After a successful escape of the girls to the cave/hideout, they left from there to Media, this time they were much faster with the brooms, so much so that in 11 hours they did the whole course at a normal speed for them, that 5330km course. When Athena arrived she was even impressed that the girls covered all that distance in such a short time, since years ago it had taken her 2 days to leave Media for the village where she would pick up Lilith's book.
Athena is also even more surprised by Ling, seeing that it was the same girl who had saved her life years ago and even hugs Tang with emotion. She also tells that she was Wu's sister and that things were very tense in that part of the world, besides the whole situation regarding Wu Tang's magical powers, which shocked even more the older Meridies, who died of concern for the girls.
Meanwhile on the other side over 5000 km away, Wu was just getting ready for when the girls go to invade the palace to steal Lilith's book, and even moved the book from place and that palace that once seemed so full and so alive. It had become empty and dark corridors, with a kind of fog passing between them, since Tang had killed all the people who lived in the palace and had expressly forbidden anyone to approach from there, letting the issues of the empire be resolved with a councilor in another palace on the outskirts of the city. The Empress knew that at any moment the ten witches could come along with Ling to try to get the book, so she would face the book door all the time just waiting for the girls to arrive, leaving just to feed her or do basic needs.
The girls took advantage of the fact that they were in Media to rethink the plan and train a little bit about purple energy, since Ling knew how to use it, which in a way would help them a little in case Wu came to attack them. Having finally a participation of Morgana's tunics in the middle of the plan, since they granted different kinds of utilities, which could serve to facilitate the theft of the book, this included even the power of invisibility.
It was more than two weeks with constant training among the girls to get some of the technique of using the purple energy magic, which until they managed to catch a little, since the time was a little tight for them, because it had the possibility of Wu to get angry and go after the girls so that it ends up catching Lilith's book.
October 31, 625, after a long training plus a 35-hour trip with Rhiannon to Changan, which was the night, being the perfect moment for the girls to enter the Empress' palace. Inside the aircraft the girls were all in the cockpit, observing to the points of the map closer and closer arriving in Lilith's book.
- We are coming...
Says Ling.
- Are you ready?
Says Athena.
- After days training the best strategies and ways to invade the palace... We are more ready than ever.
Says Harriet.
- Hera... Please daughter, don't die... I say the same to all of you. Take care and take all possible care...
Says Athena.
- We will take it, you can let us come back here with the book safe and sound.
Says Hera hugging her mother.
- I love you Hera...
Says Athena smiling at Hera.
- Talking like that, it's like I'm going to die! Goddamn it, Mom!
Says Hera.
- Hahaha! Relax girl, you won't, get cold that we will, ok. But if we don't succeed I want to at least see where my daughter got so far.
Says Athena embracing Hera.
- Mom! Who's driving Rhiannon?
Says Hera while Harriet held the headline.
- Well... Bye girls!
Says Athena waving to the girls after she lets go of the hug.
The girls wave their hands goodbye to Athena and from there they take their brooms by going to the exit door, where they have already jumped out of there with their brooms in their hands and wearing the special tunics of Morgana Ulster. A while later they make the broom take off and go towards Changan's palace, while Rhiannon turned to change course. Athena stays in Rhiannon just reflecting on that entire situation and watching the sky, even seeing an asteroid passing in front of her.
- (I hope the girls make it... Think we're already at this point in the journey... I was too calm to be honest... I knew they would get to that part, but I didn't imagine Wu would be very powerful, to the point of holding the ten that are very powerful).
Meanwhile the girls were approaching Changan's palace, which was covered with a dense fog of grayish color, which was already very strange because it was neither cold nor cloudy, little by little they were getting close to that huge building, where there was no passage, the whole structure had changed, to the point of only having a huge wooden door, where the eleven stand facing it.
- Now what? Everything has changed...
Says Harriet.
- I know it's going to sound risky... But we have no choice but to go through the front door, we'll split up into the corridors.
Whispers Ling.
- I go with Harriet on the way to the book.
Whispers Freya.
In this the girls all touch their hands and from there they pull all the door at once, already facing a witch who was looking at them and staring at them, wearing an armor of the army and armed with a staff, she just smiles at ten.
- You have finally arrived... Wu was already out of patience, now I will have the pleasure to tear you all apart, but before I kill you I want you to know that in every part of this palace you will have to deal with the most powerful witches in all of China, I am Yang! The most powerful witch of Changan!
Says Yang spinning her staff and going towards the eleven.
Marianne soon casts a purple energy spell and in this she ends up hitting Yang right in the belly and even punctures its armor, but without causing any more damage, just opening a wound that spilled a little blood.
- Your...
Says Yang until Marianne casts another purple energy spell on her.
This time it was in the same place and punctured her to the point of leaving Yang on the ground and gushing blood, which shocked the girls to see that Marianne killed a person, the witch was dying on the ground, sitting and putting her hand on her pierced belly.
- What is it? It's kill or be killed, we can't save and waste time here.
Says Marianne.
- Marianne! How horrible! She is a person!
Says Harriet.
- Look... I have to agree with Marianne. She's right we can't waste time, you have to attack here to kill, if possible just don't kill, just try to immobilize them.
Says Ling.
- Better killing than turning a Wu Tang stake.
Says Marianne turning her face so as not to see the body.
- Please... kill me...
Says Yang spitting blood.
- Let's get out of here soon.
Says Marianne avoiding looking.
The girls walk a little more through the foggy and dark corridors and soon find themselves with six branches, but before they take a step forward. Two witches appear almost jumping on them to attack them with swords and in this the eleven deviate and start casting spells that go towards the two witches only to fight in the armor for being of iron.
- Hahaha! You think you can...
Says the witch until Marianne and Ling cast spells to impale the witch by holding her unprotected head well.
In this Chenoa also uses a spell to impale the other, managing to cross the armor and pierce the other witch's chest, using purple energy, at the same time the other girls were horrified to see the two witches dying in front of them. After the slaughter they stand in the middle of the hallway between the six bifurcations.
- Very well... The corridors of the palace have changed a bit, so let's separate, something we find here again.
Says Ling.
- Right!
The girls say.
From there the girls separate in couples through the corridors, and Ling went alone in one of them, hoping to reach the place where Lilith's book is. They were dark corridors, some with traps and others with witches waiting for the fight. Something that was still very strange was that Wu had not appeared until then, which the girls were totally sure could be that she is in the room where is the twelfth and last book of Lilith.
Beatrix and Woodward follow in a corridor where the fog was so thick that you could hardly look around, which forced them to leave their eyes closed, just feeling the presence of witches or using a spell to analyze the surrounding terrain, until they are caught by surprise by a witch appearing behind them trying to hit with a spear the two Cavendish that just deflect.
- (Damn... This Wu Tang is very smart to the point of creating this place full of traps... I don't want to die... Our three daughters are waiting for us to come back and I believe in myself).
- (That was close; better Beatrix attack at the same time as me, so we will succeed).
Woodward turns and uses a spell that makes the wood of the spear buckle with it by tying the witch's wrist while Beatrix casts a spell to make her fall to the ground, but in this the witch ends up falling head over heels on a stake so much that at the time she dies the fog dissipates.
- Damn it! I'm horrible...
Says Beatrix crying.
- Come my love... It was nothing... It was just an accident.
Says Woodward hugging Beatrix who was crying and in shock.
In this Beatrix and Woodward continued to walk the corridors while this time they already knew where to pass since the corridor was no longer filled with fog. Meanwhile in other corridors the girls also went through difficulties, especially the corridor where Marianne and Chenoa were, was the one with the most witches.
- It seems that we have arrived in the corridor of the army.
Says Marianne using her purple energy spell.
- Weak army that.
Says Chenoa impaling some witches.
- It's horrible... To think we're killing... I really hope I don't have to do this again...
Says Marianne crying.
- Ahhh! You damned! You will pay for what you are doing! Wu Tang's army will kill you all!
Says one of the witches going towards them.
They continue to walk the halls attacking witch after witch in order to follow. Until after a while they find themselves in the soldiers' barracks where several witches start to go out towards Marianne and Chenoa, they face each other swallowing saliva.
- Shit...
Says Marianne.
- Let's go... Better them than us.
Says Chenoa signaling with his head.
Then the two take a deep breath and start trying to defend themselves from the more than 50 witch soldiers who were going towards them with all kinds of weapons and were very powerful witches. Meanwhile in another corridor that Harriet and Freya passed, it was full of traps, wells with stakes, plates that activated spears, and even a false floor that led to an acid well, the number of witches' bodies around was somewhat large, as some tried to go from one place to another when they heard the movement.
- Shit... This Wu is crazy.
Says Harriet.
- Luckily, we are wearing tunics of invisibility.
Says Freya.
- Where are they? Let's get these damned!
Says one of the witches
- I heard it going this way.
Says another witch.
The witches run straight through the corridors until they step on a spear plate and end up being impaled, which makes Harriet and Freya horrified to see that scene, the Nordic one even collapses into tears, as strong as it seemed to be she couldn't stand to see those scenes, while Benson kept comforting her wife with traumas.
- Come my love... We'll soon get to this book...
Says Harriet.
- I hope so... I don't ever want to see these atrocities in my life again... They are people with families... People who are here just obeying orders from that crazy Wu because they might die... This world is such a cruel place sometimes...
Says Freya crying while holding Harriet's shoulder.
After passing through that corridor, they come across the throne room, which had a witch sitting in the middle who was just waiting for them, but still didn't see them, so they both take off their invisibility cloaks and face her.
- How interesting, you wear an invisibility cover, could you show me how it works?
Says the witch.
- Show us where Lilith's book is and we can save your life.
Says Freya.
- You guys are funny, I Chun Hua was the one chosen to be responsible for all this, the head of the royal guard, how you want me to betray my sovereign?
Says Chun.
- You'll end up being killed as soon as all this is over, Wu will kill anyone because fuck himself. Why don't you take advantage and join us, we can save your life and so you can have a new life.
Says Harriet.
- I don't give a shit and walk for all this, if I die here it's because I died serving my empress.
Says Chun taking a spear beside the throne.
- Shit...
Says Harriet swallowing saliva.
- I will protect you my love, if it is necessary to use violence to protect my Harriet I will use all that is necessary.
Says Freya opening her arms and making force.
Chun starts to go all over Freya, standing on the spear and using it as a broom, but the blonde takes off by the handle of the spear and soon disarms the guard who is even impressed with the speed of the Nordic. She tries to hit a kick on the highest only that Freya holds with her wrist and throws the spear away, hitting a full punch in the Chinese's stomach.
- Damn it! You're good at fighting, you damn blonde.
Says Chun.
- Surrender soon and I won't hurt you.
Says Freya as Chun began to laugh.
- Please... I don't want to have to cause violence...
Says Freya until Harriet casts a spell on Chun that ends up falling to the ground.
- Harriet!
Says Freya.
- Relax that she will only sleep for a while, let's tie her up and keep going.
Says Harriet concentrating a spell.
Harriet uses a levitating spell in Chun that was fainted and another with a rope leaving her tied in a pier and with this she gives a relieved breath knowing that she wouldn't have to kill someone, Freya just hugs her wife and the two put on the cloak of invisibility again, this time following the corridor next to the throne room.
In the corridor where Anna and Hera were passing, they came across a path until it was quiet, with only a few witches soldier, who both avoided killing and only immobilized them or some more complicated paths that required more intelligence when passing, like acid wells with some floating platforms that Wu had placed, some of which ended up falling down on purpose so that they could not return. Their path was the longest and nothing so different had happened.
In another corridor which Ling was passing by herself, was one that was full of witches soldier, which Tang swept with the purple energy spell easily, was a darker corridor and full of pilasters and torches, which all the time came out one by one of the witches soldier trying to catch Ling by surprise, but eventually failing. Until after passing this corridor, Tang finally arrives in a huge door of wood and iron.
- (That's the one... I'm sure... I arrived at the end... The door looks a lot like the one I'm sure is the room where the book is).
Ling opens the door slowly and gradually notices that he has a vast dark corridor with some waterfalls on the side as well as some canals, as he passes through the vast corridor he encounters a huge circular area with Lilith's book in the middle leaning on a small marble pilaster. In this circle a channel was passing where water drained, having some dragon ornaments around the walls, with torches in the mouths, until a silhouette begins to appear in the middle of two pilasters, was of Wu.
- Wu! You bastard! You finally gave the faces!
Says Ling clenching her fists in anger.
- I say the same Ling... You really thought I'd be fooling around and let someone else in so easily to steal my book.
Says Wu leaving with open arms.
- It was complicated, but we are much more trained, and if it is to kill you I will do it with all the will of the world!
Says Ling.
- Ling, Ling, I will give you this last chance, join me, we will dominate the whole world together, we will be the Empresses of the world, one half stays with you and the other with me, I guarantee that we will be respected and feared everywhere and everyone will hear about Ling and Wu the Empresses of the world.
Says Wu laughing.
- Never! I will never share this atrocity!
Says Ling starting to concentrate a spell
- If that's the way you want it then know that we see each other in Tibet... Enjoy and bring this and the other book that I will leave with you.
Says Wu laughing and slowly disappearing.
- What do you mean? Wu? Wu! Wu damn! What the fuck Wu? What the fuck is this Wu? What do you mean Wu?
Says Ling running to Wu who disappears.
- (What the fuck is that? Where is Wu? She used telepathy and manifested herself in this room... But where Wu is and why she made a point of leaving the book here without even fighting so we wouldn't steal it).
Ling then goes to Lilith's book and takes note that it was not a fake book and it was really the real one, but what left Tang in doubt was where the little sister was and whether she had killed any of the girls. Dali Ling begins to walk down the halls back to where they would meet.
See you, stealing witches...