Chosen By The Lover's Constellation-Chapter 207: Eternity, Part Eight

Lianna tried to formulate a plan as the battlefield erupted around her.

[I know what all these people can do. I need to figure out a path to victory. Agh, but I need time!]

For now, she felt the best thing to do might be to just keep using {Lover’s Intuition} to support Enverna.

"Enverna, left!" Lianna called out, her voice cutting through the chaos.

Enverna pivoted, her spear clashing with Vy’s weapon. Each instruction Lianna gave made Enverna’s movements more fluid, her strikes more precise.

Vy snarled, her frustration evident as Enverna continued to block her attacks.

"Nice try, Lianna!" Vy spat, swinging her weapon with renewed fury.

Just as Lianna was about to call out another move, a sudden chill ran down her spine. She felt a presence behind her.

Nareem.

Before she could react, pain exploded through her back. Nareem had managed to stab her, his blade slicing deep. Lianna gasped, her vision blurring.

"You should have seen that coming," Nareem whispered, his voice a mocking hiss. "I guessed you could use some sort of Instinct to see what I could do, so I stayed just out of range to hide my teleportation ability from you."

Lianna fell to her knees, blood bubbling in her mouth. She struggled to breathe, her body trembling from the pain.

Nareem chuckled, confident in his victory. But as he turned to face the others, Lianna smirked.

"You’re wrong."

At that moment, Mel who’d been watching all of this, activated the rune beneath Lianna, that Nareem hadn’t seen. A rune Lianna had told Mel to place as they’d been walking up to the building.

In an instant, Lianna disappeared, reappearing behind Nareem with her bow drawn and an arrow aimed at his skull.

"You were in range," she said, releasing the arrow.

It pierced his skull.

And, Nareem crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

Lianna quickly pulled out a healing potion.

[Oh, thank goodness. I knew Nareem would go for me first. He was acting like he was on Vy’s side, but really, he probably wanted to pick up the artifact from my body,] she thought. [Predictable.]

That was one enemy down, but they still had many, many more to contend with, and still two Constellations’ Followers to handle.

Athene and Mel worked in tandem, doing their best to keep Kate off Zura. Mel cast a series of protective spells, creating barriers of shimmering light around Zura, while Athene swung her sword with force, pushing Kate back every time she tried to advance.

Zura lay on the ground, paralyzed but alert, her eyes following the battle with frustration etched into her features.

Lianna, having just downed a healing potion, sprinted towards Zura. She quickly pulled out an antidote potion and poured it past Zura’s lips.

"Come on, Zura," Lianna urged, her voice steady despite the chaos. "We need you back in this fight."

Zura’s eyes widened as the potion took effect. She could feel the paralysis fading, strength returning to her limbs. She sat up, flexing her fingers with a relieved smile.

"Thanks, Lianna," Zura said, standing up and grabbing her hammer. "Let’s finish this."

Lianna nodded, giving her a brief smile before turning back to the fray. "Go get ’em."

The battle raged on, each side trading fierce blows. Injuries began to accumulate, blood staining the ground. Caroline and Enverna fought valiantly against Vy and her lackeys, their weapons a blur of motion.

Suddenly, Vy broke away, darting through the melee with surprising speed. Her eyes were set on something beyond the fight.

"She’s running!" Enverna shouted.

"Again!? Ugh!" Caroline, frustrated, broke into a sprint after Vy.

Enverna and Lianna didn’t hesitate, both chasing after Vy as well, their hearts pounding.

Caroline was the closest to Vy, with Enverna and Lianna following behind them in that order.

Their combined speed cleared almost half the city’s length in seconds.

Bystanders gasped and pointed, and a few guards began to chase after them, bewildered by the sudden burst of movement.

As they ran, the sky darkened, a foreboding shadow spreading across the horizon. Vy skidded to a stop, turning to face them with a triumphant smile.

Suddenly, people appeared from the nearby buildings. Not bystanders, but more enemies.

[What!?]

The girls didn’t hesitate. They couldn’t. Too much was on the line. So, as these new opponents came up to them, they only managed to draw within a meter or two before their heads fell off their shoulders.

That distraction was all Vy needed, though.

"AH!"

Caroline gasped.

Lianna turned toward her.

A massive arrow was sticking out of her back.

In an instant, Enverna was kneeling beside her, giving her a potion of her own to heal.

"Cynthia Taylor’s Trait is something else, Lianna!" Vy laughed in the distance. "I’d only shot a bow like once or twice in my life, but with this Trait, I’m almost a damn master now!"

Lianna gritted her teeth.

Her anger turned to worry in an instant, though, when she saw what Vy was holding.

In her hand, she held an artifact, a rock identical to the one Lianna had in her inventory.

Lianna’s heart sank as a surge of dread coursed through her.

"Crap..."

Vy laughed, holding the rock aloft.

"You didn’t think I was unprepared, did you?"

Lianna steadied her breath, stepping forward, bow drawn.

"What the hell are you thinking, Vy?"

Vy smirked, her eyes glinting with malevolence. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"You know exactly what I’m going to do."

"Didn’t you want to take over? What are you going to do, rule a city overrun by Fiends!?" Lianna’s voice was sharp, desperate.

Vy shrugged nonchalantly.

"If that’s what needs to happen to defeat you and your friends, I will gladly reduce this city to rubble."

Realizing talk was worthless, Lianna pulled her bow out and aimed at the artifact.

She released an arrow, but Vy dodged it easily, her movements almost inhumanly fast. With a wicked smile, Vy activated the rock.

A pillar of mana surged into the sky, the ground trembling with its power.

Lianna’s eyes widened in horror. She knew what this meant.

[... And, just like that, we’ve got a whole siege on our hands now.]