Rescue!

"Alright, I'll give you a break."

Sitting down, Zane pulled out a handkerchief that he used to wipe the blood off his hands. Unfortunately, the blood on his clothes had already dried, so he would need to use magic to clean them.

In front of him sat Petra, still blind and deaf. Each breath she took hurt, as blood flowed out of the open wounds all over her body, especially her half-cauterized stump of a left leg.

"So her branch has at least 500 members, there are about 30-50 small outposts or hideouts throughout the Magine Kingdom, 7 of which are near the Capital…" 

Zane tossed aside the handkerchief as he recalled all of the information he got from her so far.

"She's just an Acolyte, which is one of the lowest in their rankings. Above her are Priests, High Priests, Champions, and the First-Fifthborn."

An interesting thing he had heard from her was how High Priests and above in the cult were actually granted powers by Namek himself. It made Zane kind of want to face one of them.

"Lord Zane, we're back."

Hearing Benjamin's voice, Zane turned his head to see him and Barry emerge from the shadows on the ground.

"Did you guys plant my letter?"

"Yup. His archives are pretty far. If we didn't have a way to teleport through these shadows, it would have taken days to get there." Barry answered.

"Any traps, people, or things I need to know?" 

"It's big, just row after row of filing cabinets and safes reaching to the ceiling. Surprisingly, there were no traps, no people, just a lock, but we destroyed it, made it look like someone broke in quite harshly."

"We also found a section just for us, in one of the corners. Definitely recently added." Benjamin continued where Barry left off. "Only thing in it was a list of the outposts we've destroyed and our signature messages."

"That's good." Zane rubbed his chin as the cave went silent, save for the sounds of pain Petra made every now and then.

"..."

"..."

"...You guys hungry?"

******

"Master! Wake up!"

Everything was fuzzy. Was someone calling him?

"I told you that light was him!"

"Is this really the time for an 'I told you so!?'"

"Wait, he's awake! He's awake!"

Vincent slowly opened his eyes and sat up before coughing like crazy. Lanius quickly grabbed a flask of water and handed it to him. Vincent drank his fill before getting to his feet.

"What happened here, master?" Lanius looked around at all the destruction, his gaze lingering on the greatswords of shadow.

"The Blood of Syne has someone very strong. They beat me." Vincent noticed something was off. "Are you two alright? Where is Zane?"

"We're fine, but they kidnapped him before chasing us around the town." Lisa stepped forward. "We managed to slip away when we saw the pillars of light here, so we assumed it was you and followed it."

Vincent's blood ran cold.

"We need to find him, right now!" Vincent ran back towards the town, the two following him. 

"What? Can't we just call the military, or some backup to help us first?" Lisa asked.

"I agree. No offense, master, but you just got your ass beat!"

"We can't, remember?" Vincent reminded them. "This mission is secret. Besides, if we don't act quickly, they might kill him before any sort of backup arrives!"

Lisa and Lanius didn't have a counter.

"Alright, let's try to capture one of them and find out where Zane is." Lanius nodded, accepting the situation. Lisa did so as well, but didn't forget to express her frustrations.

"Man, fuck this mission!"

They ran for a while until they reached the edge of the town, spotting a cultist leaning against a wall, unaware of them. The cultist yawned as a white line appeared on his neck, continuing on the wall and around a corner.

"Don't move or I take off your head."

Vincent appeared next to the shocked cultist, who noticed the line on his neck.

"I'm only going to ask this once." Vincent coldly looked him in the eyes as he felt the line around his neck get tighter. "Where is Zane Syne?"

The cultist looked terrified before freezing, his face changing from scared to calm. 

"H-He's in a cave north of the town, only a short distance away." As the cultist spoke, his shadow became thicker, but Vincent failed to notice it.

"Thanks for making it easy."

Nodding, Vincent pulled the line, aiming to decapitate the cultist, but the man quickly sunk into his own shadow and disappeared, the line cutting into the wall instead.

"No!"

"No need to worry."

Vincent quickly turned around as Lanius and Lisa came from behind the corner. They spotted Benjamin, his feet already submerged in shadow.

"You!"

"Zane Syne is perfectly fine." Benjamin smiled menacingly at them. "We left him alone at the cave. His brother just wanted to speak with him, that's all. You're free to go get him, we're done here anyway."

Benjamin began to sink into the shadows once more, but Vincent called out to him. 

"Wait! What do you mean by his brother?" Vincent frowned while his two students looked confused. "He never had siblings."

Benjamin only laughed. "Why don't you ask him yourself? I doubt he'll be hesitant to divulge information after you find him."

Still laughing, Benjamin quickly sunk into the shadows and disappeared as Vincent blasted the spot where he once was with light.

"Master…" Lanius began.

"Yeah, something's not right here." Vincent closed his eyes, trying to sense any remaining dark energy from the cultists, but there was none. "Let's quickly find Zane so we can plan our next move."

They moved through the town, cautiously at first, but hurried as soon as they realized that Benjamin told the truth. The town was empty, no sign of Blood of Syne or the Children of Namek.

They followed the instructions of the cultist, leaving the town through the north exit, traveling in the forest for a while before coming across a cave.

"I think this is it." Lanius noted while Lisa frowned.

"It is. I can sense some lingering dark energy here." What Vincent omitted from his observation was the fact that it was a very powerful energy. 

'This energy… It's on par with the Headmaster at least.'

Swallowing his nerves, Vincent led the way inside while his students cautiously followed behind.

"Let's find Zane."