Lying on a puddle of her own blood, Athena was slowly dying as the snow gently settled on top of her body. The previous coming storm was already on top of them and the darkened skies cast its shadow above the capital city.

It was the same all over again, the tactician was helpless with yet another death on her hands. Her hands trembled in anger as the feeling of uselessness grew within her chest and was about to burst in a cry of unbridled rage. Despair has led her up to that point, the double edged blade of blood red agony and the everlasting desire to finally make amends for her past mistakes, yet all she saw was another brave soul lose her life right before her eyes.

Leona silently stood up, her eyes void of any feeling or reasoning as the ambient mana started to gather around her body.

“Any last words Leona?! You’re next!”

Jonathan swung his right arm forward, prompting three tendrils to shoot out from his back in an arc. Inside her mind, the tactician couldn’t comprehend why that was happening. Just that she failed yet another person who trusted her, in a sense, she was the embodiment of death. She brought the end of the people she came across, those who trusted and followed her. For just a few seconds, it felt like time and space came to a crawl as her eyes turned to face the incoming attack.

‘Why are you so weak?’ A female voice echoed in her mind. ‘When something is within your grasp you let it go without fighting back.’

“No…!”

Leona grabbed her head with both hands as a piercing headache assaulted her brain.

‘Your mother, your friend, your father, your companions and now, the second person who called themselves your friend…’

“Shut up!”

‘I wonder what’ll happen to that knight now that he is helpless, why not let him die like the others?’

“I WILL KILL YOU!”

She shouted just before impact, a flash of wind cut the tendrils on its way, leaving the amputated limb flailing on the ground before withering and dying.

“Huh?”

Without understanding what exactly happened, Jonathan retracted the cut limbs and prepared to strike with a throwing dagger. However, Leona was beginning to emit a visible faint light blue aura which in a few seconds became more powerful, seemingly burning the air around her as a result.

‘Is that… mana?!’ The assassin knew the former princess was a magic user but in his previous lifetime he only witnessed that phenomenon once when he fought against a Windian archmage. ‘No… it can’t be-’

He coiled one of the tendrils around the throwing dagger and spun his whole body, releasing the weapon at a high speed towards her, but the blade was simply knocked upward by a wind barrier.

“Tsk!”

The assassin quickly rotated around her with the help of the tendrils attaching to the buildings around to confuse her but she was tracking him with her eyes and with both palms pointing at him she chanted.

“Flames of destruction heed my call, bring ruin to mine enemies, Fireball!”

Suddenly the ambient mana coalesced into one raging indigo sphere of flames, unlike other times where it took at least a few seconds to charge the spell, the way the mana was acting made the spell have almost no delay between chanting and actually releasing it which surprised the assassin.

“Huh?!” The incoming spells exploded against the side of the building he was previously attached to, setting the entire side of the structure ablaze and even though he dodged the entire thing, the heat was so intense that the surface of his tendrils were burned. “Argh! Damn you!”

Upon seeing her readying another similar spell he decided to put all he had in offense since if the fight dragged on he was bound to get hit by a stray spell.

“It’s time to die!”

He jumped off the side of the building, dodging another fireball before landing a few meters away from her behind the motionless Athena and as Leona was about to fire another spell his tendrils dug through the bricks and suddenly popped from beneath her feet, which knocked her off balance.

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She managed to catch her footing before she could fall on her back but two of the tendrils shot straight through the floor tiles, one managed to pierce her left thigh while the other nicked the side of her forehead.

“Nrgh!”

She was about to release a full force blast of flames but before she even began to cast the spell a lightning fast blur of metal cut his tendrils cleanly.

“Argh!”

She only noticed when the person aiding her landed beside the opposing assassin, it was a long gray haired woman holding a thin curved blade reminiscent of the one swordmaster named Emi used when she confronted her in the Great Forest near Arcadia, a katana.

“Thankfully I’m not late, young Lady Frostleaf or should I call you Lady Crossford?”

She wore a brown fur coat that went down to her thighs, brown trousers held by two thick belts and a pair of leather boots of the same color.

“Grrr!” Jonathan jumped back before attempting to regenerate the lost limbs. “Who the hell are y- no… you can’t be-!”

“Lady Minerva?!” Just a quick glance was enough for her to recognize the woman, although Leona used her mother’s name the last time they met, the fact she mentioned her real name just now meant she already knew who she was before they met. “What are you-”

“I’m here looking for someone.” She pointed the blade at the assassin. “I can’t believe you let yourself be caught Jonathan.”

“Mother-! Why are you helping her?! She’s the reason I’m like this! Will you point your blade to your own son?!”

“My son died the moment he fell in Alexander’s hands. You’re nothing but a walking sack of meat resembling him. Just as your brother was.” While there was a certain melancholy in her voice her blade was just as steady in order to fight. “Young Lady. You best be on your way. Take your friend and keep to the far wall, Jano’s inn isn’t too far from here.”

Without completely understanding what was happening, Leona lifted Athena by putting the lieutenant’s arm around her neck, leaving behind the rifles and bag of supplies in order to move faster. The only thing she carried was the two vials of healing potions she had stocked in her own bag, one of which she had already uncorked with her teeth.

“Don’t you think you’ll get away from me that easily!”

Jonathan shouted but before he could move towards the fleeing duo a seemingly invisible slash carved a straight line on the ground.

“I don’t think you’re in the condition to worry about others.” Minerva held the sword with both hands. “Let us end this.”

“I’ll kill you if you stand in my way!”

The assassin growled before attacking her with all tendrils at the same time.

Meanwhile Leona kept moving forward leaving the burning mansion behind as the fire roared and consumed the large structure, some shouting and yelling could be heard in the distance as many footsteps were heading their way.

“Come on Athena-!”

The tactician held the healing vial between her thumb and index finger while using the same hand to cast ice magic in order to coagulate the wound in the lieutenant’s chest as blood continued to pour out as they were moving. However her wounded left leg was slowing them down quite considerably as the pain was much greater than she expected with a string of blood starting to stain her trousers.

“I’m- sorry-” Athena coughed, she was still alive but there was no telling for how long. Her face was starting to show a very pale complexion and where there normally was a puff of white everytime they exhaled, the lieutenant barely had any heat from inside her body. “Leona, I tried to help-”

“Save it for later! Can you drink this?!” She offered the potion and the lieutenant grasped it with trembling hands. She could barely drink it with Leona dragging her so she decided to stop and let her finish the entire vial. While there was a certain degree of danger in drinking too many healing potions in a short span of time, Leona wasn’t sure how much longer she had before her body began to fail and decided to take the gamble. “Here! Drink this one as well!”

Athena struggled to chug it down but after a few coughs she managed to drink two entire vials. The healing effects were starting to show with her face regaining color, but her body was still weak and she was barely able to stand on her own.

“Leo… why…? You should’ve just ran away…”

“I won’t let anyone else die from my own mistakes.” She gritted her teeth while helping her friend move through the frozen streets despite the sharp pain and feeling of warm blood gushing out of the wound in her thigh. “Come on let’s keep moving, I don’t know what’ll happen with Lady Minerva, but it’s none of our concern now.”

She pushed on fighting against the urge to cry as the burning sensation on her left leg was just getting worse with each step and after minutes of walking she noticed the streets were getting wider. Most of the people around were either too distracted by the giant puff of dark smoke in the distance or running away probably thinking it was a death angel attack.

“We’re… almost there…”

Athena muttered since despite her weakened state she was able to keep herself conscious to avoid putting even more pressure on her friend.

“Yeah, yeah! Hang in there Athena, we’ll-!”

The inn was just a few meters ahead in a street near the wall that encompassed the entire capital but as they walked forward a patrol of six guards just walked around the corner just behind the inn.

“Hm?! Is that them?”

The front soldier pointed his finger at the two of them, prompting the others accompanying him to look in her direction.

“What the hell?!”

One of them shouted before pulling out his rifle forward, as the others did the same.

Seeing them ready their weapons almost instantly sent Leona into panic as if they decided to attack she wouldn’t have time to react.

Three of them crouched with their rifles pointed at her direction while the other three remained standing with their weapons also pointed. Leona closed her eyes as if anticipating a barrage of steel coming her way and prayed none of them hit as she heard the rifles going off.