**KABOOOM!!
The oval canisters erupted into massive blasts of destructive magic, each one bursting with a fusion of searing flames and concussive shockwaves.
The ground split and trembled as bursts of fire roared outwards, engulfing the vehicles and igniting the asphalt of the parking lot.
The shockwave hit the truck the man was standing on, and as the flames consumed it, the entire vehicle detonated in a violent chain reaction, the blast scattering flaming debris in every direction.
The parking lot was instantly consumed by the blazing sea of fire, swallowing everything within its reach.
All eyes in the parking lot were drawn towards the blast, both the fallen mall security and the armed assailants.
At that same moment, the shockwave slammed Eleanor and Helga against the wall behind them, Helga's magic barrier shattering as it absorbed most of the force.
Eleanor took advantage of the momentum, ignoring the pain shooting through her body from the impact as she pulled Helga back through the emergency exit, dragging her into the building before the assailants could catch sight of them.
Meanwhile, the assailant squad leader staggered within the smoke and flames, coughing harshly as he waved a hand to clear his vision.
'That ruthless bitch! She didn't even care about her own allies!'
His other hand went straight to the walkie-talkie at his waist, snatching it up as he spoke into it.
"Boss, we've got two hits. One with blonde hair and red eyes. Could be our target in disguise. The other one looked like…"
He trailed off, brows knitting in frustration as he muttered to himself, "What did the other one look like again?"
For some reason, Eleanor's features slipped from his memory the moment he tried to recall them.
Before he could dwell on it, one of his men screamed out, panic lacing his voice. "These guys are vampires!"
The leader's head whipped toward the battlefield, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of Helga's guards unleashing torrents of blood magic.
Crimson flames erupted around them, their blood flames consuming several of his men as their screams rang out beneath the roaring blaze.
His frown deepened, his grip tightening around the walkie-talkie.
"We take them down first," he barked, dropping the device to the ground before charging headlong into battle against Helga's guards.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Eleanor, what the he—?!"
"He's a demon!"
"!!"
Eleanor's words cut Helga off, silencing the vampiress who had just been about to berate her for her reckless actions that had endangered even their allies, stopping her short as she was about to yank her hand free from Eleanor's grip.
"…what?"
Eleanor took advantage of Helga's brief shock to keep dragging her as she sprinted back up the emergency stairs, this time emerging on the first floor, instead of the second, where they had originally been, as she continued speaking,
"The leader of those guys outside, he's a demon. I'm sure of it."
Helga was understandably dumbfounded.
Where the hell did this claim come from? How could Eleanor possibly know that the leader of the attackers outside was a demon?
As if reading her thoughts, Eleanor pressed on.
"His wrist. There was a symbol on it. Intersecting circles with spiders inside. That's the mark of the Azure Sky Cult, the ones responsible for the fall of the Sacred Island 25 years ago."
Again, Eleanor said another thing that made Helga's eyes widen.
The fall of the Sacred Island was, as its name implied, the catastrophic collapse and destruction of a faith-driven island nation once situated west of the Logron Continent, out in the Tistaw Ocean.
It had ended in the summoning of several High-Ranking Noble Demons and the deaths of millions, forever remembered as one of the greatest disasters in modern Datov history.
"The Crafiels were recently following up on a lead connected to that incident. Naturally, it circled back to the Azure Sky Cult," Eleanor said, pausing to glance around a corner for any sign of armed attackers before continuing.
"The cult is, for some reason, currently hunting members of royalty and high nobility from various nations, a fixation that stems from something they discovered when they annihilated the royals of that island nation twenty-five years ago."
'The Crafiels found out the Azure Sky Cult is targeting royalty?' Helga questioned internally.
That was NOT what Eleanor had said.
But in the heat of the moment, Helga's mind twisted the words and filled the gap, assuming Eleanor had claimed that the Crafiels themselves had uncovered the cult's targeting of royalty.
In truth, Eleanor had never said that. She had first explained that the Crafiels were investigating the Azure Sky Cult, then ended the sentence, before separately mentioning that the cult was after royalty.
Two separate statements.
Still, Helga wasn't entirely at fault for the misunderstanding, as the way Eleanor had worded it practically invited her to draw that false connection.
No, it wasn't an accident. Eleanor had spoken that way deliberately, intending for Helga to come to the wrong conclusion.
Pulling her into a corner and snapping her out of her thoughts, Eleanor slammed her hands against the wall on either side of Helga's body, her eyes dead serious as she said,
"You know better than I do that before being absorbed into the Grevania Empire during the war 70 years ago, the Laurent Duchy was an independent sovereign state.
You, Helga, are essentially royalty, and you fit exactly the kind of target they're after.
That's why the moment he heard your knight call you 'Your Highness', he immediately ordered them to take you."
Without giving her a chance to respond, Eleanor seized Helga's wrist again and pulled her into a sprint down the hallway, her voice echoing alongside their pounding footsteps.
"That also means that whoever that elf they are after is, they are likely elven royalty."
No, it wasn't just likely that the elf was royalty. It was certain.
Eleanor had already pieced together exactly who they were after.
The Azure Sky Cult's true target was none other than the daughter of the current Elven Emperor, Marie-Ange de la Trisnan, who had been secretly sent into Grevania amidst the growing tensions of civil war within the Elven Empire.
Elven EmperorErzan de le Trisnan, fearing that his brother, ArchdukePhilonson, would use his youngest daughter as a pawn against him, something the Archduke had already attempted once before, made the decision to spirit her away in the utmost secrecy.
Through a covert arrangement with Emperor Azraelis of Grevania, Marie had been smuggled across the border, her movements hidden under layers of misdirection, her means of transportation swapped again and again to shake off pursuit.
At last, she had arrived in Grevania this morning, scheduled to rendezvous with Imperial Knights within the hour.
Her presence in the Oakwood mall was simply her hiding in plain sight.
Her route had been kept classified, but even such secrecy was not flawless, as the Azure Sky Cult managed to uncover it.
Unable to attack during her travels due to the constant changes in transportation, they chose the simpler approach of waiting until she arrived in Grevania.
When she did, they moved to abduct her, leading to what Eleanor was now experiencing.
This kidnapping would later be remembered as the spark that gave rise to one of the most dangerous and unforgiving world bosses of Dimension Break, following years of brainwashing and her eventual transformation into a demonic elf by the Azure Sky Cult, who worshipped one of the Devil Rulers, the Overlords of the Infernal Dimensions, known as the 'Blue Devil'.
The reason they targeted Marie was not because she possessed some groundbreaking or extraordinary ability, but simply because her unique trait granted her raw magic damage.
Nothing complicated. Just a straightforward boost of pure damage across every element of magic.
Naturally, no one would turn away a mage who could stand as an anti-army force all on their own, so the Azure Sky Cult sought to claim her for their ranks.
And since she was never going to willingly join a cult that worshipped a Devil, an enemy to her entire planet, they chose to employ rather forceful means to bring her under their control.
In the game, they went on to convert the future anti-army powerhouse into one of their pawns, deploying her against her homeland and reducing the Elven Forest of the Logron Continent into a barren wasteland.
The exact details of her kidnapping were never disclosed in Dimension Break.
All Eleanor knew was that it took place around the same time as the attempt on her life and her transformation into the game's Final Boss.
The unofficial explanation was that the developers wanted the most dangerous bosses to all 'emerge' within the same week, scattered across different regions of the world.
Seven bosses in total, including the Final Boss, each linked to a specific day of the week.