The Rise of the Black Plain

Meanwhile, a few days had passed in Zocarro since the start of Minos' group's mission to The Bellowing Garden.

Since then, Minos and Maximillian have discovered several things about the situation that could have provoked the start of an unauthorized war between internal members of Armhands and Silverdawn.

As Minos had suspected, the confrontation between one of Misthall's great sects and a group of internal members of his guild was related to The Scroll of Hearts.

From what Minos and Maximillian had discovered over the last few days, high-ranking members of Silverdawn had gone out to hunt for the book in question. They returned to their headquarters the day before the clashes between this sect and the group of around 30 Armhands members began.

The two exchanged messages with the rest of their group during those days, having learned a little more about what those Armhands' internal members had been up to about a month ago.

That group was returning from a mission at the time when they heard rumors that The Scroll of Hearts was about to emerge in this mountainous area of The Bellowing Garden.

Because of the news they heard on their way out of Misthall, the group headed towards the area where other local groups were hunting for the book when they split up. The weakest and least important group members stayed behind to maintain a camp and look after some of their wounded men from the previous mission; the rest went on to explore the area in search of the legendary book.

A few days later, some of the members who had set off in search of the book returned on the run while members of Silverdawn were in pursuit.

The rest was the story that Minos and Maximillian already knew when the remaining group activated their rescue devices, and some sacrificed their parasites to fight the enemies, escalating the conflict to its current proportions.

Although Minos and Maximillian entered the city and discovered several things, this place and the surrounding area were very dangerous, with members of Silverdawn coming and going from the forest areas where they were hunting the survivors of Armhands.

From this story that the two heard from Rhett's message, they were certain that either one of the guild's internal members had found the lost book or someone from Silverdawn had done so and was hunting down those who might know about it!

...

After sending what he and Maximillian had concluded about the situation from their investigation in Misthall, Minos and his companion were now receiving Rhett's message about what they should do.

Upon receiving the audio message from the alien, Minos heard the voice of the being next to Maximillian.

"Go ahead with your suggestions. I will continue alongside the rest of our group here with the survivors who started this conflict. If there are any changes, I'll let you know, and I expect to be warned, too."

That was all Rhett said in his audio message.

Minos and Maximillian already knew the situation of the rest of the group and the possibilities that could follow.

Ruth's group was temporarily fine, being holed up with the wounded Armhands members who had started the current conflict somewhere in The Bellowing Garden. They hadn't yet gotten any of the wounded in that place to wake up, but Ruth was progressing in her medical skills as she worked there.

Meanwhile, the others were basically focused on protecting that secret location, which only Armhands members knew they were using.

Reinforcements from the guild were already on the outskirts of that mountainous area fighting the Silverdawn members, which allowed them to be safely stationed there for the time being.

As for the possibilities ahead of them, Minos and Maximillian had suggested them to Rhett, so they knew that their path began with them getting more deeply involved with Silverdawn.

"Do you start, or do I?" Maximillian asked as he looked at his companion.

They had thought of three courses of action now that they had all this information. The first and best way, in terms of their safety and chances of success, was plan A, which they knew Rhett had chosen.

Plan A basically depended on them confirming their suspicions through confessions from members of Silverdawn and then passing this information on to the rest of the Armhands in the vicinity to stimulate a more severe reaction from that force.

They were counter-attacking and gradually marching against the enemy to win this conflict. But if it was confirmed that the enemy had started all this to prevent one of them from spreading their successes, then the situation could quickly change from a rescue mission and the conclusion of a problem to a vengeful mission.

Winning a war did not require the end of one side in the war. But something like this could happen depending on the success of the group!

Minos said. "I'll start. You'll support me, and I'll approach someone capable of confirming what we want."

"How do you want to do that? A kidnapping? We'll have to act against someone not so strong that we can't fight back but influential enough to know what we want to confirm." Maximillian said as he looked into Minos' eyes.

"I've already commissioned an investigation looking for information on relevant members of Silverdawn who aren't so powerful. We should have results on that in the next three days," Minos told him. "We'll act on the results we get. But I warn you. Be prepared to deal with someone at level 103 or stronger. Our target is unlikely to be weaker than that."

"Sigh... I know. I'll be prepared."

"I'll approach this person when we get the chance. You distract any companions of them, and I'll collect the confession we need."

With that decided, they would soon split up to return to their disguises and avoid attracting attention.

They couldn't act immediately. They had only had Rhett's approval but still had to wait for information and the best time to act.

They split up with the intention of continuing to observe Silverdawn as they had done for the last few days.

But their wait wouldn't last long. In three more days in Misthall, they would get what they needed and define the target against whom they would act!

They would follow Minos' plan to observe it and then wait for the best moment for him to approach and fulfill his mission plans!