Himari’s legs gave out as the entire castle began to shake, the stone building bending unnaturally as waves of fluctuating power battered the room. Unable to do anything as her mind filled with blaring alarms as Babylon desperately tried to address all the errors that flooded the system.

Mother Himari, I advise evacuation immediately! Babylon screamed in her mind as another wave of power rippled through the floor, this time shattering the table that sat between them and the young woman who now stood glowing in the room.

It's too late for that Babylon. She managed a dry chuckle as she watched the young woman convulse violently, the movement sending a distinct burst of mana out as the fragments of the table vanished only to reappear embedded into the far wall. Overseer, what is going on with her?

Amethyst and Hecatolite both are attempting to take control of the body at once. They seem to be having a disagreement on what should be done about mother Eryl’s enslavement.

She watched as the pulsating black lines danced across their exposed skin, intertwining with the now clearly visible blessings that all seemed to pulse in unison, pushing the black vein like lines back as the two battled. Himari couldn’t help but feel sick to her stomach as she watched their muscles flexing and relaxing unnaturally under their skin.

What she did not see was the fleeing nobility as the dozen or so guards that had been blocking their path to the queen all retreated to surround the royal family, blocking their view of the soon to be battlefield behind a wall of armor. Unknown to the guards, their inability to follow the queen's order to move blocked her from using her own magic, an unfortunate downside to her power being it relied mainly on being able to see one’s target.

Please be advised, chances of survival are currently at 45%. Overseer added as the twin’s family attempted to calm her.

“What the fuck is that?!” Anna nearly screamed as she conjured a small stone into her hands.

“don…” Himari was not fast enough as Anna fired a stone like a bullet towards the glowing girl who amazingly did not motion to dodge as the massive giant grabbed the stone from the air, fire flashing through his knuckles as he crushed it before another.

They don’t seem to be fazed by this at all. Himari thought as she watched Taaffeite speaking calmly to her daughter as her father blocked her path. 

“That thing is no hero!” Lucius yelled, trying to keep his footing as he grabbed onto Kira’s arm, “We are leaving now!” He reached a handout to grab Himari, roughly grabbing the back of her robe as he violently pulled her from the floor.

“No!” the distorted voice of Hecatolite cracked the stone around her as another wave of power slammed into them, the constant pulsing of her power causing even the surefooted Lucius to stagger as the floor shook beneath him. Himari could see all the muscles in the young woman’s neck flex as her head snapped to the side. “I can’t fight you and stop them at the same time!” her head whipped around to the other side with a loud popping sound as the blessing marks flared, the voice though still distorted was distinctly different.

She’s going to rip herself apart. Himari thought, realizing why the movements bothered her so much. It wasn’t that they seemed “unnatural”, it's that they were. “Hecatolite! If you both try to move the body at the same time, you’re going to injure your body!” She called hoping to get through to them over the noise.

The battle between the two consciousnesses that battered the room around them was far from the most dangerous fight happening right now as both their subconscious tried to “balance” themselves. Normally one’s body can’t do certain things because your subconscious keeps you from doing them, like flexing the muscles to both bend your leg and keep it strait at the same time, but with two minds trying to move the body at once… every staggering step she took her joints popped as they moved out of unison.

“Free… Eryl…”

“We will… promised… together.”

Their broken conversation caused the fluctuating power in the room to flair wildly as objects appeared around them only to vanish again, strange tools and half-finished objects… was… was that a human skeleton? Himari pondered as what looked like a metal skull flew by her only to vanish again. The added chaos forced even their parents to retreat a step as what looked like a breastplate nearly slammed into Alastair's head.

“Anna, where are we on leaving!” Lucius yelled as he took a step back, unable to call his weapon as  he held onto both Kira and Himari.

What Himari couldn’t see behind her was the chain that had been formed as all of them grabbed onto one another. Another gift from Jasper, insisting any hero who left the safety of the Holy city have a recall crystal had caused the already limited supply of the rare items to dwindle, forcing the church to ration them out. forcing them to adopt a  one crystal a mission policy, which was more than enough as long as they were all touching when it was used, though even the densest of them could tell that it would not be long until that luxury would soon be gone as the church's stockpile shrank each day.

“STOP THEM!” the distorted voice screamed only for the maelstrom of power to stop, the oscillating power suddenly coalescing becoming a steady pressure of mana.

Himari let out a yell as the small woman appeared directly before her, grabbing onto her arm with a vice-like grip as mana rushed into her.

“No!” the fading scream lost as darkness overtook Himari’s vision.

Alastair stood over the perfectly cut circle in the center of the room, the stone floor simply ending in a hole that led to the dirt below. His arm outstretched, ending in a smoking stub just past his elbow. “Babylon!” Ignoring his now missing hand, he bellowed a question before the terminal even appeared, “where are my daughters!” he yelled, grabbing the terminal the moment arrived.

“Unable too…” the terminal burst into flames as he threw it. 

“Damn it!” He bellowed, turning to the door.

“Dad, stop!” Alexa yelled, grabbing his waist, “where are you going!?” she called as he drug her behind him.

“Alamgir!” He growled, though burning with anger he made sure to keep his flames under control lest he burn her.

“Do you plan to walk there! You’ll bleed to death before you get out of the castle!” She dug her heels in as she tried to form ice around his feet. “Mom help me…” she looked back to see her mother frantically carving a magic circle into the stone. “What are you doing!”

“Going to need to increase the area of my search spell to reach all the way to that damn nation.” Taaffeite muttered as she wove an intricate spell.

“She's not in Alamgir!” Alexa yelled, causing both her parents to pause. “Think about it, what kind of teleportation spell cuts the floor out from under your feet when you use it. Clearly the spell went wild.”

“She's right.” Arsis called weakly, drawing their attention back to the throne to see her sitting with a terminal in her hands. “Jasper… says they didn’t show up there…”

Alastair finally stopped his march towards the door, thankfully freeing Alexa from her attempt to stop him. Only for the moment she released him for him to sink to his knees. “Then… where are…” his low voice cracking as he stared blanking off into space.  

“Dad.” Alexa whispered as she lifted the bloody stump up, wincing as she looked at the perfectly cut stump. If she had the other half even, she might have been able to reattach it given how clean the cut was but… “this may hurt…” She swallowed as she grabbed onto the wound and started trying to mend it shut. 

To her amazement, he didn’t even make a noise as she forced his arm closed, just looking blankly at the door as he trembled. “They are out there… with those bastards…” 

“Then I will just search the whole damn world.” Taaffeite snarled as she began expanding her spell circle only for the Babylon terminal in the princess’s hand to flash a deep red.

“That is ill-advised, the amount of mana needed for a search that large would…”

“Then tell me where my children are!” She yelled, her voice trembling as she continued to carve into the stone. “Five years! Five years I lay awake at night terrified for my son! And now those… I won’t let them take any more…” Taaffeite shook, sinking to the floor as she held onto her repair, the enchanted sword more than capable of engraving on the stone as she gripped the blade in both hands slowly turning the silver blade crimson as she forced it into the ground.

“Taaffeite…” The queen slowly stepped from the surrounding guards, not slowing her approach at Taaffeite’s accusing glare that stopped even the most seasoned guard.

“You knew. You knew the whole time and yet you…” Taaffeite stopped when the queen fell to her knees beside her wrapping her into a tight hug.

“I… I am sorry. My dearest Taaffeite, I am so sorry.” Irithyl whispered as she pulled Taaffeite into her. “I swear, we will get them back. All of them.”

The entire room was quiet as they all sat, the queen holding Taaffeite who just knelt on the stone floor as Alastair stared into the distance, Alexa occupying herself with mending her father’s arm as the guards quickly went to work removing the final lingering nobles.

Overseer was concerned about the family’s rapidly deteriorating mental state but unable to do anything for them.

Himari received a notification the moment she slammed into the hard ground. 

Notice, chances of the heroes surviving… 33%. Suggested course of action, surrender.

Tibbit

Here we are at the end of today's update! Sorry, no fight yet. As I said these 3... or four chapters are not quite what I feel is up to par with the rest of the story and I can't figure out why. In my mind they seem fine yet feel... off, if that makes sense. However I am more eager to get to the next few chapters which will be the final climax of book 2! surprise apparently the easiest way to end a book is a battle! Who would have guessed. For the first time I am saying it now, these chapters are 100% place holders, they have all the information I feel is important for these parts but the delivery felt off. i have spent the last week re-reading them, talking about them rewriting them and it's getting to the point where I feel its best to try the "move on'' and come back to it later approach, but given I want you all to come on the journey with me i can't just omit them and jump to the fight or you all will be kind of lost on why the twins are alone with the Hero's nowhere near where they started out. also i don't know why i took Alistair's arm o.O but i'm not giving it back. I think I had a plan there at 6am when I wrote it but can't remember, it'll come back to me eventually or not. Thank you again for reading, and your support!