"Lady Ana!" Natasha called out as she darted toward the center of the park.
Behind her, Ambrose and a few other Enforcers chased on horseback.
Pulling his horse to a stop, Ambrose disembarked before directing the others to inspect the park while he went ahead to catch up with Natasha.
Meanwhile, Anastasia stood in place, still staring at Basar’s last location before he disappeared.
She seemed out of it but on the contrary, her mind was working quite well.
’He had another person take his place for the first one and the second, he projected an image... Alex was right, this guy wasn’t fighting for real the last time they clashed. Just what is the height of his capabilities?’
Ana was vexed by how badly she had lost to Basar.
Both in words and ability, Basar managed to defeat her in both with relative ease.
"Lady Ana!" Natasha’s voice came again as she arrived before her before looking ahead.
Ana furrowed her brows. "The ritual is already complete. What we heard earlier was Basar’s attempt to gather large amounts of aether."
"Why?" Natasha inquired.
"Because he isn’t trying to summon an Evil god, but a Fallen Angel."
Just then, Ambrose caught up to them, and amidst gulps to catch his breath, he spoke up. "Fallen Angel?"
"I don’t know much about them since none has ever entered Eventide but legend has it that the day a Fallen Angel would enter our world would spell the end for humanity. Do you understand?"
"Shouldn’t he know this?" Natasha couldn’t help but ask.
"He doesn’t care," Ana replied, still vexed. "All he wants is vengeance against the Empire."
"Lady Ana, is there no way to stall for time?... We can have the barrier sealing up the underground tunnels broken by tomorrow, by then, Basar would be done for."
Ana gritted her teeth. "I’ve been lax for too long..."
Trailing off for a moment, she continued. "I will make up for that now.",
Ambrose and Natasha instinctively took steps back without knowing why.
The next moment, however, they understood everything.
It was raw killing intent exuded by Ana toward Basar.
Roaring angrily, Ana took to the skies and transformed into her dragon form before taking her place in the clouds with her cold gaze watching over the entirety of BoneHaven.
Then they heard Anastasia’s voice in their head.
"I will keep watch over Eventide. I want a group to be at the ready at any time, fully armed. From this moment forth, we are at war!...we must ensure that Basar does not get his way, no matter what!"
Natasha marveled at the power exhibited by Ana so casually.
’As expected of a Family Head.’ she thought inwardly as she gripped her blade tightly.
Meanwhile, Ambrose regained his composure as he saluted in earnest. "Yes ma’am!"
With that, he turned and quickly began preparations to do as instructed.
Alex blinked at the bone-chilling sight behind him.
The children stood around a playground, moving and enjoying themselves while laughing loudly.
Their laughter however wasn’t pleasant but instead was quite jarring, giving Alex a slight headache.
"What are you doing?" Douglas questioned upon noticing Alex’s strange stance.
"... We might have a problem." Alex slowly replied.
Just as he attempted to raise his head, he made eye contact with one of the children.
Seemingly startled by his gaze, the child that was no older than 5, stared at Alex for only a moment before its happy expression distorted until it was on the verge of tears.
However, instead of tears, black blood flowed out of its hollow eye sockets and trailed down its cheeks.
"..." Alex was unsure what to make of the sight but then, he couldn’t have anticipated what happened next.
The child tapped another child who glanced at Alex and like that, it started a chain reaction until all the children, numbering close to 50, were glaring at him while crying blood.
Alex grimaced. "That’s just wrong."
"What are you talking about?" Douglas was left confused.
He couldn’t see anything where Alex was looking at, however, he could hear the faint sound of crying.
Pondering for a moment, he quickly understood. "Are you seeing something?"
"A bunch of kids wearing white and crying blood... should I be worried?" Alex casually replied despite still being disgusted by the scene he was watching.
He wasn’t sure what to make of it.
It was indeed something that needed his attention but then again, his only reason for being here was Emily.
If not directly related to her, he didn’t want to concern himself with others... problems.
Unfortunately, the crying children had a different idea as they held hands and began to merge until they had formed a terrifying long-armed creature with an exaggerated head and limbs.
Its hollow eyes were as large as saucers and its mouth was stretched wide enough to fit a hippo in one bite.
Then, letting out a gruesome cry, the creature rushed forward.
"Darn it." Alex stood upright to meet Douglas staring strangely at him, after stepping away from the Regulus home.
".... What?" Hardly had the word left Alex’s lips when a powerful force struck him from behind and sent him flying forward.
He crashed into the Regulus family home, destroying the door in the process.
Douglas alternated between the recovering Alex and the space where he previously stood.
"What...just happened?"
"Ugh." Alex groaned as he picked himself out of the wreckage.
Glancing inside the rather dark house, he noticed that everything was still covered in dust.
He attempted to take a step forward before pausing and then looking between his legs.
The elongated creature was still there but it made no effort to come into the house, instead watching him from outside.
Alex sighed. "This is inconvenient."
Then he heard Douglas’s voice from outside. "What is that?"
Douglas crashed into the house a moment later as well.
"...It doesn’t like being seen," Alex muttered softly.
Glaring hatefully at Alex, Douglas got to his feet and while dusting himself, also inspected inside before pointing at one of the three rooms. "Over there."
They strode over to the door and pushed it open to find Emily laying on the bed.