Margarete hesitated at first, but then gathered the children and ran further down the alley. Nova now alone just stood there pondering on what it was she was doing. She curses to herself, calling herself a fool and ran off to help the Fire Goddess.

She returns to the square and sees that tanks and rifles were being shot at the Goddess without remorse. Pyrium danced in the air trying to dodge all the shots, but she still takes some hits. Soldiers advanced on Nova and so she began to defend herself. She gets hit by some bullets, but shakes them off because of her strong spirit. To her she feels only as if they were pellet guns. She dodges some of the shots and luckily blocks with her sword. She gets close to the first soldier and tackles him to the center, using him as a shield. In these quarters the soldiers begin to conserve their shots. Nova slices one in the center right as she moves left, pushing the gun out of the way as she strikes down. The soldier of the left she rolls toward, realizing that he has a clear shot on her. She places the flat of her sword against the barrel and pushes back. The soldier shoots three rounds, all not coming out, while Nova knee’s the gun out of his hands. She swings her blade down, but the soldier grabs it, Nova cuts him with her dagger and follows with an elbow to the face and finishes with a final swipe. The final soldier on the far right fires relentlessly at Nova. She runs to the side then changes direction and slides under the bullet storm. She leaps high into the air as the bullets continue flying her way. The final slice downwards finishes it. Around her is death and blood, fitting with the all the burning.

Nova looks around the battle zone and sees that there is a truck mounted with a heavy machine gun shooting conservatively at Pyrium. Towards the front of the car are two heavy tanks shooting volleys of shells at the Goddess as well. Nova makes her way towards the machine gun, while defeating foes in her way. She gets hit occasionally, but pushes through the pain. She gets on the gun killing the operator, who put up a fight, and aiming it towards the tanks. Some of the foot soldiers take notice and open fire, but thankfully the shielding on the gun protects her from a high majority of the rounds. She opens fire on the soldiers and reduce their numbers significantly, then she aims at the first tank and fires when it begins reloading. She holds down the triggers hoping it doesn’t gets to fire first. As the cannon is almost towards her direction it stops, riddled with dents and some bullet holes. Nova aims for the fueling tank mounted on it and it sets ablaze, then it explodes, taking the whole tank with it. During all this Nova didn’t notice the second tank already aimed directly at her. She gets off the gun as fast as she could, but before she could jump off the truck, the cannon fired.

She flew through the air as the explosion launched her ten feet away. She hit the ground with a thud and had trouble breathing. She heaved in hard as she took in the fire and destruction around her. The tank cannon locked on to her again, but before she could think of closing her eyes the tank was hit with a volley of fire so great that Nova felt as if she were in an oven. After a moment the flames stopped and the tank stood red hot in place as if it were dead. Pyrium came to her side helping her up, but was hit with what seemed to be ice. This pained and angered the Goddess as she tried to launch fire, but was overwhelmed. The Goddess did the only thing she could do, she burned down the buildings around them so to provide cover and escape. The fire was too great as it spread from building to building and all were crumbling down around them. Pyrium no longer covered in flames, looking pale and cold tried to pick Nova up. Her hair no longer glowing red and orange, and her touch was cold. Nova gathered her senses and noticed the burning of the town. She put the Goddess’s arm around her and began to make a break for the construction area. Nova forgot completely that they were just in the middle of a fire fight, now only focused on getting out of the burning town alive. They had only made it a quarter of the way there and the flames grew more violent already, engulfing much of the buildings. Above a pillar of flames fell, so nova draws her blade and slices through. As they made their way to the exit more debris fell over head and around. They dodge most of them and as the flames engulf them, they jump through. At the end of the alley the construction zone was already ablaze, many of the buildings burning and some already fallen. Nova could see the end of it all and pushed the Goddess to make a final run towards the exit. They jump over some of the trenches yet couldn’t make the final one.

They fall five feet in the dirt pit, narrowly dodging the concrete debris around them. Quickly Nova looked up the steep climb and looked at Pyrium. She looked very weak and ill even. She picked her up, “Get up Goddess, we have to climb our way out!”

They began to climb slowly up, stabbing their blades into the dirt for leverage. After a long climb up they’ve made it to the top, but soon notice that their exit was nonexistent. The hole in the fire that was once there was gone, only to seem bigger and stronger with all the fire around. Suddenly the ear piece came on, “Nova? Nova do you hear?!”

She presses on the button which now felt hot, “I’m here Robert!”

“The exit is gone, I can see it from here! What’s going on?”

“Robert the whole town is on fire and I’m being chased by the Legion! What do I do, is there another way out?!”

There was silence for a moment, “Look I think the only way out is through the sewers. You need to go back down and there should be some way up north towards the lake.”

“Ok how do I get there?”

Silence again, “That’s the thing... I don’t know…”

“What, are you serious?!”

“I know how it sounds, but right now I don’t see any other options left. The only thing you can rely on I the current of the waters. The current should all lead to the lake or other bodies of water. Listen the children and Margarete are here with me, we would meet you there, but we’re defenseless out here. We’re going to Illustia right now for shelter, meet us there!”

“No! If the radio stays true to the parade route of this morning, then Illustria is the next place the Legion will set out for! Stay away from the parade path, head south, make sure no one knows you’re from Briedon.”

Over the ear piece she could hear him curse under his breath, “Damn, what the hell is going on? Ok, we’ll make it south and try for Tas see if it’s safe there.”

“Ok I’m going to try and get out of here.”

“Wait, before that… you should know that these ear piece have a max range of two miles. Once you make it to the lake we won’t be in contact for a while.” Silence, “What do you plan to do after this?”

Nova hesitates and thinks for a moment, “I don’t know honestly… I guess we’ll see if we see each other again.”

“I see… be safe then.” The connection between them cuts and Nova takes no time in getting into the sewers. She helps Pyrium in and closes the lid behind them, now somewhat hot. Nova looks at the current of the waters and the flow along the right side of the sewers. Nova then picks up Pyrium and begins following the water’s current, uncertain where it may lead them towards the exit or lead them astray.