Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday-Chapter 340: Hidden Valiant Seven

It had been six days since Grace and Rune entered the Capital. Six long days of blending into the crowds, speaking in whispers, stirring conversations without suspicion, and collecting crumbs of information in a realm where every word could turn into a weapon.

They stayed on the move, switching inns every two days and making sure their disguises never falter. Rune’s cloak was rarely lowered, and Grace used subtle illusion charms to shift her appearance just enough to stay forgettable.

But using spells to hide themselves in a Realm built with that very essence of magic, was far from easy.

And even with all their efforts, every lead led them to a dead end.

"They were ghosts," Rune muttered late one night, his frustration clear in his tone. "My team. It’s as if the entire realm agreed to erase them."

Grace leaned back against the wall of their rented room, keeping her eyes fixed on the man. "People either don’t know or are too afraid to speak. But someone knows what happened to them. Someone has to."

He stared into the flickering candlelight for a few long seconds before finally speaking. "I trained beside them since I was thirteen. I would recognize their energy anywhere. Even if they masked it, a part of them would never disappear."

That was when her mind started working, thinking of a possible way to locate Rune’s lost team members.

"2025," she summoned the little creature.

"Yes, Master." It responded immediately.

"You have been trying to break into the main system of the Magik Realm these days, but what about the local ones? The peripheral data networks?" She asked.

There was a deep silence on the other end of the mindlink before 2025 finally responded, and it sounded pretty excited. "No wonder you are my master. You are just as smart as me!"

Grace just shook her head but didn’t say anything. She just waited to see the result of her suggestion.

[Attempting breach protocol]

System’s familiar voice filled her head for a moment before everything went silent. The pause that followed was filled with tension.

[Main system still inaccessible. Magical encryption too sophisticated to break without physical access. However… a low-tier local data network has been identified.]

Her heart quickened at the news. "Can you access it?"

[Initiating adaptive infiltration. Utilizing updated knowledge on Magik coding structure… analyzing spell-script flow, elemental signal patterns…]

They waited in silence. Rune just watched her, not completely aware of what she was up to because 2025 and system’s response were only heard by her.

[Success. Breach completed. Local civilian registry, communication node archives, and second-level movement logs acquired.]

Grace smiled. "Search for anything on Rune’s elite warrior team. The Valiant Seven. Look for six distinct energy signatures aside from Rune’s. He can describe them all." ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Rune leaned forward, his gaze silently asking her what she was planning. She quickly filled him on her plan and system’s success at infiltrating a local system.

"Go ahead. Help the system track your people." She encouraged him and watched as the very first ray of hope filled his now dark brown eyes.

Rune allowed 2025 to receive a certain piece of his memory where all six of his team mates were using their powers. Asher with his nature affinity, Kael with his fire, Mira wielding her wind powers, Dain with his water power, Elandra with her illusions and shadow-bending abilities, and finally Thorne with his beast-taming and barrier creating power.

[Analyzing residual patterns from archived movements. Cross-referencing distinct energy identifiers… please hold.]

This time, both 2025 and system’s voices were audible to Rune as well. Seconds dragged into minutes, and then finally-

[Signatures matched. All six confirmed. Vital signatures intact.]

Rune’s breath hitched and so did Grace’s.

"They are alive?"

[Yes. But their movements ceased approximately ten years ago. All six signatures are detected in a single geographic cluster which is a highly remote, cloaked region in the southeastern quadrant of the Magik Realm. Known in current records as the Misty Woods.]

[Anomaly detected. Deep-level scan indicates hidden mana structures and cloaked artificial boundaries, abnormal for wild terrain. A secret organization may be operating there. No registry records align. Stealth-level magical infrastructure confirmed.]

Rune stood up, his eyes turning into the very reflection of an upcoming storm. "They were taken," he said quietly. "Kidnapped and hidden from the world."

Grace nodded as she approached him and took hold of his hands.

"Would you like me to map a stealth route?" 2025 asked.

"Yes," Grace answered. "And cross-check any mention of the Misty Woods with criminal activity or unregistered movements. I want to know everything we have missed."

"Working on it."

She turned to Rune, cupping his face to make him look at her. "We’ll find them, Rune."

His eyes finally softened for the slightest bit. "They were more than just my comrades. They’re my family. We swore an oath to each other - if any of us were ever taken or hunted, the others would burn kingdoms to bring them back."

"Then let’s light the first match."

* * *

The Misty Woods turned out to be a place buried in silence on most maps. It was where the magic of the Magik Realm tangled and bent unpredictably. Even Rune had never entered that particular part of the realm before.

But the more 2025 unearthed, the clearer it became - this wasn’t just some backwater exile zone. It was hiding something powerful, and someone had gone to great lengths to bury the existence of the Valiant Seven.

Grace and Rune started preparing in silence. They now knew what they needed to do and where. All they needed to plan was how.

They took two days to prepare in every way possible, before departing at dawn. Instead of using a portal, they used Grace’s teleportation ability to travel through the long distance and the reason was simple - hiding energy shift of teleportation magic was much easier than hiding the energy shift caused by a portal.

And the last thing they needed was to - either alert the warriors of the Realm, or worse... their enemies.