Ater Mountains (21.10.9978 AS)

The scenery they had been walking though changed. The grey walls of the wide, empty corridors disappeared, leaving place for grey buildings. They were now walking through a subterranean town. Most of the buildings were for public use. There were characteristically many bathhouses, public toilets and warehouses.

Sabrina and Caitlyn, who were leading the group, signaled them to stop between two buildings. Sabrina took out an item from her pocket and activated it. A soundproofed barrier surrounded the group.

“Please prepare yourselves!” Sabrina said with a serious voice. “Put your Commu in your ears, put the ‘pocket dimension’ in your reach and prepare your catalysts. From now on, we are in enemy territory and we’ll have to advance extremely carefully. You never know what happens during missions.” Sabrina said with a frightening serious voice.

“I never thought, I would see her like this.” Laura whispered to Tristan, who was in a completely different place.  He was still pondering over the information he had gotten from his cousin.  

“The ‘clanless’ are supposed to be hiding in a temple a little bit further north of our position. The military has already sent its special forces to deal with their main force. So our job will be to keep an eye on the criminals that try to escape.

Thus we will split into two teams. Each team is charged to guard one side. Under all circumstances, you aren’t allowed them to leave. Even if it means, to end their lives.” Oriana who had been listening raised her voice. “Isn’t a bit hardcore for our first patrol?”

Sabrina’s compassionate gaze landed on the young woman. “We’re in the military. Killing is part of our job. The faster you learn that, the better.” She said, trying to sound as cold as possible. Oriana looked down.

Sabrina clapped her hands happily. “No more questions I guess? Now let’s split here. Please take a good look at your friends in the other group, this might be the last time you see each other.” Sabrina said. Everybody but Tristan started looking around with uneasy expression in their faces.

Caitlyn smacked the back of Sabrina’s head. “That was a joke! These ‘clanless’ we are about to face aren’t dangerous at all! If they were, this wouldn’t be a mission for newbies, right?”  Sabrina laughed. “It seems I got a little too carried away with my speech.” She showed a victory pose. “But still, don’t underestimate your opponents.”

“Why can’t she act normal for just one minute?!” Laura complained annoyed to her friends.

“Sis, please” Annie whispered, reproaching her big sister’s behavior, who was running towards her. Before Annie could do anything, she was already being hugged by Sabrina. Caitlyn walked to the two of them and pulled Sabrina away from her little sister. “Waaiiitt! I didn’t get my daily portion Annie for today yet!”

***

The Temple the ‘clanless’ were using as hideout, had only two possible escape routes: A southern route, leading back into the subterranean town and a northern escape route, leading deeper into ‘the Maze’ towards Ater. 

Tristan, Laura, Abigail and Annie were led by Caitlyn to the southern entrance of the temple. They hid themselves on the top of an old warehouse. “Are you in position?” Caitlyn whispered through her Commu.  “Not yet.” Sabrina whispered back. Sabrina’s group was sneaking, towards the northern entrance of the temple.

“Trist are you ok? There is no need to be worried. Everything will go smoothly.” Laura said to the absent minded Tristan. After the conversation with Sabrina, his body had gone into autopilot mode.  He followed the instructions of the others no more, no less. He hadn’t spoken a single word after Sabrina had left him behind.

His mind was filled with thoughts on the information he had received.  He was thankful for the much needed information, but deep down he wished to stay oblivious to the things happening around him.

‘So that woman, wants me to fight a god? Or do I just need to fight his underlings? No, my passive tells me, I’ll have to fight both.’ A creepy smile appeared on Tristan’s face. ‘My current MR is High Demon Lord. I wonder how many years it will take me to just reach Saint Level with no help. I mean, I know Nocturnio’s library like the palm of my hand, but I’ve never come across a book with a higher MR than Super Devil. As far as I know even bookshops are forbidden to sell higher ranking books.’

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Tristan sighed. ‘The only way of getting your hands on higher ranking papers and books is through the military, but even the military’s archives don’t go further than High Conqueror. If I use my abilities and ‘level up’ some spells I might reach King level. This means I will still be levels below my opponents. And this isn’t some stupid fiction, where the MC wins because of the power of friendship or some other bullshit!’

Tristan was involuntarily brought back from his thoughts as Abigail pinched his cheeks. “Are you ok? You’ve been so absent-minded since you talked to Sabrina. Did she bully you? I know how forceful she can be.” Tristan shook his head. “It’s not that. I’ll tell you later. Now we need to concentrate on the mission ahead of us.” He whispered back.

***

Both groups were now in position and observing the ‘clanless’ outside the temple. “What are they doing?” Annie asked. A group of ten ‘clanless’ was busy drawing something on the ground. “It’s a magic circle.” Tristan said. He was using a spell that worked like a binocular. Thus, he could clearly see the enchantments they were using.

‘Those enchantments… Is that gemstone powder?’ Tristan smiled mischievously. ‘No doubt about it. They really are opening a portal. I have to admit, I did not expect, a bunch of bards to know the secrets behind the Portals… Their spell work could use some improvement. Still to be able to make such magic circles requires a lot of knowledge and expertise. ’

“Why would they try to build a magic circle?” Annie asked once again. ‘Should I tell them our enemies are probably out of our league? Nah, it should be fun, watching the Zerstörung agents getting wrecked.’ Tristan looked towards Annie and answered bluntly. “Beats me.” Trying to sound as clueless as possible, just to get glared at by Abigail.

The reason, why Tristan knew, they were hopelessly outmatched was because of the way they were using the enchantments. Only the highest grade of enchanters could perform the enchantment ritual with fragments of a catalysts unless they used his methods. But there was no way, another person with his same abilities existed in this world.

He learned this lesson, while recruiting fitting enchanters for Siegfried Corp. First, he had tried to hire Super Devil level enchanters since he himself was on the same level at that time. But it miserably failed, so he had to hire higher level enchanters. Right now all enchanters working at Siegfried Corp. were at least Mid Conqueror level.

This meant that at least ten of the bards were stronger as the strongest member in their ranks. And he couldn’t deny the possibility that the bards, about a hundred were equally strong as the enchanters if not stronger.

He decided to keep that information for himself. They weren’t in danger as long as they just watched how the agents of the Zerstörung clan were killed one by the other. He couldn’t careless about what happened to ‘their’ agents. No, the opposite was the case. He was really interested in seeing how they managed to fight against such strong foes as the bards.

***

Both groups were in position and ready for battle. Nothing had happened up until now. There were no signs of allies around the temple. It was just the bards, some spent their time vandalizing the statues of Fors in the courtyard of the temple, others cooking and others again were taking care of a large magic circle.

Tristan who was engrossed, watching the enchanters suddenly noticed a silhouette approaching the temple.  It was a feminine figure. He couldn’t recognize her properly, because of the bad lighting, but he was sure to know the person in question.

The silhouette snuck past a source of light. ‘Dolores?’ Tristan asked himself. ‘No, no this is impossible!’ He glanced over to Laura, who had also noticed. “Mom?” he could hear her whisper. ‘This is bad. Really bad! And why is she alone? Why doesn’t she have at least a partner? Who comes to such a mission alone?’ Tristan’s mind that had managed to calm down after the conversation with Sabrina started to run wild again.

‘I’ve never seen her fight, but I’m sure she isn’t someone above Conqueror level. Still, I doubt she will be able to hold herself against so many strong foes. Dang it! All I wanted to see is a slaughter of ‘their’ agents, but now I get to see the last moments of my best friend’s mom.’ Tristan sighed.

‘So, how can I save her? I need to come up with a good plan. She probably has her Commu on silent mode this means I can’t call her. I can’t risk to teleport to her and I also can’t possibly sneak towards her. Making noise or sending her a message through light would reveal the group.’ Tristan looked towards Laura.

‘Dang it! I can’t do anything to prevent her to charge. I must make sure Laura doesn’t do something stupid, if anything were to happen to her.’ He tried to move closer to Laura, but Caitlyn signaled him to go back to his place.

 ‘We’re screwed.’

The groups watched as Dolores disappeared into the Temple. Annie, who was sitting next to Tristan forcefully swallowed her saliva. Sweat started to form on Tristan’s forehead. Not for the same reason as his friends; because of the uncertainty of what was about to happen. No, it was because he knew exactly what was about to happen.

A few moments passed, but there were no signs of a fight happening inside of the temple. Then suddenly they could hear the scream of a woman. A few seconds later Tristan could recognize how Dolores tried to escape the Temple at top speed. But she was intercepted by a blonde woman. Tristan closed his eyes.

He was able to clearly hear how the bones on Dolores face were shattered, as they impacted with the fist of the blonde woman. He heard how Dolores’ body crushed into one of the walls of the temple.

“MOM!” Laura’s scream brought Tristan back to reality. He tried to grab Laura by her arms, so she didn’t do anything stupid. But it was too late.  Laura had already used her active to accelerate to an unbelievable speed, almost matching her mother’s speed. Laura jumped straight towards the black haired man, who was slowly moving towards her mother.

‘Why am I even doing this?’ Tristan asked himself after jumping behind his best friend.