0045 Enemies or Allies

"Mr Azeredo! Mrs Azeredo!

Is anyone home? Please!".

Knocking on the door of the farmhouse, Ronan looked around as if some bandit might emerge from behind some tree to rob him.

Every now and then he would put his hands on his head to try to resist the pain he felt, at some point during his walk, his nose started to bleed, with everything he'd seen so far in conjunction with his amnesia, he was already getting paranoid.

"Who's there?".

A frightened man opened the door holding a hoe in one hand in an attempt to threaten the visitor.

"Young Mister Ronan? It's you?".

It took a while for Maycon's father to recognize Ronan, Ronan's clothes were all smeared with dust, dirt and blood, plus several rips everywhere, he didn't look any different than a victim escaping from a psychopath's captivity.

"Mr Azeredo! What's happening? Help me please!".

"I ask, what happened to you young man? Who did this to you? And the my son? Where is my son Maycon?".

"Oh Diore! It's young Mister Ronan? What happened?".

"Get out of the way woman, let him in... I'm already asking him questions!".

Ronan started crying in front of the door, looking at the current situation, Maycon's Father looked strangely into the house, but decided to help Maycon enter, as for Maycon's mother, she was even more worried about her son who hadn't returned for hours.

The family saw and went through a lot this night, it was still a few hours before dawn, but it seems that the family's distress would only increase, making the restlessness strong enough to not let them rest even a minute.

Arriving at the meal table, Maycon's father ran to light some lamps, while Maycon's mother went to fetch water for Ronan to drink.

"Madam Azeredo, your food made me sick...".

Coming through one of the doors, a half-naked man pulling up his pants stopped when he saw Ronan standing beside the table, by this time, Maycon's Father had already lit two oil lamps, and stopped to look at the two people staring at each other, Maycon's mother froze in the kitchen doorway holding a glass and a pitcher of water.

^"A soldier of the church!"^.

^"One of the heretics who got away!"^.

They both recognized each other immediately, and out of the corner of his eye, Ronan noticed a sword standing, leaning on the table, right in the middle of the two.

The two exchanged glances between them and the sword, and at the same instant, both ran forward trying to grab it.

**************************************************

"Miracle! Diosalva's Armor!".

"Miracle! Diocolpo's Armor!".

Amid the free fall, Freddy and the Envoy materialized their bluish green energy armors.

Freddy helped Father Alberto during the fall, and the Envoy managed to rescue one of the would-be soldiers in the air, both of whom floated down while dodging dirt and rocks.

On the other side, Jerdel continued his peaceful descent as he looked around looking for the heretics among all the falling rocks.

In the middle, the two Rank B Angels continued their fall while fighting the Little Bone who began utilizing the earth in the air, to hide and perform sneak attacks.

Several seconds later, Alberto and his group landed on the ground, avoiding the lava-filled ravines, the Envoy positioned himself in front of them, and began cutting and destroying all the rocks that still fell towards them, while Freddy blocked everything the Envoy couldn't handle.

"Wait a little longer, I'll help you...

... Miracle! The Battle Father!".

Alberto began to channel his energy that made him glow with white light, a battle mace made of white light gradually materialized, a robe of white energy overlapped his dirty robe and a sort of aureola of white energy formed floating over his head.

Once all of Alberto's magical ability had built up, he took a step forward and used his battle mace to swipe at a boulder the size of an adult human coming towards him, the swipe caused a wave of white energy to propagate, blowing away all the falling debris.

Brrroum!

Diosalva's Rank B Angel landed hard on the ground, the ground on the other side collapsed, plummeting towards lava and increasing the local heat even more.

But just as Diosalva's Angel managed to escape from falling into the lava, an explosion occurred near him, Diocolpo's Rank B Angel was also thrown by a blow from the Little Bone, and another piece of the ground collapsed into the lava.

Little Bone reached the ground shortly thereafter, but this time, he was in a large open area, where the ground was divided by huge blocks of rock, it was impossible for him to go from one side to the other using the ground, he would not be able to pass through the lava, and the Angels now began to fly.

With the advantage reversing, the battle between the three continued.

**************************************************

"Please! Take us in front of everyone!".

"Be quiet, Father! We are helping Miss Sara, we are not helping you church people!".

"Sir, please! Do what he's asking!".

Sara, Alcione and Jenany, the three of them weren't far away during the fall, the distance of just a few meters helped in communication between them amid so much noise and confusion.

The Werehyena responsible for keeping Father Alcione's safety, was not at all willing to comply with the Father's will, he grumbled upon hearing Sara's request and seeing the older Werehyena nodding in agreement.

Holding the Father tighter, he saw one of the big rocks coming his way during the descent and used it as a support for his feet, so he took a big leap down, past all the others who were gliding across the earth trying to avoid the great free fall that awaited them.

With the transformation into a Werehyena, their bodies each grew to over 3 meters tall, which made it easy for each of them to hold and keep Sara, Jenany and Alcione safe.

So, holding Father Alcione with one arm, the man slammed his back into one of the walls just below them all, and went back to using the Bone Spike that was in his other hand to slow his fall again.

"Prague! Living Roots!".

Picking up pieces of rocks along the way, Alcione used her magical ability to seed the insides of the rocks with Living Roots, small balls glowing green appeared on the stones, and seeing this, Alcione began to throw these stones forward, hitting large rocks and walls, with each stone he threw, another stone he picked up and used his magic, and he went repeating this process for the rest of the descent.

With each stone sown with the Living Roots, an explosion would occur and a tangle of roots would begin to grow in all directions like snakes slithering away, the roots began to dig and grab everything along the way creating several resistant nets.

"Well done Father! Attention! Everyone, hold on to the roots!".

Surprised at the priest's ingenuity, the Werehyena holding him praised him and then shouted for his friends to hold on to the roots, the free fall was just a few feet away, and unlike the men in the church, they don't have the magical abilities to materialize wings to float or glide.

As soon as Alcione and the Werehyena felt their bodies lose support as they were suspended in the air, Alcione turned her body back and threw the last two stones to help the rest of the group following behind.

"Grab!". "Grab the roots!".

One by one, they all clung to the roots that wrapped around their bodies as soon as they were touched, Alcione's arms began to shake as the green light intensified more and more.

He was increasing the Living Roots' growth speed in an attempt to save everyone from the deadly fall, sweat began to trickle from his earth and sand-stained forehead, and the Werehyena holding him began to get worried as he noticed the old man's condition.

In less than ten seconds, everyone was already hanging by the Living Roots that began to occupy the ceiling of the large cave around the hole from which they all fell.

And with a few more minutes of waiting, the last pieces of earth and stone fell away, and the whole place was covered in a great cloud of dust, a cloud of dust orangish by the light coming from the lava, and just below them, on the ground, the battle between the Angels and Little Bone continued to take place.

**************************************************

"So, there you are...".

Muttering to himself, Jardel noticed the intense green glow a few hundred feet above the ground, the wings on his back moved to produce a bluish green wave that brushed all the dust away from him so he could see the tangle of roots that had formed on the ceiling.

The green glow of Alcione's ability faded, Alcione's dirty white robe became easily recognizable, and not far from him, another person wearing white robe denounced Jenany's presence.

^"If the girl is with him, then so are the other heretics..."^.

A new group of people appeared with them, and the two Angels of Rank B were not able to face that Skull Hyena, he feels the need to kill these heretics, especially Lucius, but the odds are against him.

Although his Diosalva armor had wings, it didn't make him fly, he could float for one or two tens of meters only, so he realized he needed more Angels to help him.

Frowning, he reached into the opening of his armor and pulled out five silver insignia, the last ones he had.

^"Father Alberto gave me a great loss today...

... I never thought he would give up hunting some heretics because of mere words and ridiculous thoughts...

... Alright, later I make a report about Father Alberto and about this such Father Alcione for those people, they must compensate me for my losses of today..."^.

Jardel pondered how he should proceed and who to turn to after completing his goals, he held the five insignia in both hands and knelt on one knee to pray again.

**************************************************

"Sir Father Alberto, I will look for a way out!".

"All right, take that scared soldier with you... Go with him soldier!".

"Ye... Yes... Yes sir Father...".

With the curtain of dust fading away, the Envoy volunteered to find a way out of the current giant cave, the noise of blows and explosions still resounded through the air along with a show of lights, and he was worried about the many lava-filled ravines on all sides.

Father Alberto immediately agreed, and suggested that he take the last would-be surviving soldier, the poor guy was all bruised and scared to death from the battle taking place a few hundred yards away from them, all his friends had already died or just disappeared during the last hour, he didn't want to join them in death.

"Father Alberto! The Watcher Jardel has started again!".

Watching the Envoy run to find a way out, Alberto turned around as soon as he heard Freddy calling for him, on the other side, white light began to rise from Jardel's body like a fluid flame.

"Oohh... Jardel...

You are not helping anything by insisting on this kind of path!

Watcher Freddy, you've known him the longest... Is there any way to get him to calm down?".

"Father Alberto... Maybe there is a way, allow me to go to him?".

"Shit, we don't have time for this...

... Go! But don't delay, we still have to find Father Alcione!".

As soon as Alberto finished speaking, four Werehyenas fell to the ground a few dozen meters away from them, catching the attention of Alberto and Freddy, and with that, they also looked up.

Several other Werehyenas used their mouths to rip open the Living Roots trapping their bodies, and as soon as they fell a few meters, they held onto the roots again, making paused falls.

The roots closest to the ground were still at a height of between 150 to 200 meters from the ground, the men who fell were now all groaning in pain on the ground with some injuries.

"Father Alcione is with them! Look there!".

Freddy pointed to the people in white robes above, recognizing Alcione and Jenany, a wide smile appeared on Alberto's face, at least everyone is together again, they just need to get out of this place once the Sent One finds a way out.

But looking again at the newcomers who fell to the ground, they noticed that a crimson glow covered their open wounds, denouncing their self-healing abilities, and on top of that, the four of them were looking at them.

"Looks like the situation has turned completely against us...

... I still have a few last medallions, Watcher Freedy, make Watcher Jardel stop this madness...".

Looking deeply at the Father at his side, Freddy felt mixed emotions, on the one hand, Alberto was extremely strict and a follower of church customs, and on the other hand, he was now acting very smoothly with everything that was going on at the moment.

Noticing Freddy's strange gaze behind his helmet's visors, Alberto ran a hand over his head to smooth his hair and took the last medallions from his pocket, once more, he looked at the locket Alcione had given him, and after clenching his fist tightly, he decided to put the locket away again, keeping three silver medallions to wear in his other hand.

"After today's exploration... I feel like... I'm getting too old for this sort of thing too... Go there Freddy, I'll hold things around here, if I go with you the Envoy will be isolated among enemies...".

"Thank you for the opportunity Father Alberto...".

"No... I'm the one who should thank you for staying behind and waiting for me, and please, you can just call me Alberto...".

Freddy lowered his head and closed his eyes, then looked one last time at Father Alberto and turned, he took a great leap using the energy wings to float for a great distance, circling around the battle that was slowly moving away from the middle.

Already recovered, two of the Wherehyena went towards Father Alberto, who used his 'The Battle Father' magic ability again and threw the medallions into the air.

**************************************************

"So Miss Sara, what are we going to do with these other church people?".

The Werehyenas were slowly descending among the Living Roots, the older Werehyena looked down at the situation below them, asking, he pointed to Jardel on one side, who had just summoned more Angels, and then to Father Alberto who prepared for battle against the Werehyenas.

"I don't know...

... It would be better if we could capture them without killing them...

... They've already lost a lot of people, and there's still a lot going on out there, they might be helpful with information or other things...".

"I understand in parts, but we have two problems...

... If they insist on resisting, I will not risk the lives of my companions in an unfavorable battle, I will order them to fight with all their might...

... And we can't stay long in this part of the caves...".

"What do you mean sir?".

"There's something sleeping down here...

... Something that only the strongest of the faction dare to face, as a form of Rank evaluation...".

Sara really didn't know what to do about these church people, Jenany and Alcione seemed easy to talk to and come to some agreement, as for the others, Father Alberto and especially that Vigia Jardel, it seemed impossible to avoid a fight.

The warning about not being able to stay in these parts of the cave piqued the curiosity of Jenany who was with another Werehyena descending with them, her eyes widened as she looked down, searching for any hint of what could be sleeping in such a hot, dry environment.

"... And this open space with the bottom full of lava hinders Little Bone against those Angels that can fly...".

"... I almost forgot, sir, there's still a kid around!".

"What? Is Oscar around?".

Jenany remembered Oscar, in fact, she never forgot about him, she was very blown away by his skills, besides him being a little scary, but she thought it would be better to remind them about a possible child lost in a dangerous place.

But the Werehyena holding Sara nearly let go of her when he heard about the child, not only him, but the other Werehyenas listening to the conversation nearby also stopped to look at Sara and Jenany, waiting for more details.

"Yes sir, he asked to call him Oscar... After all, who is he?".

"Shit! So he came to the middle of this whole mess...

... We need to find him...".

All the Werehyenas took a deep breath at the same time with Sara's confirmation, it seems they all thought the same thing.

"Miss Sara, don't you remember little Oscar?".

"I don't remember any children named Oscar...

... Ah, I remember that several years ago, Thomas sometimes played with a boy who said he was the nephew of the Faction Leader, his name was also Oscar...

... But didn't he die 5 years ago?".

With the man's question, Sara searched her memory for the name Oscar, and the only child she could remember with that name had died a few years ago, and when she commented on the dead Oscar, she looked at the Werehyena, and saw him nodding positively.

Sara's eyes widened.