A few days after appraising the orb, Emeri called for a strategy meeting, which she forced me to attend. It took place in Dalius’ command tent, where a big scroll was unfolded, revealing a map of Agratos.

Several major cities were marked, Agratos included, and the locations of the five statues were scribbled on. Two had already been crossed off, leaving us with the final three, which were spread across Alterian’s southern coast in a triangle pattern, strangely.

“Why a triangular pattern? Wouldn’t the church just keep them all in the capital, in the first place?” I mumbled to myself, not really paying attention.

“The statues can’t be moved by mortal hands, Arthur. That was how their legitimacy was proven, in the first place. The church was forced to build around them.” Emeri whispered helpfully, before gesticulating that I was supposed to listen to the debrief, in less polite form.

To humor her, I decided to give it a shot…

“Our supplies can’t handle another raid like that, sir. Specifically, we’re running low on medicine. The alterian variants of urea simply don’t hold up to the efficacy of our native-”

“Don’t start with that nationalist crap of yours again, Chulain. You keep causing delays, simply because you refuse to acknowledge anything unrelated to Neru!”

“I’ll have you know that-”

…And promptly gave up. Arguments like these were mind-numbing, causing me to zone out. Looking around the room, I theorised that one of the people present might have been the famous ‘teleporter’, Dalius’ ace. To be honest, I had a hard time guessing who it could be.

Among those present, most were lieutenants, including the violet witch that I had fought previously. Unlike in proper armies, however, Dalius’ people didn’t bother showing off that rank visually. In fact, they didn’t have any set uniforms at all. That resulted in a blast of colour, as each of the underlings tried to compete over who could make a tailor go crazy first.

A few fit the bill of what I was looking for. Silent, unassuming yet captivating. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell which of them it could be. Oh well. I had only started looking to pass the time anyway…

Eventually, the talk progressed to the actual plan, which started with a description of the next church that harboured the next statue.

“Alright, so the one we’re going for is on top of a giant pillar of natural stone. It’s here-”Dalius began, pointing towards the south-western part of Alterian, “hidden in the middle of a mountain range, unassuming and well-guarded. The city nestled in a nearby valley acts as another part of the sheep’s pilgrimage.”

“Hold on a minute…” Emeri interrupted, “This isn’t the next step of the pilgrimage! This church holds the fourth statue, not the third-”

“Listen girlie, we don’t have the opportunity to go by the book, okay? After our most recent fight with those old bastards, they’re gonna expect us to go for the third one, see? I can’t afford to run into an ambush like that a second time. That means we’re forced to go off-script and hit these churches in a different order, keep them guessing. You’ll just have to piece your clues together afterwards.”

“…I see. Very well.” Emeri relented, seeing Dalius’ point. A good thing, too, because the church had more than a few tier 6’s, which Dalius, as an admittedly powerful tier 5, still couldn’t handle. The church was forced to guard many locations at once, of course, but it wasn’t too much of a stretch for them to station at least one cardinal at our next presumed target.

“So anyway, as I was saying, we’re gonna’ skip the city entirely and teleport straight into the church. Well, right outside of it, anyway. We take out the guards while you two-” he said, looking over at us, “run right to the statue and do your thing. We’ll buy you time until you’ve had your vision, before all of us retreat together. A simple and straightforward plan, just how I like it. Now, let’s talk specifics…”

“Are you sure this is going to work? What if this is another trap?” I asked Emeri, still a little scared from how close we had gotten to dying just a little while ago.

“Sure? No, I’m not. But this is the best chance we have.”

“All right… Shouldn’t I wait next to you while you have the vision, though? Technically, I don’t need to be there…”

“I… I would like for you to join me.” She said rigidly. I wasn’t sure what she was getting at, but hesitated to prod her further. I didn’t need to, because after a few seconds of silence she explained why.

“I gave you the short version of what happened during the last vision, didn’t I? I… I’m not sure I can watch more of that horror… Not alone, anyway. Just… do me a solid, okay?” she asked quietly.

“… I’ll be there. Count on it.” I replied, attempting to give her a smile. She returned with a hesitant one of her own.

Suddenly, the chatter around us died down. A purple circle had appeared in the center of the stone chamber. That was our signal. The signal that started off the mission.

Credit where credit is due, Dalius’ people knew when to be silent. Dozens of people flooded through the doorway-sized teleportation gate with little struggle and no chatter, allowing us to get inside quietly. Soon enough, Emeri and I were up. The portal shimmered, as if inviting us into its painted world.

With no time to hesitate as more classers drummed in behind us, we ran through and found ourselves in a nice courtyard.

What had once been a delicate garden stood encircled by marble arches and golden statues. Now, though, the flowerbeds had been trampled by our strike team. With a determined glint in her eyes, Emeri led the way into the church attached to the courtyard, even as screams and shouts erupted behind us. The large and excessively opulent cathedral had already been secured by Dalius and his men ahead of our arrival, allowing us to run right up to the statue at its centre.

The stone art piece depicted Helios standing in yet another heroic pose, emphasizing the trend.

“Ready?” Emeri asked.

“Always.” I responded, trying to calm her down.

Emeri pulled out her dagger and brought it up to the statue. However, nothing happened.

“Uh… Emeri? Everything going okay?” I asked after a while of her fidgeting with the statue’s base.

“There’s no keyhole!” she suddenly exclaimed.

“What?! But how?!”

Dalius had heard the commotion and came over to check.

“What’s the problem?”

Again, Emeri responded: “There’s supposed to be a key hole, but there isn’t one on this statue! This can’t be! Unless…”

“Unless what? Out with it, girl!”

“Unless this isn’t the real statue!”

“That’s impossible! Even the old records state that- wait a minute… You might be right! But it should be hidden near here, at least. Guard me while I use a skill to look for it!” he commanded, plopping down into a lotus position where he stood. A subtle purple glow emanated from him as he activated whatever skill he had decided to utilise in the moment.

Truthfully, I didn’t see how we would even need to guard him, seeing as all of the guards were currently occupied by Dalius’ forces. Unless the church had a teleporter too, one they were willing to reveal, anyway, reinforcements were a long way off, regardless.

Unfortunately, my overconfidence acted as a jynx, because after a few uneventful minutes, the ground beneath us rumbled. I rushed out into the courtyard, leaving Emeri to guard Dalius while he concentrated, and found the entire corps in the middle of a hectic battle with… was that a giant covered in a suit of armor?

No, that golden glint where its eyes should be… That was a golem! An artificial one, to boot! Even worse, my mana sense was going bonkers, telling me that I was staring at a tier 5. Truthfully, even my rough mana-sense could tell that something was wrong with this behemoth. Instead of a single solid core, its mana felt like a ball undulating grains of sand, which pulsed in waves.

Unfortunately, we had no tier 5’s on our side, apart from Dalius, so the lieutenants and their subordinates were stuck in a heated battle. Unsure of whether to intervene or not, I watched for a few moments as the golem treated its opponents like toys, breaking them just as quickly.

I recognised a purple bolt that arced at its head as one of the violet witch’s attacks, though it didn’t even leave a mark. Come on, just buy a few minutes so that Dalius can finish his task…

More and more classers rushed into battle while I just stood there, unsure of whether to intervene or not. More and more of them died, too, leaving me bitter. Surely, I could distract this beast, at least for a little while. Besides, it was unlikely to squash me in one hit and leave me unable to recover, right?

My mind made up, I drew my sword and… watched as a body catapulted past me and slammed into the marble wall, both breaking under the impact. I looked over my shoulder, and found out that the violet witch had been the one to die this time, her body becoming difficult to recognise as it lay crumpled in on itself, only her hat told her apart from the other classers.

Gritting my teeth, I stopped wasting time and apparated right onto the bastard’s shoulder, before digging my two-hander into its eye socket. Surprisingly, the golem felt the pain and roared like a wounded animal, before slamming its palm onto the spot where I had been moments earlier. By then, I had already apparated onto its other shoulder, where I was about to stab its other eye when I had a sudden brainwave.

While this thing was wall into the fifth tier when it came to mana and base stats, it didn’t have any essence! Therefore, it would have no resistance to mine! With this epiphany, I decided to test my theory my manifesting my essence.

A black dome enveloped me before spreading out beyond my body, covering the top half of the golem neatly. My essence manifestation muted other’s senses while leaving mine intact, leaving me somewhat safe on the creature’s shoulder. For a moment, I expected it to swat me like a fly, but it seemed like it couldn’t sense me anymore. It didn’t even consider that I had teleported to its other shoulder!

Instead, the monster grew enraged and used a skill on the earth below, making marble spikes shoot out of it at frightening speeds. If Dalius’ men hadn’t been smart enough to keep their distance once the black orb had erupted, they would have been skewered.

From there, the golem continued to slam the ground and buildings below it, turning all of it into rubble but failing to actually kill anyone. This enraged rampage continued for a few more minutes, until the church doors opened and Dalius stepped out, his face twisted into a snarl. I promptly apparated away as Dalius shot at the golem in full force, seeking revenge for his dead comrades.

I stalked back into the church, hoping that Dalius could defeat the creature, and found the place to a mess. For a moment, I wondered whether another golem had appeared inside as well, because a giant crater had appeared where the statue had previously stood. I peered over the edge and found an even deeper hole, though its bottom was lit by a few torches that were out of view.

“Down here!” I suddenly heard Emeri yell. Evidently, she was already down there.

I slid down the crater into the hole, dropping into a small stone chamber with no other entrance but the hole Dalius had created. Emeri stood inside, a confident smile on her face.

“Looks like the church tried to hide their own heritage… What a shame we found it in minutes, right?”

At the room’s edge, the same statue from before peered down at me. Only this time, a little hole at the base shone, while Emeri’s dagger pleasantly hummed in response.

“Ready?” Emeri asked for the second time.

“Always.”