Ning didn't leave immediately. After learning that this was a group of terrorists' hiding place, he decided to help both the Xandria and the Odrain empire get rid of them.
Ning killed those that attacked him while incapacitating the ones that weren't aware of him. Once he was done, he opened a portal and said, "Enter!"
A moment later, a woman arrived and looked around in a horrified look at the bloody mess.
"What happened here?" she asked for a moment before turning to Ning who had brought her here.
As soon as she saw Ning, she immediately greeted him with terror on her face. "It's good to see you again, brother Ning," Fiona said.
Ning nodded towards Fiona with a face that looked like his own. He was using Aether to veil his actual face, not bothering to ask the system to change it, since it would be just for a while.
"This is a terrorist headquarters at the border near Odrain. Go get some people to deal with his," Ning said.
"Terrorists?" Fiona finally let go of the fear in her heart and understood what was happening.
Ning gave her the exact location on a piece of paper and sent her back before she could ask anything about where he had been all this time.
Once she was gone, he vanished too.
Ning appeared back in the forest near the camp and walked back. He saw the group of rebels captured and kept at the center of the camp with some sort of make-shift prison using the wooden bars.
There were captains in the area, talking about something and it looked like a heated discussion.
"We don't have the authority," one of the female captains said.
"But they will be killed if we hand them to such an unstable government," another male captain said.
"That's right, Channa. We have to at least save them until they can get a fair trial. If we let them be judged now, then they are going to get executed," another female captain said.
"I know," the original female captain said. "But that doesn't mean we can do what we want on foreign soil."
After listening to a few of the back and forth, Ning understood the problem. These guys were worried that the rebels will be judged harshly for trying to attack the government.
In a sense, they were terrorists who acted against the Republic, unlike the mostly peaceful protesters.
Ning wasn't sure what to do with them either. He thought for a while and suggested, "Why don't we send them back to this country's authorities, but ask them to treat them properly."
The captains who were discussing amongst themselves turned to look at him. Some had an angry look on their face, while some were curious.
"This is a matter between the captains, don't butt in," one of the men said.
The other shook their heads and turned around to discuss once again. Ning looked at them in surprise.
'Was I ignored because I'm not a captain?' he thought. That was it. Just because they didn't think of him on the same level as them, the captains ignored him.
'These bastards!' Ning thought. There were about 10 squad captains here, and they were all Aether Saints. Yet, it seemed that not a single one of them knew how to check other people's Aether Rank.
'These guys are worse than Alekor,' Ning thought. At least Alekor knew how to judge other people's Aether rank.
Ning sighed and took out a black glass orb. Inside the glass orb was a thin layer of glass separating water on one side, and Alpurite on the other. Only Ning knew of it at the moment.
Ning sent some Aether into the glass and shatter the glass barrier in the center, mixing the water and Alpurite immediately.
Alekor was close and saw him bring that out. At first, he was scared, thinking Ning had brought some kind of poison because of what had just happened.
However, Once Ning turned it around, and showed a ring attached to its side, Alekor realized what it was.
It was the Aether removing glass beads that had been passed along through the world. It was still a secret to most people, but he knew how to listen to secrets and knew that this ball was absorbing Aether.
Very soon, the crowd noticed that the Aether in the area was shifting away, creating a zone of no Aether.
The captains were the first to notice and turned around. Ning ignored them and walked toward the prisoners before putting the bead on top of the wooden block.
He then turned around to the other tired members of the battle force who were keeping guard.
"This bead will stop them from using Aether arts soon. Once that happens, you guys can relax a little more," Ning said.
The guards, being members of the battle force, knew what the beads were, even if they didn't know how they worked.
"Thank you," Some of them said as they visibly relaxed. They had been forcing themselves to be alert and aware of everything happening around them and their mental fatigue was reaching its peak.
Ning nodded and turned around to the captains who were staring at him.
"You guys shouldn't refuse to listen to someone else's advice just because you have a higher rank. Makes you look small-minded and arrogant," Ning said.
"What did you say?" some of the Captains got angry.
Ning smiled as if mocking them. One of the captains couldn't contain his anger and was about to lash out when a voice boomed from above.
"Oh! Someone wants to fight huh? I guess I came at the right moment then."
The captains immediately looked up in the air to see a flying Merasi along with Mercy to her side.
As soon as the captains saw Merasi, they immediately humbled themselves and bowed saying, "We wouldn't dare, lady Merasi."
"Huh? Why not?" Merasi made a sad face. "Come on, let's fight."
