A World With/Out Home

Chapter 9: A long wait. (Part 6)

An alarm sounded through the Villa causing its resident's to snap awake. Estile was out of her bed, on her feet and dressed within seconds. She rushed to the living room to find some of her companions already waiting.

"What's going on?" she looked around on edge. The alarm was only meant to be triggered on the most serious of calls and hadn't been rung for more than a decade. The children too had woken form the noise and looked towards their parents anxiously.

Karen spoke wiping the remaining sleep form her eyes, "We're getting calls from all over the world for help. At first Ellen and Sephie who were on duty left but since then we've just kept getting more and more."

"Do you know why?" RIftin asked as he adjusted the daggers on his side. His black hair glistened in the morning light perfectly matching the dark tanned armour he wore.

"Arvel's trying to monitor the situation and said something about a foreign invasion but since then I haven't heard from him," Karen creased her brow.

"Could it be the devils?" Mori asked while stifling a yawn. The yellow haired girl shook herself. "And what about the armies, are they doing anything?"

Trent answered, "Of course they are. They wouldn't call us if they could handle it themselves."

Kyle who had been silent till now turned to Mori, "Do you think it's related to your nightmares?"

The girl stiffened, "Maybe, but I can never be sure. In the dreams I saw death and people crying for help. Creatures that were melded together by dark web squirmed through the ground killing everyone in sight. I hope it's not the same."

Estile tightened the grip on her sword, "We can't just sit here talking. Let's get down to business and go."

Karen nodded and spread her hands as a large map appeared displaying the world and all its continents, "The red blips are the countries and cities that have called for aid."

"There's so many," Trent gulped. Even if they all split up the twelve of them wouldn't be enough.

"Whatever is happening we're going to have to face that we won't be able to save everyone," her eyes flicked to Estile. "We'll be prioritising the cities our children may be. Any objections?" No one disagreed. "Good. Kyle and Mori will head to Dupoint through the Dew Valley gate, Trent and I will go towards the West Continent, Riftin will stay here and Estile-,"

"Hang on," Estile interrupted. "All these cities are from mixed race countries or not human. You don't think the pro-human nations have something to do with this?"

"We'll figure that out later. Our goal is to support the nations as much as we can and get them to form up their own defences as we move on to the next target. Estile I'll send you off directly to Ardentgrad."

"Do it now then," the white haired girl spoke firmly.

"Okay but one last thing," Karen looked to her friends, the companions she had made and the other Mercenaries of the Ever-Garden, "No one die, I have the feeling we can't afford to on this one." They nodded grimly. "Estile when you're ready." A shimmering portal drew itself beside Karen.

Estile looked to the children who were crowding the nearby corridor, "Everyone we have work to do now so behave yourself. Maxi is in charge while we're gone and if anything happens call for Arvel okay?" The children looked at each other and Maxi nodded, her ears twitching. "Then I'm off."