Kaguya drew her sword, slicing the IV rack in half. However, her attack only hit air. She narrowed her eyes, scanning the room for Sigrun, who had suddenly disappeared from her sight. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. However, she was too late.

Sigrun appeared behind her and kicked her in the abdomen. A sickening crack echoed through the room. The force of the impact shot Kaguya through the wall and into the street below.

“Now…” Sigrun turned to face Yuki.

Yuki glared at her and clenched her jaw. She raised her hand to cast a skill. However, black lightning arced off her body and an intense pain shot through her body. Yuki doubled over in her bed, clutching her chest.

“Oh dear. You overloaded. Don’t worry. This… what did your country call it? Idunn? Yes, what your country mistakenly calls Idunn. It should make all the pain go away so please, stand still,” Sigrun said. She grabbed the syringe. Her eyes glowed and an immense pressure slammed Yuki down on the bed. “It will all be over soo-”

Sigrun was suddenly launched through the hole in the wall and into the street below.

“Yuki!” Embla landed in front of the bed and helped her up. “Pandora! Help me get these wires and tubes off her!”

“Right!” Pandora began removing all the lines attached to Yuki.

“Kaguya. She’s… Red! Kaguya! She’s…!” Yuki began to hyperventilate.

“I know. I’ll go see if she-”

Sigrun interrupted Red’s sentence.

Cal and Embla turned around to see Red flying through the wall and crashing into another room.

“You two! Go get Yuki out of here!” Cal said. He summoned flames to his hand and fired them at Sigrun.

“Okay!” Embla and Pandora helped Yuki to her feet and began to run towards the door.

Sigrun dodged the flames and fired a fireball at the door, collapsing the ceiling in front of them.

“Do you think I’m going to let my cash cow escape?” Sigrun said.

Embla bit her cheek. She locked eyes with Cal momentarily.

Cal nodded. Golden flames surrounded his arms, catching the attention of Sigrun. Her eyes widened slightly. A sphere of golden fire formed in Cal’s hand.

“Go! Jump!” Cal yelled.

Embla nodded. She grabbed Yuki and picked her up. “Pandora! Let’s go!”

Pandora nodded and the two ran towards the hole in the wall and jumped out the building.

“Um! Any time now Pandora!” Embla yelled.

The three were freefalling from the fourth floor of the building.

Pandora threw her hand out, covering them in a yellow barrier. The three landed on the ground, creating a small crater from the impact. The three groaned. Embla shakily got to her feet and helped Yuki up. Pandora stumbled around, holding her head.

“We need to go now-”

A golden streak landed in front of them and bounced across the road.

“CAL!” Embla yelled.

“What are you idiots still doing here? Go!” Cal yelled, getting up. He fired a stream of golden fire at the fourth floor.

A black and violet funnel of smoke met the flames halfway. The smoke completely consumed and erased the fire. Cal took a step back. The rabbit eared woman raised her hand, creating spears made of black flames. She fired the spears at Cal.

Cal created several orbs of golden fire and threw them at the spears. The spears easily pierced through the fireballs. Cal rolled out of the way. The spears narrowly missed and they hit the ground. The road began to rapidly decay and turn to dust where the flames hit.

“Go!”

“Pandora! Come on!” Embla said, grabbing Yuki. Pandora grabbed the other arm and the three began to hobble out as fast as they could.

A meteor made of red flames hit Sigrun but was instantly erased by a burst of black fire.

Cal, Red… She closed her eyes and continued down Hospital Street.

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“Embla! Where do we go?” Pandora said frantically. Her eyes began to glow. Her senses extended, blanketing the entire area around them in a faint shroud of mana. “I can’t sense her but Cal and Red…”

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“Cal will be fine! Red will be okay! He has to be…” Embla’s gaze darkened.

“Em is right. We need to get somewhere safe. What’s the closest place to the hospital?” Yuki asked.

“The Knights’ Headquarter. We need to get there. Koji can help us with whoever this is. He can-”

“He can what?”

Their blood ran cold. That voice. Embla turned around with wide terrified eyes and saw Sigrun standing behind them. In her hands were the unmoving bodies of Cal and Red. Blood poured from various wounds on their bodies. The woman’s cold apathetic violet eyes twinkled. She tossed the two in front of them.

“C-Cal…?” Pandora’s voice trembled when she saw the unmoving body of her older twin.

“Red… no… you!” Yuki’s eyes flared up in rage. Her fangs elongated and her claws grew.

“Cal… Red…” Embla’s bangs shadowed her eyes. A red aura began to slowly shimmer around her. “You…!” her eyes widened when she saw Cal’s finger twitch. However, her relief lasted all but a few seconds. Relief gave way to anger. The floodgates burst open and her body began to flood with power. She looked up at the woman.

“Oh? Your eye… you’re half-baked. She has two golden eyes. You only have one,” Sigrun said, raising an eyebrow in interest.

Embla’s glare intensified. The aura around her body began to grow.

Yuki and Pandora looked at her with a shocked expression.

As Embla was about to let go and charge at Sigrun, a silver blur landed in front of them. Sigrun’s head slid off her neck and dropped to the ground. Her body stumbled for a few seconds before crumpling like a puppet that had its strings cut.

“Kaguya!” Yuki said.

“My Lady. Take those two and go! Get to the Knights’ Headquarters!” Kaguya said.

“Bu-”

“Go! She’s going to get back up soon! Go now!” Kaguya gripped her sword tightly.

Sigrun’s decapitated body was twitching. Black blood flowed from the stump on her neck and snaked its way towards the head. Sinewy material began to squirm its way from the flesh of Sigrun’s neck, reaching towards the main body. Her eyes rolled back down and stared at the two. Her sclera was slowly turning black. The body began to twitch. The arms moved, searching for the head.

“Go.”

“Yuki, she’s a…” Pandora whispered.

“Embla! Pandora! Grab Red and Cal! We have to go!” Yuki barked.

“But you can’t-”

“I can run! As long as I don’t draw prana from my body or mold mana from my soul, I’ll be fine. Now, help me get Red. Pandora, make some light platforms.”

The two snapped out of their stupor and nodded.

After loading Cal and Red on the platforms, the three resumed their escape to the Headquarters.

Kaguya smiled. Her Princess had gotten away safely. She focused on the regenerating corpse of Sigrun.

The body had grabbed the head and brought it up to the neck. The squirming tendrils of veins and arteries shot out from the stump and attached itself to the base of the head. She gently placed her body on her neck. The sickening crunching and cracking of the neck was heard as the bones fused together. The torn flesh bubbled and bled profusely, clotting and repairing the sinewy tissue and cartilage around her throat.

“Hmph. No one’s ever gotten the drop on me like that. Your Arts. What type is it? Is it a World Painting Arts? Perhaps a Self-Tuning Arts? I know for sure it’s not an Energy Transformation Arts. Well, whatever. I don’t really need to know but you are getting in my way,” Sigrun said. She held her hand out and black mist gathered into her hand. The mist coalesced and took the form of a sword.

Kaguya said nothing and charged towards Sigrun.

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“There! I see it!” Embla waved down one of the Knights. There was a swarm of them rushing out. She figured they were headed to the hospital. An explosion at a medical facility would surely draw the attention of the local law enforcement and the Knights.

“What… what happened? And… The Princess of Alfheim!?” the knight spit out.

Embla ignored the spittle that landed on her face.

“Let us in! We have two people that are wounded. Some woman attacked the hospital while we were there! She severely injured our friends! Please! If we don’t get them proper medical attention from one of your priests, they’ll die!” Embla begged.

“What’s going on here?”

“Azalea! Azalea!” Embla yelled in happiness.

“E- Embla! What the hell? What happened to you guys?” Azalea rushed towards her and began searching her for wounds. Her reptilian eyes lingered upon the bodies of Embla’s companions. Her eyes glowed and she sighed in relief when she saw signs of life. “Get these kids to the Med Bay. And you!”

Azalea beckoned for another knight over to her location.

“Yes, Ma’am!” the knight saluted.

“Head to the Grandmaster’s Office and inform him of the situation. I’ll stay here and coordinate the forces to the hospi-”

An explosion rang out behind her. She and the others whirled around and saw Kaguya crash into the ground. The fox kin shakily got to her hands and knees. She looked up and glared at the figure that was walking out of the black smoke. Everything around her was rotting and decayed. Entire buildings eroded into black dust. Stone became powder. Wood rotted until it no longer existed. The people that were caught in the crossfire, knights and civilians, all cried out in agony. Their skin began to rapidly age and putrefy, yellowing as if they had jaundice. One of them held their hands out and tried to crawl towards them. He was able to crawl about three meters before his skin melted off and he became a pile of crumbling bones.

“You put up quite a fight, Apprentice of Eschamali,” Sigrun said.

Azalea narrowed her eyes. A beam of light appeared in her hand and transformed into a staff.

“Go.”

Embla nodded and motioned for Yuki and Pandora to follow her.

“Mmm? The Grandmaster’s Wife? Here?” Sigrun raised an eyebrow.

“She’s the one who attacked the hospital,” Kaguya said. She coughed, spitting blood onto the pavement.

Azalea nodded. She pointed her staff at the woman.

Sigrun gripped her sword tightly. “Tch… just my luck. Fighting you would take too much time…”

“Then don’t fight her.”

Azalea froze at the sound of the voice. As opposed to the rabbit in front of her, the woman’s voice was cheerful yet carried a deep malice within it. She looked up to one of the buildings and saw a woman sitting at the top. She disappeared and reappeared next to Sigrun.

“You go after the Sage’s daughter, Sigrun. I’ll play with the Grandmaster’s Wife,” Hati said, removing her hood and revealing her pinkish-red hair.