The rest of the journey to the closest Alliance Controlled city went off without a hitch. After Hera told Katarina she would be their ally, the Willful Blades became even more friendly with her team. Having Neria act like a big sister to Mack also helped quite a bit. However, the Harmony Guardians were still careful not to mention their actual mission, just as Hera refused to explain anything too deep about her legacy.

Arriving at the city, Milla set up a meeting with the team who would take the materials from the lab out of their hands, but since it would still take a while for the anointed time, they joined the Willful Blades in finishing up the delivery of the supplies. It was just a lot of waiting and paperwork, but it wasn't like they wouldn't have time to spare. The Intelligence Agency had to finish up a few things and would only show up later that afternoon.

When that part of the day was over, the two teams walked towards the hotels in the city and split up.

"Thanks again for everything," Katarina held Hera's hand with a big smile.

"No worries. It was fun," the Ophidianite replied.

"I wish you all luck in your next mission. And do try to be more careful. That pack of monsters shouldn't be able to sneak up on you like it did," Roan said.

"Tell me about it. I really messed up in not noticing them," Jessica sighed.

"You were not the only one to mess up. I have some of the blame, too," Harold looked down.

"Now, now. Stop it, you two. It was a mistake, and you already spent the last few days beating yourself up for it. Things like that happen in the MAZE. Now you know what to do and what to look out for," Skyler patted the two on their backs.

"And we have to get going now. I really need a shower," Mack gestured to his clothes. They had been cleaned, but some things required more than just magic to clean properly.

"Yeah, and please, if he starts eating anything he sees again, someone knocks him out," Neria sighed.

"Knock me out!? Not even just smack me?" Mack gasped.

"Yes. Since we already know that hitting you won't stop you, they should make you unconscious," the healer huffed.

"We shouldn't have any problems with that. I'm positive that our next mission won't go south like this one," Javier opened a big smile.

Hera, Katarina, Jessica, Harold, and Vash all replied at the same time, "Stop raising flags!" and then started laughing.

The teams split up. The Harmony Guardians went to one of the higher-end hotels, while the Willful Blades looked for a mid-tier one that was being paid for by the Alliance.

As Hera and her team walked into the elevator, Skyler turned to the Empress, "You really are a bad influence on those kids."

"What did I do?" the Ophidianite pretended not to understand.

"Flags? Really?" the elf just stared her down.

Hera chuckled, "Say what you want, but it's funny. And you could've been talking about their motto."

"So it really was you who gave that autograph?" Neria asked.

"Yeah. But honestly, I had no idea this would end up like this. And their leader looked no older than 14. That was just two years ago, I think."

"How about that? Fate is strange sometimes," Skyler said with a smile.

The group got to their room, which had three bathrooms, which helped everyone to take showers faster. Aside from that, they walked around the city for a while, looked into various shops, searching for better gear and items that could help their travels. Unfortunately, no one found anything that useful. They did get some extra supplies for camping and some food to make more pleasant meals.

By late afternoon came the time they had to meet the intelligence agency. The meeting was going to happen in one of the city's office buildings. There were a lot of people still working there, but a considerable amount of space was empty. A considerable number of troops were made out of those who retired from their life of adventures or who would just explore the MAZE as their vacation plans. Every member of the various intelligent species had, at some point, been trained in combat. Of course, the most vital jobs and positions in the companies still had people there, but things like event planning, sports journalism, and game design ended up being put on the back burner.

After talking with the receptionist, an elderly elephant beast woman, an elf with sun-kissed skin and long brown hair approached them, "Hello!"

"Hi," Skyler replied and greeted the man.

"You are the Harmony Guardians, correct?" the elf asked, his eyes seeming to linger on Hera.

"That's us. You are the guy from the agency?" Skyler continued.

"Yep, that's me. My name is Ka'mal. We have a room upstairs, please, follow me," the elf turned to the receptionist, "I'll take care of the register for this group, Agnes. You don't have to worry about it. And are you sure I can't take you out tonight? I know a great tango place."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The receptionist scoffed, "Like these old bones can still dance. I appreciate the help, but as I always say, I'm not going out with you. We never forget, and I still remember how long it took you to remember my name."

"One day, you'll change your mind," Ka'mal smiled.

Agata didn't say anything else, just waved him off, but there was a smile on her face. Getting the attention of someone young and attractive like Ka'mal was something she seemed to enjoy very much. Turning him down like this was just the icing on the cake. The group took the elevator and had some small talk with the elf, who was part of the intelligence agency. However, it wasn't anything relevant, just mentions of nice places in the city and things to do when staying here. It didn't even seem like they were from where they said they were.

"Ok, right this way," he gestured to the third door on the left. Inside was a small meeting room of sorts with a coffee table, a few chairs, and another door in the back.

"I don't know why, but I expected a place a bit different when you said it was a meeting room," Vash looked around, trying to pick a place to sit.

"Oh, sorry, it's through that door in the back; I thought I left it open. This was a psychiatrist's office, and we are just using it temporarily," Ka'mal closed the first door and opened the one in the back, gesturing for everyone to go inside.

At the same time, he moved to the coffee table, opened a locked drawer, and started flipping a few switches. Hera realized that there were a few spells being activated. Their format was similar to the soundproof bubble she would usually use but more complex. This was the first time she truly felt she was in the right place. Walking inside, they saw a table and two people in there, already waiting. On the other side, there were a few chairs for everyone.

"Welcome. Sorry for the smoke and mirrors, but we try to keep this place hidden. Please, have a seat," the dwarf sitting on the chair gestured to the empty ones, "I'm Luthvrol. Your contact. You've met Ka'mal, and this is," he pointed to the female elf behind him, "Is not important. She is here for my protection, and the less you know about her, the better. Now, can you give me the materials you got from the humans and recount what happened during your fight?"

Skyler quickly spoke up, "First, you were supposed to say a password."

Luthvrol smiled, "Thank you. I wanted to check if you remembered that step. I just wanted to know if you are a group that we can count on for future operations. The password is, 'The mountain flows with the ocean.'"

"And the wind halts the volcano," Neria continued. The password was a bit convoluted and possibly unnecessary since it was large enough that people would take time to memorize everything. The third and final phrase should come from the dwarf.

"Unless aided by the moonlight," Luthvrol finished.

"Ok then, here are the materials," Roan pulled the notebooks from his bag, "They are encrypted. We attempted to decode it, but honestly, none of us knew what we were doing."

"One moment. Just as a warning, we are recording this conversation. That way, a team can go over all the information more carefully. Is everyone ok with that?" Luthvrol asked, getting nods in response, "Very well. Thank you for the notebooks."

Flint reached into his bag and pulled out a few tablets, "And these are the tablets those people had and almost all their gear. We just kept one of their weapons and the pants one of them used."

"The pants?" Luthvrol tilted his head.

"They were nice, had some good skills, and were just my size. We also double-checked, and there isn't any tracking magic or anything of the sort on it," Skyler explained.

"I see. Now, please tell me what happened during the fight."

The team started recounting the events of the fight, one by one, since each faced a different enemy. All the while, Hera realized that there was a thin strand of mana connecting Luthvrol and the elf behind him. Every now and then, the mana would pulse from the elf to the dwarf, and a few moments later, he would ask a more specific question or something that was a bit different. During each tale, he would interrupt to ask questions that seemed unrelated. Things about what we saw in humans, how they moved, or if they reacted to a specific thing. The whole conversation lasted almost two hours. Ka'mal even walked inside with a few cookies, tea, and coffee at one point. But no one complained about all of this. They understood the gravity of the situation and how the more they talked, the better the result could be.

When they were finally done, Luthvrol smiled, "Thank you very much for all the information. I will pass this along to the relevant personnel. Please," he gestured to the door.

"Hang on. There is one more thing," Hera spoke up. Luthvrol retracted his hand and waited for her to continue, "And this… I'm going to take a stab in the dark here, so I apologize if I'm wrong. But I'm going to say to your boss, her," she pointed to the elf in the back, "I can see she has been sending you signals during the entire conversation, and I'm assuming she is the one to make decisions. Or maybe I'm just with a mind focused on clichés."

"You can see that?" the elven woman asked and sent another pulse.

"Yep. It's bright enough to be distracting if I'm being honest," the Empress replied.

"I'm sorry to say you are wrong. I'm the leader of this operation. At least here, she was just telling me if any of you were lying or if the story you told felt off," Luthvrol explained.

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to offend."

"You didn't trust me. The whole, the boss is pretending to be the servant is pretty spot on, in most cases."

"And on this," Ka'mal said as he walked inside the room, "But in this case, I'm the one in charge."

Hera glanced at him, then at Luthvrol, then at the woman in the back before turning to the rest of her team and sighing, "Oh, now this just feels like bad writing."

"I have to agree. This is way too convoluted. I don't believe it would benefit the secrecy in the least," Neria nodded.

"Yeah, and like all of you, you have to know a decent amount of information about this for that to work. And in that case, if someone was to target who they think is the boss, then whoever they get, they can get information from," Vash added.

"Well, that is a topic of discussion in the agency, but we do have data that shows that this is marginally better than other ways of working, but I don't think this is something you want to talk about right now," Ka'mal turned to Hera, "You mentioned there was something more?"

"Yeah. How much do you know about my legacy? Just the basics, or do you know how I get a titled blade?" after saying those words, the Ophidianite sensed the hesitation of the agency member, "Look, you are an intelligence agency, and I've told enough people about the specifics of my legacy to believe that a spy network could have that information. So just tell me if I have to explain it to you, or we can speed this along, and I can just go to what really matters?"

Ka'mal and the other two exchanged a glance before giving up, "From what we know, the titled blade you mentioned requires either some specific synergy of items or a Spirit."

"Exactly. In the box, we mentioned there was also a Spirit, well, a Spirit in the process of becoming a Daemon. I added them to my court and Vulcan, the titled blade in question. Can remember things about his life as a Spirit."

"That really changes things. Please tell us more," Ka'mal said, pulling another chair. It seemed like the conversation was going to take a bit longer than they expected.