The flight to Ashford took less time than Reidar expected, mostly because the summoned ravens didn't get tired. They didn't need rest, food, or water. They just flew until their time ran out or Reidar dismissed them.

The group landed on a ridge overlooking a valley. He slid off the raven's back, landing on the loose shale. Beside him, Lena and Jake dismounted.

Reidar dismissed the summons. The massive black birds dissolved into swirling mana mist.

"We got there," Reidar said, nodding toward the depression in the landscape below. "Ashford."

The town sat at the bottom of a bowl-shaped valley, surrounded by the scarred earth of an old mine. It wasn't much to look at. Before the apocalypse, it had probably been a collection of prefabs and industrial equipment. Now, it was a fortress.

Enormous walls of corrugated metal, reinforced with magical stone and welded scraps, circled the perimeter. Watchtowers rose at regular intervals, bristling with weaponry. In the center of the town, dominating the low buildings around it, stood a massive structure that looked like a repurposed ore processing plant. The Church had slapped its sigils all over it, turning the industrial gray into a shrine of white and violet.

"It's ugly," Jake said.

"It's functional," Lena said. She was already scanning the defenses.

"Don't listen to her, Jake," Reidar said. "She has weird taste."

Lena gave him a bad look. "Look at the walls. They cleared the sightlines for five hundred meters. There are no trees or large rocks. Anyone approaching on foot is going to be seen long before they reach the gate, and the same can be said for a flying approach. It was a good move."

"It doesn't mean it's pretty."

Then Reidar focused on the figures patrolling the walls. The distance was significant, but his attributes sharpened his sight enough to pick out details. Not as much as Lena, though.

The guards wore heavy armor with Church engravings. They moved with discipline, not like the War Hounds back in Creamont. These were zealots.

—[Church Zealot—Level 158]—

—[Church Zealot—Level 182]—

—[Church Elite Guard—Level 215]—

"Their levels aren't low," Reidar said. "One hundred fifty to two hundred twenty. They're stronger than the War Hounds' average, and for sure stronger than the Spriggans with Aldric and Lena's people in tow."

It was as problematic as it was confusing.

Lena nodded. "They are still weak compared to us."

"Individually, yes," Reidar said. "But there are dozens of them visible just on this section of the wall. If we charge in, we'll be fighting an army, and I guess they are at this level because they are not system bound anymore, which brings an entire set of problems."

"We've fought armies before," Jake pointed out.

"I know, the problem is that we can't be seen," Reidar said. He gestured to the central building, the makeshift cathedral rising from the industrial grime. "We aren't here to kill everyone. We're here to destroy a magic circle. If we start a brawl at the front gate, whoever is in charge will know we're here. They might speed up the ritual, or worse, trigger it early if it's functional, and the effects might be more catastrophic than what happened in the valley. I don't want to risk it."

Lena stood up, dusting off her knees. "So we need to be silent. I can handle the guards. If I use Predator's Echo and Silent Step, I can get past the outer wall without tripping any alarms. But the open ground is a problem. We don't know if they have people who can see through invisibility."

Reidar looked at the terrain. Lena was right. The kill zone around the walls was designed to stop exactly this kind of approach. Even with stealth skills, crossing five hundred meters of open ground in broad daylight was risky.

"The guards aren't the only problem," Reidar said. "The real threat is inside. If there's someone in there on par with Silas, or even Aaron, things get complicated fast. A Level 150 guard can't hurt me, but he can shout loud enough to bring a Level 300 bastard running."

"Do you think there's someone that strong here?" Lena asked.

"Silas wouldn't leave a site like this undefended or without someone strong enough in charge," Reidar said. "Not if they're building a Mana Siphoning circle. This is critical infrastructure for them since it works as a sort of research facility."

He watched the patrol patterns for a moment. Every sector of the wall had at least two sets of eyes on it at any time. It was to the point Reidar would have said it was professional.

"We need to find the ritual chamber," Reidar said. "The circle will be there. Probably on the lowest level of that central building. It's where the mana density would be highest, closest to the earth."

Jake kicked a loose stone, watching it skid down the slope. "Ok, but how strong is he?"

Reidar turned to him. "Who?"

"The boss," Jake said. "There's always a boss. Even you said that. Aaron was the boss of the War Hounds. Silas is the big boss. Who runs this dump?"

Reidar thought back to the intelligence his Vorathid Foragers had gathered when he was back in Creamont. He had sent thousands of the tiny creatures to spy on Silas, and while they couldn't get too close to the Archdeacon without being detected, they had seen enough.

"Mikko Viren," Reidar said.

"Mikko?" Jake raised an eyebrow. "Sounds… normal, aside from the weird name."

"Don't let the name fool you," Reidar said. "The Foragers saw Silas giving him orders before he left. Viren is a Deacon, the same rank as Aaron. That means he's likely an unbound human, or at least at a high level."

"Another mutant," Lena said, spitting on the ground.

"Likely," Reidar agreed. "Silas trusted him enough to leave him in charge of the circle's construction. That means he's competent and probably strong. If Aaron was Level 299, we should assume Viren is in the same ballpark. Maybe higher if he's been siphoning mana from the local area somehow."

Reidar looked back at the town. The industrial complex loomed over the squalid housing blocks like a tombstone.

"He's the one building the circle," Reidar said. "We know what the circle does. It drains mana from everything around it to power-level the user. If Viren has been working on it for weeks, he might have already used a prototype version. We can't assume he's just a bureaucrat."

Jake frowned. "So we have a Level 300 boss, an army of Level 200 guards, and a magic circle that might kill everyone if we look at it wrong."

"Pretty much," Reidar said.

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