Though they were out of the district of outlaws, Erin and Aera found themselves walking through a borough that was strangely quiet. Erin could sense people inside the buildings, sleeping or merely resting their weary bodies after a long day of work but there was barely anyone on the streets. The ones present were drunkards, meandering their way aimlessly until their sobriety or unconsciousness caught up to them.
It felt weird to her bones but Erin shook her head from the feeling and pressed on with Edmund trailing behind them. He was conscious and walking, though Erin had wanted to knock him unconscious as he would not seize his infernal yapping. Erin found a bundle of rope hanging by a fence. She took it and then used it to bind Edmund’s hands. She had a cloth handy in one of her satchel pouches which she used to tie around his lower head, essentially silencing him aside from the desperate mumbles through the cloth. He eventually fell completely silent when Aera made a show of pulverising his reproductive organ by crushing two similar-sized stones with a single hand.
“Is this the slum of the city?” Aera asked as she looked around. It was definitely a living quarter but there were only flats and dozen-storey buildings, not a single house or hut in sight.
“The common folks' living space, most likely.”
“But I see no cabin or cottage. Surely a city of this scale has the capacity to house the common folks properly, no?”
“Even if it does have such capacities, it doesn’t necessarily mean the governing power will allow it.”
“Why not?”
“Greed. Enough is never enough, even if they already have more than enough.”
Aera grimaced. “This is sickening.”
“Human greed knows no bounds.”
“I’m a human but I don’t have such desires.”
“It’s a shame that humans like you and Lyra are a rarity.”
“Why can’t they just be nice and be happy with what they have?”
Erin smiled sorrowfully. “Indeed, why can’t they…?” she mused and stopped in her tracks, gazing forward.
Aera clenched her fists and assumed her fighting stance. “Foes?”
Erin gestured for her to be at ease. “Uncertain,” she said. “We’ll find out.”
A group of soldiers approached them from an alley they emerged from. There was nothing out of the ordinary about them save for the fact that they were the first patrol Erin and Aera had encountered in their path ever since they came out of the midnight district. The soldiers looked surprised at Erin. More precisely, their eyes were focused on the bound and gagged man behind her.
“What’s the meaning of this?” asked the officer of the group, pointing at Edmund. “Milady Fae,” he added with a gulp after noticing Erin’s gently fluttering tails.
“He’s a bounty mark issued by the Guild,” Erin answered and took out and unrolled the wanted poster of Edmund.
The officer read the print quickly but carefully as if he was used to seeing this, which he was. If anything, he had already suspected this to be the case as this was how the adventurers tend to transport their bounty mark alive. He had only asked Erin for formality purposes.
While the officer was surveying the handbill, the other soldiers couldn’t take their eyes off Erin. By now, Erin was used to this but Aera wasn’t. Half of the eyes were on Aera, who was a beauty in her own right. However, one particular pair of eyes was set on Edmund.
“Everything seems to be in order.” The officer nodded at Erin. “Carry on.” He waved for Erin and Aera to move along.
Erin nodded back and resumed walking, tugging at the rope Edmund was bound to.
As the pair walked past the patrol group and Edmund was passing by, Erin yanked on the rope hard. She pulled Edmund into her arms as sharp steel sliced through the air.
Edmund shrieked through the cloth muffling his mouth.
“Olly!” shouted the officer once he realised what one of his men had done, or tried to do. “What the fuck were you trying to do?”
The soldier named Olly did not respond to his commander and merely stayed his gaze on Edmund.
“Olly, stand down!” the officer shouted even louder. “This is an order!”
The soldier didn’t even bat an eyelid at his superior booming orders. His gaze turned bloodshot as he strode towards Erin with his sword unsheathed.
The officer clicked his tongue and stormed forward. “Damn it, Olly. Stand the fuck—” the officer’s words were quite short as was his body.
One of the soldiers had come up and beheaded the officer without a shred of hesitation. The other soldiers didn’t look surprised at the development. They shrugged and simply stepped over their superior’s headless body, drawing their swords as they drew closer to Erin.
Erin sighed and drew her sword out of thin air. “Aera, take Edmund and run.”
“Impossible,” Aera said.
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Erin glanced behind and saw a humanoid bug-like monster with six red eyes appearing from the shadows. She sniffed at the air and still could catch the abomination’s scent despite the narrow distance between them. “I can barely smell the beast or sense the magic enveloping the area.”
“There’s a spell cast on the area?”
“It would appear so. It was done very subtly. I wouldn’t have realised if it wasn't for the fact that I can’t smell the abomination before us.”
“What kind of spell?”
Erin appraised her surroundings but she didn’t get any proper information in return. “Can’t tell but at a guess? Awareness inhibition spell. There might be more enemies nearby.”
“What do we do?”
“Protect Edmund. He seems to have some kind of damning knowledge if the Covenant is willing to go this far. Take care of the soldiers, Aera. I’ll handle this… Demoid.”
“That’s a Demoid?”
“I can sense faint traces of Demonic power from it and it seems to have rationality behind those eyes. A Demoid is a very likely possibility.”
“That’s a very ugly-looking Demoid. Is it supposed to be a beetle or an ant?”
“I shall inquire if the opportunity arises.”
The soldier named Olly lunged first, his sword swinging. Aera moved in and caught the blade with her bare hands. Olly let go of his sword and charged toward Edmund as he brandished a dagger from underneath his garment. Aera was already between him and Edmund in a flash. She caught the dagger and tugged it out of the soldier's hand. She grabbed him by the neck and flung him into his peers, who all stepped out of the way and let his face greet the concrete ground.
“So you’re all part of the Covenant?” Aera asked.
None of them answered. They simply trod forward with passive gazes.
“Fine, stay silent as you wish. Not that my mind would change if you deny it,” Aera said and sprang at the soldiers.
The soldiers took out a glowing stone from their breast pockets and cast the stones before her. The glowing stones turned into bolts of magic and struck Aera, sending her tumbling backwards but she was without wounds. There was pain but she was unhurt.
“That hurts,” she groaned with an irked frown.
The soldiers weren’t deterred by the redundancy of their tools. They simply took out another set of glowing stones and slid it across the ground towards Aera. The stones turned into chains and coiled around her, binding her to the ground.
With her limbs bound, the soldiers strode towards Edmund in a harmonised march that looked a tad too surreal to Aera. She would have kept staring if there were no magical chains binding her like some sort of beast. Her veins began glowing a bright shade of violet and she tore herself free of the magical chains. With a roar, she threw herself at the marching soldiers.
Her roar drew their attention and they turned their swords at her. She landed in the middle of the group, surrounded on all sides.
They swung their swords at Aera but the blades bounced off of her with firm clangours. The glowing of her veins brightened as she threw a punch, sending a soldier far across the street. The soldiers looked at each other and cut their palms with their swords. Their blood smeared across their blades and the steel absorbed their blood, turning it into a red shimmering glow.
Aera felt her stomach churning and her blood freezing. She was surprised at the price they paid for power but at the same time, she expected no less from an organisation that ruined her village in the most abhorring manner.
The soldiers came at her once again with their red blades and this time, Aera dodged their slashes instead of receiving them with her body. She spun to avoid their wild cuts and bent her body to evade their wide swipes. One of the soldiers left the joint offence and slipped past Aera, going straight for Edmund.
Violet flames erupted in her hand and she thrust out her palm. A bolt of violet flames was shot out from her palm, piercing through the torso of the opportunistic soldier streaking towards Edmund. His body collapsed to the ground and stayed unmoving.
While Aera was dazed and baffled by her own ability, the other soldiers sprang at her together. Their blades went through her body, all five of them. She flinched and staggered from the numerous blades that pierced her torso. However, no blood was spilt. Her wounds leaked only flames, violet flames. She grabbed hold of one of the swords and melted the blade with just her flaming grip.
The soldiers let go of their swords and fell back but Aera pursued them, enveloping her other arm in violet flames. Two of the soldiers threw themselves at Aera while the other three slipped past her and rushed towards Edmund.
“Do you simpletons never learn?” she growled and pounced at the three who ignored her as she herself ignored the two who threw themselves at her. She grabbed the head of a soldier and swung him into the soldier. The last remaining soldier of the three lunged at Edmund with a dagger brandished but flew at the soldier and rammed into a lamp pole. The soldier’s body snapped upon collision with the pole.
Under the effect of Wrathmonger, Aera couldn’t care less about the soldier’s death and turned her attention to the rest. She pounced at the closest soldier and flattened his head with her palms. A soldier rushed in and struck with a concealed dagger. She raised her arm in defence and caught the dagger with her palm. She winced with a grimace and swatted the soldier with a backhand. The soldier flew far but she didn’t care how far he went as she knew she had killed him with that single backhand that snapped his neck.
The remaining two soldiers tried their luck by slipping past Aera and went straight for their true target but their efforts were in vain as Aera caught them with ease. She pierced a soldier’s torso by thrusting her arm through it. She pulled his spine out and swung it against the last remaining soldier. The soldier tumbled to the ground from being struck in the face with the spine of his peer. Without any hesitation, she stomped the soldier’s head, turning it into a splatter.
When all the soldiers were dealt with, Aera turned her violet blazing gaze to Edmund, who yelped upon receiving her glare. He tripped on his own feet and fell to the ground. He squirmed and clambered away from Aera as much as he could with his bound hands. He took notice of a dagger within reach and lunged for it. However, though Aera moved a second later, she was the first to reach the dagger. Instead of kicking the dagger away, she stepped on Edmund’s hands.
Edmund cried out agonisingly.
Aera’s grimace deepened at his wailing and raised her fist. But before Aera could strike his pathetically sobbing face, Erin's pained voice caught her attention and she turned towards her fellow apostle just as the Insect Demon battered Erin’s sword out of her hands.