Reidar felt the wind cut against his face as they finally left Creamont behind. The city walls dropped below them, stone and wood fading into the landscape. The streets where they'd fought and bled were already too small to see. Ahead, there was nothing but open sky, distant clouds, and the hard fact of what they had to do next.

"So, do you have any news about Silas?" Lena asked, her voice cutting through the rush of air.

Reidar glanced back at her. "About three weeks from here."

Lena's brow furrowed. "Isn't that too far? How are we going to Kingsgate if we need to chase Silas this far?"

"We are not directly going to Kingsgate right now," Reidar said. "And it's not like we have a choice in the matter. Silas and the church must be destroyed; otherwise, we are not going to solve anything."

"We need to level up along the way if we want to kill him. The gap between us and Silas is too wide right now, and every day we waste, he gets stronger. And we need to be fast about it. If we don't close that gap quickly, we'll never catch him, and even if we do, the only result is us dying."

Jake said nothing. He was going to go with them regardless of what they planned to do.

"Do you have any idea where Silas went?" Lena asked.

Reidar nodded. "He moved through two church settlements inside the region. Now he's holed up in a third one, outside the region. Northwest." He paused.

"Northwest is toward Kingsgate." Lena's brow furrowed as she saw Reidar was thinking about something. She understood something was wrong. "What's the problem with northwest? Kingsgate is in that direction, so he is doing you a favor."

"That exactly is the problem, Lena," Reidar said. "It's in that direction."

If Silas was heading northwest, he might be heading toward Kingsgate itself. It meant either the church had a presence there or they were planning to establish one. It made sense.

Kingsgate had been one of the most populous cities in the country before the apocalypse, and even the Aegis Phalanx had confirmed it remained densely populated afterward.

A city like that would be a perfect target for the church—thousands of potential victims, resources, and the kind of concentrated power that could tip the balance of the entire region.

So, Reidar was scared because his family was there, and the last thing he needed was for the Church to find out who they were, because they would be a weapon against him.

Lena nodded as she understood what the problem was. At that point, Reidar resumed his explanation.

"The first place Silas went to is Ashford," Reidar said. "It's a mining town. Small, maybe a few hundred people before the apocalypse. The church uses it as a secondary base now."

"Why did he go there?" Lena asked.

"He needed to rest and… He gave some instructions to them, something that we don't want them to carry on." He paused.

"They're making another circle, same as the one in Creamont. If they complete it… Well, you know what happens. We need to destroy it before they complete it."

The words landed like a stone. Another circle. Another ritual site. Another place where the church would feed on whatever victims they could find.

Luckily, they had been able to stop the circle from being completed in Creamont, but Reidar wasn't sure if they would manage here. Time was against them, and every day that passed gave the church more opportunity to finish what they started.

"We need to stop them before they complete it," Reidar said. "If they finish that circle, we could be looking at thousands of people dead. Or worse, thousands of new church members twisted into monsters like what almost happened in Creamont."

Lena's expression hardened. "What about the second place? Please tell me it's not a monster breeding ground or something like that. I'm starting to think the church missed its calling as monster keepers."

"Redwater Crossing. River city." Reidar paused, and something dark crossed his face. "The Vorathid Foragers showed me what's happening there."

Lena saw his face and didn't like it. "No… don't tell me."

"Yeah… they're breeding monsters. Feeding them survivors to make them stronger. Or using the survivors as bait to lure other monsters in, trying to create powerful breeds or stronger creatures. New creatures." He glanced at Lena. "The church is running experiments there."

Lena's face twisted with disgust. "Shit, me and my damn mouth! They're feeding people to monsters?"

"Yes."

"Alive?"

"I assume so," Reidar said. "The Foragers couldn't get close enough to see the details, but the survivors they saw being dragged into what I assume were the breeding pens were still moving."

Lena felt a wave of nausea roll through her as the image took root in her mind. She could almost feel the terror of the people thrown into those pens, helpless against creatures engineered to destroy them.

The Church looked at human lives and saw nothing but resources to be spent. The thought that these experiments were still running in Redwater Crossing right now made her blood run cold, and her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"We have to stop them," Jake said.

It was the first time he had spoken since they left Creamont, and while his voice was low, it carried an underlying steel. He spoke with neither hesitation nor doubt, but with the simple certainty that what the Church was doing had to end.

Reidar nodded. "We will."

"You mentioned a third place." Lena said. "Where is the fucker now?"

"Ashwick." Reidar's expression grew grimmer. "It's a heavily defended settlement. Much more fortified than the War Hound base in Creamont. I don't know much about it yet. The situation there is still unclear because Silas only arrived two days ago. My Foragers are still gathering information, but it's going to take time to get a full picture, and Silas seemed overly cautious there."

Ashford, Redwater Crossing, and Ashwick. Three targets, each one more dangerous than the last. The church was expanding its operations across the country with the kind of confidence that came from knowing no one could stop it.

Except they could be stopped. They had to be.

"Things are going to get complicated," Lena said.

Reidar nodded. "They already are."

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