The Insider System

Chapter 112: True Chaos Pt.2

Tiff had just left a meeting with a few of the Temples higher ups that didn't have the combat strength to match their importance to the Temple, meaning they were also sitting out of the fight like her. They had informed her that the dagger that she had been meant to use during the battle that was currently happening had been stolen and the best thing she could do was try to track it down before the battle was over.

From what the temple higher ups had said she had plenty of time because the Demon Lord's Army had enough troops to fight for about a week without taking any breaks. It probably wouldn't be nonstop fighting with the fact they mostly liked to attack at night but with the temple wanting to attack during the day there would be very little time when the two sides wouldn't be butting heads.

This all added up to her having a really bad environment to actually track down who had her dagger. It would be one thing if she knew where it was and all she had to do was kill her way to it, but gathering information in an active war zone wasn't going to be easy.

Stepping out of the safe house she and the rest of the 23 had been staying in for the last few days, Tiff looked up into the sky where she saw golden light illuminating the streets every few seconds. She could tell one of the three swords was up there but not which one it was, but if she had to guess she would say it was Greg.

He had a tendency to be aggressive which would explain the frequency of large attacks. Tiff didn't like this style of fighting but she had a completely different situation to Greg; he had the strength one would need to fight like a maniac, and she had to be careful with her limited amount of attacks she could launch before she needed to spend a few days gathering more Holy mana.

Silently slipping past all the people fighting in the streets, Tiff headed towards where the temple had said was the most likely place she would find some of the better thieves that were still in the city. She wasn't surprised that most of the thieves had made a run for it as soon as the fighting had started because even though they were technically in the thieves guild that swore allegiance to the Demon lord most thieves couldn't fight.

This was good news for her because neither could she when it came down to it. She had been unlucky in the magic compartment meaning she had to rely on the skills she had gotten from the few jobs she had had time to level when she had been on the run before she was saved by the temple.

Most of them were obviously related to stealth or outrunning her pursuers which was the only reason she had ever been chosen for the dagger. Her fighting style matched the most out of all the people the Temple had had on hand at the time when the Temple had started the training for the 23.

She said at the time because since they had begun the training a few others who had skills like her had arrived at the Temple and a few were actually a little stronger making it a popular opinion that she should be replaced. She was pretty sure the only reason she hadn't been was because most of the others in the 23 had refused a replacement.

It did make her doubt the reason she had been set out by herself though, she was pretty sure they were just hoping she would die making it much easier to replace her without the others making a fuss about it. It also made her think the dagger hadn't even been stolen and just moved so they could have an excuse to get rid of her.

It was a good plan if that was the case because all her friends were too busy to help her and none of them would suspect the Temple could ever do something so shady. It was one of the problems of them all being raised in the Temple: none of them could see the Temple as anything but the good guys. Making them blind to the admittedly few bad things the Temple did in the name of winning the war against the Demon Lord.

Tiff wasn't saying they weren't the good guys just that they weren't perfect like the 23 had been made to think. It was a good strategy to make your strongest assets completely loyal, and it would have worked on her too if she hadn't been able to sneak her way into some places she wasn't allowed to be in.

She had overheard the meeting where it had been decided they should replace her against the wishes of the others at any means necessary, and a lot of other unseemly things they had decided on. If it wasn't for the others she considered her family in the 23 and the fact the Demon Worshipers could eventually catch her she would have left the Temple and let them replace her willingly.

She would actually settle for even one of them leaving with her because they would all eventually die during this war so trying to save them all was foolish but whenever she had tried to talk the others into leaving they always told her she shouldn't say such things and that everyone was counting on them to protect them.

It made her uncomfortable how willing the others were to die if it meant the temple might win. The way Tiff saw it none of the stuff they were doing really mattered. The real fight was between the Gods and the Demon Lord, and nothing they did could really change the results. All they were really doing was making it slightly harder for the Demon Lord to kill every person he wanted to.

They couldn't stop him though just slow him down and if the God of Light didn't find the Demon Lord soon they would be overrun. The Demon Lord had such an advantage because anytime someone was killed they were just added to his army meaning they could never really win just hold him off for a few months while the God of Light figured out where the Demon Lord was recovering/hiding.

Turning the corner Tiff saw the street she had been planning to use to travel to the other side of town was burning and she would need to go another more dangerous way. By dangerous she meant it was packed with more people fighting which increased the odds of her getting hit by a stray attack, or possibly running into someone who could see her.

Heading to go around the fire Tiff saw another of the 23 was on the street ahead. They couldn't see her, but it was nice to know not all of them were in life or death battles just yet. It wasn't surprising Dawn was the holder of the bow making her the perfect person to have watch over the safehouse and make sure none of the Demon Worshipers got anywhere close to it.

Dawn was also one of the few people around that could sense her so she needed to be careful not to be mistaken as an enemy as she passed through. The best way to do that was to make herself visible to let Dawn see her. This would allow others to see her but she knew she could rely on Dawn to keep her safe as she passed through.

Deactivating her skill she waved to Dawn and once she was sure she had been seen she started to walk towards where she needed to go. It didn't take too long for her to leave Dawn's range so she could reactivate her skill and not too long after she had left it she saw a flash behind her she was sure meant dawn had just killed someone.

It was a good thing she had noticed Dawn on top of that building or it might have been her that Dawn had shot. It would have been a quick death though so she guessed it was a lot better than how most people died. It would have made Dawn really upset though if she had killed her by mistake though.

Reaching the place she had been told to go, Tiff was waiting for someone to jump out and kill her but when it didn't happen she guessed she hadn't been set up and she was actually about to talk to some people who might know where the dagger was. Walking over to knock on the door Tiff stopped and stared up into the sky. There had just been a huge flash of red light and when she looked she saw a giant ball of fire flying over the city towards the barrier she had been told was the Alchemist guild.

"It Looks like tonight's fight is over." Fire meant that the person in the sky defending the city had in fact been Greg because the fireball was his finishing move he had been using for years to finish off opponents that were on their last legs. She was sure whoever the Demon Lord had sent to take over the city from them was now ash and the Demon Worshipers would soon retreat, even if it was just for a while.

Turning Tiff knocked on the door. She was just planning to buy the information she needed because she had plenty of money and thieves sold each other out all the time. Tiff always did her best to avoid fights unless the others were in danger like they were now, so she needed to get her dagger back as soon as possible.