Briefing

Inside a dark tunnel, a man in a green robe walked, his footsteps echoing. He reached the end and pushed a part of the wall, revealing it to be a door that swung open. Entering, the man saw a small, round room that had nothing but a circular table in the middle and glowing green runes written on the walls, providing light.

"Sir, it's been confirmed. Nash is dead." He spoke to the only person in the room, another man but with a more detailed robe lined with gold trimmings, sitting down in front of a rune.

"So it is true. I admit, I am surprised that the Blood of Syne went that far." The man spoke, standing up, but not turning around. "It was fine when they were simply attacking small outposts and whatnot, but they cannot be ignored any longer. Doing that would be a disgrace to Lord Namek." 

"What are your orders, High Priest?"

"Send the acolytes to investigate the crime scene. Any unimportant side branch is fine. As for you, I need you to personally start looking for the Blood of Syne. Kill any member you see, destroy any bases you find. You may leave immediately."

"As you wish." Bowing, the man exited the room as soon as he entered, the High Priest taking a seat once more by a rune.

******

"Hey guys. What are you doing?" Lanius called out to his squadmates as he entered the training field. Lisa was sitting on an exposed tree root, while Zane was sitting on the grass, peacefully reading a book.

"Waiting for master to show up." Lisa scratched her neck. 

"Hello Lanius." Zane said, smiling at the white-haired boy before turning back to his "book". In reality, the pages were filled with spell diagrams he copied from the grimoire back at the headquarters of his cult. He didn't think it was a bad idea to branch out his Dark Magic, considering it wasn't specific to any one type.

Lanius joined Lisa in idle chat, leaving Zane to his book. After waiting a few minutes, Vincent finally appeared. They were preparing themselves to go through another bout of hellish training, until they saw how serious he looked.

"Mage Squad Six…" He spoke, looking each one of them in the eyes. "We have a mission, to begin as of right now. Follow me, I will brief you on the way there. I have already prepared supplies and transportation."

He immediately turned around and left, leaving the shocked but excited young Mages to follow. 

"Finally! THIS is what we've been training for over a month for!" Lanius could barely contain his excitement. 

"I wish we had a heads up at least…" Lisa grumbled, but she too was undoubtedly excited. Zane followed them with a smile.

'This should be fun.' He thought. 'Can't wait to see what scenes I can create when we're at it.'

They followed Vincent to the gates of the academy, where a carriage attached to two horses awaited. Mage Squad 6 hurriedly boarded while a man from the academy acted as their driver. Before long, they were out of the Capital and headed towards their destination, wherever that may be.

"To give you all some background information on this mission, there are two known cults in the Magine Kingdom." Vincent began to explain, garnering the surprise of his students, with one of them feigning it. "Originally, it was just this cult called the Children of Namek that worshipped a god called Namek, kidnapping and killing civilians, but recently a new cult appeared called the Blood of Syne." 

Zane felt Lanius and Lisa's gaze fall on him as he gulped, trying to appear hesitant about the information as Vincent continued. 

"They first appeared after killing a small platoon of soldiers in the outskirts of the Capital, leaving their name written on the ground with the blood of their victims. Since then, that's been their signature that they leave behind at every place they attack. And yes, the cult seems to be somehow connected to Zane's family." 

"Were your parents cultists?" Lisa interjected.

"Lisa!" Lanius frowned at her.

"What? I'm asking a genuine question." 

"The cult does not seem to be friendly to Zane or his family." Vincent cut in. "In fact, the cult seems to be targeting him. That day when our squad was created, Zane was being interviewed by the military about the cult, but before we could finish, one of the cultists suddenly appeared and tried to kill him." 

He didn't want to tell his students about the Deathrider. He didn't want them to be worried.

"And just so you three know, the information I just shared with you is highly classified. The public does NOT know about the Children of Namek or the Blood of Syne, and we intend to keep it that way. You are not to share any sort of information to anyone outside our squad. As for how this connects to the mission…"

Vincent took a breath.

"A known information dealer that runs a town, known as 'Smart Nash', was recently found dead in his home along with all of his guards, a few days after receiving a request from the Headmaster to investigate the Blood of Syne. Can you guess what was written on the wall?" 

Zane frowned along with Lanius while Lisa was still-faced. 

"Our mission is to investigate Smart Nash's home and find any clues related to the Blood of Syne. As of right now we have two theories on what happened to him: Either he found out something he shouldn't have, or there's a mole in the academy that somehow found out about the letter the Headmaster sent." 

"Why is this happening…" Zane looked down and mumbled, glaring at his fists, before "realizing" that his squadmates and master were looking at him weirdly, while Lisa looked in disgust. He quickly put on a smile. "What is it?" 

"But… why us?" Looking away from Zane, Lanius asked Vincent, who sighed.

"I am the only one with access to the related information and the only one qualified to investigate. If there truly is a mole, then news of the cults may leak should anyone else be sent to investigate. As for why not the military, that's because of the Headmaster's personal reasons. I simply thought it would be better to bring you three with me rather than leave you alone at the academy, you still deserve a mission after all." 

"Won't it be dangerous?" Lisa said, staring out the window. 

"Hopefully not. We will do a quick but thorough examination of the crime scene and the surroundings before leaving. We will not be trying to get involved in any combat or emergency situation whatsoever. Now that I've briefed you, do your best to prepare yourselves. We will be seeing a lot of death once we arrive."

As the carriage settled down, Zane kept frowning. Vincent thought he was stressed over the whole cult situation, but in reality, Zane was simply conversing with his 4 heads through his symbol he left at the base through his mind.

"Wait, so none of you guys raided and killed some guy named Smart Nash? Then why are they saying you guys did it?!"