In the end, Ateia’s Holy and Light mana disarmed the majority of the Banshee’s Cove’s dangers. While it also had some Water based traps and environmental hazards, the sailors of the Imperial navy navigated them with practiced ease once they could actually see what they were facing. It was not long before the group had traveled deep into the dungeon, and arrived in a wide open and stormy sea. There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, and then suddenly a dozen ghost ships appeared all around them. A dark shadow that dwarfed their ship filled the water underneath them.

Magister Lampronia was freaking out, but Amulius raised his hand and stopped the Imperial forces from responding. Ateia had stepped to the front of the ship. One of the ghost ships pulled near and a ghostly figure materialized at its bow. She had the appearance of a frowning women with drooping eyes. Her hair and clothes appeared drenched with water, though the drops that fell off her passed through the ship she stood on. She hunched over as she faced Ateia.

“Are you…here to kill me? Not that my life means much…”

Ateia shook her head, much to Magister Lampronia’s surprise.

“We’re here to help. We can cleanse the corruption from your dungeon, if you’re willing.”

The ghost woman tilted her head.

“Oh. Ok…I guess…”

With that, the ghost ships parted and cleared the way forward. The shadow underneath them sank back into the depths. Magister Lampronia was staring with wide eyes.

“Um, what’s going on here?”

Amulius shrugged and shook his head.

“It’s complicated. Do you really want to know?”

Magister Lampronia thought about it for a moment and then promptly turned around.

“I’ll be below deck. The Aesdes can handle it, right?”

Amulius made a small smile.

“Yes, she can.”

The dungeon master’s ship led the Imperial warship through the waves, eventually arriving at a castle sunk beneath the waves, with its roof barely peeking up into the air. The dungeon master and Ateia’s group disembarked onto the roof.

“Follow me…I guess…if you want…”

She led them through the castle to the core room. There, Ateia purified the dungeon, and linked it to the Primary Home Base. The dungeon master tilted her head.

“Oh. Not dead after all?”

She heaved a sigh.

“Well…whatever. I guess I’ll just…carry on then…freedom’s just one more thing to lose…”

But Ateia ignored her. Ateia’s eye widened, and then she began to chuckle. Amulius tilted his head.

“What’s going on, Ateia?”

Taog patted his shoulder. The boy made a grin that showed off his fangs.

“Seero just contacted us. She finished up with the Ocean’s Wrath and wants us to meet up. It’s time to go after the cult.”

It turned out the South’s woes were concentrated in the three major dungeons near Mirima. As a decentralized collection of allied and client nations, the South’s forces were also already dispersed. Each individual realm maintained its own defenses, with its own walls, fortresses, and contingency plans. And in lieu of Legion garrisons, the South had a thriving mercenary industry, with the realms and the merchants hiring elite, professional mercenary teams instead of paying to raise their own armies. On top of that, the mercantile nature of the South gave rise to a healthy dungeon diver industry as well. While dungeon divers were notoriously undisciplined and unreliable in standard military affairs, they were highly specialized and so highly effective against the monsters of their local dungeons. Those willing to fight contributed greatly to holding the line. As a result, most of the South’s constituent nations could protect themselves to a degree.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The problem was that without the Sky Legion or the fleet of Mirima, there were no mobile reserves to address the larger issues, to reinforce the problem spots, or to begin assaulting the dungeons. The South could hold the line for a bit, but they couldn’t make any progress towards solving the problem. And once Mirima fell to the larger dungeons, the other realms would begin falling as well.

Now that Seero and Ateia had dealt with the big three, and the Sky Legion and Sentinels of Liberty had returned with the airship fleet, the South would begin to stabilize.

And that meant that Seero was now free to act on the intel the Southern Court had handed over to her. Which is why she now regrouped with Ateia. Seero may have been developing her Divination capabilities, but Ateia still had a distinct advantage in that area. And after the incident with the Herald of Night, Seero wasn’t going to approach a cult base without as thorough a scouting as she could arrange.

At the moment, Seero was floating in the air several miles from their current target, while Ateia was sitting in the Primary Home Base with her eyes closed. Ateia frowned, and then opened her eyes.

“There’s nothing there, Seero.”

“Observation: That assessment agrees with this unit’s sensor readings.”

Ateia shook her head.

“More than that. They left a while ago, and took everything with them.”

“Requesting Elaboration.”

Ateia nodded.

“I think I’m reading the records? But if I have this right…they left right around the time the South declared war on us.”

Seero’s robotic eye flickered. This was the fifth such site they have visited and found empty. It grew increasingly likely that this was not a coincidence.

That left several possibilities. The first was that the South’s intel was inaccurate. Seero wasn’t aware of the structure, capabilities, and efficiency of the South’s intelligence apparatus, so it was entirely possible they were mistaken or deceived. Although popular opinion in the Northern Empire held Mirima’s skill at espionage in high regard, but even the best intelligence agencies couldn’t get everything right all the time.There was also the possibility that the South had intentionally given Seero false information. Still, the South was not a monolithic organization, she had received separate reports from several different states, the Legion itself, and even some private organizations, and was acting on information that was independently corroborated by several sources. The probability that every aspect of the South’s society were conspiring to deceive her was very low, there should have been at least one actor who found it in their best interest to dissent. And if the cult’s control over the South was such that every source repeated the same deception, then there should have been enough evidence of their presence for Seero or the Northern Court’s intelligence to locate them on their own.

Another possibility was that the cult had received forewarning of her assault and evacuated ahead of time. In Seero’s analysis, this, too, was unlikely. From Ateia’s reports on the evacuation, it seemed to have been a thorough and organized affair. One that would not have been possible in the time frame between Seero’s initial departure towards the South and her arrival at the various target sites. And most of all…the cult had left long before Seero had turned her attention south.

The most likely scenario given the information Ateia had uncovered was that this was a planned withdrawal, one that the South had been unaware of. The cult had left right after High-King Xavlaeron departed for the North. Not only that, but according to testimonies from the Sentinels of Liberty, the cult had apparently enacted a contingency protocol to terminate the High-King when he had ordered a surrender to her. So…evidence suggested the cult was well aware that the High-King might turn on them following his confrontation with Seero. And if that was the case…it would make sense that they would evacuate any location he had been aware of.

But then…what were they planning? The retreat from the South made sense for the purpose of preserving assets from Seero’s retaliation…but it provided no progress towards terminating Seero or her allies. Seero at least expected some minor ambush attempts, but the cult hadn’t left anything or anyone behind. And in Seero’s analysis, if they were concerned with a betrayal by the South, striking now during the dungeon crisis would have given them the highest probability of terminating their traitorous former allies. So why hadn’t they done so?

Seero’s organic components registered a rise in fight-or-flight instincts, primarily anger. The cult appeared highly efficient at avoiding termination yet inefficient at pursuing their supposed objectives. Again…assuming the South hadn’t lied to her, which would have been an even more inefficient and self-destructive course of action.

Seero was just about to reroute course and confront Southern authorities about the unreliable intel when she received a message. One that might just shed some light on what the cult’s current location and objectives were.

Back at the Imperial Palace in Corvanus, the war-room was completely silent. A courier trembled as he held open the scroll, signed and sealed by both Eastern Emperor Julius and Maior Generalis Maximia Tetrica of the Legion. Magister Canus narrowed his eyes.

“Please read it again.”

The courier gulped and nodded.

“I-I, Emperor Julius Numerius Gregorius of the Peoples and Friends of Elteno East of the Sea, hereby call upon Provision IX of Emperor Proclus’s decree for the administration of the Empire. I call upon my peers upon the throne of Corvanus and the helm of the Southern Council to unite the Legion once again. And to all citizens, friends, allies, subjects, and partners of the Empire, I ask that you send any and all assistance with all possible haste. The Eastern Border is on the verge of destruction. We cannot hold.”