320 Chapter 320: Dark Fores

"That Lilith…she really went and made a name for herself, eh?"

Gabriel Porter was staring at the photograph of his little sister, which was projected as a holographic image that floated above his smartphone.

"Wow…her tournament ranking is pretty high…not that it means anything." Gabriel was nodding in approval. Rankings didn't determine anything, otherwise nobody would bother to hold tournaments and just hand out wins based on the competitors' ranks. That was stupid. I mean, look at the World Cup. Just because one team was higher ranked didn't mean the other team rolled over and lost automatically. Even so, Gabriel understood that his sister was receiving recognition.

Clenching his fist, he smiled.

"As her elder brother, I can't afford to fall behind!"

"Oi! Gabriel! You're falling behind!"

Blinking, the silver-blond fire mage glanced up and caught sight of his teammates waving at him. He hastily raced forward, looking sheepish. Gabriella Monique placed her hands on her hips, her long golden hair waving behind her.

"What do you think you're doing? Zoning out like that?"

"Ah…no. I mean…" Unable to contain his pride and excitement, Gabriel showed her the photo of Lilith. "My sister made it to the top tournament rankings this year! I really look forward to seeing how far she can go."

"She'll definitely make it out of the qualifiers," Gabriella agreed with an indulgent smile. Having met Lilith before, she treated the younger girl as her own sister. "And it's our job to ensure that she and her friends are safe from any outside interferences during the tournament."

Gabriel turned serious and he nodded. He glanced into the dark, dense woods ahead of them, and briefly imagined how his sister and her team would navigate through them. It would be a task several more times difficult and exponentially deadlier if they had Assassins lurking inside those depths and planning an ambush.

"Just what is the Dark Church planning?" he murmured.

"Who knows?" Gabriella shrugged. "Whatever they intend to do, it's our duty to stop them." She smiled and reached out to hold her partner's hand. "For the sake of your sister and her friends. For the sake of juniors still enrolled in the academies."

"Yeah."

The both of them continued their surveillance, only to hear a scrap against the soil. The couple momentarily halted in their tracks, reaching out with their senses.

"!!"

They found themselves surrounded by pack of Grotesques. Hulking, almost humanoid creatures that were over five meters tall and bulging with muscles, they were normally ranked D. However, both Gabriel and Gabriella knew that they couldn't afford to underestimate the newly arrived enemies.

There were a lot of problems with the ranking system – in the end, it was a man-made system arbitrarily decided by a small authority to roughly estimate the strength of monsters and an attempt to categorize them into neat classifications. Obviously, such arbitrary categorizes could never capture the complexities of reality. The monsters themselves couldn't care less about the ranks that humans assigned them, and they obviously couldn't be bothered to obey the categories we placed them in. At best, the ranking system was based on estimations. They were not meant to be absolute.

It was unfortunate that most people took the ranking system for granted and regarded it as the end all be all. But reality was far more complicated. A rank D monster wasn't necessarily going to lose to a rank C monster, and a rank A monster could still be overwhelmed by plenty of rank F monsters working in concert to swarm it.

Rank C monsters, for example, were ranked as such because they were powerful enough to master elemental magic. However, that didn't necessarily mean that all rank D monsters would lose to rank C monsters automatically. While they undoubtedly had the advantage in terms of elemental magic, rank D monsters were often physically stronger than rank C monsters. So if they caught a rank C monster by surprise, maybe through speed or landing a fatal blow, much like how a tiger could kill an elephant by biting its neck, they could most certainly win. Then there were rank F monsters that possessed venom so toxic that a single bite could kill even a rank B monster. Speaking of which, while rank B monsters were generally more powerful than rank C monsters, that didn't mean there was an absolute gap between them, or that rank B monsters were so much more destructive. Usually rank B monsters were given such status because of their control over their magical powers, because they tended to be the monsters that were capable of controlling their mana to the extent that they could compress it to a smaller sized body. So for rank B and rank C, it was skill rather than pure power or strength that separated them.

"Stop the info dump!" a reader whined impatiently. "Just get to the point already!"

Well, the point, my dear reader, is that please stop assuming that just because a mage can defeat a rank B monster, he automatically can defeat all monsters ranked C and below without much effort. Reality did not work like that. Monsters – and living organisms in general – did not fall so neatly into man-made categories and "ranks." Let your guard down, and even a low-ranked monster can kill you.

Basically, all monsters are dangerous regardless of rank, and don't ever underestimate them or take their ranks for granted.

"Do these Grotesques seem…off to you?" Gabriel asked as he punched one of them away, immolating the shrieking creature in flames.

"How so?" Gabriella asked as she ducked under a meaty swing from another Grotesque. She kicked it away before bathing it in lethal lightning, frying its skin and sending it into convulsion. "How can you tell? They seem just as aggressive as ever."

For a moment, Gabriel paused. Gabriella had a point. The Grotesques were behaving like normal Grotesques, attacking whatever human they encountered.

Even so, there was something not quite right about the situation, but the fire mage just couldn't place his finger on it. He rubbed his forehead after hurling an immense fireball that set three Grotesques ablaze and sent them rolling on the ground, howling until they perished.

"…"

Gabriel's eyes lingered on the dry leaves that had combusted spontaneously along with the corpses of the Grotesques that he and Gabriella had slain. For some reason, he was reminded of an arid desert. Then he started.

"Ah…I see! So that's how it is!"

"What? What are you talking about?"

Gabriella turned to look at him quizzically, but Gabriel continued to laugh for a few more seconds. Taking a deep breath as he drew his sword and cleaved another Grotesque in half before incinerating its corpse, he turned to his partner.

"Grotesques shouldn't be dwelling in forests. They are normally found in wastelands…or deserts."

"…you're right! They are out of their natural habitat! How did they get here?!"

Gabriella gasped when she realized that he was right. Ducking under the ungainly punch of a Grotesque before she kicked it, she scowled. Lashing out with an electric whip, she electrocuted the staggering Grotesque and sent its smoking corpse toppling to the ground.

"Don't tell me…"

"Yeah." Gabriel glanced up at the dark shadow who was concealing himself very well beneath the trees. "The Dark Church is involved."

Gabriella smiked. "Do you want the honors, or you want to let me try?"

"I'll take care of the Grotesques. You get the guy." Gabriel grinned at his beloved. "You have quite the way of handling guys, after all."

"Roger that!"

"Leave this to me and go!" Taking a deep breath, Gabriel raised his sword. "Enryuu Kagutsuchi!"

In a moment, the entire clearing vanished in an immense inferno. A fiery dragon emerged from the flames, bellowing ferociously before incinerating the remaining horde of Grotesques in an instant. Even though the ranking system wasn't absolute, it still served as a good estimate. After all, it was still difficult for a single ant to bite an elephant to death (of course, a cobra could still kill an elephant with a single bite, so…).

As the Grotesques burned, Gabriella was lunging out of the clearing, leaving the hellish inferno behind her. She shot toward the dark shape. The Dark Church dude recoiled, realizing that he had bitten off more than he could chew, and turned tail to run.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Gabriella gleefully lashed out with her whip, which curled around the guy and ensnared him tightly. The panicking hooded figure toppled over with a crash, cursing and swearing under his breath, but found his restraints indomitable. Realizing that he couldn't break free, the Assassin rolled over the ground and gritted his teeth.

"Now then…we'll have a few questions for you." Gabriella held onto her whip tightly, refusing to relinquish her prey. Behind her, Gabriel and his Soul Beast finished the last of the Grotesques – not that there were many left after Enryuu Kagutsuchi's summon – and proceeded toward their newly captured hostage.

"Don't dismiss your Soul Beast just yet," Gabriella told him. "We'll need him to transport this guy back to base."

"Yeah…." Gabriel began, but his eyes widened and he rushed toward the Dark Church dude. Gabriella blinked at his sudden movements.

"What is it, Gabriel?"

"Damn it! We're too late!"

"…huh?"

Gabriella studied her lover, looking utterly confused. She then moved her gaze toward the motionless hostage.

And then she realized something was amiss. The guy was too lifeless. Even if she had electrocuted him – and she didn't – he shouldn't be so still.

"He killed himself." Gabriel knelt next to the Dark Church guy and tilted his head to study him. Foam covered his lips, and his eyes were rolled up in their sockets, showing only whites. Gabriel slightly pried the mouth open and grimaced. "I knew it. He crushed the poison capsule in his mouth to terminate his own life."

"Did he really need to go that far?" Gabriella inquired, her voice a whisper. "I heard they were zealots, but…"

"It's not unusual. Faith can drive people to do remarkable things. Both amazing things and horrible things."

Gabriel was neither an atheist nor religious. He was…well, probably agnostic, if he had to describe himself. While he was aware of the atrocities that certain extremists committed in the name of religion, he also knew of the many charitable things that pious people did for the poor, the vulnerable and the innocent. Just like any other system, religion was exposed to both good and bad people, and could be used for both good and bad.

Unfortunately, a lot atheists enjoyed focusing only on the atrocities and completely ignoring the good that religion did. On the other side of the coin, you had zealous proselytizers who seriously believed that non-believers in their "one, true religion" would go to hell and regarded non-followers condescendingly. Gabriel was neutral toward religion, fortunately.

But the Dark Church wasn't a religion. It was…well, a cult. A doomsday cult packed full of nutjobs and maniacs.

"We'll report this back to base." Gabriel sighed. Another bust, huh? If they could have captured the Dark Church dude alive and prevent him from killing himself, they might have been able to interrogate him. Even if he refused to talk, they should have truth serums that would make him…well, submissive. Of course they would have to ask him questions, unlike what Kippo believed, truth serums didn't make people talk automatically. It was just tedious to go through an interrogation scene, so I skipped those details. But questions were asked, and…well, I would leave the other details to your imagination. Feel free to indulge in your grisly fantasies, or stay safe in more comfortable territory.

Gabriel glanced at the forest and sighed again. He wondered if his sister, Lilith would be assigned to this city along with her team. Even though he knew it was irrational, he prayed that she wouldn't. This place seemed dangerous.

However, Gabriel knew that every venue was equally dangerous. He was willing to bet that the other mercenaries and patrol teams in the other sectors had their own run-ins with elements of the Dark Church. He prayed that they would have better luck capturing a Dark Church operative. Even a single apprehended target could yield invaluable information.

"We're going into this blind," he complained softly to himself. "There's too many things we don't know."

"Huh? What did you say?"

Gabriel shook his head and smiled reassuringly at a concerned Gabriella. She had been watching him the entire time, worried by how pensive he had gotten.

"No, nothing." He straightened and glanced around the forest. "I'm hoping we'll be able to root out the Dark Church before the tournament begins. That's all."