Moira burst out of the rubble. ‘The Gamer’s allies do leave quite the impact,’ she made a dry joke to herself while rising to her feet. Dropping her warhammer for a moment, she brushed a number of pebbles out of her hair. The shield, magically attached to her right arm, was as undamaged as the rest of her armour. The enchanted plate the Order used was the pride of the organization, each a piece of art that had been perfected over the generations. Not even that armour would have been able to take a hit that catapulted a grown woman over a hundred metres away from the impact point. The artefact that Gaia had bestowed on her bloodline, however, had no problem with something like that.

If there was something indestructible in this world, then it was the shield she was currently wielding.

Rolling her shoulders, the Shield Warden oriented herself. The hotel was not too far away and aiding her Lord Father was certainly her duty. Yet, she was not particularly pressed to get back. Moira knew exactly why the Gamer had decided to take the fight outside. His interest in Lorelei was as clearly written over his face as the white-blonde’s reciprocation had been in private conversation. Generally, Moira wasn’t too happy about this circumstance, but in this specific situation it assured that her friend was out of the line of fire.

Heading back would have only meant that the battle between her Lord Father and the Gamer’s secondary body was decided earlier or that more of his elementals came to John’s aid. The Order had long since analysed all available material on the Gamer and his fighting style. They could predict with relative certainty how he would act. A problem arose that John Newman tended to make either the best or an unconventional choice when it came to strategy.

Those were, however, not the main reason why Moira held back on aiding her father.

To put it simply, she had disagreements with how he ran things. Moira admired her Lord Father. He had raised her with discipline and love, weathered the hardship that was the loss of her mother, and kept the Order stable even as they moved the entirety of their branch to a new continent. Certainly, his willpower and loyalty to the cause were something Moira strived to mimic. That being said, ever since she had come of age and was getting more closely tied into the leadership and operation of the Order, she had become more disillusioned with aspects of his command.

Force was all too popular a tool with her father, Moira found. The policy of ‘punch first, ask questions later’, didn’t strike her as adequate for an organization as powerful as theirs. This current battle was a perfect example for this. Moira could certainly agree that it needed to be burned to the ground and the barrier collapsed. Those that put up a resistance doubtlessly should be viewed as enemy combatants and be dealt with as such. Making the execution of all members of the enemy faction the basic policy of their invasion, that was a step too far.

“We are fighting warlocks and demons,” her father had said, when she voiced that point of view. “If you treat them with honour, you will have a knife in your back.”

There was a certain truth to that, but was it not their duty to take that risk? Honourless or not, demons were part of the Lady’s creation. With firm guidance, they had to be some good that could be drawn from them. Her Lord Father had made the concession that they would fight for victory, not extermination. Who could be taken in for judgement, would be.

With that, Moira had backed down on the issue. For the time being, she was not the leader of the Shield branch of the Order of the Golden Rose. As a Warden, she was powerful, extremely so, but she was still inexperienced. Once her father was confident she knew the burdens of leadership, he would pass on the torch.

‘This is no longer a battle against New Libraria, but against the Gamer’s resistance,’ Moira thought and considered her path forward. She had certainly prepared herself to follow her father’s orders, but with him occupied and the situation having changed so drastically, another path could be taken.

Moira stepped out of her pile of rubble and was quickly assaulted by a group of demons. With just a few swings of her warhammer, the assault was broken. She was in a hostile environment and the demonette that had attacked her now begged for her life. Both her resolve to break this city and to spare who she could was only hardened.

“Stay down,” the Warden commanded. If there was just one innocent in this city, she would prefer them spared. ‘In that, you and I are likely aligned, John Newman,’ the redhead thought as she started running down the street. ‘We happen to disagree that it is worthwhile to keep this city standing to save that one life.’

Running with a massive tower shield and an equally oversized warhammer wasn’t exactly easy, but Moira dealt with it and quickly made her way to the front lines. She broke through a line of spell-flinging warlocks on the way. Spines and skulls shattered from the swings of her weapon.

The demons around quickly ran away when their commanding summoners had been executed. Moira’s allies, led by one of the few knights not currently helping her Lord Father in his battle, attempted to follow them, but the Shield Warden’s voice stopped them, “Halt. Let them get away.”

Everyone stopped, looking at her with confusion and then at the knight. Officially, Moira was still below a knight in the chain of commands. Realistically, she was the equivalent of a saint in her organization. Going against her wishes, publicly no less, would leave the soldiers conflicted. “May I ask what motivates this order, Warden Moira?” the knight asked.

“There’s no need for us to waste our power here,” the redhead answered swiftly. “Control over the barrier remains broken and will for a while. It is highly likely that the enemies will evacuate to one area and wait until they can flee. If they are all holed up together, we can arrest or execute them in a swift movement once we gain control over the rest of the battlefield.” She looked the knight hard into the eyes. “We should focus on victory. Our enemies have gained an ally too powerful to make the purge our first priority.”

The knight nodded. “Understood, milady. I’ll pass your orders along.”

Moira let out a slow breath of relief as she returned the nod. The explanation had been good enough. Now she just needed to ensure the enemy’s surrender. As eager as her Lord Father might have been to fulfil their divine mission, even he wouldn’t order the attack of people who had laid down their arms. Justice would be the wall between the innocent and the sword.

Moira turned away and started running. The fog of war started to rise over the city. With the communication equipment built into the armours of the knights and officers, her orders would spread fairly quickly. Their obedience to her word was guaranteed and so her mind turned to the ways she could win this battle.

There was the option to smash everything until there was nothing left for the Gamer to ‘save’, but that went counter to her own ambitions. Second was to seek out his real body and defeat him, but her chances there were slim. She was certain she could take him in a battle, with or without his elementals, but there were two people in his harem she was not so certain about. One was Eliza, who was a titan in her own right. The other was doubtlessly the source of the creepy feeling she felt in the west of the barrier.

‘The Maiden of Null is best avoided,’ Moira thought just as a massive lightning strike flared up in the distance. ‘And that is clearly bait,’ she thought and turned away from the thunder and the depths of the fog of war. Moving around the outskirts was best until she knew exactly what she had to do. ‘The Gamer cares for what he ‘owns’. Perhaps the quickest way to get him to surrender would be to leverage one of his women?’

That thought had barely run its course when she heard a familiar voice nearby. A moment later, sounds of battle from that direction ceased. Moira turned the corner just in time to see the warlock drive a knife into the throat of one of the officers. The way Rave stood between the warlock and the rest of the Order’s knocked out soldiers made it seem as if she was giving protection to the act. Before Moira could call out this cowardice, Rave whirled around and obliterated the man’s head.

Cussing and hurried enough to miss Moira’s presence, the pink-haired woman went down on her knees, inspecting the wound. “Do you see what kind of people you sided with, Rave?” the Warden asked, as she hurried over herself.

“Can we skip the part where we irritate each other?” Rave asked.

Moira answered that with diligent silence as she put weapon and shield down to press her hands on the man’s throat. “Lady, grant me your mercy,” she whispered, feeling the power of the goddess rush through her. The Warden wasn’t well-learned when it came to healing magic, but the miracles of the Lady were numerous. Divine light outlined her gauntlets and the cut in the officer’s throat. Quickly, it was sealed shut.

“Lady Moira…” the person started speaking, only to cough up the blood that had already filled their throat.

“Do not waste your power speaking. Take your subordinates and find a place to rest,” Moira instructed and grabbed her armaments again.

“And ya should probably flee to the centre of the pentagram,” Rave told the members of New Libraria still around. “On your way, hush-hush.” Both women stood up, staring at each other as they were rapidly left to be the only two in this city block. “So, what’re we doing now?” the Lightbearer asked. “I doubt ya would just let my tiger do what he wants, right?”

“I trust him as little to judge these sinners adequately as he trusts us to give them the mercy they might deserve,” Moira shook her head, “not to mention that the Order cannot let this meddling be successful. We are a sovereign guild in whose affairs you are not to meddle.”

“Guess it’s a fight then. Another duel between us,” Rave stated and turned around, taking the demonstrative five steps. Moira’s eyes were quickly drawn to the magnificent butt under the skin-tight bodysuit. Hastily, before the Lightbearer could notice, she regained control over herself.

‘I cannot let the drawbacks of the Rose distract me,’ Moira thought. ‘This is not the time.’ When Rave faced her again, the Warden spoke up, “You should know that I will beat you here and use you as leverage to make the Gamer surrender.”

Rave hesitated for one moment. “That’ll probably work,” she admitted and rolled her shoulders. “If ya can win, that is.”

Moira couldn’t help but let a short laugh escape her.

“Ya can do that?” Rave wondered, with a grin on her own face.

“Your honesty is as infuriating as it is refreshing, Rave,” the Warden returned. “A more cunning opponent would try to get away following that announcement.”

“Ain’t that just a roundabout way to call me stupid?”

“You may take my comments as you wish. What I need to do does not change,” the redhead stated and got into a battle pose.

“Ya sure you’re ready to do this?” Rave asked and put on her headphones. “You didn’t tie your hair up.”

“I’m as ready as I need to be,” Moira declared and charged, shield raised.

“As ya say!” Rave stormed forwards as well.

Rubble crunched under Moira’s feet as they closed in on each other. Both activated their auras shortly before they would have clashed.

Moira stopped one step before Rave, raising her hammer. The massive swing was too slow to hit a fist fighter in front of her, but the Lightbearer wasn’t standing there anymore anyway. The weight of her top-heavy weapon accelerated her turn and served as a direct threat for Rave, who had appeared behind her.

While Moira had perfectly read the opening gambit of her opponent, Rave had taken the potential answer into account. Jumping up, the shaft of the hammer flew on by underneath Rave. Moira tried to cover the opening this created by bashing her opponent’s legs away with her shield. Rave reacted with absurd quickness, first stepping on the upper edge of the tower shield and then on Moira’s plated shoulder. The second foot pulled forwards and slammed into Moira’s chin.

The blow, more humiliating than painful, made Moira take three steps backwards. Rave jumped off into the opposite direction, landing gracefully on her feet. She tapped her heel according to the beat booming from her headphones. Tiny circles of light spread out from her foot, following each impact. “I know its kinda bad manners to strike a lady in the face,” Rave bantered, “but that’s just how I get when ya don’t give me the basic bit of respect, ya know?”

Moira sighed and placed her hammer down, upright on the floor. “I did think you couldn’t have possibly improved enough to keep up with the strides I made since our last duel,” the Warden admitted, her blessed shield dropping after she pulled a hairband from the space connected to the back of it. “I suppose that was arrogant of me.” She bundled up her hair into a ponytail. “I apologize.”

“Apology accepted, Moira,” Rave rolled her neck. “Ya know the terms, ja? I win, I get to call ya the chosen nickname again.”

“If it must be like that,” the Warden sighed.