“It’s almost as if the trees aren’t enough to mess up the visibility alone…” Joseph grunted the moment he exited his tent early in the morning. There were low chatters from around the camp, though all Joseph could see in his field of vision are the veil of mist that surrounded everything around him.

“The dwellers did mention the morning mists that lingers over the swamps.” Alina’s voice pierced through the fog before her sharp outline emerged from the grey. The sun’s light did its best to brighten up the fog, though the soldiers and Valkyries still had to hold up various light Casts to illuminate the camp itself.

A cool breeze brushed into Joseph’s face as she strolled past him, and Joseph noticed the pulsating Wave going in and out of her body. A faint white glowing outline of a Wave hovered over Alina’s body and kept it cool and dry.

“A nifty trick.” Joseph remarked, blowing a whistle to signal his soldiers before Alina rounded up everyone and led them from the front.

“An traditional Valkyrie's exercise with benefits.” Alina said, turning back as her white hair was tied into a small bun, exposing the smooth white skin at the back of her neck. Joseph found his eyes drawn to it, but he was professional enough to refocus on the task at hand.

"Though not all shared your incredible reserve of Wave and accurate cycling." Joseph remarked, to which Alina simply responded with a mysterious smile.

The two generals followed the directions offered to them by the Dwellers and headed deeper into the forest where the farm was suspected to be located. A compass Cast was held in hand by each of the soldiers, and the formation was tightly coordinated to prevent anyone from being left behind. Though if someone of the royal guards or Valkyries caliber got left behind, it would have been their own fault anyway.

The mist was so thick that trees and spanning roots simply appear out of nothing in front of them before disappearing just as creepily behind them. The swamp underneath their feet let out slushing sounds as the heavy boots of the soldiers planted and became partially submerged into the mud with every step.

The buzzing of the bugs surrounded the group, and soon, the duties of creating defensive Casts was shared across the groups. The Valkyries were as quiet as they were the day before, though they, at least, warmed up enough to the soldiers to tolerate being within the same shield Cast with them and the occasional banter.

Alina had offered Joseph the same shield Cast, or rather, invited him to enter the range of her aura that warded off the bugs. However, Joseph was content catching and squeezing the bugs as they came, leaving behind a trail of corpses as they moved through the forest.

“Here.” Alina said, waving her hand and sending forth a cold gust that cleared the way in front of them. The outlines of a fence made from thickened vines towered in from of the squad, and the sounds of footsteps behind the two generals came to a synchronized halt.

Joseph nodded his head before extending his Wave sensing abilities forward, though any and all sense of the Wave was rebounding off the fence in front of him. A simple yet clever trick to conceal one's presence through a simple shield Cast.

Joseph took another step forward, his fingers hovering over the vine when Alina reached her hand forward, a small outline of a claw now easily cutting through the vines and the shield Casts as the juices filled with some sort of shining glitter streamed down the side of the fence and a sweetened scent filled the air.

“Looks like we have arrived…” Joseph murmured before concentrating the Wave over his fist and blasting a larger hole through the fence. Then, before the splintering of vines even fell through to the ground, both Alina and Joseph charged through the gaps with blinding speed, their feet now only tapping lightly over the soggy earth before they pushed away from the mist with their presence in the Wave alone.

There was nobody on the other side of the fence, though rows of bushes that were perfectly organized gave away the true nature of this garden, each with the leaves trimmed and leaving only the stem that stood like rows of crosses. The squads mixed with Valkyries and Sonne city soldiers flooded in afterward, quickly establishing a perimeter through the entire garden.

“How long had this been deserted?” Joseph asked as Alina hovered her hand on the ground, conjuring a white wolf as lines of Wave extruded from her body. Then, she sent the Manifestation forward, letting it leap from row to row, searching for any signs of the groups that they were hunting.

Joseph glanced towards Alina, whose right eye glowed white despite the lack of any Mark of Manifestation over her face.

“Are you…a Manifester?” Joseph asked, when Alina smirked and shook her head.

“The strongest Valkyrie of each generation is entered into a contract with the Great Northern Wolf, and it functioned as our manifestation without needing to train as a Manifester.” Alina explained, “In fact, it’s better if you are not, just so you have far wider of an arsenal in combat.”

“Fascinating.” Joseph murmured, looking down at his own muscles, “All I got are these blocky muscles…That’s a little boring.”

“I don’t find it boring~” Alina smiled, “I like the way you look with those muscles. Way more well-defined than the big-bellied Talonian man.”

“Oh.” Joseph gently massaged his layered abdomen muscles before chuckling, “Then I am glad I trained them before I came.”

“Sure you did.”

“Generals.” A soldier emerged from the mist from behind and stopped at a respectful distance away, “There were no signs of anybody, and nothing left behind.”

“I also…got nothing.” Alina said, the glowing in her right eye fading away, “They were thorough.”

“We will push through and get rid of this anyway.” Joseph said, waving his hand, "tear everything down and burn it all within a shield.”

“Yes sir.”

All of the fencing materials, the houses made from cut-down trees, and the rows of harvested plants were all uprooted and piled together. Then, it was first dried up before set ablaze within a shield Cast to ensure no way could ever revive this particular garden ever again.

Just as the mist finally started to clear towards the middle of the day, the smoke from the combustion filled the air instead. The squads then set up a small camp next to the cleared-out plains and enjoyed a meal together.

With the job half done, Alina invited Joseph into her tent.

“You know I cannot refuse anything you say due to diplomatic courtesy, right?” Joseph joked when Alina gestured to the plates of delicacies set on a table in front of her.

“I know.” Alina said, “But it is a Talonia tradition to celebrate every step of success, not just the completion.”

Joseph’s eyebrows jumped slightly, and he set down crossed-legged across from Alina before lowering his voice slightly, “You have found it?”

“Yes, the Great Northern Wolf tracked down where the groups evacuated to. It did take some time though.” Alina explained.

“And why did you not inform of the soldiers?” Joseph asked.

“Because it also caught scents of communication Casts between here and there,” Alina said, observing Joseph closely as he froze before nodding with understanding.

“Do they know that we have found them?” Joseph asked, seemingly unbothered by Alina’s announcement.

“No.” Alina said, picking up a piece of bread before breaking it apart and dipping into a small bowl of white stew, “You don’t seem too…surprised.”

“Varous is a free country, and anyone can be anything, even at the highest level.” Joseph shrugged, “When we see betrayals, we just deal with it on the spot as long as we have enough evidence. Varous is strong enough even with those scoundrels.”

“I suppose…” Alina lowered her head, “I…was just probing you. The signature of the communication Cast was actually a regular kind of Casts and the encoded kind from the Valkyries…”

“And here I thought we would have both looked through the list of personnel that we brought,” Joseph said, looking into Alina’s eyes when she devoured the bowl of stewed meat quickly, "I thought the Valkyries couldn't be controlled by anyone else but...you?"

“That's not exactly true. Even within Talonia, there are powers at play that I do not yet understand.” Alina sighed. Joseph nodded in agreement when suddenly, they felt a stir in the local fields of Wave right outside their tent before a massive blast of air swept up the tent and completely blew it apart.

Alina channeled her powers immediately, bathing Joseph in the coolness before countless attacks were sent their way. The bright flashes temporarily blinded the two of them as the earth around them was blown back in all directions by the blast waves.

“Shit.” Joseph cursed, hurrying to where he felt Alina’s presence to be before he swung his fists around, sending a flying sphere of Wave back like a ball as it smashed apart a towering tree, which then squeaked and tilted towards the two of them slowly.

With Wave concentrating over their eyes, their blurry vision started to return before Joseph picked up Alina and jumped to the side as the massive trunks crushed the table of their shared meals.

The squads of soldiers outside were nowhere to be found, and somehow, the morning mist appeared to have returned once again. A strange sweetened aroma filled the air when Alina suddenly felt her legs weakening under her.

“Great Northern Wolf! Hunt down the enemy!” Alina commanded as her Manifest materialized around her body. However, a pulsating pain immediately shot through her skull as she growled in pain before dropping to one knee. The shock made her dizzy before blood streamed out from her right eye.

“Poison…” Joseph said through gritted teeth as Alina nodded and slammed a fist into the ground.

“It’s a Wave suppressing poison.” Alina grunted, “Another Talonia tradition. We are fighting enemies within our kingdoms after all…”

“Stay close to me.” Joseph said, taking half a step to shield Alina as her head spun.

“But you won’t be able to use the Wave!” Alina said sharply as strange-lookig dark figures emerged from the mist that seemed to have gotten a life of its own. Then, those figures attacked Joseph as he swung his massive muscular arms and fists around, bashing into the skulls of the attackers and knocking them to the ground.

Alina watched the man-mountain move, and the sounds of bodies collapsing onto the ground filled the air around her as Joseph worked his way through the horde. There were sounds of sharp blades hissing through the air, and Joseph channeled his Wave to parry those attacks, only for the kickback from the poison to hit him immediately.

“Shit.” Joseph chuckled before spitting blood onto the mud around him, “It really hurt like a bitch, aye?”

“Don’t underestimate it!” Alina warned when a figure attempted to wrap a bag around her head as Joseph spun around and launched the body of another attacker like a projectile, throwing both of those attackers into the rocks as the crunch of their broken bones sent shivers down Alina’s spine.

“And don’t underestimate me.” Joseph said, “Like I said…Varous is strong enough.”

Then, without any regard for pain, Joseph channeled his Wave fully and attacked on like a mindless beast, drawing the enemies away from Alina as his body faded into the whiteness around.

After what felt like an eternity, the sounds of battle had finally died down, and the mist slowly cleared away as a man dressed in a white robe with white hair and veil of fog covering his facial features appeared in the battlefield. He scanned the mountains of body left behind from Joseph’s rampage as the survivors of his underlings brought along the bodies of the unconscious generals before smiling.

“Alert the Militar family.” He said, whirling his finger as the two generals were loaded into a trap Cast, “We have got them.”