Smoke billows from evenly spaced spots across the city. Where the city guard stations are, I'm pretty sure. The haze rises until it gets trapped by the barrier that normally keeps the city warm. The smoke collects so thickly that the sky seems to have gone black. Like a thunderhead has parked itself right on top of the capital. An impression that's reinforced by the ash that falls like snow out of the artificial cloud.

Fortunately, most of the city seems to be undamaged. Which makes sense really. If this is an attempted coup, and why do I keep running into those, they'll want to take as much of the city intact as possible. The only spot of conflict aside from the guard stations is the Daimyo's palace.

The palace is mostly stone, so it can't really burn effectively. But because of the way the city is laid out, I can actually see unfamiliar troops moving in and out of the main doors. They're carrying wounded out of the palace so the fighting must still be going on.

The coup isn't over yet, win or lose.

There is some smoke leaking out of various windows of the palace, so something's burning.

...If they've hurt the Library I will use my knowledge of souls, some methods Pua mentioned about trapping things in gourds, and get creative with their punishments.

"What are your orders, Princess?" my ocelot in charge asks, snapping me out of my revenge planning.

I shake myself. Deal with the problem in front of you first, the others will still be there when you get to them.

"Right, everybody except you," I indicate the squad leader, "can unsummon. You are going to be coming with me on our way back to the Shouji estate."

The cats bow to me, and vanish in puffs of smoke. I drop to one knee indicating that the remaining ocelot should climb onto my back and hang on to my gorget, which she does quickly.

"Princess," my passenger asks hesitantly, "why are we not going to the palace? That's where the enemy is..."

I nod, agreeing, and rise to my feet, spreading my wings, "That is where the enemy is, but the estate is where backup is."

I jump and my wings beat downwards, launching my passenger and me into the smoke filled sky.

###

My wings beat strongly, carrying me and my passenger high into the air. The smoke up here is thick and unpleasant, but it's the safest way to travel at the moment. People rarely look up, but it happens often enough, especially in a battle where everybody is looking for archers in high windows, that the smoke is my best cover. So I'm flying high enough that with my armor and wings being colored like they are, even if somebody looks at me, I shouldn't stand out. Just not so high that I'm actually in the smoke layer, the last thing I want to deal with is more smoke inhalation without Pua around to fix it for me.

Once the initial rush for altitude is complete, I twist my head as much as I can to address the cat clinging to my back. "Now that we've got a moment, what the hell happened?"

The ocelot chuffs, then answers, "You proceeded into the house and about ten minutes later somebody looking exactly like you came back out and got into the carriage. They smelled and sounded like you too, an impressive deception."

"How did you know they weren't me, then?"

My feline backpack chuffs again in feline laughter. "They weren't my Princess," she states simply. Now that she mentions it, I haven't met a cat that hasn't known who I am on sight. I suppose it would be hard to fake being me to them, given that. "I detailed two of my scouts to follow the carriage and the imposter, to see if we could figure out what was going on. The carriage traveled maybe a quarter of the way back to your residence when it was attacked. Several... honestly the scouts weren't certain if they were samurai or ninja, they behaved as both. Whatever they were, they killed the carriage driver and footmen, then staged a very unconvincing struggle with you, and vanished with the imposter. The imposter leaving was enough to convince us that something was wrong, so we infiltrated the mansion. Finding your sword stuck in the dining room floor and the house staff trying to figure out how to remove it convinced me that immediate action was necessary. We searched the house and found the sub-basements. You were unconscious, and we couldn't get you out before you could help us do so, so we started work to facilitate your escape and make sure you would wake up as soon as possible. We sabotaged the drug they had used to keep you unconscious, then left a scout to keep watch on you. The rest of us set about sabotaging everything else we could find. Unfortunately the guards in the sub-basements were paying active attention to their bows or we would have gotten those too." I really kind of wish they had, but if I wasn't put into that position, how much longer would it have taken to get my armor back?

Not something really worth wasting brain power on.

We were getting to the Shouji estate, so I start to let air slip from under my wings, losing altitude.

"Anything else before we land?"

"We found the documentation that went with the drug," she reports after a moment's thought. "The short of it is the drug is made to incapacitate you, specifically. My scouts have taken it back to be looked over by the Oncilla clan, and they will be able to provide you details. What pounced at me though, was the drug would start diminishing cognitive capacity immediately upon exposure."

Somebody really had been studying me more than I'm comfortable with. My ability to analyze a situation and improvise is one of my greatest strengths. Taking that away from me? ...Well, it would be the first thing I'd do to myself if I wanted to capture me. I really wish I could remember more of what happened. They say you learn more from failure than success, if that's true I could likely learn alot from my brief visit to Lord... whatever his name is.

"All right. Good work, and tell the rest of the team that they did well from me as well. Unsummon, and when you get back tell the lion and tiger contingents of my guard to be ready. The night's not over yet."

"Thank you, Princess." My fuzzy passenger sounds very pleased with herself, "I'll pass your messages along." A nod from me, and she vanishes in a cloud of chakra smoke.

With my barely secured rider gone I tilt my wings, tipping forward. Then with a slight roll I fold my wings and dive. The stoop dive is one of my favorite maneuvers, even if it was also the maneuver that made me the most glad for my sturdy bones and regeneration. Diving like this, it feels like a roller coaster with no tracks or brakes, but safer since I'm the one in control of everything.

I spread my wings just slightly, almost more flexing them rather than spreading them, to guide me towards my private training yard. Shooting through the most visible part of my descent as quickly as possible, I snap my wings wide at the last moment. The feathered appendages catch the air and I can feel the strain on all the muscles in my chest along with all the bones attached to them. My legs swing forward naturally with the sudden deceleration, and take the impact with the ground with a jolt all the way to the top of my skull.

Heat drifts through my body as I stand, the feeling of all the little bits of soft tissue damage healing. I don't wait for it to finish though and stride into my rooms and out into the common area. The moment I open the door I can tell something's wrong.

First, there's too much air movement.

Then the smell of fresh blood hits me and I break into a run. Down the hallway from my rooms and into the main hall...

A sword crashes down on me, charged with earth chakra. The strike is perfectly timed and placed, so that Sclamhaire isn't in position to intercept it. Instead I catch it on my bracer, my armor absorbing most of the impact, but with earth chakra to enhance the kinetic energy involved, there's enough left over that I'm actually pushed back a step. The blade slides along my bracer and I snap my hand down to grab it, but it's snaked away before I can.

Sclamhaire in my right hand is brought up to engage my attacker...

"Princess!" The sound of Nel's voice makes both me and my attacker stop. Given a moment I actually take in the situation, god I'm out of it if I could actually be taken by surprise. There's a number of people in the hall, servants mostly, though I can spot the various members of the Shouji family.

Saki is sitting amongst a number of people who are laid out on the floor, as far from any entrances to the hall as they could get. From the smell of blood coming from that direction, I assume that those are the wounded.

General Hayato and Sōma, the Truth Sayer, are absent, which makes sense, they were likely in the palace when everything kicked off, and are probably still there with the fighting still going on.

Mitsuko is in full armor save for her helmet, and is displaying a lot of facial bruising in addition to a bandage covering what I'm guessing is going to be a very dashing facial scar. She's standing guard over two bound forms and doesn't really look happy to be there. It takes me a moment to figure out why, then I see that the two people she's guarding are her father and oldest brother. I've never really interacted with either of them. I was a Shuji problem, and unlike the rest of the family the father and first born never really seemed to be part of that group. Or interested in being so. I don't think I ever actually learned the brother's name...

Takuma, Miku's twin, is pacing back and forth in an open area, also in his shiny new samurai armor. He's clearly not handling the whole situation as well as the rest of the family is. At my entrance and Nel's cry, he stops pacing and starts in my direction at a not quite run.

Finally, Takeshi, the swordsman of the family, who is the one who attacked me coming through the door. No wonder I couldn't grab the blade. He's one of the few samurai that can still beat me more often than not.

Nel drops to all fours, something she rarely does, and sprints at me as fast as she can go. Further away than should be possible with mundane physics, Nel leaps at me, crashing into my chest. My arm not currently occupied with my sword automatically curls under her to catch the ballistic feline. She stuffs her face under my hood, finds the one bit of exposed flesh my armor leaves and rubs against me, purring hard with worry.

"Princess! You're alright! I felt your guards unsummon and you weren't here and I was so worried but you're here and you're alright and I'm so relieved..." Nel babbles in relief. She'd clearly been far more stressed than she'd been letting on if the stares and expressions of surprise at her charge across the room are any indication.

Takeshi hesitates, clearly uncertain about what's happening and unwilling to swing at me and maybe hit Nel. "Ericka...?" He sounds hesitant and unsure, why...

Right. I'm in armor he's never seen before, and my hood and mask are up. Meaning there doesn't seem to be anything under the hood. I really need to remember to put those down when meeting people for the first time.

I push my hood back and pull down my mask. Simultaneously revealing my face and giving Nel more to rub on. Takeshi relaxes and I'm about to start asking questions. Like where the hell is Miku? When Nel lets out an indignant cat noise and vaults onto my shoulders. Just in time to avoid getting squashed as Takuma's armored form crashes into mine, and he wraps his arms around me in a forceful hug.

"Ericka, you're safe!" he murmurs into my breast plate. The boy comes up to my chin, so his face is pressed into my chest, right where my minimal cleavage would be if I weren't wearing armor. "You don't have to worry about anything now, I'll keep you safe!" he declares passionately.

I stare down at the top of the head of the freshly graduated samurai, and then look up at Takeshi, who's still standing next to me looking as confused as I am.

What the hell is this kid thinking?

###

"No, really. What's going through that boy's mind?"

Takeshi sighed, and glanced over his shoulder at where we'd left Takuma. "Honestly, I have no idea. I think he read too many adventure novels during training."

It had taken several minutes to pry Miku's twin off of me. Minutes that I'm not entirely certain that we have to waste. We'd finally gotten him away by sending him to relieve his sister in standing guard over his older brother and father. Which allowed Mitsuko to come and join us where Saki waited.

My world narrows as soon as we reach her. The smell of blood is pervasive, but I'm far too familiar with MIku's scent to ever miss it. My gaze snaps down to the injured person that Saki was kneeling next to. I'd thought that she was just helping with the wounded.

I really wish that's what she'd been doing.

On the improvised pallet next to the Shouji matriarch is Miku. If it weren't for her scent I wouldn't be able to recognize her. The right side of her face is a single dark and swollen bruise. The swelling so extreme that not only is her right eye impossible to open, but it looks like her jaw wouldn't be able to move properly either.

Maybe a broken jaw?

She lacks a shirt, but it hardly matters since her torso is covered in bandages, more than enough that she might as well still have a top on. The single line of red showing through the thick bandaging running from her right clavicle to her left hip is a loud statement to how bad off she is.

She's so pale...

I drop to my knees next to her and reach out a hand... only to stop when I catch a glimpse of the limb, still wrapped in my armored gauntlet. To other people the armor always feels cold. Not enough to cause harm, or even function as an improvised ice pack, but enough to be uncomfortable. Miku doesn't need that right now.

I take a deep shuddering breath and sit back on my heels and take a moment to push down the surge of rage I feel at MIku's state. That anger can wait with the anger I've been suppressing since I woke up in the basement. Now isn't the time for it. Once I'm sure I'm calm I look up at Saki. For the first time I can't see any sign of resentment, frustration, or anger at my existence.

Mitsuko's arrival snaps me back to the present. "What happened?" Possibly not the most relevant thing to start with, but important if I'm going to be able to concentrate on anything else.

"They tried to take her hostage, and she fought back," Mitsuko tells me with a sad smile, "She got two of them. But the second backhanded her before she could knock him down, and the third..." She trails off, glancing at the bandages concealing her little sister's chest.

I suck in a deep breath, then let it out through my nose. "Is she stable?" I ask hesitantly.

"Stable enough," Mitsuko says nervously. "For the moment at least."

The rush of relief I feel makes me lightheaded for a moment. But only for a moment. "Then we should focus on where the fighting is still happening. What sort of forces are we facing?"

Takeshi and Mitsuko trade a glance, then Takeshi shrugs. "Competent swordsmen. Good, experienced, but nothing special. Their formation was odd, though. They would cycle the front and back lines regularly. The ones who dropped back would then launch jutsu at us like they thought they were ninja." He gives me a significant look, and I nod. As if we didn't already know who was responsible for this travesty, that would have told us.

"How did the tactic work?" I ask carefully.

Takeshi grimaces. "Allright? Better than I'd like to admit. Though not as well as they no doubt wanted it to. It was annoying to adapt to, but nothing we haven't seen before in pieces. Those pieces have just never been put together like this as far as I'm aware."

I sigh again. "Allright. Unless one of you has something else to add, I should get moving. They're still attacking the Daimyo's palace, so there's still some resistance." I rise to my feet.

Takeshi stood with me. "I'll come with you."

I shake my head at him and manage to cut in before he can start arguing with me. "I'm flying there. Feel free to try and catch up, but I can't fly and carry you."

"You can't go without backup, Rho." Frustration leaks into his tone, "Even with your new armor, you can't fight an army alone."

The word 'Yet' echoes in the back of my mind.

I just shake my head at him, "I'll have backup."

"What kind of backup?"

I look down at Nel, "Lions and tigers." Nobody gets the joke, but Nel pushes her whiskers forward and bares her teeth in a predatory feline grin.

I trade nods with Mitsuko and Takeshi, and head for the...

"Rhostana." Saki's voice, cold and flat makes me turn around. She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't have to. The empathy that comes with mana breathing is something I rarely use. Mostly because it just doesn't occur to me. But Saki is all but screaming her emotions, projecting so hard that I'm kind of surprised that the others around us can't feel it, empathy or no.

Her eyes are cold and hard, and blazing with fury. Any other mask she might wear is gone, revealing a mother thirsting for vengeance for her child.

I nod to her once, then resume heading for the door.

It's a desire I can get behind, after all.

###

I set down a few blocks away from the entrance to the palace, wrapping myself in my glamor for the descent. Once we're on the ground I let Nel off my back and give her a nod, "Lions and tigers, Nel."

She begins the procedure to summon my personal forces from the Temple. "How many, Princess?"

"All of them."

Once they arrive we'll have to move quickly, this isn't exactly going to be subtle. Granted, subtle isn't really what's needed right now. I got a good look at the enemy from the air, and the congregation gathered in the open plaza outside of the Daimyo's palace is, at first blush, a mess. The people are lounging in clumps and clusters, talking or relaxing. They seem to believe the battle is over, and with their victory. They're not quite celebrating, but their guard is down. They think they have nothing to fear. There's no watch, weapons are kept close to hand, but those hands are often filled with something else. Several of them are actually asleep.

At least that's how it looks. I can't help but remember that these are the group of people that have loudly been advocating for the adoption of ninja tactics. Deception, in other words. I've already been taken in by one ambush disguised as something innocuous tonight, I have no interest in walking into another one. And there are a lot of them there.

Nel glances up at me for a moment to make sure I'm serious, then nods looking slightly nervous. She slams her forepaws on the ground though, and the world is blotted out by billowing white smoke. When it clears, Nel collapses from exhaustion, but before she can hit the ground she's caught by the velvety paws of an armored tiger.

The tiger lowering Nel to the ground is far from the only one. Twenty cats ranging from human sized, to bigger than the buildings surrounding us. The largest of them is a male lion, whose head and shoulders are bigger than the four story building next to him.

Like I said, not subtle.

As one, they bow to me, "Princess." The tigers stand on two legs and are dressed in armor, even the huge one, and bow like a human would. For the lions who are on four paws, the bow is more just lowering their heads with intent.

"We're on a schedule, and not a long one. So I'm going to have to be brief and trust your experience to fill in the gaps," I tell them, speaking quickly. "Everybody who can fit and fight in a human building is with me. The rest of you are going to go first down this road," I gesture to the main road up to the front of the palace behind me, "and clear and secure the front of the palace. Once that's done I, with my team, will head inside to deal with the attackers there. The team outside will maintain control of the palace entrance. If you think you can do so without compromising your main mission, feel free to make the trip to the other places under attack and help them out. You will also be responsible for keeping an eye on Nel, and keeping her safe. Questions?"

The male lion stands up and stretches, jaws big enough to swallow a horse in a single bite yawn wide. Straightening up from his stretch he shakes himself and starts towards the road up to the palace. "No, Princess," he rumbles, his voice so deep that I feel it in my chest as much as I hear it with my ears. The other giant lionesses and tigers move with him to the road. "We shall not fail you." He kneads the ground slightly, claws as long as I am crunch through the stone road with ease, and the tigers draw their weapons.

The lion pulls his head back, and lightning dances through his mane, and then he roars. I only catch a moment of the enormous sound before I go deaf. And I'm standing behind him. The warmth in my ears reversing the damage almost as quick as it happens. But before the world of sound returns to me, my force of giant cats dig their claws into the street like cleats and charge.

I have no idea what expression the rebel forces have when they see the giant lion and armored tigers rushing down on them, but with strides the length of a city block they don't have long to react. I take Nel from the tiger, then I and the forces that will be going with me into the palace run right behind them. The cats surround me protectively, which I don't have a problem with at the moment. I am carrying an unarmored Nel, but it isn't going to work in the long term.

The charge of giant felines doesn't crash into the opposition so much as run it over. The lions pounce on groups of people, giant paws sending up clouds of dust as they, quite literally, crush groups of the opposition. The pounces are followed by casual swats of their paws that send those that escaped the initial attack flying.

The tigers drop into seated combat stances, drawing their appropriately sized swords in sweeps low to the ground. Just the right height to take an average sized human in the middle. It takes moments for my giant feline warriors to clear the plaza. By the time I arrive it's done.

I don't pause to speak to the giant cats again, they know what they're doing. I do nod to them, and pass the exhausted Nel to one of the soldiers that will be guarding the front of the palace, as the more human sized cats and I move past them. The nods are returned and most of the giant felines move off into the city to hunt down other pockets of attackers. Behind us, as we reach the wide open doors of the Daimyo's palace, I hear the male lion flop down in the open plaza, his back to the palace, and settle in to keep watch.

The people in the entrance hall are all looking in our direction and reaching for weapons as we come in. Evidently they could hear the brief massacre outside. There's maybe a couple dozen in simple mass-produced breast plates, katanas sheathed at their sides, and forehead protectors emblazoned with the mon of what I'm assuming are rebel lords. The infuriating part is that the people in the hall were in the process of stacking bodies against one wall.

Literally stacking them.

Bodies wearing the bloody clothes of servants, messengers, secretaries. People who weren't combatants, posed no threat save that they would have been loose ends from the last regime. The sight of them reminds me far too much of Miku the last time I saw her.

None of us hesitate to attack. About half of them pull kunai or other short blades, the others draw their katana. Sclamhaire is in my hand and I don't honestly remember drawing her. It hardly matters though.

I've been sitting on my temper since I regained consciousness, and everything I've seen since then has just made that harder.

But, oh look. Acceptable targets.

It's barely worth calling it a fight. My lions, tigers, and I tear through the opposition almost without breaking stride. Sclamhaire carves through weapons, armor, and air with equal ease. I even manage to snag a few boosts to my elemental affinities.

Still, as fast as we bring them down there always seem to be more. It honestly kind of reminds me of fighting the skeleton army on Roanoke. No one of them is in any way a threat, but with some luck and sufficient numbers they might be able to overwhelm somebody.

Unlike on Roanoke though, I'm not alone. My lion hunters and tiger samurai flank me as we carve through the mass of fodder that I can best describe as 'adequate' without slowing down. It would be easy to lose myself in the rhythm of the fight with how little thought the battle takes. I don't have to worry about my flanks with backup, or anybody coming up behind me. But it's the resemblance to Roanoke that pushes me to keep my senses expanded and keep track of everything around me. Roanoke had endless skeletons, but the real danger had been the specialty bone golems that were scattered among them.

There's going to be a second shoe here somewhere.

###

I'm getting more and more nervous as we continue through the palace with nothing but fodder confronting us. Where the hell have they been getting all of these people? The supply of quickly trained distractions seems to be bottomless. And the fodder themselves are odd.

First, they're... really short. Granted, I find most people in the Elemental Nations to be short, but the foot soldier ninja/samurai hybrids we've been fighting are especially so. I'd estimate that the oldest of them is maybe my age at fifteen. But given the average height of the majority of them, most have to be closer to eleven or twelve. Not uncommon for the elemental nations, but the American in me is incredibly uncomfortable. The only reason I can make myself fight them effectively is that they're all trying to kill me. Age ends up mattering less when trying to stay alive.

The second thing is that they don't look like they're from the Elemental Nations. I'm not entirely sure what they do look like. I get the feeling I've seen somebody who looks sort of like them before, but where isn't coming.

People from the Elemental Nations aren't really Asian looking, exactly. Chakra has caused a huge amount of mutation and variation. Nobody would look at a Yamanaka and think of any eastern Earth ethnicity. That being said, there are underlying trends in bone structure that everybody from the Elemental Nations share that could make somebody think 'asian'. I look almost exactly like what I did back in DxD at my current age, but there is a lingering hint in my facial structure that indicates that the almost still born body I moved into and made my own would have looked like everybody else from the Elemental Nations in this sense. It's not obvious, but it's there. Somebody from back on earth who's an expert in this sort of thing would probably peg me as an Asian-European mix, heavily leaning towards European. These kids look more like me than the locals to an extreme degree.

Oh, that's where I've seen somebody like them before. The mirror.

The strange and unique sound of metal stressing as several samurai bows are drawn snap me out of my musing. Past the current batch of fodder, right in front of the door to the Daimyo's throne room at the end of the hall, are a collection of proper samurai. Each has a bow drawn and ready. It's the same tactic that almost brought me down while escaping my dinner host's mad science basement.

Now I have my armor though, and that makes all the difference.

Heavy metal arrows crack through the sound barrier and I almost take a heavy chakra metal arrow through an eye, only barely getting an arm in front of the narrow gap between my hood and mask, stopping the arrow cold.

My cats quickly fall into a line behind me, using me as cover from the samurai archers. I advance on them quickly, using Sclamhaire to deflect as many arrows as I can. Like when I was trying to escape the basement, I can only deflect a few. Now however the ones I miss hit my armor, and instead of costing me mana, feed it to me instead.

I advance as quickly as I can, the archers falling back just as quickly. The large hallway gives them plenty of room to spread out and get more archers firing at me at once. My frustration mounts as they continue to fall back down the hallway, the tactic they're using is in no danger of killing me now, but it's still effective at slowing me down.

I'm tempted to try and close faster, sacrificing my defense for actually accomplishing something. Only two things stop me. First, that if I did I'd leave the cats behind me without cover. Second, the archers are backing towards the large double doors of the throne room. The larger space should make all the difference.

I advance as quickly as I can, pushing the samurai hard, and they retreat into the Daimyo's throne room without pausing. The hallway is wide, but not particularly tall. The throne room's several story vaulted ceiling gives me some more options.

The archers fall back quickly towards the center of the throne room, giving themselves as much distance as they can. I let them get some more range before I follow them through the throne room doors. Once I'm through them though, I aspect my mana towards fire and vent it out of every tenketsu, effectively setting myself on fire. I spread burning wings and launch myself into the air, and my mana leaves my network in a flood.

The archers follow my upwards movement, eyes and bows tracking my blazing and attention grabbing self into the air. Which means they're taken completely by surprise when my lions and tigers hit them in a charge. My cats hit the formation of archers like a battering ram. The front ranks go down as my cats circle them, pressing them into a clump as the samurai frantically try to defend themselves from the hunting lions and armored tigers at close range.

Which means they're taken by surprise again when with another flap of my wings I crash into the middle of them. I pull back my mental bowstring with no target or vector, and release it on impact with the ground releasing a pulse of...

A dome of fire erupts from me and expands outward, scorching the remaining samurai archers.

That's... new.

Focus Ericka, you can play with your new toy later.

My cats have just enough time to see the wall of heat coming and fall back quickly enough that all I can smell from them is singed fur, no burned cat flesh. Which smells distinctly different from burned humans.

Sclamhaire carves through the few remaining enemy samurai that are still alive, largely refilling what I expended with my reckless use of mana. The scorched and burned samurai that escaped my sword fall quickly to my cats and suddenly, for the first time since we entered the palace, we are the only people standing. Courtiers, nobles, servants, and guards, though, lay dead, scattered around the large space. The artificial streams that flow on either side of the room are tinged pink from blood, the color growing darker as the water flows past each corpse that fell into it.

The attackers didn't have it all their own way, though. There are plenty of ninja/samurai bodies scattered through the hall, but in the end it clearly didn't matter. At the back of the room is the Daimyo's throne, and the Daimyo still sits on it. Only because of the spear that pins him to the back of the throne. His eldest son, a samurai general, lays dead further past the throne, killed by a slash through his chest. The same cut that Miku suffered, I just hope she doesn't end up in the same state from it.

I want to search the room to see if Hayato or Sōma are among the dead, but there's a chance that some of the Daimyo's family is still alive. If they are, I might be able to keep them that way if I move quickly enough, but everybody in the throne room is already dead, and there's nothing I can do about that.

My cats and I move quickly past the throne into the part of the palace that's reserved for the Daimyo, his family, and their personal retainers. Just past the door are two more of the Daimyo's sons and a large collection of guards, all dead.

There's a clear trail of corpses into the Daimyo's private wing. Guards, servants, members of the Daimyo's family leading us through the royal wing of the palace. Soon enough, though, we stop, the sound of voices reaching us.

"We must work faster." A new language blooms in my brain. The voice speaking it is old, male, and creates enough sound for me to get a basic image of the hallway. Seven people moving around, dressed strangely, and clustered around what sounds like a wall of metal that the hallway they're in dead ends into. "Our allies should have checked in. Break the door down if you must, but get us through. We can leave no survivors."

There's a survivor. Good to know.

Inching up on the corner I take a quick peek around it, pulling my head back as soon as I've got an idea of what's back there. At the far end of the hallway is a massive chakra metal door covered in seals. It reminds me of nothing so much as bank vault doors on earth. Just in front of it are several more bodies, and six people still living that look like they're trying to do something with the seals. They're dressed in what looks like brown, homespun, cassocks with rope belts and hoods. Just behind them is another figure in red. His cassock is of finer make, the rope of his belt made of something nicer than simple rope, and he doesn't seem to have a hood.

I have no idea who these people are. At the moment I don't really care either.

I glance back at my cats, and describe the scene to them, then start on instructions. "I'll try to sneak up on the one in red and take him out. You get to the others and secure the door, prisoners would be nice, but I'm not attached to the idea," I instruct them in a whisper.

At their nod I take a deep breath, I'm not here, and head down the hallway towards the man in red. I get half way down the hallway towards my target before he turns towards me and thrusts a hand in my direction.

My only warning is a sudden spike of chakra from him.

A wave of force thunders down the hallway, cracking walls and tearing apart the floor. That's a... a lot of force. I drop to a knee and slam Sclamhaire into the floor for bracing just before the kinetic energy reaches me. I can actually feel the impact through my armor, and my mana network strains just on the edge of setting off my armor's vents. The wave of force hits the wall of the T intersection behind me leaving a shallow divot in the wall about the size of the hallway I'm in. Which is distressingly impressive since that wall is solid stone.

"On many, it may have worked," the man in red says in the same voice I'd heard earlier. "But to an experienced war-caster, your sudden absence was as much a warning as your sudden presence would have been."

My cats round the corner at the sound of his voice, darting into the hallway, and leave it again only a moment later. The man in red thrusts his other hand at us again and another wave of force rolls over me and flings my cats back hard enough that they vanish in puffs of smoke back to the Temple.

My armor's vents snap open with this second influx of energy. Harsh, bright white energy forms the vague outline of wings behind me, lighting up the hallway, and casting sharp dark shadows all through the hall.

Which seems to take the man in red by surprise. His shock gives me the chance to regain my feet and examine my opponent more closely. He's bald, but has a neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard. He's in good enough shape that I can tell through the loose robe he's wearing. He doesn't have a weapon though, so I'm not sure how dangerous he might be at close quarters. The idea of taking one of those waves of force at point blank range doesn't fill me with joy though. The thing that really grabs my attention is the fist sized pendant on his chest. It's a simple disc covered in what from here looks like sealing symbols. Set into the center of it is a thumb sized yellow gem that I don't recognize.

Which isn't really surprising, I've never spent any time learning about gemstones.

"That is not a sword of this land," he says in elemental common, "nor is the armor."

"No," I tell him in his own language, whatever it's called, and start towards him down the hallway, "it's not.

If he's surprised that I know his language he doesn't show it, which I find kind of disappointing, honestly. "If you halt, we may speak, stranger."

I don't stop. We're well past the speaking stage by now.

The man in red frowns, and cups his hands around his amulet, ambient energy rushes to the amulet, then he thrusts his hands forward again, and I try to fling myself out of the way.

A lightning bolt the size of my head snaps into existence catching me in the shoulder. My armor quickly hits the limit of what it will absorb and I'm left to fall back on the physical armor itself to protect me. Metal armor that doesn't do a lot to stop a ridiculous amount of electricity.

I scream as the lightning rampages through my body.

The stone hallway is suddenly riddled with fine cracks, and the man in red takes the scream like a battering ram to the face. He's knocked off his feet as the six people still at the vault door are smashed into the metal.

That was a handy instinct, 'cause I sure as hell didn't do it on purpose.

My armor stops venting as my mana level plummets to almost nothing, and heat rushes through my twitching body as I fall to the ground. My regeneration repairing the damage a truly massive amount of electricity did to my body as fast as it can.

Really, I'm lucky that much voltage didn't kill me on the spot.

Note to self, figure out a better way to protect myself from lightning.

Or a way to get my armor to vent quicker.

Either will work.

My body stops twitching only seconds after I hit the floor, and I start pulling myself back to my feet. I really don't want to do that again, which means I need to get to the lightning chucker before he recovers. Fortunately whatever powers he has, quick recovery doesn't seem to be one of them.

The six at the vault door are doing something, but I'm not really concerned. They can't be in better shape than lightning guy, and everything I've seen thus far makes me think he's the most dangerous of the group.

Or maybe I'm just hoping that because however fast I heal, the pain still has my brain scrambled.

So one thing at a time.

I stagger towards the man in red, dragging Sclamhaire behind me. Her tip cuts through the already thoroughly abused carpet and carves a divot into the floor.

The man in red sees me coming, and tries to get to his feet. Only for his balance to fail him, sending him crashing back to the floor. One of his hands goes to his chest, ambient energy rushing into the amulet again, causing the gem in the center to glow. A moment later he throws his hand forward, launching a fireball my way.

I ignore its existence and walk through it. The ball of heat impacts my breastplate and rolls around me before vanishing into my armor, giving me a welcome little bump of mana. He reaches for the amulet again, but I stagger forward a bit faster and manage to plant an armored boot on his wrist and I can hear a few bones crack.

The old... war-caster apparently, grimaces but otherwise doesn't react.

He might be about to say something, but Sclamhaire cuts him off by a head.

I kneel slowly, my body still aching even though there's nothing wrong with it now, and pick up the amulet and sniff it cautiously.

Chakra metal.

Almost pure, which isn't how we use it or how it comes out of the ground.

So where did it...

A surge of energy jerks my attention back to the end of the hallway and reminds me that there's' still six more potential enemies.

The six hooded figures are back on their feet, they even have knives drawn. They're not looking at me though. They're standing in a circle, the knives held at their own throats.

"WE OFFER OUR BREATH," I have no idea what they're doing but it can't be good, "WE OFFER OUR BLOOD," I'm not sure I can get down there at any speed given how I feel at the moment, "WE OFFER OUR VERY LIVES!" But given how this looks more like a ritual from DxD than a jutsu I'm really not sure how I'd interrupt them safely anyway. "FOR THESE GIFTS WE ASK ONLY FOR DESTRUCTION!"

Nope!

I use what little mana I've regained since healing from being struck by lightning, to telekinetically fling myself backwards into the T junction. I have just enough time to roll back around the corner before light blots out everything.

###

A high pitched ringing is all I can hear when the world starts making sense again. I'm not sure if I was actually unconscious, or sensory overload just blotted out everything including thought for a few seconds.

My mana is higher than it was just before the six... they sacrificed themselves in what looked a whole lot like a ritual, they're cultists now. My mana is higher than it was just before the six cultists exploded themselves, but it's dropping quickly again.

I groan and haul myself to my feet, mentally apologizing to Sclamhaire again for using her like a crutch, and hobble my way to where I can see back down the hallway again. It's a wreck. The carpet is gone, as are the six that caused the detonation. The other bodies in the hallway are all burned beyond recognition, having been reduced to creepily shaped charcoal.

My ears pop and suddenly I can hear again. What I hear are the sounds of a small boy crying.

With a groan, I shuffle my way down the hallway to the vault door, which has seen much better days. It's warped, twisted and cracked. Some of the cracks, I can see as I get closer, go all the way through the door. Which is more than slightly worrying given I can now see that said door is almost a foot thick, and solid chakra metal all the way through. Also impressive as hell, both the amount of force involved in creating those cracks, and that the door could handle that amount of force and remain mostly intact.

I blame the seals.

After what feels like far too long, I get close enough to the door to lean against it, which feels really nice. I try to say something, but end up coughing instead.

Wow, I hadn't noticed how thirsty I am until just this moment.

The boy crying on the other side of the door stops at the sound. "Hello?" he calls out, his voice trembling, "is somebody there?"

I cough again. "Yes. I'm Ericka Rhostana, a samurai of your..." Is the kid the grandson of the Daimyo, or the great grandson? I never paid much attention to the Daimyo's family beyond likely inheritance and my chain of command.

"You serve grandfather?" the kid asks, sounding excited. I guess that answers that question. His tone loses the excitement and becomes afraid again quickly, "But some of the bad people were samurai too! You could be one of them!"

"Look, kid, all the bad people are dead. Can you open the door so I can get you somewhere safer?" Looking at the door I kind of doubt he can, but it's worth a try. I'm not sure that the door could handle another one of those suicide blasts, so getting him somewhere else is worth trying at least.

"No," the kid says, now sounding stubborn and determined. "I'm not supposed to open the door to anybody except daddy, mommy, granddad, or Sakura."

Sakura is probably his nurse? Maid?

I glance back at the charred bodies all around me. What are the chances that the person personally responsible for the kid survived out here?

Well there are a lot of Sakuras, it's a common name. Maybe he'd take a replacement?

"I want mommy!" he howls and starts crying again.

This is going to be a long night.