Amid the chaos spreading through the base, Edward, Krummor, and their n guided the children through the winding corridors.
Nearly a hundred of them.
The children moved in frightened clusters, so barely even able to walk. A few clung tightly to the sleeves of the Magi escorting them.
Although their eyes were wide with fear and confusion, these children could tell that these Magi didn't an them any harm. They didn't treat them like animals, after all...
The Magi moved quickly but carefully, forming a protective ring around them as they advanced through the tunnels.
Every cultist they had encountered along the way had already been dealt with. The scholars and researchers who had carried out cruel experints on these children had been given slow, grueso deaths.
Bodies lay scattered across the corridors, a testimony to the swift violence that had swept through the secret base.
Now only one task remained.
Get the children out.
Edward led the way through the dim passageways, his senses sharp as he scanned every corner for danger. anwhile, Krummor took the rear, while the rest urged the frightened children forward.
Step by step, they pushed toward the surface.
Toward safety.
"Mister..." the girl in Edward's arms whispered. "Are you taking to my parents?"
The Storm King's lips quivered. He turned to the child and forced a smile. "Of course! You'll be reunited with them soon."
The girl rested her head against Edward's chest. "But what about my friends? I... I haven't seen them in a long ti. I miss them..."
Edward's breath caught in his throat, his heart overwheld by grief. There were still countless more children left in the base. But they were beyond saving. There was nothing he could do. No amount of potions or magic could cure them.
"They..." he was suddenly at a loss for words. "They'll be fine. Trust ."
"Hmm." The girl nodded, her eyelids turning heavy.
"Thank you..." Those were the last words she whispered before fatigue took her over and she passed out. For the first ti since coming here, the child fell
asleep without fearing for her life.
Edward's eyes glistened with tears. Before entering the base, he had been very nonchalant. Of course, he was confident in saving the children and slaying the cultists.
But never in his wildest imagination had he expected to see such atrocities being carried out in the base.
Sothing inside of him died when he witnessed those helpless children.
He didn't know if he could ever recover from it.
As tears tickled down his face, his eyes turned bloodshot, and he made a silent. promise to himself...
He would hunt down every last remaining cultist and wipe them from the face of this earth!
***
High above the Mourning Mountains, the Red Wind hovered steadily over the vast sea of clouds.
Its massive hull cast a long shadow across the nimbus clouds. The ancient tree fused into the vessel's structure stood like a dead husk at its center, its bare branches stretching outward as it quietly drew mana from the air to sustain the ship's flight.
Most of the Magi had gathered on the deck, thier faces masked with mild nervousness. They lined the railings, thier eyes fixed on the mountain beneath the clouds.
From far below ca the distant, thunderous echoes of battle, violent bursts of sound that rolled through the mists and the skies like muffled storms.
Balthazar was fighting the two cultists. Flashes of black fire occasionally lit the mist far beneath them.
At the bow of the ship stood Adam.
His face was calm, almost devoid of emotion. Aside from his clash with the Fla Lord and the other six Mana Core-level cultists outside Ravenfell, the battle unfolding below could be considered their first true strike of his war
campaign.
Naturally, he felt a trace of anxiety. He wanted the operation to succeed. He needed it to succeed.
But more than anything...
He wanted to rescue those children. Truly rescue them from the Cult that had abducted them.
In another life, he might have found himself among those helpless children as well.
If Berger hadn't supported him during his youth, if the old man hadn't quietly helped him, Adam knew his fate might not have been any different from the
children trapped in the mountain.
The thought lingered in his mind.
And for the briefest mont, the calm in his eyes grew colder, and the corner
of his lips curled upward.
In his hand, he held a round communication artifact that glowed faintly. His fingers rested loosely around it as he waited.
Patiently. Silently.
He would not move until the word ca from below.
Suddenly, he turned his head to the side, his tenebrous eyes seemingly piercing
through the clouds and the mist below.
His lips parted, and his calm voice echoed across the deck:
"Balthazar has slain one."
A faint stir passed through the Magi gathered around him. So exchanged glances, their tense expressions easing slightly. Others quietly exhaled, relief and anticipation glowing faintly in their eyes.
The clash below had been fierce, and hearing that one of the enemy Mana Core
Magi had already fallen lifted their spirits.
But not everyone reacted the sa way.
Valerian rely harrumphed and turned his head away, clearly unimpressed.
Right at that mont, the communication artifact in Adam's hand crackled to
life.
For a brief second, only static could be heard. Then Edward's voice ca
through.
"Adam..."
The usually confident young man sounded shaken. He sounded rough and
emotional.
"We were only able to save around a hundred children."
A pause followed, filled with heavy breathing.
"There are still many in the mountain, but they... they are beyond saving." His
voice trembled. "Death would be a rcy..."
Adam's eyes narrowed, and he couldn't help but ask, "Are you certain?"
"...Yes," ca the reply. It was barely a whisper choked with emotion.
Another burst of static crackled through the artifact before Edward spoke
again, this ti with restrained fury.
"Destroy it..."
A mont later, his voice turned hoarse with rage.
"Destroy the damned base!"
Adam remained silent for a long ti. He then asked, "Are you all at a safe
distance?"
"Yes," Edward replied softly. "We're on our way to the rendezvous point we
discussed earlier."
Adam nodded faintly.
"Very well."
He put the artifact away.
Without another word, he walked toward the railing at the edge of the deck.
The wind tugged lightly at his dark robes as he stopped and glanced at the Magi
behind him.
Their eyes were fixed on him.
He gave them a small nod.
"I'll be back."
Then he stepped onto the railing and jumped.
His figure plunged into the sea of clouds below, disappearing into the mist.
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