A mixture of fear and denial.

The reactions were about to my expectations. Millana was still in shock, only amplified by this fact. Lana began to go pale, and of course Karen simply rolled her eyes, acting like I was clearly an idiot spouting nonsense.

She was quick to act, trying to take control back and look like the authority on the situation again. "You do realize what you are saying is preposterous, right? A smite from our goddess prevents recovery, meaning that that thing is most certainly dead. Some rat or scavenger probably just picked up its corpse." She looked down her nose at me, an act I would make sure she regretted by the end of this discussion.

I considered for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "Truly? I was under the impression that the spell young Lana used in our duel was a smite from your goddess. Was I mistaken in that?" I truthfully was under that impression and somewhat unsure, but I was quite confident she would use this as an excuse to boast about how her goddess was better than me.

Of course, a pompous woman named Karen never fails to take bait regarding boasting. "Pah, what's that supposed to mean? It may have been a lesser smite, but it was still a grand strike with the power of our lady. Most certainly better than anything you-" She shut herself up as she quickly remembered it was not, in fact, better than anything I could do.

I shook my head in a way someone would at a child who failed to grasp a problem. "Then that is only greater reason to be concerned. As you may recall, I was quite resistant to the effects of that attack. And as you may not know, there has been a recent discovery that some form of mana has begun to spread throughout the forest."

From their reactions, not a single person knew that. Isabell looked at me confused, seemingly knowing I spoke the truth, yet not understanding what I meant. Millana and Lana looked to each other with expressions of concern, and Karen looked at me with a face one would have when someone finally stands up to a person of her kind.

She seemed to struggle for words for a few moments before speaking at last, "Where did you hear such information? I have receive no such briefing, and I would think I should have been informed of such a thing."

I let out a sigh before looking at her with a somewhat tired expression, "It was discovered yesterday morning by an elf named Silvia and a young wizard named Natalia. I was present, and I can confirm. I can also confirm that we soon after encountered an Abomination, that was nearly out of the groups capability to handle." I subtly clenched my jaw, hoping that my wording would not reveal anything. Seeing no unique reaction from Isabell that I would not expect, I relaxed slightly.

While Karen stuttered in disbelief, Lana seemed to get a grip for long enough to actually contribute to the conversation. "W-what kind of abomination? The one we fought was bipedal, humanoid. It had one eye due to the other being covered by a growth of bone. It also... It also spoke."

That statement caused me to pause for a moment. After considering for a moment, I replied. "Unfortunately, we did not fight the same beast. However, unlike you I can be certain in stating that the abomination I fought was destroyed, completely and utterly. " I thought hard internally about whether I should press her before deciding to in the end, "You said it spoke? What did it say."

Lana looked slightly down in though for a moment before she answered me, "It..." She shivered at the memory, which was encouraging as to my champion serving its purpose. As Karen tried to stop her, she continued, "It said that the forces of light were pathetic. That... 'The Twisted One' had been wrong to consider us a threat." She stared off into space as she added one last detail, "It said that... that we had no hope against him as it nearly killed me..."

It took everything I had to hide my relief that nothing had been revealed by my champion by mistake. I was confident in him to not mess up my one major restriction, but I still had been concerned that it was a possibility, and one that would have ruined everything. I could not afford any major slip ups, not in this most delicate part of my plans.

Millana spoke in a low voice, nearly a whisper. "Something was strong enough to nearly kill you? And... and its saying there is something that far outranks it?" She was stunned, and Isabell was standing beside her with her hand rested on her shoulder in order to reassure her, though from her demeanor it was not very successful.

Not picking up the mood in the slightest, Karen made a scoff that I could tell was mostly fake confidence. "Whatever or whoever this 'Twisted One' is, it stands as nothing to the true might of the light. Should it come to it, the beast shall simply be another piece of fodder for our great heroine."

Most everyone stared at her blanky, us all knowing on some level that by the time the heroine would be brought here, this place would be well past saving. That the home of the three girls would be gone, and that I would theoretically be left without my church. It was nice, to have someone so disconnected from other people's problems that I didn't have to put much extra work in at all to make myself look like the better person.

I clicked my tongue and changed the subject, hoping to make this day worse for everyone with what may lie ahead. "Distractions aside, I believe we came here to support an encampment? Would you kindly lead the way forward, as you know its location?" I spoke in a tone that could be detected as speaking down, but was nowhere near as obvious as hers.

Realization dawned on her face as she quickly began to stride forward, "Yes, indeed. If you hadn't distracted me, we would have been there many times over by now." I looked to the others tiredly, us all sharing the thought that the situation was in no way my doing.

Regardless, we all followed behind her, going further away from the road. As we walked down the somewhat hidden path through the thick wall of trees, I could only wonder what the camp actually looked like.