Ignite the Sun

Distributing the sword went surprisingly quickly, the knights pretty much didn't argue about who's supposed to take which sword – perhaps it just so happend that each of them liked a different blade.

"You said something about binding?" David questioned Thratvar, the bladeless sword in his hand.

"I did, but I'd advise against attempting it until you make sure your sword works as intended. In the unlikely case that something is wrong that issue would also appear during the transformation accompanying the binding process, and I assume none of you want to have some unpredictable flaws."

"Makes sense I suppose." David nodded. "What now then?"

"Now you go out and test the weapons – you have to kill, and you have to kill a lot. I don't care if you go around killing dangerous corrupted beasts to defend unsuspecting villages or slaughter all the innocents in the Sun Kingdom, I want to know whether there are any anomalies with the swords and killing things will help us check that."

"Should we travel alone?"

"That would be the most efficient, but if you go in pairs you'll be able to help each other in the case something goes horribly wrong. You can't all do that of course since there's seven of you, but I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"No need, I'll go alone." David shook his head. "I'm the most experienced from our group so it only makes sense."

No one protested, in fact most looked rather relieved that they didn't have to be the one to go into the wilderness alone.

Despite the fact that they were all capable knights who could resist the Blight with just their aura for months or even years, going out without any protection whatsoever wasn't something they did very often – or at all actually. Having a companion definitely helped the situation, if only in the psychological way.

"How do we know we killed enough things and can return?" Rudolph asked.

Instead of responding Thratvar tossed an object at him – which the knight caught with ease and inspected.

It was a rough transparent crystal, round and around the size of an apple, but it didn't seem to be special in any way. If he didn't get it from a Blightborn he wouldve thought it was glass slag.

"When you kill something hold this up to the body – once the crystal turns completely black you can return." The Pathseeker explained.

"What is it?"

"Just a device to store information used by my people, but adjusted by me to suit our goals."

"So you're gathering information on the thing we kill and you don't want us to return once we can gather no more." David summarised. "Why are you doing that?"

"Your testimonies will be very helpful but they won't be enough to determine whether the swords are flawed – the information from the corpses will help me assess whether there are some underlying issues we might be not initially aware of."

"Isn't it inevitable that there will be some flaws? As long as they are not to debilitating and won't get worse we can live with it."

"Completely unacceptable, I seek to create a perfect weapon – accepting flaws would be akin to giving up on this goal. No, I must strive to get rid of all imperfections, no matter how small."

"I'm not convinced it's the best idea, but it doesn't really affect me so do whatever you want." David shrugged. "The only thing to do before we leave is to discuss where each party is going – after all it would be pointless to split up if we ran into each other while hunting."

"I'd appreciate if at least one team went direction of the Sage's Summit." Thratvar stated. "Kalim is very much in danger of being exposed so it would be good if he had support waiting for him nearby."

Somewhere along the line the knights already paired up and where standing in twos.

"We can do it." Rudolph offered. "The area around the monastery is exceedingly flat, it will be a good environment to test our swords' abilities."

He chose the memory blade due to his age and vast knowledge of historical evebts, whereas his partner, the youngest from the group named Richard, picked the giant feather-light one.

"I'll go north of the Order, there are plenty of things to kill there and it'll let me keep eye on them." David declared.

"We'll take the far east then, there isn't much human activity there which means there will be a see of monster to exterminate there."

Julius, the one who spoke, was paired up with Travis and they wielded the flying sword and the soulstealer respectively.

"We'll go to the western plateau."

The statement came from Victor, who together with Michael made up the last pair – they didn't have to elaborate why they chose that region, everyone knew, even if a lot of them wished they were wrong.

But considering the western plateau had the highest concentration of human settlements in the Kingdom and the fact they chose the devouring sword and the light cutting one made their intentions rather clear.

People like Rudolph believed the lies they told themselves about being a good person, but these two were waiting for an opportunity to take off their mask.

"Mind if I tag along?" Tharosk asked David completely out of nowhere.

"As long as Thratvar is fine with it I guess."

The Pathseeker narrowed his eyes at the Ravager, but nodded lightly.

"Just make sure you don't kill the same things, it will mess up the information you gather."

"Well no time to waste then, some of us chose targets quite far off, even with our speed it'll take a while to reach them on foot." David said and turned around to leave, but the Pathseeker stopped him.

"We work together now so it would be unconscionable of me to not offer you a portal."

Thratvar snapped his fingers and four portals opened in the room, each facing towards the direction they led to.

"The portals will take you where you need to go."

Then he handed a small black bead to each of the teams.

"When you crush this under your boot a portal leading back here will open, so come back immediately after you're done with testing."

David raised an eyebrow.

"Did you just have these lying around or did you plan this whole thing and made the specifically for this situation?"

"Not much of a plan when it's something that must simply be done, no? Besides I think you overestimate how difficult it's to create such one use portals."

As if to demonstrate, Thratvar waved his hand and a pile of hundred little beads identical to the ones they recieved from him just a minute ago.

"If they're so easy to make then why is Kalim running around with a magic knife? It seems like those would be much less conspicuous."

"The granules are very limited in their usage, they can open a portal for a few minutes to a predestined location once." The Pathseeker explained. "Meanwhile the knife carries a part of my power, allowing me to operate it from a distance and in result also to open portals wherever Kalim wants. Not only that but I can theoretically repurpose the knife to do other things."

"That does sound more useful – which makes me question why you have him one only after we joined?"

"It was a replacement one." Thratvar stated drily. "He lost the last one on his mission in Mountainfall, thanks to that blunder we had to not only make a new one but also lost access to Mountainfall. Come to think of it, when we were observing Arthur's actions Kalim pointed out that the person who made him lose the knife was at the Order now."

"How long ago was that?" David frowned.

"Around a month ago."

"Then it wasn't actually a member of the Order, no one aside from Alfred has left the fortress walls for three months prior to Arthur's death – it had to be one of those newcomers."

"Newcomers, and in the people who fought alongside Nickolas? I thought they were just mercenaries." The Pathseeker seemed a little confused.

"If you were observing Arthur through that sword of his then it's no wonder you don't know about what happened – the guy spent ninety percent of the time at the Order in the room he took from Nickolas. They're a group of four going from settlement to settlement, I don't know their exact goal but I know there's a Flamebearer among them."

"A Flamebearer?" Tharosk questioned, clearly unfamiliar with the term.

"They mean Ashwalker." Thratvar clarified for him. "Are you certain there's one among them? We could use his existence to our advantage, put him and the empire against each other."

"They're right." Tharosk unexpectedly answered. "I've encountered a human temple wrapped in protective flames – when my Mindcarver suggested it was the work of an Ashwalker I laughed at him for believing in fairytales, but it seems that in the end he was right..."

"That changes our long term plans." The Pathseeker stated. "For now go and test your swords like we discussed, we'll go over the new plan once you come back."