A large crowd a people had gathered for the upcoming event, guards stood around the edges keeping watch and street vendors were about. Sierra looked out the window from within the parliament building, made sure her dress was tidy while going over her speech.

Knock knock

A knock came from the other side of the door, Sierra went to the door and unlocked it, Chelsea and Emil stood in front of the door.

Chelsea: Its time your highness.

Sierra grabbed the papers for her speech and took a deep breath and exhaled, then began walking out of the room. Chelsea and Emil escorted her towards the park in front of the parliament building, while en route, they saw Vincent speaking with one of the guards.

As they got closer, Vincent noticed them and dismissed the guard and began approaching them.

Vincent: This is certainly a surprise, I wasn't informed that you were gonna be here Emil.

Emil: Well I'm here now.

Vincent: Still as friendly as ever, where is the rest of your crew?

Emil: They are doing their own thing.

Vincent: I see, well I should be on my way, keep her safe for me.

Vincent turned and walked down the hallway, then disappeared around a corner.

Sierra had a strange feeling, but then decided to ignore it and continued to walk down the hallway.

Emil pulled out a blue stone which began to softly glow.

Emil: Positions check.

Krueger: In position at Apples.

Joseph: We are at point Butters.

Emil: Confirmed, moving to Charlie. We are ready your highness.

Sierra: Thank you Emil.

Sierra took a deep breath and nodded to Chelsea to open the door, ahead was a podium at the top of stairs and beyond the stairs was a makeshift wall with a big crowd standing behind it. Sierra stepped forward with Emil and Chelsea at her sides.

------

Guard 1: This place is getting colder every day, when are they going to give us more cloaks?

Guard 2: Probably about the end of this week, the cold is not that bad.

Guard 1: Easy for you to say, you're from the north, hey lieutenant, when are we getting more stuff?

Lt. Chambers: The prince will be here today, I'll ask him to confirm. Pretend to be busy until then, I don't want to write anyone up.

Guard 1: Yes sir.

Chambers walked to and leaned up against the wall, air was fresh and the wind wasn't too strong. He looked out towards the tree line, He noticed a flock of birds fly from the woods.

He raised his eyebrow in confusion, the birds should had already gone to sleep for winter now.

BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions hit the wall hard, causing Chambers and others to lose their footing,

BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions continued to hit the wall, several chunks of rock flew through the air hitting anyone standing in their path.

Lt. Chambers: Battle positions!

The guards scrambled to battle stations, they removed the tarps from over the cannons and began loading them. Chambers peaking his head to see where the enemy was attacking from, in the tree line he saw two small flashes of light appear and two seconds later more explosions hit them.

Lt. Chambers: ENEMY ONE MILE SOUTH!

Chambers began running across pointing towards the attackers, they fired one salvo at them, kicking up a cloud of dirt as it landed.

Lt. Chambers: Too short! Keep firing!

Two more flashes appeared but instead of hitting the wall, the projectiles hit the ground in front of it. Smoke began to emerge from them, they continued to fire smoke several more times until it was a curtain of smoke.

Guard 1: What do we do sir?

Lt. Chambers: I.. don't know, keep your heads down and keep the cannons ready.

As quickly the attack had come, the silence returned to the field. The guards waited anxiously for anything that could happen, then from within the smoke a sound began to approach, a loud rumble was coming closer.

A square shape appeared from the smoke, turned it's turret to one of the cannon and fired.

BOOM!

The 75mm HE impacted the cannon detonating in the faces of the crew who were knocked back and killed, another cannon crew attempted to aim but were also killed. 

Lt. Chambers: Close the gate now!

The gate guardian dropped the inner and outer gates, the Cromwell saw this and moved towards it and began firing on the gate.

Lt. Chambers: Shoot it now! Get the bastards before they do more damage to it!

BOOM!

Another cannon was destroyed by the Sherman, then the last remaining right after.

Guard: All cannons are gone sir!

Lt. Chambers: Get the mages, they'll have something for-

Chambers stopped mid sentence as he heard shouting, he looked to the outside of the wall and saw soldiers emerging from holes in the ground rushing towards the heavily damaged gate.

Guard 1: Enemy troops sir!

Chambers was too stunned to speak, he stared at the several dozens that were emerging from the tunnels.

Guard 1: SIR! We need orders!

Chambers snapped back to reality, he looked at the eyes of his men, they were all scared and confused as him.

Lt. Chambers: We need to retreat, tell everyone to take shelter and to lock all doors and arm themselves. Get support from the royal guard, do anything to stop them.

Guards: Yes sir!

The group descended down the stairs to the wall, as they reached the bottom, the inner gate was destroyed by an explosion.

Lt. Chambers: We are out of time, get to the alleys and begin guerrilla warfare.

-------

Whilst Sierra was giving her speech, the distant explosions began to be noticed by the crowd, and so people began to stop paying attention until Sierra stopped. She looked at Chelsea and Emil with a worried look.

Off to the side of the crowd, a short girl with a hood over her head approached one of the royal guards.

Eva: Excuse me sir knight, I need your help with something.

R. Guard: What would that be?

Eva: Please follow me.

The guard followed her towards an alley, Eva pointed into it towards some old crates.

Eva: There's a rabid animal that attacked me, please deal with it.

R. Guard: Do not worry madam, I will deal with this.

 He unsheathed his sword and approached the crates, upon reaching them, he saw there was nothing there.

R. Guard: What did the creature look like ma-

Eva covered his mouth with her hand and sliced his throat with her claws, the guard attempted to get her off his back but the loss of blood was too severe and he fell to the ground. After confirming he was dead, she searched his pockets and took his set of keys and left the body.

Eva pulled out a crystal and it began to glow.

Eva: I've got access to the building, began the attack.

Esther: Will do.

Esther put the crystal away and took out a canister, ignited the wick on it and tossed it at the platform from within the crowd, soon after landing it bursted into a cloud of smoke. She began running towards the platform and unsheathed her sword before jumping up onto the platform.

----

Emil: Smoke!

Sierra coughed as she stumbled out of the cloud with Chelsea behind her.

Chelsea: Get her to safety!

They heard stomping from within the smoke and as they turned to look, a girl swung her sword down at Chelsea. Chelsea jumped out of the way as Emil pulled Sierra towards him, catching her as she lost her footing. The girl recovered from the missed swing and charged at them, Chelsea tackled her and they began to wrestle on the ground.

Sierra: Chelsea!

Chelsea: Don't worry about me! Just go!

Emil pulled Sierra up back into her feet and began running back into the building, Sierra looked at Chelsea, the girl punched her in the face and fell back. The girl attempted to pin her but Chelsea kicked her back, Emil pulled on Sierra to snap her back to reality.

Emil: We have to go now!

They ran through the halls of the parliament building, Emil took out his communication crystal from his pocket.

Emil: Joseph! Get the horses ready now!

Joseph: Been ready, what's the situation?

Emil: We were attacked and Chelsea is fighting them right now so stay alert.

As he spoke, a canister rolled to his feet, and exploded in a cloud of smoke.

Emil: Shit!

He quickly raised his rifle and aimed at the smoke cloud, he heard footsteps getting closer, from within the smoke came a vase flying at him. The vase shattered as it hit Emil in the face, he stumbled back and a girl lunged at him with her claws. She slashed at his head but her claws were stopped by his helmet,  sparks appeared as it happened. The girl followed up with a round kick to Emil's gut, pushing him into the wall.

Emil: guh!

Sierra: Emil!

The girl turned to Sierra, Sierra began to move backwards in fear.

Sierra: W-w-why?

Eva: Mother's orders.

Eva lunged at Sierra, but Emil managed to slam her into the ground.

Emil: Run!

Eva elbowed Emil in the face as reached out at Sierra, her claws slicing into her thigh.

Sierra: AAHH!

Emil grabbed Eva by her hair and slammed her head into the ground, he attempted to do it again but she slipped from between his legs. Eva stood up in a defensive stance, Emil looked at his STG which he had dropped earlier.

Emil: Can you walk Sierra?

Sierra: Yeah, it just hurts a lot.

Emil took out his shovel and stood between Eva and Sierra.

Emil: It's not that much further, I'll cover you.

Sierra began limping away as fast as she could, she trusted Emil, that girl had no idea who she was up again.

-----

Clang!

Their swords clashed with every bit of strength they had, Esther leaned in with everything to try to overpower Chelsea.

Chelsea: We just started and you're already panting.

Esther: Shut up.

Chelsea sidestepped and Esther stumbled as she lost her balance.

Chelsea: Just because you can swing a sword doesn't mean you know how to use it.

Esther: Shut up.

Chelsea: Go home Emilia, you don't belong here.

Esther: I said shut up!

Esther raised her katana high up and swung down, Chelsea catches it with her sword breaker but Esther let go of it. Before Chelsea could react, Esther punched her in the abdomen hard enough to momentarily lift her off the air.

Chelsea dropped her weapons as she fell to her knees clutching her abdomen, she looked up at Esther who kicked her in the face knocking her backwards.

Esther grabbed one of Chelsea's swords and walked over to her, she raised sword and right before she brought it down, a shot rang out in the distance and a bullet punched through her hand knocking the blade out of it.

Esther looked at her hand and looked at the direction from the shot, she quickly dashed out of the platform grabbing her katana on the way into the building.

Another shot impacted the door frame as she entered the building, she looked at her wound and began patching it up.

Esther: You have a rival Ember, be careful.

Ember: Noted, Eva needs support at East hallway.

Esther: On it.

----

Eva tossed Emil out the window into a garden outside the hallway, Eva jumped after after him but as she got outside, Emil shoulder charged Eva up against the wall, then swinging the shovel at her face but she managed to move her head out of the way. She dug her claws into his flank and pulled back, Emil kicked her back and put his left hand on his wound.

Emil: Not too serious.

Eva: This is taking too long.

Eva jumped up the wall and at Emil, he ducked under her then pulled out his C96 pistol.

Emil: I agree.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Emil emptied the magazine at Eva, the rounds punch into her as an aura around her appeared blocking most of the bullets until it shattered once the 7th landed and the other 2 pierced into her.

Eva: AHH!

Emil ran up to her and swung the shovel into her face, she fell to her knees and he proceeded to knee her face against the wall

Crack!

The hit cracked the right lens on her mask, Eva's ears ringed as her vision became a blurry mess. He noticed a fountain a short distance from them and an idea came to him.

Emil: You're coming with me.

Emil grabbed Eva by the hair and dragged her towards the fountain, Eva attempted to swipe at him but she couldn't put strength behind them.

Emil: You look thirsty, have a drink.

He dunked Eva's head into the water and held her under, the water began flooding into her mask through the damaged lens. She attempted to fight against it but it was too much, bubbles floated to the top less as seconds went on and her movements started to slow.

Esther arrived at the east hallway and was horrified at what she saw through the window, she quickly jumped through the window to the garden.

Esther: EVA!

Esther swung her katana at Emil who barely managed to dodge, he swung with his shovel but Esther sliced through the wooden handle with ease.

Emil: Not again.

Esther pulled out a small tube from her belt and shove it into Emil's face before it exploded into a flash of light blinding him. She round house kicked him into a cellar door, making him fall down a set of stairs.

Eva: *cough cough cough*

Esther: Eva! Are you ok?

Eva: I'm fine *cough* she's getting away.

Esther: Lean on my shoulder.

Eva: I can walk just go.

Esther: Your mask is broken.

Eva: I'll get it fixed after we are done.

Eva looked at Esther to assure her, the contrast between her bright yellow eye to the deep green of the mask was interesting due to never seeing it before.

Esther: Your eyes are yellow.

Eva: Are they now, I've never been able to remember.

They climbed back through the window back into the building and began running.

Eva: Do you remember what your eyes looked like?

Esther: I don't, but sometimes I see things in my mind, but they're too hazy to understand what they are.

Eva: You're not they only one, it keeps me up at night from how vivid they are yet I can't understand any of it.

Esther thought about it, she would dream about things, she could somewhat understand what she was doing but all the people were blurry silhouettes. She shook her head to clear her mind and refocus on the task at hand, surely they were all dreams, right?

Good afternoon ladies and gents, it's trooper here, managed to crank out this new 2 part (possibly 3) story section. This is essentially the 60- 70 percent of the full story so probably around 9 more chapters before the story ends. I will see you next time, be good people everyone.