Into the spirit world
Emery set Dante up off to the side and tore a piece of her dress off and pressed it onto the bullet wound. "Fuck, we need to get him out of here, before he bleeds out or Dad finds us." she hissed quietly, "Dante, we need to move you." She warned before pulling his arm around her shoulders and guiding the wounded spirit quickly away, Valient hurrying ahead of them. 'Where are the others? Where is Kuro? We shouldn't have been that easily seen with everyone scrambling to escape. Unless... this was planned. Somehow, he knew they would attempt a rescue and he watched for us. Fuck! This whole thing was a trap. the question, how did he know?' she wondered, leading him into a side room. "Fuck! This whole thing has gone to shit. Dante, do you have some way of contacting everyone else?" Emery asked the demon and Dante nodded, looking dazed for a moment, before pulling a mirror out of his pocket and pressing it into her hands. Valiant came over and took Emery's spot putting pressure on the wound as the older girl stood with the mirror. It was a spirit mirror, you could find one on almost every spirit and they worked as their cellphone. She hummed a tune, channeling a portion of magic into the device and it flickered to life, "Can anyone hear this? Someone come in!" She called before an image fo Kuro filled the mirror, "Emery? What are you doing on Dante's Mirror?" he asked, confused and worried. She scowled, "Dad shot Dante, got him in the shoulder. We're hiding in a side room down one of the northern hallways right now, but I can't tell how long we'll be safe before Dad or his goons find us. Careful, all of the maids, butlers and their spirits are trained killers and are super loyal to Dad." She warned. Kuro nodded, "Alright, I'm on my way. We'll focus on getting you and your sister out of there before we focus on Lord Ignatius. Stay hidden, we're on our way." then the mirror was blank and she was staring at her reflection. She sighed and went back over to her sister and spirit, taking her gun out and checking the ammunition, before taking a guard point by the door. 'It's going to be a long night.' she thought with a sigh.
It wasn't much longer when footsteps were heard out in the hall, long after everyone had left. Emery stood up quickly, motioning for Valient to stay quiet. Emery hid out of sight and waited for whoever it was to pass, before stepping out into the hallway quickly, ready to shoot, only to come face to face with a familiar winged spirit, "Holy shit, Krow. You scared the shit out of me."She hissed. Kuro smirked, "Sorry." He said, clearly unapologetic, "Come on. Your Father has been captured and restrained. We need to get Dante out and to a healer quickly before he bleeds out." He continued, entering the room, "I'll open a portal to the palace and we can get him help quicker." Emery nodded and stepped forward, "Can you take this off first? He placed this on me when I first arrived and melted it closed." She asked and Kuro nodded, confused. He gently took her wrist in his hand and melted the band open. She nodded her thanks and tossed the remains of the cuff off into a corner, before turning back to Dante and helping him up. The demon was alive but had long since passed out from blood loss and pain. Emery had a theory that the bullet had been laced with iron. She made sure her grip on the demon prince was solid, before turning to Kuro who nodded and opened the portal, which spanned a distance of 4 ft wide and a height of 6ft tall and glowed a blue color. Kuro entered first, followed by Valient then Emery followed with Dante. Right as they passed through, however, Dante muttered something in her ear. She furrowed her brow as she tried to figure it out, only to pale at the sight on the other side. She had figured out what he had said, Dante had whispered, "Not Kuro."
The false Kuro had opened a portal straight into an ambush, likely allies called by her father. Emery, Dante, and Valient were surrounded by a dozen or so Knights of the Sun Empire. The false Kuro stood smirking at the front before his form seemed to rippled and vanish and a blonde-haired blue-eyed male dragon spirit stood there, the glinting gold band on his brow clueing her in that it was the rumored Prince Ash. "To what do we owe the misfortune of you attempting to capture us?" She asked snidely, only for a deep scowl to form on her face as her father stepped out from behind one of the pillars, "Of course, you couldn't get to us before, it was too dangerous, so you called in some help. Coward." She hissed. The man smirked, "Of course, those wicked beings took you from me and brainwashed you against me. I'm just a human, what can I do against a rebel group of spirits?" He asked and she grit her teeth in response. 'So, that's how he wants to play.' she hissed mentally, before easing Dante down. "Valient come here." She ordered quietly and Valient rushed over and held the piece of cloth against Dante's wound while Emery took a deep breath to clear her head. Fury and indignation filled her and was clouding her judgment. She needed a clear head if she was going to get the three of them out of there safely. She mentally went through her list of songs, trying to find one that would fit and help her get them out of their situation. Technically, she didn't need to sing, but it wasn't as focused or strong, it tended to be all over the place and spastic and she couldn't afford that right now, on the off chance she accidentally hurt her sister and Dante.
She tilted her head, "Tell me, are you aware of just whom you've so foolishly captured?" she wondered, honestly curious as to whether or not they had asked questions or if they had taken her father's word at face value. "We've caught the youngest daughter of Lord Ignitious, a rebel leader and my brainwashed fiance." He answered. This made Emery freeze, "Sorry, just who is your fiance?" she asked in a sense of false calm. "You are my lovely fiance, my parents and your father signed a marriage agreement just two weeks ago." He informed her, a sense of smugness about him, "You're going to be one of my mistresses." Emery felt the negative emotions from earlier grow into something nasty and dark. "Sorry, he what? Marriage contract, you say?" she responded in disbelief, giving a shocked laugh. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment, before letting it out, "I haven't legally been an Ignitious since I was twelve. That bastard back there disowned me because he believed I had no bound Spirit. I've been Emery Stone since I was 13 when I met Queen Willow. He legally can not arrange any marriages for me." She hissed, her eyes glinting in anger. Her father faked a sob, "Oh, my poor daughter. They made her believe those years spent in boarding school was me disowning her. The poor girl's put under so many delusions!" he cried. She grit her teeth, "So, you want to play? Let's play." She hissed, her self control snapping. A tune popped into her head and she smiled, 'how fitting.' Her father immediately knew something was off as he began to back away. "Hey, you want to know what that cuff was that I had you take off earlier?" She asked lightly, before her smile took a dark twist, "It was a magic dampener." She sneered.
She started to sing something from a Nu-metal band she had heard on Bluetube that started energetically rather than started slow then became energetic as most other songs did. The gathered knights and the Prince looked at her like she was crazy, while Dante merely wrapped an arm around Valient to protect her just in case. As she sang, the fire from the nearby torches grew to monumental sizes and turned a rich blue before flying off and surrounding her and the two she was protecting. Immediately, the prince retreated and the knights drew arms. She smirked and with a simple thought, several large fireballs were flying at them, many of the knights merely tried to deflected before failing, and turning into charred remains where they had stood. The others actively tried to avoid the fireballs, busy trying to protect themselves to pay any attention to her or the two behind her. when the chaos finally finished, they noticed the music had disappeared, and so had their prisoners. Prince Ash was not happy, "Find them! NOW!" He snarled, the remaining flames jumping at his yell, and the remaining knights scrambled to follow the order.
Dante had managed to open a portal during the confusion, despite his injuries. Unfortunately, however, it wasn't very far, only to a forest nearby. Emery huffed from exertion as she got him away from the castle, which thankfully was a decent distance away. They walked for a distance more, before finding a cave off the path and getting him over to it. After setting him down, Emery hummed a tune and had vines and bushes grow and cover the opening before turning back to the other two. "Fuck me!" She hissed in fury, "What the hell!" She punched the cavern wall in her anger, bloodying her knuckles and fracturing the stone. Emery took a deep breath and assessed their situation. Valient was tired and covered in scratches, her hair was a mess, her dress had small rips and she had lost her shoes at some point, but their bag was still on the little girl's back. Dante looked horrible. He was paler than normal, his shirt was soaked and stained from his blood, he looked like he was about to pass out, and she could tell he was in a lot of pain. She didn't look too hot herself, her hair had long fallen, she was dirty and covered in cuts and scrapes, her dress was ripped and she had long since ditched the heels. Dante pulled his mirror out and weakly called Queen Willow.
"Dante? Where are you? We've been looking everywhere for you and the girls. Lord Ignitious escaped, we think he's here in the spirit world." Queen Willow exclaimed worriedly. "It's... a long story, one we'd be happy to tell once we're safe. Dante was shot and he's getting weak from the blood loss. We ran into Lord Ignitious. He ran to Emporer Johann for asylum and aid. Ash illusioned himself to look like Kuro and lured us into a trap. I caused a distraction and Dante just barely managed to portal us to the forest near the palace. Right now, we're in a cave a decent distance away, but he needs a healer, quick. I don't think he'll last much longer without one." Emery explained in a rush. Queen Willow nodded, a grim look on her face, "I'll try to get Kuro and Osirin out there to get you three. Stay safe." And then the screen went blank, showing she had hung up. Valient bit her lip, having stayed silent this entire time. "Emery?" She called quietly, catching her sister's attention. Emery looked over to her, her harsh look smoothing out and a soft look was aimed at the smaller girl. "I'm sorry, Valient, I haven't even thought about how you must be doing in all this." Emery apologized, giving the girl her full attention. "Um, I'm fine, a little scared, and shaken, but I'm fine, physically at least. I was just wondering if you could use your magic to heal him?" She asked and Emery gave a look of shock, before frowning, "I can't use healing magic on a wound like this. The bullet had been iron, and spirits are allergic to iron, it cancels out 90% of all magic it comes into contact with. Dante should have healed by now, but since he hasn't then that means the bullet was iron. Thankfully it went all the way through, but I'm pretty much useless as a medic of any sort right now." Emery explained. Valient opened her mouth to reply but a twig snapped outside, hushing all three of them as they froze, adrenaline, and fear filling them.
Someone was outside.