"What!? How?"

Myria says "When they attacked they used some big spell that took out Drog and Ruby. Mericel was also taken out by a spell, Alannis and I fought back and killed a lot of them, but there were too many."

"It's alright, I know you did your best. We saw the corpses of the soldiers and priests. Now I need you to calm down and tell me as much as you can so I can rescue our people."

Myria says "They attacked without warning, there were around two hundred soldiers and twenty priests. They seemed to know everything about us, after their spells took out Drog, Ruby, and Mericel they went after Leyla first."

"So they either had scouts watching you or used magic of some kind."

Myria says "We never smelled anyone near us. Anyway, other than Leyla they went after twenty of the human women, it was like they had specific targets already set. Another weird thing is they didn't kill anyone."

"Then they only came to capture, let me guess the twenty taken were the most attractive of the women right?"

Myria says "I guess so, they were all human, none of the beastwomen were targeted."

"Alright, I get the picture. Hawk!"

Hawk says "Yes, my lord?"

"Bring up the troops."

Hawk says "Yes!"

While waiting for the troops to join us I walk around the camp and check on everyone, the only tent is for the worst injured, including Alannis. The fact that she wasn't taken means either they don't know about her armor disguising her or she put up too great a fight. Her injuries are pretty bad, she needs magical healing, I need to rescue Leyla or Alannis might die.

Ricken says "My lord, your orders?"

"Ricken, does the rebel camp have healers?"

Ricken says "Yes, a few."

"Alright, you and your men are going to help these women get to the rebel camp. The woman in the tent is Alannis and important, so do everything you can for her."

Ricken says "What about you, my lord?"

"I am going to go teach the church a lesson and get the rest of my people back."

Myria says "I want to come with you!"

"No, I need you to take care of our people. Besides, I can handle this on my own."

Hawk says "That is not a good idea, my lord. The church has over five hundred soldiers and around a hundred priests. But their real power is that they have a priest of Krenocia and a high priest of Seronia."

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"Hawk, tell me everything you know about the church in this area."

Hawk says "There are seven villages in the church's domain, but the central one to the south of us is their main base. The soldiers occupy the towns and patrol between them, but they are brutal to the villagers. I have heard that any woman who is attractive vanishes without a trace."

"Are there any kingdom troops in the area that would come to their aid?"

Hawk says "Normally no, but with all this activity in the plains there might be."

"The only forces wandering around in the plains should be the hero groups and they only have one hundred troops each. Isabella, how many hero groups are out here?"

Isabella says "I think there were fifteen originally."

"So at most thirteen now, as long as no more than three help the church it shouldn't be a problem."

Ricken says "What exactly are you planning to do?"

"I am going to annihilate the church."

Hawk says "You serve the goddesses, is this going to be okay?"

"Not only is it okay, they specifically told me to kill the false priests. And any priests who treat the people like this are definitely false."

Ricken says "Alright, here is where we are roughly, this is where the seven villages are. Are you sure you don't want to take some men with you?"

"I am sure, just protect my people. I will meet you at the forest if not before."

Myria says "Are you sure I can't go with you?"

"Yes, you are still in charge of our people. Oh, by the way, this is Isabella and she will be joining our group."

As Myria and Isabella start talking I walk away from everyone, the soldiers will keep them safe. Now I need to get our other people back and teach the church not to mess with us. Then again even if they hadn't attacked my people and I heard about the way they act I would still go after them.

With the church acting like this I am sure Seronia and Krenocia have lost a lot of followers. If people lose faith because of the actions of the church then the church needs to be purged. Once I can clear one of the temples I am hoping the goddesses will have enough power to clean up their churches, but until then I will do what I can.

After checking to make sure everyone understands their orders I march off to the south, as soon as I am out of sight of the others I break into a run. No need for them to know just how fast I can move. It only takes me two hours to reach the nearest village, so I settle down to wait for nightfall.

The village is very crude and poor looking, the buildings are all poorly made of wood. Except for the building in the center which seems to be the church and also the garrison of the soldiers. It is made of stone and has ornamentation, it is also as big as the rest of the buildings combined.

Once night falls I watch for an hour to see how the church soldiers move, only about twenty are on guard around the village. From the movements I am guessing about sixty to seventy more soldiers will be in the church building. From the way the villagers acted during the day they live in terror of the church.

'Drog, can you manifest a physical body yet?'

Drog 'No, master, I'm sorry.'

'It's fine.'

To start, I slowly make my way all the way around the village to make sure I haven't missed anything. Then I sneak into the village between two guard posts making sure no one sees me. It will be much easier to kill the guards from inside since they only really watch the roads leading to the village.

Not that I would call these dirt paths roads, but from the map Ricken showed me they should lead to two more small villages. There are six villages in a rough circle around the main village, the rough road connects all the villages on the outside and each village has a road to the center. My plan is to go around the circle to all six of the small villages and then hit the center one last.

If the other five villages have about the same number of soldiers then there are around five hundred in the six villages. That means the church probably has around a thousand total, almost double what Hawk thought their numbers were. That is way more soldiers than needed just to control the area, I wonder what the church is planning.

Well, whatever they had planned is no matter now, since soon they will all be dead. For this speed and silence are the best bet, I don't want to let them use hostages against me. Now it is time to start the killing!