Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Eight - 138
The crowds raged against the press of Acolytes, their fine-cut clothes marks of their noble statuses. All around the Sunrise Quarter, the people of Haarwatch pushed back against the probes of the Inquisition. Near the target house, several large men hauled off against an Inquisition shield wall, shouting down the Order's increasingly agitated instructions.
"Stand down! You are to be searched, and your property to be inspected!" An Initiate stood nearby, sword drawn. "A refusal to do so is unlawful!"
"Get off our property, redcloak!" Yelled one burly man, his body wrapped in a silk robe embroidered with leaping manticores. He held a gleaming steel longsword in one hand. "You have no right!"
"We are the hand of justice, Lord Petricus," a voice boomed from above, along with the sudden thrum of a Manaship's engines. "And you are in violation of our lawful charge."
Khorun Katan descended from the deck of his ship, carrying a potent silence with him that spread outward like wildfire. Landing on the streets below with a muffled *thump* the Master Inquisitor watched as a wave of salutes rippled through his soldiers, each one acknowledging him even as they performed their tasks. An aura of implacable superiority pressed down upon everyone for dozens of yards, and the civilian resistance ceased.
"Ma-Master Inquisitor," Lord Petricus stammered, barely able to stand under Katan's influence. "It is true, then? There are heretics within the Sunrise Quarter?"
"Indeed," Katan looked away from the minor noble, his House barely worth memorizing. He had done so anyway before coming to this worthless outpost. If one is to attend a task, one must crush it utterly, his mentor had always professed.
"Then of course, we allow your men access to our estate and our...our persons," Lord Petricus stated, his large, bearded face pale under Katan's aura.
"How gracious," Katan said, turning back to the minor noble with a smile. He nodded to his people. "Proceed."
Acolytes trod forward, grasping each of Petricus' heirs and leading them all back toward their estate. Katan looked around him, seeing the scene repeat itself as more became aware of him. It was one of the reasons he brought the Stalwart, after all. Only the blind would not notice its heavily armored presence in the sky, the proud jut of its hull emblazoned with the golden sunburst of his Order.
Fear is a tool. Use it as you must to seek the Light. Katan's mentor's voice was vivid in his head, her quiet confidence and steady council a balm for days such as this. The rabble of this outpost city were a seething cesspool of heretical beliefs. The light of the Pathless shone upon them, evidenced by the churches around the city, but Haarwatch shied from the truth. They fled the promises of strength and struggle, to grow beyond their stations by the holy edicts of the Trackless. They turned instead toward the dark ones, the Lost gods, seeking false promises of an easy path.
Pathetic.
Katan turned toward their target, the house that had been warded so thoroughly that it had evaded all of their seers and wardbreakers. He could see several of his soldiers kneeling on the ground, doubtless inspecting the sigaldry buried beneath the street itself.
The heresy runs deep here, Katan frowned. To find one so powerful, hidden in plain sight....
Had DuFont not come to him, Katan worried that he would not have found it. The Elder of Acquisitions had surprised him, offering him this information almost for free. Like much of the Elder Council, Katan had her pegged as part of his opposition. The Elders of Spirit, Mind, and Body certainly were, and most of the others fell in line with them.
She ran to us, open armed. It was a calculated move, but one that I can respect. Katan turned back toward the targeted estate. Never will we turn away those who seek the Light.
Perhaps he would let her live in the coming days. Her network would be useful out in the edges of the nation, and the woman herself was personally weak. That in particular was a flaw that Katan had no issue accepting. Weakness could be reforged, and if not, the weak could never rise. They were made to be trod upon by their betters, after all.
*KATHOOOM!*
A violent explosion of water surged through the lower levels of the mansion before him. Windows burst under the pressure, and heavily armored men and women were expelled from the casements and doorways. They landed heavily among the flattened flora, even as the water dissipated back into Mana vapor.
"Khorun Katan!"
The voice carried, clear as a bell, over the metallic cacophony of his Order. Striding out of the front doors was a tall woman with wavy green hair and ochre skin. She wore the black robes of a chorister of Avet, most foul of all the Lost gods. Her hands crackled with a deep blue Mana, streamers of which spun up around her hair and sent it floating erratically. Katan fixed her with his Analyze Skill, but was rebuffed by a powerful ward.
"Chorister and Sorcerer," he growled, causing the dust and pebbles around him to shake. "You dare to strike my people."
"You violate my home and my people," the woman countered. "Release your prisoners now, or else I'll do far more than strike your pawns, Katan."
The Master Inquisitor's lip curled as he considered the situation. He could feel the thrum of the woman's power through her ward, though not her exact advancement. It was likely she was close to him, or so he hoped. Else this would be over far too soon.
Khorun Katan bared his teeth in a smile, and the woman answered with a shark-toothed grin.
Then they both disappeared.
*KRAKKKK!*
In mid-air, an impact sent shockwaves of water and fire Mana, bursts that lashed into the estate grounds and spilled over the wall. Acolytes were sent sprawling, and even nearby Initiates were burned and lacerated by the opposing forces.
Above them, two figures rebounded off one another to land forty feet apart. Both of them stood, unsupported in the air. The woman cleverly manipulated air Mana to hold herself aloft, while tendrils of dark water rose around her like serpents. She was uninjured and completely at ease. A lilting song escaped her lips, a haunting melody that seemed to warp the air around her.
"No," said Harn, his face pale. "Can't ya feel it? No, ya can't, of course. That's a fight."
"What?" Evie exclaimed. "Who could cause that in a fight?"
"Two Master Tiers," Harn said, clenching his jaw. "We have to run."
Zara? Felix thought as they took off again. Fighting who?
*KATHOOOOOOM!*
Khorun Katan barely maintained his stance in the air, the shimmering Mana beneath his feet flickering as his concentration wavered. His Divine Shell was shattered in four different places, and the panels leaked golden light into the afternoon sky. Blood dripped from his right hand, which only held the handle of his lance, the rest of it having been snapped off with his last powerful strike.
Below him, a crater had formed where the Sorcerer's mansion once stood. The Sorcerer was within, hopefully crushed beneath the rubble. Surviving an impact such as that...
Haah haah...This woman...has such strength. It should not be possible.
He had hit her with the full force of his Lance of the Fall, a Master Tier Skill backed by the immense Strength of his Immaculate Light Body. He had seen the blood fountain from her wound even as her strange Skill shielded her with a dome of living water. He hadn't received a kill notification, however. Katan swept his senses through the remains of the house, and his breath hitched in his chest. He sent a second pulse after the first, and found the same dire result.
The Sorcerer had fled. She lived.
"Search her house!" Katan shouted, his voice booming into the air above the Sunrise Quarter. "Tear it apart. Find her!"
Below, his forces exploded into action, several squads rushing forward into the ruins of the Sorcerer's home. Others milled nearby before a savage look from the Master Inquisitor sent them running to inspect the other houses nearby. She would not escape him. He could not allow it.
With such a foe alive, their plan could only suffer. Even if it succeeded, he had no guarantees it would take that woman down with the city. To kill the dragon, one must cut off the head, his mentor had once said. We must move. Now.
Katan dismissed his lance and whip, and let his Divine Shell fall into motes of golden light. Using the remains of his Mana, he ascended further into the sky. The damn witch had hurt him and exhausted his reserves. As the Master Inquisitor landed atop the Stalwart he glared once more at the wreckage below, searching for the woman. Destruction met his gaze. Swaths of the Sunrise Quarter had been crushed and set ablaze by their fight, entire blocks broken apart by the clash of Master Tier Skills. And the resonance of foul Sorcery.
A contingent of Initiates, the Master Inquisitor's aides, rushed forward to help him.
"I am fine," Katan stated, steel in his voice. His aides backed down, except one. A young man by the name of Klark, if he remembered correctly. And he always did.
"Sir, do we--" the Initiate's voice broke a moment, evidence of his youth. Younger than i thought. "Do you wish us to organize a fire brigade?"
"Let them burn," Katan announced. Klark blanched, but the Master Inquisitor growled out a proclamation. "The people of Haarwatch must learn what it means to house a Sorcerer in their walls."
"Y-yes sir. Of course, sir."
The Initiates scrambled to relay his orders, utilizing the curious etheric contraptions built into his vessel. Even with their advantage in numbers and levels, his people were nothing without communication. Still, Katan could not afford any alterations to their plan.
"Initiate Klark," Katan intoned. "I need you to relay an order to our men in the Eyrie."
"Of course, sir."
"Tell the teams to begin."
Klark paled again, but nodded. Katan frowned.
"Your compassion does you credit," he said. "But the heathens deserve none of it, Initiate. Do you understand?"
Klark swallowed and nodded. Beneath his armor, Katan could sense his body tremble.
"Go. Now."
"Yes, sir," Klark managed before bolting away.
Re-education will be necessary for that boy. Katan turned and looked down again, feeling his Health slowly tick back up. He could see all of the city from this height, all of the territory that would soon be his. He'll have plenty of company, soon.
