A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Meilin didn't miss the spatial anomalies playing on both the barrier and Erik's body, causing her to narrow her eyes. "You… It's not just spatial suppression, is it…? But how is that possible? You couldn't possibly have prepared a complicated sigil like that while also evading our senses!"

Erik chuckled casually and felt the connection between himself and the barrier, based on another sigil carved onto his chest by Elora. At the same time, he saw Meilin look at him intensely, but without much aggression. He suspected it was temporary, but right now she was obviously more interested in some answers.

"It's not just spatial suppression, that's true," he nodded, a little smugly and happy to waste time. Today, the plan was not to defeat this confessor—at least, not exactly. "Though claiming something is impossible when it's happening right in front of your eyes is a little delusional. You may have an inflated sense of Imogene's capabilities."

"Shut up!" Meilin snapped, breathing heavily and stepping closer. "The Primarch's knowledge of all things is beyond any of us mortals! You'll pay for taking their name in vain!"

Erik looked at her curiously. Though all confessors so far had shown almost worshipful reverence towards their Primarch, this Meilin seemed to be a little extra even compared to the others.

Regardless, he didn't feel a need to engage with her on this topic, so he simply shrugged and palmed his hammer. "Fair enough," he grinned. "I wouldn't mind telling you how we slipped this sigil past your senses and exactly how it's keeping you here, but if you'd prefer to simply continue fighting, I can accommodate."

While they talked, outside their dome, the Humanitas Sangh warriors were in serious trouble. More and more Enkarian soldiers poured in from all four direction to surround and engage the enemy—even some battalions from Maghradi had arrived through the portal connecting the two cities, eager to slaughter more hunters.

Yet, although Erik and Elora's progress in advancing the average ranking within their empire was progressing steadily, it wasn't yet comparable to the hunter's lead in this field. Thus, as Meilin had suspected, the power ratio was on the hunter's side… but that didn't make as much difference as she'd expected.

While the hunter army possessed twelve third-rankers, three of them were fighting against Emma, two against Ankhur, another two against Enkai, and the remaining five were all failing to impede Astrid's onslaught.

It likely wouldn't be long before one or two of these third-rankers died, and that's when things would really start to fall apart for the rest of them.

Meanwhile, the hunter's quantity-over-quality approach was not paying off among the second-rankers either. Neither the battle-hardened Enkarians nor Maghrebians had much trouble with their counterparts. Meilin had been the one and only trump card of this army, but she was unable to interfere for now.

Back within the dome, Meilin looked at Erik with narrowed, calculating eyes. Though no less arrogant or cruel, she at least wasn't as hasty as her comrades. Erik could see she was weighing the chance to gain information against the possibility of taking Erik down as quickly as possible.

She knew time was not on her side, but she also knew knowledge was power and that whatever he had to say might help her escape this dome. Meilin had a calculating, even careful mind. Although every fibre of her being told her she was more powerful than Gabriel or Lilith, she didn't really care to test this out. She preferred a certain victory.

This, combined with the Primarch's order not to engage Erik directly anymore, was enough for her to come to a decision.

"Fine," she finally scoffed, doing an admirable job at seeming indifferent. "If you're so eager to reveal your secrets, who am I to deny you? Let's see if I even believe what you have to say!"

"Hehe," Erik chuckled, but didn't start immediately. Rather, he relaxed his body and shouldered his hammer again. Then he shrugged calmly with one hand on his hip. "Why would I lie? I have no doubt Imogene knows what I'm about to tell you, but she's grown weak and arrogant. She's forgotten what it's like to have one of her own as an opponent."

Confusion immediately sparked in Meilin's eyes. Whether she knew Imogene's true nature or not, she clearly wasn't aware of Elora's. "Stop beating around the bush and explain!" she growled.

Lightly pursing his lips, Erik smirked. "As you wish. Tell me this: have you heard of kinetic sigils? I wouldn't be surprised if you hunters used those plenty before the awakening."

Kinetic sigils were rare and not many knew how to create them, but Erik had lived on top of one for much of his life. During the attack on his hometown that kicked off Erik's current situation, it was a kinetic sigil drawn across all of Frostvik that had saved his mother and uncle.

Surprisingly, Meilin scoffed a little awkwardly. Erik even frowned as he thought he noticed a hint of struggle in her eyes. "I— I only started following the Primarch after the awakening," she grumbled lightly.

Though she said nothing else, Erik could surmise this meant she didn't know about kinetic sigils. At the same time, it also told him something important: confessors weren't necessarily long-time hunters. Perhaps Meilin had been a completely normal person before the awakening happened.

Still, this was irrelevant for right now. Since Erik was happy to waste more time, he first explained the concept of kinetic sigils.

"Kinetic sigils are those that don't draw their power from aetherium in the air," he began, smiling calmly. "Instead, they use kinetic energy from their surroundings. This makes them less stable… but also mostly undetectable. Normal sigils passively draw some aetherium even when not in use, and that's how you can detect them, but kinetic sigils do not have this flaw."

He looked down and tapped the ground with one foot. "Initially, this one was charged by you and your army walking over it." Then he looked back up at Meilin with a smug smirk. "I'll give you one guess what's sustaining this one now."

Meilin wasn't an idiot. She immediately understood the concept of kinetic sigils, and when Erik's last words fell, she needed no time to understand the answer. With twitching eyebrows, she looked at the surroundings of their dome… or more specifically, at the four battlefields.

Only now did she notice subtle lines of power leaning from those four places to this dome.