Chapter 121 Caged Villagers

"Leo? Are you alright? You've been staring at that wall for a while now." Cain said with his hand on Leo's shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh...Yeah sorry, I was just thinking about something." Leo replied. He had just finished his conversation with Dreifus, that's why he looked like he wasn't doing anything.

"It's alright. Come on, we should look for the villagers." Cain said and began walking towards the door that Trent used to enter the room.

"I'm not hopeful that there will be any villagers left alive. We all saw what Trent did to that man...he turned him into one of those creatures that were chasing us." Leo said with an emotionless tone.

"I don't think there will be many, but even if there is just a few, it would be nice to say that this wasn't for nothing." Rene sounded dejected as she said this.

"It wasn't for nothing. We found one of their bases and managed to kill one of their leading figures. At least, I think he was one of their leaders... Well anyways, he had an ability that would have been dangerous in the future." Leo explained.

"Yeah... I guess you're right. But what about John, what happened to him?" Rene asked. Her question caused Leo to pause his steps for a moment as he thought back on what happened.

"He chose to go with them when they escaped. I was about to kill Trent when he blocked my attack with a barrier..." Leo explained with a dejected expression and tone.

Everyone remained silent after hearing about John. They continued to search the base for anything useful at the same time they looked for the villagers but the entire base was completely empty.

***

Cecile was sitting inside one of the cages and was holding her knees against her chest. There were about 8 other villagers spread around in the different cages, with her being the only one inside this cage.

'Is there really nobody coming to help us...? These people are evil. They turned a child into a monster and then told him to kill his mother, who does something like with a smile on their face...' Cecile pictured the scene in her head over and over again, never able to get the image of Trent smiling as he changed people into Beasts.

Suddenly, all the remaining villagers could hear the sounds of talking and footsteps in the hallway leading into this 'dungeon'.

Cecile could feel the fear filling her up, the fear that she would be taken next, or maybe even turned into a Beast.

"This looks like the type of place that people would be kept."

"I agree. It's the only room we haven't searched yet. If there's nobody In here then it means they're all dead."

The voices they heard and the conversation they were having suddenly made something click in ceciles head.

'They're looking for people...then that means they're here to rescue us!'

" Hey! We're in here! Please help us!" She began screaming out.

The sounds of the conversation and footsteps stopped for a moment and then it sounded like their footsteps increase in speed.

Rounding the corner and entering the room was a group of three. The villagers thought that Cecile was just asking for death by shouting out to a bunch of strangers voices, but when they saw who had entered and what they looked like they felt hope for the first time.

"Are you the villagers that the cult abducted?" The man in front asked as he approached Ceciles cage.

"Yes! Please help us!" She cried as she felt happinies at being rescued. The man placed his hand on the lock for the cage and after a brief flash of blue light the lock fell to the ground with a hole in it and the cage opened.

"My name is Leofalor and we've come to rescue to you." Leo said as he helped Cecile out of the cage.

He proceeded to destroy the licks for each cage, letting all the surviving villagers out.

Cecile couldn't help herself and asked a question "The man that turned people into Beasts... Did you kill him...?" She asked.

"No...He got away." Leo replied. All the villagers seemed to be terrified at the moment and their expressions worsened upon hearing that Trent wasn't dead.

Cecile was terrified of Trent and now she heard that these people had allowed him to escape? She was about to exclaim her disapproval with this when she saw Leo's arm and face.

The room was dimly lit so she hadn't noticed it before but his face was clearly burned, although not too badly. His arm was another story.

It was immediately obvious that without a special method of recovery, that he would never be able to use his arm again due to the severe burns it had sustained.

Ceciles anger faded and she realized how hard they fought just to save their lives. 'I'm just being ungrateful...'

Leo noticed her looking at his arm. "Don't worry about it, my friend here is able to heal people with her ability. Once we get out of here, she will be able to fix it for me." Leo said with a slight smiling.

He was only half right about her feelings towards his injuries, but nevertheless it helped her feel better.

The villagers followed Leo and his group through the hallways and eventually they reached a large room that was on fire.

At least half the room was covered in raging fire and it was then that the villagers really understood how difficult the fight must have been for the room to look like this.

They continued through the room by avoiding the flames and each of the villagers took notice of Silas' dead body lying at the exit. Each of them had a similar thought upon seeing his body 'Good riddance.'

The walked through the tunnels and put into the fortress that guards the tunnels. The blinding light of the afternoon sun caused them all to since for a moment as their eyes adjusted to light.

Finally, they were able to see a something that made them all extremely surprised. There was around 50 soldiers staring at them in confusion.

"The military?" Cain asked in confusion.

That's when 4 figures walked passed the rest of the soldiers and stopped just ahead of Leo and the villagers.

"I'm glad to see you were successful." General Zogarth said. "You seem to be injured, do you need any assistance?"

Leo looked down at his arm again "No it's alright, Rene is a healer and will be able to assist me shortly. I have an abnormally high healing speed as well, so it should be fine either way." He replied matter of factly.

"That's good to hear then." The General replied with a look of satisfaction. "Are these all of the villagers that were inside?" Lieutenant Anders asked from beside the General.

"Yes and no. These are the only ones that were still alive. I think it would be best if we told you everything that happened." Leo said.

"Alright then." The General waved over some soldiers with medic uniforms on. "Give these people a thorough check and make sure they're alright."

"Leofalor, could your group please follow me. That includes you two as well." The general said, including Nila and Clay who were standing just behind himself and Lieutenant Anders.

The General took the group up to one of the watch towers that was set up on the walls. Once they were there, the General instructed them to tell him about what happened.

Everyone explained the parts of the stories that they were involved in, with Leo explaining the parts where everyone was present.

Leo left out everything pertaining to John in his retelling of the story, this earned him some confused looks from Cain and Rene but they went along with it and left him out of their versions as well.

"He was turning the villagers into...Beasts you called them?" Lieutenant Anders asked with a concerned look.

"Yes. The smaller ones were weak physically but could use a fire attack from range. The larger ones were physically strong and could apparantly use earth based attacks. The small ones are easy to kill but the larger ones are a bit tricky by comparison." Leo explained.

General Zogarth and Lieutenant Anders looked at each other with solemn expressions.

" Leofalor, we..."

" Leo." Leo interrupted The General.

" What?"

"I'd prefer if you two just called me Leo when we speak."

"Alright then, Leo. We have decided that the Cult cannot be left alone any longer. The military will be taking direct action against them so that they can't hurt the public any more. We will be informing the king of out plans and the situation as whole when we return. We would like you to be present so you can elaborate on the details of your journey." General Zogarth said.

" I'll do it under one condition. None of us are to be penalized for ignoring the command to stand down when our friend was taken." Leo said with a serious tone.

" You don't have to worry about that...we've already prepared to defend your actions." Lieutenant Anders said with a soft smile.