Recon Mission

With a mighty leap, Lodo landed on a rock protruding from the cliff several feet above. Even with his claws, he struggled to find purchase on the slick, spray-battered surface.

Once he felt certain he was stable, he glanced behind. Jin was still on the rock below, muscles tensed as he prepared to jump.

"Are you quite all right, young master Jin?" Lodo called down at him.

For a moment he feared the roaring waves might have drowned him out, but then a tiny voice drifted up toward him. "Just great! Here I go!"

With a flash of silver, Jin leaped. Lodo scooted to the side just before Jin landed, back arched and tail lifted high.

Lodo nodded at him before turning his attention to another rock above. They still hadn't gotten halfway up the cliff face at the southern side of the island. At the top, Lodo just barely made out a low stone wall, faint and fuzzy in the mist.

Not an inch of his fur wasn't soaked, and it wasn't only because of the drizzling rain. To get here, he and Jin had to swim from one of the many lone rocks peppering the ocean around the island. They'd chosen the closest one, but it still meant crossing about a hundred meters of choppy sea.

Jin had handled it well, to Lodo's relief. Perhaps he should've expected it, considering the boy had spent years keeping up with Ryllis.

As Lodo climbed, he had to resist the urge to glance behind. Though a fall would hardly injure him in this form, he still didn't fancy losing his footing. Besides, there would be nothing to see. Amaro had brought the two of them here in one of the Blue Sky's skiffs, a small collapsible boat, and by now had already headed back to the skycraft.

Long lines attached to floats trailed behind the island's southern face; Fia had explained these were used to cultivate kelp. Indeed, dense mats of seaweed carpeted the rocks at the base of the cliff, splashes of green and rust-red against the dark stone. Lodo hadn't expected to find such fertile growth in this remote place, but he supposed it made sense if the island sat above a Levia vein.

And that was the very reason the Infernal Legion had invaded.

Before long, Lodo made it to the top of the cliff. Jin landed next to him, and Lodo gave him a moment to catch a breath before surveying their surroundings.

The wall stretched only a few yards away – and standing along it at regular intervals were soldiers whose horns protruded from the hoods of their cloaks.

Lodo immediately ducked behind a jutting rock, Jin fast after him. From behind this shelter, Lodo dared another peek.

Within his immediate field of vision, he counted at least four guards. They were rather widely spaced apart, which heartened him. According to Fia the only gate was located on the north side, so that area must be the most heavily guarded.

This close, Lodo became aware of a new sensation gripping his bones, pressing down on his chest – not the cold or the rain, but something heavy and dark. Something he had felt many times before, but only inside pitch-black arenas.

It would get worse the deeper they headed, Lodo suspected. He hoped Jin would be able to handle it, though so far the boy hadn't uttered a word of complaint.

"That guard's not looking our way," Jin whispered. "Can we go?"

Ah, Lodo shouldn't have allowed himself to get lost in thought. He checked, and sure enough the nearest guard – who still had to be around thirty feet away – was gazing out over the ocean.

He nodded at Jin. Together, they darted out from behind the rock.

As he ran, Lodo's heart slammed a violent rhythm against his ribcage. A heady mix of excitement and fear swept through his body, driving his senses to maximum alertness. The softest footstep would twitch his ears, and the slightest movement would not escape his eyes.

They detected nothing. So far, so good.

A single leap brought Lodo and Jin to the top of the wall. Together, they jumped down into the town proper.

Lodo's paws hit hard, flat ground. Looking around, he saw long buildings cobbled from stone, crowded so close their eaves almost touched each other. Between them stretched narrow but well-paved alleys. All in all, it seemed like a comfortable enough place – small, but wanting for little.

Nobody seemed out and about, which made sense given the weather. And perhaps the presence of the Infernal Legion guards.

Lodo nodded at Jin. "Shall we split up? Remember, alert me at the slightest hint of danger."

The two of them had decided to communicate with scent marking – rather crude, but it was the best method that wouldn't also alert the soldiers.

"Right!" Jin wagged his tail.

With that, he bounded off down to the alley, though Lodo couldn't resist calling after him, "I do mean it! Remember, your sister entrusted you to me!"

"I know! I'll be fine!" Jin shouted before leaping atop a roof, A flash of silver fur and he vanished from sight.

Well, Lodo could still smell him, not to mention hear his little fox feet furiously pattering away. He took a breath before sprinting off himself.

While he might be unfamiliar with Mare's streets, he had an excellent sense of direction, so he knew exactly which way was north. Not to mention the dark Levia only became deeper and heavier the further he headed into the town.

The increasing frequency of guards also suggested he was on the right track. They stood at street corners or in front of houses, wielding spears and swords. On occasion, Lodo glimpsed movement behind the narrow windows on the houses. Townspeople, their faces wan. As far as Lodo could tell, they seemed to be a mix of nephilim and sea sprites.

Every sighting made Lodo's heart twist. Soon, he promised himself. Soon they would live in terror no longer.

Very few of the houses seemed to have people inside them, however. And the ones that Lodo did glimpse seemed to be either elderly or young children. What had happened to the rest of Mare's inhabitants?

Lodo suspected he wouldn't like the answer, but he would only find out if he kept going. So he crept carefully, holding himself close to the ground to avoid the soldiers' attention. As well, he kept his nose alert for the slightest hint of a fox's musk.

All he smelt was the briny sea, a hint of dried fish that tugged at his stomach, and above all that awful dark Levia. By now, it squeezed his chest so tight every breath burned in his lungs. Not only that, but it had started throbbing a slow, deep rhythm like a sinister heartbeat.

As the throbbing grew stronger, Lodo realized that he wasn't just feeling it in his Levia; no, he was hearing it with his ears. A real, physical sound. Beneath it came other sounds – grinding and creaking metal, along with distant shouts.

His cat's instincts screamed at him to run as far away as possible, but he violently shoved them aside. Instead he kept heading forward, closer to the danger. The sounds grew louder, pulsing through his entire body, and a strange glow appeared from ahead, scattering sickening green highlights across the wet cobblestones.

By the time the northern wall came into view, the Infernal Legion's dark Levia thickened the air until Lodo almost choked on it. Dozens of soldiers were lined up before the wall, standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder. The light pulsing beyond rendered them ominous silhouettes.

Narrowing his eyes, he strained to see through that harsh glow. Even in this form, his vision took far too long to adjust. But adjust it did – though he almost wished it hadn't.

The light emanated from an enormous machine mounted on the rock face beyond the wall, a hideous metal contraption extending a swarm of tubes into the sea. Levia pulsed within them like a sickening parody of blood, glowing a neon green that brought to mind radioactive waste.

The foul light gathered in the core of the machine, so bright Lodo couldn't look at it directly. All around the machine, townspeople pumped levers so massive they required at least two operators each. As they strained and groaned, soldiers barked harsh orders at them.

So this was it. The machine that drained Samakah's Levia.

Yet astonishingly enough, it wasn't the most horrifying part of the whole scene. Instead, Lodo couldn't take his eyes off what lay beyond the machine: a black curve so massive he at first thought he was staring into the depths of an Infernal Legion arena. But after stepping back, he realized it was a medusid at least five times Blue's size.

From this angle, Lodo couldn't see the craft attached to the medusid. But judging from its sheer size, he had no doubt it outclassed the Blue Sky in every regard.

Well. He might have succeeded at his reconnaissance mission, but that brought him little solace. Not when he now understood just how formidable a foe they were up against.