The father and his two sons discussed for some time and in the end decided to provide some help despite Nick not asking. Andrew organized purchases of more herbs, similar to the ones Nick bought previously, Sebastian arranged multiple sets of clothing that were used in Lori and Sand kingdoms while king ordered to create copies of more detailed maps he had.
They considered to provide the trio with provisions as well, but Andrew reluctantly told about Nick’s choices of food during training or travels and thus there was nothing more they could help with.
Still, the help was welcomed and Nick and YunYun spent two more days working on their alchemy products. Andrew used this time to ‘finalize’ the arrangements with Zia for the Olympic games and, since the girl was bored and had nothing better to do, they did some ‘training’ together while the prince showed her around the capital.
When everything was ready, trio went to thank the king for the hospitality and expressed hope he will soon receive some good news from the south. Andrew was reluctant to part, but the king quickly noticed it and ‘helped out’ his son by burying him with work so he didn’t have time to think about the unnecessary stuff. In the end everyone agreed to meet during the Olympic games and parted.
Few days later, after nightfall, Nick was crawling upside down below a large bridge and installing explosives he made from rank four beast cores. Since they departed from the Nola kingdom, he was rushing almost without stop towards the south east. Unfortunately at the start of his trip his movement speed was limited during the day because he didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention the from the locals and had to keep running in the open limited.
On the second day, when he was taking the shortcut to cross the half desert in the middle of the Lori kingdom, during the day even he had to take cover from the scorching rays of the sun. Luckily he already experienced the real desert environment in the Nestri empire and was prepared, and here, at least for now, it wasn’t that bad.
Zia and YunYun had it easier. They drew lots to decide on their ‘starting’ locations and Zia got a small town called Shirbin – close to the Nola kingdom. In the beginning she was quite upset with the two day standby she had to have, but Nick persuaded her to make more detailed investigations on her targets while she was waiting and that way she could cause more destruction. Of course, the worlds ‘more destruction’ were key to this maiden’s heart and she was already eager and restless when they crossed the Eternal river.
YunYun, on the other hand, had to hurry to the very south west of the continent and start her actions there. Without too many obstacles she arrived in Tobruk – the largest port city in the Lori kingdom and started to plan her attacks. While Zia would start with few smaller towns and Nick with blowing up bridges and destroying roads, YunYun had the dangerous task of creating havoc in a big city to make sure the news will reach the bishop’s ears.
The trio was afraid that in this country the local rulers would try to hide some ‘minor’ events like arson of a few temples, barracks and arsenals, therefore there had to be an impressive and notable start for the fake revolution. The danger, of course, lied in the large number of Qi masters and army forces present in the port city. YunYun had to burn down several targets almost at the same time while avoiding getting spotted.
They knew the dangerous part will start after she’ll hit the second target – most people would consider the first fire only an accident. But after two fires during the same night the army forces will be quickly mobilized and YunYun would have to get out of the city no matter what. Not only all three agreed she had to leave at the first signs of danger, but every single one of them would put their safety above all else as well.
Looking back at the exploding bridge in the distance Nick shook his head trying to get out the distracting thoughts and continued to run towards his next target location at high speed. Since they met, this was their first time actually being apart and in dangerous circumstances at that. He never considered being deeply in love with YunYun, but for some reason the tiniest thought of something bad happening to her made his insides hurt. He clenched his fists and persuaded himself she will be fine – they made plenty of preparations after all.
What Nick didn’t know was that YunYun at this very moment was already out of the Tobruk after setting on fire five temples, two large army ships and even the armory of the local garrison. The lockdown they expected turned out to be a complete joke. Indeed, after YunYun set on fire the two temples, army forces entered the city and began investigations. But they were so slow she managed to burn the two ships and then sat on the docks in confusion, watching the disorganized people chaotically running around. It was not clear if the best forces were now on their way to the Sun kingdom, but what she saw could barely be called an ‘army’. Even the dozen or so Qi masters who did investigations didn’t look particularly capable.
At first YunYun prepared to leave the city by the water, but looking at the surrounding chaos she got in a bold mood – if Nick was here he would probably curse Zia for being a ‘bad influence’. YunYun went back and ran through the city causing more destruction and then simply left by the main road not being able to believe in how easy this ‘guerrilla warfare’ was. Still, she reprimanded herself to not become careless and in the cover of the night ran towards the next town.
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Zia’s experience was quite similar, albeit on a smaller scale and already during the first night of action she methodically burned down the largest temples, barracks and arsenals in four different towns.
Actually the hardest job fell on Nick who was running around the whole south east region while blowing up the bridges and roads, trying to leave impression of chaotic attacks. It was important to not only remove bridges in front of the main army forces, but behind as well, otherwise anyone could make a guess that the reason behind these attacks is to prevent the army from leaving. Now, on the other hand, it looked more like someone was trying to prevent the army from returning.
On the second night Nick finally could run less and burn more and just like the two girls he traveled around the towns and cities while ‘visiting’ Lori goddess's temples and other ‘points of interests’. This way they continued for three more days, or rather, nights. After five nights of arson and ‘fun’ they met up in Moira – the capital of Lori kingdom.
Compared to other places Nick visited in this world, Moira was quite different. Weather here was mostly hot and dry except for some nights in the year when strong winds brought chilling cold from the desert in the east. The dryness also was the reason for the lack of greenery – the trees were scarce and there were no woods surrounding the city, just few rare bamboo groves if there was a water source nearby.
The city was quite big and surprisingly bustling with activity. The slums, of course, occupied the largest area, and in some ways could remind of Berin, except instead of dirty streets the ones here were dusty and instead of wooden houses the poor people in Moira build theirs from clay.
Most houses in the city center were similarly built from clay, but also strengthened with bamboo and colored in white, probably to reduce the heat for inhabitants during the day. There were few buildings made of stone, but those were mostly temples or other governmental structures.
Even though there was quite a lot activity on the streets, there were very few food stalls or even inns and restaurants – most likely another indication of the poverty of the local people. And, even though there were quite a few markets in the capital, most of them revolved around slave trade.
“Four days ago there were only few messages about some events that could point to an uprising in Tobruk, at least as much as I know, but these things got covered up really well. Except two days ago suddenly everyone in the capital began to gossip about a rebellion – the scale was too large to keep it secret. It looks like temples are burned down throughout the country and to this date over thirty towns and cities had suffered. Rebels are acting all over the place and country’s military force is not capable of doing anything, especially since the largest portion moved out towards the Sun kingdom.” Feroz explained the latest events.
He was an elderly man with a dark face, full of wrinkles and king Spenser’s contact person in Moira. Currently the four of them – Feroz, Nick, YunYun and Zia were conversing in the best room of Feroz’s inn – “Desert Night”. As per prior agreement one after another the trio convened here and now were listening to Feroz’s report on the latest events in the capital of Lori kingdom, Moira.
Feroz continued, “The biggest mystery for everyone is the force behind these attacks. And unpredictability. From what we know, in the beginning there seemed to be a pattern to the attacks and even though there were several towns attacked each night, it looked as if the rebels are coming towards the capital. But then suddenly they started to burn smaller temples and kill officials and priests in the towns that they had seemingly left. Thus – now the whole country is burning! Some people are even releasing slaves and storming the local garrisons without paying heed to their lives. Looks like most of them prefer dying than living in slavery.”
The trio exchanged surprised glances. Although they did expect some ‘assistance’ from locals, the current events came as a big surprise. Now they had to understand whether it was good or bad.
“What about the bishop? Do you have any details?” Nick asked.
“At first there was nothing. Actually, this wouldn’t be the first uprising – country has suffered a lot in the past centuries and, from time to time, there are towns where some insignificant force decides to fight against the rule. Usually they are some slaves led by a smaller aristocrat clan in secret. But this time the scale is unimaginable and the events are taking place with incredible coordination during the times when the most of our army has been deployed for the war. There is no one left who is capable of dealing with the uprising of such scale.” Feroz was well informed, as one would expect from king Spenser’s trusted man. He scratched his head, grinned and continued, “Bishop is furious! But at the same time he’s in panic. He hasn’t left the temple for the last two days and I doubt he will until the army has come back.”
“He already called them back?” Zia asked voice full of hope.
“He should, otherwise these are the last days of his rule.” Feroz said while still grinning.
“What about the Qi masters? It can’t be they are sitting idly by or are not capable of finding the culprits?” Nick asked.
“That’s the thing – apart from the few masters bishop kept by his side, everyone was deployed on the crusade to the Sun kingdom.” Feroz said and then suddenly laughed, “Hahaha! Who would’ve thought the illusion of bishop’s power would be shattered this easily!”
“But the chaos can’t go on forever. He has to have a plan, right? Do you have any information regarding that?” Nick asked.
“No idea.” Feroz turned serious again, “Even though we know the basic layout of the temple grounds, we can’t get in. There are only Bishop’s most trusted people inside along with high level Qi masters. And even if I would want to do a stupid, risky investigation, king Spenser would never agree to it.”
“That’s smart.” YunYun finally jumped in, “Feroz, please tell us more about the temple. It can’t be a simple building right? For something that is so monumental there has to be more to it, especially because it’s a religious construction.”