Orzhova elegantly flicked the blood from her scythe, the bisected corpse of the Master of Gluttony falling apart underneath the dark angel. She slammed her heel in the ground, a mixture of White and Black mana rushing out of it and erasing the upper and lower half of Ershun. Aurelia stood still for a brief moment in the silence of the aftermath, the only sounds the heavy breathing of each prince, and then rounded on her sister, grabbing the other angel by the shoulder and spinning her around. The Warleader's angelic features were twisted in calamitous fury, but instead of looking scared Orzhova grinned mockingly at her sibling.
"Orzhova! Where have you been in the past one-hundred years? Why have you chosen now to select another Summoner?!" Aurelia demanded, her eyes blazing, and shook the Angel of the Black Sun for effect.
"Serra exiled me from the Sanctum Angelica after my "crimes" in the material plane under Xarius, or do you not remember, dear sister?" Orzhova spat the words, sending Aurelia a look of pure hatred that made the angel blink in hesitation for a split second. "And my reasons are my own. Caiellis was a suitable Summoner, so I chose him before any of your sisters could intervene."
"Orzhova..." Aurelia's words fell short, a very human action for one so mighty, "They are your sisters too."
"You know full well that there is nothing between me and them, nothing between you and I," the dark seraph pulled away from Aurelia, and as Cai reached her side he could clearly see the deep sadness in her onyx eyes as she turned. "I'm sick of talking to you. Goodbye."
A wave of exhaustion threatened to overcome the youngest Lucerna as Orzhova returned inside of him, and Aurelia cast him a sympathetic glance before admitting, "Alexander, I have used up enough of your mana. I shall leave before I consume anymore. Summon me when you need me."
"Thank you," Alex replied, squeezing his brother's shoulder with a large palm as his angel also dissipated into golden particles. He surveyed the scene of destruction they had caused in their battle with the Master of Gluttony, vibrant stalls, scorched by Aurelia's Fury, lay strewn across the wide street, and Alex was extremely thankful that there had been no innocent Welkalite civilians in the area. Neither of them needed that on their consciences.
"You did good, little man," Alex grinned proudly at his younger brother, placing his arm around the other boy's back and walking with him to the other side of the Banquet Street. They were almost out of the city, but Alexander was worried about how tired they both were – walking for days on end back to Lucael and Civitas Sol wouldn't be ideal.
"Don't worry. I'm sure the Resistance will have something planned in the way of transport," Cai's soft and thoughtful voice broke the silence that had descended between them, and the older brother nodded. "Actually, I probably shouldn't be so confident. If their whole plan has anything in common with Degan's time management, then we will probably end up back in Tradax's clutches."
"Wow, you are mean. Did you not want to see your friend? You didn't even say anything to him," Alex sighed, knowing full well that his little brother was bad at socialising with most others and pushed them away, but when he had seen the two boys together at the Scholaria Caiellis looked like he was bonding with the fifteen year old Kaled. Apparently not, though he was aware how obstinate the little guy was when interacting with children of a similar age, often ignoring them.
"I never said he was my friend. It was only circumstance that brought us together," Cai replied, twirling his sword and sheathing it with an elegant flourish that made Alex stifle a smirk. Sometimes Caiellis trying to act as an adult was more funny than anything else, though his little brother would always get really annoyed if he pointed it out.
"You shouldn't push people away, Cai. Kaled clearly wanted to be friends with you," Alex's soft tone took on one of slight admonition, a voice he often used when he was trying to teach the younger boy more about the world. "Besides, you can't hang around me all the time. We are princes, and I'll soon be an adult."
"That's not true. You're the one who always wants to talk to me," Cai responded sulkily, running past his brother and glancing round the corner to ensure it was clear. However, the path towards the gateway out of the city was empty, bereft of brightly coloured Gluttony Enforcers. Had the Welkalites really thought that Ershun alone could stop them? It smacked of arrogance, and although Tradax was wont to preening Caiellis had realised that the Master of Rapture was deeply cunning, and it was unlike him to not have a back up plan in case Ershun failed. And despite how organised the Ja'an Guard was, Cai couldn't help but think they would be able to delay the entire Usnaan military alone. What am I missing? He thought, trying to play the details of the past couple of days in his head.
"Yeah, and I found out that you were cutting yourself, so obviously what I did was right," Alexander quickly overtook his smaller sibling and scanned the area for enemies, in spite of the fact that Cai had just done so – he could tell that the younger boy was thinking hard about something, and when he had done that in the past sometimes he had failed to notice foes. The most prominent time he remembered was when Cai stormed off after Tristram had given Alex a black eye (that he felt he thoroughly deserved) in an unarmed combat training session, and apparently hadn't noticed Johnias's soldiers ambushing him before Tristram saved him. Although that turned out well, with the littlest Lucerna remaining unharmed and discovering new-found respect for the Guardian, Alex wanted to make sure the area was indeed clear before they carried on.
"Whatever."
"Don't deny that I'm an awesome big brother," Alex joked, playfully ruffling his unamused brother's hair and then narrowing his eyes. A figure clothed in black leather armour with a red glove covering their right hand was beckoning them over to the gate, a strange looking wheeled-capsule behind them. The Welkalite held a curved scimitar that was covered with blood and ash, going a way towards explaining the absence of guards.
"Messa?" he shouted, recognising the hard faced Resistance Enforcer as they ran closer, and the woman stood beneath the ostentatious triumphal arch of Gateway Gluttony nodded quickly, turning round to adjust some dials on the machine behind her. Alex swiftly arrived at the open gate, waiting a moment for his panting brother to catch up. The younger boy was tired, a fact made painfully obvious by his heavy breathing. Well, they were both drained, but Alex certainly wasn't going to let Caiellis realise that – he reminded himself that his brother had only Summoned Orzhova once before today, whereas he had Summoned Aurelia over a hundred times.
"Get in," the woman ordered, roughly dragging the weightless Cai towards the vehicle, and Alex would have objected to the harsh treatment of the kid if time was not of the essence. Caiellis examined the locomotive as he was shoved inside, turning to Messa with an incredulous glance.
"A Yentarian automobile? I thought they were Uverian, and those scientists normally don't approve of sharing their technology. How did you obtain it?" he inquired, monumentally glad that the Resistance had acquired such a state of the art vehicle for their escape. This would get them back to the City of the Sun within a day at most.
"Let's just say that it would not be in the best interests of the League of Uveria for you to remain here," the woman replied, her face as inscrutable as stone. Knowing he would get no more out of her, he slid along the comfortably padded seats to allow his much larger brother to get in also. The second Alex did so, a wave of claustrophobia that made him want to get out was ruthlessly quashed; small spaces may not be his favourite place to be but he would suck it up as the automobile was the brothers' only way of realistically escaping. It wasn't like he was extremely claustrophobic, far from it, but Alexander couldn't help but wonder how they were supposed to defend themselves stuck in the car.
"I have already set the co-ordinates for Civitas Sol," Messa cut in, and Cai quickly noticed the control panel set in front of them – he already knew that the mana infused into the automobile would allow it to direct itself and automatically take them to the aforementioned city, where no doubt their anguished father would be massing an army to take them back, but he could manually override it with magic if necessary – Caiellis hoped that he didn't have to, as reading about the properties of the invention in treaties published by the Yentarian scientists certainly wasn't a substitute for first hand experience, of which either boy had none. The only modern transport Lucaelians used were the monorails, preferring to either move on foot, on horseback or with magic of some kind, so Cai doubted his big brother even knew what the vehicle was considering the older boy didn't read nearly as much as he did, if at all.
"Activate it by-" Messa began, just as the youngest prince called mana to his small fingertips and tapped the holographic display, starting up the vehicle. "Well, it seems you already know what you are doing. Remember your promise to the Resistance, Alexander and Caiellis Lucerna. You will help to free Welkas from the Orders of Passion. There is no way we can force you to, but I hope your consciences are enough to force your hand."
"That, and the fact that our father will definitely declare war if he hasn't done so already," Cai replied glumly, to which Alexander added: "Thank you. The Resistance has done a great service to Lucael. Let it not be said that the Kingdom of Light forgets its allies."
The confident words prompted Caiellis to recall their lessons on proper speaking with Uncle Tybalt; while the older boy may have found what he just said cringe-worthy (as he had stated previously on numerous occasions), the line was textbook perfect. Neither of them had particularly struggled with the teaching, but since Cai's brother was far more confident and amiable than the younger boy, so was better placed to talk to people. Not many people gave credit to the older boy for his intelligence in using words, though Cai himself had only realised a few years ago when pondering just how his older brother always knew what to say to him to either exceedingly irritate or please him.
Messa quickly retreated from the vehicle when its small but very effective engines powered up, the mana supplied to it from batteries and Caiellis gave ample propulsion. Alex looked through the reinforced glass at the front of the automobile, watching as the Yentarian invention shot through Gateway Gluttony and into the suburbs surrounding the main city, the main dwelling place of civilians in Welkas. He glanced round at the deserted poverty, obviously those that lived here were inside their homes. According to Tradax, whom he had asked about Welkalite society at the breakfast of today's morning, the Master of Rapture had explained that while most of the population did live within the cities, in the unnamed habitable areas in between each Passion Quarter, there were some who resided outside of the capital city. However, it seemed like either they had been evacuated or were hidden within their homes.
Alex ensured that he examined each building they drove past for potential ambushers, feeling a queasy sensation building up in his gut at the thought of being attacked while stuck inside the automobile. Sensing his brother's disquiet, Cai piped up and said: "Don't worry, Alex. The Uverian scientists designed these vehicles to be resistant to both physical and magical attacks, giving us enough time to get out." he smiled comfortingly, placing a small but reassuring hand on his sibling's forearm. "Besides, I can always manually override the automobile if the situation becomes that dangerous."
"You can drive this?" Alexander asked, a quizzical expression on his face. Cai grinned wryly, which wasn't particularly encouraging, and replied: "Well, I technically know the method for piloting it, but obviously I've never had real world experience."
"Fantastic," the older boy sarcastically muttered, and Caiellis pouted. "Hey, I don't see you knowing how to operate it. At least I know vaguely what to do, you wouldn't even be able to explain how it worked!"
"No need to get offended, little brother," Alex held up his hands, and although he had reacted satirically he was secretly glad the boy had some knowledge of their salvation's mechanisms. "Anyway, I'm not Boy Genius, so you shouldn't expect me to know anything. Give me a good fight over complex formulae any day."
.*.*.*.
Aksua leapt high across the tiered balconies of the huge Towers of Ecstasy, the glittering monuments to self-gratification and obscene wealth shining in the brightness of the Welkalite sun – unlike the hated Lucaelian light that came from Sancturia itself instead of the natural illumination of other countries, the vampire did not have an adverse reaction to it. The sun conveyed none of the abhorred White mana that made Aksua's skin burn and revealed her true age, and the Lucaelian darted with supernatural swiftness from tower to tower.
The buildings were playgrounds for the rich, formerly belonging to the Augur's Quarter but now on the border between that and Tradax's Hedonist's Quarter. The man had kept their original function, since the Orders of Rapture and Wealth often overlapped, and now the nobles of the city spent huge amounts of time in the three towers.
Though the reason why Aksua had been released was still a mystery, the vampire had been able to ascertain that several unexpected combats were taking place throughout Usnaan, although now they were beginning to die down as the dissidents slunk away in the wake of a full scale mobilization of all Enforcer forces. Evidently Tradax's narcissism had prevented the man from noticing the growing resentment of the population – were these Welkalites doomed to repeating history, defeating their oppressors before becoming tyrants themselves, and then in turn being deposed by the next budding regime. Even though Aksua detested Lucaelian society, it was far more reliable and advanced than this. Whatever. The vampire couldn't care less about the Empire of Passion, it was just a means to an end for her to recover. The fact that said recovery had taken far longer than expected wasn't much of a bother for a functionally immortal being, and now that she was free Aksua could do as she pleased.
Only a few minutes ago, a gargantuan rise in mana levels near where she had detected her prey, the Lucerna princes, made her hesitant to continue on her current path – if they were really that powerful, was it wise to hunt them? However, this rise in magical energy from the younger boy made her want to feed on them even more, the burning temptation in the back of her skull unconquerable. This was amplified even more when they defeated the demon she had bound to Ershun Firefist; the Lord of the Everlasting Banquet had been intensely displeased when it was Summoned through the Internal Bargain, but Aksua knew she had nothing to fear from Azarklak, who would lick his wounds and then return to his eternal feast with Ershun's soul a new dish on the menu.
She had sensed distinctly then that the massive amounts of Black mana being emitted were not just from the Master of the Feast, and a shudder went down her spine as she clearly identified the presence of the terrifying Angel of the Black Sun, a seraph made up of equal parts light and darkness that Aksua remembered from when Emperor Xarius had visited Kalitas's dwellings in the outer abyss, angry that the vampirical ruler had not aided him prior to this in the war against his niece. The angel had stared at them, full of disgust, and Aksua recalled Xarius ordering her to butcher several helpless vampire nobles to "restore the loyalty of the vampire clans", which she did so without comment, inspiring awe and primal terror from onlookers, utterly unlike any angel Aksua had ever encountered before and after the incident.
Despite the fact that Lucaelians hated Xarius, he was one of the most powerful rulers ever to ascend to the Lucerna throne, and would have been a delight to feast upon. However, what the vampire sensed from young Caiellis was even more enticing – before, the angel had been full of Xarius's darkness, using exclusively Black mana to prosecute the king's nefarious wishes. Now the White and Black were both present in the dark angel, and while a balance had not yet been achieved he would become far more formidable than the late Emperor of Light. Aksua could not even imagine how delectable a Lucerna would be to feast upon, and so could only begin to think of the heights of bliss she would reach when draining the youngest son of Marik. That must have been what he meant when he had said they already had enough darkness on their side.
The vampire had already fed on this day, exsanguinating several parties of Enforcers, and now she was in the process of causing enough disruption to allow herself and the princes to escape unimpeded – Aksua was hoping that if she brutally slaughtered the guards, dismembering or obliterating their bodies instead of leaving bloodless husks, then the Welkalites would just assume it was the doing of the rebels that called themselves the Resistance. She had found that information out when she had murdered a group numbering five of them, who had thought she was a corrupt Welkalite mage of some sort.
"Sir, it seems that the Resistance has stopped their attacks," a condescending voice, enhanced by the vampire's post-human auditory functions, floated up to Aksua on her golden vantage point. She listened intently, focussing in on the sound, hearing the pumping heartbeat of the soldiers of the Augur's Quarter far below – judging by the sluggish rate, the Enforcer hadn't participated in any fighting yet. She was going to change that, though she doubted what would come next could be called a fight. More like a culling.
"Indeed. Those cowards are obviously afraid to fight us in a proper battle," the man that the soldier had been addressing, probably a leader of some form, spat, and Aksua could visualise his conceited sneer. She quickly descended the Tower of Ecstasy, her preternatural agility making navigating the sheer drop child's play. She could hear the enforcers conversing triumphantly amongst themselves, like they had actually accomplished something in this battle. Shadows wrapped around Aksua as she silently called Nocturon to her side, the umbral horror blending seamlessly into her slender form, tendrils of wriggling darkness shooting off from behind her as she began to run at a vertical slant down golden tower.
"Three cheers for the New Empire!" one man shouted, and the other Enforcers began laughing and agreeing, and the leader chuckled and declared.
"Hooray!" he bellowed, the arrogance in his tone thick and making Aksua want to kill him even more. She loved to murder those that thought themselves influential, proving their folly before draining them of life.
"Hooray!" the Enforcers cried in unison, the ridiculousness of their celebration not lost on the vampire. She could see them now, her supernatural vision allowing her to perceive the extravagant and pristine golden armour of the soldiers guarding the untargeted Augur's Quarter – there were two types of Enforcer in the Order of Wealth, while black-glad and sadistic Collectors enforced the brutal taxes upon the oppressed, shining Custodians defended the vast, glittering vaults of the Order. Aksua remembered them being a formidable and disciplined army under the command of Gretia, the only Master that she had exempted from her Infernal Bargains, but evidently these were the recruits Tradax had gathered after he exterminated the former Custodians. She leapt off the wall, landing softly on an expanding mass of shade in the shadow of the tower, out of sight of the Enforcer group.
"Hooray!" they chanted for the final time, and Aksua briefly Unsummoned Nocturon before striding confidently out of the shadows, preparing her best flirtatious smile.
"Ooh, how lucky I am, to come upon a group of the Empire's bravest soldiers after the crushing defeat of the Resistance," she purred, tossing her hair to one side and feasting on the stares of undisguised lust the Enforcers gave her. She paraded her attractive body in front of them, watching as their eyes followed her, like a pack of pups desperately wishing for their mother to notice and feed them.
"It is certainly a time for celebration," the leader agreed, his brown eyes full of atavistic craving, and Aksua noticed how the other soldiers glared pettily at his back as he stepped forwards towards what he must have assumed was a Rapture slut. He made to embrace her and she leaned into his grasp, hearing his heartbeat rise in response to the all-consuming desire he felt. Aksua responded with an unexpected strength, her long hands wrapping around his resplendent gauntlets and crushing with huge force, pushing them to his side as she inched her head towards his. Aksua licked her lips as she saw the desire in the man's irises quickly turn to panic as she began a kiss on his neck, before uncovering her sharpened fangs and burying them in his jugular. The man gurgled as his breathing was impaired, and his soldiers dutifully ran forwards, shouting battle cries.
The coils of darkness that represented Nocturon suddenly reappeared, shooting out of her and wrapping around the other Enforcers, restricting their movements as they screamed in agony. Aksua clamped down harder, a spray of arterial blood jetting out from the wound as she drunk greedily, but there was nothing special to the meal. She sighed disappointedly and tossed the barely exsanguinated corpse away from her, the Custodian's features twisted in a rictus of pain. It crashed into the golden walls, blood still spraying from the body's throat and painting the ostentatious material a deep crimson.
The vampire raised her fist and squeezed it shut, the tendrils of abyssal gloom the Enforcers were trying to fight off contracting with unstoppable power, eviscerating the Custodians as their armour was no protection against Black mana. When Aksua had first been converted, she had been taught to savour every meal and would have baulked at how wasteful she was now being, but the current Aksua knew now that it was quality, not quantity, that mattered most.
Speaking of quality, she thought, as her mind sensed a sharp decrease in mana levels in the Glutton's Quarter, meaning that the princes had ceased their Summonings of First Sisterhood angels. Aksua detected them moving away through Gate Gluttony and into the outer city at an incredible rate, which meant they had some form of transport. She concentrated on the other mana signatures of predominantly Red spreading out through the city and in the princes' direction, and the vampire resolved to eliminate them first so that she would have no interruptions in her feast. Besides, even with transport it wasn't like the Lucernas could outrun a demoniacally gifted vampire.
.*.*.*.
It was dark, though the chronometer on the automobile still insisted it was well within the daytime hours. Great to see that Lucael welcomes us back with its endless night, Caiellis thought bitterly, as the vehicle shot through the dark of the outer kingdom. It had just happened, one moment it was perfectly sunny and the next twilight had descended, marking their entrance into the Kingdom of Light, like a sudden curtain of midnight onyx had been drawn across the sky. This was arguably the least dangerous part of the abyss, as it was relatively close to both Civitas Sol and Welkas, though still acted as a natural barrier preventing the two nations from interacting much, though Cai still assumed his father would gladly march an army through it to lay siege to the New Empire in order to retrieve his heirs.
Alex dozed next to him, taking the moment of respite to recuperate after Caiellis had informed his older brother that he wasn't in the mood for a conversation, which the younger boy now thought was a bit harsh. He knew that the veil of sleep his friend wore was only temporary and very thin, allowing Alex to react as soon as he sensed danger while giving his mind time to rest.
Cai's thin fingers ghosted over the holographic representation of alternative schematic designs for the automobile that other Uverian inventors had suggested, though his brain had long since stopped actively recording the complex explanations and utterly uninteresting experiment notes. All Yentarian vehicles had a mana source that allowed the user to access several databases, and at first the thirteen year old had thought it would be a good idea, but was swiftly coming to the conclusion that his mind wanted him to think about something else: how easy the escape had been.
Sure, they had been challenged by a Master, one of the most daunting judging by his prestigious status, and they did have the ability to wield two First Sisterhood angels, but it didn't seem like Tradax to let the flee so easily. The Master of Rapture had taken a massive risk in abducting Lucerna monarchy, rousing the entirety of Lucael to righteous outrage and mobilizing the formidable army into action. The Old Empire had always been far more careful, staying far away from the Kingdom of Light as it expanded, obliterating other nations that challenged its dominance as each Lucernan ruler used their angelic power to claim more and more territory, annihilating more and more other factions and grinding them to dust under the blessings of the Sisterhoods.
The only war Lucael had ever "lost" (though the official records still maintained that it was only due to the foolishness of the king and that now the Lucaelian military could destroy the Erians) was King Acarn's attempted expansion into the forests of the Erian Conclave in the year 823, where the glittering legions were completely outmatched by the environment, ambushed by huge predators and forces of Erian tribesmen, utterly outsmarted by the shamans who used their knowledge of the forest to decimated the army. They had attacked the king himself with titanic manifestations of Green mana that had swept aside Feather and crushed the man to a bloody pulp.
What was focused on more however what came after Acarn's untimely death – the Erians swarmed out their forest to muster and take advantage of the Lucaelian's disaster by taking over territory outside the forest, and while the Hierarch of the time organised the retreat the late king's younger sister, the famed Queen Arie, arguably the second most successful monarch of Lucael that Caiellis had inherited his own artefact blade from, managed to hold off the entire Erian army with only Jenara, her tricolour Summoning for assistance. She annihilated the enemy army, and when the shamans realised that there was no way they could possibly win against her they brokered a treaty that still stood – the Erians and Lucaelians would leave each other alone, and traders from each would be allowed in Lucael and Geansse, the only Erian city. Cai and Alexander, when one of them became king, had a huge range of successful and heroic ancestors to take inspiration from.
Dammit! Concentrate you idiot! Caiellis harshly chastised himself for letting his mind wander to the vast amounts of information he had absorbed when he had methodologically read the large majority of history books in different libraries around the kingdom. Right, back to Tradax and the escape please.
The fact that the Master of Rapture had willingly angered a nation famed for its prosecution of warfare and massive range of military victories suggested that Tradax must have had monumental plans in store for the princes, which made Cai doubt that the man would let them go without diverting large numbers of Welkalite Enforcers to stop them. Yes, the Resistance may have delayed and distracted some of them, but that didn't account for most of them. What was he missing?!
Cai sighed, analysing the data he knew over and over again as the hologram automatically shut off with a quiet whoosh due to the lack of use. He rubbed his eyes, tired, and his gaze landed on his older brother. Maybe he should ask Alex, it wasn't as if the older boy was stupid and wouldn't object to being woken if Caiellis wanted his advice. Even so, the littlest Lucerna didn't want to deprive his sibling of sleep after the seventeen year old had Summoned Aurelia for a prolonged period of time and utilised a spell of a very large mana requirement.
"I know that I am incredibly handsome and charming, but you don't have to stare little brother," Alex teased good-naturedly, causing Cai to rock back in surprise, his cheeks coloured with a slight tinge of cherry. He hadn't realised his brother had awoken. Alex laughed and punched his brother in the arm, eliciting a familiar scowl from the prince that the kid wore whenever Alexander did that. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Stunned for a second, Cai's features twisted in incredulity which made his senior laugh even harder. "Don't look so surprised, buddy. You sometimes seem to forget that I've known you all your life. You used to pull the same "deep-thought" expression when you were as young as two, and I'm well used to the "I-want-to-ask-my-big-brother-about-this-but-don't-want-to-disturb-him-in-case-he-kicks-my-skinny-ass" look you have at the moment, so don't try and pretend that you don't want to talk or I will have to force you to," Alex grinned charmingly at his sibling, who folded his arms and turned away from the older boy. "Trust me little guy, I don't want to have to tickle you into submission, but if necessary I will evoke my right as a big brother to do so. Now talk."
"It's about the relative ease of our escape," Caiellis turned back around, looking into the bright blue eyes of his older brother, who snorted. "You're the only one calling it easy, squirt," he exaggeratedly raised his hands when the boy shot him an irritated glower, which Alex couldn't help but think it made his little brother that much cuter.
"Note that I used the word "relative". I'm not saying it was effortless, far from it, I just would have thought that Tradax would have used more resources to prevent our breakout. I know the Resistance was diverting their attention elsewhere, but they took a massive gamble taking us to Usnaan, so I just thought Tradax would have more countermeasures than a few squads of Enforcers and the Master of Gluttony," Cai explained, watching as Alex contemplated the words, mulling them over in his mind. Caiellis was expecting good advice, and it was Alexander's duty as an elder sibling to deliver, so he took his time considering the ideas presented. True, maybe the escape was easier than he might have thought, but that wasn't necessarily a cause for concern as they had already reached Lucael and were only a few kilometres away from Civitas Sol, so if Tradax had sent any pursuers it would be unlikely that they could recapture the brothers. Alex came to his conclusion, realising that his little brother wouldn't like it but both knew that the most simple explanation was often correct.
"Cai, you're not going to like my answer, but here it is: I think you are worrying too much," he said simply, waiting for that well known annoyed frown to appear before elaborating, "You are delving too far into the world of "what-ifs" and "buts" without considering what is plainly obvious – we have escaped from Welkas with the Resistance's help, and the measures Tradax placed to stop us – including a powerful demon and rare mana inhibitors – weren't enough. Maybe he hadn't even thought of us breaking out of them, so wasn't even expecting us to be able to Summon."
Cai nodded slowly, seeing sense in his brother's words. In truth, he had forgotten about the inhibitors in the heat of the retreat, and now that the older brought them up the comparative ease of their escape seemed much more logical. Trust Alex to be able to provide an alternative and objective viewpoint, one that was much more obvious and rational than his own mental ramblings. Alex could see how his brother was grateful for his point of view, and grinned proudly at the younger boy.
"Thanks, Alex," he murmured thankfully, his green eyes full of appreciation for his big brother's advice and the older boy prodded him in the forehead.
"No problem shortie. Sometimes that brain of yours is too smart for its own good," the seventeen year old patted the boy's head affectionately, smirking when Cai narrowed his eyes and glared back.
"Or maybe your little brother is onto something," a coquettish voice lanced into the automobile, the familiar sing-song tone belieing the malignant intent poured into the words. Both boys instantly reacting by channelling their mana, crackling and incandescent White humming through the air as the brothers prepared to react to their pursuer(s). A pale face, perfect in every dimension and insanely attractive, suddenly appeared out of the gloom, grinning down at the boys through the circular windscreen.
Alex shouted in sudden panic and tried to yank his weightless brother with him through the automobile door as he felt it being lifted from the ground, the mana-engines whining at the disturbance. He managed to pull Cai out into the freezing darkness of Lucael just as the car was tossed casually across a large distance, flipping in the air like the discarded toy of a petulant giant and crashing into a nearby building. The engines detonated in a high-pitched squeal of released energy, and both Lucernas covered their eyes from the intense glare of the blue light.
As the explosion died down and hissing flames began to consume the wreckage of the car and the small and archaic stone hut it had smashed into, the wan crimson/orange light illuminated a tall figure. Alex baulked in recognition as his eyes landed on the unmistakeable form of their attacker – the shapely hips, impeccable milky skin, the flawless brown hair that cascaded down her back, and the eyes, those beautiful eyes, that promised eternal love and a perpetuity of pleasure.
Somehow, Aksua had escaped from her cell and found them.
New Summonings in this chapter:
Aksua: Abyssal Nocturnus