The manor security room was now brightly lit, given it was currently ablaze.
The panels had green flames spewing from their seams with bright sparks flashing from the wires that leaked out of the walls.
A wooden shell sat at the centre of the inferno, black and terribly scorched. Soon it unraveled itself to reveal a boy hidden behind a shattered black mask.
"Fudge Fudge Fudge!"
He coughed clutching onto the remains of his wooden shell for support.
After a bit of heaving Sebastian finally came to his senses. He was a Cardinal so this level of smoke couldn't irritate him for too long.
"…Crisis!"
Sebas muttered letting his hands fall limp beside him.
Now that he got a good look at the burning room and its roasted panels, Sebas couldn't hold himself from falling to his knees. The fire inside of the room was mostly gone, with just a few scraps burning at the side. Still, he couldn't help but despair.
He took off his mask entirely, it was mostly gone so keeping it on was of no use.
His eyes had moist plates over them, pure devastation plastered on his face. But soon it morphed into a scowl.
He whipped his head to the side searching for the nurse.
From where he knelt he could see the wooden limbs he had used to impale her. They had long since turned to splinters, now buried deep into the metal walls of the security room.
The woman's body, however, was nowhere to be found.
The situation was getting more and more irritating. Not only could he no longer draw the force field, but they were now also plagued by a saboteur.
"What to do?"
By now Faux must have already engaged the puppets.
He didn't necessarily feel good about referring to the brave men who had once served the orphanage as puppets but… what could he do?
"…If the force field doesn't come up soon. Damn it."
Sebas cursed as he shot out of the room.
The hallways were still burning with a mix of emerald and amber flames.
The kids were still a priority so he couldn't let half the building burn down. Strangely the flames weren't triggering the smoke sensors, so he had to think of something else.
Celestial Will was a strange thing. By the time a knight had gotten to the rank of a Cardinal their Wills would then be able to change in nature– at least for the extremely talented ones. In other words, they would become capable of releasing elemental spells.
Every knight had a way of fighting which incorporated their abilities, personality, spell arsenal and much more, hence seeing a knight who relies mostly on multiple elemental spells alone was uncommon.
Sebastian's ability lets him duplicate and turn his cells into dark wood. While his Will itself was akin to water. Fortunately.
So he called on it, pulling it out of his core so it settled around him. A dark green mist sipped out from his pores and suddenly began to cohere together forming large bodies of water.
They soon began to swirl forming a miniature whirlwind of sorts. With him at its centre.
Then with a wave of his hand, the whirlwind expanded forward, drenching every corner of the burning building.
Sebastian released a heavy sigh of relief. It wasn't perfect but it'll have to do.
He was climbing up the staircase when he suddenly heard;
'You alive kid?'
There was a bit of pause as he tried to catch his breath.
"…Never better Captain."
He finally replied.
"And the shield?"
Faux continued. His words forced Sebas to a halt.
He had thought of chasing after the nurse but he had no idea where she had run to, and still capturing her wasn't going to raise the shield…
Fortunately, he was often referred to as a prodigy, at least in the area of Will control.
Just because the control panel was blown to bits didn't mean he couldn't activate it manually.
'The arrays are still set in place. If I could get to one of the corners it was placed in, then I could most likely activate it.'
'Sebas we have a mission… we can't–'
"Give me a couple more minutes. Captain."
Sebastian chimed in as he readjusted his glasses and tried to rub off the soothe that clung to his cheeks.
'Haaaaa… it's your funeral kid.'
"Thank you, Captain!"
Sebas saluted, determination lining his brows. Soon he was on the move again dashing up the stairs.
As reliable as his mind was, Sebas still struggled a bit to recall the locations of the array. Due to the sensitive nature of the force field contraption, information on it was limited.
But Sebas was well aware that there were six points in total, all having an obsidian rod that held and transmitted the Will, with a couple of arrays surrounding it whose job was to convert the Will into the force field.
'So they had to have placed it at strategic positions…'
One of the only places that could come to mind was the tall black pole on the orphanage's roof. So he headed there first.
As he bolted across the manor, far faster than any mundane man could ever hope to move. Caspian couldn't help but wonder;
'Who was that woman?'
Right before the explosion he had recognized an explosion tag held tightly in the nurse's grip.
Those weren't easy to come by provided they were made from the harvested Calamitous Will of ill-borns. So it really made him wonder who she really was. He had never been able to identify from the moment they landed.
"…Curios."
Soon he was bursting into the roof. From here he could see and hear the violent clash occurring below.
By the looks of it, the defence wouldn't last long.
The obsidian pole soon came into view. It wasn't very obvious. Hidden cleverly in plain sight.
Sebastian walked up to it and began to release his Will. He wasn't very confident in his ability to influence an array but he would be foolish if he didn't try. Lives were at stake.
The green mist fell on the arrays that were placed on the floor. Sebas made sure not to touch the obsidian pole with his Will. The repercussions would be explosive.
The obsidian pole already had a Calamitous Will flowing through it. Celestial Will mixing with it would be a horrible idea.
Worst case the explosion could go through the pole reaching the massive obsidian stone that rested far below the orphanage's building, blowing up the entire mountain.
While Sebas tried to activate the array manually, he suddenly felt the hair behind his neck stand on end.
He immediately ducked and less than a second later dagger long claws whipped past his lowered head.
Immediately he hopped back a couple feet trying to put some distance between him and the assailant.
With little surprise, it was the blood-sucking nurse standing before him. For some reason, she looked eerily enthralling with her red eyes and lush blonde hair. Her nurse's uniform held her waist tightly outlining her stunning curves, coupled with the red heels she had on. She could fool anyone if it wasn't for the blood littering her sharp rows of teeth, some even stained her white dress.
'I suspect she would follow.'
Sebas scowled. He hoped he would be able to activate the field before she engaged.
'I guess I'll just improvise.'
Immediately he shot forward as his hands hardened and protruded forward forming dark wooden blades.
The nurse raised her claws ready to receive him. When they clashed splinters rose into the air. As sharp as his wooden limbs where they still couldn't replace an actual blade. But this wasn't news to Sebas.
He had more control over his limbs than a blade, so she could barely keep up. He kept changing the shape of the blade at drastic points easily going through her defences and impaling her. He was a long ranged fighter but that didn't mean he wasn't sufficient in close combat.
The thing was she wasn't stopping. The nurse kept running forward almost like she wasn't getting hurt. She kept regenerating and mixed with her capable combat skills Sebas was basically containing a menace.
At some point, Sebas noticed the same device she had used to blow up the other room in her hand. Immediately he went for it, severing her hand from the wrist. Almost instantly she regenerated her hand and then with her claws dug into Sebastian's light armor.
Before he could regain himself the nurse leaped into and struck him right across the face with her red heels.
The blow sent him skidding backwards. Sebastian could barely stand. On the other side of the rooftop, he could see the nurse catwalk over to the obsidian rod.
She had a cold look on her face when she elongated her claws. Then in one fluid motion, she severed the obsidian rose. Snapping it completely off.