Suicide Bomb in the Vault

Parking the car a couple of streets away from the Treasury, Kretea and Ystur turn to Astur. Without saying anything, Astur takes out the masks she plundered from the bank robbers and tosses them to Kretea and Ystur while putting one on herself.

"How do we get in?" Kretea asks.

"We wait. Probably a long time," Astur says.

A few hours later.

"How much longer?" Ystur asks while playing with Astur's tail.

"Soon," Astur lights another cigarette.

"You said that an hour ago and an hour before that," Ystur says.

"And it will be soon… this time," Astur says.

A few hours later.

"The sun is setting," Ystur says.

Chugging down a bottle of wine, Astur's eyes light up as she shakes Kretea's shoulders, "Got it. Kretea, wake up, we're going in."

Grabbing hold of both Ystur and the now wide awake Kretea, Astur brings herself and the two of them into the Astral Plane.

"Woah, what's going on?" Ystur asks.

"We don't have much time so lets get moving quickly," Astur runs ahead into the Treasury dragging both Kretea and Ystur by the arm.

As they are running, Astur briefly explains the situation to Ystur. Astur has brought them into the Astral Plane, a type of secondary dimension that overlays on top of reality but doesn't interfere, only observing it. In this astral state, they can move freely and pass through things such as walls in the physical world while also remaining unseen by those outside the Astral Plane.

Within the Astral Plane, the three of them quickly bypass all the security measures in place and enter the Treasure Vault, where the vanity of the Count is on full display. Stacks of hard cash are piled up high, a large variety of jewels and ornaments are put on pedestals, and a collection of paintings decorate the walls.

Before Astur's Divine Power is sealed again, she quickly brings herself, Kretea, and Ystur out from their astral state, lest they be stuck there until Astur unseals this ability again. Before they leave the Astral Plane Astur and Kretea tuck their tails beneath their clothes while putting on a hat to hide their ears, this way they'll appear human at first glance. Combined with the disguise masks they're wearing, they should be able to hide their identities without any problems.

As they come out from their astral state, Astur tosses a couple of storage rings to Kretea and Ystur, "Quickly grab whatever you can and stuff it inside! Now that we're back in the physical world the cameras should have spotted us so the guards should be coming soon! We don't have much time, so get packing!"

Just as Astur thought, the staff in the guard room responsible for watching the security cameras has already found them. He was initially surprised when the trio of Astur, Kretea, and Ystur seemingly appeared out from thin air, but quickly readjusted himself and proceeded with the proper course of action. Having already been tipped off that there would be an attempt to steal from the Treasury, there were additional guards stationed around the area and the automated security measures around the vault were increased. But with Astur's method of travelling through the Astral Plane, they were able to circumvent all the additional security measures.

Naturally, there are also guards patrolling within the vault itself, but they aren't much stronger than the robbers that Astur had dealt with before nor do they have any special equipment. As such, these guards were quickly dealt with by Astur and Kretea.

Within the span of three minutes, nearly all the cash has been taken away along with many of the jewels and ornaments, ignoring the paintings since dealing with them is more trouble than it's worth. It's at this moment a plethora of guards along with extra reinforcements from the police bust through the entrance to the Vault.

With their guns pointed towards Astur's group, the forward most person yells, "Hands up! You're under arrest for assault, trespassing, and robbery!"

Astur begins to unbutton her coat, "I believe that assault charge should be changed to murder. Those guards we attacked are dead after all," as Astur completely unbuttons her coat, she opens it up to reveal that the insides have several bombs tied to it as well as revealing a strap of bombs tied around Astur's waist. "I believe you should know what this means and what I'll do next," Astur smiles as she reaches into her left pocket and pulls out a small cylinder with a red pushbutton on top.

It doesn't take a specialist to figure out that bombs + red button = explosion.

"Are you crazy!?" The previous guard shouts.

"Heh, did I ever say I was sane? I think you should start running," Astur runs towards the entrance where the guards are positioned.

The gap between the two parties is roughly 15 metres, it's not a long distance nor is it a short one. Astur is capable of quickly shortening the gap and as she approaches she activates her defensive abilities, Aura of Turtle and Alchemical Release. The treasury guards and the police officers meanwhile are obviously not paid enough to throw their lives away against a suicide bomber and attempt to flee. Some of the braver men and women amongst them try and shoot Astur down before she can approach, either by shooting the bombs directly, aiming at her legs to stop the charge or at Astur's vitals in an attempt to kill her. But none of these attempts amounts to much. Astur is more than capable of shrugging off shots fired from standard issue weaponry while she uses her body to block the mana bullets from hitting the bombs strapped around her.

As Astur is only a few steps away, even the ones who were previously shooting at her attempt to run. Once Astur arrives at the entrance, she presses down on the red button, triggering a large explosion, collapsing the entrance.

"Is Mom gonna be alright?" Ystur asks with a slightly worried expression.

"You should know by now that Lady Astur's preferred method of attack is suicide bombing. A somewhat disgraceful move, but a very effective one. Although she'll probably be injured, I don't believe it will be of any real danger to her," Kretea says as she points to a figure walking out from the cloud of smoke.

*cough* "Bleh, a swallowed some a rock," Astur says in disgust.

"How are your clothes not completely destroyed?" Ystur asks.

"What are you talking about? Can't you see half my coat is was destroyed, along with the lower part of my shirt?" Astur asks.

"I was asking why only half of it is gone… it doesn't make sense," Ystur mutters.

Ignoring Ystur's complaints, Astur continues, "Lets pack up the rest of the stuff here since we have more time, now that the entrance is blocked off. But lets now take too long, who knows is they'll surround the outside of the building in the meantime."

While Kretea and Ystur continue stashing away the goods in the vault, Astur is setting up a new pile of explosives by the wall they passed through when they first arrived. After a minute and a half, Astur calls the other two over, signalling that it's time to leave.

Blowing open a new exit in the vault, three of them dash across the courtyard.

"There they are! After them!" Someone yells from behind.

"How the hell is she still alive!?" Another person calls out.

Hopping over the fence with several dozen guards of police officers chasing them, Astur, Kretea, and Ystur run down the street where they had parked the car. But as they turn the street corner where the car was supposed to be parked, they find it's missing.

"Oops. I think I may have brought it with us into the Astral Plane earlier."

"Mom!"

"Lady Astur!"

Both Ystur and Kretea want to say something, but looking behind them, they obviously don't have much time.

"Don't worry, it's time for plan B," Astur says with confidence as she continues to run with Kretea and Ystur following behind her.

"We have a plan B?" Ystur asks.

"Of course, there's a plan B," Astur says, jumping in front of a car moving down the street.

Slamming on the brakes, the driver of the car that nearly hit Astur rolls down the window, "Hey, watch where you're going!"

But without a word, Astur walks over to the window and grabs the driver, quickly dragging him through the window and tossing him to the side as the takes the driver's seat.

"What are you waiting for? Quick, get in," Astur says.

There's a lot that both Kretea and Ystur want to say, but this is neither the place nor the time as they are still being chased. Without any hesitation, the two get in the car as Astur makes a u-turn and begins to flee while sirens can be heard from around the corner.

A small smile makes its way onto Astur's face, "Oh, this will be fun. It's been a while since I've been in a car chase."