"Alright, then let's meet him together. Heka, if you don't mind." Cecil reaches for Heka's arming sword and takes it out from its scabbard. She then stands beside Erize who now just takes notice of her strange glowing form.
Cecil's shining appearance is her true nature, one that she prefers to hide under any circumstances. The ones who have seen her like this is Andrew and Erize, the two friends she trusts with her life.
"Hey, can I ask ya two to keep Cecil's secret … ya know, a secret from everyone else?" Erize asks Heka and Sigmund.
"T, -To think that Sir Cecil would be a changeling." Heka's glasses fog up as he ogles at the girl he admires. He wants to say how beautiful she is but now's not the time for compliments like that.
"Don't worry about them! Cause they're going to take that secret to their graves!" Shin shouts as he charges towards the two girls who both shoot a glare at him.
Cecil moves forward and with the arming sword in her hand, she catches the katana blade using the guard of the sword. Without even much as a signal, Erize follows up by swinging Dyrnwyn at Shin.
As he's done many times over, Shin jumps back to avoid danger but this time he finds himself with a gash across his torso. Erize's Dyrnwyn manages to land a hit because the mercenary didn't account for the sword's length, which is longer than Cecil's rapier and much longer than an arming sword.
However, because the sword has flames wrapping around it, the wound also got cauterized. It does serve as a literal wake up call from Shin as the cauterized wound burns much more painfully in the cold weather they're in.
"It's over, murderer. Surrender now and save yourself the humiliation." Sigmund, who's now fully healed, stands with Erize and Cecil beside him.
His open shirt shows that the deep gashes Shin inflicted on Sigmund have now become nothing more than scars.
It's now a clear three against one and Shin isn't exactly in top form after fighting Sigmund and Cecil for so long. It didn't help that the stab wound on his back pierced one of his lungs that he's slowly drowning in his blood.
Even when he's at death's door, the mercenary refuses to surrender and his reason is as twisted as the expression on his face.
"Giving up might as well be my death. So if you want me to surrender, kill me," Shin declares as he grins from ear to ear at the three of them while pointing his katana at Sigmund.
But before the deranged mercenary could charge at them, a whistle of a flute resounds around the street they're in. On command, the dark alleyways around them start spawning black rats that surround the group and Shin.
The black rats leer at the Sigmund and the rest of the knights with their red eyes. Their unnerving intelligence and lack of fear made Erize and Heka uneasy that the Cerenian is contemplating whether or not to use Dyrnwyn to create an opening for them to escape.
��I wouldn't advise showing any hostility to them if I were you. They don't appreciate it when you look at them with such ill-intent," a soft voice speaks out, one that made Shin click his tongue and roll his eyes.
"I heard that. Do you want me to feed you to my rats?" Hemlin threatens Shin to which the eastern mercenary responds in kind by spitting blood at one of the rats.
"What're you doing here, old hag?" Shin asks the disembodied voice.
"You've stalled them long enough. The group Adela made a deal with is already at the location of the teleportation spell. It's time for us to go is what I'm saying," Hemlin says which causes Shin to flare up all of a sudden.
"Leave?! Then leave by yourself! Can't you see I'm not done with these three yet!"
"That wasn't a request." Hemlin plays her flute and an eerily sweet hymn resonates through the alleyways. Like puppets on a string, the rats swallow up Shin and drags him into one of the dark alleys.
Cecil and Erize move to try and chase after him, but Sigmund grabs both their hands to stop them.
"But sir!" Cecil protests.
"We're lucky we got out alive in this encounter because I seriously feel like she could've ordered her rats to pick us clean," Sigmund reasons as he shows genuine fear over a witch that can control vermin. He's had his fair share of witch encounters, but he hasn't met one with the power over the vilest rodent in the world.
Without knowing how many she has in her control, Sigmund assumes the worst, that the witch that they did not even see is the avatar of famine.
Sigmund does end up shoving the fear of Hemlin to the back of his head as there are other more pressing matters at hand.
"Besides, we have something more important to worry about right?" He says as he looks towards the plaza where a torrent of blue flames shoot out into the sky and a loud shriek quickly accompanying it.
Cecil and Erize see the pillar of cerulean flames and dreads the sight of it. They both agree that the flames were darker than before and that it's giving off a completely different nature.
The two begin to worry for Andrew that they make a mad dash to the plaza. Of course Sigmund and Heka chase after the two of them.
"Wait! We have no idea what's happening, that may not even be Andrew! Heka, where's Sarissa and Caron?" Sigmund turns Heka who's running beside him, doing his best to keep up with his more athletic peers.
"T, -They were supposed to be posted in the barracks! Guarding Andrew!" Heka says between pants. Running alone is hard for him, but he's running in the cold which is far worse as his mouth and lungs quickly dry out from the freezing air.
'There's no doubt in my mind that Andrew could've handled Sarissa and Caron, but how's he still able to create these massive infernos in succession?
Unless he has vis phials on him, but that would mean he's putting himself at risk.' Sigmund, not liking where his assumptions are leading him, shoves the ideas to the back of his head along with his fears of the vermin witch.
He tries to focus on the two girls running in front of him and he sees anxiety clouding their eyes while worry knits their brows.
"This is Andrew you two are thinking about right? I'm sure that he's fine," Sigmund tries to reassure the two and for a moment it does work, but only because they're hopeful that Andrew hasn't been pushing himself too hard.
Of course, Erize couldn't help but feel guilt. It's partly because of her that Andrew not only changed his mind but took on the burden that she planned to carry.
Meanwhile, Cecil has already moved on from the frustration in her heart, but still the idea that Andrew could be shouldering a lot by himself not only made her angry but also worried that if nothing changes with him then nothing will change about him.
"Y, -You're probably right sir," Cecil replies while turning to Erize who wipes her face with the sleeve of her uniform. She could also swear that for a moment she hears Erize sniffling.
"Yeah! He's fine, he's definitely fine! After all, Drew is pretty strong," Erize almost sounds like she's praying that it turns out to be that way. That Andrew, her closest friend, is alright and well.
Unfortunately, reaching the plaza they see their worst fears all come to be.
The entire plaza is in ruins with blue flames all around. At the center of chaos, they see Andrew standing in a field of incapacitated knights all with ice forming in some parts of their bodies.
He's slouching as though his black executioner sword and demon binding sword weighs a ton. They do to him as he's been keeping all of these knights busy without the help of Adela who has taken over the gallows and turned it into an interrogation stage for Leiger.
Erize and Cecil can only stare in disbelief. Even if Andrew is an anti-mage like them, it should have been impossible for him to knock out so many knights. However, there is still a good portion of the army left and they're all closing in on the exhausted Andrew.
"This is an order from Sigmund Morganach, stop!" Suddenly the red-haired captain roars out which momentarily brings the attention of the remaining knights in the plaza, all four-hundred thirty-two of them.
Those with swords and spears lower their weapons and the archers who are on the rooftops of buildings relax the draw on their bows.
In the depths of his subconsciousness, Andrew hears Sigmund's strong authoritative voice that it brings back a bit of light to his faded blue eyes. He tries to take a breath but as soon as he does, his body violently rejects it by making him cough up blood.