She rembered it was nad the Crimson Nocturne—a battle art where each attack you make will cause your enemy’s blood to splatter into a crimson rose, even if it wasn’t intentional.
Lillian watched as the troll’s body ford cracks before shattering into a cloud of dust. She allowed it to wash over her, feeling the mont to breathe in her victory over such a creature with ease.
"Ah~... The feeling of strength... A feeling so foreign but so right..." (20)
Her ears then twitched as the sound of sothing whistling echoed behind her.
Snapping her head to the stone gate, she teleported, dodging as a barrage of colours crashed into her earlier location, exploding.
Appearing in front of the gate, she stared up at the sky—up towards the ceiling—and found it to be covered in a myriad of lights that looked like beautiful stars in the night sky.
However, a split second later, the ceiling lit up, finally revealing what it had been hiding since the beginning.
And what she saw...
Were people.
Dozens. Hundreds.
People who were hanging from the ceiling by thin threads as tight cocoons made of string wrapped around their bodies, as they were captured by an overly large arachnid.
And they were all unconscious.
She squinted her eyes, staring at the centre of their hands, which were popping out from their cocoons and found them to be glowing as sothing magical manifested within their palms.
From a dull brown to a shining yellow, she knew what it was.
What they were manifesting were their elents. Elents of all kinds.
The majority being the actual elents such as fire, water, earth, air, and such...
She stared at this scene with coldness behind her eyes as an electrifying aura tore off the blood coating her body with soft crackles.
She turned her eyes back towards Thalrek, finding him seated on his throne and had both of his hands raised with his fingers spread out like spiders.
And attached to the tips of his fingers were countless strings that stretched towards each individual person hanging from the ceiling.
She knew what Thalrek was doing; the man intended to launch a full-on barrage by using the elents of the people above.
"Do you think this plan of yours will work?" Lillian asked, powering her mask with mana, "Do you think that I’m not capable of enduring the barrage you are about to send towards ?"
Thalrek, who was ticulously controlling each person above, froze. Were his intentions that obvious? He shook his head and clicked his tongue.
He then shouted:
"SILENCE! Even if what I’m about to do will wound my pride... Even though I won’t be able to handle you myself... Even if I’m incapable of digging your heart out with my own hands..."
His words slowed, ending each sentence with a hateful his as the shimring lights above grew brighter.
"At least I will be the one to live, and you’ll be the one reduced to ashes and beco a re dying ember in my mories!"
And after saying that, lights fell from the ceiling like shooting stars, targeting Lillian with, although with poor accuracy, slim chances of escaping.
That was...
If she wasn’t fast enough.
With the lingering power increase in her legs, she dashed forward. She crossed over several tres, dodging through storms of elents that fell around her.
She was blinded several tis, knocked back, tripped, stumbled, and blocked several tis on her way towards the Puppeteer.
It was as though she were running through a warzone filled with falling artillery shells.
As sweat mixed with the blood flowing down her face, as sweat poured into her black hoodie underneath her chestplate, she continued to move forward.
SHNK!
A falling ball of flas crashed into her chest, scorching her chestplate. But before it could spread any further, it was quickly put out by her own elent.
She needed to reserve her mana.
The entire length of the room was about 100 tres. And considering she started at the entrance, she still had 80 more tres to go.
Quickly bending down, she grabbed onto a nearby corpse before chucking it towards an incoming projectile, completely stopping it at the cost of a shower of blood.
Finding that it was an effective way to protect herself, she began to collect the corpses on the ground and chucking them into the air.
This created a chain of explosions, which made for a rather stunning light show. But nobody inside the room was in the mood to spectate the spectacle.
Thalrek, seeing that Lillian was stopping his rain of attack, couldn’t help but curse her even more under his breath, hissing like a snake as his fingers commanded the people above to fire more.
And because of this, although the rate did increase, it left so of the people above to stop firing as their mana capacity had finally emptied.
Lillian, who was unaware of this, was just trying to stay alive as she continued to avoid the artillery shooting down on her.
"Pant... Pant..."
And currently, she was beginning to feel the effects of fatigue hitting her again—this ti with much greater effectiveness. She felt like she could fall asleep as soon as her back hit the ground.
"S-shit..."
Lillian tripped before quickly regaining her balance. However, a split second later, the world spun and shook rapidly—an effect of severe vertigo.
She clutched the side of her head, her body swaying left and right.
’Not now... I’m just halfway...’ She grimaced, her eyes darkening as the light above her seed to stretch and blur.
Was she... Losing consciousness...?
BOOM!
Thalrek imdiately stood up, pumping his fist like a child with a joyous expression on his face as he watched his bombardnt finally hit Lillian.
He then aid towards that exact location and began to send projectile after projectile in that one location, eventually digging a massive pit.
"I finally got you, you damn rodent—!"
"What got you so excited?"
Thalrek froze as a familiar voice appeared behind him. He slowly let out a breath as he drifted his left eye back, finding Lillian’s back turned to him, standing right behind his throne.
His eyes shone with a soft light as he asked in a genuine voice:
"How did you get there?"
"... I teleported."
"..."
The two then fell silent with both of their backs turned to one another.
Reviews
All reviews (0)