The party stormed out of the inn, accompanied by a handful of soldiers that the Captain had assigned to guide them. Glissandi winced as the residue of another magical assault blasted past her. If she could feel it that clearly despite all the obstacles between their them and their target, the enemy had to be a powerful spellcaster. Dangerously powerful.

She turned towards the Paladin who was running alongside her, somehow managing to simultaneously sprint and hold her weapons up. "Our enemy is a mage," she panted. "A powerful one."

"That was fairly obvious since you had to remove a curse that finely crafted," the Paladin grunted in response.

Glissandi frowned and felt a stab of jealousy at the Paladin's ability to run at that speed without it affecting her. As much as the prospect disgusted her, she had a dire need of physical training to improve her stamina. "I know, but I can feel the spells from here. And there are a lot of obstructions in the way!"

Lissa turned her helmeted head towards the Priestess and let her eyes rest on the younger woman's face for a moment before nodding solemnly. "I understand." The Paladin snapped her eyes forward again and she shouted at Trista, who had taken the lead. "Trista! Anti-mage tactics!"

Trista gave no sign that she had heard anything, but Lissa seemed satisfied. Glissandi couldn't help but wonder if the Knight was a statue given life, considering the lack of emotion the woman displayed.

Lissa turned towards Glissandi again. "Do you have any combat experience, Priestess?" she asked. She turned and gave a sharp gesture to the soldiers running alongside them, making them expand their circle around them.

"Not as much as I'd like, and all of it training," Glissandi admitted, "but I am capable and I won't panic. You can rely on me."

"We will need to. Especially the twins, Trista and I can deflect a fair bit and our armour heightens those abilities, but the girls do not have the same defense, and they are too brash for their own good at times."

Twin groans indicated that the twins had heard the comment, despite the entire conversation happening at a rapid pace.

The group ran into a far larger contingent of the city's militia and within a few moments the party was locked well inside the centre, earning them a positive grunt by Lissa. The Empire trained their militias well, which was a rarity for forces assigned to cities. A lightly armoured, unarmed man made his way through the small army and took position next to Trista, whom the man assumed to be in command. "Ma'am, I'm Gerald, commander of the mages, who ever it is we're fighting, they're good. My colleague that sent the flare is dead. Bitch all but disintegrated him. We were linked when it happened."

Glissandi looked at the man and saw two seas of red dance around him. Anger and grief filled him almost entirely, the two emotions enforcing one another.

"Do not worry, Gerald, we will return the favour. The Lord is with us," she reassured him.

The mage looked towards the Priestess and nodded, the desire for vengeance burning in his eyes. "Take care Priestess, our target uses weird attacks. No conventional blasts of fire or torrents of air. However she's fighting, my colleague had never seen anything like it."

Glissandi nodded in response and embraced her magic deeper, sending out threads to weave a net around her party as her eyes lit up. Whatever may come their way, she'd be ready for it.

The next few minutes were spent running in relative silence, with the soldiers at the front shoving the people on the streets out of the way and clearing the road for the group. Glissandi found herself panting more rapidly and Lissa threw her a worried look. "Are you rested enough?" the Paladin asked.

"Not used to running. Not part of our training. Plan to amend that in the future. Horse riding too." Glissandi sent a trickle of magic through her veins and she felt her fatigue slip off her. By the Lord, when all of that caught up with her she'd end up sleeping for a week! That spell only delayed the inevitable.

Trista, who had manoeuvred herself to the front of the small army, slid to a halt and made a cutting gesture with her sword and spoke a single word. "Trouble." It carried enough authority to make the front of the group come to a dead stop, the men behind the first lines running into those ahead of them before everyone managed to stop.

Ahead of them was a shield-wall, formed by more militia-men. The small shields they wielded made it clumsily looking, but the spears were held with grim determination, and the crossbows poking over the top looked threatening. The men covered the entirety of the street.

Gerald went to the front and passed Trista, ignoring her hurried gesture to stay behind her. The shield-wall was a good tactic, but not against a single foe. And they were facing the wrong way. They were facing her way.

"What are you men doing?" Gerald asked, pure consternation adoring his voice. He looked at the three dozen or so men blocking their way and ordered them to break up the wall. The men ignored him and stayed in formation.

Trista ducked behind her shield. "Get back!" she shouted. Gerald turned in confusion and the crossbows fired. The mage never had a chance, the bolts, fired from that close, ripped him to pieces. Other bolts struck the militia's lines, most of whom hadn't put their shields up. Those who had weren't much safer, however, as the bolts simply smashed through them. Over a dozen of the militia went down with gaping wounds. Several crossbowmen had shot at Trista, but both the shield and the woman behind it were made of sterner stuff and she held firm, the attacks bouncing off her shield.

The group stood still in utter confusion as the men behind the shield-wall started reloading their crossbows with as much speed as they could manage. Lissa wasn't as easily shocked as the militiamen however, and raised her sword.

"Charge them!" she shouted out.

The twins and Trista launched themselves from within the mass of bodies and threw themselves at the shield-wall, which tightened at the sight of three warrior women rushing their position.

"Priestess! Break that wall!" the Paladin commanded.

The Priestess, unaccustomed to the flow of battle, hopped to and lit up the air with a compressed ball of fire that she hurled towards the shield-wall. It overtook her comrades in the blink of an eye and smashed into the tight group, blasting them utterly apart and blinding everyone in the process.

Lissa, who had averted her sight as soon as she realised the Priestess was going with a fire spell, felt the heat wash over her and opened her eyes again, overseeing the carnage. Mina and Mira were huddled up behind Trista, a sensible move since the Knight was heavily armoured. Trista herself was fine, her large shield held up as a massive barrier between her and her target. Then her eyes wandered to the shield-wall. Or rather, what was left of it.

The entire group had been simply obliterated. Glissandi's spell had hit them dead centre and exploded upon contact. Those closest to the impact had simply been evaporated, and the heatwave had blown the rest in every direction. It was a brutal, simple and efficient spell. The girl hadn't exaggerated her abilities.

She turned around and saw the militia still rooted in place. With Gerald's death and the sudden betrayal of their allies, shock reigned. She had to dispell that. She raised her sword again and let her voice thunder over them. "Ready yourselves! The enemy awaits!" Lord, giving speeches is not my thing, she thought.

It seemed to work, however. The men shook off their stupor and came to their senses.

"Good!" She could see the Weaver's Market in the distance, past the torn up street and the damaged buildings. Their quarry had to be clo—

"ATTACK" Glissandi shouted, her arms jumping forward as she hastily brought defenses up. Black streaks of magic flashed through the streets and splashed apart on the golden dome that the Priestess had erected in the centre of the street, sheltering those underneath it from harm. The militia outside its coverage were were less fortunate. The magical spears tore them apart. Where ever a man had taken even the smallest wound from the magic, his skin would turn black as tar, before it would rapidly spread across his entire body. The men near the afflicted jumped back, uttering curses as they witnessed their comrades die a horrible, painful death.

Lissa ignored all that however. Her attention was focused on a tall woman approaching them. Even with her limited ability she could see the air crackle around the woman.

Witch!

The woman appeared to be perfectly at ease and stopped a good hundred paces away from the group. Her features were surprisingly soft and she had a gentle smile playing about on her lips. Her long, black hair flowed behind her despite a lack of wind. In a way she seemed similar to the Priestess. Except for the eyes. Those were the complete opposite of Glissandi's. Were the Priestess' eyes turned into fountains of gold when she wielded her magic, the witch's eyes turned into pools of the darkest black.

The Paladin was surprised to feel a short tug on her arm and found Glissandi motioning to accompany her. The Priestess walked forward and the cluster of soldiers parted for her. Strangely enough Lissa felt less worried now. A battle-ready Priestess wouldn't fall prey to a surprise attack easily, be they physical or magical in nature. Not with the amount of defenses she had raised around her. If the air crackled around the witch, it all but thundered around the Priestess.

"You are the one who turned those soldiers, who hurt innocent children, and who basks in Darkness." Glissandi's voice rang out, serene and powerful. Lissa could feel how the men drew strength from that voice, standing up a bit straighter, faith filling their eyes.

The witch threw her head back and laughed. An eerily beautiful sound that made Lissa tense up and bring her own shield to bear. She could feel her instincts screaming at her that this woman was dangerous. She didn't find it strange that she thought of the witch as a woman, despite that the woman seemed even younger than Glissandi, who she thought of as a girl. After all, a girl didn't kill children.

"That I am," the witch taunted. "And what are you going to do about it?" she asked, her voice just as musical as Glissandi's.

Lissa could swear she felt the ground tremble underneath her feet as Glissandi raised a single arm towards the witch and her eyes lit up like suns.

"Well," the Priestess began, the air crackling loudly as an impossible amount of energy gathered around her.

"I am going to kill you."

And the world went white...