Reina stepped forward. Her boots made no sound on the mossy floor. She knelt beside the sorcerer.
"What's your name?" Reina started with the most basic question.
"Jennow..." The sorcerer droned. Answering the question with a voice that was devoid of inflection.
Reina continued asking simple questions. "What's your affiliation? Your position and organization?"
"Enforcer... of the Black Market Syndicate."
"Who gave you your orders? What is your task?" Barnaby chimed in.
"The Strategist..." Jennow replied. "The mission... eliminate participants... slay every monsters... sow chaos... maximize casualties... in Battle Moon Realm..."
"For what purpose?" Reina asked with narrowed eyes. "Why do you need to maximize the casualties here?"
"The Pearl..." Jennow whispered. "Everything for the pearl..."
"What pearl?" Jack Lantern asked.
"The Battle Moon Pearl... To evolve it into... Yrenlobeng Pearl... That's the... real prize... for the alliance..."
Jack's pumpkin face frowned. He remembered the name Yrenlobeng. The antagonist in the legend told by the old Fable Keeper in Marevale Town. The dark angel who invaded this world and was defeated by the two dragons before they became the two moons in the sky.
Ned, however, was concerned about another point in Jennow's answer. "Alliance? What alliance?"
"We are... a collective cooperation..." the sorcerer recited. "The Syndicate... Purity Cult... Undeath Sect... Circles of Wealth... Eternal Soul Cult... Glorious Pirates... and... Night Salvation Association... We are the Celestial Alliance..."
Barnaby glanced at Reina. Muttering swear words under breath. "Since when do groups of craps like them agree to join hands? Bad news. It's truly a bad news."
"What is this pearl evolution?" Reina asked. "Explain what you know about it."
Jennow's voice immediately replied. "The pearl is a growing artifact... Every death in this realm... monster or human... creates an evolution point... It pools in the Pearl... for decades... centuries..."
"The Night Salvation calculated the threshold..." He continued. "This year... the accumulation will be sufficient... The pearl will evolve... into the Yrenlobeng Moon Pearl... But to make sure... the Alliance sends us... to maximize numbers of death..."
"Yrenlobeng?" Aella whispered. She finally remembered where she had heard that name. "That's the invader that was exiled by the Grandmoon and Sweetmoon, isn't it? But, isn't that just a myth?"
"The story might just be a myth." Reina calmly explained. "But the names in it might not just be casually-made-up names."
"So, what is the use of this Yrenlobeng Pearl thing?" She asked the sorcerer.
"It is a key... to the Gateway of Lost Inheritances..." The sorcerer answered. "A pocket dimension of the ancients... filled with powerful weaponry... arcane knowledge... and forbidden lineages..."
"The Battle Moon Pearl is in the hand of Grandmoon Kingdom." Barnaby said. "It is protected by several illuminated level transcendent guardians. And within the Grandmoon Island, the guardians' power will significantly be enhanced. How will your alliance deal with that?"
"The alliance has agreed..." Jennow said in the same flat tone. "Once the pearl evolves... they will summon... their illuminated powerhouses... The pearl will be seized..."
A heavy silence fell over the group. The cold wind whipped through the red leaves of the forest. Producing a whispering sound, just like a distant, mournful murmur of the departed souls.
"Crap!" Barnaby swore again. "Illuminated level? That's way out of our league."
Jack narrowed his pumpkin's eyes. His mind was racing through his own calculation. If the Night Salvation Association had calculated correctly, it would be pointless for them to stop killing monsters. Besides, preventing other contestants to kill monsters would be too difficult considering the huge area of the realm.
He came to a terrible realization. Every monster they had slain, every alliance members they had killed... it was all fueling the evolution of the pearl.
"How many illuminated ones will be involved?" Ned asked the still unconscious sorcerer.
"Seven..." Jennow replied. "One from each organization.... They are hiding... waiting for the final tally... The moment the tournament ends... and the pearl starts to react... they will strike..."
"It's a war against Grandmoon Kingdom, huh?" Reina asked.
The sorcerer didn't reply.
Jack Lantern looked at the four others. "Do you still have anything else to ask? If you don't, I've got to return now."
The others shook their head.
"Fine. Just tell Night if he needs my help, he just needs to ask me." The pumpkin headed puppet said. "My price is the lowest in the Circle. Make sure to tell him that."
The puppet's carved grin went eerily wider. He reached into his coat and produced the same metal and amber artifact Jack Night had shown. A fake medallion he had meticulously crafted very recently.
With a loud whistling sound, he injected his mystic power into the object. "It will be a little bright, Ladies and Gentlemen. See you next time!"
A blinding, pearlescent flare erupted. Washing out the surrounding in a cascade of white light.
Within the super bright light, invisible to anyone, the puppet frame of Jack Lantern collapsed. Replaced by the sturdy, leather-clad silhouette of Jack Night, the transcendent human.
The light faded as quickly as it had appeared. Revealing Jack Night's appearance. His hands were gripping his steamrune shotgun tightly.
Reina immediately drifted to his side. "Dear!" She said in low voice. "The situation is worse than we thought..."
She retold what the interrogation had revealed, although she knew that Jack had perfectly known that already. She was the only one here who knew that Jack Lantern and Jack Night was the same person. However, to perfect Jack's disguise, she had to pretend that the two characters were unrelated.
Jack's eyes scanned the perimeter.
Rune, his fairy guide, fluttered out of his collar. Her tiny body pulsed in warning shades of orange and deep violet.
"We need to discuss our plan." Jack said in calm and steady voice. "And we need the others in our crew to be here. I can try to summon them here. It shouldn't be hard to do that to Leon's team. Should we transfer the observer group too? Argust, Mirella, Don, and the sisters?"
"No." Barnaby immediately shook his head. "They might be in public at present. Besides, the realm will spit us out when the time is up, because we enter through the 'legitimate gate'. It might not be the case for them if you summon them here."
Jack understood the reasoning. He nodded and closed his eyes for a split second. Reaching out with his [Mark and Summon] ability.
He felt the resonance of the marks he had placed on the other team members earlier. He immediately sent mental request for [Summon] to the Ocean Wanderer Team.
After sensing the approval from them, Jack activated the [Summon] power. The views nearby quickly looked distorted. A ripple of void energy tore open a crack in the air.
And within seconds, Baroness Artheim, Bell, Moby, Leon, and Chloe, with her kirin cub, Sparkle, stumbled into the clearing.
"Captain?" Baroness Artheim straightened her leather cloak. Her eyes immediately darted to the unconscious Jennow. "What is this? Why did you call us in a hurry?"
"The game has changed." Jack said. Gesturing to the captured sorcerer. "Reina, brief them what we've learned."
As Reina recounted the intelligence, the expressions of the arriving team hardened. Leon's armored hand flexed. The metal plates were grinding with a sound like a closing tomb.
"An alliance of seven nasty groups." He whispered with serious face. "And seven illuminated level big shots were waiting to unleash hell outside. What a terrible luck!"
"If we die, the pearl gets its energy. If we kill anything in here, the pearl also gets its energy." Chloe said, clutching Sparkle tightly. The kirin cub hissed. Sparks of electricity dancing between its small horns. "And if we hide, we're just waiting for the cull."
"The Battle Moon Pearl, huh?" Baroness Artheim muttered. Her eyes narrowed. "I've heard various myths of this Yrenlobeng name. An invader from a different realm in one story. A lost paradise in another story. A cursed angel in a different story."
"Whatever it is, in all those stories, there is a strong warning to stay away from it." She frowned. "And here, this crazy alliance is looking at it as if it is a great treasure."
"You don't think it's truly a treasure vault?" Leon asked.
"Not a chance." The baroness immediately replied. "Well, I probably shouldn't say not a chance. There is probably one in a million chance that it might be as you said, a treasure vault. But I dare bet all my wealth, it won't end nicely."
"Can you tell us the myth that associates Yrenlobeng with a lost paradise?" Reina asked. "The alliance seems to base their theory on that particular story."
Baroness Artheim adjusted her glasses. "Well, if I had to summarize the story... It was basically a Greygearean Mythology. The Almighty Creator gave a beautiful Paradise Land to the first transcendent human, Artamax. But, because Artamax tried to steal the divine secret of the Creator, he was punished and cursed."
She stopped for a second before continuing. "Artamax became the first ghoul and the Paradise Land turned into a black hole before disappearing and becoming a black star in the sky. The name of Paradise Land was changed by the Creator into Yrenlobeng, meaning... the darkest hole."
"The lost paradise, huh?" Barnaby commented. "It's closer to a cursed land, I bet."
Jack turned to the group. He felt a familiar, cold surge of adrenaline. He was no stranger to large-scale schemes. The Highcliff Catastrophe... the chaos in the Valley of Despair...
But this time, it was a direct threat to the safety of everyone he had brought into this adventure. He looked at his companions.
"We need to make a plan." Jack decided.