Holding a bag of groceries in her hand, a girl humd to stepped off the public transport and humd to herself as though she didn't have a care in the world.
Travelling through the south wasn't as bad as it may initially seem. But that's only true if you had enough power to make people think twice with a glance.
That said, anyone stuck in the south without power to back themselves up were in for a rough ti.
Digging into the bag, she grabbed so fruit and decided to eat so ahead of ti. It held a rather pleasant sunset colouration and sweetness to match that brought a smile to her face.
"Not bad." She muttered, chewing slowly and enjoying the flavour.
From the corner of her peripherals, she noticed a few unsightly fellows punching a man in the alleyway while a kid watched, trying to get them to stop.
Holding the fruit in her mouth for a mont, she raised her finger towards the assailants.
*FBZT!
A thin arc of lightning whipped from her finger, causing them to drop like sacks of at, twitching and paralysed from the attack.
"If you're going to punch soone, do it where kids can't see." Ria chewed her fruit nonchalantly while staring at the three glaring daggers at her.
Shrugging her shoulders, she glanced to the side and saw that this run-down building looked like it's been abandoned for quite a while.
To make a point, she pulled her leg back and kicked the wall.
*BANG!!!
The stone wall cracked apart down the middle as dust rained down in thick waves. The n stared, silent, speechless as panic filled their eyes. Without hesitation, they scrambled the mont they could move their legs.
Watching this, Ria shrugged her shoulders and left the alley.
After the fight with Nyzel, the three of them continued their journey north while occasionally stopping to deal with Eldritch contamination and taking apart Eclipse Rituals.
Though compared to the stuff they saw in the far south, the Rituals held closer to the north were more ta in comparison. Even for the places supposedly dominated by the Eclipse, things were surprisingly quiet.
For bystanders, life was relatively normal unless they were unfortunate enough to get dragged into these rituals.
If Ria had to describe it, it would be a living condition similar to that of the Abyss.
Of course, she didn't spend this ti just travelling either.
Nyzel's final technique was still fresh on her mind. The six fold lightning was not a Sigil power but rather a technique. One that amplified the power of her lightning over and over, creating after images. And once it collided with the main weapon, the generated energy would explode in an instant.
A lot of this was rely Ria's own interpretation of the power. Whether or not it matched the actual technique was still up for debate but as it stands, two fold was the most that she could accomplish. A far cry from the six fold that Nyzel demonstrated.
The main reason was that she couldn't contain the power properly. If she beca greedy and aid for more, the power would dissipate instead, turning it from an attack to a wasted effort.
"Two fold lightning." She muttered, waving her finger. A single afterimage manifested behind it before catching up with the movent.
In essence, this attack was similar to a firearm.
The afterimages were the hamr hitting the firing pin, discharging the attack.
'I suppose it's similar to what Kaden told to do in the past.' She mused to herself.
Kaden had wanted her to explore ranged options before, turning her lightning into bullets and firing them from afar.
With that in mind, perhaps using Nyzel's technique could accomplish this vision that Kaden had.
Though that was practice for another ti.
"I'm ba-"
"MOTHERF*CKER!!!"
Her sentence was swallowed by a distant, furious scream from Rosalyn, causing Ria to jolt up for a mont.
Luke was standing in the living room, just as surprised as he was about to welco Ria back.
The two heard sounds of Rosalyn storming around in her room and ca to a silent conclusion. They wanted to see what was going on.
On the way up, they heard a colourful set of curse words being fired out without stop, so of which they never even heard of before.
Carefully pushing open the door, Ria's mouth twitched seeing Rosalyn's chair embedded deep into the wall.
That wasn't the only thing either. Aside from the chair, the table was half sticking out of the ceiling. Honestly, it was rather impressive that it managed to hold its shape despite being tossed with such force.
"Aren't you in a cranky mood." Ria muttered, stepping into the room as Rosalyn shot her a glare.
"Shut it lightning chihuahua. Read this and tell why I wouldn't be livid." Rosalyn dragged the table down from the ceiling, sohow still in one piece, before handing Ria a letter that she got from her brother.
The letter itself wasn't in great detail since it was fresh news. However, it was enough for Caelan to send a ssage early.
As for the contents, it was simple.
Rumours of a Lord interfering with the battle at the border.
It took only a mont before her pupils to constrict in shock.
"You're joking."
"Does Caelan look like soone who jokes??? F*ck! Is it a new Lord? Who the hell is this stupid?! Why would you interfere with a battle like this?!?!" Rosalyn gritted her teeth.
If one Lord joins the battle, another would appear.
Then another in order to guarantee victory and then the enemy would send one more.
This will keep going until both sides eradicate each other. And the land? Completely uninhabitable.
"If it's just one or two it shouldn't be that bad right?" Ria asked, hoping for a slightly better outco. Sikha has a handful of Lords in the north, including Sect Masters and so on.
But the south isn't far off either. They had their own assortnt of Lords which is why the north and south have kept this border going.
"Sothing must've happened to tip the balance at the border, sothing that forced the north to send their forces marching towards the south rather than maintaining the status quo." Rosalyn bit her nails.
With how the north operates, the most likely suspect was naturally the south. But it wasn't as though the south was willing to make the first move. That's why they mostly poked and prodded the borders but never fully sending a large force.
But now a full scale battle has broken out and a Lord got involved.
"Arggg!!!"
*BANG!!!
Watching Rosalyn throw the table once more in frustration, Ria couldn't help but clap seeing it embed itself into a new spot in the ceiling.
"F*ck! I swear if I knew which Lord was STUPID enough to interfere, I would kill them myself!" Rosalyn grabbed her parasol and stord out of her room.
"Pack your sh*t!" She shouted over her shoulder. "We're moving north. If a battle breaks out we need to diate that crap before it gets out of hand. The best way to do so is as a third party. And if it fails, you might as well forget Sikha ever existed!"
Even with her diating the conflict, heads will roll.
There's no changing the fact that a Lord had intervened.
Once more, Rosalyn let out a string of curses directed towards the unknown Lord who made a move.
###
"ACHOOO!!!" Alice rubbed her nose in confusion.
"I didn't know you could get a cold." Jin glanced back in surprise only for Alice to flip him off.
"I just felt an itch. And if I do get sick, do you think you'll be unscathed?" Alice rolled her eye.
Arguably, she had the best internal defence out of all of them. If she, by so miraculous feat, got sick, then they would be dead on the floor by now.
Thinking about it for a mont, Jin shivered.
"Please may you never get sick." He offered a prayer.
Rolling her eye, Alice glanced at the soldiers who were still waiting on additional orders.
Suyin seed hesitant on sothing as they continued to camp.
However, it didn't take long for her to make a choice.
"We're going to keep going. We're not the aggressor here, whatever f*cked up thing is happening in the south clearly aims to swallow the North in its entirety." Suyin let out a deep sigh, rolling out a map and marking where they were right now.
"Zhenha, that's our next goal. It's a well known bastion for the Eclipse. Even the skies around the place got dyed red thanks to their rituals. We'll take over this fortress and set up a proper camp." Suyin explained.
They needed a base where she could repair so of her inventions and sort out a route between the bases. While Fusha can't withstand another attack, it could still send supplies to the front.
Not only that, but Zhenha was the perfect place to bunker down. A fortress that they can defend while also retreating if the enemy decide to attack Fusha again.
But any further and things might turn ssy.
The only good news so far is unironically Alice's involvent in the last battle.
With her showcasing her Lord like powers, eyes have now turned towards this battle. They'll be able to see the f*cked up monsters that the south are unleashing and send the necessary reinforcents.
Hell, perhaps even so of the south might decide to help since this was now clearly beyond how the Eclipse normally operates.
Suyin could only hope that things don't escalate further.
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