Chapter 26

**Noch**


As I led everyone to my office I thought on how to breach the subject of the cause behind Merianna’s situation. The source of why we brought her here and the spell that was placed on her soul. I would not be able to take a truly relieved breath until that bastard was one hundred feet below my feet and his soul rested in the deepest pits of Tartarus.

I knew that Thyrion had dealings with Orbus, but he was clearly not the main executioner of these plans by any means. My best plan was that we should capture Orbus and have him spill his guts to us about who was really behind all this grief.

We wandered into my office and as soon as I was seated in my chair and the door closed behind everyone, silence fell. Everyone stared expectantly at me. I heaved an inward sigh before starting.

“Now that Merianna is back, safe and sound, there is obviously something that still needs to be done.” I looked around the room until I caught Thyrion’s eye. “Did you have actual physical contact with Orbus?”

Thyrion nodded and frowned. “I have managed to find him on several occasions, although his hideouts are not something that I would be thrilled to revisit again at any stage. He also changes locations on a regular basis.”

“How were you able to find him previously?” Fog asked as he made himself comfortable on the couch to my left.

“Since the spell that he had placed on Merianna and linked to me was originally from him, I was able to follow the flow of energy from her to him. I’m still exceptionally good at tracking things I want to destroy that found a way to latch on to me.” Thyrion said with an evil grin spreading over his face.

And that was actually a very scary truth. No matter how many protection spells you wrapped yourself in, no matter how well you hid yourself from just about anything supernatural or otherworldly in this world, if you crossed Thyrion, he *will* track your scent and he *will *destroy you. Or rather, that was the norm I was used to. Clearly Orbus holding Merianna’s soul hostage was something that couldn’t be solved with brute force like he was used to.

“Are you still able to track him now that the spell has been broken?” Fog asked, looking thoughtful.

Thyrion shook his head slowly with a frown. “While Merianna was sleeping and recovering from the last surge, I tried to feel out his signature as I usually did, even if it could have been through residual energy, but unfortunately it had all dissipated. Not even a single blip of energy had remained. It looks like Merianna’s energy had burned it all off in the infirmary. I can recall what it felt like, but I have no personal items, blood, or traces of energy left to trace him with now.”

“I must say, that blast was unexpected. I expected something similar to happen in the infirmary as we were setting up, but nothing on the scale of what actually happened.” Arasule muttered with a baffled expression.

“Unexpected might be an understatement.” Fog shrugged. “Considering what we know, it could have turned out a lot worse. It seems like whatever seal Merianna’s past self had put on herself came undone along with Orbus’s spell. And considering Merianna is basically the mortal version of an ancient deity, the whole Order could have been blasted off the face of this realm with the release of that energy.”

“Damn…” Raska muttered as she and Jasnine took seats on the opposite couch.

“Can’t believe we missed something like that.” Jasnine piped up too.

“You guys actually missed out on quite a bit while you were out on that Bounty of yours.” Nelia huffed as she also plopped down on a seat. Poor Nelia looked like she was starting to run on fumes. She hadn’t been able to rest properly with Merianna’s surges coming through faster than expected.

“Should I tell the Ga’s to come back Nelia? It looks like you need some assistance until Merianna fully stabilizes.” I suggested with a smirk.

“Oh gods no. If you call those three back right now heaven knows what chaos will ensue.” Nelia groaned as she rubbed her face vigorously.

I tittered at the thought. She wasn’t wrong. The Ga’s were quite eccentric in their healing practices before, but after Merianna’s death they went on a little trip to ‘expand their knowledge’. They once visited Nelia during said ‘trip’ to share what they had learned, but … let's just say that they had become even more eccentric since said trip. Hilda basically almost reached Arasule’s level when it came to eccentricity, fortunately Helga and Olga still had some sanity left when it came to treatment methods.

“I’ll send a burner note as soon as possible then.” I grinned evilly.

Nelia sighed in exasperation. “Why bother asking me in the first place then?” She whined.

“Because it’s more fun that way.”

“You’re evil.”

“Proudly so.”

“Looks like you two became close enough to throw jabs at each other while I was gone.” Thyrion noted as he leaned up against the wall.

“If there is one Demon Spawn, the other Half-Spawn isn’t too far behind.” I chuckled. It was true, after Merianna was gone, Nelia was completely wrecked. We all were devastated, but Nelia was the worst out of us all. After I didn’t see any improvement in her mood a few years after the incident, I took it upon myself to be the lovable jackass I always am. I’ve seen bouts of that fiery personality that she shared with Merianna before, so I gave cheering her up the same way I would Merianna a shot. And it worked.

“Clearly a lot of things have changed around here over the years. For one, I never remember this place being so quiet.” Thyrion tilted his head, pointedly looking out the window behind me.

“Yes, after the Hunters managed to breach the protection and attacked that day, very few new witches have been wanting to come and learn from us. Not to mention we also didn’t want to take on any new students while trying to figure out how they got in in the first place.” Fog explained half-heartedly.

“Things just went downhill from there. Many members also opted to stay outside the castle grounds for as long as possible. Only coming back to pick up Bounties when needed.” Raska sighed.

“Thanks to that, us who did indeed stay behind have been swamped with the bigger Bounties. It’s not like we could just leave them all alone.” Jasnine plonked her head on Raska’s shoulder.

“That’s true. And because of all that, the Order’s reputation has been declining for years now. If you ask a new witch out there what The Order is these days, they won’t even recognize the name.” Arasule explained.

“Not to mention with how technology has advanced in the Human Realm, there are so many platforms and groups that spread misinformation, and oh so many wannabe ‘new-age’ witch folk that draw in unsuspecting victims. Not that we can just announce ourselves to the normal Mortal Realm in the first place. The veil has become so thick that it’s nearly impossible to draw in energy from the surroundings over there.” I muttered unhappily.

“Ah, now that you mention it… I have noticed that trend.” Thyrion said while nodding. “But why do the other members still stay away even though you guys literally moved the entire building’s location? We’re clearly not in Ireland’s grounds anymore.”

Fog shrugged. “To each their own. They all have their own reasons. They are always welcome to come back whenever they feel like it though, they know to contact us for the location when they’re ready.”

A beat of silence fell over the office at that. No one liked the situation, but there was also not much anyone could do about it just yet.

“Alright, now back to the main point of why we are all here in the first place.” I clapped my hands together to get everyone’s attention. “We need to find this asshole. If Orbus managed to escape the Fergeril realm, we need to find out how and who helped him. No way was he able to get out of there on his own. Thyrion can share some information on Orbus’s habits and tendencies, as well as what his energy felt like. The faster we catch this bastard the better.”

“Orbus?! That crazy bastard is back?!” Raska exclaimed while Jasnine looked just about ready to breathe fire.

“Oh right, this is the first time you and Jasnine are hearing about this.” I noted. Then proceeded to fill them in on the whole situation and how Merianna ended up being how she was now.

“I can’t believe it! What on earth is going on?!” Jasnine was completely outraged. Which was utterly understandable, I felt about the same way when I first heard it from Thyrion.

“And that is exactly the question that needs to be answered.” I chirped with a smile.

Arasule scoffed at my comment. “Are we all going to do independent searches and come together with our own results like usual?”

“That is exactly the plan of action. So Thyrion, if you don’t mind sharing what you do know with the rest of us.” I grinned.

Thyrion sighed and seemed to think for a moment. “So far as you all know I managed to find out that his name is Orbus. He is the one that was responsible for the spell that held Merianna’s soul hostage in order to get a hold of me as well. Since the day I first found out about this, he has been asking me to gather various things for him. Whether it was for his own use or for someone else’s, I don’t know. Some of the things he had me gather for him were rare materials, crystals, texts, and sometimes even souls. Since he’s a fanatic Dark Warlock, the best conclusion I could come to for him wanting these materials is to bring back or summon the ancient Deity Denaue. Other than that, he never stays in the same place twice, he can be here in one moment and then on another continent in the next so he clearly has access to a Gateway of sorts. His protections are easily breachable, and he seems to like places underground more than topside. He also seems to be weak to the wiles of women.” Thyrion added with a shrug.

“When you say that his protections are easily breachable, how exactly did you break through them?” Arasule asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I literally punched right through them.” Thyrion said, matter of fact.

The rest of us just have him withering looks. That was typical Thyrion, he always attempted to resolve things with brute force first before he even tried to use magic. Of course, considering his heritage, that wasn’t far-fetched. His brute strength also had nothing to do with his magic, that was all just purely thanks to his genetic makeup. Fricken Hellspawn bastard.

“Putting the protections aside. We might be able to make use of his weakness to womanly wiles. Finding him first will obviously be the hardest part.” Raska thought aloud.

“Thyrion, could you send a mental image of what he looks like to the rest of us?” Jasnine asked next.

“Sure, that’s no problem at all.” He closed his eyes and sent the image he had of Orbus to the rest of us.

“Bastard hasn’t even changed much.” I noted unhappily. I had hoped that all those centuries in the Fergeril realm would have at least left him scarred or maimed at best if not completely flatlined.

“When we manage to catch him, I want his soul.” Arasule grinned.

“Granted.” I agreed. I couldn’t think of a better punishment for the bastard than Arasule ending up detaining his soul. I might even end up pitying him after three centuries or so.

“Alrighty then, now that everyone is settled on what needs to be-”

A sudden unholy screech ripped through the halls and had everyone in the office clapping their hands over their ears.

“Was that Dorris?” Jasnine asked in surprise once we could hear again.

“Guess she found the Demon Spawn.” I chuckled happily.