The two girls navigated the winding back streets of the city that sprawled in every direction like a labyrinth, it seemed that most of the soldiers and the fighting had moved on from the area, in fact perhaps it was just that one small battalion.

“Hey, Lili how big is Albatross anyhow?”

“They're a part of the triangle but nobody knows for sure, conservative estimate, five thousand or so.”

“And the city guard is a piss poor six hundred, we don’t stand a chance, fuck.”

“Let go of my mommy.”

The distraught voice of a little boy cried causing the pair to grind to a halt, down one of the many back alleyways where a young man with his guts slit open and a woman pinned to the wall while the tiny boy clung desperately one of the three Albatross soldiers.

“I won’t let you hurt my mommy.” The boy screeched beating his fist against the soldier's amour.

“Don’t touch me you diseased little shit.” The soldier flung the boy with a single blow sending him careening into a brick wall greatly injuring the boy.

“Before we fill this bitch up, let’s snuff the kid, Gwyn you do the honours.”

Another of the soldiers produced a serrated dagger from his belt and ran the blade along  his tongue

“Don’t worry boy, You’ll be alive long enough to see your precious mommy get fucked.”

“Now try not to squirm.”

“Somebody, Please, Help” The boy screamed

“Hey Bestie can you open your arms wide for a minute and stand right about here,” Mari said posing Lili at the entrance to the alleyway.

“Sure, but why?”

“Let's do this, Duvalie!” Mari bellowed

Darkness engulfed Mari as her red markings began to glow and pulsate it had been a minute but she had gotten the hang of how to use the devil that formerly resided inside Daphne and could push its magic and augmentation up to 23%.

“Acceleration Magic!”

Like a blur, Mari moved to create a strong gust of wind that nearly toppled Lilith she scooped the trembling boy in her arms and returned to her starting position in a few seconds. The soldiers' knives cut through the air causing the soldier to become off-balanced.

“What the hell was that?”

Without making a sound Mari unloaded the quivering child into the safety of Lilith’s arms and turned her full attention to the soldiers, truth be told she could only use Duvalie at the max potential for short bursts and the stress of moving at such fantastic speeds rapidly took a toll.

“Look at those uniforms, damn academy students.”

“Students or not, hurry up and kill em.”

“You brats aren’t the only ones with magic you know, Klein let's do this.”

“Combination Magic Onyx!, Gale!” Megalith Cyclone”

Blades of Razor-sharp wind rushed towards them accompanied by stone spikes crashing along the ground, Mari had briefly heard about combination magic during their Offensive art classes but had never seen it demonstrated before.

“Acceleration Magic!”

By Accelerating Mari was able to grab Lilith and the child and remove them from danger, but her body was starting to pay the price.

“Yo master just a heads up, You’ve got maybe one more use before your muscles tear, make it count.”

“Yes, Duvalie I’m aware of that,” Mari grunted

“Bestie toss me your sword.”

“Okay, here catch.”

Mari awkwardly caught the blade in her throbbing hands accelerating wasn’t going to be any good if she had one more use available for now then the opposite approach would prove the more fruitful path to tread.

It was a pale imitation of Hideto’s right of time but through deceleration, she could slow their time to crawl making it child's play to kill them all in a single stroke.

“I’m a nice girl so I’ll give you boys ten seconds to say your last words.

“Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven”

“You’ve gone made with fear or something?”

“Six, Five, Four, Three.”

“Gwyn Just cut her throat and shut her up already.”

“My pleasure, Come here you little bitch.”

“Two, One.”

“Urgh...”

Inside the span of a blink, the skirmish was over and three Albatross soldiers were gurgling and writhing on the ground, wheezing as they bled out and gasped their final breaths.

“Your amour is impressive but it has one fatal flaw I spotted while you boasting and threatening, there’s a small gap where your throat is exposed your jugulars were so brazenly exposed they were just begging for me to slit them wide open.”

“I’ll be helping myself to one of your fancy blades, if you don’t want me to take it you just have to speak up, oh wait what's that you can’t, because you're dead.”

Mari waltzed over to the leader and claimed his blade it was heavier than the training swords they had used in instructor Redgraves classes but she should still be able to make good use of it.

The mother had fainted from the ordeal and the boy had followed soon after hiding them away in a safe space and after returning Lilith’s sword she happened upon a masterful idea.

“Use their armour as a disguise?”

“Think about it Riri we’ll be able to move with greater freedom and our goal at the moment is to reunite with our classmates.”

“That’s a genius idea Lili plus the blood splatter can be explained, it’s a war we got a little too carried away, let’s do this and while we're at it try to glean as much info as we can.”

Thus two of the three bodies were stripped and they donned the sweaty blood-stained amour of Albatross.

“Only issue now is what to do with the third body?” Lilith pondered

“I can handle that, Miss Mari the garbage disposal coming right up.”

“ Void Magic First Form: Devour”

A black hole appeared in Mari’s right hand and sucked the fallen soldier inside armour and all, a boon to this was her strength was replenished and she had gained the ability to use basic Onyx magic, all the sword skill of the soldier and his knowledge of Albatross decorum and tactics.

The only trade-off was the fatigue that came after every devouring but she’d manage, and thus the two young mages went undercover behind enemy lines.