"Looks like we have our target. I want you moving with the army this time. Everyone follow me!" Magar said as he ran causing the army to struggle to keep up with him.
"What do you think created it? We already know that color doesn't exist in this tear yet but that was definitely yellow sunlight, right?" Chronos asked.
"Yes, it was. I've got no idea what caused it but if it's alive it might know more about the tear than we do. For now, we'll just make our way to the light." Magar said.
As they were talking Gregory met up with them while carrying Sariah, who had a complicated look on her face.
"What is it, Sariah? You only have that look when you've discovered something but don't understand how it's possible." Gregory asked.
She glanced at them, then faced forward again.
"Does anybody know what happened to the sun badger?"
Shocked expressions slowly crossed all of their faces as they realized what she was hinting at. Then started denying her at the same time.
"That's not possible." Lyla said.
"It can't be here." Gregory assured her.
"No, no. Nothing entered the tear ahead of us." Magar stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
Chronos looked at them, his expression growing concerned.
"But it's a badger, if anything could find a way into a tear on its own it's one of those chaos gremlins," he said.
They looked at each other with concern then shook their heads ready to deny him again when another flash of sunlight crossed the sky.
"... Maybe we should hurry." Magar admitted a few seconds later.
"""Agreed."""
They increased their pace hoping to reach it before something managed to cause it serious harm.
It had assisted them in defending the village, so they considered it one of their companions. If it was in trouble, they didn't want to let it face that trouble alone.
With the army following them they crossed multiple hills while sunlight flashed in the sky from time to time. Having lost the goblins, they were able to increase their speed without worry about an attack on their rear, but it still took them some time to reach the battle.
Circling a tall hill, they saw the sun badger they were certain couldn't get in fighting a group of people in black armor. Sunlight flashed in the valley burning the gray grass as the plains were swiftly turning into an uncontrollable fire.
"How did it get in here?" Magar asked, his mouth falling open in shock.
While he had thought it might be possible, actually seeing it was an entirely different matter.
He was frozen, unable to understand how it had bypassed the army guarding the entrance. Maybe it hadn't bypassed the army at all and had found another way in.
"That doesn't matter right now. Grass fires move really fast. We need to stop it before the fire consumes us and look behind the armored men." Gregory said pointing at the back of the valley.
Behind the black armored men, a world crystal was floating in the air slowly being corrupted by miasma. Around its base a group of black robed priests was sitting on the ground casting a ritual spell to rapidly advance the process.
So that's why they hadn't been able to sense the crystal. The priests were blocking the movement of energy while corrupting it.
"We need to stop those priests now." Chronos said as he launched himself forward.
As he approached some of the black armored men broke away from the badger to stop him.
"Growl!" The badger leapt at them but failed to stop them.
Just as the armored men were going to reach Chronos Gregory's threads lifted from the ground wrapped around their legs and tripped them.
"I've got them. Keep going!" Gregory's voice came from the shadows next to him.
At the valley's entrance Chronos could hear Magar ordering his men to set up a defensive formation in the valley entrusting the armored men and black robed priests to them.
Growling Chronos sped past the armored men, leaping at the priests he extended his claws but just before he attacked one of the priests turned towards him with a smug grin.
Bang! Crash!
His smug grin turned into one of horror as Chronos's claws easily crushed the invisible barrier they had cast for protection.
Rolling out of the way the priest jumped to his feet pulling out a dagger he started casting a curse at him.
"Damn you! Verlech tara..Guh!"
A flying gavel struck his gut knocking the wind out of him. Wasting no time, Lyla jumped from Chronos's back, smashing the head of the fallen priest with her mace.
The other priests drew their daggers preparing to face Lyla who they regarded as the greater threat. While they were distracted Chronos shifted into his werewolf form and took out echoforge. Swinging it, he killed two more priests before they realized there was another major threat.
"Damnit! Oi come help us!" A priest shouted looking over to the armored men.
What greeted his eyes was melting metal and torn corpses, the black beast armored men had already been destroyed by the sun badger and Gregory in that short time.
Boom! Boom! "AAH!"
Facing his own fight again he found that all but two of his companions had been slain.
"The dark god protects us! Kill them!" He shouted encouraging his companions to fight.
Yelling, they both started casting spells expecting their 'friend' to assist them. But rather than stand and fight he turned and fled towards the far end of the valley leaving them to their fate.
Sighing in disappointment Chronos drew his aura bow taking aim at the distant priest.
The two priests in front of him moved to attack him but Gregory caught one by the throat strangling him to death with his threads while Lyla beat the other to death.
Twang! Swoosh! Thud! "Gaaah!"
And with that Chronos finished off the last priest before he could make it out of the valley.
Looking at the crystal he saw how badly it had been corrupted.
With some concern he turned to Lyla, "Lyla can you purify this crystal with the other priests?"
"You're only thinking about this now? Of course I can." She said as she erased the ritual from the black robed priests.
While she was carving a new ritual circle into the ground Magar moved his army to surround the crystal anticipating a last-ditch assault from whatever black beasts were nearby.
"How long will this ritual take? I've got a bad feeling that something troublesome is waiting for us outside." Magar said.
"Not long. Last time it only took thirty minutes, but we used a slightly different method at that time." Chronos replied.
Nodding both of them returned to their duties waiting for the black beast's last assault.