“Then we have no choice. We have no time to lose!” declared Gradius, and everyone nodded in quiet agreement.
“What of the gathering? Who among us is capable of such a thing? Without the Messenger, it is an impossible task. The races of the world will not listen to a common man!” pointed out Fugue. He smoothed back his ruffled hair and adjusted his tunic over his clinking mail.
“Leave that to me Fugue. It is important that the messenger is sent, but it is even more important to gather the items and their bearers before it is too late,” answered Sequinnen.
“Very well, we shall leave that task to you, however, we should probably tell the other branches of this revelation,” said Gradius.
“They too have gathered just as we have and more than likely came to the same conclusion,” responded Sequinnen.
“We already know where two of the Seven are, so all we need to do is find the other five,” added Luth.
“Then we search,” finished Abbot.
“Aye.” They all returned in unison.
Sequinnen rose and walked to the window of the tower again, “That brings us to our next order of business. Elaine, if you would be so kind as to inform them of what you and Alvin told me.”
Elaine nodded and stood up to address the room. “Ever since he was discovered almost six years ago, Fenix’s son, Cypher, has been pursued by the Order. We don’t know why they’re after him, or what good it would even do them to capture him. I have my guesses given Fenix’s past with the Order, but that man was always secretive about such things. Still, I find it difficult to believe they would be after him over an old grudge.”
“You mentioned the heir of Fenix earlier Sequinnen. How was it that he was able to stop an Elder from breaking the seal?” asked Luth.
Sequinnen turned and shook his head, “That we aren’t certain of. Even the boy has no memory of what happened after a certain point. All we know is that he stopped an Elder with Fenix’s Ark Fusion technique, but that alone wouldn’t have been able to stop a Rank-Four Conductor at his level. He is only a first rank Conductor.”
“He sounds like quite the formidable little Conductor!” said Gradius.
“He’s a powerful little shit, his progress is almost as astounding as his father’s. He’s even showing signs of being an Oracle like his mother,” began Elaine. “Still, his power is dogshit at this point compared to real threats. He can’t do much of anything. That said, he thinks he can go against the Order. They’ve kidnapped his friends and issued him a personal challenge.
“If anyone shows up with him, they’ll kill his friends. Normally I would say fuck ‘em. Sometimes casualties are made in the course of a war, but this time I suggest we take our heads out of our asses and try a different approach.” she finished.
“What do you mean? If the Order is going to be at a location we can ambush, then we should take full advantage of that situation and take out as many of their leaders as possible!” argued Fugue.
“Mmh, yeah but what do they want him for? The fuckers had to infiltrate Seven City! That must have cost them greatly, those defenses specifically target Order members. Why would they waste those resources on some shitty kid whose father caused them problems? I feel like there’s more to this and we can’t be fucking stupid and go about things the way we normally do.”
Gradius turned to Elaine and said, “Hm you bring up good points. Hunting requires more than the strength to kill your prey. One must know their enemy before they strike. I am in agreement with Elaine. We should play this out and see what they want from him.”
“You’re being unreasonable!” began Fugue. “If we know where they’ll be we can strike hard and fast and make sure that none of them can interfere with our search!”
“And just what makes you think that their leaders will even be there?” asked Luth. “Cypher is only a Rank-One Conductor, it wouldn’t take more than a dozen Rank-Two’s to subdue him. It’s open and shut if they send four Rank-Three Conductors.”
“You might be right, but we can’t afford to take that chance!” pleaded Fugue. “Time is of the essence if we can strike a critical blow to their organization I say we do it.”
“Alright enough. All of you!” bellowed Sequinnen. “We will leave this matter to Elaine to handle.”
“Thank you my Sepheliest. However, in part, I do agree with Fugue. I will take some men, accompany Cypher up to a certain point, and the rest of us will wait for his signal. Once his friends are secured, we’ll move in and wipe out as many Order members as we can.”
Sequinnen nodded, and even Fugue seemed to agree with this plan. “Very well, see that it is handled properly. Whatever you need for this operation I will provide personally.”
“There is another matter though,” continued Elaine.
“Oh? Then do tell,” replied Sequinnen.
“Right, well… Okay so don’t give me any shit about this, but I’ve been teaching him to use the Duality Shield,” began Elaine.
“That is absurd!” said Abbot, his disbelief only overshadowed by his jealousy. “How could someone so low rank learn that spell? It goes against common practice!”
“Yeah well common practice or not, Cypher has the Null element,” began Elaine. “I know he can do it and he’s making incredible progress. But that isn’t what I’m worried about. The real problem was revealed to me after he almost killed himself trying to master it.”
“Ah yes, this is the important part,” added Sequinnen with a frown.
“He spoke in his sleep as I healed him. Most of what he said was fucking gibberish, but he also mentioned the Minus,” finished Elaine.
Abbot and Fugue blanched white and even Gradius seemed to be worried at that news. Luth sat silently and Sequinnen cautiously raised an eyebrow as he observed his companions.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to believe he knew about them either. But it’s much worse than that. Out of curiosity, I took a look at his memories. I know it was wrong, but I had to know what he knew about the Minus. Turns out, one has returned, and not just any old Minus. It was none other than Louis Balistane.”
“Bullshit!” roared Abbot and Fugue simultaneously.
“How could a Rank-One Conductor possibly still be alive if he faced down a monster like that!?” Fugue asked.
Elaine smiled and continued, “He and his companion barely made it out alive. If not for the fact that the sun was still up, Louis would have certainly killed both of them. He wanted them to be his messengers and let the world know about his return. I’m guessing he’s up to his old tricks again. So we must proceed with caution.”
“Old tricks?” asked Gradius. He was the newest member of their council and so he still had a lot to learn about the more ancient matters they faced.
“Louis was renowned for turning mortals into his servants. Once turned, they would become Minus as well and be able to spread the condition to other mortals. They couldn’t retain their human form, and would often mutate into other horrible creatures,” explained Luth. Gradius nodded his understanding and clenched his fists into tight balls.
“If he’s allowed to remain at large, I have no doubt that the same thing will happen again. At that point, not only will we have the Order to deal with, but the Minus as well. Given that this Shadow Shift is still ongoing, that would not be to our benefit,” finished Luth.
Elaine nodded and spoke again, “Yeah no shit, so we need to get some guys on that as quickly as possible. Too much time has passed already.”
