Braden knelt and fell on his arms. His muscles ripped their way out from his cotton clothes. With each passing second his facial features lost human elements. While the transition was on the way, Rikilda crawled to her mother under the rubble.

As she removed the cupboard, she found her skin had gone blue due to the potions which had spilled over her. Her lips and nose had purple tone to them whereas the arm, which had been out, still stayed red.

Although she could see her mother breathe she wasn’t optimistic.

"Ikagnohorei." word floated in the air inside.

Braden's pointy ears flinched.

"Ikagnohorei." a louder voice came.

This time she could tell it was her father's voice. Her head turned to the floor as she saw a glass bottle roll all the way to her shoe. She looked at the place from where the bottle had started rolling from.

Gisella's fingers trembled.

The werewolf leaped at them, opening its humongous claws. Rikilda wrapped herself like a ball.

"IKAGNOHOREI."

A dazzling light came in the room from the door which flung open. The light brought a flying man who collided with Braden and hit the wall together. The wave had also brought in a very unsettling smell along. It bore resemblance to burnt flesh.

The animal already had his tongue dangling from corner of its mouth, unable to survive the wave, whereas the slender man in red attire shook his head in order to reduce his dizziness.

On the door, Nortze stood covered in sweat. His white robe now consisted of some dark red spots and spots of the lighter shade of red.

"Come out. Quick!" Nortze motioned at his family.

Rikilda helped her mother to stand on her feet. She kept pushing Gisella as she kept walking towards the door. However, she could not stop herself from looking back at Wernh'An. Even at his weakest stage, Wernh'An seemed to have enormous strength left. She did not notice but she was getting affected by his presence.

"Hurry." Nortze impatiently waited for them to come out. For all the duration, his eyes were fixed on Wernh'An - who happened to be recovering from the otherwise fatal wave.

Apprehending they were taking too long, Nortze caught Gisella's arm and pulled her outside. When he held his daughter's forearm, he felt resistance. In no time, she got away from his arm length.

Wernh'An had caught her from behind.

A thin vine draped around her waist. Soon more of those appeared, tightening the grip more. Those vines created crack sound as the hold became tenser. The Wutke's henchman had decided he would kill the daughter to bring Great Invasion.

Wernh'An was still in the corner of the room, controlling the vines. He instead went deeper in the house as he feared Nortze would not give up without a fight. After all, he just needed one Calajhan killed. He did not mind it being Rikilda.

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One of those vines crippled its way to Rikilda's neck and coiled on it. Her eyes bulged bloodshot and a huge lump came on her throat under her chin.

Nortze prepared wave of magic while Wernh'An dragged Rikilda inside the house.

"Nortze!" Gisella's gasped in dried voice.

Something heavy hit Nortze on his shoulder blades. The impact disrupted his concentration and killed the force in its earliest stage. He saw Rikilda's suffocating face before the door thudded close.

He spun behind to see the person who had hit him.

Saer.

Nortze assumed he was possessed but not seeing any shade of yellowness in his eyes declined his speculation. Saer raised his mace and hit Gisella, who was trying to open the door, on her abdomen. But numbed by potions which had fallen on her, she did not feel any pain.

Gisella opened her palm.

A shining ball was floating over it.

"Listen." Saer's lips trembled.

The next thing he knew was that his head was ringing and he couldn’t feel his face. His back hit on the wall and he slid downwards to the floor. He touched his front body but he could palpate the touch. His fingers received the stimuli of the touch but the place where he had touched couldn’t.

He saw three Nortzes above him. The one in middle was opaque whereas the two on his side were hazy. When they merged into one, Nortze had a sword with him.

Saer wanted t speak but his tongue was paralyzed. Irritation in his eyes made him realize he hadn’t blinked once after being hit.

Nortze raised his sword over his head. Saer desired not to see death descending upon him but he was helpless.

"Father!' a female uproar stopped the sword from coming down.

Saer saw Nortze look at his right. Then he looked at Saer. Then again at the source of sound. Each time his expressions changed.

Saer turned his stiff neck and saw Rikilda on the entrance of the passage.

A smile cracked on Saer's numb face. His heart felt it instead of his lips.

Gisella ran towards Rikilda before Nortze could even think of it. Nortze also found himself rushing to his daughter but stopped, not seeing a single bruise on Rikilda's body. Turned out, Gisella also had the same concern as she did not touch her despite of being at arm's length.

"Weren't you there?" Nortze pointed at his house.

"My doppelganger was." Rikilda sprinted past her parents and checked Saer's pulses. She glanced back at her them after a short examination, "He did not let me come here to help you because he wanted you to lock Wernh'An in. My double tricked Wernh'An too."

"But you were with me." Gisella murmured.

"Rudolph had kept me in gallows separately and had thrown my doppelganger with you." Rikilda watched Saer's head moving, "Rudolph must have thought father would cause bloodshed. Perhaps he thought you non trustable. So, he kept us apart."

Saer closed his eyes in relief.