-William Faulkner

"Entropic Collapse?!"

Moira didn't pause as John stumbled over the words. Only Seras and Sophia slowed with him, unable to stop entirely due to the flood of soldiers pouring over them. John had no idea what the status effect was at first, but it sounded so dire that there was no way he could keep going further into it without examining it. Pulling Seras and Sophia to the side so that he could more closely check it out, John double-tapped the status of the barrier. A quick note popped up, with Evellyn hovering nearby. Though he probably looked insane to those nearby, John quickly passed his eyes over the effect.

Entropic Collapse: This Barrier has been established as a permanent fixture, tied to a mana source instead of a caster. However, it has been deprived of the mana necessary to maintain it, based on the size and stability of the Barrier. Due to this, the Barrier has a limited lifespan remaining before it collapses, ejecting all persons within and destroying all items of a non-magical variety contained within. Common magical items will receive 50% Durability loss.

"There's… no one maintaining the Barrier? Then they're either trying to ambush us outside of it or there's no one left to maintain it. Which is it?"

John only debated his own question for a few moments before he realized that it didn't matter. If chaos ensued because he'd deemed a concern too minor, that would be on him. John, however… had zero ways of contacting Moira. The Warden had insisted that he stay beside her, and he'd immediately broken that idea by peeling off on his own. John growled at his stupidity before grabbing one of the nearby Knights by the shoulder, halting their charge and barking at them in a way that probably would've been less well received by a member of the Legion.

"I need to contact Moira immediately! Who has a radio?!"

The Knight scoffed as they pulled their shoulder free, but called out all the same. It was a name John didn't recognize. Fitting, because a moment later a face he didn't recognize came out from the crowd, a raised eyebrow quickly answered by seeing John's presence and the outstretched hand.

"I need to use your radio… I've learned something about this Barrier!"

The Knight nodded and immediately offered it, clearly more familiar with John than he the blonde-haired soldier had been. John didn’t waste time on pleasantries; he checked the radio, and noted it was on squadron nine. A squad leader, then.

"Tricia, listen, this is John Newman - I've been separated from Moira temporarily," John began, not releasing the button as he tried to summarize his findings as quickly as possible. "The Barrier we're in is collapsing. Whoever was supplying the mana to keep it sustained is gone or isn't doing their job. I don't know how long it will take, but right now it's about eighty-seven percent collapsed, and according to my menus everyone inside gets kicked out when it expires!"

"Affirmative. I will contact her immediately."

When John didn't hear a follow-up, he handed the radio back to its owner, then charged off through the crowd. Seras and Sophia followed him into the crowd once more, only this time they were fighting to reach the forefront rather than to fall behind. Knights gave way, willingly or unwillingly, as Seras and Sophia placed a hand on each of John's shoulders and helped to propel him forward. John did his best to follow after the main stream of Order forces, every hallway break a decision on which he hoped Moira had followed, hoping that he was choosing the right path.

John was only brought to a halt when a hand, more powerful and commanding than most of the Knights that had bumped into him, brought him to a stop with a commanding grasp. John turned to face his accoster and found himself staring into the eyes of Etriyya, her harsh gaze passing over the three of them with annoyance.

"Lady Brighton sent me to check on your progress… she's very unhappy that you broke away from her so quickly after reaching this place. Follow me; I know the quickest route to where she is now. They are about to storm the inner workings of this place."

John wanted to say something, but he had no idea what. This was neither the time nor the place to apologize - again - for his behavior earlier, yet nothing he could relay about their current situation seemed important enough to overcome the barrier now evident between them. John simply followed silently until Etriyya led them to a set of closed double-doors. There were three of them, matching, clearly leading into some massive room of relative importance. Standing outside the center door, shoulder pressed firmly to the wall, was Moira. She ushered John to the empty place across from her, never dropping her shield or tearing her eyes away from the door for too long. Around them over a dozen Knights and a handful of Legion soldiers, including Julianna herself, were surrounding the identical sets of double-doors to the apparently massive room they were about to infiltrate.

"I am grateful for your information, but you must learn to process new information as it comes, or you will lag behind the man driving his blade through your skull, John Newman!"

Moira didn't sound grateful - if anything, she sounded livid. John did his best to chalk that up to her tension and ignored it as he focused on the doorway itself.

"So… they're all in there?"

"I have… I have no honest idea," Moira grunted, holding the radio close to her ear. There was a steady stream of chatter coming over it, all undoubtedly redirected for Moira's own ears by Tricia, and John caught bits and pieces of it. Most of what he heard was summarized quite readily by Moira.

"All of them, the Cabal, they're just… surrendering. They put up a token resistance, if that, and end up on their knees before my Knights have even considered slaying them. With every moment more are willingly giving themselves up to our soldiers. They know what awaits them, that we do not take kindly to those who forsake morals and ethics in favor of simple profit and self-advancement, but they do so all the same. We will enter the room, secure it, and see what trap or plan they are enacting. There is something going on here we do not currently understand."

"The disarray I've seen here is beyond even what would be expected for a street gang. If they are planning something, they have assigned some of their best and most loyal actors to sacrifice themselves for the appearance of chaos and uncertainty… a collapsing barrier, near-suicidal charges and mere office workers donning arms? This is the most **** and cobbled-together defense I've ever seen, and I hesitate to call it that."

It was the closest Julianna had ever come to sounding uncertain in the brief time John had known her. Being surrounded by others doubting this charge was bringing down John's morale, so he was quite sure that it was doing little for the loyal followers surrounding them.

"Are we still going in, or not? Whatever we do, let's do it before they can interrupt us or trigger something crazy out here," John urged their decision so that they might avoid a collapse here, so close to victory.

"Of course we're going in. We're this close to ending the war… this is their command center, the very core of the building. If they're mounting any kind of last ditch defense, it will be here - it's the only space large enough to hold more than a handful of soldiers pointing weapons at a single doorway."

"Right… on your mark then."

Moira nodded once, gave a signal to her men, and then counted down on her fingers. He was a little surprised that Moira went with the hand gestures given that they had just been talking, but realized she must have been avoiding giving away their exact entry.

"Right behind you, Father."

"Yeah, let's end this so we can stop lookin' over our arses every time we go outside!"

John nodded, grimacing and tightening his grip over his blade. The tension grew with every finger Moira counted down, until the entire Order sprang into action as Moira clenched her fist and personally drove the first set of doors open. John let out a battle cry, but found it drowned out among nearly two dozen others, including those from Kim and Moira. Their wails were so powerful, so boisterous, that John could hear little except the clanking of metal and stomping of feet, so his eyes told him what his ears could not.

"Command Center" as a given description of the room was rather generous. The room was the hotel's ballroom, and while it may once have been rented out for parties, in this barrier it was filled with a variety of computers, desks, and at the very far end - on the stage - a large table not dissimilar to the War Room back at the Brighton Manor. The room was mostly empty, with only around fifteen Cabal standing at the far end of the room encircling the table; John scanned them rapidly with Observe on the most obvious targets to conserve mana, taking notes of their names, levels, and classes. One in particular stood out - at the forefront, hands raised, and a look of terror on his face as the Order bore down upon him.

Leo Berkosa
Level 11 Cabal De-facto Leader
<The Cabal>
195 / 195 HP
Alignment: -78
Relationship: -89
Status Effects: Hopeless

"-it, wait, wait, wait!"

The man's shout couldn't be heard fully until they had closed in; by then, the Order had already lashed out with a barrage of spells. Arrows of fire and light smashed into the Cabal flanking their "de-facto" leader, whatever that meant, sending them crashing to the ground. Still, only one man actually tried to strike back; seeing the blows landing upon their allies, the rest of them fell to the ground, lying prone in various poses, either spread eagled or curled up as tightly as they could. It was, perhaps, the one thing that could slow the Order's charge. Somewhat hesitant, a bit confused, and wanting to ensure they were not caught off-guard, the Knights began to slow their pace.

"Moira, that one's the leader," John called out as the Knights reached the line of foes, beginning to secure them. None of the thugs dared to resist; the only one who had cast a spell during the initial charge was **** or dead from the wounds he had suffered in retaliation.

"What? No, he isn't, we are well aware of the leader of this particular band of thugs," Moira said, raising an eyebrow. She hesitated, but seemed quite sure of her assessment. For the first time since hitting the ground, each arm held by a separate Knight, Leo raised his head and met Moira's eyes desperately.

"What, you mean Piirin? That son of a bitch left us to die here. He took half our men and got the fuck out with those Albidians! Then Chaze took his little posse of backstabbers and stole what he could before he took off. Jeanine told everyone we were all gonna die and took the first flight out of town. Shit just kept rolling downhill until I was in charge; I've been trying to contact you guys for days, but everyone I send out with a message just ditches us.

“Can't even organize a proper fuckin' surrender because everyone's too busy abandoning ship! Most of us didn't even want to fight you in the first place, but every idiot in the Cabal wants to go down as the one who killed the Brighton Warden, and the ones with half a brain realize there’s no command structure left to discipline them for not listening."

"You started this war, and you would claim to be opposed to it? You killed my men, invaded our territory, stole our items-"

"Look, I can explain everything, if you just tell your Knights to spare whoever they can! The ones that stuck around are harmless; they're too dependent on a leader, too stupid to know better, or too loyal to me to flee like the rest of them! I told them we'd get picked off by the guilds around Springfield even if we did leave; Piirin isn't gonna leave any loose ends if he finds us, and everyone around us hates us. They trust me to get them out alive, even if it means rotting in an Order prison!"

"And why should I trust you?" Moira asked, stepping forward and grabbing the man by his hair. "As you said, half your men are missing. I ask my Knights to risk their lives by trusting yours not to shoot on sight, when you admit that you can't even control them?"

Sensing his weak leverage, both literally and figuratively as the Knights grabbing him hoisted him to his feet and started to apply magical cuffs to his wrists, Leo started glancing around frantically. Meeting the stone-cold eyes of Kim Moon, then Julianna, his gaze eventually fell on John.

"Y-you! I'd recognize those two anywhere, you're the one this whole thing got started over! You're why that scumbag Piirin left us to die here…"

"Speak carefully," John growled, "because if you threaten my friends-"

"I just fuckin' said I’m not here to threaten anyone! But it's true - Piirin had been talking with the Albidians for a long time, trying to convince them we could be useful. Took us years just to get a reliable contact, and when we finally did, they basically laughed in our faces. But Piirin had another meeting with them and said there was a way we could get in - someone we could sell to the Albidians to make sure as many of us as possible got to join. He always planned to leave some people behind, but it was supposed to be the newbies, the ones who hadn't earned their keep yet!"

"Someone to sell?" John hissed. Leo didn't back down, glaring at him harshly.

"Yeah. Few days before Piirin started the war, the Albidians show up on our doorstep and offer Piirin exactly what he wanted. Membership for the whole guild - everyone, even the scum we dragged in out of the north end last month. Well, we knew there was a catch. They bring us this guy… I think his name was Victor. Guess his guild got wiped out by you guys, and he made it out somehow - we took him in 'cause Bally O'Donovan was looking for him. I guess the guy dug up his sister and fucked her co-"

"Less details," Moira growled, "and more substance." John's reaction was a bit different than Moira's anger. He hadn't immediately recognized the name, but the follow-up description… it couldn't be that Victor, could it?

"Right, well, by the time they delivered him, the guy was half-broken. He was rambling about walking, talking, breathing corpses, with pumping blood, and how some young, culling blade or some shit was going to cleave us from the earth. Whatever the Albidian Society did to the guy, it messed him up bad, but they swore he was telling the truth about this undead thing, said they'd walked through his memories and seen it themselves. Some guy just waltzing around the Mall with his pretty undead wife. So they hand him over, we locked him up in the dungeons, and we start looking for ways to get what we need and join up with a real guild."

John froze as all eyes fell on him - Leo's, Moira's, Kim's… even Julianna’s were fixated on his face. Moira had already hinted that she suspected there was more to the Cabal's motivations, even suggested that John was a point of interest - the Cabal themselves had made it clear. But to hear that the whole starting point was his first foray into the open with Seras? That he had been the cause of so much ****?

"I'm so sorr-"

"Quiet. He's not finished yet… there's more to this story."

"Y-yeah, well, Piirin started sending us out. The Albidians wanted some other stuff, but they said none of that was as important. Still, it was a good excuse to start the war, so we raided that little outpost of you guys’ and took what they asked for. That seemed to warm them up, but not as much as we wanted them to. I think there was something they weren't telling us; they just wanted this guy at any cost.

“We started pushing you guys, hoping we'd get a chance to find him. Learned all about you later, about your name, your home and all that, but you never stayed in one place long enough. Moira moved you between houses and into the Manor so much we never launched a proper attack; we got one half-ass foray into the Gorbachev's house not realizing what the place was - pleasant surprise that was, let me tell you; I've still got scars from dragging that goddamn drone out with the crazy bitch-"

"Summarize," Moira commanded, "or I'll assume you're stalling and execute you on the spot!"

"You wanted info, now you're gonna kill me?! Fuck's sake, I'm cooperating so you maybe let us go one day! If you don't believe me, go check the second floor of the east section; we've been using it as a jail, and that Victor guy is still there. I've got no reason to lie! Fuck Piirin and fuck everything about this place. I should have known better, should have known that joining some ratfuck organization was going to get me killed. I made almost as much money peddling meth on my own and with half the danger when most of my competition wasn't even magical!

"You know Piirin still lies to the recruits? Says we're THE Cabal, that they never really got destroyed, that the Order never broke them up after the Eleventh Crusade. He pretends like we're just an American branch that's getting a foothold, and that if we ever get into real shit the big bad Soul Sorcerers and Mind Flayers are going to come rescue us from the mean ol’ Order! You don't find out how full of shit he is, how shattered the real Cabal was, and that we're just a bunch of name-stealing bastards who'd probably be dead if the Cabal was still around, until you've been in so long that everyone wants to cut off your fuckin' dick! Not even any good pussy around, because every woman in the state has heard what we do to-"

Moira stepped forward and, with a single blow from her gauntleted fist, silenced the man. John felt as much as he heard the solid blow to the temple, and grimaced as the rough metal came away bloody.

"Enough of this inane rambling; we'll extract what information we want when he's calm - and in a cell," Moira spat, waving the Knights holding Leo off. The Legion and Order Knights worked together quickly to secure and remove every one of their fallen enemies. "For now… secure this place. John, I will be busy ensuring this Barrier does not collapse and thrust a hundred magical soldiers into a very crowded mundane hotel; Etriyya, go with John and secure these cells he spoke of. If Victor really is there, that should be a good start in proving his story. If he was telling the truth… well, we shall address that when it comes to it."

John nodded numbly. The war was really over, or so it seemed.

But he was still being hunted.