The feeling of a deep rooted dread was starting to resurface in Leona’s mind as they were leaving the capital. Krieg, Leona and Minerva were trekking through the snow while wearing properly made snowshoes from the merchant guild, a few meters behind them a pod carrying the trio of soldiers, Hank, Jill and Henry along with Athena's younger brother, Arthur. The three on foot were supposed to reach the cave sooner than the pod which was much slower than them due to the massive weight.

“Lady Elizabeth, how can you see in this darkness?”

Leona asked as she tried her best to see past the line that vanished into the storm in front of her. In front of her, the assassin led the group by tying a fishing line around her own waist which went all the way back to the pod in order for them to traverse through the snow plains.

“Once you get used to traveling on foot at night it becomes a simple task to go back the way you came.”

“I don’t think it’s quite that simple.” Krieg who was behind Leona held his unsheathed greatsword by the pommel while leaving the massive blade resting sideways against his right shoulder. “This requires great amounts of focus and knowledge.”

“I could say the same to you, knight. To tell the others that I should be the one leading the way.”

“A soldier’s intuition, if you will.”

Despite the bad visibility from the night and storm, they were making their way through the snow mostly fine thanks to Elizabeth’s navigational skills, enhanced warm drinks and new clothing as a gift of thanks from Jean.

Leona wore a dark green military uniform with the back of her hair tied up in a small high ponytail, she still had both steel gauntlets on for protection.

“Lady Elizabeth. How much longer until we reach that place?”

The tactician asked as she was about to pop open another can of warm drink. The container she held was vastly different from the ones she had before, the top of the can had a rotating spring while under it had a metal like needle.

“Not much longer. Save the warm drink for later if you’re thinking about using one.”

Leona slid the container back in her waist belt that carried two more of the same can. Despite being much colder than she was used to, thanks to the combination of good clothing insulation and the enhanced warm drink she felt only a mild discomfort in her exposed face as the storm’s frigid wind brushed against her nose.

Meanwhile behind her, Krieg was faring rather well for someone who just awoken recently from a month’s slumber, carrying some supplies in a rucksack over his left shoulder he was managing to keep up with the two of them without a problem. However what worried him was the state of his liege’s mind rather than the peculiar situation they were in.

Before they left, both him and Leona had a rather serious conversation at the gates of the capital.

“Krieg.”

The knight turned around to face her, she wore an unusually serious expression on her face.

“Yes?”

Fidgeting, she grasped the sides of her trousers as she spoke.

“I want to save Phoebe more than anything. I owe her a great deal for taking care of you and myself.” Her grip tightened around her clothes. Krieg could feel her tension as his own when she asked. “Do you trust in me?”

“I’d follow you to the ends of the world and back, just say the word and my blade is yours.”

Her head lowered for a second before she looked at him again with a sad smile.

“Thank you Krieg. It’s reassuring to have you at my side.”

Those were words he didn’t expect to hear anytime soon from someone he watched grow up under the loving care of her family. If circumstances allowed he’d protect her from everything the world could throw at him, but as things stood, he felt anger for not being there for the person that mattered the most to him.

“We’re here.”

Elizabeth’s voice brought him back to the present as his blade found purchase with the soft snow as he changed his stance with the greatsword just behind him. Despite the freezing cold, sweat was building up on Leona’s forehead as she took deep breaths to stabilize her already fast beating heart.

The cave was just a few steps ahead of them, Elizabeth had her left hand resting on the scabbard of her blade while her other hand reached for her back pocket in search of cigarettes. Leona unsheathed her silver longsword, her right arm was trembling from fear but it stopped once she held her own wrist with the left hand.

“Let’s go.” The tactician’s serious voice not only was to reassure herself of the upcoming battle but to also give courage to those two around her. “Our objective remains the same, save Phoebe and slay Jakob. Put your own lives above the mission, if you need to fall back just say the word.”

They both nodded before heading inside, Elizabeth led the group as she lit up her cigarette with a spark of lightning, she would occasionally let out a puff of smoke as it trailed back to the other two behind her. Krieg made sure to be in front of the tactician in order to protect her if anything was to attack them.

A few meters inside, there was a strange warm breeze accompanied by a foul stench of rotten flesh and blood. Leona instinctively recoiled from the unbearable odor.

“Keep breathing through your nose.” Elizabeth said. “You’ll get used to it eventually.” She tossed the cigarette aside and glanced over her shoulder as she walked. “So our main objective is to rescue your friend but after that I’m free to do whatever I want, correct?”

“Yes, but we’ll have Arthur ready at the entrance should we need to fall back. But I think they’ll need time to set up.”

“I’ll see if I don’t finish things up before that happens.”

They reached the end of the tunnel into the entrance of the former treasure room, there was a strange red tint to the interior and despite the lack of torches the eerie dim red glow was enough to allow them to see inside. Elizabeth knelt right beside the entrance and inspected the immediate vicinity.

“Where is Phoebe?”

Leona’s voice was filled with anxiety; her stomach felt like it was twisting on its own from the stress alone.

“Take it slow young lady.” The assassin warned her. “Any mistake now and we could end up dead or worse.” Her left hand brought the weapon’s handle in front of her as her other hand gently rested on it. “I’ll lead the way, stay up here with him and you should be fine.”

Inside of the spacious dome room was quiet, too quiet. Elizabeth knew it would only be a matter of time before she found her quarry. She slowly made her way down through the zig zagging ramp and as soon as she took a step on the ground floor she felt a sticky sensation grab lightly against the sole of her boots, it was congealed blood, already dry enough to not be a liquid but not enough to be completely solid.

‘Where would you be, Jakob?’

She thought for herself before hearing a slight gasp to the mountain of corpses on her left. Upon quickly turning around she noticed it was a high elf of black hair and deep blue eyes tucked amidst the countless bodies her breathing was ragged and weak. Once her mouth opened she was only able to mutter one short sentence.

“Behind- you!”

Elizabeth turned around her right side letting the centrifugal force unsheathe the blade halfway from the scabbard before she firmly grasped the handle, in a matter of milliseconds she focused her mana with pinpoint accuracy as she slashed the incoming corpse thrown her way with a thin light blue wave of mana.

“Ha! As expected from the King Slayer herself.”

The familiar voice came from somewhere to the east side of the room, once the assassin looked up she noticed the death angel was attached to the ceiling by the claws of its feet while using the uncut right snake arm as a ledge for the scientist to stay on.

“I found her!” Elizabeth shouted. “He’s up on the ceiling!”

Stepping in front of Krieg, Leona sharpened her mind to create the most deadly spell she could as both of her hands stayed on each side of her body.

“Flames of destruction heed my call, bring ruin to mine enemies, Fireball!” Spheres of fire appeared one on each hand as she sent both fiery projectiles forward with the aid of wind magic. Once he noticed the blue flickering light coming closer to where he was he jumped off towards the ground however the spells Leona had cast was much more potent than any she had used previously and once the spheres made contact with the stone wall they both erupted in a burst of vicious flames that engulfed the death angel. “Now is your chance!”

After quickly sheathing her sword, the assassin managed to pull the blood covered high elf out of the pile of corpses. However the moment Elizabeth lifted her she sensed something was wrong, the young woman that was supposed to weigh about the same as herself was much lighter.

“Nngh! Aaaaaaagh!”

Phoebe had both of her legs missing from the thighs down as if they were torn apart from flesh and bone.

“Goddess above…”

The assassin embraced her by supporting her back and hips with her forearms while each hand held a firm grip. In a split second she heard a growl coming from behind her and she dodged an attack from the death angel by sidestepping to her left which made the snake head embed itself against the pile of corpses in front of her. Without wasting any time she kicked the angel’s limb and used the momentum to run back up the zig zagging ramp. When she was about halfway to the exit, Jakob lunged from beneath in an attempt to strike at the assassin’s back only to be met by Krieg’s blade with a horizontal slash.

“Kuh!”

The knight managed to hit the man eater on the ribs and as the sword connected he stepped in to use his body weight canceling the abomination’s momentum mid air.

“Hmph!”

Using his strength, he managed to send Jakob flying right into the mountain of corpses below.

“Now Krieg!” Upon hearing Leona shout he tossed the greatsword back deeper into the tunnel and grabbed the burlap bag he held and pulled out a knotted sack. He rushed back to the dome room and tossed it upwards. “Winds of time, release thy might, Wind Blast!”

Her spell bursted the sack midair and it exploded in a cloud of flour powder. At that time Elizabeth ran past them carrying the high elf and kept running towards the exit of the cave. Krieg and Leona began to run behind the assassin.

Inside the treasure room, Jakob stood up from the pile of corpses with a nasty looking wound in between one of his ribs that began to regenerate.

“He is surprisingly powerful.” He muttered before taking notice of the fine powder that was settling in the room. “What is this…? Flour?” Once he noticed what it meant he shouted towards the death angel. “Protect me!”

Midway through the tunnel towards the exit of the cave, Leona quickly turned around and charged two different spells in each hand.

“Northern winds hearken to me, freeze those who oppose me…” Her left hand began to tremble as the spell was at its most powerful stage. However she stopped the previous chant and pointed her right towards the end of the tunnel. “Piercing Flame!” The moment she released the azure fiery lance she then swung her left hand upwards as she finished the chant of the previous spell. “-Ice Wall!”

A violent burst of ice spikes created a thick wall that covered the entire tunnel, but the moment she had released that spell her body felt spent as she was about to fall on her back Krieg managed to support her with his left arm.

“Hold on tight.”

He warned as he picked her up against his left chest and ran to the exit, a few seconds later the ground trembled as if an earthquake was happening, the tunnel began to collapse from the tremendous force released inside, the ice wall behind them were starting to crack and as both of them made it out of the tunnel a powerful gust of wind shot out rocks and debris with deadly speed, one almost hitting Krieg’s head but thankfully they managed to get out unscathed.

“Hah… ha…” Leona dropped right on the snow but disregarding the extreme headache she was feeling she turned to the knight. “See- see that she gets the proper treatment.”

Beside the entrance, Elizabeth was already giving first aid to the high elf who struggled to breathe. By tying both thighs tightly with a piece or rope, the assassin managed to stop the bleeding, but Phoebe’s face was already quite devoid of color.

“Knight!” She shouted. “Give me the mana shot!”

“On it!”

He took out a wooden box and smashed the lock with the tip of his greatsword, inside the simple container, there were three syringes similar to the warm drinks Leona carried on her hip but unlike them, the contents were light blue. Krieg passed one to her and Elizabeth injected Phoebe with the liquid on her thigh.

“Argh! Nngh!”

“Endure it!”

The high elf was clenching her teeth in pain but she nodded nonetheless. Shortly after the assassin took out a reinforced flask that contained a green liquid and tossed its contents all over her torn muscles in order to soothe the pain.

“Take her back to the pod, it should be arriving at any moment now…” Leona stood up only to almost fall again, luckily Krieg was beside her and supported her with his left arm. “We need to take care of-” As she was about to finish her sentence, the collapsed entrance exploded in debris and dust. Krieg readied his greatsword while standing in between Leona and whatever was about to come out of the cave. “Take Phoebe and leave!”

Her shout made Elizabeth flinch for a second before taking the high elf and running off. Leona took the other two syringes from the wooden box, injected one in her arm and tossed the empty needle on the snow, she then took out the warm drink and drank its contents before putting the extra mana shot in the belt. Her body felt like it was burning from inside out, she felt mana surge from within and the previous headache she had was already gone.

They heard footsteps coming out of the cave and Krieg turned his head slightly to his liege.

“Leona. No matter what happens, I trust you with each and every fiber of my being, just say the word and it’ll guide my blade.”

“Thank you Krieg.” She smiled briefly before changing her focus on the entrance of the cave. “Let’s put an end to this.”