Chương 207: 5.6 Runback

Their welcome to the outpost was far from warm. Their group dropped out of the sky before they approached the nearest gap in the fortifications - a moat and a raised wall - only to be met with a raised hand stopping them. Two mundane soldiers were standing guard, preventing them from entry. Or, well, trying to with limited success.

"We are not letting anyone inside right now," the very brave - or probably mana blind - soldier told them with the confidence of someone who probably hadn't noticed them landing from flight not far away.

"You have no right to deny us entry," Elizabeth raised her own hand, holding the writ.

"What is that?" The obstructive sentry asked with a frown. He glanced over at his friend, who shrugged uncertainly.

"Maybe we should… but our orders are clear. No one gets in right now. Sorry, whoever you are."

"I am not feeling anyone particularly dangerous inside," Elizabeth turned to Itwyn instead of even acknowledging the duo anymore.

"You?"

"Nothing more than one Concept," he confirmed. There were two such presences within the camp as far as he could tell. And Irwyn didn't think either of them were with the infiltrators from the rough locations he was feeling. Though his sense of smell was not the most directionally precise.

"I don't want the Rot alerted because of these two buffoons. Desir, can you make them fall asleep on their feet?

""Hey…!" One of them was immediately alarmed by those words, but he did not have the time to continue the sentence before his eyes closed and breathing steadied. Fascinatingly enough, neither of them so much as stumbled.

"We have about an hour before they fall over," the shapeshifter nodded.

"I think. Haven't done exactly this before."

"I think the smell splits two ways," Irwyn was keeping track of the rotten scent in the meantime as they began to walk in. It was relatively faint, which presumably meant either weak undead or well-hidden ones.

"Which?" Elizabeth asked. People glanced their way, but no one seemed immediately alarmed or screaming at them for the moment. There was just some unease from the many soldiers around them. Less than half of them were mages.

"There and there," Irwyn pointed out two buildings across the camp. They looked rather nondescript to him, given that everything had been raised from stone.

"I think that one might be the teleportation platform's structure, but it feels somewhat off," Alice commented.

"Waylan, try to sneak towards the other undead and see how they react to their friend getting caught out. Desir, be his backup and eliminate the Rot if it is weak enough to be taken down safely. We will attract attention away from you, but maintain caution."

"Aye," the sneak confirmed. Meanwhile, Desir just nodded and turned to leave. His face was already subtly shifting. There was a twinge of worry in Irwyn about that. The two Concept bearing mages Irwyn was feeling would not take kindly to any shape-changing or invisibility under their supervision. During a Lich war, they were prone to attack without asking questions if detected. But then, they were relatively weak, the very bottom of Conception.

That meant that even if he got found out, Desir would be able to defend himself for at least a while even against a coordinated assault.

"What about us?" Irwyn inquired.

"If the array feels off, we assume sabotage. Those damn platforms are difficult to make and thus hard to replace during the war. Alice, teleport us straight into the building. You will then stabilize the enchantment against whatever is happening - prioritize preservation. Irwyn, restrain everyone and see if you can confirm who the infiltrator is. Protect yourself and Alice. I will intercept. Ready? Go." A moment later, they were inside the building a few hundred meters away.

Alice had reached Conception with Time after all. Even without the beacon and with her companions being particularly 'heavy' to move, just that short distance was easily manageable for her. Irwyn did not hesitate as he grabbed and restrained everyone in the room. It was rather crowded for a platform room, though he only processed that once he had everyone under control. The difference between Concepts and Imbuement was apparent in how he achieved that.

He had no specialized spells, but he could simply demand his Concepts burn any mana trying to leave someone's body, preventing everyone from casting with trivial ease. He took in more of the room. Namely, the high concentration of buckets of water and the half-cleaned bloodstains that had seemingly encompassed most of the floor and walls. If there had been any more viscera, it must have already been cleaned up. But the sheer quantity of blood was drawing a grim enough picture.

That was from more than just one or two people, and had been ejected violently. Then he began sifting through his captives, while trying not to make it obvious he was doing that by smell alone. Irwyn quickly located his likely culprit. A nondescript middle-aged man with about three Intentions and an affinity for Time. Irwyn double-checked, then triple-checked he had the right person going by the smell, though still hesitated. Because, well, the infiltrator acted so alive.

Struggling against the binding around his body. The surprise and fear in his eyes, slowly turning to dread and then sheer desperation as Irwyn focused on him. Undead were not supposed to be like that. Yes, hateful, but never afraid. So Irwyn couldn't quite decide to act on what his smell was telling him. Because if it was an act, it was the most realistic pantomime of 'I don't want to die' Irwyn had ever witnessed. Meanwhile, Elizabeth deflected an attack.

The two Conception mages from the camp had arrived together, trying to strike out at Elizabeth. One seemed to be a more supportive caster, an old, gray-haired woman wielding magic from a further distance, while the other attacked her head on with a hammer of Void magic. Elizabeth took no time dispatching them. Before even the first blow of that hammer could begin its arch, Elizabeth had already dodged and struck twice. With a light touch, she had nicked the cheek of the attacker.

In the same motion, she had achieved the same for the more distant caster, striking her brow instead with a gentle touch that barely bled, the blade slipping through the Void to circumvent issues of reach. She also gently tapped the magical hammer, dispersing it utterly. Even for those two at Conception, she was too fast. The message was clear: She could have killed them both with a single attack before they had even realized what was happening. They stared in shock for a moment, then decided to opt for diplomacy.

Nothing could force people to stand down quite like insurmountable force. At least in most cases. Few had no fear of death.

"May we inquire who…"

"We have come to hunt the dead that had slipped in under your watch," Elizabeth displayed the writ with another gesture. Then she turned to Irwyn.

"How is it looking?"

"It should be this one," Irwyn pointed at the struggling Time mage.

"I also found the flaw in the array," Alice said.

"It was subtly misaligned, swapping two parts of the coordinates, then concealing the effect. Hidden enough that a rote maintenance or comparison against the correct state would be likely to not realize the problem. Except the difference ended up briefly compressing whoever came through by the platform. It should be fixed now, but getting an actual expert would be best, if that is possible." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Probably not," the old lady muttered with some bitterness.

"No headache?" Irwyn asked Alice, just in case.

"Not quite from this little, but I still definitely couldn't do this all day. Even now, it's abominably complex."

"Were you aware of the sabotage?" Elizabeth turned towards the local top mages.

"We suspected something already after a group of replacement troops suddenly splattered yesterday," the mage with hammer preference said.

"But thank you for your intervention." That was when Elizabeth noticed Irwyn hesitating. Her raised eyebrow finally pushed him to push through his uncertainty and trust in his nose. It had revealed the treachery in Abonisle after all, and so much more since. Even if it pointed to someone who seemed so disturbingly human. Never once breaking the facade as they writhed. Irwyn sighed, then the creature was reduced to ash or even less.

"Let's move to the second one," Elizabeth did not pause for a moment.

"The wh…" the old seeming woman started, but Alice had already been preparing for the teleportation, so the three of them were elsewhere before she finished. The new room was an obvious silo. Grain was layered in a few large piles with thin walkways between. Desir had actually caught his quarry just beyond the entrance, a completely mundane man who was wearing an expression of blind panic, while forced to stand in place without the ability to move any of the limbs, rather than in physical restraints.

"Took your time," Desir greeted them.

"He also just barely finished," Waylan commented.

"Shush," the shapeshifter chuckled, then pointed at a vial of something transparent in his hand.

"You were right. It tried to poison the grain, I think. Thank Waylan for finding them skulking. I have the substance, nothing more of note on the body. Do we have questions?"

"There is no point interrogating the undead," Elizabeth shook her head.

"They will never betray anything relevant. And if they do, it's likely a trap or diversion."

"Fair enough," Desir nodded, and that fearful face crumpled. The entire body was condensed into a thick block of meat with signs of bone and viscera. Not quite as absolute as burning with Starfire, so Irwyn provided his power to the cleanup with a quick burst of incinerating magic. Thereafter, Irwyn did one more sweep of the whole perimeter but found nothing else. The smell had faded by then. They did not linger long before getting a promise to monitor other issues with the platform and grain from the two mages.

They probably knew better than them what to do about potentially tainted supplies. Then their group quickly reported to their handler and left. Their next assignment was transmitted before they had even passed the encampment's fortifications. It would be even further away.

"They showed no signs, until the end," Irwyn said in a silent moment, thinking back.

"Even if I could smell the Rot clearly and there was some evidence…"

"Yes. Of course, they didn't," Elizabeth nodded.

"That too has to be part of their strategy. The infiltrator sees that there is no hope in achieving anything through battle, so they attack morale instead. Sow distrust against those who hunt them. You asked before why the Inquisition earns such nervousness? This is likely high among the reasons."

"Not so much in this case, since the sabotage was obvious with decent evidence left behind," Desir added.

"But if there was nothing outwardly suspicious about someone's replaced friend, then the Inquisition just rushed in and executed them without so much as a word? I can see it more clearly now, how someone would be disturbed by that enough to mistrust the very institution."

"They did seem very scared," Alice nodded. A lull followed.

"Our next place of interest is another small fortification like this…" Elizabeth eventually explained and they were on their way. Then the impossible happened. Irwyn found out that hunting down undead infiltrators across the countless military installations or sometimes towns across the Duchy of Black was… rather boring. Monotone. It had to do with their strength. He was sure it would be absolutely terrifying work if a single draugr with a Concept could wipe them out.

But those barely even registered as a threat to their group, yet remained the greatest danger someone could reasonably encounter. And even then, that was exceedingly rare. Actual Raveners were major threats with limited numbers that were almost never active around encampments and farms with a few hundred soldiers at most. Not to mention Irwyn's nose. There were several occasions where he had noticed something even actual trained and veteran Inquisitors had missed.

Their group had a bit of a blind spot when it came to living traitors, but it became increasingly obvious that whoever assigned tasks was taking note of their reports and track record. No overt praise was ever spoken, but the pattern was there. At first, they had to crawl through the countryside between every assignment, visiting mostly military installations of some kind. But after one particularly successful purge, they started being allowed even in towns, if one was nearby.

In hindsight, it became obvious that the Inquisition hadn't wanted them operating in urban areas before feeling out their group a bit first. Well, they had always had minimal collateral damage, which had to count well towards trust. Like that, weeks passed. Then a month. Then another. It was a dangerous mindset to move with the monotone of repetition, but Irwyn struggled to truly fight it off. So he almost hoped for anything actually interesting to cross their path.

One day, they were in the middle of travelling through the wilderness when Elizabeth frowned. Only Irwyn and seemingly Desir noted that at first, though everyone came to attention when they halted.

"We have been assigned for spontaneous writ renewal," she explained, expression between confused and irritated.

"What does that even mean?" Irwyn questioned.

"I am not sure, but I just confirmed that the command is legitimate. We have either one hour or up to 12 with an explanation to report or be deemed rogue."

"To a Beacon then?" Alice asked.

"Abonisle. Let me put down the coordinates." Which was a relatively brief process. Given how common the use was, Elizabeth was able to transfer whatever directions she was getting through her ring onto a magical crystal that Alice could directly read from. Calm had done the same before, it was seemingly regular practice - or at least normal at Conception and higher. The place they entered into was no teleportation hub or warehouse, but rather an armored room.

The thick metallic panels oozed potent magic, strong enough that it had an almost physical presence. Domain, if Irwyn was feeling correctly, but a part of the array was clearly dedicated to concealing its own nature.

"The spell was dragged slightly off course," Alice warned.

"Less than a hundred meters, I think, so we are still in Abonisle." Everyone was already on guard, magic at their fingertips from just the location. Alice's words were more worrying and reassuring, so Irwyn was already stacking barriers around them. Though, a moment after he had started, a voice sounded from all around the walls.

"No need to panic. This is regular decontamination. First time from your reactions, I assume? The exact coordinates of this room have to be scrambled for security reasons, so arrivals are simply redirected. You will feel a few mild pulses of magic, so do not block them." And as promised, the magic arrived. Irwyn analyzed it as best he could and decided that it likely didn't have enough mana to truly injure him. With some hesitation, he decided to not overact…

but was prepared to lash out if it all turned out to be an ambush of some sort.

"We are detecting a deeply hidden presence among you," the voice said again.

"Waylan, a member of our group," Elizabeth snapped back with a frown.

"Do you not have files on us?"

"Trusting files just means I can be fooled by forgery. Do you have anything concealing your souls in any way?"

"To hide our exact extent of power," Irwyn provided.

"And an overall defensive array against necromancy," Elizabeth added.

"Though the concealment aspect of that is only minor by itself."

"I don't suppose you would be willing to remove those?"

"No."

"Then this will take a bit longer. Stand still, all of you." Then the voice cut off. A second, much more powerful surge was evoked. Irwyn glanced at Elizabeth with some trepidation, but she didn't seem worried, more just annoyed. So he grit his teeth and let the magic course through him. It was rather invasive, much like Alice's direct teleportation, except the unfamiliar source made him nervous and somewhat angry.

"All done," thankfully, it didn't last more than a few seconds.

"I am getting some mild anomalies from three of you, but none even hinting at undeath - but get it checked out if you don't know why. Your writ is renewed. You might also be reassigned to a different area by the end of the hour since you are already in a Beacon city, but that doesn't always happen."

"We have been in the field for barely two months," Desir complained.

"Is it regular procedure to check for subversion this often? Perhaps the timing is stricter for newcomers?"

"If we did renewals in regular intervals, all of the Rot would race to replace whoever had just passed theirs in order to maximize potential damage before the next. Therefore, they are determined randomly and applied with no relevance given to past confirmations. Best system anyone could come up with. The statistical average is 4 months, I believe, but rarely exactly that. Also, you have dallied on long enough. Next group is due in 30 seconds, so be gone by then."

They were out of there in five once the defenses against teleportation were disabled. Elizabeth opted for one of the long streets of Abonisle that was mostly recovered. They ordered street food during their brief break. Which lasted only 13 minutes and 12 seconds instead of the hour. As soon as Alice grumpily put together their next destination, they were off. It was a proper fortress, Irwyn quickly realized. The platform was outside of it on a hilltop, giving them an immediate good view.

That was no mere encampment, but a heavily fortified bulwark with tall walls, defensive architecture, and enough enchantments to shine like a beacon to anyone with magical senses.

"We have a problem," Irwyn said immediately.

"The smell here is strong."