Underground at the headquarters of the Guides of the Lantern. On the floor of a cavern, large enough to easily hold hundreds, a magic circle glowed with a crimson light. Followers knelt upon the magic circle.
"I believe! I believe!"
"Oh, God... even the hunger of darkness is part of Your plan..."
"Your order shall be eternal. Eternal..."
They prayed ceaselessly.
Drip.
Red blood flowed from between their clasped hands. The flowing blood trickled into the grooves of a massive magic circle drawn in the center of the altar.
"Even starvation is Your order and providence. Gack!"
Thud.
One of the praying followers collapsed. But the prayers did not stop.
"I believe. I believe...."
"Show us the next step in completing Your great plan..."
The followers, bleeding as they prayed, eyed one another with wary side-glances. They had to remain conscious until the very end. Only then could they rise to the glorious position of priest.
Thud. Thud.
One by one, all the other followers collapsed, until only a single person was left.
"I believe..."
A bright light shone in the eyes of the offering who had endured to the last.
"It is I! I am the last one remaining! Now, make me a priest...!"
He tried to rise, but his legs, drained of strength, refused to obey.
Thud.
Just like that, all the offerings had perished. The head priest standing before the altar said nothing, even upon seeing the man fall. The other priests also remained silent.
Maintaining their posture, they stared only at the altar before them. The head priest spoke in a low voice.
"Regrettably, no one has passed this 'promotion test'."
He said it was regrettable, but not a single person there truly believed it. All the priests present knew. That no one ever truly becomes a priest through this ritual.
If one truly wished to become a priest, they must not participate in that ritual. Instead, they had to push others into it. There was no other way to survive in this wretched land.
The massive blood magic circle drawn in the basement of the headquarters. For if they did not continuously supply it with human blood, the magical beasts outside would discover their location.
Vwoom!
The magic circle hummed to life.
Drip, drip...
Blood trickled down Sarah's palm. It stung a little, but it was nothing compared to the pain her brother must be enduring. Sarah asked Howard again.
"That... mountain?"
"Yes. To be precise, it's an underground cave connected to an abandoned mine on the mountainside."
"..."
Sarah was speechless. The mountain Howard indicated was the very place her squad had most suspected. Of course, she hadn't known about the underground cave beneath the abandoned mine on that mountain...
But her suspicions had been more or less on the mark. What Howard said was most likely true. The eyes of the other squad members flashed.
"Me... me too! Please, Sir Howard!"
"Can you find my son as well?"
Howard took their blood and cast the tracking spell for each of them. Thus, the locations of dozens of missing people were revealed. As he marked each location on a map, the dots clearly formed three distinct clusters.
"So, three locations in total?"
At Howard's question, Sarah looked at the map and replied.
"That's right. Our intelligence also indicated three locations: one headquarters with the head priest, and two branches managed by high priests."
"If we only raid one location, the others will flee."
Sarah nodded at his words. If they signal one another with crystal orbs, it will be much harder to find them. As things stood, their only option was to strike all three locations simultaneously.
Sarah said.
"Considering the magical beasts we'll have to face on the way, we are severely short on people."
One of Sarah's squad members cautiously spoke up.
"What about requesting reinforcements from the commander?"
"We should...!"
Before Sarah could finish, Howard stopped her.
"No. That will be too late."
He continued.
"Even as we speak, people could be dying in one of those three locations."
"..."
It was an undeniable truth. Howard said again.
"You all should join with the other teams and attack one location."
"What about the other two? Are we giving up on them?"
"Leonard and I will each take one."
"What kind of nonsense is that..."
Everyone, Sarah included, was aghast.
"You'll get yourself killed, man!"
"They aren't like a single Giant Wyrm!"
"But Howard paid them no heed. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if concentrating. Then, he opened them.
Sarah asked Howard.
"What did you just do?"
"Telepathy. The plan is all set. I'll go to the central base, Leonard will go to the one on the left."
Howard turned to the squad members and said.
"Well then, I'll head out first. The raid on each base is set for ten o'clock sharp."
"Don't be late."
"...!"
Sarah snapped back to her senses. She couldn't let him go like this. Abruptly, Sarah grabbed Howard's clothes.
The blood from her palm stained his clothes red.
She said.
"Wait! No matter how strong you are, you'll be in grave danger if you run into the head priest at the headquarters!"
"According to rumors, the head priest can wield a portion of the power of a supreme magical beast."
"If that's true, it might be too much even for Howard."
Sarah continued.
"We can't entrust this entire matter to an outsider like you, Sir Howard."
"An outsider? Like all of you, I have a debt to settle with the Guides of the Lantern."
Sarah stared into his eyes. In Howard's eyes, there was not a hint of anxiety. The anxiety that every member of her squad carried with them.
She said.
"You're lying."
"Pardon? About what?"
"You haven't suffered a loss so great that you'd be willing to risk your own life, Sir Howard. Have you?"
"..."
Howard was left speechless. It seemed Sarah's guess had hit the mark.
"Come with us. We may be weak compared to you, but we can at least open up a path for retreat."
Squeeze.
Sarah's grip on his clothes tightened. The fabric slowly turned a darker shade of red.
"..."
A moment later, Howard spoke.
"Could those of you who have family or someone precious at the base I'm heading to please raise your hand?"
One by one, hands went up. Sarah was one of them. Twelve in total.
Howard said.
"Very well. These people will accompany me."
Underground, at the headquarters of the Guides of the Lantern. The head priest asked a senior priest standing beside him.
"Speaking of which, is there still no news from the children we sent to the capital?"
"... Unfortunately, we've lost contact."
"Hmm."
He had sent them to silence the mage who dared to claim the authority of a god. He had ordered them to at least threaten the man if killing him proved impossible. But it seemed they had failed to accomplish even that.
"Shall I send more people?"
"No, that's not necessary. That heretic will meet his downfall soon enough."
"After all, wasn't his last prophecy about the meteor shower ultimately inaccurate?"
The other priests remained silent. The head priest looked down at them. He knew exactly what the other priests were thinking.
The longitude of the capital and this northern region were different, so of course there would be a time difference. If one were to correct for that difference, the mage's prophecy would be perfectly accurate. But a religion cannot exist if its followers begin to dwell on contradictions.
One must believe before knowing. True faith, by its very nature, is built upon contradiction. Just as they themselves, who so despised mages, relied on the aid of blood magic.
Ugh...
The head priest groaned, clutching his head. 'Was it a mistake after all?' Having provoked the hero of the capital, it was possible the blades of the imperial family and the Magic Tower would soon reach this place.
For now, fleeing was the best course of action. They would have to move their base once more and start over from scratch. The head priest addressed the priests.
"We will 'dispose' of all the remaining followers and abandon this place."
At the head priest's words, one of the priests asked in return.
"A... all of them?"
"Yes. We can't afford to leave a long trail while we escape."
It was necessary to protect themselves from magical beasts during their journey. Followers could always be gathered again. They would take only the key members and use all the rest as catalysts for their blood magic.
The head priest repeated.
"Finish the preparations by tonight."
"Yes, sir!"
The head priest leaned against the altar and gazed up at the cavern ceiling. 'Tonight... it's the date of that heretic's second prophecy.' The first prophecy, the star shower, was something anyone could get right with a bit of luck.
That was because astronomical records could be used to determine the approximate time of a star shower. But the second prophecy was different. 'If that heretic is right... what will happen?'
According to their scriptures, there were seven planets in the solar system. But the heretic had predicted the appearance of an eighth planet. It was then.
Rumble~!
The entire cavern began to tremble violently. The terrified priests cried out.
"An earthquake?!"
"No! It's a magical beast!"
"Impossible! We should have offered more than enough sacrifices...!"
But the cavern did not move as they expected. It wasn't 'collapsing' down. The stones of the ceiling defied gravity and began to 'ascend' toward the sky.
"Huh...?"
"What is this..."
Movement that defied reason. Movement that defied scripture.
Magic.
In an instant, the cavern's ceiling was ripped away, revealing a night sky filled with the moon and stars. But some of the stars did not stay in the sky. They plummeted toward the ground at a terrifying speed.
Pfft. Thunk!
"Kuaagh!"
"My arm!"
A shower of iron balls rained down, piercing the limbs of the priests. Only then did the head priest's mouth open.
"... A mage!"
In response to his shout, a voice drifted down from the sky.
"Took you long enough to notice."
The owner of the voice was walking down slowly from the sky. Trailing dozens more of the 'stars' that had brought the priests to their knees.