Chapter 13

The Silent Army

The war had changed. It was no longer possible to win with force. The size of the army no longer had that priority it used to hold. The key to this war was intelligence. Battlefield intelligence. It mattered not who had the sharpest blade or the strongest steel, but who made the best move first and who got hit at where it hurts. Assassination, arson, pillages, kidnappings were mere tools of this war, intelligence were the hands.
As such, was the beauty of this war. The invisible war fought between two sides, in between yet beyond common folk. A war where the actual fighting cannot be seem yet the very cruelty and gruesomeness of bloodshed remained. This was a war fought by the silent army, Kurosawa's silent army.
The young knight watched with intent. As he watched, his silent army moved. Each without a name nor a face. They had replaced their souls with their lord's purpose. They trusted him with their names and faces. they trusted him with whatever they had. And he trusted them, each of them.
That reckless rogue by the name of Xiven, while he had the talent, he was still green as a thorn. An unsharpened blade that would snap under pressure. Kurosawa was not ready to sacrifice any of his soldiers for him, he could not trust him completely because he had not trusted Kurosawa enough. He was not part of them.
Yet, nothing ever went as planned. He was different, yet he had the same aura of leadership as Kurosawa. A similar but vastly different presence. He had convinced the silent soldiers to believe him, as they had in Kurosawa. Though slowly but surely.
"Sir. " Daemon spoke, his body half hidden in shadow. "He had been brought back."
"What about Sparrow?"
"The rest of sparrow team brought our guest back, but I'm afraid it would be impossible to retrieve his corpse."
Kurosawa frowned at the thought. Another soldier had gave his life up for the cause.
"Bring Xiven to the clambers. We must honor Sparrow's will."
"Yes sir." Daemon retreated from sight.

***

The insides of the forgery had a reddish dim, with dozens of smiths scattered all over. Each hammering with all their might. Probably enough to outfit a small army, Xiven thought.
The center of the forge had a colossal statue of Heptaestus, the god of technology and blacksmiths, wielding a hammer whilst sitting on an anvil. The reddish glow gave the statue somewhat a demonic look. Flowing around, into and out of the grand building were rivers of red hot molten metal and the grayish slug that cooled off, like the insides of a volcano.
The mask wielder dodged from cover to cover, underneath his mask he was flooding with perspiration. The heat was pricking him.
There were much to steal, yet everyone within the forge were too bothered by the heat to notice Xiven snooping around. The exteriors of the building were rock solid, but the insides were not as sturdy. Part of Xiven's mission was to gather intelligence, next was to set up strategic seals on various locations, which will dissolve whatever it was on at a given command from a remote position.
The latter was strictly to be done only after intelligence were delivered and exchanged, Kurosawa had sternly warned Xiven of this. The mask wielder however, saw little point in wasting time. No one would find him snooping around, even if someone did, he could easily make a run for it, he thought.
He had the seals at several positions; One above the entrance, on a connecting bridge, on a wall behind a rock, the core and the last seal was to be placed at the foot of Heptaestus. A perfect destruction of symbol.
Xiven waited. The mask will save as a trump card to escape. He had the time and he waited longer.
Yet, he was in more danger than he knew. By instinct, Xiven ducked and barely dodged an arrow going for his heart. More sweat dripped from his face as he scanned quickly for the source. Then the block he hid behind exploded. The mask wielder was thrown forward.
Heptaestus had became alive and had decided to deliver it's fury on the rogue. Xiven picked himself up. He was not hurt but his ego was badly bruised. The blacksmiths scattered like ants, some were trampled by Heptaestus as he stood and became animated. Guess they didn't follow legends as he did.
Without hesitation, Xiven slapped on his invisibility mask and faded. The heat had made it much harder to maneuver while ethereal and being invisible had not helped Xiven as much as he thought it would. While the giant could not tell where exactly he was at, it could follow him around and determine roughly where the mask wielder hid.
He had a scent on him, a scent left behind with magic he had on him, the magis back there had warned him of this. Heptaestus slammed his hammer down, the entire forge shook with each slam and each step. He missed.
Not missing the chance, the mask wielder hopped on to it's arm. The giant sensed it but could not tell of the trickery behind as it bashed through its own arm as Xiven leaped away and ran up to it’s body. The giant swat around attempting to catch the mask wielder in the process damaging most of it's body.
Annoying as a fly, Xiven leaped and dodged around the giant while slapping the seals onto the stone body. With the last of the scrolls, the giant lost track of Xiven and appeared to be in a daze. To activate the seals, he took out a glass cylinder and started to chant memorised words.
Much to his dismay, before he could finish an arrow shot right into the glass cylinder, shattering it. The statue of Heptaestus returned to it's inanimate state and on it's shoulder stood another person Xiven had not seen before. It become apparent that the arrow, or whatever it was came from him.
"Scripted scrolls and memorised chantation, I'm honestly annoyed at how they abuse magic nowadays" Acedia spoke while pointed at Xiven, his fingers still smoking. He did not look one bit annoyed to Xiven. Arrows from the vault He muttered as he placed his hands on the statue's neck. Every single scroll the mask wielder sticked on the statue glowed and burned to nothing. The statue crumpled as Acedia landed gently in front of Xiven.
"Enough of your games, I can see you as clearly as without that mask."
The mask wielder was not convinced. He took a leap back and dashed towards the exit. Acedia closed his eyes and shook his head. "Word of path, Frost forty-three. Shrapnel slice." Acedia mumbled as he stroked a symbol on his arm. Icicles shot up from the ground, the mask wielder dodged each of it with difficulty. Before he could react, Acedia appeared in front of him, his palm in the mask wielder's face. Glare.
A sharp, blinding light shot out from his palm. Xiven was thrown back. Not hurt but thrown back. For a moment he thought his eyeballs were gone for good. His mask dropped off and his body returned to reality.
"Imprisonment sixty-eight. Steel light. " Tall walls of light shot up from all direction, completely locking in Xiven and Acedia from the rest of the world.
"What do you want? "Xiven finally spoke, his voice thick with fatigue. An arrow flew through Xiven from Acedia's finger. The mask wielder was shocked, and quickly checked for a hole in him. There was none, his necklace however had been shattered.
"Do you not recognise me? Xiven ... " Acedia spoke with a deep blurry voice, Xiven had not heard parts of the sentence. The heat must be getting to him.
Acedia smiled. "Perhaps its not time yet. "
The peaceful silence within the walls did not last. Explosions rock the walls, forcing part of it to crumble. A vial of yellow liquid was tossed in and cracked upon landing, creating a thick fog. Acedia quickly lowered his walls of light only to find his prisoner missing.

The man who dragged Xiven away was not any older than he was. He had bandages covering everything else but his eyes. He was part of Kurosawa.
"You are? "
"Sparrow. " The man spoke as he detached a bottle from a complicated looking his gauntlet and reinserted another bottle. "I had been following you all this time until your communicator got shocked. Figured you'd already be in trouble." Once again Xiven's ego received a blow. He had been followed for three weeks and he had not noticed.
"What took yo. "Xiven said sarcastically. If Sparrow had smiled, Xiven did not know.
Acedia located the pair quickly. He immediately recognised the crest on Sparrow's chest.
"Barbarians of the sands."He pointed at sparrow and another arrow shot out. The assassin was agile and rolled out of the way. He fired two darts from his gauntlet at Acedia whom conjured a wall in it's path. The darts cracked upon hitting the wall, letting out a black substance which quickly drained the wall of it;s substance. Not wasting the chance, Sparrow pulled out a round device from his belt and tossed it onto the ground below Acedia. He ran and signalled for Xiven to follow.
"Listen, I'll hold out on for as long as I can while you'll get out of here. My team members will spot you and approach you. They'll take care of the rest. "
"Wha... happened?"
"A little taste of his own medicine. It can stun a normal person for up to two hours."
"Then why do you have to stay behind? "
"Cause he ain't normal. "
"I can't leave you behind, Kurosawa won't let me. "
Sparrow grinned, only for a slight moment and Xiven caught it. "Your work here is done, let me do mine." Sparrow said, as he detached more bottles from his gauntlet and replace them with new ones. "Do me a favour. When you get back, find out who Jack Datlus is, and burn him into your memory." Xiven could not say no, given his condition, he would only be a burden.
"One more thing. Lord Kurosawa's cause. Promise me you'll help him." Xiven agreed. "I'm counting on you." Sparrow, Jack Datlus, or whoever he was smiled.
The cover behind them disintegrated. Acedia was freed from the spell. Sparrow took out a vial of dangerous looking liquid and glupped it down. Within moments, pain shot throughout his body and he was on his knees. Now he had done it. His pupils were slit, like a snake and he no longer feel the need abiding to pain.
The assassin lunged towards Acedia as he prepared another spell. A large flash engulfed the insides of the building as Xiven ran out. Afterwards there were several other explosions as Xiven moved on, never looking back.
Jack Datlus, as if he could remember, Xiven thought as he fought back the bitterness as patrol guards spotted him.