When Avariel woke up, Nanael was calmer. She didn’t despair when the angel got near her. She managed to talk with her sister. They reminisced about their youth, about their petty squabbles, their games, their friends.

Avariel didn’t talk about going back to Elysium. She was just enjoying spending time with her sister. If one could ignore the state Nanael was in, where they were... It felt the same as it used to be. Before tragedy struck.

When the sisters had nothing more to reminisce about, they turned their attention to Matthew and Ffyr who told them stories about their lives.

The 4 of them were soon talking like good friends having a lovely picnic.

But life in hell is never so dull.

Lenore came to them flying after a long time.

"Celaeno wants you out." She interrupted their conversation.

"What do you mean?" Avariel asked, confused.

"She wants him out of her forest." Lenore pointed at Matthew.

Matthew sighed and got up, they were all sitting by Nanael’s roots.

"Let me guess. Nessus?" He said, stretching his back.

"Yeah. He came by with an army. He’s pissed." Lenore explained. "Celaeno wants you out before Nessus starts to make a ruckus in her forest."

"What about you? Won’t you go run back to Malphas?" Ffyr asked, getting up as well.

"Malphas... He won’t be gentle. I’m better with Celaeno." The erinyes said.

Avariel looked at her sister and was torn. She feared that trying to take her to heaven now would trigger another panic attack.

"You can stay. The centaur only wants Matthew." Lenore said, noticing Avariel’s conflict.

Avariel looked at Matthew then got up.

"No. I need to help him. It’s because of me that he’s in trouble." The angel said.

"I don’t mind you staying." Matthew said.

"No. I can’t let you face them alone." Avariel was resolute.

"I’ll go with you." Nanael interrupted them.

They all stared at the tree for a moment until Avariel said trying to hide the eagerness in her voice.

"Are you sure Nana?"

Nanael’s face contorted as her branches started to move slowly. It was clear how much pain she was in, but no one stopped her. Her bark cracked and blood spilled. Nanael panted and clenched her teeth as her back fell onto the ground.

The tree split open when Nanael screamed. From inside it, a white skinned blonde woman with yellow eyes came out covered in blood like a newborn baby.

She fell to the ground as soon as she stepped out of the husk that was once herself. She now smiled and breathed heavily.

"Nana..." Avariel exclaimed with tears in her eyes.

Matthew covered her naked body with a bed sheet he salvaged from the hospital.

"It’s all very moving, but we do have an army at our doorstep." Lenore ruined the moment with her statement. "Now that you have what you came for, leave." She pointed them away.

Matthew noticed that the direction she pointed to was not the direction of the blood river. Most likely, it was not the direction from where Nessus’ army would come from.

"Are you sure?" He asked her.

"Consider us even." The erinyes said and flapped her wings flying away.

"She’s a good one. For a demon." Ffyr commented, looking at Lenore flying away and understanding what was going on.

Avariel carried her sister who was too weak to walk in the direction Lenore pointed them. Upon leaving the forest, they saw a small fortification, just a tower surrounded by walls, in the distance. Lenore’s garrison, they assumed.

With the defeat of her legion, the tower was now empty and pillaged. With Sambur’s legion also disbanded, there was no one to take hold of that place.

Upon reaching the walls, they looked back at the forest and saw hundreds of centaurs gathering with Nessus dressed in battle armor and carrying a long bow leading them.

"He brought a whole war party with him." Ffyr laughed as Matthew closed the iron gate and moved the heavy iron bar that locked it.

"Can we defeat them?" Avariel asked after putting her sister inside the tower.

"Nessus is as powerful as a president. I believe I’m stronger than him. But with a whole war band at his back? I’m not sure." Matthew explained while climbing the stairs to the wall.

"How do we survive this?" Ffyr asked Matthew.

"The same way we always did. Fighting like hell." He smiled.

The centaurs surrounded the fortification in no time.

Nessus stepped forward. His face contorted in anger.

"Give me your women. And I’ll make your death swift." He shouted in front of the gate.

Nessus soon jumped back when a fireball made of holy fire came at him exploding on the ground next to him.

"Go away, centaur, before you forfeit your life." Avariel threatened him on top of the wall.

Nessus spat on the floor and galloped back to his troops.

"Ffyr, take a look inside the tower. There might be something we can use." Matthew asked his familiar. "Avariel, use your holy fire to keep them away from the walls."

"What are you going to do?" The angel asked while drawing her sword.

"I’ll prepare the battlefield."

While Avariel dodged arrows and kept the centaurs from climbing the walls, an easy job since their bodies made it really hard for them to climb anything, Ffyr moved Nanael to the top floor of the tower. Inside the tower, Ffyr found a single barrel of oil intact from the plundering.

Meanwhile, Matthew filled the courtyard with miasma. Being an angel, Avariel was immune to it due to her mana being made entirely of holy mana, but Ffyr had to be Blessed by Matthew to ward away the effects of the foul mist.

Soon Avariel couldn’t keep them away anymore. Their numbers were too many. But she kept them away long enough.

When a large fireball busted the iron gates open, Matthew got worried that the barrel of oil that he infused with his Boost Gunpowder skill near the entrance would explode, but the heat was not enough to ignite it.

As soon as the gates were open, the centaurs galloped inside with their blades held up.

However, the whole courtyard was now under a thick miasma and they could barely see anything inside. The black mist started to burn their eyes and skin.

One centaur screamed insults trying to draw Matthew out, but it was in vain. They couldn’t see him anywhere.

At that time, Avariel and Ffyr were on the top of the tower using holy fire and air blades against the centaurs still outside of the walls.

"Mages!" Nessus screamed. "Disperse the miasma with your winds!" He ordered.

It was too late, Matthew came out of the shadows behind the mages and, using Aym’s dagger coated in unholy fire and his other sword coated in holy fire, killed two of them with precise strikes. Matthew was using his Copy skill from the Tautomancer class to copy Avariel’s holy fire.

He had taken the opportunity that they all were expecting him inside the miasma to move away with his Shadow Form skill and ambush their mages.

Matthew used his Reckless Agility skill to move at super speed leaving behind him a blur of gold and blue flames and a curtain of miasma. The centaur mages tried to run away and disperse, but Matthew was too fast.

With a smile on his face, Matthew killed all of them before the other centaurs could run in their defense.

When the centaurs who were inside the walls moved to go back out and face Matthew, Ffyr acted and ignited the oil barrel.

Made extremely more volatile due to Matthew’s Boost Gunpowder skill, the explosion was strong enough to open a huge hole in the wall. All the centaurs near it were thrown away because of the blast. Many of them died. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Nessus screamed in anger seeing his army being culled swiftly by only 3 people. He shouted orders and picked his bow trying to shoot down Matthew with black arrows.

Avariel descended from the sky. The war band was now in chaos and some centaurs were even fleeing the battle. The angel’s blade fell on the ones still fighting with fury.

Avariel joining the battle with her sword drew a lot of blades and arrows on her. This opened a way for Matthew to charge Nessus’ position dodging his arrows with great velocity.

The centaur’s arrows were coated with mana and exploded every time they hit anything. Despite Matthew dodging the worst of their blast, debris and fire still flew on him sapping away his Vital Shield little by little.

Matthew had to strike down a score of centaurs before he was facing their leader up close.

Nessus put down his bow and drew a spear and shield from his back.

"You’re going to regret humiliating me." He growled towards Matthew.

Mathew had already some streaks of blood coming down from scratches on his skin. He breathed heavily for having used too much mana. But Matthew didn’t falter.

"I should’ve killed you a long time ago." He said.