Nael lifted his Guardian Entity, ready to fight, only to falter for a single moment. He had recognized a face among their attackers.

Not one of the three approaching him, but one who was moving through the army, finishing off those who would have probably died anyway. The eyes he saw above that cloak… he’d seen them thousands of times before. He could never mistake them.

“Grena?” he mumbled.

Even with how quietly he’d spoken, Grena had clearly heard him. She instantly stopped as the words left his lips, her gaze flicking over to look at him. Nael couldn’t tell what that look in her eyes meant -- was it guilt, or some sort of pity? He didn’t understand anything that was happening anymore.

For a moment, his eyes were locked onto hers -- before the sound of one of his attackers stepping down awoke him once more to the present moment. The cloaked man in front of him lifted the hand holding a crossbow, finger curling around the trigger mechanism. Unlike Grena’s gaze, the emotion in his eyes was clear -- hatred for a Regulator was simple enough to recognize.

Nael’s legs shook beneath him, from both exhaustion and confusion. With the state his body was in right now, the idea of fighting was itself an utter farce. At the very most, he could deflect the first attack -- how he’d deal with the second and third, he had no clue.

But he was a Regulator, all the same. He wouldn’t allow himself to die disgracefully. He’d deflect that first blow, if nothing else.

His attacker’s finger tightened against the trigger just that extra bit, and…

“Wait.”

His heart jumped. Nael had only heard that hoarse, painful voice a few times in his life, but he’d mistake it nowhere. In the blink of an eye, Grena had appeared behind the man about to shoot Nael, a warning hand resting on his shoulder. A thin line of blood ran down from her mouth. Without even an instant of hesitation, the man lowered his crossbow, and he and his compatriots moved away to find easier prey.

After that, it was just Grena and Nael.

The words came clumsily out of his mouth, like a collapsing tower. “Grena,” he mumbled. “What… what is this? What is happening?”

What have you done? The accusation went unvoiced. For people like them, they didn’t need all their words to leave their lips for them to be said. The majority of the conversation took place through their eyes, rather than their mouths.

This time, though, Grena’s eyes offered no reply. His unspoken question hung in the air, slowly fading away.

“Grena?” he repeated, knowing full well she’d heard him the first time.

No more words came through eyes or mouths. Instead, Grena simply turned on her heel and walked away, pulling her cloak tight around herself. Within a couple of seconds, she’d completely blended in with the rest of her compatriots, making their way through the dead. The sounds of screams echoed in the distance.

The shamisen disappeared before it could even slip out of Nael’s fingers. A moment later, he had fallen to his knees.

The world had turned utterly upside down.

At first, Dragan had been wary about the idea of moving through the area the Regulator’s army had been occupying, but now that he saw it he realized that worry had been pointless.

The scale of the devastation was incredible -- the fiery explosion had wiped out everything inside the swamp, and the hot winds that were created as a result had finished the job in the surrounding area. Dragan, Lily and Ruth had to watch their step as they made their way through the grasslands -- otherwise, they’d be stepping foot in corpse more often than not.

Dragan held his hand over his mouth the entire time, as did Lily. The smell of burning human was all-encompassing, too, like an invisible miasma hanging over the area. Ruth seemed to handle it better, striding forward at the head of the pack with a resolute gaze. Dragan didn’t much want to think about the implications of that.

“You sure we shouldn’t wait for Skipper?” he said, mostly to break the silence more than anything else. “He was up in the sky fighting that Aka Manto thing -- he shouldn’t have been caught in the blast at all.”

Ruth shook her head without looking back. “He won’t be hurt, but he’d have been blown away by the explosion. You did that to give everyone a chance to escape, right? If we wait around too long, we’ll just end up in the same bad situation. He’ll find us.”

There was a confidence in her voice that Dragan hadn’t heard before. What exactly had happened since they’d last parted ways? He’d love to find out, but he supposed right now wasn’t exactly the time for a recap.

“Okay,” Dragan nodded, before glancing towards Lily. “What’s our next move, then? I’m assuming you know where that tunnel comes out.”

“Closer again to Coren…” Lily mumbled, rubbing her chin in deep thought. She’d been doing that a lot since they’d escaped the swamp. “Back in the expansionist days, it was used to smuggle goods between the city and the country.”

Dragan narrowed his eyes. “Something on your mind?”

“If you’re asking that, I’m willing to bet it’s because you know there’s something on my mind.”

“Yep. Something on your mind?”

Lily closed her eyes, sighed for a moment. “I was just thinking this is a golden opportunity. Don’t know if that sounds bad or something, because of…” she waved out a vague hand. “Because of all this, but… you know? We hold the advantage now. We have the numbers -- and for the moment, they don’t.”

Ruth glanced over her shoulder. “What’re you thinking we do with the numbers?”

“Go for the city,” Lily replied without missing a beat. Her eyes were stone. “Rush the central government in Coren and seize hold of the Regulator’s headquarters. Once we’re in control there, we can turn our temporary advantage into a permanent one. Coren’s equipped to handle a siege if it comes to that, after all.”

Dragan furrowed his brow. “That’ll turn against you, though. To get into the city, wouldn’t you need to siege it yourselves?”

She shook her head. “I told Ruth about the secret ways to get into the city, ways only the Regulators know about. If we use those routes, we can get our troops into the city and seal off the secret entrances behind us. Do the whole thing all stealthy, you get me?”

Dragan stopped, barely avoiding stepping on a charred pile of skin. He exchanged a look with Ruth, the doubt in both of their gazes evident. This wasn’t exactly the most foolproof plan -- being brutally honest, it seemed like it had been come up with in the few minutes just before Lily had voiced it.

Before he could open his mouth to protest, however, Lily interrupted: “This is good for you guys, too,” she said hurriedly. “You’re pretty much stuck here right now, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Dragan replied.

“There’s that starship thing underneath Coren, right? If you wanna get off this planet, don’t you need that? There’s no way you’re getting access to it from the Regulators.”

This was a fairly obvious attempt at manipulation, but infuriatingly enough every single word of it was true. So far, most of their time on this planet had been spent avoiding the aggression of the Regulators, but if they wanted to make it off this backwards rock they had no choice but to turn the chessboard around. Attack instead of defense, pursuit instead of evasion.

In answer to Ruth’s continued stare, Dragan subtly nodded. For the moment, at least, they’d play along.

“We’ll go along with you for right now,” Dragan said. “Keep in mind, though -- if it looks like the whole things gonna fall apart, we’re making a run for it. If it comes down to it, we can find another way out of here.”

They couldn’t find another way out of here -- they were all painfully aware of that fact. Even so, though, Dragan felt the need to hold back just a little to preserve his pride.

Lily folded her arms, nodding in assent. “Fair enough. This isn’t your fight, after all,” she said, beginning to look up. “Since that’s settled, then, we’ll start by…”

Her voice trailed off as she looked off into the distance, eyes widening in surprise at what she saw. Ruth was already looking in that same direction, her gaze narrowed in suspicion -- and as Dragan followed their line of sight, he too saw what was approaching them.

A young girl in intricate white-and-gold robes, with a veil hanging over her face, staggering over the bodies as she wandered towards them.

“Um, hello,” she said nervously, fingers fidgeting as she half-raised one hand in greeting. “I, um -- I’m not sure what’s going on. Can you help?”

Lily’s shocked expression twisted into a smirk. “The Good fucking Lady,” she whispered. “What are the chances?”

Prester Garth was alive. He was sure of that, if nothing else.

He came back to himself on the peak of a hill that had once pierced through the swamp, falling onto his hands and knees as red-and-blue godsblood crackled around him. He coughed viciously, phlegm sputtering down onto the grass below. This spot, at least, had been untouched by that explosion.

What had happened? Garth put a hand to his temple, doing his best to ignore the spike of pain that came from his burns. He’d been partially shielded from the blast by Nael Manron’s barrier, but he hadn’t been able to avoid it all. It was only luck that had spared him from the cloaked assailant’s subsequent ambush.

“Your life has been preserved,” came the mechanical voice of his Guardian Entity, sounding out from above him. The cloaked figure floated there, as if standing on thin air, it’s cowl charred and it’s mask cracked. Despite all that superficial damage, the blue eyes of the Entity continued to stare down at him impassively.

The children of godsblood were as sturdy as ever, it seemed.

Garth picked himself up off the ground, brushing some of the dirt and soot from his sleeves. “Well done, Aka Manto,” he grunted, standing up to his full height. “You transported me away from there?”

“That is correct,” Aka Manto bowed. “I took hold of you and travelled through the godsblood until we reached this destination. Your life was thus preserved.”

Garth nodded to himself. That had been the correct course of action, no matter how much it pained him to abandon his men. An automatic being such as Aka Manto would consistently act in the most efficient manner, and this was no exception. So long as Garth continued to live, the chain of command would be reestablished. A tree could grow back from a single seed, and an army was much the same.

Still, a troubling thought occurred. “The Good Lady?” he asked.

Aka Manto maintained its bowing posture. “I was unable to locate her in the brief time that was available. My apologies. It is possible she is dead or captured.”

Garth put a hand to his chin. If she was dead, that was unfortunate -- but it also meant that there was no point wasting time in searching for her. If she was alive, his enemies would likely seek to use her as a hostage -- in which case the opportunity to reacquire her would no doubt come again soon, especially with the nature of her Guardian Entity.

No matter which of those scenarios were true, seeking her out now -- in such a weakened state -- would be extremely foolish. Best to leave her as she was for the time being.

Garth cleared his throat, expelling the last of the phlegm that had built up during his rematerialization. Then, he turned back to Aka Manto, who was finally rising up out of its bow. “Aka Manto,” he asked. “Are you capable of further transportation?”

The Guardian Entity replied without hesitation. “In terms of combat ability, I am at less than peak performance -- one of the enemies was capable of flight, and damaged me heavily. My transportation functions are working perfectly, however. Was there a destination you had in mind, sir?”

Garth’s face hardened. Given the temperament of the enemies he faced, their next move after such a victory would be obvious. His best chance to reestablish his dominance after such a farce would be to invalidate that plan before it could begin.

“Get me back to Coren,” he commanded. “As soon as possible.”