A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"So? Do you think we can do it?" a serious Naeku asked Emily, Emma, and Elora, who stood in front of her.

Currently, they found themselves on the ground floor of a dilapidated, abandoned building. By now, it had been about ten minutes since they'd left the palace, and the people searching for them were closing in.

By now, the servants in the palace had told the guards that the group they were looking for was far larger and stronger than Lilith believed, and some of the corpses they'd left behind on their way here had been found.

Thus, they now had an entire city searching for them in large, powerful groups, that had some idea of the general area they were in.

All in all, things were bad, and they needed a distraction. Even now, they could hear nearby shouting and rushing footsteps, as thousands of people for on the hunt for them.

Fortunately, they were near the wall and all they needed now was for those helicopters to start hovering, and the nearest patrols to be directed elsewhere.

To that end, Naeku had proposed a plan.

But rather than answer her question, Elora and Emma looked at Emily, as her participation in this particular operation was actually twofold. But Emily didn't shy away. In fact, she was excited.

"Anything to fuck up some of these gutter trash degenerates," she grinned widely. Excitedly at first, before the grin turned to something more sinister as she continued, "I'm getting all giddy at the prospect of shedding some of their blood! I hope I can make their deaths slow and agonizing!"

Naeku send Emily a questionable gaze. From the moment the werepanther had met this alternative English woman, she'd wondered inwardly how she'd ended up as someone who could both hold genuine love and devotion to others, and yet still become like a bloodthirsty demon at the drop of a hat.

But she pushed that thought aside, because it sure came in useful right now.

* * *

Meanwhile, flying over the city were three helicopters. The side doors were open, and second rankers were panning back and forth across the city, looking for their quarry.

One of these was different than the others, however, because one of them held a third ranker. The same bald woman Erik had briefly met on the battlefield a day ago, was standing in one of them, and looking down at the city with an angry scowl.

There were some differences, though, because she looked quite a bit worse compared to a day ago. Several heavy burn wounds were spread across her body, she was much paler than before, and she was continuously shaking.

Yet, she was still a third ranker able to walk and fight, unlike Lilith right now.

"God in heaven, damn those beasts," she cursed as her face winced in pain. "Couldn't they have waited a while? Now I have to interrupt my recovery because that bitch got her ass beat."

Two more second rankers around her, and a first ranked pilot, all began sweating, and twitching nervously. Hearing Abigail refer to Lilith as a bitch was not something they wanted to hear, because there were suddenly multiple ways they could end up dead just for being there. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

Suddenly, they all saw a light flashing, somewhere near where they were flying over right now. Instantly, Abigail narrowed her eyes, hoping she'd finally found them so she could be done with this crap. Unfortunately, an Arcanists eyes were not as good as those of a Runebound, and the light was still too far for her omnisense.

But that quickly changed.

Before they could determine what it was, or even where it came from, the light was already upon them.

"It's a spell!" Abigail instantly exclaimed, realizing they were under attack. Still, she was a third ranker, and not particularly concerned, because as soon as the golden disc of light entered the range of her omnisense, she realized it was only in the second rank.

Forming a magic circle of her own, she sent out two metallic blades of wind that flew straight at the disc with the intention of destroying it.

And that was exactly what they did, because the disc didn't even try to avoid anything.

As the metalwind blades sliced through the disc of light, it was instantly destroyed and began to break down in mid-air, while the blades continued down to the city.

Yet, Abigail frowned. It felt too easy, and she had a bad feeling—which was quickly verified.

Suddenly, her omnisense started picking up another spell. Ten dark orbs suddenly appeared from the quickly dissipating remains of that disc.

"It's a trap!" Abigail cursed with wide eyes. She immediately realized that these orbs had been clinging to the disc from behind, hiding themselves from both her eyes and her omnisense.

But this realization came too late. The ten dark orbs divided themselves among the three helicopters, and Abigail had no way to stop them effectively. She had a more powerful, area of effect spell that could do so, but that would destroy the helicopters no less than these orbs would.

She grimaced, and quickly abandoned ship by jumping down. Behind her, the second rankers watched with horrified gazes and screaming as the orbs targeted the places where the rotors connected to the helicopter, eroding the metal, and causing them to detach.

It wasn't longer before three large helicopter rotors were spinning through the air like deadly whirlwinds, while the machines they'd previously been attached to were plunging down to earth.

* * *

Meanwhile, Elora, Naeku, Emily, and Emma opened their eyes and grinned at each other. This had been a remarkable show of teamwork and individual skill.

After all, since Emma and Emily couldn't see their spells without showing their faces in the open, Naeku had become their eyes. Elora was the intermediary by using her magic to link up with Naeku and sharing her vision through the telepathic bond between Erik's wives.

"Now, it's time for the next step!" Naeku exclaimed proudly.

* * *

Abigail descended slowly back down to Earth using her metalwind. Although she couldn't fly like Alexandre de Beaumont could, she could still use her power to float down slowly.

Her expression was twisted in annoyance while, behind her, the helicopters crashed down into the city and exploded. Her eyes sparkled with anger as she panned her gaze around, hoping to find the origin of those spells.

Suddenly, her head swivelled, and her eyes narrowed. Then, her eyes shone with malice, and she changed direction with a sadistic grin. Ahead, she now saw explosions while hearing screaming and the sounds of fighting.

"Seems you've been found!" she exclaimed while quickly making her way there.

When she arrived, she noticed guards and soldiers were in a stalemate with their targets, who appeared to be hiding out in an abandoned building, from where they were pelting the guards with ranged attacks.

"Useless!" she immediately spat, and rushed towards the building, intending to finish this so she could get back to recovering.

In her haste, however, she ignored the guard's warnings. "W— Wait! Deacon Abigail, wai—"

But it was already too late. Abigail crashed into the building with magic circles at the ready and a sadistic grin on her face. A grin that quickly fell when she realized the mistake she made.

Inside the building where not the insurgents she was looking for, but her own soldiers and guards. They all turned to her with glassy, empty eyes, and bright lights on their chest—a clear sign they were overcharging their magic cores.

"Ah, fuc—"

* * *

BOOM

Elora and the others immediately grinned when they heard the massive explosion coming from behind them. Meanwhile, Emily opened her eyes and smirked sadistically. "Take that, bitch!" she chuckled menacingly, before looking up at Astrid with a playful grin. "You don't mind carrying me a little longer, do you?"

Currently, their group was already running across the desert, having left the walls of Djibouti city behind after burning a hole through it using Astrid's sun element.

Now, under the scorching heat of Djibouti's sun, they made their escape.