The carriage marched on with Isuzu and the colonials on board. The sun had finally risen, but there was a problem.

"Didn't I tell the scouts to regroup with us every thirty minutes?"

"It could be something worse, ma'am," he answered.

"What do you mean?" asked Iowa. Then the soldier pointed at the road ahead,

"Who goes there?!" shouted the driver upon seeing the running men.

"It's us, the scouts!" the men shouted back.

The soldiers instantly recognised them, calling out their names as they asked what happened.

"Hop in, you two!" Iowa told them. The men on the back pulled them in as they scaled through the carriage.

"Our horses, ma'am! They mysteriously ran ahead of the path, we're sorry!" one of the scouts explained.

"It must be the enemy", Iowa muttered.

"Wait so they could control animals?!" one of the soldiers asked.

"From what I have observed, yes", Iowa answered.

"An angel?" the other scout asked.

"I think Isuzu here is a huge deal for us both South British and whoever they are. I should've thought of this deeper." Iowa whispered.

She took out her pocket watch, looked at it and whispered, "Please don't fail me now."

The soldiers fell silent, letting Iowa do her thing.

"Hey, are you OK?" asked Isuzu.

Iowa looked at Isuzu and smiled, "Yep! It's just sometimes it doesn't work that's all!"

Isuzu's heart skipped a beat, and nervously asked, "So y-you mean... you threw me without knowing that thing is sure to work?"

The soldiers that heard their conversation became anxious, they must have known about Iowa's flawed abilities.

"S-sorry." Iowa apologised.

"Ahahaha, don't worry. The important thing is that you kind of saved me back there."

The soldiers sighed in relief.

Iowa chuckled and sighed with a smile on her face.

"I haven't seen the captain like this for a long time." one of the scouts whispered to the other.

Iowa then fixed herself up and called everyone's attention, "Alright lads, expect the worst from here on out.

The enemy must hold Isuzu very dearly, so they're going to give it everything they've got."

"Angels, Ma'am?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Yes, angels." Iowa looked up and made sure everyone was paying attention.

"For those who have not engaged or worked with an angel before, angels could manipulate their surroundings against us. Depending on their abilities and capabilities, they could manipulate specific aspects of our surroundings from nature to our minds, and obviously can be used for combat. Taking down the angel is our top priority before we move on, but there might be more than one of them."

"So there is a possibility that Eleya..?" softly asked Isuzu.

Iowa hesitantly nodded, "Yes... I think so."

"I wonder what's gotten into her." then wondered Isuzu.

"We'll be able to answer that question soon enough", answered Iowa, patting Isuzu on the shoulder.

An hour has passed without nothing much happening, and soon, they arrived at the spot.

"This is the place where our horses ran away." the scouts said.

"Driver, is the horse acting weird?" asked Iowa.

"No, ma'am, I could still control it." answered the driver.

Meanwhile, far north form Isuzu and Iowa,

"The horse's carriage is too heavy. It said it could not gallop quickly." Eleya told the serviteur.

"What is it carrying?" asked the serviteur.

Eleya looked at the Serviteur with anger but slowly focused on with her task.

The serviteur smirked at the rage of Eleya.

"People", said Eleya.

"Soldiers." the serviteurs rebutted.

"They're coming, Makamisa, tell the horse to act normal until it arrives here." The serviteur then looked at the armed men behind them, "The rest of you to your positions", he ordered.

"I will help you with the cause of the Divine, but should we ever lose to them I will betray you", Eleya spoke under her breath.

The serviteur chuckled at Eleya's statement, "Then you will help us deliver the trigger angel." he answered.

Eleya turned the other way, uninterested.

"Although," the serviteur added as he signalled two of their members.

The two members grabbed Eleya's arms.

"HEY-" Eleya tried to fight away.

"We wouldn't risk any more sabotage as well." said the serviteur as the members took her away.

"LET ME GO! BALI-" Before the bird could intervene, they captured the bird and tied it up with a thick rope.

"Serviteur, they're coming!" then said one of the lookouts.

"Everyone to your places, But no harm is to be dealt with the trigger angel!" the Serviteur shouted.

The men took to their places, some held rifles and other swords.

"Do not hesitate to slaughter the corruption of this world to save the pure!" the serviteur shouted.

Eleya was sent far away by the men, with Balisong unable to fly.

"You are making a terrible mistake!" she shouted as she tried to get away. She started whispering, hoping to call something out there, and then, as Eleya was being dragged along, the two men, heard something coming towards them.

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Iowa fell silent for a while as the soldiers took small conversations with each other.

Isuzu asked, "Iowa, are you alright?"

"No, driver stop!" she ordered, "We should continue by foot, something tells me everything is going too well right now."

The men vaulted down to the ground. Iowa helped Isuzu climb down as the soldiers loaded rifles. Iowa reached the revolver in her holster and opened the chamber to see it fully loaded, "We have no choice but to engage the enemy." she said.

"Scouts, follow us but hide Isuzu in the forest."

"Ma'am!" the scouts said as they asked Isuzu to follow them.

But before they left, Iowa stopped Isuzu, "Everything's going to be alright." She smiled at the nervous Isuzu.

"What about you?" asked Isuzu.

"We'll be alright, back-up's going to come soon, and we'll eat the bland food my colony is famous for", assured Iowa, patting her head.

"Eleya's going to be fine, we won't hurt her, even if we want to, hehe", Iowa added.

"Don't scare me like that! Make sure nothing bad also happens to her!"

"Yes, ma'am!" replied Iowa, giggling.

As Isuzu and the scouts hid inside the forest. Iowa faced her platoon, now with a severe look on her face.

"Everyone takes your positions, we'll spread out and engage the enemy at will."

"Yes ma'am!" the platoon marched on, with Iowa in the lead.

They held their rifles upright as their vision was guided by the rays of the sun, ready to bring the might of their Britannic Empire wherever they went.

Isuzu watched from the back of Iowa's platoon in action. Praying for the safety of both Iowa and Eleya who're fighting on either side of the conflict.

The serviteur's forces hid in the fields, waiting for the right moment. The moist meadows soaked their clothes, staining them with mud and clay then baked by the sun's heat.

Their objective was clear, and they will no longer stop to get what they want.

Meanwhile, deep in the jungle as the men dragged Eleya away, they heard something running towards them.

"What is that?!" asked one of the men.

"Hold her! I'll go check!" said the other, taking out a revolver from his holster.

He pointed it directly to the noise and fired.

The round made all the nearby birds on top of the trees fly away. The bullet echoed through the forest, and the running noise stopped.

But then, what was thought to be a moment of relief became a moment of terror as a bear jumped on the man, claws retracted and mouth wide open.

The man barely dodged the bear, his leg, crushed by the weight as the man who held Eleya fell down out of shock.

She stepped on his shoes and freed herself, bolting away as soon as possible.

"GET MAKAMISA!" the man shouted, but she was already gone.

Back on the front lines, Iowa and the soldiers had the feeling that something is watching them.

They proceeded, the soldiers crouched down and looked for possible cover, but Iowa made sure she was not compromised as she opted to stand.

The men upfront hid in the tall grass, and Iowa slowly moved forward. They started to spot odd figures hiding in the distance.

The men pointed their rifles at them, while on the other side, the figures waited for the South British to fire as they aimed at the soldiers.

The serviteur watched from afar with a couple of his trusted men. In contrast, Isuzu watched from the back guarded by the scouts, always on the lookout for any possible threats.

Iowa signalled her men, giving orders from her hands on her back,

'Present arms.' it meant, then, she paused, with the men waiting for their go signal.

Iowa's legs were starting to shake as her index finger began to tense up. Making sure that if a shootout would ever commence, it would not hurt Isuzu or Eleya, but she could not find the two anywhere.

She sighed, hoping that Eleya would not get hurt, and then,

"Fire!" she shouted, raising her hand.

This alerted the men on the other side but was too late to react when they were greeted by a barrage of bullets swiping through them, just inches short from their bodies.

Some of the members moaned in pain as they got shot through their shoulders and arms.

The figures fired back, unable to hit any one of the colonists.

They fired shot after shot without warning, causing the figures to slowly retreat to their next positions.

The soldiers marched on as they continued to deliver a hail of bullets over the retreating figures. Many of which were already shot.

The serviteur saw the fight unfold with his own two eyes. "Serviteur?" asked one of the members besides him.

"Regroup with the back." said the serviteur.

The member nodded and rallied his men.

As the first groups on men retreated, they were to lure them deep into the tall grass fields where several members were waiting for them.

"Forward!" shouted Iowa as the men started to slowly make their way.

But as they got close enough, from the tall grasses up ahead raised the rifles of enemy reinforcements.

"GET DOWN!"

The men laid prone as the enemy guns started to go off, injuring some of the soldiers.

The men at the back dragged the injured away for first aid as the men on the front provided cover.

Meanwhile, one of the men with the serviteur whispered about the escape of Makamisa.

"Hold the line for me", he said as he walked away to the forest.

Isuzu watched from afar, feeling very anxious as the warring sides clash it out. She tried to look for Iowa or Eleya, but all the smoke meant that she could barely see anything.

Deep into the forest, however, Eleya ran as fast as she could without knowing where she was headed.

The two men fought the bear, letting Eleya slip away as they fought for their lives. The bear was ferocious, all it wanted to do was to inflict pain on the two men.

They ran around in circles, occasionally shooting it with their handguns, but most of the time, it just flies away right past the beast. The serviteur slowly approached the scene.

They shouted for the two men to stand clear as they raised his palm in front of the bear. As the bear locked eyes with the serviteur, it unleashed a bloodthirsty roar with its teeth the size of fingers. Still, as it began its charge, it was violently knocked back, hitting a tall tree and then passing out.

It looked at one of the shocked men and asked, "Where is the angel?"

The man slowly pointed at the forest, "S-she went off that way!" and he said those words they all heard a loud shriek of Balisong.

The serviteur faced the direction on where the sound came from and slowly walked deep into the forest.

As the men lost sight of him. The two slowly lost their breaths, their necks started to tighten as if they were being strangled until their pulse was as silent as their breaths.

Eleya stood at a small, open field in the middle of the jungle as Balisong encircled the area, knowing the serviteur would come after her.

The serviteur kept following the shrieks of Balisong and eventually ending up in the field, with Eleya on the other side.

"So, this is what your faith devolved itself into?" said the serviteur.

"It is the same fate that had ruined God knows how many people. All this has to stop!" shouted Eleya.

"At first, I know that children like you would not understand, of course, they would occasionally rebel but you, you are an odd one," he answered. 

"You clung on to those corrupt thoughts that were only built to strengthen your faith towards the Divine."

"Maybe that's what they wanted. For me to realise that you are all mad!" Eleya replied.

"Maybe, maybe. But that's not important right now."

The serviteur shook his head, "Makamisa, Angel of the Animal Tongue has become a stray, corrupted with selfishness." said the serviteur as he raised his palm against her.

Eleya grinned, clenching her fists as she stood her ground.

The serviteur slashed his hand in the air as fast as possible, projecting a ray of air that acted as blades.

Eleya narrowly dodges them and as soon as she found an opening, a deer charged on the serviteur. He avoided the attack, but another followed.

He promptly pushed it away with his hand while Eleya picked up a long branch and attacked him with it.

Each blow Eleya delivered was blocked by the serviteur. But every time he tried to strike, snakes would appear from the ground and pull him down.

And as the serviteur tried to slash her again, Balisong charged from the sky and struck him in the face, scratching it with its blade-like talons.

The serviteur screamed in agony as he covered his face and felt blood dripping down from his severely wounded face.

Eleya, without wasting any more time, struck him with the large branch. He dropped down on the ground, and a pool of blood dribbled away from his face.

Eleya approached the serviteur.

"It's over."

The serviteur then laughed as he looked up in the sky, "How come? I haven't even used my abilities yet."

"You weren't able to use them against me, and it probably would even work on me as well", answered Eleya.

"Maybe that's why I was given such a curse so that you could take my place forever", he said as he suddenly grabbed her wrist.

The serviteur laughed as he started to emit a blinding light while Eleya could not escape from his grip.

The two screamed from the immense pain as the light started to burn everything up until the exposed sides of the trees.

Then, in a flash, it suddenly went out, the two of them passed out as their temperatures soared violently.

A few minutes later, a tall girl saw the two them on the field. She noticed the burnt area and the serviteur's cloak. "It's a serviteur!" she said, "And a girl too!" she added as she walked around the scorched field.

Balisong descended on Eleya, landing on her back.

The girl faced back to a group of colonists who wore the South British uniform,

"Pick them up and look for your friends."

"Yes, ma'am!" replied the soldiers as they picked the serviteur and Eleya up and left the field.

Before the girl left, however, she looked at the destruction it caused and sighed.

She left the field and followed the soldiers. Still, after a few minutes, all the scorched objects slowly started to regenerate. Becoming soil and rapidly becoming lush green grass once more and the trees took on new sheets of wood to replace the burning ones.

The girl, suddenly with her ruby eyes glowing, looked back to see the fully restored field and smiled,

"My, my, what a mess…"