~5986 words
'There are still pieces missing.'
Kiyotaka ran through the thick smog covering the streets, keeping his breathing shallow while his eyes moved from one side to another.
Men and women were leaning against walls, coughing violently into their sleeves while others had already collapsed onto the pavement.
A middle-aged man stumbled several steps ahead of him before falling onto his knees and vomiting a mixture of saliva and blood as Kiyotaka passed him without stopping.
A thin layer of incandescent flame continuously burned close to his mouth and nose.
It was not hot enough to harm him, but whatever entered the immediate area around his face was subjected to Ember's flames before he breathed it in.
He did not know whether the disease was being transmitted through controlled pathogens, but considering the supernatural nature of the world, assuming otherwise would be foolish.
However, the fact that heat appeared to prevent whatever was affecting the people around him from entering his body narrowed down the possibilities considerably. Either the disease itself possessed a physical carrier which could be destroyed through sufficiently high temperatures, or the supernatural medium responsible for transmitting it could not survive Ember's flames.
'A lot of things still don't make sense, but that doesn't mean they're unrelated. If anything, the number of coincidences has already exceeded the point where treating them independently is reasonable.
More importantly, this isn't an ordinary attack, since there would be considerably easier ways to kill civilians such as poisoning water supplies, attacking food distribution, contaminating densely populated districts individually... Even a relatively weak Beyonder organization could cause far more casualties with less preparation.
Blanketing almost the entirety of Backlund in smog requires too much coordination for indiscriminate murder to be the objective. Which means the deaths themselves either serve another purpose... or the conditions necessary to produce them do.'
Kiyotaka jumped over the body of an elderly man and continued forward, spreading multiple strings of thought in his head.
Let's start from the Augustus family. The Black Emperor Apotheosis Ritual requires a country, sufficient authority over its population, the creation of complicated laws which contradict established convention and nine hidden mausoleums constructed through the candidate's subjects.
Someone within the Augustus Family has therefore been preparing for Apotheosis. That much is nearly certain... but the question is who?'
His previous suspicions resurfaced. He was always a little paranoid about someone else occupying the Sequence 0 seat, however, now all of those premonitions started proving to be true.
'An old Augustus surviving secretly is entirely possible. At Demigod level, lifespan extends anyways, so if someone is close to becoming a God, then it's even more possible. However, an old Augustus would have another problem. The Black Emperor ritual isn't something that can be completed while hiding completely outside the country's political structure.
After all, the candidate must become synonymous with the position of Emperor. That favors the current king—George Augustus III. If it really is him, several things that previously appeared unrelated become considerably simpler.
Taking the mausoleums into consideration first—they cannot simply appear. Stone has to be transported, materials have to be purchased, workers have to construct them, someone has to feed those workers and someone has to supervise them.
Even if Beyonders specializing in concealment are involved, it would not make the task any easier, given an occurrence of that nature would attract the gazes of other Gods. It would be a problem for them, unless...'
Kiyotaka halted his thought process for a moment and looked around before bolting forward again.
'The real problem shouldn't be materials or money, but rather the fact that thousands of workers involved in secret construction can create thousands of opportunities for information to leak. Unless those workers are people whose disappearance produces no meaningful investigation.'
The image of a person suddenly appeared in his mind as began to connect several dots.
'Capim... When Sherlock and I investigated and then eventually hunted him, the strange part was never that he trafficked people, but rather that members of MI9 were protecting him — members of an organization directly connected to the Loen military and royal family.
Bribery, investment and blackmail all sound like reasonable possibilities... but only because at that time, there wasn't enough information to distinguish between them. But I have it now.
Now that I look back at it, the hints were all over the place. After all, we knew that Capim wasn't operating independently. The people moving through his network could be traced farther outward toward Crazy Captain Connors Viktor and Viktor himself was merely another intermediary.
The trafficking network extended beyond him to the Demoness Sect. This ties in quite nicely with my hypothesis that Demoness Sect and Augustus Family are involved and this proves it even further.
The Demoness Sect kidnaps people, pirates and smugglers transport them through channels pre-made by Demoness Sect and people such as Capim receive and distribute them inside Loen as a decoy, while directing most of the workforce to secret places to erect mausoleums.
And MI9 makes sure certain sections of that network aren't disturbed. A criminal organization wouldn't normally require protection from an intelligence agency unless someone inside the state was benefiting from its continued existence.
With the current political structure of Loen Kingdom, it's not possible to openly rally people into making them and hence using a pre-existing criminal structure instead provides deniability. The majority of the network can continue selling people normally while only certain shipments are redirected elsewhere.
Anyone investigating it would naturally conclude that money is the motive. Which is probably why Capim was allowed to become such a disgusting caricature of a trafficker. The more obvious his greed appeared, the less reason anyone had to look for a motive beyond greed.
That should explain the cooperation between Demoness Sect and Augustus Family, but it's still not clear why would the Demoness Sect involve themselves in it to such an extent. What do they get out of it? Clearly it's not related to apotheosis since they already have an 'evil' god presiding over them — Primordial Demoness.
This works too nicely in the favor of the Augustus Family.
They are going to use this and the quickening attempts to send battleships to Gargas Archipelago as a guise and direct the masses into participating in the ceremony for his ascension. Similarly the Grains Act and other misery that plagues the entire Loen Kingdom can be used as further pre-requisites for this Apotheosis.'
Kiyotaka kept thinking as multiple strings of thoughts branched into his brain.
He was no longer holding back his thoughts.
So far, he had decided to use different kinds of mis-directions in his demeanor and even in his mind to throw off whoever was trying to influence his life, however, it was quite clear by now that all of it was quite useless.
Hence, there was no reason to hold back to suppress himself. Clasping his hands together and compressing flames for as long as he could, he manifested a Flaming Spear made out of incandescent white flames and threw it in a straight arc.
The flaming spear elicited several screams from people as they saw it, but then hunched down, clutching their throats and stomach, vomiting their guts out.
'This is definitely is an Advancement Ritual. In return for setting certain wheels of Augustus Family's ascension plan into motion, they are allowing this wide scale attack to happen to aid one of the Demoness Sect's member to ascend themselves as well...
That makes logical sense. But if that's the case... Then that makes this place a hot bed for... An evil god's descent...'
Suddenly, everything else made sense now. He could tell why the Aurora Order needed the Zmanger Gang. Using the advancement of one of the Demoness Sect's members as a facade, the Aurora Order was going to make its move as well. That is why there were so many apostles preaching the True Creator's faith!
Kiyotaka stopped thinking and followed in the beeline of the flaming spear.
*****
On a cliff, near the Tussock River, Klein, who had changed his appearance to that of an ordinary citizen, briskly walked underneath the canopy of trees. His heart was beating wildly against his ribs as he pretended to be a normal citizen and made his way to the nearest cemetery.
After narrowly avoiding death by a hair-breadth margin, Klein was separated from Azik Eggers as he engaged in a fight against Ince Zangwill and an Arbiter Pathway Demigod. However, Klein's misfortune had not ended as when he tried to use the Master Key to escape from there, he ended up right where Mr. A was performing the ritual to help True Creator descend.
Much to their dismay and unparalleled rage, Klein once again thwarted that, and that brought him here, hiding near a cemetery.
'This guy... Always calling me and now that I need him, he's nowhere to be seen! Damn it... I put my life in danger by taking the gamble of calling him here! Where is he?!'
As he was thinking, Klein heard a series of footsteps close by. Taking out a piece of paper from the inner pocket his coat, he gave it a flick as it hardened and took a humanoid shape. As it began to form, the area around Klein suddenly exploded as a massive blade of wind sliced through his torso.
The humanoid paper figurine was shredded to bits as another sheet of hardened paper, lodged somewhere deep into the ravine below caught on flames, letting Klein manifest there.
Cold sweat formed on his temples as he looked above and saw a feminine looking man with crazy eyes and white hair following after him with a look of extreme derangement. "How dare you!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice suffused with such hysterical hatred that Klein felt his skin crawl.
That brief moment of horror that Klein felt was enough for Mr. A to grasp as he turned Klein's emotions chaotic. They began to mutate his body as different pus infested protrusions began to pop all over his body. A second or two later, his entire body turned into a pulsating blob of pus before exploding, throwing acrid yellow liquid everywhere.
Klein's body was whisked away by flames as he appeared somewhere else but a sudden gale of wind propelled Mr. A in his direction, not giving Klein any moment of respite.
'That looks quite troublesome.' Kiyotaka commented mentally as he watched the entire ordeal from a slight distance away. 'According to information given by Little Sun, Shepherd can graze other Beyonders and can use their powers. At Sequence 5 — assuming Mr. A is not higher than that — they can graze up to 7 souls. So far, he has shown Sailor Pathway and Criminal Pathway abilities. I am quite confident about the latter as it's just like Patrick Jason - which means that one of the grazed souls is of Sequence 5: Desire Apostle.'
After getting a rudimentary understanding of what he was going to go up against, Kiyotaka decided not to jump in just yet. He planned on parsing Mr. A's arsenal first.
*****
In the distance, different colored flames kept clashing with each other. The two figures who were fighting exchanged multiple blows while also escaping the thick layer of smog.
Their punches seemed to crack the air, creating sonic booms with every punch. However, none of them seem to be getting the upper hand at the other.
The moment Trissy entered deeper into a forest, she heard another loud explosion resound somewhere behind her as a huge portion of frozen bark flew past her shoulder and shattered against another tree.
However, she did not turn around to look at anything. Instead, her thin but athletic legs continued to move over the uneven terrain while her long black hair fluttered behind her and several, almost invisible strands extended from it, attaching themselves to the trees that she passed.
The strands were so thin that without already knowing about their existence, it would be almost impossible for any ordinary person — or even low Sequence Beyonders — to notice them.
However, the woman following Trissy was very far from ordinary, or low-Sequence.
Astrid slowed down for a brief moment and looked towards a thread that had become visible due to a small droplet of melted frost over it. She did not immediately touch it and instead, she picked up a broken branch and swung at it.
The moment the broken branch came into contact with the thread, it suddenly twisted before snapping into two. "Sharp as well... How crafty!" Astrid glee'd as her head turned towards where Trissy had run away.
Throwing the branch aside, she continued forward.
It had been less than ten minutes since she had attacked the beautiful woman in the carriage after getting a surface-level judgement of the situation through her powers of Conspirer.
That said, Astrid still had absolutely no idea who she was. The only information she had parsed was that Kiyotaka did not wish for Trissy to die. If the goal was to not kill, then she 'assumed' that what Kiyotaka wanted was for her capture.
'He better reward me this time... This bitch is so crafty!'
At this point, Astrid was beginning to think that working for him required a certain amount of tolerance towards being deliberately kept ignorant. However, that lack of information was no longer much of an issue.
As the thin strands spread throughout the forest, coupled with the sudden drop in temperature around the black haired woman, the agility that allowed the woman to leap between trees and the black flames that had nearly struck Astrid when she first attacked her were already giving her enough information to work with.
She could tell with utmost certainty that her opponent was a Sequence 6: Demoness of Pleasure.
An evil smile formed on Astrid's lips as crimson-white flames burst out around her feet and propelled her forward.
Meanwhile, Trissy suddenly felt one of the threads that she had left behind break, causing her pupils to contract. The auburn-red haired woman was closing in much faster than before.
Trissy stopped beside a thick tree and turned around. Her beautiful face had already lost whatever confusion it had contained when the fight began and was replaced by a cold expression.
While hidden behind the thick tree, she raised her hand as a pale layer of frost spread over the ground beneath her and travelled outward in every direction. The wet soil hardened quite easily while the exposed roots of the surrounding trees became covered in thin layers of ice.
Right at the heels of that, Astrid appeared from behind a tree several yards away and turned her head directly towards Trissy.
"Found you!" She grinned and began to formulate a Conspiracy to corner Trissy and capture her.
However, just as they locked eyes, Trissy's hair moved unnaturally and Astrid's Danger Intuition suddenly flared.
Astrid threw her upper body backwards as an almost invisible thread swept directly across the space where her throat had been. Before she could stabilize herself, another strand wrapped itself around her left ankle and tightened.
At the same time, a strange sensation immediately entered her body, causing her muscles to grow taut and a tingling feeling spread from leg towards her groin. The thread seemed to be wrapped around her pelvis as well, causing a strange, satisfactory feeling to course through her body.
A moan left Astrid's lips and her legs shivered before buckling underneath her as an intense wave of pleasure travelled up her spine and caused her entire body to shudder involuntarily. Her hands involuntarily moved towards her breasts.
However, before Trissy could close in, a Fire Raven softly landed on Astrid and burned away all of the surrounding threads of pleasure, freeing her immediately.
This was done through her enhanced control of Pyromancy upon advancing to Conspirer and her already forming a contingency conspiracy where a single Fire Raven would fall down on herself if she lost control of it.
Since she already knew she was facing a Demoness of Pleasure, she had formed a contingency for this exact situation.
As Astrid patted her shoulders of the ash and removed parts of burnt fabric, she laughed. "That was a new feeling. Once I capture you, maybe I should bring you to my bed."
Trissy's nose scrunched, however, she smirked all the same. "You wouldn't last long if you dared to do that."
"We'll see about that."
Trissy's expression became slightly strange, but she did not waste time trying to understand her opponent's intentions or why she's attacking him in the first place, or why Williams Holmes wanted to capture her. She was quite sure that Williams Holmes was not involved — at least on a deeper level — with the royal family, much less the Demoness Sect.
Three Frost Spears materialized around Trissy before shooting towards Astrid from different directions.
Astrid slammed her palm against the ground and a violent wave of crimson-white flames erupted outward and struck the surrounding ice. Steam exploded through the forest as the sudden heat caused the frost covering the soil to crack apart like a geyser.
Another frost spear passed through the steam and Astrid tilted her head, avoiding it. However, that left her susceptible to follow-up attacks.
And her worry was true as a second ice spear tore through her dress and left a shallow cut along her ribs while the third whistled directly towards her chest.
But before that could happen, crimson-white flames suddenly enveloped Astrid's body and her figure disappeared. The spear that was whistling through the air towards her chest passed through the place she had been standing and embedded itself into a tree several meters away.
Trissy's eyes widened slightly as she reached out for a connection to any mirror nearby. However, her concentration was broken when she saw a crimson-white fireball suddenly fly past her from the side and strike another tree.
Emerging from the flames was Astrid who had her hand balled into a fist as it smashed into Trissy's shoulder. The impact was followed by a dull crack which echoed in the forest and Trissy was thrown sideways, as she collided with a tree hard enough to shake several dead branches loose from above.
Astrid was about to follow-up with a Flaming Spear, however, her Danger Intuition suddenly alerted her as Trissy's body became extremely light.
Despite the impact with which she was thrown back, Trissy pushed against the tree with one foot and drifted backwards almost like a piece of paper caught in the smooth winds.
Astrid did not immediately run after Trissy and began to think of something as her dark-red eyes narrowed. She thought about how Trissy was physically faster but did not seem particularly strong compared to her.
Trissy, on the other hand, had reached a similar conclusion.
The red-haired woman possessed absurd physical strength and endurance. The only real chance for her at beating Astrid in a brawl was to sneak behind her and land a Mighty Blow which was a culmination of all her strength.
And she was unsure if even that would be enough.
That first punch from her almost dislocated her shoulder despite being from an awkward angle, and judging by the speed at which she had appeared from the flames, close combat against her was an unnecessary risk.
Trissy raised her hand again and black flames in the shape of balls appeared around her. They were seven in total and upon their materialization, Astrid's Danger Intuition began screaming.
She immediately moved behind a tree as the first black flame flew towards her. It curved slightly through the air and struck the trunk, however, instead of properly burning the wood, the strange flames seemed to pass over it in an unnatural manner.
Astrid frowned and heaved a deep breath. She was well aware that a Demoness of Pleasure's Black Flames were able to burn one's soul. She had to be extremely careful.
While she was thinking, the second and third blobs of black flames came from both sides in a pincer attack.
Astrid conjured two Fire Ravens and launched them forward as crimson-white and black flames collided, resulting in a heavy deluge of sparks that seemed to burn both physical and spiritual bodies.
The strange explosion spread through the area as the supernatural fires fought against one another, causing Astrid to feel a faint draining sensation across her spirituality.
"You're fucking annoying."
Trissy took several strides back and began running. However, using her instincts as a Hunter, Astrid arrived by her side by utilizing the shortest possible distance.
Trissy turned to look at her and frowned. "You still haven't answered my question."
Astrid struggled to maintain her pace with Trissy, but answered regardless. "What question?"
"Who are you?"
"Astrid."
Trissy stared at her with bewilderment. "And why are you trying to kill me? I don't even know you!"
Astrid suddenly took a giant leap, taking advantage of her height and boxed in, inserting one of her legs between Trissy's. The sudden intrusion was supposed to throw her off-guard, however, Trissy merely touched Astrid's back and slipped away through a graceful backflip.
As she landed, Astrid slowed down and breathed raggedly. "My boss... My boss wants you." She said breathlessly.
"Your boss? Williams Holmes? How is a weaker person your boss?" Trissy answered, her words carrying a strangely convincing cadence.
Astrid smirked. "Oh please bitch, your Instigation has no effect on me."
"You don't even know why you're fighting me." Trissy's tone became softer. "Your so-called boss sends you after a complete stranger without giving you any information, and you simply obey him?"
Astrid's smile slightly stiffened.
"He doesn't trust you very much, does he?"
Astrid's smile returned to her handsomely beautiful face as she burst out laughing.
"...What?"
"Nothing." Astrid raised her hand and several Fire Ravens appeared around Astrid and immediately separated from one another instead of flying directly towards Trissy.
One moved above the trees, two of them went around Trissy from opposite sides, another flew low over the ground while the remaining ones disappeared between the trunks. Trissy immediately understood that they were attempting to surround her and began running, once more.
Astrid followed after her and the two women disappeared deeper into the forest as crimson-white flames flashed between the winter trees.
Trissy deliberately moved towards areas where the trees huddled closer together, making Astrid's larger attacks more difficult to use without obstructing her own movement. At the same time, she left more and more Threads behind.
Astrid could sense some of them through the minute changes in the environment and avoided those she could detect. However, unlike before, Trissy was no longer simply stretching them across obvious passages.
No, this time, some were wrapped loosely around branches, others were hung vertically, and a few of them even rested directly on the ground.
Astrid kept her control on the Fire Ravens tight, but stopped and looked around as she lost sight of Trissy. Her eyes landed on a fallen tree several meters ahead, and for a few seconds, nothing seemed abnormal. However, there was something different about it compared to when she had first glanced towards the area while chasing Trissy.
"Shit...!" Astrid's Danger Intuition alerted her a bit too late as several Threads tightened from different directions. "...you're quite good."
Trissy's voice came from somewhere between the trees. She was not visible, but Astrid could tell that she was rapidly changing locations, afraid that if Astrid calculated her location using her Conspirer powers, she'd be able to land a devastating hit to her through her Fire Ravens which were still circling over the canopy of closely huddled trees.
"Leave." Trissy's soft and persuasive voice resounded inside her ears.
"No."
A rather brief silence followed while Astrid's heightened senses began focusing. She could smell the wet soil beneath the frost, the smoke left by her flames, melted ice and blood from the shallow cut on her ribs.
However, what elicited a response from her was something that she heard, albeit only minutely. It was a very faint displacement of air from above, but for a Hunter, it was something that was impossible to bypass her senses.
Astrid half conjured incandescent white flames to make the shaft of the spear and used it to burn the threads away before landing down on the soft foliage. The moment she did, Trissy dropped from the branches with an ice spear in her hand as it stabbed deep into Astrid's shoulder and passed straight through.
Astrid let out a sharp grunt as the freezing effect immediately spread into the surrounding flesh.
However, instead of retreating, she grabbed Trissy's wrist, causing her eyes to widen.
"Got you."
Flames burst from Astrid's palm. Trissy twisted violently and attempted to pull away but Astrid's grip tightened around her wrist while crimson-white fire began travelling into her arm. Realizing what was happening, Trissy raised her knee and slammed it into Astrid's injured shoulder, causing her grip to loosen up.
Trissy immediately ripped herself free.
The moment she moved backwards, Astrid triggered the Fire Infusion and an explosion erupted inside Trissy's arm while blood sprayed across the white frost that coated her hand.
Trissy stumbled while her right arm hung limply beside her body.
Astrid grabbed the ice spear still embedded inside her shoulder and tore it out while blood immediately poured down the side of her dress. "Fucking hell... I won't have anything else to wear now."
Trissy suddenly appeared in front of her. Astrid barely managed to raise her arm before Trissy's sandal struck her jaw, causing her head snapped sideways, following up with a second kick to her stomach.
Astrid slid several meters across the frozen ground. Before she could recover, Threads wrapped around her arms and torso and the same strange and pleasurable sensation entered her body once again, causing her muscles to seize and spasm.
This time Trissy did not give her an opportunity to shake it off as a Frost Spear materialized beside her and shot forward. She was not allowing Astrid to form another Conspiracy to counter her attack which she was planning for so long.
Meanwhile, Astrid who was spasming for the extreme pleasure tried to recall her Fire Ravens, but to no avail. As she was moving here and there, she suddenly moved her head and the spear — miraculously so — missed her eye but tore through her cheek.
Blood splashed across her face as another spear formed in Trissy's hand.
Astrid's fingers twitched and a compressed flame made from incandescent white flames suddenly exploded from her palm and burned through several of the Threads.
The moment she landed, her legs buckled once more.
She just had a very strong orgasm!
Still reeling from the after effects of the forcefully induced orgasm, Astrid's arm weekly threw the Flaming Spear but Trissy avoided the projectile easily.
However, the spear was never intended to strike her. Instead of landing on her, it embedded itself into a tree behind Trissy.
Astrid's body became engulfed in flames and she disappeared. At the same time, Trissy realized what was going to happen and she turned, but it was already too late.
Astrid appeared from the blazing spear and wrapped both arms around Trissy's waist as the two crashed into the ground.
"Oh you fucking... Gods! That was good, but I am going to kill you for that!" Astrid screamed in Trissy's ear and then bit it hard, causing Trissy to seethe a scream through clenched teeth.
Trissy's head struck the frozen soil and her head began to bleed as Astrid got on top of her and began pummeling her fists into her face. Trissy brought her arms up, but soon gave up on the idea as each one of Astrid's punches seemed to be fracturing her body.
Removing her arms, Trissy moved her head to the side, causing Astrid to punch the ground beside her face. Trissy bent her neck to the side, causing Astrid's arm to get stuck there and then drove her fingers into the wound on Astrid's shoulder.
Astrid let out a stifled scream and black flames erupted from Trissy's palm, causing Astrid's entire body to stiffen up. The spiritual burning sensation travelled from her shoulder and into her body, causing her grip to weaken considerably.
Trissy shoved her away and rolled to the side.
Astrid attempted to stand but the threads suddenly pulled her backwards, causing her body to slam into a tree. When Astrid did look up, Trissy was already there, in front of her, while a layer of frost appeared around her hand before punching Astrid directly across the face.
The force caused her eyes to roll to the back of her head as Trissy followed up with a mean two-piece. Just as she was about to culminate all of her strength and deal a Mighty Blow, Astrid raised her legs and grabbed her waist with her strong legs before pulling Trissy closer.
Astrid locked both of Trissy's arms in her underarms.
Taking advantage of this position, Trissy aimed to use her threads, but before she could do so, Astrid tucked her chin in and then headbutted her straight into her nose.
And then again.
And again.
Trissy's features seemed to become exceedingly mangled and her knees began to grow weak. Now that she couldn't escape, she instead culminated all of her strength and delivered a nasty knee to Astrid's diaphragm, causing all air to suddenly escape out of her lungs and she fell down.
Feeling her vision blur, Trissy turned around and began leaving, but Astrid grabbed her by her sandals.
"Fuck off..." Trissy spat a clump of congealed blood.
Letting out loud huffs, Trissy tried to pry her leg away, but Astrid swept her legs and followed up with an elbow to the side of the head. She immediately punched Trissy's stomach and then began to follow-up with a barrage of punches to her chest, tendering her ribs.
Trissy's breathing abruptly stopped and Astrid, for some odd reason, hesitated. It was not the first time she was going to beat someone to death, and certainly wasn't the last. However, even still, she could not explain why she hesitated so much after hearing only one rib breaking.
Threads began to coil around Astrid, however, she burned them before they could have a substantial effect. Astrid spat blood on the ground and huffed. "You're starting to piss me off."
Trissy wiped the blood beneath her nose with the back of her functioning hand and crawled away. "...good."
Astrid's eyes narrowed. "Although I'm surprised you're still running. Someone with a face like yours usually has men doing the running for her."
Trissy knew almost instantly that something supernatural had entered those words. It was quite obvious since it wasn't something that'd have an effect on her, but she, undoubtedly, felt irritated.
"You must be very used to that. A pretty slut walks into a room and suddenly everyone forgets how to think. Must be convenient."
Trissy's expressions darkened for a brief moment. Her attention was brought back when Astrid snapped her fingers and the raven circling above them suddenly dove down.
Trissy sensed it at the last moment and raised her arm but the Fire Raven exploded directly beside her.
The force was enough to throw her through a layer of frozen shrubs.
Before Trissy could stand, Astrid launched herself forward and a crimson-white flaming spear formed in her hand.
Seeing as there was no escape, Trissy materialized an ice spear and stabbed downward.
Astrid twisted and the spear entered her thigh, causing her eyes to widen while the weapon passed through the muscle and pinned her leg to the ground.
"You know..." Trissy raised another spear and Astrid smiled. "...my boss never said you had to be comfortable when I brought you back."
Fire erupted from Astrid's entire body and Trissy immediately moved backwards.
Astrid ripped her leg free from the ice spear and rolled away as the wound began pouring blood.
She could already feel her natural healing attempting to slow it, however, she had accumulated too much damage in too little time. If this continued, she would lose.
No... not lose. She would die.
It was a simple fact. Trissy possessed far more abilities suited towards restricting movement while the surrounding forest gave her countless surfaces for her Threads. Astrid's superior destructive power was being limited by the fact that she was supposed to capture her alive.
Which meant that continuing the current method of fighting was idiotic. Astrid's mind rapidly reorganized everything she had observed.
Suddenly, several nearby trees caught fire at the same time and dry winter branches ignited almost instantly while smoke began spreading between the trunks, causing Trissy to frown.
"What are you doing?"
"Making things easier."
The flames travelled along the dead vegetation scattered across the forest floor, causing Trissy's Threads to snap.
The confident demeanor surrounding Trissy suddenly broke as her carefully arranged web was being ruined. At the same time, the rising heat began melting the frost covering the ground, causing Astrid's smile to widen.
Trissy did not sit idly though. Having recovered a little by wrapping herself minutely in her threads, she formed several Black Flames and launched them towards Astrid.
Astrid summoned Fire Ravens to intercept them and then used the explosions as cover to transform into one of her own flames, appearing beside Trissy.
However, this trick was not going to work every time on her as Threads immediately wrapped around Astrid's torso.
This time Astrid did not attempt to pull away and instead bull-charged into Trissy. Astrid endured the spasms travelling through her body and wrapped one arm around Trissy before driving her directly into a tree.
The impact caused Trissy to cough out blood and Astrid pressed her forearm against Trissy's throat. Trissy immediately conjured Black Flames against Astrid's chest.
Trissy's spirituality burned into Astrid and Astrid's flames began entering Trissy's body through their physical contact. Realizing what was happening, Trissy abruptly froze the entire surface of Astrid's forearm, causing them to go numb.
Trissy twisted free but Astrid detonated the Fire Infusion.
A dull blast erupted from inside her side, causing her to trip over. Astrid moved forward despite her injured leg.
Trissy attempted to form another Frost Spear, however, her concentration faltered as an intense pain spread through the left side of her abdomen.
Just as Astrid reached forward to seal the deal, Trissy seemed to have found something. At the same time, Astrid landed on top of her with a Flaming Spear right to her chest, however, Trissy broke into countless shards of mirror before disappearing.
Astrid looked around and wished to run in the general direction where her senses directed her to, but her injured thigh gave out and she fell down, unable to stand up again.
For several moments, she considered launching Fire Ravens after her and continuing the chase, but then she looked at her own condition.
Her dress was almost entirely ruined and blood had soaked through her thigh and shoulder while the left side of her face had already started swelling.
Her spirituality had been burned repeatedly by the strange black flames and her body still occasionally twitched due to the orgasmic effect those Threads had produced.
Astrid let out a deep breath. "Yeah... no."
She limped forward until she found a fallen log and lowered herself onto it. The moment she sat down, almost every injury across her body seemed to begin hurting at the same time, causing her to wince and lean backwards.
For a while, she simply stared into the distance and thought about her fight.
Then, she began laughing like a crazy, demented person.
It hurt her ribs, which only made her laugh slightly harder until she finally had to place one hand against her stomach.
After spending so long in Feysac getting drunk, sleeping around, picking fights and wasting every day waiting for something interesting to happen, she had somehow ended up in the most fun situation she had ever experienced.
She had been stabbed twice, had her spirituality burned, had her face repeatedly smashed against a tree and she still had absolutely no idea who that woman was.
Astrid wiped the blood beneath her nose and looked towards the burning portions of the forest as a satisfied smile appeared on her face.
"This is much more exciting than drinking my life away in Feysac."