After the initial chaos Cassian and his team faced, the battlefield grew even more active. Battles now broke out almost every week, and no one knew when the next large monster wave would co—only that each one was bigger than the last.
Karn’s main forces were more than enough to deal with these waves head-on, while the arriving reinforcents mainly focused on hunting down stragglers and preventing any survivors from joining the next attack.
So soldiers were assigned to track down the summoning circles responsible for calling the monsters, while others ventured deeper into the forest to investigate whether the cult had established a hidden base there—possibly the source of these relentless waves.
Cassian received an unexpected summons to the commander’s tent once again. This ti, however, there was an additional figure among the four people he had seen before just from afar, Princess Aria Kiew Karn of the Karn Earldom.
The mont Cassian stepped inside, before he could even salute, the princess spoke up."No offense, Commander Naset, but are you certain this is the right person? He’s only a First Circle warrior. Monsters will tear him apart before he even makes it there..."
Caught off guard, Cassian stayed silent, unsure of the exact purpose of this eting, though it was clearly centered on sending him sowhere. His gaze flicked to the others. Alix looked... worried. Cassian wasn’t sure if it was for him—especially since she seed to dislike him for reasons unknown—but her eyes were fixed on him nonetheless. As for the others, the old mage Orlando was wearing a disturbingly amused smile, one that made Cassian’s skin crawl.
Alongside them, the other two Circle Warriors—Kaila and Janon—remained silent, simply watching Commander Naset.
"You’re right, Princess Aria," Naset said. "He nearly got turned into human paste a few days ago, but as you can see, he’s still alive. And there’s no one more suited for infiltrating the cultists’ army camps..."
Before he could continue, Kaila—whose anger Cassian hadn’t noticed until now—spoke sharply. "I can do it too... and far better than this child."
Naset nodded in agreent. "True, you could. But you’re too strong, and I’m certain the cultists already have your na and face at the very top of their ’must-kill’ list. Of course..."—he glanced at Cassian—"...his na is on it as well."
That revelation drew startled looks from the others. The cult’s assassination list wasn’t sothing just anyone made it onto; those who appeared there were considered dangerous enough to potentially turn the tide of the war. The fact that Cassian’s na was on it—despite him being only a First Circle warrior—was shocking.
Alix’s worry deepened at the news, but Naset continued. "Fortunately, they only know him as a red-haired rookie, a low-priority target. That makes him perfect for slipping into the cultist base unnoticed. There’s nothing suspicious about him, and plenty like him have been joining the cult lately..."
Just as he finished speaking, a purple-haired woman suddenly appeared inside the tent as if out of nowhere.
"And if sending him alone isn’t enough..." Naset said.
The woman stood completely frozen, her body unmoving as though ti itself had stopped for her. Cassian recognized her instantly—he had seen her the night he cut down that cultist mage and the hundreds of low-level grunts swarming around him.
That night, Naset had gone to deal with other cultists on the far side, and he had brought this woman back with him. She was still wearing the sa clothes she had worn then. Cassian didn’t know exactly what Naset had done to her afterward, but the terror in her trembling eyes told him enough, even if her body couldn’t move.
Naset gestured toward her as he introduced her. "This here is Brigid Cryew, a mid-ranking mber of the cult—one of the so-called ’Abyssal Hands.’ She was a student of the Flesh nder... who, in turn, was trained by none other than the cult’s most infamous higher-up, the Artistic Butcher."
Cassian and Princess Aria both turned to look at the woman, while the others seed already aware of Naset’s plan.
"How is she with you?" the princess asked.
"Things happened on our way here," Naset replied casually. "I captured her then... though I did kill her master." A faint smile tugged at his lips as he added, "So, how about this—we send him with her, claiming she’s made him her slave or sothing. How does that sound?"
Princess Aria was still taken aback, but after weighing the idea for a mont, she slowly nodded. "It sounds possible... but what about the boy? Does he even want to go there or not?"
Finally, everyone’s attention shifted back to Cassian, who was still trying to make sense of it all. It took him a mont to collect his thoughts. From what he could gather, they wanted him to infiltrate the cult’s camp—aning they must have already discovered its location while searching the forest.
To make the infiltration easier, Naset planned to send this cultist woman along with him. The idea only deepened Cassian’s confusion.
"I don’t mind going there," Cassian said at last, "but, Commander, couldn’t we just infiltrate the cult by sending just that lady over instead?" He pointed at Brigid, who remained frozen in place like a statue.
"Well, I could," Naset replied, "but her cooperation is only skin-deep—and that’s entirely thanks to the threat I pose to her life. We do have thods to make her loyalty run deeper, but... if we used them, we’d be no better than the cult."
He slipped a red-stoned ring off his finger and held it up. "So, we had to choose a less... cult-like approach. This ring here was crafted by Orlando. I use it to make her follow my every word. I can issue any command, and she’ll obey—but there’s one limitation. Beyond a certain distance, its effect wears off."
Cassian raised a hand to ask sothing, but Naset cut him off. "I know what you’re about to say," he sighed. "Yes, I could simply order her not to go past that range. The problem is the place I need to send you both is well beyond that limit. That’s why I want you to take control of her and go there together."
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