---Shadow Mountain Association---
"Hel-Ugh!" a young voice was raised, but quickly fell silent when the Oathguard smacked her unconscious. He clicked his tongue. These people had no decency at all. He wondered whether everyone else had this many problems.
Every child he came across acted like they were born and raised in this place. Whatever they did to them to accomplish such a thorough brainwashing, it couldn't be anything decent. They would probably need a high priest to undo this kind of mental status ailment.
At least he hoped that would work. Who knew how far magic was able to undo systematic deconstruction and reconstruction of a human mind...And that of a child at that. Hoisting the girl under his arm, he equipped the invisibility cloak again and left the place.
With the girl in his arms, he jumped up on the roof and sprinted across the black roof tiles. Black roofs, crimson lacquered wood, and dark, wooden window lattices...This place really had a certain talent to make its sect look like the shady base of an evil cult.
Well, technically, they were one. But did they have to advertise it like this? The place was creepy and made his skin crawl. He knew of the occult and necromancers and ghosts, but this place made the thought of it somehow worse. He was clad, when he left the sect, built in the crater of a dead volcano behind, for now.
"This should be one of the last ones," Clegane greeted him with good news. "The others will get the rest, you can stay here and help load the ship," he said, pointing at the flying ship of Epsilon in the back.
"Good, did the other also have this many problems?" he asked the operator, who stayed at the ship.
"Looks like it. This place is weird, and the people seem to have a hang for mental manipulation," Clegane said with a nod, noting something on his clipboard.
"Tsk, what a terrible place. Let's hope we can heal them back in Delta," he mumbled as he brought the young girl on board of the ship. It wasn't just the children; even the young adults brought as servants had resisted the extraction. Now, all of them were sleeping soundly in the ship's cargo hold.
He had just placed her on a cot when an explosion shook the city inside the crater.A plume of fire and smoke illuminated the dark night sky.
"What's going on?" he asked, exiting the ship.
"Looks like someone got caught," Clegane commented calmly.
"Tsk, how many are left?" he asked, serious.
"2 children are still left," Clegane answered after a look at his clipboard.
"1." Another member spoke up and took off their invisibility cloak. That left only two more of their party members unaccounted for.
"What's the level of their leader again?" the newest arrival asked.
"Late Spirit.-whatever. Something around lv.150," Clegane answered.
"Then we should get the ship ready," the other said. There was no way they could win this, even if they treated it like a boss raid. They could only prepare for a quick escape and wait for their remaining team members.
---Gate Guardian---
While they all waited for the arrival of the second wave, Master Mountain and the disciples of the Luminous Mountain Sect were busy tending to their prisoners. While the second wave set off, they would be returning the prisoners to their sect.
It was a message to show that Minas Mar was not indiscriminately ruthless. Although Yu had to do a lot of persuading and arguing to get approval for this. Seth had insisted on not only stripping and beating them, but also asking for ransom.
Yu had to work hard to convince the blacksmith that there was more to gain with a good reputation. Most sects of the continent didn't know what the Sect Alliance didn't, or didn't believe the rumors. The alliance had put a lot of effort into counterpropaganda.
It didn't matter anymore at this point. The alliance had already broken apart; however, soon not even their remnants would be left. At that point, it was best to show that Minas Mar had a soft side, too. Or a softer side...This would help avoid further conflict with unaffected parties.
"Yu, they have arrived," a fellow Daoist from the Crane Lake Pavilion informed him. He did his best to hide it, but he was slightly out of breath from hurrying over to Master Mountain's abode. What had the man in such a hurry?
Master Mountain had a deja vu when he came before the recently finished church building. The second wave, Minas Mar's strike force, was still exiting. He immediately remembered when he felt like this before.
When the first wave, the covert ops, arrived here, he had thought that Minas Mar meant trouble. Although he knew that the Field Teams were a cut above them, they didn't expect the difference to be so... earth-shattering.
Ignoring some of the figures he witnessed during the great tournament, Yu had to swallow when looking at the forces of Minas Mar. He had to revise his thoughts from a few days earlier. This situation right now was clearly Minas Mar having no chill. The Covert Ops were their delicate approach.
The immortal couldn't quite estimate their power at this point for several reasons. The system power was still a concept too foreign to him, as the energy he could sense could go into an infinitesimal number of specializations, affecting the actual power. The other was their equipment.
Each of them had at least one heaven-grade artifact exuding a power that made his heart quiver. Many of them had more than one. Based on everything he knew, the weakest was at least comparable to a Peak Spirit Severing Cultivator; some would probably rival someone in the Dao Seeking Realm.
Then there were the couple of dreadnoughts even Master Mountain couldn't estimate. With their bodies completely wrapped in heaven-grade equipment, he even questioned whether they might be able to fight an immortal. Maybe not beat one, but stand their ground. He already knew two of them, Mike and Ortega, in their exotic suits of armor.
"Master Mountain, good morning," a third greeted him with a happy wave of her spear. So the one in silver-golden armor was Monique. He was not able to recognize her because of the extravagant helmet hiding her face.
The remaining two figures he was unable to recognize wore two similar armors in differing shades of blue. Their auras were foreboding.
"Hello, Fairy Monique. Has everyone arrived?" he asked with a smile, glancing around. The square in front of the church was teeming with figures that could single-handedly topple most small sects in the XiGuang Province; however, someone was missing.
"Seth and his entourage will arrive in a few days. They have one more stop before they come here," Monique answered his questioning looks. Yes, the leader of this scary force was remarkably absent.
"So, you will be heading out ahead of them?" he asked.
"We will have to. We had to change the schedule a little," she said, and explained the current situation in more detail. "We will set off once the first groups of the Covert Ops return," she added.
"Right, the first ones should be returning any time soon..."