“Say, Lilian?”

“Yes, Lyra?” Lilian, the Dryad, responded with an amicable smile while having three would-be rapists trapped inside an earthen mould with only their heads sticking out. The three would-be rapists were tearing up and snot was oozing off their noses as they whimpered and begged for their mercy.

“Please… have mercy…” one of the thugs pleaded but was woefully ignored by the two women.

“Do you think Aera would be fine?” Lyra asked as she went around retrieving her arrows from the corpses of the thugs and ruffians she slew.

“Why wouldn’t she be? She’s with Aedan after all.”

“Yes, but Aedan’s… ain’t as strong as he was. Should Aera lose herself, do you think Aedan alone would be enough to contain her?”

“Erin’s not here, dearie, and if Aedan couldn’t handle her, then no one else can.”

“Please… we’ll give you anything… just let us go…” the thug continued to beg.

“I know… but I still think we should have stayed together. What if any of us encounter a Demoid far removed from the common expectations? Do you believe any of us can take it down without working together?”

“I see your point, Lyra, but we have discussed this. We cover more ground if we split up and our priority here isn’t the extermination of the Demoids but the rescuing of the survivors. If we encounter something we can’t beat, we run.”

“Erin wouldn’t run.”

“She wouldn’t but we’re not her. We don’t have her luck nor her skills.”

Lyra sighed as she plucked the last arrow out of a corpse. “I suppose you’re right… But I can’t shake off this bad feeling I have.”

“Please. We won’t—”

“Oh, be quiet!” Lilian hissed at the thugs and snapped the thugs’ heads with her Earth Magic by tightening the holes around their necks. “Ah, oops. I didn’t mean to do that. How embarrassing.”

Lyra stared at Lilian with a sullen frown. “Embarrassing, really?”

“I’m truly embarrassed that I lost control of my spells for a moment there. It is very unbecoming for a seasoned Mage such as I. But anyway, good riddance, I say.”

“You can be very terrifying at times, has anyone told you that?”

Lilian tittered. “Erin certainly has and so did Aedan but the latter was quite… frivolous when he told me so. I don’t believe he finds me as terrifying as his words suggest. In fact, I think he was trying to flirt with me. He did say it was sort of charming.”

“Alright, enough. I don’t need to hear your love affair memoirs.”

Lilian simpered. “Why the diffidence, Lyra? You’re not a novice to love.”

“All this talk about love is making me want to fuck instead of fight and I have not fuck yesterday, so I’m a tad muddled right now.”

“Ah, that’s terrible. Do you need my assistance?” Lilian asked, slowly pulling her gown off her shoulders.

Lyra rolled her eyes. “Not now, Lilian. There’s a time and place for everything.”

“Alright alright, Lyra. As you say.” Lilian pulled her gown back up her shoulders.

“Were you really intending on copulating among these dead bodies?” Lyra questioned.

“Of course not, Lyra. What do you take me for?”

“You sounded very serious with your offer?”

“Well, that’s because I was serious with my offer but I wouldn’t have done it here. However, I certainly would have minded if you didn't.”

“Lilian, you have issues.”

Saying so, Lyra proceeded to walk out of the alley. Once out of the streets, she was immediately greeted by the sight of chaos and destruction. Buildings were destroyed. Carts were overturned. Stalls were razed. Bodies of the city folks strewn about the roads, mangled, torn, or whole.

“Will the city ever recover from this?” Lyra muttered, frowning at the sight around her that was gradually getting used to, which she did not take as a good sign.

“Of course, the city would. The lands are rich around here. The soils are fertile and the mines are soaked in rare minerals and precious stones. No way the humans would leave this as it is even if the entire city is ruined, even if it became infested with Demoids.”

“They definitely would…” Lyra nodded in agreement, lamenting over the unbridled greed of her own kind, which was one of the reasons this tragedy was happening in the first place.

“But the viceroy wouldn’t be the same. Rylan Grid will definitely be replaced after this, that is of course if he survives this ordeal.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “You think he will die?”

“This rampage of the Demoids is certainly the Covenant’s way of tying up loose ends and erasing any trace that could lead back to them. If the viceroy dies without getting the chance to have his day at court, the blame of this incident will be on him solely.”

“You can’t possibly be suggesting that we start thinking of ways to protect the viceroy now, are you?”

“Of course not, Lyra. I wouldn’t risk my life for that man and he’s probably in a place safer than everyone here.”

Just then, Lyra caught a hint of movement in the corner of her sight. She followed the hint and found her gaze landing on a remnant of a stall. Whoever or what it was, they were hiding behind the ruined stall. Lyra gestured at Lilian with hand signs to tell the Dryad of a possible threat near them.

Lilian nodded with her ever-present smile and crept towards the place where Lyra spotted movement. She did not creep directly over to the spot but just close to it. She then knelt behind a cover and placed her hands on the ground. After a few seconds, she clenched her fists.

A possible threat, said Lilian’s hand sign. Lyra drew her bow and nocked an arrow as she approached the stall. As she neared the stall, Lilian suddenly waved Lyra away. Lyra took heed and rushed to the nearest cover she could find, which was an overturned cart.

Demoid, Lilian mouthed the word to Lyra without any sound and pointed at the opposite side of where Lyra spotted movement. As Lilian was a Fae, she was naturally sensitive to Spirits and thus, she was able to sense the presence of any Demonic being through the Spirits.

Peeking out from her cover, Lyra furtively aimed her arrow at the spot where Lilian was pointing at. She charged the arrow with Mana before releasing it from the bow. The arrow flew through rocks and concrete and streaked towards Lyra’s mark. Shortly after the arrow was released, a deafening screech erupted from a collapsed building and beastial Demoid emerged from the ruin.

This, in turn, startled the one hiding behind the ruined stall. A man with tattered armour stumbled out of hiding and clambered away from the Demoid who made its appearance known after being shot by Lyra. The man’s armour made his profession apparent, a guard of the city but currently not much of one considering the pitiful state he was in.

The Demoid looked around for its assailant and found only the guard who was crawling on the ground. The guard’s legs were not in good shape. Chunks of flesh were gone but the wounds were sealed through the searing of extreme heat. The guard looked to be a survivor of the initial moments of the Demoids’ rampage. He had managed to hide from further misfortune due to his luck but now his luck had come to an end.

As the guard was the only individual around the Demoid could find, it lunged at him after arbitrarily deeming him as the one who shot the arrow in spite of not seeing a bow in his hands. But the mindless Demoid couldn’t care less about that discrepancy in its skewed assumption.

“Damn it,” Lyra cursed and leapt out of her cover, instantly shooting two arrows at the lunging Demoid.

The quadrupedal Demoid noticed the arrows flying their way as a bulging eye opened wide on the side of its head. A pair of limb-like appendages sprouted from its lower back and caught the arrows before they could pierce into its flesh. The Demoid landed firmly on its feet but its interest was no longer on the guard but on Lyra.

“This is unnerving,” Lyra muttered.

The Demoid growled and snapped the arrows it caught but it made a mistake in doing so. The Mana imbued in the arrows was expunged in a volatile manner. The Demoid shrieked and swung its limbs and appendages wildly. Its tantrum sent the debris, rubble, and scraps scattering and flying, including Lilian’s cover.

The Demoid immediately ceased its tantrum and focused its gaze on Lilian as if the pain from the explosion had been forgotten in spite of the injuries it sustained from it.

“Spirits be damned,” Lilian uttered as her gaze met with the Demoid’s.

The Demoid roared and leapt at the exposed Dryad.

“Lilian!” Lyra shouted and rushed towards her companion while quickly knocking another arrow into her bow.

Lilian raised a wall of earth between her and the Demoid but the latter easily broke through the earthen wall. Even so, Lilian only smirked. The wall was only a means to slow the Demoid down. She produced a small pouch from the valley of her bosom and scattered the contents at the Demoid. She conjured a small flame of Essence Flare and that tiny blaze was all it took to set ablaze the Demoid with the aid of the Faerie Dust.

The Demoid seemed to realise its blunder but it was far too late in changing its course of action. And so, it was determined to bring at least Lilian down with it as the cyan flames engulfed it. Its cries of agony and death resonated sharply through the streets. Due to the Demoid’s deafening shrill, Lilian lost the window to make her retreat. The burning Demoid plunged itself at the Dryad in its final breaths.

However, Lilian was not alone. Lyra released the string and sent an arrow into the Demoid’s side-eye. It shrieked even louder as the arrow pierced into its eyeball. Lilian sent the Demoid tumbling away from her by raising the ground below the Demoid’s feet. To prevent the Demoid from getting back up, Lilian shackled it to the ground with vines that sprouted from the exposed soil under the ruined pavements.

The Demoid broke free of the vines with ease but Lyra barraged the Demoid arrow after arrow until the cyan flames eventually saved the life of the Demoid. Lyra stopped riddling her mark with arrows when the Demoid was no longer moving.

“Is it dead?” Lyra asked without lowering her bow.

Lilian peered at the Demoid that was now nothing but ashes. “It’s as dead as it can be.”

Heaving a sigh of relief, Lyra turned her attention to the guard, who had clambered his way to another hiding spot while she and Lilian were engaged in combat with the Demoid. “Come out,” Lyra said after lowering her bow.

Hesitantly and slowly, the guard limped out from behind a rubble pile. “P-please… don’t hurt me…”

Lilian smiled at the guard. “And why would we hurt you?”

“...No reason… No reason at all. It’s just…”

“Lying is futile against a Fae, do you know?”

The guard’s face began to pale and he did not limp any close to Lilian and Lyra.

“The Spirits are avoiding you like animals would avoid flames. The Spirits don’t usually do this unless the person-in-question had committed some heinous crimes.”

“Y-you’re mistaken, Fae. I am not what you think I am. I-I’m just a guard…”

“Then why were you hiding from us? Do we look like thugs out for blood and gold? In fact, you already knew we meant well since you have been watching our movements for some time even when we were saving people from those alley thugs. You couldn’t have not known we meant well which leads me to believe that our intentions ran contrary to yours.”

Hearing Lilian’s words, Lyra raised her bow and aimed at the guard.

“You’re mistaken, Fae. I’m just a city guard.”

“Are you truly a city guard? You don’t look like one, if I may say. The armour is too big for you and your wounds don’t match the ruptured parts of your armour. Your legs are in terrible condition and yet, your greaves are whole. There are dents and torn slits on the chest plate but there are no bruises or even a shallow cut on your torso as far as I can tell. Now, do you wish to keep lying or do you wish to come clean?”

Left with no way out of the farce, the presumed guard could only scowl and utter a curse under his breath as his hand crept behind his waist, reaching for his hidden dagger.

However, Lyra saw through his skulking hand and released the arrow into the presumed guard’s head. The man’s face was stuck in awe and disbelief as the lifeless body collapsed to the ground.

“How cold of you, Lyra,” Lilian remarked with a titter.

“I don’t want to hear that from you,” Lyra retorted.