Taog and the Dobhar stood back to back as the guards carefully closed in from either side. Taog heaved a sigh, then grit his teeth.

It looked like he was going to die.

And it was only right that he did.

After all…he had failed to protect Ateia, the one thing in the world he couldn’t afford to lose.

He had let Seero die, without ever once repaying her for all that she did on his behalf.

He had failed to protect everything he ever cared about. And now he would fail to protect himself.

But then he felt the Dobhar’s tail slap the back of his ankles.

“Steel yourself, Imperial. If I am to die at your side then you will die with honor. Do not give them your life, hold your head up high and make them take it from you. Even cornered prey does that much.”

Taog took a deep breath and lifted his sword. He thought back on his life…of every moment that he had been beaten and battered and just let it happen.

A fire began to burn within his stomach. Lar’s stupid face overlapped with the guards ahead of him. He began to growl subconsciously.

That’s right. He had already failed. He was going to die. So…there were no more consequences to be feared. There was no reason for him to control himself any longer. If he was going to die anyway…then wouldn’t it be nice to try fighting back for once?

The Dobhar nodded.

“Better. You are a Wulver’s pup, the son of the hunters of the land. You should not whimper and cower like prey.”

Taog smirked as he lifted his sword.

“You know, I never got your name.”

The Dobhar gripped her harpoon.

“Estrith Edilddaughter.”

Taog smiled.

“Heh, Taog Sutharlan. Nice to meet you, Estrith.”

Estrith scoffed.

“This is the first time you’ve acted like a warrior worth meeting. Now, die well, Taog Sutharlan!”

Taog responded with a shout. Estrith shouted as well and the two began to charge…

Only for one of the walls to explode. Taog shielded his face as the stone flew past him.

And then armored knights in full plate armor stepped through the hole, bowling over one set of the guards. The guards were quickly outmatched and fell back.

“There’s the Dobhar and the Inquisitor, retrieve them!”

Two of the knights stepped past Taog and Estrith on the other side and held shields up in between them and the second group of guards. Two more grabbed Taog and Estrith by the shoulders and pulled them outside. Taog’s eyes widened.

A full squad of armored knights stood around the hole in the villa. And with them stood Magister Exploratores Appius, and a group of Exploratores. The Magister’s eyes narrowed.

“Where’s the others?”

Taog ran over to him.

“They took Ateia! I don’t know where! Seero…they did something to her! They said they sent her to the Realms of Mana!”

Magister Appius scowled and turned to a group of Exploratores bringing up the rear.

“Find the other Inquisitor! Scour the entire city, tear it apart if you have to!”

The Exploratores saluted and immediately began scattering. The knights backed out of the villa and the guards didn’t pursue. Taog gasped again.

“Agedia! She’s still fighting someone inside!”

Magister Appius nodded.

“Got it.”Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

And then he turned to leave. Taog blinked.

“Wait, we have to help her!”

Magister Appius glanced back at him and made a small smirk.

“No, Dia’s not the one who needs help.”

Back in the courtyard, the black-haired woman melted back into the shadows. Agedia yawned and swung her lance down towards the ground. She knocked the knife out of Vipstana’s hand as the woman tried to ambush Agedia from her own shadow.

“Let me guess, Herald of Predictable?”

Vipstana reappeared on the other side of the courtyard and frowned.

“No.”

A pitch black magic circle formed in front of her and then all the torches in the courtyard went dark. A black veil stretched over the open space above, blocking the light of the moon and the stars as well.

“I am the Herald of Night.”

Agedia scoffed.

“Ah, so you channel the Realm of Eternal Night, huh? Thanks for the tip.”

Agedia grinned as the Herald of Night did not respond.

“What, you didn’t think I haven’t spent every partially sober moment of the last decade researching your little club and dreaming of all the ways I would tear the flesh from your bones? Because I did. And when you have a Mélusine’s innate poison resistance, it takes a lot to get drunk, you know?”

“Irrelevant. All that time, all that effort, and still you failed, yet again. Now you will fade into the night, never to be seen again. All your life is destined to fall into shadow. Nothing will remain of you but your failure.”

Agedia’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, really now?”

Two spots on Agedia’s cheeks began to glow. She hoisted her lance and curled her snake half down.

And then she spun around and thrust with her lance.

There was a wet thud, and then the Herald of Night gasped. The veil overhead vanished, revealing the light of the moon once again. Agedia sneered as she pushed the lance deeper into the Herald’s torso.

“I’ve seen this trick before, Herald of Predictable. From what I’ve read, Eternal Night represents the endless darkness of nighttime, blocking our perception and obscuring all the terrors we can’t see, until we fall into an eternal sleep. But did you know? Snakes are perfectly happy living in the night…and have plenty of ways to hunt in the dark. All I had to do was represent that with my mana and suddenly your Eternal Night’s not so scary.”

The Herald of Night did not respond as she slumped over and breathed her last. Agedia spat and then tossed her fallen opponent aside.

NSLICE-00P opened fire with the Equalizer. The rainbow beam shot through the air and struck empty space above the edge of the rock.

And then slowly, ever so slowly, a circle of light began to grow around the point of impact. The circle began to expand.

But then it stopped. NSLICE-00P detected massive amounts of mana flowing into the barrier, trying to repair the damage dealt by the Equalizer. And since the Equalizer was already running at full power, she would not be able to create more than a tiny hole in the barrier.

Her heart beat even faster. Her mouth curled down a bit more. Her organic eye narrowed a bit tighter.

Her organic components grabbed hold of her mana and attempted an idea. And since her emotional controls were deactivated and her priority was making escape attempts, her cybernetic components did not resist, despite the lack of analysis and reasoning to justify the idea.

Her organic components grabbed her mana and thrust it into the hole, in a manner vaguely reminiscent of the Transfer protocol. It was sloppy, haphazard, barely even close to what she had observed. There was no way it would even come close to the skill.

But at that moment, another wave of Ateia’s mana flowed through the barrier…and linked to NSLICE-00P’s.

Ateia was a person with Holy mana in her blood who was currently being used as a conduit to assault the barriers of the world directly, so at the moment her mana was connected to the power of the Aesdes flowing through the world.

NSLICE-00P was a Hero Dungeon with a Holy affinity, a proven defender of the Material Plane, who had a contract connecting her and Ateia.

So in that moment, NSLICE-00P’s mana connected to the mana of the wider world via Ateia. NSLICE-00P’s organic components pulled on the mana. Her cybernetic components tried to support and turn the haphazard motion into something vaguely legitimate.

The closest thing they could come up with was when the black-haired hostile had forcibly relocated them. And though she did not have enough data to replicate the process exactly, the Holy mana, the power of the world, responded when it found its defender cast adrift.

So now…a mass of Holy Mana streamed in through the hole and wrapped around NSLICE-00P. It was then sucked back in through the hole…

And once again, NSLICE-00P had disappeared with it, leaving the tiny universe empty. With the Equalizer gone, the hole closed up completely.

Taog, Estrith, and Magister Appius suddenly heard shouting and crashing. Another part of the villa exploded, sending stone and one of the guards flying into the street. Agedia slithered out of the hole with a scowl.

Agedia nodded at Magister Appius.

“Shiny girl’s gone. Cult took Ateia. We need to find her, now.”

Magister Appius nodded back.

“Exploratores are scouring the city as we speak.”

Agedia frowned.

“Have they checked Consul Noxisius’s place? He’s the one who called shiny girl here.”

"A group is already on the..."

Magister Appius was about to respond when he fell silent. Everyone turned to look in the direction he was facing. Glowing lights were shining from the hole Agedia had made, one that led directly to the courtyard. The group rushed over and looked inside.

Rivers of golden and silver light appeared in the courtyard. They began to swirl around, and then condense and bulge out. A mass of the light dripped out of the rivers, and then there was a bright flash.

And when the light died down and everyone’s vision cleared, their eyes all widened. Taog’s heart began to pound.

“Seero! You’re alive!”

Estrith’s eyes went wide.

“Queen of the Dobhar…”

NSLICE-00P now stood in the courtyard.

Her helmet fully covered her face, and both of its eyes were glowing bright red.

“Status Report: Unit NSLICE-00P has returned to area of operations. Critical priority termination protocols activated. This unit will now terminate all confirmed hostiles with extreme prejudice.”

Her boosters fired and she shot into the sky, rocketing across the city. Agedia glanced at the others and grinned.

“Don’t mess with the shiny girl. LET’S GO, PEOPLE!”

The group took off running in the direction NSLICE-00P flew.