Chapter Sixty-Eight - The Queen's Authority

'So I... I'm still not sure... I mean, I have my suspicions of what it might be, but until I'm sure I better not say anything to you, you're still in the process of consolidating your attribute so, if I tell you something wrong, I can influence you in a negative way...' Tia replied

'... Understandable.' Locke replied, a little curious. "Hey girls, can we continue?" He questioned the three women.

Durand, Tamar and the Sister Sandra agreed with Locke's proposal, the four continued to walk the halls with Locke taking the lead, it wasn't long before they encountered an enemy, the same humanoid creature that resembled a decomposing corpse with its face covered in bandages, the sight of the monstrosity made the women prepared to fight, the creature opened its horrible mouth and prepared to roar when an arrow made of shadows pierced its head, completely destroying it, the corpse fell to the ground and began to fall apart. crumbling to dust, Locke wasted not even a second and continued to lead the way.

"That was a mid-level apparition…" Tamar commented. "This guy is strong..."

Locke was focused, looking for any mana that differed from the monster mana and the rotten mana that was emitted by the building, unfortunately the concentration of the rotten mana was so strong that it masked any other mana in the place, he was lucky with Durand's case, as her mana was too out of touch with the environment to go unnoticed, but finding another mana was proving be very difficult.

The detecting presence magic wasn't being useful either, the entire interior of the building was made up of a bunch of secondary dimensions stacked and interconnected, even if he used the magic it couldn't cross between the borders, it just showed to Locke what was in each pocket dimension he was in.

Also, there's one possibility that no one wanted to think about, but can be very real was the fact that Garrard's entire team might already be dead...

But Locke wouldn't give up, he wasn't the type to back down on his words and he would do whatever he could to fulfill something he had promised, but he really had no idea how he was going to do it.

'Why don't you just destroy everything?' Tia questioned. 'With the amount of mana you have now you can just implode these pockets dimensions from the inside out!'

'I don't think violence will solve my problem this time...' Locke replied.

'What are you talking about? Violence solves all problems!' The fairy replied. 'It will be faster and cleaner! Just break everything!'

'Look Tia, I don't want to dismiss your idea entirely, in fact it would actually save me a lot of time and trouble if I just broke all these dimensions but…' Locke glanced sideways at the three women following him. 'What will happen to them if I break this dimensions? Even if I protect them with a barrier, if the other group is still alive and I break the dimension they are in, what will happen to them?'

'Well... To tell you the truth, I don't know, the way these artificial secondary dimensions are grouped together is unnatural and strange, they could be fine and just be thrown back into our main dimension or... well, better not think about the other one alternative... Looks like you're going to have to rely on your luck to find this other group...'

Locke's heart froze at the phrase 'rely on your luck', no matter how much things changed to him, this was a trauma he could never let go.

'Hey, I have an idea! Wait a minute…' the fairy's voice was silenced for a minute.

'Hello?' Hanna's voice came through the mental link.

'Hey babe, how are things over there? And River? Is she okay?" Locke questioned.

'We are all fine! River is sleeping! I hope you don't mind but I put her in your bed... I managed to talk to Aliyah and my parents and they're coming here too, I still don't know how I'm going to explain the fact that you're not here... Or the lizards who are standing guard outside and calling me 'savior's bride'... Tia said she'll talk to them and make them hide before my parents arrive, I hope she can... How are things there?'

Locke smiled at the girl's words, he was happy to know everyone was alright, he gave a short explanation about the state of the city and explained what he was doing at the moment.

'Now I know how I can help, leave it to me! I've been training a lot for moments like this!' Hanna replied, the girl concentrated and closed her eyes, since the day Locke had introduced her to the Dryad she had been training how to increase the bond with Gaia, she was still far from perfection but now she was able to use part of her prophetic gifts while awake.

'I...I see the soldiers you are looking for! But they're not okay! They are tired and under-resourced! And I see a shadow approaching them! You guys need to hurry!'

***

Bomani Garrard was in a sticky situation, he took out the remaining half bottle of brandy and looked at the bottle with visible concern, the soldiers around him were checking their ammunition and the church members were also on standby.

"How many more times can you use this?" One of the clerics questioned.

Garrard held up one finger, the cleric sighed.

"And after this is over, do you still have any intermediaries left?"

Garrard's lack of answers was answer enough.

"Our ammunition is almost gone..." One of the soldiers replied.

Garrard looked around worriedly, the casualties had been large, his bag was empty and he knew things were getting worse and worse, they'd had all sorts of encounters in that building, low-level apparitions, middle-level apparitions, assault squads made of monsters, traps and even a group of cultists.

The worst fight, for sure, was against the group of cultists, he never thought that only three people could cause such destruction, the cultists are covered in red robes and wore masks made of gold to cover their faces, it was obvious that the three were women. One of them exercised magic masterfully, sure was a skilled witch, she was sending electricity through her fingers towards Garrard and his team.

The other cultist took off her cloak, revealing a completely naked female body, adorned with beautiful gold chains, precious stones and gilded body paint, she had her entire body clearly visible, the only thing still covered was her face, the woman walked forward as her body changed in an absurd way, if she had been small and curvy before, her transformed body was completely different, her height grown to almost three meters, while her muscles swelled and grew, her skin took on a metallic golden color. and she looked like a olympic weight lifter made of metal, she went against the soldiers knocking down everything in her path with her absurd force, Garrard suspected she was either a mutant human or a half-breed.

The third cultist didn't move with the other two, she just stood there with her arms crossed, as if she were only interested in watching and not interfering, but this third figure made an instinctive fear awake in Garrard.

The lightning cultists electrocuted a group of soldiers and clerics with ease, she blocked the bullets with an electromagnetic shield, she moved without the slightest concern, lifting the bodies of the defeated with her magnetic magic.

The muscular woman hit the soldiers hard, her skin easily resisted gun fire and she only knocked down those she could get her hands on, with no choices Garrard ordered his men to retreat, and to his surprise the cultists didn't follow, just watched them run without worrying.

Garrard had managed to face all the problems so far with difficulty, but that encounter had cost him more than half of his men, and with no choice the priest was forced to retreat like a wounded animal as he hoped his pursuers would not give chase.

"We need to escape from here!" One of the soldiers spoke up, a female soldier who had been hit in the previous battle but whose teammates managed to drag with them along as they fled. "We are not ready for this!"

"Both the Bureau and our Church have greatly underestimated the threat of the Cultists…" One of the clerics commented.

"We've never faced a group of cultists with powers like this before..." One of the soldiers replied. "Cultists have always been a joke, a bunch of stupid and dumb *ssholes with a massive complex of grandeur! But we were the ones made fools this time, we failed to realize the real threat they posed, while we underestimated their growth they hid their own strengths!"

"I don't blame you!" A voice came out of nowhere. "All our previous clashes were a way to prepare the stage for this moment, we needed to make our existence known and, at the same time, we needed to be underestimated until the time came..."

Garrard and all the soldiers formed a circle and prepared for combat, looking around for the source of the voice, they then saw her, it was a cultist, they couldn't be sure, but they suspected it was the same third cultist who had only observed the previous fight without interfering. Garrard took the lead and stepped between his men and the newcomer, he gripped the hot brandy tightly and braced himself for the impending battle.

"A Voodoo priest, how interesting!" The cultist looked happy. "There aren't many of you left these days… tribal magic is becoming rarer and rarer… I'll make you a proposal, drop your weapons, surrender and all of you will live to see the new world! "

Garrard didn't respond, he began to chant in Haitian, the liquid in the bottle began to glow and emit a pale light, white marks simulating human bones began to ascend all over his skin as he chanted louder and louder. The church clerics began to pray aloud as their palms emitted golden light, the soldiers cocked their weapons and were ready to empty what was left of their clips on the figure in red.

"Stop." The cultist spoke a single word, a loud and short statement, at the same moment Garrard felt a strange sensation and his whole body stopped, none of his muscles moved and he couldn't even blink or breathe, the same thing happened with the soldiers and clerics, they were all trapped as if the clock had stopped.

The cultist moved without difficulty, she slowly approached Garrard and his soldiers, who were trying to struggle for breath. "Don't worry, you'll soon lose consciousness but you won't die, my power only works with conscious people, so as soon as you pass out you will breathe again, But as long as you are aware my orders are absolute!"

Garrard tried to fight the control, but his eyes soon began to darken, the other soldiers began to fall one by one, and soon he followed them, losing consciousness.

The cultist smiled under her mask and approached them, she took a small item from the cloak and was ready to call someone to carry the bodies when a shot ran towards her, the red cloak moved as if it were alive and blocked the projectile, she saw Durand, Tamar, and the nun Sandra watching her.

"Just look at this! It's the Nephilim! I knew the old man couldn't capture you! Also here is the Savan hunter and the Inquisitor Nun! Did I win the lottery? Because I definitely hit the jackpot!" The cultist commented happily, she even clapped her hands. "How about if all of you peacefully surrender? You can even help me carry your companions! So? What do you say?"

Durand responded with another shot, but once the cloak moved as if it were alive and blocked the bullet.

"What a shame... Drop your weapons and wait peacefully until my reinforcements arrive!" The cultist spoke.

Durand was ready to scold her in response when she realized she had thrown the rifle away. "What? What did you do?" she wanted to run to the woman but her body seemed to refuse, although she could still move she couldn't take any action that could harm the cultist.

"This is the power given to me at my birth, whenever I give an order, people are obliged to obey!" the cultist held her forehead with pride. "I call this power the queen's authority!"