Emma shook her head hesitantly. "I'm not too sure... all I remember was working in the shop with my dad, then there was a man who asked me to help him, so I followed him outside..."
"And then?"
Her small face looked serious, her brows knitted together in an effort to remember. "And then... I don't know, everything went dark..."
Armand took two pieces of lemon candy out of his pocket. He offered it to Emma, whose face brightened as she took it cheerfully, and popped the other one into his mouth. "I see. Do you remember what that man looks like, Emma?"
"Hm..." Her lips were pressed together, her big brown eyes deep in thought. "I-I'm not too sure, sorry, I think he looks really ordinary... Ah, but I remember he was wearing an unusual ring."
"Really? Why did it look unusual?"
"It has this really weird greyish stone that gave me a bad feeling. I've never seen that kind of stone before. M-my dad is a merchant, you see, we sell a lot of precious stones, but I'd never seen anything like it."
"Does it look like a glass stone with grey fog moving around inside of it?" Hearing their conversation, Seraphine walked over.
Armand glanced at her. "The teleportation circle?"
"I'm taking a break." She sighed, dropping beside them. She pulled out a water canteen and took a large sip. Armand nodded, pulled out another lemon candy and offered it to her.
She stared at the candy, then tentatively accepted it. "Um, thank you. Anyway, does that look something like this?" She summoned the captured mage's staff from her subspace storage.
"Ah, yes! It's a looottt smaller, but it looks really similar!" Emma's face lit up in recognition.
"Do you recognise it, Seraphine?"
Seraphine looked at the grey stone with a grim expression. "Unfortunately, yes. Someone I knew a long time ago used this kind of sinister magic."
"Magic? It's not an arcane stone?" Arcane stones were natural, mined stones with an innate ability to store and channel mana. Mages would embed them in their staves to store mana and facilitate spellcasting, or use them as materials for tools such as the arcane ember.
She sighed. "It's an enchanted arcane stone. Similar to the magic circle in that room you saw earlier, the magic has been tweaked to enhance the power significantly."
"Enhance the power?" Armand furrowed his brows. He had never heard of enhancing magic outputs using magic itself - it was a well-known principle that the strength of magic depended on the amount of mana the caster held. There were exceptions to the rule, such as strong mental imagery that could increase efficiency, but that was the general understanding.
"Yes..." Seraphine's eyes looked distant. "It's a vile magic, but also genius... that person called it 'Axio Fracta', magic that bends magic principles."
"...you seem to know this person very well."
Seraphine sighed. "I suspected it, but it's very clear now that we're not facing a typical human trafficking group. Armand, have you heard of a cult called the Order of Exile?"
"...!"
Emma, who had been listening to them intently, looked up to study the big brother's expression, which had turned into a mixture of grimness and dismay.
"I guess I wouldn't be surprised that you'd know of their existence... the World Tree Temple has classed information regarding them as confidential. To be honest, we don't know much about them, who they are and what they plan to do. But they've left traces of missing people behind them. Are you saying they're behind this?"
"Yes."
Armand gripped the hilt of his sword. "In that case, I'd need to report this to the Temple..."
"I'd refrain from doing that, if I were you. After all, we don't know who's on their side."
"Are you suggesting there are holy knights or priestesses who have joined the cult?"
Seraphine shrugged. "You never know. Just like with Jerome Flagrant, they seem to have eyes and ears everywhere. If you have to report it, it has to be to someone you really trust."
She was expecting Armand to get angry, but he just looked deep in thought. Seraphine sighed and stood up, walking back towards the incomplete circle.
"Anyway, I better finish this quickly."
*****
When the teleportation circle was ready, they woke the children up and gathered them inside the circle. They looked absolutely exhausted, but in good spirits. Armand took the time while Seraphine was doing finishing touches to get to know the children a bit more.
Emma, a travelling merchant's daughter. Florian, a baronet's second son. Lia, an orphan from the slum of Dohara who lived together with Darryl and Nico. Anne-Marie, an earl's daughter and the youngest of all. Lastly, there were Diana, the daughter of a butcher, and Ron, a blacksmith's son, who seemed to be acquainted with each other.
Apart from Diana and Ron, the rest of the children had no connection to each other. After asking them similar questions to what he had asked Emma, he found that the way they were kidnapped differed. It worried him that he could not see any patterns connecting these children's cases.
Perhaps sensing his mulling, Seraphine approached him. "Is that not it?"
"Is that not what?"
"I mean... don't they all seem to have high affinity for holy power?"
Armand looked at her, stunned. "Does your Watcher's Eye allow you to see things like that, too?"
"Yes, just roughly..."
Indeed, while the children's mana reserves varied, all of them seemed to have an affinity for holy power. However, this was not something that normal people could easily determine. Possessing divine power himself, Armand could sense it more easily—but he had no idea how anyone outside the Temple's high-ranking knights or priestesses could perceive it.
"Hm, I wonder if they use some kind of magical tool that could detect holy power affinity?"
"Is that even possible?"
"Why're you asking me? You're the holy knight."
Armand closed his mouth.
"Brother holy knight, brother holy knight," a small boy with missing front teeth, Ron, tugged on Armand's cloak. "Are you taking us out of here?"
Armand smiled and rubbed his head. "Yes, it's almost ready. Big sister is activating it now."
"Yay!"
Children indeed adapted fast. They looked so weary before, but now they seemed upbeat.
Once everything was in place, Seraphine unfolded her steel fan and activated the circle. The complicated and hypnotic bluish-silver inscriptions within the circle lighted up. The children looked mesmerised as it was probably their first time experiencing mass teleportation, a high-level magic.
At that moment, a child's - Ann-Marie's - scream echoed through the cave.
Armand and Seraphine immediately whipped their head towards where the child was looking. At the chamber's narrow entrance loomed an enormous orange head of an insect-like monster, its cold, lifeless black eyes fixed on them, antennae quivering with a sharp, intent focus. With a shove of its enormous segmented body, it destroyed the entrance, bringing down a rain of rocks. Armand quickly cast a holy barrier upon them.
"Ah, shit." Seraphine muttered amidst the children's screams. "It's the Deathstalker. Guess it's not that full after all. Okay, okay... helyváltoztatás, let us move through space, bla bla bla.... let's go!"
Feeling the circle activating in full power beneath them, Armand tightened his grip on the children.
The Deathstalker's jaws closed in on the group as light flashed around them.