Chapter 17

Tracing Paths

All the Outer Alliance bases that were present on the planet of Vanguard III were well concealed from anyone's sight. They had mostly spread in regions of Gernn where their headquarters was also located. The main base, unlike the others, was divided into three parts which were known as sectors, each depicting an equal part of the dome-shaped structure.

Cliff at this moment was present at the same base which was being supervised by Commander Shin. He stepped into the commander's room in the third sector where Shin was eagerly waiting for his arrival.

Shin gave his subordinate a grim look before speaking. "You wanted to see me, Cliff?"

"Yeah..." Cliff answered quietly after clearing his throat. "About the village of Whipple... the heck was that all about?"

"Heh. Just showing them that we meant business... that'll surely give a mark to anyone who tries to act wise with us again." Shin said as he turned to face Cliff. "But that doesn't concern you. Rodrigue has already taken care of that."

Cliff shook his head in disappointment, "That doesn't matter! Our job's neither to burn down any villages nor take lives unnecessarily."

"Are you still such a softie? What's the matter with you...? Don't tell me you're missing your little friends... or should I say, your former friends? Hahahahah!"

"..." Cliff shut his eyes from annoyance without uttering another word.

"Anyway, what was all that commotion in the Northern Base i've been hearing about lately?" Shin asked with a serious expression.

"I haven't gathered all the details yet, and I probably won't until I get a hold of him..." Cliff replied.

"Yeah, I haven't heard from Rodrigue in the past few days either... think he's still alive? Nah... i'm sure he won't go down that easy." said Shin as he slowly scratched the back of his bald head.

"He's ducked out." said Cliff calmly.

"What?"

"There was supposedly a young blue-haired chick who was involved in a rough incident with Rodrigue near the base. Guess Rodrigue couldn't keep up and has vanished since then..." Cliff shrugged hinting that he was only speculating.

"Well, it's not like we needed him any longer here," said Shin with relief. "We'll just have to watch out for Quark again."

"Leave that to me." Cliff smacked his fists with a sly grin on his face.

------------------------

No one hesitated before agreeing to Ascal's request to make a stop at Neel's Research Laboratory. They made their way towards the lab located near the Southern Woods just a few kilometres across from Pessoto Forest.

"Savior Ascal! What brings you here again?" a lady dressed in a scientist's attire came to greet them at the entrance to the lab. From outside, it looked more like a museum.

"Well, hello there Marsha. Is Ricardo anywhere 'round at the moment?" Ascal asked quickly.

Marsha nodded, "Why yes... he's downstairs in the lab right now. I'm sure it's not going to cause him any trouble for you and your friends to visit him at this moment."

Ricardo looked a lot older than Mirage had expected. He had frizzled hair with white streaks, and his face consisted of many wrinkles with his smart and nerdy-looking glasses that shifted up and down everytime he spoke. One intriguing characteristic about this man was that he belonged to the featherfolk who were descended from birds. His wings were light blue and they stuck out from the corner of his lab coat.

"So what brings you here today then, Ascal?" Ricardo asked as he stared at a container filled with a liquid substance on his desk. The lab was filled with many test tubes placed in all corners of the room. He had many assistants present at the lab who looked as if they were working on an investigation of their own. Like Ricardo, at least half of them also belonged to the featherfolk race.

"Professor Ricardo, I think you know about the Calamity's invasion on Gernn, right? Have you seen any of them around?" asked Ascal.

"Oh yes. I've managed to spot a few of them lurking in the area around here. Luckily, this place was concealed well enough by the woods for us not to be spotted. They have bases planted on many areas of Gernn." he said as he pushed back his glasses.

"grawk! Why would they would have so many here? I wonder... grib maybe they're more than just bases." Maria wondered as she looked towards others for an answer.

"Don't mind those noises... I think she's sick or something." Ascal replied quickly referring to the funny noises coming from Maria.

"Of course, this is only conjection, although still substantial..." said Professor Ricardo while sitting down back on his chair in front of his desk. "But these facilities you refer to as bases all seem to have one thing in common."

"What is it?" asked Mirage curiously.

"According to our research lab's recent investigation, we have discovered that Gernn's soil is a lot more natural than Rashfall." Ricardo responded as he looked at everyone's puzzled expressions. "In other words, the soil here has a much higher concentration of Jindou energy than the ones in Rashfall."

Welch scratched her head in confusion, "Jindou energy?"

"You forget? Jindou comes from the first yogen declared over a hundred years ago... it's a type of energy that is emitted from any natural resource." Ascal said as he turned towards the Professor. "But Ricardo... if there really is a lot more of that stuff over here, what would that mean?"

"Don't you understand? Almost all of the Calamity's invasions have occured in Gernn. Jindou is not just a form of energy, but when enough is gathered around... they have potential to form the all-powerful Fenrir crystals." Ricardo spoke in a scientific attitude.

"Isn't that the same thing you have on your sword, Ascal?" Mirage asked to which he nodded.

Ricardo went on, "Our investigation also included the regions of Gernn with soil that contain the most concentrated Jindou, and those regions are exactly where the Calamity's bases are now!"

"Hmm... I see. This is all starting to make a little more sense now." Mirage said as she put one finger on her lip. "So those bases are rather facilities that are draining the soil of its energy in order to form Fenrir crystals."

"Now that I think of it... Rashfall did have a shortage of Fenrir crystals. That's why the Requiem Code often had to dig them all out from Gernn." Ascal stated. "Man who would have thought they were this clever?"

"They are the Calamity, but they're here for a reason. The wouldn't just assault the people of Gernn for no apparent reason." Ricardo replied with a sarcastic expression.

"So all this is what has been stated in the tale known as 'Shadow Light'?" Xeim asked doubtfully.

"That's correct. I've been carrying out the research that was left incomplete by my great grandfather." he replied. "Gowen, can you bring the second grade soil?" Ricardo said towards one of his assistants in the lab.

"Right away, professor." Gowen went in the back to bring back a cylindrical tube contained with dark brown soil which looked to be a little damp. "This is it."

"Thank you. This is the soil that's is generally found in Gernn... it is highly concentrated. Normally, if the soil is very dilute with Jindou energy, you would find humus and disintegrated rocks along with a much higher concentration of hematite inside the soil's layer. However, it is a totally different matter when you find a higher concentration of Jindou enough to extract it. You will notice that Gernn's soil is a lot less red in color than Rashfall due to the low concentration of hematite in the soil. This is because the soil consists mostly of Jindou instead. Of course, Jindou is generally almost everywhere being released by all aspects of nature, but only underneath the ground do they gather enough to be extracted for it to be of any use. But even then, it's a long process for it to be transformed fully into a Fenrir crystal."

"Yeah, I had heard somethin' similar in the legendary tale. So you know what's the connection between this world and the history of Shadow Light then?" asked Ascal.

"What I can tell is that it's more than just a fairy tale. This, of course, has been strongly believed by the long line of my ancestors, and I follow it. However, i've speculated that the tale of Shadow Light is an event that occurs once every thousand years in our world. I have yet to investigate more on this speculation, but I will get to that later." he said as he fiddled around with the cylindrical tube on his desk.

"Well right now, we're after the Calamity as we said earlier," spoke Maria as she crossed her arms. "You said you knew where these bases were located, right?"

"Ah, indeed." the professor said as he stood up from his seat. "Follow me then."

They followed him as he left his lab room, and stopped near the staircase that led to the ground level. There was a map of Gernn tacked onto the wall. The map was detailed in almost every aspect. It showed the locality of the highly concentrated soil and the forested regions, but most importantly... the location of the Alliance's main base.

"You see the dark red marks on the map?" Ricardo asked pointing towards the ones in Gernn. "Those are the ones we've located so far."

"There's one just near the village of Whipple. So that's why they were attacked..." Maria said noticing one of the red 'X' markings on the map of Gernn.

The one closest to here is coincidentally the biggest one. Our suspicions are on that particular facility."

"That would be southeast from here, you saying it's in the Southern Woods!" Ascal said frantically. "Man... not again."

The Outer Alliance base was located just near the entrance to the woods known as the Southern Woods over the lab. Before anyone could get past the long vast plains to their destination, a wooden sign planted on the ground next to the nearest tree caught everyone's attention. It read... 'Keep out at all costs!' Ignoring the sign, Ascal stepped forward but not before he heard a voice yelling from above.

"Can't you read the sign? It says 'keep out'!" a Vanguardian yelled as he jumped down from one of the coniferous trees. He was dressed in filthy clothes and held a dagger in his right hand, very similar to the bandits Mirage had encountered in Kirlsa Hills.

"Look, we don't got time to waste... so make it quick! What do you want?" Ascal asked looking a little bothered.

"You there... the one with the dark long wavy hair, you're the Savior aren't you! Filthy scum!" he yelled before blowing a loud whistle. At this cue, about a dozen other similar looking goons leaped down from the trees. "It's the Savior! He's gotta have one of those Fenrir crystals with him. If we're going to strike it big, this is the only time!"

"Wait..." one of the other thugs replied. "He's the Savior, right? Isn't he the one who was prophesiesed by the yogens that is the cause of our downfall?"

"Yeah... that's the reason why we've had to survive without a home for years. Just the more reason to kill him off!" the original cretin said as he looked at his opponents viciously.

"A group of thugs in a forest?" Maria said as she loaded her handgun. "I've lost count of how many times i've seen this before. gribble"

"Yeah, that is just so cliche!" Lieber chuckled.

The enraged goons began to throw rocks at them furiously as they slowly advanced with their sharp knives to bring doom to their foes. They positioned themselves in a way to trap Mirage and the others and looked to have the upper hand in the fight.

Mirage tried to slide past one of the bandits just as she lost her balance and fell half way. The bandit before her gave a perverted smile as he strangely reached towards Mirage with his bare hand rather than trying to slice her down. Seeing this, Mirage grabbed his arm and flung him over in front of her like a fly following it by kneeing him in the gut before he howled in pain as he coughed out blood.

Xeim, Lieber, and Welch did their best to fend off the rest but they were being outnumbered. Xeim charged towards his opponent to which he yelled, "I'll take you for a ride! Rising Air Flip!" Xeim flipped over his opponent while clutching his arms and releasing the bandit into the air. He followed this up by jumping towards him a few feet above the ground and tossing him into the far distance.

Ascal began to notice that there were archers present in the battle as well, arrows were being shot onto the field with terrible accuracy so far. However, that ended when one of the sharp steel edge of an arrow met its tip with Welch's calf as she was trying to evade two other bandits' knife slashes. "Watch out! Welch!" Ascal yelled.

Welch stayed on the ground as she squealed in pain, "Ooohhh!" She, however, managed to pluck the arrow out as it luckily didn't penetrate too deep.

"It's time to finish this!" an annoyed Maria said to herself but it turned out loud enough for everyone else to hear. She ran into a position which was equidistant between the archers and the other bandits just outside the woods, "It's getting awfully boring here! glub What say you guys get some more training first and then we'll fight again some other time?" she taunted as the enemies listened to her every word.

Out of rage, one of the goons who tried to stab Welch as she lay helpless turned towards Maria and yelled, "Get that bitch! Don't let that one get away!" all the opponents sprinted towards Maria with dexterity as she stood there posing and yawning.

Maria moved closer towards the archer before they could do any harm and as all the enemies had slowly surrounded her, she whipped out her handgun once again and leaped into the air as she aimed at the ground underneath her before unleashing an electrically charged bullet, "Magnetic Field!". The area beneath her was covered with a mass of electric field which was atleast five meters in diameter. All the enemies began to scream in pain as they suffered a jolting death. Maria landed safely as she came back down to the ground away from the impact by her bullet.

"Welch! Are you alright?" Mirage rushed towards the nimble, yet clumsy girl who was still on the ground as she held her right leg in pain. "Oh no... this wound looks really bad."

"That one's going to leave a mark." Xeim said before turning towards Ascal. "How much more distress will we have to put up with because of this 'Savior' absurdity?"

"Uh-uh! Not my fault!" Ascal retorted.

"Ow! It's okay... I-I can take care of it..." Welch barely spoke as the pain seemed to be getting to her more and more.

Mirage shook her head in disagreement. "Nonsense. I'll patch you up right away... but... all my medical tools are with Anastasia right now."

"Whoa... so you're a doc, too?" asked a surprised Ascal.

"Man, this is the last thing we needed. Kid, you should be more careful you know!" Lieber yelled as he walked past Welch.

Welch barely managed to speak back furiously, "Oh well i'm sorry, Mr. Takes Good Care of Himself!"

"I could use a healing spell on her but the wound that won't stop the bleeding completely. I think I saw a few emergency kits back at Neel's Lab..." Misty said as she looked back in the direction of the lab. "Why don't we go back there and let her heal up?"

"Good thinking," Mirage said as she stood back up. "This will also give us time to plan out our attack on the Alliance base successfully."

Mirage supported Welch's arm by her shoulders as she helped her walk as they headed back towards Professor Neel's lab. However, before they could move any further Maria was able to get a clean eye on one of the surviving thugs back in the woods.

"Hold it! There's still one of them! grob!" she yelled just when one of the female bandits leaped out of her concealment by the tree knowing she had been spotted. She tried to toss her dagger in Maria's direction aiming straight between her two eyes but Maria was able to duck and kneel down in a perfect spot for her to aim back at her with deadly accuracy using her laser aiming module, "I won't miss! Aiming Device!" The shot landed perfectly on the hoodlum's forehead sending her to her demise. Maria who tried to get back up slowly tripped on a large rock behind her as she tried to take a step back, "Aahhh!" she yelled as she landed on her back. Her feather hat as well fell in the process a few feet away from her. But that wasn't all... to everyone's shock, a small frog-like creature that looked like an amphibian jumped out of the feather hat.

"Grub grub! Gobble!" it made noises similar to the ones that were coming from Maria throughout the whole duration.

"What the...?" Lieber stared at it looking puzzled just like everyone else.

"Ohh ahh..." Maria turned beet red once again as she jumped back up to her feet. "I can explain that."

"Don't tell me... all those sounds were coming from that frog!" Xeim chortled.

Mirage didn't have a different expression herself, "Why were you hiding that thing under your hat anyway? Maria?"

At each comment, Maria began to turn even more red, "I saw it a few months back near my house. It's one of the few races on Edifice that can survive both under water and over land. I thought it was cute, so I kept it! Any problems with that?" she retorted as she gave everyone a look as if to dare them to laugh again.

"Not particularly, but why bring it all the way here?" asked Mirage.

"I couldn't just leave it behind now, could I?"

Grubb! the little creature jumped onto Maria's palm as she held it close to her.

"Wait... that why you brought along the little funny hat? So you can hide the little frog in it?" Ascal said amusingly.

"For your information, it's not a frog," replied Maria as she crossed her arms. "They're known as Elopians whose habitats, i'll admit, are similar to those of frogs but are much more capable. And call it 'Poshus', thank you. Now can we get a move on already!" She picked up her small feather hat began to move further ahead of the group as if to run away from the subject.

"I'd say our former captain has had a few changes of preferences, wouldn't you say?" an amused Mirage whispered to Lieber.

"Yeah... sigh Well, I am glad for her." said Lieber giving an unusual reply.

Maria didn't bother keeping the little Elopian known as Poshus back into the feather hat. She just slipped it in one of her pockets after whispering a few words to it, something others couldn't quite get.

"That thing'll suffocate in there!" Ascal shouted.

"Relax," Maria answered. "Elopians aren't affected by closed spaces."

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Ricardo, the descendent of Professor Neel, was one of the most proficient researchers in his line of ancestry along with his great grandfather. It was he who theorized that the shielding aura which concealed the island of the five stone pillars was caused by the force of Jindou. The same five stone pillars that had the yogens encrypted onto them by the Requiem Code upon the discovery of Neel's prophecies. Although many citizens of Gernn had an enmity with Rashfall and its Requiem Code, Ricardo and his assistants, who resided within Gernn, were actually in collaboration with Lord Dran and Rashfall's royalty.

"So this is the layout of their third base that has been spotted on Gernn so far?" Mirage asked as she narrowed her eyes onto the blueprint layout in front of her on Ricardo's desk.

Ricardo simply nodded, "Yes, although we were unable to figure out what the expansion of each area of the facility is. Other than, it's about as accurate as it can be." he said as he adjusted his lab coat.

"That's alright," Maria replied. "Any deeper speculations would have surely caught your investigation team in deep trouble from the jaws of the Calamity. Is there anything else you found?"

"About that... the main analyst of the research team, Gowen, here will explain it to you in more depth." said Ricardo glancing towards his assistant behind him.

Gowen nodded to his superior's request and started to speak after clearing his throat, "This layout not only includes details on the foundation itself but also on the specific activities carried out by the mysterious beings in there. There was a certain rift behind their base in which we made use of to stay concealed from their eyes while spying on their activities for 24 hours."

"That's quite impressive. Being able to stay out of the eyes of such highly advanced technological experts for a whole day." Xeim stated.

"Indeed, although i'd say we were more fortunate than anything. Anyway, we noticed that the military soldiers all appeared the same in terms of their dresscode apart from two other specifics who we failed to recognize."

"Could you atleast describe them?" Mirage asked curiously.

"Yes. One was a tall, broad man with blonde wavy hair and the other was chubby with a dark beard and a dark maroon helmet who looked to be carrying a large halberd." Gowen replied sophisticatedly.

Misty shook her head to show her lack of surprise, "Well those definitely sound like the ones we constantly bump into... Cliff and Shin. They seem to be missing Rodrigue though."

Gowen nodded like he pretended to understand, "The first 3 hours in the morning, the soldiers patrol around the borders of their base. This was the most dangerous and risky part of our speculation. However, almost every hour, the husky man with the funny armor would often take the rear exit in the 2nd sector of this layout to receive reports from the patrols. Between 6 and 8 hours, however, the man with the blonde hair took the same exit for a rather strange, yet intriguing activity."

"What did you see?" asked Mirage.

"He was carrying large cylindrical objects towards a conveyor belt. These things were emitting very odd luminous lights, somehow I could sense a limited force of Jindou energy within it. Then, the strangest thing happened... these objects were compressed by thin air before vanishing out of sight from the conveyor belt!" replied a shocked Gowen.

'He must mean transporters...' Mirage thought to herself before replying, "You said those objects emitted an energy type similar to that of Jindou. Then there's no doubt that those contained some other form of Fenrir crystals which were being transported."

"Yes, that was what I thought as well when I first heard about it." Ricardo added.

"And this repeated itself over the course of 24 hours..." Gowen said.

Just then, Welch and Lieber came down to the lab after Welch's leg had been patched up.

"How are you holding out now, Welch?" Mirage asked as she looked down at her right calf.

"It's perfectly fine. I hope you're not planning to exclude me because of this!" Welch demanded. The others were glad to see Welch filled with so much energy, it did show that she was back to her full potential now.

"It's all thanks to your medical capabilities, capt'n..." Lieber said while looking towards Mirage. "Without you, none of us could have done this job suitably. It seems that disinfectant you recommended really worked!"

"That's great news, then I suppose we're all ready to join in here now."

Gowen, the professor's assistant, brought several different blueprint layouts for a more accurate illustration of the Outer Alliance's headquarters in the Southern Woods. After they had looked over the layout of the Alliance's base and the exact times the activities take place one more time, Mirage and the others had laid out their offensive plan.

"Alright then, let's go over this again," Ricardo said. "Maria will be taking care of the towers next to the pillars near the third sector of the base. The lever in the tower will be used then to close the exits of all the sectors while Cliff will be busy securing the Fenrir crystals. Meanwhile, Xeim and Welch will be taking care of the 2nd sector while Lieber and Ascal look after the first. Misty, will follow the rear to breech into the third sector where Shin will remain isolated due to all the exits for each sector being closed. It will be your job to distract Shin until the plan has been fully carried out."

"Leave it to me." Misty nodded confidently.

"Mirage, the fenrir crystals will be located over at the exit of the third sector. The only way to eliminate their primary base is to find a source large enough to create a drastic explosion. Only the fenrir crystals would have that kind of power within the base. Welch, it will ultimately be up to you to finish this job."

"Ready as ever!" Welch shook her fists looking just as intent.

"What about Cliff?" Maria asked.

"Don't worry, i'll take care of that..." replied Mirage as she stood up from one of the lab seats. "It's the only choice we've got. Just make sure to release the rear exit once you receive your cue, i'll handle the situation until then."

"Yeah! Let's do it, baby! After a long time, i've got a good feeling this time!" Lieber exclaimed.

"One more thing..." Ricardo went on. "If any of the exits within the sectors aren't timed to close at the critical moment, we will have to resort to using explosives to rip them open."

"That will be a piece of cake. Let me handle it." Welch answered excitedly.

"Alrighty then. Let's finish off this disease once an' for all!" Ascal proclaimed.

Mirage nodded in agreement, "We don't have much time. If we want this to work, we'll have to get to the base in a couple of hours! Let's hurry on..."