The walk to the outer wall side gate was tense. By now, everyone in town had learned there was a Concordat clone walking through their streets. Civilians they strolled past were hastily closing in for the night, until the path they walked was almost deserted.

“The tunnel entrance is not far out of the side gate.” Simone advised them.

Veronika looked up to the sky to see a full, blue moon glaring down on them from a starless, dark sky. She couldn’t shake a foreboding feeling as they walked within the eerily quiet and mild night.

They had reached the side gate of the enormous city wall but found their way blocked.

A woman about Veronika’s age, of approximately 19 to 20 years, judging by the slender curves of her body, dropped to the ground before the gate. She was completely concealed in black, flexible metal, body armor, which was seamless against her limbs. The Concordat Forces emblem was visible on her pauldrons. Her face was masked in black but her long flowing dark hair swished about her black in a ponytail, where the tips reached her hip.

She strutted toward them with her spiky high healed boots stabbing the concrete path. Both her hands held silver machine pistols: they glinted beneath the moonlight.

“For the greater good,” she soberly said, and rushed for an attack, letting off rounds of rapid bullet fire.

Veronika ducked and dived to the ground, whipping out her brush-pen for action.

“Copper laced titanium shells, capable of 1725 melting point to fragment on impact! Effective and deadly. Bullet in head, melting hole in the end!” Simone blurted at a fast-paced as she also dived to the ground to dodge bullet rounds.

“Great. Why can’t we all just get along!” Veronika yelped as she dodged more bullets.

“Preferably without flying copper titanium shell bullets!” Simone cried out.

“Concordat bitch!” Creed cursed and bellowed as he whipped out his sub-machine gun and let bullets fly to counter the masked woman’s.

One of his rounds had successfully knocked a gun out of the woman’s hand. She dropped her guns and pulled out a long sword that was sheathed to her back.

[Veronika. Brush Actualize a moving wall between her and Creed. To counter her sword blows] System suggested.

Veronika leapt to her feet and began to move her brush-pen about, while visualizing a glass wall before Creed to move with him.

Blueish light swelled around her body and gathered to the brush-pin’s tip as it fired off light to manifest a circular glass shield before Creed. Rather than smash against the swordswoman’s blade attacks, it absorbed them and caused a blow-back.

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The sight of the long sword pulled Veronika’s mind into her soul library.

[Unlocking Spirit Sword Core - Level 1]

During the fight, Scot had taken cover behind a prefab wall and was firing rounds at the swordswoman, who danced around his shots with grace and ease.

The swordswoman wasn’t relenting: striking at Creed’s shield wall to cause cracks on the surface, whilst dancing around Scot’s sniper rifle shots. All the time inching closer to Veronika, completely ignoring Simone, who had been ordered by Creed to stay down.

The stench of iron and charged chemicals overwhelmed the air as magic was being activated. The swordswoman was moving faster, as her body glowed with a silver-white hue of magic that was empowering her aura energy.

“Spirit energy.” Veronika gasped when her mind re-entered the fight scene and eyes narrowed at the sight of the glowing swordswoman.

Simone had pulled herself off the ground and pulled out two tungsten rods from her hip holster. Her hands glowed amber with magic as she tossed the rods into the air and used her power to manipulate them into a mage staff. She grabbed the staff and began to wield it about for a summoning spell.

“Pathway to Askara, I call upon a being of might!” She shouted as she stabbed her staff into the ground.

A hexagon pattern containing ritual sigils of amber-white formed around her staff to make the area glow with magic.

The swordswoman had seen the summoning and gave a signal. Foot soldiers broke through the side gate to enter the attack.

Simone’s staff trembled and sparked with lightning as a copy of the hexagon pattern rose to the air and moved to form a summoning gate in the shape of a gigantic orb portal. A giant snow eagle soared out of it to enter the attack on their behalf. Lightening was shot out of its beak to strike the concealed foot solders and knock them back.

Creed nodded and smirked as he felt renewed energy to keep up his gunfight against the swordswoman.

At the center of the fight and chaos was Veronika. Five foot soldiers stomped their way to her. She wasn’t perturbed. She rose her brush-pen, visualizing a long sword in her other hand. A sword appeared in her freehand, which she wielded before them to block their bullet attacks. Her face light up with a wide grin as she recalled a familiar feeling.

The swordswoman showed of moment of hesitation when she saw Veronika with a sword in her hand, then ordered all units to focus their attack on her.

The foot soldiers emptied their guns on Veronika, but she was able to counterattack with swift movements and a sword sparking with lighting. Scot made a snap analysis and used his magic to empower her sword’s energy.

Veronika activated her static spell, then did a dash for a soldier who was suddenly unable to move. With her lightning sword, she stabbed him through the heart to make him explode, so not even shrapnel was left behind.

“No. Not possible. Retreat.” The swordswoman quietly ordered her soldiers and leaped up to the wall to disappear over it, with her soldiers making a hasty retreat.

Scot and Creed were able to make a couple of foot soldiers explode before the way through the side gate was empty of soldiers. Simone said a prayer of thanks to the snow eagle as it retreated back through the summoned gateway. She dispelled her magic and returned her staff to its dormant state at her side.

When magic energies had settled, they saw Kami sprinting through the gate with a panicked expression.

“I saw them. Couldn’t stop them.” He panted as he stopped before Veronika’s feet.

“Pfft. You’re late... for… the... party.” Her eyes rolled over as she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.