A battle on two fronts

When Valentina peered over the top of the building, what greeted her eyes made her stomach drop. A bipedal leonine creature was fighting Lilli in a wide alleyway and corpses of the enemy raiders were scattered around like dead flies. What might have once been an ambush on the commander had left no survivors. All that was left was the monster but… it was no simple beast.

Valentina already had a good idea that the enemy here would be stronger, but when she saw it, understanding began to creep in and once again the broader picture was getting more and more terrifying. This monster wasn't just powerful; similar to the jubjub birds, what Lilli was currently fighting was from a race of creatures long since locked away in the Caverns of Infinity beneath the Theocracy. It had the potential to be a walking disaster.

The creature stood on two legs and with slightly stubby limbs, a pudgy belly, and a slightly oversized head; it had proportions similar to a toddler. However, unlike a toddler, it had coarse golden fur, the head of a lion, and it stood four metres tall.

The Archduchess scowled at the combatant as she wracked her memory for all the research she had done on legendary creatures. What stood there fighting was a titan. Considering it had animalistic features it ought to be a primordial titan as well, though considering its size, similar to the jubjub birds this appeared to still be immature. The creatures were known to range in size from the height of trees to small mountains, so encountering a four metre tall titan was honestly a relief.

The vampiress didn't jump into the fray immediately. Lilli had been fighting a while and certainly knew enough of its combat capabilities in order to hold her own for a bit longer. Valentina instead used this time to study her target and try to discern what exactly it was capable of.

Not only were there many subraces of titans, but even individuals within the same subrace could have alarmingly different abilities. Watching this giant bipedal lion cub, some things began to be immediately clear. While magic and regular attacks 'worked', that word didn't sufficiently explain what was happening. Massive attacks would form minor scratches or burns, and then soon after they injuries would heal as if nothing happened.

In addition to massive resilience and healing capabilities, the very air around the creature seemed to vibrate. If the creature stood on one place for too long the ground beneath it would slowly crumble and turn to dust, and whenever the titan attacked shockwaves seemingly infused with pure chaotic energies would wreak havoc on the surroundings. It was like the very presence of this monster caused the degradation of everything around it.

Looking at the commander, she was still holding on but this wasn't an easy fight. Large sections of her skin looked as if they had been torn apart by a cheesegrater, likely coming from the effect of that chaotic aura, and she was completely drenched in her own blood. Her stamina seemed mostly intact, but some endurance had been expended. Meanwhile this toddler titan wasn't even breathing hard.

Some ideas for combatting the creature were coming to mind, but at this point sitting back wasn't going to do her any favours. Cracking her knuckles and then her neck, the vampiress dejectedly sighed and jumped into the ferocious conflict raging in the alley below.

"Oh, decided to finally show up huh? Took you long enough, I've been fighting this kitten for fifteen minutes already!"

Lilli might have been trying to have some friendly banter, but a hint of desperation was hidden in her voice. She was far too destructive if she fully utilised her magic, so her current state was as far as she could go without causing vast swaths of collateral damage. Currently the woman was wreathed in white and black lightning, coating her shield, armour, and sword all with a terrifying and dangerous light. The electric aegis that coated her seemed to give her massive raven wings that made her look like some angel of retribution.

"Val, heavenly lightning doesn't work on this thing. If anything, I think it can resist divinity. I have no clue what it is, but it's a huge pain in the ass. Even if I block it or dodge, it still hurts me. If I'm being honest, its entire existence feels anathema to me. It's like being in its presence rejects my very being."

Listening to that, the Archduchess nodded. Based on what she understood, that made sense. Titans were well known for being 'god killers'. Monsters that had seemed particularly potent against those using divine schema. Similar to how jubjub birds were the predators of casters, titans were predators of divinity.

Hearing how Lilli seemed particularly vulnerable to the creature, Valnetina jerked her head, gesturing for the commander to get near her.

"You're going to be a one woman shield wall for me. My fighting styles are less direct and also aren't divine so I should be better suited to this. You just act as my shield, got it?"

It was a basic plan, but it made sense. It was clear that Lilli would lose a battle of attrition, but with methods like hexing, dealing internal damage, and restraining her target, Valentina had a much better chance of forcing the beast into submission. Now it was just a matter of fighting the thing…

~~~~~

A ways away, the castle remained silent. Many guards were on high alert in case there was any attack but for the time being there was nothing. The raiders seemed to have been content to remain in the main city to continue causing as much destruction as possible.

Meanwhile, as all that chaos was going on outside Dahlia remained in her bed. Yet, despite being dead tired, she couldn't even close her eyes. What was happening? Would Valentina be ok? How long would she be gone? Her thoughts were rushing and she was simply overwhelmed by all the anxieties piling up.

She hated this. Since first arriving at the castle, Dahlia had shockingly few issues with her anxiety. There were times here and there, especially at the very beginning, but her stay there had already become the most peaceful and stress free days of her life.

Suddenly needing to wait for news to arrive so she could better understand the issue left her feeling completely listless and she couldn't help but let her thoughts spiral. Again and again she would try to calm herself. Again and again her fears would get the best of her and drag her close to having a panic attack.

This wasn't even over the course of a long period of time. Probably less than ten minutes had passed before Bessie walked back in through the door and Dahlia looked to her maid with eyes so desperate it looked like an addict begging for their next fix.

Seeing the girl's expression, Bessie chuckled a bit before trying to calm her down with a placating tone.

"Don't worry, Her Grace should be able to have everything under control. There was a large group of raiders attacking the city, but they don't seem to be showing interest in the castle. Her Grace seemed confident in being able to return relatively soon. You honestly look dreadful with how tired you are. You can just rest and not worry yourself as I'll be guarding you through the night. It's going to be ok, Mistress."

Dahlia's eye twitched as she heard the calming tones of the maid. She wasn't going to feel safe or calm until she knew every fact of this matter and had Valentina beside her. Until then, tough. Sleep was for the weak, apparently. Sitting upright a little bit, Dahlia frowned as she noticed the maid staring at her tattoos and she cleared her throat.

"Bessie, now isn't the time to ogle me, thank you very much. And now isn't the time for me to sleep either. Get me my bathrobe and then prepare a caffeinated tea. I have a feeling this will be a long night."

There was a hint of annoyance in the maid's eyes as her mistress didn't just rest as suggested, but nonetheless she did a deep bow curtsying with her maid uniform before turning to get what was requested.

As the maid turned to go about her job though, Dahlia's eyes went hard as she stared at the woman's back. No. Its back. She didn't know what was going on, but that wasn't Bessie. The mannerisms were close, but Dahlia was too good at profiling people to be able to be caught off guard by a ploy like this. Even half asleep when her judgement was at its worst, impersonating someone she interacted with non-stop daily was basically impossible, so she caught on almost instantly that this wasn't her maid.

The question was, what kind of magic was at play? Possession? Compulsion? Illusory? It was hard to tell, and analysing the ambient mana would give away that she was being weary. All she had now was the element of surprise. Well… that and her own magic.

There were two rather pressing issues regarding that though. Firstly, ever since she got her tattoos, there had yet to be an instance where she could practise her casting. Who knows what might happen if she began casting wildly. The second issue came from which part of the triptych she was on. 'Part 3: Lost and Alone' was currently the active tattoo and that meant that her offensive abilities were sorely lacking.

'Lost and Alone' was specialised in using overwhelming darkness, sensory control, and emotional manipulation. It didn't bar her from using spacial or nature attributed magic, but it restricted how easily those types of mana flowed. Honestly, of the three parts, this was likely the most situational so being stuck with it at a time like this was about the worst thing that could happen.

It's not like changing the tattoo was an option either, for obvious reasons. Screaming in agony or knocking herself out seemed to be poor options at the moment. This left her with only one real path of action. The enemy had an unknown degree of strength, so the main thing to do was use the element of surprise along with whatever magic she could muster to delay, escape, and find help.

Who knows if anything else was happening in the castle or where Bessie was if the intruder wasn't already in her body, but given that the imposter was still pretending, it appeared that they were trying to be discreet which was a good sign.

Taking a few breaths and looking at the back of the false maid, Dahlia began to circulate her mana. As she noticed before, the roiling and turbulent flow had become smooth and laminar. The mana seemed to be circulating faster and greater quantities than before, yet the lack of resistance in her body made her feel like a well oiled machine.

Feeling how the mana desired to shape itself, Dahlia was already starting to get an idea of how these first few spells would go. Even though they were about as basic as they could come, they wouldn't be small. If anything, she currently had a surplus of mana with overly refined mana conduits and if she cast something it may explode out of her like a dam breaking.

A couple more deep breaths. Then a couple more. A few more moments and then she was ready. Now she could only hope that her mana behaved as expected. The first burst of magic she released called upon sensory control. She wasn't sure if this was how to do it, but she willed for her darkness element to mute the sound around her. The goal was to sneak out of the bed and towards the door without being noticed.

As the mana was released, this seemed to be successful, but things weren't quite as controlled as she wanted. A nearly imperceptible wave of dim grey shadow emanated off of her body like a massive aura and everything in this region fell silent. Instead of just covering her own noise, she had effectively deafened the entire suite, including her false maid.

It wasn't something instantly noticed, but the imposter quickly began to notice something was off. Before she could turn around, Dahlia had already realised her error and ran as fast as she could. The moment she exited the door, the next bout of mana was released, and this time it was a wave of pure darkness.

Where before the wave that emanated off of her was hardly perceptible, what now radiated from her body was a completely opaque shadow, A darkness so pure that it looked solid. Unlike how she desired to make the muted area smaller but it became large, this time Dahlia desired a large area and it became gigantic. Suddenly a twenty metre radius globe of darkness seemed to swallow up an entire section of the castle, alerting dozens of guards to the current event.

Still deafened and now totally blind, Dahlia tripped and stumbled towards where she believed the exit to be. The idea had crossed her mind to simply make a third aura to prevent the sense of touch and then just curl into a ball and hide but… this magic wasn't permanent.

With her poor control of mana, the perfect refined conduits she had were becoming her undoing. It was like a tap that required sensitivity and fitness if you wanted anything other than off or 100% on. Right now absurd amounts of mana were pouring out of the girl at such a rate that it would have caused less proficient casters to have fallen unconscious or even died.

For her though, Dahlia knew she could maintain this for at least a few minutes. It wasn't much, but all she needed was to stall. If she only had an enemy and zero allies, then this strategy wasn't a valid option, but she knew there were others around that might be able to help. With this in mind, she began considering her different options.

Spacial magic? Gods no. She didn't have any desire to be throwing up or falling over due to testing out the volatile attribute of magic. So that left nature. With 'Lost and Alone active, it wouldn't be ideal, but she could at least do something.

Continuing to stumble, she felt that she was about three quarters to the exit when suddenly something wet and sticky touched her. At first she thought it was spider webs, but it lacked strength and instead just felt slimy. A moment after she touched it though, it suddenly went hard, brittle, and needle like. A shard pierced her skin and dug in. Then another.

It was like a strange web of acupuncture needles. Not only did she get stabbed the more she moved, but once pierced, if she moved again the needles shattered beneath her skin causing large amounts of internal damage. Recognizing the issue, she channelled her own nature mana recalling her night at the debutant, and after a moment of skin tearing pain, she suddenly found herself coated in a dense suit of bark armour that resisted these mystery attacks.

Well, not too mysterious. Dahlia couldn't tell the element or what exactly they were, but if they were web-like they likely weren't just for stabbing her but for locating her in the darkness as well. Chances were high that more serious attacks were to follow. With that in mind and her new armour in place, the girl began to bolt towards where the door was believed to be.

More and more web filaments were broken, but she didn't care. Suddenly though, the ground felt soft and slippery and her feet began to sink into it. She knew the jig was up as the floor itself seemed to wrap around her foot and hold her in place, so rather than wasting mana, she quickly recalled her auras and suddenly light and sound returned.

Sensory overload was hard to prevent as the pure quiet was replaced by so many sounds. Yelling guards, alarm bells in the castle and city, the cussing of an angry maid imposter just steps behind her, and even her own breathing and heartbeat seemed to deafen her.

Looking around, the webs were beginning to disintegrate but they seemed to be made of a soft red material. Looking at her feet, that material became a little more clear. It was clay and both wet and dried versions seemed to be present.

Looking back, the false maid was approaching with an expression so extreme and humanly impossible that she looked like a disfigured monster. It was so extreme that her face seemed to have shifted and slightly skewed and that sight alone made Dahlia's heart begin to race. Even if this was a human, it felt like a monster out of a nightmare.

"You little bitch. I was told you only just got your magic and didn't know how to use it. I was told that you were recently on death's door. I was told you were a dumbass that had no idea what you were doing! I WAS TOLD YOU WOULD BE AN OBEDIENT AND GULLIBLE PET!"

Despite the need to rush, the imposter couldn't help but move slowly. Not only was she seething in rage, but her abilities had actually been pressed to their extent just a moment ago. She specialised in disguises, not channelling, and so the webs and reforming the floor was something that put on quite a bit of strain. By this point she could feel her disguise warping and it only brought on more rage.

With each sentence, a step. With each step, the face warped more until it was a horrific mockery of the gentle minotaur-kin that Dahlia had come to love. Suddenly, the fake reached out and tightly grabbed the wooden armour encasing Dahlia. Rather than resistance though, the fingers began to sink in, pushing through the material as it turned into wet clay. Even as the fingers bypassed the wood though, they didn't stop.

Dahlia's own flesh was torn through like a knife through butter as her skin and muscles were warped just like clay. The hand only stopped at the centre of her arm as the woman held her directly by the bone, with her hand embedded in the girl's flesh.

"You will do as I say. You will be obedient! YOU WILL FOLLOW MY ORDERS OR I WILL SCULPT YOUR BODY INTO A LATRINE, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR YOU GOLD DIGGING WHORE?"

Dahlia didn't even understand where that hatred came from, but it wasn't being put on for show. This imposter truly seemed to loathe her and that oddly specific threat also seemed genuine. It appeared that, if she so desired, this woman truly could sculpt her body into a grotesque display of furniture if she so desired. It was so absurd and extreme that the threat genuinely terrified the girl.

But before she ever needed to wrestle with her own fears and try to determine if being compliant was her best option in this scenario or if she should resist, the choice was suddenly made moot. A sudden wave of unbearable pressure washed over the two of them, with both slamming to the floor as though the weight of the world on their shoulders quintupled. It wasn't just difficult to move, it was difficult to breath and stay conscious.

But both could hear it. It sounded like hooves walking slowly toward them over hard stone. A door burst open and a woman clad in terrifying black full plate was seen wielding a halberd. Her mere presence terrified both women pressed into the floor. That was until Dahlia saw the hooves, horns, and generous bust for the custom armour. She stared at the menacing figure as she heard a chilling voice that seemed to call for execution.

"Who dares touch My Lady? Who dares ask for my wrath?"