-Andrew Ryan

"Shit…"

John cast aside the notification, figuring they had more than enough to worry about besides his personal quests. He certainly wasn't about to use Reincarnation in the middle of a Cabal stronghold, and he wasn't sure that Moira would appreciate losing one of her allies in the middle of a war anyway. John tried to count the number of Cabal that they had slain since he'd hit his maximum level, somewhere around two-dozen felled by his own efforts, and another three-dozen thanks to Moira and his other party members.

Ranging between levels 5 and 12, John figured that meant he was owed nearly two-and-a-half thousand XP. Enough to garner a few levels all on its own… and he would get twelve stat points for resetting. Quick math told him to get his total stats back up, he'd still have to reach Level 12, and to make any forward progress, he'd need to hit 13 again… that was a lot of training.

"Well, maybe after all this is done," John thought ruefully, noting Moira had already properly donned her garments again. Glancing uneasily between John and his panting, flushed creations, Moira turned to the corner of the room they had originally been pointed to and raised a slightly shaky hand.

"Let's return to matters at hand, with clearer heads, I hope. John, could you tell me what you see on that table? I recognize many objects… just let me gather which are from our Order…"

"Yeah, I can do that," John mumbled, somewhat relieved to have a task to focus on. Moira steadily pulled item after item from the concealed table, looking at them for only a moment or two each before pocketing them in the few places she had to store things in her thick plate armor. Thankfully, by the time she finished, there were only a handful of items; between Feast and the fact that John had been minimizing his mana consumption as much as possible, John had restored enough mana to observe all three of them.

Beads of Pacification: A necklace crafted from enchanted pearls. Each of these enchanted orbs is designed to contain a specific emotion. One bead for each quintessential emotion has been added; as a result, the wearer's emotions will be overall reduced by 39%.

Corset of Restraint: A garment to restrain the midriff which has been enchanted to inhibit nervous function and restrict blood flow. The wearer's thoughts, emotions, and reaction time are all reduced by 27%.

Choker of Inhibition: A piece of cloth designed to wrap around one's neck, restricting blood flow and electrical stimuli. The wearer's reaction to physical stimuli and their reaction time are reduced by 49%.

"They're… they're items designed to reduce reactions," John noted, glancing between the three foreign objects. "They inhibit physical, emotional, and spiritual reactions of the wearer, from what I can see. It's like they want to make people blind to the world around them."

"That… that may be well what they want," Moira noted, grimacing as she lifted up one of the sets of multicolored beads. "The Cabal are known for encouraging obedience at all costs… but I doubt that such numbness makes for a good soldier. I doubt they intend to use them on their own men. They may not intend to use them at all - what worries me is how they created these.

"Though their enchantments may be similar, I can promise you the Order has no items that perform the same function… and I do not believe that these fools would dedicate such time to objects as these in the middle of a war. They're mostly incompetent; that bastard who trapped me in a Barrier was a rare exception.

"…You think it might be the Albidian Society?"

Moira nodded darkly, her lip curling in disgust. "We had assumed by their lack of participation in this war that the Cabal had failed in their attempts to garner favor or assimilate with them, but perhaps it was not so outright a rejection as we had hoped. They would certainly be interested in things like these."

"I thought you said they weren't of use to soldiers?"

"I thought I made it clear… the Albidian Society do not deal in gang warfare and common criminality as these broken remnants of the Cabal do. If they are working for these, they have a use. Whether it's in human trafficking, **** and brainwashing of high-value targets, or simply to sell to someone with a more nefarious plot than their own, I cannot say. We can worry about them later. Gather what you can, I can only carry so many of these."

John nodded, sifting through the items that Moira had not grabbed herself and tossing them into his inventory one after the other. The rest of the room was mostly miscellaneous items with no particular value, leaving John and Moira to sheepishly exit the room. Well, as sheepishly as Moira could - which was to say with a bang and an order.

"We have recovered some of what we came here for; what's the status of the rest of our soldiers?" Moira barked to one of the Order Knights who had been standing stoically against the wall opposite the door.

"The drones that the Gorbachev lent us have finished cloning every hard drive that survived the battle, and all magical items and materials are in the final stages of being collected and loaded into the vans. The entire facility is under our control; the demolitionists are at work right now."

"Then let's make haste; the Cabal will be sending whatever reinforcements they can soon. Any word from Julia and the Legion?"

"Ten minutes ago - they were beginning a full withdrawal and alerted us that the Cabal were already sending some of their soldiers away."

"Then we have no time to waste."

Together the cluster of them jogged through the halls, passing several Order Knights. No longer were they engaged in combat. It seemed that, in the time Moira and John had spent in the room together, the last of the combat truly had been wrapped up. Every Order Knight they saw was carrying something - most had boxes or bags clearly loaded to the absolute brim, but a few carried odd packages. Some dragged prisoners along, Cabal - conscious or otherwise - being towed to the Order vans. A few had boxes that were actually heading away from the van - John assumed those were the explosives, but they were in too much of a hurry to bother asking what that entailed.

When they returned to the docks, John saw that every one of their vehicles had been arranged in a lineup, similar to the way that they had started this journey, rather than the chaotic mess of their initial breaking and entering. The few vans that weren't being actively filled were already locked down, engines running and the occasional eyes peeking out of the bulletproof windows.

"Get everyone ready! The moment all heads are accounted for, we are departing. What are our losses?"

Knight Etriyya strode up to Moira with a quick gesture, clutching her hand over her chest as she spoke. "We lost three good men, almost two-dozen injured or in critical condition, but we've counted almost two-hundred Cabal captured or killed. Most thanks to you, milady, and the Slayer."

"Of course. Our allies have done more than their share…"

Moira didn't glance away from Etriyya, but John still beamed at her purposeful inclusion of him in her praise. They didn't have much time for further conversation; in the silence after those words, the sound of metal clanging in the hallways came, and the Knights John saw carrying boxes into the Cabal facility earlier came sprinting down halls toward them. None of them were bearing crates or gear, their burdens left behind as they barreled into the few remaining open vans.

"Knight Commander Landon, are we accounted for?!"

"Aye, Warden!" a gruff-looking thirty-something called out through an open window in another van, poking out his well-trimmed moustache to grunt his words. "That's the last four demolitionists; we're set to roll out!"

"Let's get moving!"

Moira slammed twice on the metal wall between herself and the driver and the van lurched into motion. Thankfully, someone had taken the time to bother opening the massive warehouse doors during their mission; they drove out in style and side-by-side, rather than all cramming through a set of hastily-rammed holes.

"Moira, we need to talk about something, I have something I need to do and-"

"Hold that thought," Moira interrupted, holding a finger to silence John as she pulled her phone free of a pouch within her armor. John gazed on quizzically as Moira pressed two buttons, then turned her head to the back of the van. Wondering what she was up to, John could not help watching along with her as he idly opened his character menu and gazed over his stats to double check his earlier math.

Given the haste of their departure, the convoy had already covered several blocks. All the same, John could not miss what happened over the roofs of stores and offices. With the flick of her thumb, Moira must have sent a signal - for as surely as John was gazing upon it, the entire warehouse they had just departed was suddenly engulfed. First in a flash of light and then a giant plume of smoke and debris. Chunks of the factory were thrown nearly to the edge of its property, and many of the outer walls started to collapse. Before the first of it hit the ground, though, the entire line of vans was shaken as a shockwave travelled through them. One of the vans near the back actually lost control for a moment as the driver was thrown off by the sudden vibrations; thankfully those behind that vehicle were able to stop before they caused a collision.

"Holy shit, you actually went and blew the whole thing up?"

"This is Cabal territory. Unlike the Albidian Society, and unlike some of the more powerful mages, they rely on a physical presence, active supply lines, and a functional set of services to maintain control and expand their territory. Disrupting all three of those is the single best thing we can do to ensure they do not succeed in this war… in addition to ensuring that as much of their work in this place as possible is lost, what has not already been backed up or transferred."

"How long do you think it will take them to recover."

"They could launch a counterattack within the hour - if they are brave or foolish enough to engage a Warden, the prior Warden, a Gorbachev, a Slayer, and the combined might of the American Order and the Forgotten Legion. For full recovery though… it's hard telling based on the supplies of Foriian Dust, enchanted objects, and manpower we saw managing the day-to-day operations of that place, but I suspect by how many we killed or captured alone, it will take them months to fully replenish their manpower, let alone the weeks dedicated to finding and preparing a new facility."

"Within the hour?"

"They are angry and may make rash decisions, not that it would likely end so well for them… war moves quickly, John Newman. Why, are you concerned?"

John took in a deep breath before he spoke. His eyes travelled to his menu, his opened character sheet, and both Seras and Sophia in turn. Had he proven himself enough today? To them, to himself, to Moira? Could he say that taking such a risk was worthwhile?"

"Moira… an hour isn't enough. I need a day."