A sudden spike of movement caught his attention; one of the Sky-Hunters on the northern perimeter sent a feed of something shifting in the underbrush.
<Is it a monster or a patrol?>
The image resolved as the Sky-Hunter dipped lower. It wasn't the robes of the Church. Instead, a massive dog approached the clearing. It was a War Mastiff, and behind it, thousands more emerged from the shadows of the trees like a tide.
There were two humans and a lot of summons behind them. The summons were the first thing that caught Reidar's attention, of course, because there was only one person he knew of that could summon so many creatures, and War Mastiffs at that.
Reidar's heart hammered against his ribs as he sent more Sky-Hunters to the area, fanning them out in a wide arc to get a better view of whoever was behind this small army.
The insects closed in from multiple angles, weaving between branches and canopy gaps, and through their eyes, Reidar saw better the two figures at the center of the formation.
The first was a boy. He looked older than Reidar remembered, his face leaner and harder, but there was no mistaking the way he moved or the daggers strapped to his sides. The War Mastiffs responded to his every gesture, shifting formation without him saying a word.
—[Jake Roberts—Level 427]—
The second was a woman walking beside him with her expression set in the same cold focus Reidar had seen a hundred times before.
—[Lena Merridon—Level 434]—
<They've been busy,> Reidar thought, noticing the massive jump in their levels.
The relief hit him hard enough that he had to close his eyes for a moment. He had known they were alive from what Garran told him, but knowing and seeing were two different things, and the knot in his chest that had been there since the day he crossed the portal loosened for the first time.
He watched them for a few more seconds through the Sky-Hunters. Jake and Lena were moving toward the outpost with a clear goal; after all, there was no other reason for them to come here if not to destroy this place.
That was further proven when the War Mastiffs spread into an assault formation while Lena's Shadow Operatives scouted ahead. They were going to attack the church's hidden base.
<They found the outpost on their own. That means they've been tracking the church for a while.>
Jake and Lena had clearly been hunting the church independently, just as the vendor said, and they had followed the same trail Reidar had — the convoy and the supply routes — until they found the hidden outpost in the clearing.
The only difference was that Reidar had been lucky enough to end up at the convoy's last stop, while the two probably followed it for quite some time.
They were about to launch an attack.
<I need to stop them before they charge in blind. They don't know what's inside those crates, and if they destroy the outpost, we lose the intelligence.>
But more than that, Reidar wanted to see them. He wanted to talk to them. He wanted to know what had happened in the months he had been gone.
He didn't waste time. He ordered three of his Vorathid Sky-Hunters to descend toward them.
Jake raised his daggers, his eyes narrowed as soon as he noticed the sound the creatures made, and prepared to strike, but Lena caught his arm and looked at the Sky-Hunters. They would be recognizable to anyone who had spent time around Reidar's summons, and Lena had.
Then, even Jake stopped. He looked at the Sky-Hunters more closely and recognized the creatures.
"Those are Reidar's," Lena said.
Jake nodded. "He's alive. The vendors were right."
The Sky-Hunters landed a few meters away, clicking their mandibles. One of them turned and began to scuttle back toward the town, pausing every few seconds to make sure they were following.
Jake looked at Lena, who gave a brief nod, and then both of them changed direction, following the monstrous bugs through the trees while the War Mastiffs fell into formation around them.
Reidar stood up from his camp and waited.
The walk took about twenty minutes. Reidar heard them before he saw them; the footfalls of the Mastiffs were hard to miss at such a close distance.
Jake came through the vegetation first.
The boy stopped when he saw Reidar. For a moment, neither of them moved. Jake was taller, and the softness that had still been in his face back then started being replaced.
His jaw was more defined. His armor was battered and scratched. These were the marks of dozens of fights layered on top of each other, a record of every battle he had survived. His eyes, though, were the same. Still sharp, still watching. They were the eyes of someone who had seen too much for his age.
Then Jake's gaze strayed upward, and he saw the nametag.
—[Reidar Miller—Level 557]—
Jake's mouth opened. No sound came out. His eyes went wide, and he blinked several times, as if he thought the number was a glitch in the system.
Lena stepped through the vegetation soon after him and stopped as well. She looked at Reidar, then at his level, and her expression shifted from composure to something Reidar couldn't quite read. Shock was certainly in that mix of emotions.
She looked thinner than he remembered.
"You're alive," Lena said.
"I'm alive," Reidar said.
Jake crossed the distance in three steps and grabbed Reidar in a hug. Relief flooded through him, washing away months of fear and uncertainty.
Finally, he got answers to the questions he always made to God, if he existed. Was Reidar alive? Now he had proof.
Reidar felt something crack inside as Jake's arms wrapped around him. The man realized how much he had missed them.
The isolation on the Ignis world had been brutal, and he hadn't allowed himself to think too much about what he'd left behind.
True Friends.
But now, with Jake holding onto him like he was afraid Reidar might disappear again, Reidar felt the weight of what he'd been carrying alone all this time.
"You're alive," Jake said into Reidar's chest. The chest of the man who filled the space Jake's father left behind.
Reidar put a hand on the boy's back. "I'm alive, kid."
Lena approached slower. She didn't hug him, but she put her hand on his arm and squeezed hard enough that it hurt.
"Five hundred and fifty-seven," she said.
"It was a busy few months," Reidar said.