Phil and Carly had made it to Holbrook several days after they left Winslow. They had to start fighting their way through monsters and mutated beasts halfway to Joe City. Phil would take the lead so that his oldest daughter could assault their opponents safely from behind him. Her magic was devastating, and he recognized a manic rage in her eyes when she really got into it. It was the same look his ex-wife would get when they argued. And it seemed the magic was accelerating the touch of mania she had inherited from her mother.

Her hair was pitch black now, rather than the dark brown she had grown with, and bits of frost clung to the strands as the Northern Arizona winds blew her hair about. Her once dark eyes were now faintly illuminated with a white blue from within and when she was in the grip of battle they were absolutely radiant with power. Her resting body temperature had dropped to almost freezing, yet she seemed unfazed by the change.

Have to keep an eye on her in the future, first we have to rescue Kayley. Fucking Mormons. Phil thought as they navigated their way over a grassy hill to get a view of the city of Snowflake. The city had quickly become a religious compound. The leader was a man by the name of Jeff Flake. He quickly organized his ‘flock’ into a fighting force he referred to as the Templars. These men went into the desert, defeated the dungeons and their ‘demons’ and brought back the settlement cores, which Jeff then used to make Snowflake all official within the System and shit. Then he sent the Elders and teams of Templars out to the neighboring cities to bring people back to the compound.

The only problem with that was they weren’t bringing just anyone back. Only the young and pretty. Which included his youngest daughter, Kayley. She was only fifteen and rage billowed in Phil’s gut as his imagination ran wild with thoughts of what they were doing to her there. If they hurt her, if they touch a fucking hair on her head… He let the thought linger as he and his daughter observed the compound from their concealed vantage point.

He flinched when he felt his daughter's cold hand on his shoulder, “They only bring that energy barrier down for a moment. Only when they open the gate to let someone in and out. We can’t get any help from Holbrook, the fucking tweakers and shit are still trying to figure out how to get high and stay high. Everyone else is running around with like chickens with their heads cut off. Dumbasses.”

He thought for a bit and checked the communications network. Still no outside connection, and we can’t get onto Snowflake’s network without interacting with the kiosk. He considered other options of getting help, it had been roughly two weeks since he had heard from Karl, since he had moved outside the limited range of Winslow’s network. “We could head back to Winslow, gather help from there, but that’s at least a week of travel, even if we cut straight across the desert.”

“Maybe they have the roads cleared? Karl was getting shit done, you never know.” Carly suggested as she watched the white clad bunkhouse where the Mormons were holding their ‘anointed’. All the young women they had snatched up or tricked into thinking there was safety behind their walls.’ This building sat directly across from the ‘Temple’ and the women were marched to worship services three times a day. Worship, breakfast, worship, lunch, worship, dinner. Every day. This was how they knew Kayley was in there, though they’d yet to find a way in themselves and they didn’t wish to make their presence known.

“Let’s give it another day, we’ll decide whether to head back to Winslow or not. They’re not sacrificing people, and they have regular patrols, so she should be relatively safe. I just don’t like her being in there without us.”

Carly was about to respond when both she and her father spun around to the sound of feet crunching across dry grass. “Greetings, friends. To whom would you be referring?”

An incredibly handsome group of young men in medieval armor under white robes stood before them, an older attractive priestess stood behind them, also dressed in plain white robes. No one had yet drawn steel but they all were clearly prepared to fight or sermonize. It just depended on how Phil and Carly reacted to their sudden presence.

“Been looking for my wife.” Phil lied before his daughter could speak. She looked at him sideways but held her tongue.

The priestess stepped out form behind the Templar that stood in front of her. “Why do you lie? What are you hiding?”

“I’m not lying, my wife lived out this direction, name’s Milly. Tall, brown hair, slim, attractive, in her forties.”

The woman wasn’t having it though, either she was incredibly prescient or she had heard more of their conversation than she was letting on. “No, plenty of older women with that description back home, but there is one of our newly anointed sisters that looks like this one.” The woman took a half step forward and commented with a sweetly sinister smile.

Carly and Phil tensed. We’re busted. Fuck!

“What was her name, Samuel? The cute, spirited, brunette we brought in a couple weeks ago?” The priestess looked casually over her shoulder at the lead man, a blonde boy not much older than Carly if at all.

“I believe her name is Kayley. She has a strong will, though I’m sure she will come around soon, the Prophet brings them all around eventually.” He smiled smugly at Phil and Carly, “She will make a good wife. I may even take her for myself, Prophet willing.”

Carly saw her father’s face go red with rage, and her own anger was rising as the quartet of assholes taunted them. She cracked an ice cold smile at the arrogant priestess who flinched as she spoke, “You all just done fucked up.”

The trio of Templars drew their weapons and shields while stumbling back from the pair of angry family members. “We’ve already reported your presence to the Prophet, more Templars are already on the way.”, The priestess warned as she fell behind the arms and armor of her men.

Phil summoned his full regalia and roared at the men in front of him, “YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!” Then he charged forward before the men could respond. A heavy overhead swing of his mace caved in the skull of an unfortunate young templar that stepped forward to attack, the vertebrae in his neck shattered and his flattened head lolled limply on his shoulders as he body skidded across the grass between Carly and Phil.

The boy previously identified as Samuel charged forward and met Phil blow for blow. Sword and mace rang across shields, and grunts of anger and frustration echoed back and forth as the pair dueled in the grassy gnoll.

Carly summoned a spear of ice from the ground beneath the last Templar. He was too focused on her directly to notice the offending spike launch from the ground until it sheared through his groin and traveled into his guts from below. By then it was too late as the spike grew and lifted him off his feet. A second later the boy tilted his head back and attempted to scream in pain as the spike stretched out of his wide open mouth. Carly’s eyes began to glow with intensity, she raised her fist that was now completely blue with cold power and twisted it sharply in front of her. The spike exploded with the skewered man still attached. His body was torn to shreds and tumbled in all directions as the spike disintegrated at Carly’s command.

The priestess spluttered nonsense as Samuel and her father fought. She considered assisting her father but could already tell the young handsome man was flagging. The fight was already decided so Carly focused on the bitch priestess who had yet to take any action against her. That doesn’t mean I won’t take action, She thought as she began summoning a new spell to use on the stunned woman. The air around the woman began to condense as Carly slowed the scant water particles to the point they would solidify as ice. It was a trick of physics she learned from that mage Karl had picked up at the prison. She used her own magic to suck all the motion and energy out of the particles causing them to freeze.

Carly smiled as thick ice formed around the woman who apparently had no counter to the attack. She stopped condensing the air when the ice trap had reached her shoulders. The woman’s teeth chattered uncontrollably and Carly stood back to watch her father’s fight play out.

Phil smashed into his opponent with force. The boy stumbled backwards and paid for his loss of balance with a broken knee as Phil’s mace swung in from the side and snapped it like a twig. He screamed in pain and fell hard to his back. He tried to raise up and was met with a heavy downward swing to his chest. The sound of metal on metal rang across the hilltop and the man grunted then spat up blood to dribble down his chin.

“P-please.. don’t…”, the young man begged, terror in his eyes as he looked up at Phil.

“You sealed your fate when you threatened my daughter.” Phil brought his mace down on the young man’s face repeatedly until he was unrecognizable. He looked down at the thoroughly dead man and spit on his corpse then turned to the woman that his daughter had frozen with menace on his face. The woman that was currently chattering and turning blue from the freezing trap she found herself in stilled at his gaze.

“You. I want to know how you keep that barrier up? I want to know any of its weaknesses. And I want to know how to get in and get my daughter. You’re already dead. Whether I let my daughter freeze you to death or I end it quickly is up to you.”

She tried to cry and her tears froze before they left her eyes.” P-p-p-p-lease, It-t-t-t-t c-c-c-c-an’t-t be b-b-rought d-d-own from outside!” She forced out the last. “We haven’t hurt anyone!”

“Really? Is that so!?” Phil got in her face and she tried to look away but was frozen in place. “I’ve been watching you people for days. Girls go in, they don’t come out. Just what the fuck are you doing in there!?”

“We’re preparing them, purifying them.” She whimpered.

“For what? Preparing them for what?”

She tried to look away and Phil smacked his mace against her icecube prison. Frost and shards of ice broke free and sprayed her face. “FOR WHAT!?”

“For the prophet. And the twelve. To be wives.” She flinched and tried to will herself to anywhere but where she was now.

Phil looked at her for a long moment. The thought of crushing her head where she was frozen appealed to him. She hadn’t really given him anything he didn’t already suspect. The woman was starting to fall asleep, the cold was claiming her and he had no more use for her.

“Seal her up, let’s head back to Winslow and get help.”

The woman’s heavily lidded eyes tracked Phil as his daughter infused the air around the woman’s head and finished sealing her in a coffin of ice. Carly followed closely behind her father and struggled to release the power that infused her. When she finally disconnected from her mana she sighed and looked wistfully over her shoulder to the town of Snowflake, They’re so fucked if Karl comes here.

Father and daughter ran across the desert. Phil let his daughter set the pace as she didn’t have nearly the stamina or strength that he did. Somewhere between Snowflake and Holbrook a stream of notifications demanded Phil’s attention and he slowed to review what came in.

“Holy shit! Carly! I got a connection to Winslow.” Phil exclaimed.

“About damn time. Where’s he at? Can he come?” She stopped jogging and barraged her father with questions.

“Hold on, I’m reading them now.” His eyes flitted back and forth as he stared blankly into the air, “Ok, looks like he had to go to Flagstaff and he’s currently on his way back to WInslow. Looks like the Navajo banded together and are threatening the village’s northern flanks. I’ll shoot him a message.”

“Has everyone lost their minds? It’s like we can’t catch a fucking break.” Carly lamented as Phil found a rock to sit on and compose his message.

“We’re going to get her out. Don’t worry, if we have to do it ourselves, well, that’s what we do.”

“They know we’re out here now. You know them batshit crazy mormons are going into lockdown when they find the mess we left behind. Woulda been nice if Dick hadn’t died in that dungeon.”

Phil eyed his daughter, he’d found out when he returned from the prison that she had attached herself to the officer that sacrificed himself on a giant raging centipede in the prison dungeon. “Yeah, coulda torched the bodies.”

“Yeah.” She commented absently.

Phil looked at the sun closing on the horizon and decided this was as good as any other place to camp, “Set up the tent, I’ll get the fire started. Might as well wait here for a response and decide what to do based on the timeline Karl gives us.”

“Alright.” Carly said as she pulled a four man tent out of her spatial inventory and proceeded to set it up. As Phil got the fire started he received the message he had been waiting for. He let Carly continue working on the tent and read the message to himself.

Bro! I’m almost back to Winslow with my team. Alyssa ran into trouble with her kin. She fucked them up with Eli and Freya’s help. I’ll explain later. I need to know how many troops we’re facing and approximate levels. If they have any Advanced Classers I need to know that too, those become VIP targets. We should be on the field within two days. So get to scouting. Give me what I asked for by tomorrow afternoon, then I can bring up the appropriate response. We’ll get your daughter out, and I’ll add Snowflake to my fledgling empire! LOL! Stay safe! -Karl

“You got the message?” Carly asked looking into his eyes and recognizing that he was reading his interface.

“Yeah, he wants us to scout their forces and see if we can pick out any of their advanced classers. He mentioned someone named Freya? Whatever, tomorrow we’re going to circle the town and try to get an accurate count of their fighters. He said he’d be here in two days.”

“They are so fucked.”