"Ouch." Walter stated and held his side. "Gypsy, double check deceased status of all hostile combatants." The Fox nodded and proceeded to slit every throat of every enemy that wasn't in multiple pieces. Walter and her both knew that she could hear, smell, and see whether or not someone was alive but that didn't stop her from spilling more blood all over the ground anyway.

Xlen ran over to Walter upon hearing his announcement of pain. "Are you alright? You were hit because I couldn't intercept them all." He worriedly rambled.

Walter waved him off. "If I don't get hurt then it wasn't a good fight." He told the much older warrior. "The poison's a bit of a bitch though. I don't know what kind they used."

"How bad is it? Do we need to take you to a healer?" Xlen continued to worry after Walter like a mother hen.

Lord Ashborne just casually walked over to join them and handed Walter a Regeneration potion. Without knowing what kind of poison Walter had in his system, a potion designed to heal a lot over just as long of a duration was the best option. It only healed him about as much as a standard healing potion per every five seconds. It just happened to also keep the healing going for a full five minutes. It was the kind of potion that old, extremely high level, warriors who were used to fighting without a healer nearby would often carry with them. Usually they carried a few and Walter had no doubt that his father had at least three more stashed away.

"Kill me or save me you bastard." A voice came from the last assassin, the leader whom Lord Ashborne had removed as a potential combatant along with both of the man's arms and the use of his right knee. Gypsy sauntered over to him and then looked at Lord Ashborne and Walter for confirmation.

"Continue as you have been." Lord Ashborne instructed Gypsy and Walter just nodded in agreement so she used one of her wickedly sharp claws and did just that. The first time she attempted to cleanly slice through his neck, the assassin flopped to the side so she missed. That then angered the vengeful vixen and she proceeded to plant one of her paws on his back, with full claws extended to hold him in place, before she slit his throat with the other. Gypsy completely ignored the swearing and attempt at escape from the man before she ensured his eventual demise.

Meanwhile, Walter had thanked Lord Ashborne for the potion and downed it in two quick gulps. "I think I've drunk so much of that, that it's started to grow on me." Walter commented. The taste was akin to rose scented iron shavings and willow bark soaked in blueberry flowers. It wasn't generally pleasant but it worked so the taste didn't really matter much. Walter then finally addressed Xlen's look of concern: "I'll be fine, Xlen, just check on them." He gestured towards where Isaac, Lenna, and Cainen were still securely protected inside of a silence bubble and a solid mesh of reality magic.

"He can't." Lord Ashborne pointed out with the slightest hint of a questioning and expecting look towards Walter.

Walter sighed and pointed towards his own magic items and their respective ongoing spell effects. "Command: Negation. Command: Negation." He chanted one after the other and opened up the trio for a proper inspection from the healers that would be arriving shortly, as well as Xlen who was much more apprised of Cainen's overall health.

Xlen threw Walter one more worried look and then ran over and knelt down next to Cainen. Walter, Lord Ashborne, and Gypsy left Isaac, Lenna, and Cainen in Xlen's care and instead kept their focus on the rest of the area.

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"Holy shit that was smooth." Walter commented which garnered another questioning look from his father. "I hadn't even noticed the scrying in the local area get removed. I don't even know when it happened."

Lord Ashborne nodded in agreement. "It was right when Xlen asked what was wrong." He informed Walter. "Jina was watching everything from my perspective until then."

Walter nodded. It made sense but something capable of only removing scrying effects in a targeted area must have been both incredibly complex and mind numbingly expensive. He wanted it. To sell it back to the kingdom, of course, he had no use for such an item. "Gyps, see if you can find the item responsible." He told his fox and started looking around with his goggles' multiple levels of visual perception enhancement spells and effects that were still active. "She should already be on her way then, right?" He asked Lord Ashborne.

"Most likely." Lord Ashborne agreed. All scrying was still being blocked so Lady Ashborne would still not be able to see what was going on. She was not a combatant but she was still a cleric of El'No and an alchemist wizard. She could fight if she had to but was much better at healing and learning than she was at slinging spells, despite her nature as a pure mage.

While Xlen checked on and fussed over the three wish-downed dragon slayers, Lord Ashborne, Walter, and Gypsy scoured the entire area for the item preventing scrying. Eventually, Walter noticed an odd rippling in the mana and followed it towards the middle of the room. Once there, he eventually pinpointed it as being directly below him based on the direction of the faint ripples of mana.

"Gypsy and I will go look for it." Walter told Lord Ashborne. "You are much better suited for dicing up anything looking to finish what the Nightwatch started."

Lord Ashborne nodded in agreement and moved to stand closer to Isaac, Lenna, Cainen, and Xlen. As Walter was walking out of the concert hall turned Wish ritual site, turned battlefield, he was met by a squad of guards. Walter's hand immediately went into his pocket dimension as he grabbed a deployable Reality Wall.

"We heard a commotion." The lead guard explained with a spear in his hand and his other hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. "What happened?" He demanded.

"Sergeant, if you know, then you will wish that you did not." Walter told the guardsman with as much gravity as he could muster. "Please, for your own sake, turn around and pretend that you heard nothing. The Fate Weaver, as well as the Demigod of Darkness and his mate are all alive and not in any immediate danger. Everything else has been handled by the Guardian of Fate, the Ashborne Heir, and the Ashborne Patriarch." The excessive use of titles served to truly drive home just how high over the guardsman's head whatever had just happened was.

The guard nodded slowly and turned to his men. "We heard nothing, it must have been an effect of the Wish." He told his men. One of them looked like he was going to argue as he took half a step forward. "If the Ashborne heir has informed us that it was nothing, then it was nothing." He made it as completely clear as possible. "Now, we will return to our post." He then turned back to Walter. "We apologize for any inconvenience, Free-Walker."

"All is well, guardsman." Walter replied with a nod of dismissal and the guards all turned and left via the elevator, even the one who still looked like he wanted to argue and/or stay.

Walter waited for them all to leave and then took the stairs down to the floor below them. Due to the midnight hour, the fine dining establishment, which existed on the floor directly below where the Wish had taken place, was entirely empty and dark. Walter still had his goggles on and fully active as he kicked open the door. On his way down, Walter had reloaded his revolver and pulled his smaller rifle out of the inside pocket of his duster. It was always a decently awkward process but it fit and that was all that truly mattered in the end. He hated leaving home without it and was glad he had made the pocket as large as it was.

With his rifle shouldered, Gypsy gone from sight, and the doors blasted inwards by a full force front kick, Walter breached the dining room. He instantly saw two assassins who had been waiting for news on what had happened on the top floor. When they saw Walter, the one on the left immediately reached for a Bag Bomb and Walter put a bullet through their skull. He then aimed directly at the other and held his rifle on him after the signature click clunk of his next round being loaded. "I can take you far enough away from here that the king won't bother sending anyone after you, or I can shoot you as many times as it takes to make sure that you are dead. Your choice."

The assassin reached for something on his belt and Walter quickly fired two shots into his chest and one into his head before he even hit the ground. He realized, only after the fact, that the first one that he had killed had been a mage and was maintaining an invisibility spell of some kind on both of them. That would have prevented him from noticing the Bag Bomb coming, but thankfully, it had been him and not Xlen or Lord Ashborne who had come to find the item.

"That was close." Walter told Gypsy. "Let's find the item and pocket it before another Nightwatchman spirits it away." He could feel the judgmental stare from Gypsy behind him but she didn't deign to comment so they left it at that.

Walter and Gypsy soon found the item, a strange multilayered circular thing positively loaded with silver, gold, platinum, and half-charged quartz crystals, and then returned to the top floor where everyone else waited, well, everyone save for the two healers who were still en route.

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