Some people toughened up in the face of adversity, but most didn't. Emma could proudly say, after spending a full year tolerating homelessness, that she was one of the more robust creatures she knew. Guldin certainly was not.

He'd folded right away at her prodding, and the more he was prodded the more he folded. Several times, Emma found herself thinking he'd come onto some limit. And after each he drove himself to ever greater heights of cowardice. It was almost impressive, insofar as blubbering and trembling could impress.

"Faster." Emma growled, kicking him sharply in the small of his back and grinning as he scurried ahead. He'd already been moving fast enough that her tiny legs were struggling to keep up, but the extra effort was worth watching him squirm.

"You're kind of evil." Larry noted, from inside her clothes.

"You trick people into fighting monsters until they die." Emma reminded him. Larry grinned.

"Except you, who are so smart you saw through my nefarious scheme, tore off my head, and ended up in one of the shittiest situations I've ever sent someone." He snickered, and Emma saw Guldin's mouth twitch upwards from the corner of her eye. Right as she was in the middle of contemplating bouncing Larry's fucking skull off the back of the Priest's, Aexilica piped up.

"We should probably keep our voices down," She noted, idly, "We are in enemy territory now, you know."

Ah yes, Emma had almost forgotten. It was kind of funny to see the other side of it, but Hagor's forces were so concentrated in storming their few remaining obstacles that it'd actually been kind of easy to slip on by. Either that betrayed something about military logic Emma hadn't known, or just showed that the High Priest was kind of a dumbass.

That didn't last forever of course, nothing good did. As they continued farther through the castle, and closer to their destination, they began to see light shining down the dark corridor, and hear voices. Aexilica grabbed Guldin quite hard by the back of his neck.

"You're probably feeling tempted to give us away right about now." She murmured, tightening her grip. "So just to be clear on that, if you do I'll make sure you die long before you can see whether the guards even catch us or not. Understood?"

He nodded faster than Emma had ever seen a person nod, almost concussively hard, and Aexilica relaxed her grip after a brief moment of looking.

They continued on, and made out more of the position ahead as they went. The corridor's mouth gaped into a wider room, though not one that was exactly spacious. Its ceiling was low, walls still cramped, and everything was, for some reason, wet. Everything was cold, too. Within it there were a few dozen men seated around various tables and playing cards, drinking or grumbling to each other. None seemed happy, all seemed annoyed. That was somewhat hopeful, their irritation might serve to leave them inattentive, more easily ambushed. It was also, as far as Emma could tell, their sole advantage.

Forty men wasn't insurmountable, but it was still forty men.

Another benefit was surprise of course, and Emma put it to good use. She had her energy lance built and powered-up already as she stepped out into the larger room, calling out sharply.

"I am Emma, Ragni's Wise Woman. This is Aexilica the Swift, all of you have one chance to leave now or face us both."

A pause, sneers, laughter and drawing steel as men lunged from their chairs and approached to attack. The energy lange swept through a big bundle of them in one corner, blowing about seven men apart in one shot and mangling the brickwork behind them quite thoroughly.

The rest were, to her surprise, not dissuaded by the sight. They just kept on charging like fucking orcs, and it was only Aexilica seizing Emma hard by her lapel and dragging her back that kept the first thrown axe from burying itself in her head.

Her armour didn't rise up after that, though, not yet. She took the time to build up another energy lance before running it right through the nearest rank of men, and then they were on Aexilica.

With only her two shots, Emma had killed, in her estimation, easily a dozen of the guards. That still left more than twenty to fight Aexilica, not a losing proposition. Only now did Emma allow her armour to form itself around her as she strode forwards to aid more directly.

Aexilica was stuck in of course, and had killed a man by the time Emma's second step came. She saw a few more trying to circle around the woman, and put a quick stop to that by throwing down a wall of energy and letting the idiots at the front be crushed against it by the idiots at the back. They still kept writhing, though, so Emma gave the wall three friends, and a ceiling-cousin atop it to boot. She promptly had four men pinned in her makeshift cube-barrier, and almost without another thought began channelling thermal energy through the hardened energy making up its interior surfaces.

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The air within heated up fast, blistering skin and cracking lips in a few moments. When at last Emma's barrier collapsed, four messy corpses dropped to the ground out of it and a blast of hot air rushed over her.

Not the most efficient means of killing, and a bit cruel even for her. She made a note of it in her head for possible refinement in the future, then removed another man's legs with a good old-fashioned energy blade. At such close range, she didn't need to worry about the drag force of throwing such light objects. And was reminded once again of the wicked edge her energy constructs could hold.

Aexilica's sword, mundane steel, did not have quite so magically fine a cutting surface. What it lacked in sharpness however was more than compensated for by the fact that it was wielded by arms capable of bench pressing a young hippopotamus. Emma didn't quite see her cutting people in half, but it was a near thing. And limbs flew.

Counting the dead was no longer practical or doable, Emma's world became bloody estimates and instant reactions. By now the enemy seemed to have realised she was by far their greatest threat, and were practically clawing over one another to rush her. It was something she and Aexilica had expected, and a second wall of energy left the most enterprising attackers pinned for a precious moment while Aexilica fell on them from behind, then erupted through the hastily-dismissed obstacle to put herself once more between Emma and the claws of death.

There was no counting, even now with the moment of breathing space they'd won for themselves so carefully. But Emma had a long second to judge the remaining numbers of their enemy. Less than twenty, she thought. There had to be. Maybe they shouldn't have positioned themselves between the guards and the way out.

As things were, those who remained would fight to the end for their own lives.

And they did make a fight of it, for as long as it lasted. But fifty on two had been odds Emma was confident in, and twenty on two…Well, things didn't take them much time to mop up. A few men still lived at the end of it, most horribly wounded. Emma ordered them still and barred the way out with another wall of energy for good measure. Couldn't have anyone limping off to raise an alarm, that would be disaster.

Panting, Aexilica slowly wiped and sheathed her sword as she fought for breath. Guldin just kept himself pressed back against the energy wall with wide eyes. Emma realised he probably hadn't gotten a good look at her and Aexilica in action before, not without distractions.

Well now he knew what they could do, and by the look of his mounting terror he was internalising the lesson well.

"Alright then," Emma began shortly, glancing at one of the less-injured guards. "The man you were watching, Ragni's son, take us to him."

She'd almost worried that there would be confusion in the man's face, but she saw recognition at the order. He did, at least, know who he was watching. Good, that would make this all go a lot faster. He scurried farther down into the room and led Emma and Aexilica with him, then they were at the cells.

Nasty things. It was almost as if they were prison cells made by vikings or something.

Or…Well, maybe not that either. They were stone chambers windowed with thick iron bars, looking far more like something from the depths of a gothic castle than anything in this era. Emma wondered about that. What could inspire such—

Ah. She was being stupid. Emma had seen what Aexilica could do, had seen Ragni move faster than her by far, and now she was heading to meet a man stronger even than him. Of course the cells were built more expensively than their real-life analogues, they had to hold people who could probably get through a wooden wall by punching it. It actually made her feel somewhat more confident in approaching the occupant, too. There was nothing like seeing the terrible means taken to contain a thing for inspiring awe in its power.

Once they got to the cell, they found it barred by a thick door. Wood, not stone or metal, but braced with enough iron that you could probably have armoured three men in ringmail by melting it all down. There was a thick slab of dark oak braced across the front, too, which Emma expected to look terribly worn. It wasn't. She couldn't make out anything of the dark within the cell, and that only made her nerves fray all the more.

"Hello." She squeaked, like a small rodent rather than the epic hero of an isekai anime. Aexilica sighed.

"Are you awake in there!?" She called out, voice booming down the walls and running through Emma like she was standing next to a tolling church bell. Something in the dark shifted, moved. But didn't emerge.

"Go away." A voice rang back, haggard and worn from long disuse. Emma frowned. Did she recognise it from somewhere? Surely not.

"We need your help." Aexilica hefted the bar off the door with one hand and shoved the key into its lock. Emma had expected a great deal of resistance and scraping, from how rusty it was, but it was relatively smooth. Used recently perhaps?

The door swung open shortly, shuddering outwards and letting the light of the still-dim hall spill into the cell. It really was not very bright at all, the nearest source being a few torch sconces several metres farther down, but the inhabitant of the cell was still left blinking and growling in discomfort.

And then Emma recognised him.

"You!" She gasped, staring at the face of the berserker she'd spoken with on the carriage Vari the Idiot had stuffed her onto.

The Sculd just growled more.

"Oh Gods, it's you. What do you want madwoman?"

"Fuck you." Emma snapped. "We're here to save you."

"I don't want saving." He groaned back, eyes now removed from behind his hands and blinking in the light. They were still wet from the glare, but seemed to be adjusting faster than a normal person's would. Emma tucked that little tidbit of knowledge away for later use.

"Then you're an idiot, what were you planning to do here? Die?"

He met her gaze at that, and his eyes seemed to lance her like javelins of pure ice.

"Yes." The berserker replied, without the slightest hint of mockery or flippancy. "I have dishonoured my family, my people, and my Gods. There is nothing left for me now but death."

Well great. Strongest warrior in the city, an entire rescue mission to recruit him, and Emma got the one who was suicidal.

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