"Okay everyone, let's start again with the plan," said Catripple while she was sitting on the sofa of the rebels' room. Together with her, there were eleven other people.
"I agree, we can never know what will happen tomorrow," said Syrmax, as he had some papers in his hands. Just before, together with all the others, he had written about tomorrow's plan.
"So we just need to go and smash everything?!" said Orechin, almost shouting, as he created a red crystal as big as half of his body and punched it, feeling extremely excited for what would happen tomorrow.
"Eh, I agree too. I can't wait to punch that guy's face, I completely hate that Zrelekai," said a voice coming from below. This man wasn't as tall as a normal man, even if he looked to be in his thirties, his body was only 80 cm tall, and he had small wings behind his back. These wings were both black and red and looked like those of a demon; thanks to these small wings, he was able to float above the ground.
"I agree with you, Kriq… that Zrelekai has done terrible things to me that…" whispered another girl with long yellow hair as her whole body started to shake. Next to her, a girl with long red hair positioned her hand over her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Taniya. It's all over now, he cannot touch you anymore," said the red-haired girl with a reassuring tone. "I know… thank you, Heleroris…" said Taniya as she tried to smile while she positioned her scarred hand over Heleroris's hand on her shoulder.
"Arghhh, I'll smash that stupid Corvinus's ass!!!" Suddenly, a girl jumped on the table and started to run toward the red crystal created by Orechin. The moment she jumped to reach the crystal, two katanas appeared in her hands. It felt as if from one of them, sticky water was flowing out, and from the other, it felt like wind was coming out of it.
Right before the girl could slash her weapons against the crystal, Orechin removed it. "Estelle, I'll let you smash the crystal tomorrow. We already know what happened the last time you destroyed one of them here…" murmured Orechin as he looked over at a guy who was sitting next to Eilwarin and Catripple, on his shoulder, there were small, strange creatures.
Their bodies were both yellow and black, and while their bodies were extremely small, they looked to be about 20 cm tall, they had extremely huge hands, and their faces could barely be seen. The only things that would be able to catch a viewer's eyes were their bioluminescent eyes.
"Tch… remember that before you, there were tons of other rebels. You can't ruin this sacred place," said this guy, looking extremely annoyed. Eilwarin, next to him, spoke with a reassuring tone.
"Hey, don't worry, Uxar… we will never ruin the house of the old rebels, especially because one day it will become ours," said Eilwarin. Uxar was the oldest one of the group; he was over sixty and he was the only survivor of the previous rebel generation.
"Yeah… but I believe that the day in which Ardoris will be free is about to arrive…" said Uxar as he looked over the rebels and smiled proudly. "The previous rebels were strong, yeah… but not as much as you all. I believe that soon we will not need to use this place anymore… as tomorrow we will be free!!" shouted Uxar as he smashed his fist on the sofa. The small creatures on his shoulder trembled and fell off.
"I agree… look at us, we're all a family…" said another person with blond hair as he looked over the whole team and felt some tears about to flow down his cheek. Suddenly, someone put his arm around his shoulder.
"Hey, don't cry, Quinten. It's a happy day for us!" shouted this other guy with black hair while he smiled warmly. "Tomorrow the plan will be perfect, and we will not have any problem freeing the city," he said. Hearing this, the others all clapped their hands together.
"That's right!!!" shouted Estelle as she pointed her katanas toward the roof, shouting together with Kriq.
"Still… are you sure you've understood the plan, Isorin?" asked Syrmax, a bit worried. Isorin moved his other hand over Syrmax's shoulder and almost made his monocle fall to the floor. "Hey, don't worry. I just need to place as many invisible clouds as I can outside the prison, right? I won't have any problem."
"And while you'll be outside, I'll send my creatures to grab as many things as possible so they can be thrown toward all the guards," said Uxar as he slowly petted one of the creatures on his shoulder. The creatures emitted a weird laugh that made Uxar laugh softly too.
"Still, I'm scared… what if that Ashikunz arrives too… will we be able to defeat him?" asked Taniya as she started to bite her nails. Heleroris gave her multiple claps with her hands on her back. "We want him to arrive there; we need to kill him, right everyone?" she said while smiling toward Taniya. The scared girl slowly moved her head toward the group, who all had reassuring looks on their faces.
"We need him to arrive!" said Catripple as she smashed her fists together. "As long as Isorin has his invisible clouds, he will not be able to anticipate their attack; as long as we distract him, he will never be able to dodge or block any of them!" Catripple got off the sofa and walked toward the scared Taniya.
She gently positioned one hand over her shoulder and smiled warmly. "We need your power too, Taniya, and we fully trust you. We believe that with your power, you'll be able to distract him more than you might realize." Taniya slowly nodded her head; hearing these words had made her calm down, and she was able to stop shaking. "You're right… I'll help you," she said as she looked at Catripple directly in the eyes.
Suddenly, Uxar got up from the sofa and clapped his hands together. "Okay everyone, we have already spent the whole night thinking about the plan for tomorrow. Now we should all go and rest… as tomorrow will be the day this city has been waiting for."
With these words, each person in the room had sparkles in their eyes and they nodded in synchrony. With that, everyone returned to their rooms and the night passed.
The following day, Isorin was already walking in front of the prison. It was barely six in the morning and, as always, all the guards were already working. 'It's so bad that I need to remain here and risk…' thought Isorin as he noticed some guards looking at him from the entrance while they whispered something.
'Oh well, I can't use my power from far away… but as long as I'm able to place as many clouds around, everything will be alright.' Isorin was in front of some old, empty boxes, behind him, Uxar's creatures were slowly destroying the boxes into smaller pieces.
Suddenly, the guards came out of the prison while looking at Isorin directly in the eyes. "Are you the famous Isorin?" they asked with an angry tone.
'The fight is about to start…' thought he as he slowly raised his head and started to walk toward them. While he reached them, one of the invisible clouds reached one of the guards too.
"Answer us!" shouted one of the guards as he suddenly took out a pistol and pointed it toward Isorin, who just smirked. "And what if I am?" he said with a creepy look. The guard hesitated one moment before shooting. "Thorn Proliferation!" Suddenly, one of the clouds became visible and a spike appeared from it, hitting the guard in his back.
The guard coughed up some blood before falling to the ground. The other guard immediately shouted as he ran back into the prison. "We're under ATTACK!" he shouted. "You'll not escape… Force Calibration…" whispered Uxar as he joined the battlefield too. He pointed his finger toward the escaping guard, and one of his small creatures shot a part of the box toward the guard, completely cutting his head off.
The moment this happened, the alarm rang immediately and a speaker could be heard inside the prison: "We're under attack… I repeat, we're under attack." As this voice could be heard throughout the prison, all the guards immediately went outside. The prisoners were still sleeping at this time and they woke up with the sound of the alarm.
A lot of guards appeared from the walls of the prison and all pointed their weapons toward Isorin and Uxar. "Fireball!" they shouted as multiple fireballs came out from their arms and rushed at extreme speed toward the group.
"Wind Slash!" shouted Eilwarin as he created an invisible slash that was able to cut the fireballs in half, and they exploded before they could actually reach the group.
"More… Thorn Proliferation!" Suddenly, other clouds appeared in front of the guards on top of the wall and the spikes hit them in their stomachs, making them fall to the ground lifeless.
Other guards appeared from the main entrance. "You will not attack us!" shouted all of them together. "Let's go, Kriq!" shouted Estelle as she rushed toward the guards. "You don't even need to call me!" shouted Kriq as he rushed toward the guards with his wings.
In Estelle's hands, two katanas appeared: one of them had water and the other had fire. "Fire Sigil!" Estelle suddenly slashed her flame katana on the ground, creating a line. The moment she removed the katana from the ground, a huge wall of flames erupted. "You will not beat us!" shouted the guards. Some guards created multiple water bubbles and launched them toward the wall, while those who could use earth magic replaced the wall of fire with one of earth instead.
"Partial Manifest!" shouted Kriq. Suddenly, his arms and legs started to change; they became red and more muscular. With a single slash of his new claws, he was able to destroy the ground wall, to the surprise of the guards, who reacted in almost an instant.
"Fire!" shouted one of the guards. Multiple spikes erupted from the ground, tons of water was launched toward Kriq, and the guards from the wall launched their fireballs toward the modified human. "Fire Wall!" shouted Heleroris, a big fire wall erupted from the ground, and it was able to counter the water and fire spells while Kriq took care of the ground spikes that rushed toward him.
"Let's go, everyone," said multiple robots as they came out of the entrance. "You will not ruin this day!" shouted Estelle as she rushed toward them. Before reaching them, she slashed her water katana and sticky water came out of it. The water reached the robots; in some, it interfered with their circuits, and others just couldn't move their feet.
The robots looked confused. "Fire Sigil!" shouted Estelle as she drew a circle with her katana around the robots. The moment the circle was finished and Estelle removed the sword from the ground, she jumped back and a pillar made entirely of flames appeared where she had drawn her circle, and the robots were completely charred.
"Keep going!" shouted other robots that arrived not from the entrance of the prison but from the other alleys. All the robots pointed their rifles toward Estelle, who didn't even flinch; she just looked at the robots with a creepy expression and rushed toward them.
All the bullets rushed toward Estelle, but she was too fast. The bullets passed by her, and the ones that were about to hit her were slashed in half with her katana. Suddenly, the robots heard a voice: "Stop!" The robots, understanding that it was coming from behind them and that it was Zrelekai's voice, immediately turned quiet.
The robots remained still while Estelle completely cut their bodies in half. 'I got lucky that there was a recording of Zrelekai's voice nearby…' thought Taniya. Her power let her replicate voices that had occurred in that place with no limitation of time. She didn't know when or why, but Zrelekai had said "Stop" in this place a long time ago, and she was able to replicate that voice thanks to her power.
"Hey, you're one of the rebels too!" shouted a guard as he grabbed Taniya's hands. She was currently hiding behind some boxes, but a guard had been able to find her. "AHHHHH!" Taniya shouted, scared. "Shut up, I'll kil—" The guard couldn't even finish his sentence before Estelle rushed toward Taniya and cut the body of the guard in half.
"They're here!" shouted other robots as they arrived and noticed Estelle and Taniya. "Tch, they are already here…" pointed out Estelle, annoyed, as she grabbed Taniya and started to run away while cutting bullets with her katana.
As the bullets reached the two women, Estelle wasn't able to cut all of them, and one bullet hit Taniya in her leg. "AHHH, IT HURTS SO MUCH!" she cried in pain. "I'll help you!!" shouted Heleroris from on top of a building. "Fire Wall!" Another huge fire wall appeared and blocked the robots from shooting with their rifles. "I'm here too!" shouted Catripple as she was together with Heleroris on top of a building. "Feather Burst!" She grabbed one of the feathers from her back and threw it into the middle of the group of robots; after less than a second, the feather exploded, creating a huge explosion.
"Are you alright, Taniya?" asked Heleroris as she jumped down from the building, landing next to Estelle and Taniya. Suddenly, other robots arrived and noticed the three women immediately.
"I'll leave her to you, Heleroris," said Estelle as she started toward the robots, grabbing their attention.
"It hurts… but it's alright, don't worry. My role will arrive later, right?" asked Taniya while breathing heavily. After destroying the robots, Catripple landed next to her.
"Don't worry, Taniya, you've been grea—" Suddenly, from behind Catripple, other robots arrived and all shot toward the three women; some bullets were able to pierce Catripple's wings, making her fall to the ground, hurt. "Damn! Fireball!" shouted Heleroris as she tried to counter the bullets, but it was useless; most of them had already arrived and they hit her and Taniya in different parts of their bodies.
"Still Prism!" shouted Orechin as he created a huge blue crystal that made all the bullets extremely slow. "Escape!" shouted Orechin. "I'll help you…" said Catripple as she slowly returned to her feet. "Taniya, can you help her now?" asked Catripple, as below her, Heleroris had multiple holes in her stomach because of the bullets.
The few bullets that hit Taniya all went into her right leg. "I'll try… it's hard," murmured she as her whole body started to shake. Suddenly Syrmax, who had been charging light until now, landed next to her. "I'll bring her somewhere safer," said he as he had his hands in his pockets.
Taniya slowly returned to her feet and shook her head. "You're the last card against Ashikunz… I can't let you waste time on things like this. I'll take care of her," said Taniya as she grabbed Heleroris by her shoulder. "Still, you're coming with me… especially because these other two don't need any help," said Syrmax as he started to guide the two girls while they tried to avoid as many robots as they could, especially because the whole place was filled with robots in every street.
In front of the prison, there were still Uxar, Kriq, Estelle, Quinten, Isorin, and Eilwarin, who were taking care of the guards and robots, even as, as time passed, more and more robots arrived rather than just guards.
Suddenly someone else came out of the prison; his presence alone was enough to make everyone gulp in fear. Corvinus had just arrived. "You rebels… we'll end you here!" shouted Corvinus as he walked with a threatening pose. Kriq and Estelle looked at each other and nodded; they completely left the robots they were taking care of and rushed toward Corvinus, as they knew he could be the one of the biggest problem.