"Honestly, I am shocked at the level of skill you three have and your ability to work together. I'm sure there is more in your respective banks that you would love to use against me, but that won't be needed," Mark said.

Emily heard this and her eyes brightened. She rushed toward her brother. "Does this mean that we can go?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes, but I'll be the one deploying you where you'll take on the abominations that are there," he stated.

"That's fair enough, thank you, brother," she said, giving a bow.

"I told you to stop with the bowing."

"Look what we have here." Sofia's voice cut through the air and reached Mark. Hearing the all-too-familiar voice, Mark turned. He was shocked when he saw Sofia.

"What's someone like her doing here?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same," she replied.

"Just coming to see my little sister," Mark replied. The air became extremely tense, like two rivals had seen themselves. The kids watched in confusion.

"So, shouldn't you be taking down abominations?" Mark asked.

"My chapter is on that. I am currently teaching at this academy," she stated.

"Teaching?" Mark chuckled. "What motivated that?" he asked.

"Boredom, you can say. It's been nothing but slow missions and nothing special for the past months, so I decided to come here," she explained. "Not that you would know that. After all, you and a few other chapters were deployed to fight off demon beasts at the edge of the Journey Kingdom."

"Oh, that. You were really pissed when you weren't assigned that mission. Well, the abomination issue is for all. Maybe you'll find some sort of fun inside it, so don't write it off yet," he said with a smile. He made a loud whistling sound that cut through the air and then looked at her.

"Also, I heard their cult is heavily intertwined with this, so this might be your shot, you know."

Her expression darkened when he said that. He saw that she gave a smile. A shadow covered them, and then the loud cry of an eagle cut through the sky. They all looked up, and there it was, a great, gigantic, majestic white eagle.

It flew down and landed on the ground. Its massive size was like that of a plane. Mark walked to it and patted it on the back. The eagle seemed to like it, as it pushed its head into his palm.

"Oh, I'll also be taking these four to hunt down some abominations," Mark said.

Sofia looked at the four of them. She let out a sigh. "Do as you wish. These ones have permission to leave whenever they want," she stated.

While they were talking, Raze and Gavin stared at the massive majestic bird, something they had not seen before. Even in training class, they were still mostly on theory.

Seeing such a mystical beast standing here made them excited.

"Alright, let's get going," Mark said. The bird went down and spread out its wings so they could climb.

"Can it take all five of us?" Raze asked.

"Yup. The Thunderbird race is a really powerful race, capable of lifting ten times its body weight without a single issue," Mark explained.

With that reassurance, everyone got on. There was no saddle, nothing that could be used to ensure they didn't fall off, but as they sat on its back, it was like they had been sucked into the softness of its back, and somehow it made them stable on it.

Raze didn't know how that worked, but he had to admit it was pretty awesome. Mark got on the upper half of the bird to ride it while they all sat. "Hold on to yourselves. It takes a special technique to ensure that you are stable on its back, but that doesn't remove the risk of accidents."

He patted the side of the eagle. "Let's go."

With that, the eagle flapped its massive wings and shot up into the air at a forty-five-degree angle, ensuring that they stayed on. They soared through the sky, headed for wherever he was taking them.

[...]

After a few hours of flying above, they finally made it to a small town, and the eagle went down, landing just outside the town. They all got off, and it took to the air again.

"Is this the place we hunt the abomination?" Raze asked.

"No, a part of my chapter is here," Mark said, and immediately a few men in loose clothing walked out with swords on their hips. Raze was stunned to see that they weren't fully armored, but what Mark said next made it make sense.

"We believe that the cult is behind it all. If they can see the chapter coming, they'll make some moves against it, so we decided to look like adventurers and mercenaries to ensure that they didn't know.

"You four will have to do it as well, but for today, you rest, and tomorrow you'll be setting out," he said and looked at the men. They all bowed to him.

"What's the update on the situation?" he asked, his voice colder than when he spoke to Raze and the others.

"He isn't speaking at all," one of the men stated.

"It's been twenty-four hours. How long will it take him to break?" Mark asked, clearly frustrated.

"Could it be you captured a cult member?" Raze asked.

Mark looked at him, wondering if he should tell him. "Hmmm, yes, we did."

"Then he won't speak. They have a curse that refuses them to speak, and if they do, they die. If he was a weaker cult member, he would have broken, but a real member wouldn't ever speak," Raze said.

"Hmmm? How do you know this?" Mark asked.

"I had a run-in with one before. Sadly, I can't give details about it," Raze said.

Mark had a lingering suspicion as he heard that, but he decided to speak more on the issue. "So what do you suggest we do?" he asked.

"I might have a way to make it work. Can I see him?"

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