-Pruning the Roses, Part 6-

A simple standoff had never been on the table. Anybody could have walked in, and Ikuye would've started a fight with them because of the state she was in.

She had three modes.

Harmless alien weirdo that sucks at understanding most things humans find as common sense.

Ruthless warrior-maiden who'll pummel you until bruised, even if it's just a quick training match.

And lastly, as she was right now, a cruel killing machine of the Gods with a single goal of annihilation on the mind.

Though neither Airis nor I had seen it firsthand. We had read the field reports of what Julius had dubbed as Caprian. Ikuye's body had transformed beyond what others would describe as angelic, divine, or celestial. Rather, she looked quite chaotic.

Her body was covered in dark stripe-like markings and glowing orange symbols—Feyndirian runes.

I couldn't help but be distracted as her hair went from bright cerulean to near total black. In addition to understanding how to control these damned auras, I would learn that trick from her as well.

"Should we… step in?" Flik asked in hesitation.

Tomin instantly shot her down, "Not unless you want to take collateral hits."

Strea nodded along to his words, "Yeah, when she gets like this, it's best to wait it out or switch in if she misjudges her strength and ends up in another district."

Ikuye and the Renaultian woman, Audrey, were trading blows with no regard for their surroundings.

On one side, Audrey was on the defensive but didn't seem too hard pressed. Shield-like magickal barriers would spring up from whichever direction Ikuye attacked.

And on the other, Ikuye's offense was failing to pick up traction. She charged in a continuous assault against the magickal barriers, while also fending off counterattacks in the form of strange red liquid whips.

A burst of chaos-laden magick formed a barrier around Ikuye, and the dual lashes destabilized upon contact. They didn't disperse into aethermist like most magick, instead; the liquid fell to the ground in a puddle.

"Blood? That's weird." Hikita remarked.

"You know her?" I asked, "Is it something strange?"

"Not sure." She shook her head, "My memory is hazy, but she seems familiar. I think she's Renault's cousin."

Ikuye rushed the woman, jumping to avoid two of the barrier spells and bringing her sword down.

It stopped mid-motion, and Ikuye was flung through the air as a tendril of blood grabbed her ankle and threw her.

"Oh?" I turned to Hikita and lowered my voice, "That means you're like her niece. You don't mind us beating up your aunt, do you?"

She laughed, "So long as I get a turn, I don't mind."

Ikuye was getting closer with every attack.

This time, she dodged three barriers and stopped Audrey's whip with a multi-layered chaotic barrier of her own.

But it wasn't enough.

Ikuye's greatsword hit a fourth barrier that had some sort of kinetic response component on it and was sent spiraling through the hexagonal chamber, crashing into the opposite wall, and was buried in the rubble.

"Kill… Destroy…"

I could barely make out her voice muttering something scary before I watched her eyes roll back and her head go limp.

Strea swung her mace and raised her shield. She muttered what sounded like a prayer, and we were awash in golden magick.

» YOU ARE AFFECTED BY FORTITUDE

"Seems like it's our turn to step in." She said.

"I've got your back." Tomin nocked an arrow.

I dismissed the notification for Strea's FORTITUDE buff and readied a CHAOS BOLT in my right hand. Dáinsleif responded in my left, surging with chaotic-imbued crimson flames.

Hikita drew both her swords. Threads of dark purple magick snaked around the edges, turning them black.

I recognized the magick right away—SOUL TEAR.

Did I go too far with my joke? Zero hesitation, straight to Aver'teria for her auntie, huh? Well, judging by the tied up kids and tortured Alaetüs… I wouldn't be surprised if her soul was already headed there.

My CHAOS BOLTS were clustered, however, Audrey still had to cast multiple barriers to stop all of them. As expected, they were stopped midair. And as I counted on, they blasted the barriers apart and shot shards of glass-like chaotic shrapnel at the unsuspecting void-magickian.

Tomin fired his arrows a beat after my barrage of magick, having seen them in action before.

With the barriers shattered and an overwhelming amount of projectiles already homing in on her, Audrey failed to deflect his shots.

Three of his shots found purchase, nailing her in the shoulder twice and once in the wrist. Those, along with numerous tiny shards of dark orange crystal, caused her concentration to fail, and she suffered a terrible case of magicka feedback.

Audrey screamed in pain as all her barriers fizzled out and, whip-like the strands of manipulated blood fell to the floor.

Strea and Hikita rushed her, and I pulled up a quick inspection to ensure we weren't being fooled.

- - - - - -STATUS- - - - - -

[AUDREY D'FONTAINE] <The Alabaster Rose> HEALTH: (241 / 666) STAMINA: (515 / 666) MAGICKA: (57 / 666)

» ACTIVE EFFECT: COVENANT OF THE VOID

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Her gods forsaken link with the Void remained, but most of her buffs had fallen off, either expiring or faded by the backlash of magicka.

Both her HEALTH and STAMINA were high enough to consider her still an active threat, but seeing her depleted MAGICKA was a welcomed relief. I was starting to wonder if she could manifest barriers indefinitely.

With Ikuye downed and her aura suppressed, Julius had rallied the soldiers and was now leading them ahead of me to surround Audrey.

His formation left a lot to be desired. Too few recovered knights and a hesitancy to approach the ominous stone monolith—which, now that we were closer, looked like it was actually weeping scarlet ooze.

What is wrong with these people's choice in aesthetics?

Audrey's dress was stained with blood, but her wounds weren't bleeding despite having crystalline shards and arrows stuck in her.

Julius brandished a linked pair of metal bracelets.

"Disarm and surrender."

"Or what?" She goaded.

"Face execution for attempting to harm the Empress."

"Violence, of course. How typical of you people. I don't recognize your authority, nor your false tyrant queen."

Julius rattled the anti-magick cuffs.

"We're not here for political debates. Yield, you're in no state to continue struggling."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Audrey shifted, and the knights all tensed up.

Hikita stepped forward with her void-imbued blades ready to deliver a killing strike.

"So jumpy. A common trait among pests." Audrey taunted, then her eyes flashed in recognition as she caught sight of Hikita. "You? How are—Ah, so that's how it was. Renaire, that traitorous bitch."

"Surrender or die."

Hikita didn't acknowledge her comment and just repeated Julius' demands.

"As fun as it would be to play catch up with you, little Azure Rose, spending further time with these fools would be unpleasant. I think I shall choose option three instead. Ta-ta!"

Audrey had stepped into a puddle of blood when she adjusted herself a moment before, and now it had risen up and encased her in a spherical opaque barrier.

Hikita, Julius, and the knights struck at her.

Their weapons passed through the liquid unimpeded.

The blood splattered on the ground, leaving Audrey nowhere to be found.

"Dammit!"

Julius swore, stomping his foot.

"Is teleportation some innate magick for these people?" I muttered.

"Assault-One to Seeker-Two." Julius called for Luke.

"…"

"Assault-One to Seeker-Two." He tried again.

"…"

Only the low humming noise of static filled the communirune channel. While we could call each other, reaching those above ground was impossible as we'd descended too far into this maze of passageways.

"Gods-damned Renaultians and their stupid tunnels!"

Julius was showing another new face that I hadn't seen before as he loudly complained. He gave out orders to his team to secure the area, Strea and Tomin to recover Ikuye, and for the healers and rearguard to see to the children.

"What did you need Luke for?" I finally asked.

Julius collected himself, "Luke and Hanna were supposed to have worked something out with Lady Sara and the Aestori mages to track teleportation signatures in the city."

"Ah. Just in case somebody tries to kidnap Hikita again," I teased, "That would be nice to have."

"No, it would be—"

His anger turned into a frown.

"—Yes. It's to prevent any future issues with the enemy attempting to kidnap the imperial officer, Hikita."

Julius caught on quick. Even though those of us here already knew I'd been whisked away with teleport magick, other soldiers wouldn't.

It would be better for morale to pretend I hadn't.

I turned my attention to my sword.

Sorry. I'm happy I get the version I prefer… But you aren't gonna have that nasty problem of needing blood before going back to your sheathe, are you?

Seeming to respond, Dáinsleif's crimson flames withdrew, and the blade went silent.

It went back to my side without a fit, and I gently patted it with my hand.

Next time, you'll get some fun for sure.

BUZZ. BUZZ.

The static hummed loudly in my ear.

"Light-One to—BUZZ—One, do—BUZZ—copy?"

Hailey's voice was frantic and choppy, but mostly intelligible. The fact that we could hear her at all meant she was down in the tunnels and likely fairly close.

"Assault-One copies, you're coming in slightly garbled." Julius replied back in his typical voice, having abandoned whatever anger and frustrations from before.

"—BUZZ—the Goddesses," Hailey's voice sounded relieved, "We're probably ten—BUZZ—away, maybe faster—BUZZ—we hurry."

"No need to rush, Light-One, we're still securing the area for now."

Hailey arrived in closer to five minutes with a retinue of knights and what looked like priests from the Church.

They all seemed rather stunned at the scene.

We'd moved the kids, but the creepy giant stone and hanging Alaetüs were still front and center.

"Heya, Hails." I greeted her.

"Hi. Glad to see you're well. This place looks bizarre."

Thankfully, it seemed, the super awkward way she was acting around me had ceased somewhat.

If it were Airis in control, she'd have run up and hugged us. At least I wasn't getting dubious looks from her.

I noticed a flutter of pink behind Hailey, and Akari peeked her head out. She closed the distance and embraced my side.

"Hi, Kiddo."

Though I couldn't see her face, I heard her sad little sniffles muffled by my overcoat, into which she'd buried her face.

"Hi…" her voice wavered with a heavy pause before she made up her mind, "…Momma."

I smiled, patting a hand on her back.

"She was—We were worried." Hailey admitted.

I knelt down to see Akari's face, and she looked pretty torn up. There was a good chance she was feeling bad about the other night when she refused to consider Airis and me as the same person.

Since we hadn't really reconciled, a little bit of guilt had likely grown into a big stomach-wrenching anxiety.

"Everything is fine now, so let's not worry over silly things, okay?"

She gave me a barely discernible "M'kay." and I stood up and lifted her up in my left arm. Akari hugged me with her face buried in my shoulder.

I turned back to Hailey.

"You missed the fun," I said, pointing at the mess of blood-orange crystals and damage marks all across the stonework.

"I can see that. What in the Aether happened?"

"Another one of those Roses. Ikuye lost her mind at the sight of…" I trailed off and looked at the figure hanging from the chains.

"Is she alive?" Hailey asked.

"Not sure. My inspection magick shows her status in celestial runes, and that's the one language so far I don't get a free pass for."

"We can't just leave her strung up."

"I agree, but until Ikuye wakes, we've got no idea what's going on. I don't want to cut the chains down and find out that one has been mind-controlled by the Void."

Hailey nodded, "Yeah, makes sense. Does Ikuye need healing?"

"Nah," I waved her off, "Strea's got it handled. We found two kids tied up beneath that stone, though. I think Hikita and one of the healers from Julius' group were taking a look at them."

"Hikita is?" Hailey looked at me with a weird look.

"Ah, long story." I lowered my voice, "Our brief time kidnapped together was quite the trove of information."

I gave Hailey a lighthearted synopsis of Hikita's messed up origin story and her connection to the rituals and children.

There would be a more formal meeting with our companions and anyone that needed to be looped in, but for now, getting Hailey up to speed was important. Not only to help organize all those people later but also because however we treated these kids now would directly affect Hikita's position later, and I needed Hailey to be level-headed.

I looked to where I'd last seen Hikita, the southern section of the massive chamber, and found a group of soldiers blocking our view.

We rushed over to find that both kids had woken up.

"Please calm down. We don't mean any harm."

A healer pleaded with the two children; a boy and a girl.

The girl looked to be around eight or nine. While the boy was a little older, probably ten years old—I was terrible at guessing a kid's age, and was judging off how much smaller they were than the two Petlin siblings I'd basically babysat on our march on Axio.

"Stay back!" The boy shouted, with the girl tucked behind him. They were both nearly against the wall.

"If you could just listen…" One of the armed soldiers tried to bargain with the kids.

Hailey pushed her way through the mess of adults.

"Get back, all of you. Disperse. Now. It's an order."

Everyone, including the children, flinched. The soldiers followed their orders and tucked tail, leaving only Hikita, Hailey, a single cleric, Akari, and me.

"Gosh, it's like they have no sense. Who wouldn't be afraid of blood-covered knights with swords?" Hailey shook her head.

She turned toward the kids and squatted down.

"How about that? All the scary knights are gone, so how about we relax a bit and figure things out together."

The young girl seemed to calm down, but the boy remained on alert.

"I don't trust you," He said, "So stay back."

"Sure thing. I'll stay right here. My name is Hailey, could you tell me your names?"

The boy was silent, but eventually the girl acquiesced to Hailey's prodding.

"I'm Jeanne."

"Hi Jeanne. Do you know how you ended up here? This isn't a good place for kids."

"To help our father."

The boy blocked the girl with his arm, "Jeanne! Shush!"

Hailey asked a few more questions, but the boy prevented Jeanne from answering any more.

She tried her best, but Hailey couldn't make any headway. Hikita seemed like she wanted to get involved, but couldn't find the words.

"We'll figure it out once we leave this place, Hails. This is hardly a great environment, and they've got no clue what's happened topside. We might even have some apprehended palace staff that could help out."

Hailey was about to stand when the boy responded to what I'd said.

"Leave? We can't leave. Don't try to touch us."

I didn't think I spoke that loudly, but it seemed the boy had excellent hearing.

"Haah," I sighed, "That's gonna be a problem. I'll go get a mage that can put them under."

I turned and got about four steps away when I Akari shifted in my arms and heard the boy's voice.

"Now, Jeanne, grab her!"

Hailey screamed, and I saw Hikita lunge in the corner of my eye. My body twisted, and a hundred crazy thoughts blitzed through my mind.

Akari let out a beast-like growl, and I struggled to hold her back.

"S-Stop! I'll k-kill her!" The girl shouted.

Hailey had been pushed down onto her back by the two kids. The little girl held a black-bladed knife at Hailey's throat while the boy brandished an identical one at Hikita—frozen mid-step with her SOUL TEAR infused blades out.

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