The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 348: A Capital to Burn

The week following the destruction of Ashwick passed quite fast, and that was because Reidar, Jake, and Lena left the place almost as soon as they were done with the quest. They didn't stop to rest, and they didn't stop to grind levels.

Mara had to be killed. She was likely one of the church's higher-ups, and finding her meant knowing where the progenitor was.

The landscape had changed as they traveled northwest. The forests around Creamont and Ashwick gave way to rockier, more uneven terrain.

The church's outpost was located at the region's border, a place that had been sparsely populated even before the apocalypse came.

Now, it was a desolate stretch of wilderness that served as a buffer zone between the regions.

Reidar rode in silence on the back of his mount. Jake and Lena flanked him. Mara had escaped, and with her, the knowledge of Silas's death, so they had to reach the woman before she organized something that even the three of them couldn't face.

Through the eyes of the Vorathid Sky-Hunter, Reidar watched the target for a week.

Mara had been busy.

She had arrived at the outpost, teleporting into the courtyard and causing a panic that had nearly resulted in the guards opening fire on her. Since then, the dynamics within the small settlement had shifted drastically.

Reidar had expected chaos. He had expected the Church forces to crumble when they learned their Archdeacon was dead. But Mara took control of the outpost and of Silas's projects well.

Reidar saw couriers riding out of the outpost gates every hour. They were heading south and east, carrying orders.

The troop movements spoke for themselves. The patrols that had been sweeping the forests near Highmont were being recalled. The supply caravans that were meant to build the siege lines around the city were being redirected to this border outpost, only for them to leave soon after and head towards the west.

Mara had taken command. She had told them Silas was dead, yes, but she hadn't painted it as a defeat. She had painted it as a martyrdom, a call to arms. And she had made a decision that Reidar hadn't expected.

They were ignoring Highmont.

It made sense. With Silas gone, they didn't have the overwhelming firepower needed to crack Highmont's defensive barriers. Plus, the church didn't have enough people there to stage an attack, and a siege would be costly and slow.

The alternative would have been to recall troops from the rest of the country just to take Highmont, but Mara decided otherwise. It would be better to move those from here somewhere else.

They were going for Kingsgate. It was the only place big and strong enough that would have pushed the church to start another war. No other city in the surroundings would have motivated the church in the same way. So, since Highmont was a lost cause now, it was better to concentrate their forces on something else.

Kingsgate was the capital. It was the trade hub, the seat of whatever civilian government remained, and the heart of its region.

If the Church took Kingsgate, they would control the region by default, and then heading to Highmont would be even easier.

It was a smart move. Mara was pragmatic. She was cutting the church's losses and aiming for the bigger target since the number of troops she sent there, while not as large as it was before Reidar's attack, was still quite large. Taking Highmont alone was impossible, but joining those trying to get to Kingsgate… that was another matter.

The only question was, how the hell did they bypass the monsters they themselves unleashed over the region?

Hunting these dangerous creatures was certainly possible, and in fact, quite a significant number of people must have reached high levels through these encounters, but that kind of hunting and leveling was only realistically achievable by sending large, well-organized armies to meet them in military operations.

But then, Reidar considered Mara's abilities. There was actually an alternative for the church. If Mara could create teleportation spells for herself, she might have developed a way to teleport large groups of troops as well that allowed her to bypass the monsters altogether.

Teleportation spells weren't something the Aegis Phalanx didn't have in their arsenal, at least not in any form that was widely available or distributed among their forces.

They still relied on vehicles for transportation, at least to a significant extent, even if those vehicles were technologically advanced compared to human standards.

Intergalactic travel, or whatever mysterious method the Allied Worlds used to traverse the vast distances between star systems, almost certainly needed similar teleportation magic or some equivalent technology, but for whatever reason, they hadn't developed or distributed teleportation spells that could be used by everyone in their ranks, which was something that made Reidar pause and wonder about the reasoning behind that decision.

<Maybe they have them but are keeping them hidden, or maybe teleportation spells would just create trouble for society when those having them returned to civilization.>

Regardless of the reasons or explanations behind this decision, it appeared clear that the church was leveraging and exploiting human ingenuity, resourcefulness, and greed to such unprecedented levels that they were bridging the technological gap that existed between their capabilities and those of the Allied Worlds at an impressively rapid pace.

But there was something wrong with the picture.

While the outpost buzzed with activity, Mara mostly kept to herself.

She wasn't in the command tent. She wasn't inspecting the troops. According to what Reidar had seen, she hadn't left the second floor of the main administrative building in three days. She was issuing orders through intermediaries.

It didn't fit the profile of a confident new leader rallying the troops. It looked like someone hiding in a bunker.

Reidar was taken out of his reverie by Lena. "How close?" She asked.

Reidar blinked, dismissing the shared vision and returning his focus to the rocky path ahead.