"Now then," Garth said, rolling up his sleeves as he turned to face Lily and the Good Lady. "Where were we?"

The Good Lady gaped at the shattered window -- at the hole Ruth had just gone flying out from. "What..." she spluttered. "What did you do to her?!"

"That's rather the wrong question, my dear," Garth said, dark blue Aether running across his body as he took a step forward. "After all, it was the fist of your Guardian Entity that sent her flying. I wouldn't worry about her, anyway. My Guardian Entity told me she has a little trick for surviving long falls. She should be back right about…"

As if on cue, Ruth shot up into sight outside, her body surrounded by shattering silver armour. In a single moment, her claws and Skeletal Set reappeared, she kicked off a chunk of debris -- and went flying down again, like a ball being spiked by an invisible hand. This time, she struck the rooftop below hard, leaving a cloud of dust that engulfed and obscured her.

Lily growled, coating her body with protective Aether as she prepared to summon her own Guardian Entity --

-- only to be interrupted as Garth's fist smashed into her face, shattering her nose and sending her flying into the wall. The Good Lady screamed as she zoomed past.

"Your Guardian Entity is slow to emerge," Garth said calmly, cracking his knuckles as he approached. "If I interrupt you before you can fully summon it, you're helpless before me."

She had a second before he reached her. Again, she tried to bring out her Entity as quickly as she could -- but the boot that slammed into her gut was faster. She doubled over, clutching her stomach with her hands, but that only meant that Garth's next two kicks slammed right into her knuckles.

Even through the pain, Lily could see something out of the corner of her eye -- in the distance, through the broken window, something vast and invisible was moving. At first, it looked like a trick of the light, the tiniest rippling in the air through the rain -- but the sounds of crunching stone and glass were unmistakable as it crawled insectoid after Ruth.

Garth's boot struck again, this time catching Lily in the hip as she twisted her body to avoid the strike. The pain was excruciating -- the pulses of agony from her face, stomach and side competing for supremacy, only intensifying as they radiated out.

She wouldn't go down like this. If she couldn't use her Guardian Entity, she had other ways to fight. In a flash of movement, she lashed her hand out, reaching for the dagger strapped to her side.

Her movement was fast. Garth's, unfortunately, was faster. He stomped down on her hand with such force that she heard and felt the bones crunch, blood sticking to Garth's heel as he ground his boot further.

In a situation like that, it didn't matter how much pride you had. The scream escaped Lily's throat, filling the room as Garth stomped down again and again and again.

Lily only had the dimmest awareness of what was happening now, the pain acting like a haze around her consciousness. The Good Lady was pulling at the back of Garth's robe, her futile strength trying to tear him away from his victim.

The Good Lady squeezed her eyes shut. "If that thing's my Guardian Entity…" she mumbled. "I-I command you! Stop! Stop attacking!"

Garth answered without looking back. "It's useless. Entity Override is infallible -- your Guardian Entity will continue following my command until I rescind it or the beast is destroyed."

"Then rescind it!" The Good Lady thumped her small fists into Garth's back with all her strength.

The Prester, for his part, didn't even seem to notice -- he slammed his boot into Lily's stomach once again without so much as a glance backwards.

"Get up," he growled, reaching down and picking Lily up by the hair.

Even with gravity threatening to pull her scalp free, Lily didn't have the strength to do anything but hang there limply, twitching. She swung slightly, like a pendulum, as Garth clenched his fist -- gathering Aether in his knuckles.

His face looked different now, patches of skin around his eyes and nose crusting over until they looked more like grey stone. Lily vaguely wondered if this was like what Dragan had -- the way his eyes glowed when he was using his Aether.

"You asked me to end this conflict, to make that realistic," Garth hissed. "I'll do just that. Conflict ends when your enemy is dead. I'll demonstrate that now."

Ruth threw herself out of the crater in the moment before the invisible fist came down once again, sending shards of stone flying across the rooftop. Her Skeletal Set barely withstanding the hits it had already taken, she rolled into a ready position, eyes flicking around for an enemy they couldn't see.

She jumped.

A moment later, she knew why. A colossal force swept through the spot she'd just been, the resultant air pressure stripping the tiles from the patch of roof behind. Her mind couldn't perceive this enemy, but her body could sense it's presence.

If that was the case, she was in a tough spot. So long as she didn't know what she was fighting, she couldn't go on the offensive -- there was no way for her to know what parts of the enemy's unseen body were vitals to target.

She threw herself to the ground. A clumsy swing passed over her head, the force of it almost sending her flying off all by itself. This enemy wasn't especially fast, but it's strength was something to be wary of. Ruth guessed she'd only be able to take two or three hits from a monster like this, and she wasn't eager to test that.

Still, she couldn't just keep dodging forever, either!

Garth had sent this thing after her to get her out of the way -- and the fact that he had Aether meant he'd be a huge threat for Lily in close quarters. If she didn't deal with this threat quick, there was a good chance she wouldn't have any allies to go back to!

She leapt to the side -- but too slow. The invisible force just barely caught her, sending her smashing back down onto the roof. The metal taste of blood filled her mouth.

Shit.

Panic flaring in Ruth's mind, she moved to get up, to dodge the second blow she knew would be coming -- but as her muscles flared in protest, she knew she was too late. She could hear the air rushing as an unseen fist came down.

"Gemini Shotgun!"

The projectile -- a chunk of stone debris -- slammed into the invisible enemy's limb at incredible speeds, redirecting the blow so that it landed at the spot next to Ruth, rather than reducing her to a smear. Heart pumping crazily, she jumped back once, twice, doing her best to get out of this thing's range.

The second time her feet came down, she found that Serena and Dragan were next to her -- Dragan slung over Serena's shoulder like a bag of potatoes. She put him down as gently as if he were a baby, ignoring the annoyed expression on his face.

"Thanks for the save," Ruth grunted, cracking the joints in her neck as she stared down empty air. "Things didn't go as planned. There's an invisible enemy."

Dragan winced as he looked down at the roof, doing his best to keep track of their opponents position.

The vague indentations of massive hands were pressed down onto the roof wherever the thing moved, the rainwater filling them and making miniature ponds. Did the shape of the hands mean that the enemy was humanoid? There was no way of telling. For all they knew, it could just be a giant chicken with a pair of human hands.

"It's bad on our end, too," Dragan said. "We're being chased by… well, by a shitload of Guardian Entities. They'll be here any minute."

"Um," said Serena, looking back over her shoulder. "Mr. Dragan?"

He ignored her, looking instead at Ruth. "We were hoping Lily could use her lightning to take them all out at once. Where is she?"

"Up there," Ruth nodded towards the central spire of the cathedral, towering above. "She's fighting Garth, I think."

"Mr. Dragan?" Serena said.

"That shouldn't be too bad," Dragan mused, cupping his chin. "She's got Aether, and I know for a fact he hasn't got Aka Manto with him right now."

Ruth winced. "Garth's got Aether too -- he surprised me with it."

"Of course he fucking does. If that's the case, we can't depend on Lily getting down here any time soon. We'll need to--"

Serena lost her patience.

"Mr. Dragan!" she cried, grabbing him by the shoulders and whirling him around. "Just look! You don't need to worry anymore! They're not chasing us!"

Dragan blinked, staring at the roof empty of any of the Guardian Entities he'd described. His eyes widened. Then, slowly he lifted up his sleeve and sniffed it.

"They were tracking us by scent," he muttered. "The rain washed it away… oh, oh god."

Serena pumped her fist. "Isn't this great? Now we don't have to worry about being eaten!"

Dragan shot a wide-eyed look at Ruth, the rain making his pale hair cling to his face as he shook his head. "That's not good," he continued. "Because if they're not going after us, what are they going after?"

Embarco fumbled with his bag as he entered the grounds of the cathedral, holding up a vain hand in an attempt to shield himself from the rain. The wet season was always so miserable in Coren.

He'd informed the city guard of the Prester's orders as he'd been directed, and they'd begun to mobilize, but Embarco honestly didn't see the need. If a rebel army was truly approaching, wouldn't they be able to see them coming? Behaving as if the enemy was going to just suddenly appear before them was -- as far as he could see, at least -- just fruitless paranoia.

Embarco paused a moment at the great doors of the building. Usually, there would be guards stationed here, checking the credentials of anyone who entered -- but now those posts were vacant. The only sign of human presence was the spear carelessly discarded on the ground.

Cold sweat ran down the back of his neck. If the guards were truly getting this lax, it would be him taking the blame without a doubt. He had the sort of face that people enjoyed holding to account.

He stepped forward, ready to assume some righteous indignation -- when something small, blue and furry rushed past him, squeaking insistently.

Embarco stepped out of the way, wincing as he noticed the slightest pain in his hand. He paused as he realized that the small creature had stopped too, on the bottom step of the cathedral entrance.

In terms of appearance, it was like a bipedal blue mouse, and it was… it was eating something, nibbling it insistently. Some chunk of meat. Some chunk of…

Embarco slowly looked down at his hand. He looked at the bloody stump where his pinky finger had been only moments ago. He looked at the fingernail the rodent was so eagerly chewing on.

He opened his mouth to cry out -- but never finished, as the doors behind him burst open and a flood of screeching beasts washed over him.

Embarco didn't die screaming, but only because they ate his vocal cords first.

The horde spread out into the city beyond.

Enden Los paused his search as he felt the building shake. He had been making his way through the dusty tombs of past Presters -- it had been a long shot, but he'd suspected that Aubrisher and her rebel comrades could have been hiding down there before they struck.

Something heavy and large was moving around on the outside of the cathedral. There was only one possibility: the Good Lady's Guardian Entity. That brat wasn't capable of commanding it, which meant that Garth must have used Entity Override.

Well, that made things simpler. Garth hadn't been responding to his telepathic messages, so he'd already known the man was busy, but if he was faced with a threat dire enough to use Gashadokuro? It could be nobody but Lily Aubrisher.

He'd found his prey.

Los closed his eyes in concentration, ready to use the coordinates for Garth's most likely location to begin transport -- but before he could do so, three long and thin lengths of string wrapped themselves around his body, binding him tight. His eyes shot open.

"You look different," muttered Nael Manron, the strings connecting to his shamisen. "But you're Garth's Guardian Entity, aren't you?"

The Regulator looked different himself -- glowing red veins running along his bare chest and arms, and a dead look in his eyes. If Los didn't know better, he'd think it was a corpse he was looking at. He couldn't allow trash like this to get in the way -- not now.

"You're going to tell me where he is," Nael said. "Now."

Anger flared through Los' mind. He would not be commanded by a mere peon.

"Listen closely, whelp," Los opened with.

Nael swung his instrument and slammed him into the ceiling, sending rock and rubble raining down. Then, with another grunt of effort, he smashed Los into the floor, a cloud of debris sweeping through the ruined tomb.

"That's fine, I guess," Nael Manron muttered. "I'll just beat it out of you."