HAZY MEMORIES

"What?" The news of the complete wipeout of an Adurna troop took their upper echelon off guard. It wasn't a particularly powerful troop, but the problem were the plans that were based around them.

Obviously, ever since the loss of their Heirloom, one of their main targets was Nana. The problem was that the opponent wasn't stupid, how could they not know this as well?

At the start, Nana was nowhere near the battlefield, having become a highly protected asset by the Ascension Empire. Even getting to her was a nightmare, let alone finding a method to take their Heirloom back.

But that was when they were approached by a party and something was suggested.

At first, they were infuriated. That was because this party all but admitted to tampering with their Heirloom in advance.

That was right, the suggestion left on the Heirlooms wasn't the fault of the Four Great Families at all, but rather an existence working in the background. As for exactly who that existence was, even the Four Great Families weren't 100% certain yet, and the reason for that uncertainty was because… there were too many people who wanted the Fawkes dead and gone.

Until now, they had received help, whether directly or indirectly, from the Sylvans, the Void Race, and even the Beastman Race. Those were just the large figures as well. There was still subtle hints of help coming from the newly risen God Races such as the Owlans—or rather the Minerva as they now called themselves—and even the Barbarian Race.

This shadowy figure seemed to be lurking and unwilling to reveal their identity, so this seemed to likewise point to the fact that they weren't among these few. But… that would be thinking that was too rigid.

Maybe it was precisely because their Race was already overtly helping the Four Great Families that they thought being covert now would help cover up their identity all the more.

After all, who would suspect that this hidden figure was actually part of those other Races already? Why expose themselves then, but hide themselves now?

Did they fear the Four Great Families? That was possible. Tampering with the Heirlooms was obviously crossing a bottomline. But there was something off about it…

Why did they need to reveal the fact it had been tampered with in the first place? Wouldn't that just give the Four Great Families the runway they needed to ensure that they had a countermeasure in the future?

It was all too confusing, and it made them feel as though there was a larger web at play here.

But larger web or not, it was all irrelevant… not when their plans had suddenly taken a hit.

Thanks to the suggestion, they had been able to slowly coax Nana into both following the wrong path and into the battlefield. The unfortunate part was that she was still in a fair protected region and there were too many layers of formations and armies between herself. So it was hard to send their very best at her.

They chose to take the slower route instead, carefully chiseling away at her psyche. They had been gearing up until the time was ripe to both strike and force Nana into making a tactical error. It would be a year at most before they had her in their clutches.

For an army to suddenly be wiped out in combat with her suggested that something had gone wrong. There shouldn't be anyone powerful enough in that region to do such a thing, and they should know because they kept close tabs on one another.

As restricted as the Adurna were in moving their armies, the Fawkes army was likewise just as restricted. They were essentially in a game of tug of war.

Now receiving this news, the head of the Adurna family, Nysa, couldn't help but have a gloomy expression on her face.

"I have a speculation, Head… I don't know if you'd care to hear it?" A man deep into his middle-ages spoke, his blue hair looking far lighter than the others, a sign of aging in their Four Great Families. Though… it could also be a sign of strength. All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

"Speak, Anemos."

"Our spies have reported that Leonel Morales has woken up and caused a great deal of commotion in the Ascension Empire. Soon after, he killed three of his cousins and his aunt. Following this, he was punished with a hundred years of military service and was shipped to this battlefield."

Nysa frowned. She had heard that Leonel Morales had woken up. Most believed that his talent was dead in the water after what the Demoness did to him. Many of their memories of exactly what occurred back then were hazy because it had been a battle of two supreme Dream Force users, even they couldn't escape their fuzzy thoughts.

But the broad strokes were sharp enough to conclude a few things.

First, Leonel was crippled. Two, the Demoness had managed to survive as the only lasting member of the Primordial Terrors faction. Three, the Celestial Terras had been suppressed within the confines of the Four God Beast Territories as it seemed that the other three God Beast factions were not happy with them for one reason or another.

As for the other details, such as the familial tie between Leonel and the Demoness, or Leonel revealing that the Demoness had been responsible for everything from start to finish… well, they had no idea.

The only person who remembered such things was Leonel himself. As for his grandfather, he hadn't even been present for that matter so he had no ability to force himself to remember.

Though there were certainly other Dream Force experts in existence strong enough to forcefully remember something the Demoness wanted them to forget, none of them had been physically present at the scene, and as such, it was impossible for them to recall something they didn't witness in the first place…

"What does this have to do with anything?" Nysa asked.