"WHO EVEN ARE YOU?! WHERE DID YOU EVEN CO FROM!?"
Lillian stared down at the pitiful Cardinal, watching as his fingers clawed at the ground. If he were anyone else, she would’ve pitied him.
However...
"You haven’t yet got a clue about who I am, despite what I have on ? You have either beco a fool the last ti we fought or sothing had happened." (20)
Thalrek beca speechless at what they said. What did they have on them? The last ti they fought? What could this all an...?
He glanced at her gauntlets and sword before recalling what they looked like previously. He rembered that he had sold them under another identity.
Due to the tournant going on, he had managed to grab himself an entry permit into the realm under the purpose of trading his "wares".
But...
What day and who did he give it to...? And who was it that he had fought previously?
Had they fought when he was in his original body? Or when he was residing in soone else’s?
He racked his brain...
He didn’t rember anyone who matched the rodent’s height or hair colour—
He then froze, staring at the ground as his eyes trembled.
He definitely did recall soone buying from his trader stall a few days back. They had... White hair and blue eyes. They had also participated in the tournant.
But... Who were they?
Who was it that bought from him?
He was able to successfully rember a woman with purple hair and golden eyes along with them.
He raised his eyes back up to Lillian, finding her staring into the air, almost as though she was reading sothing.
And she was.
Ding!
[Because the Lady Luck found it would be amusing for you to see, she had totalled up the casualties that happened during the invasion. "Just a little motivation to help you go through with it~"]
[Number of people saved: 711, Number of people not saved: 11 -> 910]
[Success Rate Increase: 200% (Maxed)]
Lillian’s eyes seemingly beca bloodshot as the veins in her eyes strained at what she was looking at. (8)
’Do you find great joy in this?’
As that question flashed through her mind, so did another.
Could she have done better to diminish the casualties?
The answer was...
...
No.
In the ga, the minimum number of casualties that could occur was always going to be in the hundreds—the maximum even possibly reaching the thousand.
’I’m... I’m just one person with a limited number of options...’
As she tried to calm herself down with her own thoughts, she clicked her tongue as she looked down at the Puppeteer. (8)
Thalrek, looking up, stared at the face of the rodent’s mask, finding his mind hurt from looking at it. This made it even more difficult to find out the intruder’s identity.
"Still haven’t figured out my identity?"
Thalrek froze, refocusing his eyes before feeling sothing slam into the centre of his face—
BAM-Crack.
—Shattering his nose.
Thud...!
He landed and rolled on his side, groaning before slowly coming to a stop.
He unconsciously placed a hand to his nose, wincing before slowly getting back up to his feet, albeit with much difficulty.
However, in a split second after he got up, he was then kneed in the stomach, causing him to fold over and collapse onto his knees.
Blood dripped out of the corners of his mouth, rging with the blood that was already covering his face.
He then looked up towards Lillian with a fiery glare, which caused her to snort. (8)
"What’s with the look? Don’t tell you didn’t expect consequences did you?"
"Why yo—"
BAM!
"For all the lives that were lost..."
BAM!
"Did you know how many had died in this invasion you pulled today? Hundreds."
BAM!
"And for what? All because of your selfish desire to reclaim back a re title and status?" (8)
As Lillian’s cold voice echoed around the wall, it felt as though the air dropped several degrees. Even causing the mist around them to thicken, leading it to turn into a chilling fog.
Thalrek, who was struggling to get back onto his feet, could help but be shocked by what Lillian had just said.
How did she know about that? Was he foolish enough to say that out loud? Or... Had they known each other before?
After managing to get back on his feet, he asked with a quiet and hateful voice:
"How... How do you know?"
"... Because I’m omniscient. That’s why." (20)
His eyes twitched at that. Gritting his teeth, he drew his chanical arm back, stumbling forward as he yelled before shooting his fist out:
"DAMN WRETCH!"
However, due to this current physical capabilities...
Thump...
... Lillian was able to easily catch his fist.
She stared at the chanical fist that she had tightly clutched in her hand. She then stared back at him before transmitting mana into her mask.
"Aren’t you embarassed now? An intruder waltzed into your domain and had reduced you to this pathetic state. Doesn’t that get under your skin? Doesn’t that... Make you feel weak?" (20)
"SILENCE!"
He drew his left arm back and punched at her, repeating the exact sa result that occurred with his right arm.
Lillian, catching his punch, sighed as she stared into his eyes that glared at her uncomfortably.
She then heard him say:
"You rely got lucky, rodent... Don’t forget that! You are weak. Far weaker than , you heretic! A LESSER!"
"Weak?" Lillian tightened her grip around the man’s fists before adding:
"I’m weak, you say? Sure... I don’t have enough arrogance to declare otherwise to that claim. However... There is sothing that I can’t agree on. And that is... That I am inferior to soone like you." (20)
Lillian leaned her entire upper body back, pulling her head back before shooting forward, crashing the forehead of her mask into his shattered nose.
As she did this, she simultaneously let go, causing him to stumble back as his mind was hit with another twisting daze.
And as soon as he recovered from it, he watched as Lillian hastily made her way to him and pulled back her arm. She then delivered yet another blow.
Thalrek’s eyes beca bloodshot even more than they were as Lillian’s fist crashed into his nose, crushing it again and causing him to go flying back.
His blood trailed his flight, spiralling along with him.
And as soon as his blood hit the ground—
Thud...
—So did he.
Landing at the curved edge of a rather deep hole he had caused earlier, he tried to get back up to his feet. However, as he attempted to push himself up with his arms, he found them shaking uncontrollably.
As he was struggling to get himself back up, he heard Lillian’s distorted voice, which was filled with proud mockery:
"Besides physical attributes, I’m far more superior to you, which makes you below . And that makes you Incomparable to ." (8)
She then paused, breathing in a deep breath before continuing:
"And do you know why you aren’t comparable to ?" (2)
Thalrek, at her question, weakly turned his head to the side and up, raising his eyes to her standing figure.
Lillian, with her arms spread out to the sides, overshadowed him, causing a cold darkness to fall over his trembling body as a dark light glead inside her eyes. (40)
She then muttered in a cold and calculating voice:
"That was because... Since the very beginning... It had all been a part of my ticulous planning for you to lose. It was part of my plan to allow you to badly wound . It was part of my plan to make you underestimate more. And... It was all part of my plan to build up your ego to the point I could grasp its solid form and be able to tear it down with these gauntlets you sold ." (20)
Lillian then paused, letting her words settle into Thalrek’s mind, who didn’t seem entirely convinced.
And seeing this, she said:
"If you still haven’t managed to grasp the concept of the distance between us, then riddle yourself this... Why are you on the ground and I am not?" (8)
"You—!" Thalrek, even despite his situation, was unable to accept his weakness. "You rely got lucky! As soon as your focus on disappears, I will escape imdiately—"
"Your intelligence truly has decreased since the last ti we fought..." (8)
Lillian sighed, shaking her head as she lowered her arms to her side. She then raised her free hand towards the Puppeteer with a hopeless expression:
"The Gods with the na Shattered had long abandoned you, Puppeteer.. There is nowhere else for you to go from here. For that is your destiny and role given in the world." (20)
Thalrek, hearing the word ’Destiny’, imdiately broke through the ntal blockage that kept him from getting up and shouted with unbridled rage:
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW!? WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO DECIDE WHEN AND WHERE THE END OF MY DESTINY IS DECIDED?!"
"That got a reaction, huh...?" Lillian muttered quietly.
Her eyes then glazed over.
"Destiny... The word and concept that embodies a point in a person’s life that will eventually co to pass. But how is each person’s destiny decided? By their talent? Their worth? Their importance? ... Ever since that word was spoken to inside a Trial, I couldn’t help but occasionally rember back to it. And as I think about it now... I want to know the reason why I am here. What’s my true purpose in being here? And why was I destined to die on that fateful day to co here? Was it... Was it truly because Fate was so bored and it needed soone to play around with? ... I’m soone that want so many things that I don’t need. But right now... I just want to know if there was a reason that soone like was ever needed in this world." (20)
Her gaze then softened as her voice beca quiet.
Holding a hand to the right side of her mask, she whispered inside her head:
’Am I... Worth it?’ (3)
Lillian was imdiately snapped out of her thoughts as he found Thalrek’s fingers twitching irregularly.
It didn’t seem like a twitch soone would have if they were nervous or had a random tick. But rather... If he were using it as so sort of dium.
Glancing back up at his face, she found him smirking at her, almost as though he was planning sothing.
"What are you blabbering on about... Talking about destiny when your enemy had just warned you not to lose focus."
Figuring sothing was wrong, Lillian raised her sword and dashed forward, stabbing towards his stomach.
FWISH!
This startled the man and caused him to swing his suspicious hand down. And because of that, in a split second, sothing lowered itself from the ceiling.
However, in that split mont, sothing lowered itself from the ceiling above.
It was a person wrapped in a tight white cocoon.
A young woman with long, dark, silver hair and closed eyes. She was asleep. But they were unfortunately awoken as a sharp object passed through their lower abdon.
Their eyelids shot wide open, revealing their dazzling grey eyes as she stared into Lillian’s.
And as blood quickly spilt out of her mouth, so did Thalrek, who was also stabbed by Lillian’s sword, who had a look of shock.
"Y-... You really stabbed us both!"
Lillian ignored his cries and instead focused on the person before her. She knew who she was.
She watched as the woman’s eyes lingered on her mask. She then watched as the silver-haired woman closed her eyes, as though she was accepting the feeling of death.
However, that was the last thing Lillian was going to allow. She had already allowed too many to lose their lives today.
Pulling back her sword, she quickly severed the string connecting the woman to the ceiling before planting her palm against the wound.
Soon, it began to heal as Lillian began to feed her own vitality into the woman. And when she was finally healed, Lillian set her aside, feeling weary.
She stared at the woman’s sleeping face before looking to the side, finding Thalrek trying to escape, albeit at a slow pace, as he clutched his injury.
However, before he could get far, he bumped into the back of soone familiar.
His eyes quickly shot wide open as he stumbled back, almost falling into the pit beside him.
It was Lillian.
Having teleported in front of him, she slowly turned around in a nonchalant manner before kicking him back to where he was previously. (8)
She then teleported back, eting him before he hit the ground, before muttering:
"You wanted to know who I was, correct?"
Lillian’s eyes glowed with an ominous light as she wondered:
’I wonder how cringy I can make this to get as many points as I can...’
And as she thought this, she turned on the system’s notification.
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