Wilhelm Seth's gaze still did not waver. The unnamed Binah class Spirit on the ground had been pierced through, and he had turned to leave once more, stepping through the winding hallways of the house she had taken up residence in. Yoshinaka, of course, came along to the front door. A slight sinking feeling entered the pit of his stomach as he saw the door, because it had been entirely unchanged. Whatever spell she had used to seal it shut was still firmly being fueled, identical to how it had been prior, and that meant she was still alive.

  "Yoshi, she's behind us!"

  Yoshinaka, for his part, didn't question how Wilhelm knew, or raise any issue with it. He simply turned, readying his sword and trying to see where she was, though they had left her 'corpse' on the other side of that thick gas cloud. They could hear a knife cutting through flesh, and the scream of what seemed to be an infant, before she spoke.

  "The Black Masses - Fortune of Montespan's Patron!"

  As she screamed the name of an Aristeia to the heavens, the very walls of the building began to quake around them, chanting in Latin beginning to overtake any sound he or Yoshinaka made as darkness edged in through their vision. Yet, he quickly connected a name he'd read once, one she mentioned. Montespan. Madame Francoise Montespan had been one of several mistresses to King Louis of France, and the center of one of the Sun King's greatest controversies. She had come out as having hired a woman known for black arts, sorcery, poisoning, and abortions to help change her fortunes, and ensure the King stayed in love with her. Catherine Montvoisin was the poisoner in question, a popular sorceress who did dirty work for all sorts of Parisians at the time.

  He let out a slow breath as he flicked Litotes by the grip in his hand. "So that's it. You're La Voisin, the famous poisoner from France. Yoshi, block the doorway in!" He knew there was no more reason to worry about her. Her poisons could be very nasty, but she had never made any poisons that took effect within the air itself in life, and that explained why the vial of poisonous gas she had used was so basic. So long as she couldn't land a direct contact on himself or Yoshinaka, they would be safe even in the darkness and bad conditions of her Aristeia, where her poisons would likely be at their strongest.

  He pressed his back to the sealed door and waited. She wouldn't try to fight Yoshinaka head on in her current state, because it was a fight she'd never win. Rather, her game plan would inevitably be to use the darkness of her Aristeia's effect to try and take one of them unaware. By watching Yoshi's back, he knew that with how she had seen him use Staccato multiple times by now, she wouldn't come for Yoshi and risk being taken down by Staccato again. Soon enough, the shadow just to his left twitched very slightly, a movement that nobody else would notice. But his eyes could remember every state that shadow had been in prior, and this was the first it had moved at all.

  He drew Litotes across his own palm, using Staccato to transfer the impact as she stepped in, counterattacking her and slashing her throat open in the instant she had taken to 'assassinate' him. She tried to croak out some words in vain, and he could only assume they were something along the lines of 'but how?'. Wilhelm stepped over her dying body, gently closing her eyes with his hand as he looked away. "You underestimated my eyes, that's all. Rest in peace for me, Voisin."

  He saw the vine in the door begin to recede slightly, because she was no longer maintaining the spell, and looked away to open that door, finally letting himself and Yoshinaka out. They'd chosen wrong, but that meant that Lady Tomoe had chosen 'right', and was already fighting with the King himself, as well as any Spirits he had kept with him. They needed to hurry, then, though the distance wasn't exactly far. Down one set of stairs, a short jaunt, and then up another set, he found himself having to try and catch back up to Yoshinaka who had blitzed ahead despite having more ground to cover.

  Yoshinaka threw the door open, and the lavish room inside appeared to be empty, neither the King nor Lady Tomoe were present, though the echoing sound of combat made it clear that they were somewhere nearby. A few cursory scans made it clear there was a tunnel that had already been opened and used in an attempt to escape, but the question was where it led to. Wilhelm simply pointed with his knife, not willing to take the extra time needed for a conversation, and Yoshi heeded the wordless exclamation, immediately barreling down the tunnel before Wilhelm ran in behind him. The tunnel led out of the palace complex entirely, exiting into what must have once been a salt field by the dried sides and square, low walls made not of brick but raw soil.

  In the center of the field, Tomoe was fighting, but not against the King. Rather, the King was talking with a man Wilhelm recognized; the tall, armored figure of their 'ally' who had left early. The one that Tomoe was fighting with was actually the voluptuous woman in leathers that the man had come from Heliopolis with! Wilhelm almost couldn't believe it, the two had betrayed them almost entirely. The man casually laid a hand on the large plug, which was in the King's hand, and they were talking in a friendly manner that made Wilhelm wonder just how long those two had been here. Worse yet, nobody in their number seemed to be worried in the slightest. The woman's huge, two handed sword was easily keeping Tomoe's naginata at bay, and Yoshinaka rushed in from the side, before stopping some ten feet away.

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  He had his sword raised, but it was wavering, twitching and shaking as if he was uncertain. "...Wilhelm, are you sure we need to kill her? Can't I just take out the Caller and the King while Tomoe keeps her at bay? She's not totally complicit." His mask turned to look back at Wilhelm, and Wilhelm's eyes met his through that mask. "Yoshi, how can you say that when she's fighting Lady Tomoe to keep the plug from us? She's clearly in on it!"

  The woman batted her eyes in Yoshinaka's direction, even as she blocked another of Tomoe's strikes. "You know, my Caller here has been keeping me on such a tight leash, I can't be considered responsible, dear Yoshinaka. But if you'd help to make this girl stand down so I don't get my poor little head shocked, I'll show you all sorts of favors. I just can't help but do anything he says because of the Command Array, you know? If I could, I could run away..."

  Wilhelm glanced down at the mention of the Command Array. He had one himself, should he use it? It wasn't right to do that sort of thing to Yoshinaka, but he was clearly falling for the enemy's trap, right? Even if her voice was sweet and her face was beautiful and her hips were- Right, right, fighting. He stepped forward, raising his hand and making his decision.

  "Kiso Yoshinaka, kill that sultry woman!"

  He could feel the immense magical energy of the Command Array surging forth, entangling Yoshinaka and forcing him to step forward against his will. Yet, at that same moment, the armored, massive figure that had called the woman in the first place moved. He drew what seemed to be a revolver, engraved countless times and filled with magical energy, and fired not once, but three times in what seemed like an instant filled with brightness and a cacophony of sound. Yoshinaka's blade moved, just a tad slow because of his sudden, forced determination to strike down the woman in leathers. While ordinarily he may have been able to parry all three strikes with relative ease, he only stopped one, as two struck home in his armor, managing to pierce into the plating itself and send him careening to the ground.

  Wilhelm gritted his teeth as the scenario went from bad to worse. Yoshinaka seemed to be stable enough, neither of the shots looked particularly fatal. But even as he slowly pulled himself back to his feet, it was obvious how much they affected his combat capabilities. Wilhelm stomped at the ground to send the armored figure's gun flying from his hand with Staccato, as he stepped forward. One thing was clear as day - Yoshinaka and Tomoe wouldn't be enough to win this on their own, he needed to step up and help them out better. The man in heavy armor had turned away at that, and hopped up and over the wall, out of Wilhelm's view. Did he figure out how Staccato worked off of one use, or was he just guessing that it needed good aim like most spells did?

  Ahuizotl, the King, leveled the plug vaguely in Wilhelm's direction, and he could visibly see the absurd amount of magical energy pulsing within. If his own magical energy was a small flame, and the Command Array on his arm was a bonfire, then he could only describe that as a raging inferno far beyond any fire he'd seen. The man spoke some words in the language of the Aztecs that Wilhelm didn't understand, and Wilhelm ducked for cover, only for it to be meaningless against the incoming attack.

  A flash of light, like the one that had taken Tadakatsu from them, flared from the plug, and he felt it strike his suit. Yet, rather than dying, his suit flickered once, and he found himself behind cover, the tattered remains of his suit jacket burning away on the ground. Slipping out from the tunnel's entrance once more, he slashed Litotes against the tunnel's side as he caught his eyes on Ahuizotl, cutting his hand off in one instant to stop him from using that plug again in a spray of warm blood. Yet, the plug didn't drop to the ground, and rather hurtled towards the opposite wall as if pulled by a powerful magnet.

  Wilhelm rushed towards it, trying to gain on the plug, yet it was easily picked up by the armored figure, who tilted his head mockingly before dropping the item he held in his other hand. A small, hole-filled stick with a handle that Wilhelm recognized with ease. He tried to close his eyes in time, but the flashbang had been primed and ready, practically blowing apart his ears and scorching his eyes as his sense of balance was warped and he nearly dropped off his feet. When he opened his eyes again, finally able to see despite the spots in his vision, the man was gone, having abandoned his own Spirit to finally lose to the combined attacks of Tomoe and Yoshinaka.

  Tomoe had sliced through her neck with her naginata, after a brief feint by Yoshinaka himself. Just like the Director had said, regular weaponry didn't do much of anything to hold back the Spirits, yet how did that man move so quickly to leave the scene? Even if he'd used a spell to fly or speed himself up, it would've left a trail that he could follow. Instead, Wilhelm found himself turning towards Ahuitzotl, alongside a very injured Yoshinaka and a very unhappy Lady Tomoe. He wasn't a fan of the idea of torture, especially if he couldn't properly parse what the man was going to say to them...

  But there was no harm in keeping him prisoner, if it might prevent their enemies from winning.