man seated on the throne nodded his head. "Are the altars constructed?"

"My Lord, half of the altars are already built," the black-robed man answered. "We estimate that they will be finished by the time the war officially starts."

"Too slow, make sure to finish them in two months."

"As you wish, My Lord."

The man seated on the throne rested the side of his face on the palm of his hand. "How about the Crown Prince, any news from him?"

The man wearing the black robe raised his head to look directly at his Master. "He said that he is now looking for the whereabouts of the key. I think that the Crown Prince is being serious this time around."

The man sitting on the throne snorted, "Tell him that if he is too slow, we will find someone else to take his place. We have no need for useless individuals."

"I will pass your message to him, My Lord."

"Go, and make sure that all my orders are carried out."

"Yes, My Lord."

------

William frowned as he moved towards the Mountains within the territory of Bradford. The Miasma seeping into the land had lessened after the Trollhounds had left the territory, but they were only responsible for spreading the miasma.

The source was still active and William was planning to see if he could do something about it.

A meter and a half tall Trollhound, with dark-silver fur, guided William and Ella towards a secret passageway that led to the inner depths of the Mountain.

"Commander, where are we?" Amelia asked.

She was currently riding with William on Ella's back as they traveled the underground passageway.

"We are in a secret base that was abandoned by sorcerers," William replied without looking back at her. "This is the place where the Trollhounds were born."

Originally, William didn't plan to bring Amelia along. However, since this was the barony of her parents, he decided to let her accompany him on his investigation.

Amelia's face became grim when she realized that an unknown organization had managed to infiltrate their territory and even build an underground base without her father's knowledge. As a daughter of the barony, she was very concerned about the long-term repercussions of having this place under her father's nose.

Fenrir gave a low growl signaling that they had reached their destination. After being knighted by William, the Trollhound's body grew larger and its rank rose as well.

Currently, Fenrir was at the peak of Rank D. William estimated that his new ally would break through to Rank C within the month, after ingesting the High-Grade Beast Core that he had given Fenrir a few hours ago.

Its body was no longer skinny like a dog suffering from malnutrition. Instead, its body became lean and strong and oozed with untapped potential.

William extended his senses as he scanned his surroundings. From what he could tell, the place was abandoned, but he didn't let his guard down.

The Half-Elf nodded at Fenrir and the latter went ahead to see if there was anything suspicious inside the base. Ten minutes later, it returned and gave its report.

'There's no one here, Master,' Fenrir reported via telepathy.

'Good.' William nodded. 'Take me to the pool of miasma you and your brethren were tossed into to suffer.'

Fenrir hesitated a bit, but in the end, it obeyed William's order. It had very sad and painful memories from this place and it wished that it could destroy the place completely, but William didn't want that.

His Master wanted to understand who these people were and Fenrir didn't want to get in William's way.

After walking for a few minutes, they finally arrived at a chamber where a cloud of miasma was rising through an open hatch. Clearly, whoever built this place made sure that the chamber was properly ventilated to avoid miasma poisoning.

"This is...!" Amelia's eyes widened in shock. "A misma pool!"

William dismounted from Ella's back and carefully walked towards the pool in order to observe it properly. Fenrir had already told him about the miasma pool, but it was bigger than he had expected. It was at least a hundred meters long and fifty meters wide.

It was the size of two Olympic swimming pools joined together.

The water seemed to be boiling due to the thousands of bubbles and steam that were rising from its surface.

The fur on Fenrir's body was standing up on end as if it was remembering something very scary. If not for William's presence, it might have already bolted out of the chamber and run back towards the exit.

The memories it had of the secret base, and the organization that ran it, were still fresh in its mind.

'System, do you have any suggestions?'

William patiently waited because it knew that the system was still not finished with its explanation.

William nodded in understanding. He agreed with the system's explanation and waited for their last option.

'Side effects? What are the side effects?' William crossed his arms over his chest. Although he wanted to help Amelia and her father, he didn't want to sacrifice his body and health to that extent. He had already finished his end of the bargain and Amelia had officially joined his order. Doing more might only make things difficult for him.

While the system was doing its calculations, William walked towards what seemed to be lockers at the corner of the chamber.

He tried to open one of them, but they were locked, and seemed to require a key.

William smirked while taking out the Lockpicking kit from his storage ring. While he and Ezio traveled the land, he had leveled up his Thief Skills by doing some shady business like infiltrating a corrupted official's house, stealing from them, and gathering important documents.

After a minute of tinkering, William managed to open one of the drawers and what he found inside made his expression turn grim.