A Peacock Husband of Five Princesses by day, a Noble Assassin by Night

"Wait… Easy there, Ladies…" Kael tried to calm down the situation, but Alice went on pushing away Shiera this time and attacked her, throwing the dagger.

Shiera evaded the dagger throw with a tilt of her head and charged down at her again.

Alice smirked, raising her finger. The dagger that missed Shiera suddenly paused and turned around, enveloped by a dark aura, and attacked Shiera's back.

Shiera blocked it with a swing of the sword.

*Clang*

As the dagger blasted away, Shiera sensed Alice's movements. Alice gave her a kick. Shiera twisted her body mid-air even faster and met her kick with her kick. Both legs interlocked at once, each trying to twist the other.

It was then that a loud neigh escaped the Pegasus, earning their attention before Kael shouted. "Would you listen to me once and stop fighting?"

"Shiera, back off now." "Alice, you too. Stand down."

"Right… Now…"

Shiera looked back at her husband, whose intimidating invisible aura was back again. The last time she saw that was when he went off to save his sister. This time, his appearance seemed even more domineering as he sat on the back of a beast that could burn them into cinders without a problem.

As Shiera and Alice moved away from each other, Kael stared down at his wife coldly. "Shiera, what were you doing earlier?" He questioned her. "Why did you attack?"

Shiera pointed at Alice. "It's obvious that she is an ally of the grandlich."

"Who the hell is an ally of Grandlich?" Alice growled at her. "I was here to confirm my suspicions about the statue."

"What suspicions?" As Kael asked, Shiera spoke aloud. "Don't listen to her. She got caught and was using terrible excuses to escape."

"If I really a villainess, I would have attempted to kill you, Princess. Did you see any killing intent from my attack?" Alice coldly replied.

"That's because you knew you couldn't escape from us." Shiera countered.

"You are just unbelievable. I knew that there was something wrong with the way you treated me since we met." Alice snarled at her, "I thought you were probably threatened by my closeness with Kael. So, I tried to be understanding. But now, you crossed the line. How possessive you are that you would try to blame everything on me just so that I would leave his side."

"Who… who is possessive?" Shiera was slightly taken aback, but hit back stronger. "This has nothing to do with your friendship with Kael. Right now, you are a prime suspect, and if I were you, I would surrender and cooperate with the authorities. If you are innocent, you don't have anything to be afraid of." Giving a brief pause, Shiera's eyes narrowed, "unless you are a culprit."

"Okay, I've had enough of your antics, you flatboard." Alice released her aura of Tier, a dark swirl of energy pushing out of her palm, forming a concentrated orb of energy.

"Fla… Flatboard?" Shiera's face reddened in an instant. Her anger was triggered, and her mana flared, consumed half in an instant, while energy swords appeared over her head one after another. "I'll kill you."

Kael observed them, his eyes darting left and right for a while now, knowing that he couldn't stop when two women were arguing.

And now that their argument is finished and they seem to be getting back to the fighting, he whispered. "Sith, Nyx, come out."

The vampire and the nine-tailed wolf lunged out of the tattoo on his arm, the wolf landed on the ground while Sith floated beside.

"Go and restrain them," Kael ordered, gazing at them coldly.

Nyx and Sith didn't hesitate to charge, one to the left and the other to the right.

Sith, whose strength has reached Tier-9 due to darkness, appeared behind Shiera almost in a fraction of a second and unleashed her scarlet chains. Before Shiera even understood what was happening, Sith's chains captured her, suppressing her mana.

At the same time, Nyx, which landed on the ground, charged at blurring speeds. However. Alice captured this sudden ambush, and she reacted a tad bit faster just as the wolf was about to bite her leg.

Her wings erupted out of her back, they flapped as she flew back and evaded Nyx's attack. She threw the orb of energy in her palm at Nyx in reflex.

Nyx's nine tails swooshed in as it lowered its posture. The orb of energy struck its wall of nine tails, and an explosion followed that pushed it away a few meters. Nyx remained unharmed but growled at Alice.

"Nyx, back off." Kael's words once again filled the surroundings. Alice raised her head to look at him as Nyx disappeared. Kael stared down at her, "Now, shall we talk?"

After a while;

Alice looked between the two of them, then turned back to the massive statue standing at the heart of the graveyard, a cloaked figure with a pair of wings

"When we were here earlier," Alice said slowly, "I didn't mention it, but I felt something… strange from this statue. It was faint. Like something was watching."

She reached out and pointed toward the base. "So I came back, just to be sure. And… It's worse now. It's giving off a pulse. Like it's alive."

Before either of them could respond, a rustle in the wind made Shiera instinctively reach for her sword

But then a small black-furred creature appeared on his shoulders.

The feline-spirit beast yawned, eyes gleaming with unnatural gold, and slinked up to the statue.

"This thing's not just a statue," Cleo calmly said. "I can smell thousands of souls, screaming from inside."

Shiera's eyes turned serious. Alice had a frown on her face, though her eyes were on the cat, intently observing it in curiosity.

"Souls?" Kael echoed.

Shiera drew her gleaming silver blade fully, staring at the statue. "Now, it perfectly makes sense why the grandlich was here. Anyway, let's just destroy it."

Alice stepped forward quickly and shook her head. "I already tried. It didn't budge. Not a crack."

Shiera gave a confident smirk. "You're not me."

Her aura surged. A brilliant light radiated from her blade as she raised it above her head.

"Radiant Crescent Slash!"

She brought the sword down in a shining arc. The force hit the statue dead-on, an impact so violent it shook the surrounding graves.

Dust settled.

But the statue remained untouched.

Shiera blinked. "What?"

Alice folded her arms and muttered with a smirk, "Told you."

Kael stepped closer, staring thoughtfully at the base.

"Then what if we don't destroy it… what if we dig it and take it with us? We could deliver it directly to the palace, right?"

At first, Shiera seemed to agree. "That might be the best idea. At least then…"

Alice quickly interjected. "I don't think that's the best idea."

"Hmm?" "Huh?"

"Think about it, Kael. We don't know what this thing is. We don't know how it was made, how it stores souls, or what might happen if we move it. If it's linked to a binding spell, moving it could break the containment… or trigger a curse."

Her gaze grew serious as she continued. "The grandlich had several hours before we confronted him. I don't think that if he only wanted the statue, he could have thought of taking it with him. But he didn't. Or maybe, he couldn't?"

Kael frowned, weighing her words. "That's true. Let's not risk it."

Shiera exhaled. "Then we guard the place and contact the palace."

She reached into her enchanted communicator crystal. "I'll inform Amanda…"

"Wait," Kael cut in, gently but firmly. "If you tell Amanda, she'll panic and inform the others."

Shiera hesitated. "You have a point."

Kael looked at her meaningfully. "You said you don't have direct contact with the Queen, right?"

She nodded. "Only Amanda, my other sisters… and a couple of generals."

Kael glanced sideways. "Then who can you contact that's trusted, powerful, and won't immediately go yelling to Amanda or the rest?"