*drip* *drip*

The black blood of the old man painted the walls. The still not dry blood dripped slowly to the ground leaving behind different patterns each one of them more gruesome then the next.

*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*

Faley was breathing heavily. The thing that just happened before his eyes had frightened him, a lot.

*Whoosh* *Whoosh*

The sound of wind was heard in the room. Gale hadn't stopped the wind wall but continued to use it.

"That type of self-destructive technique was definitely the style of the creatures of the plane of Mono. If I'm correct right now this whole room is filled with poisonous gas that if inhaled it will definitely kill us."

"Huuuuuu....

I didn't expect this. The situation is  worse than I expected. This kind of response was to severe for just killing some random bird.

For now it's better to leave and I will report this to the higher-ups at headquarters."

Then Faley gathered some Elemental Energy to his hands before retreating under the cover of Gale's wind wall that kept the poisonous gas out. When he arrived at the entrance of the room he put his hands on the ground and activated his elemental art.

"Earth Art:Earth Wall.".

*Rumble*

A 20 cm thick wall of earth rose from the ground and sealed the entrance so that the poisonous gas couldn't escape.

Faley threw one last glance before leaving.

"Let's go."

.....

At the Palos city's Trinity Merchant Groups branch half an hour later.

"I have a urgent message to relay to the headquarters immediately, please open a direct line to them."

The person responsible for it was sweating bullets.  He was not authorized to contact the headquarters without having a prior notice of at least 10 days so they could prepare to receive the communication.

"Sir, you know the rules. I can't connect you to the headquarters in such....

"Shut up."

"Ughh..

"Connect me to the headquarters right now. If someone asks I will take the blame.

Hurry up."

"Yes ,yes right away."

The caretaker immediately went of to prepare the communication array. He put several elemental cores around a carved formation in the ground before Faley stood at the center of it.

"Do it ,connect me "

*Nod*

The caretaker nodded and poured his spiritual energy into the formation which made it light up in rainbow light.

.....

Faley's perspective.

As soon as the caretaker poured  his spiritual energy into the formation the surroundings became pich black and no sound was heard. Then some colorful line's and shapes started to appear and before long they formed the shape of a man.

He had a thin face, dark eyes with dark circles around them seemingly from lack of sleep, a big somewhat crooked nose and a goatee.

"Branch head Faley why have you initiated a unauthorized communication with the headquarters? 

Beware that if the situation that you are in doesn't require the intervention of the headquarters and you have wasted   the associations resources and my time  for nothing ,you will be punished."

*Bow*

"I know that what I did was not protocol but you have to forgive me elder Kai because the matter I'm about to tell you is very important."

"Do tell."

"After a recent investigation I discovered something very disturbing. A client of mine killed a strange bird that seemed to follow him so he gave me it's corpse to find out something more about it and I did. "

Faley's face became very serious.

"What I found out was that the bird was a scouting unit of the fallen empire."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Im very sure about it because if I wasn't I wouldn't have contacted you so suddenly."

"Hmm,if what you say is true then this correlates with something that has happened yes at the border of said empire.

The border outpost have been destroyed and countless creatures from the plane of Mono are advancing steadily forward."

"What! Is this true?"

"Definitely.

A army of 50000 strong has been deployed to intercept them."

Faley was silent.

'This doesn't make sense. The border between the two Empires was far far away from Palos city and nowhere near their path of advance, so why was there a scouting bird here out of all places.'

"It doesn't make sense."

"Yes, you are right. There is no reason for there to be any scouting units deployed to Palos city so...

"I understand elder, but please share this news with the other elders of the association."

"Will do.

Also, be prepared to accept your punishment when the time comes."

"Yes elder."

.....

"Huuuu...

"What is the answer from the elder?"

Faley turned towards Gale who asked.

"Not well. The elder told me the there had been an attack at the border between  the empire, but an army  has already been dispatched to deal with them."