Knarkly sung like a bird, spilling the beans like a cracked open ten can. He spoke of the message from the heavens his family had received, and the Alter they were building and that it was almost completed, it just needed an S Grade Heavenly Blood dagger to do the sacrifices with. There was a list of Phoenixes that needed to be sacrificed and apparently God of lightning Phoenixes were in short supply. They kidnapped Seygo to use her as a sacrifice instead. And were keeping her in the Family's Treasury, a Treasure store where they kept their most valuable Family owned artifacts. Gabe asked where this Treasure store was and how he could get into it. "Ha! it's in the Phoenix lands, right in the middle. You can't miss it. But there's no way your getting in there. The Family's got an army in that place." It wasn't unusual for a family to have a well guarded place they kept their Highest treasures and Weapons. And doing so on a treasure land was very beneficial. The Phoenix Lands was the perfect area. It would already need to be heavily guarded as it was a coveted place by all the Families, and the spirit energy there might boost the Treasures over time. "How big an army?" Gabe asked. Already making plans in his head. "Too big." Knarkly said, probably trying to justify his information leak by convincing himself it wouldn't matter. "The family keeps over half it's forces there, and pays big to have the borders guarded by mercs and low power families. Anything the Greenwood family has is moot, especially once the war is over. after The Burning-Heart League gets through with them, they'll be ether dust or close enough to it that the difference won't matter." Gabe had the felling Knarkly knew something about the war that he didn't. "Why? What does the Burning-Heart League have going for it?" Knarkly smiled maliciously. "Sorry, already gave you everything I know about the girl. Now you have to set me free." Gabe nodded. "Your right." He looked to one of his demons. "Kill him. burn the body. And clean up the mess. Don't leave a trace." Knarkly's eyes widened. "W.. what!" Gabe turned to him as his demon began to open some kind of Vortex with his hand and tentacles started springing out. "Sorry, I'd say sacrificing innocent people to save yourself was sufficient reason to break our deal. That and I don't want to leave the family yet, still might need more information." The demon's odd portal move grabbed Knarkly by his thick throat and legs and in a heartbeat pulled him into the vortex before completely disappearing with him. "Well that's one way to do it." Gabe said he had a felling that as clean as it looked, that vortex did not give knarkly a pleasant death. “You guys are not to tell a soul about my ability to break Spirit contracts.” Gabe sternly told his demons, who all looked very surprised that he was still alive. Not very many demons had this ability only about one in a few million. And those that did kept the secret well even from their own kind.

walking back out into the party Gabe was spotted by Quiff and called over to his group. "I'd like you to see the man I've recently signed to be with the family." Gabe heard him boast to his piers as he walked towards him, then from out of nowhere his eyes were struck again by extreme pain. He stumbled and suddenly his vision went black. His head also started feeling like it was about to explode and he tried to use his soul sense but it wasn't there. All he could do was hear the crowd around him, and smell them. "Friday, get over here!" Gabe's hearing started to go wobbly. He stepped towards where he thought he heard Quiff, but his leg gave out before he could put weight on it and he fell face forward. The last thing he remembered was the pain in his eyes worsening before he lost all feeling whatsoever.

Gabe woke laid out on a bed. There was a servant standing there waiting and she left when she saw his eyes open. He started up feeling fine and tried to remember what had happened. The pain, the party! He had passed out!. For the second time he'd been having pain in his eyes and this time it had put him to sleep. A moment later Cindy walked in looking at him displeased. "You passed out in the middle of Master Quiff's party." She said plainly. "He is none to happy about it." Gabe nodded. "I figured as much..." He felt a bit off, but couldn't really tell anything was different. "The Healer said you must have been poisoned or something as your mind was struggling with itself. Couldn't find the poison though, and he believed it wouldn't kill you since your heart rate was normal." Gabe groaned. "Yeah... might have been that drink someone handed me." Cindy crossed her arms. "Who?" Gabe scratched his head. "Not sure. My memory is kinda fuzzy." Cindy stepped forward and looked him dead in the eyes. "Did you do something to a man named Knarkly last night?" Gabe nodded slowly and squinted as if he could barely remember. "Someone told me Master Quiff wanted to meet with him, so I took him to Master Quiff's office only... I didn't remember what happened afterwards." Cindy's eyebrows rose. She waited to see if Gabe was lying, but seeing as how he wasn't dead then he probably wasn't. She left to message Quiff about his story.

Gabe was interrogated for the next two days by family members about what had happened, some from Quiff's house others from outside sources. all he told them was that he didn't really remember, and since his contract stated that he couldn't lie to them they were forced to believe him. Knarkly going missing was a big thing for the family, he was almost as business savvy as Quiff. His house and entire estate would pass to his much younger wife until he was found. Apparently Gabe had been out for a week while they searched for him. After Gabe was cleared he was able to petition for a Treasure hunting Division, which would allow him freedom of movement if he needed to stay much longer in the family. Cindy said the paperwork would take a few weeks, and he was to stay in the house until then. Which was fine with him. He didn't waste time and immediately took a Meditation closet in the Acolyte training area. The closest was actually fairly decent, with enough room for a cushioned stool and space to walk around. The runes drawn on the wall just as costly as would be expected here. Gabe pulled out a long distance Teleport scroll from his Space pouch and opened a portal to the palace in his new Hoard territory.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He Appeared inside the throne room and immediately the Demon's around him bowed. He was a bit anxious about hurrying, Knarkly had described the Alter as nearly complete, only needing one or two more treasures to finish it. At any moment Seygo could be put on top of that Altar and he would lose her forever. His recent Pains were concerning, he didn't think it was a poison but maybe it was related to his recent madness. Whatever it was it Always left him blind, and apparently could knock him out at any moment. He wasn't sure what to do about it, if the Healer Quiff could afford had not been able to find anything wrong with him then there were very few people that could do much better. "Inform the counsel, I want the entire hoard ready to move Now!" Gabe issued his order. He would like to know what he was dealing with first, send scouts and Foreseers to look at the layout. But he was certain they would be caught, the Phoenix lands were just being guarded too heavily. Plus he was cut for time. "Yes master." All the demons said in eerie unison.

"But master.... we don't have enough Teleport scrolls. Your talking about moving almost half the hoard!" Hebser, one of Gabe's most powerful and ancient demons on the Counsel he had created stated bluntly. The other demons nodded they didn't like the idea of going to battle, they knew that if they moved And the surrounding families discovered it they wouldn't be able to find a deep enough hole to crawl into. Gabe slapped his hand on the thick onyx table they all sat around. "You let me worry about how we're going to get there." He had considered that problem, it was a big one. It would take them about a month to fly to the Geo continent from here even for the Deity realm demons not to mention the others. and the moment they left their territory it would be in jeopardy. Their absence would be noticed immediately. But Gate scrolls wouldn't be enough, the portals they opened didn't last more then a minute or so, and the amount required to move an army this size would be expensive and take time to acquire. Most families had Teleport scrolls stored up for mass evacuation in an emergency, but Gabe didn't have that luxury. Unless he stole them from another, which would still take too much time and be too dangerous. "We're going to take a Portal Gate." Gabe said reserved to follow through. The demons in the counsel stared at him speechless. Right now, if it was possible for any of them to break free from their bonds they would have. This man was about to get them all killed. But somehow he had complete power over them, it felt like more than even Afell had. He was so weak... but none of them could disobey. This went against every known law of the heavens. "But master! The families will kill us! The moment news spreads every family on the Chaos continent will move to destroy us!" Gabe turned to the very disheartened demon at the other end of the table. "No they won't." Gabe said simply. He already had everything planned, it was risky and would mean he would lose all his territory, the fissure, the palace, the sacred lands around it. But this was the kind of thing he was good at, thinking on his feet he had full faith he was right about what he was thinking would work. "We'll take a Portal gate and the treasure land around it, and not one family will attack us for it." he smiled.

Portal gates were the Giant permanent structures Families built in their Best heavenly treasure lands to teleport in mass if need be. They were rarely used, and looked like giant arches that hundreds of thousands of Channelers could March through. they sucked up Spirit energy from thousands of miles around and punched a whole through space to wherever the activater chose, the only drawback being that too much use of the Gate could be detrimental to the surrounding lands. Even one use could do great harm that could only be restored with time. Those on the Celestial Continent didn't have the same problem as Celestial energy could naturally build portals, and the energy the gate took there was minuscule in comparison to the Sheer amount of Chaos energy it took to do the same thing here. There had been several Treasure lands on Primeway that were drained of most if not all of their spirit energy for thousands of years because wars forced the Gates to be used too many times. It was why only Heavenly treasure lands could be used, as only the strongest and Purest Spirit energy could be used to build a Portal so large and long distance out of Chaos or Geo energy. Gabe issued the order justly titled the Armageddon initiative by one of his more creative Demon slaves. It meant that every single demon, treasure, and valuable was to be be moved from the hoard territory. Fortunately Gabe already had them preparing for this for the past while now and plans had been made to do this quickly. It was likely they would lose a portion of the hoard for this but the numbers would be negligible. And Gabe did not have any attachment to any of his hoard. It may be a cold way to see it but they were just a tool for him.

In less then twenty four hours after he Gave the orders, the strongest and most powerful demons of the hoard were flying north east at blurring speeds. Gabe was right out in front of them, surrounded by twelve Powerful Deity realm demons that made a red tinged shield around him of pure Chaos energy. The shield was in a twelve pointed polygon shape and could probably withstand an entire mountain falling on it. The rest of the hoard, everything from Ancestor realm and down was far, far behind them carrying the Demon's that couldn't fly. They would have to make several trips to transport the entirety of the low level hoard, and many of them probably would be killed or stopped by other forces. Gabe also assumed a number of those not under his control would simply abandon the hoard all together if they were smart enough. But he could care less. All the treasures they had were in space pouches and being carried by demons under his control, the majority of his fortune was in those quality treasures, a sheer ocean of wealth. They all headed unopposed towards the Greenwood family lands. Pacifically the Greenwood family's second most powerful Treasure lands. A Black sand desert with mile high dunes called Devil's Ash valley. It was all Heavenly treasure land directly in the middle of the Greenwood family's territory. Gabe grinned at the ruckus he was about to cause, but did have worries about what might come of it. He had a feeling he was right about this, but only time would tell.