[-=Nox=-]

One moment I was falling asleep, making fantastic future plans, cuddling into my wonderful Void Apostle and the next... I was freezing, with my human body suffocating and dying.

Freaking idiot human! What have you done now? Why am I underwater? Where’s my comfortable bed? Where’s my June, my ship, my crew, my Archmage minions?

For a few seconds I spun through the water in darkness, confused and lacking direction, until I caught onto June’s brilliant tether of love, devotion and belief in me. It alone guided me, gave me a sense of direction, and led me out of the crushing watery grave. Her existence gave me a sense of hope and purpose.

I felt a connection to my ship via the emerald ring on my finger. It was relatively deep in the bay, mostly broken, barely responding to me. The dungeon core room with all of its power transfer rune circles was thankfully still intact. Good. I could draw unassigned mana from it! Unfortunately I could not put it into this body due to Yul's freakishly pure aura and the damned [Unassigned Affinity] stat error, but at the very least I could make catastrophically exploding circles with it, vaporize things in my way.

I accelerated my blood, restarted my heart and cast microscopic explosions beneath me, swimming up to the surface.

As I broke the surface of the river, I heard helmet-distorted voices.

"...a healer!"

"Fetch her!"

An armoured hand pulled me from the frigid water by my hair. My body burned with bliss, refusing to respond properly. I wasn't sure how long my heart had stopped for. There was a ton of water in my lungs. It was impeding breathing, not letting me consume oxygen. I expelled the water, before it could cause my meaty organs further damage.

I looked at the fiend that was holding me by my hair. It was a human covered in steel armor. Not a Virtue Knight… something else. Probably a Sextant, if I had to hazard a guess. June had described these crafty humans to me yesterday. We were in a small flying boat filled with more Sextants. It was slowly gliding over the river bay. The knight holding me reached for his belt and pulled out a slave collar.

I don't think so!

I accelerated my blood and time slowed to a crawl. My hand snapped to his elbow, weaving a small circle there. I moved my arm, drew inward and closed my eyes.

Time resumed and the arm holding me exploded with a blinding flash, the fingers letting go of me. I fell back into the river and formed circles of magic behind me, propelling myself away. Spherical bullets streaked through the water far behind me. Too slow, idiot humans. Far too slow.

My heart was beating madly, accelerated blood keeping me warm, fighting against the frigid temperature of the river.

I tried to head in the direction of my Apostle. My body started to scream at me for oxygen. Useless human deficiency! I broke the surface of the water and inhaled, then sunk back into its depths. I didn't like what I saw. Metal warships hung in the sky, bombarding the city of Kleinburg. Smaller boats filled with armoured men were streaking down, numerous Sextant knights jumping out and securing buildings and streets. Many of the buildings were in ruin, engulfed in flames, black smoke rising into the sky all around.

I stuck out my tongue and nearly choked in surprise. The city burned not just with normal fire, but also bore the shimmering effect of a Void nullifier bomb. Hrm! These Sextant invaders were clever. Depriving the Virtue mages and everyone else of their mana was a smart move. Wizards and Heroes deprived of their arcane powers were no match for knights armed with rifles.

Shit. June! Because of the damn nullifier bomb my June couldn't hide! She now had no Shadow mana and wasn't able to vanish! June was somewhere out there in that firestorm. Her belief in me was stronger than ever, but her life was flickering on and off. She was gravely wounded!

The smart thing to do now would be to swim back to the Resurgence, find a pocket of air and hide myself beneath the river until the Sextants were done demolishing the town and enslaving the population. But then… June would be all alone and she would very likely perish.

What was wrong with me? What was a little foxkin to a Goddess like myself? Surely I could find other Apostles that would love me for who I was... right? I was immortal, eternal. With the destruction of the Convent of the Light I now had thousands of people who feared me, thought about me, believed in me. I could draw power from the broken ship for a long time, hide, take it slow, maybe find another Shadowmancer to get Void mana...

No.

I was acting like a human, a feeling-addled imbecile, I decided. No matter what plans I made about turning around, I could not stop my progress towards the shore. I've had so many Apostles over millennia. Why was this one special? I surely could…

No.

June was important. June loved me with her entire being. June believed in me stronger than anyone had in millennia. The blazing star of her faith in me was anchoring me into the physical world, into this mortal body beyond measure. The Void in her soul was flickering unnaturally. She was hurting. Across the distance of the water, through the city walls, through fire and smoke I felt her immense suffering. She needed, wanted help, prayed for me to find her and this prayer had been stronger, more compelling than anything I had felt in one hundred thousand years of life.

[Nox. Nox. Noxxy. Where are you… please… help! I'm bleeding out!] Her feelings screamed, begged for assistance, nearly forming into direct, pounding, blazing thoughts. As a divinity with only one dedicated Acolyte, I couldn't block, could not ignore her intense, focused prayer. The very nature of what I was... demanded a miracle for June. Compounded, combined with my human feelings for her, the need to aid her was becoming greater and greater.

I emerged from the water, pulling myself up to the docks. The white robe I was wearing was getting in my way. I tore it off me and tied it in the manner of a cape behind me. Capes were definitely my style.

The Sextants were all around town, executing all who resisted, undressing and collaring helpless female humans. Rifle shots crackled here and there, cannon balls struck fortifications, pulverizing walls. Kleinburg's stone defences were no match for the Sextant fleet. The Void bomb had fried all of the protection runes within the city. The Sextant fist made of gunpowder and steel was pulverizing the town and nothing and nobody could stop it. Nobody could stand up to it… except for me.

I walked towards the group of Sextant knights that were blocking my way into the burning city.

They saw me and laughed. The impudent humans did not see a naked, wet girl as a threat to their supremacy of numbers, armour and guns. This was their mistake.

“Look! A poor, weetle... level one healer!” One of them announced, pointing at me. He undoubtedly had a pearl of Inquiry in his armour.

Contrary to Yul’s idiocy that had deprived me of my ship, my human host had chosen her evolution well enough for my purposes. Nobody suspects a healer of plotting murder and violence. Nobody expected a level one mage to strike them down with motion and fire. I walked right up to the knights and accelerated myself. In the moment of stopped time I leapt forward, danced around them, seeding spell circles across their necks.

I rolled away just as time resumed. With blinding flashes their heads popped at the neck, a rain of blood staining my white cape red.

The other group of Sextants legionnaires nearby gasped, unprepared for my sudden onslaught. They aimed their muskets at me. I accelerated my blood as they fired their muskets. The bullets slowly glided through the air. I sidestepped, bent, moved away from each, rushing forward and reaching the knights before they could reload. A cannon fired at me from a vessel overhead and nearly took off my head, had I not bent away at the last second thanks to my accelerated body.

The Sextant humans couldn't believe their eyes. I was dodging bullets and cannonballs with apparent ease. I saw their eyes through the slits within their helmets. They were witnessing something truly preposterous. I saw my own reflection within the steel covering their bodies. My eyes blazed with brilliant purple glow, I was covered head to toe in the blood of my enemies. I laughed and I spread my hands open, making the tiniest explosions flash in my hands.

The Sextants did not expect to find a mage in a city ravaged by a Void bomb. The fear of the impossible had overwhelmed them. Their formation broke. Some of them turned, running away. The rest I had deprived of their life with ease. The ship overhead started turning. I accelerated myself and ran, disappearing away from it amidst ruined streets.

I rushed forward unstoppable, unyielding. June's life was hanging by a thread, her prayer flickering on and off. Somebody must have shot her. These assholes would pay for damaging my Apostle!

Street by street, house by house. At times I had to run, at times I was forced to demolish Sextants. It was useless to steal their guns, they were clearly designed not to shoot through their own amour. Whoever led the Sextants was clever. My blood magic, the manner in which I kept accelerating my body, had a grave cost. With each encounter, each insurmountable fight that a normal human would have lost, I was burning through what I was, giving up myself bit by bit. If I kept going at it I would eventually erase myself, forget who I was. There were far too many enemies for me to handle. I felt that June was being dragged somewhere... very open. Somewhere... full of ships in the sky filled with Sextants. Damn it! My power of exploding things wouldn't work on distant targets!

I needed, required… a new tactic to solve this problem.

I reached the main town square. The city hall was a smoldering ruin. There were no sextants around, they had moved on to ravage other places. A cloud of acrid smoke blocked the view of the sky, ashes and orange sparks flying about.

The Legate, the Searcher and the Enforcer hung on the crosses set up in front of the town hall, their faces streaked with ashes, tears and blood. They saw me and their expressions already askew with pain and fright, displaying an even deeper range of horrified and hateful emotions.

I cheerfully waved a hand at them, approaching the trio.

"How's it hanging?"

"This is all your fault, monster!" Legate spat. “You are to blame for the fall of Virtue!”

"I'm going to disagree on that one. I didn't personally bring the Sextants! I merely broke your convent, because you were being an annoying, demanding butt. Do you want to get down or not?"

"Why?" The Legate asked.

"Contrary to what you believe, you are not my enemy Ingrid. You just got in my way."

I wove small circles beneath the wooden crosses and they ignited, falling down. I pulled off three obedience collars from a Sextant corpse and damaged the control runework on them with tiny explosions. I snapped one of the collars on myself and the other two onto the Legate and the Searcher, smearing blood and dirt all over her. Then, I torched through the ropes holding the Virtue trio to the crosses. They looked at me amazed and confused. They didn’t expect me to free them.

“Lazarus - go find the best Sextant armour for your size and put it on.” I told the Enforcer and the Searcher of Virtue.

"Why are you helping us?" Ingrid asked, squinting at me suspiciously.

“Because the Sextants have taken someone important from me. I need your aid in murdering them all for this crime against my divinity.” I told her honestly. I hoped that a well-aged Archmage like herself could tell that I was telling the truth. She nodded, understanding.

"Very good. Here’s the scenario - here we have a Sextant knight and his lovely three female slaves that he’s bringing with him!" I said pointing at Lazarus.

Ingrid looked at me curiously.

"See, they can't collar us effectively if we are already collared." I winked at her.

"Ah." The Legate of Virtue nodded, understanding.

"You look decent for a two hundred and sixty two year old, by the way." I told her.

"How do you know how old I am?" She asked.

"A little ghost that your Convent killed told me all of your secrets! Do you still remember your friend Castilla?" I asked curiously.

The Legate froze, not sure how to reply. She had remembered something that she wasn't supposed to, had long repressed, hid away from everyone.

"Ah, good. You do remember her a little, then."

"I was young and stupid," She shook her head. “It was a mistake.”

"I know how exactly you feel," I said. "I'm being pretty stupid about my foxy Apostle too right now.”

She didn't have anything to say to that. Lazarus was done changing. He looked like a proper Sextant. I quickly showed him how the gun worked. He was an apt learner. He couldn't use it against the Sextants, but at the very least he would make for a good distraction.

I looked over the trio of my new minions. They were ready for action.

“Let’s go murder us some Sextants." I grinned at them. “Follow me!”