Spirit Taming

Chapter 539: Journey In Theory

The escaping groups of people seemed to number more and more, even many of the Solar Academy City guards had called it quits and begun to escape. They had to guard the people regardless of the situation. Only those that could wield more power were going to be staying behind.

Yet, when the man holding the sword made of flames fell, every guard stopped where they stood as they felt their city truly fall. Two lords had now fallen to the blood moon cultists. Lunar and Solar cities had been at war for years with one another, now, they were finally done. Just not in the ways that they had expected.

"We are leaving, call your beasts back if you can hear me." Clark spoke to Professor Wright even though he could tell that she was unconscious. Yet, when the assassin beetle and the centipede came to his sides, he knew that she was still somewhat conscious enough to be able to keep hold of her beasts.

"Now we just need-" Clark was about to say that the insect queen needed to life out the life cycle for the time it had, but before he could, it moved its massive body and began to fall apart. The next moment, a growing white egg shot out of its heart and disappeared in to the taming space that professor Wright had.

Both the assassin beetle and centipede were making small chittering sounds as it all happened.

The lifespan of the insect queen was only an hour, a great cost for an incredibly powerful beast that explained why Professor Wright was the trump card sent to protect them. The insect queen had clearly helped many more people escape the sinking city. It had also killed more cutlists which would weaken the blood moon cult further.

This didn't sit on Clark's mind long though. He knew that he needed to flee too and ignored any tiredness that even tried to way on his mind. His full focus switched to pursuing those that already escaped and making it back to an area where the Terra City guards would patrol.

Such an event would not go unnoticed, even with Terra City on lockdown due to possible flooding. They would soon hear of the attacks on both Lunar and Solar cities. Then they would begin making their own defensive preparations. Not only that, but they would make room in their above ground city to house the people displaced by the cutlists.

"Stop running and pay damn attention!" Ralph's hand grabbed Clark's shoulder. He had a group of people with him and managed to stop Clark as he was about to run past him. "Put Crim away to rest and let Maria handle things." Ralph could tell that Clark had entered his own hyper focused state to protect their professor.

But this didn't mean he had to be nice, this was just the bluntness needed to get Clark's full attention back.

"She called out an insect queen. It cost her ten years of her life. We can't heal her. She needs to adjust and recover herself." Clark saw Maria grimace. The rest of the group was surrounding the people fleeing. It appeared that they had stayed as much as possible, but managed to rush toward Solar city borders because that was the safest way to travel to Terra right now.

The further from any cultists the better.

"You mean that I can't heal a price she paid to call out a beast we never heard of?" Maria was understandably angry. She had worked to become a better healer and was planning to learn alchemy just to help more people. To heal them. To save their lives. Yet here she was, weaker than anything when it came to someone that had given their group so much.

"We just need to get her somewhere that she can rest." Clark was sure that things would be rough after Professor Wright woke uo. But that was the same for everyone who had just lost their homes. Things wouldn't be well and any sense fo the world.

The ramifications of losing two cities would be massive. Many cities would become incredibly strict. Especially with the fact that there were cultists that might be sneaking in as spies. That was a worry for Solar academy City and it proved to be somewhat correct.

"I think whatever monster or cultists attack was not alone. The Solar city attack caused the entire city to sink in to the lava lake that the city sat on top of. That means that the monster was set up perfectly to attack it and prepared for much longer than just a few days." Clark spoke his mind and made it clear to the rest of his group that the blood moon cultists had planned this for some time.

"You're saying that the silence from the blood moon cult for the last few years was planned. That isn't a logical explanation. Gathering enough herbs to burn and poison the air along with lock down Lunar city for multiple days would take over a year at least." Ella immediately supported the theory that Clark came out with.

"If the cultists planned it all, then they might have plans elsewhere." Grace was the next to chime in. but she was clearly on par with what they were all thinking. She thought that it would be more than just one city. "If the blood moon cultists attacked one city, then they will want to attack more. But what and why?"

"They went after a dragon egg in Nebula city, now they came to Solar and Lunar city to destroy them, but maybe they stole things too?" Ralph could not forget the fact that Nebula City had lost a very valuable item. Furthermore, that the cultists had only sent weaker members to attack. That had been their distraction to make off with something valuable.

"Since they sunk the city, then they definitely got what they wanted. But it sounds like a horror story that I heard when I was little." Reese, as any child, had heard stories to scare them as a kid. It was normal to do that, but one such story had been about cultists and what they worshiped.

"The blood demon dragon. It was a dragon that could drink blood and would be moving around to steal souls. Especially souls of children. But what if it wasn't just a story to scare kids? What if it was once something a bit more? I can't remember much, but the idea that such a beast exists…"

While Reese's account of such a beast was small, he had a lead and that was enough for the group to research at some point. "So we should look in to that when we can. I Can send a few letters to check things out." Isa was certain that some older merchants might have records of such a story. Especially when it came to collectors' editions of older books referencing fairytales and other such stories.

"So we need more information before we know anything? Let's just run then." Brad was not having any more of this theorizing drama. He was certain that whatever was happening could be worked out when they had everyone safe. Especially the people that were with them traveling toward Terra city now.

With Brad taking this as the focus of things, the group ended up taking turns carrying Professor Wright and being guarded by her beasts. The further that they moved, the more that the Lunar and Solar group gathered. Some had stopped to rest and began moving as they found the other groups joining them.

While it ended up taking three days to make the rushed Journey to safety, this had been enough for Clark's group to be able to understand the true depth of what had happened. Some people were talkative enough to tell them about the sudden changes in the wilderness around Lunar City that led to the guards locking the city down.

Others mentioned the odd behaviors of merchants and beasts up to the point of the attacks.

There were also times that Professor Wright had woken up and then fallen back to sleep. Her condition was very clear. She needed better rest and nutrition to be able to fully adapt to the price she paid for the insect queen to appear within Solar City.

The most important knowledge that the group had learned though was the fact that both Lunar and Solar City had their lords attacked. Not just their lords but the lord's mansions were attacked first by hidden cultists. This had led to the lord's mansions being destroyed and the lords attacking the cultists before being killed.

This alone proved that the most valuable items stolen had been the items that the lords of each coyote had guarded. Those items could range from anything rare or above. Specifically, some well known treasures might have been stolen that could be used to greatly strengthen beasts. The only ones that would know were the lord's themselves who had perished.

It left everyone in the group with a hole in their theories for now.