Deemith fell upon us instantly, swinging her mace in a wild yet somehow controlled flurry.

I reflexively ducked under the swing right as it sailed over my head, curling into a ball to minimize my size. Then, I immediately propelled myself backward with a blast of air to dodge another attack.

This one hit the ground in front of me with a resounding crash, causing the pavement to ripple like waves in water as it cracked and broke apart.

My heart raced wildly as I dodged every swing of her weapon with ease while keeping her constantly off balance with rapid-fire blasts of wind and small barriers around her as Lori finally found the footing to intercept her swings. Lori's eyes widened in surprise as Deemith shifted her weight to the side, sending Lori flying backward into the wall behind her with a vicious kick. Deemith stopped to grin and scoff at us as we regained our bearings.

I felt my stomach clench tightly inside me, and my palms started sweating as I realized how close I was to death. Her attacks were far beyond anything I had ever seen or imagined in terms of raw strength and brutality. It definitely felt like either of us would be done in one clean hit.

Off in the distance, Dumith continued to wave his hands in the air, and I saw a soft weave of golden light surround his body.

He still needs to finish untangling the spell!

This wasn't going remotely well, and I had a feeling things would only get worse if he succeeded. My mind whirled frantically, trying to figure out what to do next, when a flash of steel shot at my face.

I instinctively dove to the side to avoid the blow, which sent me crashing into a nearby tree trunk with a thud. However, a shimmer of light around my body cushioned my impact, and I swerved to avoid another swing.

Lori had been knocked off balance, only for Deemith to come right at me through the brief opening. The harlequin's foot slammed into my chest, shattering the mage armor I had around me and knocking the wind out of my lungs. I rode with the momentum, flying back through the trees until I came to float up and into the air. Lori immediately launched herself at Deemith, but she easily batted Lori aside with her mace.

It took me a few moments to recover enough to breathe normally again. I promptly ran through another spell and re-summoned the sheen of magic armor around my body.

As I caught my breath and steadied myself, I glanced at Lori, who was struggling to fend off the harlequin's blows. She looked like she wouldn't last long against such an opponent unless I helped her somehow.

I waved my arms in the air and called forth a low barrier as Deemith rushed in at Lori, tripping the harlequin and creating an opening. Lori jumped in immediately, launching a powerful thrust at Deemith's exposed abdomen. Unfortunately, the harlequin twisted to the side and kneed her square in the gut followed by a pommel strike, sending her tumbling away once again. I immediately flew over and used magic to catch Lori in a soft cushion of summoned marshmallow-like air.

With a frustrated grunt, Lori used her sword to pull herself back to her feet, gasping for breath. "This is bad. This is really fucking bad..."

"What's the plan, Lori?" I asked.

"The plan is for you two to flail helplessly for a few more minutes as I finish my exercise. Then, I will kill you both," Deemith smiled as she yawned. The harlequin stretched, using the weight of the mace to extend her back muscles.

I stole a glance to look at Dumith as he stayed utterly still up the street. He was now floating in the air with his eyes closed, his legs crossed, and his entire body glowed with a faint golden light.

Like a cat playing with its prey, Deemith began to move her way over to us with steady stalking steps. I gulped, feeling an enormous sense of killing intent bearing down on me. She looked around before brandishing her giant mace in front of her. Her gaze landed on me, and I instinctively took a step back as she flashed me an excited and predatory smile.

I felt like I was going to die. The feeling of imminent death drilled straight into my heart.

Suddenly, Lori brushed me aside to take a step in front of me protectively.

"Alice, you have to run. Now!" Lori's voice was ragged and breathless from exertion as she stepped in front of me. "Go and don't look back. They're too much for us. I'll... I'll find a way to take care of them. Please. Find the Chief. Flee out of town if you have to."

That caught me by surprise.

But then again, many things kind of did in the last couple of weeks. This would be no exhaustion.

Lori was visibly exhausted and beat up already, and she probably wouldn't last long with the energy she could muster. I understood that she cared, and I strongly felt she was right. If I stood my ground with her, I would probably die. The presence exuded by the pair in front of us was overwhelming.

I stared at her for a second, feeling a maelstrom of emotions churning within me. Fear and worry, anger and sadness. But above all else — indignation.

I scowled and floated up to eye level with Lori to throw a slap at her face—

Only to stop myself just before making contact.

Instead, I pinched her ear, causing her to jump in surprise with a yelp.

"Listen, you idiot!" I barked at her as my heart clenched with stress and anguish. "If you get yourself killed trying to buy time for me to run away like some sort of damsel in distress, then I'm never going to be able to live with myself or forgive you!" I held her by the collars of her shirt as tears streamed down my face. My tone was harsh enough that she flinched, even if only slightly. "What happened to you and me against the world?! So shut up, and let's work together and figure out how we're going to deal with these two and get out alive, dimwit!"

Lori's eyes widened, and she inhaled deeply, catching her breath. "A-alright," she muttered as a trail of tears ran down her face. She brushed the tears away before continuing. "You and me against the world then, sis."

She raised her sword and stared directly into Deemith's eyes as the two began to circle each other.

"How touching," Deemith taunted as she circled Lori slowly. "Now that we've established your cute little desire to die together, shall we continue?"

The first thing that struck me about Deemith was just how sturdy and built she was now that she was more visible.

Deemith was around the same height as Lori, with an Amazonian muscular build that looked like it had been sculpted from granite. Her black hair was a singed, frizzled mess, and the gold harlequin mask that covered half her face was now visibly cracked — but in such a way that it extended her manic smile. Her entire appearance instilled a sense of primal fear in me, as though I'd seen something that shouldn't have existed.

The harlequin swung her mace lazily, bringing it up to strike Lori's torso. At the exact moment she did, Lori ducked under the blow and slashed up at the nape of her neck with her sword. A strange sense of Déjà vu washed over me. I breathed in to shout a warning, but I would be too late—

Halfway through her counterstroke, Lori flinched in surprise and withdrew her strike, leaping back and away from Deemith's open hand as purple energy washed over her body and dissipated. As the two stood there staring each other down, Deemith broke eye contact first and began to laugh hysterically, her whole body shaking.

"Skilled and graceful! Sharp instincts! You are quite worthy of your rank," Deemith cried out with delight as she brandished her mace once more. "Unfortunately, you'll never win this fight. You are far too weak, Lorina Liddell, even without my brother's aid. The assistance of your sister's magic is insufficient to close the gap between us, either."

Lori grunted softly as she brought up her sword defensively, a look of determination on her face. She closed her eyes and took a deep, resigned sigh before raising her sword and leaping back next to me.

"Oh? Does the little lordling have another card up her sleeve, perhaps? Perhaps a few of your family's little 'tricks' passed down over the generations?" Deemith taunted as she put her mace down and leaned on it briefly. "Come, show me then."

She looked at Lori expectantly, her grin growing wider as Lori simply looked at me with a resigned smile before turning back to look at Deemith.

"Lori," I started nervously. I didn't like that look on her face, "What are you planning?"

"A technique I am definitely not ready for yet," Lori replied. "Since you're actually here slinging that magic around, I need you to do your best to cover me for a minute. I'll only have one shot at it."

One shot!?

Without turning around, she raised her massive cleaver sword, and I flinched as the second of the four runes along the blade lit up. I stared, captivated by the four beautiful runes on her blade; wisps of ethereal blue light emanated from them. They seemed to be changing shape erratically—each one oscillating and shrinking until they eventually became mere points. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light as each of the runes on the blade exploded with bright light in sequence. This was followed by a loud noise like a thunderclap which reverberated through my chest and made my ears ring.

"I, Lorina Liddell, of the line of the Tyrian Knight, do swear on the blood of my forebears, on the legacy of my ancestor the Sword Saint. I swear, on the sacred trust placed in all that have come before, that my battle is fought in the name of honor and love. The cries of the innocent echo in my ears, urging me to act, to defend, and to fight. The memory of past battles linger in my mind, the faces of the lost haunt me, fueling my cause. To never let their sacrifices be made in vain."

I gulped as the ground around us began to shake violently. My vision went white from the sheer force of the earth shaking beneath our feet, accompanied by a roaring sound like an earthquake. Then, I felt myself being thrown back through the air until I slowed my momentum with magic and came tumbling into the wet dirt floor by the side of the road.

The air was filled with a scenery of pure chaos as a swirling vortex of blue energy appeared right next to Lori. It quickly expanded, and I could see something forming out of the center of it — pure power shaped in the form of a giant dragon, almost thirty times the size of a human.

Deemith actually seemed surprised by this, and she stood stock still for a moment as the wind whistled past her face, which had twisted into an inscrutable but clearly furious expression.

"This is..." Deemith reacted incredulously. "Impossible!"

"My blade is not a weapon, but a symbol of the bond I share with those who stand with me through time endless. I call out to thee for the first time. Not of ill to those who stand before me, but for love for those who stand behind. I, your humble servant Lorina, scion of House Liddell, swear to protect the meek and innocent. To shield them from harm, and guide them towards sanctuary and salvation."

Suddenly, Dumith's eyes snapped open and he ceased his work on the spell. He began to desperately charge over at us.

"Sister of mine! I believe you've had your fill of fun. Mind your hubris. Do not let her finish." Dumith's voice boomed over the scene as the ground rumbled and trembled violently.

Deemith's eyes narrowed as she took a step forward. Her smug expression was gone now, replaced with sheer incredulity. She raised her mace high above her head and brought it down on the ground with both arms, unleashing an ungodly amount of power in one fell swoop. The streets cracked open as a massive wave of red energy slammed through the air toward Lori.

"HELL no you don't!" I shouted and pulled upon every bit of active mana that had been building up and swirling in my body as I crawled back onto my feet.

A brilliant blast of light shot out from my hands, enveloping Lori in a protective triple-layered dome. Deemith's attack pierced into my barrier, drilling furiously against it. As I reinforced it, I felt a torrent of mental strain, throwing up new layers as Deemith's attack peeled away my spell like an onion.

I screamed as my mind was bombarded with a full-scale assault of blinding, white-hot pain. Then, I felt the spell unravel and disintegrate as if a strongman was tearing it apart with their bare hands.

But I wouldn't let the siblings through. This wasn't over yet. Someone. Someone...

Someone was counting on me. Who? God, it hurt so much. Where am I?

I blinked away the headache, and the world came back into focus.

In one smooth, fluid motion, I reached into my holster and grabbed my wand before pulling off its stopper and placing the end firmly against the palm of my hand. I forced all the power I could into the carvings engraved inside the wood, and poured all my willpower into it.

The purple gem at the hilt crackled with power as it began to glow. Flashes of texts, runes, and spell formulae ran through my head as a brilliant purple glowing magic circle formed in front of me.

I threw out a larger mana pulse, a powerful burst of light that exploded from my wand tip like an explosion. A shockwave of energy blasted outward from the impact zone, causing the ground to ripple with waves of heat and light as a complicated lattice of redirecting arrays burst forth in front of Lori.

The wand I had trusted in since I'd begun to learn magic cracked and audibly groaned as energy continued to pour into it—all the while, I kept pushing more power into it until it snapped in half right where it touched my fingers. As it fell apart into two halves on either side of my hand, it sent a jolt up my arm, which made my entire body spasm violently.

That's that. You've served your purpose well, trusty old friend.

Through all of this, Lori continued to stare ahead with her eyes fully focused and unwavering, fully trusting in me. She continued to speak loudly and clearly over the chaos. It was like she was speaking through a megaphone without the slightest waver or distortion to her voice.

"I call upon the ancient and great spirits within this sword, to honor their oaths sworn old and true. With every step I take, the weight of its responsibility is mine to bear. I swear once more on the blood of my forebears, on the legacy of the Tyrian Knight, on that of the great wyrm Pakhangba, and on the sacred trust placed in all the wielders that have come before. I swear, that I, Lorina Liddell, will hereby honor the ancient oath of fidelity! To disturb your rest only to end that which cannot be ended."

Lori's voice echoed across the world as she raised her sword high above her head. Through the darkness of the night, a third rune lit up on the blade, and all three runes began to shimmer in that strange, otherworldly oscillating pattern.

Then, I felt a chill go up my spine as the remains of my barrier vanished before Deemith's onslaught.

No, it didn't vanish. It was visibly sucked into the sword, along with attacks the harlequins continued to throw to no avail. The energy coalesced into a giant dome above, before forming a massive twister. I gasped as the flow of energy I'd felt for the past hour abruptly ceased, and my body returned to normal. The image of a dragon above swelled in size until it grew to the size of a skyscraper.

The dragon danced through the air in a spiraling dance before it flew down and folded into Lori's sword. The sword twisted and morphed before settling into a massive curved greatsword made of pure, solid purple light before it shifted into a hauntingly beautiful blue. Lori's hair rose in the air as her eyes glowed a brilliant lavender, and electricity crackled around her.

"Roar for me, Nandaka! Shatter all who stand against the sanctity of life."

Lori flourished the sword, moving it behind her as she dropped into a low stance. Her silver armor briefly shimmered like a mirage under the evening light. Then, she vanished.

The sound of the blade cutting through the air was deafening.

I barely had time to register the motion as my world erupted into blinding blue light.