The small army of Sidhe approached the spot where the earlier group had died. As the place was clearly shown to be dangerous, everyone present was prepared for an ambush. Commander Dorceran signaled some of the scouts to fan out and search the area, while he himself dismounted to search the site personally. Not that the site of the battle was all that complicated. There was a fairly big crater created by some sort of heavy impact.

The devastation radiating away from the crater was strangely confined. Anything powerful enough to make a crater like this should’ve also damaged more of the surrounding forest. This told the commander that the attack was not a random meteorite dropped by an overzealous mage. Whoever did cause the damage was able to control their power to an extent. The scattered remains of Sidhe soldiers and steeds made the scene look grisly. It also made counting the dead impossible. He had no way of knowing if the entire unit had been wiped out, or if some of them were captured. The mages had already tried to trace all members of the group but had received no results. Then again, another member of their unit had disappeared from their fort as well, and they had been unable to trace that man as well.

“Be prepared for an attack from above. Something at the level of rank seven at least. Scatter our forces to avoid attacks that cover a wide area. Have them search for anything weird while at it.” Commander Dorceran said to the people surrounding him, and they in turn quietly spread the word.

There was another thing that made him think. He could see the body of the woman that had led the group and had brought them here. She was lying on the ground a short distance away, and the commander could see the gaping hole in her torso from here. The weird part was that the destruction that had hit the forest seemed to skirt around her corpse as if stopped by a shield. Whoever had killed her had wanted to avoid killing her in the first explosion.

‘So two people. One of whom they want to keep secret. And they know of our amulets.’ He thought grimly. He also had a pretty good idea about the identity of the person who had killed the female officer. There were only so many people who had both the strength and guts to attack an elite unit commanded by House Ruadháin. There were even fewer people that also had sufficient motive to do so. He could think of a handful of suspects, but one, in particular, stood out.

‘Still, why attack a random group of subordinates, even if two of our best people were part of the group? There are much more important targets for both her and the enemies of House Ruadháin. The two generals are an obvious choice, and there’s even…me?’ He suddenly realized that the whole thing might have been just to draw him out of the Winter court army. He looked around and noted that most of the unit had scattered on his orders. Only a handful remained close-by to protect him, mostly as a formality.

Suddenly he noticed something quick moving from the corner of his eye and the heads of those people surrounding him exploded. He pulled out his two-handed blade, increased the strength of his protective ki to the peak and prepared a couple of spells to cast. The air close by shimmered and two beings that radiated danger appeared, the spell hiding them disappearing. One of them he recognized immediately, the person he was expecting to see, while the other was a tall angel with two halos and two differently colored wings. The commander had to take a second glance at the angel, who felt like a phoenix had landed in their midst. So very dangerous, but you couldn’t help but admire her beauty on a certain level. Despite his senses screaming danger, he couldn’t feel her strength at all, and that fact alone made her even more dangerous.

The angel waved her hand, and a dome of dark energy suddenly surrounded the trio and the newly made corpses. He heard the angel’s delightful voice speak words that were decidedly less delightful. “I can keep the others out for a while. You’re not in a rush, but there’s a time limit. Eventually, they’ll be able to batter their way through and spoil your little revenge. I’ll be outside distracting them.”

The other woman that the commander had recognized replied quickly. “I’ll keep that in mind. Try not to kill too many of them.”

The certainty in the woman’s voice worried Commander Dorceran even more. It was as if it was a foregone conclusion that the angel would be able to kill all his subordinates, and was only holding back because the woman had requested it. Then the angel disappeared in a flash of light.

His chosen opponent then turned his way and spoke. “Well then. Now it’s just you and me. I’m sure you know why I’m here.”

-----

Dee flew out of the dome constructed of holy power. The dome was something of a combination of Umbra’s power used to form into an Aegis and a protective holy spell. An Aegis was great for keeping enemy spells and arrows out, but it was simply not designed to keep enemies out. Its purpose was, after all, to empower the allies beneath while they fought the enemy. Or in the case of power from a dark goddess like Umbra being used, it was also used to weaken enemies beneath. That’s why Dee had to combine it with another protective spell. The combination worked to keep people outside, but unlike a proper Aegis, it wouldn’t be able to take punishment until she ran out of holy power.

Dee still thought it would’ve been easier to just blast away the marching columns of Sidhe like she had done to the small patrol before, but Noyala had vetoed that idea. According to Noyala, killing a small group from the unit was just as well, but killing the whole unit ran counter to her other objectives. She wanted to make the Unseelie strong again, and wiping out an elite unit of their military was not a good way to reach that goal. They were only following orders after all, so it wasn’t really the soldier’s fault but the people commanding them. Noyala wasn’t some saint that avoided bloodshed, hence Dee had a fairly free hand on taking as many lives as she deemed necessary, but she had asked that most of the unit would be left alive.

Hence why Dee had agreed to keep the others busy while Noyala took her revenge. There was just a small problem. Dee wasn’t entirely sure Noyala could kill Commander Dorceran in a straight up fight. Their levels of power were not far apart, as they were both rank eight. The only difference was that the commander was close to becoming rank nine as a warrior, while his magical skills were barely enough to qualify as rank four, while Noyala was a rank seven warrior and a rank eight mage. In theory, Noyala should have the upper hand, but ranks weren’t everything. Noyala was clearly powerful but gave the image of someone more used to working from the shadows and was apparently suffering from some sort of curse. The commander, on the other hand, seemed like someone used to straight up combat and had a lot more experience due to his age and long service. Dee would have to keep an eye on things and interfere if things didn’t go according to plan.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a column of green energy slamming into the dark shield separating the two from the rest of the Sidhe. Dee noted that the shield held strong, but that the beam of energy coming down on the shield was wearing down on it. She looked at the source of the energy and saw a formation of mages casting a spell together. A formation often seen in wars. Nine mages were streaming green light from their hands into a similar column that rose towards the sky to fall down on the shield, while eighteen other mages stood behind them, sending their own power to the nine. Behind the eighteen stood another thirty-six mages that did the same for the eighteen.

“Time to get to work.” Dee said to Croestia. “We’ll have to give them something else to think about.” She could feel Croestia’s silent reply as power filled her, and she could feel that the effect of any magic sent her way would be reduced. Dee also cast a host of empowering holy spells on herself just in case she had to wade into close combat. That wasn’t really her goal though.

She flew to the top of the dome, right where the beam was striking it. With a wave of her hands, the air began to move. She used force control to take a hold of the surrounding air and forced it to spin around the dome forming powerful winds. This was the beginnings of a psionic storm she had used several times before, except this time there was no tearing power or lighting mixed in. Instead all the power was focused on increasing the wind speeds flowing into a single direction. This plucked away any Sidhe stupid enough to stray close and threw them far away from the battle. Then she began to push the wind out, expanding the area covered. It was like a powerful but small hurricane created from psionic energy.

Soon the winds started closing on the mages still channeling their magic. This is where the training of the unit kicked in. The warriors that had not been tossed away began combining their powers together to form a protective barrier around the mages. Dee cursed silently as the storm winds rammed into the barrier and the barrier held. It twisted and bent under the pressure, but that elasticity was simply something that allowed it to deflect most of the power away from the barrier.

Now it had turned into a stalemate. Which would break first, the barrier created by the thousands of warriors or the barrier created by Dee alone? She wasn’t sure she liked the math. Especially since the protective shield she had created was untested and used for the first time on the spot. If it had been the Aegis and her nigh bottomless well of holy power, then that would’ve been one thing, but the spell was something else.

“Looks like this is not enough. I’ll have to disappoint Noyala and start using deadly force. Hopefully most of them aren’t too fragile.” Dee said with a small sigh.

Suddenly six large diamond shaped objects appeared next to her and started spinning in preparation to being shot off. “Let’s see what it takes to crack this particular egg.” She said, as the objects suddenly shot towards the shield. To her amazement, the shield held against the first two impacts. Now granted she had held back on purpose and the shield held the power of thousands of high-class warriors, but still. She had to commend them. What would be left of them anyway. The third diamond destroyed the shield, while the remaining three landed right in the middle of the mage’s formation. None of them survived.

The gems all floated back to her. “Now. Let’s see what they come up with next. I doubt they will be satisfied with just this.”

-----

Within the barrier the commander and Noyala squared off against each other. The commander thought he had fairly good odds of winning against his opponent in her weakened state, but the angel might decide to come back. Or his troops might be able to crack the dark layer of power covering them. That was another possibility. He wasn’t sure if stalling for time would be beneficial or not. Still, there was no need to remain silent at least.

“I’d imagine you’re here for some misguided sense of revenge.” He replied to her earlier statement.

“Misguided?” Noyala scoffed in derision. “You ambushed me and killed my friend. I don’t think reasons for revenge can get much clearer than that.” To punctuate her words a bolt of lightning flashed towards the commander.

The commander used his ki to cleave the bolt in two as he dashed in to close the gap between them. It was an example of the age old situation. At range the warrior would be at a disadvantage, but close up he could stop the mage from casting any complex spells. Usually the mages also sucked at close range combat. This particular mage unfortunately also happened to be a strong close range combatant. His two handed and slightly curved blade made of Moonstone was intercepted by two metal sabers crossed at the front, and immediately several quick spells were shot towards him, stopping him from forcing his higher strength on her.

“You know damn well why though. A blasphemer like you must have expected some retaliation to your actions. You went against all our vows and tenets.” He grunted as he suddenly disappeared and appeared behind his opponent, aiming a quick swing at her back.

That swing missed as she leapt forward out of the range of the approaching blade, while several large orbs of lightning rose to float around her. Those lighting orbs then launched at the commander. “I took no vows, and neither did most of our people. It’s hardly my fault that our monarch chose to make such promises to parties that have no right to our fealty.”

The commander knew those orbs would follow him around if he tried to dodge, so he had to face them directly. The form of a white and black tiger made of ki appeared behind his back and dashed at the orbs. The tiger swept its paw at the orbs, leading to an explosion of jagged bolts of lightning scattering everywhere. The tiger came out as the winner, though its form was greatly diminished as it swiped at Noyala with the remaining power.

“The queen was selected to rule our race. Her power protects us and her decisions and promises bind us as a whole. We have taken those vows seriously for tens of thousands of years, and our race has never been as powerful and numerous as it is now. Don’t even try to tell me we would’ve reached this point if the forest was not helping us! And you choose to betray all that!” The commander replied angrily.

A protective field of power surrounded Noyala, stopping the attack of the tiger. The commander’s next attacked followed right after, as he cleaved down with his sword in a very particular way, sending a blade of dark energy towards her. This was an attack designed against the protective shields of the mages, and would go right through them as if they weren’t there.

Noyala was suddenly clad in lightning, as if all her clothes had just turned into the volatile power, and she moved away from the blade of energy faster than the commander’s eyes could follow. “I don’t remember getting a say in choosing the hag that pretends to be our queen. I don’t think you did either. A bunch of corrupt old houses chose her, and she is just like them. Black to the core. She doesn’t care about our people, she only cares about the power that she has borrowed and the authority it grants her. Even her strength is fake, given to her by someone else, and so is the authority that relies on such borrowed power. And we might be more numerous than before, but more powerful as a people? I don’t think so. We’re too busy plotting and killing each other and scheming against the other seasonal courts.”

The commander harrumphed. This was not a new argument, though the woman in front of him was the first one to actually take direct steps to change the situation. And that’s what got her cursed. “Seems like you can still somewhat draw on your totem, even if most of its power is unavailable for you. I wonder though, how many times can you do so? Must be hard now that you’ve fallen so far.” He was taunting her on purpose, trying to force her to waste strength.

“I still have enough power left to defeat you.” Noyala replied grimly, while she knew that using the power she had just used would come back to haunt her later. “How’s this for our race having power? When we finally gain our own strength instead of borrowing it from others, that strength gets slapped down.”

The commander grinned wickedly in response. “You know as well as I do that you’re not being punished for being strong. You’re being punished for your blasphemy. What better proof than your sister? She’s not going along with the queen’s wishes either, but she still retains her power.” He knew those words had hit the mark as her face darkened. Her sister had always been a sore spot, and now it might be her undoing as she clearly planned on utilizing the power of her totem again to shut him up.

That moment of triumph was dashed though, as suddenly a heavy weight settled on the commander. He felt his strength and life being sapped away, while she was being empowered. They could both feel that this was due to the dome of dark power surrounding them. The voice of the angel sounded inside the barrier. “Get to it. If I have to hold them back much longer, I’ll really have to start killing them. The buggers aren’t quite as useless as I hoped they would be, and holding back is difficult.”

The commander knew that the duel had just turned in a horrible way, as he felt his body starting to suffer from various ailments and slow down. Even his mentality was being affected, as his focus was starting to waver and doubt was starting to creep into his mind. He tried sending a blade of energy at the dome, hoping to break it from the inside, but the blade passed harmlessly through the dome. The spell was designed to keep people and power from getting in; it did nothing to stop power from getting out.

Dee had made the dome with the power of Umbra for several reasons. For one, although there were templar serving the dark gods among the Radiant Sun, they were much rarer than those serving the light or the neutral gods. As a result, a spell that looked like Aegis but not quite, and also made from the power of a dark god was less likely to be connected to the order. Secondly, the Aegis made from such power could really hamper any enemies caught inside. So if Noyala got into trouble, she could help rather easily by activating that part of the spell.

“Some duel this is!” The commander yelled angrily at Noyala in protest.

“I don’t think you are in a position to judge. Which one of us has been under a curse this whole time?” Noyala replied with a smile, her anger now gone. “Besides, who said anything about a duel? I just wanted to take revenge with my own hands.”

She quickly dashed at the commander, power of lighting covering her blades. He moved his own sword to block the strike, his body being wrapped in protective power and a pair of fire bolts dashing towards her approaching figure as mostly a distraction. Her shield negated those puny spells easily, while her left blade struck at his. The power of lighting within blasted both of the swords from their hands, while her right blade shattered the protective ki surrounding him. He tried defending with his hands but moved too sluggishly due to the sudden draining of his strength. He didn’t suddenly become slow, but he was slow enough to not compare to her speed anymore.

Then she placed her left palm on the pommel of the sword and drove the blade with both hands into his throat. She removed the blade with a flourishing twirl, and then turned to look towards the sky covered with the dark dome. It wasn’t really the sky she was looking at. She had simply realized how much she needed Dee if she was to reach her goals in the future and gave off a small sigh. She didn’t like being so dependent on someone. Especially since that might cost both of them dearly in the future.

If Noyala herself wasn’t strong enough to finish what she started, then Dee would have to do it. And that would make her the enemy of the entire empire.