Chapter 57 - Operation Planning

Finn held firmly onto his hat as he leapt into the darkness with his body at a slight forward angle and his legs bent. For a moment he felt like he was suspended in a void of darkness, without any sensation of falling. Then his feet hit the ground, and he instinctively let his body tumble forward, distributing the impact of the fall across his curved back.

He rolled several times completely out of instinct, and only when he stopped moving did his mind register that he had survived and was now lying face down in soft grass. He let out a heavy sigh of relief as his mind caught up to his body.

“Finn? Are you okay?” A worried whisper came from in front of him after he had been lying motionless for a while.

He didn’t respond, but started to crawl towards the voice. His face hit a branch full of leaves and he shoved the branch out of the way as he finally met up with the two monks.

“Once we get down this ledge, we’ll be out of sight of the gate and we can light a candle.” Banmi said quietly.

Crawling on their hands and knees, they followed Banmi for a short distance before he led them down a rocky ledge.

Finn had never been so happy to see a light in his life as Banmi lit a candle at the bottom, gently illuminating the rocks and allowing Finn to easily climb the rest of the way down behind Edwin. There was a small rocky outcrop that led around the cliff side, and jutted out into the blackness. Finn made sure he stayed close to the wall.

“How are you going to get back?” Edwin asked in a whisper once they had formed a small circle around the candle.

“The way I came.” Banmi said. “I often sneak out at night to go visit the village down below. Although usually there’s more light than this.”

“What village?” Finn asked, putting his hat firmly back on his head.

“There is a small fishing village at the base of this mountain. They sell the best fried smelt, and all of the villagers are very nice.” Banmi said, “You can probably stay the night there, and find someone to take you back to the city in the morning. Just tell them I sent you.”

“You’re not coming with us?” Edwin asked.

Banmi shook his head, “If my seniors notice I’m gone tonight I’ll be done for.”

“Why’s that?” Finn frowned.

“The... the truth is...” Banmi said, looking at the two with uttermost seriousness.

“I can’t say.”

Edwin and Finn shot Banmi incredulous looks as they asked in unison, “Why not?”

He smiled goofily, with a hint of sadness, “I think it would be best if you forgot about what’s going on here. Since you’re trying to escape I know you are aware that something is happening at our monastery. I could have reported you to the Abbott but I didn’t. Edwin, you’re my friend now. I don’t want to see you get mixed up in all this.”

He clasped his hands together firmly around the candle holder as he sharply bowed incredibly low, “Please! I’m begging you. Just leave and don’t come back.”

Finn and Edwin exchanged glances, then Edwin placed his hand on Banmi’s shoulder with a small, sincere smile, “Okay. I won’t. Thank you Banmi.”

Finn followed suit, placing his hand on Banmi’s other shoulder. “Your secret is safe with us.”, he lied.

Banmi smiled with a look of muted relief, holding the candle holder out to Edwin, “Here, you can have this candle. The ledge meets up with the path over there. It goes directly to the village. If you go quickly you can make it down in less than two hours.”

With a final goodbye the monk left, climbing up the way he came. Finn and Edwin exchanged glances at each other after Banmi disappeared out of sight.

With a brief nod to each other they began making their way down the mountain path.

-

In a basement room beneath the Central Noga Police Station, a small number of men and women were preparing for a mission. They wore long slate grey coats with tall collars and silver buttons. Some of them were armed with thin rapiers, others with guns loaded with silver runed bullets.

They were the primary squad of the Special Ops department, the elite force headed by Chief Yang Yun, a tall man with a thick streak of white in his hair. The three men and two women officers sat in steel chairs in a semicircle around Chief Yun as they waited for the final person to arrive.

All eyes turned to the door as its handle clicked and the metal door swung open. A stern man with pronounced cheekbones and a neatly trimmed mustache walked in the door. All the officers present stood from their spots and saluted him, including Chief Yun.

“Former Special Ops Chief Fang, thank you for coming.” Chief Yun said.

Chief Jintang Fang nodded seriously as he stepped forward into the room and sat down at the front in the chair next to Chief Yun. Only after he sat down did the rest of the officers sit. Chief Yun remained standing as he stepped over to a chalkboard, writing as he spoke.

“A Cleric of Yuima has informed us of a cult that has set up a sacrifice ritual at a woodcutter’s cabin in Chenmai Forest. The cult worships the Demonic God of Life, Deka.” Chief Yun explained. He was a methodical man who was known for his ability to formulate solid plans and account for contingencies.

“We suspect that we are dealing with a small cult known as the Marked Devout. This group has risen to prominence over the past eight months, and are one of the main factions responsible for the turmoil in the south parts of the province.”

Chief Yun stepped over to the table next to the blackboard and picked up a stack of tall envelopes. He handed out the envelopes to each officer, as well as to Chief Fang. Inside were a few sheets of paper, the contents of the envelopes were all identical.

“Our goal is to assault and destroy the ritual that is being held in this cabin. The Cleric believes that the ritual is quite advanced in progress and is nearing its completion. We have no time to lose. There are details of his encounter in the notes in front of you. Unfortunately, since he has already encountered a priest of the cult, they will likely be expecting us. Therefore, we are sending our best team in to deal with the problem completely.”

“In addition, I am requesting the clearance to use one of the Department’s sealed relics for this mission. It is a rank one relic, so it requires the approval of two Chiefs.” Chief Yun looked pointedly at Jintang.

Chief Fang nodded as he finished looking through the papers. Though he hadn’t been briefed by Chief Yun prior to this meeting, he wasn’t surprised by the request. As a current Chief of Police and the former Chief of Special Ops he often acted as consul for Yang Yun, providing his perspective and approval.

The police force had a number of Exalted relics at their disposal, ranked one to three, of which rank ones were the highest. They were sealed in a vault and only released under special circumstances. Their existence was hidden except to the Police Chiefs and the members of the Special Ops team. If a Chief from a different department wanted to use a relic, he or she would have a Special Ops officer assigned to the case to use it.

For Yang Yun to request a rank one relic, he was treating this case extremely seriously.

“Which relic are you planning to use?” Chief Fang asked.

“Broken Clock.” Chief Yun said.

The senior police Chief stroked his mustache quietly as his eyes grew dark. Broken Clock had the appearance of a pocket watch with a rusted lid. It was a powerful Spacetime relic that had the ability to stop time around it in a sphere. Everything within the sphere at the time of its activation would be unable to be affected by the outside world while it was active. The diameter of the sphere was twenty meters, centered on the user, who also was affected by the zone.

After activation, other items and living things could enter the sphere without being affected. They could move freely as long as they didn’t touch spiritual objects or creatures that were under the influence of the relic. If they did, then they too would be caught in the stasis until the effect wore off.

The terrifying feature of this relic was that since the user was also frozen within the sphere, they had no control over the effect once it was activated. The clock would constantly and swiftly consume the user’s spirituality until it shattered their spirit body, killing them or causing them to mutate into a monster as the stasis effect ended. The relic’s lid, which was rusted shut most of the time, could only be opened through a large injection of spirituality. However on occasion it also had the tendency to open spontaneously, projecting its sphere and siphoning out the life of the nearest living thing inside its stasis field.

The other officers in the room did not have the security clearance to know what the relic was prior to this operation, and so they did not react to the name of the relic when Chief Yun spoke it. They simply watched for Chief Fang’s reaction.

“How do you intend to turn it off?” Chief Fang asked.

“The officer assigned to Broken Clock will be instructed to open and close the lid as fast as they can. Once open, time will stop for them. When our officers are in position, either Officer Liette or Officer Reese will inject a counter time field at Broken Clock’s position, nullifying its effect. The officer will then immediately close the lid as per instructions.”

Chief Yun nodded towards one of the officers with short chestnut brown hair. “Officer Walt has already volunteered to operate the clock. Based on our estimations, she should be able to maintain the clock for eleven and a half seconds before her spirituality is depleted.”

“How will you get her into position?” Chief Fang asked.

“Using Planar Door.” Chief Yun replied simply.

Planar Door was an Apprentice level ability of the Astromancer pathway. This path, which specialized in spatial based distortions, was one of the main paths in Lord Noga’s possession. The Astromancer opened a door between two points in the physical world, connecting them through the astral plane. Its range depended on the spirituality of the individual, but at the Apprentice level there could be as much as two kilometres between the two doors.

Chief Fang flipped through the papers, reading them carefully. “The Life Domain does not possess means of planar travel, so it does not have the ability to interfere with Planar Door. However, the Blood Priest was able to travel through blood. It is likely it is not from the Domain of Life, or that it is a multi-Domain pathway”

“I see...” Chief Yun lowered his eyes as he stroked his chin in thought, “I didn’t think of this.”

While Planar Door was an extremely powerful ability, its weak spot was the dimensional tunnel in the astral plane. Care had to be taken that the forces that they were dealing with did not have the power to interfere in the astral plane and cause disaster.

“You should still be fine.” Chief Fang said after a while, “Blood is a spiritually rich medium. If the priest travels through blood then he most likely is attuned to the spiritual plane.”

“If so, then it’s unlikely for him to be able to interfere.” Chief Yun understood Fang’s point.

Each of the four dimensional planes had distinct energy signatures that were not directly compatible, so Chief Fang was able to make the deduction. They couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that there was no way for the opposing force to affect the astral plane, but narrowing down the enemy’s capabilities was still important.

Meanwhile, the rest of the officers in the room were barely following along. This was a high level strategy discussion between two of the top powerhouses of the Noga police, after all.

“There are no other parties suspected to be involved at this time.” Chief Yun said. “The risk of planar interference should be low.”

“What are the goals of the operation?” Chief Fang asked.

Chief Yun began writing on the board again as he explained. “The aim is to maim or kill the key individual serving as the conduit for the ritual. At the same time, we will destroy or confiscate the bone vessel serving as the ritual’s focus. With two of the three pillars of the ritual destroyed it will collapse.

“As soon as we confirm that the ritual has been disrupted, we will use Planar Door to escape to a safe distance in case there is a violent reaction. We will then approach carefully on foot to clean up the remaining forces.

“I considered using a more careful approach to minimize the risk of blowback from disrupting the ritual. However since the enemy is on alert, and since the ritual is already progressed far, I decided on a precise blitz attack directly on the target.”

“The team I’ve selected consists of three Astromancers and two Chroniclers as the main assault force, with one Blacksmith staying back for the final clean up. From when we activate Broken Clock in the cabin and disrupt the ritual to when we begin the clean up stage, it should be less than five seconds.”

Chief Fang looked around at the men and women in the room, many of which he had known and worked with for years. All of them were capable, intelligent and experienced.

“The plan is good.” He nodded firmly, standing up. “You have my approval.”

Everyone in the room stood and saluted the senior Chief. Yang Yun smiled as he said, “After the operation, let’s go for a drink at Clay’s for a debriefing.”

“I don’t drink.” Chief Fang said with a stern expression, then he left the room.

Chief Yang sighed, “One of these days I’ll get him to come out with us.”

He clapped his hands together as his expression became serious, “Alright everyone, it’s time to move. The operation begins now!”