Fion raised an eyebrow at Eldren's response, wondering what she was playing at. He couldn't recall doing anything to piss her off recently, minus that one incident when he had just woken up in Cykes after whoever had been in Riley's body had torn him apart. Then again, he had been rather pissed off after losing an arm.

Still, Fion was rather annoyed that Riley was trying to blow him off when he wanted to actually have a serious conversation for once. Forget this. If Riley didn't want to talk about her issues, he'd go work on his own issues. Might as well have a chat with...Fion sooner rather than later. That is, if she actually tried to have a civil conversation for once instead of trying to murder him.

It was rather sad, Fion reflected, that none of the women in his life wanted to just sit down and have a nice chat. Whatever. It was Riley's problem, not his.

"Suit yourself," Fion shrugged as he turned to leave. "I'll be in the corner taking a nap. Wake me up when you need me. Eldren, talk to me when you feel like it. Who knows, I might actually have something important to say."

And with that, Fion slumped down in the corner, closing his eyes for a little rest, and hopefully a reasonable dialogue with the girl in his head.

Noise... Noise from outside of the darkened cage. It was a sound he knew all too well, the sound of combat that sung out as metal struck metal and flesh alike. There was something more, but he couldn't tell form listening. That was when a new sound split though all those other ones, a voice calling for him, asking if he was truly here. Were... Were they here to rescue him? Was that the sounds of battle? It had been so long, though likely shorter than he expected, he had problems sitting up and grabbing a rock. Slamming it against the rock wall before shouting in a raspy voice "H-Here!..."

Roundabout indeed, and wholely unnecessary. Heck, it was even a bit odd that Eldren would tunnel-vision on that event alone, where there were no civilian casualties whatsoever, instead of something that had more of an impact. Shrugging, the redheaded woman replied, “The pleasure is mine, Eldren. As for Bakery Town though, it didn't seem like too odd of an event. I assisted with the evacuations, and the aftermath left a few buildings destroyed. Honestly, the only odd thing that the authorities found were that there seemed to have been multiple fights at once...but you would have read that from the newspapers if you were interested.”

Turning away as Eldren began having a dispute with his one-armed friend, Aelitha hopped into one of the two compartments of the two-man airship, nodding to Captain Escellar that they were ready to go.

The elven man was a bit put-off regarding how both of the newcomers appeared to think that they actually had time to rest or whatever, but ultimately, decided that it would be best just to have them do so on a horse. Clearing his throat to catch both their attentions, he said, pointing towards the horses, and then motioning towards the others of the party who were mounting them, in pairs of two, “Fion, Eldren, perhaps you should do such things while on horseback? We're departing now, before the rift-beast that we're tracking can get any farther away.”

'Important'? Riley scoffed. Since when has that boy ever had something important to say to her, let alone Eldren of all people? Their conversations mostly centered around the frivolous, and the occasional Bureau contract, but neither was here nor there in importance to the hunt that they were about to embark on. If anything, it was her big reveal that she was not in fact the man she was pretending to be, but the witch who was being held accountable (at least partially) for the same beasts they were trying to kill. Still, he looked... offended to her? She couldn't quite name the feeling his words and actions placed in her, but perhaps it would be better if they talked... After their current affairs were concluded, that is.

Returning to Aelitha, Riley just barely chuckled. She was so used to talking to with people who had enough knowledge of the event to know of her former self's involvement in the incident, so talking to someone so relatively normal was actually quite refreshing. "Well maybe," he said just so that she could hear, "Maybe I know more than you; participated in one of those 'multiple fights'. Against a vampiress and an Astopolian known as the "God Slayer who was on her side of all things, just perhaps..." She winked at her with a coy smile on her face, an expression that didn't much match the shape of Eldren's face. "But then, you don't seem the type to put much stock in such blatant lies, aye Aelitha?" She chuckled again, turning to the nonplussed elf.

"Hm, horses, eh?" The witch began stroking her chin. She was never good with horses -- a major reason her bear was even a part of her life -- so thought of riding one was perhaps... hazardous, before she got to the real fighting, even. So perhaps... well, she had seen a similar spell cast once, and with the knowledge this body contained, it might even work for her. But first, a quick refresher from the man himself was probably due.

She walked over to boy who was still trying to nap, and nudged him with the toe of her boot. "Hey, wake up," she said, looking at the ground next to him instead of directly at him. "I apologize for brushing you off earlier," the words were fired off rapidly enough that it was hard to make them out. "Whatever it is you have to say, though, it can wait until after we face the next life-or-death situation we're about to face, right? Because I want you to show me a... spell."

Lyra was in her element. From her standpoint, she had magical parity… no, absolute magical superiority. Under her watchful eye, not a single magic attack had gotten through her barriers. She was the best, after all. There would be no breaching of her shields with the enemy projecting their spells at extended distances.

The young mage was using her staple defensive spell, Aegis. It was her quickest, most simple form of defense, a basic, translucent hexagonal shield that could be linked together. It was an easy spell for her to recast, and took little energy to maintain. In theory, she could create a dome-like barrier with a larger set of shields, but this particular spell had a fundamental flaw in that a shield would completely shatter when its defenses were overwhelmed. Lyra, who most often used the shields linked, found that if a single shield took enough damage, the entire array would destroyed. As such, a dome or a configuration that used a large number of the shields was an inefficient use of potential. Because of this, Lyra limited herself to six instances of the spell. This was the configuration that she was using now, and up until this point, it was ample defense against the Astopolian garrison.

The Mauritania girl caught a muddy dark object at the corner of her vision. In a flash, the six-shield array was at her left, taking the brunt of a powerful magic attack. The shield, which was positioned three meters away was forced back so far that Lyra could reach out and touch it. She knew instantly what had happened. They had made a terrible mistake, a horrid miscalculation. The self-proclaimed scholar, the meticulous researcher, had failed to realize just how unstable Yazu the stowaway was. She unwittingly and singlehandedly created a second front by condoning her presence. Her acquaintance Chad and his team probably would not be able to handle the new enemy. She had been working on attempting to identify the enemy mages and mustering a counterbattery, but now she had to split her focuses.

“Chad, Nephenee, Yazu is an enemy.” informed Lyra, in case the two were still unaware of the new threat in the flurry of combat.

Running her hand across the smooth leather cover of her tome, she projected energy around her. It seemed the enemy had switched to attempting to destabilize the ground, but this was an action even easier to counter than their battery of lightning. Slowly, the energy materialized into the form of an invisible half-dome, surrounding Yazu, the knights, and Chad’s party, protecting the bodies inside it and stabilizing the ground. It was unfortunate that the enemy was shielded as well, but the situation had to be stabilized before she could render any further support. By projecting a large, areal defensive shield, she could focus her efforts inwards for a short while. But the defensive setup was time consuming, and it was time that Lyra did not have.

Yazu ravaged the battlefield indiscriminately, skewering knight and sailor alike. On the other side of the battlefield, Chad was fighting a losing battle against the cursed elf. A black tentacle lashed out towards the ship captain. Narrowly escaping by shoving a distracted knight into the path of the cursed limb, he blinked in horror as his enemy’s guts flew sky high. But he had no more tricks up his sleeve when a second tentacle lashed out. He futilely attempted to block the blow with his thin sword, but the disparity in force was overwhelmingly obvious. He had laughed away comments that his sword was like toothpick, but at this very moment, it snapped like one against Yazu, his arm forced back behind his body in an unnatural position. He screamed in pain, dropping the twisted remains of his weapon. He jumped back nursing his arm, unsure if it was broken or not. Yazu seemed to solely focused on Chad. She was out with a vendetta. The cursed elf attacked again. A dozen tainted hands shot out from her body towards the boat captain. He cursed. He would not be able to escape this one, he was done for. But the last second, something appeared in front of him, and a second later, Yazu’s attack connected in what seemed to be an explosion. Chad was thrown back, slamming violently into a tree.

Lyra bit her lip. She had thrown the entirety of Aegis in front of Chad, destroying the array in the process. The shield was not enough –the attack still connected and threw him aside, but it seemed to be enough for him to survive. But Yazu didn’t seem to be satisfied until Chad was eviscerated. With the party leader out of commission and the formation in disarray, Lyra became the de facto commander. She would have to counterattack.

She had no battlefield experience, but she had read a few of Chad’s books on tactics. Evaluating the battlefield with the books in mind, she realized the knights were attempting in encircle her party. With their reduced numbers, this was even more obvious as Yazu maintained her unrelenting attacks. She did not understand why the knights continued to fight, but she could extrapolate what they were trying to do. If a fighting force was confined to a single tight formation, it could be easily destroyed by a single large areal attack. Such an attack was likely forthcoming. The mage casted another Aegis spell.

“Party, break formation and scatter.”

She did not waste time explaining herself. If they did not understand or disregarded her instructions, it was not her problem if they were too dense to save themselves.

Immediately after issuing her order, she doubled down her efforts against Yazu, in an attempt to draw attention to herself. She fired off several weak elemental attacks in quick succession, before launching several materialized lances in the elf’s direction for good measure. Since the range was so close, there was no point in creating a firing solution.

She had wrought this situation by allowing her aboard. She would finish it by her own hand.

A summary by your resident layabout.

Araki didn’t really want to hang around the ruined Seyour estate while “Riley” and Fion went about their own business. Noticing the wall behind the manor now sported a massive hole, Araki decided to follow the tracks. Eventually, they led to the city walls where they vanished completely. Given what he knew, he guessed it was the wyvern beast’s trail, but with no way of tracking said beast, he hung around to think on what he’d do next.

Probably shouldn’t have seeing as Neph, Musphelheim Demon, decided to show up at that point as well. Cue visions of brimstone and hellfire and following minor panic attack. The two chat a bit, although it’s more of Neph asking questions and Araki struggling with the answers. Eventually he chills out enough and realizes that no, she doesn’t seem to be here to cause mayhem. Apparently he “feels” similar to the two creatures that attacked the night before and Neph can apparently sense them. So the two decide to go out and find them via some jolly co-operation.

Araki jumps over the wall with Neph standing on his shoulder and they head off towards the forest. Neph senses something odd, Araki doesn’t get it, not until his feet start sinking into the ground because woah, it’s the liquid-assassin-thingy. Fuck.

Fion resisted the urge to sigh and bury his face in his hand, as Escellar and Eldren both sought to interrupt his nap. Honestly, all he wanted was to sort out a compromise with the girl living inside his head so she wouldn't take his body over. Shaking his head, Fion gave a rueful grin as he stood up after Eldren's kick, wondering exactly when his life had become this insane. Within the span of two days, he had lost his arm, his family, his friend and/or love interest, and he had found out that there was a dead little girl inside his mind. At this rate, it was probably only just going to get worse, especially considering he was on an expedition to hunt rift beasts.

Standing up, Fion registered Escellar's statement to him with a nod before he turned back to Eldren/Riley, who very quickly blurted out an apology to him. For a moment, Fion reflected that if Riley was still female, he still had his arm, and Richard was still alive, his entire fucking month would've just been made right there, just to see Riley apologize to him. Sadly, he had none of those things, but it did warm his spirits somewhat. As it was, Fion took Riley's apology in stride with no gloating whatsoever. On the outside.

"A spell, eh?" Fion asked in response to Riley's request. Odd, considering she'd seen a good portion of his repertoire of Sword Arts in their hunting missions together. Still, that apology of hers had put him in a relatively decent mood, so he might as well honor her request. "Fine by me, as long as it doesn't destabilize the ship. Which one?"

A message was sent and a message was received. Standing on the Eastern wall of the fortress-city of Koestace, the pilot for Einzershalt received a message from the Warden of Hanzen, detailing the coordinates for another bombardment. Though he had no helmet to transmit any responses to her, he could tell by the rigidity of her thought-voice that there was more going on than any simple invasion by Talze Utera. Jumping to the task, he climbed up onto the hand of the silver God of the War, before it raised, allowing the pilot to stand onto its shoulder. His own gloved hands gripped the side of the twenty foot giant's head, before it began to stand up. Righting itself, the middle-aged man took out a map from his pocket, unfolding it to reveal the specific details of angles and speeds in which Einzershalt should release its spears. Though there would always be a margin of error present due to wind speed, it didn't matter.

Strapped onto its back were long, steel shafts, no more than crudely sharpened metal stakes. Each of them were fifteen feet long, javelins that, propelled by the strength of a God of War, could pierce straight through a mountain, causing massive collateral damage along the way.

Now, he selected four of those bolts.

Clumping them up in a single, metallic fist, the Einzershalt drew out one of those silver javelins, reared it's arm back, and fired it straight into the air.

A few slight adjustments to the angles, and the second bolt was fired, sailing into a high arc.

Like a comet, the third shot upwards, piercing the heavens before it began to slow down, and then fall straight.

The fourth flew well, slicing through the windless sky.

And then, Einzershalt stopped.

Another message was received. That of Knight Commander Farnor, to assist with the evacuation of Koestace.

---

Their meeting about the future of Astopol was cut short by the arrival of a messenger. On that opulent balcony overlooking the city of Koestace, a young knight arrived, saluted, and then brought the Knight-Commander away into a corner. Though Cairyn couldn't tell what they were whispering about, the expression on the Knight Commander's face was enough to cause her to worry. Though she was pretty certain that Savaniel wouldn't know either, she tugged on the sleeve of his tunic regardless, tilting her head slightly and asking, “Do you know what they're talking about?”

He replied with a rather emotionless tone, despite how heavy his words were. “They're talking about the advent of a rift-beast very similar to the World-Eater. Chances are, Farnor is going to order an evacuation of Koestace, High Priestess.”

“How can you even hear them?”

“I'm a Sword Skills user,” Savaniel said. “My senses are sharper than most.”

Cairyn nodded, letting go of the Grandmaster's sleeve. Placing a gloved hand against the marble railing, she could feel the slight tremors, could understand that the roar that was heard was that of a truly massive rift-beast. Down below, she could see that the citizens of Koestace were slowly evacuating, taking their time with gathering all their valuables, as the knights herded them down evacuation routes. The messenger must have alerted a few captains on his way, and now...

Looking at Farnor, who had now selected a pendulum-shaped artifact from his uniform, she could see that he was communicating with the pilots of the two Gods of War that protected the walls of the city. To further assist with the evacuation? Though it wasn't 'nice' to think of it as such, the High Priestess WAS aware that, outside of those who worked to protect and maintain the city, the majority of the civilian population were those who sought to live a protected life.

And now, they were running for their lives, scaling down the harsh mountain paths that was meant to deter the advances of any invaders.

She closed her eyes, praying for their safety and well-being, hoping that they didn't even need the protection of the Goddess for something like this. After all, the knights of Astopol weren't so weak that they couldn't fend off a monster who's only advantage came from its size.

“High Priestess,” Farnor spoke out, interrupting her thoughts, “I believe it is wise for you to leave Koestace as well. Grandmaster Savaniel, you'll be escorting her, I presume?”

“Yes, Knight Commander, I will. And you will be fighting the World-Eater by yourself?”

Farnor smiled. “Of course. I would like to test my mettle against the beast that the Knight of Six Wings had defeated in her prime.”

“Still chasing after her shadow, are you?”

With that off-handed remark, the Grandmaster scooped Cairyn up in his arms, made some mumbled apology about excusing his rudeness, and jumped off before Farnor could retaliate.

---

Ah.

They were all leaving.

Despite how many times she helped people, how many times she cared for them, they never reciprocated such feelings.

All she wanted was a pat on the back or something, an indication that someone appreciated what she was doing. Proof that her good deeds meant that she still had a conscience, that she still had a soul untarnished by the sins that she absorbed.

But this just seemed to push everyone away. The bad guys hated her, and the good guys ignored her. Those who loved her were liars. Those who despised her couldn't even kill her. Those who thought nothing of her might as well not exist. In a world where everything was connected, it seemed that only she was separate.

Ah, she hated this.

She ignored whatever was striking her in her fetal position. Every little wound was healed within moments. Not of consequence. Not of anything.

Ah, she just wanted them to all come back to her.

She just wanted to take back the days where people surrounded her.

So she did.

Darkness pooled around her, spreading out at an alarming rate. It was a tar-like substance, impossibly sticky and pinning down any who had the bad luck of touching it. Gluing soldiers and airship crewmen alike to the spot, that darkness began to melt through them, turning them into little more than goops of melted flesh that was quickly assimilated into the darkness. Darkness that cocooned Yazu, darkness that eased her.

She felt a little better, now that someone was cradling her.

Even though that someone was just a melted corpse.

---

Rilolia was in shock. A ways off from the battlefield, and utterly useless even if she had been present, all she could do was watch as her friend lost control of herself, turning into the rampaging, curse-inflicted monster that she must have always been. How long as Yazu restrained that madness? It was a nightmarish scene that grabbed her attention, but at the same time, she knew that she had to free Vance.

That was her objective, wasn't it? But all those that were helping her were now dying horrible deaths. Chad had just barely avoided getting run-through by one of those thorny tentacles. Lyra was struggling to even divert the magical attacks. Everyone was suffering, everyone was dying, and all for the sake of a self-centered justice that told her that she should help those that helped her.

When this was over, she'd have to convince her parents to lend her some of their wealth.

When this was over, she'd have to find a witch who could make new body parts for those who lost their limbs here.

When this was over, she'd become a spiritual medium so that those who lost their lives here could still say some final words to their loved ones.

When this was over...because in the present, all she was was a useless vampire who was drunk on the power of a God of War.

She felt as if someone was slowly and delicately removing her insides, carving them out with the precision of a surgeon. Anxiety rose, accelerating her heartbeat, while regrets crushed her body. She should be doing something, anything, but at the same time, she couldn't.

This was simply above her level.

Rilolia managed a harsh laugh as she grasped the grid of iron that prevented her from whisking Vance out of his cell. She wasn't even strong enough to tear away such a simplistic obstruction.

“Sorry,” she gasped, burning with self-loathing.

“Sorry,” she cried, wanting to change what she had been doing for the past few years, to have time to improve herself.

“Sorry,” she spoke, tone trembling at the futility of her own apologies.

And heedless of her regrets, her sorrows, the hammer of the Goddess fell from the sky, descending on the mortals who fought on that ant-hill.

---

Preparing to leave his post and aid the evacuation with Einzershalt, the pilot was stopped at the sight of an individual.

A knight in blue, wielding a spear and bearing the crest of the Sarier family.

He asked one question.

“Who were you shooting at?”

The monster could sense it. Though it had no eyes, no ears, no nose, no brain, no heart, no blood, its collective consciousness, composed of millions of individuals, could sense that what fell into its embrace was something that could help it. It hungered for a life that was purer than what it had tasted thus far, and, though the mismatched being wasn’t exactly what it desired, the amorphous rift-beast could tell that it was closer.

As Araki fell into its body, the spread-out remains of the monster converged over the Crystala, forming a heavy, viscous bubble, intent on crushing the fleshy parts of the talentium lifeform through mass alone. Slowly, the spherical blob began to shrink, an audible hiss resounding as all the air and dirt that was inside was pushed outwards.

---

Nodding at the pair and hopping into the cockpit of the winged airship, Escellar righted his hat, wrapped a green scarf around his neck, and then called out, “Alright ladies and gentlemen, stay grouped up, keep the message relay consistent, and let’s start hunting! Aelitha, do the thing, if you please.”

Without a word, the fire mage placed her hands into two separate compartments within the secondary dashboard. A click could be heard, as the small anchors that grounded the airship were released, and it slowly began to float upwards. After it reached three stories high, a hiss could be heard as its tarpaulin wings spread out fully, held taut by magically reinforced wood. With a wing length that made it look more like dragonfly than any sort of majestic bird, it accelerated abruptly as hot flames ejected from behind it. Blue flames burned, leaving a hot trail as the airship cut through the sky, Captain Escellar tossing in a few sharp curves and turns just to elicit a few cheers from the mob surrounding the group.

Down below, a mage said rather plainly, “Aelitha told me to tell you all that Escellar is telling you to start heading out. He’ll be going to scout ahead.”

Lucius made some sort of annoyed grunt at how overloaded that sentence was, but was, nevertheless, the first of the Sword Skills users to head out the broken ruins of the entrance.

A low growl rumbled from Araki’s throat unconsciously and the hybrid didn’t even notice, busy as he was with finding a situation to his most precarious position. He could feel whatever had trapped him moving, see the oncoming mass gathering towards him. If it couldn’t crush him, the ‘slime’ would certainly be able to choke the life from him. Claws that would have let Araki rend steel with his magic were useless against the viscous being that trapped him, tearing away little flecks at most and simply parting the creature’s amorphous body most of the time. Tearing away at its physical form seemed useless in his position, and Araki hesitated only for a moment before he gambled.

While Araki now shaped his magic after releasing it in its pure form, he also knew how to bottle it up. Where he poured magic off him in thick veil of green tinged vapour, it now gathered into a volatile mass within. Released the magic would dissipate harmlessly into his surroundings if Araki failed at molding or working with the energy. Stored, compressed, and packed as he did so now made the gathered energy unstable - deadly. Failure to maintain it would result in a release of energy… into the only available medium - namely Araki’s own body. Nowadays he had little use for such a method of gathering as his buffing magic needed a lower, more steady output rather than the powerful bursts his more destructive spells of the past. Still… just because he couldn’t form the raw magic into something more refined didn’t mean he had lost the ability to gather it in such a way.

It had taken a moment, a mere heartbeat or two, but Araki’s body shook uncontrollably at the sheer amount of magic that had been drawn and contained. It was not his full reserves, Araki wasn’t that foolish, but it was a sizeable amount. Enough to fry a lesser mage if forced in without control. Against a creature that couldn’t even use magic? Past attempts had told Araki the results were often messy and ranged from brutal to just downright horrific.

Aside from the unneeded cruelty, there were other reasons why Araki didn’t bother with such a tactic. One was that it required physical contact while another would be the innate resistance bodies had against magic being forced within. Of course, said resistance only made the magic more volatile when it was forced through, but the added bonus didn't lessen the difficulty. Frankly, it was much easier for him to simply refine all that energy into something just as lethal, but infinitely more practical. Well... it had been while Araki had the ability to shape his magic in such a manner. Now, this was the only real way he could use his stores offensively, crude as it was. Hopefully, this didn’t backfire in his face; though with his track record so far, it likely would. Such doubts were behind him though, and with a grimace he guided his magic outward.

He could feel the barely restrained magic rush through his limb at the hint of release. It was not a pleasant experience for Araki to feel such a great deal of power flow through that one limb, and he could only hope the sensation was infinitely worse for the creature. His claws glowed almost blindingly as they poured, forced, his magic directly into the creature. Highly concentrated and quickly given, the result was an emerald sphere no larger than his fist, but with seemingly infinite depth. It quickly fractured though, its bright glow flickering erratically as the energy unraveled and destabilized. The energy would spread, all while rejecting this foreign shell that tried to hold it without Araki’s direction, and do so in a most violent way. Unless the creature was simply beyond him, then even devouring or absorbing the volatile sphere of energy should take time. Time that would allow the reaction to run rampant and damage the creature.

Nephenee was attending to Chad with Mr. Abe. He was alive, thank god, but the Mauritanian maid could tell her old acquaintance was in serious shape. She was no combat medic, but she knew enough of medicine that his arm was broken and his ribs likely in a similar condition. With Jeremy Eiberzental – who preferred to be called informally as Abe—the pair was able to get Chad up and his arms around their shoulders to get away from the hellish battle that Yazu continued to conduct. But they had barely moved a meter when it hit.

The first shot came expected, but unexpected nonetheless.

It soundlessly sailed over their heads.

It missed, by some miracle, hitting the ground some meters away in a deafening explosion. The shockwave that followed nearly knocked Lyra off her feet. She could hear nothing but the ringing of her ears, and knew with a grim realization that the shots were likely supersonic.

The second shot fell closer to Lyra, and she could feel the sheer depressive power of each shot even through the relative safety of her shields. She heard nothing, but she saw –it had struck Yazu dead on. But she didn’t have time to confirm her death.

The third fell from the heavens, true to its aim. It struck the center of the battleground with a terrifying force, piercing through Lyra’s powerful areal shield like a knife cutting through butter.

The fourth came forth at a shallow angle, like a cruise missile, destroying what the third had not. But Lyra didn’t know it as fact, for she was tumbling through the forested area, courtesy of the explosion of the third lance.

The battle was ended. The participants no longer existed, eviscerated by the sheer impact force of the lances, like tungsten dropped from space.

-

Lyra awoke to the unpleasant taste of blood, dirt, and leaves in her mouth. She founder herself face-down on the ground, crumpled near a tree in an unflattering position. Sitting up against the tree, she spit out the unholy concoction as she attempted to get her bearings. Lyra came to realize that she was covered in a fair bit of blood, but she wasn’t particularly injured –save for the nasty spill she took—and she could only conclude it was somebody else’s. This was confirmed soon enough when she looked up at the tree, which was met in matrimony with the pulped corpse of a person.

“Ah...”

She was very lucky to be alive, and Lyra faltered a bit when she saw this. She could only hope the person was killed instantly by the blast and was not a victim of Yazu, dying in agony before the cursed influence of the elf.

Lyra knocked herself out of her own daze as she realized she was still very much in an active situation. She could see she was about ten to fifteen meters away from where she originally stood. Fallen trees obscured the area in which the battle occurred, but there was no doubt that anybody in the radius of those attacks did not survive. Further down the slope was what seemed to be the sole surviving trio of the fight –Chad, Nephenee, and Abe. They were resting against a tree, which seemed to have provided sufficient defilade against the attacks for them to survive. But there were at least four survivors, and there were only four shots. The enemy garrison was clearly after her as the centerpiece of the raiding party, but the ungodly powerful attacks had subsided. Why did they stop?

As Lyra pondered this, something in the background of the mountain ranges caught her eye. It was the capital city of Astopol, Koestace. But it wasn’t the city that was alarming, but a large, moving object some distance away from it. A massive rift-beast. She now understood why the attacks had stopped. Their assault on the prison was but a trifling matter compared to such a beast. Dealing with it was far more important than making sure some heretic was kept locked up in jail.

The rift-beast was not in a distance to affect them yet and Lyra and whatever was left of her group was no longer a priority for the Astopolian garrison. Despite the setbacks, despite their losses, and despite the gruesome deaths, Lyra realized they might actually have a chance at accomplishing their original goal.

Lyra dusted herself off and pulled the twigs stuck to her hair away. Nephenee’s little group was in no shape to continue, so she suggested for them to return to the airship crash site, with the expectation that any other potential survivors would do the same.

She would continue on and attempt to find Rilolia and Vance, and decide what to do from there.

Riley was on shaky legs, well, not that it really mattered. Her flying lesson with Fion had been short, with them only having about ten minutes before being ordered to leave by the Captain. It was this very reason that she stayed closer to the ground, if not near enough that she could have practically walked there. Still, she was keeping up speed with those on horses, and after a while, was beginning to outpace them. This... isn't too hard, actually.

The displaced witch was surprised at how naturally this was coming to here, and wondered with how much tutoring it would take before even more elemental -- and hell, even that healing magic she had tried to work earlier -- would come to her. Not much, if her flying capabilities were to be believed. Even more amazing were this body's channels for magic. While it was harder for Riley to cast the mana out compared to her more natural form, the force of will required meant she was working at the same capacity as before without using the amount of mana that it normally required her to. She was absolutely baffled.

"Oi, Fion. You keeping up alright?" Of course, despite the improvements, Riley wasn't exactly brave enough to fly without somebody to catch her.

Fion frowned as he looked up at Riley from atop his horse, taking the reins with only one hand as he did so. If he was honest, he hadn't thought flying would have come so easily to the half-witch in a man's body. Before this, Riley had never even tried casting elemental magic before, at least according to his memory. Then again, Horace had told him that witches were at least capable of casting it, albeit at reduced effectiveness compared to a human or an elf. So that left one of two reasonable assumptions: Was Eldren's body just that highly attuned to elemental magic? Or was Riley just some kind of magical prodigy? Or maybe both?

Of course, each assumption lead to its own set of questions. If Eldren had been so skilled with magic already, then why the hell did he need Riley's body? Did having a half-witch's body give him that much of an increase in his magic? And if that bastard in her body had been able to conjure up such a terrifying maelstrom back at the Burrow, what would his elemental magic have been like without being blunted by the witch blood in Riley's veins? Or did being partially human negate that effect?

"Oi, Fion. You keeping up alright?" 'Eldren' called up from above.

"I'm fine. Just make sure you don't run out of mana and fall from the sky, alright? Would be a pain trying to catch you with only one arm, Eldren." He responded lazily, even as his mind brimmed with questions. Bloody hell, everything was so much simpler a few days ago.