"There is something ahead."

"This is the third time today." I suppressed a yawn and raised an eyebrow at Hakim's claim. I struggled to breathe up here, getting bored and skeptical. "You quickly changed your mind with the previous two. And we can't fly any further than this."

"No, this is the real deal, trust me, Dio. No false alarms this time." He patted my shoulder, pointing straight ahead, beyond the northeastern edge of the highlands. I hadn't flown on a wyvern for a long while and felt all kinds of tired. "In that large forest, it's the strongest signal I have felt after your Demon Lord. They must be hiding beneath the trees."

Whenever he was full of himself, he dropped my rank and fell back on my nickname, but I needed more proof than his ego this time. Not that this was any worse than hunting the individual tribes on the ground, but the Demon Lord was losing his patience fast, especially considering this was a human's solo endeavor, who wasn't officially enlisted yet.

"So you're saying the Elder hid her pawns in the furthest possible place within Midgard?" It made sense. Our supply trains were overstretched already, and we needed a quick victory. This forest was at least a week's march from our closest positions though, leading through multiple tribe's territories. It didn't matter how I strained my remaining eye, I couldn't see signs of movement or a camp down there.

"That seems to be the smartest. She doesn't need to fight us head-on, maybe she lacks the manpower for that too." He pondered as the majestic beast drew a large circle over the woods. "It was the right call to hide their green skins inside a forest if she expected our scouts. It's not their regular settlement, we won't find buildings or smoke, I bet she even moves them around daily. We must be lucky to find them."

"So what can you feel exactly?" I interrogated him during our second circle overhead. "Their numbers, shamans, how many domination stones or what have you is down there? I need to report to the Demon Lord."

"One strong source below us, and a few faint signals that could be their shamans." He closed his eyes to concentrate better. "But now that we came this close, there are two more points with dense mana to the east and west. Those overshadow the weaker signals, so I can't say much."

"Is it even possible to control three large tribes at once?" I pondered, slowly descending, but he tapped my shoulders, pointing at the trees below us. We were still thousands of feet high and saw only the canopy.

"I wouldn't fly too close, you never know what long-range spells they have, and I heard about those pterosaurs too," Hakim warned me, the last person I expected. "Just fly in a large circle and alert your Demon Lord. Maybe send someone to track them once they move, but now we should just kick back and relax."

He must have felt his recon mission was over, but his word for it alone wasn’t enough for me. I needed more proof, and to curb his ego a bit.

"You can make us invisible, right? Why don't we take a closer look, and then I can give an actual report." I suggested, suppressing a grin. His smile turned into a frown, and his eyes rolled back as he scratched his head. "What's the matter, did you think your vague claim would be enough to convince me after we flew around for days?"

"It's not that. I can turn ourselves invisible, but with that many shamans down there, they could still detect the spell itself." He noted reluctantly, making me raise an eyebrow. Until now, he firmly claimed he could make our troop movements disappear, no matter what enemy we faced, and while it worked so far, his hesitation surprised me.

"That's not how you sold your skills until now." I reminded him but kept the wyvern in a safe distance. "You said you can make us invisible any time and are extremely useful."

"I did not lie. You saw it yourself, didn't you?" He argued. "But even the invisibility spell releases a small magical aura, that specialized casters could detect. The chance is low, and when it's against one shaman with a good chance that we could get away, I don't mind. But here, I detected at least half a dozen shamans, and it's just the two of us."

"The two of us against?" I asked, trying to read his face. "Give me a good approximation of their strength, and some proof they are here, or we can't go back to report on it. Hundreds? Thousands?"

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"I can't tell. The artifact suppresses most of the other creature's mana, I only felt the shamans once we got this close, but I can only assume the Church woman wouldn't waste such precious resources on small tribes. So expect at least a thousand of them for each." He tried to convince me, but I firmly shook my head. "I um, I could turn some of the trees invisible, and see if they are below them but that would still not reveal their numbers."

"Exactly, it would be better, if you turned us invisible instead, and we took a closer look," I suggested, though I realized that the trees could hide most of their forces, even if we walked right between them.

"Ugh, not a good idea." Hakim seemed reluctant. "If only I could use a blessing from Addas. Shapeshift into a lizard, and infiltrate their camp."

"Oh? Addas could grant miracles like that?" I asked surprised. That did sound quite handy. But he talked about how his god no longer answered prayers since the Collapse.

"Yes, my deity had an insane talent to turn himself into a centaur, the shape he most often took when riding along the nomadic tribes in the Appenon deserts." He explained, sounding proud of his defunct deity, adding. "He often led the armies as an enormous green dragon in battles, his flames incinerated all of our enemies instantly."

"You do realize that you praise a hostile god, right?" I shook my head, still keeping the distance with my wyvern from the woods. "You wanted to join the Twelve Champions, but we are the strongest support of the Demon Lord, which means we have to pray for him, and him only."

"He isn't a god though." He shrugged off his treasonous sentence like it was nothing. I was willing to let it slide so he was right.

"A demon is the same as a saint rank with the humans. One step away from becoming a True God." I noted, pausing for a yawn. "And he already dislikes the humans, so I doubt he would ever allow someone to worship any of their gods, what were you thinking?"

"How about people that don't worship anyone? Since technically, I don't worship the Desert's Centaur or the Green Dragon of the Skies." He tried to bargain with me. "Addas no longer answers prayers so it doesn't count. I can't promise I'd start praying for Alpha though."

"That is the issue here." I nodded, but let the matter drop. "In any case, we need to get a better grip on the situation, so unless you have another idea to get their numbers, I'll land next to that forest, whether you turn us invisible or not."

"I get it, you'll get your invisibility, but don't say I didn't warn you. Let's just hope, they don't have anything to chase us in the air if anything goes wrong." He gave in at last and turned us invisible. Flying the huge beast like that was quite challenging since even I did not see myself, or the wyvern below me, but the monster was smart enough to land safely.

I put ourselves down about a mile away from the forest, since invisibility or not, the wings generated quite a wind, kicking up dust, and giving us away if I flew any closer. The wyvern had to be tucked away behind a large boulder too, because the invisibility only worked in a limited radius around the bard. And since we couldn't see each other either, we had to advance hand in hand, like awkward lovers.

I sure didn't want anyone to catch us, further reinforcing the image in my head, but we reached the forest’s edge without any problems.

"We are getting close. Roughly a hundred yards ahead." He whispered, pulling me in the right direction, but I still hadn't seen any lizards. He seemed just as surprised. "What the heck? I can feel it, almost at arm's reach. And I feel the shamans too."

"What are the odds that they turned invisible too?" I asked skeptical, but kept my voice down just to be safe. "Or that it was just another false alarm on your part? Unless they are underground."

"Ooh, that would explain it." He whispered louder than I expected. He casually dropped the invisibility spell and strummed his lute for another one. I couldn't believe how careless he was about making noise now when he even refused to approach the woods under the invisibility spell.

"What are you doing, idiot?" I asked jumping behind a tree trunk.

"I cast a sonar, it detects if there are caves below or feet, and I could find the entrance too." He announced, strumming again, casting a high-pitched echo bouncing between the trees. "And there sure are. A very small one though, and it feels like they just started to dig it."

"What? Why would they start to tunnel under a forest beyond the highlands?" It made no sense to me, no matter what kind of tactician the Elder was. Yet he seemed so confident that he felt those crystals.

"It is a strong magic stone, somewhere below us and a few individuals with mediocre mana. I also felt two more not that far." He answered the question I didn't even ask. "But you are right, it's strange. And I don't feel that many life forms either, and no tracks that suggest large-scale troop movements in or around the forest."

"It was a false alarm after all." I rubbed my temple, ready to turn back and continue our scouting on the wyvern's back.

"No, it's not, as I said, there is a dungeon core nearby." He claimed adamantly, and I suddenly stopped. That's not what he said before.

"Did you say dungeon core?" I raised my eyebrow, my brain in overdrive already. He nodded, opening his arms.

"Yes, the Domination Crystal is made of refined dungeon cores, like all potent magic stones. It would be impossible to mistake one." Hakim confirmed, pointing at the ground to the north. "And it's right there."

"W-what if it's a dungeon core? But from a dungeon?" I asked suspiciously, and his eyes opened wide. Before he could answer though, the ground rumbled under my feet, and a strange creature dug through the dirt, a huge eyeball and a bunch of tentacles that tried to break free of the tight hole it dug for itself.

"T-that's impossible." Hakim pointed at the thing. "That's a beholder!"