It was early morning when they departed once again. Leona kept her feelings in check as she followed the warrior princess’ footsteps throughout the places she too had once traveled.

That being said, it looked nothing like the places she had been before. Akrapocalis, the once dwarven citadel, was now a veritable fortress with mortars, artillery and cannons. All soldiers within were outfitted with automatic weapons of large calibers to deal with treats quickly and efficiently. Needless to say, not only humans but many other races were involved in the protection of the city.

Xenovia whistled.

“They really went all out with this huh?”

“It is a citadel, so this is to be expected.” Robert answered her as they waited in line to get to the city. “Your grandfather did a good job in maintaining the city.”

“As expected of the Loraexions.” She puffed up her chest as she smiled. “Father was always very insistent in making me use both names, but it’s a hassle to deal with people when they ask my family name.”

“It’s just for recordkeeping I’m sure.”

“You call it recordkeeping, I call it a pain in the arse.”

He chuckled bitterly.

“I suppose so.”

They stepped forward as they were just about to talk to the guard waiting by the entrance. He wore a hard cap which concealed most of his forehead and eyes, the military uniform consisted of a dark green shirt, trousers and high leather boots. Xenovia tilted her head slightly to the side and noticed a slender tail swishing left to right behind the man in question.

‘Half beast huh?’

She smirked. Robert noticed her strange facial expression and decided to walk in front of her as the guard asked.

“Name, age and occupation if you please.”

“Robert, fifty years and I’m a mage.”

“Right… the reason for coming here?”

“Traveling. I need to meet someone in Arcadia.”

He nodded and started to write on the clipboard all the while he asked.

“And your companion?”

She looked at the guard with a disinterested expression as she answered.

“Xenovia, twenty two, warrior.”

He finished writing Robert’s information and quickly worked on hers.

“Warrior huh? It’s quite rare to have someone wielding those weapons nowadays.” He jotted down the rest of the information and took a quick glance at both of them before asking another question. “May I know why you two are wearing a Londrian uniform despite not being soldiers yourselves?”

Xenovia rolled her eyes.

“Oh here we go…”

Robert gave her a somewhat stern look before turning to the soldier in order to explain.

“We originally came from Nara, but ever since the nation’s fall we had to abandon everything and everyone we knew. This uniform was a gift from a squad of Londrian soldiers that were patrolling the eastern border for the ship that sank.”

“And you two were survivors of that ship?”

Robert nodded.

“Yes.”

“Right… I’ll need to confirm before I let you two in, if you excuse me.”

He tipped his hard hat before turning around and closing the metal door.

The warrior sighed.

“See? That’s why I don’t like formalities.”

“They are just doing their jobs Xenovia.”

A few minutes passed before the same guard came back with a smile on his face.

“I confirmed with the captain stationed at Astera. You two are free to go in.”

“Well at least they are fast.” She muttered under her breath which earned her an elbow in the ribs by Robert. “Ow! Hey!”

“Keep it down will you?”

As they were about to enter the city an ear ringing alarm started to go off.

“Death angels at twelve o’clock!” A shout came over from the walls. “Aim the field guns!”

The people behind both of them started to force their way in the city as soldiers tried to keep them from running amok.

As the soldiers outside were trying to maintain the people near the gates, Xenovia started to walk towards the battlefield.

“Xenovia, let’s go inside-” He tilted his head to the side before fully turning around. “Do not do it, this isn’t our fight.”

“May not be yours. But it sure is mine.” She let go of the frostburnt silver longsword as she left it leaning against the metal gate as she readied her axe. “I’ve been looking for a good fight these last couple of days.”

She prepared to run after the cannons fired as five humanoid death angels were trampling down the treeline in order to charge at the city gates.

“Come on… any time now…” She held the axe with anticipation as her fingers tightened and released the weapon’s shaft. “Do it.”

“Fire!”

Multiple field guns stationed atop of the fortress’ walls fired in unison. As they brought down three of the five charging foes. At that point she decided to charge in wielding her weapon behind her body as she was going toe to toe against a hulking death angel.

It was roughly twice her size and its arms were the size of her thighs which alone would be sufficient to intimidate most combatants of this day and age. But not her. She had a smile that reeked of confidence as she brought the axe down the moment the death angel raised an arm to smash her face.

Her diagonal cleave produced a cacophony of flesh, muscle and bone being torn by sheer strength. The sizable white arm was flung out of the death angel’s body as she had just cleaved it in half.

“This girl…” Robert sighed as he raised his crooked staff before he shouted. “Don’t chase the other ones!”

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“I know!”

She shouted back as she ducked to dodge a forearm coming for her throat and followed up with an upwards cleave to bisect another death angel that jumped at her. However that meant she was directly in its path as purple blood showered all over her body. Her long blonde hair became dark brown almost close to the shade of blood and as she opened her eyes it revealed a glint in the aquamarine irises that weren’t there before.

The other death angel turned to run at Robert and consequently the soldier by the entrance. At that point it seemed like time had stopped for a moment as Xenovia’s legs cracked with the sound of thunder. In what could only be described as a flash step, she appeared right beside the death angel. Upon landing, she rotated the axe with her hips, throwing all her strength into the cut that cleaved the death angel clean in half which only left the section below its stomach to walk aimlessly without an upper body as it was sent flying backwards from the sheer force of the impact.

“Hahahaha! Now that hit the spot!” She smiled while letting out a breath that almost seemed like steam. “What now, Master? Do we hunt the rest?”

“Of course not, we’re not here to play games, Xenovia. Let’s go, they’ll deal with the rest later.” He lowered his staff and grabbed the sheathed longsword before tapping the soldier guarding the entrance on the shoulder. “Might want to head inside after this. Lest you want to become death angel food.”

While inside, the warrior looked more like a bizarre attraction that most citizens tried to steer clear of as she was clearly soaked from head to toe in blood. She loosely held the axe against her shoulder as they walked through the wide dwarven streets.

“Aww… come on. I need to let off some steam from time to time.”

“Yes, yes, but do engage in some restraint.”

“It’s just good to be able to go wild.” She had a warm smile on her face. “It’s even better to save people while doing so.”

Her white teeth from her smile was a stark contrast to her face painted in purple blood.

“Truly, I am in awe that you can still do the things you do with that oversized axe.”

“Hey, I swing, they die. And if they don’t, I just hit them harder next time.”

He sighed.

“You are truly the embodiment of a warrior.”

As she passed by a group of awe struck kids, she smiled playfully and waved which made the youngest ones run behind the older one.

One seemingly lost kid ran past Robert and brushed against him which sent him towards the ground, but the sage quickly grabbed a hold of him before he could hit his face.

“Careful there young one.”

“Ah, thanks mister!”

The black haired boy was missing one of his front teeth as he gave Robert a smile before heading off towards the previous group of kids.

“Aren’t you famous with kids as well huh?”

“Not as much as someone covered in blood I’m afraid.”

“You seem like you know your way around children. Did you use to take care of kids before?”

“I did. I had two daughters once.”

“In this or-”

“This world, yes.”

Her smile slowly disappeared as she asked.

“Then are they…?”

“They died about fifty years ago. The youngest was sixteen and the oldest was twenty.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s… nothing.” He smiled bitterly. “I remember they loved the food I made from time to time.”

“Master never really cooked for me before so I’d like to try it someday.”

“Sure thing pumpkin.”

She chuckled.

“I’ll hold Master to that.”

They went on around the city looking for lodging, but hardly any establishment would accept a woman soaked from head to toe in death angel blood which prompted her to clean herself in one of the storage warehouses owned by the military.

“Ma’am are you sure you don’t want to head in the showers?” One female soldier stood with a hose in hand. She had her chestnut hair tied in a bun tucked between the back hole of her hard cap hat. “This is rain water and needless to say it’s cold.”

“The more reason to use it.” Xenovia smiled warmly. “I’d hate to dirty the showers with this icky blood.”

Even though she was a bit hesitant, the soldier eventually aimed the hose at the princess who began washing her hair. All the while Robert waited around the corner while holding on to the longsword heirloom.

He sighed.

“Tell me when you’re done, we still need to find somewhere to sleep.”

“Aye, aye Master.” Upon washing off most of the blood, she flicked her head back and passed her fingers along her scalp. The slick blonde hair naturally flicked back forward as two distinguishing bangs cascaded down on each side of her face. “I’m done.”

She grabbed the axe she left against the warehouse’s large metal door and flung it against her own shoulder in order to carry it. However, she was soaked down to the bone in rainwater which prompted the soldier to call her out.

“Ah Miss! You can dry inside we have-”

Xenovia simply raised her hand and shook it.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“Like hell that’s fine.” Robert came around the corner, clearly annoyed. “You won’t be able to step inside any establishment like that.”

He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers which caused a gust of warm wind to spin around the warrior, whose clothes started to dry quickly.

“I could’ve slept in my wet clothes, but I appreciate the gesture, Master.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He glanced over at the soldier and gave her a small nod. “Thank you for your time.”

“A-ah, no problem at all sir.” She stood straight in attention. “Have a good day you two.”

Robert did another short nod before turning around. Xenovia on the other hand waved the soldier goodbye and smiled as she turned to leave as well.

‘Xenovia…’ Leona thought. ‘Why is it that you’re so familiar yet we have never met each other?’

“Do you want to know?” Robert from the memory suddenly turned around to ask not Xenovia, but the one who was currently inhabiting the woman’s mind. “I can cut to the chase.”

There was a long pause as if time had come to a crawl. A strange sensation was overcoming Leona’s senses as she tried to figure out how he was doing that.

“No answer? Very well…”

There was a brief bout of headache as Leona’s vision blurred. It was like the snap of a finger as her head felt it was being split in half before another vision showered her mind like a storm.

This time, she was at a very familiar place. The castle of Arcadia. A monumental construction brought by the combined might of humans and dwarves. At the time of its construction, it could be said to be the last bastion of humanity against the demon king army. Its imposing towers cascaded from the central spire that aimed for the heavens as stairs led to the main castle’s halls.

Xenovia stood in the throne room surrounded by royal knights. Each wore a full set of high-tech magic armor that seemed to reflect light off from the darkened plate. Amongst all of them however, three stood in front of the throne elevated by a few stairs without their helmets.

“Princess. Your transgressions against the Arcadian throne ends here.” The middle knight addressed her while pointing a golden broadsword similar to Laevateinn—Eleonora’s holy sword. “Surrender yourself and your companion. No more blood needs to be shed today.”

The knight in question was Krieg. A much more aged version of him at least. The short gray hair was now slick backwards and his crimson eyes were sharper than before. He truly exuded the air of a seasoned knight bearing a few scars here and there across his rough face.

Behind the knight there were other two knights, a familiar high elf with dark hair tied in a bun with deep blue eyes. Leona recognized her.

‘Phoebe?!’

She was staring at the sage behind Xenovia with uncertainty as she held onto a pair of enchanted longswords which emitted a low light blue glow along its edges.

Lastly, a human woman of blonde hair and crimson red eyes which wasn’t familiar to Leona. She held a thick broadsword on her right hand while the left wielded a small wooden cudgel.

“Hah…” Xenovia bitterly laughed as she was missing her left arm—blood spilling from the dismembered limb. “Serves me right from trying…” She clenched her teeth. “Master, are you still with me?”

“Ugh… who do you take me for…?” Robert stood up with the help of his staff. His right leg was barely functioning at that point. “You should be more worried about yourself.”

“Arms grow back.”

She mockingly said as she grabbed the part that was cut off and forcibly sealed it with fire magic by cauterizing it. She didn’t even flinch when doing so.

“Princess…” Krieg seemed determined to stop Xenovia but at the same time his eyes seemed to have a hint of sadness in them as he spoke to her with grief in his voice. “Please, stop. We don’t need to do this.”

“Uncle Krieg.” She said out loud as she pulled her axe out of the floor. “I respect you and everyone that has worked tirelessly for this empire. But no longer we should be ruled by someone devoted to blood and conquest.”

“Silence.” Another female voice echoed from the throne. Sitting atop the golden seat another knight adorned with a crimson red armor with golden details around the edges of each individual plate. She stood up from her seat and started to head down the steps all the while holding onto a black sword in an ornate dark metal sheath tied on the left side of her hip. “If you desire to overthrow me, Xenovia, then you’d better be able to live up to the Crossford name.”

Right before her eyes stood the infamous Empress that would soon become known as the ‘Empress of Annihilation’ Leona Crossford.