Annabelle saw a fireball shoot out from a rooftop. Though she couldn't see Darius, she knew he fired the blast from his wand. It was aimed in front of the guard formation, keeping Annabelle out of the blast radius.

Annabelle covertly utilized a telekinetic blast to launch the soldiers in front of her forwards towards the impact. The explosion killed them all, and the lack of any visible aura prevented her from being the suspect.

Above, four Harpies dove towards Darius. Annabelle picked one of them and seized control of him.

Then, she used a combination of the Harpy's instincts, her own direct control, and some remote telekinetic maneuvering boosts boosts to have him kill two of his brethren, bisecting one with a boosted glaive swing and stabbing the other in the throat.

The last one managed to reach Darius, but he dodged their downward glaive swing. Annabelle then telekinetically slammed the Harpy downwards into the roof, and Darius finished her off before she could get up. The enemy still had no clue it was her doing.

"The gate's open!" A soldier yelled. "Get inside, now!"

Annabelle, Lorso, and Silence rushed through, alongside the Black Legion commander. As soon as they were through into the courtyard, the gate closed behind them.

Now, it was showtime.

"Are you sure he can't scale the walls?" Annabelle asked. She knew that Darius could scale it, but did they know he could?

"I know he can," the commander replied. "I'm counting on it." She drew her weapon, a spear with a folding handle and a glowing red tip.

Then, she aimed the spearpoint at Annabelle, and blasted a beam of fire out of the staff.

Annabelle was taken by surprise. Her Aegis kicked in, and a magical barrier manifested around her, shielding her from the blast. She still felt some of the heat, but any serious damage was prevented.

"Plan Alpha," The commander ordered. "Take that one alive," -she pointed at Annabelle- "kill the others."

So, they had known she would arrive, and had set a trap for them.

Well, there was no point in hiding her identity. She gave a mental command to the Agent's Aegis to revert her back to her original form, and tried to ignore her shifting flesh as she gave her ultimatum. She also surrounded herself with a glowing purple aura for effect.

"I am Annabelle Lee," Annabelle declared. "I give you one chance. Surrender now, and you will live. Fight us, and you will die."

She wasn't sure if anyone listened. To add to her point, she demonstrated on the enemy commander. She made a pointless hand motion for effect, as she slammed the commander into a nearby wall with an incredible telekinetic force. Then, with her other hand, she grabbed her Arcane Bolter out of her bag of holding, aimed it, and fired several shots into the commander as she recovered from the impact.

Beside her, Lorso shot into the air, and surrounded herself in an aura of fire. Her clothing burned off, only to reveal her usual short dress and gloves underneath it.

I feel like that's why you were overheating earlier, Annabelle sent. Wearing two layers of clothes.

This dress is enchanted to be fireproof, Lorso replied. Otherwise I'd end up naked after every fight.

Lorso engaged the soldiers on the citadel's walls, blasting them with fireballs and fire beams.

Meanwhile Annabelle saw the Black Legion commander get back up. Silence immediately jumped on her, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her head into a building. But she held onto her spear, folded its handle to reduce its length, and stabbed Silence in the chest. The spearpoint went through like a hot knife through butter, and Silence jolted backards.

The... spearpoint is superheated, Silence told the group. It melted my defenses.

Wait, Circe's here? Darius realized.

Circe? Annabelle asked.

Circe Fire-Spear, Daraken's second-in-command and lead military advisor. Known for having a spear that is essentially a pyromancer's staff modified for her use. If she's here personally, it means Daraken's success is practically assured.

How so?

Daraken wouldn't risk his second-in-command unless he was assured of success.

Daraken doesn't know his trap's going to backfire, Annabelle replied. Or maybe he did know, and knew that she would fail.

Circe then hit Silence with another fire beam. Annabelle quickly stepped to the side of Silence and fired several bolts at her to force her to evade, but she still inflicted serious damage. Silence slumped over, dropping to one knee.

I need to support Silence. Annabelle, Darius, take the walls.

Can you give me flight again? Annabelle asked.

I'd need to touch you to bestow it.

Never mind then. She didn't need magic to get height, after all. Though it would certainly give her a significant maneuverability edge.

She jumped, and channeled telekinesis to throw herself into the air in a ballistic arc.

Just after she went airborne, the curse struck. Annabelle's entire mind was overcome, and for a brief instant, it was all she could do to resist.

Did you really expect this to work? a voice said in Annabelle's mind. I've analyzed all possible futures. You succeed in none of them.

Annabelle didn't respond, and instead fought back the curse's effects, keeping it contained. She managed to push it out of her mind just in time to brace for impact. She landed hard, but she landed on the walls.

She was slow to get up, which gave the soldiers an opportunity to fire on her. Her Aegis flared up, and blocked most of the incoming bolts, but one got through, penetrating her skin and puncturing a lung. Did Daraken even want her alive?

The curse throbbed in the back of Annabelle's mind. Though she had managed to replace the arcane energy sealing it away with her own psychic effort, it required constant focus to maintain. If she lost focus, she would fall.

So far, everything was going according to plan. She had forced Daraken to use his curse, and now all she had to do was turn it against the city. But, she underestimated the difficulty of that maneuver. She needed a significant amount of time to focus to hit the entire city with a telepathic burst, and she couldn't concentrate on that until the nearby threats were eliminated.

She manifested a kinetic barrier to block further fire, then took down enemy soldiers with a combination of Arcane Bolter fire and throwing them off the walls with telekinesis.

Near the gates, Darius climbed over the top of the walls and took out the remaining soldiers with a combination of stabbing and knife throwing, then fired a barrage of homing magic bolts past Annabelle and into a group of approaching Harpies.

Right, Harpies. Annabelle sent orders to the Harpy she had control of to join the battle in the air, but he had slipped out of her control when she was distracted.

Annabelle ripped the bolt out of her chest with one hand, while switching her Arcane Bolter out for a healing orb out of her bag with the other. She gasped for air briefly, before slamming the orb into her chest, shattering it and causing its healing magic to close the wound.

She then jumped back down into the courtyard, landing with a small shockwave as she nullified her impact force.

To her left, a fully-healed Silence ripped Circe's spear out of her hands, then snapped her neck. Lorso dropped down to pick up the spear, which began to glow red-hot in her hands.

Yeah, try to burn my hands off. I'm immune to fire, my gloves are immune to fire, and my hands don't feel anything anyways. Lorso was still surrounded in an aura of fire, but was clearly unharmed.

I can fix that problem, Darius offered.

Except it's not a problem.

Lorso raised her new staff to the sky, and fired a red burst of magic upwards that coalesced into a wall of fire. Or, more accurately, a ceiling of fire, covering the entire courtyard from above. The Harpies would not be able to get through.

A hole briefly opened up in the wall, as Darius used one of his wands to dispel a section for long enough to slip through.

Finally, a chance to focus. Annabelle focused inward, focusing the energy necessary for a psychic burst capable of distributing Daraken's curse across the entire city. But the more she focused on gathering energy, the less she was able to protect herself against the curse. A bit of it slipped through her defenses, and she lost focus on the burst to defend against it.

She made another attempt, but the same thing occurred. She couldn't unleash a psychic blast while suppressing the curse at the same time.

Your resistance is impressive, Daraken said in her mind. But you cannot defeat this curse. I am the strongest archmage, and even I will need several hours to dispel this curse later. You will not be able to resist for much longer.

What do you want? Daraken was almost certainly intelligent enough to not waste time gloating, so he had to have something to gain. But Daraken did not reply. Maybe he was just trying to intimidate her and make her defenses waver.

On the other side of the citadel, a door slammed open, and a stone golem marched through. Behind it stood an apprentice of Daraken (judging by the black coat, mask, and magic staff), accompanied by a division of heavily-armored elite soldiers.

Lorso immediately jumped into the air and launched a fireball with one hand, followed by a fire beam from her spear/staff. The apprentice countered both attacks easily, intercepting the fireball with a blue bolt of magic that caused it to disappear, then countering the beam with a magical barrier.

Then, the ceiling of fire above them dissipated, leaving them vulnerable to the Harpies from above.

Something dispelled it, Lorso claimed, even though the apprentice didn't seem to do anything. She continued to assault the apprentice, but he effortlessly blocked Lorso's barrage before retaliating with a blast of black lightning that almost knocked Lorso out of the sky.

Silence charged forwards and engaged the golem. The golem had a size, strength, and durability advantage, but Silence had an edge in speed and skill. He outmaneuvered the golem's sluggish blows, and each of his own chipped away at its body. But the infantry moved up to support him, and their polearms let them strike around the golem to hit Silence several times and drive him back.

Darius drew another wand and fired magic missiles at the Harpies, attempting to fend them off. But though he brought down one, there were at least a dozen more above them, and they began to dive in.

Her allies were failing. Annabelle needed to do something, somewhere, to turn the tides.

She launched a mental attack against the enemy apprentice. As she expected, he had a significant amount of mental resistance, and she couldn't seize control of him without a significant fight.

However, as much as it would be fun to take control of an enemy mage, Annabelle had a simple way to end the fight. She opened a tiny hole in her mental defenses, letting some of the curse's energy slip out, and then propelled it through the telepathic channel and into the apprentice's mind, shooting a stream of red energy into him. He immediately fell unconscious, just before Lorso blasted him with a beam of fire. Oddly, the beam burned his coat to ash, but left his naked body unharmed.

Focus the harpies, Annabelle ordered. Silence was overmatched, but he was the toughest member of the team by far. He could hold his own on the ground and keep the soldiers and golem at bay, but the rest of them weren't going to last very long unless they took the Harpies down.

The Harpies dove down to engage. Lorso shot towards their formation and overcharged her personal fire aura, turning it an explosive nova that blasted five Harpies out of the air.

Darius and Annabelle used knives and Arcane Bolter shots to take down three, and Annabelle slammed two more into the ground. But one of the reached her, impaled her straight through the shoulder with her glaive (punching right through her Aegis' defenses), then ripped the blade out as he returned to the air, leaving a massive wound. A spray of blood shot out from the wound, which Annabelle immediately stopped with a kinetic barrier.

The plan was to take her alive? Why were they-

The wound almost distracted her enough to cause her to lose control of the curse. She caught it just before it overcame her, but lost focus on her kinetic barrier, letting another burst of blood spray out.

Daraken must have planned for this. It was a lose-lose situation. Either she attempted to suppress the wound and fell to an unblocked curse, or focused on the curse and lost enough blood to black out.

Luckily, she still had access to healing. She attempted to draw a healing orb out of the bag with telekinesis, before remembering that the bag's magic didn't respond to psionics. She struggled to reach a hand in, but managed to pull out a healing orb and slam it against her chest again. It wasn't enough to close the wound entirely, but it did significantly reduce the bleeding, enough to keep her going until Lorso could patch her up the rest of the way.

At least, if Lorso didn't die herself. She was currently engaged in an aerial duel with two bow-equipped Harpies, and seemed to be losing. The Harpies managed to dodge her attacks, and Lorso had several arrows in her from their attacks.

Silence was impaled through the back by a Harpy's glaive, but he turned it into an opportunity. He leaned back, ripping the glaive out of the arms of its wielder, then ripped it out of his back and used it as his own weapon. His wild swings were unable to cut through the soldiers' armor, but with his strength they still hit hard enough to knock them down, clearing openings that he was able to follow up on.

Darius was the only member of the group who seemed to be uninjured, using his fighting expertise to evade Harpies and bring them down with his knives.

The Harpy that had struck her earlier dived on her again. With one arm, she fired a single Arcane Bolter shot, a shot that the Harpy dodged.

With her other arm, she quickly drew her sword out of her bag of holding (which looked a bit odd, given that the sword was longer than the bag), and then used a kinetic boost to dash upwards, catching the Harpy by surprise with a sword swing that hit hard enough to split her skull open.

She took a glance around, and saw that most of their enemies had been defeated. Silence was now one-on-one against the golem, and even with his injuries he was still winning. There were only five Harpies in the air now.

Four, after Lorso blasted one of the archers with a beam of fire from her staff.

But then, the other archer landed a headshot on her.

Annabelle felt the hit through the telepathic network. Her consciousness faded, and she fell out of the sky.

Time seemed to slow for Annabelle as she realized what had happened. She was dead, and would likely require potent magic to bring back. Unless…

Annabelle acted on desperation. She caught the body with telekinesis, preventing it from being splattered on impact. Then, she dropped her sword, grabbed her third healing orb, and hurled it at Lorso's body. Her aim was off, but she corrected its course with a quick telekinetic shift, and it impacted.

The headshot was lethal, at least by traditional terms. But souls existed, and according to everything that she had heard, they could be used to resurrect someone who had died, if they were willing. Maybe, if she restored Lorso's brain fast enough, her soul wouldn't have enough time to leave her body.

She had seen something similar happen with the Elders' praetorian guard. A headshot dropped them, but they were loaded with nanobots, and if the rest of their body was not obliterated, their head would regenerate and they would reanimate. She thought it was the Elders seizing control of empty shells that no longer had a mind in them (similarly to how she could control the body of the brain-dead assassin earlier), but maybe they weren't empty shells after all.

If that's true, Annabelle realized, then we killed half a dozen soldiers through inaction. They had stolen the aliens' regenerative nanobots (and had somehow managed to modify them to work with human physiology, albeit with some side effects), but never thought to use them on soldiers that died to headshots. Maybe it wouldn't have worked, but they should have at least tried.

But this time, it worked. Lorso regained consciousness, and she began to stir. A Harpy noticed this and attempted to finish her off before she could get up, but Silence dashed over to her with an incredible speed and hit the Harpy with enough force to gib him. Annabelle thought she saw a yellow psychic aura around Silence's fist as he delivered the blow.

Then, the curse overcame her. In her rush to save Lorso, she had dropped her barriers for an instant too long. Her body collapsed, and everything went dark as her senses shut down.

But she did not lose consciousness. Similarly to how her body was affected by the neurotoxin even while her mind resisted, even as the curse locked down her physical body, her mind was unaffected.

For anyone else, this would be a fate worse than death, conscious but perceiving nothing for an indefinite period. But she still had psychic powers.

Now that the curse had already struck, she had no need to split her attention. She focused a massive amount of energy, and then released it in an uncontrolled psychic shockwave.

As it emanated out from her body, it took the curse with it. Annabelle snapped back into her body, as a red and purple wave emanated out in all directions, encompassing the whole city.

A Harpy fell out of the sky, landing with a thud. Luckily for her, the stasis prevented her from suffering the broken bones that such a fall would normally deliver.

The curse had enough energy to put one person in stasis for a hundred years. But after Annabelle's blast, the effect was now spread out across at least tens of thousands of people. They would likely only be in stasis for a few hours, maybe a day or two at most.

Somehow, Darius, Lorso, and Silence had avoided the effects. The stone golem was also unaffected, but given that Silence had smashed its limbs apart while Annabelle was in stasis, it could barely even move and posed no threat.

I leveraged the telepathic network to shield the others, Silence explained. I pulled the effect off of them and onto myself, and then resisted the effect myself.

Doesn't explain how you resisted it. Annabelle said. Silence didn't elaborate on his defenses.

"So, it is done," Darius said. He opened a communications channel to Sanctuary. "The operation is complete. We have successfully put the entire city to sleep."

"I don't have an entry point," Raiks replied. "I'll have to make the portal outside the city."

"Doesn't really matter. There's no opposition left."

"Understood. The portal will be opened in five minutes."

Annabelle felt the start of an exertion headache. She had spent a massive amount of energy releasing the psychic blast, and more in the previous fight. But it was done, and she would have plenty of time to recover.

-Incoming lethal threat. Sniper. Dodge.-

Annabelle received the premonition, and dodged on instinct, throwing herself to the side, barely dodging a high-speed projectile. If not for the premonition, she would have been obliterated. Even with it, the projectile still hit the ground hard enough to cause a small explosion, blasting her to the ground.

She looked up, trying to spot the source of the orbital strike, but couldn't see anything.

"Get inside!" Annabelle ordered, as she jumped to her feet and made a dash for the citadel. The others weren't far behind.

She attempted to contact Sanctuary to warn them of the threat, but got no response. Something was jamming their comms.

There was only one plausible culprit.

Daraken was here.