Olren was keeping an eye on Kaden constantly who seemed to care only about cultivating while there was a chance.
“That freak! He tried to kill me! I’m sure of it!” Olren thought to himself. “How am I going to prove it?”
He was fuming in anger. Things had not gone the way he wanted ever since the freak appeared in front of him and definitely not recently.
Eventually a man who wore marks of his family, a servant, appeared. Olren realized some of his family was likely at the camp.
“My master, lord Dorin, requests your presence”, said the man politely.
“Dorin?” Olren though. “What exactly does my elder brother expect to gain here? Could it be he is here due to my failures? Damn it!”
Olren had only barely been able to handle matters his family requested of him. Again, everything was Kaden’s fault! The feathery freak!
“Fine”, Olren said and stood up. “Lead the way.”
The servant led Olren to far side of the encampment. There were some slightly more ornamental soldiers. Among them there was table and a man who was drinking tea. This was Olrens elder brother Dorin.
“Ah, Olren!” Dorin said with slightly condescending voice. “Dear brother, you look better than I expected. I heard you were injured in a fight against a beast.”
“What is it that you want?” Olren said. He went straight to the point to avoid more of the ridicule.
“Do you still remember why you were allowed to join the … elite team. Yes, lets call it elite team despite everything...”, Dorin said and sipped some tea.
“I am well aware what the family wants”, Olren said. “There was no way you would have been able to arrange me elsewhere even if you wanted. It is merely a coincidence that they felt it was a acceptable. I will gain myself status by myself, if family isn’t going to give me any.”
“You would be surprised how far elders can go”, Dorin continued calmly. “Your status is acceptable. If you can gain yourself a foothold, family will then have more influence over military affairs, including an … elite team. Yet, I hear this is not going perfectly. You also must be alive for this to work. Should we pull out all support?”
“What support?” Olren said angrily. “My achievements are my own.”
Dorin had a fit of laughter at that point. “Believe what you wish”, he finally said. “Strongest ones are promoted first. I hear you aren’t strongest.”
“That guy is a freak!” Olren replied. “They will never promote a mutant.”
“Yet, you still requested him to be removed, yes?” Dorin sipped some tea again. “Seems like you don’t have much trust in your own opinion. You are a right though. Strength is what matters at the end. At any rate, that entire thing was a mess!”
“Whose fault is that?” Olren pointed out angrily. “I merely asked his removal, but family arranged the rest. Now you lost a loyal Formation stage assassin somewhere. So do not think you can pin that failure on me.”
“Perhaps so, but it was your request on your information”, Dorin continued. “We are still looking into the matter too and we have friends in the military. They seem to believe he has a helper.”
Olren was silent for a moment. He had started to form up his own thoughts about Kaden.
“Or maybe he is stronger than we think”, Olren said. “Maybe he was able to kill a Formation stage assassin somehow. You know he likes to eat people. That could explain disapearance of the corpse.”
This time Dorin stared at Olren silently for a moment and then shrugged and sipped more tea.
“He seems to be at Channel Opening, but I have worked by his side”, Olren continued more calmly. “Strenght he displays always seems to vary just enough to exceed any opponent I have seen him fight so far. Yet, never beyond what a freak like him might be able to do. Still it seems like perhaps that isn’t his limit. I cannot say for sure.”
“Even more the reason to remove him”, Dorin said. “Whatever the truth is about him, we will find out eventually. This volcano remnant is good place for undesirables to disapear, yes?”
Olren gritted his teeth. “It may not work. He probably knows the asssassin attack was because of me. He tried to kill me.”
“Hmmm? Then report it and all this solves itself”, Dorin said.
“I have no proof”, Olren said and shook his head. “That damn Shadow Tiger was about to finish me off. I noticed Kaden smile and watch. He did nothing, but enjoy the view as the tiger was about to end me. Yet, at the final moment he used a spell and shot the tiger off from me.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Why?” Dorin questioned.
“I could not sense my team leader, Walden, but he I believe he did”, Olren explained. “He would not kill me, in front of someone who could see the entire situation.”
“Hmmm”, Dorin had finally stopped mocking Olren. “This mutant is starting to become a problem. If he truly knows its you, he might be able to tell it was us who sent the assassins. Yet, I don’t think he has evidence either. He would have said it by now.”
Olren grimaced. “You don’t know the freak! He might know, but choose to do nothing about it! It only means to him that there will be more people coming that he can kill! He likes to kill people and we only sent him some! Kaden is a monster!”
He didn’t like to admit it, but he was afraid of Kaden. At first it had been distaste. Then it had slowly become absolute disgusts. Then after the failed assassination, he had started to notice all the oddities. Everyone knew Kaden was a weirdo to put it mildly, but thats all they seemed to see. He obeyed orders, followed rules and seemed to have distaste for criminals, fitting very well in the team which worshipped Jorn. He also had talent with formations! Thats all everyone else seemed to see, but Olren thought otherwise. He still had the fresh near death in his mind and that twisted grin Kaden had on his face.
“Perhaps you should be replaced anyway”, Dorin said calmly as he observed Olren’s reactions. “You are letting that mutant get to you. If you are this weak minded what are you going to ever achieve.”
“Shut up!” Olren shouted.
This attracted some attention, but Dorin waved his hand a bit to show all was right.
“Your fears should be ending soon”, Dorin continued. “That remnant is perfect place to put him down. No one will think it odd that someone dies in a remnant. He will merely have some accident. I’m sure my own team and you can arrange something. Even if he is stronger, a team with a few Formation stage and dozen Channel Opening stage experts should be enough?”
That made sense to Olren. It was going to be now or never. The longer he waited, the more chances Kaden would have to kill him.
“Fine, I’ll try to join up with your team once inside”, Olren finally agreed. “There should be chaos and I can get separated easily.”
---
Kaden was still seemingly cycling his mana system, but in truth he was imagining various ways to torment and kill Erral. This was the first time since the events that changed his life that he was so close to one of his targets.
Yet, that was all he was able to do. He spent until next morning doing just that. Listening. Learning.
Then, just after sunrise, a slight commotion started. Apparently the troops from Sacronan’s side had started moving. The erruption had slowed a bit and they had decided it was time to go in. That meant the saints had to make their move too.
All the gliders were set up and people started getting on them. They would simply swoop in and unleash hell.
Kaden quickly jumped on the glider rest of Verdict was on and thought up a battle plan. No matter how much he had other desires, there was now a battle incoming and he had to survive that to even do anything. Who knows, maybe Erral dies. That would be a shame since it robs him of the chance to do it himself, but he would accept that end result too.
“Lets move!” Shouted Leoren. “Show these Sacronan’s heretics that we are to be feared!”
The gliders charged forward from the concealed area and very soon after the people on Sacronan’s side started pointing at their direction. It was too late.
On the front were the Corshik’s priests.
“Keheheeheh”, one of the priests laughed and unleashed a rain of explosions upon the Sacronan’s camp. The bombs exploded wreaking havoc, but that was not all. They also seemed to spread some kind of flammable liquid around. “Burn! BURN!”
Rest of the priests acted in similar way as they rained fiery bombardment. While Sacronan was distracted with them, the rest from saints side reached the volcano.
There was some counter fire. Beams of energy and other such ranged spells flew towards them. Saint forces replied in similar way. Some of the gliders exploded, but those on them generally managed to jump off with minor wounds and continue battle on the ground.
Another problem were the still raining balls of molten rock. There had been a larger erruption that opened up the remnant, but ash and fire from that had already fallen to the ground. Ground was like it was covered with gray snow. Every now and then balls of molten rock were ejected from the volcano and they fell in the area with a thump.
Kaden had to avoid a few, but once his glider reached the destination, he had much greater problems. Verdict assaulted Sacronan’s soldiers right at the remnant entrance, which looked like swirling red vortex. It was inside a crack that had opened up on the mountain side.
After eviscerating a soldier, Kaden noticed the tougher opponents were tied with the Formation stage experts of their attack group. Most of his opponents were just at Channel Opening and those Kaden could butcher as he pleased.
“Quickly!” Walden shouted to rest of the Verdict as he shot a few explosive bolts of energy. “We have almost cleared all the guards around the entrance! We must go in quickly and not let those heretics already inside prepare anything. The entrance must be secured!”
----
Just inside the remnant entrance that led to an open area with fire and pools of molten lava. There were many tunnels from it, some streaming lava, but some clearly possible to enter.
“Commander Yakon! Saints are attacking!” Soldier screamed who was from Sacronan’s side after he ran through the remnant entrance. “They are already at the crack in the mountain. They will soon be here!”
“Hmph, those heretics must have found out about this remnant and came to compete with us”, Yakon replied. He was at Condensation stage. “We have to trust our forces outside to prevent too many of them getting in. I sense something powerful deeper inside. I cannot interfere myself. Keep moving!”
Sacronan’s leader took all the soldiers he had and continued deeper.
----
At this time Verdict and Judgement were annihilating any guardians outside. There were also lot of weaker soldiers that had been able to arrive. Corshik’s priests had finally stopped raining fire and had come too. Quite a sizeable force had already reached the entrance.
The rest were stuck in combat with Sacronan’s forces, but these were the weaker members of the attack force.
“All right, this should be enough!” Said the saint leader, Leoren. “Let’s enter! Be prepared for anything! Collect anything that seems valuable! Kill all the Sacronan’s heretics you can, but priority on treasures! We cannot let Sacronan take their time later and take everything you left behind!”
Kaden looked behind once more, but then charged into the fiery vortex.