Hot Springs Brigade!

"That won't hold this time!" Vic cracked her fists on the barrier with such force it shattered on impact. Zeda grabbed the human and flew out of the way just as the ground cratered beneath them.

They were too slow. Without giving them a chance to recover, Vic dashed ahead to intercept. She grasped Zeda's arm and slammed her into the stone pavement. The human tried to flee, but she stuck her foot out to trip him over. 

Black portals opened all around and showered her with a barrage of swords and daggers. Vic raised Zeda from the ground to put her between the volley. Dozens of steel weapons impaled the living meat shield. 

When the rain of steel ceased, Vic tossed Zeda Cross' limp body aside. The human tried to crawl away, but she stomped down on his kneecap and shattered the bones.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" His screams echoed down the street.

Vic went to retrieve the axe, content that the human assassin wasn't going anywhere. On her way back, she repeatedly smashed the axe on Zeda until she became an unrecognizable stain on the street. Finally, Vic returned to the human, put a foot on top of his chest, and said, "This axe is heavy, and my foot is getting tired."

"No, wait!" He begged, sweating and crying. It was admirable that he could still speak despite the pain he was in. "I don't wanna die. I'll tell you everything!"

Vic pressed down with her foot and listened for the sound of his ribs cracking.

"AHH— AHAHAH FUCK! FUCK! I'LL DO ANYTHING, PLEASE STOP!" He reached into his bag and pulled out a branch-sized wand. It appeared to ooze with black miasma just like Theradis' staff. This was abyssalwood. "I… gulp… I was sent here to kill Princess Aurora— GRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!!"

"Sorry. Foot slipped." Vic took her foot off his chest and sat down next to his head. She grabbed the black wand and twirled it in her hand. "Fancy. Who gave this to you?"

"Some… person called Headmaster… gifted me this power and the branch… said to come here...I don't know anything else…"

She points to Zeda. "Ketchup stain over there is a servant of Septus Luciferon. Do you know who that is?"

He shakes his head, "I only know of a guy named Fenris. He wanted her to come with me…"

"What else do you know?" Vic asked.

"That's it. I swear to god, I don't know anything else." He looked down at his body and cringed at the broken leg. "Please… just let me go…"

Vic got to her feet, tested the weight of the axe, and cleaved his head from the body.

The tattered bandages on Vic's arms disintegrated as they fell from her. Mana burns along her forearm and shoulders burned deep and glowed a dull blue. This wasn't going to heal anytime soon.

Across the way, the undead horde had all been reduced to a burning heap. Sarrul joined Aura in providing restoration magic for Itsuki. From the looks of it, Zeda and the human were the only attackers. The undead must have been summoned here by some magic.

Vic spat at Zeda's corpse as she made her way back to the Guild Hall. "Accursed are the triumphant, for their burden endures."

She looked at the black branch in her hand. The miasma that oozed from it seemed alive in the same way Theradis' staff was. Perhaps Sarrul and Aura would no more about this? 

"The verse does not end there, Lady Victoria." 

A chill ran up Vic's spine. She spun around to Zeda's mutilated corpse rising from the ground and reforming itself. Her disfigured lips curled to a grin, "Blessed are the defeated, for they shall slumber thereafter."

The wand slipped from Vic's grasp. She reached for it, but it shot away too quickly— in Aura's direction. "Aura! Get away!"

The branch plunged deep. Black tendrils latched onto the chest of the small elven frame. Aura fell back and gasped. The elven boy Vic had seen earlier stood between the Princess and the branch's trajectory, and took the impact instead.

"Mistress…" His words came out weak as he collapsed. Aura grabbed ahold of him as his body crumbled away into ashes.

"No, wait…!" Aura choked back tears, both hands clutching at the ashes slipping between her fingers.

Vic was speechless. The Princess was safe, but—

"Kill her. KILL HER NOW!" Aura screamed with agonizing remorse.

Vic's body lurched. For the first time under Aura's Command, her body acted without regards to the mind. Her bones cracked and splintered. The mana coursing through her veins kept her body intact, and moving despite the increasing strain. "Kuh— Aura… stop…!"

Her body charged at Zeda, but she was already gone— as was the human assassin's body. With the target having disappeared and the Command no longer achievable, the enhancements to her body faded. Vic blacked out from the scorching pain.

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

Vic awoke to the smell of ammonia in a dimly lit room. She saw Sarrul's back, his tail swaying slowly behind him as glass vials clinked together. He turned around with a bubbling flask in his hand.

"Proprietress, glad to see you are well." He poured the liquid into a rag and pressed it onto her leg. The burning sensation from the mana burns instantly subsided.

"What happened to Aura?"

"Guild Master Aura is… well. Her emotional state is another matter."

She recalled the moment the abyssalwood branch escaped from her hand. That Zeda could survive being maimed to such an extent had caught her off guard. Not only did they escape, Vic was made a fool of even with Command. Worse yet, she failed Aura.

Vic tried to clench her fists, but her fingers could not completely curl up. "Itsuki?"

"Recovering upstairs. More importantly..." Sarrul's usual unreadable demeanor turned grim. "I must speak to you about the Headmaster."

"That name again. I recall you studied at the Court of Magisters?"

He nodded. "In the three years I studied there… it was a name uttered in both reverence and mystery."

"Who is he?"

"Unsure. I know only that this person never shows themself in public… whoever they are, may not even exist."

"What about the twelve magisters of the Court?" Vic asked.

"It's possible my old professor may know… his name isn't unfamiliar here— Viscount Corbin del Kas, Second Magister of the Court."

"Eve's father."

"Yes," Sarrul rubbed his chin and glanced at the door. "I dread to think she is a spy."

A laugh escaped Vic's throat, but it came out like a coarse grunt. "I'd keep that from Aura if I were you. If she is a spy, better her under our noses than six feet under."

"I have no intentions of telling Guild Master Aura." His attention fell to his hands, slipping into thought. "I've always found it strange. How did Septus rip open the veil between our world and the Abyssal Depths? By what leverage allowed him to coerce the Draconids to join him? Unlike alchemy, the more I dig… the more questions I find."

"We do know Zeda's alliance to the Headmaster spells trouble for us. The Republic of Darcie has picked their side."

He put the vial of ointment on a stand next to her head and returned to work. "Day by day it doesn't feel… like we're on the winning side."

⚔ ⚔ ⚔

On the morning of the third day at Greenwick, Vic would be returning to the Royal Cassun without Aura.

"Are you sure about this?" Vic asked of Aura, whose sunken eyes were red from a night of weeping.

"More than anything I wish to be with my lovely ladies. But..." She shook her head. "Beurich was hurt in the attack: I must be here to lead in his place, for Greenwick and the Guild."

Vic fastened Valor's harness to the wagon's shafts. One dreadsteed was all it took to pull the load behind them. Two more coaches were hired to pull additional wagons filled with runes, potions, explosives, foodstuffs, and many other goods the Royal Cassun needed. 

Itsuki was in the back, laying down next to the greataxe. He insisted on seeing Deena no matter what. Almost dying last night reminded him of his mortality enough to visit his lover. Vic was no different. She was eager to return to Taisha.

"Vic," Aura grabbed her hand before she had a chance to climb onto Valor. "Five weeks is the time limit. Return whether or not you succeed."

Vic nodded and climbed onto the dreadsteed. 

Five weeks. Two words that echoed in her head. Five weeks to travel to Orcus and assassinate the leaders of the Loyalists— Marquis Amadeus Felsquire and Fenris, the Left Hand of Septus.