You idiot, you can't suddenly go wild because I'm keeping it running! The scream makes me flinch just as I was about to launch into the troops facing us.

I have to suppress a particularly sharp spike of pain before mentally glaring at my sister. I'm not an idiot, shortie. Brainless musclewoman, violent freak, crazy bitch, sex fiend!

The insults hurt my feelings, although I do have to acknowledge the last has a grain of truth. Calm down, Jess. Dummy, numbskull, glutton, klazomaniac! I don't even know that last one, what the heck sister.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep that damned thing running you raggabrash! I blink at my sister's furious onslaught but begin finding it funny, and rather uplifting I got her out of her slump.

I heard that last thought, you saddle-goose! Now you're just making shit up. I 'hear' Jessica wind up to let out another torrent of insults but pause as I notice that the golden jay on Leomi's shoulder is staring at us.

Can it hear us? No way, right? I dismiss the thought because Leomi already charged with her Hospitaliers. I hang back and extend my hand out, convinced not to provoke more of my sister's abuse.

I send out a hundred portions of energy in a golden tide that seeps through the ground and air, seizing control of the area. I begin the battle with dozens of lightning bolts to camouflage the fact I'm going to use something Freepath is known to be an expert in.

I focus these attacks onto three squads of soldiers which are swiftly turned into fuming charcoal despite the fact a good half of my bolts are absorbed by steel rods attached to the walls.

The kinetic force coursing through this hall was already intense before the clash but it spikes when Lance impacts their ranks. I instantly redirect the energy pulsing out from the impact and recycle the residual energy that tries to disperse as well, making the most efficient use of my flow.

My actions cause Leomi to go through the first few lines with seemingly no effort or resistance. Our enemies fly out, some losing their limbs and heads to the swirling tempest of kinetic force one-sidedly directed against them.

To my fiancee's credit, she doesn't even flinch much less trip at the unexpected ease with which she breached their defenses after a good third of their troops fell from this single charge.

I had expected to need to intervene once more because each of these soldiers bears more than a single portion of flow on their armors and weapons but Leomi keeps charging, using palm-strikes and lance constructs to shear through them with no more difficulty than when I lent her my help.

Thus, I launch at their right flank and control my left arm to strike with my liangi so as not to anger my sister any further. It doesn't increase the agony in my chest but it doesn't lessen it either, then again slicing through humans does help vent my temper.

I barely pay attention to my work of slaughter, too taken by the beauty of my fiancee tearing through soldiers with palm-strikes that hold as much piercing power as any spear and how she uses her lance constructs to scatter squads of soldiers trying to reorganize.

A disruption construct suddenly falls upon the hall, shattering hundreds of constructs from both sides. My magnificent fiancee still doesn't slow down, she merely increases the power of her lion strikes to shear through armor while the Hospitaliers take defensive stances around her.

The soldiers buckle and screams arise like music to my ears as they lose the defensive constructs they relied on to barely hang on. Their ranks break as they fail to withstand the onslaught.

A moment later, the disruption construct is deactivated and constructs rain down on us from above. Air-blades and fireballs joined by a shredding cloud which I suspect camouflages a fourth deadlier construct.

I shatter the air constructs with a few thin bolts of lightning while Lance sends out a wave of flames that destroys the hazy golden cloud. The Hospitaliers easily deal with the flames using their flow.

As I suspected, a jagged wave-like construct bursts out of this chaos to fall upon them and Lance. She raises her left gauntlet to block while the shield-bearers do their best to cover their companions who only have halberds to swing at this attack.

I launch lightning at this new attack but the bright white bolt goes through it without any visible effect. I immediately use kinetic force to propel myself at them in case they'll need help.

Meanwhile, the construct hits them and distorts everything it touches. Tears appear on Leomi's steel gauntlet, halberd heads twist, shields crack, and one Hospitalier screams as he falls backward holding his wrist.

His right hand, which was most forward on his halberd's handle, came into contact with the jagged wave of energy which tore his flesh, snapped his fingers, and shredded his nails into a bloody mess.

Leomi and the other Hospitaliers had the presence of mind to block this construct from affecting them, which the man was slow to do for whatever reason. They successfully resist this construct threatening to engulf them by pouring more energy in their defensive constructs.

It eventually fades away for lack of energy but leaves behind damaged gear and a very injured man. Most of the halberds are now useless and they've no more shields to rely on, not to mention the sorry state of their leather armors and chain-mails.

This attack did more damage to their gear than the battle against Roskal's armored elites. The soldiers were clearly meant to stay and take advantage but they broke, fleeing through side-doors or bypassing us to run downstairs before they could use this wave of attacks to turn the tide.

Thmp. A nerve-twisting pain tears through my chest and spreads out to my extremities before slowly going away, leaving me shaking. Nice, you got it going again.

I force myself to compliment my sister even though having a beating heart will complicate my task. Screw you, Liz. Next time you push it so far it stops, I'm letting you squirm in pain.

I press my lips together and decide not to poke this particular bear of a sister I have. I'm much more sociable than she is, I should take the high road. I nod confidently as I swirl my liangi, impatient to use it to end Wraith.

“You'll get what's coming to you, murderer!” Someone screams at me with a hysterical voice. “And you too, Lance, for standing by this E.Vil!”

I glimpse up to find one of those I injured on the ground floor standing at the top of the staircase, looking down on us with several high born wearing sour expressions from how easily we dealt with their attack.

“Ooh, lunch!” I cheerfully exclaim. My words cause both Hospitaliers and Nobles to stiffen, including Leomi.

“You are not eating them.” She utters through grit teeth.

“It's just an expression.” I return with a sigh, acting as if she is purposefully exaggerating. “Besides, that's spoiled meat.”

My response causes a couple Hospitaliers to nervously chuckle which clashes with the harrowing spectacle of dead bodies and torn limbs surrounding us all, not to mention the blood sticking to their cheeks and clothes.

The hysterical high born turns an impressive tomato red and he seems to faint as he falls back into someone else's arms. I take a single step towards the staircase and the Nobles quickly retreat.

“What was that construct?” Leomi whispers the question.

“Some version of a shaping or merging construct, likely a hybrid of both, I've used them similarly in the past.” I calmly reply as I inspect their damaged gear. “The defensive construct is quite ill-suited to use against this but this type of construct is just as inefficient so consumption of energy is equally high for either side.”

“Yet, we paid the higher price.” Leomi notes, lowering a sad gaze on her injured subordinate who had already lost two of his left hand's fingers and now had his right shattered.

“Like I said, ill-suited.” I tell her with a shrug.

“My apologies, Dame Vil, Grand Commander.” The man says with a whimpering voice.

“It is no fault of your own, you fought well. Rest now, Pierre.” Lance comforts with a deep voice.

She throws a meaningful glance to one of those whose halberd was torn beyond repair. The woman nods and helps her wounded companion up to walk him downstairs to the others who were incapacitated. Leomi patiently waits for them to leave the area.

“Grab shields and weapons from the fallen, we press onward.” She finally says.

I decide to part ways because there are only a few opportunities left for Wraith to make his move. I directly send myself past them and up to the last floor. I find a hall filled with marble statues with many doors and a single reinforced double-door at the end guarded by three titled Nobles I vaguely recall seeing before.

I know they're titled because of their bearing and plate armors engraved with their individual colored crests, they each have a golden halo from the flow coursing through their gear. They lower their stances and visors at my appearance only to witness me casually walk up through a side-door and leave.

I wish I could see their faces but, now that we've gone through most of Roskal's defenses that don't involve her, my interest lies in figuring out where the ambush will come from. Risky, stay with Leomi.

Lance is perfectly able to protect herself. You may be wrong. Even if I am, my kitten is strong. I scour the apartments adjacent to the Imperial Suite, finding most recently vacated and some unoccupied without any humans present for me to kill.

I sadly shake my head and casually break some furniture as I make my way back around to perhaps help Leomi deal with the titled Nobles. Brkrrm, crsh!

The sudden noise causes me to freeze up as the structure shakes around me. I rush to Lance, disbelieving the fact that a trap would be laid before she reached Roskal. Grh.

My sister grits our teeth so hard they make a sharp noise. I don't even try to soothe her by admitting the possibility I made a mistake as she must be blaming herself for not insisting more out of a lack of confidence.

I barge into the hall near the Imperial Suite to find a Noble with his head half-buried and half splattered through the floor. The wooden boards broke but were strong enough to bash his skull and steel helmet in.

Another has his lower half sticking out of a hole in the left side of the double-door while the last lies dead, kneeling with a bleeding gaping hole the size of a fist in her breast-plate.

I blink in surprise as I witness Leomi walking off from the one whose head she planted into the floorboards. Her Hospitaliers are standing dazed the same as me as they stare at their Grand Commander.

Uh, maybe you should reevaluate your payback. This is way more exciting. I chortle and receive a glare from my kitten that makes me choke on the laugh. She squeezes her fists, causing her remaining gauntlet to screech, and stomps over to the double-door.

Blam. She kicks Roskal's suite open without bothering to remove the armored Noble stuck in the door. The spikes on the soles on her greaves don't even leave a scratch, giving me an idea of the force it must have taken for her to smash the Lord through the reinforced wood.

She didn't escape from the fight unscathed, her left hand is bleeding from an open fracture to the pinky with a small part of the bone sticking out. Her red blood blesses her engagement ring and two of the chains linking it to her bracelet.

I've suffered worse injuries but the sight still makes me wince because I hate to see her wounded by another. I quickly check up on the three titled Nobles but unfortunately find that not one still draws breath, which makes sense considering how she dealt with them.

“You made it, good.” Roskal's voice comes out of the Imperial Suite, pulling me from my reverie.

“Stay here, you would be a hindrance.” I coldly tell the Hospitaliers preparing to move in because time is short.

I lion's leap directly into the room and immediately send fifty portions of my flow into the walls to tear eventual runes apart with kinetic force. The lobby is large but there is only Roskal and her dead brother lying in an open coffin at the center of the room to welcome us.

Both are wearing black courtly clothes, her a dress, him a suit. Her clothes are adorned with complicated lengths of black lace, which take ludicrous amounts of time to make.

I can barely remember how I killed the man, I think I skewered him, but I'm pretty sure the damage was extensive so it's likely they sowed him back together. She has expensive dark-purple makeup around her eyes.

“Honorary Duchess Lance, Elizabeth Vil, are we to wait for Jessica Freepath's arrival to begin?” The Duchess politely questions.

Leomi doesn't reply so I hold my tongue. The Lady narrows her eyes but lets it pass as she leans down over her brother's dead body to place her palm on his forehead.

“You know, it occurred to me earlier that we were sent to our deaths.” She casually mentions. “I am one of only two with extensive knowledge of what went on inside the Institute, of the deal that was struck between Caeviel's Crown and the Empire's Throne. Since Suxen was taken to the Vault, that makes me a liability to both King Cenwalh and our Emperor Rasaec.”

“You mean to unburden your soul?” Leomi questions with a flat emotionless voice.

“Not in the least.” The Duchess replies. “What purpose would that serve?”

“It is indeed far too late for such an act to change your fate.” Leomi agrees.

“I am Duchess Roskal of Caeviel, no King nor Emperor can easily deal with me and so they've arranged things so that I would enter into confrontation with your mad trio.” Roskal dismisses. “No matter who dies this day, they will benefit more than we will.” A Duchess' death would indeed be an event of note for Nobility, especially if killed by a renegade among them.

“Cenwalh will pay for what he did soon enough once you're gone.” Lance answers with a shrill tone.

“It shall bring you comfort to know I intend to rid the Kingdom of this treacherous King and take the crown while you suffer the Lake's inferno.” Roskal responds while softly pulling away a strand of her brother's hair from his face. I hear strain in her voice, the only sign so far of the injury I inflicted on her. “He has gambled once too many by enabling you to spread your dangerous ideology, it has only emboldened you to make such an outlandish claim as that people are born with the desire to be free and have a right to pursue said freedom.”

“It is no claim.” Leomi remarks. “It is a conclusion formed from observation.” We haven't observed the same things, kitten, I've seen many voluntarily lick Noble boots.

“The truth is that peasantry is a kind apart from humanity, and far below the higher blood that runs through our veins.” Roskal snaps back. “They are simple and easily deceived with rhetoric such as yours, Cenwalh won't see that they will seek freedom and harm themselves in the process. He will act too late to prevent the damage you three will cause to our Kingdom.”

“We've spoken enough, where is your weapon?” Leomi snaps, clearly in no mood for a debate.

“I have no need for such crude tools, your blades won't even reach the hem of my dress.” Roskal replies coolly as her eyes flicker to me. “ I confess a degree of curiosity, what wickedness have you planned for me, Elizabeth Vil?”

“You think Liz brutal?” Leomi asks rhetorically with a short but sharp laugh. “What atrocities she has so far committed are innocent compared to what I will do to you, Roskal.” She spits out.

“Hmph.” The Duchess snorts loudly as she raises her hand with index and major pressing against the thumb.

Clack. She snaps her fingers and a tide of golden flow erupts from her body to wash over Lance who takes a knee while raising her left forearm to block despite her broken pinky and exposed hand.

The jay perched on her pauldron flies out with a degree of urgency it's never shown before to land on the vambrace and raises its singular right wing to add to her defense.

I stand as I am, keeping to my promise, as the intense wave of flow smashes into my fiancee and her bird. Crklcrk. A sparkling arises as Roskal's energy clashes with Leomi's which is concentrated around her left arm.

An intense golden demarcation appears between the two with the jay at the apex. The two women scowl and their traits tense as they test their respective intents one against the other in what I can only see as a contest of wills.

The crackling barrier trembles back and forth between the two but it soon becomes apparent that Leomi is pushing back with her jay leading the charge at the apex. Another sign is Roskal's paling cheeks and the drops of sweat forming on her temples.

The Duchess' expression turns dark and she swipes her left hand to the side, causing another wave of flow to leave her body and permeate the walls. Golden runes shine through, revealing themselves from within the walls.

I immediately try to break the material they're engraved into with my own energy but find such resistance it would take more than the hundred portions I have left to succeed.

Roskal clearly implemented defensive measures to protect her runic construct after what Archer did last time which cost her brother his life. I recall my flow, worrying about whether or not I'll be able to protect Lance when the fight goes south.