In the following morning, two utterly clueless siblings approached the manor of the Grand Marshall.

  One was the familiar man: Yi Tong. The First Prince, garbed in schorly but hardy tunic, equipped himself fit for adventure with his archeological kit. Despite what many stereotypes and rumors had framed his nerdy and bookish kind, the eldest prince could be considered a great archeologist as well as adventurer; a level-headed man who was fit to oversee whatever catalog and discoveries found during this expedition. The fact he could hold his own in a fight only added to his case.

  The second choice, however, left more to be desired.

  Su Yulong, to many of her detractors, was a prick. A rival to the Massacre Princess, many considered her a master of Aura second only to Nuan. She could also be considered a beauty. But--whereas the Marshall's Dragon were built like a perfect work of art; the Princess of White, a nobility incarnated into royal form; and Hikari Seyfert organised like a honed bde--Su appeared all artificial. Her dress sparkled too bright. Her taste was too gaudy and makeup too thick. In her father's words, she was trying too hard to get away from the dread second pce.

  Mandrake's reason for choosing this daughter to accompany the Grand Marshal was simple: disposability. Ming Xuan needed to arrange the army. Er Long's bloodlust could prove too detrimental and he was still missing a limb. With most Dragon Scions scattered throughout the empire, the only extra muscle the nation could lose was Su.

  Yi Tong looked at his ignorant half-sister with pity. Even before the Ciel's mansion, her wisdom had not caught up to her artificiality. He tried to think of her ignorance, albeit exasperating, as a good thing. She certainly seemed happier this way.

  "Elder brother," Su greeted the First Prince. "Did you receive the Emperor's missive?"

  "Indeed," he asked the girl, concern evident in his tone. "Did you understand the mission?"

  "We are to aid the Grand Marshall in stopping the insurgency in Gongsan Port," the gaudy girl quoted her father's decree, then added her opinion. "I do not understand. Wouldn't Er Long do better than you in this task?"

  The concerned older brother tried not to let his twitching expression become too pronounced; it was a monumental task. The girl before him believed in bringing a human wrecking ball into a delicate five-way international conflict between intelligence agencies. Worse, she wore a bold red dress, her hair decorated with glittering jewelry which signaled competent killers harder than a fre in the dark.

  "I believe our father had a good reason," he offered the white lie.

  A creak pierced their conversation as the aria-fortified gate swung open, revealing Nuan's stark figure, clothed in midnight bck, casting against the morning light. Her amber eyes fixed on Su's bold clothing, and she faced her half-sister with a deadpan expression.

  "You are going to die so fast."

  Su growled, "I don't want to hear from someone who retired to be a housewife."

  "Peace, sisters," Yi Tong inserted himself between them to de-escate. "Nuan," he turned toward the Marshall's Dragon, "can you brief us on the situation?"

  The Second Wife swung the door wide open to reveal a curious scene. Once again, equipment and spare parts flooded the porch. Massive cables connected from a generator to the raised ptform featuring some kind of blurry bck cannon. Ciel stood beside a bullet-headed shuttle, quickly riveted together overnight amidst the smell of oil and burnt metal, looking satisfied with the result.

  The two women observing him did not share his beaming smile.

  "This is basically a coffin," Xia pointed out.

  "Unbelievable," Hikari, traumatized by this man's defiance of the concept of safety standards, muttered. "He is worse than Amy."

  Ciel heard their cims and argued back, "I know it looks unfinished, but I assure you it is perfectly safe. The only reason you're terrified is because I haven't put on the coat of paint."

  "You put this together overnight!" Hikari yelled. "Shouldn't we test it first?"

  "That would be ideal but we don't have time."

  The First Prince looked at the contraption, curious. "May I ask what that is?" he pointed at the cannon.

  "That is how we will reach Gongsan Port in an hour," answered its inventor.

  "Gongsan Port is near the sea and we are innd," Su decried the idea. "Even our fastest transport would take a day."

  "We are not going by usual transport," Ciel expined. "This will shoot up a matter transference anchor attached to the rocket head into the stratosphere." He then pointed to the shuttle, its hull still warm from hasty welding. "By my calcutions, our shuttle will be teleported up there and dropped toward Gongsan Port at hypersonic velocities, though preferably not while on fire."

  "Wait," Yi Tong interrupted. "Your pn is to basically move yourself above the clouds and fall on Gongsan Port like a meteor. Will we even survive?"

  "That is what I have been telling him!" Hikari yelled. "We are going to hit the ground in a fming wreck!"

  "And who is she?" Su Yulong pointed at Hikari.

  "Our contact," Ciel answered. "I made a deal with her. If she and Eleanor's forces aid us in dealing with this problem, their espionage crimes will be forgiven."

  Hikari turned toward the Lord of Union, her mouth opening to speak, but she wisely fell silent, knowing she'd been caught red-handed.

  Yi Tong, however, pointed out the unusual departure from the Marshall's nature: "This is terribly reckless of you, Grand Marshall. We have cshed once, and I believed you to be the type who pns several steps ahead."

  "You are right, Yi Tong," Ciel admitted with absolutely no amusement. "I would love to make pns and backup pns for days, but we simply don't have the time. We're stuck pying second fiddle because some idiots poked the hornet's nest without informing us and then bailed with nothing less than a note. Like it or not, we have to reach them before they haul everything back home." He spoke as the Celestial Brides and Hikari, knowing the stakes, climbed into the shuttle. "We're the forward force caught pying reactive. It isn't nice, but something like this will happen sometimes."

  With that, he turned backward, kicked the cannon aimed at the sky to fire the rocket. He entered the shuttle's cockpit and yelled at their st crew as the projectile headed upward in “bang”: "Come on in. The clock is already ticking."

  The First Prince turned toward Su for support. But the girl, either too brave or too ignorant, had already climbed into the ship's backseats and strapped herself beside Hikari.

  "We are so boned," Yi Tong concluded, but still entered the ship anyway.

  The cockpit window slid over to seal the ship. Behind it—strapped together by scrap metal, adhesive tape, and hope—the mad inventor timed the seconds for the compartmentalized rocket he'd just fired to light up.

  "We will port in three, two, one—"

  From the manor's porch, the hastily constructed shuttle blinked from existence; its passengers thrust through a serene blue fsh that drilled through space and time. The mind-bending experience ended when the world reformed in blinding sunlight, surrounding them with endless azure and clouds that stretched below like freshly beaten pillows. But serenity wasn't meant to st. Gravity reasserted itself, and the passengers felt the world flip as it recimed its hold and pulled them downward with a comedic speed.

  Throughout the harrowing dive, firing into the clouds like a bullet, every passenger screamed to the heavens, but the confident—maybe too confident—Ciel. Su Yulong in particur let out such obscenities her absentee father would again wonder where he went wrong.

  "Port us out!" Xia yelled, tears threatening.

  "Stop panicking," the Marshall wrestled against the craft, shaking more than a quaking volcano as they punched through clouds. He gnced at the navigation device duct-taped to the window frame and nodded. "We are on the right track."

  "To hell," Nuan added dryly, teeth chattering from the bone-rattling massage.

  "Stop being a downer!"

  Su decided to add to the fright: "The ground is getting too close." She then felt the heat fshing through the cockpit. "Is it getting hot in here?"

  The pilot didn't respond. He'd already seen their destination: a port in the distance lit on fire with mystical projectiles flying in unpausing fury, while men—as small as insects from his elevation—engaged and fell in combat. He estimated they would reach their destination in time.

  And there he yanked a margin too hard, snapping it off the socket with a sound of short-circuiting wires.

  Everyone stared at the fatal mistake, faces and eyes bnked in white, hot shock.

  Inside the oversized bullet which soon hit the hypersonic barrier, panic erupted anew.

  "I don't want to die!" Xia wailed.

  "You idiot," Hikari screeched, "I told you not to put this thing together like that. Is safety regution something you learned at all?"

  "Welp." Nuan simply gave up. "This is going to hurt."

  Su Yulong fainted.

  Only Yi Tong maintained his wit amidst the terminal fall from heaven. "Grand Marshall, you have a pn, right?" he asked nervously.

  "Oh thee of little faith," Ciel, dispying no panic, activated his emergency measure: Four Pilrs of Cardinal Direction.

  Opalescent light erupted from the inscribed talismans inid in the shuttle. Cuboids of impenetrable defense formed around the fiery rocket, warding off all misfortune.

  The bullet-shaped drop ship smashed into the boiling conflict in Gongsan Port in front of every combatant, quaking the very ground. Task fulfilled and stretched to the very limit of its demanding specifications, the vessel creaked. Its hull held together by rivet and welding crumbled to reveal six crew members in various stages of emotional turmoil.

  Turning back to look at his comrades, appearing more like panicked cats soaked in water than humans, the Grand Marshall smiled. "What a happy nding."

  Not a single sylble more was uttered before several attacks were unched their way.