The Elders reacted the same way the Family head did when they heard that this is the chance that their curse could be broken.
For generations, the Merene family only has one goal. It is not to survive, not to increase their influence, and not to become a superpower, their only goal is to get rid of the curse that has thrown them into such a state.
Gandharvas are a pure race and they are the direct subordinates of the Hindu Gods, they are extremely devoted to the point that they would feel honored for dying in the hands of the gods or die for the gods they worship so dearly.
And the worse punishment than death is being ignored and abandoned by their gods. So, as long as their curse lifted and one family member of the Merene family survived, they would be happy even if they have to sacrifice everything else.
Even if they die, they are satisfied with the point that they would be regarded as the curse breakers of their family for the generations to come.
So, the first thing they did as soon as the family head gave the information is note down the list of the younger generation who barely entered the Astral Plane and some who didn't even enter the Astral Plane and send them to a safe place so that they could continue the lineage of the Merene family.
Then the rest are ready to fight Sam to death.
After the Initial arrangements and task assignments are done, everyone was sent to do their part.
But as soon as the meeting room opened, the City guard commander immediately entered and reported the incident regarding the disappeared core members.
The meeting that just ended once again commenced.
"From what our God Indra said, this is the general way of operations of that guy named Sam. He will create chaos and attack on a small range at the beginning and slowly it would blow into a war. Since he already made a move and took our men, he would think he has an upper hand in this issue. Maybe if it is a normal family or organization, then it would. But we are the Merene family of the Gandharva race.
I will lead the Elders into the Woods and we will meet him head-on. We don't need to preserve anything as long as our future generations could live without this curse and reach back to our former glory.
Elders call every person of the family, both the outer section and the main family with the cultivation of Astral Plane Pre-transcendence or higher. We will search through the woods and find out that guy before he could make another move.
We shall kill him for our god and get rid of the curse today, no matter what."
With those orders, the city has seen the biggest movements of the Merene family in years. Messengers moved through the wormholes as they went to their subordinate realms and planets to call for all the people they can.
The mercenaries and sellswords that are available in the city with the cultivation of Astral Plane Pre-transcendence and above were all hired with a large amount of money.
The citizens were stunned by the whole show and the spies of different forces immediately relayed the message.
At first, no one knew what the exact situation is, but soon they found out what this was all about and it is about a young man named Sam who is attacking the Merene family and the Merene family are currently repaying him in kind.
Sam's bird puppets are still inside the city and when he observed the large-scale movement from that, he couldn't help but smile.
"It seems like we don't need to plan anything ahead. But we need to be careful. The family head will be a real pain in the ass.
Night Ghost, how long can you keep up with the family head and what kind of help do you think you need to deal with him?" Sam asked.
The Night Ghost thought for a moment and said.
"The small liquid energy cells might be great against the Astral plane Transcendent cultivators at Initial stage, but they won't do much at Late stage. If you have a larger one, then it would be good. Give me two of them.
If I manage to get one clean hit with that, then the rest of it would be easy."
Sam took out Medium sized liquid energy cells. Since he made them, he made them in all sizes.
The small cells are in the size of an ordinary battery, the medium cells are the size of a small water bottle that could fit two hundred milliliters of water.
As for the large size, it would be in the size of the bottle that could fit half a liter of water.
Anything bigger than that would be too strong and too destructive to use in the current situation, they were too hard to make even with the machines Sam had and they are reserved for some special situation.
Sam gave the two Medium cells to Night Ghost along with the tokens.
"From the looks of it, the head of the family is a fire elemental user, So, both cells are of ice elemental energy, use them properly.
All of you, spread through the woods. We will welcome our guests, keep your communication devices on at all times.
Vidyut, you will act as support for everyone and be sure to shoot wherever I tell you to. I don't want any mishaps. This is the first time, we are going against such a large family at a single shot.
Get to your positions and wait for the orders."
Sam then turned towards the captives who they brought here, and threw them all in the chessboard, and set them to play.
After that, he took out the crystal table and took a seat before letting out a bunch of insect and bird-type puppets all over the woods.
Even though he can use the table to take a look at the whole forest, these things will act as means of communication with the team and would help him have better control of the battlefield and since they are linked to the crystal table, he can have even better control over them and the situation.
Sam looked as the team arrived at their locations and soon, the Merene family arrived along with their forces.
They stopped at the edge of the woods where the family head divided the forces into different teams and sent them in different directions.
From the reports of the attacks and the information that was given by Indra, he believed that Sam has only one Middle stage Transcendent cultivator of the Astral Plane under him.
He also judged that Sam would be having that person right next to him. So, he let the Initial stage Transcendent cultivators lead the teams, while the middle-stage cultivators moved alone.
The family had stayed at the edge of the forest.
Sam and the team didn't make a move, they just stayed in their hidden positions while the Merene family moved. When the Merene family teams moved for a certain time, they sent some silver pigeons back to the Family head with the messages.
Sam tried to take a proper look at the message through the crystal table while they are writing and it seems like they are reporting their location, numbers, and the situation.
The Family head stood near a stone table with a large map of the woods on it as he marked many places with the teams and the transcendent middle stage cultivators. After analyzing for a bit, he sent the silver pigeons back with the new orders.
That is their way of operation.
Sam smiled and looked at the locations of the teams.
"Vidyut, do you see the bird puppet on the tree beside you?"
"Yes, boss."
"Now, the puppet will be pointing a light towards a direction, you need to shoot an arrow in that direction that could hit a target at five hundred meters. Don't make it flashy. Release the arrow as soon as I say."
The bird puppet shot a small laser point light in a direction and Vidyut aimed his arrow, exactly after ten seconds…
"Shoot."
Sam's order came and Vidyut shot the arrow.
The arrow whistled through the air as it hit the silver pigeon five hundred meters away,
The pigeon fell along with the message it was supposed to carry. A bird puppet nearby picked the dead pigeon and brought it back to Sam.
Generally, the silver pigeon is not visible to the naked eye and it is hard to attack them. But now that Sam can time its speed and location through the crystal table, he used Vidyut's skill to shoot it down.
This pigeon is carrying the message to the group that was deepest in the forest and closest to Sam's location.
Saber Monarch and Gran are closest to that team, so he decided to deal with it first. And the first order of business in doing that is to make them stay in that place and cut their communication off with the Family head.
