-=[Glendaria Xericson, Winter palace garrison Captain]=-

Glendaria Xericson, the Captain of the Magistrate's personal guard, had received two letters today. The first one was a basic order from Lord Manning. The Magistrate wanted the entire guard assembled without weapons in the armoury for an evaluation in five thousand heartbeats.

The sixty-two year old man probably wanted to show off the men to his guests - Arianna Manning and that odd silver-blue haired girl that kept a pet monster that the Magistrate ordered shot by the archers earlier today.

The second letter was a lot more... concerning. It was an order from the Glendaria’s real master - The Hidden Hand Emissary. The instructions within told the garrison captain to murder the blue-eyed, silver-haired girl.

This part would be very easy. As far as the Captain saw from the battlements the girl was a total weakling in terms of Dantian. A single arrow to the head would do it. The second part of the letter was a bit more difficult and far more dangerous. It simply told Glendaria to execute plan 67 and 99. The Captain knew what those meant - the Magistrate and Arianna Manning had to die tonight.

He walked to a safe hidden within the floorboards, pushed the wooden panel aside, touched the small safe with his Qi to unlock it and pulled out a tube from within. The tube contained a dart with Ceborakian poison. Once it made contact with the Magistrate’s skin, the old man would drop dead from a heart attack. The poison also healed the impact point, leaving no trace.

The second item he pulled from the small safe was a suicide note written in Arianna’s handwriting about how she would rather die than marry an imbecile grandson of Lord Allanther.

Arianna’s death was to be a bit more brutal. Glendaria had to smash her head with his fist and leave the suicide note in her room. He had to sprinkle the note with some moisture from her tongue to make it appear tear-stained by her Qi and then throw Arianna’s body from the highest tower down the steepest slope of the mountain.

Glendaria smiled at the thought. A fitting end to the spoilt, rude princess. He didn’t give a damn if the entire Manning line was cleansed in this manner. Arianna’s mother - Gale Manning would ascend to the throne and Glendaria would serve her ‘faithfully’ as long as she did what the Hidden Hand wanted her to do.

The Captain had no idea how the Magistrate managed to piss off the Hidden Order. Unless Glendaria immediately did what the Emissary asked, his entire family would die in agony tonight. The Captain knew that the same applied to all of his men - everyone in this castle with the exception of the Magistrate and his grandaughter was owned by the Hidden Hand, their contracts redirected to debtors imprisoned in the catacombs beneath the city.

The garrison Captain stretched and went to the barracks to assemble the men. Once there, he made everyone line up and stood in front of the line.

“The blue-eyed, lowborn girl the Magistrate brought into the castle named Ash Sparks must die today. I don’t care how you do it, have fun,” he said. “Feel free to end her monsterling pet as well.” The gathered men made various noises of amusement.

“Once she is dead - I am fulfilling orders sixty seven and ninety nine!” He added darkly and everyone’s faces turned pale. “If I fail to do them tonight... make sure that the job is done.

"Now, the Magistrate ordered us assembled in the armoury for evaluation in four thousand and nine hundred heartbeats! Let's show the Lord of the castle and his guests a nice time before we bid them.... a final goodnight.”

. . .

Glendaria and his thirty two warriors stood at the ready in the armoury, wearing their best parade uniforms, disarmed with the exception of their servitor bracelets. The armoury was an enormous cavern deep inside the castle. One side of it was filled with wooden dummies operated by servitors and the other side contained a large museum and storage of Manning family armour, artifacts and weapons.

The Captain looked at the clock atop the gate entryway into the cavern. The servitor-powered arrow ticked to five thousand heartbeats. Glendaria saw four human figures descending down the stairwell. Ash Sparks was at the front, wearing arcane celesteel armour. Two girls were at her sides, also fully covered in celesteel, with Avidius Copperpenny in the back.

As Ash stepped into the cavern, a deep groan resonated through the castle and every single rune on the floor and walls lit up with a blinding glow. Glendaria winced, covering his eyes.

“What in the hells?!” He muttered.

The Deathstorm Ward?! Surely, it couldn't be the Deathstorm ward!

If the Convergence was coming, then ten thousand heartbeats ago the Convergence gongs and alarms would ring endlessly from all around.

If it was the Deathstorm Convergence of all the things, then the Captain would definitely know it and be ready. One didn’t simply miss how the sky darkened and became broiling with gargantuan storm clouds! He was just looking at the sky from his office five thousand heartbeats ago! It was a clear-blue, sunny day with a few white clouds rolling through the Gold city!

Glendaria blinked bright light-echoes out of his eyes. He saw that Ash Sparks and Arianna Manning interlocked their hands, pointing similar emerald rings at him and his men.

“Defence-Ward! Hold-person!” The girls sang in unison.

The Captain of the guard gasped as a thousand ghostly arms emerged from the floor. In seconds his face slammed into the cold cavern stone. He heard noises of other bodies slamming against the floor.

He had been outmaneuvered! Outplayed! His beautiful wife Natali and daughter Cassia would die if he didn’t break free this instant and killed Ash Sparks and Arianna Manning!

-=[Ash Sparks]=-

The hold-person Ward worked amazingly, slamming the entire garrison into the floor with great force. At least three quarters of the men were immediately concussed, staying down and not moving. Hooray!

The rest started to struggle against the bindings. Boo!

The burly, orange-silver haired approximately forty-year-old man at the front reacted first. A servitor phantom shaped like an alligator with wings bloomed around him and then his entire body became covered with iridescent scales. In moments he tore right through all of the arms in his way, rushing toward us.

Arianna and I activated both of the repulsor rings, blasting an incredibly solid wall of green energy. It struck the Captain with a boisterous thump and sent him flying backwards.The arms grabbed him once again, slamming him down into the floor even harder.

The next part was a bit more difficult.

“Defence-Ward! Confiscate servitors-phantoms!” Arianna and I sang.

Considerably thinner servitor arms emerged from the floor, snipping gold bracelets off from the men. Only seven of the warriors were able to avoid the great snippening, turning into hideous x-men. They sprouted extra arms. They bared sharp wicked teeth. Their swelling power roared out of them, filling the cavern with their noisey wrath. In their beastly forms they rushed against us, tearing right through the forest of ghostly appendages with claws aplenty.

“Defence-Ward! Absolute-Shield!” Arianna and I sang.

A two-dimensional plane woven from silver light formed between us and the warriors. They smashed against the shield, getting rebuffed. In their frustration, they held their ground and slammed against the shield with blows that would’ve crumpled me like a wet paper bag filled with ketchup.

Ghostly arms and snippers reached out, and then there were three.

The Captain was a persistent, incredibly strong fellow. He sunk right into the supposedly absolute shield moving faster than the speed of sound. A supersonic boom resonated through the cavern. The shield slowed him considerably but didn’t stop him, simply warping in his wake. He tried to grab me, his eyes flaring with a brilliant orange light.

“Die!” He hissed, suspended in the air by the power of the shield. One of his freakishly long, iridescent beastly-claws slammed against my celesteel armour, sending a jolt through my body akin to being hit with a baseball bat. I felt as a few of my ribs cracked under the incredible pressure. If it wasn’t for the armour, he would probably go straight through me.

A celesteel sword flashed through the air. Blood splattered me, and the arm became disconnected from the man. Arianna wasn’t distracted by being actively murdered. Her repulsor ring flashed and the Captain was flung backwards back into the sea of arms.

“Absolute shield, my ass,” I croaked, my eyes filling with tears. My chest felt like it was absolutely fucked.

Celes grabbed me, supporting me from folding in on myself. Her serenity field hit me with full power and the pain dulled.

Arianna gripped my hand with hers.

“They’re coming!” She yelled. “Get ready!”

I was ready.

“Defence-Ward! Blind enemies!” We sang pointing our joined hands at the three remaining high-cultivators. I squinted as the room became blindingly bright. Avidius pulled us to the side just as three brilliant rays shot from the walls. Two high-cultivators fell, clutching at their eyes.

The third ray harmlessly bounced against a prismatic-eye shield that appeared over the Captain’s eyes. He stood defiantly and didn’t seem to mind at all that his arm was missing.

“You insane Qi-ssers! You really did activate the Deathstorm Ward!” He growled, rushing at us once again with another sonic boom. He was a rocket of a man, guided with deadly precision. This time he went for our joined arms.

Avidius was too bloody slow with the celesteel sword. Arianna’s arm broke with an unhealthy crunch and she curled with a cry. The bodyguard's sword chopped through the Captain's remaining arm.

I repulsed the pearlescent alligator man backwards. He now had two stumps instead of arms.

[Tis but a scratch,] the Pharmacist commented in my head.

[Really? Is this really the time for monty python jokes?] I replied, assessing the situation. Things were bad.

The Captain rushed us once again. His face elongated, turning into a horrid, monstrous maw. I didn’t know what to do. All of the best wards-commands I knew failed to stop this bloody persistent monster. Arianna’s hand was nearly completely pulverised, her emerald ring looked cracked. She was crying, barely staying conscious. She could not help me focus the Ward!

Pearlescent jaw opened as the high-cultivator tore through the absolute shield with ease. It didn’t even push him back this time, the shield wall groaned and simply shattered into a million colorful Qi fragments, like a magical cloud of confetti raining on my soon-to-be grisly demise.

His maw went for my face, about to bite me in half.

Celes flung herself in front of me at the last second and the pearlescent alligator-man bit right through her celesteel armour. Her blood splattered all over me as I screamed.

Avidius stabbed his celesteel sword forward, right through Celes. It went through her body, and into the eye of the Captain of the guard. He let go of Celes and swung his head unnaturally backwards before the sword went into his brain. Avidius was way too damn slow with the sword!

The Captain swung his head forward and bit right through the sword wielded by my bodyguard. A pearlescent, segmented tongue spun a piece of celesteel in the air. The alligator-mouth spat the piece of the bit-off celesteel sword at Copperpenny. It went right through a tiny, exposed segment of his neck and the lime-skinned man choked and fell backwards, gurgling blood.

Celes didn’t go down even though she was bleeding profusely. My fox vampire swung her celesteel sword. Alas, she wasn’t as strong as Avidius so her sword got stuck halfway through the Captain’s body. It must have come close to his vital organs because the alligator-man looked concerned for a split second. He didn’t falter. A small steel tube emerged from his mouth. A small dart shot from it, stinging Celes in the neck. She fell almost instantly as if the strings holding her up were cut. The godawful pain in my chest was back as the radiance of serenity switched off completely.

The Captain focused his full attention on me. A single orange eye stared at me, filled with absolute hatred.

Tick tick tick boom.

Time slowed its flow as the Pharmacist accelerated my secondary mind to its fullest.

Celes was out of the picture, so was Arianna and Avidius. It was just me vs the one-eyed, armless monster of a man.

His mouth slowly moved through the air attempting to bite my head off once again. I had no weapons. Maybe leaving Traetorius locked in his office wasn’t the best plan. Maybe he could have helped me. The Magistrate was strong… much stronger than me and he could have snipped the Captain’s powers away… probably.

I didn't even have enough Qi in me to use the repulsor ring again!

Pearlescent jaw began to close over my head in slow motion. My body was too weak, too pathetic, too slow to move away at this speed. His stats flashed over his distorted, stretched out, grotesque head.

[Glendaria Xericson]

[Captain LV 105]

[Human male] - [Age - 124.54 years old]

[Primary weapon - Servitor Phantom Chompz LV 166]

Oh. This son of a bitch was an Immortal, even stronger than the Magistrate.

God damn it.