“Just keep it off me,” the first said, opening a small leather-bound book. “I’m going to try to banish it.”
Alicia snarled upon hearing that. Emerging from her cover, she threw lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the wall the taller hunter was using for cover. With every step closer, the lightning grew more intense than the last bolt until it was almost blinding to look at even through Nel’s glimpsing.
The hunter with the pistol didn’t seem too concerned. He leaned around the corner, aimed, and fired all before Nel could even think to do anything.
Alicia crumpled to the ground, blood leaking from a hole in her own skull.
Her shield should have protected her. Nel saw it. It flashed for the barest moment in Nel’s glimpse. Nel had never heard of an enchanted bullet that could penetrate an Elysium Order shield with only a single shot. But then, perhaps Alicia hadn’t been maintaining her shield properly. Her fellow former nun did not display the best mental discipline. Something that had only been getting worse as time went on.
With her real eyes, Nel started to see ice crystals forming from her breath. She started shivering as the cold set in, penetrating straight to her core.
“I think you just pissed it off!”
Ylva marched towards the pistol wielding hunter, ignoring shot after shot even as parts of her body were pulverized by the bullets. Even while fighting with the other hunters, Ylva had a grace about her. A certain regal bearing that she managed to maintain no matter the situation.
That regality was gone. Her footfalls were heavy and angry. Her hands clenched into fists. The teeth in her fleshless jaw ground together.
Just outside her reach, the hunter decided he had stuck around long enough. He turned to run.
And found himself facing the bright pinpricks in the back of Ylva’s skull.
She reached forward, gripping his neck. As with all the other hunters, black veins started spreading from her touch. Unlike the others, the veins spread slowly. They crept from her fingers, lingering in spots before moving on.
Nel stopped watching. She stared at her feet with her hands clamped over her ears, trying to shut out the noises the hunter was making. She had thought that she had seen Ylva angry before. How wrong that was. Nel now believed that she had never seen Ylva more than mildly irritated. With a shudder, Nel considered just how grateful she was to be Ylva’s servant and not her enemy.
When she finally worked up the courage to look again, she found nothing but dust around Ylva’s feet.
And an unmoving Ylva.
The taller hunter had his hand thrust outwards towards Ylva with a look of abject anger tormenting his otherwise pretty face. His lips moved, murmuring something.
He was trying to banish her.
Judging by her immobility, he was succeeding.
Nel jumped up. She couldn’t fight, but she could throw a lightning bolt or two. Enough to distract him and let Ylva free to take him out.
But before she could properly connect to the Source, the hunter’s head fell from his neck.
His body stayed upright for just a moment before tottering to the ground.
A woman covered from head to toe in blood stood just behind him, not even tracking his falling corpse with her eyes. She flicked her sword to one side before sheathing it.
“I have an inquiry,” she said, stepping over the body towards Ylva.
Though she was obviously not frozen anymore, Ylva stood still, watching the sword-wielder approach.
“The individual known as ‘Eva’ claims to have been killed by you.”
“Her claim is accurate.”
“No portal to the Void opened beneath her corpse?”
“Your statement is accurate.”
“I see.”
The two stood, staring at each other for another minute. Neither said another word. Even still, as if by some agreement, both started moving at once. The sword-wielder turned on her heel, stepped over the body, and walked out through a hole in the house.
Ylva turned to face the crumpled form of Alicia.
Her strides still heavy though lacking their anger, she approached the body. Half-way there, she stepped out of the direct sunlight and into a portion of the house that still had a roof overhead. Her flesh returned, appearing on her body as if nothing had happened. Though her bones had been damaged and even broken in places, not a single blemish marred her skin.
The only evidence of a battle was her long dress and the tatters the bullets had made of it.
She stopped a foot away, standing and staring.
With the danger passed, Nel stepped out from behind the slab of marble. She wasn’t quite sure what to do.
She wouldn’t know where to begin in doing such a thing.
For the time being, she merely stepped up beside Ylva.
