"'I see it in your eyes. In the eyes of each an every one of you. You want more out of life than mere survival. You want to thrive. To prosper. To bathe in every single joy it offers. We can offer all of that and more. All you have to do is take this first step,'" Sonja said as she continued to listen and repeat what she was hearing.

"Wait, is this a recruitment campaign or something?" Eik asked with quiet puzzlement. "Is that seriously what they're doing?"

"That doesn't really surprise me much. The cult has always viewed true conquest to be the expropriation of the population of enemy civilizations rather than simple extermination and plunder. They kill and maim to make examples and break wills, not to win."

"You're saying that there's a historical precedent for this insane tactic?" Olivia asked.

"Well, keep in mind that I'm no person of authority on the subject of the cult, and that I was not even alive the last time the Nidafjeld Alliance had a major direct clash with Moon Shall Swallow, but I believe so, yes. The cult is opportunistic if nothing else."

"So that's what this is?" Heath asked, much of the steam from before having dissipated in favor of quiet dread. "Just an opportunity?"

Mikla could only offer an uncertain shake of his head. "They might have found or managed to expose a weakness in the defenses of the alliance or something along those lines. I really can't say. It just happened. No, actually, it's still happening," he said, clearly frustrated as well.

Possessing the ability called Bat's Ears, Sonja's ears picked up the sound of the speaker's voice only moments after Eik's D-rank senses did. "I can hear it now as well," she said. "If we're close now, it's definitely going to be around the centr—"

"Back, back! We've got incoming!" Olivia broke in, voice only barely above a whisper. She jumped back with her arm out to the side to lead the others along in her retreat. Mikla was already moving by the time the rest could react. "From the right!"

Eik only barely managed to get a shell of crystallized up before a high-powered arrow shattered it on the focused point of impact. Olivia snatched a second, hidden arrow out of the air before it could bore its way into his eye socket.

Swallowing a Potion of Mighty Strength class 1 while holding his shield up in front of him, Heath charged forward. "Guys, get behind me! I'll keep them in ch—" But even before he could finish speaking, Olivia, fists igniting with all-consuming flames, rushed past him at blinding speed to take out two ranged damage dealers hidden on top of a roof a few houses away.

A close-quarters fighter emerged from an alley only to be caught in Mikla's movement arresting ability. He could still move slightly in the invisible prison, but not nearly enough to defend himself against Eik's frighteningly sharp wakizashi as the glinting blade effortlessly penetrated his robes and slid up under his ribs, meeting only a thin layer of protective leather.

Eik yanked the wakizashi out with a quick movement and shoved a blue spike into the wound which he immediately detonated with Accelerant. Blood spewed from the cultist's mouth as his internal organs were reduced to something resembling an expired bolognese. He died still hanging fast in Mikla's ability.

Wielding a pair of twin daggers, another cultist appeared to materialize out of thin air, taking Eik's back as sharp purple light coated the two short blades. Reflexively, a blue shell hardened around Eik's neck but the twin blades didn't manage to make contact before Mikla was there, a collapsible staff made of some kind of matte metal slamming into the cultist's face and leaving a bloody crater of teeth and broken skin.

"I think we got them all," Olivia said as she touched back down, the flames around her hands sputtering out. "C-rankers the lot of them, I think."

Mikla replaced the staff on his belt as Heath watched on silently, his sword and shield hanging loosely in his hands. He trudged back to join them. Sonja's face was difficult to read.

"I guess this means there are patrols and scouts. We have to be careful from here on out."

Dragging the corpses into a nearby house, they forged on, now more alert than ever. Mikla and Olivia detected two other groups before they reached their objective, one lying in wait a couple of streets down with another on the move and prowling through the streets.

Once the large square came into view from the bend of one of the side streets, they stopped. So many people were gathered that they couldn't fit within the otherwise enormous square and had to file into the streets themselves. Forest was extremely populous, even with all the people who must have already died today.

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Eik leaned away from the corner he was peeking around and regarded Heath and Sonja with an expression of reluctance. He chewed on the words before he spoke. "Guys, I—"

"I agree," Sonja said, sighing dejectedly.

"What?"

"I agree with you that Heath and I should stay back. At E-rank we would be nothing but shackles around your ankles if there was a situation where you had to defend yourselves. I understand."

For a couple of seconds Heath could do nothing but stare in disbelief. Then he found his tongue. "What! Wait, are you kidding me?" he hissed with indignation. "You're going to leave us behind?"

"Heath, we're not trying to leave you behind," Eik tried. The mistake of bringing the team along to confront Frank of the Black Fang and his gang of murderers played on repeat inside his head. He had been trying to keep the status quo intact.

They were a team. It was only right that they went into danger together. That was what a team did after all. But not anymore. He couldn't allow it. What counted as danger for him would be a certain death for them. Their might no longer aligned. His pursuit of strength had brought him ahead of the three of them. But he couldn't stop now. Power was simply too important in this world to neglect.

"I'm just… Frank of the Black Fang almost killed all three of you without me being able to do anything about it, and all because…"

"Because you're strong and we're not," Heath finished.

"Heath, that's not—"

"No, I—… I do know that it's true, man," he said, the anger suddenly fading completely. "I really do see it. It's the only thing I've been able to see recently, actually. Fuck… Alright, go."

"Thanks, dude."

"Oh, don't thank me yet," the tank huffed with a shit-eating grin. "If you think I'm going to just give up and fall by the wayside, then you're sorely mistaken. I'll show you that you're not the only one who's got a role to play in all this. I'll show you no matter what."

Eik punched him in the shoulder with a suppressed chuckle. "Can't wait to see what you do."

"Seeing the size of that crowd, I figure the best thing we can do is to blend in to begin with, just to find out what the hell is even going on," Olivia said, glancing down the side street. They were standing in the small space between two buildings, hidden in the shadow of the houses.

Nonchalantly and with their weapons sheathed, Mikla, Eik, and Olivia made their way closer, keeping to the spaces between buildings as much as possible. When they came to the back most rows of Earthlings they also heard the sobs and tense whispers. People were terrified.

And for good reason. They had been dragged from their homes and beaten, some killed.

On a raised podium stood a figure, backed by several other figures all clad in robes full of intricate patterns. The main figure itself wore a deep and dark gray armor. Rather than segments and pieces it looked to be a single suit, covering the person from the top of their head to the tips of their toes.

"I understand!" the armored individual bellowed, his voice clearly amplified somehow. "I understand, I really do. You're frightened. You're facing uncertainty. You're facing a now, unknown world filled with horror. We can offer you the path to safety. To happiness. The path to divinity!"

Eik's breath caught in his throat when he noticed what was behind them. Initially he had thought a row of thick, wooden stakes to be a part of their culty and creepy setup but something had been hung from the top.

Bodies. The fucking cultist had practically crucified people up there.

Squinting, Eik studied the faces more closely. That one looked familiar but with all the blood on the face it was difficult to tell. And the distance to the stakes didn't make it any easier either.

He nudged a woman next to him. Her eyes were red and she looked ready to lie down and give up. "Hey, excuse me," he said, squeezing her shoulder gently in a gesture he hoped could provide at least a sliver of comfort in a frightening situation. "Do you know who it is up there on the stakes? Could you tell me? Like the one of the far right. I feel like I've seen him before. Who's that?"

She yelped and jumped at his touch, nerves clearly frayed to the brink of a breakdown. "Wha— Wh-Who are you?"

He gave her the biggest, brightest smile he could muster. "The name's Eik. Local. What's yours?"

"O-Olivia."

"Olivia? Hey, that's my sister's name! You're like name twins," he said with a thumb at the other Olivia, hoping to give the woman something else to focus on. His sister smiled but poked him in the ribs to get him to move on. "Right, anyway. Who's hanging up there?"

The armored man spoke again, some of the patience from earlier replaced by annoyance. He still kept his cool, however. "I beg of you, people of Forest. No, people of Earth, I beg you to see reason. Witness the leaders of your society as they hang helplessly before true, unmistakable might. I am sure you have felt the terror of this world. Monsters and villains abound, forcing you to live with your eyes looking at the ground and nothing else." A delicate, metallic clink chimed as he gestured to the wooden stakes behind him.

"But what can your leaders do, hmm?" his voice boomed, a smooth baritone. "Not even half a day have we been here and what could they do to protect you? They are without power and without the capability to protect. But Moon Shall Swallow… We can protect you!" he suddenly bellowed, slamming a fist into his own chest. "Must I truly continue to demonstrate? You are giving me no choice."

Waving his finger in the air, he signaled for something down behind the podium where Eik couldn't see for the throng of people. A person was led up, held fast by their wrists behind their back. Bruises and cuts marred their face but nowhere near the severity of those hung upon the stakes.

It was an older man. Eik knew he had seen him before. He had never actually spoken to him, or even heard him speak, but he had been present at the interrogation following Eik's initial contact with the Nidafjeld Alliance.

The old man looked absolutely terrified. Not at all a powerful Awakened. An armored fist crushed his nose. No, scratch that. An armored fist crushed his face and his head. Knocked to the ground, he didn't move again.

A robed cultist hoisted him up on a vacant stake.

The other Olivia sobbed, and finally answered Eik's question. "It's… It's the leaders of Forest. The one hanging on the far right is the director of Mission Central. It's Travis Lockwood."

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