In a fraction of a second, Lily leaps in. With a fluid motion and a small leap, her boot swings over her body for a lightning-quick overhead stomp aimed at Roskiel's head. Though it's fast, he moves his forearm in the way to block it, and cocks his free hand back for a riposte with his claws.

THWUMPPFF!…

Lily's boot stomps down onto the wall, shattering the stone beneath it into dust as Roskiel leaps away.

「Tsk… Changed your mind?…」

She clicks her tongue in frustration, and takes a guarded stance.

Fwap…

「Don't click your tongue at me, Liliana. There's a good reason to keep your hand hidden, and you showed me yours just a moment ago. Did I not tell you I don't throw caution to the wind?」

Roskiel replies when he lands back on the wall, more than a few paces away. He grins, inquisitively raising his clawed hand as he asks.

「Tsk… Good grief. You are like a cockroach. You always skitter away into the dark when something disturbs you, but this time, you will end just like a cockroach. Under a boot.」

Lily clicks her tongue again, and her scarlet eyes narrow at Roskiel with a look of pure disdain in them.

「You are always so prickly, Lilia. I don't remember doing anything to personally wrong you.」

Roskiel shrugs, baring his fang in a smirk.

「…Enough. I'm just going to kill you. Stop moving.」

She replies after a brief pause, glaring at the baron.

FWOOP!

Lily crosses the distance between them in a flash, lunging at him. Roskiel, anticipating this reaction, throws his claws out to intercept her flat chest. It seems as if Lily was well aware she's leaping into danger, as her flight path cuts abruptly, her boots clack on the wall, and she whirls around in a sudden roundhouse kick, completely weaving around Roskiel's waiting hand, and outpacing his sluggish reaction.

THUMPCRACK!…

「Ungh!…」

Roskiel grunts, and bones snap as Lily's boot connects with his side. He has only managed to retract his arm back to shield himself a little, but the uncanny force behind her horse-like power sends him flying off the wall, and back into the city. She leaps after him, both of their clothes fluttering noisily.

Fwwfwafwappfff!…

Wind races past Roskiel, and his cape chaotically whips about. When he turns his scarlet eyes to his uncontrolled flight's direction, they widen when he realizes he's heading directly for the building on fire. Roskiel grabs his fluttering cape and quickly stretches it aside, fashioning a singular wing out of it. He swerves a little before slowing slightly, losing his speed-resulting stabilization, and spiraling out like a wounded bird with one wing.

CRASH!…

Like a meteor, Roskiel crashes through the roof of one of the home, plummeting down from the darkness above. After a few moments, Lily gracefully descends to a nearby rooftop that's overlooking the home's roof. Lily briefly turns her eyes to the building on fire, and realizes that it's none other than the mayor's mansion. She scoffs with an amused smirk on her face.

Crash!… Thud!… Crash!…

Lily watches both the door and the hole in the roof as the sounds of furniture being thrown around come from the hole. The baron emerges, and walks out onto the sloped roof tiles.

「Your highness, it looks like your kingdom won't survive this year.」

Lily declares with a mocking, sardonic tone while baring her fangs at Roskiel in a gleeful, smug grin. Indignant, he clenches his teeth while his limp arm begins to contort out of its unnatural bend, and snap back into what a human arm should normally look like. Orange flames dance while black smoke spew from the mansion, rising to the roof overhead, thinning somewhat as it slips through the small gaps of the wood, canvas, cloth, and other random pieces strewn over the ropes above.

「Once I've dealt with you, we'll hunt the humans down with ease-」

「If. If you deal with me. And that is wishful thinking, Roskiel. I thought of you as a coward and a pathethic worm with no dignity, not as someone who has his head in the clouds.」

Roskiel growls at Lily through his teeth. She cuts in, jiggling her bloodstained twintails as she tilts her golden head.

「You're a little faster than me, and you can do your little weight trick… That's why you think you can take someone like me lightly?」

He scoffs, and asks with his fangs bared in anger.

「Not only lightly, but also with ease. You've been doing nothing but running from me. Your decision to stop at the wall surprised me a little, but I can chalk it up to desperation…」

Lily replies, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders and her clawed hand.

「…The demon lord has no use for worthless losers such as yourself, does he? If you run, you will have revealed your true worth… That is, none.」

She adds, and her smug smirk grows.

「Enough of this, you brat. I won't take this from someone your age any-」

「『Freeze Ray』!」「『…Freeze Ray』!」

A woman's shout interrupts Roskiel as he crushes one of the roof tiles in his grasp into splinters.

「Huh?」「What!?-」

Both Lily and the baron look towards the voice.

Before Roskiel can react, two thin, ice-blue colored rays hit him in his arm and hip. A layer of thick ice spreads across his body as he tries to shake it off, but his movements grow more and more difficult as his entire arm up to his neck becomes encased in crystal clear, gently aqua-hued ice. The ice surrounding his hip grows down past his knee, and up to the ice at his side that froze his arm. Roskiel flexes and shakes his shoulder, but finds it impossible to move beyond a slight wiggle back and forth.

「Youuuu!…」

He growls in anger when his eyes rise up from the ice up to the source of origin of the magic. Down the street, in the distance, Tahandra and Emilia are standing by a group of humans with anti-vampire weapons. The two women in rags jump back behind the large man with a tower shield the moment they see Roskiel is looking their way.

「Heh. Convenient…」

Crossing her arms, an amused huff escapes Lily. She smirks, lowering her head.

「…It's over, Roskiel.」

She lifts her crimson eyes up to the baron, glaring at him. Her smirk is gone, and her entire face bears a cold, utterly unveiled look of hatred upon it.

Almost slipping and plummeting off the roof, Baron Roskiel recoils back, mostly because the ice encasing half his body rendered most movement impossible, but also because he had not yet seen a face with so much enmity directed at him. He clenches his teeth and limps backward towards the hole, when Lily takes a step forward on her roof.

「W- Wait, we're old acquaintances!…」

Roskiel calls out, holding his clawed hand up as he manages to haul his leg over the hole in the roof, and into the house.

「Unfortunately.」

Lily bluntly replies with nod of her golden head while she makes her way to her own roof's edge.

「…Come on Lily, let's forget this whole thing, and I'll let you know where the demon lord is-」

「Oh? You've learned how to address me by my name? Next, I'll teach you to know your place.」

FWOOP-Crash!

Briefly tilting her head, Lily interrupts the baron then shoots across the gap between the buildings, slamming into Roskiel, who feebly tries to shield himself with his forearm. The two crash inside, while the group of vampire hunters runs up to the building. A few point their Flashlights at the building, while the rest secure the perimeter.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang…

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The two mages stay within the defensive perimeter of the volunteers while Roland walks up to the door. Flames roar, steadily consuming the nearby mansion, lighting the streets in an unsteady orange light. He stops just short of grabbing the handle when he hears noise coming from within.

Thud!

The door swings open with a massive force behind it, ripping out its lock and sending splinters flying from its frame. Roland takes a step back and grabs onto his mace.

「Ah, you're here already. Good…」

Lily walks out of the building, one hand holding onto Baron Roskiel's severed head, and the other onto his badly mangled, crushed, and shattered body.

「Vampire lady… Who is that? Their leader?」

Roland relaxes when he sees Lily's small, blood-coated form. He looks down onto the head in her tiny hand.

Its scarlet eyes dart around Roland and his group, while the face is twisted into a look of silent horror. Lily spares Roskiel's head a disdainful, disinterested glance.

「…Something to that effect, yes. I see you were busy.」

She replies, shrugging her shoulders. Her eyes turn to the volunteers. Some are covered in minor shrapnel injuries, and some have burns, but all look very weary.

「We were. We managed to free the captives held in the mansion. A fight broke out, and we had to use more of those box things. Did you thin the demon hordes out?」

Roland nods his helmeted head, and follows her while she drags the baron's body along the ground.

「I did, yes.」

Lily nonchalantly replies as she stops in her tracks at a junction in front of the mayor's burning mansion, and looks around the buildings in sight.

「That figures why we haven't seen that many… We lost two in heavy fighting since we split, but two mage ladies here offered to stay behind and help.」

Roland remarks, and points his hand at Tahandra and Emilia. They look at Lily with wary, somewhat frightened eyes. She glances at them, and quickly loses interest.

「Hmpf…」

She turns her eyes away, searching for something vague in the dark.

「…What are you looking for, vampire lady?」

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Roland asks, approaching her side. His circlet flashes briefly in a few pulses, and his helmet perks up.

「A workshop, a smithy, or failing that, at least a stable somewhere near. I want to heat nails and hammer them into this insolent fool's eyes.」

Lily replies in a casual tone, before glaring down at Roskiel's terrified face with a frigid, hateful look on hers. The vampire hunters exchange nervous glances.

「Ah, baroness… Straf wants you to put this on.」

One of the hunters walks up in a hasty step as he slips off one of the two circlets from his forearm, and holds it out for Lily.

「Straf does?…」

She asks with her head gently tilted and brow raised. The man returns a nod, and Lily lowers the baron's mangled body to the ground, puts the circlet on her head, then grabs the body again.

《Man, Lily, you look pretty awful.》

Straf's voice says in her head as the runes on the circlet's pulse.

「It can't be helped!… A lot has happened!」

She turns away from nobody in particular, pouting.

《So that's their leader, huh? Sounds like you hate his guts. More than most everyone, at least. What happened?》

Straf asks, and Lily's eyes once again glance at Roskiel's face.

「That's Baron Roskiel, Straf. The cowardly pest that kept bothering my master for centuries on end. His greed outweighed his cowardice this time, and he's going to pay for it…」

She replies, and lifts the head up to her face.

「…Once you suffer a tenth of the anguish you put my master through, then I will allow you to die.」

Lily adds, scowling at Roskiel's severed head.

《Lily, that's not good…》

「Huh?」

Straf remarks, and Lily's golden head perks up in surprise.

《…Aren't you forgetting something? You could do that in your own barony, but you are in Lia's empire right now, right?》

He asks, and Lily grimaces a little with a troubled expression on her face.

「Well, that's… That's true, but…」

She tries to protest, but can't find a suitable argument, and it amounts to nothing much before her voice trails off.

《Lily, torturing people is against the law, and I'm fairly sure torturing vampires is too. You can't torture people within Lia's empire's borders. It'd be a crime.》

Straf explains, causing Lily to pout.

「I know, but he deserves it!…」

Looking down an empty, dark street, she replies with a pout still on her face.

《I'm sure he does, Lily, but torturing people within the empire's borders is bad, and we don't do that here. Don't play with your food, and don't play with trash, Lily…》

Straf emphasizes, sounding almost like he's wagging his finger.

「I know…」

Her shoulders slump, and she nods her golden head with a resigned tone.

《…And he looks like combustible trash to me. Do you know how to dispose of trash like that, Lily?》

Straf asks, and Lily glances over her shoulder at the burning mansion.

「…Mhm. I have an idea, Straf. Allow me to quickly get rid of it…」

Lily nods, and drags the baron's body towards the burning mansion. His crimson eyes dart around, and the moment he realizes Lily is heading towards the fire, his jaw drops in silent panic.

「So long, Roskiel… The ranks of old vampires are getting thinner and thinner, and my only regret about this is that I didn't get to put those nails in your eyes after all…」

She says, placing Roskiel's mangled body and his head above hers. Roskiel tries to speak, but can't draw breath without his lungs attached.

「…Hup!」

Crash!…

Lily throws Roskiel's head and body in one throw, sending him crashing through a charred, collapsed support beam. The baron disappears in the sea of flames, and Lily dusts her blood-stained hands off. With her tiny fists on her hips, she watches the fire dance for a few seconds, then nods her head with a satisfied huff.

《Good job, Lily. That's one landfill we won't need. Save the planet!… And stuff…》

The circlet on her head pulses with a faint light, and Straf's voice remarks.

「What now, Straf?」

She asks, tilting her head at nothing in particular, though her eyes turn to the side.

《Now?… Now… I suppose you should take that roof off and let some light and air in, you know? It must be kind of stuffy in there.》

Straf pauses to think, and with her arms crossed, Lily turns her gaze upwards to the smoke-filled city ceiling high above.

「Yes… That is a good idea. I'll air out the smell that scum left…」

Lily nods, leaps to a nearby rooftop, then disappears into a black blur, merging with the city's darkness as she leaps towards the tall wall…