Solomon continues following the castle map, being forced to turn in a different direction due to running into agents a few too many times for her liking. A right here, up a staircase there, two lefts, then another right. “You can’t design something this confusing by accident.” She soon finds herself on a more familiar staircase, the same one she went down the first time she arrived here. Excitement rushes over her as she runs up the stairs taking two steps at a time, ignoring the slight pain in her legs from all the running she’s done already. “Please don’t tell me I’m too late…”
She reaches the top of the stairs and runs to the end of the hallway. There, she turns left and quite literally runs into Lisa, causing the cat to fall onto her back. The wolf takes a step back and grasps the handle of her cane, about to unsheathe the sword inside, no doubt. Then she notices that the person in white she just ran into is Solomon and smiles wide.
The feline gasps as she sees the wolf she has missed so much, wearing her usual trench coat, chequered trousers, and hat. She feels so much joy just from seeing her again, she immediately stands up and embraces Lisa with tears in her eyes, burying her face in her coat. Lisa returns the hug, although much more relaxed. Solomon says nothing and lets herself just enjoy the moment.
“Tryin’ out a new style, eh?” Lisa says in a tone so inappropriately casual, if anyone else said it, Solomon would find it deeply insulting. “I don’t think “lunatic” fits you all that well though.”
Solomon looks up at her, crying tears of joy. Luxor’s light may give her the purest form of happiness, but it’s nothing compared to the genuine bliss Lisa’s smile makes her feel at that moment.
“I missed you so much…!” The cat manages to say through her gentle sobbing, tightening her hug. She feels an awkward, but warm feeling from Genesis.
“Genesis!” The thought hits her suddenly, realising the implications. She can’t hide the shock in her expression.
“I missed ya too, Rox.” Says Lisa, her tail wagging vigorously. “We came as soon as you messaged us the other day. Let’s go hit the road, yeah?” She suggests.
Solomon pulls away, her expression turning stoic. “I’ll deal with Genesis later. First, we get out.”
“Yes.” The cat says with a nod. “Time to get out of here.”
With no time to waste, they start running back the way Lisa came from, the door to the bastion wide open. So wide, in fact, that they easily spot the trapdoor swing open. Agents pour out the door, yelling about capturing the Acid One.
“Why can’t it be easy for once?” Says Lisa, exasperated. They both turn around and begin running in the opposite direction.
“Follow me!” She shouts, taking out the map, trying to make out where she came from. “If Lumi did as I asked, we’ll be safe.” A left, two rights, a staircase down, then another left.
“I’d like to have a long conversation with whoever built this place!” Lisa exclaims, likely confused just by following Solomon around the labyrinthian building.
Just then, Solomon feels her feet get wet. Looking down the hall they’re in, she sees remnants of ice. To her, it fully confirms that she can trust Lumi.
“Lisa, you can choose which part of you is electrified, right?” She asks.
The wolf nods, picking up on Solomon’s idea immediately.
“Smart.” She remarks as the sound of footsteps behind them grow louder. They go on, farther down in the wet hallways. Solomon quickly flips a table that must have been used as a barricade onto its legs and climbs onto it. Right after, they see the agents turn a corner and run towards them, completely disregarding the water.
Lisa snaps her fingers, leaning on her cane as she powers up her magic. The agents realise what’s about to happen all too late. Arcs of electricity can be seen around Lisa’s feet, electrifying the entire hallway floor in a fraction of a second. Solomon watches in awe as the agents convulse and fall to the floor mere seconds after. Lisa then powers down and turns to face Solomon, smiling like she didn’t just, at the very least, knock out around seven people.
She eyes the agents on the floor. Dead? Unconscious? She cannot tell. All she wants now is to leave with her friends, and hopefully future girlfriend, alive.
“Should we bring this in case more show up?” Solomon asks as she gets down from the table, tapping on it.
“I’ll raise ya something much easier.” Lisa steps towards the cat, and to her surprise, simply picks her up and holds her in her arms. Solomon feels admittedly flustered by the experience, in any other situation, she’d find it quite romantic.
“You know, this works too.” Solomon says with a slight blush. “I’ll have to tell her sooner or later.”
She provides directions as the wolf carries her around the castle the sound of struggling and fighting throughout the castle picking up in volume. Every time agents or cultists show up, Lisa electrifies the water, and every time, Solomon holds on for dear life, truly grasping the extent of Lisa’s power. Even Genesis feels nervous during it. Solomon herself may have the power of acid, as destructive as it can be, it can still be defeated easily in the right circumstances.
They walk down a hallway, and at the end of an intersection at the end, she sees someone run past. Someone very familiar.
“Wait!” Solomon says to Lisa, so she doesn’t electrify the water. The person at the intersection stops to look. Without a doubt, it is Grayson. He merely nods at Solomon before going wherever he was planning to go. She really wants to stop and berate him, as Sheila is proven to cause some complications… But she decides against it, leaving him none the wiser.
“...farewell, Grayson.” Solomon sheds a single tear as Lisa carries her on. If nothing else, the thought of the two of them being together motivates her even more.
“So, who was that?” Lisa asks.
“Just a friend. Don’t worry.” Solomon assures her.
“If you say so, Rox.”
Eventually, the two reach a part of the castle where the floor is no longer wet. “This is as far as Lumi has gotten. So be it.”
“We have to go through here now.” Solomon taps the map with her index finger. “Then we’ll be closer to an exit, according to this.”
Lisa carefully puts her down. “Really could have used more of that.”
“Have to say, not a fan of this place.” Lisa remarks. “To put it mildly.”
After taking a few steps, they no longer leave wet footprints.
“I’ll tell you all about what happened later.” Solomon offers. The sounds of fighting are the quietest here so far, a long hallway, easy to spot any potential foes. Solomon feels confident in her and Lisa’s ability to defend themselves, so a thought lingers in her mind. “Maybe it’s not the best time for this… But I want her to know, in case we don’t make it.”
“Lisa…” Solomon stops, the wolf turns around to look at her. Solomon steps towards her and pulls her into a hug once again. “I have to tell you something…” She sighs, having collected her thoughts. Lisa waits for her to speak with an inquisitive look. “Here we go…”
Solomon opens her mouth to speak, but notices something behind Lisa at the end of the hallway. She leans to the right to look and sees Sheila, right arm practically on fire, launching a ball of fire, precisely in their direction.
With a gasp and one motion, Solomon takes off her infused robes and throws it over Lisa. Right as the fire makes contact with the robe, it disperses. Lisa quickly turns around to face the one-eyed lioness. “How can she be so accurate with one eye?”
Terror fills Solomon’s heart, but it’s quickly replaced with anger, both hers and Genesis’. She steps between Lisa and Sheila, hissing with her claws bared.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Solomon.” Says the lioness in the same, regretful tone.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Solomon cries, emotions in turmoil. “Even after I helped you…”
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“Please, step away from her. I don’t want to hurt you.” Sheila indeed, doesn’t try to fire another projectile. She stands there at the end of the corridor, waiting.
“Too damn bad!” Solomon yells, voice breaking slightly. “You’ll have to get through me if you want to get to her!” She stands before Lisa, trying to cover as much of her as she can.
“You have to understand.” Sheila begins to say, keeping distance. “If you hand her over, everything will go back to normal! Not just for me, but you as well! And if you don’t… He’ll make sure my life will be in shambles.”
Solomon feels like she understands a fraction of what Genesis felt from the betrayal, united in his pain. She has a pretty good guess on why the lioness is trying to hunt down Lisa.
“How could you listen to him?!” She yells through tears, flicking her tail. “After all he’s done… After all you’ve said, how can you still support him?! What was any of that about a change in leadership?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Says Sheila, making her right arm into a flaming fist. “Rufina’s dead. Only you could stop him now. Or you could get a fresh start! Have all your failures pardoned!”
“And you believe that?” Solomon scoffs. “You really choose to believe that?” She takes a step towards her, Genesis can seemingly hardly wait to fight her.
“Work with me, Solomon.” A ball of fire ignites in Sheila’s hand. “I know what your techniques are. She needs a conductor, you need to be close. I have the range advantage!”
Her words cut deep, Solomon can feel twofold anger rise within her. Surely, Lisa can protect herself from the fire while she deals with Sheila…
“Yeah, right.” Lisa says in a mocking tone.
Solomon hears the distinct sound of a sword being unsheathed, followed by the sound of crackling electricity. On the wall, she sees blue light. Ahead, a mix of surprise and fear on Sheila’s face.
She quickly glances over her shoulder and sees that Lisa’s sword shines blue, arcs of electricity jump around and off of it. There isn’t nearly as much energy inside it as there was in the generator back at that house, but she could still deliver a powerful shock using it, if she had to guess.
Lisa steps to the side and points the sword at the lioness. Sheila winds back her arm to throw fire, but she’s not nearly fast enough. Lisa taps the sword and rather than absorbing it, the energy violently shoots forward from the sword in the form of a bolt of electricity, hitting the lioness in the face. She falls to the floor, grasping at her face.
Stunned at what Lisa just did, Solomon senses that Genesis is terribly pleased.
“How’d you do that?” She asks, half impressed, half confused.
“A little trick I learned.” Lisa sheathes her sword. “That “blessing” you told me about, it’s quite handy, I tell ya.” She smirks.
Solomon looks over at Sheila. Unlike with the rest, she can immediately tell that somehow, she’s not dead. Her body would be nothing but ash now. Upon walking closer, she hears quiet sobs from the lioness, who lifts her head and looks around frantically, breathing heavily.
“No, not again!” She cries out. “Was one not enough?!” gets up on her knees, looking in their general direction, but not specifically at either of them.
“How are you even alive?” Lisa crosses her arms, more annoyed than scared.
“You… Bitch!” Sheila shouts. “My eyes…”
Solomon can see even from a distance that the bolt hit her right in her good eye. By all means, she should be dead, but somehow, she only lost vision. She shouldn’t, she feels like she really shouldn’t, but she feels miniscule pity for the lioness.
“Now to be fair…” Lisa says as Solomon walks over to Sheila with a grim expression, following closely behind her. “I wasn’t aiming for that. Not my fault you happened to turn right then, eh?” She explains, shrugging.
“Shut up! Just shut up!” Sheila buries her face in her hands, weeping.
Solomon walks right up to her and forcefully puts her hand around her neck, bringing her down to the ground. The lioness doesn’t try to fight back, she’s resigned to her fate of a painful death by acid.
“It would have been so much easier if you just…” Solomon sighs. “Listened.”
She considers powering up her magic, something inside her tells her that she really, really deserves it. She thinks about it for a long moment, judging by Genesis’ emotions, she can tell that he wants her dead. It would be so easy to end her for this betrayal…
But she doesn’t.
“Know who you’re dealing with.” Solomon pulls her hand away, sensing that Genesis is terribly furious. “I could kill you right here and now. But I won’t, I promised to get you out.” She stands up, Sheila goes from sobbing to breaking down completely. “Despite everything you’ve done, I’ll still do that.”
She gives Sheila time to cry as she turns to Lisa, who seems to question her decision.
“Now, I respect that…” Says the wolf. “But bloody hell, I’d just kill her if I were you.”
Solomon then feels Sheila grab her legs.
“Please…” She says, pleading, looking up at Solomon with her one uncovered, blind eye. “He’ll kill me… He still would have for failing the mission…” She wipes tears from her face. “Unless I dealt with one of them. Like her.” She reaches out with her left arm and points right at Lisa.
The wolf takes a long step to the side.
“I ain’t there.” She says with a grin, Sheila’s arm follows her voice to point at her.
“Please…” The lioness continues pleading. “I regret it… I regret all of it!” She shouts. Genesis practically begs the cat to just end it.
Solomon’s frown turns to a slight smile, but Sheila can’t tell that. She reaches down, takes her hands in hers, and helps her stand up.
“I made a promise to Grayson. Unlike Ludwig, I’ll keep it.” Sheila puts her arms around Solomon, her fur soaking up the lioness’ tears. “As much as you don’t deserve that.” She adds with a frown, making Sheila awfully perturbed. “Seriously, try that again and I just might change my mind.”
“Right then.” Lisa chimes in. “Now that you can really see the consequences of your actions, let’s get the hell out of here.” She taps her cane twice on the ground.
Sheila turns her head towards Lisa.
“I hate you… So much…” She says weakly.
Solomon nods at Lisa and takes Sheila’s hand, leading her.
“Hold on.” Solomon notices that Sheila still has her radio. “Tell the old man that we’re both dead and you’re mortally wounded.” She senses that Genesis is pleased by her idea. “That way, he won’t be looking for us actively.”
Sheila hesitates, but then feels around on her side for the radio and takes it in her hand. She presses one button and speaks through laboured breathing. Solomon isn’t sure how much she’s faking that.
“Sir…” The lioness begins to say. “I got the wolf as well… But Solomon died too.” She pauses for a response, but there is none. “They got me good… I’m not sure I’ll make it.” She adds, but there is still no response.
Not from Ludwig, anyway.
“Come out into the darkness.” Says a voice that Solomon is familiar with. “There is some kind of priest here. He will help you, sire.”
Sheila pauses in confusion along with the cat. “Why is Father helping them?”
“What about Ludwig?” She inquires in a much less convincing voice. “Why isn’t he responding?”
“I can get you out, Sheila.” Says a voice belonging to Benedict. “Shaquia’s plan is going a little too well, by the sounds of it.”
Solomon realises that his voice isn’t just heard through the radio, but right around the corner as well, coupled with the sudden sound of hurried footsteps. “They’re also here?”
The raccoon turns the corner and sees all three of them, alive and mostly well. He looks terribly confused.
“Sheila? Solomon?” He blushes and covers his eyes with one arm, turning away. “Show us some decency, Solomon!” He exclaims.
The cat realises that her robe is still on Lisa.
“Prude.” The wolf remarks as she hands Solomon her robes, which she quickly puts on. “Who is that anyway?”
“You’re not…” Benedict properly notices the wolf, making no attempt to attack, stopping when he gets a better look at the lioness. “Sheila! Your other eye!”
“I can tell, Benedict.” Says Sheila, annoyed. “We’re getting out of here. Be my eyes, please.” The raccoon walks up to her, takes her hand, and makes sure that his radio is off.
“Solomon!” He says, turning to look at her with a smile. “Ludwig’s gone totally mad. He learned that not only have you failed, but agents also reported to have seen the people who destroyed Lion’s Den here in Spain.”
“How’d he even come here?” Solomon questions. “Everyone else I came here with died! Other than Sheila.”
“I was told that she sent him the coordinates.” Says Benedict, causing Solomon and Lisa to both frown at her. She may not be able to see them, but she can certainly tell that they’re not too happy about it, judging by her awkward look.
“That was when we arrived! Those were my orders, okay?” She argues. “I don’t care about that anymore, I want to get out of here!”
The four of them then begin walking down the hallways, Solomon leading the way.
“How come Ludwig brought you?” Solomon inquires. “Don’t you have more important things to do back at your HQ?”
“We already go out on missions, but he’s lost it.” Benedict begins to say with furrowed brows. “He wanted to show us that he knows better and how it’s aaaaall our fault somehow. We’ve had enough of his reasoning.” He pulls on Sheila’s hand as they turn a corner so that she doesn’t run into a wall. “I’m not sure what Andreas meant either. I get that he doesn’t see all that well in the dark, but…” He stops in his tracks along with Sheila, looking out a window.
“What?” The lioness asks, a tiny bit of impatience in her voice.
“Oh…” Benedict says with a horrified expression. “That darkness…”
Solomon and Lisa rush over to the window and look outside. The forest around the castle is covered in a thick veil of darkness, only the semi-lit clearing around it is free from it, right at the edge of the trees. “I can only imagine what Lumi will think once she sees this.”
“What is it?” Sheila asks. “I can’t see, what is it?” Her voice sounding more worried due to the silence from the others.
“We’ll soon be safe. That’s what that is.” Lisa smirks, looking proudly into the darkness. “Also, my ex.” She adds.
Benedict eyes her, exceedingly concerned.
“Once we’re out there, it’ll all be fine.” Solomon says, hopeful. That darkness, Thalia’s darkness, that’s where their freedom is. “Are you in?” She glances at Benedict.
“Oh, so you blind me, but ask him to stick around?” Sheila chimes in. Solomon feels Genesis’ anger rising.
“To be fair, he has yet to throw any balls of fire at us.” Says Lisa, causing Sheila to softly whimper and stop talking. “How come you know these guys anyway, Rox?”
“It’s… A long story.” Says the cat. “So, are you in?”
“Better than Ludwig.” The raccoon argues and shakes hands with Solomon.
“Alright. Let’s leave this place, once and for all.”