Chapter 161 Michael's Mission

"It seems you've already made up your mind. It doesn't matter if the cult is right or wrong, you just want to get back at us for our involvement in your condition. Since I killed the man that started the process with you, I suppose all your anger is directed at us now... It's a shame, John. We would have helped you if you'd just come back with us."

Leo spoke, a sense of loss and disappointment being conveyed in his tone and expressions. Left the dungeon after saying his piece, not giving John the chance to reply.

As Leo left the dungeon, Clay rounded a corner up ahead and seemed to be looking for something or someone, given the way he was looking down the hallways and into rooms.

He finally turned in Leo's direction and immediately walked towards him with a look on his face that seemed to mean 'Finally'.

"I've been looking for you. Did you just come from the dungeons? Did you speak with John...?"

"I did." Leo replied "He knows that the cult isn't exactly what he believed but he just doesn't care. He hates us for our part in what happened to him that day and he's using it to justify his actions."

"Did he say anything about his vision, the one where you supposedly destroy the world?"

"Yeah. He acts like it's his main reason for joining the cult and that may have been true initially... But I don't know anymore..." Leo sighed and shook his head.

There was a moment of pause where neither of the two said anything but Clay broke the silence, needing to say what he came here for.

"The scout we sent to look for Cain just came back. He's being sent to your office to tell us what he's found."

Leo nodded "Let's not keep him waiting then."

***

The Infernai who had been sent to investigate the town was sitting in Leo's office waiting to give his report. An Infernai by the name of Michael.

He was a young man, roughly 16-17 years old just like the other Infernai. He would look like a typical man if not for the expression on his face. He had this bubble of negative emotion around him that it feel like he had just returned from a war zone.

The door to the office opened, Leo and Cain walked in and noticed the man sitting on one of the couches so they sat on the opposite one to him

"Tell us what you found." Clay said.

He had a disturbed look in his eyes and an expression of unwillingness. Nevertheless, he knew there would be no point to any of it if he didn't answer, so he thought back to his recent mission and told them it's details.

***

Michael had just been assigned a solo mission, something he was excited to go on. To him it was a sign that his skills were being recognized.

His ability allowed was a type of teleportation. There were several ways that Infernai with a teleportation ability would make use of their power.

Michael in particular was able to designate places as teleportation destinations. He could do this beforehand and was able to go to these places regardless of the distance. He could choose up to three designated points, having only been capable of one at first.

He was able to teleport himself and people he was touching but he would be limited to what he could see if he wasn't making use of his designated points.

Michael made use of his ability to teleport as far as he could see over and over again, allowing him to reach the town after only an hour. He could have arrived sooner but he had been teleporting slightly too far to the left and had to take some time to find the town.

He teleported to the nearest street he could see once he had spotted the town. As soon as he arrived he was greeted by the sight of dozens of corpses all around him.

Every direction he looked in there were more bodies, each of them had been slashed, crushed or burned or some way.

He wasn't accustomed to scenes like this yet but it's wasn't as though he hadn't seen them before. Pushing on, he spent some time and searched every street and alley the town had.

He eventually came across a group of mangled corpses that were wearing what was left on an Infernum uniform. The strange part about the bodies was that they were all missing their heads.

He followed the trail of bodies through an alleyway and into a sort of courtyard between the buildings.

He noticed that there were several corpse of what he would describe as being monsters, but he had been informed that they were called beasts and that they were created by Trent.

His eyes were drawn to something in the middle of the courtyard. The corpses littering the area had distracted him before so he only noticed it now.

The missing heads of the Infernai had been placed in the center of the courtyard and were arranged to form a circle. Inside the circle, two hammers had been placed with the handles point to the sky.

All of this was proving to be too much for Michael's mind, the horrifying scene around him was making him feel something akin to a panic attack.

He ran forwards and picked up the hammers, instantly teleporting away as he did. He didn't want to be there even a second longer than needed but he had maintained his composure enough to know he should atleast grab the hammers before leaving.

***

Michael finished explaining what he had seen and placed the hammers on the table between the couches.

Clay picked up one of the hammers "If they made a show of putting his hammers in the circle kf heads then we can probably assume that he's been captured and not killed."

"I agree. Maybe they want to use him as some sort of negotiation tool later on? To force me to surrender to them or something?" Leo suggested.

"It's possible. They also might want to turn him to their side like they did John." Clay said.

"I don't think he would join them. It doesn't matter what they show him, he's too stubborn to do that." Leo said.

He then stood up and gestured towards the door "You did well, Officer Michael. You may go now."

"Thank you but... It's private, sir." Michael said as he made his way to the door.

"Not anymore." Leo said.

Michael smiled "Thank you!" His mood had been lifted, although only slightly. After Michael had left the room, Leo sat down opposite Clay.

"Did you really just promote him? He only did a simple mission, it seems a bit much." Clay asked.

"We've lost most of squad one, three and four in a single night. Leonards squad is the only one that suffered only a few losses. We need to promote some people to replace those that have died and as far as I've been told, he's one of the most skilled teleportation users." Leo said in reply.

" You're right, we do need to build our forces up again. Our Platoon has suffered a huge loss, meanwhile Snythe barely had any of his people in any of the battles. It sure is convenient that his people had been sent on different missions right before the attack." Clay said with suspicious tone.

" I agree. He had some of his Platoon here and just the one squad in Drom, otherwise he suffered no losses. We still can't prove anything but at least we have more cause to believe our suspicions are true."

"I hope we're wrong about him and it's all just a coincidence, although it doesn't feel like that's the case right now." Clay said.

"Do we have someone who's ability allows them to view things happening in other places? Someone we can trust to keep an eye of Snythe?" Leo asked.

"No, nobody has an ability like that. I've already tried to have someone use telepathy to get his head but he always has one of his people use the same ability to block them out." Clay answered with a sigh.

"He's being careful. We need to find a way to watch him more closely so we can gather some evidence against him. At the same time, we need to find out what the cult wants with Cain and how we can get him back."

"I can't lose Cain like I have John. I'll do everything in my power to help him." Clay said as he stood up and left the room.

Leo sat in silence for a few minutes, just thinking about the events that had occurred recently. After that, he decided it was time to take all the stat points and ski point he had received from his rewards and distribute them to their needed areas.

He opened the system and realized something 'I have enough skill points to increase Authority to level 2. It won't take effect until the penalty ends since all skills are reduced by one level but that's only temporary.'

'I'll be able to use lightning soon.'