Not long prior, locked away in her house arrest quarters, Horn had refused to yield her efforts to contact the outside world. She hovered over the comms set, her fingers adjusting frequencies with practiced persistence despite the bone-deep fatigue weighing on her face.
She hadn't slept properly in days. Though logic dictated that the local garrison wouldn't dare execute an active officer out of hand, military loyalty in this region was far too compromised to rely on logic alone.
When Cello was dragged into the very same room hours later, it meant they could finally alternate watches—though having another teammate captured was hardly a consolation.
Midway through her calculations, heavy footsteps echoed outside the heavy door. Horn instantly straightened, her hand dropping to the grip of her weapon, ready for anything.
The guards had surprisingly allowed them to keep their arms. Perhaps they feared a desperate struggle over disarming two seasoned soldiers, or perhaps the local commanders simply considered two confined officers utterly irrelevant to the grander scheme.
A soldier pushed the door open, his voice flat and robotic. "The Colonel requires your presence. Take your gear. Once the meeting concludes, you'll be permitted to leave." Without waiting for a response, he turned and marched away.
"Up, Cello. The guard's gone," Horn said, casting a quick glance at her teammate, who had been crouched in a defensive posture since the first sound of footfalls.
"Let's go see what that bastard is up to." Horn readied her gear and led the way out of the room, Cello following closely behind.
They were brought to the high ridge overlooking the city. The Colonel stood at the edge, gazing down not at the streets, but at the open terrain just beyond, where dozens of heavy Originium artillery batteries stood deployed in precise firing ranks. Every heavy barrel was laid straight toward the heart of the Taran residential sector inside County Hillock.
"Stop this now, Colonel. There is still time to pull back!" Horn demanded, attempting one last, desperate appeal to reason.
The Colonel spared her only a cold side-glance, his expression utterly unbothered. "You honestly believe a couple of self-righteous words will turn me from this course? You severely underestimate what is at stake here, Captain."
He turned back toward the battery line. "My men and I have spent months preparing this maneuver. Do you have any idea how many soldiers died to Taran partisans along the way? Do you have any concept of what the high lords in Londinium expect from this outcome? You stand there with nothing, thinking you have the leverage to stop a moving mountain?"
Horn's grip tightened on her weapon, but before she could speak, a deafening thunder tore through the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The batteries roared in unison. The shockwaves rippled across the ridge as heavy artillery shells arced high into the night sky, tracing lethal trajectories straight toward the Taran quarter.
Horn's chest burned with absolute fury. The monster had dragged them out here for the sole purpose of forcing her to witness it. He wanted to prove that even with all her training and authority, she was completely powerless to stop the impending slaughter. She could only stand by and watch.
Her knuckles turned white. Every instinct screamed at her to tackle the Colonel and smash his smug face into the mud, but she forced herself to stay grounded. Retaliation here meant instant death for both her and Cello, accomplishing nothing.
"You are dismissed, Captain," the Colonel said casually, not even bothering to look at her. "You can do nothing more here, and I have no interest in keeping unwanted guests."
"I will report every detail of this to Londinium," Horn declared, her tone deadly serious. "If one ministry buries it, I will go to the next. If they turn a blind eye, I will broadcast it to every news outlet across Victoria. I will make sure the entire nation knows what you did here today."
"Do as you wish," the Colonel replied coldly. "Load the second salvo!"
Horn swallowed her rage, turning to glance at the surrounding guards before offering one final, sharp parting shot. "I despise everything you stand for, Colonel, but answer me this: do you truly trust the men around you? I don't mean the Taran partisans—they're obvious enough. I mean these loyal Victorian soldiers standing at your back. Are you certain their allegiance is as absolute as you think?"
Whether the Colonel registered the hint or not, Horn didn't wait to find out.
In the distance, brilliant flashes of golden light suddenly burst forth over the Taran district of County Hillock. Because of the distance, the ridge only echoed with distant rumbles, leaving the exact nature of the impact unclear.
"We move! Back to the city!" Horn ordered, setting off at a quick march with Cello right behind her.
She had no idea what Jeanne was planning, but at this point, all her hopes rested on that enigmatic girl. Please... let her stop this catastrophe.
Meanwhile, in the central square of the Taran district, Jeanne stood firm before the open expanse.
"I promised I would stop this," Jeanne said, her voice steady as she glanced back at Talulah. "I'm about to brace for their bombardment. I need you to hold my back!"
"Don't worry," Talulah replied, stepping up to take position directly behind her friend, her greatsword drawn and ready. "As long as I'm standing, neither Victorian troops nor Dublinn commanders will touch a hair on your head."
Gold light began to gather around Jeanne. Shimmering motes of radiance coalesced around the heavy banner in her hands, expanding until the entire flag glowed like a shaft of pure sunlight.
Awakened by the earlier sonic booms, dozens of Taran residents were spilling out from their homes into the surrounding alleys. They couldn't yet see the artillery shells arcing high above the clouds, but they could see the strange girl standing in the center of the square, engulfed in blinding light, flanked by a fearsome Draco holding a blazing sword.
Confused and angry at having their sleep disrupted, many began to mutter complaints. Others gathered at a distance, whispering in hushed curiosity. Was this high-tech Victorian military gear? Or was it some kind of exotic Originium Arts?
WHIRRRRRRRR—!!!!!
A high-pitched screech suddenly tore through the night sky.
Everyone looked up in unison. High above, dozens of fiery trails—like a rain of falling stars—were descending rapidly upon their district.
Panic erupted instantly. These were no shooting stars; they were heavy siege rounds, dropped directly onto a civilian populace!
Terror turned to wild rage. Seeing the two figures in the center of the square, some of the crowd assumed this display was part of the trap—a sick prelude to their execution. A mob of furious residents began charging forward, intent on tearing the pair apart before the shells hit.
FWOSH!
Talulah swept her blade, driving a wall of intense, searing flame straight across the cobblestones, walling off the crowd in an instant.
"Stay back!" Talulah warned, her voice cutting through the panic. "We are not your enemy. Stand down if you want to survive this!"
The blistering heat forced the mob to halt. They glared across the wall of fire, terrified, furious, and completely bewildered by what Jeanne was doing.
Jeanne paid the crowd no mind. Her eyes were locked onto the descending ordinance. Taking a deep breath, she raised her flag with both hands and spun the heavy pole in a sweeping arc. The light bound to the fabric stretched violently outward, unfurling into a massive mantle of gold that swept across the entire sky above the neighborhood.
The artillery rounds were milliseconds from impact. Residents collapsed to their knees, covering their heads in despair.
In the shadows of nearby buildings, secret Dublinn operatives watched with cold, triumphant smiles, waiting for the devastation that would spark their long-awaited war.
—"LUMINOSITÉ ÉTERNELLE!"
Jeanne slammed the butt of her flagpole deep into the cobblestones!
A blinding sphere of golden light erupted from the tip, expanding at breathtaking speed to form a massive, impenetrable dome over the entire district.
The artillery shells slammed into the barrier all at once.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A deafening series of detonations echoed across the heavens. Fire and shockwaves tore across the upper surface of the golden light, but down below, within the protected streets, not a single cobblestone was cracked. Not a single life was lost.
Maintaining the glowing barrier overhead, Jeanne let out a soft breath, a bright smile spreading across her face.
"It worked," she murmured happily to Talulah. "The nightmare has been rewritten."