"Phew... looks like nobody has noticed me yet," Rina sighed, quietly moving towards the apartment building.

In the distance, she could see a man leaning over the terrace’s railing. With the interest he was watching the fight below, one could assume he was their leader. The one they called Aiden.

Rina smiled. Locating the target was like completing half the task. Now that she had, all she had to do was to kill him.

However, even that joy didn’t last long. Just one look at the so-called battlefield, and she knew nothing had gone according to Joan’s plan.

Bullets, acid bombs, and as if that wasn’t enough, somehow they were getting shocked too!

Her sisters were either getting killed or captured by Aiden’s forces. As for the men, it seemed even Aiden didn’t have much of a regard for them. At least not until they tried to run away. As long as the men stayed put, no one from Aiden’s forces harmed them.

Fucking sexist prick. Why don’t you extend the same courtesy to the females? Are you gay or something?

It had only been a year, but in that time, everyone had understood the importance of women. Factions often fought one another over women, surely Aiden wouldn’t indiscriminately kill them.

That was the reason most women had joined the operation. Even if they fought against him, Aiden would more likely spare the women. At least that’s what they had come to expect from men and also from Mila’s stories about him.

Yet, the opposite was happening. Men were being pardoned, and women were being culled.

At least someone is helping me out.

While she headed towards the apartment, Rina’s gaze fell on Joan. Just seeing her still fighting brought a small measure of relief to her. As long as she was standing, the ’nurtures’, as they called themselves, would keep fighting on.

Just a few more steps...

The building was right in front of her. Now that the battle was going on behind her, she ran towards it. Her mind was already thinking of ways to torture Aiden for his supposed crimes, when...

Thwack!

She hit a wall face-first. The impact sent her stumbling backward as she clutched her nose.

"Ugh..." she groaned, her back on the ground.

Her ears were ringing, and her vision got blurry from the tears. She got hit by something, but when she looked ahead, there wasn’t anything in sight.

"What just happened here...?"

Groaning in pain, she extended her hand forward and kept walking. Seconds later, she touched the invisible wall before her and frowned.

"What is this? Mila didn’t tell us anything about a barrier!"

She stood there, thinking of a way inside. The entire plan depended on her, and she couldn’t fail the task.

In her frustration, she began punching the barrier, but other than taking out her frustration and losing her energy, nothing happened.

Just then, she felt someone’s presence behind her. Rina’s neck snapped sideways, but she couldn’t see anybody there. Thinking she was hallucinating, she was about to go back to analyzing the barrier when she heard something.

"Aren’t you a sneaky one?"

Rina kicked off the barrier, landing a few feet away. Yet she couldn’t see anybody.

"What the hell is going on here?"

"Where?"

"Eek!"

Rina jumped back when she heard the voice again, but this time she did see something. A tall, pale woman with white hair had been standing right where she was a moment ago. She had been so close, yet she didn’t register her presence at all!

Rina didn’t waste a second and immediately pulled out two daggers, pointing them at Carmila. Even then, she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Oh dear," Carmila smiled, her fangs peeking out from under her lips. "That blade is sharp, but you know what’s sharper?"

***

Meanwhile, Joan was unaware that her plan of assassinating Aiden was a bust. How could she even spare Rina a thought when the werewolf in front was taking all of her attention?

"Tired already?" Karina scoffed, cracking her knuckles before launching at Joan again.

Karina was relentless in this form. She couldn’t feel tired, and even the pain from getting hit didn’t last long before the injuries healed on their own.

Unlike her, Joan wasn’t having fun anymore. Karina’s relentless attacks made it so she didn’t even have the time to breathe properly, let alone think.

She was about to block another one of Karina’s strikes when she heard a familiar scream.

"RINA!" Joan yelled back, her head snapping in the direction of the scream. "What the hell...?"

At some distance, a woman she hadn’t seen before was holding Rina by the back of her neck in one hand, and in the other she was holding Mila.

Joan’s entire body went cold. Not because the woman had somehow captured Mila and Rina, but because she realized who or what the woman was.

"What is your filthy kind doing on this world!?" Joan screamed, her blade swinging up to point directly at Carmila.

"Oh, my! I didn’t expect such crude words would come out of a heroine’s mouth," Carmila chuckled before looking sideways behind her.

Joan followed her gaze, and what little control she had over her mind was lost.

Aiden walked out of the building entrance with his hands in his pockets, unbothered by the bloodshed around him. He stopped beside Carmila, wrapping his arm around her waist before smirking at Joan.

"It isn’t just her who is here, foolish Child of Destiny," he said.

Joan stared blankly at him. She didn’t recognize Aiden, which was expected since she hadn’t seen him before in her life. However, she couldn’t forget that aura around him. There was no mistaking it.

"Demon Lord..."

She had barely said the words when Karina darted behind her. Joan was about to jump away, but she was too late as Karina’s elbow struck the back of her head.

Her vision turned blurry and went dark as her blade slipped from her hands. Before she hit the ground, Karina caught her and casually flung the woman over her shoulder.

She then turned to the battlefield and took a deep breath, and yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Enough! Your commander is down! Surrender now, or die!"

The women looked at Karina and then at the slumped figure over her shoulder. As they did, all the bravado that had carried them there was lost as they dropped to their knees.

"Tie them up," Aiden instructed his own forces before walking inside the building.