Blades of Despair

-Chapter Eighty-Two-

The Lioness

The Lioness was en route to the Capital Field when she received the phone call to say that it had exploded. She had nearly dropped the phone in shock, her mind racing with a dozen questions. Her main concern, however, was Pastel. As far as the Lioness was aware, Pastel had no knowledge of explosives, and the Lioness doubted that attempting to destroy an entire building would have gone unnoticed by the Blades. Nonetheless, the Capital Field had exploded and was now a heap of smoking rubble; the Lioness saw an opportunity to finally get leverage against the Blades, so she and her team of soldiers (forty in all) rushed to the scene as fast as they could. They knew the dangers of entering enemy territory, and that they had little time to act. Their search of the site had to be as swift as it was meticulous.

The Lioness kicked a loose pebble with the tip of her boot, watching as it bounced slightly against the larger chunks of cracked, demolished stone that had no doubt once been a wall. They had been at the site for an hour. The Lioness knew that before long, the Blades' own forces would arrive. If that happened, there would be a conflict, which was why the Lioness had been clutching her holstered weapon subconsciously for the last twenty minutes.

"Boss!" The Lioness turned to see a soldier approaching her at a rushed pace. He stumbled as he climbed the mountain of stones atop which the Lioness was standing. The Lioness squinted and recognised the soldier as the one who had told her that Pastel was missing. She waited until he was standing in front of her before speaking.

"Look lively, soldier," she warned him, "shouting makes you an easy target."

"Yes, boss," he said with a salute, and the Lioness fought to roll her eyes - she hated it when they did that. "I came to give you a progress report, if you'll hear me out."

"Proceed."

"Our bomb expert claims that the explosion most likely happened at ground level, resulting in the rest of the building caving in on itself. There were faint scents of gas in the area, so we assume there was a gas explosion, and a large one at that if it made the entire building erupt."

"Any survivors?" The Lioness asked, perhaps a little too eagerly. Calm down, she scolded herself, it's highly unlikely that he's still alive.

"We have recovered eight bodies so far," the soldier informed her. "Three adults and five others who we believe to be participants at the Capital Field. They were near the top of the rubble, so it is assumed that they were on the highest floor of the building when the explosion went off."

"Pastel?" The soldier hesitated and avoided eye contact with the Lioness. "Soldier, I am prepared for what you're about to tell me. There is no need for hesitation."

"Pastel was one of the bodies we recovered," the soldier confirmed, "but she is dead, boss. It was difficult to tell because of the injuries sustained when the building collapsed, but it appears she was shot in the head."

The Lioness cursed inwardly. So Kinji Ishotaru and those Blade bastards knew who she was. I will have to break the news to Marble. The Lioness was also confronted with another problem. If Pastel was already dead when the explosion went off on the ground floor, and the others were on the top floor, how did the Capital Field blow up? Who set off that explosion?

"What of the three adults and the four other participants?"

"The four other participants are being rushed to Marble by air ambulance as we speak," the soldier told her. The Lioness vaguely recalled hearing the sound of rotors earlier, but she had been too preoccupied to pay it too much mind.