Chapter 10a: Infiltrators
Why did this happen to me? I guess it's my fault…
Serv- husband… promise you'll help me with Sara?
I know, I know. I'll treat her like my daughter. I'll love her regardless.
But what if Sara finds out about what I do? She'll be furious!
Y-you're right, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Adrian watched as Saralyn slowly opened her eyes to the sound of a bell being rung right outside her room. Groaning, she shook her head and dragged herself out of bed. Putting on her Peacekeeper uniform, she grabbed her mamono realm silver revolvers. Meryl, using her bottomless funds, had spent a fortune on upgrading her guns to run on her internal energy as opposed to physical ammunition. Adrian recalled how he almost got skewered because she ran out of ammunition during a fight. That wouldn't be happening again.
"Meryl is requesting our presence. We'd better hurry. We're already late."
"Adrian… have you been having dreams lately?" Saralyn asked.
"Yeah, I have. I can only remember vague details though."
"I think I just had a dream about my parents. They were talking about something, I don't know what, before I was born."
"Strange…We can talk about this later." Adrian put on his clothing, handing over Saralyn's discarded shirt and pants from the side of the room they had landed in when they started having sex. Together, they walked out of the room.
The base was quiet, with the exception of the meeting room where Meryl usually gave out orders. Yesterday, Meryl had mentioned a "big assignment" from Druella herself involving the Peacekeepers. Adrian suspected that this assignment was why she forced them to wake up so early.
Both of them walked into the meeting room, where Sinclair, Naira, Jordan, and Meryl were talking amongst themselves, presumably waiting for them. Ava occupied herself by playing with a small handheld ball in her hands, tossing it up and down. Sinclair noticed them, and waved.
"Nice of you two to finally join us. The two of you just LOVE sleeping in, don't you?" The dark elf teased them.
"Hush, Sinclair. We've got an incredibly important mission ahead of us, and all of us need to focus. I'd like you to reign in that sarcastic attitude of yours." Meryl ordered.
"Fine. Do you want me to explain what's going on to them?"
"Sure. Go ahead."
Sinclair walked over to a map attached to the wall. "So I don't know if you're up to date on the local gossip, but recently, the Order state of Monoghon managed to repel Lescatie's forces, who were attempting to capture the capitol. There's a lot of prisoners of war, including the leader of the invasion, Azurith. She's also Druella's childhood friend, which is probably why she's been in a bad mood recently."
Naira waited for Sinclair to stop speaking, and asked a question.
"Prisoners of war? Why hasn't the Order killed them yet?"
"We don't know. This has been a strange pattern amongst the forces of the Order recently. It is probably connected to the mamono mana harvesting experiments that Adrian and Saralyn uncovered several months ago, Maou bless you two." Meryl smiled at Adrian and the dhampir.
"Either way, it is crucial that we free them. Fortunately, all we need to worry about is rescuing Azurith. Druella has called every damn kunoichi village in Zipangu to try and rescue the prisoners." Sinclair explained.
"Why can't we just launch a retaliatory strike against Monoghon?" Saralyn asked.
"We were just getting to that. They are threatening to execute Azurith and the prisoners of war if we attack. They've been making demands towards Lescatie, asking for technology, mostly guns or cannons that the Order used before we took over. They gave us four days to hand over the technology. If we don't comply, they're going to kill ten percent of the prisoners." Sinclair explained.
The rest of the Peacekeepers shuddered simultaneously. Aggression on this level was rare coming from the Order.
"To make matters worse, we suspect that Aperia may have their eyes on Monoghon. We've spotted some of their soldiers scurrying around their city. Scouts, most likely."
"We have established a hidden base here," Meryl said, pointing to a small mountain a couple miles south of Monoghon on the map. "Like your exam, you will be transported there via teleportation. All of you have thirty minutes to get suited up. When you're ready, head over to Lescatie's college of sorcery. Saralyn, make sure your guns are silent." Saralyn nodded.
"All of you are dismissed." Meryl continued.
The six of them left the meeting room. Sinclair, Ava, Jordan, and Naira were already completely geared up, so they went to the commons room to relax before heading out. Sinclair had remarked that this was a massive step up from the small outposts they had been raiding for practice, to which Ava finally spoke and admitted that she liked a challenge.
Meanwhile, Adrian and Saralyn both went to the Peacekeeper's armory. Adrian recovered his sword, Ballista, while Saralyn grabbed some extra throwing knives. Throwing knives were a popular weapon amongst the group; they were silent and could be reused if need be. Adrian was about to leave when Saralyn stopped him.
"Adrian. I know this is sudden, but… thank you for constantly being at my side."
Adrian turned around. "You're welcome. And thank you for being at my side as well, Sara."
Saralyn stopped when she heard the shortened version of her name. "Sara?"
"I just thought it was a nice nickname for you. Are you opposed to it?" Adrian smirked.
"No… you can call me that if you want."
"Alright then, Sara. I'm going to go talk to the others. Feel free to join me." Adrian left the armory, but Saralyn stayed behind.
"Where have I heard that…?" she mumbled to herself. She could think about that later. She followed Adrian to the commons room where the others were relaxing.
"Five minutes. This anxiety is killing me. We have to deal with an entire city of Order soldiers on high alert, plus Ophelia's army might come to visit." Sinclair sighed.
"I know. Plus if we get caught, they might kill Azurith and the prisoners. We've got to be at our best constantly." Naira replied. The wyvern stretched her wings out.
Five minutes passed agonizingly slowly. After double-triple-quadruple checking that they had everything they needed, the Peacekeepers set out to the Lescatie's college of sorcery. Winter had given way to spring, with the warmer weather causing the snow to have completely melted away. Adrian had noted that the colors of mamono realm flora during their life cycle were more aggressive and pronounced than normal, uncorrupted plants. Bright and strong shades of purple and red spiced up the landscape. Adrian held on tight to the Ballista.
The Peacekeepers however, were too anxious to appreciate this. Looking straight ahead, none of them said a word as they marched to the Lescatie's college of sorcery.
When they arrived, Meryl was waiting for them outside. She had left the group earlier, presumably to do some last minute preparations. The dullahan waved them over, and motioned for them to follow her. Lescatie's college was a place for young mamono to study and learn magic, but it also functioned as a teleportation "hub". Meryl had reserved a teleportation path leading to Lescatie's hideout in Monoghon. They walked for a little bit until reaching a large chamber with circles drawn all over the walls.
"Alright. You know the drill, one person goes in at a time." Meryl finally spoke. A dark mage nearby waved her staff, causing one of the teleportation circles to light up. She went in first, and the rest followed after her, Adrian being the last one through.
Outskirts of Monoghon
Adrian's vision warped and distorted as he teleported. Finally, his vision cleared. He was in a large cave improvised to be a temporary base for Lescatie. His fellow team members were there, alongside a couple other dullahans, some dark mages, and a few dragons. Numerous stealth-oriented mamono like mantises, kunoichis and what he guessed to be a couple other dhampirs, indistinguishable from normal human women. Saralyn waved over at them, smiling.
Adrian walked over to where Saralyn and the others were gathered, and Meryl began to start briefing them on the situation.
"So here's what's going on. Monoghon is on VERY high security right now; people going in and out of the city are being monitored heavily, especially people going in. There's no way we can walk in through the front gate, even with anthropomorphism. Sneaking in is near impossible as well. They've got tons of mages and soldiers monitoring every inch of the walls, and that's not even mentioning the magic reinforcements." Meryl.
"Yipee, boss. Any good news?" Sinclair asked.
"There's no such thing as an absolute defense. We've identified a way to sneak in." Meryl led them to a room filled with barrels.
"We're going to be hiding in these." Sinclair and Naira groaned, Naira especially loudly. Her wings were going to be very uncomfortable. Ignoring the team's dismay, Meryl continued on.
"We're going to be faking a crash. Monoghon has a separate gate for supplies. The supplies are also probed for mamono mana, but these barrels have been made by the most skilled dark mages around, so they most likely won't detect anything wrong. They'll be transported to different storehouses based on what type of supplies they are." Meryl pointed to a symbol of a storehouse on a map of Monoghon on the wall.
"We suspect that Azurith is being held at the Monoghon high security prison. But before we go there, we need to set up a teleportation circle so that the kunoichis can rescue the normal prisoners. I've determined that the best location to do that is in the sewers." Meryl pointed to a tiny circle, representing a hole to the sewers. "After we finish doing that, the six of you will go on your own to break Azurith out. Once she's secured, use this." Meryl pulled out a tiny object that looked like a fire. "It will send a flare of sorts into the air that only mamono can see. That will be the signal for the stealth oriented mamono to start freeing the prisoners."
"Question. Won't they open the barrels?" Naira asked.
"Yes, they will, once they're at the storehouse. There's a period of time where they remain unchecked however. We'll need to sneak out at the right moment." Meryl explained.
"Fucking hell… This sounds like it's going to be difficult." Adrian grumbled.
"Yeah, it is. But it's going to be worth it in the end. Monoghon's been a problematic city for a while now. It's going to be cathartic seeing it as a mamono realm. Before we go…" Meryl paused, and waved two dark mages over, as well as a human male wearing the uniform of the Order. One of the dark mages was hugging the man from behind, the man's eyes glowing slightly pink and his face flushed red with a drunken smile.
"These two," Meryl pointed at the man and the dark mage, "Will be our drivers. They're going to purposefully crash." Meryl pointed at the other dark mage. "She's going to be the one who's going to set up the teleportation circle." Meryl began walking towards a wagon with the symbol of the Order on it.
"It's time. Everyone, get in a barrel." Meryl ordered, getting in one herself.
Adrian climbed into one of the barrels. It was incredibly uncomfortable, like he suspected. But somehow, he knew he would be able to stay still when the time came. He got as comfortable as he possibly could and reattached the lid. Naira, however, was having much trouble. The wyvern couldn't fit her wings in the barrel no matter how hard she tried. Giving up, she just asked one of the dark mages to cast an anthropomorphism spell on her.
Adrian had no view of the outside. He could hear muffled talking from outside as the dark mages put the barrels on the wagon and transported it outside. About an hour of nothing but the sounds of the wheels dragging on the ground followed. Eventually, a loud bang happened from outside, and the barrel he was in tumbled to the ground. Adrian hit his head on one of the walls. He cursed quietly.
After a few more uncomfortable minutes of waiting, Adrian heard voices outside. Order soldiers, he assumed.
"What the hell happened here…"
"They crashed. Both the horses and the drivers ran off. They left their supplies behind, so they were probably in a hurry."
"You think they got caught by monsters? We just had an invasion. The king's all paranoid that Lescatie's going to retaliate."
"It's a possibility. Poor souls."
"Maybe we should open the barrels. Check if Lescatie's trying to sneak in corrupted supplies." Adrian's heart skipped a beat. He mentally prayed that they wouldn't do that.
"Let's not… If we open the supplies early the higher-ups are going to throw a fit. Besides, we'll probe them for corruption once we get to the supply gate."
"Yeah, you're right." The voices stopped talking and began loading the barrels onto their own wagon.
Another uneventful, stressful, and uncomfortable hour passed as Adrian waited for them to go to get to the city. They reached the supply gate, and the probing process started. Adrian hoped that the dark mages had done their magic well on the barrels. Adrian felt his barrel being lifted up into the air. He tried to stay as still as possible.
A few seconds passed. "Alright. It's clear. Take it through." Adrian mentally sighed in relief. The Order soldiers checked the remaining barrels, all of them thankfully passing the test. Adrian made a mental note to buy a drink for the dark mages that made the barrels immune to the Order's test. Some more waiting, and the noises finally stopped. Adrian guessed that they had arrived at the storehouse.
At the same time, Meryl took the risk of coming out of hiding. She was the leader; it was her responsibility to see if the area was safe before they emerged. Opening the barrel from inside, she peaked out and immediately shut it closed again. The room she was in had two workers, leaning against the wall, neglecting their job. It looked like both of them were dozing off. Meryl didn't blame them. If she had to do this every day for eight hours, she would go insane.
The dullahan crept out of her barrel and tiptoed over to where the workers were sleeping. She jabbed both of them in the stomach with a realm silver knife, ensuring that they would be sleeping for a lot longer than they planned. If they were lucky, they would think they overslept when they woke up.
Going back to the shelves, she began knocking on the barrels. She had marked each barrel with numbers one to eight. She found one with the number two on it, and decided to open it first without thinking to warn whoever was inside.
Adrian practically jumped out of his skin when someone opened the barrel he was hiding in. He immediately stood up and punched the person in the head, only for their head to fly off. Adrian covered his mouth in shock. He had accidentally punched Meryl. Quickly jumping out of his hiding place, he grabbed Meryl's head before it could roll away and reattached it to the rest of Meryl's body.
"Adrian! What the hell?!"
"Sorry, Meryl! I've been on edge for the past hour or two! Warn me next time before you expose me!"
Meryl grunted. Some of her mana had leaked out of her body while her head was off, thankfully not enough to be a problem. "Whatever. Let's get the others out before we get discovered."
Adrian and Meryl worked together to free the others. Adrian decided to give Saralyn a hug when he found her. It felt good, after being stuck in a cramped space for the past two hours. Once everyone was out, Meryl gave out more orders.
"Alright. It's about noon right now. Unfortunately, the streets are crawling with people." Meryl pointed out the window. Monoghon had fully woken up. "Our next objective is to get to the sewers. Fortunately the security inside the city is a bit lighter than it is outside. If we just act natural, we should be able to get by just by using anthropomorphosis." Meryl turned to the dark mage that had come with them.
"Want to do the honors, Layla?" Layla nodded.
One by one, they were all changed to look human. All of them put on the normal clothing they had taken with them, as opposed to their Peacekeeper uniforms. Once they were done, they looked like normal, albeit very pretty looking humans. There was nothing they could do about that.
"Let's get going before our friends here wake up." Meryl pointed at the two unconscious workers taking an extended nap against the wall. Using a backdoor exit, the eight of them left the storehouse.
Despite the lighter security, the streets were still crawling with guards. Fortunately, the crowd provided decent cover for them. The Peacekeepers still held their heads low to avoid looking suspicious. Making their way to the manhole that led to the sewers, they tried to remain as natural as possible when they passed by any guards.
Finally reaching the manhole, Adrian and Jordan began talking about mundane, everyday life subjects to provide cover for the rest of the team while they opened the manhole. When they were done, they waited for the streets to clear up a bit, then dropped down into the sewers themselves. Immediately, they were hit with the incredibly strong stench of the sewers.
"It smells awful down here. How long are we going to stay here?" Sinclair complained.
"As long as we need to. It's going to take several hours to set up the teleportation circle because it's teletomancy, so I suggest you get comfortable." Layla explained. All of the disguised mamono groaned.
"This is the safest place for mamono in the entire city right now! If you want to set up a teleportation circle yourself in a place crawling with Order soldiers, be my guest!" Layla snapped back in response. There were no further objections.
The group trudged through the sewage to find an obscure part of the sewer. Eventually, they found a spot several dozen or so turns away from where they entered. A dead end with a supply closet in the wall.
"This place should be fine. I'll get started." Layla began to cast the magic needed for a large-scale teleportation spell. Meryl stood by to guard Layla, just in case.
"The six of you, I suggest you plan for your prison break. You're free to use the supply closet. It doesn't smell as bad in there as it does out here." Meryl gestured to the supply closet. "Oh, and, one of Lescatie's citizens had something to give to us."
Meryl reached into her coat and pulled out a paper. She tossed it to Adrian. Opening it and skimming over it, he discovered it was a rough map of the Monoghon high security prison.
"A gift from a former prison guard. His name is Casey. Buy him a drink if we get back to Lescatie alive, you hear me?" Adrian chuckled. He owed drinks to several people now.
The supply closet was cramped, but the group preferred it to the horrid smelling sewage on the outside. The six of them sat down, removed their disguises and began plotting how they were going to free Azurith.
Several hours later, it was done. Saralyn and Adrian contributed much to the plan, having broken out of a prison themselves several months ago. From the map, it was implied that the cells would be reinforced with magic much like the ones seen at the Black Forest Prison. They would hunt down the mages that were maintaining the magic on the cells. Sinclair and Ava would remain hidden at where a majority of the mamono prisoners were being kept, and would attempt to take lead of them once the magic on the cells was dealt with. Jordan and Naira would be circling the nearby area with an invisibility spell, and would warn them if any Order forces were coming.
"So that's our plan." Adrian went over everything in his head.
"Let's go outside and see how the teleportation spell is going." Saralyn got up and opened the supply closet door. She was shocked at what she saw.
Hundreds of kunoichis, mantises, elves, dark elves and other stealth oriented mamono were gathered in the sewers. Many of them had displeased looks on their faces, cringing at the smell of the sewer. Saralyn and the group pushed through the crowd to find Meryl.
"We've got visitors." Meryl smirked. "Anyways, so here's how things are going to go down. The Monoghon high security prison is visible from the regular prisons. Once you have secured Azurith, you are to use the flare charm I gave you. That will be a signal for these lovely ladies," Meryl gestured towards the small army, "to begin freeing the prisoners." Meryl reaffirmed her orders from earlier in the morning.
"We strike at midnight." Layla reminded everyone.
"Tonight, we show the Order what happens when they try to blackmail us."
Chapter 10b: Lone Angel
Aperia
"Raniel, are you there?" Ophelia's voice echoed in her head.
"I am, beloved Matriarch." The valkyrie responded.
"Spare me the formalities Raniel, we're friends. I've got a rather difficult task for you. Are you up for it?" Ophelia's voice sounded enthusiastic, giddy almost.
"I am always willing to do your bidding."
"Good, good. Report to my office." Ophelia said nothing more.
Raniel sighed in relief. There hadn't been many assignments from Ophelia, all of them being given to other teams of angels. That meant she was stuck at Aperia, doing mundane tasks for days on end. Of course, Nuriel and Ophaniel were monitoring Cassiel. They were supposed to give their surveillance report on the suspicious angel today. Raniel looked forward to seeing what they had found on her. But with that eagerness, came a tinge of sadness.
"You could've been so much more if you had just put aside your morals for a second. If you had just stayed with us until we completely tore down and rebuilt the Order, you would've had all the time in the world to be a bleeding heart." Raniel spoke to herself.
She picked up a small necklace with the symbol of the Matriarch, a winged torch, that Cassiel had made for her in the early days of her recruitment. She had excelled at her training. The two of them worked flawlessly together.
"Damn Raniel, you're one of the best valkyries I've ever seen!"
"And you're one of the best recruits I've had the pleasure of training!"
She could think about this later. Stretching out her wings and sighing, she walked out of her personal quarters. Kicking off the ground, Raniel soared towards Ophelia's castle. Within a few minutes she had arrived. Greeting the angels guarding the door, she made her way up to Ophelia's office. She knocked on the door.
"It's open." Ophelia's muffled voice came from behind. Raniel let herself in.
"So, I'll keep this as short as I can. Recently, Lescatie attempted to take over Monoghon. It didn't exactly go well for them. I bet they're not used to losing. Hell, I almost feel bad for them!" Ophelia laughed. "Anyways, I've got three people that need to die."
"Who?"
"Targets one and two, the king and queen of Monoghon. They're trying to blackmail Lescatie into giving them advanced weaponry, our spies say. I'd rather the Order not get their hands on the technology Lescatie has, even if it is corrupted. Target three, Azurith. Druella's childhood friend. She's the one behind the failed invasion. She was stopped by one of the Order's heroes. His name is Kovalt Marshall. Quite skilled, if I had to give my opinion on him. He's wasted on the Order."
"Matriarch, wouldn't killing Druella's childhood friend anger the extremists greatly?" Raniel questioned.
"I was just getting that. Since Azurith is being held in an Order controlled city, if she dies, we can just pin the blame on the Order if they come asking us about her."
"Understood. Any further orders?" Raniel asked.
"If you see Kovalt, make an attempt to try and get him to come over to our side. He's quite exceptional, and it would be nice to have a hero of his prestige on our side. We don't need him badly per se, so don't get too upset if he refuses."
"Understood." Raniel repeated. Ophelia nodded at her, and Raniel left her office. This was going to be quite the ordeal. Raniel thought to herself.
She decided to leave early. It would take several hours of intense flying to get to Monoghon. It was very far from Aperia, and she would likely be tired once she arrived. She would also get a glimpse of Lescatie on the way there.
Raniel had never been to Lescatie, before or after Druella's takeover. Either way, she hated the country. She despised the rampant abuse of power by the priests before Druella took over as well as the uncontrolled hedonism that Lescatians engaged in after she took over.
Raniel took a small break after two hours of intense flying. Resting her wings, she sat down under a tree, took a deep breath and looked at the sunset. She loved the strong yellows and oranges of the sun. How the mamono could stand a blood red sun confused her.
Suddenly, she heard rustling of leaves behind her. Raniel turned around and saw a young black harpy staring at her, barely wearing anything. Clearly, living in the forest for her entire lives hadn't helped her sense of decency. Raniel, not in the mood to deal with mamono, tried to get her to leave her alone.
"Get out of here." The valkyrie demanded.
"Ooooh! An angel! Hi lady! Where are you going and can I help you?" The young harpy chirped, as if she was completely unaware of what she said.
"No, birdbrain. Didn't your parents ever tell you not to talk to strangers?" Raniel snapped back.
"Ummm… They said that the blue skinned angels at the church are nice to talk to… Wait a minute!" The harpy realized her mistake. Meanwhile, the mention of dark angels had ruined Raniel's mood.
"Fucking leave!" Raniel pulled out her sword and pointed it at the harpy. That was enough to get the harpy to fly away.
Raniel grunted. Wild mamono were always a pain to deal with. They never had any sense of manners or civility. The only things they knew how to do were eat, sleep, and fuck. Raniel wasn't exactly a huge fan of the Aperian mamono citizens, but at least they had the decency to keep their intimate activities inside their homes, and they mostly didn't attempt to rape human men in the streets.
Raniel decided to resume her flight to Monoghon passing over forests, rivers, and plains of grass. The valkyrie felt herself almost dozing off at times, but she slapped herself to keep awake; sleep flying was a terrible idea several dozen miles in the air.
Eventually, the environment started changing. The grass became jet black, the trees took on a dark brown hue, and the rivers were tinged pink. Purple, pink and blue plants dotted the landscape. She had crossed into Lescatian territory. Raniel had to admit, the mamono realm looked beautiful in its own fucked up way, but she would lose her mind if she had to live here every day of her life. Overhead, the moon shined an ominous blood red.
Raniel began flying faster. Being a valkyrie meant she had high resistance to the corruptive effects of the realm, but she didn't want to know what would happen if she stayed here for too long. Lescatie wouldn't be turning her into a dark valkyrie anytime soon. She'd kill the entire city before that would happen. About an hour of flight later, she could see the main city of Lescatie in the distance.
"All of you disgust me…" Raniel said to the city. She could practically hear the mamono inside moaning and grunting. "Is this the future you want for the world, Druella?"
Raniel pushed her wings harder. She hated this entire realm from the bottom of her heart and wanted to get out as soon as possible. The valkyrie's heart leaped as she saw the environment of the mamono realm gave way to normal, untainted environments. About forty five more minutes of flying later, she had reached Monoghon.
Outskirts of Monoghon
Raniel never thought she would be happy to see Order-controlled settlements, but she was. Activating an invisibility spell, she flew over one of the villages. The mayor was giving a speech, something about how he had been mayor for ten years and his plans for the next year. He talked about how he was going to spend money on building orphanages and upgrading the roads to the village.
"At least some of you aren't so bad… If only you didn't worship the Chief God." Raniel mumbled under her breath.
Monoghon
Another hour of flying and she had reached the city of Monoghon. It was late at night, but the city was more active than ever. Order soldiers ran to and fro across the walls, and mages waved their hands and staffs, maintaining the magic on the walls. Raniel could even see a couple angels and the occasional valkyrie of the Order.
Raniel flew past the walls. A couple of the soldiers and mages looked up and cheered at the newcomer.
"Good work, brave soldiers of the Order! May the Chief God bless your souls!" Raniel forced the words out of her mouth. The Order soldiers cheered louder, pumping their fists in the air.
"Heh… zealous morons." Raniel said under her breath. Landing on a roof, she began to disguise herself as a normal traveler. Raniel began to review her targets. Azurith would most likely be in the high security prison. She would be the last one to die, Raniel decided. She didn't know where Kovalt Marshall would be, however. As vulnerable as having him as her own personal hero would be, it would be nice to have someone by her side. Cassiel was no longer trustworthy, Ophaniel and Nuriel would be busy watching her, and Pahaliah wasn't exactly the best at combat. She was alone.
The king and queen of Monoghon would be easier targets. They were probably in their castle, so she could easily disguise herself as a maid to get close to them. No longer having wings, the disguised valkyrie began walking towards the castle.
Once she reached the castle, she waited until the coast was clear and snuck in through an open window. Conveniently, it was one of the maid's rooms. She had left a spare uniform on a hanger on the wall. Slowly picking the maid uniform off the hook, she quietly undressed herself and put it on. It was rather small, but she didn't look suspicious, which was what mattered.
Walking up to where the throne room was, she passed by some other maids. Nodding to them, she kept on walking, eventually reaching the king and queen's bedroom. She knocked on the door.
"Hello? Your highness? Can I come in?" No answer. Raniel held her ear up to the door. Faint moans and grunts could be heard from inside.
Raniel groaned in exasperation. Were the two of them really choosing NOW to fuck…? She opened the door a crack to see what they were doing. What she saw shocked her.
The queen had become a fully fledged succubus. She was riding on top of the king's dick, pleased sighs and moans coming from both of them as they held hands. Both of them were clearly enjoying it. Raniel quickly closed the door, taking a deep breath. Ophelia hadn't told her about the queen being monsterized. She assumed they were fine since the invasion had been stopped!
Gathering her magic, she prepared to fire a precision bolt of holy energy through the door. But the monsterized queen turned around, her pleasured expression quickly turning into an expression of shock and fear. She forcefully pulled herself off of the king and wrapped her wings around her half-dressed husband, and jumped through a window just as the energy bolt obliterated the bed.
Raniel couldn't hold back a scream of frustration. Disengaging her disguise, her halo warped into existence on her head and her wings tore through her maid disguise. Kicking the door open, she kicked off the floor and flew after them.
Raniel with a clear head wouldn't have done this. She would've stayed disguised whilst trying to take down the succubus queen and her husband from inside, obscuring her presence. But Raniel wasn't thinking straight. She hurled an explosive bolt of holy energy at the two of them. The succubus swerved to the left, the explosion lighting up the dark city. Confused and scared screams of the citizens in the streets followed, but Raniel didn't care.
Firing off more energy bolts, Raniel tried to keep the succubus in her sights. Succubi could fly surprisingly well depending on the situation. The monsterized queen swerved back and forth, just barely weaving around the valkyrie's attacks.
Eventually, the valkyrie got a lucky strike. A bolt hit the succubus in the wing, causing her to plummet to the ground. Raniel wasted no time and fired another explosive bolt of holy energy at the ground, causing an enormous explosion to rock the city.
Once the smoke cleared, the succubus and her husband were nowhere to be seen. Raniel didn't have time to check the rubble; she just had to assume they had been obliterated. Taking several deep breaths, she realized what she had done. The entire city was alerted to her presence. Soldiers would be here any second now to investigate. Quickly disguising herself as a traveler again, she began to walk as casually as she could towards the high security prison where Azurith would be.
Every mamono in the sewers felt a quake flow through the city.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Has the Order found us?! What are we going to do?"
Meryl tried to calm the startled monsters down. "Just stay calm! We'll send some forces to investigate!" Despite her calm exterior, she mentally cursed. Taking a deep breath, she tried to think of what could've caused it. The only thing that came to mind was…
"Aperia…They must be launching an attack!" Meryl yelled out.
Adrian and Saralyn's eyes widened. This changed things completely. The Order would be on even higher alert than they were before. Getting to the prison would be even harder than it was before.
Meryl's heart dropped as she thought of something else. What if the Order blamed the mamono for the explosion? THEY COULD BE ON THEIR WAY TO KILL AZURITH RIGHT NOW! Meryl's panicked mind screamed.
Meryl turned towards the Peacekeepers and the mamono forces. "Change of plans! We need to go, NOW!"
Sinclair recoiled in shock. "But you said we strike at midnight!"
"GO NOW! That's an order!" The Peacekeepers didn't dare disobey a direct order. They quickly ran towards the nearest exit, the mamono forces all splitting up.
Kovalt glared at Azurith. The demon glared back, wincing at her half-healed injuries and restrictive magic chains. The hero had only partially healed the demon, in order to keep her in line. The two of them had barely spoken to each other since their battle, and what little conversation they had quickly devolved into a screaming match. Kovalt recalled one of their "conversations".
"I don't understand you… Why do you fight?" Azurith asked.
"Oh, I don't know?! Maybe because you corrupt our women and rape our men?!" Kovalt snapped back in response.
"We're simply allowing them to embrace their buried desires! Besides, every city Druella has taken over has thrived! Aren't you a hero? Don't you want what's best for Monoghon?"
"I was forced to watch my wife struggle against your corruptive energies. She was begging me to help her, and I was powerless to do anything! She sure as hell didn't sound like she wanted to 'embrace her buried desires'!" Kovalt screamed. "You're right about one thing, though. I DO want what's best for Monoghon. AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!"
Azurith stayed silent from then on.
In the present, Kovalt looked out the window, thinking of his wife. His reminiscing was interrupted by a huge explosion in the distance. He could feel it from the prison as it rocked the city.
"What was that?!" Kovalt turned towards Azurith. "Is this your doing?! Are your friends here to rescue you?"
"I-I-I don't know?"
Kovalt wanted to know what was going on. He got the attention of a few guards.
"Yes, Hero Marshall?"
"Keep an eye on Azurith for me. She's being restricted by magic chains, so she shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm going to investigate that explosion." Kovalt didn't wait for the guards to respond as he sprinted down the halls of the prison.
Kovalt had protected this city for fifteen years, and he had zero intentions of stopping, even if that meant his death.
He just hoped Kari would be alright.