Hitori landed about a half hour ago with Reaper and Virgil. They flew out from Nova very early this morning, and arrived at the Rusted Pass around zero eight hundred local time. The pass ran through the isthmus connecting the Northwest and Southwest continents. The Umbra mountains lay to the north, separated more by culture than geography from the Yingshan mountains to the south.

Gods… this place again. Why am I always coming back here?

Some of Reaper’s spies spotted Dr. Magnus nearby a few days ago. The mysterious woman, back to wearing her hood and mask, was vague about her source of intelligence, but Hitori had a feeling she meant the birds. She’d been approached by one near as big as she was when they landed, and had a brief conversation with it in a strange language. Supposedly it was a common tongue amongst metafauna, similar to Mairtalan for humans.

Right now they were awaiting the Templar agents who would do the majority of work on this mission. All Hitori had to do was keep the Ex Stone out of Dr. Magnus’s hands, but never so far away the doctor might retreat to his hideout. They had no idea where the man was holed up, and the last thing they wanted was to risk a protracted search while he prepared his defenses.

His base isn’t that far from here. Kind of a strange place, though hunting it down is going to be the least of your worries.

Hitori practiced his newly discovered ability—which he named the FlashPoint Arte—while they waited, not that he needed to, but to pass the time. It literally does the opposite, but okay. He already picked out the techs he had most suited for it, though eventually he would need to rework his entire library.

As for FlashPoint, there weren’t many restrictions. He wouldn’t get tired or hungry, no matter how long he waited, and it was possible to fire off techs from that frozen moment. It was even possible to control how quickly time seemed to pass, thankfully.

The only side effect he noticed was a mild headache after spending too much time in there. It didn’t seem to get any worse no matter how much longer he stayed in, though he didn’t think he’d ever passed even a whole day. It did get very boring rather quickly.

On the subject of boring, Hitori turned to Reaper. “How much longer are your Templar going to take?”

Reaper looked at him and shrugged. “Depends on the weather. There’s a wind blowing east from here, and since our base is so far they can’t push the engine too hard or they might deplete the reserve. I don’t want us stuck on the ground with a dead helicopter while the Ex Stone is exposed.”

That was probably wise, he had to admit. Still it didn’t do much to relieve his boredom. He started to regret not bringing a teammate along, or even Bridget. He almost brought it up a few times, but kept getting a bad feeling about the suggestion. Eventually he ended up boarding the aircraft alone with Reaper and Virgil. They didn’t even take a Nova pilot.

Hitori surveyed the horizon. Nothing. He might as well satisfy a bit of curiosity. “What exactly is a Templar anyway?”

Reaper gave him a long look.

“What I mean is, you and Virgil are in the Templar, but neither of you look like Templar.”

“Ah, yeah, it is rather confusing,” Virgil said. His boss cut her eyes over to him. “Reaper is basically the leader, and his title’s been passed down through generations.” Virgil laughed. “Don’t rightly know how he’s supposed to pick a successor, given how small the operation is, but I guess that’s never been a problem. Now, me, I’m kind of a consultant, you could say. Reaper picked me up a while back because of M—“he coughed. “Cause of my experience.”

“In Tag Hunting?” Hitori asked.

“Ah, not exactly. I used to be a, uh, researcher.”

Hitori eyed him skeptically. That is sort of true, though I think he was more like a lab tech. “And the rest of the Templar.”

“Well, we’ve got lots of contacts here and there, and some staff at the base, but there’s actually only t—“

“There’s a small but reasonably sized number of true Templar.” Reaper said. She had a very hard glare for Virgil, who winced under the pressure. “Anyway, the Templar, asides from myself, consist of a group of people with a specially developed Vital Network. You could say it’s a direct upgrade from a Paladin Net.”

“The girls really are something else,” Virgil said. “A bit stuffy though.”

I’d wager they just find you annoying.

“On the subject,” Reaper said. “I’ve been informed they should arrive shortly.”

Hitori scanned the skies once more, this time finding a small black dot a few degrees above due east. It was approaching at a rapid pace, transforming into the distinct shape of a helicopter in only a few minutes. Not long after, they touched down in a large clearing a short distance away.

“Alright you two,” Virgil said. “Now that the girls are here I’ll go ahead and return Nova’s bird.”

Aw, is the little baby scurrying away before things get interesting? Probably for the best. Not sure I could resist the opportunity to pop your stupid head off.

“You’re not fighting with us?” Hitori said.

“Ah, you see,” Virgil said. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “I’m… not really the best at that kind of stuff, get in the way, usually.” He shrugged, then walked to the helicopter nearby. Before he jumped in he turned to Hitori and said, “G-good luck, kid.”

Hitori reluctantly returned his wave then faced Reaper. “He brings up a decent point, by means of running away.”

“Oh?” Reaper said.

“You said the Templar are some kind of enhanced Paladins, right? But I’ve seen them fight and never been super impressed. Do these Templar all have that death glare thing you mentioned?”

“No, and anyway, you’ve only seen Paladins neutered by long years under their dubious treaty,” Reaper said. She continued in a pleased voice, “Now, if you’ll allow me to demonstrate, a true Paladin fought a little something like this—”

Reaper disappeared with a thunderous crack, followed almost instantly by another off to the side. Hitori turned in time to see the top launch clean off a nearby boulder. As it toppled through the air, Reaper aimed her right arm at it. She flashed white, and a beam of light shot from her outstretched hand to the chunk of stone, blasting it apart.

Remind me to keep an eye on that one!

Hitori clapped. “Alright! That was totally badass! Are you saying the Templar are even stronger than that?”

“Ah, not exactly,” Reaper said as she walked back to him. “I… uh, they were improved more in non-combat matters, though a few centuries of refinement to offensive sigils improved their finesse and efficiency.”

“Still, I had no idea Paladins could be anywhere near that cool.” He laughed. “I should see if I can get E— ah, Chandra to take up that beam thing.” He smiled. “You can never have enough ranged attacks.”

“When this is done I can get you the token for it, though you might get Nova in trouble with the Temple if you use it too much.”

Hitori heard footsteps approaching, and turned in time to see a white haired woman enter the clearing. There were several more behind her.

“Showing off for the kid?” she said.

“Proving we can do our part,” Reaper said, she turned to Hitori and motioned toward the new fighter. “This is Satiah, she’ll be commanding the others.”

Hitori counted six Templar in total, with the one he met earlier, Ieset, absent from their ranks. The Templar didn’t wear much in the way of armor, though if they were as tough as Paladins it probably didn’t matter. Satiah had a strange silver case, like a cylinder with a handle. She passed it to Reaper.

The other Templar spent a minute introducing themselves, then left to take up positions nearby. They were going to ambush Dr. Magnus when he approached, and if possible Reaper was going to use a special ability she had to paralyze him, what Hitori called the death glare. After that they wouldn’t have any trouble getting back the Reaping Stone. That’s the plan, at least. Let’s see if we can’t make it more interesting.