A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Emma and Emily wiped away their tears, while Emma's face became filled with determination, and Emily's with righteous fury and bloodlust. At the same time, Astrid snarled, but still took her eyes off Erik, to look at Elora instead. Her face was filled with grim resolve, which was only barely winning over the simmering rage beneath.

Meanwhile, Naeku, Seraphina, Nora, and Anne all turned to her with similar expressions of grim determination and resolve.

"You're right, Elora," Astrid nodded seriously. "So what's the plan?"

Everyone waited for Elora's orders. As Erik's first wife and the matriarch of their family, none of them objected to Elora taking the lead. Not only did they know it was what Erik would have wanted, but they also recognized her as their leader in his absence. She'd always been the strategist in their family.

The same thing went for the servants, of course, whose Bond of Service was linked to Elora as much as Erik, and while such things were a little less clear for Naeku, she had no interest in going up against public opinion right now.

Yet, Elora's next words surprised her.

"First of all, I want Naeku to lead us out of here," she said, while panning her gaze to a surprised Naeku. "Not only does she know the city better than me, but she has her nature sense to guide us, and also more experience in leading a group."

While Elora didn't have zero experience in that regard, it wasn't her specialty, as most of her plans involved only Erik and herself, and usually centred around manipulation and intrigue, rather than direct combat. Combat was usually Erik's purview.

Naeku blinked a few times, somewhat surprised that she'd be trusted with their safety like that. But then she furrowed the brows on her transformed, werepanther features, and nodded. While surprised, she was more than willing to take up this task and even felt a little happy for the trust she received.

"Understood," she quickly responded, knowing they were short on time. "But I need information on everyone's capabilities, and how do we transport Erik and Runa?"

Elora quickly flew closer to Naeku, and put a finger against the werepanther's forehead. Naeku didn't resist. She highly doubted Elora would suddenly do something to her now.

Suddenly, information began to stream into her mind as Elora shared almost everything she knew about the other's capabilities. As soon as she was done, Naeku blinked, and looked around with some astonishment.

Since she wasn't there during the battle, she'd never actually seen any of them fight apart from the quick execution of those guards just now. Only now did she get an inkling of how impressive these women actually were.

Suddenly, she felt a little intimidated, despite her own gifts.

But what surprised her the most was the information she got about Erik's armour. "That thing's alive?!" she exclaimed in complete shock while pointing at the motionless Erik's armour.

"Don't call her a thing!" Emma immediately pouted. Although Eira's existence and past were still a mystery to them, Emma's nature affinity only ever gave her the purest of feelings when she looked at the solid sigil construct.

"T— Thank you, Emma, but it's alright…" Eira's sad voice suddenly came from Erik's direction. At the same time, everyone looked on with astonishment as the previously prone werewolf suddenly began to stand up.

His face was now covered by the armour's helmet, but the hole in his chest remained. Blood dripped from the armour's grooves, but Eira and the healing sigils she controlled were working overtime to stop the bleeding. Moving him like this was not ideal, but he was a second ranker and could take it. Stay updated via empire

Besides, it was better than remaining here.

After Erik was standing, Eira continued, "I failed to protect Master… he trusted me, but I was overconfident. I didn't think a second ranker could pierce my vessel, so I didn't reinforce the impact zone, thinking I could save power."

She began to sob slightly, "It— It's my fault he ended up this way, s— so I— I don't deserve you defending me…"

"H— Hold on, I—" Naeku stuttered, as the emotion she felt in this mysterious voice actually made her feel guilty.

"Eira! Take that ba—!" Emma started at the same time, wanting to reassure Eira no one blamed her.

But Elora interrupted them both. "Enough!" she quickly exclaimed with a piercing glare. "Eira, no one blames you, but we don't have time for this right now."

Emma and Naeku quickly fell silent and nodded, while 'Erik' did the same thing.

"As you can see, Eira here can carry Erik by controlling the armour," she continued to address Naeku's earlier concerns. Then, she walked over to Runa, and picked her up herself. "In the meantime, since I can fly and am no good in a fight, I'll carry Runa. If that answers all your questions, Naeku, we should get out of here."

"What?!" Emily interrupted with a hint of anger, before Naeku could answer and glared at Elora suspiciously. "Why aren't you merging with him?!" she cried out. "You can heal him and support his body, so just let us carry Runa! What, are you afraid to feel any pain?!"

Her voice was filled with anger, and the crimson lines in her eyes flashed with a corrupted light.

Fortunately, everyone knew her anger came from a combination of anxiety, worry, and the permanent changes from corruption. Everyone, including Elora.

Yet, she still looked at her with cold eyes when she responded, "I'm going to let that slide, because I know you're worried about him, and you can't really help yourself."

Then, her eyes flashed with anger, and she nearly seethed with suppressed rage, "But don't you ever dare assume I wouldn't bear any kind of pain if it meant supporting him!"

Even Emily knew that, of course. Spent any amount of time with Elora and Erik, and even the densest human being would realize those two will crawl through fire for each other.

So, Emily's anger wavered, and she shrank back ever so slightly. "B— But then, wh—"

"I have my reasons," Elora immediately cut her off while picking up Runa, and applying a suppression sigil to her chest. "But we can talk about it after we're no longer in danger!"

She turned to the werepanther in the room, "Naeku, please lead us out of here."