The war room felt smaller with so many people crowded around the table. Maps of Creamont covered every surface, marked with territories, patrol routes, and known monster areas. Light flickered across the faces of those gathered, revealing expressions etched with worry and tension.

Reidar stood at the head of the table, flanked by Seraphine and Kara on one side while Helga and Aldric occupied the other. As John held his position near the door, Matthias leaned against the wall, paying close attention despite the exhaustion written on his face. Beside him sat Lena, whose color had returned following Matthias's treatment, though her expression remained grave.

Reidar stopped talking, and the room went quiet. His throat felt dry. He kept picturing the cold stone of the ritual chamber and the specific mechanics of the Mana Siphoning circle. Explaining Silas's plan made his stomach churn. Then there was the deadline.

Silence stretched for several seconds after he was done saying what he had to.

Helga broke it first. "So the War Hounds are their tools. The Church is using them to keep us occupied while they build their circle."

"Exactly," Reidar said. "Every attack, every provocation, every forced recruitment—it's all designed to distract us and the other factions. Keep our attention on the War Hounds while Silas completes his work."

Aldric's fingers drummed against the table. "They said the siphoning circle is the last trial test. If it works here, they'll replicate it everywhere. Every Church cell will have access to the same power."

"And the Progenitor gets an even better version," Seraphine said. "A circle that functions forever will make him infinitely stronger."

Matthias pushed off from the wall. "How many fighters does the Church have? How strong are they?"

"Aaron said some thousands at level 130 or higher from the War Hounds alone, but there were also church members there, and they were all strong," Reidar said. "Most of them were in the 120 to 130 range. A few approached 140. Those are just the ones I saw in the complex, and there were two thousand, more or less. There could be more in other places, so we can assume they have more people, and more are getting powered up."

Kara's expression darkened. "That's a standing army, not survivors scraping by."

"Built through Aaron's power-leveling," Reidar said, nodding. "It's the same method we've been using, but they've had more time than us to refine it, based on the past days' reports," Reidar said. The Church knew what they were doing from the start."

"Three weeks isn't enough time to build a force that can match them."

"We don't have a choice," Seraphine said. "If that circle activates, we lose—no, we die. Every Church champion becomes a monster we can't fight; not even Reidar will be able to."

Reidar himself nodded. "We have two objectives. First, destroy the War Hounds. They're providing materials and manpower to the Church. If we cut off their supply lines, we slow the circle's completion."

"The second would be to stop Silas and Aaron from finishing it," Reidar added. "That falls on me. I'll need to fight them before the three weeks are up."

"How are we going to do this?" Helga asked.

"I was considering launching a war against the War Hounds. This translates into two goals: one is to prevent them from leveling up, and the other is to attack their base, as I said earlier."

"That's suicide," Seraphine said. "The base is as fortified as you can imagine, while the leveling groups are likely going with Aaron, which means we can't attack them since you are the only one able to contend with Aaron."

"We can," Reidar said. "I think we should take some time to power level as many people as we can, including Lena and Jake. If they get strong enough, they will be able to take care of Aaron and kill whoever he is training without me having to intervene."

Seraphine leaned forward. "So, are we going to use the high-level monsters in the city?"

"Yes," Reidar said.

"We will also need to get summoning skills; it will make our troops swell and make it safer for everyone," Aldric said.

Helga crossed her arms. "The War Hounds might have summoning skills too. They've had access to vendors as much as we did. If they buy the same kind of skills, our advantage disappears."

Though the question of why the vendors remained with people openly associated with the Church was still there. In Reidar's mind, only two explanations were plausible: Either they didn't know, or not everyone was with the church, warranting the vendors to stay while knowing they were collaborating. It wasn't just that, but they might be using intermediaries to buy skills; after all, skill books were tradable items.

"This doesn't mean we can avoid buying them," Reidar said. "They will surely do, especially knowing what my powers are. If they get a way to counter me, they will do it, even if it doesn't work well."

He paused. "Regardless, after we have leveled everyone up enough to fight with the War Hounds' main troops, we will focus on dealing with the patrols, and once we have reduced their numbers enough, we will attack the base."

"Yeah… it might work," Aldric said. "If we weaken them, whenever we attack the War Hound base, either Silas or Aaron will be forced to rush to defend them. This means you will have free access to the building. You might get a chance at destroying the circle."

"Exactly, but the attack needs as many high-level people as possible, hence why we need to farm a little, but after I do this with a core group, they will need to do it with other people to bring them to similar levels as the War Hounds. Otherwise, fighting them won't be possible."

"How many can we power level in three weeks, and how much?" Seraphine asked.

"Depends on the starting levels and how efficiently we work." Reidar said.

"If we focus on fighters already at level 70 or higher, we can push them to 120 or 130. That puts them somehow on par with the Church's forces. We won't have their numbers, but we'll have enough to mount a credible assault. At least we will be able to keep the War Hounds occupied while I focus on the magic circle. Actually, I want to do these tasks in ten days at best. A week so that I can level up you all as much as possible, then three for you to do the same with other people."

Aldric's expression was a little skeptical. "It's ok for me, but how are we going to attack the base? Even if we weaken their forces, these guys surely have defenses and troops all around. They might even use the low-level survivors as meat shields."

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