At first, Leona thought the captain was Krieg’s distant relative from the uncanny similarities in their appearance, from the crimson eyes and the silver hair to the bulkier nature of the woman’s frame standing about half a meter taller than the tactician while also holding her hand with both of her own easily covered Leona’s like buns of a sandwich.

“Princess Leona, first, I must thank you for helping my husband. If not for you, he would’ve been stuck in this project for far more time than necessary. On top of that you saved my friend’s life, not once but twice already.” She looked at Athena peacefully resting on the bed. “And for all of that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

She took a step back before bowing to her.

“Oh, no, no, you don’t have to thank me.” Leona held her shoulder to prevent her from lowering her head any further. “I just did what I thought was right.”

“From a noble lineage yet humble, truly, your reputation precedes you Princess.” However her smile slowly vanished as her eyes glanced to the ground. She took a deep breath before turning to the other soldiers present in the room. “Jill, Hank, Henry, go fetch the others outside to rest. Princess Leona I know you are tired from all that happened to you today but I must ask you to accompany me. Your servant Phoebe has a few things she wanted to discuss.”

It was true that Leona was almost spent from all the running and spellcasting she had to do but once she heard the high elf’s name her body suddenly felt a surge of energy.

“Phoebe is here?!”

The captain nodded.

“Hale and whole, she came here early this morning at the behest of my friend Jean.” She motioned to the other corridor where she had come from and Leona followed right behind as she continued to explain. “At first I thought she was a spy sent by Oliver to keep an eye on me, but after she showed me the letter of recommendation my friend wrote and explained the situation of you and yours I’ve come to realize what their true goal was.”

The corridor led to another spacious room furnished with tables, wooden chairs and a myriad of boxes carrying what one could only suppose was war supplies from the sheer amount of weapons and uniforms laying on top of the crates. Looking from behind it was almost impossible to discern the high elf’s appearance without the usual dark blue cloth covering her head.

“Phoebe?!”

Upon hearing her name she turned around and the calm dark blue eyes widened once she saw the tactician run towards her at full speed as Leona threw herself into a tight hug.

“Ngh! Princess, you're going to break my ribs!”

“Phoebe!” She started to sob. “You’re okay! I assumed the worst when I heard there was an attack at the inn!”

“I’m happy that you thought of me-! But let go! You’ll turn my insides into paste!”

After spending a few moments calming down, Leona composed herself and sat across the high elf while Olivia sat by the end of the table in between them.

“So, mind telling her what you told me Phoebe?”

The captain gestured with her open hand to the high elf then to the tactician. Phoebe was clasping her own hands whilst looking down on polished wood beneath them. If it was another occasion Leona would have asked her if she was a noble amongst her high elf peers from the astounding beauty she possessed beneath the usual cloth mask. However as things stood, there was no time to waste.

“I couldn’t confirm it” She began to explain. “But it seems sir Krieg is being held captive at the central tower in the southern district along with the others that were taken for interrogation. I suspect they wouldn’t hurt Londrian citizens, but I can’t say the same about him.”

Her brows furrowed upon the thought.

“And if we piece together what clues we already had-” Olivia continued. “He may be used or is being used as a test subject.”

“What-?! What does he intend to do with him?!”

Panic began to surge from within Leona’s chest, she could feel her face heat up despite the freezing cold underneath the warehouse.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know.” Her eyes looked downwards before she looked up in the tactician’s eyes. “But that’s why we are having this conversation. I will lead an assault to the tower, but we are lacking firepower.”

“So that is how you want me to help you? I’m not opposed to doing that but will it be okay?” She clenched her fist under the table. “I can’t go there knowing I could end up hurting innocent people.”

“I’m happy you thought of our citizens in the first place but that won’t be necessary. Thanks to an uproar in the slums, most of the people around the tower either evacuated or stayed inside their houses since there was suspicion of a death angel attack from the south. While I hope it has nothing to do with death angels, this too good of an opportunity to let it pass.”

“I see… well then, what do you propose we do?”

Olivia had a smile curling up her face.

“I’m glad you asked…”

On that night, deep inside the central tower of the southern district, a silver haired young woman sat up with her chained legs tucked beneath her dirty and ragged dress as she had just woken up from the meager rest she had before the noise of footsteps caught her attention. She had both of her eyelids closed but she could keenly sense what was going on outside her cell. The impatient footsteps of her torturer walking around along the many others carrying something or someone unsettled her.

“Jakob… you got your hands on another one, didn’t you…?”

She silently muttered, already knowing the answer. Except, something was off this time around, she knew the scientist well, too well as a matter of fact that she even thought it was somebody else wearing his shoes. The lack of another voice intrigued her, it was as if whoever the mad scientist got his hands on was no longer alive to complain.

“So you were able to get him. Are you certain this man is related to that double elemental mage?”

Upon hearing those words, she felt a chill go down her spine as terrible thoughts filled her mind.

‘Is this person a hostage?’

“Yes, there’s no doubt about it.”

Another male voice came from the room, which she recognized to be the scientist’s adopted son, she then began to crawl towards the reinforced metal door that kept her imprisoned.

“Good, I have a few experiments in mind for him-”

In hopes to get their attention she slammed both of her closed fists against the door but the moment she did so she felt an electric shock run through the shackles on her legs and her body instantly froze up.

‘I can’t feel… my legs…’

She curled up from the pain whilst groaning slightly as a result.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Calm down, it’s just another test subject. Now since you’ve done your job-”

The voices coming from outside her cell were fading away as the pain in her ankles intensified. Powerless to do anything, she simply kept curled up whilst trying to cope with the unpleasant tingling sensation throughout her body as the faint voices began to fade away as she felt her consciousness fade away.

‘How long has it been since that day? The day I came to this kingdom… the day the old ‘me’ died.’

Half a year ago in the Londrian coast there was a small village by the frozen ocean that served as settlement for many demi-humans who were denied entry in the capital. There, they were known only as vagrants, which the Londrian kingdom paid little to no heed as long as they paid their due to make use of the land.

Sitting on a rock, a silver haired young woman was staring at the ocean while clutching the fur coat around her shoulders.

“Hey! Minerva! What are you doing over there?” A light brown haired young man with heterochromatic eyes wearing heavy duty fur clothes was carrying a stack of cut lumber between his arms. “I thought you were on cooking duty.”

She turned around to face him, the long strings of silver hair fluttered with the cold breeze as it shimmered against what little sunlight came from between the clouded sky above making it look like it was made of actual silver. Her crimson red eyes met his brown and hazel ones with a faint smile on her face.

“Ah… I was told to wait outside…” She looked at her hands which were riddled with shallow cuts, both old and recent ones. “Michael hardly wants me to cook, though I understand why I still wish he let me do some work from time to time.”

He approached her with a smirk on his face.

“Oh… that can’t be helped, he just wants to keep you from huh… how should I say this? Further harming your own hands.” She gave him a light punch to the arm. “Ow…”

“I know how to cook okay? Hmph.”

She looked away with both arms crossed.

“Haha, come on let’s head inside, it’s cold as it is, you don’t want to catch a cold.”They walked towards the forest and not that much further in there was an arrangement of wooden cabins in a semicircle with a tall and old tree in the middle serving as the center of the village.

There were a few demi-human kids playing tag on the snow while some adults chopped wood behind their cabins, Minerva’s was the rightmost one overlooking the ocean. She shared it with two other residents, her stepbrother Jake and her friend Michael.

Being somewhat recent dwellers of the village, they mostly did odd jobs to keep everything up and running, including bringing firewood, a task ill suited for the old or young in the middle of a cold year round forest and keeping the surrounding forest safe from predators like wolves and bears though most of that work fell on the hands of the silver haired demi-human Minerva for her ability to use lightning magic.

“Hey, we are back.” Minerva announced once she knocked on the door before opening it. “Michael?”

The cabin was rather small for three people, it only had one room consisting of a kitchen furnished with a simple table, chairs and firewood stove on the left side while on the other had one bunk bed with a spare fur mattress laid on the ground for a third unfortunate person.

The person in question that Minerva called was kneeling in front of the stove throwing in a couple of pieces of wood in order to keep the fire going as a big cooking pot had its lid trembling from the steam coming out from the sides.

“I heard you the first time. Jake, would you mind bringing some firewood? I need more fire.”

Michael didn’t even turn around and simply extended his hand backwards.

“No problem.”

Minerva closed the door and headed inside, sitting on the mattress on the ground. She first stretched her arms back and glanced at the two young men working on the food. Seeing there was little she could help with, she extended her right palm out, arcing electricity jumped between her fingers letting out a faint static noise.

“Minerva, no magic inside the cabin if you please.” Michael reminded her. “Lest you set something on fire again.”

“I’m bored. Let me help you two-”

“And get yourself cut again? No, you can sit back and enjoy your time before lunch.”

“Nngh…”

Jake chuckled nervously.

“Well, we can only depend on you against big game, I don’t think anybody in the village would want to go against a bear wielding only a hatchet.” He glanced at the doorway where a makeshift lance the size of the door was leaning against the wooden wall. “Or a spear for that matter.”

“Got a problem with that?”

Michael gave him a stink eye which made the young man simply raise his hands as if giving up the argument.

“No, not at all.”

“Hmph.”

Minerva sighed while slumping against the side of the bed. The daily life was nothing short of boring, the eventual wild bear or boar was all she had to make use of her magic which when left alone for too long, made her feel an uneasy tingling throughout her body.

Noticing her absentmindedly looking at the ceiling, Jake approached and kneeled beside her.

“What’s up?”

“Huh? Nothing.”

“If it was nothing you wouldn’t be looking at the ceiling like that.”

Her eyes glanced to the side before looking at Jake’s.

“I was just wondering how our brother is doing. Being a king slayer and all you know, he must be with mom right now, right?”

“Who knows. John was always a bit odd, but he had our best interests at heart.”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right…”

“Come on, let’s get ready to eat, I don’t know about you but I’m famish-”

His voice was cut short by a tremor that shook the cabin, creaking wood and particles of dust settled on all of them as the shaking intensified.

“What is going on?!”

Jake went straight to the door and the moment he opened it he saw all white as a cloud of snow was starting to settle. Minerva and Michael were right behind the young man and once they took a step outside it was possible to see the streaks of blood on the ground in front of their cabin and upon looking straight ahead they noticed the origin of said blood. Standing over two meters tall, a headless muscular winged white abomination was tearing an adult villager apart with its snake headed arms and devouring him one bite after the other.

“A d-death angel?!”

Michael fell on his back which the noise prompted one of the arms to slightly turn around.

“We’ve got to get the others to safety-”

The young woman was about to run around the cabin but Jake blocked her path with the hatchet he carried as he grabbed Michael by the collar of his shirt.

“Run to the city, the Londrians may not want us inside their capital but I’m sure they wouldn’t let a death angel run around unchecked.”

“But what about the others?!”

“It’s us or them! Now go!” He shoved them to the left side while running to the opposite one whilst shouting. “Hey you ugly bastard! Over here!”

The snake head suddenly turned towards him and snapped at his back, Jake just barely managed to hit the side of the snake’s head, redirecting the bite towards the side of the cabin where it broke part of the log wall with its jaws.

Minerva was holding Michael so she couldn’t make use of her lightning magic and before she was able to get both hands free to use Jake had already led it around another cabin.

‘I’m not even sure I can take down that thing even if I put all my magic into one strike.’

She clenched her teeth.

“Michael, let's run! We need to get the soldiers to this place if we want to see Jake again!” Seeing how he was still shocked from the experience she slapped him across the face which made him look her in the eyes. “Control yourself Michael! Let’s go!”

Thankfully the sharp pain on his left cheek was enough to make him snap out of it and he quickly grabbed the makeshift lance he left near the doorway and ran right behind the young woman.

Upon going behind her own cabin, Minerva descended a long slope by making use of the terrain and sliding down until she reached a trail of pod tracks. The capital city’s walls weren’t too far from where the village was, but on normal circumstances it’d take at least twenty minutes by walking.

“I can’t waste any time getting there!”

She ripped off her fur trousers leaving her bare legs and focused all her mana into her lower limbs, arcs of lightning started to strike the vicinity as she started to run through the trail while melting the snow around her legs. With Michael running behind her, she was making her way through the trail as fast as she could, however upon reaching the city walls a loud noise came from the front gates and lifted some snow beside her. A soldier was pointing his rifle at her.

“Do not take another step! Stay your weapons and state your business!”

“Wait!” She shouted. “A death angel is attacking our village we need help-!”

“Help? You demons want help? Hah! Don’t make me laugh!”

“It’s true! A winged death angel is slaughtering our people and it’ll soon come to the capital if it is not slain!” She was willing to lie if that was the only way to convince them to help. “I beg of you, if not for us, think of your people!”

She was approaching the gates and the soldier began to aim at her head.

“I told you to not take another step-!”

“Calm down.” Another soldier came from behind him. He wore the same uniform and only his emerald eyes were in view. “Let’s waste no time, if what she said is true and a death angel is attacking that village it’ll probably come to the capital before long.”

“But sergeant Oliver, this is absurd, a flying death angel?”

“Heed my words, recruit. Go and call the others, I’ll lead the way.”