Beneath the raging battle between light and shadow inside the cathedral, a single valiant siren with turquoise-colored hair was carefully making her way towards the altar, or at least, where one would have usually been positioned.
She was here for one reason, and one reason only.
To rescue her niece from the ones who kidnapped her.
This had been their second attempt at it. While Riana didn’t want to admit it, deep down she had an inkling about the reason.
Why a successful guild with all their gold and reach was after one simple little girl from a dying clan.
Ever since the little Sana was born, everyone had known she was special in some way. Sure, she had been a result of interracial relationship which only made her half merfolk, but that hadn’t been the reason for the infatuation.
In fact, no one knew what it was exactly. She simply radiated an energy that was both unfamiliar, and yet overflowing with nostalgia. It was almost to the point that simply being away from the girl would make some merfolk feel homesick.
Even Riana couldn’t tell what it was, not that she cared much for that. She simply loved the girl as any caring aunt would love her niece.
The only one who seemed to have known everything was naturally the mother of the little girl.
The previous leader of the Undine Clan, Rania Undine.
Despite her position, no one could ever remember seeing her with a man. That is why when they learned of her pregnancy, the entire clan was taken by surprise.
After all, Rania was the fiercest siren on Sweet Scylla. So fierce that all tritons would either give up on trying to approach her, or fall victim to her charms from afar.
All that was known about little Sana’s father was that he had been a wanderer of exceptional looks and a unique sense of humor. Seeing as that had been Rania’s point of view, many weren’t inclined to believe it. Instead, for disappearing right after getting with their leader, the clan simply called him a deadbeat father.
Nevertheless, Rania allotted the specialness of her child to that mysterious wanderer.
As time went by and Sana began to formulate her own sentences, the merfolk had moved past her specialness and simply treated her like any other merfolk child.
Many things resulted in that outcome, but the most notable was simply the lack of any visual or physical evidence. Feelings will become dull, and since nothing happened to re-enforce their beliefs, the merfolk lost interest.
However, that changed when the Golden Garden Guild demanded the impossible from the Undine Clan, only to fight and turn the leader of the merfolk into a golden statue.
Losing her mother in such a manner, it awakened a power dormant within the little girl that no one could recognize.
A power that threatened the laws of reality itself.
That was the first time the emerald bubble manifested around Sana and began to distort and consume everything around it.
Thankfully however, it hadn’t been bigger than the little girl’s body by much, and her aunt Riana was still able to stop her in time before it could grow bigger. Even though it almost broke her heart to see her sister turn into a golden statue to be used as a source of fear for the clan, Riana still forced herself to knock Sana out and stop her before any more damage was ensued.
Rumors quickly spread and everyone on Sweet Scylla began to speculate about the little girl’s power.
“Are we sure we can keep her in the clan if she has a different Sign than us?”
“I don’t think it was a Sign…”
“If it wasn’t a Sign, what was it then?!”
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“The Keymen said she hasn’t manifested her Sign yet…”
“Whatever the case, she is too dangerous to be kept around here! We’re in trouble as it is!”
Riana would always hear such words and confront whoever brought them up, but inwardly, she knew something was off.
Rania had told her of how special Sana would become and made her promise to protect the little girl no matter what, but staying with the clan became more and more difficult.
Naturally, Riana trusted her sister, she loved Sana, but if staying within the clan would put the little girl at risk, Riana was ready to leave it behind if it became necessary.
Thankfully, after Lamia became the next leader, she defended Sana and explained things properly to reduce the anxiety of the clan towards the little girl.
In the end, the Undine Clan relented, for they had more urgent matters to focus their efforts on at the time. If they couldn’t meet the Golden Garden Guild’s demands, they would be all sold or controlled.
It surely didn’t help that an executive of the guild moved on the island and began to build a golden cathedral that would not match with the surroundings architecture whatsoever.
Nevertheless, Riana continued to protect and provide for her niece, and she had managed to keep her safe until very recently. She had believed that the clan understood Sana posed no threat to them, but she never thought they would work with the executive and tell him their secrets.
That is what led to the current situation everyone was in.
While many vaguely guessed what was going on, not everyone knew the truth behind it all.
Only two individuals had the full knowledge of the current situation, of why Sana was kidnapped, of how special she really was.
And those two individuals were her aunt Riana and the priest Zoran.
And they both knew they could not let the other person have the little girl.
“?!”
Riana quickly dodged a stray beam of light at the last second as it shattered the brick wall behind her. She thankfully had her spear to stick in the ground and propel herself whenever necessary.
Shit! I can’t seem to get closer to that space… She’s so close too…
Riana bit her lip as she continued to carefully make her way to Sana. The siren had dodged multiple stray pillars of light and she knew if she lost her focus for a second, that might be the end of her.
She was barely a dozen meters away from Sana who was curled up in a ball on the ground, most likely trying to block both her eyes and ears from the lights constantly zipping around her.
Even to a half siren, she must have been in need of some water desperately.
Riana on the other hand was quickly noticing how hot the inside of the golden cathedral was getting. Even with her outfit being mostly thin cloth flowing down her front torso and behind her legs, as a full siren, she wouldn’t hold out for long in this kind of environment.
Especially not when the battle didn’t seem to be reaching a conclusion any time soon.
I’m here, Sana… Don’t worry… I’ll get you out!
The valiant siren made sure not to be noticed by the priest as she closed the distance to her niece, dodging as many stray light beams as she seemed to get in her way.
After a while of that, Riana finally found her way as she leaped off the few stairs leading up to the altar space and landed right behind her niece.
“Sana.” She called out in as low a tone as she could muster, but just loud enough that her niece could hear her from the raging battle ahead. “I’m here.”
“Auntie…?” The girl moved her little hands away from her ears and turned to face the voice behind her.
At first, she couldn’t believe her vacant eyes.
She blinked a few times and after a couple more, the usual gleam began to return to her turquoise pupils.
The gleam turned to moisture and tears began to fall down her face without her having any control over them.
“Auntie… I…” She hicked and sniffed as she tried to wipe the tears away with her chained hands.
“It’s okay, Sana… Don’t worry. I’m here, we’re here. We’ll take you home now.”
“Auntie!”
“Not so fast.”
“?!”
Just as the two reached out to each other for a hug, a voice suddenly interrupted them from behind.
Riana’s pupils quickly contracted after realizing the voice isn’t that of the priest as Zoran was clearly still fighting Lawkey in front of them.
Nevertheless, she wasted no time in swinging her spear behind her without mercy.
“What?!”
However, all she was met with was an afterimage of a man, no, on closer look, she realized what it really was.
It was a smoke-like silhouette created by the runestone that was placed behind her.
That, however, did not explain the voice she heard, so she quickly turned back to her niece in a panic.
“Sana!”
“Auntie!”
They both cried out, but as hard as they tried, they could no longer reach out to each other as they watched the distance between them grow larger and larger.
Looking down, Riana saw the remnants of the shockwave on her stomach. She had been kicked by some kind of runestone-infused shoes.
CLASH!
“Agh!”
The pain quickly followed, and increased after she clashed into a nearby wall.
As she clenched her teeth and tried to ignore the piercing agony within her organs, she instinctively looked back towards her niece.
“Sa…na…!”
“Auntie! No! Please-”
“Shut up, kid. If you don’t, I’ll slap you again.”
Behind the little girl, an outline of a man was showing itself. Bit by bit, almost one body part at a time.
It was a man wearing a blue half-cloak around his neck, along with some long splitted robe that was common within one of the Royal Clans. The one that was known for their excessive use of runestones.
His hair was gray and covering half his face, his skin as light colored as someone who had never been exposed to any kind of light whatsoever.
Dammit… He was hiding with runestones… Even his presence was…
“As for you.” The man spoke as he looked at the struggling siren. “Leave now and I’ll overlook this.”
“...” Riana gathered herself together, wiped away the blood spilling out of her mouth and stood up straight. Tightening her grip on the spear her sister gave her, she pointed it forward. “Step away from her now, and I’ll kill you quickly.”
“Auntie…”
Unfortunately for Lawkey, things weren’t going as smoothly on this side either.
Another battle was about to start.
A battle with grave consequences.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/F6h7vmX.png]