The ashes before Strife

Episode 5 : Vengeance or Style? ; 4

The last three stood side by side and stared cautiously as I casually approached them 'just immobilize them and go Cayde enough of the theatrics.'

I sighed and three purple veins spread from the first man with a sword still in his knee stopping the three's movements as they screamed in fear. 'You know you don't need to act like a movie protagonist right?'

"I know. Just field testing the new power is all Incursik. After all, there will be occasions where it's likely to fail aren't there?" I walked past the three men as they tried to curse me heading down the long blue carpeted hallway "I also need to build up my battle experience with the other magics as well since all I've done is experiment and train with them so far against regular animals like slimes back in the forest."

'You've got a point but I imagine you still wanna be reunited with Lupra sooner rather than later right?' His argument was valid, I paused for a moment calling lupra through the contract that I made with her.

I was elated when I could sense her alive through it but now had to wait until she could reach me to see her again. I spread my mana sense as far as I could feel and saw a large cluster of people two floors above me quite a distance away "looks like we still have a while to go till we reach the party to hand in our "gift"."

'Yeah, it does. Make sure to have a look around for anything useful we can pawn off so we can have some finances to get out of Bandero.'

Continuing to walk through the large manor I caused chaos wherever I went as I searched for the entrance to where the party was knocking out any tuxedo-wearing guards that tried to block my path. I found several void rings lying about and used them to pilfer anything that looked expensive like the art pieces on the walls.

I then stood before the large white door to the ballroom with my black laughing bird mask on the side of my face resting atop my hair.

I reached out to push the door open but then stopped, and looked at my arm, the cuts from Mary's torture had all disappeared thanks to the corruption fixing my body inside out. 'What's wrong? Don't tell me you're getting cold feet Cayde?' There was concern in my brother's malicious voice almost as if he was hoping I would be scared.

"No. I was just thinking Incursik. That if I'm going to do this I've gotta do it in style." I could feel him lift a brow of judgment inside my mind "she can remain happy for a little longer. In the end, she will only feel more despair."

I then started walking down the large corridor looking for a room with a wardrobe in it to change my ragged blood-soaked clothes so I would be able to leave a lasting impression.

I found none on the second floor but did find a lot more trinkets to take for myself even more valuable than the first floor, I headed up a staircase to the highest floor and as I reached the top I looked down the corridor to see two rows of riflemen aiming at me "FIRE!"

I charged forward meeting their bullets head-on as a shield of swirling darkness absorbed the magic bullets filtering it into me giving me more power.

Then the second wave of bullets shot past grazing my shoulder and horns as I continued to run at them gathering a large amount of electricity in my hand which spread up my arm.

"Free fire! Just keep shooting till that demons are dead!" The flurry of bullets didn't give me any room to breathe.

'what are you doing! Are you trying to get yourself killed?' Incursik shouted at me to attack from a distance but with their number and the distance they could shatter my spells as they traveled to them with their bullets, I only coursed more mana and attrium into the vortex swirling even faster with every bullet it caught.