It seemed impulsive at the time but donning the armour had gifted them with greater freedom to move about the city and survey the carnage as it unfolded, a plethora of the city guard lay felled in the streets they proved no match for the seasoned veterans of Albatross.

“This is horrible” Mari whispered fighting back the urge to gag from the smell of blood and shit, they were approaching the academy where they were hoping to find their classmates but as it so often goes best-laid plans always find a way to go awry.

Barring their path was yet another small skirmish between the city guard and Albatross and despite having the numbers in their favour the city guard was proving to be extremely inept as they were cut down one after another.

“Hey, Riri can you use your devil to take them out?”

“I can but I’d rather not waste it.”

“I hate to say it but we need to kill them, Lili.”

“Alright, I’ll back you up...”

“I’m not talking about Albatross, I mean the city guard.”

Lilith's face dropped at the mere prospect but Mari’s thought had solid reasoning.

If they killed fellow members of Albatross while dressed in their armour their cover would be blown, being an endless labyrinth of buildings and streets eyes could be spying on them from anywhere.

“We’re killing our own people then?” Lilith murmured

“Our people? These aren’t our people Lili, you’re a Dresden Princess and I’m not from Eris, it’s a necessary sacrifice”

The verbal exchange grew louder which each of the girls rattled off their stance on the matter, caught up in the moment and with their voices raised a little too loudly they had lost sight of what sparked the conflict in the first place.

“Hey you two, what the hell are you doing here?”

A hoarse voice bellowed as the soldiers approached them having dispensed with the city guard, this was starting to become almost humorous at how ridiculously one-sided this was becoming.

“We finished up quickly so figured we’d kill any stragglers” Lilith answered

“Stragglers huh, What regiment do you belong to, answer now.”

“Uh...well...shit...” Mari stammered.

A group of six more soldiers made their way towards the group this was really bad there was no way they could take this many of them without raising suspicion, fuck, they’d kill us on the spot if they figured out our little rouse.

“Their acting suspicious, what should we do?”

“ Seize them, we’ll unmask them and find out the..”

“What the hell are you doing?” A booming voice roared

A hulking man with the build of a tank walked towards them he was donned in the same black and gold colours but was clad in sleek uniform instead of the amour that everyone else was dressed in, he had short slicked-back hair and his ebony skin glistened under the moonlight.

“Sir Lucian, well you see these two were...”

“Silence! New orders from the boss, head to the palace now.”

His aura was suffocating he had the same intensity as Hideto and Frill or that damned Princess at a glance both Mari and Lilith new that fighting this behemoth would be tantamount to suicide.

“Yes, Regimental Commander!” They all said sprinting away.

Wishing to draw little attention to themselves the duo made their way towards the Palace that lay in the heart of the city, the streets turned barren and deserted with citizens who had shown zero resistance rounded up while those who stood their ground were swiftly dealt with.

Seeing how quickly they were overrun it finally hit home just how out of their depth they really were, but Mari would not succumb to despair no matter how bleak she would thrash and fight to her flame burned out.

The corpses of the city guard started to pile up as they grew closer to the palace, though they were ultimately defeated she admired their grit and determination in the face of certain death.

A lump formed in the back of Mari’s throat her hands trembling ever so slightly at the prospect of the horrors that were to come before this night was through.

She figured that by now the royal guard would battling Albatross’s main force and though they’re practically even in numbers that won’t mean a lick of shit if the royal family rears their heads.