I tried to ignore the corpse at my feet and focused on the crowd. It was obvious that very few of these people were fighters, and even of those that seemed a little more powerful than the others, they didn’t exactly seem comfortable in their armor. If any of these people were spies Scalovera or Endra planted with the hopes of us taking them away, then they were really good at playing their part.

{Okeria, I’ve got a good sixty people here that don’t look like fighters. How much damage would it do to Scalovera’s reputation if you were the one to save them from his tyranny?}

Okeria’s laugh was almost as loud as his shotgun fire. {Drown me Sebastian, that’d be one gods-given present! Only one problem I can see here, though–how’re we supposed ta get outta here with all those people?}

I shrugged. {Front door?}

Silence crackled through my communicator as the Staura rallied themselves. Almost like they were convincing themselves that they had to fight their way out. But that would be the equivalent of giving a group of farmers kitchen knives and sending them out to fight a tank platoon. And I wasn’t about to send innocent people to get slaughtered.

“No. You don’t need to fight–that’s what we’re here for.” I decreed as one woman summoned a sword that looked a lot like the one I’d started off with. “Okeria and I will clear a path for you to the front doors. Once you’re out, you can either run or follow us to safety. Scalovera will send people after us, but I can guarantee that where we’re going will be impenetrable.”

A murmur of disbelief echoed through the group. They’d all donned their armor at this time, and my instincts told me the strongest one was only hazard tolerance eight. And that woman carried herself like she was going to protect every single one of the other Staura alone.

That could be dangerous if I didn’t use her right. The me of this timeline hadn’t been a leader, but I had plenty of experience with it in my other life. Except this time I wasn’t going to make any hard decisions. I was going to have my cake and eat it too.

“You, the one in the green-beige war paint. I can tell you’re a little stronger than the others.” I gestured at the woman who hadn’t yet drawn a weapon, but her stance told me she was about to. “I need you to take up the rear and knock down any surprise attacks thrown at your group. Recruit anyone with purely defensive functions to help you, and do it before we need to get moving.”

She stared blankly at me for a moment, then snapped off a salute that I’d seen Nia do before. Military? That weak woman? I pushed down the urge to shake my head and instead tucked that fact away as a question to ask later.

“Who are you?”

That question was from the little girl. Who stood behind the woman I’d just told to take up the rear. Hadn’t I just told them my name? …Nope, I’d only used ‘I’. I opened my mouth to give the name I’d given for my entire life, but stopped myself short. That wasn’t the name these people were looking for.

I cleared my throat and put on the proudest voice I could. The kind of voice Nia’s inheritor would use.

“I am Sebastian Persephonia. Inheritor of the late Matria Persephonia Persephonia.” I said with all the force and emotion I could muster. “She was killed by the monster that backs Scalovera in this coup. I understand if you don’t know me, or trust me on my reputation alone, so let me earn it.”

The woman stood a little straighter. The little girl looked up at her, then back at me. Something changed in her body language, but I couldn’t tell through her armor. Kids were hard to read–they were so volatile that one thing could easily mean another.

“I’ll turn that question back on you, little one.” I said without changing my voice. “And to you, brave woman. Who are you?”

“Me?” The girl squeaked. “Um… I’m Poppy.”

“And my name is Cyntherin.” The woman quickly added. “It is an honour to work under a Persephonia again.”

Again? This woman worked with Nia? Then… how was she so weak? And why didn’t she have a last name if she fought in the same war Nia did?

“I… no.” I shook my head and turned at the sound of Okeria’s gun exploding in his hands. He staggered back, but the hollowed out suit of armor that had taken the brunt of the explosion had fared so much worse. “Your safety is the first priority. I’ll be back in five minutes. Hydra–protect them. Cyntherin–you have five minutes.”

The woman nodded and went to work. The girl stuck near her leg the entire time, and a small part of me felt bad about putting what looked like a mother in such an important position. But she was the only one who actually seemed competent enough to organize something in my stead, so I let her do it. I’d deal with the fallout myself if things went horribly wrong.

I turned and sprinted toward the sounds of Okeria fighting. The scene of violence unfolded like a horrible book, with so many functions and weapons bearing down on Okeria alone. A sea of enemies poured out from every which way, most of which I could see twitching and spasming from where I stood.

Okeria glanced over at me, then fired a shotgun blast that echoed three times into a group of enemies. The electricity arced off of each pulse and shot out like a local lightning strike, then solidified into metal that ran a dozen infected Staura through without mercy.

“Ah, Sebastian! Done what ya wanted ta do?” Okeria asked even though I knew he’d been spying on me.

“Done and ready.” I confirmed as I studied the effects of Okeria’s shotgun blast. I looked down at my harpoon and shifted it slightly, then threw it as hard as I could down a hallway. The vision of a sonicboom building up against the tip of a jetplace popped into my mind, and with a surge of battery, petal-scales blossomed into being on top of my harpoon.

It ripped through the staura without any resistance. Not quite as efficient as making and controlling the slashes beforehand, but it would definitely do in a pinch.

“Nice one.” Okeria noted. His voice caught as he spoke, and he cleared his throat to try and cover it up. “I’m doin’ just fine, in case you’re wonderin’. Just takin’ a lot of effort ta keep these barriers and comms blackouts up.”

“Well, you won’t have to do that for much longer.” I gestured at the hidden room filled with civilians. “I bet that’s everyone who’s not a soldier or a mercenary in this mansion. Once I get them out, you don’t have to hold back any more.”

“Hold back?” Okeria scoffed. “What makes ya think I’m holdin’ back?”

I tilted my head to the side. “The fact that you haven’t already killed everything in here. You knew there were civilians here, didn’t you? Probably had your drones sense their body heat or something. Is that why we came down this way in the first place?”

Okeria stared at me for a second, then burst out laughing. “Drown me, Sebastian, you’re gettin’ too good at readin’ me. But I ain’t gonna go all-out just because ya got the regular everyday people outta here. Collateral damage ain’t just counted in lives–it’s counted in perception and property damage as well.”

“So you don’t want to do anything that’d give Scalovera ammo to make you look bad. Gotcha.” I nodded and summoned my weapon once again. This time, I stabbed the air three times and sent the impacts out at three charging enemies. “You’re still holding back most of these people. If you don’t deal with them when I leave, they’re gonna chase after us. How do you want to do this?”

“It’s been a long while since somebody asked me that and I actually took ‘em seriously. Alright. Here.” Okeria placed a teleportation anchor in my hands, then pressed his fingers into the metal. “That’ll activate in twenty minutes. Even if they’re stompin’ my corpse, it’ll teleport me directly ta your location. But that option don’t worry me. What really scares me is if I get outta this perfectly fine.”

What? I snapped the teleporter to my hip and considered Okeria’s words for a moment as I sent more impacts at more enemies. Most of them weren’t even firing off functions–and the ones who were didn’t have enough firepower to dent my armor. If Jesand and the invisible asshole were the best Scalovera could spare, then what the hell was he spending the rest of the manpower on?

Ah. That’s what Okeria meant. “I gotcha. I’ll keep an eye open for any ambushes as I get these people to safety. Remember that we got Thorn back, and we have Viri for some insider information, no matter how scatterbrained she seems. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Ain’t thinkin’ of it. Not this time.” Okeria laughed. “My kids are comin’ through real soon, remember? Gotta make sure Rainbow Basin’s safe enough for ‘em.”

I shook my head and sighed. “That’s both a reason for you to do something stupid and one for you to play it safe. Make sure your kids have a dad to see when they come through.”

“Don’t gotta tell me.” Okeria shoved me out of the way of a lance of dark purple energy. It tore through the air like a shitty eraser over cheap paper, leaving little purple bits floating around that scared the hell out of me. “See? Scalovera’s already sendin’ someone competent. That’s a good sign.”

He gestured for me to get a move on. I shot my petal-scale impacts at the armored figure who’d launched the blasts, then nodded and sprinted toward my hydra who was already leaving the room.

“Twenty minutes. You better not have given me a dummy.”

“Ya can kill me yourself if I did.” Okeria called after me. “We’re deep in the abyss now, Sebastian. No turnin’ back from here, and no hope that we get more time ta work with. The forest’s started ta burn. We gotta make sure it’s razed ta the drowned ground.”

He fired at another lance of purple energy, and the resulting shockwave was enough to send some of the weaker Staura sprawling. Luckily, Cyntherin had already put them on my hydra’s back, and I sprinted ahead of the hydra while giving it the command to start running.

{Twenty minutes, Okeria.}

{Twenty minutes, Sebastian.}