Chương 265: When things inevitably turn complicated

"Senior Sister, we should really be going now. It's clear that nobody will be joining us," Inner Disciple Scar said sourly while looking at his empty teacup as if it was responsible for the waste of time.

"Either something has happened or this was just a way to publicly slight us. Either way, we should be reporting this to the sect leader, as those Flowing Viper bastards can't be allowed to get away with wasting our time like this." While Petal outwardly kept her composure, she was inwardly starting to agree with her brother-in-arms. Normally, it would be customary to be early to a meeting of peers to show respect.

But now the appointed time had passed by almost a quarter of an hour, which made Petal finish her own cup before nodding.

"I… perhaps you are right. We-""Ehm… Excuse me~!"

"Huh? Wha-" Scar asked before finally noticing the rat that had climbed up onto the empty chair beside them. His first instinct was to whack the pest away with a swift slap, but to both his and Petal's surprise the little rodent nimbly dodged his strike before looking back with a clear look of offense coloring its tiny features.

"Hey! Rude! I guess you don't want to be warned about this plaza maybe blowing up soon then~..." it said, turning to leave with a dramatic slowness. While Scar was still staring at the tiny creature in disbelief, Petal found her faculties fast enough.

"Wait? What do you mean that this place will blow up?" she asked, taking the obvious bait.

"Well, a few of my companions might have happened upon some bastards doing a nasty ritual in the sewers below. The kind you do when you really want people dead in a particular area. So I, being all nice and compassionate, took the time to get up here and start getting people away from that fountain in a nice and orderly manner. Which unfortunately is only going so-so…

~" the rat explained in a sing-song tiny voice, gesturing around the plaza to where Petal could see many other identical rats addressing everyone present while mostly being chased, swatted or screamed at.

"But so far, things are under control down there so at least I have- ohcrapnevermindwe'redoingthisnowpeople~! The change in demeanor as well as the pace of speech was as abrupt as the surge of more rats suddenly bursting up from every nearby sewer grate or similar opening. This caused a small panic among the mostly normal-ranked people in the plaza, especially once the wave of rats started bodily carrying people away.

"Move! You got to mov-" the rat at Petal and Scar's table began shouting while others of its kin started frantically pushing against their legs. Then there came a flash that turned the whole world white. During his time spent with Gauntlet, Kite had encountered followers of the deity Destruction many times.

His first time had actually been long before even joining the task group, as it turned out that the four bronze-ranked assassins that had been sent after Vista back in Bastion had channeled the power of that particular ruinous god. Destruction's adherents tended to pop up all over the place, sometimes plotting grand projects of their own that aimed to enact wide-scale carnage.

But more often than not, they seemed to join up with other causes they deemed close enough to their god's purview, as the plans of those Gauntlet were sent against rarely turned out to be uplifting or peaceful. Said cause didn't even need to be divine in nature, as Kite had once found Destruction's followers in the retinue of a local rebel leader who planned on razing a grand dam to wipe out their oppressors.

And in a way, finding them present sometimes felt almost like getting lucky, as at least you knew what you tended to get; a direct confrontation with force levied against you, as opposed to the schemes of Plague, Undeath, Deceit and Discord. But there was also a distinct, troubling and - most often - outright dangerous downside too: if ever they felt they were losing then the followers of Destruction would always opt for the pyrrhic victory of a suicidally explosive last stand.

With their element of surprise, Kite, Dragonfly and Amica had quickly seized the upper hand in the fight that broke out atop the grate of the sewer crossing. With no civilians or other people needing protection, the only thing they needed to mind was not razing the surroundings while they engaged the three silvers as the last was pulled from the ritual after slamming down a few components to keep it stable.

And given the paths of the three adventurers, this was actually quite doable as not even Dragonfly's forceful set of powers tended towards collateral damage unless she allowed her axes to start razing the environment as well. Kite himself had only a few options for wider attacks anyway, and while Amica could become a most effective wrecking ball if she wished to, telekinesis was a very versatile power that the woman had become most adept at wielding.

So while Amica had started throwing out metal balls sturdy enough for her to wield as weapons and started pummeling one of the priests, Kite and Dragonfly had finally had enough space to leverage one of the latest proper additions to their arsenals; their wedding gifts from Ardent Horizon Seeker. Neither of them had expected a gift from Kite's birth father, especially not Dragonfly who had never even met the man.

That was why the pair had been quite surprised by a mysterious blacksmith's apprentice showing up at their door a few days after their wedding, carrying a letter and instructions from Ardent. The pair had been asked to provide samples of their paths which the man had recorded with a set of tools before wishing them farewell and taking his leave.

The result of this odd encounter had shown up three months later in the shape of two long boxes of beautifully carved and lacquered wood whose contents was what the wedded couple wielded when charging the cultists.

"Kyaaaaah!"" Wall!" Kite was around halfway to the cultists when Dragonfly's cone of fire washed over most of the platform, him included, but what should have been scorching pain was reduced to a mere tingling heat as the spear which had appeared in his hands lit up in response as it drank in the fiery damage.

This initial barrage forced the acolytes of Destruction to raise their own countermeasures, leaving them in place to be surrounded by Kite's barriers in his staple configuration of a maze-like series of force-walls.

But unlike before, Kite did not even need to move the walls aside to create an opening as he simply thrust the spear forward, a ripple like that of a faint disturbance on a placid lake the only hint that the projected attack passed through the barrier before striking the acolyte and disrupting parts of her conjured armor. Dragonfly's initial sweeping attack did the same, easily passing through the force wall to strike at her target behind.

WWJS: [Item] Unhindered Reach of the Unified Path Spear Silver rank - (Growth) Epic Soulbound Paths intertwined to help each other soar unhindered [Effect] The wielder of this weapon may freely strike through barriers created by themself or by the wielder of Flameward of the Unified Path, adding additional low disruptive force damage to the attack.

[Effect] The wielder of this weapon gains vastly increased resistance to any fire damage dealt by the essence powers of either wielder as well as any [Burning] affliction this would apply. This includes any lingering flames as a result of said power. The effects of essence powers against enemies suffering from the [Burning] affliction is slightly increased.

The spear's haft was carved from a gray wood with engravings along its length that looked like scorch-marks while the head was made from some odd material that felt like metal yet was partly translucent. It had come with a counterpart in the shape of a long two-handed poleaxe on the verge of being classified as a halberd that Dragonfly was currently swinging in burning swathes to ward off a renewed assault by their foes.

Called Flameward of the Unified Path, its enchantment mirrored those of Kite's spear in a way that let the pair fight even closer together without their respective paths impairing one another. While definitely practical, Kite was also touched by the symbolism of the gift.

Ardent, staying true to form from what Kite had seen when the man sent him his essences so very long ago, had apparently commissioned a gold-ranked blacksmith specializing in paired pieces of equipment, making sure that the results became growth items that would be able to follow them through one more rank should both Kite and Dragonfly make it that far.

A princely pair of gifts that had been put to good use over the following months, as were they currently as Kite shifted a few of his barriers around to block most of a conical discharge of eroding darkness fired point blank at Dragonfly without forcing his wife to divert the mighty blow she had already begun delivering.

It did not take too long for the trio from Destruction's priesthood to realize their clear disadvantage against the invading trio, which led back to the definite downside with fighting the followers of this particular deity: they always had ways to make things explode.

"Curse you, blasphemers! All shall crumble before Destruction!"

"Amica!"

"On it!" One of the men - now wearing only parts of a conjured armor which Kite's attacks had torn great holes in - shouted some of their usual accusations of blasphemy before throwing himself towards the ritual. And while Amica was quick to heed Kite's warning and send a score of floating metal balls to intercept him while beginning the aura suppression needed to more properly grab hold with her powers, the silver-ranked acolyte was just a bit too fast.

With a flicker of a type of dagger Kite knew only too well from his contracts with Gauntlet, the acolyte added a gory splash of his own blood to the materials empowering the ritual, which in turn had the expected effect.

Magically empowered blood was quite the potent reagent, after all, and while the cultists of Destruction usually preferred to retreat in good order to destroy more things in the future, going out with a bang and potentially finishing their plans was definitely a favorite second option among their numbers.

In the relative clarity of his combat meditation, Kite noted the detonation that was to unfold while he accepted most of an incoming spell in order to fully focus on the ritual circle for the first time during the brief fight. Having only a split second to decide, he let instincts honed by experience guide him as two spectral arms sent flickering attacks towards specific points on the ritual circle surrounding the ominous metal cylinder while doing what he usually did best in these situations: damage control."

Wall! Void! Ward!" All of his barrier powers manifested at once in a flurry of mental chants, with the dark opening of Gate of Nihility appearing just above the ritual disc while the barriers of Leyline Warding formed a loose cylinder around it. It had openings here and there along its length in an attempt to force whatever detonation he expected would soon follow to spend some of its fury on spreading out and navigating the more complex - but not entirely enclosed - path.

Gate of Nihility would hopefully absorb most of the blast, with Heaven-and-Void warding adding protections to himself and Dragonfly who were currently the closest to the disc.

Then the ritual flared to completion, but not before Kite's pair of Disruptive Strikes hit their intended spots that just happened to be larger intersections of the magical diagrams, and the more chaotic mana started spreading throughout the lines like a wildfire that turned the original angry red to a turbulent white; Kite honestly had no idea whether it was a good change or not.

He didn't have any more time to gauge it either as the ritual circle burst into a brilliant - and most expected - detonation that was mostly directed upwards. It hit and burst through Kite's barriers with the frustrating ease which many of Destruction's rituals tended to do, as - it turned out - that particular deity and his followers were quite good at them. Still, the defensive measures held for a moment which Kite hoped would be enough to mitigate some of what would come next.

The eruption burst upward and tore through the ceiling, no doubt sending soil and stone flying for quite some distance, but the forces left down in the cistern were also enough to wreck the grating and cause quite a lot of damage to both Kite and Dragonfly as the shockwave and errant bursts of raging mana tore at their bodies. Dragonfly weathered the detonation better, with Unbreakable Moment allowing her to shrug it off with surprising ease.

Kite, on the other hand, had fewer of those measures but his impressive suit of armor combined with the defensive part of Unyielding left him functional enough to act in the moments that came next.

Because while the one acolyte of Destruction that had triggered the explosion had disintegrated from the very close proximity to the detonation, the other two took the opportunity to make their escape upwards through the collapsing layers of soil interspersed with torrents of water and pieces of fountain, cobblestone and furniture from above.

"Wander? Damage?" Kite asked as he, Dragonfly and Amica started after the fleeing acolytes in hot pursuit, running close to each other along a trail of conjured barriers, the telekineticist creating a dome of force that caught and redirected the falling debris around them. Capturing falling civilians also became part of her tasks soon after, leaving Amica on rescue duty while Wander started firing off a report in rapid succession.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Shielded those I could. Lost a lot of bodies, but saved a lot of people too. Two silvers up there. One dazed, another quite damaged. The rest are normals. No traps~!"

"Thank you! Keep ferrying off the normals first," Kite replied before returning his focus to the fleeing acolytes ahead. Some mental commands and spent mana later had what few slivers of barriers that remained after the explosion surge out and ahead of them as they exited onto street level above. With this wider field of vision, Kite took in the carnage around them on the plaza surrounding the hole left after the detonation that looked to previously have housed an impressive fountain.

The remaining barrier panes went flying off to interpose themselves above some of the scattered normal-rankers that he felt were alive but unconscious among the rubble while Kite gathered his utmost focus for a moment as he gauged the distance to one of the fleeing silvers who flew on conjured wings of molten steel. A pair of projected strikes managed to hit one of the wings enough to destabilize the flight as the dispelling magics shattered most of it while Dragonfly set off on foot in pursuit of the other.

Neither of the fleeing pair dared ascend above the roofs of nearby buildings as it would just make them easy targets for whatever pursuers might decide to take up the hunt, which left Dragonfly with an even greater chance of success in her pursuit as she activated her Armband of Elevenfold Unity to increase her speed.

Kite's own armor was already supplying him with an increase to his recovery attribute to deal with the aftermath of the blast, but he also had it tune into Dragonfly's shared boon that was her inner flame. Even at a diminished effect, his wife had still accumulated enough of the effect to give Kite a decent boost to his own power and speed as he ran towards the other acolyte, only for a series of flying swords to overtake his projected attacks as they appeared around the fleeing man as if teleported there.

"Senior Brother Kite! What is going on?" Petal Pressed to Singing Steel called, still partly dazed by her proximity to the blast, though her instincts let her control her flying swords with surprising ease. Kite had noted Petal being one of the silvers present, along with the much more injured Inner Disciple Scar, but there hadn't really been the time for greetings in the scant few seconds that had passed since they emerged from the sewers below.

"Take them down. Answers later!" he managed to shout in return before angling his approach towards the now beleaguered follower of Destruction who found himself under assault by the formation of conjured swords. Petal's weapons were very good at pursuing, although they also made Kite hesitant in throwing too many attacks of his own into the mix so as to not accidentally hit one of the conjurations. Kite also got a moment to properly process the input from his own aura senses.

It seemed that a few other auras were inbound as they seemed to have realized that this was beyond a mere unsanctioned duel between rivals. No golds yet, but Kite probably wouldn't be able to sense them unless they chose to make an entrance. And as he hoped to take at least one of the acolytes alive, more warriors arriving might also complicate things quite a lot.

"I'm on him!" Kite called to Petal, Mistress Dew's disciple swiftly adapting her floating swords to allow Kite to start raining blows down on his target that caused the armor of glowing iron to start to disintegrate even further as the dispelling magics tore it apart while Kite ruthlessly turned or shattered the man's attempted counterattacks that would no doubt risk a lot more collateral damage.

"Oh. No. You. Don't-" he hissed, a blow punctuating each word as attack after attack shattered before his path, the additional arms of his mantle on full display in an attempt to not let a sliver of the man's powers slip by him. Still, the acolyte of Destruction was a silver-ranker which meant that he was quite resilient even if his reflexes and instincts fell short of being able to handle the dual assault.

By now, another pair of auras had converged upon the acolyte fighting Dragonfly on a nearby street, and this led to an explosion soon rocking the street and tearing into nearby houses when the priest chose to go out in the way typical for his kind. Kite had to bite down a curse as the blast caused more auras of lower-ranked people to wink out while leaving Dragonfly and the others merely shaken and injured to varying degrees.

This was also apparently enough for the morale of Kite's own target to break, but the spark of the man's own detonation had barely any time to manifest before it was ruthlessly extinguished.

"My path will not be moved by the world, but use it to gain momentum. And before it, all other paths will scatter and break." The mantra came unbidden to Kite's thoughts as the feeling of control gained a special meaning as his magics consumed that of his target to fuel his own or to further debilitate.

Still, he could not linger on the sense of gravitas in the moment as other auras were closing in on his own position as well, proven as a glowing arrow surrounded by whirling, ripping winds suddenly pierced the chest of Destruction's priest. More were incoming, but that was also when Leyline Warding blessedly became available again, giving Kite another chance at accomplishing his goal.

"Wall!" Barriers of force sprang up around them as Kite continued his onslaught while shifting to one of Soul's favorite tactics. Every weapon he was currently wielding disappeared back into his Void sheath while Kite used an armored gauntlet to slap away another attempted attack from his foe before both his own arms and those of his mantle descended upon the priest.

Kite was not, and would never be, a master grappler, but having fought hundreds of duels with Soul during the past years had instilled a respectable level of skill in the art. Having four additional arms had also proven a distinct advantage that Soul had helped him work on to leverage even further, leading to Kite using four arms and his increased strength from Dragonfly's shared boon to pin the other man up against the force wall.

This forced him to accept a final burst of destructive energies that was fortunately spread throughout the whole enclosed area while Kite finally managed to retrieve and snap a suppression collar around the man's neck just above his glowing armor. Understandably enough this did not make the man cease in his struggles but rather the opposite as they grew more frantic while - to Kite's annoyance - more attacks had started raining down on his barriers from outside with increasing frequency.

"Cease! The assailant is subdued!" he soon shouted as the first hole was punched through leyline warding by another empowered arrow, proving his point as he let all but a single pane of force disperse, the last being the one he kept pressing the acolyte of Destruction against in order to hasten the draining of the man's final slivers of mana. A spectral arm carrying a shield had to divert another two arrows before it seemed like his 'ally' seemed to comprehend the situation.

"Then this one is behind this calamity?" asked the archer - a leonid man wearing the robes of the Heavenly Shadow sect as he landed next to Kite.

"Slay him then, and be done with it. The heavens will not suffer scum like this to live."

"You shall do no such thing!" another voice called as another pair of silver-rankers were hurrying over, Dragonfly trailing behind them with a look of concern.

"These scoundrels had the gall to keep striking against the students of the Thunderous Soul sect even after it was clear that their paths were found lacking. We shall take him away for proper questioning. Your words only prove the Heavenly Shadow sect to be as foolish as the rumors say." Given the somewhat disheveled look of these new arrivals, it wasn't hard to determine that they had probably been the ones to arrive to help Dragonfly, only to receive a self-detonation as reward for their trouble.

And while their sentiment of capture was a bit more in line with Kite's own, leaving the prisoner to the sect that the interrogation of Verses of Strife had revealed was infiltrated by their enemies was not an option Kite would readily agree to either.

"As the captor, I claim the prisoner by right of deed," he found himself saying, shouting to interrupt the other two parties who seemed to be on the verge of another brawl right there. And while it did have them all stop, it only resulted in all of their ire now directed towards him.

"What? By an outcast? The gall."

"The sect's honor is at stake and you think that we will simply back down like this? You truly are courting death, outcast. Name yourself, so I may know whose family I shall shame by striking you down." The auras of the three had become quite heated as they pressed into both Kite and each other while many onlookers had gathered even as others kept rushing in to help the people still strewn around the plaza in the distance.

Kite even started preparing to defend himself as one of the students of the Thunderous Soul started forward before he - and everyone else in their closest vicinity - had their rising anger quelled by another more powerful spirit whose chill brought the feel of deepest winter to the summer day. It was a gold-ranked aura, and its anger was as cold as the ice pillar that rose from the ground before Frost Among morning Dew emerged.

"Stand down. All of you. And you, Student, report. What happened here?" The sudden arrival of the gold-ranker had all of the silvers freeze up momentarily, which gave Petal the opportunity to join them while escorting a few dozen of Wander's bodies that carried her injured companion.

"Honored Teacher," Petal began, while looking a bit hesitantly at the onlookers before a sharp look from Mistress Dew had her continue with haste.

"I was requested to be present here by another competitor at this specific time, with Inner Disciple Scar here joining me as an escort. We were stood up though, but did not have the time to leave before whatever detonation from below caught us. Had it not been for the warnings of this honored swarm-user here, both Scar and I would have been caught right in the center of it. It might even have spelled our demise."

"So an attempt was made on the life of the students of the Fated Severance sect? And you try to lay claim to this captive even before the injured party, let alone the captor? Have you no shame?" Dew asked, turning her icy gaze towards the silver-rankers belonging to the two capital sects. While faced with the ire of a gold-ranker, the trio wisely did seem to be considering their next move carefully. That was, until another powerful player made himself known.

"There, there, honored Sect Leader. Let's not be hasty here and judge the young ones too harshly," a slender elf man exuding an aura of flaming determination called out while arriving through the air above one of the nearby rooftops.

"The students greet their grand elder!" the pair from the Thunderous Soul sect declared loudly while falling to their knees even as the others present - Kite and Dragonfly included - gave bows of varying depths out of respect for the newly arrived gold-ranker.

"Grand Elder Crowned," Mistress Dew replied icily.

"I assure you that I meant your students no ill will, merely to chastise them for their assumptions."

"So I heard;" the grand elder nodded with clearly feigned amicability.

"However, I'm loath to point out that you too are making some bold assumptions as to what happened. Your students being present at what seems to be quite a calamity for our fair city might have been mere happenstance. We don't know if there was even a target, and it would cost us of the Thunderous Soul sect much face if we let outsiders take charge of matters of security for the capital. As such, I must insist that the prisoner comes with us.

The sect will, of course, send the proper remuneration to those who assisted in their capture," he finished, taking a glance at Kite before the gold-ranked dismissed him in favor of his peer. While it was clear that Mistress Dew did not approve of this in the slightest, Kite also wasn't surprised at her considering her answer more carefully.

With the Proving in full swing, tensions were already rising between the competing factions, and the grand elder was on his home turf with allies no doubt within reach while she was the lone gold-ranker of her sect. In the silence, the auras of the pair were grinding against one another, with enough of the conflict leaking through for Kite to feel it as a slight sense of nausea. Eventually though, Mistress Dew seemed to come to some kind of decision.

"Then, I-""Ah, there you are!" Another gold-ranked aura joined the pair as a deep voice called out just as another elven man rounded a nearby corner. With his dark suit in a cut Kite had seen favored in Vitesse and his blue hair wound into a long braid falling down his back, the new arrival was a distinct contrast to his kinsman still floating in the air with shimmering heat and slight flames playing at the hem of his combat robes. And Kite of course recognized him.

"Deputy Director Brackenstar," he greeted in the silence that followed, bowing to Maximilian with slightly more reverence than he had shown the grand elder.

"Sect Leader. Grand Elder. I hope you'll excuse me while I'll help our contracted adventurer here escort the prisoner to the society campus. You apparently found more than the expected monsters in the sewers here, Kite. Fortune apparently favored us in you happening to be in the right place at the right time," he finished, walking right past the other two gold rankers before unceremoniously bending down to pick up the now unconscious and collared priest of Destruction and slinging him over one shoulder.

"Halt! I won't let an outsider, and much less a cursed foreigner, interfere with the sect's honored pursuits!" the grand elder from the Thunderous Soul sect snarled as he floated closer to the ground to bar Maximilian's way.

"We-" He fell silent, however, as Maximilian produced a sheath of paper that he held up before the grand elder's face, a kind of document Kite would recognize anywhere as he had seen them so many times across many branches across the world; a contract, signed and sealed.

From his angle, Kite could even make out how it described him and his companions taking on a general contract of sweeping the sewers for monsters, and thus took great care to keep his aura steady as a frozen lake so as to not give away the obvious subterfuge taking place.

"As you can see, everything here is in order, Grand Elder. There is even a clause about potential prisoners, as I am sure that the students of your sect can confirm is present on every such more standard contract," Deputy Director Brackenstar explained calmly.

"As such, the Adventure Society will take this prisoner in for interrogation."

"We-""- an interrogation we will, of course, invite all of the wounded parties to witness as well as pose their own questions," Maximilian continued.

"The Adventure Society takes great care to uphold our regulations, and working with local forces in productive collaboration is always preferred as long as the other parties are willing." Kite couldn't help but feel that there was an unsaid 'which you would know if you ever actually cared to try' there at the end, but the grand elder and Mistress Dew both seemed more focused on eyeing the contract. And the latter of the pair kept proving most helpful, as she made sure to be the first to speak up on the matter.

"This is acceptable, Deputy Director. The Fated Severance sect will send representatives to take part as you offer." This left the grand elder of the Thunderous Soul sect in much more of a precarious situation, as he was now outnumbered even though the others had no formal alliance against him. After seemingly looking about to check if there was anyone else incoming that might change this balance to his favor, Grand Elder Crowned gave a grudging nod soon after.

"Fine. We shall tolerate your society's continued meddling for a while longer. At least it will save us the expense of the potions. Come, students. Let us depart." The two silver-rankers quickly followed their elder as they all rose into the air while casting hostile glances back towards Kite, Dragonfly and Petal while carefully avoiding the golds.

"Then we too shall take our leave," Mistress Dew said more neutrally while giving Kite a glance that clearly conveyed that she would like to hear more of this matter soon.

"Inner Disciple Scar requires the aid of our healers. We trust that you will send for us when it is time, Deputy Director."

"Of course," Maximilian agreed, Mistress Dew and Petal departing soon thereafter. This left Kite, Dragonfly, Wander and Maximilian standing in the street along with scores of onlookers who had stopped to witness the confrontation.

"Keeping the operation low key was apparently too much to hope for," the deputy director sighed after having erected his privacy screen.

"Given the carnage here, I would assume Destruction to be involved."

"Yes, Deputy Director. And we did honestly happen upon them, although without Wander here I doubt we would have done so in time."

"And together, you turned opportunity into fortune. At least for some," Maximilian noted while looking past Kite at where clergy of the Healer had arrived at the scene to help stabilize and assist the wounded while a lone figure wearing the somber robes of Death walked among the dead and dying. Wander's bodies were still all over the plaza too, helping ferry people - both alive and deceased - to be accounted for.

"Let us hope that this can stay just like this; an isolated incident confined to a local plaza. Strive for that, adventurers. And may Fortune keep you when things inevitably turn complicated."