Chapter 155 – Security breach
The fight with backup sent from the dark association was quite short. Ugy reported incoming space magic and its location seconds before the team dropped out of the space crack in the air. The moment they appeared they were met by a volley of magic and energy beams from Brianna, Puppet, and Dryads.
Barely any of the ten-man team managed to throw some magic in return. But in panic and confusion, it went wide away from hurting anyone. In just a few moments the whole team was slaughtered like practice targets and by the time Samantha and Mark rushed out of the kirk, the dust had already settled.
"What the hell was that?" Asked Mark.
"Enemy, backup." Said Noah gazing at the rushing out people with a chill gaze.
"Mark!" Screamed one of the ex-adventurers, rushing out of Kirk a few seconds later. "The tank from the basement disappeared!"
"What? How?" Asked the Village chief.
"The moment you all rushed out, the crack in the space appeared and something from the other side pulled it in.
"I see." Said Noah with the same emotionless voice. "The first space signature I sensed covered the second one. These guys were just a decoy."
"Decoy?" They used so many lives to steal that liquid? What kind of organization is it?"
"Dark association." Said Lilly. "They don't care for the lives of pawns. Only the end result it seems." She added turning to look at her sister. "Even us sis. All we were…" She murmured for only Samantha's ears to hear.
"Fuck them." Said Samantha through clenched teeth.
"They will come after us again." Said Lilly.
Samantha clenched her fist but had nothing to reply to her sister. The resources this organization possessed far outmatched their power to cope with. But what was supposed to do? Give up? No way in hell!
"If they come we'll make them pay the worst price." She finally hissed.
"So what the hell is going on here? Who are these guys and who are you, lot? Don't tell me the same shit about following a vamp." Said Mark looking around, stopping his gaze on Brianna in her half-spider form, green forms of Dryads in maid clothes, and Puppet with weaponized hands in succession.
In return, they all turned to look at Noah appointing him as leader with their gazes.
"Who am I to look at when you all look at me? I am not him." Said Noah.
"Huh?" Asked Mark.
"That's not, Noah. Yuko took over his body because Noah lost consciousness." Said, Brianna.
"Who the hell is Yuko? I said explain what the hell is going on, not make it more complicated." Said Mark.
*****
A loud knock sounded from the door before a knight opened the door, entering the room without waiting for the answer.
"Sir! The Archduke is urgently calling you for the meeting." Said knight gazing at Lord Belmont sitting behind the table deep in thought with his eyes closed.
"What happened?" Asked the Royal Investigator, opening his eyes.
"It seems another incident occurred." Said Knight.
Lord Belmont jumped to his feet and hurriedly walked out of his room. They walked through the halls of the flying ship until they reached Archduke's cabinet.
"Your Excellency. How may I be of help?" Asked Lord Belmont, entering the room without a knock.
"You came!" Said Archduke with an urgent voice. "We received another "anonymous" tip." He said pointing out the word anonymous. "There was another incident with dark association involvement in the village one day horse ride away from here that needs immediate investigation, however, my hands are full with the dungeon break here."
"I understand. This is exactly the work for me. The help I can provide you with here is greatly limited anyway. I and my team will dispatch immediately."
"Thank you." Said, Archduke, nodding.
*****
"We have news, captain." Said Shadow Warrior floating out of the shadow of an alley near a nun that stood at the corner.
"What is it?" Said the nun.
"Village of Silver Gale, one day away from here. If we hurry, we'll be there before the investigator."
"I see we will…"
"Captain!" Said another voice coming from the shadow. "Emergency call from the Head Quarters!"
Nun turned around in surprise and rushed into the alley where she disappeared in the shadows.
*****
"Your holiness! I am at your command." Came the voice from the big crystal ball standing on the table showing the picture of a nun kneeling with one knee on the ground.
The Saintess sat in her office gazing at the big crystal ball in front of her with a chilling gaze sending shivers at the woman on the other side of the two similar balls connecting with each other.
"I have a new task for your immediate investigation." Said Saintess in a calm yet somehow giving off the feeling of a furious voice that gave pressure on the Shadow warrior kneeling a thousand kilometers away from her. "I felt an anomaly in a spot quite close to your location, I want you to stop your current task and lead both teams for investigation."
"That place…" Answered the shadow warrior suddenly interrupting the Saintess, which no one usually dared to do. "Could it be Silver Gale village?" Asked the shadow warrior, surprising the Saintess.
"How did you know?"
"We just received a lead while investigating our current target that led us to that village. A Royal investigator is dispatching at the moment to get there as fast as possible. If we hurry we will be there slightly before them." Said the warrior.
"It is connected?" Asked the Saintess thoughtfully.
"I suspect so." Answered the shadow warrior.
"I see." Answered Saintess now understanding why the woman dared to interrupt her. "I will not hold you. Get there as fast as possible. I need an immediate report. And…"
"Yes, your Holiness?" Asked the shadow woman.
"You will most likely encounter Divine Energy presence. I need samples." Said Saintess, surprising the shadow warrior for a second.
"Understood!" Answered the warrior taking hold of herself a moment later and Saintess broke the connection.
As the connection broke, the picture of the shadow warrior dimmed and disappeared, turning the crystal ball dark. After that Saintess waved her hand and the ball lit up again, this time with a different picture.
It was a scene of her bedchamber with a scope of the entire room from the viewpoint at the corner of the room. This was the record of the previous night from one of the night watch shadow warriors that guarded Saintess in her sleep.
The Saintess held her hand on the table with her palm up. When she turned her palm to face down the picture seemed to move as if in fast forward to the point where it showed the Saintess jump up from bed and flush the whole room in blinding light. At that moment the record stopped as the light knocked out the person whose record she was currently watching. When Saintess turned her palm back up the picture rewinded as all the motions were going in reverse direction.
This was the record that Saintess watched the whole morning, stopping only to make a call to the shadow warriors when she received a report from an observation team that detected a surge of divine energy in some part of the Moonstar kingdom.
She sat in exactly the same way for hours in deep thought while rewinding the record and watching it over and over again.
Then her hand finally stopped in one position and she leaned forward to gaze closer at the crystal ball.
"What do you see, Trish?" She suddenly asked seemingly from no one as she was alone in the room.
The shadow behind the Saintess shuddered for a split moment and a woman clad in black floated out of the wall stepping on the ground near the Saintess. She also leaned toward the crystal ball and gazed at the moving picture.
This time Saintess moved her hand only slightly, repeating a single second of a record over and over again.
"What the?" Said Trisha a minute later finally noticing something strange. Remembering her talk with the Saintess at night she finally saw the strangeness of what happened.
In the record, Saintess kept sleeping soundly before jumping up and suddenly blinding everyone. If watched inattentively then what they saw is just Saintess having a bad dream and using magic after a nightmare.
However, when Saintess stopped at the specific moment, Trisha finally saw what bothered Saintess so much.
It was the very glass of water that Trisha gave the Saintess to drink from after the incident. It was empty the whole night, but in one split moment miraculously filled full with water. The decanter on the table at the same time was emptied of what looked like exactly a glass full amount of water. It happened in a split moment, the shadow warriors not even taking notice of it before Saintess jumped up the next moment, and bright light filled the room.
"What is this? Was the record altered?" Asked Shadow Warrior commander in surprise, her thought swirling miles a second.
"No." Said Saintess stopping Trisha's train of thought.
"No? Then how…?"
"Power of dreams." Said Saintess with a face as if she was trying the taste of these words on her tongue.
She had no answer herself the whole day, but after the call right now she finally had an insight.
"Power of dreams?" Repeated Trisha trying to understand the meaning of it.
"I never leave water in the glass when I go to sleep and as you see it was empty until the very end. But in my dream, that man filled the glass of water. And there it is. Suddenly full of water. The time in dreams goes a lot faster than in reality. An hour in the dream may be but a minute in real life." Said Saintess.
"He filled the glass in a dream and it was filled in reality?" Asked Trisha dumbfounded. "How can this be?
"It can. Because all these incidents are connected, Trisha. I finally see the picture more clearly, " said Saintess. "The people our team followed after the incident in Greenville town. The accident that caused me to forget why I used my power back then. The strange report of Dryad Queen interference. I finally see a connection in all of this." Added Saintess.
"Power of dreams." Said Trisha unsurely, still not getting what Saintess was pointing at.
"Yes. Why would the Dryad Queen interfere with the demon sightings investigation? How could I see a city in flames under the undead attack when it never happened? How could someone get here unnoticed? How come there is a divine energy surge somewhere detected exactly this night?"
"So what dreams has to do with it?"
"Everything. If I am right, then when our team gets to Silver Gale they will find traces of my divine power there."
"Your? Why?"
"I think it wasn't an attack tonight, but more like a plea for help. Someone provoked me to redirect my power through the dream. I am not sure how it works, but if this is right, the report will confirm it."
"If it was a dream then how did he pour water? Can he affect the real world through it? If this is possible we have a security breach of unprecedented scale." Said Trisha worried. "Our security is…"
"Is absolutely fine." Said Saintess finishing the words of her commander. "There is no breach. It was not the slight on your side, Trisha. I was the one that allowed it. I let him in on my own."
"What?"
"Last incident. Ever since back then I felt a part of my divine power not recovering. As if something drained it. But I could not figure out what. Now I know, because that part is recovering well again. It looks like I made a bridge between us the first time I attacked him."
"No way! Your Holiness would not…"
"Make such a dumb mistake? Well, it is a power I never expected. It's no surprise I messed up. Through the power of divine magic, I infiltrated a dream, but with his power, he was able to push me out. And my memory of that incident is blurry, as it is usually with dreams. However, the connection I created stayed. It was idle until now as I would immediately sense if someone was to try to use it. He finally used that back door in my mind to sneak in tonight. Because it was a connection of divine magic, he was able to perform a miracle. He affected the real world from within the dream. But after my counter attack the bridge burned, severing that connection. There is no security breach anymore. This was a one-time occurrence. Unless he has a divine power stronger than me he would not be able to repeat it." Rationalized the Saintess.
"Still. This kind of power…" Murmured Shadow Commander.
"Is astonishing and unheard of. I know. And may be very helpful in the coming demon war."
"One of ours died in the last bout with him though."
"Yes. But was it with him? There are still many unanswered questions. That Samantha Wild Ex-adventurers team knows something. We should capture them at all costs if we want to see the whole picture. Only then we will have all the answers."
"It will be done!" Said Trisha.
/Power of dreams./ Thought Saintess. Is it just a chance or is there a reason God sent such an unusual power to our world?