"Don't worry about that. Do you mind telling me what's going on here?" Lith had no intention of explaining anything. At least until he learned how much the other Ranger knew.
There was a reason why he had pushed Acala through the Warp Steps and avoided submitting his report. For his story to be believable, it had to match with Acala's.
"Sure." Acala nodded, emptying his cup and immediately asking for a refill. "As you probably know, I was tasked with dealing with the bandits while you took care of the important stuff. I'm just an emergency replacement, after all."
His voice contained a tinge of resentment and was coated with more envy than sugar on a candy bar. A Ranger was considered at their peak condition at 25 years, when they had gained enough experience and their body was still in its prime.
Despite having spent ten years in the corps, Acala's name was just one of the many on the list. Moreover, being him past his thirties, no one expected anything from him but to keep things in order while Lith was busy.
Acala knew to be nothing more than a placeholder and he was absolutely livid about it.
"So, once I discovered that instead of bandits I was dealing with the undead, I followed them to their hideout to investigate. The reason I failed to contact my handler so far, is that the place is a goddamned maze filled with arrays that block dimensional magic.
"You have no idea what I went through. No food, no sunlight, no way to call for help, just surviving out of scraps while waiting for the right moment to get away."
"It sounds rough." Lith handed him a piece of fresh bread, eager to get back on topic. "Where is the place and what were they doing?"
"I was getting there." Acala nodded while wolfing down the food. "First of all, those vampires are weird. No matter how strong the sun shines, there's always this thin shroud of darkness around their bodies that allows them to move freely even during the day."
"Also, their numbers are too little to have built a whole underground complex. My guess is that they either found the place by chance or they were looking for it."
"I heard from your handler that their plan can jeopardize the Kingdom. How exactly?" Lith asked.
"The network of caves they are hiding in is full of ancient junk. From what I could see during the past few days, they are using it to build a Gate. To make matters worse, their numbers increase by the day.
"Those leeches didn't kidnap the travelers to feed upon them, but to turn them. If we lose too much time, the Kingdom will have to deal with a vampire nest capable of freely moving wherever there isn't a protective array."
'Wow, a Gate and a nest at the same time. Way to go to jinx it, Lith.' Solus tried to make it sound like a joke, but she was starting to believe in bad luck.
"That makes no sense." Lith replied to both. "A Gate requires a power source and a growing nest needs lots of food. The vampires should have emptied entire villages already if that were true."
"I saw what I saw." Acala didn't bother to hide his annoyance at Lith's disbelief. "I can't explain the Gate, but one thing I know for sure. Those bastards don't need to feed."
"What?" Lith blurted out with a bit too much enthusiasm for the liking of any sane person listening to him.
Vampires able to move during the day, capable of using all elements, and with no hunger were a nightmare for the three Great Countries, but wonderful news for Lith. It was the answer to all of his problems, nicely wrapped up and served to him on a silver platter.
"Are you insane or what? Do you understand what I'm telling you? I was stuck in there for days, waiting for an opportunity to escape. Those guys don't sleep nor rest. The moment their guards spot you, they'll come at you in numbers."
Acala looked at the huge grin on Lith's face with disgust. In his eyes, only a madman could treat such dire news as a funny joke.
"I understand, but your story still doesn't make any sense. Turning someone into a vampire doesn't grant you dominance over them. If they are just kidnapping random people, why don't the thralls and the newborn vampires rebel?" Lith was sick of Acala's attitude and decided to put him in his place.
"I could understand if they were rising corpses, but resetting their victims' personalities would also take away all of their knowledge and it would take months to teach them the basics of combat from scratch.
"Among your attackers there were humans and all of them fought like professionals. How do you explain this?"
"I don't." Acala snarled, abruptly standing up to look Lith in the eyes. "I'm no Necromancer, but since you're a genius, I'm sure that you'll find an answer to all of your stupid questions.
"I've already asked for reinforcements. Once they are here, we must sweep the caves as fast as possible and solve the problem. We're dealing with hard facts, there's no time to waste with your philosophical questions."
"Wait all you want. Just point me in the right direction and tell me what to expect. I'll do the rest." Lith said.
'There's no way I'm going to let some zealot kill all the vampires before I discover what's their secret.' He thought.
'If the Kingdom finds whatever is empowering them, it will end up in the Royal Forgemasters' hands. If I go in alone first and take that knowledge for myself, I'll be several steps closer to solving once and for all my resurrection problem!'
"I don't know if you're more reckless or arrogant." Acala spat on the ground. "If you go there, we'll lose the element of surprise!"
"That ship has sailed once they found you out." Lith replied. "I've already cleaned up your mess once, I can do it again. They are waiting for us and the more time passes, the better they can prepare. Or do you think they'll ignore the disappearance of six of them?"
The two Rangers had their hands on the hilt of their respective weapons when both their army amulets started to blink. Once turned on, they projected two holograms.
The first belonged to Kamila and the other to a young man in his twenties who could have been considered handsome, if not for the fact that he seemed to have a broomstick up his ass.
The mood between the handlers seemed as tense as that between the Rangers. Lith reviewed Acala's report with Kamila, pointing out its inconsistencies to undermine the threat level of the situation at hand.
Then, he described how he had dispatched Acala's pursuers, leaving out their ability to use offensive light magic. Arrays couldn't be used while flying at high speed and Lith doubted that undead needed that kind of firepower to deal with weakly humans.
He was certain that Acala didn't witness the full scope of their powers and the ensuing silence confirmed Lith's guess.
"Best case scenario I'll get rid of them on my own. Worst case scenario, I'll still be able to scout the area and provide the assault team with the information they need, preventing them from falling into traps." Lith said.
"That's an excellent idea." The hologram of Commander Berion appeared behind Kamila's.
