The pair went to the same restaurant and once again, Nura pigged out while Relovan ate his food while trying to maintain his dignity. Lunch was large and long, and by the time the two policemen left the restaurant, the dinner crowd was already coming in. The flow of time on Gaia was much like that of the Blargon Planets, so the days weren’t any longer or shorter. Relovan was dropped off at the hotel once again, and was left to his own devices. He found the gym, and after a workout and a shower, had a light meal and hit the hay. The following morning, Relovan figured he would be left alone, but something told him to wake up early, shower and get dressed – just in case. The phone in his room started ringing just a few minutes after the Enforcer had gotten dressed, and he tentatively answered it. A holographic screen popped up from the unit, and Nura was on it, making a colossal noise as he was seemingly fighting with someone.

“Oi! What’s the point of having these things if we can’t use them? I’m calling his room and that’s that!”

“You’ve already called me, Chief.” Relovan sighed.

“Ah! Lawman! I’m downstairs in the lobby! Come down so we can get something to eat!”

“Alright, on my way.”

Relovan sighed again, but still made his way down rather quickly. Once in the lobby, he saw just how tense everybody in that lobby was – well, almost everybody. Nura stood near the reception desk, and when he saw Relovan, he smiled and waved at him.

“Lawman!” He greeted.

“Chief.”

“Let’s go – things seem a little uncomfortable in here.”

“…I wonder why.” Relovan mumbled to himself as the pair left the hotel.

They once again went to the part of the Gateway District which was chock full of shops, and this time, they didn’t actually start at the restaurant.

“The food is in that direction, isn’t it Chief?” Relovan asked as he pointed.

“It is, but I want to get some other errands out of the way first, and then get to eating.”

“Errands? Like when you left me in your house for weeks?”

“Oh, you mean when you were training? I didn’t go anywhere – I just went to a different part of the compound to give you space to train.”

“…wait, what?”

“Yeah! You know yourself better than anybody, Lawman. All I did was show you the gap between where you were and where you needed to be. You were able to close that gap excellently by yourself.”

“So what? You just went to a different building and let me do my own thing?”

“Exactly. Turned out alright in the end. Oh, we’re here!”

The two men arrived at a shop that stocked clothing and accessories for larger clientele. Relovan rolled his eyes as the prospect of shopping with this giant was not his idea of fun. He would rather spend the time in preparation for his appearance at the Hearing that was scheduled for the next day. That said, it didn’t appear like he had much of a choice at first, and the majority of the morning was spent going from shop to shop, looking at certain items of clothing, looking at shoes, and everything else. Relovan was clearly becoming more and more jaded as time went on, and he eventually looked at Nura.

“Chief, we’ve been at this for hours, we haven’t bought anything… and we even stopped going to shops with clothes for people your size. I’m famished – can we just go and eat now?”

“Hmm, alright, let’s. I could certainly go for a bite to eat as well.”

Relovan sighed and nodded, and as they left the shop they were in and walked in the direction of the restaurant, they saw Princess Nkanyezi’s group in an open clearing. Relovan was willing Chief Nura to ignore them and head for the restaurant, but the Princess turned her head and looked directly at him, and not Nura.

“Ah! Carolina, the Chief and the Enforcer are over there!”

Chief Nura, having heard the Princess speak, grinned and practically ran over to where the group of women was. Relovan followed after him, only with less excitement and urgency. The Princess smiled as she and her handmaidens had to perform a coordinated turn for her to change direction and face the incoming Chief.

“Good morning, Chief Nurari Hyonto.” The Princess greeted with a slight bow.

“Princess Nkanyezi.”

“What brings you and the Enforcer out here again?”

“I thought that the best way for him to prepare for tomorrow would be to get dragged around as I window shop, is all.”

Nura laughed boisterously, while Relovan, who had just joined the group, looked far less enthused by the blunt admission. The Princess, who had been giggling along with Nura, quickly stopped when she saw that Relovan had arrived.

“Enforcer.” She greeted.

“Princess.” He reciprocated, before looking at Carolina and the rest of the women.

He simply nodded his head at them, before looking at the Princess again. He looked not only her outfit over, but her face as well, recalling everything the Chief told him about her as he did. Chief Nura was trying to get her attention to tell her some more funny stories, but she appeared to be enamored by the Enforcer, who in turn was also staring at her. The staring was done in silence, which was particularly suffocating and awkward as all hell – at least for everybody but Relovan. He was trying to see if he could make out any details about the Princess’ build, or even if he could sense anything behind the eye mask. He then closed his eyes, taking a second to focus on his breathing and see if actively using his sense would make any sort of difference. It took a second or two to activate, but when it did, Relovan opened his eyes to see that everything was a lot brighter. Colours were more vivid, and he was feeling everything on skin – as if all of his senses were now based on touch. He started looking around at his surroundings; having seemingly forgotten that he was curious about looking behind the Princess’ mask. People and things were represented by different colours, however seeing as this was the first time Relovan was ever seeing things in this manner, he wasn’t quite sure what the colours meant. There were quite a few people in the clearing with the group, and they were mostly represented by green and blue hues. The Council Security that was present was yellow, as were the handmaidens that surrounded the Princess. Carolina was a rather dark yellow which looked like it would turn orange at any given moment, and the Princess was a bright combination of light blue and purple. The only one who did not have a colour was the Chief, and Relovan’s curiosity was mostly behind that. He was picking up sounds with his entire body, but considering how there was no filter to what he was hearing at the time, he couldn’t make any sense of it all. To those around him, Relovan looked like he had swallowed some kind of recreational drug, mostly because of how his eyes looked, but Nura looked on with thinly veiled curiosity and excitement. The Princess, who was still staring at him, looked flustered as Relovan’s eyes now landed directly on her again. He said nothing as he looked to be staring right through her, causing the Princess to fidget under his gaze.

“…you’re so bright, Enforcer.” She said without thinking, causing both Carolina and Nura to react.

“Excuse me?”

The Princess’ words had snapped Relovan out of the active sense. He hadn’t actually been able to make out what she had said, but he heard her voice and immediately afterwards snapped out of it.

“Did you say something, Princess?”

“Huh? Oh, I just—”

“Princess, we really must get going. We are scheduled to leave this evening, and if we are to find a gift for the Prince, we must hurry.”

“Ah. Yes. That’s right, the Prince.” Nkanyezi said as she calmed herself down. “Carolina is right, we have things we must attend to. It was nice seeing you both again.”

“Take care, Princess! I hope that the next time we meet, we’ll be able to sit down and catch up properly.” Nura said with a smile.

“Take care, Princess.” Relovan said with a nod.

Carolina looked at the handmaidens with an expression that made them panic a bit and move. Relovan and Nura stood in the clearing, just watching as the Princess and her minders walked off.

“Well, that was abrupt.” Relovan said to himself.

“So?! How was it?!” Nura asked excitedly.

“Huh? How was what?”

“I saw you do that breathing thing you did back in the Training Room. Did it work?”

“It did, but I still don’t know what it all means… usually I feel things, but this time, there were strange visual cues that I couldn’t quite understand.”

“Visual cues? Explain.”

Relovan and Nura started to walk in the opposite direction to the one the Princess and her group went in, with Relovan explaining things as they did.

“…so if we apply just basic reasoning to this, wouldn’t you say the colours represent level of threat, Lawman?” Nura said as they both stood still.

“That actually does make sense on some level Chief, but I think the criteria or the system itself is somewhat complex. There are different shades as well, so it’s not just yellow or blue or green, but darker and lighter shades.”

“Well let’s say if red is a high level of danger, the darker the red, the closer it is to death, perhaps?”

“And the lighter, the less severe the threat?”

“Exactly.” Nura nodded.

“That could work… but then…” The look on Relovan’s face slowly became more serious as something dawned on him.

“But then?”

“Well, considering the current situation, I think I’ll need to explain this quickly. The buildings that surround that square we were in all had red hues that all converged to one point – the square itself.”

“Okay, and?”

“And the hues all moved when the Princess and her people moved.”

“…so what you’re saying is—”

“The Princess is likely being targeted, and is in danger.”

“Shit!” Nura boomed before looking in the direction the Princess had walked in.

“Fuck!” Relovan boomed as he turned around and set off after the Princess and her people.

Nura did the same, and matched Relovan’s speed.

“I could feel something tingling on my skin, but because I wasn’t sure how all this shit worked, I didn’t think it was danger. I knew coming up with an outfit so convoluted that it required that many handmaidens was done to beef up her security.”

“We need to find them, Lawman. Can you follow the hues?”

“Give me a second, Chief.”

Relovan was just about to close his eyes and activate his sense again when a large explosion rocked the Gateway District. The two policemen looked at one another and Relovan shrugged.

“I guess we need to follow the smoke instead.”

“I’m not sure if that is fortuitous or ominous.” Nura replied with a grin.

Despite Nura clearly lowering his speed to match Relovan’s, they were both running so quickly that to an untrained eye, they were blurs. They turned a corner and as they were approaching another square, Nura and Relovan saw a large number of people, dressed in all black and wearing masks, engaged in combat with Princess Nkanyezi’s handmaidens. There were also a number of them trying to keep the Council Security at bay, but they were being handled rather handily by them. Both Relovan and Nura’s heads darted around, both on the ground and at the tops of the surrounding buildings.

“I don’t see any snipers, Lawman!”

“Neither do I Chief, but it still feels like something is happening up there. I will go and—”

“No, it might be better for you to provide direct assistance to the Dragon Lady! Despite having brought extra guards with her, her forces are outnumbered. I will go to the rooftops and see if there is indeed anybody up there.”

“Understood, Chief.”

Nura then picked up his running speed and in a single bound, leapt into the air and then onto the roof of a nearby building. Relovan reached down and grabbed hold of his stun baton, before pulling it out of the holster. After he pressed a small button, the baton began to morph and change shape as the Enforcer ran, and by the time it had changed to a longer, rounded configuration, Relovan was just about ready to enter the fracas. He slid in to the battle zone and suddenly stopped. Whether it was due to him having just activated the sense or some other reason, Relovan was able to simply enable the sense almost instantly. All he saw was red all around him, with smatterings of yellow and orange in there as well. What he was looking for, was the blue that belonged to the Princess however, his skin began to sting.

“Now the police have decided to get involved?!” An approaching voice boomed.

“Doesn’t matter – they all have to die for the sake of our goal!” Another replied.

Relovan, who had turned to face his would-be attackers, raised his stun baton and held the handle tightly.

“I would tell you both to stand down, but you two are already attacking me.”

The attackers were all wielding Essence melee weapons – weapons that had been imbued with a certain type of Essence and were fueled by the wielder’s own Essence. They were both imbued with Flame Essence, and Relovan quickly glanced down at the baton, as if contemplating whether or not to parry or evade the incoming blows. The Enforcer took a step back and twisted his torso to the left, avoiding the first swing that came through. Immediately after evading, Relovan planted his feet, twisted his hips and dug the rounded end of the baton into the attacker’s gut with such force, it doubled him over and launched him off his feet. He did this while simultaneously pressing a button on the handle’s grip, activating the stunner and sending lightning coursing through the attacker’s body. The Enforcer then pulled his arm back and took a few more steps back while simultaneously swaying his body and avoiding a flurry of swings. Relovan then suddenly disappeared from the second attacker’s field of vision, and popped up behind him. By the time the attacker turned around to look at the Enforcer, the tip of the baton had already made contact with his jaw and sent his body spinning and contorting through the air. Even after the second attacker hit the ground, he continued to spin, and before he stopped, he was jabbed by the baton and stunned unconscious.

Relovan took a second to just look at his own hands, as if caught off guard by the significant power boost he had received since the skirmish on Blargon. He didn’t dwell on it though, because he remembered what it was exactly that he was trying to do. Relovan resumed his search, with his eyes and his body actively looking to find the Princess or at the very least, he protector. He stood perfectly still in the middle of the chaos, as tried his hardest to concentrate and drown out every hue and sound that was not related to Princess Nkanyezi. All of the heartbeats, the curses, the roars, the clashing of weapons, all of it had its volume and brightness consciously lowered, and soon afterwards, the blue and orange hues of Nkanyezi and her protector hit Relovan’s consciousness. The Enforcer looked in their direction, and saw all of the people between them and him. He held the stun baton down by his side and activated it while still working out what the quickest path to the Princess was.

“I may as well just go for it.” Relovan said to himself as he spun the baton on its axis.

The Enforcer took a deep breath and set off towards the Princess. There were a bunch of people between him and her, and most of them belonged to the enemy. The first one saw him coming and readied himself, but Relovan was able to get the jump on him, suddenly dashing in and closing the distance, before placing the tip of the baton on his chest and shocking him. The attacker was still in the process of fainting and falling to the ground when Relovan darted past him and without breaking stride, raised the baton and struck another bad guy across the face, sending streaks of lightning darting across his body as he flipped over. The next obstacle was in the process of grappling with one of the handmaidens, and all Relovan did in that instance was sweep goon’s feet out from underneath him, allowing the handmaiden to strike and take him out. A pair of female goons appeared in front of Relovan with the intention of stopping him, but he simply leapt into the air and drove his knee into the face of one, while simultaneously pressing the baton into the head of the other and letting rip, shocking her right in the face.

“…everybody is so slow.” Relovan said to himself as he landed on the ground.

The sensation was almost similar to the one he felt when he was charging Vox with his baton at the ready, but he was cognisant of more than just his own heartbeat this time. Things continued in this vain, with the Enforcer leaving unconscious bodies in his wake as he drew ever closer to the Princess. The closer he got, the more prominent another hue was, and it was deep red. The deep red hue was locked in combat with the orange one, and as Relovan actually got close enough to see the people, not just their hues, he noticed that the Dragon Lady was fighting against somebody who was not only larger than the others, but dressed in attire that was significantly more elaborate. There were also a number of projectiles on the floor, still burning, blipping and crackling away. They were clearly being fired from somewhere, and this meant that Carolina was being forced to fight whoever she was engaging with, plus watch out for the projectiles and keep them from hitting her or the Princess. That very same Princess, who being shielded, suddenly looked in Relovan’s direction – as if she could see him coming. The Enforcer suddenly saw her hue change, with the purple coming back into the equation again. Relovan’s sense suddenly alerted him to incoming danger, which came from multiple directions.

‘Must be more projectiles!’ He thought to himself.

Relovan then picked up the speed and absolutely darted his way towards the Princess, before looking in Carolina’s direction.

“Focus on that one.” He said, instinctively using The Voice again.

While she recognised the voice, the body guard was unsure of exactly where it had come from. She then realised that more projectiles were incoming, yet it was becoming increasingly difficult for her break away from the one she was fighting and fend off the bolts, arrows and pellets that were incoming. Relovan, who had just blasted past the last obstacle between him the and two women tossed the baton into his left hand while reaching for and pulling his pistol out from its holster. It was a new gun, and thus, the energy pods it came with were nigh on depleted. He gyrated his left hand with speed and force, having the still activated baton spin on its axis at such speed that it became a blur of blue. The projectiles, which were fired from crossbows, composite bows, slings, wrist shooters, and more, all flew towards the Princess just as Relovan reached a point where he could do something. Again, everything was moving slowly, and the Enforcer slid in front of Nkanyezi and raised the spinning baton. The lighting that was dancing and streaking all along the shaft created a shield of sorts as the baton spun rapidly, and Relovan used this shield to deflect these Essence imbued projectiles. They all rained in from different directions, however once the Enforcer had successfully weathered the storm and deflected them all, he lowered the baton and raised the pistol, aiming to retaliate. As it turned out, that wasn’t necessary, as Chief Nura was busy mopping them all up. His hands were a kaleidoscope of colours as they were soaked with the blood of the snipers, and he was a blur as he leapt from building to building, taking them all out with one shot and then tossing them across to take out those who were across the way.

“Turns out there were snipers after all, eh Chief?” Relovan asked, grinning as he tipped his cap in appreciation.

“Yeah – they were all using Chameleon Cloaks.” Nura grinned as he gave a one finger salute.

“Nice find, Chief.”

They were conversing while using the Voice ability, and for that brief moment, it was as if they weren’t neck deep in a skirmish that had absolutely nothing to do with them. They were interrupted as Relovan felt fingers grip his cape tightly, and he turned around to see Princess Nkanyezi, with an expression that was a combination of relief and fear.

“Princess.” The Enforcer said as he turned around. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“N-No, I’m fine… thank you for coming… and for your assistance.”

“Don’t mention it, Princess. You’re doing remarkably well in this situation.”

“Even if I were to panic, where would I run? How would I run? This outfit would make me trip and fall right into the enemy’s hands!”

Relovan tried his hardest to stifle his laughter, but failed as a small chuckle escaped his lips. The Princess, who was being serious when she made that statement, suddenly looked at Relovan with what looked like a pout.

“Don’t laugh at me, Enforcer!” She barked, balling her fists with were still hidden under one of her immense sleeves.

“What are you two doing?!” Carolina roared as she looked back at the pair. “Can’t you see how dire the situation is?! You there, Policeman – take the Princess and get out of here!”

Relovan, who had almost forgotten about the Princess’ bodyguard, looked at the woman who was clearly struggling and pointed his pistol in the direction of the one she was fighting.

“You there, this is Police Enforcer Relovan… you are under arrest for… well, for all of this. If you stand down now, I’ll only cuff you, but if you refuse to stop this and call this entire thing off, well—”

The large person in black, who was still engaged with Carolina, reached inside their cloak and the glint of something metallic alerted Relovan to something flying his way. He tilted his head to the side, and an elaborately engraved throwing knife flew past the Enforcer’s head. Relovan then quickly ducked in the event that more were going to be thrown, before darting to his right and then dashing to the front, closing the gap between himself and the figure in black. Carolina, who was wielding two swords and using all of her might to hold off the long and jagged blade that was trying to cleave her in two, watched as Relovan narrowed the distance between them. The figure in black tossed another throwing knife at Relovan, but he managed to evade it and drive his baton into the stomach of the figure. He activated the stun baton, and streaks of lightning danced along the baton. Despite Relovan thinking he had scored a direct hit, the baton passed through the cloak as if there was nothing underneath. The figure had twisted its torso to evade the baton, so Relovan planted his left foot and swiveled, using said foot as a pivot while simultaneously raising his right hand – which was still holding the gun – and aiming for the figure’s cloaked head. The pistol was automatically set to STUN as all regulation energy blasters were, and pulled the trigger. The stun round flew towards the cloaked figure’s head, yet that head simply moved back, evading the shot completely. Noticing that all the attention was currently on Relovan, Carolina summoned all of her strength and drove her right foot into the midriff of the figure that was pinning her down. Unlike Relovan, she actually made contact with said midriff and pushed the figure off of her, causing said figure to take more than a few steps back. As Carolina wiped some sweat from her brow and blood from her mouth while focusing on regaining her breath, Relovan stood to his full height and stood by her side, with his eyes never shifting off of the figure.

“Whoever is under that cloak, is strong.” The Enforcer said as he rolled his neck, and did some light stretches.

“Didn’t I tell you to take the Princess and escape?” Carolina sneered as she too refused to take her eyes off of her attacker.

“You did… but I do not answer to you. I will arrest that person, and haul them to jail. Any idea who that is, though?”

“Not at all… must be a hired hand – I’ve never seen that blade before.”

“Understood… so the goal is simple, arrest and interrogate. We will find out who hired these clowns and arrest them too.”

“You won’t be able to do that alone.” Carolina said as she entered her battle stance.

“What about protecting the Princess? That’s your job, isn’t it?”

“There’s no keeping her safe so long as that one is not defeated.”

“Understood.” Relovan said as he concluded his stretches.

Without saying a word, the two charged the one in the cloak, with Relovan holding the baton in his left and his pistol his right. Carolina took the lead and attacked first, thrust both swords at the figure’s chest. The thrusts were deflected by the jagged blade, and the Dragon Lady used the momentum to spin and come back with separate slashes coming in from the figure’s right, one aimed at the neck and the other at the abdomen. The jagged blade was extremely long, and all the figure did was hold it with the tip facing the floor. The blade proved to be more than long enough to cover both the neck and abdomen, and both swords were stopped with relative ease. Relovan came in low from the figure’s left, unleashing a series of jabs with the baton, all aimed at the face. The figure’s head bobbed around as it evaded every jab, before Relovan pulled the baton back, activated it and went for the body again. The figure’s right hand was still holding Carolina’s swords at bay, so the left was free. The figure parried the crackling baton away with its bare hand – much to Relovan’s surprise – and lunged down. The fingers were pursed tightly together, and long claw-esque tips protruded from the ends of said fingers. Relovan tilted his own head to the side to evade the incoming hand, and it was now his turn to dodge multiple jabs. After ducking below a relatively high jab, Relovan crouched down and dashed to his right before raising his gun. Another stun round was fired and subsequently evaded as the figure twisted its torso and dodged the energy round.

“Fucking hell!” Relovan yelled.

As he was about to pull the trigger a second time, the cloaked figure drove its foot into Carolina’s gut this time, and she was the one sent flying back. By the time the second shot was fired, the cloaked one had already lunged in Relovan’s direction and parried the gun away, resulting in the shot randomly hitting and incapacitating somebody off to the side. Relovan quickly rolled to his left which was just as well, since that jagged blade slashed its way into the space the Enforcer had just vacated. Upon completion of the dodge roll, Relovan jumped to his feet and dashed towards the cloaked one. He spun the baton as he activated it, recreating the lightning shield. He flew into striking range, and the figure thrust the blade towards the Enforcer’s chest. The baton was raised and deflected the thrust away, prompting the cloaked one to attempt a handful of slashes from multiple directions. Relovan parried them all with the baton as he drove forward, bright blue flashes of light occurring with each parry, and as he got close enough to launch an attack of his own, he did just that, ceasing the spinning and thrusting the crackling baton towards the hood of the cloak. Just then, the jagged blade flashed past Relovan’s face and cleaved the baton in half. His eyes darted to his left hand for only a moment, before the gun wielding hand was also brought into play. The gun was raised and brought close enough to the hood that it would be extremely difficult, even for this person, to evade the shot. The trigger was then pulled emphatically – as if that would make the shot more effective – yet nothing happened afterwards. In fact, Relovan pulled the trigger a few times, and all that happened was that the trigger clicked after every pull.

“HUH?!” Relovan boomed as he looked at the gun desperately.

The cloaked one suddenly attempted to chop the Enforcer in two, with the blade swinging down with ferocious speed. Relovan raised the gun and virtually punched the blade away, using the pistol as some kind of knuckle duster. The cloaked figure still ended up hitting the Enforcer though, only with a bare, left hand. The strike launched Relovan off of his feet and sent him flying back as he twisted through the air. He landed on the ground and slid for some time afterwards, while Carolina ran towards the cloaked enemy, both swords thrust out at either side of her body. When she got close enough, the Dragon Lady twisted her torso and leapt into the air, looking like a deadly spinning top. She spun so quickly, that she was a blur and her swords suddenly became engulfed in white flames. The cloaked figure watched as the rather impressive looking attack got closer, and raised the jagged blade. Carolina was spinning in a clockwise motion, so the cloaked enemy simply slashed in the opposite direction, and this resulted in quite the surprise. Carolina’s attack was completely derailed as she not only stopped spinning in a clockwise direction, but she actually ended up spinning in an anticlockwise direction. Her eyes were filled with disbelief, and soon, with the realisation that she was in real trouble. Just as the cloaked figure was gearing up to attack again, Relovan’s fluttering cape gave him away. He was flipping in, as he completed a somersault while swinging his feet down. His left foot swung down first, like an axe trying to split a piece of wood. It caused the cloaked figure to raise its left arm to block the heavy blow – which it did. The left foot broke the guard though, and this meant that the head was now open. Relovan’s right heel connected with the back of the hooded head, and landed as solid a hit as the cloaked figure had received since the beginning of the skirmish. As Relovan landed, and the figure doubled over, somebody shouted something from one of the rooftops.

“Well done, Yaksha! Keep them busy a little longer – the dome is almost ready!”

“Dome?” Relovan asked as he looked at Carolina who had landed as well.

“Yaksha?!” Carolina said as a look of surprise and disbelief washed over her features.

Just then, a large disc that was covered in some kind of sticky Essence appeared above the battle ground. The disc started spinning, and as it did, the purple Essence grew thicker. The longer the disc spun, the faster it became, and after a few seconds of spinning, it shot out a strange spike that pierced the ground. As the second and third spike pierced the ground, Relovan’s skin began to sting quite badly. He looked at Carolina, who seemed to know exactly what was going on. She looked at Relovan with the kind of desperation he had seen far too many times in his life and knew immediately that things were about to get dicey.

“Shit!” He bellowed before turning around and sprinting towards the Princess, who was still standing on her own.

The entire fight with the cloaked figure had barely lasted a minute, so nobody had actually found the time to try to extract her. The Council Security members had just about finished dealing with those who were supposed to keep them occupied, while the handmaidens were also more or less finishing up. That said, the disc continued spewing these spikes out, and as Relovan darted towards the Princess, Carolina suddenly crossed her swords in front of her chest and let out an almighty yell. She crouched down and dashed forward, crashing into the cloaked figure and sending her and the figure flying. More spikes pierced the ground as they flew, and as Relovan got closer to the Princess, the stinging itself became more and more severe. The level of danger was rising as more spikes pierced the ground, and by the time what appeared to be the last spike had been deposited into the paved floor below, Carolina had pushed the cloaked one out of the target area while Relovan, who was by now airborne and had two fistfuls of his cape in his hands, was about to reach Princess Nkanyezi. Lines of Essence shot out from the disc and connected to the spikes, which glowed once attached to the lines. A number of see through Essence panels with a purple hue materialised and created a dome like structure – clearly what whoever it was that spoke before had mentioned. The panels all started glowing brightly, and not even a fraction of a second later, the area within the boundaries of the Dome exploded. Relovan, who was still flying through the air when the glowing started, managed to wrap the Princess in his cape in the nick of time. The cape hardened, much like the previous one did when the Enforcer fought Void Knight Vo, and everything went white for a second. The explosion was contained within the Dome, and even as the ground shook and the floor caved and gave way, those who were on the outside could only watch. Carolina, who was breathing rather heavily on the floor watched in horror as she couldn’t quite tell if Relovan had reached the Princess in time. For the bodyguard, it felt as though time stood still and she didn’t know what to do. She watched as the huge figure of the Adonian Chief landed on the ground with authority and began mopping up the small fry that were left. He did so while walking towards her, and when he reached her, she looked up at the Chief. He reached down and offered the Dragon Lady a hand up, but she stubbornly got up on her own while glaring at Nura.

“What have I done to deserve those eyes, Carolina?”

“Why did you take the rooftops and leave the Human to deal with things down here? Even then, why did you allow them to complete the Dome, Nurari Hyonto?! If you had been serious, all this would have been avoided!”

“Now now, calm down. Everything is still under control.”

“How do you figure?! We don’t even know if he reached the Princess in time! And even if he did, what if—”

“Lawman reached the Princess in time, and he will return with her as well. The most crucial thing is that you managed to push that tough bastard out before the explosion, otherwise things would have been touch for even the Lawman to handle.”