At the dead of night, a shadow studied a Rhankish city from atop a hill on the city outskirts. His gaze loomed over the walls, then over the dark streets of the city. His sight snaked around until it reached the tallest building within the city. According to the humans, The Cathedral of Saint Sallus served as home to a lot of priests and scholars in the entire region, as well as the seat of the local religious power. Breaking into the cathedral wouldn’t be an easy feat to most people, and would prove to be a challenge to the drones who were only used to infiltrating troglodyte villages.

‘Arcturus. Begin operation,’ Custodian ordered once it gathered all the data it wanted.

The Daedelus drone, Arcturus, kicked his beast-like hind legs into action. As he skipped across the quiet fields surrounding the city, he was also joined by several similar-looking drones. Cloaked in black clothing, they blended into the shadows as they reached the walls which were lined with torches.

Arcturus pointed upwards, and the infiltrator drones began scaling the walls with their specialized limbs. They slowly and patiently took their time climbing as they tried to make as little noise as possible. Arcturus was the first one up on the ramparts, and he immediately got to scouting around the place while avoiding the guards.

The drones had to be careful as they couldn’t kill the guards. Dead bodies would raise alarms no matter if they were hidden or not, based on the drones’ previous experiences infiltrating troglodyte villages, so they couldn’t just go around and slaughter every guard they could find.

The infiltrators avoided the well-lit rampart stairs, scaled directly down the walls, and moved into the streets before climbing on top of the stone houses. As they got closer to the cathedral, the infiltrators noticed that the number of watchmen increased.

Was it impossible to get into the cathedral?

With a hand signal, one of the infiltrators jumped down and disappeared off into the darkness. A moment later, there was a loud scream in the distance.

“THIEF! THIEF! SOMEONE GET HIM! HE HAS A SWORD!”

Some guards left their post to check what the shouting was about, which gave Arcturus and his drones time to reach the metal fence wall surrounding the cathedral. They broke the bars apart with their brute strength, and snuck into the cathedral grounds.

A few drones stayed behind to watch the back, while the rest scaled up the cathedral walls until they found an open window.

[Scanning locale…]

[Reconnected three drones.]

[Three drones incapacitated.]

‘You’ll have to head down to the basement, Arcturus,’ Custodian pointed out.

‘Affirmative,’ came the reply.

The drones spread out and went to search for different ways to head to the lower levels. Arcturus used the main stairs since it was the most direct path to the lost drones. Every time a human passed by, Arcturus would stick his body into any gap he could find against the old stone walls, or climb up to the ceiling and navigate through the cathedral while upside down.

It also helped that Arcturus was modified along with his infiltrator drones to be able to see in low-light conditions, and even perform acrobatics which would had been impossible with a normal human body. It didn’t take too long before Arcturus reached the basement.

The place that kept the dead drones wasn’t particularly guarded heavily. They were just placed in a large empty basement room guarded by a shabby-looking wooden door. The locked door didn’t even keep Arcturus out for long as he simply cut through the lock.

‘Disabled drones located,’ Arcturus reported and waited for a few more infiltrator drones to arrive. They would have to haul the bodies out as quickly as possible, while making sure not a single one of them would get caught. It would be awkward to get back three Freeholder drones only to lose a Thane drone to the humans.

When two other infiltrator drones made it to the holding room, they began extracting the dead drones out of the room. Arcturus grabbed one, while the other two bodies were carried by the newly arrived drones.

As they began to make their way out, they noticed something.

[Large spike in magic in the area detected.]

A wave of yellow light washed over the drones, though it did nothing to them.

‘What was that?’ Custodian asked.

‘Uncertain,’ Arcturus replied as he gave his body a look-over.

Before Arcturus could report his status back to Custodian, a man’s voice boomed across the basement. The drones couldn’t understand what was being said, but they knew it was Rhankish.

At the end of the cellar passage, a man cloaked in red appeared. He cleared his throat, then asked, “Perhaps you understand Vyssian, then?”

The drones pulled out their axes which caused the man to raise his hand, revealing that he was unarmed. Several other cloaked men also appeared, all unarmed as well.

Arcturus remained unmoved and was as still as a statue, which prompted the lead man to ask, “Can you understand Vyssian?”

“Yes. What do you want?” Arcturus asked.

“We mean no harm, northmen. In fact, we were deliberating on how we can hand the corpses of your kinsmen back to you. We have no need for those bodies at all,” the man replied.

“What do you want?” Arcturus repeated.

“Straight to the point, I see. Elena come here.” The man beckoned towards the crowd behind him and continued, “I believe this young girl is acquainted with your kinsmen.”

Elena moved up to the front. It was the little priestess girl who was stuck under Mount Varangia with the first humans Custodian had ever encountered. The last time the drones saw Elena, she separated from them when they arrived back at the capital of Vyssium.

The little priestess girl bowed towards Arcturus, then wrapped a small human effigy made of wood around her hands. “Greetings, Varangian. Is Mister Weaver well?”

“Weaver’s status is alive,” Arcturus replied. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Elena arrived from Vyssium quite some time ago and told me all about your people. I heard you fought the undead quite well, is that true?” the man replied with question

“Yes. The undead.”

“You see, I have received news that you are all capable mercenaries as well. Being able to take Northwestern Rhankia? Impressive feat. Not even the Vyssians could do that,” the man praised while nodding his head in approval.

“You are not dissatisfied with Rhankia losing an entire region?” Arcturus asked.

“Perhaps a bit. Rhankia’s been a kind friend to the Faith. But I am no Rhank. There are more pressing matters than petty squabbles among small countries.”

“What do you want?”

“Far to the east, beyond Alaria, lies a forest called the Kojan Forest which is home to the demons known as ‘Kojans’. Do you know what they are?”

Arcturus shook his head in reply, then answered, “Never heard of them.”

“A lie? No, it couldn’t be...” the man whispered to no one in particular. “Never mind, then. Humanity had set up a series of defensive fortresses collectively known as the ‘Kojan Walls’, which are used to keep the demons out of the lands of mortalkind. Recently, the undeads are attacking the Kojan Walls, and we need help repelling them. If the Kojan Walls fall, the demons will invade, no doubt about it.”

Arcturus placed his axe back around his hip, then went quiet. “There are too many things to take in, and many things I do not understand. If you want to hire mercenaries, talk to us in our embassy at Vyssium.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” the man nodded his head and replied. “True. You might not be the person I should be talking about this. However, we can talk about the bodies of your kinsmen.”

“Can we go?” Arcturus asked.

“Of course, northman. I offer you safe passage all the way back to Northwestern Rhankia.” The man and his followers stepped aside to allow the drones to leave. While cautious and wary that the humans might attack at first, the drones finally relented and started moving out of the cathedral basement.

“What is your name?” Arcturus stopped and asked when he got close to the man.

“I am Archpriest Agrianos, Archpriest of the Cathedral of Saint Sallus,” Agrianos introduced himself.

“Will we be expecting you at the embassy?”

“Perhaps in the future, if that isn’t a problem.”

“If there is a trade deal, there is always no problem,” Arcturus echoed what Weaver would’ve said, then left the basement.

As the last northman evacuated out of the cathedral, Agrianos heaved a sigh of relief. He wiped his forehead with a towel then rested against the wall, worrying his followers.

“I’m fine. I was just nervous. I’m not fond of being so close to Death, you see,” Agrianos said as he raised his hands to stop the approaching priests.

“What do you think, Archpriest Agrianos?” Elena asked.

“I believe what you told before is true, Elena. There is no way those northmen could be demons. When I used a demon-repelling miracle against them, they didn’t even flinch or notice it at all,” Agrianos answered as he straightened his back. “Dark times are upon us. The Kojans are attacking with greater ferocity, and the slumbering dead have awoken. These northmen would be our greatest allies… or our greatest enemies.”