A Devil's Grace 1930

| Chapter Seven |

Tanya just stared up at him for a moment, not even flushed in the face as he was remaining on top of her. "This is inappropriate," with the aid of physical enhancement spells, she shoved him off onto his back with ease as she dusted her dress off.

Valen snickered even after he laid flat on his back, grinning up at her as she crossed her arms, slipping her gun away into her bag.

"Why didn't you join the Empire back when there was a war on? I could've used you," Tanya seemed to speak in both a serious and sarcastic manner simultaneously. She then took two steps forward and offered him a hand to get him to his feet.

Taking hold of her dainty little hand, he had her help him up and he dusted himself off too. Both of them had mud and leaves stuck to their back and in their hair. 

Though as they looked over the other agents, they both looked to one another. They thought just about the same thing as one another. Free weapons and ammunition.

The two of them moved like a couple of vultures, tackling each corpse together to see if they had anything useful. They got a number of unused rounds, two Imperial Mousers and a Russian Browning Model 1903. It was clear to them that these agents were armed with former Imperial weapons surrendered following the Empire's defeat.

A small frown formed over his lips as he noticed all of this, shaking his head lightly to himself.

Tanya looked to Valen as he too had come to the same conclusion and frowned as well. The land she had fought for, the victories she had won and the people she had killed meant nothing. 

The fatherland was nothing more than a puppet Republic, her Emperor who she served was now in exile in this worlds version of the Netherlands. She tucked one of the Mouser's into her satchel along with a number of bullets.

Valen traded his colt for a Mouser, reloading it as he did so before tucking it into his holster. He then tucked the colt into his belt before the two of them moved onto the next group of agents.

They had less on them. It appeared these guys were mostly carrying the currency and items for the mission. What was strange it seemed was one of them had a map of the states, the town in which she was staying in circled in red. Next was the forest, and a number of other locations leading down Florida.

That was when it hit them. These guys weren't following them, they were waiting for them. Each place in which he wanted to stop, or could stop, seemed to be highlighted in red ink.

How they had gotten this intelligence was behind him. It would take a lot of guesswork, or an insider, but there was no one else in on this except for himself! He couldn't be working against himself, right? The fact that the thought even came across his mind confused him greatly.

Tanya could see the confusion on his face, it was as if someone had blown his whole plan wide open. This also meant that there were agents waiting for her crew to show up.

Now more than ever she knew they had to get there before the Russians do.

Walking over to the man she had shot in the head, she began to pull the jacket off of the corpse before holding it out in front of herself. Due to its size, it reminded her of the green trench she wore during war times. A faint grin formed over her face as she looked to Valen. 

"Might as well complete it with a scarf," Valen gestured towards one of the men who were missing an arm and had since bled out with a contorted facial expression.

Blinking as she pulled the jacket on over her arms and onto her back, she buttoned it over her dress before walking over and looking over the red scarf. It didn't have blood on it, or if it did she couldn't see any. 

Reaching down she plucked the scarf off from around the man's neck, observed it before dropping it to the ground. "Nope, not wearing green and red," she couldn't really remember the last time she even celebrated Christmas, let alone liked the holiday.

 She, however, did take a pair of their goggles and slid them on over her eyes, "Perfect." She applauded herself before placing her gloved hands on her hips. 

"Indeed, you look like the world's greatest flying ace," Valen wheezed.

Tanya just gave him this smug look, as she was the greatest flying Ace still alive. "Your petty attempts at flattery will only work, should they be accompanied by chocolates."

"With Almonds?" Unfazed by her words, Valen grinned back towards her.

Wearing a content and seemingly satisfied expression on her face, her azure eyes drifted away from him. "Almonds he says..." She breathed quietly to herself with a partial chuckle.

Raising a brow at that, Valen shook his head lightly before going over to the Russians which seemed to have been reduced to swiss cheese. "Seems like the Federation has become... Holy."

"Don't even joke about tha--" As she walked up next to him, she cut herself off and narrowed on the holy cross in which had been engraved upon the weapon, "So it wasn't a pun..."

The two of them looked at one another.

Tanya had a general idea who was now concentrating and orchestrating this hunting party upon her. It was Being-X, she was sure of it. The only question that came to mind, as she let her eyes drift around the forest, was why now?

Did this God mean to kill her subordinates in front of her? Did he want her to be captured by Loria after finally experiencing a cushy lifestyle? 

Valen was thinking it was some sort of Christian Cult, but also she said something about Being-X not too long ago and he was curious about what that was. His eyes narrowed on her for a few seconds, before turning his head to the side... He swore he saw one of the bodies move, but that was impossible. Narrowing his eyes on one of the corpses that lay there on the ground, he noticed that their eyes were directly on him and it was smiling at him.

"That's not creepy at all..." His eyes then dropped to the dead man's hand who was pointing at him, but even from a glance, he could see the body had already gone stiff.

Tanya looked to the dead man he was speaking towards, her lips parting slightly. What exactly was he seeing? To her, it looked like a regular dead body.

Rubbing his eyes, he quickly noticed that the body was the way it was before, no longer smiling or pointing at him. It wasn't even looking at him anymore. "I swear that body was smiling and pointing at me..." He took a step back, more so grossed out than afraid.

"...Being X..." She uttered under her breath as she took a few steps closer to Valen, taking him by the wrist. "It's time to go! We can't stay here." She glared down at the dead body before activating her operation orb and going into flight.

Even though staying or going didn't really matter, and the self-proclaimed God could see them anywhere at any time, she still didn't want to remain there. There was a high chance the gunshots didn't go unnoticed and it would be hard to miss the number of trees freshly riddled with bullets.

In order to not be hanging at her mercy, Valen did the same, also not wanting to be dragged along by someone much shorter than himself.

The two of them remained below the treetops, however, Valen eying the map which had areas highlighted. These were likely the places where they were to be ambushed or the suggested spots they'd stay in.

There were a number of other routes to take, but it would delay them far too long. Their only true solution would fly directly towards their final destination without stopping too often

"Should've bought some spam..." Uttered Valen.

Rolling her eyes, though it wasn't necessarily wrong to feel hungry after killing someone, she couldn't help but shake her head. "You're thinking about meat now of all times?"

"It's canned and easy to eat." Valen defended with a huff, but he didn't stop smiling, even if it was a little too faint to see right away. "Plus, you're probably thinking about coffee."

"Tch.."