Seth and Fin had already arrived at the street in front of the burning skyscraper when Seth's com orb vibrated.
"It's me~ Sorry, I was a little excited and forgot to call you before. I have the survivors of the Liberation Guild, and we are leaving through the wall- I mean the exit of the underground parking lot," Minas voice sounded from the orb.
"Mina? Are you already on your way out? Then who is rampaging in the building?" Seth asked. He was not surprised that Mina had no difficulty making a way out. He just questioned the sudden action. She could have just left all sneakily.
"That's why I'm calling. I set off a bunch of criminals as a diversion. They should be rampaging above. I have no idea whether they are actually criminals. Can you keep them in check if they get out?" the cat girl asked them to deal with the consequences of her actions.
On the other hand, he had exactly the same thoughts as Mina. Stopping escaped prisoners was good publicity, if they were villains. If they weren't, they helped innocent people escape. Either outcome was good. Especially since the guild council suffered no matter what.
"Fin and I are outside the building. We will keep watch. Are you meeting up with us or will you bring the Liberation Guild to Pip?" he asked once he made up his mind.
"I will come meet you as soon as we are out. Some of these guys need a proper healer," Mina mentioned. Funnily enough, Fin and Seth were in fact the closest pair of high-ranked healers in the vicinity, so her decision was sound.
"Alright, we will wait. See you then. " "See you," Fin joined in. "Yes, see you soon," the assassin answered and ended the call.
"Sooooo, what do we do with the guys getting out? We don't know whether they are evil or not, right?" the chosen of Bes asked.
"Just beat them unconscious. We can heal them afterward," Seth said with a shrug. If they were bad guys, they deserved it. If they were innocent, they would understand their caution. They would simply capture anyone coming out.
That was the plan; however, nobody came out. They waited until their wait was interrupted by the shadow assassin leading a group of people out of a side road. Despite most visible wounds having healed or at least closed, most of them could barely walk.
"Hey guys, we are here. Did anything happen yet?" Mina asked, a little puzzled, seeing the fair in human size and Seth just standing there, watching the skyscraper burn.
"Nah, just enjoying the view," the pyromancer said with a smirk. Although it was somewhat of a waste to burn down a perfectly fine building like this, there was also something therapeutic to simply watch something this big get engulfed in flames. Maybe the titles the system had forced onto him were not completely wrong.
"Weird, I would have expected at least a couple of them to run," Mina mumbled, while Seth and Fin began casting healing magic on the wounded members of the Liberation Guild. Most of them were chimeras, but there were also some humans and even a demon.
"You are Kain, aren't you?" Seth asked, recognizing the huge man with gorilla arms. He used to be the vice leader of the Chimeras after Azul. He became the leader of the group that decided to split off and stay in Hope at the time.
The chimera nodded at the question. "It is good to finally see you again, savior. Although the circumstances are…tragic," he mumbled as the
"Right, what exactly happened?" Seth finally asked, while tending to the big guy. Although they could make some conclusions based on what the Giants said, what the Giants said was rather incomplete and circumstantial. Kain understood what Seth wanted to hear.
"Things were tense after Epsilon left, but manageable in beginning. However, the slumbering realm and the changes that came with the awakening worsened the situation. You probably know more than me about it. Weird creatures kept appearing not just in the wild, but even in the city. Children kept disappearing, exchanged with creatures that looked like them, but the appraisal called changelings.
We tried to work with the other guilds, but ... At first, we didn't know, but there was a new group working on manipulating the guild. They stay in the shadow despite being extremely powerful and only appear when they eliminate the opposition of the council," Kain explained.
"Ever since, the city has become more chaotic and divided, and all the guilds standing up for order were crushed. Us, too," the chimera leader added with a dark expression. If Seth remembered correctly, there were far more than 100 chimeras and others among the group that stayed behind. Less than ten were left. He had all the reasons to be bitter...
"What do the newcomers look like?" the blacksmith asked, having a sneaking suspicion.
"They seem like foreigners from the Pathworks, or another system world. They don't seem to wear armor, but they were extremely powerful. My weapon could not even scratch the leader of the men who attacked us..." he answered.
The short description was enough. Seth was convinced it was a group of cultivators. But what did they gain from causing chaos? Were they the ones behind the kidnappings? It wasn't new, but why would they leave monsters in place of the children?
It made little sense, and Seth couldn't quite wrap his head around how cultivators tied into the whole picture. Maybe there were two separate problems, simply happening at the same time? The chance was low, but considering how chaotic their world was…maybe not that low.
"Didn't it become a little too quiet up there?" Fin suddenly asked, looking at the burning building. Now that she mentioned it, Seth noticed that the noise of battle in the tower had fallen silent at some point in the past couple of minutes.
"You are right. Those guys weren't really strong. Maybe they were already subdued?" Mina suggested.
"But nobody came out! I didn't get to do anything…" Fin said dejectedly. The brute had been looking forward to a scuffle and was disappointed.
"Right, it's weird. Even if they hold a grudge, I would have expected at least one or two cowards to just bail," the blacksmith mumbled. The fact that there weren't any was suspicious.
"It's because I have already apprehended them," the voice sounded across the street from above. It didn't echo, but no matter where one stood, it sounded like the speaker was right beside them. There was a man standing in one of the broken windows of the burning building. The flames were billowing behind and around him, giving him a mysterious aura.
It was a tall man in white robes who couldn't be touched by the fire around him. His handsome face didn't betray his age. He looked like a man in his early twenties, but his aura suggested someone much older.
It seemed like the master mind revealed himself. Based on Seth's humble knowledge of the cloud continent's power system, lv.163 meant that they were either at the peak of Spirit Severing or somewhere in the Dao Seeking Realm.
No matter what, this was not an opponent Pip and the Oathguard could face, not even with the help of Minas Mar's Gate Keeper. Asterion was powerful, but he lacked the methods needed to deal with tricky opponents like cultivators.
"He is one of the guys who attacked us. Be careful," Kain whispered to him.
"Beast, I can hear you loud and clear. No need to lower your voice," the man said and stepped out of the building. He didn't fall, but floated to the ground, right before their eyes. What a showman.
"One of them? He isn't the leader?" Seth asked. It was worrying if a group made up of people this strong had gotten this far into Urth.
"Indeed, we all follow the Lady. I would never dare to deem myself above the Lady," the cultivator answered, instead of Kain. However, the man's voice had a weird singsong to it, making the statement sound out of place.
Just who was the lady now?!