At the gates of Stormveil Castle, Annie once again bumped into Gatekeeper Gostoc, the man she'd sent flying the night before and who, in her opinion, was obviously up to no good.
However, she firmly refused his suggestion that she sneak into the castle by taking a side path. Ignoring his reaction, she blasted the iron portcullis apart with a Fireball, melted it, and stepped right over the great pool of molten iron to enter Stormveil Castle.
And then...
Sure enough, not long after she'd entered through the blasted and melted portcullis, she was stunned to see that the castle's soldiers, thoroughly roused by her battle with that "Omenkiller" Margit—if that even counted as a battle—were packed together in a dense mass ahead of her, waiting in formation.
They were hunkered behind the defenses and cheval-de-frises along the passage inside the castle. A massive number of greatbows, ballistae, and other ranged weapons that looked like flamethrowers were aimed right at her.
"..."
(ˉ?ˉ;)
Looking at the crossbow bolts, javelins, and "cannons" pointed at her, Annie suddenly regretted her decision.
She truly hadn't expected so many people to be waiting inside. If she'd known, maybe she—who had never liked making a scene—really would have listened to that shady gatekeeper, Gostoc, and used the path along the cliff beside the gate and the cave to sneak into the castle. Then, while playing hide-and-seek with this big crowd of uncles, she could have looked for Godrick as quickly as possible.
But it was too late to say any of that now!
She was already inside, so there was no way she'd turn around and go back out just to take the side path.
(...)
(●￣(?)￣●)
"Ready..."
"Take aim!"
"Fire!!!"
When Annie walked in, the soldiers stared at one another for a moment. Then