"I'm so sorry!" Ellen cried while blowing her nose into a tissue. Turns out, she forgot to tell Hirune about the chance that Namulenza's artifact might've been broken into a hundred small pieces.
"It's fine, either way I've made myself a permanent resident of your war either way, so it doesn't matter," she responded.
As they stood around waiting for Ellen to compose herself, they heard footstep approaching. Tundra quickly turned while making an icicle knife in his hand and spotted a broad figure holding a large battle axe over their shoulders. The figures drapery being the same as the figure that tried to kill Hirune in the cave.
'Another one? How'd they get word of what happened in there so fast?' Hirune thought as she stared. Ellen grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back a bit, "Don't worry, Clint's got it."
Hirune raised an eyebrow as Clint approached the man slowly. Once they stood face to face, Clint sparked up a conversation with him, which he didn't seem to take well as he swung down at him with his axe, Clint barely getting out of the way.
Nearly as soon as the fight started the temperature in the area seemed to rise as the sand near Clint's feet turned to glass. The man swung again to the side; Clint took a large step back and kicked up the liquid glass hitting him in the shoulder. This kept on going continuously, the man didn't seem to slow down no matter how much melted glass got on him and neither did clint no matter how many times he had to cauterize his wounds.
'So~, are you going to do anything? This is getting kind of boring!" Naumlenza cried in Hirune's head for the hundredth time, "Fine! Fine! I'll do something but first tell me who we're dealing with!"
'From their appearance they're a government assassin, why are they so... peculiarly dressed if they're a government assassin? C'mon you're acting as if being called a government assassin instead of a spy isn't weird enough already!' She answered, 'Now get to doing stuff!'
Hirune stood there for a moment staring at the assassin, "From the government? Do you mean the same government that's causing the people of Triste so much torment?"
'Yes, now go on, entertain your queen.'
"Well then I'll try to put on the most exiting show you'll ever get the honor to witness. Not for your sake, but for my people's sake!" She exclaimed before muttering, "For my mother's sake!"
As Hirune rushed in Ellen tried to stop her, but Kala pulled her arm back, "Just let her. In the meantime, as we watch, I've got a question.
"From what she said, it sounds like she wants the people of Triste to be freed, which sure it's a noble whish, but the issue is that she's all about justice. Which sure it's also good and, yeah, but I saw an example of her justice firsthand and I'm not sure if it was more her serving justice or her giving someone freedom. Which got me thinking about whether she seeks out both, even knows the difference between them, or thinks they're the same thing..."
Ellen's cheeks puffed up slightly before letting out a hearty laugh, "You know you're thinking too much into it! In order to serve justice sometimes you have to dish out freedom, for example if someone were to lawfully act against someone else because they hurt them in any way, they would be seeking justice for themselves, but that same example has a much darker connotation of someone seeking freedom from someone else. Or she could just be a really moral person, so don't think too deeply into people's actions alright? For now, just try getting used to how it feels to be human again."
Kala nodded as she looked back at Hirune, curious as to why she's like this.
A large pair of jaws flew out of Hirune's palm and struck at the ground between Clint and the assassin making them stop fighting. The assassin tried to say something, but Hirune kept on relentlessly striking at them, the assassin barely blocking the jaws as they tried to bite at them.
Then the jaws, seemingly as if they had their own consciousness went in the direction Hirune swung them, bit the air then went the other way and bit his shoulder off, his arm falling off and blood dripping down his side. He let out a loud scream as he staggered onto the ground, barely holding himself up with his axe.
"For an assassin he doesn't have the sneakiest weapon don 'Tya think?" Hirune said as she stood in front of him, 'I've got to agree.'
"So, I'm assuming you're not the only assassin, right? How many of you are there?" She asked as she grabbed his axe and struggled with him for a little to take it, yet he didn't hinder her that much after she kicked him in the groin. "Go on, how many? And while you're at it who hired you?"
The man stayed silent for a minute before weakly responding, "There's nine more, all far stronger than me. As for who hired me? I'm pretty sure you can figure that one out yourself."
Hirune rolled her eyes, he was right, she already knew it was the president but being sure of it would've been nice. "Hey, Lazu, can I use those jaws to store this thing somewhere?"
'Lazu? Watch how you talk to your superior's princess, I'm not someone who takes to that lightly! As for your question~ it's simple! You need to learn the incantation, now, I already know what you're going to ask: "What's an incantation?" Simple, incantations allow you to access more of your artifact's abilities that you wouldn't be able to use normally. Which you can use most abilities without incantations but for something like a pocket dimension or a huge explosion you need to use an incantation.
'Now, how about we give a proper end to this chapter? Kill them, we don't want them to tell anyone about what occurred here today.' Hirune's eyes widened as she looked at a random clump of air, "What?!"
'You heard me, kill them!' Her breath hitches a bit and her throat swelled up, "But- The- No- They're a person! What do you mean kill them?! No!" She said as she grasped at her own head and rubbed it hard with her knuckles as if trying to force Namulenza out.
'Hey, hey! Stop that you're hurting yourself! Shhh, listen hon', they're NOT human,' Namulenza's tone suddenly changed from cold to something sweeter and more hypnotic. 'Listen this isn't a human; do you really think someone who has morals would kill a young girl without hesitating? Now I'm not accusing them of that, but they had the choice to deny the job, even if it was the government that hired them, they still had freedom of choice to some degree. Something else, they've unjustly killed many others, doesn't that anger you? Taking someone's life unjustly for your own sake, it's truly terrible. Which is why I'm telling you the truth hon', they're not a human, they're a demon disguised as a human! So don't feel guilty about getting their blood on your hands~'
Hirune stopped for a second, her eyes slightly teary from how much strength she was rubbing her knuckles against her head with. Her head slowly turned towards the assassin, her eyes which seemed conflicted but a couple seconds ago nearly as cold as a winter storm.
As the man lost his voice trying to say something and backed up as Hirune took a step towards him, yet before she moved any further, he felt a cold chill between his eyes before shortly feeling a dripping from it and losing consciousness. Tundra casually walking past Hirune and taking the icy dagger out of his forehead, "We can't have him reporting this back to his employer."