Alice's phone started blaring an alarm. She looked down at her phone and went pale. "Oh no..."

She looked to the sky where her beloved satellite, her pride and joy, her Sunflower Purifex array hid in cloaking.

There was an explosion visible even from the surface of the Earth. From this distance, it appeared as a largeish and briefly seen star.

Alice screamed, "MY SUNFLOWER! HE BLEW UP MY SUNFLOWER?! That Immortal is going to pay!"

Alice's Sunflower was not the only means to purify stuff, it was just the best option. The guild had constructed a few land-based Pile Driver models before the Parasol blocked the sun. They were not summonable like the one Toasty could call and were a little less powerful, but they did not require Solar Child blood to activate.

Behind her in the doorway, Django came running. He'd heard something about a sunflower being blown up and assumed something awful happened to Master Otenko. The plant quickly reassured the burning vampire that he was fine, get back in the shade.

"Wait, wasn't that the satellite you use to purify vampires and stuff?" Django asked from the inside of the Azure Sky Tower. He hoped he could help.

"Go away, we don't need your help." Kay said.

Aaron's eyes widened in horror, "Wait, did they get the Sunflower and the Laplace?!"

Alice was frantically typing. "It... yeah. Lucian's in trouble now too! And Old Culiacan!" Earnest and Kay were both pulling out their radios and getting on their bikes.

"Come on! We need to go help! We'll clear the way, some Guildsmen are trying to fight their way over to Lucian!"

This coordinated attack was probably not by Duke Dumas.

Part of the mansion was completely gone. Sheridan, mercifully, was not killed when Tolstoy's troops came through several walls. They didn't stop to do anything but grab the Vanargand. Most of the damage was from the mansion's considerable automated defenses set up by Sheridan to stop this from happening.

Carmilla had dragged Sheridan to safety and administered first aid. She made sure he was not concussed or in shock. Sheridan found himself alone as he tried to get in contact with Lucian, or anyone from the Guild. Carmilla walked back into the room with an experimental rocket launcher and her usual blank facial expression. "I'm going to rescue Sartana."

Professor Sheridan nodded and did not ask who Sartana was. "Take extra elixirs and please be careful, Carmilla. Here's the key to the motorcycle. The one with the additions. Don't forget the other elemental bomb types. I don't know what you'll find out there. Take the grenade relic. We already analyzed it so don't feel bad about using it." The small capsule found in some solar ruins was a potent weapon.

"Yes sir." Carmilla left without any further discussion.

Sheridan despite the emergency thought, Finally my hard work is paying off. I just hope she reaches Lucian in time...

Old Culiacan had seen monster hordes before. The problem for the Gunslinger Guild was that this wave included Tolstoy's robots. He'd fitted them with solar-absorbing force fields. They forced the gunners to improvise ways to knock out the robots. Tove joined the battle lines with Bea. Although he was loathe to leave the sapling, he knew that they needed help.

Tolstoy had thought all of the terrenials would be with Lucian or Aaron.

Earnest had vetoed tucking a vampire mouse or bat into a bag to bring along as backup. (He had agreed to consider the application for a job when Django learned to change back into a human.) Django frowned as the bikes drove off to help the town. Even with flying, it would take hours to get to the battle lines. He'd also agreed earlier with Silver that he should probably figure out the whole vampire thing before spending time in proximity to civilians.

The Silvery White Knight appeared at his side. He could be stealthy for a giant suit of armor. "I know you want to go help the people. Do you have your spear? Sword? Mace? Gun?"

Django nodded yes to all the questions.

"I will teleport you as far as possible once the moon rises. Make your mother and father proud, my liege." The full moon tonight would be a considerable boon. Django would not need to bring extra healing items tonight.