Escape

=Eastern Region, Border City of Tawk, 538km North from the Machine Base=

The lord waved a spare Rapier of his and grinned before sticking it on the floor beneath.

"You had nerves trying to steal from me, don't you know who I am!?" He boasted his position of being the Lord of the Fortress City of Tawk. He was brimming with anger as he threw threat upon threat against the two intruders.

His soldiers have surrounded the two with their swords drawn and shields raised. In such a tight space, they could not risk using their magic to the fullest or they may do more damage than what is acceptable. If they make too much of a fuss, they'll bring much suspicion towards them and the newly emergent Machine Empire.

It's only been a month ever since the crusade started, news of it had spread across the Eastern Region through travelers, messengers, merchants and the like. Rumors of an unknown power suddenly emerging from Alnub forest spread like wildfire and many came to the conclusion that the new power was of demonic origin, hence the crusade.

The support for the crusade within the Theocracy itself was high, almost nobody opposed it. If the citizens were asked, they would reply with the same odd and vague answers.

"To avenge the Pope!"

"To vanquish the demons!"

"It is by the grace of the church that..."

Meanwhile, the other peoples were not fond of the surprise crusade. Not only did It seemed rush but it felt as if the Theocracy had lost its discipline, its way. Many argued that the Theocracy was reckless. If there was indeed a new power emerging from the forest and it was a large enough threat for the state to launch a crusade, why didn't they ask the other countries for help?

Why has there been no information shared ever since? Why have the number of merchants, travelers, and visitors from the Theocracy rapidly decreased? Was the Theocracy forcing even the citizens of other nations to join their crusade? Maybe.

A few weeks ago, the Dioz Kingdom to the south sent an envoy to the Theocracy in the hopes of getting a clear answer of what this threat really was, the envoy never returned nor was it ever seen again.

And when the aftermath of the first army composed of 100,000 men reached the general peasant, fear had already begun to take hold. It took them a while to verify that a black storm was brewing, and yes it was. The sky over the forest was covered by a blanket of smoke and ash that came from the Theocracy's strategy of burning the forest.

The smoke began to travel to the neighboring countries, both states were not liking it one bit, somewhere in the outskirts of Alnub Forest was a huge plains of the neighboring Kingdoms were mainly composed of farmland and small villages with the nearest City being a few tens of kilometers away. The locals feared that the smoke would choke their harvest and leave them starving in the winter that was to come in just a few months.

Although Artemis was aware of the existence of the these Kingdoms, he paid little attention to them. He claimed that these kingdoms posed no threat for now but admitted that they'd need to have surveillance set up to counter a potential military backing from it, especially that one kingdom which is known as the Dioz Kingdom.

Evaluating from the extracted memories of the humans, the Dioz Kingdom was considered one of the Eastern Region's superpower with territory size as 1/3 of the Theocracy and the military is nearly much greater as the Theocracy, they are in the 5th place of having the strongest military in Fordalt, the only aspect they lacked were A-rank knights and mages that were in short supply.

So far, the situation was looking grim.

Liz and Valentine leaned against each other and had their attention fixated at their enemies. They wanted to be sure of their advantages and disadvantages, the clearest disadvantage they had was that they were in such a tight space and due to it, their magic can't be used to the fullest without doing too much damage and injuring themselves in the process.

"Tsk, he is still yapping!" Valentine whispered.

But it oddly seemed that the Lord was too caught up in his bragging and arrogance, this can be exploited, yes it could.

"Val, concentrate your mana to create a shockwave when I shoot my arrow," Liz advised.

"Why?" Valentine replied confused and dumbfounded.

"Just trust me, do it!" Liz urged her companion.

As they discussed their plan in a hurry, the Lord noticed the ordeal.

"Hey!" He shouted at them.

"Don't be gettin cocky, whatever move you cook up, I'll be able to dodge with my magic,"

Magic? The both of them suddenly thought.

The lord was at Peak A-rank but not as skilled as he seemed, he was using time altercation magic! He can slow down time just enough so that he could counter any physical or magic attack slow enough for him to catch. They now knew what to do but were anxious about actually trying it out.

Liz drew her bow. The soldiers surrounding them noticed this and raised their shields to their heads. The lord stood firm and swung his rapier to his side and posed as if he was a glorified knight. As Liz released her bow, Valentine opened her palms.

Liz let go of the string and the arrow flew from her bow. The arrow was aimed directly at the soldier next to the lord and seeing that the lord would be thinking that the arrow was a sort of bluff or type of explosion magic, he just activated his magical barrier.

The arrow did indeed explode but not the explosion most of them expected, it exploded into a cloud of dust that quickly enveloped the room, the soldiers panicked and choked while the lord could not be seen as the dust suddenly began to skin the furniture alive and it grew thicker by the second.

"Now!" Liz screamed at the top of her lungs as the dust storm also covered and choked them.

Valentine then concentrate her mana and release the aura in the surrounding area, releasing a shock wave, with her having a very high amount of mana than an average A-rank the shockwave was powerful enough to send the dust storm away and all of the window of the room shattered. The wave carried the dust and the men that surrounded them, pushing them against the walls and furniture while being simultaneously crushed and choked to death by the thick walls of dust.

The two of them coughed their hardest to remove the dust that went through their nostrils and mouths.

"We did it!" Liz exclaimed while Valentine replied with a firm nod. The Lord was nowhere to be seen while the crushed remains of the soldiers that surrounded them had some of their limbs protrude from the dust piles, motionless.

But their joy was short-lived, The Lord successfully countered the pressure using his defense magic but also exerted much of his mana in the process, he could no longer use his time altercation or he risks using too much than what his body can absorb from his surroundings, he was now forced to use melee without the aid of magic.

He emerged from the pile of dust in front of the two and frowned with the ugliest expression. His face was bright red and his aura of flames grew larger and visible, he didn't care anymore, he wanted the two dead.

He didn't utter any more words but charged at them full speed, fast in the speed of 5500-6000km/h with his rapier against his right and pointed at them.

"Hngk!" Liz quickly drew her bow again as Valentine ran in front of her with her magic activated. She glowed a bluish hue as she did when the two first met and she clashed with the Lord.

Katana and Rapier clashed in a frenzied dace of blocks and swings. Liz fired arrow after arrow to try and surpress and quite possibly, corner the lord and open up a window of opportunity for her comrade.

The lord was finally hit by one of Liz' arrows, tearing a wound through his right shoulder.

The lord stopped for a moment with his attack and so did Valentine, the lord then inspected his wound and grabbed hold of it, covering it from bleeding. It could be seen how much he struggled to withstand the pain, Liz' arrows were specifically modified to induce pain by causing the pain receptors to be more sensitive.

Though she doesn't really know all of this information, it's only written within the archived reports made by the research drones back when she was first encountered. Her ability to summon a storm was also noted but she was yet to disclose any information regarding it.

As a matter of fact, she was sent with Valentine on a mission so suddenly that she hardly had any time to actually live and learn anything within the Machine Empire. She was given a simple introduction and a simple briefing before embarking on an otherwise deadly expedition to territories likely filled with enemies that were more than capable of killing them both.

But, she still followed regardless, because she was brainwashed to do so, deep inside her mind a voice would command her, force her. It was a voice she firmly believes to be her inner self talking and leading her to the right path but what she does not know that the voice she hears and follows is merely a byproduct of the brainwashing that was done on her.

The voice was a manifestation of her surrender to the Machine Empire and her subsequent indoctrination. What else she possesses as of now, remains a mystery even to Artemis and her mission is a way for Valentine to uncover her secrets so that her knowledge may be used to further aid the Machines in their mission of Utopia.

Seeing that the Lord was taking much time staring at his wound, Valentine concentrating her mana towards her weapon and lunged at him. The lord noticed it and quickly evades, jumping to the side and dodging the fiery bluish sword of death that shattered the wooden floor from which he was standing a moment ago before Valentine landed.

With his mobility severely limited by the pain and his attention completely barred, Liz quickly took a shot and the arrow pierced his chest and stabbed his heart. He stuttered for a moment before he slowly collapsed to the floor, blood oozing from the hole where the arrow struck.

Exhausted physically and mentally, the two of them needed to get out before reinforcements arrived.

Using whatever physical strength they had, they boosted their legs and jumped through the hole from whence they entered.

"Plant these, hurry!" Valentine handed over several blinking discs and urged Liz to scatter them across the roof.

"But, what about the map!?" Liz questioned in a panicked voice.

"I already memorized it, now go! Do it now!" Valentine urged her further and so Liz complied.

Liz took the small discs from Valentine's palms and scattered them across the rooftop. As she did, the floors below were now filled with soldiers who were alerted to the fight and the search was on for the murderers of the city's lord.

"Find them!" The guardsmen shouted and they searched. Until suddenly someone over the towers shouted in reply, "Found them! At the top!"

"Crap, the mages found us!" Valentine was now panicking,

When Liz finally finished laying down the discs, Valentine quickly grabbed her and ran. As they ran, arrows, fireballs, ice spears, magic missiles, and other projectiles from mages and archers over the walls followed them, they then made the hasty decision to use another ounce of their magic to jump over the wall and quite possibly land on a relatively safe spot, safe enough for them to make an escape.

They drew near the edge of the roof and Valentine shouted at Liz.

"Just follow me!" She said and then pressed a peculiar red button.

The discs stopped blinking and exploded.