Volume II: Unforgiving Kingdom
Chapter XXVIII: Flight and Fight
Location: 8th Floor, Goldenia
"So they did come..."
Monika kept her position on top of a building within the eighth floor. People were swarming around the area just to get a look as they wondered what was going to happen next, while at the same time the imperial army rushing to surround the area and capture Monika. Around that time, it wasn't long before the prime ministers and Alexiel all arrived. The three of them only looked up at the woman who baited them out. Monika didn't say anything, waiting for them to make the first move. Finally Alexiel was the one to speak up.
"You have our attention." She said. "Now what?"
"What's the matter?" Monika taunted. "You're just going to say something to me and not even attempt to catch me?"
"You're practically surrounded. Even if you were try to run there's no way that you would be able to escape. Wherever the rest of your group is, it won't be long before we find out where they are located. All of you will be captured by us momentarily."
"How about I give you the chance to speed that up?"
"...Excuse me?"
"You're looking for the others aren't you? I could take you right to them if you wanted to negotiate."
"Wait a minute." Vira interrupted. "Are you trying to convince us you pulled all of this to get us out here, just to say you wish to negotiate with us?"
"Forgive me, but I find that hard to believe." Aglovale said.
"I don't blame you." Monika shrugged. "Of course, my goal was to make the negotiations on my terms after my demands are met."
"What do you want from us?" Alexiel asked. "Chances are we won't be able to fulfill it when you've met your fate, but I'll hear you out."
"It's simple really." Monika readied herself to take off. "Just catch me. If anyone can do that, then sure I guess I can help you guys in finding the others."
"Catch you? What? You want us to run around and play tag with you?"
"You know that I'm your best league to finding Ragna and the others. And I'm not telling if you don't try and catch me first."
While Monika said all of this, a couple of soldiers were starting to climb up a ladder on the building that she was standing on. Able to hear the sounds of them climbing, she still stayed in one spot waiting for Alexiel and the others to respond. Meanwhile with Alexiel and the others, they were still thinking on what would be the best choice of action in this situation.
"This is almost certainly a ploy." Vira muttered.
"Vira, you and Aglovale head back to Castle Vallera." Alexiel said. "If this is a ploy then we need to be prepared for anything."
"That's awfully well thought out for you."
Alexiel ignored Vira's last comment before speaking up to Monika. "Alright fine. I'll play along with this. But if anyone of the Imperial Army of Goldenia manages to catch you, you had better be prepared to talk. Are we clear?"
Monika smirked. "That's all I needed to hear."
Monika then jumped backwards and flipped through the air. She landed on top of the head of the soldier climbing up the ladder then bounced off as she backflipped through the air once again, landing on another building as she took off running. The first soldier was thrown off balance due to Monika and fell downward, knocking down the second soldier as well. Alexiel watched as Monika was running away via the buildings and quickly took off as well. Using her mirror blade shards she started to form a partial staircase so that she could climb up and chase after Monika. As she made it to the building she was on, Monika quickly jumped off onto another building and continued running, Alexiel following right behind her as she ran and jumped off as well. Other imperial soldiers started to scramble and follow after in the same direction Monika and Alexiel went while others were trying to figure out where she would go next in order to surprise Monika. Aglovale and Vira started walking over towards a lift in order to head up to the eighteenth floor. The normal citizens living on the eighth floor were still quite excited and frantic after everything that just happened.
"Move now!"
While all of that was going on, the rest of the group had still been in communication with each other due to Reina's spell she placed on herself, Ragna, Feena, Chat Noir, and Monika. Seeing as the Imperial Army had pretty much scattered, Monika alerted the group via thoughts that they should be able to proceed now. Despite the floor still being filled with people wandering the streets, they were aware that if they moved quickly as possible and tried to blend in then they should be able to sneak through the city mostly unnoticed and reach the lifts. With that in mind, Ragna, Feena, Mina, and Mona were making their way out into the streets while trying to keep their heads low. Meanwhile, Chat Noir and Reina were both tailing after Monika and the Imperial Army of Goldenia.
"You know," Monika started to say internally as she ran. "You two don't need to follow after me. I can handle myself."
"You'll never know when you might need an assist though." Chat Noir thought. "It would be better to have the support now than not have it when you need it."
"I just need to keep my eyes peeled and don't stop moving. If I can do that, then the Imperial Army won't be able to catch up to me. The two of you need to head back to Ragna and the-"
"Look out!" Reina suddenly interrupted. "To your left!"
With Reina, the maid mercenary was following after Monika in secret on the ground. As she was running between buildings to stay out of sight, she looked up and noticed a shadowy figure leaping from building to building and heading in Monika's direction. Contacting her via telepathy, Reina was able to alert Monika of the impending danger. As the girl turned to her left she saw Predator closing in on her, the assassin coming at her at alarming speeds. Seeing this as well as Alexiel right behind her, Monika knew this could be trouble.
"Shit...!" She said to herself. "I completely forgot about Predator!"
Monika stopped running and started skidding to a stop as she turned herself to the left where Predator was coming from. She started running again and hopped over onto another building, heading straight towards Predator. The assassin has her claws extended as she's ready to strike. However as Predator leaped over another building to get to Monika, the girl shot herself higher up using wind and leaped over Predator. Landing on the building behind Predator, Monika continued to run in order to escape. Predator landed on the building Monika was previously on and used her claws to skid to a stop so that she could turn around. Not wanting to let her target get too far ahead, she started running after Monika once again.
Alexiel in the meantime had also come to a stop as Monika changed course. She then hopped off the building she was on and started running in the air after Monika, making a makeshift road using her mirror blade shards. Looking to her right, she could see where Monika was running to. The redhead held out her hand towards Monika and summoned more mirror blades to use as projectiles. The mirror blades were sent straight at the blonde haired girl. As Monika saw the attack coming towards her, she was forced to both run and dodge Alexiel's attacks while trying to stay away from Predator at the same time.
"Ah crap, I didn't think that this pursuit would be so hard to get away from!" Monika thought.
"If you think it's bad on the roofs then be glad you aren't on the ground." Ragna said internally.
With the group heading for the lifts, they could see just how bad things were with the imperial army following after Monika. While their attention was focused on the girl in question, that didn't mean that it wasn't hard for the others to move as well. Ragna, Feena, Mona, and Mina were still trying to move quickly to the lifts, and still had to try and avoid any soldiers that weren't pursuing Monika. While it wasn't as bad as how Monika had it, they still had it bad due to the soldiers and all of the people blocking the streets in multiple places, making it harder to move around.
"Excuse us please!" Mina yelled out, trying to be polite as they pushed their way through the crowds.
"Hey, don't go yelling out drawing attention to us!" Ragna said to the girl.
"This place is completely crowded!" Feena exclaimed. "Not to mention, all of the soldiers aren't focused on you so we have that to deal with."
"Just be glad you can move about on the rooftops." Reina said. "There are so many soldiers pursuing you that if you were to fall, the chances are that would be the end of your little game."
"Predator's here, Alexiel's here, and I haven't even seen the other two Prime Ministers since I took off." Monika sighed internally.
"Chances are, they're probably looking for us as well." Feena thought. "But we'll be fine! Don't worry!"
Monika just clenched her fists as she heard everyone's thoughts, clearly worried for them but also worried for herself. Regardless she didn't have time to stop as she was still dodging Alexiel's mirror blades. Looking ahead of her she also saw that several soldiers had made their way to the building rooftops and were starting to block the way ahead of her. Looking around she then noticed another building away from the soldiers, the only probably being is that it was too high to just jump onto its roof. Seeing this as an opportunity to escape anyway, Monika leaned to the right and jumped off the building she was running on top of. Instead of making her way to the top, Monika crashed through one of the windows of the building, ending up inside of its interior. As she looked around she didn't notice anybody in the floor she was on. Meanwhile, Predator had come to a stop while Alexiel had made her way to the top of the building Monika was inside, waiting to see what the girl would do next.
"Hey, what are the chances one of you saw what building I went into?" Monika asked internally.
"I did. I'm close by as well." Reina responded in her head. "There's very few soldiers out here so if you jump out through another window and hit the ground safely, the street ahead of you is clear enough to where you can run away on the ground. Better hurry though. I doubt you'll have much time before-"
Before Reina could finish that thought however, she heard the sound of glass hitting the ground. Looking up she saw that the window Monika could possibly exit from had already been broken. When Reina turned to look at the street below, she saw that Monika was already a good distance away from the building. This was also noticed by Predator and Alexiel, who had to move quickly to continue their pursuit.
"Goodness gracious..." Reina said surprised. "How on earth did she move so fast?" Reina looked back up at the building for a moment and then ran after Monika, thinking about what happened. "I was staring right at that window. I didn't even blink and you had already broken through and was down the street. I didn't realize you were so fast Monika..."
"A feat like that would make Monika an excellent thief." Chat Noir complimented.
"If you want me to become one like you then the answer's no." Monika thought.
With the others trying to escape, they had gotten through the bulk of the crowd of people at least. Unfortunately in the process the group had gotten separated, all of them thrown off into walking in separate directions. While they had in mind that they would be heading into the same area, they would be reaching that specific lift in different ways. Ragna had managed to push his way through most, with the majority of people that recognized him based off the given description choosing to pretend they didn't see him. Feena had managed to blend in with the crowd and was trying to move along with it instead of constantly pushing through. Meanwhile Mina and Mona were trying to use their uniforms to hold authority in order to force the crowd to move out of their way.
"This is an urgent matter for us as well!" Mina stated aloud. "We understand that everyone is concerned but please make way so that the imperial army can pass through the streets!"
"Mina, I don't think that this is working...!" Mona said. "I can't even see the others anymore!"
"I know Mona, but that doesn't mean that we can just call it quits now! Keep moving! We'll get to the lift on time, I'm sure!"
"...I need to say something to Mina before we reach the others..." Mona thought to herself. "But what should I say? When should I say it? I can't just start talking while we're in the middle of this crowd."
Meanwhile, Monika was able to make some more progress in getting away as she ran through the streets. Reina was close by as well but was still out of sight. As Monika continued to lure them off farther and farther away from the lift she was also constantly looking back to make sure that Alexiel and Predator were still on her tail. As she turned back to look in front of her, she was almost forced to stop as a gunshot went right past her ear. Standing ahead of her was a squad of imperial soldiers wielding their muskets, Harper being the one leading them.
"Don't shoot to kill, men!" Harper shouted. "Aim away from her body or at her legs! Hinder her movement!" The squad of soldiers readied their weapons. "Aim! Fire!"
Monika went wide eyed as the bullets were coming at her. She was forced to a stop as she then pulled out her peacemaker after dodging the bullets. Firing one of her own, she shot Harper's rifle out of his hands to distract the squadron of soldiers. Preparing to run off in a different direction, she was stopped as Predator came lunging towards her, nearly catching her with her claws. After she barely avoided, Monika quickly took off again, once again covering a small distance in such short time and putting a few feet between her and Predator, who quickly ran after her. Harper and the other soldiers managed to regain their composure and quickly spread out to search the area for Monika.
The girl in question was quickly making her way through another street with Predator closing in. She was then forced to dodge more mirror blades coming out of nowhere. Looking ahead of her she saw that Alexiel was standing at the end of the street, firing wave after wave of mirror blade shards at her to try and put a stop to Monika's running. Looking for a chance to escape she noticed a nearby alleyway and quickly ducked into it, Predator not far behind. Alexiel also started running to catch up to her.
As Predator was chasing Monika through the alleyway, the assassin was starting to realize that this place was looking more like a labyrinth. The alley had many turns and corners making it difficult to track down her target. Proceeding with caution, Predator started to slow down as she was making her way through the alleyway, looking around for Monika.
"If I have to slow myself in order to be cautious, then she'll have to do the same." Predator thought. "If an imperial soldier were waiting around the corner while she was careless, she'd be doomed."
"Oh, Predator~"
Predator then jumped and turned around at the surprise voice from behind her. She was confused however, when she turned around to only see the smiling Reina standing behind her.
"A..." the assassin started to say in an awkward manner, lowering her guard ever so slightly. "A maid?"
Reina giggled, smiling with her eyes closed as she reached into her dress. "Guess again."
As Reina opened her eyes she pulled out the same wanted poster that she showed to Ragna and Feena once before. Letting go of it and allowing it to blow towards Predator in the wind, the assassin caught it on instinct. As she did so, she noticed Reina pull out her pin and spin it around to form her scythe. The look in her eyes changed from an innocent one to a more villainous look, her kind smile also becoming a vicious one. Placing a hand on her head, her hair turning a pure white with a long, black bow. Her maid outfit was torn away and replaced with a white, revealing shirt with a black, sash-like bottom piece to match the black undergarments she wore. Her white stockings became black, torn ones. Her eye color changed to a violet red as well. Spinning her scythe around she then pointed it at Predator, who threw the wanted poster aside and readied her claws.
"I. Am the Grim Reaper." she boasted to Predator, shouldering her scythe. "And I'm here to put down a naughty little assassin!"
Predator steeled herself as Reina rushed at her, the assassin now being completely occupied.
Meanwhile, Monika had been doing just as Predator expected, and was trying to proceed through the alleyways as stealthily as she possibly could. She could hear the sounds of soldiers running through the alley as well. Peeking her head out of a corner she was able to find a building that had a stairwell leading upward, being a good thing as she was hoping to get back to the roofs. Making a run for the ladder she passed by another intersection in the alleyway, where she unfortunately had a run in with someone. As the two bumped into each other and jumped back, Monika realized that she encountered Juri. The two both had their hand on their swords, ready and waiting to see who would make the first move.
They stood there for a good ten seconds before Juri decided to make the first move. However instead of attacking Monika, he just turned around. Monika looked surprised, not sure what game Juri is trying to play. However the young soldier didn't say anything in response, and was just waiting for Monika to head off. She came to the realization that Juri was just letting her go. Not wanting to let either of them get caught, she quickly ran off and started to climb up the ladder in order to escape. Juri just walked off in response.
"I've managed to find a way back to the roofs." Monika thought. "How are you guys?"
"Oh you know..."
With Feena, the girl was having a hell of a time trying to move along with the large crowds. At this point, she wasn't sure if she was getting farther away or closer to the lift that she needed to reach.
"I could be better..." Feena groaned internally.
With Ragna, the man had managed to find his way through the crowd. Granted he wasn't quite at the lifts yet, he was at least through with pushing through a large amount of people to get to where he needs to.
"Probably lost." Ragna sighed.
"Just keep moving, you two." Monika said internally. "Reina? Chat Noir?"
"Busy!"
With Reina, the mercenary was clashing against Predator and didn't have anytime to try and respond to the group, even if it was just in her head. Dancing around through a tight alleyway with a giant scythe was harder than expected, especially with considering how agile Predator was.
"I'm coming around."
With Chat Noir, the phantom thief had managed to keep himself invisible and out of sight. Having lost where Monika was after her quick escapes, he was also searching the floor in order to find either her or the rest of the group. As of now, he was also running along through the streets, using the shadows as cover and to avoid large crowds.
"Hey, we can pull this off right?" Feena asked. "I don't think any of us are making that much progress."
"Don't doubt yourselves now." Monika responded. "Especially not you. Remember who's lives are on the line if we can't pull this off."
"I've pulled out much greater escapes than this." Chat Noir bragged. "The last thing I'd do is doubt myself."
"This fight isn't over yet even if we do escape." Ragna said. "Unless we take her back by force, we're never going to get her out of there and ourselves alive."
"And even then, we've gotta be quick and head straight back to the first floor to rescue Albert and Grena." Monika added. "What a night this is turning out to be."
"That's if they're able to handle themselves." Chat Noir commented.
"I'm sure the two of them will be fine." Feena replied. "
Location: Underneath Goldenia
CRASH!
CLANG!
The sounds of fighting had continued to fill the area underneath the sinkhole as the large demonic army was clashing against Albert and Grena, who are now assisted by the demonic mage Rita and her companion Tau. The three of them plus Tau were up against the army of around one hundred demons, but they were still able to not only hold their own but have the advantage in this fight despite the odds being against them.
Grena had been the one who was dealing with the large majority of demons. They were all attempted to try and overwhelm the fire elemental with their superior numbers and the fact that the majority of them were much larger than Grena, as well as their aerial advantage. However despite all of this, Grena was still a match for all of them. The chain wielding mercenary wasn't even using her elemental abilities for the most part, constantly avoiding the large claws and tails of her demonic opponents. As one tried to crush her underneath their fists, Grena jumped up and grabbed onto said fist before it hit the ground. Flipping around, she was able to stand on top of it just as it hit the ground. She then took off running up the demon's extended arm as her right arm suddenly became engulfed in flames. Reaching the end, she jumped off and slammed her fist straight into the demon's face. Using her feet, she kicked out a burst of flames to launch herself forward as well, sending her forward and the demon backward. Grena slammed the head of the demonic foe straight into the rocky walls, the impact being enough to kill her opponent as she backed off.
A group of winged demons also came at her from above, trying to strike at the girl with their weapons and claws. Grena both dodged out of the way and then threw out what little of her chains she had left and wrapped it around one of the claws of the demons that were flying away. As they took off, one of them dragged Grena along into the air with it. She quickly started wrapping her chain around her arm in order to pull herself up and then flipped over so that she was mounted on top of the winged demon. As they all noticed her, Grena held onto the one that she was on top of with her right hand and engulfed her left one in flames. Taking aim, she fired a ball of flames at one of the other flying demons, shooting it down. She then sent out another wave of fire to a second demon, taking it out as well. The winged demon she was on tried to spin around and shake her off to no avail as she held on very tightly. Another winged demon tried to come in and use its claws to pull Grena off, grabbing her left arm. Grena scoffed and suddenly wrapped her chains around the claw that was grabbing her arm. Lighting her chains, the demon's claw was set ablaze, forcing it to let go out of panicking. As it let go, she fired another blast of flames and obliterated that winged demon as well. She then grabbed hold of the winged demon she was on, and started pulling at it in whatever direction she wanted, trying to force it to turn and fly in whatever direction she wanted.
With Albert, he was having his fair share of battle on the ground as well. Several demons were all trying to attack the lightning elemental at once. Albert put a halt to most of them by striking the ground and creating a small field of electricity that stunned them, except one demon that jumped over it. Attempting to punch at Albert while coming down, the man dodged out of the way. The demon threw its fist out once again, only for Albert to swing his blade from the bottom up, cutting of its arm. As it staggered back, Albert drove his sword into the demon's chest, killing it and letting it stumble backwards till it fell. Another demon charged at the sword wielder recklessly only to have its head sliced cleaned off its body. A third one charged at Albert and successfully managed to knock back his arm that was holding his sword. However Albert then grabbed hold of the demon's head using his other arm and sent out a vicious bolt of electricity through his hand, electrocuting that demon in an instant. Seeing another foe charging from behind using a spear, Albert used the demon in his arm as a meat shield and slammed its dead body in the spear's way. Letting go, he then spun around and slashed the spear wielding demon across the chest, killing it as it collapsed.
As he stood back up, Albert ducked again as the skeleton leader came at him with a flying kick which missed, the skeleton demon landing on the ground behind its opponent. Albert spun around and came down on the leader with his sword, only for it to block using its shield. He then sidestepped as the skeleton leader spun back around and slammed its blade downward, crashing into the ground as it missed Albert. Two more demons tried to attack Albert from behind, only for the man to do a full spin, slicing the demons in half and blocking an attack from the skeleton leader. As their blades clashed, Albert ended up in a deadlock with the leading demon, realizing this one was actually quite skilled.
Ending their deadlock, Albert pushed upward and then stepped back in order to get some distance between the two. The skeleton leader however had no intentions of letting up and quickly charged after Albert, swinging its blade horizontally. Albert ducked the first swing and the parried the second one away with his sword. The skeleton went for an overhead slash to which Albert used his speed to get out of the way. As Albert went for an attack from behind, the skeleton leader blocked the attack then went for one of its own, to which Albert avoided. Both going for one more slash they barely missed each other, Albert barely dodging as his opponent's blade sliced off a few hairs while the skeleton demon had one of the horns of its helmet cut off. Before Albert could recovered, the skeleton's shield bashed him in the face, knocking him back. The skeleton leader then banged his sword against its shield. More skeletons quickly came to the aid of their leader, both archers and swordsmen had Albert surrounded. Wiping the blood from his lip, Albert gripped his blade tightly and was ready to keep fighting.
"Lutum Clavi (Clay Spikes)!"
With Rita, the demonic mage held out her staff as it glowed brown. Suddenly a long ray of short spikes popped up from the ground, impaling a kicking about a dozen demons in an instant. As the glow died down, Rita dodged out of the way of more demons coming at her. As one lunged at her with a sword, Rita spun her staff around to block. She then danced around her staff as another demon trying to punch her using its large fists. Dancing up her staff she then stood atop it via a handstand and split kicked both demons. Jumping into standing on her staff with her feet she then jumped out and kicked the demon with the large fists in the face again. As the sword wielding demon went after her, Tau sliced at its legs, getting its attention. The fist demon was constantly throwing punches recklessly as it tried to hit Rita, who was too agile for its large fists to hit.
Rolling under the demon, Rita made it back to her staff and was then forced to block the sword demon from cutting her down. As the fist demon tried to come at her it was interrupted as Tau slammed its head into its abdomen, Rita's little companion knocking the demon back. As it came back for another attack, Rita kicked the sword wielding demon's leg to throw it off balance and then tossed it behind her towards the fist demon. Both collided, the sword going through the fist demon while its fist knocked the sword demons head clean off. As those two were defeated, Rita looked above her to see another demon coming down from above, wielding a sword as well. Without missing a beat, she held her staff upward
"Arma: Lanceas (Armament: Spears)!"
Suddenly as her staff started to glow, a glyph appeared in the air above it. A magical spear suddenly came out of the glyph and impaled the demon wielding a sword, killing it as the spear disappeared. At the same time Rita spun her staff around and held it out in front of her, revealing the head of the staff has now taken the shape of a very fancy spearhead. Tau howled, holding up its right paw revealing there to be a magical spear attached to its right front leg. Seeing more demons rush to them, Rita and Tau both took to the offensive. Rita clashed her spears against the claws and weapons of the multiple demons coming at her, swinging her polearm to counter and parry away any attacks while dodging the multitude of weapons. Tau was also doing its part. Using its small body it would latch onto the chest of demons and use the spear attached to its right front paw, stabbing them through the chest fatally in order to kill them. Reina managed to knock away a good portion of the demons using her spear, then spin around in order to slice another in half. She ducked underneath the tail of one demon attacking her, then blocked its fists using her spear. Tau leaped up and stabbed the demon straight in one of its eyes, causing it to scream and stumble back. Being wide open, Rita took the opening. Spinning her spear around she thrusts the spearhead straight into the demon's heart, killing it.
"I can only wonder how much damage they would've done if we hadn't stopped them." Rita said to herself, Tau growling slightly in response. "Yeah, I know. No point in thinking about that now."
As Rita stood in a stance ready to continue fighting, several of the demons were starting to back off. Seeing that they were being beaten very badly, the demonic forces were starting to get very afraid of their opponents.
"This is bad!" One of the demons said in panic. "We don't stand against any of them!"
"Let's make a run for it!" Another demon said. "There's no point in trying to stick together anymore!"
"Leave these guy to rot!" A third demon said.
As some of the demons were staying to fight, a good number of them were all trying to flee up to the surface in order to cause some trouble and get away from Albert, Grena, and Rita. The winged demons were all trying to take off despite Tau and Rita starting to cut some of them down. As some of the ground based demons defended them, they were also starting to hop on top of the winged demons in order to catch a ride. A good majority of them managed to get off the ground and start to fly upwards. Grena, who was still riding atop one of the flying demonic creatures, noticed them coming upward as well. She forced the demon she was riding atop to head in their direction so that she could put a stop to them.
"I don't think so!" She exclaimed. "I'm not letting any of you get up to a surface you hear me?! Not a single damn one!"
Meanwhile Albert remained on the ground facing off against the demonic skeleton leader, his subordinates, and a few other demons. Looking around, he saw that none of his opponent were looking to try and run away with the others.
"What's the matter?" Albert asked. "You don't want to try and run too?"
"I am no mere coward." The skeleton leader responded. "If I am to die here without realizing my goals then so be it. But I shall be known as one who never ran from a battle."
"Fine. Don't expect me to lose to any of you!"
Albert chose to make the first move, rushing at the leader and the demonic forces around it. The skeleton leader pointed its sword at Albert, rallying the others to also attack the lightning elemental. Two of the skeleton soldiers attacked first, their blades clashing against Albert's. The man parried them back with ease before slicing them down in one swing. A group of skeleton archers then fired their arrows, only for Albert to move away and appear right in front of them with blinding speeds. As she sliced them in half another group fired their arrows as well. Albert dodged out of the way and then had to block an attack from a club wielded by a large demon. The archers fired again, to which Albert used the large demon to his advantage. Moving behind it, the large demon was struck by the arrows but felt nothing. It was even able to turn around and bat Albert away with its club. As he managed to pull himself together, Albert blocked an overhead swing from the skeleton leader's blade. The two clashed repeatedly before Albert kicked him away. Rushing to the large demon again, he moved in close before it could swing. Holding out his hand, he send out another deadly volt of electricity, electrocuting the demon. Trying to tank it, the large demon raised its club to try and crush Albert. However it soon froze in place and was unable to move, until it collapsed, falling backwards and dying from electrocution.
Albert spun around and dodged more arrows from the second group of skeleton archers. Tossing his blade high into the air, he grabbed hold of the large demon's club while the skeletons rearmed. Spinning around, he then threw the club with all his might, the large weapon crushing the remaining skeleton archers before they could fire again. His sword fell back down into his hands, just in time as Albert cut down another skeleton soldier that tried to rush him. Swinging his blade to the right he cut down yet another that attempted to sneak up on him. By this point the number of foes in front of Albert had been reduced to the demonic skeleton leader, three skeleton soldiers all wielding swords, and two other demonic creatures, one wielding an axe and the other wielding a spear. The non skeletal demons started rushing at Albert, who solidified his stance in response and was ready to remain on the defensive. However this was suddenly interrupted as from out of nowhere, Tau, who's magical spear had disappeared, sprung up and leaped onto the faces of one of the demons. This distraction also managed to get the attention of the two demons rushing Albert. At the same time a glyph appeared in front of the two of them and sent out a large amount of icicles that impaled the demons as Tau jumped away, killing them cold. Turning around, Albert saw Rita walking up to him.
"Need a hand?" She asked.
"Much appreciated." Albert responded.
Raising his sword, the skeleton leader rallied the three other skeletons into action, all of them raising their swords before getting ready to charge forth. Albert readied himself to make a run for it too, planning to rush at the leader in order to end this. Rita grips her staff with both hands as it began to glow.
"Arma: Gladius (Armament: Swords)!"
With one spell, Rita's staff changed shape. What was originally a magical staff now took the form of a long sword. Whistling, she got Albert's attention. Rita tossed her long sword to the lightning elemental, who caught it in return.
"Think you can handle using two at once?" Rita asked him.
"It's been a while since I've fought wielding two blades at once." Albert answered, holding the two swords in front of him in an X shape. "But I think I should be able to do just fine regardless."
Meanwhile close to the surface, Grena was preoccupied with shooting down all of the demons trying to escape that she wasn't aware of the situation down at the floor of the sinkhole. The demonic forces were putting up more of a fight than she expected for a bunch of cowards. While the winged demons were focusing on flying to escape, the demons riding them were using whatever they could to try and stop Grena, even if it meant taking out their demonic ally she was riding on top of. One demon with large claws was ripping out chunks of the earth that it could reach, and chucking them at Grena as hard as it could. Grena had it hard considering she not only had to try and dodge, but also try and stop the winged demon she was on top of from trying to fly her straight into danger. Forcing her mount to avoid she held out her right hand and began firing multiple fireballs ahead of her. She managed to shoot down two winged demons in the process, leaving them to fall to the ground along with the demons riding on top of them.
Firing another round she managed to shoot down one more flying demon. However this time, the demon that was riding on it hopped off and landed on top of Grena's mount, standing right behind the girl. Having a spear in hand, it raised it's weapon and was prepared to stab Grena straight through from the back. The chain wielding mercenary grabbed hold of her mount and forced it to start spinning around in the air, breaking the balance of the demon behind her and cause it to fall off to its death. As soon as she stopped spinning, it was then that another demon from above threw a large rock into the face of her mount, knocking out the winged demon cold and leaving Grena to eventually fall. Gritting her teeth, she leaped off the winged demon and shot herself upwards using her flames.
"I'm high enough to the point where I should be able to make it higher than them if I'm fast enough!" She thought. "If I can just stop them...!"
The demons were trying their best to focus on getting up as fast as possible, however none of the flying demons were faster than Grena's flames. The fire elemental eventually was a good distance above them and extremely close to the surface. Holding both her hands in the air as she was slightly still floating upward, her entire body suddenly became engulfed in fire. The look of fear was quite present on the faces of all of the demons as she was preparing to wipe them all out with a single attack.
"What? You didn't think I was serious when I said you weren't reaching the surface?!" She boasted. "Well too bad! Cause I was dead serious!"
Spreading her body out like a star she began to free fall. The flying demons were scurrying in trying to turn and retreat, but weren't fast enough. Grena forced herself forward as all of the flames left her body, moving her upward and sending a large blast of fire straight down into the sinkhole. The sounds of the fleeing demonic forces scream in agony as they were burned to death were filling the cavern. Grena looked around and saw that not only was she still partially in the sinkhole, but there wasn't anything to grab onto at that height. She chuckled slightly and just let herself fall straight to the ground.
"Well... That's taken care of." She said with a smile.
Back on the ground, Rita had kept her distance with Tau guarding her, as she was currently unarmed and defenseless. This left for Albert to fight against the skeleton leader and the three skeleton soldiers with him. Having two swords, he found that it was much easier to fight against his four opponents this way. Focusing his efforts on the boss, Albert came in swinging despite the skeleton leader repeatedly blocking using its shield. Whenever one of the skeleton soldiers tried to strike from behind, he'd use one of his swords to block them before turning around to cut it in half. Eventually Albert got to the point where all of the other skeletons had been defeated, and it was just him and the leader. Albert and the skeleton leader were engaged in a weapon deadlock when they suddenly noticed something above them. As both looked up, they saw Grena's blast of fire coming down at alarming speeds. Quickly the two of them ran in opposite directions to get away as the blast hit the ground, the impact still knocking them back a little.
While Albert was still recovering, the skeleton leader quickly rushed back towards him. Attempting to go back on the offensive, Albert rushed as well. The two clashed in a short deadlock before swinging their weapons back and forth, the skeleton leader also using its shield to defend itself. Not getting past the powerful shield, Albert suddenly tosses the long sword he received from Rita in the air. Gripping his own blade with both hands, electricity began coursing through the blade. Taking one powerful swing as a bolt of lightning emerged from the impact, Albert managed to not only stun the skeleton leader, but succeeded in knocking away its shield in the process. Spinning around, he catches Rita's long sword just as it came down. While the skeleton demon was wide open, Albert went for a horizontal slash straight at the spinal cord, one that hit directly. Standing there for a couple of seconds, it wasn't long before the top half of the skeleton leader fell off of the bottom half, both pieces collapsing to the ground as it was sliced in half. Albert stood there, breathing heavily as Rita's long sword changed back into a staff. The demonic mage and her companion walked over towards the man who let out a sigh of relief.
CRASH
However, their senses were suddenly alerted to the sound of something crashing near them. As both of them now had their weapons they turned around to the source of the crashing. Immediately after, they dropped their guard. The source of the crashing was Grena crashing back into the ground, the woman laying face up with her eyes closed inside of a small crater she created when she crashed landed. Quickly Albert and Grena rushed over, the former moving faster than the latter. Putting away his sword, He kneels down and starts sitting Grena up, the mercenary groaning loudly in pain.
"Grena, are you alright?!" Albert asked. "Say something!"
"Hey... Hey Albert..." Grena started to respond, slowly opening her eyes. "Looks like we did it, eh?"
"Yeah. We did. We stopped an invasion with just the three of us."
"Who would've thought that an accident like us falling down here would have turned into a miracle that no one else is gonna know about?"
"That's the thing about being a hero. Sometimes, your efforts go unnoticed. But that's alright. At least for me, it is."
Grena started to pull herself up back to her feet, leaning against Albert to pull herself up. She smiled and then turned her head towards the man.
"Say..." Grena started to ask. "You remember how many you killed?"
"Huh?"
"What? Don't tell me you forgot about little wager."
Albert sweatdropped, not only because he did forget but also seeing as how that was still on Grena's mind despite her injuries. The two then heard snickering and laughing coming from close by. Looking over, they saw the source of it was Rita, who was picking her hat off the ground and placing back on her head.
"Oh, holy hell!" the demonic mage exclaimed. "I know I helped out, but I'm still having a hard time believing that we pulled that off!"
"Believe me, we know." Albert sighed.
"Yo, get us out of here will you?" Grena asked as she and Albert were walking over to Rita. "I think I've had my fair share of holes for one-"
Grena winced as she nearly collapsed to her knees due to her injuries, Albert keeping her up. Rita walked over to the two, spinning around her staff as she pointed it at Grena.
"Sanitatem Radius (Healing Ray)."
A beam of light emitted from it and struck Grena, surrounding her in light as she could feel her injuries starting to heal up. Slowly, but surely.
"It's the least I can do for you." the demonic mage said.
"Well. Aren't you helpful?" Grena replied with a smile.
Rita looked up as she felt something brush up against her leg. Looking down, she saw that Tau was brushing up against her, having a blue satchel in its mouth. Rita paused from healing Grena to bend over and took the satchel from out of her companion's mouth.
"Oh! My satchel!" She exclaimed. "I knew that I lost this, but I didn't know where I dropped. Thanks for finding this Tau." Rita then opened her satchel. Looking in it, she had a surprised look on her face. "Huh? Ah crap, did it fall out during all that fighting?" Rita started looking around. "Oh, where is it? I really hope that it didn't get crushed or something."
"You okay?" Grena asked.
"You guys wouldn't have to have seen something blue and spherical down here, did you?"
"Blue and spherical?"
Albert reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, blue, slightly glowing orb. A black symbol of what looks to be a sword and shield was on one side of said orb.
"Is this what you're talking about?" He asked Rita, who lit up upon seeing it. "It caught my attention during our fighting so I carried it around in my pocket for the time being. I was going to take a look at it once we got to the surface. I didn't know it was yours."
"It's not mine, per se." Rita replied. "But I've been holding onto it this whole time so gimme, gimme, gimme!"
Albert shrugged, handing the orb over to the demonic mage.
"What's so important about that?" Grena asked. "Something for your spells?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that at all." Rita answered, holding the orb up. "I found this down here sometime ago. Gotta admit, it surprised me when I found it buried underneath a bunch of rocks."
"Why's that?"
"This IS a soul after all."
. . . Both Albert and Grena looked at Rita dumbfounded.
"Huh?"
Location: 8th Floor, Goldenia
"It's over here! Mina! Mina, it's this way! Come on, hurry!"
Meanwhile on the eighth floor, the group planning their getaway had been making great progress. As of now, Mina and Mona were the first ones to reach the lift that they were all planning to head up on. As Mona looked around, she saw that it was just the two of them.
"I don't see anyone else here." Mina said as she and her sister approached the lift. "They can't be too far behind can they?"
"I guess not." Mona answered.
"We might want to try and stay out of sight for the time being. Even if we are still soldiers right now, we'd raise suspicions if they just aw us standing here at the lift doing nothing. We could go looking for the others too, but if they show up while we're not here then that won't be any good."
"..."
"But if something has happened to them then all of this would have just been in vain. I don't want it to come to that either."
"Mina... Are you sure about all of this?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"This... This going up against the imperial army and helping these guys out! Come on Mina, both of us are imperial soldiers ourselves. We shouldn't be doing this, you know that!"
"Mona what are you talking about?"
"We need to just hop on this lift and head up before everyone!" Mona grabbed onto Mina's right arm and tried to pull her sister along, despite her trying to not budge. "Come on, you know that this is the right thing to do! We have to do this!"
"What's gotten into you?!" Mina kept trying to pull away from Mona. "Why are you now trying to turn your back on the others?"
"I'm doing this for us! If we go along with this then there's no way that we can hope to have our wish granted! There's no way that we can-"
"That's why I think we should join with them! Monika's sincerity, how she genuinely feels my pain when we both told her everything that happened. Even if we were to betray them, is there any guarantee that we can count on the imperial army's aid? Wish or not, if they don't understand us will we truly be able to rely on them?! Is that a chance you'd wish to take rather than helping our new friends?!"
"Of course it is! Why do you think I even came down here for in the first place?!"
Mina finally managed to yank her arm back as she looked at Mona surprised. "W... What?"
"That's the whole reason I've come down here in the first place. This was part of a plan that the imperial army set up to capture the others. The goal was to originally lure them here and capture them. I came down here because I wanted to get you to help us out. But we kept on getting sidetracked and then Albert disappeared into that giant sinkhole and then more and more things just kept happening and-"
SLAP
Mona stumbled back, having a stunned look on her face as she held her cheek which Mina had just slapped.
"M... Mina?" She said in shock.
"Mona... You went along with such a heartless ploy without questioning it whatsoever...?" Mina asked. "How could you...? Why would you go along with something like this?! You knew what was going to happen to that innocent child and instead of telling us about it, you lied to us! You lied to all of us, even me, by pretending that you were really on our side!"
"M-Mina I'm sorry! I-I just wanted to-"
"To what?! To what Mona?! To put a child in harm's way all for something as selfish as revenge?! To risk the lives of people you don't know just for your own self satisfaction?! Is that really okay?! Would you really be okay with that?!"
SLAP
Mina was then in return, slapped by Mona.
"Wouldn't you?!" She exclaimed. "Isn't that why you went down to the first floor in the first goddamn place?! Weren't you planning on doing the same thing that the imperial army is working together to try and do?! I know you, Mina! I know what you said to me! You went down there because you wanted Albert to help you arrest them because you wanted to get revenge too!"
"No it isn't Mona!" Mina exclaimed in response. "You know that I wouldn't!"
"Why not?! You know how you felt when we lost Mena! You know how we all felt when we watched her die! You and I both tried to avenge right then and there and we failed on our own! As we were both injured after everything that happened, you were still burning for revenge! I know that it's still in you! So don't think I don't understand your reasoning for coming down here!"
"SHUT UP!"
BAM
Mona was knocked down, as Mina punched her dead in the face. Mona, still on the ground, looked up at her sister. Mina was furious.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK IF I JUST WENT DOWN SOLELY FOR REVENGE THAT I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN ANYWHERE!?" Mina yelled at her sister. "DO YOU REALLY THINK ALBERT WOULD HAVE TRIED TO TAKE MY SIDE IF THAT'S THE CASE!?"
"I-I"
"Albert isn't one who burns for revenge like us!"
"W... What are you talking about?! Are you saying that he doesn't care about Mena?!"
"It's not like that! My reason... My reasoning for all of this was because I wanted to try and do something that at the time, I thought was the best for me, you, and Albert! I wanted to bring back the Sky Knights! I wanted all of us to be together once again after all this time that's passed! I didn't care about vengeance!" Mona could see her sister tearing up as she continued to speak. "That's not what Mena would want! That's not what Mena would want...!"
Mina wiped her eyes and then held out her hand towards Mona, helping her sister to get back on her feet. Mona picked up her staff as she took Mina's hand and stood back up, trying to process everything that her sister just said. Mina didn't say anything, and the two stood in silence for a moment. Finally, as she looked down, Mina finally broke the silence between the two.
"I won't say anything to the others." She said. "But I'm not going to side with the imperial army."
Mona looked absolutely shocked at what Mina said, understanding that there wasn't any hope that she could change her mind.
"We can all board the lift together." Mina continued. "And we'll head upwards. Once we get to our destination, you choose the side that you want to be on. And I'm going to do the same." Mina closed her eyes as she turned away from Mona. "I'm sorry it has to be like this."
"Mina..."
Meanwhile, the two sisters were unaware that they were being watched behind a nearby building. Standing near the lift in hiding was both Ragna and Feena, the two of them having arrived earlier but walked in on Mina and Mona's argument. The two stood there secretly, listening in on everything that they could. Seeing the sisters conclude their argument, Ragna and Feena looked at each other and nodded.
"I knew it." Feena said internally. "She is our enemy."
"If you think we should do something about her, now's the time to say it." Ragna responded. "If Mina's truly on our side now, then she'd probably agree with our choice to leave her down here when we head up."
"If we were to do that then Mona would go after Monika instead. And besides, even if the two of them did just get finished arguing, there's no way Mina would let us hurt her sister in any way to keep her from doing anything. I don't have anything on me to tie her up with either and there's no time for us to go find anything."
"What the hell are we supposed to do then? Just let her come up with us?"
"We'll have to. Now that we know what Mona's planning, when we get to the top then she won't be able to do anything to us from behind."
"That's taking a gamble, Feena."
"Hey, you know me."
Ragna sighed.
"Let's just act naturally for now alright?" Feena asked. "If she tries anything, then we can use the 'self-defense' excuse to Mina. I'm sure she'd buy that."
Feena then walked out into the open and whistled loudly. Mina and Mona both looked up as they saw Ragna and Feena walking over to them.
"Yo!" Feena called out. "We're here!"
Location: Underneath Goldenia
"-And that was how I ended up carrying a soul around in this satchel of mine."
Back underground, after all the fighting was finally finished, the group of three had a chance to rest. In that time, the demonic mage Rita had spent her time explaining to Albert and Grena how she just has the soul of a living being with her that she's been carrying around.
"To be honest I was planning to try and get rid of it when I got to the surface." Rita said. "There's not much that I can do with it considering A; I don't know who's soul this is. I'm not a demon that can tell these kinds of things. And B; It's a human's soul anyways. So I figured that maybe there's a chance that the humans might have some clue on what to do with-Uh... Are you two... okay?"
Albert and Grena were still staring at the woman with the same dumbfounded look. Finally they spoke up after Rita waved her hand in their faces for a moment.
"Wait, wait a minute..." Grena started to say.
"You're telling me that you just happen to find a soul of a human trapped here?" Albert asked in confusion. "How?"
"I dunno." Rita answered. "It was trapped in a bunch of rocks. I'm surprised it didn't get crushed while it was like this."
"So a Man's soul was just underground somewhere?" Grena asked, still confused as she rubbed her head. "I don't understand this. Were there a bunch of humans living down here at one point? Was there another hole somewhere that we didn't see? Argh, this is all confusing..."
"There must be a reason for why Rita has this." Albert commented. "But regardless of that, we should get to the surface now. I hope everything's alright with Goldenia, and the rest of our friends-"
"WAIT, THAT STORY!"
Albert was interrupted as Grena suddenly yelled out, also causing Rita to cover her ears.
"Man you humans are loud..." Rita groaned.
"Grena?" Albert questioned. "What's gotten into you?"
"Remember that story you told us back at Feena's place? You know, the one about the old queen?"
"Yeah?" It took a few seconds, but Albert realized what she getting at. "Hold on, are you saying that all of that could be true?!"
"It could be! It makes sense! The old queen's soul got trapped down here with some demons who stole it away! After what I've seen, I'd believe it! The only problem that leaves is determining whether or not she's a real statue."
Albert turns to Rita. "Rita, by any chance was there anything gold around that soul when you found it?"
"Yeah, actually." Rita answered. "When I found it trapped between some rocks, I noticed that some of the rocks were actually gold. I just wrote it off as a natural occurrence as I assumed all souls can just do that."
"Then that could mean that the Queen of Goldenia is..."
"...Actually still alive!" Grena finished. "That sounds amazing! Now what the hell do we do with it?"
"I think I have an idea. If everything we've learned is true, then there's a chance that we could take this soul back and bring back Goldenia's true queen."
"So that's what you plan to do eh?"
"No, not me. It needs to be you and the others."
"Huh?"
"I know you're so close to leaving, but we need to head back up to the eighteenth floor. If you guys were to return the soul and somehow manage to bring back the Queen, then by all means you could make whatever demands you'd want with such a feat."
"I don't see any demand worth that risk."
"Let me put it this way. How much do you think the Imperial Court would pay you to hand over that soul? If there's a chance this belongs to the Queen of Goldenia, then you could probably not only get freedom, but also a lot of money for this."
"Now you have my attention."
"I don't get any of this." Rita spoke up. "What are we doing with whoever's soul this is again?"
"We'll explain on the way." Albert answered. "Can you get us up to the surface for now?"
Rita nodded, gesturing for the two to stand close to her. As Albert and Grena stood near her, she held up her staff.
"Gravitatis Semen: Sursum (Gravity Seed: Up)!"
The ground underneath the three started to rumble as a large chunk of the earth started to rise out of the ground. Before Albert and Grena knew it, the three of them were rising straight up out of the sinkhole.
"Using glyphs as makeshift stairs is harder when there's a bunch more people." Rita said. "This is just much easier to do so that we can all go up together."
"I can tell we're gonna be great friends." Grena said with a smile.
Location: 8th Floor, Goldenia
"It shouldn't be that much longer before the others are finally able to escape...!"
On the eighth floor, Monika found herself still running from her pursuers. Having managed to lose Alexiel and have Reina deal with Predator, all she currently had to deal with was the multitude of soldiers still pursuing her in many directions on the ground, as well the ones setting up traps across the rooftops. Currently running through the backstreets behind several buildings, Monika looked around as she didn't see many people around, also meaning there wasn't many soldiers around as well. She sighed deeply, breathing heavily as she needed a breather. Slowly walking off she started to peek her head out of a corner into another street. Looking around, she didn't see any soldiers around the area, just regular people. She also spotted another backstreet on the other side of the street, which also appeared to be quite empty.
"There." Monika said to herself. "Just got to keep this up a little while longer."
Making a run for it, Monika dashed over to the other side of the street, covering such a short distance in little time. However the moment she reached the backstreets she went wide eyed, as there was a multitude of guards of waiting there after all.
"What?!"
"There she is!" One of the soldiers said. "Get her!"
Monika quickly disappeared from the guards' sight as they ran after her. Attempting to dive back into the alley she was in secretly, she skid to a stop as she saw the alley she was in filled with more guards that she wasn't aware were behind her.
"No!"
Monika turned around again and attempted to make her way through the main street. However she was stopped again as she could see at the end of it, more guards closing in on her. Looking behind her, she had more soldiers there as well. As of now, Monika was surrounded on all four sides. Seeing no way to run, she shot herself up in the air towards the rooftops. However the moment she did, something jumped off the nearby roof behind her. Monika was hammered down as Alexiel came off the roofs and slugged her right on the head. Monika fell back to the ground, rolling along as she dropped all her weapons. The moment she tried to stand back up, Alexiel landed as well and grabbed hold of her hand to keep her from getting away.
"Caught you." The redhead said.
Monika repeatedly tried to shake loose Alexiel's grip, to no avail.
"Dammit! She caught me!" Monika exclaimed internally. "I need a hand! Reina!? Chat Noir!?"
"You're on your own."
In the middle of another alleyway, Reina and Predator's fight had come to an end. The maid mercenary was on the ground, her clothing ripped and her body bloody. Her hands were forced together as Predator held her down, one arm holding her opponent's hands together and another on Reina's head. The mercenary's pen was also too far for her to ever reach with her teeth.
"She was too much for me." Reina said. "I'm not going anywhere. And if Chat Noir's been caught then there's no way that we'll be able to escape on our own."
As Reina was speaking internally, she was also trying to struggle away from Predator, to no affect. It was around that time where another group of soldiers found the two.
"What's going on here?" One of the soldiers called out.
"This one's an accomplice to the blonde criminal we've been chasing." Predator explained. "She attacked me while I was in pursuit of our target, but I managed to hold my own and take her down. Don't just stand there. Give me a hand!"
The group of soldiers all walked over and surrounded Reina to keep her from escaping. As Predator let go of the mercenary's hands, she immediately tried to grab her pen. However she was stopped when the soldiers grabbed her hands and held them together. Another soldier pulled out what looked like a blue gem. Placing it on Reina's wrist, the mercenary suddenly became tied up by magical binds, and unable to run anywhere as they let her go.
"The hell?!" Reina exclaimed. "What is this?!
"Magical binds." A soldier answered. "We use these to made sure the arrested won't be able to use any magical abilities to escape."
"Detaining me via anti-magic devices?!" Reina thought to herself. "Dammit! That means that the abilities of the Grim Reaper have been cut off from me! Not only will I be unable to communicate with the others but my transform will disappear and my appearance will be reversed! I can't let my public face become known as the dreaded Grim Reaper!"
With Monika, the girl was trying to still communicate with Reina, unaware that the maid's being bound using anti-magic devices. At that time, Alexiel yanked Monika back up to her feet.
"Your little game is over." Alexiel said. "I'm not letting you get away."
"Dammit...!" Monika said, trying to pull away. "This wasn't supposed to end like this!"
"And it won't!"
Everyone was alerted by the sounds of somebody above them. Looking up they saw that from behind, Chat Noir had appeared, the boy now missing his hat, cane, and monocle and was wearing a black coat. Using the shadows, he was running in the air above and heading straight for where Monika was.
"Let's switch roles, shall we?" He said.
"What?!"
Just as he approached Monika, the phantom thief suddenly caused the bridge of shadows under him to start fading away. Before anyone knew it, the shadows around them tore Monika away from Alexiel in one piece and started carrying her high up and away from the other soldiers, weapons and all, all the way towards a building where there were no soldiers. At the same time, Chat Noir fell straight into the crowd of soldiers. When Monika landed on the ground she turned back, wanting to help her ally from getting captured in her place. However, the shadows role and pushed Monika away, forcing her to keep running away.
"And just like that." Chat Noir chuckled, lying on the ground. "Victory is ours."
Alexiel snatched the boy off of the ground. "I hope you realize just how much trouble you're in for that stunt." She said.
"Maybe. But there's one problem..."
Before anyone could react, the phantom thief's body suddenly turned into a pile of cards. Everyone jumped back in surprise.
"I'm not down there."
Unaware to them, Chat Noir was still close by. However he himself wasn't the one to take the fall in order to save Monika, but another one of his card clones. The boy was standing on another building clear of soldiers, wearing his normal outfit including his hat, cane, and monocle. Soon Monika landed on the same building that he was on.
"How did you find me so quickly?" Monika asked.
"A thief has his ways." Chat Noir answered, leaning on his cane. "You're lucky. The lift should be almost dead ahead. The others could use an extra hand, assuming you've been listening to everyone's thoughts."
"I have. But I can't hear Reina's anymore."
"Leave that to me."
"But-"
"We'll survive. That's what criminals do after all."
Before Monika could respond, Chat Noir vanished into the shadows. Monika blinked, before tilting her hat and gripping her sword. She quickly took off as fast as she could towards the lifts where Ragna, Feena, Mina, and Mona were waiting.
"Hang on you guys." She thought. "I'll be there with you."