As Alex drove the carriage into the biting cold weather, she heard the priests call out from the ramparts of the walls.

  “Come back,” A male voice shouted. “I sense evil approaching.”

  Alex was hesitant to simply accept what the Catalina followers were saying. Additionally, she hadn't devised a good way for the carriage to reverse with the trailer attached to a hitch. As a result, the entire vehicle had to turn around and re-enter the gates front-end first. It was going to take a hot minute to turn around.

  “I soooo don’t want to go back in there.” Alex compined to Fufi.

  “You think it is the demons?” Fufi looked around. “The visibility is bad. I think it is about to storm.”

  “Is it the ice demons?” Alex cranked levers to get the carriage to make a sharp turn.

  The carriage, its clockwork gears grinding and protesting against the unforgiving gcial terrain, lurched violently, its trailer lifting precariously off the ground. Inside, Alex winced, offering a silent apology to the maids who were likely sent tumbling by the sudden jolt. The once smooth journey had turned into a treacherous ordeal.

  As if mocking their struggle, the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse. The wind rose to a furious howl, the daylight dimmed, and the falling snow transformed into a stinging barrage of ice shards. It was as if a ferocious hail storm had erupted in the frigid ndscape, an impossibility that only added to the surreal nature of the situation. The carriage's walls rattled and groaned under the relentless assault, the din of the ice intensifying the sense of urgency.

  Time seemed to distort within the confines of the besieged carriage. What felt like an eternity ter, but was likely only a matter of minutes, they managed to wrestle the carriage around and navigate it back through the imposing temple gates. The retive safety of the temple grounds offered a respite from the onsught, but the ordeal had left them shaken and on edge.

  “Are you okay?” Ekta called out from the rampart when Alex stepped out of the carriage.

  “I think so.” Alex went back to check on the trailer. “Is everyone alright in there?”

  “Yes,” The maids' voices came out in unison, creepy. “Some of us fell over but nothing more serious than a bruise.”

  “Yet another demon attack.” Ekta grumbled. “It used to be that attacking a pce of worship brought divine judgement. It is disgusting how brazen these foul creatures are.”

  “But the pces of worship back in town were all crumbling. I thought the demons destroyed them?” Alex looked at Fufi, kinda confused, not sure if she remembered right.

  “I doubt it.” The fmingo answered. “The deities take that personally. Generally speaking if a mortal provokes a god then they don’t have to hold back. If Catalina was paying attention right now she’d likely smite the demons for attacking this pce of worship.”

  “If you are not a combat csser then please get behind cover.” Ekta sounded annoyed at the not-so-nice reminder that their goddess had forsaken them.

  “Let me get changed.” Alex looked back inside the carriage, seeking her magical girl dress.

  “You have a skill for that.” Fufi reminds the bck-haired girl.

  Alex closes her eyes trying to focus on the skill.

  “Do it right.” The fmingo pats a wing on Alex. “With the fir and confidence of a true magical girl.”

  “Magical girl: Transform!” Alex spins around. With a swish of fabric her winter outfit is repced by the frilly magical girl dress. After grabbing her three dolls she heads up the stairs to join the priests on the ramparts.

  The view from the ramparts is treacherous. The walls shimmed faintly with a protective aura. The onsught of cold magic battered against them. As ice shards impacted the walls, energy crackled with every impact. This warded off the worst of the icy storm.

  Beyond the barrier, a chaotic maelstrom of swirling snow and razor-sharp ice howled like a living thing. It was like icy cws grasping at the walls with malicious intent. Visibility quickly became nearly nonexistent. The attackers were impossible to see through the sudden storm.

  The ramparts held firm though, whoever made this pce of worship spared no expense in its protection. The magical storm raged but the damage from the long range attacks was minimal.

  The view from the ramparts was treacherous. A chaotic maelstrom of swirling snow and razor-sharp ice howled like a living thing beyond the barrier, its icy cws grasping at the walls with malicious intent. Visibility was nearly nonexistent due to the sudden storm, making it impossible to see the attackers.

  The walls shimmered faintly with a protective aura, warding off the worst of the icy storm. Energy crackled with every impact of ice shards against them. The ramparts held firm, and the damage from the long range attacks was minimal. Whoever made this pce of worship spared no expense in its protection.

  The priests muttered prayers, but no volleys came back.

  Alex, a little confused at the ck of a counter attack, started to dance and her dolls sprung into action.

  Edelweiss positioned herself at the edge wall, holding her shield in front of her.

  Rose, well she might not be very useful in this fight, given that she wielded a squirt gun.

  Lily knocked an arrow and pulled back her bow, seeking a target.

  But there was no target. Alex thought that she might have caught several glimpses of shadows or movement of what might have been imps or rger demons but she wasn’t sure. She didn’t have the eagle eyes of a [scout] or some other way to see through the obfuscation of the magical storm. So she just kept dancing until it got awkward.

  Very awkward.

  None of the priests counter attacked and the wall held.

  Enough time passed that Alex thought this might be the start of some kind of siege. But before she could voice her concern the storm abated, and the evil weather retreated.

  “Where’d they go?” Fufi took to the air but made sure not to leave the protective dome of the temple’s barrier. “I thought this might be the start of a siege.”

  “This happens fairly often” Tika answered the bird. “They show up and try out some of their powerful attacks on us but never fully commit to it.”

  “They just attack then run off?” Alex boggled at the concept.

  “Usually it is not at a really inconvenient time.” Tika shrugged. “Like we’ve never lost a harpy heading here for purification.”

  Alex looked over the courtyard and noticed some more of the identical clergy watching on. Yeah, they don’t actually want the popution of humans to die out here. The demons could be doing the same thing here that was happening in Yvne’s barony.

  “I bet they are just doing the minimal amount to not get dismissed for breaking their contract.” Alex surmised.

  Ekta put a hand on his chin and thought hard. “You think so? It never occurred to me.”

  “Am I the only one that thinks it is so obvious?” Alex saw a number of younger clergy with looks of intense concentration on their faces.

  “They are demons.” Ekta finally spoke. “This could all be a part of some nefarious pn.”

  All the other clones nodded in agreement.

  “Why did you not attack them back?” Alex recalled that none of them had actually unched anything visible into the storm.

  “Priests and priestesses are not a true combat css.” Ekta pontificated. “Our primary job is to lead the flock and serve our goddess. There are other divine csses that are more combat focused. Padin is a popur one for those that want to take the fight directly to the enemies of Catalina.”

  “Wasn’t one of the hero’s party a priestess?” Alex made a face, thinking that perhaps these mentally compromised people didn’t know what they were talking about.

  “We don’t speak of the tractor.” The priest sounded deadly serious.

  Everyone in the crowd frowned.

  Apparently, the beautiful woman that convinced the hero to give up his quest and run away with her was a sore subject to the small remnant of Catalina worshipers.

  “Um, anyway.” Alex felt extremely awkward for unintentionally bringing up a touchy subject. “We should be going.”

  Fufi nded after her little flight to try to get a view of things. “It might be good to wait a bit. There were a whole lot of footprints in the snow. Most of them were little, but there were some bigger ones. I bet there are many imps and several tier two demons that were in that group.”

  Alex Tsked. She wanted to get out of here, having to come back to evade ice demons wasn’t in her day’s pn.

  Merumeru peeked out of the carriage. “Meru?”

  “Merumeru!” Alex rushed to her. “You can save the day, right? Can we get one of your portal pipes to head back to the nexus?”

  Merumer shook her head and made some strange hand gestures. “Ruuuu.”

  “Portal?” Ekta walked down, considering. “The temple is warded against teleportation. Any items that would produce a simir effect shouldn’t work.”