Ashen gently held her hand once more.

“...Ready?” he muttered.

Cessilia nodded.

Suddenly, in front of them, Aglithia stopped, gesturing for all of them to stop as well. They all froze, and she climbed the stairs first to judge the situation. Then, she gestured for them to follow, Tessandra running ahead to see where they had arrived. The inside of the building looked like an abandoned restaurant or hostel. The furniture had been carefully piled up against the windows, as if to create a barricade. They all ran to see what was going on outside the windows.

The Cheshi hadn’t lied. They were literally steps away from the plaza. In fact, they were so close that they felt like they were part of the crowd in the streets around the building, who were loudly protesting.

“Fuck, Sab...”

Hearing her cousin’s cry, Cessilia’s heart dropped for a second, but she quickly found Sabael. He was alive, but lined up with other people on a little platform. He had been badly beaten, and was barely recognizable, with his tumefied face, the blood all over his body and his ripped up clothes.

“I can’t believe they left him half-fucking-naked out there!”

Cessilia sighed. Sabael wasn’t the only one in bad shape. There were at least twenty people lined up, their hands hung above their heads, and all looked to be gravely injured. Some even seemed to have passed out, or had terrible injuries exposed. No wonder the crowd was protesting so loudly despite the threat of the Yekara soldiers.

There were a lot, indeed. Not only the Yekara and their red uniforms, but those mercenaries Aglithia had mentioned, carrying large weapons and intimidating the crowd, visibly looking for the first opportunity to spill blood. Cessilia glanced around, but she didn’t recognize the Yekara lieutenant who was on the platform, speaking out loud. She couldn’t hear well from inside the building, but he was apparently listing some wrongs for which the captives were about to be killed. He was pacing around on the platform, reading some paper out loud, and ignoring the crowd that kept swearing and insulting him. There was a wide space of about four feet between the platform and the Yekara soldiers that were keeping the crowd at bay, but the tension was rising. No one was willing to see their relatives or friends die, but from what Cessilia could see, they had no weapons to fight the Yekara. She even recognized some of the Dorosef people angrily holding their cooking utensils, as if ready to fight with spatulas, skewers, and pans if needed. They weren’t the only ones. After the last few days spent in the Kingdom, Cessilia could recognize faces from almost each tribe in the crowd, or from their attire or hairstyles. Although it was mildly dangerous, the number of people in that crowd was already impressive enough. It was as if all of the tribes had gathered there to protest.

“Any minute now,” groaned Tessandra, impatient. “What the fuck are we waiting for?!”

Cessilia glanced back, but indeed, the last Cheshi had come out of the tunnels, and everyone was taking their weapons out, ready to fight.

“The signal,” she muttered with a smile. “Any second now...”

Cessilia and Ashen exchanged a quick glance and separated their hands, each grabbing their weapons of choice. For Ashen, a long, heavy, and beautifully designed sword similar to the one Darsan had picked, and for Cessilia, a pair of twin blades, sharp and light, and a small dagger. They smiled at each other, ready.

“Don’t go too far,” he said.

“I won’t.”

Suddenly, they heard the signal, loud and clear like a battle cry.

A dragon’s powerful growl in the distance.

Everyone in the room tensed up. Cessilia, Tessandra, and Aglithia all raised an arm, keeping everyone silent and steady behind them. It was too soon for them to come up, this was just the beginning. From the cry, the Dragon girls knew that was Kian the Silver Dragon, probably revealing its presence to their enemies. Not only was that growl loud and echoing but the dragon’s silver streak in the dark sky ought to have been impressive and attention-catching in itself.

They watched the reaction in the Central Plaza, the crowd immediately turning their heads to see where the loud growl had come from. Many immediately spotted the dragon, pointing up at the sky. People screamed, but some almost sounded like they were loudly cheering the appearance of another legendary creature. The members of the Dorosef and Sehsan Tribes that were present looked ecstatic as they already knew about Krai, and the presence of another dragon could only mean the Princess had received reinforcements. As expected, the Yekara were not among those who rejoiced. From where she stood, Cessilia very clearly saw the face of the man who was standing on the execution deck sink, his jaw dropping. Right after that, he began shouting orders, angrily pointing at the sky, spitting words to his men on the ground. Tessandra smiled next to her; their plan was working. In just minutes, half of the Yekara soldiers present on the plaza moved to the Inner Wall, their eyes regularly checking the sky above. Because they were on the same level as the crowd, it was hard to see exactly how many soldiers remained. They could see at least two dozen of them still blocking the crowd from approaching the platform. With the prospect of a dragon coming to their rescue and so many soldiers leaving, the whole area grew louder. The locals became even more vehement in their protests and were trying to break through the line of soldiers, not hesitating to try and shove them.

Cessilia was growing nervous, waiting for Nana’s signal. Was she in her designated spot yet? She hoped the young woman wouldn’t run into any trouble, and found herself glad she had two of the triplets by her friend’s side...

Gently, Ashen suddenly touched her hand. Cessilia turned to him, and he gave her a confident nod.

“...It’s going to be alright,” he muttered.

“...I know.”

Cessilia was most nervous for him. Despite him hiding it well, the King was still heavily injured. What her brother’s blood had done probably wasn’t enough to completely heal an injury of that size. Ashen should have had a few days to rest, not head into another battle the next morning... Cessilia held on even more tightly to the handle of her sword, determined. Now, she couldn’t afford to hesitate again. Lives were at stake, and her enemies were clear. She didn’t have to stop herself from killing or withhold her attacks. The Yekara were soldiers and traitors. This was a real war, not a simple duel between two young women. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she glanced to the side. Tessandra’s eyes were fixated on Sabael, her dark eyes so piercing it was as if she was trying to dig a hole in the platform under his feet. How far away were they? How long could it take? Perhaps two minutes? However, those would be long minutes cutting through the crowd from here to there...

Anytime now... The tension in the room was getting heavier with each passing second. Since the crowd had spotted Kian, the dragons had probably already landed at the bridges, ready to begin guarding their own, meaning that Naptunie was the one to signal when the fights would start...

Suddenly, they heard it. A large explosion, followed by a sudden blue flash in the sky. Although everyone had been prepared to run, they couldn’t help but glance back to see how the hell such a thing had been done. From the flash, only a large blue fire could now be seen in the distance, already quieting down under the rain.

“Go!” shouted Aglithia.

Their troops poured into the streets, Cessilia and her friends first. She and Tessandra both ran into the first trio of Yekara soldiers, who didn’t even get a second to understand what was happening before simultaneously getting transpierced by the two women’s blades. Their eyes still wide open in shock, they slid off the blades and fell aside, Tessandra and Cessilia already running past them.

It was total chaos in the street. The sudden arrival of dozens of fighters had thrown the Yekara into a complete disarray. Not only that, but the techniques of the Cheshi, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, from the sky or a blind spot, weren’t giving them any time to regroup either. Even the townsfolk were surprised and trying to get out of the way, the most combative ones still pushing to access the guarded platform.

Cessilia, Tessandra, and Ashen were unstoppable. Unlike the Cheshi who launched sudden and swift attacks, they were progressing in the open, restlessly slaying anyone in their way. Because they were the easiest to spot and attack on the way to the platform, the Yekara kept aiming at them first, thinking they’d be the first ones to stop. They were incredibly wrong. The pair of cousins were such a perfect match, covering each other’s backs and synchronizing their attacks, that it looked like they were progressing with minimal effort. To those not fighting, it was a dance they wanted to stay away from and yet, quite amazing to look at. Despite the dark skies, their armor was shining brightly through the crowd, and those who recognized what they were actually made of grew even more admirative. The crowd that wasn’t fighting was cheering for the duo of women fighting through the crowd, getting out of the way for them to make progress.

It was still quite a dense crowd. What had only seemed like a couple minutes’ journey earlier was now turning into an awful amount of fighting and pushing through. The Yekara soldiers seemed to have received orders at some point, seeing as they thickened their ranks with reinforcements, their numbers growing larger and blocking the duo’s way.

Right behind them, the King was making as much of an impression. From what they could hear, the Yekara’s lies about his death had reached a lot of the inhabitants, and many of those present were celebrating their King’s return. While some had figured out the lie, others were happily rejoicing about their King coming back from the underworld for the second time. No one could tell which version would make it into history...

“Somebody get to that damn platform!” Tessandra shouted between two sword swings.

Cessilia glanced ahead. The situation was urgent. The Yekara soldiers were only good at slowing them down, but that might actually make them lose the time they needed to rescue Sabael and the others. They were still entirely too far, and even the Cheshi that were trying to get to the platform were stopped. In fact, the Central Plaza was vast, and there were no buildings around that they could jump from. Everyone had to get there by foot, and the crowd was like an army between them and the platform. With horror, they saw the man on the platform gesture to hurry and start the executions. The two cousins exchanged a glance. They didn’t have time to deal with the small fry.

“Cessi, help me!”

Cessilia nodded, and suddenly ran ahead, while her cousin went back, making everyone around completely confused. While Cessilia was left to battle alone, her cousin took several steps back, before turning around, and placing her weapons back in her belt. What was she preparing? While everyone was still confused, she began running straight at Cessilia as if she was about to fight her. The speed of her run was impressive, though, enough that people actually ran to get out of the way, fearing the cannonball. However, Tessandra was aiming at her cousin alone, and, to everyone’s surprise, Cessilia suddenly grabbed a random Yekara soldier among many, and used her sword at record speed. In the blink of an eye, the man was defeated on the ground, while Cessilia was holding his chest plate in her hands. Her cousin was still running at a terrifying speed toward her, but Cessilia defeated another man using that plate like a hammer, and let him fall on top of the previous man. She then stepped on both of them, and squatted down, holding the plate above her head. People understood what was going to happen one second before it actually did. Tessandra reached her, and leapt in the air; she landed on the plate for less than a second, when Cessilia, with a loud grunt, used her whole body to project it higher, giving her cousin an incredible jump base.

Tessandra jumped, and for a few seconds, it seemed almost as if she was flying above the crowd; her figure was absolutely perfect, her eyes riveted on the platform. She made a perfect arc before landing brutally, rolling on the floor and getting back up, her swords already out. What happened next was like a tornado unchained, blood flying on the closest bystanders, even the Yekara soldiers who just had the time to turn around and realize they were already too late. Tessandra’s twin swords were flying around, cutting throats and freeing their allies from their ropes. The platform had become an execution stage indeed, but not the one intended. Everyone was watching the massacre with a mix of awe and fear. Tessandra was like a goddess of wrath on a wild rampage. Strangely, though, she had left one man tied, while the other hostages had been let free and had run off the platform already. He was watching her do her little show, a wry smile on his lips. When it was only the two of them left on the platform, for a brief moment before more Yekara soldiers came up, did she turn to him, out of breath but a fierce smile stuck on her face.

“Hey there, handsome,” she chuckled. “Miss me much?”

“I was wondering why you left me tied,” sighed Sabael. “Should I be worried that you’re enjoying this position a bit too much?”

Tessandra bit her lower lip, looking him up and down. He was held with his wrists tied above his head, and his feet barely touching the floor. She chuckled and glanced down, her eyes stopping on his exposed abs, her fingers softly touching them and making him shiver.

“...Hm, maybe,” she said, “but I do not like seeing you all injured, handsome.”

“It’s not like I gave them permission to,” he sighed.

“I know,” said Tessandra, caressing his cheek. “...Only I get to kick your ass.”

She finally cut down the rope holding him with a smug smile but, to her surprise, Sabael suddenly pulled her into a passionate kiss. In the crowd, Cessilia, who had lifted her eyes, catching a break and to see how the situation was on the platform, happened to witness that moment, and chuckled, surprised by Sabael’s boldness. She hoped Naptunie was somewhere she could also witness this...

Back on the platform, Tessandra was so shocked she had almost dropped her swords, only holding her arms apart so she wouldn’t mistakenly stab her lover. When Sabael ended their kiss, she stood there, a bit speechless.

“...What was that?” she blushed uncontrollably, trying to stay cool still.

“I really missed you,” he sighed.

Tessandra cleared her throat, trying to hide her embarrassment, and suddenly remembered to lower her arms.

“I may have missed you too... You’re not too embarrassed to be rescued by a lady?”