Continuing their journey they were moving at a fast pace. They needed to try to make up time for what they had already lost after all, but still, they also needed to be cautious. The shadow most likely knew what it was doing, and with Monk up ahead it gave them ample time to have everything reported to them.

By now, they would have known that their spy was already dead. It was quite possible that along the way, multiple traps had been set up to slow down the Redwings even further. Because of this, Ray made Noir scout up ahead and she would return to report back if there was anything wrong.

Which was why, the others got a little worried when they could see her returning back, coming to Ray's side.

Ray looked at her and listened to what she had to say.

'Master, master, up ahead there is a village. I didn't get in too close just like you told me to, but it looks like there are many people that are dead.'

Ray and Noir could communicate through a special link, where she could now speak into her mind. She was just as smart as a regular human, and understood the language well, but she could not communicate with the others, and only Ray.

'Humans, living in the shadow continent area and not beasts?' Ray asked, a little confused.

"What's wrong?" Martha asked, as she could see it looked like Noir had just told him something that seemed odd.

"Noir tells me that up ahead there is a small village, the only thing is it's full of people that have already been killed." Ray replied.

"Any survivors?" Lenny asked.

"I made sure she didn't go in too deep on her own, incase of an ambush." Ray replied.

"It could be the dark guild family members." said Harry..

"What makes you think that?" Martha replied. "Even if that was the case, isn't it odd that they would have died. The dark guild is working with the shadow so they shouldn't have had to have dealt with any surprise beast attacks, unless it was a third force or possibly Monk, but he is now the acting leader of the dark guild anyway."

"I think we have to rethink the way we look at the dark guild." Harry replied. "The dark guild and the shadow aren't as closely related as we first thought. They are just regular humans like us with their own stories and families, who have chosen to work with the shadow. Most of them believe in the shadow as a type of god, just like we do of the Divine being.

"They feel like they have just chosen the winning side in this war, and hope to live peacefully after this. When I was captured by them I learnt a lot about them. I would say there is a chance some of them no longer wish to work for the shadow, especially after they saw us defeat one of their fortresses, and now a second one has seemingly been destroyed.

"Perhaps some of them are now having second thoughts on who will win this war, If the shadow were to find out this fact.'

"Then it would order the beasts to kill every single last one of them." Lenny said.

It was a horrible thing to think about, but this was war, and death was a part of it. They all had to remember that sometimes when they fought and killed dark guild members, they too had families they would no longer be going back to.

But just as much, if they didn't kill them, then their families could be the ones getting hurt instead.

Not wishing to go around the village as they were afraid it would take up more time, the group decided to carry on right through it, at the same time, they thought that they might be able to do a little investigating of their own.

There was a slight problem Ray was experiencing though, the deeper he got into the shadow continent, the stronger the shadow itself was. His dragon vision was only showing him the shadow power in all directions, all over the place. Soon it looked like he wouldn't even be able to sense those in front of him that clearly.

When they had reached the village, this had become even more apparent as he couldn't see who was alive and quite possibly who was dead.

Checking the bodies, the village seemed to be filled with ordinary people. They did not wear beast armour or had weapons on them. They thought of using whatever household items they could find.

It was surprising for many of the Redwings to learn humans actually still lived in the shadow continent, however the more alarming thing was the fact that the blood of the bodies was still fresh.

"Everyone stay alert!" Ray said. "Whatever attacked them could still be here."

And it seemed like Ray was right. Snarling sounds from all over could be heard, and the Redwing group started to gather in the centre. Van was placed in the middle of the circle.

Coming out from behind the houses, out of the giant large trees, were several hounds, Although these were several times bigger then regular hounds, and they were in quite the large pack.

At a single look it looked as if all of these were at the king tier level, and with the shadow powering them they would be even stronger.

"No wonder the people stood no chance." Flynn said.

"Van can you do what you did before?" Lenny asked.

Straight away, Van got to work pulling out the white stone, and he aimed to create a beam of energy that would spread and burn all those around them, still it would take some time, as the white stone would light up and fade.

Jack had turned into a werewolf, and got to work fighting the beasts in front, and so did the others , including Noir. Ray at this point, was making sure that the regular soldiers were safe. He could have gone out, and solo attacked a few of the beasts, but he realised that this would keep them open and with Van, the beast would soon be dealt with.

As soon as the white light could be seen, then it was Ray's signal to get out of there.

When the white stone was ready, Van held it up in the air, and it was ready to cause the pulsating attack, but it seemed like a few more beasts were in hiding, that Ray hadn't  sensed. Four of the giant hounds lept in at that moment, pushing a group of the soldiers and they had banged into Van, causing him to drop the white stone.

"You and your weak hands!" Harry shouted. "You should grip onto that thing like your life depends on it."

Seeing this, Ray thought it was no time to conserve his strength. They were in the shadow territory now, and Ray had no clue when they would meet a shadow guard, or perhaps the one behind the shadow itself. Perhaps it was even waiting for him to use up his power before attacking, so Ray wanted to reserve his energy.

However, not wanting another one of his men to die, he started to create clones of himself, and while they were busy fighting, he would cast giant spells, killing off the hounds, instantly with a single hit of large magic.

The fight was soon over thanks to Ray.

Searching for the crystal on the floor, Harry had picked it up, planning to return it to Van, but when he did, he noticed something strange. Picking up the crystal, a small reaction had occurred, the crystal lit up for a few seconds, but the colour wasn't white, it was slightly purple.

"Thank you Harry." Van said, as he held out his hand.

The colour had soon disappeared from the crystal. Harry looked at it again, and looked at Van. There was a moment before he reluctantly handed the crystal back.

"Hold onto it tightly next time, otherwise who knows whose hands it could end up in." Harry said.

*****

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