Perplexed murmurs ran through the room.
"The Crimson Witch?" Emily asked. "Is she a new member of the Witches?"
"We don't know for sure." Brendan shook his head. "If you recall, there is someone in the Witches who can perform metamorphism magic, so for all we know, her facial features may have been altered. That would also explain her unusual eye color. So, we are still unsure if she is a new member they have recruited, or if she is one of the existing seven members who have changed their appearances."
"How do we even know she's one of the Witches?"
"Another great question, Emily. We know this because we have been chasing the treasure thief ever since the first missing treasure. We noticed that wherever the Crimson Witch goes, the Witches go, too. And if we manage to follow her far enough, we will be hit with Sybil's subjugation magic. So, it's clear that they are working together."
"But why would the Witches want to steal these treasures?" Jung-Soo asked.
"For the money, perhaps?" Carina offered.
Brendan shrugged. "We don't know either. As I've mentioned before, we don't know too much about the Witches, especially their goals. They have always been a low profile group too, never doing anything beyond escaping and destroying their hiding places, so this whole thing is surprising to us as well."
"So they're finally coming out of their shell and making a move, huh?" Emily remarked as she crossed her arms.
"But wait, doesn't this make it easier for us to catch them now?" Lyn frowned. "You don't have to track the Witches anymore, just follow the Crimson Witch, and we can just catch all of them."
Emily rolled her eyes. "What's the point of knowing where they are if we can't deal with Sybil's magic, idiot?"
"Ah, right." Lyn scratched her hair sheepishly. "We need to first get the antidote."
"You all make great points," Brendan interjected the two women's banter, "but this is where it gets weird. Lyn, you are right that we don't really have a tracking issue anymore; we can just stand guard over all the remaining treasures in the world and then chase the Crimson Witch from there, and this is exactly what we have been doing. And Emily, you are also right that, technically, Sybil's magic is the problem that we need to tackle first before we can capture the Witches. However, right now, the real issue is the Crimson Witch."
"What do you mean?"
The five team leaders stared at Brendan curiously as he gestured towards his assistant. Nodding her head, Rin placed a small crystal ball on the table and tapped on its surface.
The sphere lit up, and a three-dimensional moving image appeared in front of everyone. It was a compilation of memory images Brendan had obtained from questers who had fought the Crimson Witch: a fighter, charging forward with confidence, but quickly disarmed and knocked unconscious; another fighter, flailing his sword around as an avalanche of spears rained down on him; an elemental mage, his shot of water immediately disappearing into steam, before being pushed off the ledge; another elemental mage, engulfing the Crimson Witch in fire, only to have her emerge out of the ball of flames, completely unscathed.
Brendan watched as everyone's eyes enlarged in shock. "As you can see, we have sent many questers after the Crimson Witch, but whoever she is, she is formidable. She is so skilled that regular fighters stand no chance against her, and, worst of all, she seems to have the ability to counter elemental magic, so elemental mages cannot land a single attack on her."
Emily slammed her hand on the table. "What the hell kind of monster is this?"
"A monster that the Witches created," Brendan said solemnly. "This may be the reason why they have suddenly become more daring, coming out of hiding and finally starting to do things. This person, this Crimson Witch, is a one-person army. After all, she has been stealing treasures from high-security places for months with no repercussions yet.
"Because of that, our normal plan for the Witches needs to be changed. Instead of slowly working on an antidote pill so that we can capture all of them at once, we are going to divide and conquer, with the Crimson Witch as our number one priority.
"So, this is our new plan." Brendan took out a marker from his pocket and wrote 'CW' on the wall. "We will track and chase the Crimson Witch. Once we have her location pinned down, we will send all of you to her, along with our team of specialty mages who are trained with the ability to stop vital magic." He drew a big circle around the letters. "The specialty mages will surround this area with magic that will stop all vital magic so that Sybil's powers would not work inside this circle here."
"No vital magic..." Carina's face paled. "Wait, do you mean..."
"Yes, unfortunately, this would mean that healers' magic won't work in this area too. Since we don't have an antidote pill worked out yet, we have no choice but to resort to this."
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the room. After all, other than solo questers who took on smaller, safer commissions, no questers ever dared to tackle a quest without healers. It was equivalent to scaling a cliff without a safety rope.
"But there is no need to worry." Brendan held out a ring with a large gem in the middle. "This is the standard QA communication device, and we will further enchant this such that if you tap the gem twice, you'll be transported out of this circle and over to a port station to be healed. Therefore, you need not worry about being injured. However, you can't get back inside the circle after being transported out, so be extra careful."
When the room's collective worry died down, Brendan continued, "We will divide all of your teams into three groups. The first group, group one, will consist of all the healers and non-combat questers." He wrote the number, 'one', right outside the circle. "They will be positioned here, outside the specialty mages' magic, and they will act as healing stations and emergency backup. The moment anybody within the circle is injured, they should immediately activate the enchantment and teleport to group one.
"Group two will consist of all the combat elemental mages." Brendan labeled the number, 'two', right at the edge of, but within the circle. "Since elemental magic doesn't work on the Crimson Witch, we will divert all the elemental mages towards other potential threats. For example, the illusionist, or the necromancer, or anybody from the Witches who will come to aid the Crimson Witch."
He pointed at Lyn. "Not you, though, Lyn. Special elemental mages are exempt from this group. We doubt that the Crimson Witch can counter special elemental magic; it's too rare for that to be possible."
"So I'm assuming Monzo from my team is exempt too?" Emily added.
"Monzo is in your team?" Brendan raised his eyebrows. Monzo was a skilled mage who could create mini earthquakes. "Yes, perfect, Emily, thank you. So in group three, we will have every fighter, as well as Lyn and Monzo."
Right next to the 'CW' letters, he added in the number, 'three'. "Group three will be the people who will face the Crimson Witch."
He gestured at the crystal ball. "As you've all seen, a couple of fighters don't stand a chance against her. And even if they somehow do, she has been using every chance to escape to the Witches and then go back into hiding. Therefore, with this divide and conquer plan, we are going to stop the Crimson Witch from ever escaping or receiving any help from the Witches while sending the largest team of fighters to go against her."
Emily nodded. "Sounds like a good plan."
"Well, all I know is that Irene won't be happy about being relegated to the side team," Lyn said with a chuckle.
"Irene is never happy with anything."
Lyn snorted in reply.
"Speaking of which, Lyn, do you have a new fighter in your team?" Brendan probed.
"Yep, I do." She nodded. "He's a really good one."
"Perfect, so it sounds like we have one fighter from your team, two fighters from Dawn Avengers, one from Blue Cross, two from Disciples, and two from Free Wielders. All in all, there will be eight fighters, and two special elemental mages," Brendan mused, tapping his fingers on the wall as he counted. "Ten against one; we are definitely going all out here. Emily, can I put you in charge of group three during the day of the attack?"
"Sure," Emily said.
"I'll count on you to coordinate everyone in the group, and ambush the Crimson Witch from all sides."
"You got it."
Brendan nodded as he heaved a small sigh. He had worked with Emily enough to believe in her capability as a strategist and leader. With her in charge, and with the freak powers that were Lyn and Monzo, the chances of succeeding should be high. It needed to, or the higher-ups would blow up his messages, and the reporters would scream their lungs out about the QA's ineptitude.
"Alright, we will reach out about more meetings within each group to break down the plan, but for now, this is all. Thank you for coming."
The room broke into murmurs as everyone began discussing and chatting among themselves. Rin trotted next to Brendan, briefing him on the rest of his work schedule as he pulled the ink off from the wall with his hand. Just then, he noticed Lyn walk by him.
"Lyn," he called out, turning away from his miffed assistant. "Hey, how have you been?"
Lyn's friendly smile lingered on her face, but her eyes twitched. "I've been fine, Brendan. Thanks for asking."
Brendan was not sure what else he should say to her. "Well, I just want to say I'm happy to have you here in this commission."
"Yeah, thanks." Lyn did not seem like she wanted to continue the conversation, which was understandable.
"Okay, well, see you in the next meeting then," he said as he headed out of the conference room. "I look forward to meeting your new fi—"
The door opened, and Brendan stopped dead in his tracks.
In front of him stood a familiar man. Tall, broad, with skin that glowed like real gold, and a face that was as charming as ever.
"Neil?" Brendan blurted in disbelief.
"Brendan." Neil's face twisted into a scowl. His eyes were suddenly filled with the same hatred as they did twenty years ago. "It's you."
"Neil, I..." Brendan's words felt like they were stuck in his throat. "I- I haven't seen you since C—"
"Keep her name out of your mouth," Neil snapped.
An uncomfortable pause landed between them until Lyn popped in front of them.
"You two know each other?" she asked.
"Y- Yeah..." Brendan mumbled. Then, he frowned at the auburn-haired woman. "Wait, how do you know Neil?"
"Oh, he's my new fighter," Lyn said, punching Neil in the arm. "I invited him for a training session together with Emily, so I told him to meet me here."
"Yep, I can't turn down an offer to train at the famous Dawn Avengers, can I?" A smirk crept up Neil's lips. "It's also been a while since I visited the QA's office. Really brings me back."
By now, Brendan's head was spinning. After all these years, Neil became Lyn's new fighter? What the heck? Why?
"But you swore off questing, Neil, you swore off anything that is related to the QA. Are you... Have you..." Have you forgiven me?
"No," Neil said bitterly as if reading Brendan's mind. "Let's go, Lyn, I don't like this place."
"Wait, wait, you haven't answered me yet! How do you two know each other?" Lyn tried to ask, but Neil was already walking away.
"We used to be friends," the copper-skin man spat without turning around.
Lyn did not look satisfied at the answer, but she followed him out anyway.
Brendan remained frozen to the ground. Used to. Those two words were enough to pierce his heart a million times. The bubble of illusion he had kept around him popped, and he felt as if he was crashing, face first, into the sea of reality.
Cold, hard reality.
"Mr. Oakley?" Rin's timid voice snapped him from his thoughts. "Erm, you need to get to the board meeting soon."
"Yeah, right, sorry..." Pinching his nose, he let out a slow sigh. "Let's go."
♞♗♞♗♞
A/N: Now, that was one heavy chapter full of explanations. What do you think of the plan to capture the Crimson Witch? I hope it was explained well enough. Do let me know if anything is unclear!
