(New Leaf) Canicular 14 [Updated] (Patreon)

(Tues 4/7) A/N: I still have another scene to write to add onto the end of this chapter, but I'm mostly done with it. I just want to make sure I put what I currently have out alongside the public release of the previous chapter on other sites. Keep an eye out for a notification when I update this one, or check back in tomorrow if you don't receive a noti.

(Wed 4/8) A/N: Took way longer to finish the Naruto section yesterday than I expected lol, guess that's what happens when you work in IT and a client calls with a server emergency after hours.

____ ᓚᘏᗢ ____

Koneko

“Well, shit,” Gomeisa muttered.

There was a split second where nobody moved, the destruction of Excalibur Rapidly surprising all of us with how suddenly it happened, the shining fragments of its blade scattered on the ground in front of the Fallen.

“Perish.” Akeno’s hand lifted, two fingers pointing at the man, and a crackling white beam of electricity flashed out to pierce his head.

Gomeisa’s form blurred away, kicking up a gust of wind.

“What the-?” Akeno startled, whirling around and throwing herself to the side of the crimson Light spear that stabbed through where her spine had been. In a flash of red, a line tore through her white miko kimono under the armpit, the follow-up swipe scoring a shallow cut against her side that made her flinch. “Kh-!”

“Dumbass!” The man called out as he disappeared and reappeared behind Akeno again with another burst of speed. “As if I-!”

Akeno leapt sideways with a twist, this time managing to dodge both another backstab and the follow-up, hands held up with both palms facing him and sparks dancing between her fingers. Gomeisa blurred away again, and Akeno whipped her arms out, sending waves of blinding lightning streaming all around her and blocking her from sight, but a dozen red flashes shot down from high above instead of anywhere close by.

“-would need a-!”

My eyes could barely keep up as the lightning stream formed into bolts that shot out in rapid fire, revealing Akeno and destroying the spears in a series of crimson explosions that spread across the sky. With a small blue magic circle now spinning above her head like a weird halo made of water, Akeno was forced to jump back and take to the skies when a massive red greatsword cleaved through the light show, slicing past the place she’d been a moment before.

“-trinket like that-!”

Two buildings caught in the backswing began to collapse as the Fallen burst into sight from under the dust and crimson glow, flying just barely off the ground. I watched as another electrified beam split the sky, and the man just seemed to juke it before it even appeared and let it pass by his head as he continued to chase Akeno. The beam swept across the street, forcing him to duck under it or be decapitated while leaving a melted trail asphalt, before he kicked off the ground just below him and launched upwards, changing direction in an instant.

“-to be faster than you!”

He closed the distance faster than I could blink, a crimson spear in hand and flying right at Akeno, who had her hands out towards him and a pair of magic circles forming above and below her.

My heart leaping into my throat, my perception slowing down as he thrust, and I was forced to watch her panicked expression in slow motion as the spear pushed through her shoulder and out the back, a spray of liquid escaping her lips. All while I was just standing here, unable to help, the eight-winged Fallen crashing into Akeno with his full momentum-

-and her body fell apart?

Water splashed all over him like he’d popped a human-sized water balloon.

The two spell circles above and below flashed, and a searingly bright pillar of electricity exploded into existence between them with a thunderclap, Gomeisa disappearing within the epicenter.

“It seems you’re not quite as fast as you claim to be, and certainly not as observant as someone with your experience should be.”

I sagged in relief when Akeno’s cold voice rang out mockingly from the street level, calmly rising out of a portion of the street that split around her like an open mouth with her Devil and Fallen wings stretched out behind her.

“Y-you cheeky, hypocritical bitch,” Gomeisa’s voice called out as the light faded, revealing the enemy Fallen Angel, steam and smoke rising from his own ragged four pairs of wings while he breathed heavily. “You may have gotten me good this once, but this isn’t even your power, is it?” He chuckled roughly. “Even for Baraqiel's girl, there’s no way you’d be able to throw around this much power, this young, with so few wings. No way. No, the [Boosted Gear] brat must have been around here somewhere to share, huh? I hear abilities like that put a lot of strain on people… Well then, I wonder-”

A pair of crimson Light constructs appeared in his hands in the shape of longswords. “-How much juice do you have left!” All eight of his wings flapped, and he launched at her in a blur with a mad laugh. “WHICH WILL FALTER FIRST; YOUR BORROWED POWER, OR THE STRENGTH OF MY FLEDGLING TRANSFORMATION?!”

Lightning burst from Akeno and clung tightly to her body, sparking along her wings as she blurred forward to meet him- or actually, avoid him, going by the trail that curved around his path. The only parts of the fight that was still visible to me at this point were the trails of red Light and white electricity chasing each other through the sky as bright flashes, with flying red spears and elemental spell clashing in mid air.

“Nnn!” I tore my eyes away from the battle with a sudden shake of my head, clapping my hands to my cheeks to break my distraction. ‘Focus!’

I put the high-speed battle in the air into the back of my mind, only keeping enough attention on it to make sure I would know if it came too close and I needed to jump away to safety, and I turned in the direction of where Freed–

My eyes narrowed.

–was supposed to be lying unconscious.

All I saw was a puddle of drying blood.

I pushed off the road with my legs and crossed the dozens of meters in one motion, but the sense of fatigue after the adrenaline crash and my brush with real Senjutsu made me misjudge the strength needed, and I overshot the metallic-smelling puddle. After catching myself midair with my wings before I could stumble the landing, I decided to just stay in the air for now.

Floating above the puddle, I saw that it smeared in the direction of the nearest alley, and the scent trail agreed. I bobbed along as I tracked a steady trail of droplets and small stains into the dirty alley, where it turned into a gruesome scene straight out of a murder movie, along with a disgustingly acrid, coppery stench. On one of the alley walls was a smeared red handprint and a large, misshapen red stain, both streaking downwards like the owner had fallen. Just beneath it, the concrete was slick with the stuff, a second large pool of blood having spread even wider than the one by the street.

It looked like Freed had tried to support himself using the wall as a brace, but collapsed and fell back down, too weak to keep moving. There were two red handprints besides the puddle, as if he’d tried to push himself up again.

The mess continued though, a long trail of one continuous blood stain leading out of the alley and around the corner, like he’d crawled along on the ground after failing to get up. It began thick and deep red, but thinned out and faded a lot by the time it reached the other end of the alley. Following it, the moment I turned the corner onto the next street’s sidewalk, I spotted a manhole cover out of place, right in the direction the trail headed.

Something felt off, and I moved to investigate.

The problem with this situation was–

My eyes narrowed further as I stopped right above the sewer entrance, where the trail ended and Freed’s scent went cold. I glanced back at the blood trail.

–there was too much.

More than the human body could lose and still function, easily. I don’t remember the exact statistic, but I’m pretty sure humans couldn’t survive after losing around half of their blood unless they got an immediate blood transfusion, and the average adult had a little more than five liters of the stuff. Going by the two puddles and the amount painting the ground where Freed had been dragged, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were five liters out here already, instead of in his body.

From what I know, he should have died before even making it this far. His survival window had already closed. With the trail ending here, no more blood, no more of his scent down in the tunnel? There’s no way he could have lost that much and escaped this perfectly. I didn’t even have to be a bio major like Naruto to understand this much. The kind of regeneration magic he would need to pull this off would be a power he wouldn’t hesitate to abuse mid-fight.

If he was capable of escaping like this, leaving no physical trail after losing as much blood as his body could even contain at one time, then he wouldn’t have ever been in this situation to begin with.

A particularly loud crack of thunder made me jolt and look back.

The battle was still raging on. It was looking like Akeno had taken the advantage and had Gomeisa on the backfoot. With dozens of magic circles popping up in a distracting display of light, spitting out elemental spells, and fading out without a trace– it was going to be such a hassle covering this up from the public– the eight-winged Fallen was doing all he could just to avoid the most dangerous attacks, while trying to destroy or tank the weaker ones and slowing down in the process.

I watched a blazing orange magic circle form and shoot out a wave of fire, reminding me a little of when Riser teleported into the ORC with his family’s signature magic circle. 

‘Wait…’

My head snapped back to the manhole cover.

‘... No physical trace?’

I dropped down and picked up the metal disk, spinning it around to look over every inch.

There wasn’t even the tiniest, faintest hint of a blood stain on it, just normal dirt and grime from regular use.

Both of Freed’s hands were bloody.

I turned to the alley and sniffed once. My eyes narrowed.

Underneath the thick scent of blood, was the stench of piss and crap. The blood trail leading to the manhole thinned a lot over a short distance, as if the bleeding had slowed suddenly– Like the heart stopped pumping– despite it still smearing across the ground in the same way. If someone else was dragging his body though…

An unpleasant mix of relief and agitated anger filled my head. If it was over, then that was good; great even, and I had nothing to worry about. Problem solved. But… I didn’t get to see it all the way through myself. A piece of my closure was missing.

I bit the inside of my cheek and screwed my eyes shut, taking a deep breath, then releasing it slowly while focusing on feeling out the world’s energy one more time tonight.

I had never had the best senses for magical energies. With how little natural energy the town had for as long as I’d been training, it was always a struggle to find and grasp anything, let alone get the full picture of an area. Akeno was much more skilled, using her own abilities as a mage and shrine maiden, instead of relying on an external energy like Senjutsu like I was now. My specialty was always my physical senses, but what the hell was even the point in having Senjutsu if I couldn’t even manage and keep control of myself for something as basic as sensing?

If Freed was already dead, bled out in the alley, then that meant someone had retrieved his body while going through the trouble to make it look like he escaped, dragging the bleeding corpse over to the manhole that they opened themselves and then teleporting away with the body. If I wasn’t too late, I might be able to feel out and memorize the energy signature of whichever Fallen did it; that way I could track down their base later and–

My eyes opened in surprise, my brows furrowing in confusion a second later.

‘A devil?’

The trace of freshly dissipating magic around the manhole was dark, very dark, and… squishy, maybe? fluid? Whatever the right description was, the energy felt very malleable, like it could become anything; similar enough in nature to my own demonic power that I couldn’t mistake it for anything else.

A bit behind me in the alley, the air itself felt thick and oily, full of a sickly, sluggish energy that almost seemed tainted in a way and sent instinctual shivers of dread down my spine, especially when compared to the almost total emptiness that was the rest of the street around me.

‘... Is that what death feels like with Senjutsu?’

Or maybe it was just Freed’s passing that left that kind of feeling. He was a disgusting enough human that I wouldn’t be surprised if his death left a curse to haunt that alley for years.

Either way, there was a devil in the area who had an interest in Freed’s body for some reason, and they didn’t want to make themselves obvious to anyone.

‘I should tell Tsubaki since Akeno’s busy.’ A crack of thunder punctuated my thought. ‘She might be able to trace the teleport still.’

I put my finger to my earpiece and opened my mouth–

“Mrrawrr!!” I hissed.

–then violently pulled my hand away. I completely forgot my earpiece was gone, and my sticky, blood-coated finger wet-willy'd my ear again.

BOOOMMM!!

The ground shook as a black blur slammed into the street ahead of me hard enough to crack the asphalt and bounce away, the Fallen Angel turning his tumble into a roll and sliding dozens of meters in a three point stance while his free hand held a crimson spear horizontally behind his back. His cloak was practically scraps around his neck, revealing a form-fitting armored bodysuit underneath, all black fabric with scorched and cracked metal plates. Blood was dripping down his arms and three of his wings still had feathers smoldering from the remnants of some fire spell.

Feeling his power wafting off of him was like staring into a hungering bonfire the size of a building. Every moment felt like more and more of the metaphorical logs were rearranging themselves to burn brighter and hotter, more efficiently, even as the fuel ran out; he was running out of energy, but he still had more than any of our peerage on a good day, and his control over the power of his transformation was continuing to refine itself every second.

I tensed, ready to bolt if he turned my way, but for now he was staring up at the sky with a crazed grin, blood leaking from his lips and staining his teeth.

“Come on, little sparkler! Come and finish me off if you can!” Gomeisa yelled enthusiastically, rising to his feet. 

Akeno slowly floated down to the center of the street while breathing heavily, a bright beacon of static to my senses.

“I’ve barely landed a couple scratches on you while you’ve been battering me around, so what’s the holdup?!” Gomeisa called out. “Heh, don’t tell me you’re out of gas already, Daughter of the Ninth!”

“Don’t-” Lightning exploded around Akeno to wrap around her in a shroud again. “-compare me to that man,” she spat, glaring at the Fallen. “I’m nothing like my pathetic father, and I have more than enough power left to end a filthy crow like you.”

Even though she was telling the truth, I noticed her muscles and joints were beginning to lock up from the side effects of her lightning-based enhancement, while those same muscles were simultaneously shaking with effort to keep working through fatigue. She was a [Queen], but she was almost entirely a caster build. Just like Issei when he first unlocked the Boosted Gear and began his training, her body could only handle the strain of having her stats boosted so much for so long. Even if her boosted energy reserves were ten times our enemy’s right now because of her efficient control, her stamina was still wearing out way faster.

If Akeno didn’t end him right here, right now, we wouldn’t be able to stop him from finishing off Xenovia or hunting down Shidou for her Excalibur.

“Let’s see just how confident you are in your claim,” the Fallen offered with a smirk, the glow of his spear intensifying as he began pumping it full of more Light. “A final clash, with everything on the line while we–!”

The air shifted, and I reflexively threw a dozen chakra threads around me defensively.

An attack didn’t come though, Akeno and the Fallen man just looked up at the sky with a frown and a grunt respectively.

“Akeno-senpai?” I looked around, not seeing the source of the change, just feeling the effect.

“A barrier.” Akeno answered, some concern bleeding into her voice as she also looked up. “One this big, though?”

I focused chakra to my eyes and looked up, and the world brightened.

Looking up too, enhancing my eyes to their limits with the leftover wisps of the natural energy I’d gathered. “Oh.”

I stared at the ring in the sky, the giant halo of Light stretching into the distance, and the glowing dome that extended from it to cover the town.

“Damn it, right when we were getting to the best part…” Gomeisa sighed. “Was this really necessary, Procyon?”

“What is the meaning of this?” Akeno demanded. “Do you really believe something like this won’t be noticed by our people? That your own forces won’t face the consequences for such an overt action against us?”

“You got it all wrong, sparkler,” he shrugged. “We don’t think that at all, no. We’re not trying to hide, far from it in fact;” he chuckled darkly. “We’re counting on being noticed.”

I settled into a ready stance, hands up in a guard and pulling back my chakra threads into my body. I was running really low on chakra at this point, so I’d be better off using what I had to enhance my perception to the limits to keep up with these two.

The man shrugged again.

“Unfortunately, that up there in the sky means the game’s over. No more indulging in a fun fight, I’ll be playing for keeps now!”

In the blink of an eye, his already brightly shining spear turned blinding like a star as he dumped almost half of his remaining reserves into it in an instant, his arm reared back to throw the spear-shaped bomb.

Lightning shot out from Akeno’s hands as he finished speaking, but the weapon had already left his hand.

Bright red filled my vision.

‘Oh,’ I thought. My feet started pushing against the ground, but my body’s reflexes weren’t keeping up with my senses. The spear flew at me faster than I could physically move to dodge.

I was still too damn slow.

A magic circle with the Gremory crest began spinning up in front of me, but even with her speed and talent, Akeno’s shield wouldn’t stop the attack, probably not even really blunt it.

‘Is this-?’

“[Mirror Alice]!”

A pane of otherworldly reflective glass slid into existence in front of me, ornately trimmed and gilded around the edges.

The spear struck, and the red Light washing out the entire street disappeared without a trace.

“What the h–?!”

A blinding flash of light, and Gomeisa’s shocked exclamation was drowned out by the roaring of the explosion. The rush of wind as a pillar of red energy erupted caught my wings and blew me back dozens of yards, the asphalt my feet stuck to shattering under the intense vibrations caused by the blast. I flipped over midair, landing on all fours to lower my profile and slide to a stop, blinking away the spots in my vision.

As my sight returned seconds later, I saw that the energy had already faded, leaving the area in smokey ruins. Buildings on either side of the street were practically disintegrated, with a big part of the street itself all but gone. The sewer and infrastructure tunnels beneath the surface were exposed to open air in a wide crater. Multiple water mains were burst and twisted, water gushing out into the pit. Power lines were down and sparking all over, while some of the shops on the edges of the blast radius were only mostly destroyed, the front walls having collapsed inwards under the pressure wave to expose the insides.

“What the…”

My mouth moved without me meaning to.

Akeno, looking pretty banged up and ruffled herself with a broken wing or two due to being closer to the explosion than me, floated over the crater to the other side where a charred lump of Fallen Angel lay crumpled on the ground. Fortunately or unfortunately, the man was still breathing, just knocked out.

“[Mirror Alice], my Sacred Gear.” Shinra Tsubaki floated down to the ground in front of me, crouching down and extending a hand my way with an apologetic expression. I accepted the unneeded offer, and she helped me to my feet. “I was born with an unfortunate trait that drew otherworldly demons to me through mirrors. Upon becoming Sona-kaichou’s [Queen], that trait transformed into a Sacred Gear, a mirror I can summon to absorb any attack and return to sender with its power doubled.”

Any attack? Wasn’t that kind of crazy powerful? And Tsubaki had something like that this whole time, and I’d never known?

“What a busted cheat skill,” I commented idly.

She coughed into a fist, the equivalent of a mild blush for her usual business-like expressions. “I haven’t encountered a limit or felt any strain while testing with our [King]s and the Sitri’s resources, however that still poses a problem with attacks above a certain power level, as you just witnessed. Whether I would want it or not, the reflected attack is always twice as strong, so it can be fairly useless if any allies are within close range of the enemy. I wouldn’t call that ‘cheating.’”

“Whatever you say, cheater,” I teased flatly. Even with the ‘downside’, that was still fucking busted. “...Thanks for the save.”

She huffed in amusement, her lip quirking up slightly. “Think nothing of it, Koneko-san.”

We watched in relative silence while we slowly flew closer (minus the distant blaring of emergency services sirens) as Akeno began casting spell after spell on the unconscious Fallen, layering dozens of high-power magical bindings over him. I landed beside my [Queen] right as the power from Issei’s [Transfer] left her, and wrapped an arm around her waist as she slumped, holding her up while her muscles finally gave out from the shock of the strain releasing.

“Thanks Koneko-chan,” Akeno said tiredly, leaning into me with her wings drooping low. “Just let me finish this last spell, then we can return to base with the prisoner.”

The last dregs of Senjutsu just left my body too, so I understood how she felt. I just had more experience actually leaning into the endurance my Evil Piece gave me, so I wasn’t as affected by exhaustion. A short moment of downtime was about all I needed for my demonic power to naturally pick up any slack whenever my chakra ran dry. I’d already made it through the worst of it when I was floating above Freed’s blood trail.

I watched as magic symbols, ethereal chains, and smaller glowing magic circles– all rotating methodically around the man’s form– began fading from sight as one last magic circle formed on the cracked road beneath him and began shrinking as it spun.

“Would be way easier to just kill him and get it done with.” I really didn’t like the man. Not to the point of outright hate like Freed, but seriously, fuck this guy.

He destroyed our mansion and tried to kill that big idiot Xenovia.

Akeno snorted, dropping her usual ladylike mannerism.

“I wish,” she agreed with a groan. “But as easy as it would be right now, I have to be responsible, and that means taking the opportunity to capture a high level prisoner for information and future negotiating leverage.”

“I know,” I nodded. “Don’t care still, but it’s your call.”

Tsubaki spoke up. “I can go call the others to-”

The earth beneath our feet vibrated, and we all paused, looking around warily. Tsubaki jumped into the air with a flap of her wings, and I followed with Akeno held tight to my side.

We spotted it at the same time.

Off in the distance, in the direction of the red-light district, there was a rising pillar of smoke and the glow of a spreading fire. The sound hit a second later, the drawn out thump of a distant explosion rumbling through the air.

We all looked at each other.

“... None of our other teams are over there, right?” Tsubaki asked.

Akeno shook her head. “None. It was Meguri-san’s team that was patrolling that area, starting near central and long since moved on towards the outskirts.”

“Hm.” Tsubaki thought for a moment. “It’s highly likely that the clans are involved then. We should steer clear and leave it to them, while consolidating our people and getting some rest. Have our masters reach out post-haste to determine if we should send back up. I’m still relatively fresh, and I’m sure some others are as well.”

“Understood.” Akeno reached down to her leg before pausing. “...My phone seems to have broken during my fight.”

“I’ll handle that too then,” Tsubaki amended, pulling out her own phone. “You two just focus on securing the prisoner and evac’ing Quarta-san and Asia-san.”

Akeno nodded.

‘If the clans are fighting the Fallen over there…’

I shifted my free hand into my pocket to check something.

“... How much do we want to bet that Naruto-kun’s involved in that?” I asked the two [Queen]s. “I’ve got ten thousand yen in my pocket still.”

They looked at me oddly, before looking at each other, and then the smoking horizon.

Tsubaki cleared her throat. “... We should hurry.” 

“Yes, let’s.” Akeno agreed instantly, pulling away from me to fly toward our healer with newfound energy.

Naruto
(A few minutes earlier)

“Pro… cyon-!” The fat priest coughed out. “D-Distruzione!”

I saw the angel named Procyon’s face twist in annoyance, and I made a snap decision.

I twisted, bodily tossing Valper at the eight-winged Fallen Angel and swung Destruction in their direction.

While the Fallen blurred forward and pulled the now-visible old man out of the path of the violent wave of force, I slammed Destruction into the wall beside us on the backswing, blowing a hole into the empty room next to us.

There was a muffled thump and a distant wheezing sound that had to have come from the psycho-priest, as if he’d been dropped on the floor like a sack of rice. I threw a smoke bomb down in the empty room and tore down another wall to my right, opening up into another dusty hotel room, which I threw my second and last smoke bomb into, before ducking back into the first room.

A Light spear ripped through the cloud near my head to explode in the next room over.

‘Jeez!’ I thought, adrenaline spiking sky high for a moment. ‘That was close as hell!’

The attack blew out multiple walls and shattered old furniture, dispersing most of the smoke over there and causing Kalawarner’s breathing to hitch at how close we were to getting killed.

“Dammit, still can’t sense it…” Procyon cursed from the first hole in the wall. “I just grabbed that thing a couple hours ago, and it’s already been stolen from us,” the Fallen’s voice vented. I heard the muffled callouts of other Fallen approaching from down the hall we’d come from.

“Sir! The containment facility’s been broken into, Excalibur Destruction has been-!”

“Stolen, I know. Nevermind that, we already know where it’ll end up regardless.” Hearing the eight-winger say that sent a jolt of concern for my friends through me. I very slowly pulled out my phone (which was on silent) and began texting Himitsu. With enough of the smoke dispersed to be partially see-through, a large enough movement might cause it to shift in a way the powerful Fallen might notice, making it more risky to move around than if we were in a clear, wide open room.

“The containment company is to enact total lockdown immediately; all other companies, teleport to backup locations. Spread the word.” Procyon continued. “This base is compromised and its defenses proven worthless at hiding us, you all know the drill by now. Four minutes and everyone’s gone, one way or the other.”

“Yes sir!” A group chanted.

‘Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good.’

“Oh and for Father’s sake, someone help Valper evac,” he drawled. 

9SageNaruto: im heading out in a minute, hurts to talk. You and the guys can go home right now.
Agnt.Shinra.NPA: Understood.

I couldn’t figure out a more cryptic way of saying “speaking will get me killed, evacuate the area immediately.” If the Fallen really were tapping into their comms, the wording might let it slip under the radar for long enough to let them get away unnoticed. It’s not like a message from a random human high schooler would be on their priority list, or however communications monitoring was supposed to work.

Within the next couple of moments, the rest of the Fallen soldiers had all dispersed, leaving me standing at the edge of the slowly thinning smoke with Kalawarner on my back and Procyon still standing across from us, fiddling with a phone of his own that partially lit up his side of the dark room.

“Hmph, no answer. No matter.” He slipped it into a cloak pocket, sending everything back to darkness. “If you’re still here and listening, little thief…”

Kalawarner stiffened to the point her grip around my neck became choking.

“... then just know that there is no more escape. You and everyone in this town have been locked out from leaving its borders or contacting the outside world,” Procyon declared. “It doesn’t matter where you hide, in less than twenty four hours you will be naught but dust in the wind alongside everyone else that calls Kuoh home. We’ll enjoy watching you and your friends fight for your survival.”

It was quiet for a tense handful of seconds.

“Oh Father, I feel like an idiot,” he muttered. “What the hell am I even doing, monologuing at an empty room? ‘You will be naught but dust,’ che– those newbie idiots are rubbing off on me.”

The Fallen walked away.

I let out a breath and Kalawarner slumped with a quiet gasping inhale.

“... Let’s hurry the hell out of here.” I whispered.

She nodded against the back of my head.

It took me a minute to navigate back out into the lobby in the dark, where I quietly picked the lock of the front door in ten seconds, having to restart when the ground shook and the pins reset, before we slipped out onto the dark streets. We only made it two blocks away in total silence when the quiet of the early morning was completely destroyed by a series of explosions behind us.

“Whew, looks like we made it out just in time,” I said, chuckling. “Aren’t you glad I got you out of there when I did?”

“I’m so fucking dead…” Kalawarner moaned in despair. “He’s going to kill us all!”

My chuckle turned awkward. “You’ll be able to see Mittelt again?” I tried to cheer her up.

“Mittelt...? Wait, is that why you got me involved?! I'll Kill that little twerp!!”

Well, I tried. At least now she was angry instead of depressed.

If only she'd let up on her grip around my throat, or better yet, let go and walk with her own damn legs!