"Argh! We missed him again!" Zo said as she kicked a rock which slammed into and collapsed part of the fort's wall due to the sheer force of the kick. "Slippery little bastard! How in the Hells does he keep getting away from us?!?"

Following Sol's clue the Twins searched for some of the more powerful members of the Northwind military in an attempt to track down Labrys, but found themselves always one step behind the weapon. At present, they'd tracked him to Fort Hithen which sat at a river crossing in the South of the country near the border with the Demon Kingdom. However, upon arrival, they found nothing but drained bodies of the soldiers, with the time of death likely days prior and thus were no closer to their target. It had become a common, yet irritating sight over these last few days and weeks, something that the Twins couldn't help but cause their blood to boil over.

"How do we keep missing this asshole?" Zo yelled, allowing her power to flare up around her in frustration. "He can't be that quick, and yet we're always too fucking late to the party!"

{Its like he's toying with us!} (Zo)

"I told you that running around like this was probably a waste of time." Ro chastised her for her outburst. "But I'll agree that it's too odd. It's almost as if he's aware that we're looking for him and he's moving in such a way that he's always just out of reach."

{Does he have spies tracking? That would be the most logical thought but that's only possible if he knows we're looking for him and Sis and I are doing our best to keep a low profile. Not to mention that number of times he hit a place we'd already been to once before...} (Ro)

"Perhaps rather than chasing the Axe, we'd be better served laying a trap for it to fall into." Ro commented as he walked over to a drained body, checking it for any residual power that he could track.

{There's some, but not enough to follow reliable. As expected of a Demon Lord's weapon, he's likely to smart to make things that easy. If he wasn't then those idiot Gods would've already found and destroyed him.} (Ro)

"We'd need the right bait for a trap.." Zo said in a huff, kicking another rock that plowed through several barrels, causing the water within the leak out. "He's not going to be stupid enough to attack something that's obviously powerful." She figured that anyone too strong would seem out of place and be avoided while anyone too weak would be ignored. "Not to mention that Primordial or Divine power is going to send him scurrying away like the rodent that he is. So its not like we can start letting our power run amuck."

"Then I've got the perfect idea for a guinea pig." Halifax said, appearing on top of the fort wall in front of them and catching the two of them off guard by her sudden and unexpected appearance.

"Ugh, it's her." Ro grimaced as Halifax leaped down and landed between the two of them. “What are you doing here?”

"Don't you ugh me." Halifax rolled her eyes at their attitude. "Not unless you want me to tell the kitty you were rude to her bestest best friend." She smirked as she mimed petting a certain Catkagi's ears.

{I'm sure the kitty would thrash em good for me! All it would take is a few extra scratches!} (Halifax)

"I still have no clue what the Boss sees in a Divine pain in the ass like you." Zo rolled his eyes as his Sister blew a raspberry at the Divine Blade. "Stupid little teacher's pets like you are annoying, you know that? We don't need help from a stupid Divine Sword to do the job Boss sent us on. So scram. We'll handle this."

"Yeah! Go fuck off somewhere else! Maybe go hang out in a pedestal until a Hero draws-" Zo tried to make a joke, but quickly found herself grabbed by the throat an hoisted up by Halifax.

"Go ahead and finish your sentence. I dare you. " Halifax glared at her, causing the Primordial to shiver as she met the Divine Blade's eyes. “But be warned, I don't care if you're Akagi's little minion, I'll end you like I ended Vikes.”

Zo struggled to respond as she was held dangling in the air, choking on her own breath as the Divine Blade's grip tightened.

"Have I made myself clear?" Halifax's aggressive tone shook the Primordial to the core and momentarily made Zo fear for her life.

"Y-Yes..." Zo barely squeaked out as she was slowly put down.

"Good, and for your information Akagi asked me to help you two out. So you'll have to deal with my presence and put up with my nonsense. Unless, of course, you plan on telling her that you're refusing to obey her orders?" Halifax asked, knowing full well that they wouldn't dare do something so stupid.

"If the Boss sent you, then we've got no choice." Zo said as she regained her breath after being choked out. "So who do you have in mind for the bait? Not you I presume? There's no way in the Nine Hells that Axe will get anywhere near someone that emits Divine power."

"Well, that's not entirely true." Halifax said as she walked over to a withered corpse that was propped up against one of the stone barracks, her face contorting in disgust as she realized what had been done to the soldier. "At one point his minions actually captured me during that shit show a few centuries ago. Apparently, Labrys was present but I don't think I was conscious during that time."

{I'm just glad I managed to get Sherry away from that place before they did to her what they did to...} (Halifax)

"Wait, hold up. You mean to tell me that they captured you and you lived?" Ro asked with a raised eyebrow as he joined his Sister.

"Naturally I had to bust out of their lair and fight a bazillion bad guys, but yeah." Halifax said as she knelt down to check through the corpse's pockets. "I had to fight my way out of that mess floor by floor and room by room, and I saw plenty of things like this inside their base." She said as she pulled a small notebook out of his pocket. "Let's see..."

"Looting the dead? Classy." Zo chided her.

"No, I'm doing what you two morons failed to, I.E. gathering intel." Halifax rolled her eyes but didn't otherwise respond to her comments. "Youo see, this guy was an officer in the Northwind army and based on the arm patches it looks like a decently high-ranking one. They usually have little booklets on them like this.” She said as she held up a small leather booklet. “These detail their deployment and give very useful information on other local garrisons so that they know what other forces are nearby in case of war." She said as she flittered through the pages.

"And if someone got hold of one of those books..." Ro furrowed his brow, realizing exactly what had been happening.

"They'd have a detailed breakdown of local forces." Halifax finished for him as she slowly stood up, waving the booklet in her hand. "Labrys is bound to have something even more detailed than this. Did you check the commander's office by chance?"

"Yeah, and it was ransacked." Zo said that it looked like it was turned over and destroyed.

"Figures. Did you happen to see a large book about the size of one the Church uses for prayer? It would be a little more ornate than others, and would have the Northwind Crest emblazoned on the front." Halifax asked as she turned to them while describing the book in question.

"There wasn't one here that I saw, but I believe there was one like that in another Fort we went to." Ro answered as he recalled a prior search at another military base. "Is that something we should've looked more closely at?"

"Yes and no." Halifax shrugged. "It's specifically for the top brass' eyes only and it goes into even more detail than things like this. But it also has a very nifty extra feature that's what's really useful." She said as she drew her blade and slashed in the direction of the Twins, sending a slice that flew between them and split a small shed behind them in two.

"What the hell was that for?!?" Zo growled, taking up a fighting stance. "Are you trying to kill us?!?"

"If I wanted you dead, I'd just do it rather than bloviate like a certain group of idiots I know." Halifax said as she walked past the two of them. "No, I figured I'd go a head and eliminate the spy neither of you seemed capable of dealing with." She said as she pointed to a fresh stream of blood that flowed out from the side of the destroyed structure.

"Wait, what?!? There someone still here?!?" Ro's eyes widened in surprise. "But we combed the whole place! There wasn't a single other person anywhere near here for miles!"

{We scanned this place with our Mana! Nobody should've been able to hide! I didn't sense anything! There was no magic power, no life force, nothing! How could someone be that close and avoid our detection?!?}

(Ro)

"You two have a lot to learn if you're this poor at detection." Halifax said as she walked over to the blood, revealing a dead man who'd been split in half, one of his arms clenched to a large book that looked exactly like Halifax had described. "The Cult are a slippery bunch and they've only survived this long due to their annoying ability to cloak their power and hide from the best of us." She said as she bent down and ripped the book out of his arms.

"If they're so good then how did you detect them?" Zo asked with a scoff.

"Because they're so good at hiding their magical energy that they actually make the space where they are devoid of magical energy entirely." Halifax said with an eye roll, annoyed that the Primordials somehow didn't pick up on this fact. "Did you not find it odd that certain areas in the base seemed to have no magical flow? That's not exactly normal since Mana never leaves a void." Her comments caused the Twins to look at each other before face-palming.

{So they did notice it and simply ignored it... Idiots...} (Halifax)

"I've dealt with these Cultists for over a millennia, so I know their tricks pretty well." Halifax said as she waved the larger book in her hand. "And one of their favorite things to do is hijack other people's communication methods to make it very difficult to trace them. After all, nobody is going to question two commanders discussing military plans over a secured line." She smirked as the Twin's eyes went to the book. The rightful source is novelꞁire.net

"What?!?" (Ro x Zo)

"Magic communication is standard in most militaries and Northwind is no exception. These books act something like phones in Akagi's world and allow 'dialing' between them. This prevents these forts from being isolated and allows instant communication between them." Halifax explained, internally laughing at the Twins lack of knowledge due to their sealing.

"And since that Cultist was following us..." Ro's eyes widened.

"It's no wonder that bastard was always one step ahead of us." Zo grit her teeth in anger as she realized they'd been had.

"As I said, you kids have a lot to learn." Halifax laughed. "And as for the bait I talked about. Well, I think a certain other kitty will be perfect for the job."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Reflia POV

"Gone mad?" Reflia said, completely confused as she spoke to Gale via 'video.' "I mean, Korex is already a bit crazy, but the way you speak of it seems to imply..."

"Listen, I don't know how or why but Korex has truly lost it." Gale said, his face laced with anger and frustration. "I sent Esquire to check on him and she reported his entire realm is twisted in madness and the man himself has been reduced to little more than a rambling mess. She's currently busy trying to calm him down, but who knows how long that will take."

"I see... Do we have any idea what happened?" Reflia asked, concerned with this sudden bout of madness while also finding it ironic and somewhat comical.

"We're working to figure it out. At the moment all I've got to go on is what Esquire reported back. Hopefully she can tell me a bit more, but right now my information is limited." Gale paused for a moment. "Though, according to Esquire he was apparently repeating one phrase over and over again, but I honestly have no idea what it means and, frankly, I believe it to be nothing but nonsense."

"What was it?" Reflia asked, her throat unexpectedly running dry.

"The Darkness Swallows the Light." Gale said, his words seeming to make the whole world go quiet.