Nephis remained standing there, just outside of Ray's house, where he was just taken by two of the host's lieutenants.
She had also indeed done what Ray had asked her to do, namely telling all of the bystanders to get back to what they were doing before and ignore what happened, and could happen.
It was already arranged, that Henry and Mason would tell them that they all left for a while, and that they should try to keep a low-profile, during this time.
About fifteen minutes had passed, since Ray had entered the castle, when some commotion at the tall building caught her attention. Something seemed to have happened inside, though she wasn't sure what it could've been. In that moment of thought, a certain face appeared in her mind, 'He wouldn't have, right?'
The next moment, she saw the castle's guards change to an alert stance, before getting completely thrown to the ground, by none other than Ray.
He was like most of the time wearing his knightly armor, but different to normally, he also had his halberd already summoned, as well as some kind of shield that she had never seen before, on his left arm, along with the throwing knives he had used back then, strapped to his waist with some eerie white belt.
"...ning already!"
Ray was running towards her with a speed rarely before seen in the settlement, and she swore she could hear him shouting something, though she couldn't exactly make out what it was.
Only when he was barely two dozen meters from her, was she able to finally hear what he was shouting.
"START RUNNING ALREADY!"
She had a look of perplexity on her face, but eventually saw people beginning to leave the castle gate. A lot of people. At the very least three dozen, all led by none other than the two lieutenants who had just taken Ray inside, Gemma and Tessai.
That moment it all began making sense, at least partly. Ray had apparently managed to piss of both of them, and possibly even more people, inside the castle, in the very short amount of time he was inside of it.
Realizing this, she turned around and followed his 'heartfelt advice'.
Ray himself was still running in the direction of his house. When he finally reached it, Nephis was already running towards the path leading up and down from the mountain the settlement was on. He used his aspect to run straight through the wall, grabbed a prepared bag, and followed after Nephis.
The very short detour had not significantly affected the distance between himself and his pursuers. Among them, very few could match his physical strength after becoming a monster, probably only Tessai could match, maybe even slightly surpass his current capabilities.
Ray eventually caught up to Nephis, now both of them needing to make the steep downhill path, while being pursued.
"Was that really necessary?" Neph asked him as they continued on the path, though now with a slightly reduced speed.
"What, it's not my fault, I swear." Ray responded exasperated.
After saying this, he looked back. Tessai had also already reached the downhill pathway. Here, it was only a matter of time before their ranged fighters would get them.
He looked contemplatively at the shield on his left arm, or rather Oblivion's Thread in a shield form. 'The form… and the size… it should work, right?'
"Listen, I know a way faster down, though you may think it's stupid!"
"Then don't do it!"
"Oh, no sorry, I will," Ray said this while removing his shield with a bit of difficulty – since he was still holding Stormpiercer in his right hand, but eventually managed to get it off, and grab it with his left hand.
"Get on my back!"
"What, no."
"It is the best way, and otherwise their archers will get us. Now, GET ON MY BACK!"
Nephis still looked rather reluctant, but after looking back, and seeing the other members of the host also reaching the path down, with their weapons already in hand, she eventually jumped on his back.
As soon as Ray felt the extra weight on his back he threw the shield onto the ground in front of him and instantly jumped on it, 'Hope this actually works…'
It could probably be called a miracle, but Ray indeed landed on the shield and was able to stop it from sweeping him off his feet. 'Alright, that was lucky…'
The two of them accelerated significantly compared to just now, the path was just this steep. They gained more and more speed, all while arrows kept raining on them from behind. Luckily though, all of them always landed a few meters behind them, because of their absurd speed.
"Eh, I must confess something."
"What?"
"I didn't think we would get this far, and have therefore not planned for a way to make us stop…"
Both of them visibly paled as the ground kept on getting closer, and their speed didn't diminish in the slightest.
When the dark city was merely about two dozen meters away, Ray shook his head to get his mind straight and said, "Fuck, hold on tight!"
The next moment… ray jumped.
He jumped back to cause a contrasting force, and brought Stormpiercer into the ground to slow down their descend. Ray somehow managed to make it work, though after a few minutes the inertia that had carried them forward was too much as the Edge of Stormpiercer got too loose and left the ground, causing the duo to end up rolling the rest of the way down.
As for his shield?
That had continued down its path, and even if it now carried less mass, kept its speed and crashed straight through the wall of ruin about ten or so meters away, nearly completely shattering it in the process.
They had made it. Somehow even in one piece, respectively.
'I will never pair with him again,' Nephis vowed silently in her heart, as some color began returning to her face again.
Ray, meanwhile, had a slightly different reaction, "Whoa, that was crazy. Want to do it again?"
She just looked at him speechless, before sighing, "Come on, we won some time. We shouldn't lose it."
He nodded, in agreement, but looked towards the destroyed wall for a second, "You go on first, I need to get my shield first."
"Why don't you just dismiss it and summon it again afterwards?"
"Can't right now. But, that is not the point, go already!"
This time she didn't argue and began sprinting in the direction of the cathedral, while trying to remain as hidden as possible.
Something that wasn't even that necessary right now. The crash from the shield into the wall was loud, so loud that nearly every fallen nightmare creature in the vicinity was probably on its way to that building right now, while most awakened creatures chose to hide even better.
Ray managed to retrieve the shield, and get out of there just before the first of the nightmare creatures came around. Just to be safe, rather than sorry, he chose to use his veil technique instead of his normal ability.
As soon as the veil was active, and lay above him, any attention that was previously on him, was instantly directed towards something else, even if they all looked perplexed for a second. This only lasted for a second, though, before the few fallen creatures that had appeared chose to either retreat or fight it out, right then and there.
Ray and Neph's pursuers, there while were required to stop their chase, and lay as flat as possible on the steep slope, to remain out of the sight of the beasts. Most of them remained as silent as possible, only Tessai escaped a curse.
The weirdest thing for him though, he wasn't even sure why he was so pissed in that moment, or what had actually just happened. They had just chased after Changing Star, and then something crashed into the wall, luring all those nightmare creatures there.
Only after about two minutes did the fog in his mind clear, 'What the hell, we weren't hunting Changing Star, we were hunting that damn rat! How did I forget that?'
-----
At the same time as Tessai had that revelation, Ray had dismissed his veil, not even knowing what kind of effect it could have on someone.
It took him a few more minutes, but he eventually caught up with Nephis, and together they finally reached the cathedral – and therefore also the place where they were all supposed to meet up.
They looked around for any signs of life, their eyes settling on a somewhat intact building right next to the broken cathedral. As they stepped closer, a head peaked out of one of the cracks.
It was the brazen huntress, Effie.
The duo entered the building and found a more or less comfortable living space there, where the others had apparently spent the last few days.
Sadly, though, Nephis had to put an abrupt halt to that comfortable atmosphere, "We need to head out now, so pack your things up. We got quite a few people on our tails. Even two of Gunlaug's lieutenants."
"Haha, what did you do, tried to assassinate the king?" Effie joked, though, this question made most of the ones present to look at them, and Nephis herself directed her gaze at Ray with a relatively empty look – which somehow appeared questioning.
"Chill. I did not try to assassinate or kill anyone there. I… had a talk with Gunlaug, and by the end of it, he suddenly ordered every present lieutenant to capture me. Completely out of the blue, I tell you. Also, it wasn't just two lieutenants, technically, there were four of them, though I doubt that he will send them all," Ray defended himself, and appeared more exasperated with each word.
After those words, three stares still drilled into him, Neph's, Kai's and Effie's, causing Ray to cough awkwardly and excuse himself with a lame excuse. The others sighed and began packing up the few things they had here, that were of any use, as fast as they could.
Kai was the first one out, he first took a deep breath, before giving Ray a quick scan from head to toe, "Say, is that how you normally hunt or go out?" He said while also gesturing to every memory that Ray had currently summoned.
"Its a bit more complicated than that, but frankly, no," Ray responded with a dismissive shrug.
Since Ray did not say anything more, Kai let the topic go and simply waited alongside his friend in silence, for the others to come out as well.
In the end, it took about five minutes for everyone to come out, all ready and packed. Even Sunny joined them now, having come out of the cathedral, as it apparently was his home.
Definitely an improvement to his last accommodation.