?????'s Point of View

Unknown Location

“An interesting encounter, to be sure, but she isn’t my concern. What of Mordred? Does The Anomaly live?” I inquired as I looked down upon Flare and Tor.

Flare kneeled while Tor waited just as patiently. “I delivered a blow that might be fatal. His arm is likely lost to him.” He stated as he held up my weapon. “He might’ve been able to dodge having his chest pierced, but he couldn’t avoid the entire thing.”

Part of me was interested, but I had destroyed him once before with the same weapon. Standing, I moved from my throne and stood before Flare. Reaching out for the weapon, my hand touched my spear with mist. Slowly, it encircled it before quickly disappearing. My mist dispersed around it, and I looked at him.

“An arm means little, Flare. How did he appear? You said he removed the parasite from Elincia. Surely, he was exhausted after facing a faux Demon Lord. Even if she didn’t present him with much of a challenge, the brothers most likely did.”

“It would appear that it was merely a test of one another’s might. However, Mordred should’ve been able to dodge my attack. He kept us at bay for a time, but he is likely weakened due to his continual battles against powerful opponents.”

Quirking a brow, I began to slowly walk through the room. “The attack that you think claimed his arm should’ve been easy for him to avoid?”

He nodded as he looked up at me while my gaze stayed on him. “Yes. He pushed two insignificant mortals out of the way and was injured in the process. However, given the distance between us, it would be simple for even a Ghoul to avoid.”

Tor studied Flare for a moment in thought before turning to me. “Perhaps he is exhausted and was on the verge of collapse. If so, his wounds are likely still there.”

Coming to a stop, I turned to Tor. “How many breeders do we still have on hand?”

Another one of my Generals spoke. “Hundreds…”

With my gaze still focused on Tor, I smirked. “Now, I am willing to throw away several of their lives for this opportunity. Bring one to me that I can make into my ward. We’ll use them to investigate and have the others on standby. Tor will go with them and wait for my word.” A giggle came to my lips. “Even for him, a few hours won’t be enough time for him to recover entirely.”

“On the off chance it was just a ruse, perhaps it would be best to send in a smaller team to-“ Tor began.

“No.” I waved off his concern as I cut him off. “The breeders mean nothing to mean, and turning more of them into Ghouls is simple enough. Besides, we can always make more.”

“As you command.” Tor bowed to me.

“Head out as soon as I turn one of the Ghouls into my ward. We’ll go from there.”

Greigh's Point of View

Above the Hollow Forest

Things were silent over the Hollow Forest. Silent… Even over the flapping of my wings, I should’ve heard some manner of life. The rustling of leaves, birds chirping, maybe a few growls or roars in the distance, but there was nothing. Part of me thought about diving down into the forest to investigate on foot. Another part of me realized how asinine that was.

However, the forest came to life rather suddenly after explosions started rang out from the top of Mt. Helmsforth. My eyes shot back to the mountain for only a moment before battle cries made their way above the treetops. Dozens of Demons shot from the forest and started to make their way to Helmsforth.

I moved to intercept a few of them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a battle I could enter into alone. Not only was there too many, but all of them began to transform into grotesque creatures of some manner. I’d seen the corpses of Ghouls before, and all of them differed slightly. This was the same.

Yet, it wasn’t the sudden appearance of these Ghouls that made me fly ahead and abandon my position over the forest. A black mass began to cover the trees as it moved through the forest. Being a Zugal, I wasn’t in tune with the magic around me or even able to sense the magical force of others… But whatever was down there made me rethink how to proceed and definitely confirmed I didn’t want to do so alone.

If Arthur was really dead, which I wasn’t convinced he was, and both Priestesses were unconscious, there was only one possible way for us to survive this. My eyes focused on the mountain as the explosions had stopped. No doubt, some manner of Ghoul snuck into the Temple. However, I could only pray that Lady Lucia, General Alwin, and Kheri were all alive and well. After all, I would need them if I was going to free Rudnurth.

Never in my life did I ever think Arthur would see this far ahead. He knew the Demons were an issue and told me about Rudnurth and where he was. The General also made sure I knew who knew where he was, how to get to him, and who might be able to set him free in case the worst should happen.

“Please let me make it in time.”