Escape

Doom learned from the guards that Olivia had shown up and told them that he, as in Doom, had ordered that Seraphine and Autumn be brought to him. They had of course believed her after all everyone knew she was under his control, so they had just let her leave with the Queen and Princess. Doom unfortunately couldn't fault that logic. He hadn't been paying enough attention after Ursa died and with everything happening with Belleza he hadn't even noticed that he had ceased feeling Olivia’s presence.

He was clearly not thinking properly and things were going wrong, one after the other. He headed to Raig immediately. Upon entering the throne room he found Raig sitting on the throne, with Ina sitting on his lap, riding him in slow, gentle movements, her arms around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder. Prai is here as well, kneeling nearby, seemingly just waiting until she's needed.

"The Queen and Princess have escaped. We need to lock down all access in and out of Alms Amour," Doom announces and Raig growls and rolls his eyes.

"It's Drakmir..." he corrects and Ina groans as his grip on her waist tightens in annoyance.

"Drakmir, whatever... we need to-" Doom responds, but is interrupted.

"Please, be relaxed, Master Doom," Prai speaks suddenly, "I had already arranged for what soldiers could be spared to be sent to each of the strongholds, there will be no escape from Alms Am-" she stops and glances over at Raig who glares at her, "-Drakmir..." She corrects herself.

"Did you know this would happen?" Doom asks incredulously.

"Not this specifically, but I deemed it wise to protect our borders against any escape attempts or attempts to enter before we were... better prepared," she explains.

"You really do think ahead," he praises her and she nods.

"Indeed... Prai is indispensable," Raig agrees and then grunts and Ina cries out as his cum shoots into her and then slowly leaks out of her.

"Alright... You just... have fun then," Doom says and leaves the throne room, heading into his own room.

Later in his room he lies down on the bed and stares at the ceiling, something feels off, but he can't place it, then he sits up abruptly and glances over. Destiny's book is lying on the floor. Someone had been in here. He bends down and picks up the book and as he straightens up, Destiny is suddenly standing directly in front of him. He cries out in alarm and staggers back, falling onto the bed and she snaps her fingers, the book appearing back in the sheath on her thigh, "Good evening," she greets him and he stands back up.

"What are you doing here?" he states and then narrows his eyes, "if you're here to fight, you won't win. Your trick doesn't work on me!" he growls.

"Really? My 'trick' works on everyone," she responds as she moves sitting on the edge of the bed, ignoring his threatening pose, "you know who I am now and yet you still think you actually won that encounter?" She says leveling her eyes at him, "everything went exactly as I intended and the pieces have been set in motion," she says and then smiles, moving a hand to gently stroke his thigh, "I'm not really your enemy. Not a friend either, but... well I have a vested interest in you. That's why I'm here," she explains.

Every sense in Doom's body tells him he should kill her right now, but he can't bring himself to attack and part of him isn't even sure if it would work, "fine... speak..." he reluctantly agrees and she nods.

"I'm not allowed to affect things too directly, though... that's more of a self imposed rule actually. Your assassin friend was wrong, if I wanted you dead I could absolutely make an asteroid fall on you directly at any moment, the reason I don't is because it would be a bad idea, for multiple reasons. One it just wouldn't be very fun, two is the same reason most of the gods don't act directly. Imagine there is a group of people playing a game together, it's an intense strategy game and everyone is playing to beat everyone else. You all play knowing that you have special tricks you could employ at any moment to give yourself an edge, but you also know that everyone else has tricks as well and you know that if you play yours first the rest will play theirs and more importantly you'll paint a massive target on yourself. In truth the object of the game isn't to overpower your foes as quickly as possible, but to try and toe the line so perfectly that you end up forcing someone else to cross that line first," she explains.

"I get it... None of the gods will act directly because if they do the other gods will crush them or worse, it will allow all the other gods to act directly as well and destroy the delicate balance of the game," Doom responds, "In my world we called it Mutually Assured Destruction, it's what kept the various countries from just reducing each other into radioactive vapor any time one of them annoyed another one," he explained and she simply nodded.

"Exactly. There's no telling who would come out on top in such a situation if it didn’t simply result in as you said mutually assured destruction and I prefer to play games I know I can win," she concludes.

"Although... What about Tomoko? Wasn't that Light playing its hand?" Doom asks and Destiny giggles.

"Ooh you're paying attention. In a sense it was, but it wasn't enough of an overreach as to really upset the balance beyond saving and besides... look what it resulted in," she says. Doom hesitates, uncertain about her meaning and Destiny sighs, "you... I'm talking about you. Light played one of their tricks and for their foolish reach they got Darkness playing one of its own. The field potentially balances, assuming you don't screw up, which is why I'm actually here," she says finally, "there's a trial coming. Something really bad and you are absolutely not ready for it. I can't tell you what to do of course, but I can help you be prepared. If you want to survive this coming trial... You will have to lose everything you have gained. It'll be the only way to come back in the end," she warns and then vanishes.

Doom thinks about her words and then covers his eyes with a hand as he lays down on the bed, "great... now I'm gonna be thinking about this and I'm not going to get any fucking sleep tonight," he groans.

The small house had once belonged to a family. In the middle of the desert, they'd made their living, on the outskirts of society. They were long gone now and Olivia didn't know if they were dead or they'd just moved to one of the cities. She doesn’t really know anything about them at all, but thinking about the strangers who were unknowingly harboring Seraphine, Autumn and herself, took her mind off of the fact they were undoubtedly being pursued. The chance of making it out of Alms Amour is low, but she is going to try her best. She is sitting on a wooden chair and staring out the window at the desert, looking for any sign of pursuit. She glances over to the beds. Autumn is sleeping peacefully, Seraphine is pretending to sleep, Olivia can tell Seraphine is troubled. She doesn't want her daughter to worry so she hides it, but not very well. Olivia doesn't know what’s bothering her, was it just the **** of her husband or was it something else, she doesn't dare ask. If they are captured she wonders what would happen to them. They probably wouldn't kill Seraphine or Autumn, but what about her? She finds herself hoping she'd be killed. The idea that she'd be marked again terrifies her.

She moves a hand to her chest, it hurts. It hurts really bad. She is in bad shape and she'd pushed her body too far, but they didn't have the luxury of time or rest. She'd healed herself when her injuries had reopened during the journey, but it wasn't enough. Her body aches and the injuries are already reopening. She channels some more healing magic into her body to try and reseal the wounds, but it only barely works. They might make it if they can get through the strongholds by tomorrow and reach Mnemaria, but otherwise... her body would likely shut down before they were safe. She closes her eyes, she doesn't care if that happens, she'd ensure that at least Seraphine and Autumn make it.

At the southern Stronghold, Drakmir rangers sit inside the small area designed to let them see and fire on any incoming threats. It’s a tight and uncomfortable area. There are two on each side, one can sleep while the other remains awake and they switch out. If a threat comes it’s easy to wake the other so all four can focus on a threat. The rangers on duty spot a lone figure approaching. The figure is cloaked, but even with the cloak covering her, it’s obvious she’s a woman. She has dark skin and massive breasts that bounce with each step. The rangers watch transfixed as she approaches and then the first ranger takes aim and fires. An arrow lands by her feet. She stops and looks down at the arrow, but then continues walking. The other rangers are awakened as this seems like it might be trouble.

Another arrow is fired as a warning, but again she only pauses for a moment. The protocol is to shoot to kill now, but no one did, "Man look at those tits... It would be a shame to kill her too quickly," one argues as the others watch the figure approach.

"It's just a single woman... Someone tell the others, we let her in, capture her in the courtyard and we can have our way with her," another suggests and the plan is decided. The woman therefore remains unmolested as she approaches the walls. She stops in front of the entrance to the killing hall and slides a sword out from beneath her cloak. It’s green and gold. The rangers watch in confusion, but one of them suddenly panics. They recognize that sword.

"Oh fuck guys that's-" is all he manages to get out before the sword is swung. It hits the wall and the wall explodes. Debris flies into the small alcove and both the rangers inside are killed. The rangers on the other side, panic and struggle to fire. One fires an arrow, but the woman slides her other arm out from under the cloak, the arrow being blocked by the small shield on her left arm and then she punches that shield against the wall and destroys the other alcove as the rangers inside are again killed almost instantly as the wall caves in. The front of the stronghold collapses and Alkadabuki tosses the cloak from her shoulders. From a distance the Golden Horde with Elizabeth arrive and join Alkadabuki as she enters the stronghold. The miniscule defense the defenders put up is crushed quickly and every last defender is killed. Alkadabuki has no intention of taking prisoners. With entry into Alms Amour secured, the golden horde heads towards Saluma. Alms Amour would be back in the light's hands by the end of the following day.