"Inform Sebastian."
Miles nodded at my orders as a gauntlet formed over his hand. Miles is able to convey his intentions and ideas into his animals, which makes them perfect for communication. His ability has been crucial in many aspects of war, such as spying and relaying information.
that alone wouldn't get him selected into an elite group such as this.
The real strength of Miles Carter is that the animals that he makes can heal injuries and reinforce bodies. If he wishes, he can create animals with intentions such as "heal" or "strengthen" or even "weaken." This ability and his mastery over it give his existence an incredible amount of utility. It would not be an exaggeration to say he is the strongest non-blessed person in the world right now.
We entered the woods, dashing our way between the dense treeline until we reached the veil of flowers. Harrison then took the lead with an incredible pace. The white aura that previously covered his entire body had been honed in on his legs, increasing its effectiveness. His strong and long strides left deep footprints in the ground as he increased his distance between us.
Time was of the essence, whatever we may be chasing already has a huge lead on us to the camp, based on when Miles' animal was destroyed. Having Harrison, who was the fastest among us, be at the camp as soon as possible for reinforcements was a good idea. I looked again at Miles, who seemed to share the same idea as me as another animal was already forming over his gauntlet.
Soon, a green bird shot out of Miles' hand and into the back of Harrison. The aura around Harrisons legs flared like a white fire as he accelerated further and soon went out of sight. Miles then prepared similar animals for the three of us who had been left in the dust.
While it may seem that we were overreacting, Miles' animal being destroyed is no small event. Miles uses large animals, like bears, as sentries so they are unable to be destroyed by a random encounter. Miles also likely gave the animals the intent to "defend" so that the animal wouldn't go down without a fight. But Miles didn't inform me of the cause of the animals' destruction, meaning the animal was destroyed by something it was unable to perceive. The only things that we have ever encountered that Miles' animals couldn't perceive were those blessed by Gods, like Darius.
The existence of someone or something similar to that on this island that we do not know about is a very big problem if we want to continue to explore. There is also the possibility of there being more than one. Dealing with it as soon as possible would be the best solution, more so than figuring out what might be in that large house. We can always return to that later.
The forest began to thicken signifying that we were close to reaching the camp. I saw signs of Harrison having run through the same path we did as a few trees lay on the ground and branches had snapped off and laid over the forest floor. The sound of rocks shattering echoed through the forest followed by a large explosion.
I increased my own speed to get a bit ahead of Miles and Sophia as I broke through the treeline. Immediately I was met with a quite tall wall of rock surrounding the area that would have been the campsite, likely constructed by Sebastain. There was a person-shaped hole in the wall that I entered through as Miles appeared behind me.
The first thing that I noticed after entering through the hole was the massive tower of stone in the center of the camp. At the top of the tower there was a small perch with a roof-like cover, likely made to house Amy or Miles. The second thing that I noticed was Amy's desperate sounding voice. It wasn't entirely sure what she was saying, but given the lack of commotion it was safe to assume that there was no immediate threat.
Miles entered through the hole followed by Sophia, who went up to find the source of the noise first.
"Sebastians been hard at work, hasn't he?"
"Yes, he's done a very good job."
"You think he had a bit of frustration energy after being left out of our group?"
My brow furrowed. "...I hope not. We'll be taking him with us when we return anyway."
"I was kidding, you think he'd actually be mad about something childish like that?"
"You really need to quit it, you're gonna make me lose my authority with the new people."
"Alright fine," he said, though it sounded like he had absolutely no intention of letting up.
We passed the tower and ended up in front of the tents where we found the rest of the group as Amy's words became clearer. They were all huddled together laughing, except Amy, who was in great panic.
"...I was just so tense and so when you ran in through the wall I just-"
"Do not worry Miss Amy, I will be just fine. This is no major injury."
"Maybe so but if it was Mrs. Sohpia then it may have been worse..."
"If it was me then I would have moved out of the way. This guy just decided to take it right in the face on purpose."
"Is everything alright?" I called out, interrupting their conversation. As Amy saw my face she buried her own in her hands.
"I will explain," Liam said while stepping forward and stifling his laughter. "One of those green animals came over the wall that Sebastian so kindly built and ran into him. After that he told us to all take up our positions while explaining that something dangerous may be coming. After a bit, something broke through the wall with no warning, and Amy fired at it from up in the perch. That something turned out to be Harrison."
Harrison turned to look at me and flashed his white teeth. His hair was a complete mess but he appeared to be unharmed. It was likely that he used his aura to protect himself as the arrow hit him.
"Harrison, are you injured?" I asked just for confirmation.
"No, I am unharmed."
"Then there is no problem. Amy, you did the right thing. It would be unusual for an ally to crash through your own wall. Firing at such a situation is the natural response."
Amy nodded in acknowledgement but still hung her head, probably still feeling guilty. My attempt at cheering her up had failed it seems.
"We will spend the remainder of the day in camp." I said, turning my attention to the whole group. "Use this time to recover your energy and help Layla repair the ship if you feel fine. I will be taking the watch tonight so please rest well."
Sophia and Miles let out a small cheer and went about their business along with Amy and Darius, who seemed to be following them. Harrison wandered towards the ship, probably to help Layla with the repairs.
I was glad that Amy and Darius were able to get along well with the people that I kept close. I was already planning on inviting them to join me for future operations due to the abilities and potential they had shown so far. I doubt any of my current members would have any objections to them joining us as well.
I had a few more things to take care of before the night fell and I had to take watch.
"Liam, can I have a word with you before you go off?"
"Of course General. Do you need me to do something?"
"No, I'm simply looking for your input in something." I took the framed painting Miles found out from my back pocket and showed it to him and explained what we had found in the town and the large building that we didn't get the chance to enter. He listened intently while studying the painting of the man and woman.
I told him about the lack of human activity and the cleanliness of the homes despite that. I also explained how that was the only kind of proof that we had found that people may have lived there, and finally the large building that we did not get the chance to enter.
"While it may not be much, this is very interesting." Liam said while scribbling into what looked like a notebook. After Liam wrote his notes the "notebook" began to glow a bright blue before fading out. "I'm not confident enough in anything to give a proper explanation at this moment as to who might be in the painting but I'm sure that we'll be able to figure out the residents of the town soon."
"What makes you say that?" I asked, slightly surprised that he was able to come up with a conclusion based only on what we have seen.
"The village that you describe, as in the plain, matching houses along with one large decorated building, is very similar to villages that we have found during expeditions in the Hell Plains."
A lot of new information was given to me with just this short line. Firstly, I was unaware of villages being discovered during expeditions. To prepare for this mission, Miles, and Sophia did thorough research into the Hell Plains and their expeditions, believing that there may be some kind of clues in them to anticipate what would happen on the island. During this investigation, we came to know of Liam and decided that simply bringing him along would be better than trying to extract all of the information collected over 20 years.
But during the early stages of the investigation we still should have become aware of any expeditions finding villages. A discovery like that should have shaken the entire empire as soon as it was reported. The fact that we couldn't find out something like that even after specifically investigating left us with only two possibilities. The first being that nothing significant was found in the village, which is extremely unlikely, and the second being that someone wanted to cover it up.
"Based on that I can assume that inside of the large building there will be at least something to give us a clue on who lived there." Liam continued.
"Liam, when were those villages first discovered?" I cut in.
"Huh? Well the first one was discovered a few years before I was even at the Hell Plains. I believe there was one more discovered before I was able to go on any expeditions. And I've been to 3 villages myself since then."
"And you've been making sure to report your findings during those expeditions, right?"
"Of course, we leave nothing out. Did you not know about this?"
I shook my head to answer his question and he stood up quickly. He was about to say something when I raised my hand to stop him.
"Not only have I never received a report about this, which, as supreme general of the army, is already an issue, but even after looking deeper into the affairs of the Hell Plains myself, I was not able to find this information."
"Wait, so none of our discoveries have even reached the army?"
"It seems that way."
"Shit!" Liam exclaimed in anger. "Too many people have died on those expeditions for them to be meaningless."
"Where do you normally send your reports once you've returned?"
Liam held out the notebook and pen that he was using to write down his notes. "This notebook has a special property that connects it to a notebook an assistant of mine has back at the Hell Plains. Anything that I write in here will also appear in the other notebook after a bit of time, the further away, the more time it takes to appear. Whenever I go out on expeditions, I write all of my findings here just in case I'm unable to return and pass on the information myself."
"Was this item something that you found out there?" I asked, impressed.
"Yes, this was something that I found in one of the villages during the first expedition I went on. That was probably about 20 years ago now."
If the army had such an item, communication between fronts would be massively improved. The current system essentially forces us to send someone incredibly fast to relay information or use someone like Miles who can relay information. But messengers always have the chance of being intercepted and Miles' animals can only contain intentions, not detailed instructions. Just this one item could change everything about communication, and I'm sure they have found more items that would be just as impactful.
"Fortunately there has yet to be a time where I was not able to return," he continued again. "When I get back the first thing I do is visit him and make sure that all of the information that was relayed was accurate, and then usually within a day or two after organizing all of the information together we deliver it to a messenger of the Senate."
The Senate. A group of retired chosen ones that are responsible for organizing the many temples around the empire. On the surface they look like they are just involved with religion but their power runs deep into almost every other institution. It makes sense for them to take the reports of the expeditions and then deliver them to the king.
It is commonly thought that the Hell Plains are an uninhabitable wasteland that holds no value. This is taught to children at a young age in schools and reiterated at temples. Finding a village in the Hells Plains would completely overturn this knowledge, so it makes sense if they were trying to cover it up. Why they would do that though is another question entirely.
"You keep copies of all the information from the expeditions for yourself right?" I finally asked him.
"Yes, we keep all of the original artifacts and other information. The stuff we give over to the senate is all copies. We need it for research after all."
"When we return from this, would you mind if I visited and saw what you've been researching?"
"It would be my pleasure, General," Liam said as he stood up and saluted. "To be completely honest, I'm still in a bit of disbelief that you've never heard of some of the discoveries."
"Don't raise my expectations too high or I'll be disappointed," I responded.
"Ha!" He bellowed. "Our findings will shock the world one day, not just you. Be prepared."
He began to walk towards the Vinland before he turned to face me for the last time.
"I almost forgot, did you happen to encounter any kind of demon or anything around the village?" he asked.
"No. Like I said earlier, it was completely lifeless. Is that unusual?"
"Not usual really. I have visited four of these villages while out on expeditions. two out of the three were desolate like the one that you described," Liam's face hardened. "The third was guarded by an incredibly strong human-like demon. It wielded a blade and enveloped its body in fire so hot it was hard to approach."
He unstrapped his leather jacket and pulled off his shirt to reveal a large burn mark that scarred nearly his entire torso.
"Over 100 experienced fighters died and we were forced to retreat. It doesn't look like there is anything like that at this one; however I would highly suggest not letting your guard down."