Lydia soared through the sky with staggering speed, pushing Geowar along with her. The two were headed in the general direction of the city. Geowar acted quick, and pushed her away, then attempted to restrain her.
"Lady Death, you need to stop." He said, clutching her between his arms, Lydia quickly sung her head backwards, hitting him in the chin, and breaking free.
"I'm your superior, boy! Stand down and give Inferno back to me." She ordered, Geowar crossed his arms.
"I will be bringing this up to Master Nova, when I'm done with you." Geowar threatened her, pointing towards her. She only grunted in response.
In the midst of ther conversation, arrived Leo and Grimm, with the former relentlessly trying to wack the latter with his staff, which Grimm expertly dodged, with a bank expression on what little wasn't coevered of his face.
"Looks like the human got the memo." Lydia commented, before charging her fist with deadly shadowflame, and trying to punch Geowar. He swiftly teleported lower, and tackled her upwards, before turining directly around, heading towards a pasture west of the castle.
"Lydia!" Grimm exclaimed, noticing what was happening behind him, and attempted to rush to the aid of his partner.
"Nuh-uh." Leo said, as he constructed a magical lasso from the tip of his staff, which encircled Grimm, before tightening around him. Grimm quickly cut it down with his scythe before Leo could approach him, and kicked a shadowflame projectile straight in his direction, so he could fly off.
In the meantime, Lydia was relentlessly punching and kicking Geowar's body, as he was accelerating his descent. The blows hurt, of course, but they weren't enough to halt him. As he rapidly appoached the floor, Grimm made his way to the scene kicking his sides with both his legs, knocking Geowar aside, and releasing Lydia from his grip. Geowar tumled on the floor, ending face up on the grass.
Grimm and Lydia took this as a sign they could freely return to the castle to pick up Inferno, but as they were about to leave, 5 glowing magenta rods rained from the skies, and impaled the dirt around them, followed by a couple laser blasts in their general direction. Dust covered the air, and blocked the vision of the ghastly couple, just enough so Leo could jump from it, and smack Grimm across the face with the staff. The Grim Reaper backed away with a groan, as his cheek stung from the blow.
Before Leo could land from his jump, however, Lydia grabbed his ankle and tossed him away, as Grimm regained his composure.
"I've had enough of you, ant." Lydia exclaimed, shooting a small projectile from her fingers. Leo slammed his staff on the ground, and a barrier came up to protect him. The small projectile only touched the barrier, but it expanded into a raging shadowflame explosion, shattering the shield, knocking Leo further away, and killing any grass that was in it's radius.
The Gem in Lydia's necklace pulsed, as she kneeled on the ground in exhaustion, the spell she used on Leo having taken a lot of her power. Grimm ran up to her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you quite alright?" He asked, crouching to meet he eyes. She nodded, and he helped her get up.
"That's enough!" Geowar cried, as he flew towards the pair at supersonic speeds, punching Grimm in the face. He spun around in the air as he was launched, landing with his back against a tree.
"No!" Lydia shouted. She overcharged her foot, and kicked towards Geowar, glaring at him. He blocked the kick his a shield construct, and used his free hand to punch her gut, knocking her down.
"It's over, Death. Time to go home." Geowar said, putting the shield construct close to her neck, as if having won the duel. Lydia stared at him in disbelief.
"Oh, so soon?" She asked, panting. Geowar furrowed his eyebrows. He was too focused on her to notice the Grim Reaper creeping up behind him, slowly raising his scythe in order to strike. Fortunately for the Guardian, Leo lunged on Grimm's back, and attempted to choke him out.
Grimm grabbed him from the jacket, and threw him forward. With a sweeping motion, Leo sent out a magenta wave as he was flying, before using his flagpole as a crutch to land safely. Grimm put his scythe in the way of the wave, splitting it apart and avoiding being hurt. Following that, he leaped towards Leo, and slammed it on the ground, barely leaving enough room for the Prime Minister to roll aside. Leo got up and started running away, while occasionally blasting energy beams behind him.
Geowar was still towering over Lydia, after being saved by Leo. The two had exchanged a couple blows, but nothing enough to turn the tides in the Lady's favour.
"Put a stop to this already!" Geowar demanded, scowling.
"Follow my command first!" Lydia said, and slammed her fist on the ground. Ghastly hands emerged from the ground, grabbing Geowar's legs and feet, before toppling him over, and allowing Lydia to get back on her feet.
She attempted to punch him again, but he caught the punch halfway through it's path, slighly burning his hand with shadowflame. Lydia then flipped him over, but he floated away, before she could slam him on the ground.
The two then quickly exchanged blows and blocks, and Lydia occasionally sent more ghastly hans to grab Geowar's legs, which he destroyed by stepping on them. In the meantime, Leo was still running away from Grimm.
During the chaos of the fight, Grimm and Lydia exchanged a look, as they formulated a plan. Using the projectiles from his magic, Grimm blocked Leo's path, leading them closer to Lydia and Geowar. Lydia, meanwhile, pushed herself away from Geowar, and towards Grimm's path, with Geowar close in pursuit. Once the couple crossed paths, Grimm kneeled on the floor, and Lydia stepped on his scythe, and was then launched away towards Leo's direction, kicking him in the back, and knocking him into the ground face first. This whole affair distracted Geowar long enough, that Grimm sliced him across the chest with his scythe, knocking him down.
"That should be the end of that, then. Are you alright?" Lydia asked Grimm, who was holding his head.
"I'm quite fine. Just took a couple bad blows." He reassured her, smiling at her. She returned the gesture.
"We should be leaving, before they arise." Lydia tugged on his cloak. Grimm clutched onto his wife as she started floating off the ground, and the two began their trek towards the castle.
"There they are!" A male voice unknown to them exclaimed. "Oh, I just knew something would have gone wrong..." The couple turned towards his direction, and saw a small militia, of around 50 people. George Renie was at the helm, pointing at the two.
"Royal Archers! Take aim, and unleash the might of Soweiland on those two tresspassers!" He commanded. The 50 archers aimed towards the air, hoping to rain arrows on the shadowmancers.
The arrows went off, but before they could hit their mark, Lydia, with a flick of her wrist created a wall of shadowflame that melted every arrow headed towards them.
"Whuh!?" George exclaimed, looking at her, stunned.
"Leave us be, humans!" Lydia yelled, and with another gesture, ghastly arms emerged from the floor, grabbing each and every archer and taking them down into the ground.
"What the hell?" An archer yelled, before a hand covered his mouth. Some desparately tried to ready more arrows, but the arms took their bows, all the while Lydia was just staring at their misfortune.
"This is... insane!" George stared at the fallen archers, before turning to face Lydia. She snapped her fingers, and a tiny projectile came out, making it's way to George with just enough force to knock away his glasses.
"Ack! My glasses! I can't see without my glasses!" George fell on the ground and started crawling around, in hopes of finding his lost glasses. Lydia chuckled at the scene.
"Enough entertainment, we'll be leaving now." She declared, and the two made their way back to the castle.
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"That should be just all I need!" Dr. Parr declared, gleefully starng at her vials full of Inferno's blood. "The sheer power of these Starborne will be enough to make any cure perfect! I'll be the greatest scientist ever!"
Dr. Parr swiftly put her new samples in a cabinet, just as Grimm and Lydia arrived to pick him up from the lab. Dr. Parr stopped in her tracks once she noticed them.
"Ugh, great. Another human." Lydia whined. Grimm rolled his eyes.
"Don't hurt me, i'm just a worthless scientist!" Parr exclaimed, and fell on the gound in the fetal positon, rocking back and forth in fear and shock. Lydia and Grimm exchanged a weirded out look.
"Okay, uh..." Lydia slowly walked around the incapacitated scientist, and grabbed Inferno by the ankle, and dragged him out of the room.
The moment they left, Parr got up, dusted herself off, and proudly smiled.
"Another succesful demonstration of the scientifically correct way to escape any encounter unscathed! Marvellous job, Christine!" She patted herself on the back.
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It took an hour before everyone was back on their feet, and they had regrouped in the Lab. Leo was pacing around the room, annoyedly ranting to the others about the events that had transpired. George was sweeping the floors of the lab, as Dr. Parr oversaw him, and Geowar had sat on a chair off to the side, while a medic was treating his wounds.
"This is a complete disaster." Leo lamented. "These clowns destroyed the doors, and made a complete mockery of our military, and me! Not to mention my back... I'm 26 years old, for heaven's sake, I should not be having back problems!"
"Not to mention, the Grim Reaper tore apart my uniform!" Geowar added. "This will cost so much money to fix."
"And what exactly took the two of you so long to send help!?" Leo turned and pointed at Dr. Parr and George. Dr. Parr suddenly found her fingernails very interesting, while George just kept sweeping the floor, rolling his eyes. "What do I not pay you for, Renie?"
"If it's any consolation, I did get the samples I needed." Parr crossed her arms and smiled. Leo's eye twitched for a moment.
"I don't give a shit about your research! They broke my door, again! And that prisoner is gone! I'll never hear the end of this..." Leo went off. Geowar approached him to give him a pat on the back.
"I'm not sure what you expected to happen, when you went off to fight the physical manifestation of death." George complained. "We clearly aren't prepared for metaphysical threats like this."
"Y'know what, you've got a point, intern. This is indicative that there needs to be some change around here!" Leo exclaimed, determined. "The royal guard won't be enough in case anything like this happens again."
"Will you start training more regularly?" Geowar asked. Leo scoffed.
"What? No. That's stupid." He said. "I know exactly what i'm gonna do, just you guys wait!" Leo then stormed off, walking quickly upstairs to his office to brainstorm. Geowar sighed, and George exchanged a glace with his boss.
"Why'd you stop sweeping? I need you to be done quick so you can go outside and catch me some insects." Parr pointed out, George shook his head, resisting the urge to complain about how it'd be the middle of the night by the time he'd be done cleaning.
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Meanwhile, back in the below, Inferno finally regained his consiousness. He looked down on his wrists to see that his shackles were gone, but instead of the plains and towers of Soweiland, he had returned to the ashen hellscape that is the realm of the dead.
"Back here again?" He muttered, holding his head. "I must have a concussion."
"Oh Inferno!" Lydias spoke, a cheerful melody behind her voice. "I'm two months back in my reports to the Above and someone has to write them! I'm so glad you're back, you cannot imagine!"
"what." Inferno whispered, as the realisation slowly creeped in his mind. He looked around, landing on Lydia smiling widely, holding a stack of blank parchments.
"GEOWAAAAAAAAAAAR! I'LL BE BACK, YOU BASTARD!" He yelled, as Lydia laughed to her heart's content. Unfortunately for the poor Guardian, nobody in the below particularly cared for his fate.