Helen seemed to almost immediately perk up after the pact, which seemed vaguely unsettling. It was probably not an actual issue. I cast [Blood of the Sacrificed] in the hopes that it would help them heal, but I could tell it wasn’t doing them much good from the fact that [Compassion Returned] wasn’t doing me much good.

I had to take a moment to think. Twelfth had neglected to tell me of any way out other than the way I came in, and I suspected no such way existed. Even if it did, it was unlikely I would be able to use it without the appropriate access codes, and I didn’t have those. Without finding her again, I couldn’t take advantage of any such shortcut if it even existed.

I’d seen a few windows on the side of the building, but I had no way to fall over a hundred stories safely, much less take seventeen people with me in the process.

“Does anyone have a way to fly, or to fall arbitrary distances?” I asked.

“No.” Helen said, “And I wouldn’t trust the others’ gifts even if they did.”

If that was out, then only two obvious solutions were left. The first was to sprint straight for the exit, storm through whatever forces might attempt to stop us, and make it to the skyrail in the mall. I would be stuck protecting seventeen people every step of the way, and I lacked any abilities to significantly improve my prospects in that regard. There was a bigger flaw in the plan, as well. I was certain that Paradise had a way to lock down the skyrail system. If they managed to do that before we escaped, we’d be doomed.

The alternative was to try to find the angel stockpile. If we could make it inside, I could unbind all the angels within. Once that was done, we could take advantage of the inevitable chaos to escape. If we did that, they’d probably not be able to lock down the skyrail, not without opening another evacuation route first. Of course, that would probably be at least as hard as breaking out directly, and much more dangerous.

Ideally, a third option would turn up, but I didn’t have enough information to even know where to seek one out. I’d watch out for one, but unless it dropped in my lap, I wouldn’t be able to take it.

If I didn’t know where the angels would’ve been stockpiled, I might’ve just tried to break out with the prisoners. If I was necessary, and if Sandy had anticipated that, it might force him to have a rescue planned. However, I did, and unbinding that many angels would make a distraction in its own right. So that was what I did.

The prison was exclusively guarded by those mindless suits of armor, and [Blood of the Sacrificed] continued to sweep them up without difficulty. I did a quick sweep of the remainder of the prison, but the prisoners had all been stored together. I’d already rescued all of them.

Once that was done, I climbed back up to floor 129, which was where the prison ended and the Luminaries’ base began. Inconveniently, the Luminary base wasn’t set up with a straightforward stairwell to climb up and down. Instead, there were six staircases scattered around the floor. Three would go up, and three would go down, alternating as they went. The pattern was straightforward, but it still meant I had to waste time running from one side to the other.

I kept expecting to be intercepted by troops, but nobody actually tried to stop us. Everyone who slipped into my range at all quickly ran outside of it or through the nearest door. It still meant I was pretty blatant about our location, but I didn’t mind that, if it meant that I’d see them coming.

Chances were, one way or another, we’d be heading into an ambush. With only one way into the commercial floors, it wouldn’t be hard to mass for a full battle there. At the same time, it might also have been that they concentrated their defenses around strategic resources, like the bound angels.

Trying to guess which one was the more dangerous outcome remained impossible. I headed for the angels, as much out of lack of alternatives as because I actually believed it would work. When I reached the outside of the room the Angels were kept, I said, “Can you guys wait here?”

Helen said, “You're not going to leave me.”

I sighed, “It’ll be dangerous. Can the rest of you wait outside?”

I didn’t bother waiting for an answer. They hadn’t replied to anything I said before, and I didn’t expect this to be an exception. If they weren’t going to wait, I couldn’t talk them into it, but I had to try.

When I stepped into the room, Marie was on the other side, sitting on her horse and wearing a new suit of armor. Six knights were beside her. Two were mounted and the other four were on foot. Both mounted knights wielded lances, but the unmounted knights each carried different weapons.

The rest of the escapees poured in behind me, to my dismay.

I released [Blood of the Sacrificed]. The Knights all felt like people in a way that the suits of armor downstairs hadn’t. I turned Thorn into a spear.

Marie charged for me, but I had [Beast in the Blood] grab her horse, hurling her to the ground. The other mounted knights charged as well.

Before they reached me, a pair of arrows hit both knights’ horses. One of them exploded into a cloud of sparkles like Marie’s had, but the other kept going. I managed to stab the horse with Thorn, but the knight managed to stab me with his lance as well. It pierced a hole through my chest, right above my heart.

Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt that much. To clarify, it was agonizing, and agony. Even so, Matches’ bomb had hurt a lot worse. The pain failed to even approach debilitating, though I will admit that I can’t remember the next thirty seconds of the fight. I fighting

When awareness properly returned to me, I had killed the knight and cut the lance out of my chest. The other knights, Marie included, were attacking the escaped prisoners. The prisoners had scattered. Most were running away in a blind panic, but some were fighting back with summoned weapons. Unfortunately, they weren’t achieving more than buying time.

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The only exception was Helen, who was successfully shooting knights with her arrows. They didn’t seem to be doing the knights much harm, but they were doing something, at least. I grabbed a knight that had started to chase her with [Beast in the Blood].

I felt one of the escapees die. I charged the nearest knight. He was trying to kill three of the prisoners, and before I reached him, he killed one of them. I speared him through the back, smashing through his armor and chest alike. Somehow, that failed to kill him.

He writhed desperately on my lance. I poured corruption into him, trying to kill him with it.. After about ten seconds of struggling, he moaned horribly, and melted into a puddle of water.

Once that was done, I took a moment to assess the battlefield again. Helen was playing keep-away with a pair of knights, and doing reasonably well at it. The one I had dragged under with [Beast in the Blood] hadn’t resurfaced; he was probably dead. Only eight of the prisoners were still alive, unless I had missed some of them leaving in the panic. Marie and the last knight were both separately chasing after the surviving prisoners to cut them down.

I left Marie for later, and went for the other knight. As I was catching up to him, [Beast in the Blood]’s cooldown ended, so I grabbed one of the knights chasing Helen with it.

Unlike the previous one, this one heard me coming and whirled to face me. He was wielding an absurdly-long sword, like Marie did. He knocked Thorn from my hands. I summoned [Mirrored Night], and barely blocked the next blow with [Seer of Strife].

He advanced. I retreated. [Seer of Strife] led me through a complex series of retreats and blocks to keep him busy, but no openings to kill him appeared. The stalemate continued for what felt like an hour. Even so, it probably only went for a single minute, before [Beast in the Blood] finally came off cooldown.

I grabbed him with Beast and forced myself to keep going. I wasn’t going to die of exhaustion, that was a nice thing about being a Dreamer, but I was still tired. No matter what kind of being you are, I don’t recommend fighting while over halfway to dead.

It didn’t help that nearly all of the prisoners had died. Only Helen was still alive. Fortunately, Helen had managed to finish off the last knight that had been chasing her, leaving only Marie to be dealt with. I charged Marie.

Marie turned and charged Helen.

Marie was faster than I was.

She reached Helen before I even got close to her. Helen put up a fight, I could tell that. The first few strikes Marie made barely harmed Helen. I allowed myself a moment to hope I could save at least one of the prisoners as I caught up.

Just before I reached Helen, Marie stabbed her in the chest. Golden blood spilled on the floor. Marie pulled her blade out, and turned to meet me.

Helen was dying, but she hadn't died yet. I grabbed her with [The Beast in the Blood]. I hoped that she wouldn’t get worse, and I hoped I could survive this fight. I hoped that if I couldn’t, I could still save her. [Compassion Returned] started to heal me more emphatically. I was filled with spite and fury.

Marie came at me with her sword, and I blocked every strike. She was stronger than me, faster than me, and more determined than me. But she wasn’t enough of any of those things to actually land a blow, not with [Seer of Strife] on my side.

“We should’ve killed you the first time.” Marie spat, “Six good men are dead because of that mistake.”

I was too tired to humor her, “I just wanted to save the prisoners.”

Marie snarled, “They deserve it. You don’t know what they did!”

“Do you?” I asked, “Do you know what they did? What did I do?”

“You serve a monster.” Marie snarled.

“So do you.” I answered, quietly.

“This is a war.” Marie said, “Everyone’s a monster in a war.”

“Yes.” I said, “But who decided it had to be?”

Marie didn’t reply, but her strikes became even more forceful. I was exhausted, but I could tell that if this stalemate continued, she’d lose. [Blood of the Sacrificed] was wearing away at her, and I was only getting healthier.

She tried to summon her mount, but I blasted it with [Unpredictable Detonation], and it faded away again. She went back to trying to stab me. [Seer of Strife] was the only thing keeping me alive, but it was working well enough to keep me alive.

As long as she kept trying to stab me, I could maintain this stalemate indefinitely. If she started thinking about alternative tricks, she might manage to use something I couldn’t handle. I needed to distract her. Marie wouldn't be able to stop herself from arguing back.

I grinned, “Just step aside, and let me free the Angels.”

“I’ll never let you corrupt them!” Marie snarled.

“I didn’t say corrupt them.” I said, “Besides, your side is the one that does that. Or do you really think the souls that William shredded are willingly on his side?”

Marie let out a louder snarl, “They are! Virtue doesn’t care about the petty corruption of mortals.”

“Condemnation is a virtue?” I said, “I don’t want to kill you.”

“You won’t need to.” Marie said, “I’ll kill you.”

“Please, just run away.” I said. I definitely wanted her to, but I knew already that she wasn’t willing to do that. Marie would die fighting, that was inevitable.

“I’m not scared.” Marie said.

“You’re not?” I asked, “You should be.”

“I don’t fear death.” Marie said.

“Neither do I.” I said, “But you should be scared. What if you’re loyally serving evil? What if your legacy is nothing but killing people who don’t deserve it?”

“It isn’t.” Marie said, "You know that."

“I do.” I laughed, “But can you name one time that you saved someone before we met?”

Marie snarled, “You’re not going to corrupt me, Ashlyn.”

I felt Hector enter the room. It was Hector, and not Twelfth. Had he found out about the impersonation? Was she okay? With reinforcements, there was no way I could win this fight. I could see him, too, racing towards us.

“I know.” I said, and then, “Abandon Paradise. They don’t deserve you.”

“I’d rather die.” Marie snarled.

Hector's spear stabbed through Marie's skull.

“I’ll gladly grant that wish.” Hector said from behind Marie.

With a pulse of fire, her body collapsed into a pile of ash.

I dropped to my knees in horror, and vomited.

“Sorry.” Hector said, “I wish we could meet under better circumstances. Don’t worry, you won’t die today.”

Marie was dead. Hector had betrayed her. Sixteen other people were dead, and Marie had killed some of them. I had killed some of them. Marie was dead. I wasn’t going to die yet. Copper might be dead. Eris might be dying. Marie was dead.

“Ah, you’re still in shock.” Hector said, “I’ll give you a few minutes.”