Filou vanished into the light alongside the mage he had been fighting.

This is bad! Wepwawet's connection to his Champion let him sense that the poor squire traveled thousands of miles to the southeast, far beyond Lavaland's borders and straight into the heart of Epona's Influence. He's stranded on enemy territory!

"Filou!" Victoire shouted in alarm before all but kicking her dragon mount. "After him!"

"Yes, Mistress!"

The dragon flew faster than an arrow, but that proved to be too slow anyway; The light vanished from Epona's sword, and the portal closed in an instant. Soumis crashed against it with enough force to make the giant weapon waver, but failed to travel across spatial boundaries.

She cut the connection, Wepwawet cursed. He guessed that Epona decided that the risk of letting a dragon Champion and its equally high-ranked rider enter the heart of her territory outweighed the downside of stranding what remained of her expeditionary force on the other side.

"Filou!" Victoire grit her teeth and looked over at the Valentinian soldiers who had been left stranded on the wrong side of the portal. "How do I open this gate?!"

"I–I don't know!" the soldiers protested, literally shitting their pants when Soumis turned his immense head in their direction. "It opens by the goddess' will alone!"

Victoire's jaw clenched, her fingers trembling with powerless rage as she focused on her telepathic connection with her god. "Lord Wepwawet?"

"I'll take care of Filou!" Wepwawet replied. "For now, link up with Peridot and mop up the remaining enemy forces!"

"I can't leave my squire at their mercy!"

"I know, and we won't," Wepwawet promised Victoire. "Try to capture as many soldiers as you can. Should the worst come to pass, we might be able to organize a prisoner exchange."

The Battle for Salamandra was all but won at this point. Sun Wukong was marching on the now deactivated teleporter sword to claim it as a trophy; and the enemy army was now in full retreat with its cavalry leading the soldiers to the southeast, likely in the hope of rejoining their allies at the border. The fact that they fled in that direction rather than march toward the teleporting sword told Wepwawet that they likely received direct guidance from Epona through Champions or clerics, but they were too far away from his Influence for him to identify them from within the mass of combatants. General Peridot and the eastern garrison had started giving chase. The more losses inflicted on the Valentinians, the fewer foes they would fight in now inevitable future battles.

Victoire's concern for her squire was palpable, but she trusted her god enough to follow through. She had Soumis take flight again to pursue the Valentinian and Mortisan remnants.

Wepwawet thus focused his attention on Filou and immediately found him in the worst situation imaginable. His Champion had teleported into the middle of a city plaza filled with human soldiers and a line of siege engines which had been in the process of being transported to Lavaland before the connection was broken. Realizing the danger he was in, Filou had already hopped over Melchior's head and onto a trebuchet to escape capture, but he was swiftly surrounded from all sides.

Wepwawet immediately attempted to summon Filou back to his Idol—something any god could do with all their Champions—but sensed a magical shield of some kind preventing him from doing so. No mortal anti-teleportation shield could block divine power, so Epona had probably unlocked a Miracle similar to his own Dimensional Fortress.

In short, Filou was stranded.

Wepwawet quickly scanned the area through his Champion's eyes. The city he had landed in resembled a Renaissance-era citadel with giant circular high walls of wood and concrete, topped by watchtowers. The roofs of the tightly packed residential blocks and buildings surrounded narrow cobblestone streets. Epona's immense Idol loomed over the city's western side and projected her Influence across the region.

Filou could make a break for it if he managed to reach the rooftops, but a small army and dozens of meters separated him from the nearest one. Wepwawet quickly figured out a solution.

"Brace yourself, Filou!" Wepwawet warned his Champion as he calculated the perfect angle. "Geyser Tribute!"

A burst of steaming water surged from beneath Filou and propelled him upward.

The wererabbit flew across the sky so fast and so far away that neither human soldiers nor pegasus riders could catch him. Poor Filou screamed as he was flung over dozens of roofs, but he somehow managed to land on his feet somewhat gracefully. The respite only lasted a few seconds until pegasus knights took flight to pursue him.

"Run!" Wepwawet ordered his Champion. "Run for the walls!"

"Y-yes, sir!" Filou bolted as fast as his legs could carry him. The wererabbit jumped from roof to roof on his way to the fortifications, but he might as well have been game pursued by falcons. An archer on pegasusback nearly nailed him with an arrow to the leg.

Realizing that Filou would never make it alive to the walls at this rate, Wepwawet quickly assessed his Champion's surroundings through his eyes. The rooftops offered a clear path for pegasus knights to snipe the wererabbit, but the tightly packed streets below were full of human civilians and merchants going about their lives without noticing the chase. Wepwawet spotted a detail that could spell Filou's salvation.

A sewer hole.

"I have an idea," Wepwawet told Filou. "Jump down into the street to your left!"

Filou was in too much of a panic to disobey and followed through with his command. He leaped off the roof—narrowly dodging an arrow while he was at it—and landed on a merchant stall. He bounced off a pile of cabbages, much to the owner's dismay.

"My cabbages!" he shouted in despair while Filou bolted between his startled clients. The pegasus riders above couldn't snipe the squire without harming the surrounding civilians, which allowed him to reach the sewer hole.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Remove the lid," Wepwawet told him.

"Oh…" Filou wept as he hurriedly removed the manhole cover while civilians called out to the city watch. Wepwawet guessed most had never even seen a wererabbit. "This stinks, Your Godliness…"

"I'm sorry," Wepwawet apologized. "It's your best chance. You'll have to power through."

Filou pinched his nose with a free hand and then jumped down the hole before the city watch could reach him. He landed on cobblestone inside a small tunnel barely big enough for a man to crouch through.

"He's down there!" men shouted from above, but Filou quickly fled into the tunnel by following a small river of sewage. Most sewers were usually too small for men to travel through and Valentine's own was no exception. Filou was thankfully small enough to run through easily enough, as Wepwawet had predicted, though he had to sheath his sword to squeeze in. By the time city guards had made their way down, he had long fled into the darkness while using the light coming off his scimitar's handle as an improvised torch.

"Okay…" Filou muttered through his pinched nose after running for a while. He tried to gather his breath, but ended up struggling against the urge to puke instead. "I can't hear them anymore."

"You're not out of the woods yet, Filou," Wepwawet warned him. Epona might not be able to pinpoint Filou's location like his Opener of the Ways Providence could, but she would still sense his general presence in the city. "I can summon you back to my Idol once you leave the city walls and escape the local goddess' magical range. I'll guide you out the best I can, but I won't be able to assist you with my magic until tomorrow."

Filou nodded, his hands nervously clutching his sword. "Your Godliness, did… did you see that?"

"See what?"

"Under the… the wizard's hat," Filou said. "I saw antennae beneath his hat."

Antennae?

What was he talking about?

Gods had a perfect memory, and Wepwawet had been observing Filou's battle through his eyes. He recalled that Filou had left a slight cut in Melchior's hat during their brawl and taken a glimpse of what lay inside, but all that Wepwawet recalled was a tuft of white hair.

Had Filou misremembered something?

"Antennae?" Wepwawet inquired quickly, putting two and two together. "You say a lunarian parasite hid under Melchior's hat?"

"Yes, Your Godliness," Filou insisted. "I'm sure those antennae were the same sported by the creatures we fought in Promesse."

That… that wasn't possible. Melchior was one of Epona's Champions, which meant she should have received a notification had he fallen under a Charm Ailment or another form of mind control. He doubted any of his classmates would be foolish enough to willingly deal with Beelzebub—Miss Athena would have expelled the traitor on the spot if she learned of it—so there was no way she would allow the lunarians to infect one of her own Champions on purpose.

Most gods would trust their Influence and own sense over their Champions in such matters, but Wepwawet trusted Filou's word. The squire sounded absolutely sure of himself, and he couldn't rule out the possibility that an enemy Miracle could hide things from their gaze. The Titans were cheaters. He couldn't exclude anything when it came to them.

If Filou was right, then it meant the lunarians had not only managed to infiltrate Valentine but also done so in a way that fooled even Epona's perception. A most dangerous possibility.

Wepwawet doubted the Lunarians had a hand in the southern powers' alliance since Epona and Hel's military buildup would have taken weeks if not months to prepare; alliances had probably been drawn the moment Pele had been kicked out of Elphion. Nonetheless, it likely provided a golden opportunity to both exacerbate international tensions and slip agents through the cracks.

How deep did the infiltration go?

"I'm not certain what to make of it yet, but if you are right, then this points to lunarian interference in this conflict," Wepwawet concluded.

"I-I think so too," Filou whispered back, his ears tilting upon hearing noise above ground. The Valentinian army was probably trying to secure all the sewer exits before he could reach any of them. "Melchior… Melchior wanted to capture Milady, too. He, he said her blood wasn't enough to obtain that which he coveted."

Wepwawet could only think of one reason why the mage would want a lost heir of Valentine: to open the long-lost royal vault and uncover the secrets within.

Come to think of it, Epona tried to bribe Wepwawet with items left by the Glarmes and the royal family back in Valentine… Did Beelzebub try to sabotage a possible alliance to keep the vault out of Wepwawet's hands? Duke Vidé also mentioned that Valentine's mages believed that whatever hid in the vault would give their country the edge against the demons…

Whatever this royal vault held was precious enough to catch the interest of multiple deities. Wepwawet couldn't afford to let any of them obtain it until he assessed the treasure's true nature.

"Something's going on behind the scenes, but we don't have enough intel to tell what yet," Wepwawet informed Filou. "We'll figure it out later. For now, let's focus on evacuating you."

To his surprise, Filou didn't jump at the opportunity to flee with his life. The wererabbit instead became uncharacteristically quiet for a moment, as if deep in thought.

"What is it, Filou?" Wepwaet inquired.

"I think…" Filou gulped and mustered his courage. "I think… I think I might be more useful to Your Godliness and Milady here."

Filou's proposal took Wepwawet aback. "You want to stay in Valentine?!"

"I-I am certain of what I saw under that wizard's hat, Your Godliness," Filou insisted, his voice brimming with concern. "If our enemies are after Milady, then… then we have to find out why!"

"I agree that we need all the intelligence we can get, but do you understand the risks you'd be facing?" Wepwawet asked. "You're asking me to leave you stranded behind enemy lines with little support. Any mistake might result in your capture, death or worse, parasitization."

Filou flinched at his god's stern words, and he briefly quivered in place. Wepwawet thought he had reconsidered for a moment until the wererabbit gathered his breath—in spite of the odious stench in the air.

"My greatest wish is to serve Milady at her side as a squire… but I think I will be more useful here as Your Godliness' eyes and ears abroad."

Even if he remained concerned for his Champion, Wepwawet could hardly disagree with his statement. He doubted Epona, Hel, and their allies would de-escalate the situation any time soon, and his own alliance with Ishtar all but guaranteed that both sides would continue to wage war in the near future.

Sending a scout all the way to Valentine past whatever checkpoints and troops Epona put in the way would take weeks of work. Having a single Champion spy on activity in the country to gather information and sabotage Epona's effort outweighed having just another soldier to send to the frontline, not to mention that it would allow Wepwawet to cast Miracles through them into the enemy's heartland. Filou's size, speed, and versatility would make him ideal for the job in spite of his timidity.

Nonetheless, this kind of scouting mission would be extraordinarily dangerous at the best of times. Filou was cut off from support, allies, and Miracles until Wepwawet recovered some mana. There was no margin for error.

Wepwawet focused his attention upon Filou. He could taste the fear watering the wererabbit's mouth. Although he had survived a Titan Incursion and multiple B&C battles, Victoire's squire remained green in many ways. His confidence had only slightly built up over time.

Yet Filou had never failed to show courage when it came to defending others, and his mind was made up. He would have happily thrown himself into a hydraslime's jaw for Victoire's sake, and if he believed investigating the lunarians was the best way to protect her, he would do so without hesitation.

Wepwawet had to respect his valorous spirit… and nurture it.

"You are a brave squire," Wepwawet congratulated Filou before coming up with a plan. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. You'll exit this city, and we'll make it look as if I've teleported you back home. The enemy will believe you've left Valentine and cease its manhunt with some luck."

This should allow Filou to operate without Epona's awareness, at least for a time. Once Filou was safe outside the walls and Wepwawet had more mana to burn, he would send his Champion a Wendighorn and other supplies. The War for Elphion would thus gain a new front.

Now, the hardest part of this mission remained.

How would he break the news to Victoire without making her mad?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.