Chapter 63: Defined objectives

One of the girls in front of him when planting her eyes on Malcom, felt her heart open in two and from the stomach a strange portal opened. A huge spiritual hand flew in Malcom's direction, grabbing him firmly, before dragging him towards the inside of the portal.

Malcom planted his feet on the ground trying to prevent the energy that came out of that woman from dragging him, he felt his mark burning and the force that pulled him into the portal was enormous, he attempt to defend himself and before the force could absorb him.

Junica appeared in front of him with a strange sword in her hand. Her arrival caused for the energy that was pulling him towards the portal to disappear instantly.

All surprised, looked at Malcom and the girl who fell to the ground inert. Jonah approached the girl and studied her.

Her life had escaped from her eyes. The other hostage was looking at her in terror and Jonah approaching her, pulled up her shirt a little to uncover her stomach and see another seal on it.

When Jonah looked at her seal, his face rose and the girl with tears in her eyes felt a huge power gather in her stomach. "I am sorry!" She yelled before she sobbed.

Jessika approached the young woman and seeing the seal took a deep breath, then she diligently began to write one of her spells in the air. Her fingers moved with ease while blue letters were floating in front of her who performed a spell with haste.

"Explosive seal cancellation. Life, death and secret courage stop the curse I witness!"

The letters in the air gathered in a powerful energy that entered the seal that the young woman had in her stomach, deactivating it, Jessika got up and looking at Jonah she nodded.

He approached the girl and she, hugging him burst into tears. While that hostage was hugging him the body of the other lay on the ground. Malcom calmly approached until he saw her and in her stomach you could see the seal that had been activated before.

Junica looked at the girl with unmasked irritation, before speaking in disgust, "A warlock... places seals on people that will activate if a condition is met. Bastards using these girls like that!"

Malcom looked at the lifeless young woman on the ground and with an almost uncontrollable anger he thought of Nora and everything that she could be going through.

He got up, took his dagger and walking to one of the captured enemies, turned it into a huge hammer and crushed the leg of the man that Moran and Sofia had caught.

Everyone present was surprised and Malcolm, turning the hammer back into a dagger, placed it on the man's neck as he said, "You are going to tell me where my friends are! Or I will crush every member of your body like I did with your leg!"

The chameleon could not stop crying and cursing, the pain in his leg was such that he almost lost consciousness and seeing Malcom who was looking at him with contempt he said between groans of pain.

"I don't know… I swear I don't know where your friends are…. I don't even know who your friends are. We have many sacrifices!"

Those words made Malcom lose his composure again and turning his dagger into a hammer again the Chameleon looked at him and raised his hands in surrender. "Wait! Wait! I can tell you where the bosses will be…"

Malcom stopped in a second when the vampire who was glaring at the Chameleon said, "Shut that traitorous mouth!"

"It's easy for you to say that! You are not the one getting your body parts crushed!" The chameleon answered through clenched teeth.

Malcom in exasperation glared at both of them. "You are wasting my time!" Just as he said that, he raised the hammer again.

"It's okay! It's okay! I'll tell you!" The chameleon said immediately.

And with those words he began to reveal the possible three locations where the leaders of the church of the four would meet.

Malcom looked at Jonah and said, "Well with that information we can go at once! Nora must be rescued!"

Malcom showed the anxiety and impatience that his situation caused him, it was difficult to be serene when his friend was in the hands of those murderers.

"It's not that simple!" Jonah said, before releasing a heavy sigh. He watched as the hostage girl was transferred by a medical team that had already arrived at the place. "This den is small, we knew there would be no great threats, but those seals are dangerous."

Malcolm gave a frustrated snort as the rest of the team approached.

"According to this information, we will have to mobilize troops in various places, if our intelligence is correct they have very high level mages and to save the hostages we need to be able to crush them with speed!"

"What are you saying?" Malcom asked on the verge of losing his head.

"The virtues have to get involved," Jonah answered seriously.

When he said that, Junica nodded, the scale of the problem slowly ascending without stopping and when seeing what happened it was clear that those people had no qualms about eliminating innocents to fulfill their mission.

Jonah watched as the medical team began. They were going to take the girl who had sadly passed away but at that moment he heard Malcom's voice explode in frustration.

"What the hell are you talking about?! Here we have two Virtues. Let's crush them!" Malcom looked in all directions without understanding why everyone was so calm, "Let's go! You see what happened to that girl! I can't let that happen to Nora, understand!"

Jonah looked at him, the young man seemed highly upset and Jonah placing his hand on the Marked's shoulder.

"I understand how you feel, I really understand, but we can't rush! More life will be at stake!" Jonah said, his hand were heavy on Malcom's shoulder.

"Damn!" Malcom said in frustration, and then glared at Jonah.

"Calm down boy! Listens. Those seals cannot be placed on the bodies of the Markeds, if any magic seal is placed on your body immediately your mark will absorb the magic and it will be useless," Junica said, her voice was carefree as she was laughing.

Malcom stared at her unhappily for a moment, before what she said finally synced in.

"That…" Malcom started to speak awkwardly, feeling embarrassed due to his outburst.

Junica chuckled, before she continued speaking, "Well, you should rest assured by that, since they could not kill your friend either. That would not release the Mark. If a Marked is killed the Mark will take all its power immediately. That will work to keep the seal active for at least 10 more months, enough time to place another Mark."

Malcom looked at her, what she said was true but also very annoying. Those Marks that Malcom and the others wore had many contingencies.

A well thought out plan so that the seal could not be easily broken, everything was well thought out, everything except the welfare of the bearer of that Mark.

"Lastly," Junica said, this time addressing everyone not just Malcom "If the Mark were to be removed, it could only be removed in the place where the Mark was placed. Namely, the residence of the Virtues."

"Oh the Riders' prison," Jonah added. He then looked at Malcom, "Your friend is fine! They need to know where your friend's specific rider's grave is. They cannot release the starvation mark in the war prison! It doesn't work like that!"

Junica nodded at Jonah's words and calmly said, "Everything is clear. They must kidnap more Markeds and find the grave of the horsemen. Before we find them!"

Malcom looked at them calmly, the things they said made sense and that in a way calmed his heart when Jonah looked at him, Malcom said, "At least the virtues are not completely useless!"

Junica and Jonah smiled and it was the woman who came up to him and said, "We will catch them. With the information we have now. They will not be able to escape!"

That thought reassured Malcom, but it was a naïve thought, the plans they made were on par with the plans their enemies had.

In a ruin, far away from that place, two people were talking.

"Did you speak to the informant?" Lucio asked calmly.

"Yes he said that he would give us the location of one of the ruins if we could obtain all the necessary Markeds," Victor answered calmly.

In front of them, a man in a military uniform was bleeding while his chains prevented him from moving.

When Victor saw him, he said, "They moved the rest of the Markeds to the residence of the virtues, but that does not matter. We will get them soon."