The ground trembled under the thunder of hooves. Despite carrying their burdens, Edmund and Zen did not fall behind their captain's punishing pace.
After nearly two hours, the arched entrance of Grain Town materialized through the trees, and Daunt dissolved back into the tattoo on G6's skin.
They reined in their horses at the town's outer gate.
"Where is our first destination?" G6 asked without turning.
"The town infirmary, I should think. It is adjacent to the temple," Zen replied.
G6 turned her head slightly, then nudged it forward, signaling him to lead. He nodded and urged his horse into motion.
They took the broad road reserved for carriages and mounted riders, skirting the bustling town center and its crowded streets. Grain Town was smaller than the Capital's main district, yet it thrived with a similar energy—the din of merchants, the clamor of busy lives, the scent of baking bread and animal musk.
Zen turned into a quieter alley, which opened onto the large, wrought-iron gates of a substantial temple complex, secluded at the town's rear.
A young man in a black priest's robe, sweeping the front courtyard, snapped his attention toward them.
"G-good morning! Are those injured?"
"Good morning. Yes, we found them on the road," Edmund answered.
"Oh, my! Look at their pallor! Please, bring them this way to the infirmary, quickly!" the young priest urged, dropping his broom.
"So, the priests manage the infirmary?" G6 asked, remaining mounted.
"Yes. The temple is an independent institution. Originally from the Holy Kingdom, branches were established in every realm to spread faith in the gods and goddesses," Zen explained as he dismounted.
He and Edmund carefully lifted the unconscious men, following the anxious young priest inside.
G6 dismounted as well, guiding Kira and the other two horses off the path. She scanned the grounds. The temple was imposing, its architecture distinctly reminiscent of the Vatican structures she'd seen in another life.
"Hmm. Looks like the temple's back borders the forest," she murmured.
"There is only one central temple in each kingdom," Daunt's voice whispered from her tattoo. "This one was founded by the first missionary priests to arrive in the Magic Kingdom."
She leaned against Kira's warm side and crossed her arms. "Einston Kingdom, you mean?"
"That is its name now. It was simply the Magic Kingdom before."
"Hmm. Zero mentioned the Holy Kingdom earlier. If they can establish temples in every realm, they must be genuinely disinterested in political games…"
"Indeed. We serve only the divine will, and follow the voices of the heavenly beings."
An unfamiliar voice answered from behind her.
G6 turned, and her eyes widened imperceptibly. Her posture stiffened.
"Hello there. Did I startle you?" It was a priest, perhaps in his twenties.
Why… why does he look like him…?
No. This is a bizarre world. And this man… he clearly belongs here.
Her mind cataloged him with detached efficiency: black hair, blue eyes. He wore elegant priestly vestments of white with gold detailing. Despite the loose cut of the fabric, his build was clearly athletic.Six-footer.
"Do I look startled to you?" G6 replied, her tone cool.
He offered a faint, warm smile. "Well, I cannot see you clearly with that hood shrouding your face. Are you the one who found the spiders' victims?"
"We are." G6 lowered her hood. It revealed her glossy rose-gold hair, the sharp lines of her features, her rosy lips—a beauty that seemed fragile, yet the shaded lenses hiding her eyes whispered of something else entirely. "We are adventurers from the Capital."
"Hmm. It seems you are no ordinary adventurer," the priest observed.
"I didn't ask for your assessment… Priest."
"Ah, forgive my manners. I am Archbishop the Second, Tolentino Xyril," he said, his charming smile deepening. "I am next in authority here at the Einston Kingdom Temple branch."
"Is that so?" G6 said, her voice flat with disinterest.
"Anyway, it seems you are a party of only three. Are you here for the Venomous Spiders?" Arch. Tolentino asked.
"We are."
"I see. You are not the type who enjoys conversation," he noted, persisting nonetheless. "Forgive my direct approach. I was drawn by a… potent divine presence around you. Are you, perhaps, also a priest?"
"I am not." G6's brow furrowed slightly. What's this sudden shift in the atmosphere…?
'Reise, do you feel it? It's gone.' Daunt's voice was a sharp whisper in her mind.
'Yeah, I feel it. This is going to be bothersome.'
'I will halt sharing your mana.'
'Alright.'
"Is something the matter, my Lady?" Tolentino asked, observing her subtle tension.
She looked directly at him. "Hey. What can a priest actually do?"
Tolentino was taken aback by her bluntness. "Well, uhm… We wield divine power. Primarily healing, and defensive blessings. We are not typically an offensive class."
"You don't feel it?" G6 pressed.
"What is?" Tolentino asked, confused.
'Aren't they divine, too?' she thought to Daunt.
'Don't be silly. Their "divine" prowess is nowhere near that of a mythical divine creature.'
Before Tolentino could answer, a priestess came running from the temple interior, her robes fluttering.
"Your Holiness! Your Holiness!" she cried, her voice strained.
"Slow down, Priestess Kalia. What is wrong?" Tolentino asked, his demeanor shifting to one of calm authority.
She skidded to a halt before them, breathless. "It's terrible news—the Holy Grail's light has gone out!"
G6 remained silent. Tolentino's forehead creased. "What do you mean, Priestess? That is impossible. The Grail is powered by the land's natural mana. Why would its light disappear? We are surrounded by forest."
G6's fingers gave a slight, involuntary twitch. Hmm. A tool that can immediately detect when natural mana disappears…
"I am not lying! We were praying at the altar when suddenly the light enveloping the Grail just… vanished! What is happening? This is catastrophic!" Priestess Kalia's panic was palpable.
Tolentino's charming smile vanished, replaced by a pallor that made his blue eyes seem like chips of ice. For a moment, the unflappable Archbishop looked like a lost child. His hand went unconsciously to the simple silver pendant at his chest—a focus for his faith.
"This… cannot be," he whispered, not to them, but to the empty air. Then his gaze snapped back to G6, sharpening with a frantic, calculating intensity. The pleasant mask was gone, stripped away by emergency. "You. Adventurer. You asked what was wrong. You felt something before she spoke. What do you know?"
G6 met his desperate stare, her own expression unreadable behind her shades. A slow, cold smirk touched her lips. The fish wasn't just on the hook; it was jumping into the boat.
"I don't know what you're talking about," G6 lied, sliding her hands into her pockets.
Tolentino's brow furrowed; he clearly wasn't buying it.
'Why lie, Reise?' Daunt murmured inwardly.
'I don't plan on getting involved with them.'
Tolentino turned back to the priestess, his voice assuming a tone of command that brooked no delay. "This is a state-alarming issue. Go to the communication room and contact Headquarters immediately. Inform them of the situation in full."
'It will be troublesome if those holy people get involved, you know,' Daunt murmured internally.
Edmund and Zen emerged from the infirmary, immediately sensing the charged atmosphere. Zen's eyes took in the panicking priests, his posture shifting from weary to alert. "Trouble, Captain?"
Edmund remained silent. His gaze moved swiftly from the horrified faces of the temple staff to Tolentino's despair, then to G6's impassive mask. His own expression tightened, a silent acknowledgment of deeper currents at play.
"You two, come here," G6 said, nudging her head toward a secluded corner. "Wait a moment, Priest. Hold that messenger."
Tolentino whirled toward them, desperation fraying the edges of his composure. "What are you—?"
The three distanced themselves a few meters away.
"What is it, Captain?" Zen asked.
"I'll explain this to you later, Zero. But Ed, remember the dead zone back at Oak Village?"
Edmund nodded. "I recall it vividly."
"Well, it's back. Just a few moments ago. Apparently, the temple can tell immediately if the natural mana disappears because of this 'Holy Grail' they're talking about."
'You should help the town as a whole, Reise. Perhaps the temple holds the forbidden book of demonic scripts—the one you showed me that I could not decipher,' Daunt suggested.
'Not 'could not.' You couldn't read it at all,' G6 corrected.
"I don't fully understand," Zen interjected, "but if you're saying a holy artifact is failing and mana is disappearing, this is indeed a state-level crisis. What the hell is happening?"
"Hmm. Could it be another man-made dungeon, Captain? Like the one at Oak Village? If so, it would explain the sudden appearance of the Venomous Spiders," Edmund theorized.
"Let's stop the holy people from stepping in. That dead zone is ours first. I have my own questions for this one, too," G6 declared.
"If that is your decision, I will follow, Captain," Edmund affirmed.
"Same goes for me," Zen added.
After their hushed conference, they returned to the two priests, who were visibly steeped in panic.
"Adventurers, what is it? We are in a dire hurry, you understand," Tolentino pressed, his voice strained.
G6 turned to him, her voice flat and utterly transactional. "Your Grail problem and our spider problem share the same root. The local mana has been siphoned. That's what's driving the monsters into a frenzy and starving your artifact."
Tolentino paled further, if that were possible. "Siphoned? By what? How could you possibly know this?"
"We're from Scutum," G6 stated smoothly, without a flicker of hesitation.
"Is that so? That… makes sense. The forests near the Scutum border are lifeless wastelands," Tolentino murmured, accepting her words without question. "Can you truly help us? This is a grave threat to the entire region—eventually, the entire kingdom."
Looks like our fake hometown is really paying off, G6 thought, a thread of cold satisfaction weaving through her mind. The lie was a perfect key, fitting a lock of their own making.
Tolentino stared at her, hope and suspicion warring in his eyes.
G6 didn't answer immediately. She looked past him at the grand temple doors, then back toward the forest. Her mind was a tactical map.
"Your Holiness," she said, the title delivered with zero reverence. "You were about to contact your Headquarters. Tell me, what happens then?"
Tolentino blinked. "They dispatch an investigation team from the Holy Kingdom. Senior archbishops, perhaps a Paladin contingent. They will quarantine the area, conduct rituals—"
"How long?" G6 cut in, her voice a scalpel.
"Two weeks for them to arrive. Then days, perhaps weeks, of ceremony and analysis."
"While the mana-siphon continues. While more monsters are driven mad and pour into this town's forest. While your Grail stays dark and the people panic." G6 stated each point like a hammer driving a nail. "You want to wait that long for a committee to have a meeting?"
Tolentino flinched. "The protocol is—"
"I'm offering you a different protocol."
Silence fell, heavy and thick. Edmund and Zen watched, understanding their captain was about to play a very dangerous, very high-stakes hand.
"Give me until noon," G6 said, her gaze locked on Tolentino's. "Halt your report. Don't contact anyone. My party and I will go into the forest, find the source of the siphon, and sever it."
"You… you can't be serious. A three-person party against an anomaly that can drain a holy artifact? That's suicide!"
"Hey, you're a priest, and you're talking about suicide. Is that okay?" G6 said, turning to her two men, who merely shrugged.
"Anyway," G6 continued, her lips curling in that cold, unnerving smirk. "You felt the 'divine presence' around me earlier. You know we're not ordinary. You know we're from Scutum, where people live next to that charnel land." She leaned in slightly, her voice dropping. "We have… experience with dead zones."
They call them 'dead zones'? Tolentino's thoughts raced.
Tolentino was trapped. His faith told him to follow procedure. His eyes told him this woman was perhaps the only weapon sharp enough for the job right now.
"And if you don't return by noon?" he whispered.
"Then you send your message. Light your signal fires. Call your Paladins." She shrugged, as if discussing the weather. "But if I do return by noon, with the Grail lit and the forest quiet… you report a minor mana fluctuation, now resolved. No investigations. No outside teams. This stays a local matter between the Temple of Grain Town and the adventurers who fixed your problem."
The offer was clear: a clean, quiet solution in exchange for her anonymity and his complicity in covering up a potential catastrophe.
Tolentino's hand tightened on his pendant. This was heresy. This was bypassing the entire chain of divine command. But… the Grail was dark. The town was in the path of frenzied monsters. And this icy woman in front of him radiated a terrifying competence.
"Why?" he finally asked, the word torn from him. "Why the secrecy? What are you hiding?"
G6's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Let's just say it's too bothersome if word gets out. And your Holy Kingdom's 'investigation' would involve a lot of questions for me and my party. Questions we find… bothersome."
She let the word hang, a veiled threat wrapped in sheer annoyance.
"A deal, then," G6 said, extending a hand not for a shake, but as a symbol of terms. "Your silence until noon. Our efficiency. We solve your problem; you keep your mouth shut about us."
Tolentino looked at her hand, then at the terrified face of Priestess Kalia, then back at the dark temple where the Grail had failed. He was an Archbishop, trained in doctrine and order.
But he was also a man staring at a flood, being offered a single, mysterious dam.
Slowly, against every tenet of his training, he nodded.
"Until noon," he agreed, his voice hoarse. "May the gods have mercy on us all."
G6 withdrew her hand, satisfied. "Save your prayers. We work faster."
She turned to her team. "Eddie, Zero. We move. Now. The clock's ticking." Her tone shifted back to pure, cold mission-mode. "Primary objective: find and exterminate the Venomous Spiders. Secondary objective: locate and neutralize the mana siphon at its source."
Then they turned to mount their horses when Tolentino's voice halted them once more.
"Wait—"
They paused, G6 glancing back over her shoulder, a sliver of impatience in the set of her jaw.
"What is your name, adventurer?"
"G6." She watched his face for any flicker of recognition. There was none. No shock, no dawning familiarity, just the residual stress of the crisis. You are not him, after all.
"Miss G6," Tolentino said, stepping closer, his earlier desperation now tempered by a stark, worry. "Please… take two of my priests with you."
G6's expression remained unreadable. He pressed on, his voice lowering. "Not as overseers, I swear it. But as support. You are walking into a mana-dead zone, toward frenzied monsters. Even if your power is… considerable, raw healing on-site could mean the difference between a wound and a fatality. Please."
A short, heavy silence followed. G6 looked at her two men. Edmund gave a slight, pragmatic nod; Zen's was more hesitant, but he conceded. They all knew the brutal math of a prolonged fight in contaminated territory.
"You have two minutes to get them ready with horses," G6 stated, her voice leaving no room for negotiation.
Relief washed over Tolentino's features. "Thank you. Priestess Kalia, hurry to the stables! Take Priest Felon with you. Equip yourselves for field support—potions, basic supplies, now!"
"I understand, Your Holiness!" Kalia called back, already gathering her robes to run toward the temple stables.
The moment stretched, taut with unspoken urgency. G6 swung up into Kira's saddle, her gaze fixed on the tree line where the forest waited, dark and too-quiet. Edmund and Zen remounted, their earlier weariness burned away by a sharp, focused energy. Daunt's presence was a silent hum against her skin, a predator's eager tension.
They did not speak. The only sounds were the jangle of tack, the rough breath of the horses, and the distant, frantic shouts from the stable yard. The morning sun, which should have felt warm, seemed thin and insubstantial, as if the light itself was being leeched away by the unseen drain ahead.
Two priests would slow them down. They would be vulnerable, wide-eyed, bound by a doctrine that had no answers for what created a dead zone. They were a complication, a liability.
But they were also a thread of light—a thread G6's brutally pragmatic calculus had deemed worth the risk. Not for salvation, but for utility. A tactical asset, like a potion or a sharp blade.
She watched as Kalia and a young, serious-faced priest—Felon—emerged from the stables, leading sturdy temple mounts. They moved with a haste that bordered on clumsiness, their white and gray robes stark against the grim mood.
"Time's up," G6 announced, her voice cutting through the yard before the priests had fully settled. "Stay close. Do what we say. Fall behind, and we leave you."
She didn't wait for their acknowledgment. With a subtle pressure of her knees, she urged Kira forward, not at a gallop, but at a swift, ground-eating trot that spoke of controlled urgency. Edmund and Zen fell in beside her, forming a tight wedge.
The two priests scrambled into their saddles and kicked their horses into a frantic trot, rushing to catch up as the trio passed through the temple gates.
G6 didn't look back. Her eyes were already on the path ahead, where the shadows of the forest reached for them like grasping fingers. The hunt was no longer just for spiders. They were riding now toward the heart of a silent, spreading void, the only sound the pounding of hooves against the hard earth—a drumbeat counting down the minutes until noon.
–To Be Continued…–