Lyka: (Aki, what’s wrong?)

Akino: (These dudes went straight to the group of patrolling guards…)

Alexa: (Want some help?)

Akino: (I got this.)

Akino sighs. She extends her arm and turns it into a long plasma sniping rifle. She aims at the patrolling guards who were still oblivious on the fact that 5 rebel soldiers charges at them from a distance. Akino whispers to herself:

Akino: Five armored guards, two mages? And a cuffed dude…

She looks back at the civilians carrying their belongings, waiting for the next direction that Akino will command them. Akino told them to stay put and remain hidden.

Akino: (Lyka, get down here and guard these civilians. Alexa, keep roaming at the rooftops and put down any guards going here.)

Lyka & Alexa: (Got it!)

Akino jumps up and lands on the rooftop of a building. She takes aim, fires 7 shots of superhot plasma beams, and now looks at the dead bodies of the guards with burnt holes on their foreheads. The rebel soldiers then quickly dashed to the cuffed guy, frees him and goes back to the group.

Akino told Alexa to clean up the corpses. She jumps down, and disappointedly sighs at the rebel soldiers.

Akino: Has anyone told you not to abandon your cargo? Specially if they’re civilian people!

The man they rescued stood and apologizes by lowering his head. It turns out he’s their ex-captain, named Thomas, and a very important informant of the rebel group.

Thomas: I apologize for the unacceptable actions of my former comrades.

Akino: Yeah, whatever… get over it.

A rebel soldier, named Arth, glares at Akino. Lyka notices this and does the same to that soldier, frightening the soldier and making Akino look at them.

Akino: Lyka, stop it.

Lyka: But he glares at you! He’s like going to stab you or something!

Arth: You don’t get to boss us around, woman!

Lyka: Most of the stuff we’ve been doing was her idea! And it keeps us alive!

Thomas: Arthur, don’t speak rude to your superior.

Akino: Alright, alright, my mistake… can we take the civilians now and leave?

Akino angrily walks out with Lyka. After they’ve walked back to the outpost, they once again traversed the sewerage canals back to the fortress they’ve invaded. The soldiers and their ex-captain lead the front, the civilians in the middle, and behind were Akino, Lyka, and Alexa.

Alexa: Say, the dude’s an informant… should we, you know – ask him stuff?

Akino: And what? Have an exposition? That’s BS.

Lyka: BS?

Alexa: BS? Oh, it means bullshit.

Akino: Goddammit, Alexa!

All of a sudden, the civilians upfront started screaming. The tied-up soldiers earlier were mages after all, and they were able to cast a magic portal just to call in and teleport 10 guards. The rebel soldiers fought back, but greatly outnumbered and defeated through death, except for Thomas and Arth who were barely standing. The other guards didn’t stop, they killed some of the civilians, even children.

The three girls saw this and immediately acted. Akino and Alexa dashes forward while Lyka casts a spell to protect the others. One by one, Akino shot the enemy guards on their foreheads while Alexa punches them into a pulp. The other enemies tried to flee but the two were fast that they couldn’t shake them off their cowering tails, so in desperate attempt they cast an explosion magic, destroying that part of the sewerage, and collapsing its foundation.

Well, fortunately (for Akino and Alexa), the fleeing enemies trapped themselves with them and the explosion didn’t act according to their hopeless plan. They dropped and cowered in fear, covering themselves as they whimper for mercy.

Alexa: Now what? They surrendered, we can’t just, you know – kill them, right?

Akino: I know…

Akino knocks the remaining enemy guards with her fist, then she stabs her wire-thingy on their napes.

Alexa: What are you doing?

Akino: Memory wiping.

Alexa: Yeah… I’ll go back to them, try to find a way out.

Akino: Alright, I got it.

Alexa went back to the group, Akino finished wiping the guards clean and inspects the rubble blocking their way back to the fortress. She tried to look up to her satellites, and the place where they are right now was under a grassland but still inside the walls of Ravine.

Akino: Damn it…

Akino went back to their group and saw Lyka was tending to the wounded civilians. The 4 rebel soldiers they’re with didn’t make, and so the other civilians. She could see the others weeping, as they look down on the corpse of their loved one getting killed just because they want to leave the place for safety. Akino snaps and vents out at the remaining rebel soldier by choking him against the wall. Alexa and the captain rushes in to resolve the conflict.

Alexa: Aki!

Thomas: Ma’am, please put him down!

Akino: Put him down?! You know what this fucker did?! And you too! If we didn’t save your ass out there, then this wouldn’t be happening!

Arth: Saving – our former captain is not related to this event!

Akino: Shut up! We took time doing that, and we came back any sooner, then we could still know that the guards we tied up were awake and prevent all this shit!

Akino drops the soldier. Lyka and the others glances at them with confusion.

Akino: You tied up the guards, right?

Arth: Y – yes?

Akino: Then how in the hell they got out…?

Thomas: Ma’am, we should leave. The guards and mage soldiers could get here any moment.

Akino: And the other routes of this sewer system were to the other fortresses outside or deep inside this city… and the only way out we had was conveniently blocked…

Alexa: What are you getting at?

Akino: You sold us out, didn’t you?

The captain quickly grabs his knife and tries to stab Akino on her back. Alexa trips the captain making him fall on the ground, and she pins him down. Akino looks back to where Alexa pins the captain, enabling the soldier to make his move and tried to run away, but Akino knew this, so she shot him on his kneecaps to make him stop. The soldier drops on the ground and screams in pain. She then proceeds to electrocute the soldier, knocking him out.

Akino plugs her wire-hair onto the forehead of the poor soldier, jabbing it fast making his body jolt for a moment.

Alexa: WOAH!

Thomas: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!

Alexa: Are we the bad cops now?!

Akino: Shut up, okay?

After a few seconds with the confusing silence from everyone, Akino drops the soldier on the ground, still breathing but unconscious.

Akino: Looks like these soldiers sold us out for a fine position in the Church of Ravine… fucking sycophantic fuckers.

Alexa: Woah, language my guy!

Akino: Sorry.

Alexa: Is – is Camilla involved?

Akino: Fortunately, she doesn’t have any clues about this…

Alexa: So, how we should address the sneaky dude we have here?

Akino and Alexa looks at the captain, who’s tied up with some of Alexa’s worm-like tendrils.

Thomas: I’ll never talk.

Akino: I know, and I know you will.

Akino electrocutes the captain, knocking him out.

Alexa: Now we drag him back or what?

Akino: I’ll read his memories and leave him here.

Alexa: Well, do it fast ‘coz I could hear footsteps above. Tons of it.

Akino: No shit?

Alexa: You have satellites in space, designed for aerial surveillance, and you’re not using it?!

Akino: I KNOW! I saw the footmen coming towards the rubble on the surface… what do we do, what do we do…

Akino became irritated. They can’t go back to the outpost inside the city, and the only way was to follow the sewers outside and find themselves inside a heavily guarded fortress. They’ve got no choice.

Akino: Alexa, go with your mom and lead. I’ll stay at the rear.

Alexa: And where we should go?

Akino: Hold on, I’m looking at my satellite…

The sewers have six more passage, other than the one blocked due to the previous explosion. Akino looked at her satellite and tried to look for a fortress near the one they raided that has also a smaller number of guards, but the magic barrier on each of the fortresses blocks her thermal imaging.

Akino: Fuck this shit!

Alexa: What now?

Akino: Alright, alright… we go this way.

The two went back. Lyka finished tending to the injured, but the others are still weeping with the deaths of their loved ones.

Lyka: We – we can’t just leave their loved ones here…

Akino: I know, but we have to go -

Man 1: Please, at least let us carry them!

Man 2: We can’t just leave them like dirt in this sewer!

Girl: My son – my son died! Please! Just only a moment!

Akino sighs deeply. She stands walks on to the rubble of the block sewer, then she blasts it with a huge sonic cannon. The rubble blocking the way was gone, but there’s a huge hole above that reveals the night sky.

Alexa: What the hell did you –

Akino: Alexa, help these guys out.

Alexa: Uh… okay…?

Akino: You, people, hurry and carry everything you can! After that, you follow this path and run like there’s no tomorrow. The fortress at the end of this sewer path is guarded by the rebel soldiers led by your Priestess Camilla.

The civilians were motivated after hearing Camilla’s name. They hurriedly carried their stuff, the injured, the bodies of their deceased loved ones, and they moved as fast as they can, following the path outside of Ravine.

Akino: Alexa, stay at their rear. Don’t let any enemies get close.

Alexa: Only me?

Akino: Hey, you said you can handle things on your own? Time to show it, kid.

Alexa: Well, I’m not complaining but what about you and ma?

Lyka: It seems like we will hold the marching guards…

Alexa: I should go, be careful!

Lyka: We will.

Akino: Shall we?

Lyka: After you.

Alexa left, and Akino and Lyka jumped out of the hole. From afar, they could see the tens of soldiers heading to their location.

Akino: You ready?

Lyka: I am.

Akino: Let’s do this.

Both of them conjures their weapons: Lyka with her greatsword and conjured shadow clones, and Akino with her plasma rifles as her arms and mini-missile launchers on her shoulders.

The mage soldiers charges in different directions. Lyka and her shadow clones fought them off, one by one slashing and crushing the overwhelming numbers of the enemies. Akino uses her firearms, shooting the knees and heads of the charging enemies. While they were fighting, the two talks telepathically.

Lyka: (Is this the ruckus you’ve been planning?)

Akino: (Kind of. Hey, Alexa, you there?)

Alexa: (What is it?)

Akino: (How’s the civilians?)

Alexa: (Safe and sound.)

Akino: (Tell Kal and Torion we’re starting the next phase. Get them ready.)

Alexa: (Got it!)

Lyka: (Next phase?)

Akino: (We’re going to take down the government, a real coup.)

Lyka: (What about the civilians left in here?)

Akino: (I’ve scanned the place using my satellites, and I can’t see through because of the mana field around the city. Once Kal and Torion’s team got here, we’ll look for them.)

Lyka: (Hope they make it in time…)

The two kept on fighting the army of mage soldiers. Fifty, then thirty, then ten. The numbers remaining soldiers who were still standing could be counted on hands. One of them pulls out a small cylinder that they broke, and a flare-like light launches to the sky. Lyka then casts a wide-area spell, making them fell unconscious.

Lyka: That’s for reinforcements, right?

Akino: We should leave and look for the civilians we’re going to rescue.

Lyka: How about this hole? If we leave this place, it will be unguarded, and the enemies will find out the others’ location!

Akino: Relax, I got an idea.

Akino creates three little pods from her palm and drops it on the ground. The pods hover to the hole and it created an illusion, a hologram, covering the ground as if nothing happened.

Lyka: Hologram, huh? How about the bodies?

Akino: Let them be.

Alexa: (Hey, we’re at the sewer path already, what’s next?)

Akino: (Have the others guard that place and meet us at the outpost earlier.)

Alexa: (Roger that!)

Akino: Lyka, let’s go.

Lyka: Got it.