Beatrice and Alice were moving around like the incarnations of death.
Beatrice landed in the the middle of three serpents, as she raised her hand
"Ignis Lancea!"
A massive flame spear formed above her, it's heat radiating like a furnace. She threw it with all her might.
And with a thunderous BOOM, it exploded on impact, vaporizing two of the serpents instantly.
Their screams didn't even finish before their bodies were engulfed in the red-hot flames.
"You filthy monsters!" She screamed, her face twisted unrecognisably in rage. "They are children! CHILDREN! You'll all burn for this. I will turn you to ash!"
The last serpent tried to stab her from behind, but a pillar of fire erupted from the ground beneath him, melting his legs off causing him to scream in agony.
"GAHHH–!"
She didn't even bother to look ta him as she muttered. "Incinerare. Burn in hell you animal."
FWOOSH!
At her words, the man burst into flames and collapsed, his charred body twitching once before stilling.
Meanwhile–
Alice moved like a blade of light.
"Lux Saggita."
At the end of the day, incantations were simply there to help a mage focus on the spell.
So mages who already know how to conjure their own spells can simply use any short incantation to cast their magic.
As she said that, a radiant arrow of light pierced one serpent's skull, bursting out the other side.
POP!
"Lux Discissio!" A crescent of golden light sliced clean through another, severing him diagonally from shoulder to hip.
She stopped before a serpent who was groveling and begging for his life.
"P-Please! I didn't touch any of them I swear! A-All I did was watch. I just watched!"
Alice's expression didn't change. Light gathered in her palm, humming dangerously.
"You just watched?" She asked as she extended her hand.
"Y-Yes. I just watched." The serpent answered fearfully.
"Then die watching."
SSHHRRAAKK!
A beam of light blasted through his chest, scorching the earth behind him as he slumped over, smoking and twitching.
"YOU ANIMALS!" She screamed, her voice cracked with fury, eyes wet with tears.
Beatrice flanked her at that moment and together they stood as one last serpent charged them with a look of desperation on his face.
"STAY BACK–!"
He swung a blade at them.
Alice casually raised her hand causing a blinding burst of light that disoriented him just as her foot connected with his ribs.
CRUNCH!
He bent in half mid-air, and before he could hit the ground–
BOOM!
He was incinerated by a blast of fire from above with nothing of him remaining but ash.
After they took care of him, only silence remained.
The only sound was the crackle of fire and the occasional low whimpering of the surviving children.
They stood amidst the carnage, breathing heavily. Blood and soot covered them, but their eyes burned with grim purpose.
Richard rejoined them, his hands soiled with blood.
"Looks like you took care of them," he said quietly.
The three stood there for a long moment, surrounded by smoke and death.
Beatrice's hand trembled as she looked at one of the girls–a toddler with tear-streaked cheeks clutching a burned teddy bear.
Alice walked forward and knelt beside the child. She touched the collar on her neck, attempting to remove it but–
Zzt!
"Ow!" she mumbled, clutching her finger before staring at the collar, while the little girl curled up in her spot in more pain than before.
Alice quickly pulled her close, as her hand began emitting a warm light.
There were glowing purplish runes on the collar currently glowing.
Beatrice gritted her teeth knowing what it was.
Richard stared at the collar as well. 'So... even a thousand years later, that collar is still what's used in enslaving people huh,' he thought.
The collar was an enslavement tool. There were runes inscribed on them that allowed an individual to strip away the autonomy of another individual.
Simply put, when the collar is placed on someone, there is usually some kind of ritual to establish master from slave.
Once that ritual is done, the slave is no longer allowed to disobey their master, or have any thoughts of rebelling.
If they have any thoughts of harming or rebelling against their master, the rune sends out a shock through their body that causes physical pain.
What's more boggling is that this pain was relative. The shock it causes a special grade is different from what it causes a grade 1 or 2 mage.
That was the type of rune inscribed on the collar.
"We're here now," Alice whispered into the girl's ear as she was bawling her eyes out. Her voice was shaky but determined.
"We'll figure out what to do. You're safe now."
And yet even as she said those words, she herself was now beginning to doubt them.
And in the back of her mind, she feared. Feared that safety, peace, will no longer be as it once was for them anymore.
Not for them.
Nor for anyone who survives this attack.