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  The trip to the coast had been more comfortable than Lucia had expected, especially since the entire group was on edge expecting an attack. The church had displayed their diplomacy policies before, and that had almost cost a queen and a princess their lives. The forests were serene, the plains were ideal, and the small villages where they rested were perfect little hamlets. The ride might have been one of the most enjoyable of Lucia's life if she hadn't been planning hundreds of scenarios for when they were attacked. It was nerve-wrecking hysteria that made the rest of the group anxious.

  "Where did we get this nice of a cart?" Lilly asked to assuage the tension.

  "We're loaning it from the queen of Lorain," said Eric, or rather, the Eric that was sitting with his group.

  "Are we friends with them?" Draco asked in some confusion.

  "Not yet, be we aren't enemies anymore," explained Eric calmly. "The queen and I had a very long talk and we've reached an armistice, of sorts. As long as we are against the church, we won't have any misgivings with each other."

  "What about the king and the princess?" Elas asked.

  "They will be punished," Eric said, then smiled with only half of his face.

  Lucia was listening, but she wasn't watching. Ever since Eric had revealed the scarred face that he had, she found it hard to look to him. He understood, he didn't like his face either, but Eric felt alienated by his best friend and it was starting to hurt. The mangled skin was reminiscent of many horrible things that the former slave had witnessed, a chill ran down her spine everytime she saw it.

  Eric tried not to let it bother him, but now that his other copies could peacefully snooze in the back cart, he had enough of a mind to think about things. He thought about his conversation with the queen, the many things that she revealed to Eric during their conversation. He thought about his feelings for Lucia, and the feelings for his squad in general. He thought about why the church would need an island five miles off of the coast.

  When the queen was a slave of the church, she could still hear things that they said while being unable to react. She revealed one of the darkest secrets of the church to Eric in hopes that he might spread the information wisely.

  There were no possible applications that Eric could think of, but this was much more of a conspiracy than he could think with everything he had going on. Despite being the lonliest loner, Eric needed to get help.

  "Guys, I need your brainpower," Eric's clone admitted.

  "What is it?" Elas asked curiously.

  "The church is researching for ways to open portals into the demon world. They're doing their research at the island that I'm being incarcerated at." Once again, there was silence in the carriage, but it was Elas who spoke up.

  "So?"

  "I can't think as to why they would be trying to open up a portal into the demon world," Eric admitted, "and it's bothering me. They are the ones that worship the heroes, but they keep Demonic Armor and even try to summon demons. Something just doesn't add up!"

  "They seek power through fear," Elas said wisely. "The church sings of days when the demons will no longer force humans to suffer, but the whole reason the church exists is because of the heroes fighting the demons. If you take away the demons, then the heroes are just normal people with extraordinary weapons. The church needs the keep the demon hordes coming to our world in order to remain in the position of power they have built up over the years."

  Everyone was silent, glancing at Elas in some confusion.

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  "That was... insightful," Lucia said awkwardly.

  "Do you think I'm stupid?"

  "No, it's just... you don't seem like the conspiracy type," Draco covered.

  "You guys!" Elas cried, offended that her friends thought so little of her. "Eric, did you doubt my intelligence?"

  "I know you're not stupid," Eric alleviated the situation, "but I didn't know you were smarter than me." That was exactly what he needed to say.

  "Well, I wouldn't say smarter," Elas tried to back down from embaressment.

  "No, I never would have thought of that," Eric admitted honestly. "Kudos to you for that."

  Elas brushed a deep crimson, chilling the carriage ever so slightly. "Let's not make a big deal out of this," Elas tried to calm the waters.

  "No, I think you should give yourself some more credit," Eric splashed happily. "In fact, what do you think we should do for this upcoming fight?"

  "Um, well, I think we should take advantage of the situation as soon as possible," Elas tried to think on the spot. "Then, we can take the island as a whole when the templars are trying to regroup."

  "Okay, how should we deal with the pope?"

  For the entire rest of the trip, Elas was made to plan out the entire scenario with questions constantly bombarding her. It got to the point where she was getting a headache from all of the constant thinking. That night, Eric endeavored to stay up with Elas to plan, but she told him to go away. In the morning, the group continued to pester Elas about plans until she finally said it.

  "I don't want to be the smart one," Elas admitted, tired of the constant questions and pressure on her ideas.

  "Okay, we'll stick with your plan so far and just iron out the little details," Eric agreed, but he couldn't help his smile. The time that he had spent giving Elas a hard time had allowed him to think about what he wanted to do. There were things that he didn't understand, but he had an idea of what the church had in store.

  If it was how he was thinking, he would need a lot of rest beforehand.

  At the port town of Dunwal, the party arrived with minimal problems. There was a heavy air in the town that the group attributed to the lack of people. It was a total ghost town, not a soul to be seen, and it frayed the nerves of the entire group. They got out and searched the town for any sign of life, and discovered that it was completely devoid of life. The houses looked recently vacated, as though the entire town had just disappeared in the middle of the night.

  As they searched, a man wearing the black robes of a priest approached from the harbor with a gentle smile. He regarded the group with warm welcomes, and they responded in kind.

  "Welcome, heathens," he greeted with an unnatural smile.

  "Nice to be here, papist," Elas shot back, making Eric feel proud.

  "Where are all the townspeople?" Lilly asked curiously.

  "They were evacuated when they heard that the devil's rejects were coming," lied the priest. "Now, if you don't mind, the negotiations should begin soon.... Wouldn't want to further dirty the Celestial Clock, now would we?"

  "That would be a shame, but we mean to give it back anyway," Lucia retorted with a sour sneer. "Show us to the port before we kill you all out of common sense."

  The priest grunted, but turned around and started to walk towards the pier. Even while he walked, he tried to get a few insults in under the guise of talking about the town.

  "This town is usually a trading port, meant for sending cargo around the coast," the priest said as they approached a series of large caravels.

  "The main export is beef, chicken, and some inedible chunks of furry meat in cages. We are the second most profitable city on the continent behind Celestial City, but our tourism trade has been hurt by the recent attacks on the church."

  At the port, the group got onto a small boat that looked like it would be used for war. It was long with only a single sail that could have capsized the boat if it hadn't been for the metal underneath. The group got on reluctantly, then were told they had to be searched.

  "For what?" demanded Draco credulously. "We're going to a castle with your guards on your island with your magic? Why would you need to take our weapons?"

  "Are you demons so averse to peace that you carry your weapons to negotiatans," the priest insulted.

  "Fine," Draco begrudgingly unbuckled his sword from his side, then he pointed accusingly at the priest, "but if this goes wrong, I'm killing you first." The priest rolled his eyes, but secretly shivered under his coat.

  The whole team removed their weapons and gave them to the templars, who put them in a chest on the ship. Once everything was settled, they set off from the pier ever so slowly. The templars were watching the group closely, making sure that they didn't try anything.

  Little did they know that the eight count of men in black would be their gravest mistake. 

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