Going back to the time right after Ashen provoked the ire of every Narkal, their Outer Gods included, to allow his allies to escape…
The march back for the army was much harsher than the initial invasion. The men were exhausted, rattled, and their Sin Lords were empty of mana for the first few days.
Not to mention, they did not know when the Outer Gods would come back. It could be anytime, as the one holding their attention was merely one human.
So the majority spent their time looking over their backs, living every day like it was their last.
That meant that order would be the last thing on the soldiers' minds. Even if their conduct was actually threatening their lives.
But who cared about order and obeying orders when their lives could end this very second?
Savagery, rape, and madness ran rampant, and Lola was helpless at the sight of this development for most of the time, since she had to act as their vanguard and clean up the most dangerous monsters.
Alice, Lucia, and Seraphine were also affected by this.
Seraphine could have stayed with the sisters of her faction and dodged most of the insanity transpiring within the camps, but she chose to stand by her little family.
As for Alice and Lucia; one had her combat power plummet due to emptying her tails of all mana and her man not being present, while the other was never particularly gifted in the matters of physicality.
So with Ashen out of the picture, they became prime targets for the soldiers to vent their madness on and fulfill their fantasies.
Whenever Lola left the camp to clear the way, they rampaged with impunity.
Thankfully, Ashen's loyal soldiers—the ones he had brought along with him from Solmara—had enough sense and morality to protect the ladies.
But the one who really did the heavy lifting in their protection was none other than Lapis.
From that moment on, she transformed into an asura of death.
Heads rolled, arms were sliced, fingers diced… the number of deranged men she had to execute numbered in the hundreds.
The bubbly girl was no more. In her place, only an expressionless executioner remained.
She did not care how this could affect her mental state; she did not care about wetting her sword with human blood for the first time; all she cared about was that her brother had entrusted her with their lives.
So she would protect them.
Alice and Lucia themselves weren't damsels; they were shrewd women who could screw anyone over if they really put their minds to it.
One had an abnormally high emotional intelligence, while the other—not to mention her IQ—perceived everything in patterns.
They were easily able to identify the threats. Those who had lost it; those who carried maliciousness; the rapists, the murderers, the junkies…
With the combination of Alice and Lucia acting as her brain, and Seraphine keeping her in tiptop shape, Lapis' job became much simpler.
Just slash where they point, and kill who they ask.
The situation only improved when Cornelia regained her senses. With her there to share the pressure, and the fact that even after a month they had not been ambushed by the Outer Gods, the army was finally able to calm down enough to reach human territory.
◉◉◉
Lucia and Seraphine stopped by Solmara when they reached the Wrath Domain.
With the absence of its leader, the region needed them to keep things running, and Lola had no choice but to grant Her Saintess' wish; not without leaving a legion of guards alongside her first.
Alice also opted to stop in Solmara. The majority of the bodyguards that always hovered beside her had already died, not by monsters, but by Lapis' blade, so she wasn't particularly eager to leave the group.
Cornelia had become an expressionless woman all the way back; no one knew what she was thinking when she took Sabrina back and returned to the Ashbastion.
Lola also had to return to Paradise and urgently stabilize the shaken territories.
The soldiers divided themselves behind their commanders and returned, each to their respective domains.
That divide was the last of it as the Human Great Army finally dissolved.
Meanwhile, Ashen's women, including his sister, decided to meet and discuss what they would do from now on.
"Sisters, I have to go back to Esperra to reassure my parents for a while, so take that into consideration."
The one who spoke first the moment they gathered in the Lords' mansion of the now-thriving Solmarian city was Lapis.
She decided to get that out of the way first so that they could plan around it accordingly.
All that answered her were listless nods and soft yeses.
It wasn't that they were dismissive of her, but from the moment Ashen did what he did, they had been in this state. So she did not blame them, since she was also more or less in the same state of mind.
"I also have to return to Esperra for some time." Alice was the next to speak. "Ashen had given me a task to accomplish there, so I have to see how much progress has been made."
"I also need to see Akidia and Hans."
The parents weren't Ashen's and Lapis' alone; they were also her adoptive parents, so the least she could do was show her face.
"But since Lapis would be going first, I will leave when she returns."
Alice reckoned that it wouldn't be good for them to leave together, since that meant fewer people to hold down the fort here.
And as they spoke, she looked at all their numb faces one by one and realized anew just how much of a pillar Ashen's presence was for them.
With no one else adding anything, Lucia took the helm.
"Alright, let's move to the main subject."
No one questioned what the main subject was, even with her lack of explanation. It had been obvious to them from the get-go.
"How are we going to handle Ashen's rescue?" Seraphine opened with the question.
No one brought up the possibility of his death. Whether it was for the sake of preserving their sanity or due to their absolute trust in him and his promise to return, it was unknown.
"Ashen would certainly try to trace his way back after baiting them away, but the problem is that those creatures would certainly not allow him to freely return. So we obviously need to meet him halfway, at least," Alice spoke evenly.
"We have to gather a force strong enough not to be a burden if we are to do that." Lucia stated the first obstacle to the proposed plan.
"We also have to find a way to track him so that we know in which direction to march," Seraphine added with a distressed look.
"I can handle that," Lucia spoke reassuringly. "My skill allows me to see his current condition, including sensing which direction he's in."
"Can I see that?" Lapis tilted her head.
The others knew Lucia's skills, so they didn't ask, but Lapis did not spend as much time around Lucia, so she was curious, especially when Lucia had mentioned it more than once while trying to persuade her not to join Seravelle, saying that her brother was alive.
"Sure."
Lucia allowed the skill description to become visible and pushed it toward her field of vision.
==============================
Mark
Only one individual can be marked at a time.
The target must be someone the host genuinely envies in some way. The stronger and more numerous the points of envy, the deeper the link formed.
Through this mark, the host gains awareness of the target's physical condition and current location.
The host can foresee the target's death up to three days in advance based on the state of the link, and a distinct warning resonates whenever the target approaches mortal danger.
Current Target: Ashen Hart
Physical condition: On the verge of death/grievous wounds.
Current Location: The Narkal-infested lands.
==============================
The skill fed off envy, and Lucia had long since stopped envying Ashen. From the moment he made her his, she had also considered him hers.
And envying something already hers was a bit absurd, even for her.
And that was when the innate skill she gained from the Equivalent Exchange Ashen passed on to her came into play.
Singular Envy forced her to envy only one person at the cost of losing the ability to envy anyone else. And if the envy she felt for that person ever vanished, Admiration would be used as a substitute.
And Admiration…
She felt plenty of that for that man.
"Huk–!!!"
While she was absorbed in her own thoughts, Lucia heard a sharp inhale that sounded more like someone having a seizure.
She thought it was because of Ashen's displayed condition, and was about to reassure them that it had been like that for months without changing, so there was no need to panic; Ashen wouldn't die.
But her own words died in her throat the moment she lifted her head.
Current Target: Ashen Hart
Physical condition: - - - -
.
.
.
The screen flickered as if undecided before it eventually settled on a single word.
Current Target: Ashen Hart
Physical condition: Dead
"..."
"..."
'Dead?'
Lucia's eyes lost their luster.
Her expression also turned dead.
'Dead…'
'Dead…'
'Dead…'
She looked at the screen again, not quite believing her eyes.
Current Target: Ashen Hart
Physical condition: On the verge of death/grievous wounds.
"Huh?"
Life returned to Lucia.
And so did it to the rest of the women.
"Was I seeing things?" Lapis muttered with a pale face from the side.
"No. It definitely said dead for a brief instant there…" Alice refuted her.
"It's time magic…"
Seraphine, the one most intimate with Ashen's magic, spoke after a moment of silence.
"Ashen probably reversed time to undo his death…"
"..."
The urgency they were feeling multiplied a thousandfold.
If he had been forced into this, then it was clear that his situation was far more dangerous than before.
But there was nothing they could do about that now, no matter how urgent the situation had become.
"Don't lose yourselves. We have to trust him and do what we have to do here."
Alice was the one to anchor them back with her words.
"Right…" Lucia finally allowed the last of the terror to leave her mind. "I'm going to focus on reaching the Third Step for now; I will also do my best to recruit mercenaries for our rescue operation."
"Though with the recent casualties we incurred, it would be much harder to recruit now, especially when they hear that we are going back to those forsaken lands," she added bitterly.
"I will also try to rally the soldiers to our cause, starting with the soldiers of Solmara. I also have some ties to the Houndwardens, so I will see what I can do on that side." Lapis continued in the same vein.
"I will head to Paradise and try to gather support there after things stabilize here in Solmara," Seraphine added from her side.
"As for me, I will visit the Greed Domain's Tower of Knowledge and try to hire as many mages as I can. I think what we need most is overwhelming firepower, since the operation would have to be a swift one," Alice proposed lastly.
"Since everyone knows what to do, let's start moving," Lucia spoke decisively. "Lapis, you should start heading back today. Take Braun and Jenna alongside you. There's a convoy leaving in a few hours."
"Okay. All of you, take care."
Lapis looked at the women one by one and felt a bit reluctant to actually leave…
She had forged strong bonds with them during this time, ones that transcended even the sisterhood she shared with Alice, her adopted sister, or the friendship she shared with Seraphine.
Even the love-hate relationship she shared with Lucia had mellowed out, leaving only care for the woman.
After all, their bonds had been forged under the fires of death and blood, where they had to entrust their backs to each other in complete trust if they were to survive.
Rarely could anything beat a bond of that nature.
All of them looked at each other and felt the unspoken emotions reflected in each other's eyes.
…For a fraction of a moment, the crushing feelings brought by Ashen's absence seemed to have inexplicably alleviated.